UPSD Board Meeting

001e e e what e e e uh being that it's 7 o'clock we will start this Workshop meeting of the park school board it would be nice if I had my agenda out sorry sinuses are stuffy okay so let's do a Pledge of Allegiance please we do not have a class today yeah I thank you Mr Bishop could I have a roll call please okay director McCormack here director shmid here director mccarrick here director Bieber director Cunningham here director Penny Packer here director fluky here director preo here director Chan Fran present thank you um we'll move on to our committee report oh no we have something special today sorry that's what happens when you just look at the paper so I will turn it over to Dr BR for a very happy announcement shro screen

002okay here we go thank you very much just quick two quick uh congratulations this has been an exciting week here uh at EP Park uh the first is uh we're thrilled to uh to have uh three students that were U recognized as commended students in the 2025 National Merit Scholarship program Autumn Jeremiah and Rowan all qualified for that and you can see the stats on there how rare it is but we're thrilled um so there's a quick turnaround so hopefully soon we'll we'll have the students here to be recognized and and support them but at least want to put the information out there I know it hit hit social media and um I wanted to uh to to celebrate the students that are continuing to uh to amaz us amazing so if we can give

003them a round of applause even though they're not here congratulations and then you may have heard something about uh the National Blue Ribbon School recognition um so we're going to congratulate marar Elementary School Stevens who's here tonight as well as all the teachers the staff over the past couple I mean however long um to to achieve uh exemplary High performing School National Blue Ribbon School for 2024 uh what a what an honor for uh for the school and for the district so congratulations um so let's do that first congratulations and then we're going to have a a quick video highlight here Mr Stevens are do you want to say anything or awesome to [Music] I love school we love Mar I love Mar I love [Music] marel we love marel I love Mar I love

004[Music] mil congratulations maral Elementary School National School of Excellence Blue Ribbon School for wo wo [Music] wo what I love about maror is that it's so familyfriendly I feel like all the teachers that my third grader has have have gotten to know him and our whole family I love Mar's school because it feels like coming home every day I really love Marb cuz the really awesome events that we get to do and all my friends all the teachers what I love most about maror are the families and the students I get to work with every day it makes my heart so happy my favorite thing about maror is like the teachers are super nice and I really like all of them what I love most about Marboro is the staff and the teachers especially the

005principal Mrs Stevens they're very caring they're willing to communicate with the parents I've had a lot of opportunities to get involved and it makes me feel more comfortable and excited about what my kids are learning what kind of environment it is which is warm caring energetic a lot of amazing opportunities to go to events and get to know some great friends and just Thrive during these young years while they're learning so so far it's been just a wonderful experience I love about marar is everything [Music] all right so as we have once before maybe BEC a tradition in terms of celebrations um just like the students did and the staff you saw there we have a some uh blue streamers so let's release these anyone in the audience get your streamers ready if we need

006a tutorial put it on your uh finger on your throwing hand like this and hold it in your hand tear off the uh tear off the paper but don't don't release it yet you're going to throw everything but the actual uh thing in your hand you're going to throw all the other pieces are you ready allly how'd you do this one you did one two three they threw on three or they you countdown on three is everyone ready so you're gonna throw is hard as you can out on three here we go ready one two three all right all right all right Bradley you look good [Laughter] buddy clean up yeah they are easy to clean up oh my got it I wanted to do real confetti but Mr Howard wasn't having it no yeah

007right I'll give everyone another second or two to UNC confetti us all right well we'll start off a while with um Liz oh you're over here uh with uh Communications committee please okay we met just prior to this at six o'clock and um I just wanted to let you know that upper perk school district is on Instagram and Facebook and um you can look there for anything upper per and Athletics uh parent square is up is going really well we have one parent for every student connected um and Alexis is going to do a um a little tutorial I guess video um next month so look forward to that and then um our 2324 annual report will be in the Friday blast and it'll be on the upsd website and our next meeting will be

008uh October 24th at 6 pm here okay any questions anyone all right um we'll move on to educational programs and services Emily McCormack we held our educational programs and services meeting on September 19th here at the Ed Center and it was a pretty uh full meeting where we discussed uh the upcoming QPR training for ninth graders as well as the Hope For Tomorrow training for the seventh graders both suicide awareness um training and uh um discuss the dates for the parent preview of the QPR which will be October 2nd from 6:00 to 8 and that's virtual there's a way to register and in advance for that and I'm almost positive that information is in the um weekly parents Square blast things like that we also started uh the review of the comprehensive planning update we

009reviewed the timeline as well as talked a little bit about there are 53 participants who have been chosen from the community parents and um administrators teachers um and some board members as well who were actually here then the next night on the 20th um to review the uh comprehensive plan and talk a little bit about what we're GNA how we're going to um get a mission statement and a vision statement and what we'd like our portrait of a graduate to be so what you know as a as a community what's important to us as what we want our graduates to have what kind of um you know skills and and traits so that was really interesting as well um and then we reviewed the special education cyclical monitoring for continual Improvement the cmci update so

010uh Miss Giblin helped us go through some of that and and discussed where we met our targets our next meeting is October 17th at 5:30 here at the Ed Center okay any questions thank you I I want oh go kind of add something I just wanted to um Echo what Emily said about the QPR for parents there's a a zoom a virtual meeting October 2nd I would encourage parents to attend um and there is an option for parents to opt out if you want to opt your child out and the Hope For Tomorrow does not have um a parent thing but you you also can you have that option I just wanted to Echo what Emily was talking about there thank you okay anyone else all right we'll move on we'll stay with Emily actually

011and move on to extracurricular and then uh we also had our extracurricular meeting on September 23rd and this one we actually took a little field trip and we had our meeting over at the high school library and um so we after discussing a little bit of old business as well as some fall the fall athletic update where we have I don't know if I have the number yeah we have over 450 students participating in Fall Sports which is fantastic we're around 4 72 and um as of earlier in the week they shared the records and and a lot of the Fall teams are doing really great so um cheers to everyone there their senior recognition dates are upcoming as well for all of the sports um one was rained out actually the night of our

012meeting and it is rescheduled for I believe tomorrow um or maybe it was today oh but it rained again so it probably wasn't today uh anyway so uh I'm sure tennis will get their their senior night in soon um we also just discussed um the survey and feedback results from the spring athletic survey um as well as reviewed um some of the survey results from last year in anticipation of next month we're going to review um some more results from the students as to what kinds of sports they're going to want they would want to participate in other than the sports that we have um and then the big moment we went for to the Esports lab so uh as we as you may know we voted uh the end of last year at the

013last meeting to open up an orts lab and um they worked over the summer and got it that got got the computer lab all ready to go we used Esser funds and it's very nice uh they actually were meeting when we went they held a special meeting for so they could show us their gaming while we were while we were there and it was uh very interesting to to see them all and and hear a little bit about their competitions they're not competing in the they're getting their team together in the fall and then they're looking to um start to compete in the winter and spring and so we'll we'll see what happens as that moves on but very exciting and the next meeting for uh extracurricular will be Monday October 28th that's uh no

014it it will be the 22nd sorry at 6 pm here at the Ed Center and that's all just want to clarify that the student interest survey will be take will take place in the first or second week of November so it won't be October where we'll have the results it'll be at no hopefully November meeting we'll have them I just want to clarify that thank you yeah because I know that's an important piece okay and that was fun that was great to watch them play uh okay we'll move on to JP with facilities please so the facilities committee met on Monday September 23rd at the high school library as well uh one of the major topics discussed at the meeting was the asbest removal project at the high school and the grant that we applied

015uh for for that project as a reminder this project is to remove um ASB bestus containing materials such as spray on fireproofing pipe insulation floor tile and mastic and black laboratory tabletops so there's good news bad news here good news is we did get the grant bad news is it was not for the full amount that was possible um now keep in mind this was a 50/50 Grant whereas uh the school has to put up 50% of the grant amount that you get so the total that we got was $990,000 but the school has to put up 50% of that so $4.95 the cost of the abatement project for the high school is about 1.2 million so if you factor in what the board had committed to spend towards the 5050 Grand originally which was

016633 325 plus the grand amount amount of $495 we're still about $130,000 short so the committee met and we discussed and we approved spending that extra money to get this project done and get it completed uh the motion you'll see tonight is to satisfy the grant requirements saying that we're committing the 495 to the grant so that we get it um did I get all that Andrea on that okay other than we'll be coming back to facilities for the restor portion um which is the replacement materials associated with what is AB right so unfortunately it's not a glamorous project that's flashy and make things look great but it's necessary to do uh the other downside is that we should be aware of is that uh the project were to move forward the high school would

017most likely not be able to be occupied the entire summer so there will be a a need for a lot of planning and thought put into how we're going to accommodate everyone and activities throughout the summer but I'm confident in our Administration to come up with a solid plan to do so uh other things the committee also received an update on the K through five door lock upgrade project we're expecting the parts to be delivered on October 18th with work hopefully commencing the following week in the evenings and it's looking like it's going to take two to two and a half days per School uh to complete those updates we also received an update on the summer projects so just a quick rund down to them striping was completed across the district repairs are made

018at the wastewater treatment facility marrow fencing was complete 45 fencing was complete a new hot water tank was installed at the 45 Center the Courtyard at Herford was cleaned up and made maintenance free uh the principal and admin office in the high school was remodeled and repairs were made to the pool at the high school as well and finally the committee discussed a facility naming request for Coach Steve Ruby uh then this will be brought back to the uh the committee next meeting for further discussion so speaking of that meeting we have a date change it was scheduled for Monday October 28th but has now been moved to Tuesday October 22nd at 7M here in the ad Center any questions okay thanks thanks JP all right we'll move on to finance committee which is my

019committee uh we did meet on the 23rd of September also at the high school uh we uh looked over our statement and decided that we liked it the way it was which is the finance committee is an advisory committee who are devoting the extra time and effort to understand the finances of the district in order to assist and guide the board on financial decisions which affect the long the short and long-term Financial Health of the district so we decided that that was current and we'll keep it uh we talked about some uh delinquent real estate tax collections we agree agreed to move forward with collection process on four properties that were anywhere from 3 to six years delinquent um and we agreed to have POF um represent us in a bankruptcy case at the cost

020of $500 plus some costs we talked about the uh review of the 2425 state budget allocations and we did come up with um $560,000 that we you we banked on some of it but we ended up getting a lot more which was great uh some of that was Charter School reimbursement of about $269,000 uh we talked about our fund balance disc fund balances and we also said that and this is not going to be a happy topic but uh we were talking about the Tor field replacement and I don't I I keep hearing that there rumors going around that next year it's going to happen we don't know yet so don't Bank on that yet uh let's see so we're uh going to continue on talking about what's left in our we'll have to have

021money to come out for the espes this abatement and we're still talking about our um our feasibility study that we working on that 5year plan uh let's see we had our we had some of our tax collectors in the audience and we talked about uh they were requesting an additional $2 per bill they haven't had an increase in a really long time we did the committee did recommend to leave it on the agenda for future discussion as the new their new I'll call it a contract um wouldn't go into effect until February so at plenty of time we started talking about it early we talked about the per capita tax and um we had a really good discussion about it because there's a lot to talk about I always say we I'd love to get

022rid of it because everybody hates bur crier but uh we have to think about how to replace that revenue and um we had a really really good discussion about it and I think we'll just keep talking about it yet because there's a lot more to to think about it's not just a cut and dried you know dump it and you're gone we have to think about our townships and our Burrows that get part of that money as well and who would who would send those tax bills out that kind of thing uh let's see we also talked about and it was nice having three of our tax collectors there we talked about the um the tax soft the tax collection software the district uses and I think we'll continue on with those discussions as well

023uh we talked about next year's uh base Act One index which is 4.4% and last year well this budget year it was 5.3% our adjusted was 6.6% which we obviously didn't raise the taxes that much that's how much we can raise taxes um we don't have the adjusted number yet so it'll be probably north of 4% and that will be what we can work with and that's about it uh we had a good a good discussion there was a lot of good discussion and we're starting those discussions early so we'll have time to really come up with some good Solutions and our next meeting is October 21st 6 pm at the Ed Center anybody have any questions okay all right well then we're going to move on to policy J Packer policy committee met on

024Monday September 16th all the committee members were present as well as uh Dr finina Mr Summers and Mr Bishop the committee engaged in a discussion on policy 707 use of facilities regarding District use only of drones a current policy prohibits drone use on School District property the committee is investigating as to whether the policy can be amended to allow District personnel only use of drones on school property for educational purposes conversation will continue at the October policy committee meeting policy 9:15 boost organizations relations with parent organizations is also being discussed and the committee was provided with a proposed policy update of policy 9:15 and again the discussion on of 9:15 will be continued at the October policy committee meeting as well Dr finina Mr Summers Mr Bishop committee members is there any additional comments add

025all right next policy committee me meeting is scheduled for October 22nd that's a Tuesday at 5:00 p.m. this concludes the policy committee report any questions yeah I was curious Peg if you can share the nature of the change for the 95 maybe like where it came from I I I don't I was there I don't remember talking maybe I had to go you left okay yeah I don't know if you can speak to that tonight or you just want to carry on the conversation in October yeah we're going to carry it on it it's mainly to get booster clubs on the same page have some guidance and oversight of booster clubs get some bylaws in place good I would just say currently um the board is operating under 915 that speaks only to parent organizations

026it is completely silent to boosters so um the committee committee's work is to absorb both of those under the umbrella of a policy thank you very much okay anyone else all right if not we'll move on to Mr mcck in the western Montgomery career and Technology Center yes uh we had our meeting earlier in the month uh during the meeting we discussed three goals for the Western Center this year that the administration down there is going to be following up on one of them is the pursuit of a capital Improvement fund a conversation will be held between the Western Center and the three sending District districts excuse me to the business managers will meet with the staff and they're going to review the um putting together a feasibility study a 10-year plan how the budgets

027are created um how bonds are are funded to the west Western Center so we can come up with some type of plan to support that building down there you've heard me for the past four years or so complain that we're too small we need repairs well guess what we've been doing that stuff but we need a good plan to do it just like we have our facilities and finance committees here to take care of these issues here we have this plan going on that's one of the goals to be accomplished down there this year and come up with that plan um one of the other goals is an expansion of programs we're looking at how to reduce or eliminate the waiting list for students to get in down there we have more students that want

028to get in there than we can possibly hold so how are we going to do that our administrators down there are going to have to come up with a plan and present it to us uh the other thing is improving communication the director and the principal down there are going to start sending out regular updates to the community I've been forwarding them on to the board here the director will be supplying them by-weekly the principal sends them out weekly they go out to the students the F the families the staff so that they can all get a sense of belonging and know what's going on just like we have our parent square up here updating us on what's going on up here well this is our non-electron well it's an electronic version but it's not

029Hightech is parents Square uh as we bragged upon our students earlier tonight we got to notice that two of our students who graduated last year have been named in a newsletter the Educational Foundation and it's called 2020 top performing students the Educational Foundation is a newsletter that was put together by the electrical Association of Philadelphia back in 1995 and they award scholarships to families to students of um members of the organization the two students down there um I don't know what the sending schools were but they were Patrick J Moran and Hunter Smith they're our students no matter which sending school they went to because they go to the Western Center plain and simple so congratulations to them they named two students for five of the area technical schools around here one was um middle

030bucks one was Eastern Montgomery County um North Penn was another and I forget what the other was so that was that uh we also have nine seniors starting Co-op jobs Western Center is not only there to educate but to get you experience Juniors and seniors down there can apply for co-op programs they go out they learn their train in trade in the morning well they they learn their trade the first two years they're there and then Junior and Senior year they can apply to go on Co-op if they have the the requirements they may get approved for it and if they have a suitable employer that wants them to go they would go to the school their home school in the morning do their educational classes their academic classes and in the other shift they

031would go to their job transportation is up to the students to get to those jobs but this is another great learning experience for them um we've had kids in the past you may have heard me say this last year we had a kid graduated last year was on Co-op for a while working Co-op he made $330,000 and then went to that job and worked full-time so he's well on his way to a good career cosmetology salon is open Wednesday Thursday and Friday from 11:00 to 2 they'll be starting the evening hours soon uh we did a lot of Maintenance down there over the summer and everything they've reconfigured the student entrance the student entrance is now up by the um restaurant area where they go in they're also in the process of installing a glass

032block wall which will add some security to the rest of the school to prevent people from walking in there that should be done in the next week or so um students are first and second year students down there in the process of OSHA training okay requirement there's about 400 students taking that and the administration is going through any waiting lists as vacancies develop down there a kid Coes in after two or three weeks says I don't like carpentry or grease under my fingers for automotive you know and they drop out or maybe they move out of the district as a vacancy opens they will review the waiting list and try and play fill those vacancies and the next j meeting is October 2nd at 7 pm at the Western Center come on down thanks any

033questions comments good place all right we'll move on to Le and the upper perom Education Foundation please all right the two main items that the upper perom Education Foundation is um focused on is the search for an executive director that search is open and I can share the job description if anyone knows of a person who might be interested in leading the upper perk Education Foundation to success in support of our district goals and uh just a minor the uh false spirits store is up and running and Dr Roach did note that we now have upper percum alumni a merch merchandise available uh anou which is on the um agenda tonight is uh outlining the purpose and responsibilities of the partnership of our two entities and we will be a voting on the approval of

034this mou this concludes my report thank you anybody have any questions all right not we'll move on to Leah with Montgomery County Intermediate Unit there's so much going on at the Montgomery County andate unit it's uh hard to condense it into one report but we met last night by zoom and in person and uh reports of obviously were given for each committee uh but not notable initiatives for this year are uh a program called voices for Education which is um to empower student advocacy and educational policy students will come together to gain leadership skills learn effective ad advocacy and influence educational policies that will impact their lives this program is open to students in grades 9 to 12 and I have a uh a flyer with highlights of that program with me and then another

035program that is um a first for them this year is called find your grind and it's a program to guide students to find their purpose build transferable skills discover what impact they want to make in the community Educators can tap into the resources to help prepare students Forge the future of life and work administrators can also benefit with scalable programs to improve student outcomes to Drive St Student Success and future Readiness and uh the other uh impact for us is um we authorize the appropriate officers to enter into anou with our school district for the title 3 Consortium membership for the 2425 school year the purpose of the title 3 Consortium is to provide the ability to share resources in order to meet the needs of English Learners and immigrant immigrant Children and Youth and

036the big excitement which I've talked to you about before is the Discovery Center building dedication is scheduled for October 16th at 12: noon in Lansdale this Center provides Early Childhood programming including Head Start preit counts and early intervention as well as Career Development opportunities for school age students with disabilities I will be attending the dedication the next board meeting meets Wednesday November 20th at 6:45 at the mciu this concludes my report thank you question any questions okay uh we will move on to the legislative leaon report he P back the MC I IU legislative committee will be actually meeting in person actually for the first time since Co on October 2nd at the mciu so we're looking forward to that there was a collection of new laws signed by the governor during this year's budget

037uh process that resulted in important amendments to the public school code affecting all School entities among them is act 55 of 2024 which amended the public school code to include important Chang es regarding school security funding and security beginning with the 2024 2025 school year the school entity is required to have at least one full-time security Personnel who has completed the required training on duty during the school day act 55 also requires the school's safety and and coordinator to report to the school entities Board of school directors on current school security at an executive session the ACT also amended the public school code to include a new section regarding advertising and sponsorships the newly added section 134 prohibits any paid media advertisement by a school public school entity that refers to the cost of tuition

038technology Transportation or other expenses from describing them as free instead the ad must indicate that the costs are covered by tax payer dollars some other additional changes made under act 55 include the annual budget for the student teacher stipan program administered by the Pennsylvania high education assistance agency is doubled to $20 million sets June 30th 2025 as the expiration date for the requirement to have a satisfactory achievement level on an assessment of basic skills prior to entry into a balarat teacher preparation program modifies the existing Fair formula for basic education funding funding by incorporating three-year averages of formula factors for poverty concentrated poverty median median household income and number of households require school districts to submit their per pupil tuition rates and the data used to calculate them to pde by November 1st 2024 and

039every year thereafter using the pde 363 form act 25 of 2024 requires each School entity to conduct a moment of silence on September 11th during the school day for students and faculty to observe the the anniversary of 91120 2001 and remember those who were wounded or lost their lives act 25 also requires the Pennsylvania Department of Education to identify a model curriculum for instruction on the significance of 911 by June 17 2025 I'll turn it over to Dr Roach Dr finina or Mr Bishop for anything to add uh to this report nothing to add but as you were going through the ACT 55 in my head I was checking in the boxes of the things we've already done including with Mr Blake uh as well as the the many of the the other pieces that

040are there yeah board members are encouraged to follow legislative activity through Dr roach's weekly board updates and upto-date legislative and legal information again a reminder to uh the members that uh the psba pass a conference is October 6 through 8th at the cahor resort in the Poconos and of course upper perk will be presenting a workshop on our Title 9 athletic Journey this concludes the legislative leison report I do have a quickie PIAA report you will indulge me sure uh the PIAA board of directors had its regular board meeting on September 18th at the PIAA office in Mechanicsburg this was a four and a half hour meeting I just wanted to point that out there's nothing that goes quick at these meetings there was an executive session to discuss Personnel matters and active litigation and

041that's really that really occurs at most of the board meetings um where we discuss litigation board matters and discussions included the board approved several bylaw amendments including period of participation language that illustrates methods of communication including social media that may be indicative of recruiting adoption of definition of the glossery for booster club to differentiate their purpose from that of collectives approval of the winter sports practice on practices on November 15th with a scrimmage date set for November 23rd approval on a first reading basis to adopt Paris swimming standards we heard a report on the 29th uh annual officials convention that was held on August 2nd and 3D in Harrisburg which was very successful and I've been to that convention uh to present a couple years ago it's a very cool convention with all the sports

042off offals from Pennsylvania coming to that the approval of uh termination and requests for Cooperative sponsor sponsorships for several schools and that's pretty much a a typical thing that we do as well at each meeting um and also I want to just point out that the annual month-long celebration of High School athletics and other activity programs uh National High School Activities month begins next week for the nfhs and it's 51 member Association ations uh during this special time the almost 20,000 high schools in the 50 states plus the District of Colombia are encouraged to promote the value is inherent in High School athletics and other activities such as speech and debate debate music and theater this year's celebration of education-based activity programs in our nation's schools is just as important or more more so than

043it was in 1980 when through the efforts of the nfhs Congress established the third week of October as National High School Activities week to increase the Public's awareness of the values and needs of inter Scholastic activity programs in 2011 the emphasis was expanded to the entire month of October so I hope we can all celebrate um in October the value that extracurriculars have in our students lives this concludes my PIAA report any questions all right that a nice report good report to everyone uh we don't have any pres presentations are dis oh gosh I do that to you every time that's okay sorry okay Sarah you're up thank you uh so we met last night and old business Regional electronic recycling Mutual Aid agreement the upper hand of her insurance carrier request for workers comp

044liability Regional UCC appeals board pipeline safety analysis and the zoning audit still under review um so Regional updates East Greenville you'll see action park uh QR codes soon and Green Lane sidewall construction and Melanie I want to tell you they started General Dollar um we do have Greg here tonight from Regional planning come on up um he has an invitation for the board yep I got it I don't need it but I'll turn it on so uh I represent upper perk Halloween prade uh it's love upper perk um it's obviously been going on for a long time uh so what we intend to do is switch up judging and so I'm here to ask maybe as at most five people to be judges that night which is October 27th and the start time of the

045parade is 6:00 um so this would be judges station would be held at bik and soul um that's on Main Street in East Greenville um so we would accommodate you with an email that states you know how the judging goes on um I don't know if any of you have done this before um we're trying to move this away from uh the mayors that we were having done before and and then years prior to that we just had a set you know rounded judges so that's what I'm kind of here to ask so if any volunteers I'll do it okay so so if I've been working with Sarah on this um you know at Regional uh because I represent uh East Green B Barrow as the planning commissioner and so um if she would be

046honored to take down names and and emails and then we would formally send an email to all you guys to kind of put down you know what we're doing uh it's very fun um very relaxed you can go on our website uh there's Facebook as well um so all the information the lineups uh Maps you know where to be when to be is going to be posted on there as well and what was the website uh that would be upper perk Halloween parade.com yeah so there is just to give you a backstory of all this there is literally three of us that put this on every year and Scott Roth using bike and soul as as the place to be um so it kind of is daunting so I I've made this website to kind

047of uh do registrations do funding through it um it kind of helped do a lot of the paperwork as you guys understand it takes time to handw write uh you know the registrations and everything so yeah so kind all right I could just say having uh I think Mr Stevens and I uh judged this one year and there are times where you'll get bribes from people coming down putting extra candy on your table putting a couple there someone come up with full bars no it was very fun I'm unavailable but I appreciate the invitation and yeah so um so you know if if five of you do want to uh be judges that's great um I'm also looking for uh staging areas I don't I don't think that's something that you know you guys would

048want to do it's not as glorious as judging but there is staging to it um because I'm trying to raise money for next year um as always uh this is this is basically off of donations um any business donates $75 to be into it but then there is a benm mo that we're you know kind of seeing uh donations to it so um I'm going to be traveling uh the streets uh under uh a costume obviously and trying to collect donations so uh that's something that we've been trying to do uh normally I'm staging and then running circling around um so I would you know potentially bribe you guys to be judges and staging areas so all right and the venmo is on the yeah so everything is on uh if you're not on social

049media uh the everything is on the website it's very easy uh phone friendly computer friendly thank you so much I so far Trina Keith myself and Undertakers I'll check my schedule to make sure I would like to do that okay be fun all right all right anyone else's email thank you thanks yep thanks for coming over thank you appreciate it and thanks for doing the the parade that concludes my report thank you all right we don't have any presentations or discussions um Mr Summers could we have a solicitors report and sunshine act announcements please yes certainly uh the board met an executive session immediately prior to tonight's meeting for the purpose of discussing an issue of potential litigation involving a tax assessment appeal matter um and then by way of normal announcements there are uh

050as far as public comment opportunities for members of the public who would like to comment uh before the board tonight there are two comment opportunities uh the first is on items that are being voted on tonight which is just Personnel uh items and then there are four uh individual items being voted upon or uh there's another opportunity later in the meeting uh to comment on other items of concern that are or may come before the board uh at any point the opportunity uh to make public comment is for three minutes uh for each speaker and if you do wish to comment um there is a requirement pursuant to the school board policy that you have to sign up in advance of the comment period the sign up sheets are available in the back of the

051room uh and are turned in in the uh Bin located next to the screen you do need to sign up prior to the comment period if you wish to comment and that concludes my report thank you Mr Summers and to that end uh next will be public comments on action items but we don't have any comments on action items so we'll move on to look for a motion to approve the August 22 motion thank you second okay any discussion all in favor all right any opposed I also want to say hi to Chris thank you for coming Chris Chris is now our senior representative to the board um we'll move on to Personnel motion to approve the Personnel report in its entirety the retirements resignations the appointments and leaves of absence second okay any discussion

052make sure we're not missing anything here okay any discussion hearing none all in favor all right any opposed okay move on to action items Madam president can I make the motion to do action item a the direct the administration to accept the public school environmental repairs program Grant as we described earlier during the facilities report yes you may all second thank you any discussion again thank you Dr finina for your excellent grant writing skills thank you any other discussion all in favor I any opposed okay motion carries Madam president yes I make the motion to do B the member memo of understanding between Upper Park School District and the Upper Park Education Foundation c special education services and D motion to approve following Chris staff second any discussion all in favor I any opposed okay

053motion's passed we'll move on to public comment uh first we'll have Greg Goodra oh I'm sorry did I miss something that was it okay you were formalizing yourself thank you all right rayan hofkin come on up yep okay um I just wanted to thank the board for tabling the policy 103 and 104 I want to make it clear that the recent Court ruling ruling on Title 9 does not prevent schools from following their own policies or state laws what it does do is stop the Department of Education from forcing schools to adopt new rules or punishing them for not complying our District solicitor Kyle Summers had confirmed that upper perk is already following the law so there's no need to update those policies but here's where it gets even more serious the recent ruling overturning

054the Chevron is a GameChanger without Chevron the Department of Education can't easily enforce its 1,577 pages of new title9 regulations these rules are now more susceptible to Legal challenges creating un certainty for schools across the country the school board made the right decision by tbling these policies until the court sorts this out one key issue is the Department's attempt to redefine the word sex under Title 9 with Chevron G courts will no longer automatically side with the Department of Education instead they'll scrutinize these definitions closely Title 9 has stood for over 50 years and likely the courts won agree with such a drastic change to the meaning of one word the bottom line is adopting these new title 9 rules could put our district in legal Jeopardy and it only takes one successful legal challenge

055to overturn these changes and what and Upper Park School District could become the district in the spotlight do we want that to be do we want to be the test case the risks are significant and it doesn't stop there because ignoring Court guidance could have po personal consequences for school board members recently the Allentown teacher that was fired for attending the January 6 rally was awarded $125,000 in Damages and even more troubling additional fines were imposed on the school board members personally I ask you are you okay with this do you want our district to become the center of a legal storm funded by taxpayer dollars or should those funds be used to improve education for all students instead of being the District that gets used as an example let's make the right decision for

056all our students and our community thank you thanks Tran could we have um our garinger if you could tell us what your first name is come on up and can you turn the microphone on there a little the brown the gray button on thank you got it okay yeah I agree with what the lady just said uh boys should not be playing in girl Sports and uh I don't even think this is something that involves a discussion okay boys should not play in girls Sports and they shouldn't be in their locker rooms their showers or the bathrooms okay and I don't have anything against these children that have issues okay to transsexuals that want to do this okay that's fine if they want to do that everybody has a choice but they can't cross a

057line there that's not the way it works these boys they say that they're being uh discriminated against because they can't they can't do this okay they grew up going into the boys bathrooms playing the boys sports so they can still play sports okay but they should not play the girls Sports it's it's just the wrong thing to let them do and uh I mean uh these are children they shouldn't be be able to make these decisions an adult doesn't really mature the brain until they're like 25 years old and uh my problem with this is also that I think it stems from the parenting okay a kid just just wake up one day and say I want to be a girl okay this is a gradual thing and the parents should should parent their kids

058and and this wouldn't be an issue like it's it's blown up to be okay and uh I hear so much that uh they're being discriminated against okay their rights or whatever it's not okay this became a problem when they decided they wanted to play girls Sports and go into the girls locker rooms that's when it became a problem before it wasn't I mean and the bullying I don't know what your policies are like if a child's bullying this is a can I ask a question why all to ask a question to the board it's it's actually public comment just comments yeah okay you an answer in board comments okay because uh when I went to school if you bullied somebody and it was a problem you could sent to the principal you got kept after

059school okay if that didn't cure it okay then the parents then the parents the kid was like kicked out of school for maybe a week and the parents had to deal with it okay and the parents straightened it out because that interfere with their work or their schedule and that's the way it used to be and it's it's a pretty simple it's pretty simple to solve it okay kids shouldn't bully other kids I agree with that and also when I went to school okay A lot of times the kids in the school would stop the bullying of one kid or another kid okay A lot of times it it get to the principal because you see a big guy bullying a little guy or whatever the reason was somebody was say hey stop you know

060put a little pressure on to stop and it would it would stop so uh I I just I've been around here a long time my kids went to this school and I just can't believe it's even being considered because uh it's your decision what's right not what uh this title 69 or or Title 9 came out with with 1500 pages okay you can't redefine what sex is okay give me another minute can you you can't okay all right well well that's my position and I hope I hope that you don't let that go through okay thank you Chris Chris tell Chris tell sorry scissor stuffy my friends let me make something clear I never cared who you loved until you started shouting at me for not agreeing I never cared about your skin color until

061you started blaming me for your struggles I never cared about which political party you supported until you condemned mine I never cared where you were born until you wanted to erase my history and blame my ancestors for your problems I never cared that your beliefs were different from mine until you insisted that my beliefs were wrong but now I care my patience my tolerance gone and now I know I'm not alone millions of people feel the same way that I feel let's talk about Title 9 which was created to prevent discrimin mination and education Sports and federal programs based on sex it was simple Fair ensuring equal opportunities for women and men but recently a political move by the Biden Administration changed that and now allows biological males to compete in women's sports and use

062female facilities at the SE at the September 12th school board meeting Four Women stood here expressing disdain for those involved in a lawsuit that halted these changes and I have to admit I was puzzled these were women not men identifying as women you'd think they'd be standing up for women's rights this made me wonder have they read the 1,577 pages added to what was once a straightforward 37w law the law wasn't changed nobody voted on new regulations do they even understand what they are supporting I don't think they do if they did they would understand the history of women who fought for civil rights protections women's spaces women's sports leagues do they think the word women holds no real meaning in that anyone wearing a dress and a wig should be allowed to invade such

063spaces as women's restrooms locker rooms and sports teams it seems like their open-mindedness has let them their has let their Common Sense slip away it is is it only a woman's right to choose until the choice involves rejecting male bodies in women's spaces if they truly thought about protecting all students they forgot about our female students that's unacceptable Miss chin Fran Liberty the state of being free within Society from oppressive restrictions imposed by Authority on one's way of life Behavior or political views if you think the definition of Liberty has to do with inequality as it relates to sexual identity you're sadly mistaken the woke agenda is political and there is no not supposed to be politics in public education system Reading Writing arithmetic Science and History thank you thank you uh next Sharon Bastone

064please thank you some time now you've been hearing a lot about the supposed dangers of Title 9 regulations and the reasons why it might be wise to delay their implementation especially in the light of the mom's for Liberty injunction last week last week a few of us spoke up in a defense of Title 9 and it's evident that some individuals are feeling threatened by this discussion Miss Chari took upon herself to reach out to the Town and Country meanwhile our former board Miss Hopkins who is the mentor of the three moms for Liberty align members on this board pinned a letter to the letter of the editor attacking tile n vly let's not forget that Miss Hopkins is the OG of trans phobia in this District having previously embarrassed us on a Statewide level with

065her transphobic social media post consequently she was removed as pres and stripped of her committee assignments in her recent letter she misled the public about the realities of t n it is clear that she and others are merely regurgitating the talking points from the Monster Liberty um Title Nine toolkit found online it's crucial to remember that the monst for Liberty is not a grass Grassroots organization advocating for parents it's funded by the Heritage Foundation a wealthy and extreme think tank that dedicate significant resources to promoting discriminatory policies against the lgbtq individuals they excel in messaging and have a talent for getting people to follow them blindly this brings me back to my original question from the last board meeting what was your role in getting the district on the Monster Liberty injunction list after our

066last meeting I reached out to the board and I want to express my gratitude to Mr preo Mrs cfran M misss Cunningham and miss py packer for taking the time to respond to my in quarks however Miss Chari sides to my question as many politicians often do let's be clear I'm directing these policies to the three mons for Liberty aligned school board members Miss Chari miss flucky and miss Bieber I'm seeking transparency for what you campaigned on and demanded since joining the board it's time to walk the walk some of you might be asking why does it matter now the decision has already been made it matters because this pattern continues month after ma month these three members consistently prioritize the agenda of an extreme outside organization over the best interests of our children our

067district and our community they rally a small but local vocal vocal um group of supporters creating the illusion that their views represent the majority they do not they are counting on the fact that most people are not paying close attention that is why it's so important for them to come clean about their role in placing upper perk on the injunction list if you genuinely believe this was the best decision why hide it own it so here are my questions when did you first learn that we are on the junction list are you acquainted with the individuals who filed against the district did you solicit anyone from the district to join the monster Li injunction did you assist anyone in the uh District to get us on the injunction list did you personally file the uh

068District on the injunction list and did you play any role in any capacity in getting the district placed on the injunction list thank you thanks uh next up I have Patricia hly good evening can you hear me um my view is different than the just lady that was just up here I read uh the Title Nine and uh it I read the short version of it and I agree with it we need to protect our young ladies that are playing sports they can get hurt with a gentleman playing with them that and I I feel for the people that are trans trans addressed um but I don't I don't agree that uh boys should be playing that are the chest capacity the muscle texture the strength of a young man should be playing sports with

069the young girls we need to protect our young ladies I feel that fathers should come and speak for their young ladies that are want to play sports it hurts them as far as trying to get scholarships with the gentleman is or young man is playing in their sport they can't get their their scholarship they go to school on a scholarship in a college that I've met young lady if she complains about a transg coming into the sport she loses her scholarship she's not allowed to complain about it so I think that we should stick up for our girls that they uh are they need to get the uh help for school sometimes that's the only way they can get to college is to have a scholarship that's all I have to say thank you next

070I have Sally worth why he the revisions to Title Nine Force girls to share the playing field and locker room with bigger stronger male athletes I think this is sick and it's dangerous our culture is under attack Riley gang speaks of Liz Thomas a 6 fo4 man transgendering to a woman who was given the medal that she earned female athletes who train their whole lives have no chance of winning against physically dominant transgender females allowing biological males to participate in female male Sports is a form of sexual abuse harassment discrimination against women women will lose scholarships there are incidences you know what I'm having a hard time standing let me sit thank you okay I think I can be heard can you hear me okay women will lose scholarship there are incidences where women and

071girls have been seriously hurt in sports by a transgender female Payton mcav a former North Carolina High School B Evol player suffers long-term physical and mental injuries caused by a biological na who identifies as transgender during a match in 2022 a transgender female knocked a girl's teeth out when struck in the face during an all girls field hockey match in Massachusetts the girl ran from the field screaming in pain this is on YouTube November November 9th 2023 there are more incidents of injured just look on your iPhone how about the emotional harm two girls being forced to undress in front of a transgender girl that still has male sex organs Riley gains speaks of the girls changing in the Janitor's Closet many girls are emotionally affected by one transgender little this just isn't fair I

072was really impressed at the last school board meeting uh by the number of clubs and activities made available to your students this school really cares about your student um maybe a policy would be good where transgender students would be encouraged to participate in some of the many activities available to them but not in sports where they have the physical advantage over females with the increased possibility of injury to those females I I don't believe that Christians or women who belong to moms for Liberty hate a person who is LGBT that's just not true we are to love and respect every person thank you thanks Sally last comment I have is Carrie elich hi Carrie olre from Green Lane I want to start off by congratulating mororo owner Blue Ribbon as a moror parent this was

073very exciting news in my house um in the same vein I'm really looking forward to the upcoming EPS meetings where last year's pssa scores will be reviewed I attended this meeting last year and my takeaway was that in regards to testing there is plenty of room for improvement here at upper perk but the school district as a whole is moving in the right direction it wasn't lost of me then nor is it now how important it is for the district to keep the momentum going which brings which brings me to my concerns I have with members of this board being affiliated with groups like moms or Liberty and the shield of Truth Network these organizations share a goal of dismantling public education their thinly built plan is to rer public schools from the inside out

074they do this by first creating mass distrust in public schools we saw this really take off a few years ago it started with book bands and then spired into ridiculous and baseless claims of public schools teaching CRT or trying to turn your kids gay enough people take these claims at face value which then leads to radical individuals who align themselves with momser Liberty to be elected to school boards exactly what happened here last year once the MS are Liberty types take the majority of the School Board they begin degrading the school district they may do this by replacing a perfectly good superintendent with someone who aligns better with their agenda which can cause a domino effect within the administration they might adopt pricey Andor inadequate curriculum they might neglect to follow federal and state regulations

075which can cause the district to not only lose funding but also to be hit with lawsuits for examples of List look no further than pen Ridge and Central Bucks here at Upper Park we've seen the beginnings of this plan going into Motion in the last year moms were Liberty aligned Schoolboard directors not only challenged federally mandated title 99 faculty training but also new science curriculum claiming that the curriculum was too liberal of course when it came time to show evidence they could only produce a rant about windmills however they didn't stop short of proposing Upper Park adopt Hills Hills free but not really free K12 curriculum which was ironic considering his Dale as a Conservative Christian College this only proved that they are okay with ideology being pushed in public schools as long as it's

076their ideology Schoolboard elections come around again next year and like last time I'm sure we will have multiple candidates supported by mster Liberty and shield of Truth they only need to win two seats to take the majority here at uper perk we can't afford to let that happen especially during a time of such academic progress and growth thank you uh that was the last public comment I had we'll move on to board comments we have any board comments today no no yeah okay go ahead Peg so I get uh I subscribe to the National School boards Association legal clips and I so every day I get their publication through email and today it was so cool because one of the headlines read US Department of Education announces 2024 National Blue Ribbon Schools and then you

077click on it and it takes you to an article that headlines 13 Pennsylvania schools name National Blue Ribbon Schools and you read through and there it is maror it's awesome yeah so it's just really cool to see that blasted out nationally um yeah cool thank you anyone else all right hearing none I would entertain a motion to a journ motion second all in favor I any opposed all right