001e testing e e e being that it's 7:04 I'd like to call this uh meeting of the upper perky school board on April 11th to order if you would all stand for the pledge of allegiance that would be great and this week we have uh a group of kids that went from the Middle School to a conference together and that's what we're going to that they're going to lead us IED aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with li justice for all well that was a fast one really they try to keep up with that one okay Mr Bishop could I have a roll call please okay director McCormack here director shmid here director mccarrick here director Bieber here
002director Cunningham here director Penny Packer here director flukie here director preo here and director CH frowny Pres thank you uh we'll move on to introductions of Staff uh we have Mr Bishop our finance director we have M fiser our HR Director we have Dr Karina our assistant superintendent with Kyle Summers our schemed attorney always Dr Roach our superintendent and we also have our lovely representative from the from the our student council okay so I'm going to move on to uh board president's reports just welcome everybody in don't have a lot to tell you today I'll see for next time and I'll turn it over to Dr BS for his superintendence report thank you Mr Cunningham uh as I try to do each month provide some updates on uh what took place in the last month
003and what's what's what we're looking forward to so again another great month here at upper perk super first off congratulations to our music department for uh being uh nominated or or named as one of the best communities for music education um so that's not just this year I mean I mean that this year is the is the is the award but we know how strong our um our music program is for many years prior and then for many years to come so this is really a U K to 12 um and really laid on our teachers who who who worked on the application submitted it on on our behalf and are proud of uh joining the the long list of other schools that are part of the best community for education and all of our
004graduates always have the look forward to the Red Hill band that's a staple in our community as well uh so I'm sure that that plays into it but no in all seriousness uh this is a huge accomplishment and uh and uh thank you to our our staff and our teachers for putting it together so let's give them a round of applause also went too fast also want to share the uh spend a day with a nurse program at Lehigh Valley Health Network uh took uh they hosted nine of our our high school students who spend the day they actually got a chance to go out by the chopper as you can see there again this is part of that uh that that in in college exploration piece so we want to thank them for their
005for hosting and uh you can see the uh the smiles on their faces learning about um you know different fields but again great field trip for for our students I don't know if you guys were aware that we had a solar eclipse no uh not the earthquake but the solar eclipse uh most recently so this was again students at uh at our Elementary at our K3 schools participating and uh having some fun with uh and and learning on there so it's again a great opportunity for our students and uh I think it was a little cloudy for some but again another opportunity we thank our our schools and our ptfs for helping to supply the glasses as well thank you for that and we'll see them on another what's the next one 20 45 I
006think doesn't come close to us though so maybe it's true true um at 45 Center they uh they have a March Madness but they also involve reading books this is where students read two books a day and then they kind of do a vote and they now WR down much like the brackets that we're all used to um which I'm usually out by Friday afternoon when it starts on Thursday but uh the students here this they had a little pep rally at the end where the students then went to do some basket shots again a great opportunity for students to continue to read and then have some fun and share on their classmates uh the middle school had a wellness fair I don't want to put Mrs uh Sig freed on the spot as she
007is here this evening um but again another opportunity for all of our students six 7th and eighth grade local community groups coming in and talking about Wellness as a part of the uh the experience is at the middle school so thank you for doing that a little plug here for the Education Foundation every year it's going to happen soon we start to see our district um litered with sence throughout in terms of this is the sign for this year that was the the selected one from our our group of seniors that work with the High School administration but this is an opportunity for sponsorship to help cover the cost of the signs the Ed Foundation um assist with that the sponsor opportunity for for businesses for individuals um and then been keeping track over the
008last couple years there also a senior sign at the end that the seniors take home with their picture on it um so it lines the walkway down to graduation um with graduation an email just went out to our staff inviting all staff that work in all of our buildings in all of the positions if they would like to sit on the field at graduation to participate as we know it's not just the high school we appreciate the high school's work but it's also all of our teachers all of our staff all the way up um to participate in uh in graduation and cheer on the students so uh we're excited for for June 5th I'm sure everyone's excited for uh June 5th 6th and 7th and then head up for summer but if you have
009interested this will be in the uh in the community blast as well continue to ask and and stress the importance of registering for uh kindergarten registration the sooner that we have the registrations in um uh the better we can we will be able to staff and get the our staffing and hiring done for any new positions that that may be needed based upon the the class side so that information is all available on the website and we'll try to make that as painless as possible um but don't wait don't wait till uh July or August please try to come in if you can early and then the final Community conversation of the school year is on uh Wednesday April 17th ice cream looks really good right now yeah um and that that'll be the final
010one of the year so we've had some real good success this year um couple of the sessions that were move to the evening we're very well attended 10 12 14 15 community members that were here which is appreciated um and we'll continue to modify that for next year and move forward with uh with continuing to be available and have conversations with the community so again that that one is out there for uh next Wednesday and then we'll wrap up with artsfest this coming that's uh Tuesday May 7th 8th 9th and 10th through the middle school and high school I think I added if I shared this before but this year we have put a little bit of time more time in between the um the the concerts to allow traffic to come in and out
011as well as uh providing shuttle bus service from The High School tennis parking lot area over to the Middle School to help with uh little overp parking that's there people do Park on both sides of the middle school they Park in the bus area which is fine as well as uh in the regular parking area so we're excited about as you just heard one of the best communities for for music now you're going to also come out and see not only the musicians but also the artists Tech head and all the programs that are going on both at at the middle school for Arc to 8 and then at the high school for 9 12 so we invite everyone to participate and be a part of that and then finally on uh April 24th there's
012an Autism panel that we continue to put out our our people Services Department continues to put out and support parent programs and this is just another one of of an opportunity for our families and and uh to uh to listen and learn more and support students with autism so please that information will be out there welcome to attend and that's it for this month okay thank you that was pretty good all right uh we'll move over to our super our student representative to the board report okay so we have a lot of good things to report for this month so the sophomore business tours concluded this week and it gave students a real world look into local businesses um Thursday the 18th is the National Honor Society ceremony for the Western Center students and the
01323rd uh is Special Olympics at the high school it's from 8:00 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. May 1st um we will have a pep rally at 7:30 right before they go to the big Special Olympics for them prom is on May 3rd at the Bear Creek Resort it's 600 to 11 o'clock and then we have artsfest which is May 7th to the 9th for elementary and middle school students so all of that will be at the middle school and then May 9th to the 10th is at the high school so it'll also have the Jazz Band the award ceremony and the music recital and then we have a new addition to Arts week which will be Club Couture's second fashion show this year it'll be in the audon at 6 o' so please come see what
014everyone's doing everyone's worked really hard and I'm very excited to see how it goes so that concludes my report thank you and I'm are you in charge of that okay just thought i' had to mention that and thank you all right Mr Summers could we have our solicitors report Sunshine act announcements please yes thank you um the board did meet in a virtual executive session on April 4th 2024 uh and again in person just prior to tonight's meeting for the purpose of Consulting with legal counsel And discussing a matter of school security um and then by way of of normal announcements is that there are uh two public comment opportunities for residents and taxpayers of the school district to speak at tonight's meeting uh the the two comment opportunities there's one toward the beginning of
015the meeting that is comment just on item items that are being voted upon on the agenda tonight and then there's another opportunity later in the meeting uh for anyone who wishes to comment on other matters of concern that while not being voted on tonight might come before the board at some future date um the public comment is limited to three minutes per person um I have a sign that I'll hold up in indicating how much time you have left if you do wish to make comment during either period of time you do need to fill out one of our sign up sign up sheets they're located in the back of the room they need to be turned in prior to the start of the comment period and there is a box uh right next to
016the screen where you would turn those sign up sheets in and that concludes my report thank you all right we'll move on to presentations and discussions uh Mr kwig if you'd like to come up please our athletic director of Athletics good evening first just want to thank the school board for allowing uh some of our student athletes that had some good success this winter uh we had some great individual success this past winter and uh we have four of our athletes and their coaches here tonight so uh the first coach is our girls wrestling coach Omar parda uh with kayn Adair oh um thought it was for me sorry um so good evening uh I just wanted to uh come here and uh mention a couple things first of all I am and I know
017Ken as well just grateful for the opportunity that uh you gave us this year for the girls wrestling team it was uh such a blessing for me and I obviously I'm don't want to speak for K but I I know her pretty well and uh I'm sure it's the same um the girls all year um you know over almost close to 30 girls uh middle School and High School uh just learned so much about uh and life lessons the you know not just uh toughness but you know confidence and and uh some humility as well and uh resilience you know so um besides that uh we came in as a team second out of 44 in the district for a first year program it's pretty impressive um and again that's due to the hard work
018of those those girls uh they were just uh amazing this year and you know one of the architects of this was right next to me uh Kaylin if it wasn't for kayin and uh our assistant coach Mark Smith uh this probably wouldn't have happened and you know first year to have someone make it to the state tournament uh is uh yeah overly impressive uh for that um and a senior we're all get obviously Gonna Miss Her leadership um probably one of the most selfless uh girls that you will ever uh meet and uh it was just an honor for me to coach haen D and I guess I give this to her no thank you oh sorry Ken when you're done your picture if you would like to say a few words you can you
019don't have to but you you can if you want to thank you all right there she goes you got put her on the spot uh I would just like to say thank you for uh this opportunity it was definitely a great season um and I wouldn't have been able to make it to the state tournament without the help of Coach PDA and all the effort that he put into the team uh I'm really going to miss all of them next year but I'll be back thank you our next sport is boys wrestling uh Brandon rosansky and Shawn Murray with our head high school coach Steve Adam who was also the coach of the year in the league for the frontier division all right uh thank you everyone for inviting these two uh fine uh student
020athletes uh to be honored this evening I'm gonna start first with uh Shawn Murray sorry um you know for a freshman this wrestler is is as poised and as talented as they come um um you know his mental toughness you know helped him be extremely successful this year and you know he's always setting goals uh like on a weekly basis of what he wants to achieve and how he wants to get better and how he's going to accomplish that um the season his record was 37 and 10 he had 18 pins and um those 37 wins and 18 pins were uh the co- um Team leading uh in those two uh statistical categories so for a freshman that's pretty impressive um sea was also a pack individual champion and um you know to win that
021tournament is is quite an honor um in the postseason uh Shawn was a district one North runner up and he finished sixth in the Southeast regional tournament uh only being one win away from qualifying for the state tournament so uh that's what I wanted to speak on for Sean okay next is uh Brandon rosanski know he's on this side all right uh this wrestler is pretty well known throughout the state of Pennsylvania um some of you might remember him being here last year um you know his his skill set is definitely going to transition well uh to the college level and we're certainly going to miss him uh on our team in our room his leadership um you know all also this senior Captain also led the team in many different statistical categories uh he
022shared the co- uh Team leading wins with 37 so both these guys had 37 wins this year which is pretty impressive number um Brandon led the team in winning percentage he led the team in technical Falls which is defeating your opponent by 15 points or more so he is a scoring machine uh which leads me to my next thing which is he also led the team in takedown so he's very dominant uh wrest on his feet which is really what uh college coaches are looking for um Brandon was also a pack individual Champion as well as as Shawn so we got some similarities here with these uh with these two uh Elite wrestlers um as far as Brandon's postseason he was a district one North runner up uh he was also a Southeast Regional Champion
023he was the first Regional champ of our perk has had in nine years so that's pretty awesome um Brandon finished his a career with 117 wins and was a three-time paa state qualifier thank you I'm pretty sure I asked last year but what are you gonna do Brandon where you gonna go I'm either gonna go to Long Island Clarion West uh Central Michigan or West Virginia and I'm going to major in health and F fette good for you good for you give my an speed which is this Saturday yeah they're good guys yeah congrats guys all right last but not least we have uh Brian Kowski who is our uh swimming head coach and Hunter Francisco uh good evening uh before I start I just want to say thank you to all of you for
024your support um not only this year but I've been doing this for 11 years here in the district and uh you know you've really helped our program with the support that you've uh provided to not only my water pole players but my swimmers over the years as well so that goes to all the administrators School Board community members uh it is deeply appreciated by myself and my swim team um so tonight we're here to honor uh Hunter as our district one daa uh champion in the 500 freestyle um a little backstory on this uh the young man who finished second to Hunter at districts beat Hunter at a dual meet um probably before it was before Christmas time one of our last du meets before Christmas break by about two seconds Hunter at districts beat
025that young man by six seconds yeah so we you know Hunter and I talked throughout the uh the season as we got closer to districts what do you want to swim he qualified in a number of different events which in itself is a is an accomplish M um and you know there was a sense on my part you know having done this a number of years that Hunter could beat this kid you know it was a good race in in December and I thought you know what you know I think you can take them um and Hunter did and he dropped his time in the 500 free at District 17.36% for a 25 yard pull that's pretty much a lap ahead of somebody else you know 17 second maybe a lap and a half you
026know depending upon the swimmer um Hunter is a great leader for our swim team he's a great leader on my Polo team as well uh the nice thing is Hunter is only a junior uh so we have him back uh again next year um we do make the move from double A to triaa next year and um Hunter District time would have still gotten him to state in AAA this year um one last Accolade for Hunter um you know they only take 32 of the top swimmers in able a and triaa every single year in these events Hunter finished 13th in the entire state of Pennsylvania for doublea swimmers and earned All State honorable mention uh in the process of doing that so um it's not easy to get there in any way shape or
027form it takes a lot of laps a lot of hours you know I'm sure they're screaming under the water with some of the practices that we do uh but hard work does pay off and the dedication and the time commitment to get there um is an example uh that Hunter shows each and every day in the water to the rest of his teammates um so nice job h hey Hunter Hunter um I don't know how you swim the 500 I I mean just remind everyone how many laps that is uh wow yeah I I coach swimming in my former life and whenever the 500 would come around the announcer would say now's a good time to go to the concession stand and you know I mean I it I I'm just blown away by um
028just phenomenal thank you for doing that and Coach I just want to make sure I mentioned that you give us the best updates and we appreciate that every sport can do that it's really nice to see those emails in there and and all the accomplishments that you do it's perfect perfect thank you congratulations all right that's it thank you again if it ever stops raining hopefully we'll have some spring Sports to come back in in a couple months so thank you thank you um anybody that doesn't want to stay for the whole meeting we won't we won't be upset if you want to go home thought i' give you that out thank you and thank you for coming and families thank you for coming here it's great to have something fun to look at and
029and they're great we need more I know this is a this is great okay now we'll move back to the regular meeting uh we don't have any public comments on action items so we'll move on to the approval of tonight's agenda but I have a motion motion go ahead any discussion all in favor I any opposed okay so we have an agenda I'd like to get an approval for the March 14th 20124 School Board regular meeting minutes motion okay any discussion hearing none all in favor I any opposed okay um I still believe we have old business on about the transportation module upgrade um but it's not time yet I don't believe Jen Malone in here if she's not I okay I thought so I thought i' saw you back there so we're not ready
030we're not ready yet oh okay good excellent okay that's fine we got new computers at work Friday I get it I get it yeah so Mr Malone does does March 9th I mean sorry May 9th seemed like a possibility for an update okay thank you thanks John all right we move on to new business we have Personnel reports uh we have appointments can I make a motion to do the personal report in its entirety you may do I have a second second any discussion all in favor all right any opposed okay motions carry um we'll move on to action items uh we have motion to approve the following board policy and administrative regulations retirements repeals Replacements and adoptions motion second is there any discussion okay with that uh all in favor I I any opposed
031okay motions carried uh I would like a motion to approve lein Fran motion thank you second any discussion hearing none all in favor uh any opposed thank you Leah okay motion to approve the upsd 2024 to 2027 special education plan motion second any discussion yeah I had asked about this attachment and I'm still not convinced that I saw the correct attachment for this so I don't I don't know that I could approve that but I just it didn't look familiar to me I'm on that committee and I didn't and I emailed and asked about it but I didn't hear a response in time so yeah you emailed me yesterday I did respond to today that it was later in the afternoon so not not surprised yes that was on the February EPS meeting Mrs Giblin
032was there and shared an overview I don't believe she shared the full report okay but the the um I agree that it's it's a clunky document 105 pages of data but that those are actually screenshots of everything that the team has to put into the pte system um so there are plans in there it talks about mtss it talks about the discrep model and then it goes through each building and the number of teachers and the number of classrooms and and all of that so what you're seeing there is the clunky version of an online piece that that the team is responsible for special ed team when we do comprehensive planning it's the same thing um we would all love to not have to use that system but that's the system that uh that goes
033into that so that is the print out um and I confirmed that with Dr finina earlier today as well uh and just as a reminder we originally the special ed plan was and we talked about it in EPS was approved um uh in 2022 but we talked about at the time in EPS that was out of cycle um and this was just a resubmission um to get us back on cycle because typically you have more years that you would have to do that so but we just had to be compliant with them so and and as Dr Roach indicated it is there's a lot of compliance related information that we're obligated to provide um to the state so we do distill it at EPS to present the high level um pieces around professional development resources
034programming and and that was the nature of Mrs giblin's presentation so we didn't have any takers um for the 30-day uh overview where we laid it out so people could see it though probably because it is um very overwhelming to read and you needed lots of of coffee to get through well okay I read it but it just didn't make sense to me much of it is compliance related data that we input at their request square footage I mean really all of that's required okay any other comments I have a first and a second all in favor I any opposed I'm gonna vote no just because I would need more time but okay all right all right so motion passes uh next we'll move to motion president I make a motion to do D the
035Pediatric th therapeutic services e the special education services F the resolution to appoint uh Drew bishop and Megan Moyer as delegates to the County tax collection committee and the motion to approve the chis drivers second okay any discussion all in favor I any opposed okay motions passed we move on Megan if you could come up Megan moer uh we'll work on our financial reports right good evening attached to tonight's agenda are the March 2024 Financial reports which include the operating and cash reports and the payroll and cafeteria reports also included is the general fund list of payments totaling 5,788 563 and next is a payment from the capital projects fund for fencing for the softball field totaling $3 35,5 and lastly there is a list of exonerated tax bills totaling $2,761 77 any questions thanks
036Megan uh could I have a motion motion second any discussion hearing none go if I may ask Mr Howard are you able to give us a quick update I know I saw an email today about the softball safety net is that coming down to close to the end of the uh time frame I know we're waiting on weather thank you understood thank you great thank you okay all in favor I any opposed all right so move we don't have any new followup items I do have a couple of public comments uh Randy baps to come on up hello uh I'm I'm Randy bapst of upper Handover pensburgh um I am thankful that after the last board meeting the curriculum director uh showed me the uh new science K through 5 curriculum um and I'm glad
037it's being refreshed it sounds like it's been like 10 years or so um since that's been updated uh it sounds like it's one of the very few programs out there which meet the newest Pennsylvania standards for foundational science um it looks like there's lots of Hands-On activities I went through the different high level um items that are in the curriculum and nothing I wouldn't expect from things being taught to Children K through five um so I hope that goes through and uh glad to see that being updated that's allk you thank you okay Chris Telly you could come on up and hit the microphone on please yep thank you good evening everybody my name's ch on Itali I'm resident of pensburgh burough I appreciate the opportunity to talk to you guys tonight I did submit
038a question yesterday online I haven't got a response as of 7 o'clock tonight so I'm going to ask you now um at the March 18th 2024 committee meeting um there uh question came up about the pride flag and there was a majority of the directors uh Miss Cunningham Miss Penny Packer Mr mccarrick Miss chanfron Miss McCormack and Mr prao uh all voted in favor of the pride Flags to be hung in classrooms what I would like to know and I and I posed this question was um to what legal Authority did this government oversight board have to authorize this motion to allow these flags um I didn't find anything in any of the school codes so I was kind of looking to try to get some answers to my question we don't usually do back
039and forth but I'm sure you'll get an answer in board comment okay all right well I I have to tell you I'm I'm I'm disappointed um the action that was taken um we're supposed to be here educating and right there it says every student matters and some of this stuff I don't think takes everybody every student into light um we're supposed to be here educating not playing with flags um to me this is political even though you say not I believe it is it's all stemmed from this Administration not this Administration but the you know the federal Administration and um it's our children's Futures that are in your hands and um I have grandchildren and I'm fighting for them as well and uh I appreciate your attention and I look forward to an answer thank
040you thank you VI mccarrick hello Vicky mccarrick pensburgh I'm here tonight to tell you um that the upper peren Business and Professional Women's organization actually gave one of your students first place Aaron RL for women in history essay she was amazing we should be very proud of the students that we are producing here at upper perk because I'll tell you when you give them this chance to show and to shine they do so thank you so much and I wanted to let you know about one of your students thanks that's great that's awesome yeah let's yeah exactly all right that's all I have for for uh public comment we have any board comments all right um uh first I actually want to specifically she's not here but I wanted to thank give a shout out
041I guess to Mrs Lurch for her contribution to the music program here at upper perk and I wanted to offer my personal congratulations to the whole music program staff for earning the best communities for music education award um Mrs Lurch has had a profound impact on my own two children who are in the orchestra and have had the benefit of experiencing the love of music with her during covid some of you might know this Mrs Lurch made a beautiful effort that went above and beyond the call of Educators to come to each child's home including mine to hear each musician so I just wanted to give her a little shout out and the whole music program um additionally I've prepared some remarks that pertain to an action item on our upcoming board meeting which will
042offer some information to consider for all decision makers and community members in regard to the introduction of a new science curriculum for grades K through five the curriculum director has proposed a new science curriculum to be adopted for use in grades kindergarten through five at a proposed cost of $238,000 that is developed by a company called amplify the curriculum director at upper perk explained that there were features of the curriculum that the staff really liked and she said that the staff was disinterested in entertaining the idea of staying with the current company Foss when I asked the curriculum director if she had researched the mission statement of amplify she said no she hadn't when I asked how long she would estimate a marriage to a certain curriculum to last she said maybe five or six
043years I personally think that if you expect a relationship to last five or six years you should research the mission statement um amplifies mission statement includes their commitment to [Music] DEA their website States amplifies is committed to diversity Equity inclusion and accessibility which is deia um in the culture we build the people we hire and the products and services we provide for educators and students um those who are not in the field of Education might not understand some of the acronyms like Dei and deia um and if Dei diversity equity and inclusion really stood for those actual words I would F support that but Dei is an initiative that is divisive and it's being banned in more and more institutions every day there's a reason why more than half of this country has passed bills
044or has bills in place or on the table sorry to ban Dei as I reached uh no as I researched amplify and their commitment to accessibility which is the a um which they tagged on to their Dei commitment I believe what they mean is that they offer various ways for teachers to essentially differentiate their instruction and differentiate is an older sort of buzzword in education from the last maybe two decades I don't see a problem with providing accessibility in practice it looks like providing enrichment for High Flyers and or providing content maybe in a different language for an elll student that's an English language learner or perhaps providing some content in smaller chunks for Learners who might benefit from that a mission statement is just one important factor that should be considered when we're talking
045about spending tax dollar money for the purpose of educating our children another factor to consider is who is behind this company what are the voices that have spoken into the development of the curriculum we want to offer our children as factual and sound and as an example of things we want our children to consider as good and beneficial to their educational experience who are the voices that we are choosing to give $238,000 to because we firmly trust their expertise and their virtue in the world of Education in this case the curriculum director at upper perk school district is asking taxpayers to give $238,000 to amplify which is owned by the Emerson Collective which was established and is owned by the well-known left-wing political activist Loren Powell jobs the wife of the late Steve Jobs Loren
046Powell jobs also owns Andor owns a controlling stake in the following left-wing media Outlets the Atlantic Mother Jones The Marshall Project and prua you might wonder why a political activist who is not an educator would want to develop curriculum I wondered that too asking that question led me to research who the leaders are in the em n Collective maybe it is a group of Educators who really want to help ensure students have access to a solid fact-based education however I found that the staff of the Emerson Collective actually includes several notable politicians including the education secretary from Obama's administration the assistant education secretary for civil rights in the Obama Administration the head of General services from the Obama Administration and the communications director for Hill Hillary Clinton's 2016 presidential campaign as an educator with 23
047years of experience in the field experience that includes both selecting and writing curriculum I would say it wouldn't be totally fair to throw out a curriculum just based on where it's coming from as a critical educator I would ask whether or not the education provided actually indicates a political leaning in the content so I asked the question and I asked to see the curriculum the curriculum director has put out materials for only two of the grades for public display and if I'm incorrect there I I have no knowledge of that that's all I saw that was out grade kindergarten and grade five um I did review those materials and I requested to see grades one two three and four I was informed that I would have to sit next to the curriculum director while she
048would show me on her computer the materials for grades 1 two 3 and four I didn't find that method to be acceptable to me I don't think it makes sense for me to rely on someone else to show me what they think I should see side note Mrs best is a lovely woman and I would not mind sitting next to her I just feel like that's really not the appropriate way to review curriculum I would prefer to review that on my own the curriculum uh director has stated that one reason the teachers wanted to use the curriculum from amplify is because it lines up with the Pennsylvania state standards for science technology engineering and environmental literacy and sustainability steals which seems to make sense however with amplifies published commitment to Dei had to wonder if
049they were subscribing to another set of Standards which are called the social justice standards the social justice standards are not required by the state of Pennsylvania or any state as far as I can see this the social justice standards were created by the Southern Poverty Law Center and in my research I found that amplifi does subscribe to the Southern Poverty Law Center social justice standards but in their K through five English curriculum and I feel like that might be a specialty curriculum that you would have to order that would include those um standards but we're not addressing English we're addressing science overall um I would just like to encourage my fellow board members to conduct their own thorough investigation of curriculum and any other social initiatives that the Upper Park School District administration asks us
050to approve it's our role as board members to provide oversight and not to rubber stamp everything they put in front of us I personally just if I could speak for one moment as a mom and Community member I'm personally surprised to see what this district has already slipped in unnoticed and unquestioned I would urge each board member to use their sense of discernment and I know I'm in good company I've met all of you and gotten a chance to talk to all of you a little bit um I know you're all here for a reason um I'm just encouraging you to dig a Little Deeper especially on the social initiatives it's important um let's see I speak for many community members when I say that I am concerned and I Endeavor to earn back the
051trust of this community in doing my due diligence that's it thank you thanks um anyone else okay yes oh uh we did have a number of uh students recognized here tonight I just like to remind you that we also have a number of students down at the Western Center and JP and I were talking on the way in we might want to invite some of those to one of our board meetings so we can them from down there also they are our students all the students down there are our students in a sense um in response to public comment and rubber and um approving Flags it's not that I approve Flags I decided not to ban anything American flag is displayed in every classroom you know plain and simple um some of the other flags
052are there to give kids confidence or give them an idea where they can go to talk for whatever issues they may have I may not endorse everything but I'm not going to ban anything just for hell of it unless like Nazi symbols things like that which are recognized hate symbols you know I will never endorse anything like that um as far as uh curriculum I did go and look at the curriculum I did review it you know I do that a lot of times I do do the background work I'm sure a number of the others here do also um but Trina is correct you know everybody should do their homework and make sure you know what you're looking at you know just as she questioned the document tonight I read through most of that
053105 page document fell asleep with three times as I going through it but um you know it is a very cumbersome difficult thing to read so you know congratulations for trying to make it through it you you read you said exactly what I wrote down we're not approving we're just not disapproving because as our sign says every student matters so if one student feels better safer happier then there's no reason not to and just to add on that you know there are many things that have been corrupted over the years there's no denying about that um the actual Nazi swashed symbol was originally a Oriental um charm symbol if I remember correctly the way I read it many years ago um many of the flags have been corrupted in one way or another and just
054recently I read an article about how people are upset about many different things 911 I think we all remember that date how many people were lost First Responders things like that there's a fire department in New York that for many years had a flag on the back of their engine flying with it and they had a red stripe going through the midle middle of it the fireman's flag basically that you see many many places they also had the individuals names who they lost posted on the back of their truck um a few years ago somebody in New York went and called somebody a task on it saying they didn't like it you know and uh the fireman had to take it down for a while and then a few months later somebody realized that you
055know that's not racism that's not hurting anybody you know it's a symbol of respect and fireman were able to put it back on so a lot of things are open to interpretation and I hope we can all reflect on those things thank you anyone else and well said okay if not then I would call for a a motion to adjourn motion all in favor I any opposed thank you thank you everyone for