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Heads up! Our parent watchdogs have scanned the upcoming agenda for Ashtabula Area City. We found 8 items that need your immediate attention before the vote.
| 🚨 HIGH CONCERN (LEVEL 10) |
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School-Based Mental Health Clinic Bypassing Parents
Under item 9.15, the Board is approving a ‘Consulting Agreement’ with Signature Health to place a full-time counselor and a part-time case manager directly in our schools. This creates a school-based mental health clinic that will provide ‘Diagnostic Assessment,’ counseling, and telehealth services. The contract is listed as costing ‘$0.00’ because the provider will bill Medicaid and other insurance directly, creating a financial incentive to diagnose and treat as many students as possible. This structure is a Trojan horse designed to provide mental health services and data collection on children without direct parental oversight or consent.
Recommended Action Plan
PACK THE ROOM: This is a critical threat to parental rights. Email Superintendent Lisa Newsome at lisa.newsome@aacs.net and call the Board at (440) 992-1210. Demand Item 9.15 be pulled for a separate vote. Message: ‘We do not consent to school-based mental health clinics that bill Medicaid and operate outside of parental supervision. Vote NO on the Signature Health contract.’
💰 Taxpayer Impact: Billed directly to Medicaid/Insurance, creating a data trail and financial incentive for diagnoses.
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| 🚨 HIGH CONCERN (LEVEL 9) |
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Secret, Undisclosed Policy Changes
Item 10.05 on the agenda is a vote to approve ‘changes to the following Board of Education Policies,’ listing six different policy codes. However, the attachment ‘Board Policy Updates.pdf’ that should contain the text of these changes was not included in the public agenda. The Board is voting on secret policies without giving parents any opportunity to review them first. This is a severe violation of transparency and public trust.
Recommended Action Plan
DEMAND TRANSPARENCY: Email Superintendent Lisa Newsome at lisa.newsome@aacs.net and call Board President William Niemi at (440) 992-1210. Message: ‘Item 10.05 must be tabled until the full text of all proposed policy changes is made public for parental review. We will not accept a vote on secret policies.’
💰 Taxpayer Impact: Undisclosed. The cost is our right to review and consent to the rules governing our children’s education.
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| 🚨 HIGH CONCERN (LEVEL 9) |
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Outsourcing the School Library to Bypass District Policy
Item 9.10 is a $37,710 agreement to have the Ashtabula County District Library staff the high school library. The librarian will be an employee of the public library, not the school district. This creates a massive loophole, allowing the library to be run under the rules of the American Library Association (ALA) instead of our district’s policies. This can be used to bypass parental review committees and introduce age-inappropriate, ideologically-driven books into our high school.
Recommended Action Plan
DEMAND ANSWERS: Email Superintendent Lisa Newsome at lisa.newsome@aacs.net: ‘Regarding Item 9.10, will the public library employee follow AACS board policy for material selection and parental challenges, or ALA policy? We demand school employees run school libraries under school board oversight. Vote NO.’
💰 Taxpayer Impact: $37,710.09
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| 🚨 HIGH CONCERN (LEVEL 8) |
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Gender Identity Added to District Anti-Discrimination Policy
The new 2026-2027 Student/Parent Handbook (Item 9.12) officially adds ‘gender identity’ and ‘sexual orientation’ as protected classes. This is the foundational policy change required to later justify allowing biological males in girls’ bathrooms, locker rooms, and sports. It also lays the groundwork for policies that enable school staff to socially transition a child (new name, pronouns) without parental knowledge or consent.
Recommended Action Plan
PACK THE ROOM: This is how it starts. Call the Board at (440) 992-1210 and sign up for public comment. Message: ‘The new handbook in Item 9.12 inserts gender ideology into district policy. This violates parental rights and threatens student safety and privacy. Vote NO on the handbook.’
💰 Taxpayer Impact: Loss of student privacy and safety; erosion of parental rights.
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| 🚨 HIGH CONCERN (LEVEL 8) |
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Hidden $67,300 Contract for Social Emotional Learning
Buried in the check register under the Treasurer’s Report (Item 8.06) is a $67,300 payment to ‘THE FLIPPEN GROUP LLC’. This is the company behind ‘Capturing Kids’ Hearts,’ a well-known Social Emotional Learning (SEL) program. SEL programs shift the focus from academics to psychological conditioning, data collection on student attitudes and beliefs, and turning teachers into unqualified therapists.
Recommended Action Plan
DEMAND TRANSPARENCY: Email Superintendent Lisa Newsome at lisa.newsome@aacs.net: ‘I demand the Treasurer’s Report (Item 8.06) be pulled from the bundled vote. The Board must publicly discuss the $67,300 payment to the SEL vendor The Flippen Group and explain why they are spending taxpayer money on psychological programming instead of academics.’
💰 Taxpayer Impact: $67,300.00
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| ⚠️ NEEDS REVIEW (LEVEL 6) |
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Silencing Parents at Board Meetings
The board’s own rules for public participation (Item 12.01) are designed to limit parent input. They allow a maximum of only 15 minutes for all public comments for the entire meeting, limit parents to 3 minutes, and explicitly state ‘The Board will not answer any questions.’ This is a structural tactic to prevent accountability and avoid genuine dialogue with the community they are supposed to serve.
Recommended Action Plan
DEMAND TO BE HEARD: Call Board President William Niemi at (440) 992-1210. Message: ‘Your public participation rules are disrespectful to parents and taxpayers. We demand you expand the time for public comment and engage in actual discussion with the community. We are not a box to be checked.’
💰 Taxpayer Impact: Parental right to petition the government for redress of grievances.
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| ⚠️ NEEDS REVIEW (LEVEL 5) |
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Undisclosed ‘Community Action’ Agency Contracts
The agenda lists two separate agreements with ‘Community Action’ agencies (Items 9.18 and 9.22), but the attached documents are missing or empty. These agencies often provide social services that can lead to data collection on families and referrals to outside services without full parental knowledge. The failure to provide these contracts for public review is a transparency violation.
Recommended Action Plan
DEMAND TRANSPARENCY: Email Superintendent Lisa Newsome at lisa.newsome@aacs.net: ‘Items 9.18 and 9.22 for Community Action agreements have no public documents attached. These items must be tabled until the full contracts are released for public review. What services are these agencies providing to our students?’
💰 Taxpayer Impact: Undisclosed
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| ⚠️ NEEDS REVIEW (LEVEL 4) |
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Career Planning Linked to Social-Emotional Profiling
Under Item 10.04, the Board is reviewing its Career Advising policy (Policy 2413). This policy requires the creation of a ‘Student Success Plan’ starting in 6th grade that documents a student’s ‘social/emotional development.’ This mixes psychological profiling with academic and career planning, creating a permanent data file on your child’s attitudes and beliefs that follows them through their school career.
Recommended Action Plan
OPT-OUT ALERT: Email Superintendent Lisa Newsome at lisa.newsome@aacs.net: ‘Regarding Policy 2413, what specific instruments are used to measure ‘social/emotional development’ for the Student Success Plan, who has access to this data, and what is the parental opt-out process? Academic planning should not require psychological profiling.’
💰 Taxpayer Impact: Your child’s privacy and personal data.
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