001all right it is seven o'clock i will call the regular monday august 23rd board meeting to order roll call please sarah turner here doug here joshua stream here abby fisher here steve bowman here gary spear here kevin jensen here deanna albert here and bert richard here notice was given for this meeting yes please be advised that public notice of this meeting as required by sections 19.84 and 65.90 of the wisconsin statutes has been properly given such notice consisted of a notice and agenda to the loca to the official newspaper the rice lake chrono type the eau claire leader and to radio stations wgmc and waqe indicating the date time and place of the meeting such notice was given more than 24 hours prior to the meeting thank you it does appear that a proper notice
002was given for this meeting we are at the appearance section of our agenda we have a number of people signed up to speak to the board tonight and with that i would ask that everybody be respectful of everyone's time here tonight and so that if you've got something new to bring to the board please by all means come up to the podium but if it's just saying the same things that somebody else has already stated i'd ask that you maybe not come up because we've already heard that we are hearing everything you say and then that'll allow us to get to our discussion section a little bit sooner that being said we will start off with an email statement by daniel agne this is one that was emailed me by daniel agne he lives in
003the town of bear lake in barron county dear rice lake area school board members i'm writing to ask you to please require everyone who enters a rice lake area school district building to wear a mask even though masks may not prevent every infection they slow the spread that's important to everyone in our community not just the mask where or or their parent or guardian if i were a member of this board i would go even further and make a motion to delay the start of in-person classes at the elementary level for two or three months to at least give children under 12 a chance to get vaccinated before heading back into the classroom children being less likely than adults to develop serious symptoms does not mean it doesn't happen we already see children being hospitalized
004with the delta variant in the south and even if a child has an asymptomatic or mild case they can and do spread the virus onto others in their families and the community as a whole putting a large cohort of people whatever their age with a zero percent vaccination rate into the same building for seven hours a day is asking for trouble taking a wider view i implored i implore you to please put a much greater emphasis on teaching our children critical critical thinking scientific method and research skills as i'm sure you've seen we again folks i'm just reading it as i'm sure you've seen we have an alarming number of grown men and women in our community who are more or less functionally illiterate they think mindlessly bleeding about freedom or throwing around accusations of
005communism compelling arguments against mildly inconvenient public health measures they toss around terms like tyranny and child abuse so lightly it's a grave insult to anyone who has ever suffered at the hands of an abuser or fought to overthrow overthrow a brutal dictator and of course they ignore recommendations from legitimate established healthcare professionals and organizations and instead seek out and amplify medical advice from facebook memes or any quack or charlatan who will tell them what they want to hear not bode well for our future i thank you and especially all of our educators and staff for shouldering such an important and heavy burden you didn't make this mess but your best hope for eventually getting out of it and again that was from daniel agne town of bear lake and as we start to go through
006i'll give the person that will be up speaking next and the following person so that way we can always have the next person up and ready to go with that our next person is peter m i can't make out the last name but peter m and after that it'll be nancy keeler thank you my name is peter mischie i'm from rural rice lake this is the school district most responsible part of my formation all right let's get close he said get close peter michinski from rice lake i grew up here this is the school district responsible for that part of my formation and education thank you everyone here watching and otherwise active in the district for continuing a legacy of excellence i just wrapped up a week where i wore a mask a lot it's
007a pain it's inconvenient evidently the united states navy isn't interested first and foremost in my convenience but they are interested in my pain and suffering they are interested in fact to put it this way that if i am to experience that pain and stuffing if there's a war such as when i served in iraq or national missions such as the one i was a part of just over a year ago the navy's anti-covet mission in southern california that i will be ready for that mission the navy's policies and practices are so that i would be physically mentally and spiritually well enough to understand and execute whatever mission the commander-in-chief orders for my nearly 30 years reserve and active combined in the navy commanders in chief almost evenly divided between democrat and republican have expected me
008to be ready for the mission that they command for me to do all of those commanders and chiefs have provided mitigation measures to reduce my risk to right for my readiness for the mission so i wore a mask on dod installations department of defense installations last week indoors and in some outdoor spaces and also on the airplane on the long flight home over the night last night our mission is excellence and excellent education for every student in the district i believe that face-to-face is best for that in full disclosure my wife is a proud employee of the district and will be face to face with students up close and personal as a key person and seeing that no one is left out of the best opportunity for a good education staff teachers or administrators do
009not enhance the execution of this mission neither do sick children or their families if masks prevent even one case of covet or another illness that's a mission multiplier i prefer masks be required and that you seriously consider and apply other cdc measures that mitigate the risk and multiply the mission it's simple math a kindergarten student can ace this test requiring the recently approved for regular use vaccine that's more complicated kind of like an advanced placement issue in question it's a higher level course i'm sure exceptions will have to be allowed like they are in the military for instances of medical or religious exceptions now i realize that some disagree with me perhaps with everything that i've said i haven't served in the navy for 30 years i haven't been away from my family for eighty
010percent of those years of service that i have eighty percent of the time because i believe this nation is fragile it is not it can handle deep differences it can handle complex conversations about the history of various issues like race relations and i expect my good history teachers in this district to provide an excellent education on the history of that so that we can overcome that and that we can multiply the mission for all people in this country school board members thank you for your service children i give thanks for this district and i believe it's all our responsibilities to create the environment that is respectful responsible and safe that is the warrior way thank you nancy keeler is up next will be jamie boonish um thank you for allowing me to speak and thank
011you for caring and my name is anthony keeler my ad my ninth course cumberland we have over 100 rentals in rice lake we pay a lot of tax money so i feel like for that um my experience is i have 50 years of work with children i'm a certified k-8 i taught kindergarten for eight years in turtle lake and i thought one year then i raised my kids for 21 years through homeschooling and then i did sub in the right curious for five years and i appreciate that i'm coming to you as the voice of the child um children learn by people caring and loving for them when you communicate to a child it's very little the words you say or the love you show with your eyes with your caring with your touch with
012your feeling it's your body language so much more with the facial expression then when you mask yourself hindered the children do not learn well when a child is masked the child is like must be submissive they mask people in africa the women are told to walk behind the people and have the mask on and don't talk to unless you're talking to um teachers how could a teacher you know i'm a kindergarten teacher how could i teach your kid properly with a mask on without a mask you can teach so much better [Applause] a parent is entrusting their child to you the school but the school does not own the child i'm asking please allow the parent the free choice to allow their kid to be masked or not and also to be vaccinated or not
013vaccinated because it is the parent's kid [Applause] [Music] i'm asking you please to allow the teachers to be masked or unmasked or to be vaccinated or unvaccinated [Applause] if the school district decides to mandate mass or mandate vaccines the parent is still in charge so you still have a choice [Applause] you have an option you can pull your child out um there's alternative schooling there's christian schooling and there is homeschooling and what they what you guys did homeschooling last year over zoom is not homeschooling homeschooling is the filling of the brains and molding your child into what you want your child to be i loved teaching and i loved teaching kindergarten i loved teaching kindergarten at victor lake school you know and i love subbing for you guys it was a nice challenge um i
014asked too that on the third i don't know if it's monday or friday of september is when the state funding comes for each school each kid that is in school that's how you get your state funding i ask that after if you mandate or not mandate hopefully not mandate mass effect that it wouldn't be changed am i done i get one i got one minute left you're good i asked it after that third friday when you get all the kids and then you get your state funding that you would not change it if it is there's no the parents get to decide i do appreciate the work you are doing and i do appreciate your sincerity of your heart in working with the kids so please make mask or no mask vaccine or no vaccine
015their parents decision thank you very much [Applause] amy is up now next is peter wise good evening my name is jamie coonish i am a mother of four in the district and i'm also one that had tested positive on record and recovered from i work full-time during the day and my family owns and operates a dairy farm in our community i want to thank randy and i want to thank abby for the response on my email and i would assume the rest of you also had the chance to read everyone wants to cry follow the science follow the science when we follow the science it tells us children are the at least affected group by this virus they are less likely to have severe disease from covid less likely to be symptomatic and a lower
016contagious rate there have not been any deaths with this new variant in children 361 children died last year that were tied to colbit in 2019 they estimated that 434 died from the seasonal flu and in 2018 to 2019 the flu season there was 480 children who died from the these numbers were taken from the cdc website there were no masks in place for those seasons there was no protocol to follow there was nothing lloyd fisher who is the president of the massachusetts chapter of american academic the pediatric states quote it is important for children to see facial expressions of their peers and adults around them in order to learn social cues and how to understand and read emotions reading faces is critical for social and emotional learning i know as an adult who is hearing
017impaired i also struggle without being able to read people's faces i own and operate a dairy farm in our community i am entrusted and deemed smart enough to harvest and prepare food for all of you and for the rest of the world but i'm not smart enough to be able to choose if my child should be able to wear a mask or not school especially since there is no credible solid data that says masks work how is the school prepared to handle children that are going to come to school now and refuse to wear is the school going to provide masks for kids who refuse to wear are they going to provide a clean one a new one daily because i know my four children are gonna refuse to wear or are they gonna provide
018a mask that i have here that was handmade by the staff at the middle school last year that is a kitchen napkin with holes in it stapled to rubber bands a napkin with holes in it and rubber bands stapled to it if anyone could please explain to me how effective this is against covid that would be great because it's not yet there was no concern about my kids using it and it being an ineffective man in last the last piece i want to leave with you the board members is you are elected to serve to listen to us parents in the community and to do right by our kids you can lose your seat at any election we have if you think that during all of this community the community has not been watching you
019and your actions you would be wrong we've all watched as board members have spoken out and how masks need to be worn and to only see those same board members having a great time at the county events like bears fundraisers and being on vacation all while not wearing a mask surrounded by other people not wearing masks either this is an issue that is up to the parents and not the school board is the school board willing to lose its enrollment due to this area school districts all around us have voted for optional masking and i would be lying if i didn't say depending on how this vote goes depends on how i will start to look into other options of schooling for my children thank you [Music] peter is up now and heidi wise is
020net who do you hear me all right all right good evening my name is peter wise and i am here to support the district continuing their optimal mass policy in the fall of 2020 i was happy to be back in person at school because my experience with virtual learning at the end of the previous school year was pretty bad but the masks were terrible and it seemed like nobody wanted to wear them i had trouble breathing it was hard to hear and understand my teachers and friends and seeing masks instead of faces seemed to make people more downcast afraid especially when teachers and staff were often scolding students about their math masks made it harder to learn remember that the school is a place of learning it's not hospital optional masking would greatly improve the
021quality of education as opposed to last year my parents showed me videos art articles of blindness doctors other reputable people around the world i became frustrated that most adults seem to ignore this information i hope that adults at school would be smarter braver and better critical thinkers just as they encourage us to be there are data from this school district and nearby ones that show that schools are just as safe with optimal masking i urge the board and school administrators to follow the new their optional mass policy school year thank you [Applause] heidi is up diane vaughn is net good evening i'm heidi wise and i'm here to support the plan to continue the district optional math policy and to urge you to commit to this plan for the entire year [Music] not only is
022it the right thing to do real world evidence from our own community shows that optional masking in schools is safe now you have heard and will continue to hear all manner of unfounded what ifs sham studies misleading statistics and emotional appeals for mandatory masking that are designed to scare you shame you or tug at your heart string some may beg for compassion others will appeal to the authority of expert and still others will trot out their own credentials or give folksy appeals to show how much they care what you won't hear is actual community evidence and you won't see consistency in how they apply the principle of safety first at school in fact safety first and zero risk apply only to covid and not to far more dangerous school activities so tonight i'm issuing a
023challenge to all who insist that everyone should wear a mask at school in an attempt to prevent child hospitalization and death and i insist that you stand by your safety first principle and immediately demand an end to all sports and recreation at school because those are twice as deadly to children what's more sports and recreation harm is completely preventable and can be controlled unlike an aerosolized virus that leaks in and out the side of your mask and hangs in the air for days in fact if child safety is your top priority you have a obligation to seek an end to school sports and recreation according to the brain injury association of america brain injury is the leading cause of disability and death in children and adolescents in the u.s according to johns hopkins medicine sports
024and recreation contribute a whopping 21 of those injuries my own son fell off a swing in elementary school and hit his head hard enough that school officials had to file an incident report he was this close to a crippling or fatal brain injury out of an abundance of caution i demand that every parent in favor of mandatory masking immediately pull their children off the playground away from recess and out of gym and sports we know one reason schools carry a lot of liability insurance is that sports and recreation are dangerous in fact as i registered my son for school this very day i had to sign a liability release for potential head injuries of note i did not have to sign anything for covid with safety as the top priority i am stunned that this
025level of negligence has been allowed to continue i know that taking away sports and recreation will likely increase student anxiety and definitely degrade the school experience but it's a small price to pay if it saves just one life besides kids are resilient they'll get used to it thankfully they've really internalized the importance of sacrificing their own selfish needs for the greater good they would feel terrible if their actions killed a classmate and how would you feel if it were your child on a ventilator due to a brain injury and you could have prevented it unlike with covet theater which is a net cost to schools families and taxpayers ending sports and recreation will yield a net benefit in the form of redirecting hundreds of thousands of dollars away from dangerous activities and toward closing gaps
026in reading and math two major problems get solved with one simple mitigation so i invite all those in favor of mandatory masking time was that time was up he said 30 sec okay well if you're not prepared to do that please stop claiming the virtue of concern for child safety health decisions along with families and quality education should be the school's top priority let's show the world how school is done again diane is up bill henkel is next diane vaughn believe in the constitution of our nation who believe in the constitution have no choice but to give the parents the freedom medical decision families the constitution does not give nine people the authority to make medical decisions for hundreds of others please return these rights to be clear i am not asking for no mass
027but for a choice for a parent so again i ask the question do you believe in the constitution tonight your vote will answer that question i would like to ask for a role [Applause] thank you i'm phil henkel 225 18th street i'm going to abbreviate my remarks because i think a lot of people have covered them very well i spoke last time um there are a couple of prospective studies and one large review at least that show that ordinary masks are not very effective in the community setting and dr fauci himself said this early on in 2020 before he reversed himself masks are much more effective in high-risk healthcare settings where you're always handling bodily fluids you're facing respiratory pathogens and hopefully this doesn't reflect the environment of our schools i don't think it does
028so our schools are at low risk because the children are very low risk as has been mentioned the adults are all young or at least mostly adults look young to me by now and despite updated evidence it still appears that vaccines offer considerable protection which adults are eligible for not to mention those that over that already have had a covid and thus almost certainly of natural immunity which the cleveland clinic has pretty much established is very uh effective um so the instrument of marginal effectiveness if that namely the mask will be far more useful in a high risk hospital than in a low-risk school different situations people have cited the flu statistics from the cdc and that's true the cdc believes that in the last few years about twice as many people children have died
029from the flu as from covid in addition do you remember the 358 pediatric swine flu deaths from 2009 and the panic that ensued after that i don't either because there wasn't any um i guess in summary then the first aspect of my argument to allow choice and mask wearing is that the targeted population which is children is at a very low risk of serious consequences and the evidence is not there to support drastic mandates and secondly there are very likely to be adverse effects as one of the previous speakers very eloquently stated on children from mandated mass most of them probably psychological but physical in a few cases i think as parents we all know that when a child's life is drastically altered and this is motivated by fear children will perceive it and there
030will be consequences there's data to show that the pediatric suicide rate is up in the last year we know that the quality of education is not enhanced by masks and there will be adverse effects but we do not know what they are or what their severity is until it's going to be too late in conclusion i believe that the evidence shows that low-risk community settings masks have uncertain benefits and highly likely but as yet unknown adverse consequences for the children therefore they certainly should not be mandated but rather left up to the individual and the parents and finally i just like to conclude i was a physician for a lot of years and i've heard a lot that we have to let the smartest people in the world uh just make the decisions for us
031well i like i like to say uh the smartest people in the world are always in charge and the smartest people in the world can really screw things up badly they're all from the ivy league and we know that the evidence is out there every day we have smart people in the community we have smart people on the school board we have people that really care about each other and our kids so even when the cdc is something says something it needs to be evaluated in context i once read in a journal it wasn't a major journal but i believe it from experience that up to 50 of all so-called best practices were reversed within five years here we're doing something we have to do it and then five years later it's reversed so it
032does happen um i guess that's pretty much it thank you very much up next peg martin is up now rachel carlson you will be up next hello i'm happy to be here tonight um to be able to share my voice i'm happy to see all the people who care about kids and i know we're not the only one first of all i want to say thanks to the billboard for all that you step forward and put your voice and vote on the line um in different situations beyond what a little about me um i've been a health care worker in the field of physical therapy for 35 years in minnesota iowa and i'm a mom who works with who are very vulnerable i volunteer with johnson who also advocate for kids or they also need
033a voice and i hope to be that place as well i'm also a person of faith and um probably the most upsetting thing about this whole discussion that has started since the beginning of the pandemic is the inability to hear with compassion the different sides and so i hope that my voice will be a voice that people can hear calmly and peacefully and be able to weigh both sides of the argument because we're all here for the same reason we're here for our kids we want our kids to be happy we want them to be healthy we want them to have a great education to live in a community that loves and cares about each other no matter what that we don't point fingers and say who are you and because you wear a mask
034you're a bad person or because you don't wear a mask that you're a bad person that you wave a flag that you're the best patriot or that you don't wave our flag and you're the worst people there's in between and we need our kids to hear that we are all people that really want the same thing we don't always agree and certainly as adults we don't know it all as health professionals don't know it all we're all learning all together it's a lifetime of learning so we're making the best decisions we possibly can at this moment having a year and a half of covid behind us and who knows what's ahead of it i trust that our school board will continue to listen to as much of the evidence as they can gather from reputable
035sources to hear the thoughts and fears and concerns and dreams of our parents and our children and weigh the evidence and make the best decision they possibly can if it changes which it always does that they re-evaluate and make the best decision again and when it changes again they re-evaluate and make the best decision again i prefer to have a mask when i hear about a delta virus that is more contagious and that can interfere with the child attending school playing with their friends learning from amazing teachers being able to run races with their full heart and their full body and not be impaired by something that will slow them that they have a chance to learn and explore and try new things with their class it's so important that they get together and to
036learn from each other to know that it's okay to fail and that you can get back up and go again so i hope that all of the kids have an opportunity to do that my analogy to a mask is a mitten in the winter it gets cold we wear a small piece of fabric that happens to be on our hand does it prevent the cold from getting to our hands no not forever does it make it better is it perfect absolutely not but what we do it we can so our kids can go out and play it's a little thing it's for a short time it's not but it does make our life a little bit so i trust that you'll make the best decision you can i trust that um when your decision is
037made we as a community will say thank you and respect the decision and follow it to the best village rachel is up mackenzie elliott is on deck okay rachel carlson has asked mckenzie europe then we've got vanessa a i'm just going to kind of pick and choose what i'm going to read hi my name is mackenzie elliott i was given the speech from a family member who lives down in marshfield her girls go to spencer center elementary school the speech really moved me and i thought it would be perfect for this board meeting tonight just as a reminder this is the lady and spencer so there are topics that are different from here from here to there she goes to say in 2018 nearly four times as many kids died from the flu as compared
038to covenant i don't recall there being any discussion about masking kids studying down schools or virtual learning three years ago now a year ago i can agree it was much more it was much more difficult decision but we hear here we are with nearly 18 months of data that shows that the flu we encounter on a yearly basis is much more difficult dangerous to kids than proven 19. at the end of the day at the end of the day nobody wants our kids to get but there has to be an acceptable acceptable risk there's a reason there's an ambulance parked at the end of the football field on friday night every day we risk we take a risk when we get under our car to go to work or take our kids to school we
039don't stay at home or stay indoors when it rains because we're worried about a car accident or lightning strike these examples may seem ridiculous or observed some but that's because they are the odds of a child under 18 from dying from covet is as likely as someone getting struck by lightning another recent study of 40 000 people by national geographic reported that children are about as half as likely as adults be infected but in the study of 40 000 people nearly every transmission to child the children came from adults it is very clear that schools are not super spreaders and the data shows that kids do not spread the virus now about mass i think that's the reason most of us are here tonight i don't think anyone here is asking for a ban on
040mass mass should be optional and everyone should have the right to wear one if they so choose kids are the victim in all of this um i was at a brewer game just two weeks ago with 25 000 people there were no mass lambeau field on saturday no mass requirement we need to move on from this and let the virus run its course just like every other virus that comes our way studies have proven time and time again that our bodies and our immune systems get stronger from these viruses only to help our bodies fight the next one if we keep going down this path of masking our kids these kids will be wearing face masks through college because their immune system won't be strong enough to fight i have two daughters that are four
041and five years old my oldest attended 4k last year master not just a piece of cloth over their nose and mouth until may of last year my daughter's teacher never got to see her smile my daughter would come home from a long day at school with a mask that was wet to the touch along with pizza sauce from her lunch earlier that day kids are repetitively taught good hygiene at a young age and we want to put a mask over their face that accumulates sweat snot and saliva for seven hours a day what are we teaching your kids and all this for a virus that has minimal minimal affected a virus that kids don't even spread not only are mass unsanitary mass or learning barriers my daughters are at an age where they are learning
042words learning how to read and learning how to write helping a teacher not only teach but effectively help kids pronounce words when they can't even see their students or expression we as adults take it for granted but the movement of someone's lips along with facial expressions are essential especially when teaching our young people how to communicate this is a big decision if mass are mandated does not this will not only be a short-term effect but a long-lasting mental and educational effect on this generation for years all we're asking is for parents to be able to make decisions for their own kid and at the end of the day seeing a smile at the beginning of your day means so much more than you think [Applause] vanessa you're up eli schultz you're up next bryce lake
043school board members i too have spent many hours the last two weeks contemplating how i could come up here and find and be considerate and be anything that would be appealing to some of you on this board anything to fancy your boat and then i thought about kids and it finally clicked i'm gonna preach to my kids to be them true authentic selves and to believe in their faith and to believe in themselves stand in the depths of my own words because quite frankly i'm not here to collect friendship tonight not at all we the people here that are here to represent our children we have the power in standing in our own no and you have a choice and you can say no after digging around for two weeks i've also gained a lot
044of insight on some of our board members and know what they say some of you are here for the good and some of you are clearly here not for the parents and surely not the kids there are some of you here today sitting on this board that are here for your own agenda and it's absolutely disgusting and repulsive how you represent the rice lake school board and the district you've brought in your own views you've brought in your own thoughts and you've brought in your own beliefs and some of you have even created this into a political circus and quite frankly you should be ashamed i have pictures on my phone of the last board meeting and one of our board members sat 80 percent of the board meeting with a mask down below his
045nose and just around his mouth then last week he was at the salute building golfing outing and sat next to people all day long in and out of golf carts golfing all day but not wearing a mask i can't decide what side are you on it's it's quite confusing alice walker states the most common way people give up their power is by thinking that they don't have any and we the people we have power the next bit of information can be found on the children's health defense website and it states that the sir this serves as a notice that the mandate for any individual to wear a mask against cobia 19 for employment attendance at school or any other institution violates the federal law all covid19 masks whether surgical n95s or other respiratory respirators are
046unauthorized not approved or licensed by the federal government they are emergency use authorization only they merely may be effective is exactly what the federal law states eau products are by definition experimental and require the right to refuse title 21 us code 360 bbb-3 states that it is illegal to put mask mandates on medical products for emergencies masks are considered medical products and we are not in an emergency not one person can mandate a medical device meaning a mask without us parents consent because we the parents have sole authority over our kids stand up and stand proud i also encourage you to take a look at my face and get really familiarized with it because you will see me at more and more board meetings and i will be sitting on this board i can promise
047you [Applause] eli you're up voting you'll be undead my name is eli schultz uh i'm here tonight um because primarily i i was afraid um i started coming to these school board meetings about 18 months ago long before you know i've seen any bright shining faces here we all appreciate the support thank you very much um you guys crossed the line in the sand and i'm here tonight for my kids i'm here tonight because i don't want my kids to wear these face diaper muzzles on their bodies anymore that's right you messed with our kids and that's why we got to be here i don't want to be here and talk to you guys i used to trust you and figure that you had the best interest of our families at heart but that proved
048not to be the case nobody stood up to the wia and nobody stood up to the local health departments you let us down nobody stood and fought with us when it mattered i'm here tonight because the rice lake board of education has continually demonstrated that they will remain a threat to our children's well-being they have acted in a manner grossly incompatible with self-governance the constitution and the rule of law this board has absolutely zero right to tell parents that in order for their children to attend school they have to wear a diaper on their little faces all day child abuse it's absolutely prudent to protect the ability of parents to make the decisions for what is in the best interest of their children the problem is is that there is no science that supports putting
049on the face mask of our children there's not one single piece of peer-reviewed science that can prove the efficacy of face mask usage for preventing a viral spread i can provide dozens of them that all conclusively prove that face masks are utterly useless and guess what these place these places come from places like the mayo clinic the cleveland clinic the new england journal of medicine the american journal of pediatrics the truth is the use of face masks has nothing to do with public health and everything to do with submission and compliance know this that's right know this we will not submit and we will not comply and neither will our children we do not live under edicts orders or mandates in this country we are a free people i think some of the board members
050here forget themselves you work for us you are an elected employee you do what we tell you to do as a board member you really only have two responsibilities one is that you represent the interests and respect the wishes of the families and children in the rice lake area school district you are elected by the people for the people to represent the will of the people and the will of the people is right here in this room tonight that's right two is that you are sworn by oath to uphold the constitution of this state and of this free and independent republic to restrict constitutional freedoms and god-given liberties is in direct violation of that oath obviously you have willfully chosen to ignore both of these things in the past otherwise i wouldn't have to be
051up here and talk to you tonight i believe in what i see around me the truth is there is no covet threat there never has been especially to our children we will not allow our children's inalienable rights to be held hostage by school district lawyers and insurance companies everybody what do you think about that the people that hate america and our way of life will continue to wield covet as a weapon against our liberties and freedoms until we rise up and defeat them and make no mistake we will defeat them [Applause] i believe that it should be up to our parents decision on what is best for us if mass works so well why don't you just go ahead and wear one you should know better than to tread on our on the liberties the
052children you represent let's stop this nonsense thanks [Applause] travis helstern sandy brzezinski you are up next evening i don't want you guys all as leave it pretty clear see it will everybody in this please respect us [Applause] andy you're up well it's plain to see that over the last year over mass and the so-called vaccine are a political issue and not a scientific one the real doctrine scientist from harvard called the frontline doctors have been censored for the past year and a half by big tech like google facebook and twitter the real doctors and scientists have had actual treatments for covid since the beginning of this so-called pandemic but were muzzled censored and even kicked off these platforms for letting the truth be known you know that covet has a 99.7 recovery rate why are
053we even here discussing this the virus itself is microscopic it's the size of a 0.003 micron the mass some of you are wearing and want all of us to follow you let the virus plus a virus micron of the size of 2.27 called lunacy one parent whose child broke out with a terrible infection all over his face after wearing a mask decided to send her a child's mask university of florida lab the lab showed numerous dangerous pathogens inside of it and i can't pronounce all these but pneumonia something or other tuberculosis something meningitis something coli burger door fairy diphtheria stupid caucus ph area something so wearing a mask isn't science but an experiment this brings me to asking have you ever heard of the nuremberg code it's a set of research ethics for human experimentation
054created by the usa at the end of world war ii nuremberg laid down ten standards which physicians must conform when carrying out experiments on human subjects in a new code that is now accepted worldwide number one nuremberg code you have to have the voluntary consent the human subject and that is absolutely essential this means that the person involved should have legal capacity to give consent should exercise three power of choice without the intervention of any element of force fraud deceit arrest overreaching or other ulterior form of constraint or forward to the mass advanced infecting experiment could yield fruitful results for the good of three the mass in vaccine experiment should be designed and based on the results of animal experimentation they put mass on monkey for the puritans when they were i don't believe they
055have four the mask experiment to be conducted to avoid all unnecessary physical and mental suffering and injury enemies seven proper preparations should be made and adequate abilities provided to protect experimental sub humans against even remote possibility of injury disability or death do you have any idea what's been happening the millions who've been wearing math you've been following them in track eight the mask and vaccine experiment to be conducted only by scientifically qualified first or any of you to make a massive acting mandate on americans nine number nine during the course of the mass vaccine experiment the human subject which is us should be at liberty bring the experiment to an end and can during the course of the experiment the science card must be prepared to terminate the experiment any stage if he has caused
056to believe that a continuation of the experiment likely injury disability or death [Applause] up next we have patrice s and then tyler westfall on that thank you board members they don't envy your position tonight so thank you for your time and allowing people to speak my name is katrie schuler as a parent in this community with students who go to the schools here a community member and educator i want to voice my support for teaching topics involving race ethnicity culture gender and diversity are well our students are affected by historical and current events policies and actions discrimination and racism do not disappear if these topics are not taught instead as in played that imply that they are okay because there is not an active voice against them learning about the past and the present including
057issues such as racist policies or underrepresentation of minority voices allows us to better understand each other and ourselves this also helps students who've been marginalized to be seen and heard if one of the goals of education is knowledge then we need to provide curriculum that teaches about these important issues and topics and i just wanted to say that i'm saying this in response to the last meeting because i am concerned about how students how students feel in schools and i there's a lot of talk about safety tonight right and so students don't feel safe if they don't feel recognized so thank you for your time tyler next up would be jessica wright i'm uh i'm tyler westball uh got uh got a few boys i met henry and two-year-old cameron our boys go to uh
058saint joe's but uh the reason why i'm here tonight at rice lake is it seems like every time christ they fart saint joe's definitely has to smell it unfortunately but um you know i've we've we've played along we've played along for that the last year and i think we've been so patiently um but i've i've seen the anxiety in my kids emmett and henry i've watched them come home i've watched them come on to my wife i've certainly watch the tears on their face of the anxiety over in a mask and it's beyond just academics every kid has stress every kid comes home with anxiety but it's the this mask thing is really uh i guess it's the straw that's broke the camel's back my boys and i'm going to speak for my two boys
059and i know there's a couple kids that are up here tonight and i think it's great that you guys uh got the nerve up here pretty cool he did that but my two boys they've had enough they really have they've they've been pushing the breaking point of of wearing the mask we've played along and i just don't think that there's enough evidence to say this is really working for us at this point and that's unfortunate but uh i guess as we start a new year i can't make them do it guys i can't make my kids put on a mask again and go into a sitting where they have to shield their face you know their dad doesn't have a really good hearing so i think it's been really difficult for me to be able
060to understand what people are saying as pastor peter machinski stood up here everybody immediately said can you speak up kids can't hear how do they learn listen how do they express themselves with their face and touch people right their face so as i uh as i digress i'm just going to say i i can't do it as a parent ain't going to do it and if that means that you have to kick my kid out of school that means you're going to get detention whatever that consequence is i guess i have to be willing to pay for it and certainly their their education will pay for it too but i guess it's it's where i'm at with the parent i've had enough you guys have played your game [Applause] jessica you're up rc mcleod is
061on death hi i'd like to thank the board for the opportunity to speak my name is jessica wright and i'm a special education teacher here at rice lake high school i'm here tonight to advocate for mask choice for everyone last year's force masking policy made a tough situation almost unbearable for many of us remember your high school years i do it's an important hopeful and social time where students are figuring out who they are and who they want to be in the future high school students are supposed to be smiling at each other making lifelong friends going to dances and sporting events and generally living their best lives it was really frustrating and really sad to see students struggle to do these things last year to see their beautiful faces covered day in and day
062out and to sense the isolation that goes along with that further there are many students in our schools who struggle to interact socially with others even prior to these restrictions we need to think about them too many suffered silently through the last school year i don't know how anyone who cares about children can see this world we are creating for them and not be disturbed it's a world of fear compliance isolation anxiety depression weakened immune systems and weakened spirits we can do better than this this virus is never going to disappear there will always be new variants and everyone's probably going to be sick at some point given all this continuing to force masks on children and adults without their consent for seven hours a day for a second year in a row seems to
063me more like a cruel social engineering experiment than a genuine disease prevention effort we all know to stay home when we're sick and to stay healthy by eating well keeping clean exercising and breathing lots and lots of wonderful essential life-sustaining oxygen forced masking is a disgrace to our bodily autonomy and basic rights as americans and i urge you to say absolutely not and never again to mask mandates in our schools thank you [Applause] [Music] our c is up richard jackson is on debt rc mcleod um i'll be very brief i wanted to just share something from an actual bona fide expert please allow me to just give this man's credentials dr peter mccullough is professor of medicine texas a m college of medicine he is a practicing internist and cardiologist seeing patients all the time
064now really listen carefully he is the editor-in-chief of one medical journal i think really about that okay next he's senior editor of another medical journal get better he is the most published cardiologist in the world okay so i'm gonna give you i'm gonna give you three quotes from this man lastly he is the most published physician on covet in the world got over 50 articles um many of those are about how there's um therapeutic but we won't talk about that that's not what this is about just uh days ago three four days ago he along with dr ryan cole and dr robert malone inventor of mrna vaccines just spoke before the tennessee tennessee legislature okay i think you get the idea okay this this is a serious okay i i encourage you to look them
065up dr peter mccullough three quotes quotes uh oh from about august 11th i got very recent there have been 12 randomized trials showing public masking does not work public masking does not have any support in the scientific literature we have learned that the virus is spread by people with symptoms asymptomatic spread is negligible therefore with respect to schools children should be kept home the rest should not have to wear masks okay this last quote is maybe the most important one because i can understand how difficult your position must be but please listen to what this echo remember about this man's credentials this is a quote the cdc the nih and the fda often have not followed the science the scientific studies and therefore have misled the american people thank you richard is up eric l
066is undead my name is richard jackson i'm a proud parent 16 year old going to high school here in the school graduated from the school in 1975. i love this wouldn't want your job i'm a proud parent i don't believe that dr simon says about who said that mass didn't work always you gotta wear four or five he can't make up his mind it's your choice if you want to wear a mask or a man don't want to wear a mask should not be forced to wear a mask this country we are free this is not russia this is not china this is not iran this is the united states of america we the people run this country not them not the government we do we have to say so we have the power to
067control what goes on in this country i cannot believe what i've seen go on in this country in the last two years it has just digressed into a mess i get up every morning i watch tv and i go what the are you kidding me we're tearing this down we're burning this up it's okay to do this but it's not okay to do that it's whatever they choose but it's our choice we are free people that's why people come to this country you taught us remember do not forget we are a free people to choose what we want and how we live i'm going to be an old man but i got here being free not working under somebody or working for somebody [Applause] i'm just a parent i don't believe that mass work i
068don't believe the vaccination is that great of a deal either but that's your choice if you want to get a vaccine fine if you want to wear a mask fine but it's your point we are free all i ask did you think about this or you mandate something to people that are free [Applause] [Music] eric you're up all right eric pass paddy green you are up nelly yes you are on death i'm not going to say anything that other people have already said what i'd like to say is i can see that most of you have made your choice tonight not to wear a mask so i find it very hip required for all of you to tell our children from our mask and just tell our parents what they should do with their children
069that's all i have to say [Applause] i know it isn't an easy to be in i'm really disappointed in the last school board meeting that i watched online to see members of the community ridiculing publicly name calling people on media so earlier in the meeting but i really hope that it could remain civil and respectful i just returned from dropping kid number four off college halfway across after spending two days in an airport and tell you that the only thing plexiglas mitigate is sound if i only had a nickel for every time i had to lean to the plexiglas spider or pulled on my mask eat something or ask what i'd be right i wish i could say that all the decisions being made across the country today are based on science but unfortunately i
070fear they are not whether it's muriel browser presiding over a wedding and partying mere hours before she instituted a mass mandate for nancy pelosi attending a fundraiser where donors sat shoulder to shoulder in that valley for gavin newsom dining at french laundry or president obama's birthday party for 200 of his close friends on martha's vineyard for the fact that cdc allowed a teachers union to influence the school reopening guidelines or fauci's wishy-washy guidance on everything covid forgive me if i no longer trust our politicians and their science they had better not expect me to listen to their guidance they can't even follow i know uh dr henkel had talked about the um the death of children this past year so i won't go over that but i did find it interesting that in a country
071of 73 million kids 73 million kids last year 50 died so 361 of those from kovit 53 000 died just drop in the bucket not that those deaths aren't tragic and horrible but statistically we know our kids just don't get sick yes they can get sick and have lasting issues but they are the outliers and we cannot take the exception to the rule and hold them up as the gold standard the cdc is also investigating an elevated risk of myocarditis from the maduro and visor vaccine but they are the outliers so tell everybody to stop getting the vaccine in 2006 my son came down with an adenovirus infection that attacked his lungs he ended up with lung damage and had to wear a percussive vest twice a day for years during that time the whipping
072cough and the swine flu swept through wisconsin and united states it was scary i'm not going to lie every single time a respiratory virus came through he would get it but i didn't ask or demand that everybody else alter their behavior to protect my son but any virus can attack your lungs or your heart or your brain and cause lasting and permanent problems uh again there's no good studies concerning masks fabric and surgical math are useless schools that required masks just as well or as bad as schools that didn't require them and you have to understand that these kids are still congregating after school and on the weekends so masking them in school is useless you witnessed it yourself they stick them in their pocket they're dirty they're on the floor of their car um
073they're just not um and for the ones that had to wear them in sports honestly could they have been doing anything um so where does this end what is the metric for when we go back to normal when there are zero deaths zero cases the vaccine is doing what it was meant to do is reducing deaths in hospitalizations we have better therapeutic people who wanted to get the vaccine the teachers the vulnerable populations the elderly have had the opportunity to do that if somebody doesn't want to get the vaccine we cannot make them nor should we change the way we live in order to protect them somebody doesn't wear their seatbelt we stop driving we have to get back living our lives normally and we cannot continue to go on like the mental and emotional
074health of our kids and our nation is hanging by a thread please do not mandate [Applause] garrett steffen jr and senior we didn't really plan on any of this because you felt like that nobody did have i guess another thing nobody's really said at all we had uh quite a few ins yes but he knows it was i whatever i mean out every day it was like headache after in the morning or whatever is it always he went out lunch that pressure back an hour later pounding headache afraid to say anything about it because gotta go get over that go home and anything else graduated from driving here so thanks jerry w you are up kelly orr you are on debt jerry all right we will move on to kelly and then after kelly we
075have lana peters here on dead good evening miss kelly orr my husband and i have been living in rice lake for we are both you listening to all of this but i do want to put a shout out to uh randy draw he's a pretty great superintendent and um i've been wanting randy to email you and just saying please don't leave us because i do know that you are i and kudos to my high school um the reason why i came here today is we within our race and asking you the school board who are responsible for making the decision um to appeal to all families within our race system by allowing the parent um who feel it is in their child's best interest to not mask then they don't mask those feel as wanting
076their child to mask choice [Music] i know it has been said and i always tell my students that repetition repetition repetition in marketing it's a big thing so i do want to um just kind of highlight that i did look up um i think all know children are the democratic demographic of lowest risk concern was safe and effective and as of august 18 um so this is last cdc did report 430. for those children zero 15 years of age and anyone who knows me knows and i think when we don't throw that all um but i think we do need to get other respiratory um in the past and which has mentioned that the um h1n1 pandemic we did not put down ask and i guess my question that i asked what has changed um
077ultimately our children are sent to school to learn and wearing a mask six seven hours a day is development the effect of it is much more and the effects i sat in probably all know um on an hour and a half conservative mental health and i believe children is last year was a difficult year for bothers and parents and we have a lot of and to take the decisions made regarding their health is out of the job and the requests [Music] i'd ask the authority given to us starting the criteria that used the mass policy going 21 20 and this request is just and show us that criteria is not based on one group um someone's opinion but rather [Applause] [Music] mandy you are the last one on the list you are on death my
078name's lana peterson and only child so um i want to start out by saying that i spent today putting myself in a man well i imagined all those emails were in a small town you're running into no matter what so you're going to be dealing with patient anger no matter what however is another emotion that is a very powerful and i believe that fear really manifest once fear of a virus i just believe that that here is going to be about of other people that's but i just keep thinking about here and how our kids are being fear something that is [Applause] so putting a mask on healthy kids i imagine my little boy i'm sending him the school with the mask healthy he's wearing a mask who will be around other healthy ass children
079and try to explain to him why he has this is just putting fear into our kid and this is not preparing them life has risked and other people touched on risk or parents are free to keep their kids out of football you're free to put them in sports or allow them to place you believe that and that is called so i guess that's about what i have to say [Applause] my name is mandy frisch i have eighth grader that goes to st jose now we have a fifth grader first off i wanted to say thank you for your time in doing this and what you are doing and being a part of the school volunteering positions go a lot of times without people painting so please let me say from me and my family thank
080you for it i'm here today to let you know that i hope your vote is to make the school look a little different than last year by making mass optional for both students and the staff we were very lucky with that our district is a lot different than many others in the state and the nation in terms of what we did last year my brother had kids twins in kindergarten a first grader that he had to homeschool three days a week last year he had to take off work he had to hire a babysitter and a nanny to allow these kids to be schooled we didn't have that you guys gave us the opportunity to send our kids to school all day every day and we do appreciate we'd like to see you to do
081that again this year by allowing the parents to make the decision for the kids versus the nine of you to make the decision for what i saw was 2500 kids in the district and ultimately the 120 kids that go to st joe's and their parents mass on these kids are not right they are not how our kids need to know what the school and school life should be they need to be able to smile breathe fresh air and like one parent said not to have a mask made via a dry wet wipe with stapled rubber bands that came home from a kid at tainter it's not fair to our children and not what the school should be taking a look at some of the districts and some of your business pages or personal facebook pages
082recently you're seeing the majority of the kids smiling beaming back in school this summer we recently saw today's celebration of staff smiling the kids who are going to to school events welcoming new students at homes of parents and school board members with no mass this is what our kids need to see they need to be able to see the true smiles the friendly faces the inviting faces to show them that it's gonna be okay as my eighth grade daughter told me today she said you know what mom they win no matter what and i had to ask her what she meant and her response was will they win if they mandate us to wear a mask and they get what they want if it's an option yes that may not be a hundred percent true
083if mass are optional but it's more of a win than mandating no mass whatsoever for any kid in this district so with that i please ask that you vote to allow us parents to have the choice we want our kids versus the vote you on the board who may or may not have kids here in the school lastly i hope all of you receive the email i sent you this afternoon i was the creator of the online petition that circled around this was a way to allow people to showcase their voice when that email was sent to you today there was 285 people who had signed their name on that petition as of me getting up here there's over 300 signatures allowing for you to give us as parents the right to make the choice
084thank you [Music] [Applause] all right that is the end of our appearance section i want to thank everyone for coming tonight and speaking to the board with that we will move on to the approval of our regular session and closed session meeting minutes from monday august 9th there's a correction to make to our closed session from two weeks ago uh in the attendance uh the attendance section shows deanna albert uh in attendance dana was not in attendance for the closed session as per our policy but otherwise with that correct i would mostly approve the regular session closed session meeting that's from august 9. is there a second second promotion has been made and seconded with an amended amendment to the closed session is there any further discussion see none all in favor signify by saying
085aye proposed the minutes have been approved next we have a consent agenda where we have a number of employment resignations as well as employment recommendations and with that i would entertain a motion to approve the consent agenda motion has been made is there a second second motion has been made and seconded is there any further discussion see none all in favor signify by saying i proposed and the consent agenda has been approved now we are in the report section of our agenda where we'll get into the second reading of the uh student informational booklet for the wow program are any questions from the first reading mark is there anything you wanted to add our first reading no questions seen no changes i would entertain a motion to approve the student informational booklet for the warriors
086on wisconsin motion has been made is there a second promotion has been made and seconded is any further discussion not necessarily about this year's wow but we did talk at policy two weeks ago about updating our handbooks to be more friendly to take what is policy language and to put it in the student friendly language so it's readily accessible if you look at our student handbooks these days as we create new policies for our students and for our staff we just need to keep backing them on and so one thing we talked about policy was maybe in the next year the next academic year uh we have staff that work together to make all the handbooks more readily accessible all of our anything else promotion has been made and seconded to approve the student informational
087booklet or wow and the student informational booklet for wow has been approved next we have the educational standards crt pbis i just wanted to touch base on a couple of things based on some conversations and various pieces i've had this summer um i had a conversation first one maybe two or three weeks ago with a community member about pbis which stands for positive behavioral interventions and supports and it's been we've been using pbis and rice lake for about 10 10 to 12 and it's what we someone referenced it earlier tonight the warrior way and so in our schools we talk about the warrior way in terms of uh behavior and it's how to be respectful responsible and safe we talk about it in a number of aspects of the school whether it be on the
088bus in the classroom and the lunchroom those type of pieces the first part of pbis is really i liken it to uh when parents have a new child you have to have a conversation about okay how are we in a parent what our expectations going to be and you need to get on the same page and that's really what the first part of pbis is about or the warrior way it's i'm having common expectations amongst our staff members in a building about okay what are the expectations or what are the student expectations uh in the hallway or in the bathroom cafeteria and so with that then you teach students those expectations okay we're on the same page and teach students those expectations and then um and we reward students for those expectations and if they're
089not meeting next those expectations it's an opportunity for a teaching interaction or mental possible so it's been focused on behavior that's where it's always been focused on there's a document published at the federal level officials i think referenced that at the last board meeting or maybe two board meetings ago that is not part of our approach and rice lake the warrior way will continue to focus on behavior having our staff be on the same page with expectations teaching those expectations to students and then you know rewarding or addressing uh behaviors as needed be safe be respectful be responsible has been the backbone of our program for uh over a decade and we'll continue with that um in terms of uh teaching and i'll address this as i talk a little bit about crt as well
090um we have the wisconsin model like academic standards and so those standards there's links on our website under teaching and learning or um you can go to the to the department of public instruction website as well our curriculum is based on those adopted standards so with that that's where our curriculum comes from and i just wanted to touch base on pbis or the warrior way so as board members you all have a common understanding and i knew it was a topic i wanted to address with the community as well in terms of critical race theory that's been another topic of many conversations i've had this summer with parents community members staff members and legislators by no means an expert but my understanding is it's a it's a form of analysis taught in law schools graduate
091schools as a way to understand race and racism in our society my perspective as a as a school district um that's where we're going to leave that there as i just mentioned in terms of when we design our curriculum it's based off the wisconsin model academic standards and we're not doing anything different than we have been over the course of the last several years uh whenever i talk with somebody about critical race theory my first question is okay in in your eyes or in your understanding what is it and usually what i hear is the main concern i hear is that we're going to be teaching um caucasian students that they should feel bad or guilty because they are they're white and i've assured people that's not what we're doing and that's not what we
092will be doing and then those topics uh like i said tenants of critical race theory are taught in upper level legal classes or upper level graduate courses as i communicated with staff members this morning here in the auditorium on the same topic i also shared our policy in rule 381 which is titled uh teaching about controversial issues and we'll also be taking a look at that policy at our next board of education policy committee meeting as well additionally i've received dozens of form letters this summer i'm informing me that parents and or community members will be paying attention to what is taught in districts throughout the area and again i would say just if parents ever have or community members ever have questions about any of that i encourage you to reach out to me
093or you can reach out to the trader at the building maybe where your kids go or you can reach out to me as well i'm happy to talk with and it's fun to talk about happening in the in the school district i'm an old math teacher if anybody ever wants to talk about math you talk about that too so kevin that's what i wanted to say about those pieces next can i say something randy randy i did read the documents from pbis that document primarily is set to help staff learn how to have challenging conversations i've taken classes about having courageous and challenging conversations and that's all that book was randy that's all it was it was a way for staff to learn how to if they wanted to that's what it emphasized it emphasized
094if you want to have this conversation if you have support of your administrators and your and your staff this is how you begin to have it and that is something i've heard several of you tonight say that we need to learn how to communicate with one another and that's all that was trying to help us do is look at how to have good productive conversations not saying we need to use it i just wanted to say that's what it was getting at all right anything else then uh we will hear about the 21 22 school year plan yes and i'd shared i talked about that at the last meeting showed that draft plan um really not a not a lot has has changed i'll just hit some of the high points again under funded federal
095funding requirements um our back-to-school plan has to be reviewed at a minimum of every six months at least through september to qualify for those pieces again there are pieces in there and in terms of uh i talked about hand sanitizing stations and and teaching and encouraging frequent hand washing uh food service nothing changed from last time the social and emotional support that many people talk about tonight will continue to be in place we do more with that all the time um transportation nothing's changed from uh what i talked about last time regular extracurricular clubs organizations work through those pieces i talked about the technology that we significantly upgraded last year for all students in the district learning platforms i am still uh working on hoping to touch base and finalize some pieces tomorrow for a
096virtual landing virtual learning platform for families that may uh use that option um and again i talked about uh last time too under state statute you know we'll cooperate and and work with uh baron county public health on the pieces that are that are outlined in state statute to address illness and the various pieces we need to with regard to uh face coverings you know the cdc and other organizations are currently recommending universal mass wearing in schools by all staff members and visitors regardless of vaccinations rise to anyone agencies make the recommendations and organizations like ours and others are then tasked with you know figuring out how to work through it agencies do not have to live with parents students boards of education and staff members who are put in the middle of an issue
097that has become incredibly polarizing and in some cases unfortunately roone's relationship that's sad to see i'm fine placing myself in the middle i can't place our school staff members in the middle anymore level of scrutiny they endured last year and backlash from from a number of different angles was incredibly difficult don't kill our staff members here so moving forward for 20 21 22 um i believe families should review the recommendations and guidelines from local state national agencies uh discuss options medical provider and make corresponding decision that is best for their needs with regard to face coverings a district perspective i would say we won't tolerate ostracizing or harassment related to someone's choice to where or not face covering where i'm at at this point with this if you wanted to do something different you know
098you take an action in june to remove the face covering requirements for the summer and and we did that if you wouldn't have to take any action unless we want to do something different moving forward any questions randy do we have a plan we'll follow what uh we have to follow what uh barron county public health um in terms of cooperating uh i hope it is a category one communicable illness and so we will um obviously if we find out about a positive case uh we'll notify them if they find out about a positive they'll notify us and in terms of the the quarantine piece that will be at their direction as outlined in state statute can you elaborate on what that means if i have one student in a classroom that is positive students
099within three to six feet of that student what happens to them randy sorry what happens to the student so i i'm part of it is just the acoustics we can we can't handle each other randy if we have one student who is sick what happens to the students surrounding that student what do we do compared to last year at the elementary level the teachers will work with nurses to identify right now any close contacts that may need to be quarantined at the middle school high school level they're going to be public health is going to be interviewing that student and working with the nurses to make any determinations that need to be made so potentially if we have unmasked students one who is sick and next to that student is an unmasked student not both
100are not vaccinated both are home one one home sick one home quarantining is that correct yes there could be quarantines there yes the cdc recommendation for quarantining says in the school setting for students in k-12 if masks are worn properly both by the sixth student and the students surrounding them quarantines are not necessary and last year one of the biggest struggles for our students was quarantines being home being away from their peers being out of class keeping up with work was challenging during quarantines but if they are masked quarantines do not appear to be necessary according to the cdc for students in k-12 i think we're seeing that quarantines were an issue but so was masking but isn't it isn't it our common goal to keep kids in i mean i think everybody here in
101this room and and on this board we want to keep kids in class we don't want to see kids out of class we want everybody in we don't want outbreaks which could potentially shut down the school or take out a large number of kids so matt butler to abby's point masks would stop that mass would you know hold it up please this is the opportunity for the board to have a discussion you guys had your chance we sat here we listened to everybody we didn't interrupt now please let us talk now and let us make the decision that needs to be made that you guys elected us to do any other questions or comments i did want to make mention that we did receive quite a number of emails from parents and support and that
102i don't know how many people are in this room tonight um not many this room holds but let's say there's 150 people here out of 2500 families in the district that's not the majority so i just want everyone to keep that in mind as well that we were contacted by quite a few other people as well as 11 of our local physicians that most of us medical care asking us to do that so i just want everyone to get that in mind as well any other questions from the board the c the cdc currently recommends masking within indoor situations when a community has substantial or high level of code 19 spread i would like to move that the rice lake area school district require masking by all people within our buildings when according to the
103cdc guidance where when the barren county is within the substantial or high level of spread i want i wish to follow the cdc guidance for all peoples within our buildings [Music] right that was a i have a motion on the table to mandate mass when we are in a high or substantial i believe is the language or substantial location in the uh number of people with overt in barron county is there a second second i have a motion and a second table is there any further discussion any other questions so the current as it stands now before we vote on something else is that it's optional for both faculty and the students k through 12. correct i have a motion in a second is there any further discussion i have kids that attend rice lake
104area school district and they're both here tonight hey boys passed your bedtime um and they're here because it's important we're in an important time right now this vision is very important and i don't take it lightly i don't think anybody up here takes it lightly so um we spent on a time last couple of weeks trying to be make ourselves educated and hear what you're saying hear what others are saying but ultimately ultimately to me it comes down to the fact that my wife and i are the ones that are responsible for my boys and we put clothes on their back we put a roof over their head and we try to teach them the values that we feel they should have so as a school board member i don't think i have the right
105to mandate how someone else raises their child so personally i don't support the you know i have a chance to vote is there any other discussion well you know from my standpoint i'm thinking we meet twice a month and if september or october if this variant gets really really bad and starts affecting our students or faculty we'll be back here saying whoops we got to make a change i'll repeat that we meet twice a month in september and october we could come back here and say wait a minute we got to do something to stop it that's what i'm thinking bert i respect that in last november december we were seeing cases that were high we are now seeing cases that are already high birds barren county has gone from i apologize for it i
106believe blue on the cdc is low we went from low to moderate in a very short amount of time and we have gone from moderate all the way to high and even fat and even even shorter amount of time bert i personally would like to see us protect the students and our staff right now when there is a high level of transmission in the last seven days there have been over 90 new cases in barron county i would like to see us protect our staff who have no choice but to be in a room with 20 students i would like to see us protect our staff and our students [Music] any any other questions or comments any other questions or comments we have a motion and a second on the table i would offer a
107amendment to the amendment look at that i understand the rate in the county i would like to start to school coming up obviously in a week and what we have seen happen in the southern state look at the next board meeting and the board meeting at the end of the first quarter and use those timelines make a decision on what we do with mass i don't think we should kick the ball down the road if we see things change and we're going to have to do that that's what that's all i'm saying josh is once we get into school if we see something happen in our district we're going to have to make a decision and make a change right but we don't that's all i'm saying let's formalize that we don't know how quickly
108or if anything anything else any other thoughts i do have a motion and a second on the table what what's so we're going to do with like the amendment and then the second there has because i i don't think there's no there wasn't nobody nobody approved or went with my second so there's no second amendment abby's sarah's motion in second so for clarification there will be a vote on the amendment and if that's right passed or not passed then there'll be a second vote on the plan if no there does not need to be a vote on the plan if this vote does not pass because okay the plan is already in place we're operating under that plan okay so unless something is going to change then we would need another vote okay so enabled
109plan stays as it correct a vote is in favor of mass enabled would be leaving the plan in place that is in place now unless we have further discussion all in favor signify by saying aye aye opposed and with that i'm going to need a roll call vote please i cannot tell we've got gary yes deanna yes steve no no yes no yes no [Applause] ah the motion does not carry is there any further discussion before we move on the plan will stay in place there is no more discussion all right masks will be optional we will follow the plan as it was presented by mr draws next on the agenda we have the curriculum committee meeting update the curriculum committee met right before this over in the administration building the old jefferson school the
110first item on our agenda was to hear about the upcoming or the proposed high school choir trip to chicago in march of 2022 students who attend this high school choir trip to chicago will enjoy such events as the blue man group the chad aquarium science museum of science and industry they will have an op opportunity to have a choral performance in old town chicago and they will have a clinic with faculty at vander cook college of music this will be coming to our next board meeting as an action item the second piece that we heard tonight at our curriculum committee was about updating and implementing changes uh to our curriculum as wisconsin adopts new academic standards we adopt them and so we have to make sure our curriculum reflects the wisconsin standards and so we
111heard an update on how we're doing that and how we're implementing that and gary i did bring up your concern about making sure that the board hears updates and so that we'll talk about that upcoming policy committee and then lastly tonight at curriculum we heard about the sp the staff professional development plan um which focuses on making sure our teachers have research-based teaching techniques to use with our students and also making sure that we're taking care of our staff i would like to thank all of our staff that have taken their time to prepare and to present to other staff members on a variety of topics as they get ready for this next academic year so thank you all for doing that our next meeting will be tuesday september 21st at 5 30 pm in
112the boardroom over at the admin building thank you any questions see none we move on to the policy and legislative advocacy committee meeting update that's got a couple policies policy 140 and 141 that our first readings that were part of our packet we met on august 10th at 5 30. we talked about in the legislative piece we talked about the state budget and the esser funding and the new title 9 language worked on those two policies that are in the in the packet there's any thing that you've got any questions on please let one of the policy board members or randy know about that or if there's a change you'd like to see let randy know that'll come back at our next meeting for a second reading next we have our information uh part of
113our agenda 2122 student enrollment update ross it's just a quick preliminary excuse me quick preliminary uh account for right now as of uh august 17th students enrolled in the district that can change a fair amount between now and the start of the school year but that's where we're at right now last third friday count was that 220 very similar terms of last year and what the last pretty uh stable flat but any questions yeah just a clarification then and the number uh currently attending elsewhere we had zero am i reading that wrong the open enrollment piece yeah that part is difficult um students file for open enrollment either in or out of the district but we really until the school year actually starts and we find out if students either followed through with open enrolling
114into the district or followed through with open enrolling out of the district um that's tough determine so this is that's the best but that's the open enrollment piece just has your start any other questions all right thank you for that our upcoming meeting schedule region one meeting will be held in the spooner civic center coming up on september 29th there's a free conference or from four to six and then the actual meeting from 6 to 9. you can attend that please let colleen know also have a webinar an online regional meeting in october and then it's time to start signing up for the wisconsin blueboard state convention that will be held january 19th through the 21st down in milwaukee if you can attend any of those please let colleen know if you're registered any board
115member suggestions or recommendations to be brought to the board at this time ain't nothing there mr dost any other comments kicked off our week of in-service staff uh this good kickoff have been working hard and what are thank you for that with that i would entertain a motion to adjourn so moved promotion has been made is there a second motion has been made and second we are adjourned thank you you