001thank you Eli for being a great role model for all of your classmates Hilltop Elementary okay my name is uh coach Orr I am the elementary Fayette teacher at Hilltop Elementary and myself and Miss dross our art teacher and Miss Mackey Faust our Music Teacher nominated um calyx for student of the month in fayad calyx is a very hard worker and displays great sportsmanship he's a very good teammate always looking forward always looking forward to ways to help his classmates out in PE um in art mistrust said that calyx is all always follows the Warrior Way in class he has also been an example of how to be an artist by working hard doing his best helping his classmates and following directions in music calyx is always a leader of the Warrior Way in music
002class as well he always puts forth his best effort no matter what Kayla is not afraid to make a mistake and takes criticism well he is enthusiastic and a joy to have in class I'm very proud to recognize calyx Grotto foreign Elementary hi good evening my name is Carla Grenier Elementary art teacher and it is with great joy that I am here to nominate Lumen Davis from Haugen Elementary and this is on behalf of the specialist teachers at Hagen Lumen brings both a positive energy and a great attitude to Art music physical education and the library she is respectful and mindful of the task at hand but she is always rearing and ready to go Lumen sets a good example for her classmates of the warrior way she is respectful responsible and safe in every
003setting she is a natural leader women does not complain when it is time to try new things and she works hard to get the job done Lumen is a pleasure to have in class and so we nominate Lumen so congratulations and tainter okay oh no wasn't here tainter Elementary hi I'm India Carpentier I'm the changer music teacher and I am here to nominate Tasia White um who is a fourth grader at tainter Tasia um always comes into class and I know she's going to work her hardest and do her very best even if it might not seem like your favorite thing to do that day um she always is a caring and kind classmate and a good friend in class she always is reliable and I know she's going to come in with a positive
004attitude and just have a smile on her face every day um so with that we would like to nominate Tasia White okay Mr thank you I'd like to congratulate all of our students that are students of the month I want to let you all know that all of our students as they receive these Awards will have their name put in a drawing and at the end of the school year one lucky student will receive a new Chromebook and uh so good luck to our students on that and then um the other thing I would like to thank all of our teachers for taking the time to be here tonight to tell us about the students that uh they nominated so thank you all right we will take a brief moment to anybody that is looking
005to leave now would be the time to do that otherwise we'll get started here in a few minutes to uh go to the appearance section so yeah all right we will move on then to the appearance section okay um just a note we're having some technical difficulties in the Stream So if there's any listeners out there listening on YouTube or watching on YouTube uh our I.T director just put up a different stream a better stream if you would switch over to that one the audio quality should work better if you've seen me texting here as we're struggling with audio quality on the output side on the stream so all right now we will move on to the appearance section so as we get into this section I will first want to let everybody know that
006we do have a policy in place so we have 30 minutes to hear from our community and uh and each Speaker gets to speak up to three minutes in length also want to uh make sure everybody understands that as you're up there speaking you're not only speaking to us here in the boardroom but you're speaking to our community and our students and our staff and so please uh be respectful of one another we have to live with each other we have to be friends we have to be neighbors and uh just stay tuned States your uh position on on whatever you want to let us know about but be uh be caring and and courteous of one another um I also want to let you know that we are not able to answer any questions
007so don't ask us any questions State statue it doesn't allow us to interact with the uh the people at the podium and that also we will not be able to ask you uh questions and interact in that aspect um and then the last item I will call you up and then when you get up to the podium please restate for audio purposes uh please restate your name and where you're from and so with that we will start off we had three people that were not able to speak at our last meeting and so we will start off with Laurie broom if you are here you are our first speaker all right move on Kelly sellers okay my name is Kelly sellers I'm from Rice Lake School District I'm a black female I'm 15 years old
008and I'm a multi-millionaire the bank says I have insufficient funds but they're being mean and they're not following the science it sounds ridiculous doesn't it I was I came out of the hopper a black or a white male and I'll die a white male I can't change that my cat had a bunch of kittens they're going to be cats the rest of their lives there's some things you just can't change and if I have a student coming to school that has issues like this I would want to know that as a parent as a parent I put a lot of time and a lot of money into my kid and I love them I raise them up and I love them and for a for a parent not to have um a right to know
009what's going on with their child is totally wrong it's just not right um I did the math if the if there's a Class A teacher has a class 50 minutes a day and this one student goes in there um 180 days you divide that time that they have between 20 kids in that class that comes out to seven and a half hours a year that a teacher spends with a child with a student one-on-one that's you know ballpark what what gives that teacher a right to make a decision as important as transgender things going on more so than a parent a parent has a whole lot more time than seven and a half hours a year with our kid it's very important that parents have a right to know that's all I got to say
010thank you Jake hey guys I'm Jake Lazar a pastor at World Harvest Church and I want to show you my support and your commitment to keeping parents informed about all things concerning their children from grades to gender since all this has come to my attention I've been able to catch up on policy 411 rule 2 and I believe the motive of this policy was to protect transgender students which I support no students should ever be bullied for any reason whatsoever can I get an amen from somebody we're not in church okay um no student should ever be bullied I just said that however one group's protection should never come at the expense of the other person's protection right now under your current policy you state and I quote transgender students who wish to use the
011locker room corresponding to their gender identity will be provided an accommodation that best meets the needs of the transgender student here you guarantee accommodations which I can get behind but I take issue with how and what accommodations you present for the next revision I'd like to propose two solutions to the policy and legislative advocacy committee so Kevin Jensen Dr Henkel and Diane kozer number one your policy says accommodations could include well could makes provision to invent accommodations outside of the five that you have listed my suggestion is to change the word could to will just like you did at the beginning to maintain policy continuity number two your fifth accommodation in that policy reads and I quote access to the locker room corresponding to the student's gender identity now in one area you hear you
012win and that the transgender student feels comfortable included and protected but you dangerously lose in other areas and that other students biological girls for example who you who are minors under your supervision can be involuntarily exposed to men's genitalia accommodating the biological male at the expense of the biological females and that's a problem if in in your aim to protect a few you are violating the others you say you know this isn't happening right now well under your current policy it can and it's horrific that you'd allow such a thing my suggestion is to rewrite accommodations in such a way that all students are required to utilize the locker room and restroom that corresponds with their biological sex assigned at Birth or a private single person room and that's it no gray area to protect
013all students I've printed the statement I've handed it over to you with my contact information if you need to correct my understanding of the policy get clarification or anything but my friends hear me tonight for God so loved the world and this includes every person without exemption exception or exclusion that he sent his one and only son Jesus Christ to die on the cross and arose again on the third day so that whosoever believes in him and returns from their sin and gives their life completely to him will not perish but have everlasting life and there's a movement right now that's lying to you saying that you were born a mistake well you're not a mistake in fact according to Ephesians 2 10 you're a masterpiece you are fearfully and wonderfully made in the image
014of God Jesus loves you and so do we if your heart is burning and yearning time is the true unconditional love that only Jesus can offer my wife and I would be honored to talk with you after this meeting judgment free thank you Carol brunette oh okay my name is Carol and I have four children that have been and are in the Rice Lake School District I'm here tonight to share my concerns with keeping things secret from parents my two daughters were bullied from second grade all the way through graduation one because she had a stutter um the other one for no reason other than she was just a Target um it was my job as a parent to protect and comfort at home children need a support system what I find most important is
015for parents and school to work together in protecting all children no secrets to show teamwork rather than division in today's politically motivated Society there is a focus on certain groups we we as a community need to focus on everyone's needs and not give favor to any one group over another bullying as a whole should be the focus it should be parents teachers schools the whole Community working together as a whole we need to be that support system as a team together we need to teach all children that they are loved safe and valued together we as a team need to also teach children how to love and how to Value one another thank you Nancy Keeler hi so thank you again for school board members superintendent principals and teachers you are extremely important and you're
016building our children's lives I'm Nancy Keeler from Cumberland but for the past 25 years we've provided housing and Rice Lake for many families so the quality of the Rice Lake School System is very important to us so I'd like to set the record straight on one thing I was at the policy meeting in September when the policy member meet policy members were present including just two people in the audience and it was myself and one other um then somebody else came at 7 30 so there were just three there was no bullying no hate talk no harmful talk no hurtful talk as Abby Fisher has publicized I have 10 pages of detailed notes of back and forth the questions that were asked um from the meeting for anyone to see there was discussion back and
017forth there was polite disagreement there was no bullying there were no loud voices there were different viewpoints it was a discussion and it was said we can agree to disagree there was no reason for Abby to feel unsafe by what the board members had said so I just wanted that known for the record all right with that being said all students are important no matter what the difference may be and parents are the head of these students and have the right to know everything that their child is taught I called the Department of Public Instruction in Madison three weeks ago on September 21st they wrote they called me back and then I asked her to put it in writing what she said to me so this is from Carrie H race she her hers attorney
018of the office of Legal Services Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction so she said your initial inquiry to the Department of Public Instruction was regarding what the state was requiring for a transgender education as I explained to you there are a variety of State statues that dictate Public Schools must have instructional programs in certain areas like personal development physical education health and other topics the words gender identity and transgendered are not found in these statues so in response to your very narrow question of what is required by the state for transgender education I advise there was no such requirement she goes on to say Wisconsin is generally a local control state that which gives school districts and their boards the ultimate authority to determine how to implement the curriculum requirements set forth in state law the
019school districts may choose to teach on topic topics which are not specifically required by the state in service of the curriculum standards set forth thank you thank you Bruce Willers good evening Bruce Willis uh Rice Lake Wisconsin both of my children uh went to Rice Lake Area Schools graduated and I'm here to address the transgender and the common bathrooms and showering between children as proposed under no conditions would I've ever allowed my son and my daughter to shower in the same facility with open walls open doors nor would I want my daughter to shower with my son and open doors and I have two grandchildren now which are both boys or nor would I ever want or encourage them to shower with a female in an open door or open area of showering I'm here
020to tell you that we need to get back to the basics of strictly educating our children so that they can become productive workers and individuals in the community you were elected by the people of this community and the school district around the surrounding area Rice Lake for those who of you that don't listen to your constituents you need to ask again why am I taking up the time in this chair have you no respect for that chair which says that you must listen to your constituents you may not agree with them but you should listen to them and the majority of what is good for this community you should take and vote and represent those types of policies every day that you sit in this chair and make a motion for a proposal for a
021new rule in this Rice Lake Area School District thank you foreign John chess from Rice Lake has been 13 years when I since I've been here and I've given you some material one is the principles of Marcus pondered on as a course on the Constitution I took many years ago and recommend that it's not it doesn't exist in our school system we're not teaching those values anymore anything related to Virtue Ten Commandments have been taken out of the classroom and basically so is constitutional education we're getting maybe uh it's very inadequate and so that's the positive part here those principles apply to what we're talking about tonight my last thing I said here I may be Randy trust is here I said talk about sleeper agents have you read the material I left before you
022know I'm talking about we do have a subversive enemy in this country and Report promoting policies that will take us down from within um I asked Thomas here I talked about uh pornography homosexuality promiscuity and adultery and their goal at least on said you cannot destroy America's morality um religion and patriotism we cannot bring them down from it then the Enemy Within is a true threat it's part of your all year old the enemy domestic but I never see a politician talking about it the goal is simply to destroy God destroy families destroy morality okay criminals and keep them on the streets aren't they doing that right now very well um I like to say that I was up to you at the high school and I complained about what I consider the very leftist
023propaganda film but were bother me most is the language how many of you want your child to sit in a classroom and hear F you all throughout that well that would never happened in my day my talk is too long or my statement's too long I see my timing I'm going to shift but um you've taken the sort of oh my belief system I threw that in there I believe I I countered that film with these statements I believe eternity really begins where God lets off leads off I believe in the spiritual law of gravity if you let my Commandments you will be blessed and not you'll be cursed all problems are caused by heathens the only ones down at the legislature begging for social programs are the latter ones and a statement from my
024faith we are taught that gender is an essential characteristic of individual pre-mortal mortal uh it and the Eternal identity and purpose the school system at least they keep Marx's amount of classroom morally and politically markson teaches itself obviously what God teaches the more moral decadent paid you do you're supposed to be healthier but it takes to have proven that that it easily makes marriages more difficult and that is timing Jerry Miller about 14 minutes left just under about what I got to think okay I'm not keeping an act I wrote it down and when we started so hello I'm Jerry Miller uh I got two students here in Rice Lake and I feel engaged a lot of people so good job for that I want to start by telling a little Story I Heard once
025a man overheard his son one night talking on the phone to someone who he assumed was his son's boyfriend about how he felt it was time to come out to his dad that he was gay by the end of the conversation he had decided he was going to tell his dad tomorrow that night before the dad went to bed he wrote his son a note and it read there's no need to come out to me I know you are gay we are low on milk can you please pick some up tomorrow love Dad parents who are doing their job will love their children no matter who they become in life so encouraging children to be honest and open with their parents should be a priority and not some trivial concept it might be scary but
026it's better than living a lie calling us ignorant because we don't agree with the agenda some of the adults in the community are pushing does not help lower the level of contempt or hostility over this subject people feel unsafe because a safe space sticker was removed is like our children feeling unsafe when they are put into a class where a pro LGB slideshow is presented where you tell the class you have the power to make the schools let trans kids use opposite gendered bathrooms and to make the schools let trans kids play sports with the opposite gender feeling safe at school goes both ways if it's not equal it's not fair girls will get destroyed playing sports against biological males and the boys will own every sport they play in when they compete against biological
027females it's like giving a bride a black eye on her wedding day it's ugly and obscene lastly I want to give my words of encouragement to the board and encourage you to have the courage to change and revise some policies to bring about fairness and equal protections for all of the students and and some of the unequal protections for groups of students this will be a step in the right direction and bring about transparency honesty and openness between students staff and parents thank you Mary heft Mary haft Rice Lake when my grandson was in kindergarten I was I volunteered in his class and the teacher said Mary will you help Benjamin get his snow suit on I said you bet so I went with Benjamin to the closet and Benjamin pulled on a pink pink
028snow suit he was putting the pants on and I said Benjamin put your own snow suit on and he looked at me and he said this is my snow suit and I said I'm sorry Benjamin go right ahead now jump forward one more year my grandson's in first grade and I'm going to volunteer again and so we're walking in and my grandson said to me grandma do you remember Benjamin from last year I said sure I do he said well Benjamin is Stephanie and please please grandma don't say anything to embarrass her first graders understood that Stephanie was Stephanie first graders understood it as adults we need to understand transgenders as well we need it's a difficult difficult challenge it's a difficult challenge but it's not something that we can't take the time to understand
029since 2017 policy 411 rule 2 has set forth the rights of transgender and gender diverse students with openness honesty and integrity the new language in the revised policy strips transgender students of the dignity and protection that they need and that they deserve for the well-being of our students I beg you to table indefinitely a vote on the revised policy Ken Hood foreign parent and former substitute teacher in the district I also note that I completed my final student teaching practicum at the Rice Lake Middle School and at the high school and I have three children who live in the district now I see my three children currently attend chatek Warehouse or Area School District in the elementary and the middle school there I've really enjoyed my time in the past serving the students of Rice
030Lake and I want this to be a safe welcoming Community for my children what happens in this District matters to me it matters to many other parents who are not able to attend tonight most of us regardless of our faith background or where we were born we believe that Rice Lake should be a welcoming inclusive community it should be a community where kids of all Races genders and sexual identities can feel safe unfortunately hateful political rhetoric meant to divide and confuse us has now found its way to the Northwoods of Wisconsin to the Beautiful Blue Hills that we call home I've met trans kids in the classroom I've met LGBT kids including some who are not yet ready to have the difficult and challenging conversation with their parent or caregiver and I'll note here there
031are many complicated situations where that might be the case for a child kids should be free to express themselves in the classroom and some of you may have mixed feelings about that I understand I also understand that you want the classroom to remain focused on academics that's what I want too we are on the same page when it comes to that when transgender students and students who don't conform to gender stereotypes feel threatened that is when academics will suffer kids who don't have the support they need are the ones who will fall through the cracks kids who feel they can't speak up about bullying based on an LGBT identity under these proposed new rules I've seen my own kids experience bullying in the in the school and the bullies they don't need much of an
032excuse or Reason unfortunately so let's not give them another one instead let's Empower our teachers to do what they're already striving to do every day to be safe adults who kids can confide in teachers are trained in how to interact with their students in a respectful manner teachers understand some things are set in confidence and of course there are important exceptions to this if you look up the fact that teachers are mandatory reporters I had to get training on that all the Rice Lake staff who interact with students regularly have to get training on that so we don't need to add additional disclosure requirements meant to Target and stigmatize vulnerable students like I said already all students deserve to feel safe and welcome at school this is what I want to see happen as a
033former teacher and most especially as a concerned parent thank you so much for your time Angela televandos you're right hi everyone my name is Angela televandos I live in Rice Lake I grew up in Rice Lake and I've been a Community member for most of my life just wanted to spend a little time talking about rule two um I do think that this has really taken a life of its own is I've looked at this policy that's being under review really this is about parental consent that's all as the policy currently States I have it here I'm looking at it basically what this allows is children who are in transition can change their name change their clothes be referred with a different pronoun use whatever bathroom that they're currently correlates to their gender identity all
034of this can be done but you don't have to have parental consent and the school doesn't have to notify you this is what really surprised me most if you think about it as parents you consent to everything with your child when school starts in the beginning and you're filling out all the paperwork you are consenting to allow your child's picture to be allowed in the newspaper or in the yearbook you have to consent as a parent to allow your child to go on a field trip sign your child out of school if they have an absence or they have a doctor's appointment I can't really you have to have a parent has to consent if you want the school nurse to give your child Tylenol over-the-counter Tylenol or Ibuprofen there's really nothing that I can
035think of that a parent doesn't consent to and when it comes to something as important as this why wouldn't a parent want consent on this and want to know what's happening it doesn't take away from anything you're just having parental consent which I think honestly is really good policy um as I've been thinking also through this I know that there's been some conversations about safe spaces and some stickers taken away as I understand it those stickers really were taken away only to be uh put back in place with the right language as they just expired so that's still in place students can go still talk to their teachers if a student needs to come out to a teacher that teacher still will hold that confidential all of that is in place that does not go
036away so again going back to this rule is just about parental consent which is everything that we do so thank you for your time transparency is really good it sets everybody up for success and I think it really does help mitigate litigation and just risk if so Lauren Faulkner okay I'm Lauren Faulkner Rice Lake Wisconsin um good evening I attended School in Rice Lake for 12 years of my life and I graduated in 2021. I'm here tonight because I stand in solidarity with Abby Fisher and other lgbtq plus students and members within this community and School District although relieved that I am no longer a member of a school district that appears to be so shamelessly exclusive I am here because I still fear for my younger siblings and the other children that attend school
037here coming from a home where my parents taught me and my siblings how to show kindness and respect towards other human beings the concept we were able to grasp at a very young young age it is jarring and scary to see all of this hate and anger in this District directed at children and vital members of our community I come from a home where no one told us who we couldn't be or who we couldn't like or who we couldn't be friends with I come from a home where we were taught to be accepting of people who were different from us and to base people not on how they looked or how they identified or whether they wanted to go by he she or they but who they were as people although I am extensively
038aware that not every household looks like this I was naive enough to think our school systems whose number one job is to care for children would be doing everything in their power to make children feel safe and seen and not only accepted for who they are but encouraged to be who they are giving adult members of this community and their the platform to entertain such hatred for children and their identities is frightening it seems to be easily forgotten that many students who attend the school do not feel safe or loved in their own homes many of these students find safety in school and feel the most comfortable comfortable to be who they are outside of their homes what this board has essentially done by allowing this hatred bigotry homophobia and transphobia to be spread is
039to suppress and extinguish the identities of the children in this community you are stripping them of who they are and who they have yet to become you are telling them they do not matter suicide is already a serious epidemic among young people between the ages of 10 and 24 with suicide being the second leading cause of death for them in the United States multiple studies done by the Trevor Project have concluded that lgbtq plus youth are at a much higher risk of suicide it is estimated that more than 1.8 million lgbtq youth consider suicide each year in the United States and at least one attempts to take their own life every 45 seconds these statistics are terrifying and overwhelming but they are the reality of what is happening I believe that prevention and progress starts
040wherever you are we as a community can change these rates we can all complete a very simple task which is making students and members of the school district feel safe and supported by non-consensually outing children to their parents they will not feel safe or supported in another study done by the Trevor Project they found that lgbtq plus youth are not directly at a higher risk of suicide because of their sexual orientation but rather placed at a higher risk because of how they are mistreated and stigmatized in society everyone should feel safe to be who they are especially children the school should not only be striving to teach basic curriculum but also to teach and set examples of kindness tolerance respect and inclusion this District should not be making parents comfortable at the expense of children's
041identities and safety I think if the school board turns a blind eye to the hate and intolerance within the school district they're doing many many students teachers and vital members of this community a significant Injustice thank you that is our 30-minute time lot we do have 10 people that have signed up to speak yet to us tonight your names will be put on for our meeting in two weeks so if you want to speak at that your name will be on there as it is in line on this list so thank you all right next we have our approval of our regular session meeting minutes from Monday September 12th I would entertain a motion to approve our minutes move to approve motion has been made is there a second second motion has been made and
042seconded any further discussion see none all in favor signify by saying aye aye aye all right and nay motion does carry and our minutes have been approved next we have our consent agenda where we have uh four employment uh resignations and from the page here it's free employment recommendations I would entertain a motion to approve our consent agenda I'll motion to approve the consent agenda motion has been made is there a second second motion has been made and seconded any further discussion seen none all in favor signify by saying aye opposed and that motion carries the consent agenda has been approved so now we get into the report section we'll start off with our wire Workforce okay maybe Jenny Amos Jenny are you back there oh she's there come on up at the podium so
043it's just um asked to put on the agenda to kind of showcase what we've been doing for the warrior work force so just going to give a little background information about myself as we go through the slideshow because I'm not sure that everybody knows who I am so um this is my ninth year here at Rice Lake High School as a special education teacher I'm part of the technology steering committee transition team and have recently transitioned into the work experience coordinator um my goal when I moved into this role was um to kind of create a can-do work environment for my students and kind of help prepare them for the world of work so um I looked at our success skills that we used at the high school now and kind of combine that with
044um a grading rubric so that students know how they're graded and kind of mesh the two together so if you want to click on there it kind of breaks down all of the different um expectations then this can be directly centered um directly graded to parents in that so they understand how their student is being graded and kind of making sure that their prompted and prepared they're dressed appropriately their productivity within our work experience setting um kind of meets what the needs are and it kind of goes through and you can look more closely at that later but just kind of looking at kind of that transparency so parents know how students are graded and giving them an opportunity to kind of Be good workers when they enter into the world of work you want
045to go back together um one of the other things that I did was I started with some of my students with um intellectual disabilities and some of the other more significant disabilities that when you hand somebody a resume it may not you may not understand how much students can do I kind of um helped and them create visual resumes to kind of showcase what they're able to do um because sometimes we are quick to look at somebody and maybe see well barriers that they may not be able to do so um this particular student uh if you click to the next one it's his job and you know contact information in that but talks about like what he's done and his um work experience kind of where he wants to be After High School um
046the next one there kind of talks about what he wants to do again after high school and then it actually showcases the different jobs that he has done and kind of take pictures so you can visually see that you know some of the things are not barriers for him he's able to do all of these things successfully in the community so I won't go through like all this contact and that but it also kind of gets the employer um some key that information for about like when they would learn best and how maybe to accommodate them you know making sure this this student has a routine and knows what to expect so One Direction at a time so kind of that open communication that the student may not be able to verbalize in an interview
047um but still allows that employer to know what again what that student can do instead of what um some of those barriers would be so I'm going to go back to the other so um just some other things that I've done you know being uh part of the Barron County community on transition looking at how we transition in the whole Community as overall DVR working with the Department of Vocational Rehabilitation project search and Northwoods Technical College and then supporting student transition goals to provide that meaningful work experience that helps students work towards their post-secondary goals um still all part of my goals as I'm working here um and I guess one of the um things that sticks out in my mind is I've gone to a couple of conventions to talk about like how we
048would best suit um or prepare our students for the world to work and when we look at the statistics a lot of students with disabilities are getting jobs that don't provide them benefits after they graduate and I think that that one of the key things that are missing there is that ability for them to get that hands-on experience and to be able to learn that repetition and that skill over and over and be provided an opportunity to kind of test different jobs and see what students are good at and so I've really been trying to provide them a multiple provide them multiple work experiences so they can kind of see what job fits them best um so if you want to move to the next slide right now what we have is we have the
049warrior mud room where we do all of the laundry for the gym classes and our sports teams and the kitchens throughout the district we also do recycling within the school building and shredding there's a couple of the witc or Northwoods Tech and aquafest we make buttons for them and um yeah and then we provide sanitizing throughout the school right now and that's kind of like that first level direct supervision right within the school building so that they get those work skills before we take them out in the into the community um and then the next one we have some off-site uh we work with Goodwill and we go there one class period a day and have students working there uh we um coordinate with Benjamin's house and we pick up their donations once a week
050we go to Northern Star Theater and clean there I've had a student at Haugen Elementary helping out in the classroom as a peer mentor and students read to her and she also helped with recess Duty uh with stone senior living and then I now have a student at Pet Supplies Plus learning skills there so the one thing that was really missing within the program is that um production is a huge area of employment in the Rice Lake community and we really don't have anything right now or didn't at the end of last year to kind of mimic that production and Manufacturing setting so I can think of a number of students over the years who would have benefited from trying out that type of employment and it's definitely one of those things like office workers
051and for everybody being outside isn't for everybody and sometimes manufacturing and um the repetition of the manufacturing setting isn't for everybody but there's a lot of people that it works really well for so of kind of giving them that opportunity to um gonna test that out and so you can see here based on the Barron County data that that's a good number 12 of our occupations here in rice or in Barron County are specific to that production so the next slide also talks about um people in the workforce production is 450 of the um you know the highest uh sorry I'm like so nervous you're doing great you're doing just fine how many people here um breathe um so it is definitely a big nugget of the workforce in the community and so what I'm
052hoping to do is the next slide here this last year we introduce us your automobile detailing so we take care of detailing all of the vehicles in the district that they um take for different events and I'm working with the maintenance to kind of have a checklist so that students can actually like check the oil and go through that and kind of help out that part of the maintenance because they don't always have time maybe to or I'm sure they do do it but it would help them and help our students learn those skills so the other thing that I have is we purchased Warrior Workforce some fabricating so we have laser engravers and some vinyl printing that we can do in a 3D printer so this year last year they made the my students
053it were with uh Miss Pete Peterson and they made the warrior water bottles for staff appreciation um and then the high school has the make it happen initiative where we're kind of like catching students promoting those um key skills of you know being kind and all those things so if you see somebody and recognize them they get to make it happen um different they have make it happen swag so we helped them create some backpacks pencil cases there's little make it happen stickers that they could put on things um and then they just made the big tennis things to go in the yard and so they did the vinyl for them and um to kind of so that's what we've been working on so far they also make the um adult passes for the Athletics
054and engrave them um and I have other like water bottles and stuff um I did we created this last week we just got the new vinyl printer and so I created the student of the month stickers to give out to parents and I feel like it's really cool to kind of showcase what our students are doing well and put um The Warriors out there to the community for the good things we're doing so um I think that I guess what's next is just kind of taking that to that next level we've been fortunate enough so far to keep have jobs to keep us busy but we're still always looking for other jobs to keep us busy so the next slide up there talks about like potential um projects that we could do such as like
055t-shirts we don't want to do like we don't have the things to do like a full T-Shirt Factory but if maybe we wanted to personalize some um coffee mugs engraved water bottles like maybe even student of the term Awards um Pete Peterson had created The Fab Lab Awards and the 3D printer could do the base and the laser engraver could do everything else there to kind of create any awards that we wanted um you know board recognition Awards staff recognition they do the Hunt Hill plugging metals they have a contract and they do that every year they've made the little new Warrior onesies for staff members in the district who have babies that are born in the school year um and uh you know we've done some of the signage we just did the track
056records the new ones for the wall there um and again you know bumper stickers keychains um that customization is things another thing maybe like um District Christmas or staff appreciation gifts just to kind of give the bigger orders help our students be able to do that same repetition over and over I have a student right now who we just made um 40 water bottles and every day he was so excited to come in and just do the engraving on that set it up um all under supervision but be able to do that independently and kind of you know he had to take it around and show all his teachers what he was able to create for people so kind of giving them that ability to be proud of the work that they're doing so um
057I guess you know another thing is if we were gonna do any other staff appreciation or anything maybe putting together bags and the students could do the whole list of you know putting it into bakes or whatever else needs to be done in that setting because right now I have um weeding is a job I never knew until I started learning the vinyl um process and so it you know it cuts out the vinyl cutter cuts it out and then you have to use little tools to weed it out before you can make it into the stickers you pull the excess around so one student who was like very meticulous so she just she enjoys the weeding part of that another one like you know they all like their certain role in the process so
058um yeah I guess that is really the end of the thing I don't know if anybody has any questions or any board members have any questions yes yeah Jenny when that was a job coordinator for nine years and one thing I found that was helpful when you're working with an outside employer you know by the way I like what you're doing inside the school to use any kind of training plans or a guide for that employer so we used to use the adage we then went by marketing students packing groceries all day because they weren't learning anything right so we had a training plan further where they learned different aspects especially if they want to go into an occupation we do yep and right now um the student that I have at Pet Supplies Plus
059we have a contract with them and we kind of talk about what we our expectations are for the job um and then that student has a job coach that goes with her each day and that kind of provides her that support that she needs right away and the goal is for that job coach to be phased out um this particular student has been really nice she worked in the laundry so she's worked her way up she worked at Goodwill so a lot of the concerns that they had there about like her interacting with customers and that she's already had that practice at Goodwill what do you say to a customer who comes out and wants help or asks a question that you don't have so just making sure that they're prepared like that first step
060isn't being into the community and that's where I use that um grading rubric to say okay once you're at a level four I feel like you can go into the community and be able to um you know work in that job setting and make sure that you are following those things so then that student who was at Goodwill worked with a job coach and was supervised and then she would stay longer after that and didn't need so much support so that's the goal is eventually to get to a spot where they don't need that much support and then it's just phone call check-ins and that so working with the community do you use any kind of advisory committee of business people or employers at all or is it just interpersonal just interpersonal making phone calls
061and kind of seeing how we can help each other okay you know our goal is for us to be able to provide a student that can learn the role so that if they do have a job opening my student is the most qualified to get that job because they already have been trained and they know that role so it's a benefit to both the student and The Business any other questions from the board I have a question for for some reason for some types of work like the auto detailing you take in the community for extra practice and to just upgrade the level of um quality that they know they have to provide you know to to increase the pressure on them a little bit increase performance I have not and I don't know like
062as far as like the liability Logistics of that right now if you're just working on school Vehicles the liability is you know we are moving the car into the garage and that they have a checklist and right now my job coach and I are out there detailing right alongside with them we're giving them immediate feedback and again it's just that gradual stepping back and allowing them to do more of that I know that we have had students in the past who have then moved on to do some auto detailing through Don Johnson in that and have a job shadow through them so there is that potential to take that to the next level there too I'd like to say thank you for coming it's always good to hear the amazing things that are going on
063in the district and even just how the Fab Lab is being used because my daughter was at the charter school when they first started purchasing that stuff and I wondered what are they going to do with all this equipment so it's so cool to hear you know that your group of students are working with it and producing great things I mean we've gotten these water bottles and I'm like I love this I want more of these made you know they're so cool and I think I've talked to Mr Peterson about that so I didn't know who was making them I just assumed it was a stem group but yeah well I did an amazing job Mr Peterson's group does a really nice job of that um like developing and kind of the uh I can't
064think of what I'm thinking the design but that getting multiple things of the is more the role of my group so there's a lot of things that he's had to say no to because any time that he's done for the water bottles or anything else it's been outside of the school day where our students are able to do that right within that work setting so it kind of opens us up to to be able to do more of that too right so great job nice thank you all right anything else from the board all right thank you all right you're welcome next we have an action item it's the Wisconsin school board week October 3rd through the 7th and we have a proclamation for that whereas the Rice Lake Area School District recognizes the importance
065of public education in our community and whereas the Rice Lake Area School District appreciates the vital role played by the local school board which establishes policies to ensure an efficient effective school system and whereas the school board members serve as a voice that enables our community to preserve local management and control of our own public schools and whereas school board members are charged with representing our local education interests at state and federal governments and ensuring compliance with state and federal law whereas the school board members selfish selflessly devote their knowledge time and talents to advocate for our school children and community's future whereas the local school board members are strong advocates for public education and responsible for communicating the needs of the school district to the public in the Public's expectations to the district now
066therefore be it resolved that the Rice Lake Area School District recognizes and salutes the members of The Rice Lake Area School Board by proclaiming October second to the 8th 2022 as Wisconsin school board week and I would entertain a motion to Proclaim that Proclamation I would still move motion has been made is there a second second motion has been made in second at all in favor signify by saying aye aye aye and it has been proclaimed that October 2nd through the 8th I believe is what it was uh 2022 is School Board week next we have the curriculum committee meeting update we needed to select a chair for that committee so that was the first item on our agenda and then from there we had one other item and that was to listen to our
067high school social studies course proposals from our teachers at the high school and they have proposed um some new classes to come through there we've got a couple classes that would be um diving into the history a little bit more as far as the Holocaust is concerned and the more recent history so like 9 11 is also a class that will be um going through and getting prepared to be be taught up there along with U.S history AP version uh we've got two levels of that to give some more in-depth uh knowledge of the history and being able to go in a little deeper uh at an AP level course so those were the uh items that we heard about and we as a committee gave the the uh teachers the thumbs up to continue
068to go down that level of exploring what that's gonna that those classes will look like and eventually we will be bringing that back um so you guys can see what that looks like there's a new chair the new chair is I will be finishing out that term until April and our next meeting is scheduled for Tuesday October 18th at 5 30. did I miss anything I don't think so all right then we will move on to our next item on the agenda which is policy legislative advocacy committee meeting update we do have policy 347.2 policy 411 rule one and two for four eleven exhibits one two and three for four eleven those items are here for the first reading and uh I know there's been a lot of discussion a lot of questions um and
069a number of misstatements out in our community so I just want to let the board know as a committee that policy 411 is not really changing other than the fact that parents will be involved at some point before students will be coming with a name change or using a bathroom that they did not originally identify with at Birth other than that we um we'll be following the WIA rules as far as Athletics we're following State Statute and precedence as far as uh transgender students using the bathrooms that they choose to use and the policy itself then like I said will remain mainly intact with with what we already had in place any questions any comments from the committee any questions from the board well I I've got a comment I know there's been some discussion
070as though parental consent and preventing bullying are mutually exclusive and that is absolutely false we don't have an interest in anyone being bullied I mean I was a skinny kid that was kind of picked on when I was in school I know a little bit about that was like as well there was a great deal of discussion in our committee meeting about trying to do a better job with our anti-bullying policy because bullying doesn't help anybody it doesn't help those that don't understand the transgender community and it doesn't help the transgender Community either so we have to do a good job on that and I want to set that straight any other questions or comments yeah Kevin I just I just wanted to clarify prior to the changes being made um are being proposed we
071didn't have anything in there that specifically said that parents could not or should not be involved is that correct that is correct okay and then because I guess it was my understanding that this our staff that works with these students had been doing a really great job of getting parents involved and so I think there's been a lot of misconceptions that that we haven't been involving parents and I just kind of wanted to clarify that nowhere in the policy has it said that we couldn't or shouldn't be involving parents or that we haven't been involving parents um I think that's really important for people to know this isn't something that we've been doing in secret and um so I just I wanted to clarify that that was not a part of the policy prior to
072the changes correct correct thank you for that that is a very good point I also want to let the board know that um if a student is coming out and going to uh look at the path of transitioning um from one gender to another that they still have that ability to go to a staff member talk with them and that staff member doesn't have to then right away run to a parent they get to have that opportunity to talk with them um get an understanding of what that may look like and then with that the whole process is to help bridge that Gap so that our students can come to their parents and feel comfortable doing that in a timely fashion for them whatever that might be so there's not an immediate student comes to
073a teacher and the teacher hears and they right away have to run to the administrator of the building and say this is what the student has just shared with me that is not the intent and that is not the design of this policy so then when will they have to only if they want to go by a different name only if they're going to be changing their name or changing the restroom to a trusted staff unless that student desires to use different name that is how the policy is written just want to make sure I'm clear on things and is the policy promoting open showers no no there is nothing in the policy that addresses bathroom use or shower use other than uh what is been precedent by State Statute and lawsuits there was a
074school district in the southern part of the state that was telling a student in a transition that they had to use a family restroom and the student sued and this school district paid out over eight hundred thousand dollars for that loss because they were forcing the student to use a bathroom that was for a family restroom and if I can interject on the locker room piece we have allowed say um before the other group is in there either before or after maybe a different changing schedule but not at the same time okay and Randy how many uh eyes have from a legal standpoint have we had reviewed the policy with the changes and where things stand I talked with four different attorneys on on different pieces and so on and understand when you talk to
075attorneys you get you know you may talk to two different attorneys and get slightly different answers um but just in general um yeah supportive of the changes from a legal standpoint any other Kevin one thing I do think is I I think that there is a lot of misunderstandings on all sides of this um but I think the most important one that I'm concerned about is how the students feel about this and how it affects our students and staff um and so I guess I'd like to see some maybe some more discussion with students and staff around this um I don't want anyone to feel like they're being attacked I don't want anyone to feel um you know what I'm saying I guess I just I want to make sure that um not everybody understands
076truly what this is you know what place this is coming from and I think that there's a a deep misunderstanding with some students right now and I think as a board um it's our job to make sure that the students do feel safe and supported and I think that there needs to be some more discussion um and potentially involve some of these students or families um or staff or Administration or whoever um you know that this would apply to then you do have something like that in place for after the policy and that's you know you wouldn't potentially take action on this until two weeks from tonight and so that's I've been talking with the admin team a little bit about okay what does that look like um you know in terms of rolling that
077out and processes and procedures and so yes I'll be able to talk more about that at the next meeting certainly thank you any other questions or comments I just wanted to clarify one thing on the um on the rule under locker room so there's the section um that talks about the accommodations that could be made for locker room and um number five is um lined out number five is the one that says access to the locker room corresponding to the student's gender identity and I believe we lined that out because that is covered under WIA correct okay yeah and and partly because we don't have you know it's not like we have locker rooms that are all family um like family changing restrooms or anything like that um like if you go in the high
078school gym Lobby there's those two uh family restrooms and you know it doesn't matter who uses them um during events or whatever and just we don't have that option to lock rooms and so um yeah or that's the only way we would allow that is and it says about there something with a different schedule before after uh but not at the same time and Kevin I just wanted to clarify that I I am concerned about the climate of the school and the relationship between admin students and the board and so if there's anything that the committee could do to have some more conversations around this before it's brought back to the board um I would really appreciate that and I think the students and families would as well yes and we will have that discussion
079and and uh try and put some things in place so we can have that discussion with with the students and and staff well I have one more comment too I've been doing a lot of thinking about this and you know the students that are connected with their parents their parents know what's going on in their lives they know what their problems are and if they need health care they're going to get it there are a lot of stresses in these years of a kid's life and this is just one that that I didn't go through and I can't understand but I think it can be pretty severe and sometimes these children have or students young people have underlying disorders that are treatable if people aren't connected with their parents if no one's informing the parents
080should be the child what the difficulties are who gets a health care evaluation for these patients for these students aren't these students falling through the cracks and aren't they falling through the cracks if if we just want to allow them to go forward in a one-dimensional direction without exploring other things like medically evaluation that can actually perhaps find something that is treatable make them feel a lot better right away I think that's really important and that's a big advantage of of uh encouraging go forward and let their parents know before they start moving forward on this and I we never discussed the timeline for this if students want to you know if they develop a relationship with a particular staff member and want to um talk to that staff member for months there's nothing to
081prevent that we didn't discuss anything about tattling running to the administrator running to the parents um none of that it's just to be supportive to the student but before the staff can facilitate the actual actions of the transition we want the student to be able to go and talk to the parents and get the parents on board and if that's difficult there can be mechanisms that can get the student and the parent and the staff as they understand it I don't mean to be speaking out a term out of turn together to do it very similar analogous to how we do an IEP another difficult situations but I think it's best for the student best for the parent definitely best for the Integrity of the school district because Eau Claire's going through hell right now
082because they've chosen directly to be dishonest with parents and I I we we truly feel we have the best interest of everyone in mind and before anyone goes off and decides that this is some Witch Hunt or something that's completely inappropriate please speak with us I've spoken to a couple people over the phone already that I think were pretty iffy about it and I explained the policy and the motivation and uh generally we came out agreeing on most things sorry I I just asked the community to to understand that that everybody's trying to come from directions of Goodwill here and then two I mean I am concerned about the climate of the staff um you know I want to make sure they feel valued and heard and not threatened um so what is you know
083and for the students as well um to explain this so they understand that this is not um they understand that they're still safe um that this is not I mean I just feel like it's been miscommunicated so much so what is the plan to clarify to the staff and the students between now and the next board meeting um I'll be attending staff meetings um in the buildings and scheduling those and may even give multiple opportunities same before school and or after school our staff members can come and talk to me about it um and talk about these pieces we've been talking about um I'm also going to reach out to um school counselors people Services Personnel about what's the best way to have conversation with students about this and talk more about that as well
084I think that makes sense in terms of next steps any other questions or comments yeah I'd just like to clarify again I I heard people say something about being dishonest to parents and I'd again like to clarify that we have not been being dishonest with parents that's not something that our staff or our district has been doing and I think that's really really important for the community to know and also just a reminder um that not you know somebody who's worked with youth for nearly 20 years um not everyone has a safe and supportive family that is going to help them and so sometimes notifying parents isn't always the answer because they just don't have that at home as much as I wish that for them and we all wish that for them there are
085students who just don't have those safe and supportive families I I'd like to make another comment I thank you for saying that sir I did not mean to imply that I think anyone in Rice Lake is being dishonest with parents I did not mean to imply that all I'm saying is it's important for us that we are straightforward with parents and I'm just saying calling attention to what the the Eau Claire school this with that we will move on to the upcoming meeting schedule on Wednesday September 28th at noon there is a political speech uh employee political speech online event a few registration is required so if you would like to be part of that please let Colleen know also uh our WSB 2022 fall regional meeting is coming up fast it'll be Wednesday October
08612th uh here in Rice Lake at Layman's if you plan to attend that please let Colleen know and she'll get you registered public participation at board meetings it's an online event on Wednesday October 12th at noon registration is required it's also October 19th at noon a legal and legislative video update no registration is required for that then we have the fall advocacy Workshop connecting with lawmakers over in Turtle Lake at cesa 11. that is an online Workshop also available registration is required then we have our January 17th through January 20th 2023 Wisconsin uh WSB education convention down in Milwaukee so if you can attend any of those please let Colleen know and she will get you signed up for that and next on our agenda we have our student represent Representatives we have with us
087this evening we have faith and Lucas Peters welcome and thank you for being here and tell us what's going on in the high school okay uh like you just said I'm Faith Peters sorry my voice is kind of gone um I'm a senior class representative at the high school um I'm Lucas Peters I'm her brother I'm also a class rep at the school um at the high school most recently there's been a lot of excitement from just the beginning of the school year uh homecoming week and a lot of events um with clubs and extracurricular Sports so um on September 17th we had the 11th FBLA hosted the 11th annual forest run and there was a lot of time um and effort they put into that and it was a great success and I know
088they're very thankful to everyone in the community who participated or donated anyway um can I do it yeah I think we're off to a great start of the school year um we have lots of kids involved in clubs and activities um fall sports are going great we have great coaching great fans great student body and a awesome Community supporting us so yeah yeah there's been a lot of involvement um most recently just this week we had homecoming week uh there's a lot of participation and there's a lot that goes in behind the scenes of that um like the warrior leadership team with Mr stradle um and the warriorettes who actually put together the dance uh the dance was really fun it was a great success lots of people um as well as the week there
089are lots of events after school and it's a lot of participation and it was great to see all like the warrior spirit that came out last week so yes we have all right thank you for that and next we have our district administrator comments yeah I would just say uh just as uh the Peter siblings mentioned uh be checking our Calendar and Facebook page always lots of things going on I was just going to put out a reminder that this Friday is uh in-service day and so all staff will be an in-service but students have the day off so just wanted to remind people of that in service day on Friday all right thank you and with that I would entertain a motion to adjourn okay well if it has been made is there a
090second second motion has been made in seconded we are adjourned thank you