Thread by @skylar_rispens

We are less than 10 minutes away from the start of Florence-Carlton's June board meeting. IF you are interested in following along, I will be live tweeting from this thread.

If you prefer to watch for yourself you can do so by following this link:
zoom.us/j/95518731008?…

Here's some background about what's being discussed at tonight's meeting:
missoulian.com/news/local/con…

As of yesterday, the meeting was meant to be held at the school's new gym, but due to threats of bringing firearms into the building the district opted for a fully online setting.

Alright I just got into the meeting's Zoom and it appears there are 100 (!!!!) people signed on for attendance already.

Wow, another 25 have joined since I sent out that tweet.

At least two Zoom participants are displaying rainbow graphics, one says "Gay and Proud," for their participant photo/images.

Heading into public comment.

Zoom says there are 136 participants on the call right now.

Public comment will be limited to two minutes.

Aaron Rhodes is up first and said he's disappointed that the meeting was moved to an online forum and says that the phrase "concerns about safety and well being" has been overused for the last year.

The district moved to an online forum this afternoon, citing alleged threats of bringing firearms to the gym.

Tiffany Williams of Florence voiced her support for the GSA club as an informal group.

Matthew Roth, did not identify where he is from, said that informal groups should be allowed exclusively at the high school and feels middle school students "do not have the mental capacity or maturity" to lead peer groups.

172 participants in the meeting now!

Jaime Devlin is concerned that parental permission to join informal student groups, particularly LGBTQ students.
"What does that bring forth at home?"

Barbra Porter said she doesn't understand why sexual orientation is being addressed in an education facility and doesn't feel like it "needs to be taught."
"I mean, they are in school, need to be learning."

Kayla Johnson, a Florence-Carlton alum from the class of 2011, is voicing her concern for the GSA club to continue without parental consent.

Dr. Elizabeth Beil, a Missoula pediatrician who is an alum of Florence-Carlton, supports the GSA club, and said that "schools with Gay-Straight Alliances have lower reports of bias based bullying."

A lot of those that are voicing their disdain for the GSA are under the impression that homosexuality will be taught in classrooms.

To be clear, the GSA is a student group that meets once a week at lunch, outside of learning hours. The staff advisor does not instruct the group.

194 participants now, we are about 30 minutes in. Still taking public comment.

Stacy Hopper a nurse, voiced her support for the GSA.
"A little open mindedness can go a long way."

"As a Christian, I was raised to understand that God is love, and Jesus commanded us to love one another as he loves us--he did not qualify that statement," said Erica Wooters, a mother of a LGBTQ student attending Florence-Carlton schools.
"God loves you and so do I."

"Even having on adult who they can talk to about their concerns makes a huge difference to their well being,"
said @DrLaurenWilson in support of the GSA at Florence-Carlton.

Logan Oleson, who is a Florence alum and student at MSU Bozeman, said that being a part of a GSA in high school "was one of the most life changing things in my high school experience."
"I honestly don't know where I would be today if I did not have the support that I got there."

There are 222 participants now.

Shawn Reagor with the Montana Human Right's network said that the number of crisis calls they've received has gone "from two in six months, which is our average, to over 23 in the past six months."
"There is a crisis happening right now."

The last two commenters are saying that parents should have the right to know what groups their child are involved in.
(cont.)

"And if the child feels that they are in danger of of telling their parents about their sexual orientation or whatever, but it is not a problem the school should deal with, that's a problem that CPS should have to deal with," said Charlie Roth.

"I would just like to say that CPS doesn't handle things like this, they're having a har enough time with actual child abuse, they don't handle children needing to come out to their parents," said Corine Otteson.

Carole Monrean cited Montana code about chid sexual abuse and said that the code needs to be looked at.

Not entirely sure what that is in reference to.

Clint Banister, a Florence-Carlton alum from the class of '19 and class valedictorian:
"I went [to school] to learn, I went to learn math, science, English, writing--I didn't go there to be indoctrinated or to have stuff shoved down my throat."

Derk Schmidt, a high school teacher at Florence-Carlton for 10 years, said he did not want to speak tonight, "but I have to."
"I would just like people to realize that every word that's being spoken might please some people, but for many others, including the students..."

"...it can be a giant dagger in their hearts."

We are rolling in on almost an hour and a half of public comment, 228 participants in the Zoom meeting now.

Taven Otteson, a student at FC said he didn't speak tonight but is infuriated with the public discussion he's heard tonight.
"I jus want to say that a lot of what I've been hearing from the parents is, it's been very ignorant."

Didn’t *want* to speak

Jake Dixon, a '21 graduate from FC, said he hasn't heard of anyone being forced to attend the club's meetings. He responded to a previous commenter saying that there are "health risks" associated with homosexuality: (cont.)

"One of those health risks is mental health."

And that concludes tonight's public comment portion of the meeting.
The time is 7:35 p.m., there are 227 participants in the meeting right now.
Moving on to correspondence to the board.

Sounds like there was an overwhelming amount of comments submitted to the board, which will not be read aloud. These submitted comments are considered public record and are accessible at the school.

By my count, over 45 public comments were submitted to the district before 3:30 p.m. today for the board's consideration ahead of this meeting.

Board members are now offering comments regarding retiring staff members from the district.

Jody Maus and Jacki Riffey are listed on the agenda as the retiring staff members from FC this year.

We're moving into reports from the superintendent and trustees, I'm not going to be live tweeting this section--but I'm still tuned into the meeting!
We've got a lot of ground to cover tonight before we get to policy 3550, concerning school clubs.

Board chair Kim Bauer is wondering if there's a way to put together a statement, and possibly contact the sheriff's office, regarding firearms on school property.
"I think it would be very important that we have some sort of statement in place for future meetings," she said.

One of the policies up for first reading is actually about guns on campus, said Rayburn.

Bauer also said that she would like school board members to put together a statement "together as a group," regarding tonight's public comment.
"So we're maybe a collective body, and group."

Superintendent Rayburn said that he would contact board members individually to begin that discussion and get their thoughts.

We are out of superintendent and trustee reports, moving into personnel.

People are really dropping out of this meeting, participant count now sits at 144.

The meeting is taking a five minute break. Should resume shortly.

Sounds like there's a meadowlark somewhere in board chair Bauer's proximity and I'm here for it.
I think meadowlark songs should always be heard during public meetings.

And we're back!
Moving on to item number eight, new business (which does not include policy 3550)

Only four of the district's five trustees are present for today's meeting, we are missing Bobbie Ketelhut.

At last month's board meeting, board policy 3550 (school clubs) passed by thin margins in a 3-2 vote, according to the Bitterroot Star.

It was not reported which board members voted for or in opposition of the policy, so I'm curious to see how the even number of trustees impacts tonight's vote on the second reading of 3550.

For anyone keeping tabs, there are 122 participants in the meeting right now.

Taking another five minute break now with the conclusion of new business.

When the trustees return we will move to first readings of policy!

Here's a look at what's up for discussion:

Here's a link to the board policy packet for tonight's meeting:
core-docs.s3.amazonaws.com/documents/asse…

Board policy 3550 (student clubs) is up for second reading and will be discussed in the next block of the meeting.

There is a motion from the board to approve all policy revisions/adoptions as a single agenda item because they are up for first reading and recommended changes by the Montana School Boards Association.

Present board members unanimously approve the first reading of all aforementioned policies.

Moving to second reading of board policies!

This is where policy 3550 (school clubs) is listed.

Participation has dropped by one since I last checked, bringing the total to 121.

Superintendent Rayburn is recommending the board to combine many of the policies up for second reading.

Trustee Crocker motions to combine items A through H under item 10, policy revisions/adoptions for second reading.

The only one that remains is 3550.

"We've made it, and it's only 9:30," Bauer said before moving into item I, policy 3550 concerning student clubs both formal and informal.

Bauer is making it clear that discussion will be surrounding only the policy, no individualized discussion concerning specific people or groups will be tolerated.

Public comment will be limited to two minutes per speaker.

Bauer suggests a motion be made to approve the policy as written. As board chair she is not able to formally make a motion.

Rayburn recommends that the policy is clarified to say that participation in groups, both informal and formal, will be limited to students that belong to K-5, middle school, and high school.
Meaning that a kindergartener could not join a middle school club.

Someone provided a comment that the robotics club has participants in elementary school and middle school students, complicating Rayburn's recommendation.

*of, not in.

Rayburn said: "you can't make exceptions"

"This whole discussion stems around whether we're going to require the district to notify parents of what's available during those non-instructional times," Rayburn said. "And I think that's the, I know we're kind of dancing around it, but that's the question at hand."

Lots of discussion about defining formal vs. informal groups.

"It's a gathering of students during non-instructional time, that's what makes it an informal group," Rayburn said.

Still no motion from the board.
Can't move to public comment.

Trustee Reeves is making a motion to adopt the language to limit informal participation to the school the student is in, and to change the language of informal groups to include parent permission.

Trustee Crocker is clarifying the motion to add permission to informal clubs and separation among schools in informal clubs as well.

Reeves confirms that that's the "spirit" of the motion.

The motion is seconded by trustee Lacy Janes "so we can keep going with this."

Reeves is wondering if electronic permission from parents is "superior to paper."

"It's going to be a nightmare to manage informal groups," Rayburn said about the proposed motion.

"The fact is that the groups that are happening will just kind of go underground, they'll have these conversations at the lunch table," he continued.

"I don't agree with that direction, I feel like, not only is it a nightmare for administration I don't feel like it's the direction that our students and staff are asking for, or our community is asking for by any means," Bauer said.

Janes is wondering if there's a way to make changes to the policy to specify parental consent for informal groups at certain schools rather than a whole (i.e. requiring consent for clubs at the elementary school, middle or high school)

"Parents don't have to let their rights go because kids think that they have more rights," Janes said.

"I'm not saying that students have more rights than parents, I'm not saying that at all, but I'm saying that our students have rights and we have federal law that states hat we have to recognize them," Bauer replied.

Crocker clarified that the federal rulings were specific to high school students and did not include middle or grade school.

"I don't think that we're discrediting students or kids, I think we're just saying that parents want to be parents and when their kid is a minor and living under their household they want to partake and have a say in how they are educated," Janes said.

"Given the lateness of the hour, it's after 10, the complexity of the effects of the decision and the fact that we don't have full board attendance, I would make a motion that we table it," trustee Ben Crocker said.

"I know that's probably not what a lot of people want to hear but I think in the spirit of making a wise decision that might be the best course of action," he continued.

Board is taking public comment before Reeves has an opportunity to withdraw his motion.

Bauer opened the floor for public comment.

Jay Dixon, a former FC board member:
"I never was in a position where I was going to rush any of my decisions because of the time of the hour, I'm going to let you know that."

He continued:
"The motion didn't sound like a motion to me and I would like for this board to understand that the time of night does not have any relevance to speeding the meeting up."

Taryn Petit a middle school teacher with FC for at least two decades, voiced her concerns about requiring parent permission for students to eat lunch in her classroom.

"If you were to institute a policy where they had to have permission slips that would effectively shut down any opportunities for kids to get fellowship and friendship," Petit said.

Tami Koerner, a kindergarten teacher, shared similar sentiments to Petit.

Matthew Roth is asking the board members to table the discussion and rework the motion, as well as define informal and formal groups to not interfere with students eating lunch in classrooms.

"That's completely different than a topical group meeting with a purpose once a week, once a month, formally or informally, they do need a permission slip for that," he said.

John Kelsby shared Dixon's sentiments:
"I think that right now the issue is that this board needs to, tonight, make a decision. I feel like kicking this can down the road for one more month is a big mistake. It just opens up the door for more Facebook groups to do more...

...organizing, try to rile up more people from outside of our community to come in and make a bigger deal out of this."

"Students have no rights until they are 18," said Terri Lackey, who is affiliated with Stand Together for Freedom. "The school has no business taking those rights away from the parents and giving them to the children."

"My children had no rights unless I gave them to them, they had the right to go do things when I gave them permission," she continued.

"It's wrong to punish every student because some parents don't agree with one particular club, or one particular informal group of students meeting, that's not fair," said Frank Johnston.

Lots of discussion about defining informal vs formal groups.

"The more language that you guys add to this the more I'm going to tell you, you need to have that vetted by your attorney before you make a final decision," Rayburn said.

Trustee Janes says she's fine with tabling tonight's discussion.

Jake Dixon, a class of '21 grad from FC, claims that the board chair is trying to end the meeting early and end public comment.

I personally haven't seen any indication of that?

He continued to say that permission slips shouldn't be required to go to a classroom at lunch.

Carole Monrean said the motion is confusing and agrees with Reeves and Lackey that there should be no informal groups K-8.
She went on to talk about a specific club as an "alliance," likely insinuating the GSA that dominated public comment earlier tonight.

Rayburn went on to end the comment because it pertained to a specific group, and later clarified the motion at hand.

"The fact that we are discussing permission slips for students to participate in clubs didn't come about until this one particular club started to gain membership and awareness so I feel like it is directly targeting one specific group," said Kayla Johnson.

Janet Prewit (unsure of spelling) is wondering why there such an issue with permission slips for informal clubs.

From the parents I've heard from in public comment and in my interviews on this topic, there is concern about protecting LGBTQ students who haven't come out to their parents that might be forced to with a permission slip to join the GSA.

"I don't think that you guys should be forced into doing anything you don't feel comfortable doing until you have dealt with everything, you guys have had a lot of information thrown at you since 6 o'clock this evening," said Krystal Hartzel (again, not 100% sure of spelling)

Alan Lackey, also with STFF:
"It's just simple parental permission when they're involved in a club that is devoted to the topic and meet regularly. I don't see where that's an issue."

Ryan Day, who identified himself as a counselor, said that from his profession they look for three things "don't feel, don't trust and don't talk" he focused on the "don't talk" aspect.

"It's a thing that happens, where kids hide things from parents and it can lead to problems. If this is an issue where we're cutting off communication between parents and students on what they're doing at school," Day said.

One parents said she appreciates the parent notification of clubs available to students.

Chris Ostheimer, also a parent, shared similar sentiments about parent notification.

Seems like that's it for public comment at this time, moving back to the trustees.

We have crossed the five hour mark for tonight's meeting, still no movement from the board to approve or amend Reeve's initial motion, or table discussion.

There are 121 participants in the meeting.

This is what I'm feeling like right now:

"I know you're being asked to make this decision tonight, but let's be clear, the school year doesn't start for another three months, we do have time to sort all of this out before the school year starts," Rayburn said.

He said that they could consider bringing the district's attorney to attend the next board meeting to help define the legality of what the board ultimately decides.

"Is the consensus that we need further clarification on what a group or club, what those definitions are for us, is that what we're saying here?" asked Bauer.

Board members seem to really be hung up about the definitions of informal vs formal groups, and what types of gatherings may be inadvertently impacted by a decision from the board at this time.

"If we make a decision tonight, based on what we want, what the board wants, in this case, then you're looking at potentially having to come back and change that," Rayburn said.

Janes withdraws her second, Reeves rescinds his motion after Rayburns comment.

Rayburn said he will share the language discussed tonight to prevent rehashing of information at the next meeting.

Janes motions to table discussion on policy 3550, student clubs. Seconded by Crocker.

Chris Ostheimer thanks the board for tabling tonight's discussion on policy 3550:
"I know nobody necessarily wanted to do that, but I definitely think that's the right call."

No other public comment.

Motion passed 3-1 with Bauer as the lone nay.

And with that, the item is officially tabled.

The board will meet for a special board meeting in July. The time or place was not specified at tonight's meeting but will be clarified and made public at a later date.

And that's a wrap for tonight's meeting folks!
Thank you for following along and interacting with this thread. I hope it was helpful.

Be on the lookout for an article from me sometime tomorrow!