Social well-being, infrastructure. I think as many of you know, and the board went along with it, about a year or two ago at a meeting similar to this, one board member questioned the superintendent about the finances. The superintendent walked out of the meeting, left her cell phone there. As many of you know, this is a special school district. They're in financial disarray, a reserve of 75%, very similar to ours, within three or four years. And who are they blaming? They're blaming the superintendent, but who they should have responsibility is the board of education. The board of education has a responsibility to ask hard questions, honest dialogue, and not just be a rubber stamp of what's going on in the district and what the central leadership wants. I hope that is happening. My second comment is I probably spoke here a couple months ago, and afterwards a CFO and one of the board members, we had a great conversation. I was very impressed. It went very well. And I think I had a really good conversation. I think we were talking on the same terms. At the end of the meeting, I said, do you think I could have this conversation with one other board member? One other board member? And it was sort of a difficult answer that I got back. I was, you know, indirectly said I felt no. I mean, I just couldn't feel that I had other board members.

She said there was no mention of Israel and there shouldn't be when it came to addressing the anti-Semitism we have here in our community. Now when I hear that, but then I saw a promotion in the district email for Eli Shabari, to Rabi, to talk about his experience being held by Hamas in the war in Gaza, not quite shining light on the struggles of Jews here in America. We also spent $1,500 promoting the speaker and now have his books at our libraries. Now when I hear that kids in the hallways at Wiedown have been using the N-word, I'm not expecting Louis Farrakhan to speak, nor do I expect to see his books on our library shelves. I then saw a promotion from our district for a high school anti-Semitism workshop where two young men with unique perspective on Israel advocacy, quote unquote, help high school students recognize and effectively respond to anti-Semitism while also strengthening their confidence and pride in their Jewish identity. Should the JCC be able to host these events? Absolutely, but not as a supplement to the curriculum we bring to this school district. I am proud to be a parent in this district and when you listed off the accolades for the schools both my children attend, I was not surprised in the least. This is a great school district and every teacher, counselor, and support staff are here for the students. But bringing a powerful lobbying group to align Israel's identity to that of our community is dangerous.

This is a great school district and every teacher, counselor, and support staff are here for the students. But bringing a powerful lobbying group to align Israel's identity to that of our community is dangerous. Anti-Semitism is not anti-Israel. It is anti-neighbor and it's our neighbors who we all want to help. It is important that we teach our children love and accept our neighbors, but there is no place for propaganda here in our schools. Thank you. Thank you. And I forgot to remind everyone before we started, but I have in previous meetings, that we don't respond to public comment at the meeting, but we will follow up afterwards. Next, Brad Bernstein. The three-minute timer is on the screen as well. I've been out of town for the past week and I came home today on the steps of brochures and brochures of what the district is planning to do with respect to this bond issue. Let me just tell you a quick story. A story about the school district in St. Louis County, probably all of you should be aware of this. I hired a superintendent maybe four or five years ago. This district had tens and tens of millions of dollars. I hired the superintendent, great, student-oriented, going to make things work. It really sounded good. Social well-being, infrastructure. I think as many of you know, and the board went along with it, about a year or two ago at a meeting similar to this, one board member questioned the superintendent about the finances.

I was, you know, indirectly said I felt no. I mean, I just couldn't feel that I had other board members. I could have that same conversation I had with the treasurer, which was absolutely outstanding. I even asked, could people navigate the DESI website? Actually, I was sort of disappointed with that response. I was told we're working with certain board members. We're trying to get everybody up to speed. Some people have an interest in finance, some in legal. I think we have responsibility to make sure all of you, and that's your job. That's why you're on this board. And I did not feel comfortable after that meeting getting a positive answer. The second thing is this facilities. I think the messaging is completely wrong. I mean, we spent tens and tens of millions of dollars in 2010 renovating the schools. Editions. I mean, money was really put in. I think there is an opportunity you have that maybe do certain things. Do you really need that whole 50 or 63 cents? I think absolutely not. I mean, I'm hoping some of you know there's 30 to 40 percent already in the capital budget that's used for capital expenditures. You could easily borrow after that. I mean, there's a 500. I looked at the DESI website today. It took me five minutes to navigate. I barely remember the Clayton school district was like 09610 or something like that. You all should know that. I think there's an opportunity. Is that me? The other thing snow days.

Is that me? The other thing snow days. I think a bad decision was made on that. Thank you. Thank you. Next, Francis. Jessica. You all know me at this point. So, you know, at this point, myself and other speakers, we've been to five meetings over the last four months. We've had over 10 speakers, 15 guests. We spent so many hours looking into the ADL to give you well-researched testimony, find viable alternatives, and gain a better understanding of the district through talking to parents and students and learning more about our Palestinian student population. We've really, I think, been trying to connect with the board in good faith. But what we've received in return is honestly about 20 sentences worth of pretty bland email replies. We're not looking for empty platitudes, but rather meaningful engagement with the substance of the concerns we're voicing. Dr. Poole reached out for a meeting with us, and we had a really great conversation. And I would love to see the same from you, Superintendent Patel, and from other members of the school board who are interested in having this conversation. I'm looking for responses to the following questions. One, why is the Clayton School District partnering with a clearly biased political organization like the ADL, with a history of political lobbying and doxxing students and educators alike who don't agree with their political viewpoint when there are alternatives available? And two, where is the insistence on sticking with this curriculum coming from, despite all of the concerns that we've raised?