001good evening i now call the october 25th meeting of the wallingford swarthmore school board to order in opening as you're willing and able please rise and join me in the pledge of allegiance i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america and to the republic for which it stands one nation under god indivisible with liberty all right i would like to start by asking ms fagor to take the roll call mrs crusoe here mr henry mr cutis here mrs lentz here mr sullivan yeah miss vote miss walkman here smith dr grandy here mr berman president dr marseille mr darson here dr randy there's nine voting members present all right thank you mr aguero all right we will start with our student representatives report uh mr darson from elementary fall festivals to middle
002school and high school spirit weeks october has been fun-filled and it flew by it wasn't all fun and games though last week dr marseille and i met up to talk about some of the changes we could make to the transportation setup in order to make it feel a little more safer for students we had a really productive session and came up with many potential solutions additionally the student council got to meet with dr marseille to talk about some of the pressures and problems that they notice at the school this got me thinking what is something that could be improved to make future strathaven graduates lives easier this past summer the high school went through construction and the new offices and entrances look amazing now but this new renovation doesn't fit in with some of the
003other areas of the building i think that a trailer renovation is something that the school board should look into doing over the next few years to give you a taste of what learning in the trailers feels like every tour we get we feel obligated to let students know that there's an extremely muddy floor during the spring and there's a year-round smell of sweat that fills the hallway as we walk in we get an excellent education over in the high school and i think that it's time that our building reflected that thank you all right thank you uh next we move on to our superintendent's report dr marseille thank you i have a short report uh tonight because i do want to um allow some time for our our topic um which is a test to
004say program but i wanted to share uh really quickly um uh that i enjoyed my conversation um with the community members that uh that showed up to our um to our our sessions as you can see uh some of the sessions were um under the stars or under the lights in terms of that so i really encourage i'm encouraged with respects to the ability to create the conditions to speak and uh but you know there was one thing that that concerned me um out of this conversation um a a parent um at the end of the meeting um and we were you know what usually happens after meetings um you end up having another meeting at the parking lot all right and um what that parent shared with me kind of i thought about this
005as a community member since i live in the community and i thought i wouldn't want a community to make me feel that way based on what this parent said and that parents said that there were times where they feel as though they are an outsider a minority and that their views may not be welcomed because they may be so different than others um and that concerns me on a lot of levels no one should be made to feel that way regardless of their perspective regardless of their viewpoint um so i once again say this and i've said this before as a community uh that um though in that conversation we um we agreed on some things but we disagreed on a lot of things all right and and that's fine but the fact that this
006parent didn't feel as though this community accepted um uh that perspective or the willingness to listen that perspective uh concerns me uh and i and i think about that um when individuals share stories with me i i really take them to heart i i think i don't get into the position where i say oh that's only one person saying that i think that there are probably more voices out there just not willing and brave enough to come out and do that so i um call on all of us to think about um as we develop this sense and this commitment for uh diversity equity and inclusion it is around diversity of thought as well right and that we may disagree with some perspectives but individuals should feel welcome to share those perspectives um across uh
007across the board so um overall it was a great experience but that one comment uh resonated with me from that community member because i want that person to feel like a neighbor and be receptive and be well heard regardless of that individual's stance but i also know that there was a hunger and a desire to have more conversation and more dialogue and oftentimes opposing views prevent and scare individuals from having conversations and um i'm not one of those so i i don't mind creating uh the space we might walk out with no resolution but we've heard each other um and i've i've asked my team and uh to make sure moving forward that we create those spaces uh in every single department uh and sometimes what we call um uh these open forums which is
008an opportunity to say it's your agenda tell us what you want to talk about what's on your heart what's in your head and how do we think through that we can't promise uh answers and solutions at night but we can commit to hearing you and i think that's important because if we don't know how to talk to each other around the simple things just getting to know you as a neighbor how hard is it going to be to have conversations about some of those tough conversations uh some of the things that we really disagree on and that's okay um but we have to get there first all right so oftentimes i communities come together after something happens right and then when i try to resolve it but i've never talked to you about other issues
009that have nothing to do with this so how do i get to know you and i think we need to create more space for that so i'm looking forward to that opportunity i know that our hsas and ptos and other organizations are are right on board with trying to create that space so i just wanted to share that but that comment did resonate with me i mean there was a lot of beautiful comments right one comment a parent um who said you know um that parent has a child with dyslexia and said um listen i don't think the district is doing enough um and um imagine if we were the best school in the country for supporting children with dyslexia and i said repeat that again because i was powerful and i said um imagine
010if this district was the best district in supporting students with and then stop fill it with whatever else that you want and that's how powerful that is so that resonated with me too so it was a great conversations and i'm i'm hoping that we can have uh some more of those um uh wanted to uh share some uh some dates uh in terms of some meetings that are are coming up um with educational affairs we really encourage you to come out to these sessions because these are and i know your nights are are really jam-packed um but we really encourage you to come out and wear in these committees the way in which we are re-evaluating reassessing uh these committees is that a lot of the media conversation takes place so when in when individuals
011come to the board these particular board sessions it seems like we're running through agenda items and some might say we're rubber stamping some things what i share with you is that so much of the conversation happened in those particular committee meetings and you see some of those dates specifically this conversation around the school calendar i've heard a lot of emails and inquiries about the calendar um what's our stance on the calendar why do we do certain things the way we do um i know i'm sure students want a longer spring break i've heard that uh in terms of that process right um i know schools on fridays for the rest of the year i've heard that too but there's there's some really a good conversation that needs to take place and that first meeting is
012to get your sense of what's working what's not working for you on the calendar as we get back uh and then come back again in december and have some additional well we've heard here are some recommendations with respects to with respects to that um we also want to make sure that um you're aware of our finance and facilities committee uh and those are the dates uh right there we encourage you to come to those because those are great conversations uh to be had as we think about our facilities uh in terms of maintenance but think about our facilities in terms of future planning and my student rep just left but uh the whole idea about a whiff of what did she describe it as something a locker room smell sweat yes yes right um that's
013not a good thing i've been in those type of locker rooms and it's not um maybe as an athlete you get used to it but if you're not it could pull you back so um uh we talk about that right and obviously nothing more than i'd love is to um uh put up a brand new addition um for our students in our community that deserve that right but there are some things that we need to take care of and we talk about that in facilities and finance and obviously finance is extremely uh important as we struggle with the deficit and what does that mean for us as a district at the same time this community is committed to ensuring that the quality of service that they've become accustomed to maintains itself but the dollars are
014not coming in as quickly as they're going out in terms of expenditure so a lot of great conversation that happens there the policy committee i'm excited it's taking me a little bit longer i apologize to get that up and running um compared to the other policies but um did meet with some individuals from the board who were part of that committee last year and trying to think about what happened last year how we move forward with policies um you know the board has um wears many hats and i've said that at the end of the day it boils down to three to four fundamental core responsibilities one of those is to review adopt review write and adopt policy right that shapes the way in which your district moves forward so all those conversations about what
015you like what you don't like what you agree with we don't agree they have their hands somewhere in a policy uh so we are looking at um and i said tbd because we usually meet the fourth wednesday unfortunately in november that's right before thanksgiving break right there then december is right before the winter break i don't think anyone's gonna join me at 7 pm um the day before we go on uh before we go on break so we're going to try to change that date but we did keep the remainder of the the new year dates intact so we do ask that you find an opportunity to join us we will uh and i know one of my board members uh i'm gonna call her out amy caruso who's really intentional about uh where are
016they posted are they online so individuals can can come out to those meetings so we'll make sure that um in addition to tonight that they will appear uh on the board website for those dates as as well and i see deirdre over there typing so i'm sure it's going up as we uh as we speak um and then some important dates um october 29th we have three hour early dismissal for our k uh through eight students while our teachers remain and in service k through eight but um the high school will follow a regular uh bell uh schedule uh and of course um november 2nd election day we have no school for students k through but our teachers will be here for uh for professional development uh opportunities uh so with that um that um
017concludes my superintendent's report and we can move on uh dr granty the next uh next topic so thank you great thank you um so that takes us to we uh a focus topic that we have this evening which is uh a proposal for a test to stay program do you want to introduce that yeah so we've been looking at and i think this is not the first time this district um like many districts uh working to think um more critically about ways in which to better support the way we navigate this uh kovit 19 uh dilemma that we uh that we are currently in uh thank you um and one of the things that we what we wanted to take a look at was a test to stay program that has been adopted by all
018the districts in delaware county and montgomery county um and i think it provides tremendous advantage for us in terms of keeping students in school as a close contact so i've asked mrs uh fagora who's my assistant the superintendent and uh our lead nurse uh miss sweeney um who's been phenomenal throughout this whole entire process i don't think you sleep you know why because i don't sleep because i'm on the phone with you um so thank you for everything you do so i've asked them to kind of share highlights about where we've been with some of our data and then uh miss weenie will talk about the test to say program and what we'd like to move forward with very very soon okay good evening everyone like dr marseille mentioned ms sweeney and i are here
019tonight to introduce a new district mitigation strategy called test to stay and i'm going to handle the first part of the presentation i'm going to cover county transmission rates or vaccination rates and the district's coveted ms sweeney is going to focus on the test to stay program protocols and requirements we're going to start our presentation off with our district mission and vision so starting with the delaware county community transmission rates our seven day metrics have not changed very much we are still in a high transmission level as you can see our cases have gone down a little bit and our new hospital emissions also have gone down however our positivity rate has ticked up a little bit but also our eligible population are fully vaccinated has also gone up currently our student vaccination percentages are
020being uh like up by one or two percentage points as we go through here there are students who are eligible for vaccinations in grades 7 through 12. like the county vaccinations we're making some slow but sure progress with our vaccination rates and again a lot of this i think has to do with when miss sweeney does her contact tracing she is able to find out if students are vaccinated or not either through information from the state or from parents reporting that their students are vaccinated so i'm going to start first with the staff flu shots we have uh a partnership with springfield pharmacy and what we're doing on october 29th is miss sweeney has provided the flu shots and single shots to the staff taking piggy backing off the vaccination rates there's still the leading
021prevention strategy to end the pandemic and as part of our board approved district health and safety plan the district is committed to working with the springfield pharmacy and local agencies to support and coordinate our local vaccination we're doing this for students and community members and we're helping to support those vaccines for any child or family member who wants to get vaccinated so springfield pharmacy has agreed to support our proposed student and community vaccination clinics on november 29th december 20th and january 12th and if families haven't already done so the vaccination interest survey was due by today we are trying to gauge interest in this vaccination clinic the survey can be found under forms in power school the district is also encouraging though any existing and eligible students and staff to consult with a physician regarding
022the covid19 vaccine our secondary numbers so even though our vaccination numbers have improved and as cases are identified we still are continuing to contact trace and quarantine students until testing can be done and our results are shared contact tracing honestly continues to be a challenge looking at our numbers our student enrollment is at the top for our secondary numbers and right now if you look even though we had 19 students which only makes up 1.5 percent of the cases we have 293 students who have been identified as the close contact which is almost 24 that's the highest in the district the close contacts at the high school level 52 uh students have been excluded from in-person instruction which you'll see as i go through this it's a little bit higher at the elementary level surprisingly
023and knock on wood right miss sweeney we have zero cases that have been reported at the middle school and very few close contacts and exclusions and a lot of these are because of maybe students at the high school or students at the elementary schools they might have a sibling who was in the middle school and that's how they became a close contact [Music] so at the elementary level many of these numbers for close contacts and exclusion are a result of out-of-school exposures things that we could not contact trace or we struggled to contact trace with this and at the elementary level we have a large number of students that had to be assigned remote learning and have been excluded due to the fact of being in quarantine most of our elementary students also are unvaccinated
024and so because of that they make up most of our in-person instruction exclusion i know miss sweeney's going to address a lot of these numbers again in her presentation as it relates to the test to stay program so in order to keep close contact asymptomatic students and staff in school our pandemic team is recommending the test to stay program to help mitigate the potential number of students and staff who could be out due to positive cases and contact tracing issues looking at the exclusion numbers test estate largely supports the importance of in-person schooling for kids and provides a less disruptive way to minimize risk beyond sending students or staff home at this time i'm going to hand the second part of the presentation over to miss sweeney to explain the test to stay program and
025the test estate program is supported by the cdc as well as there's many school districts in delaware and montgomery county that are using this program in their schools so to explain the test to stay program it's a mitigation strategy that helps identify sars kobe 2 which is otherwise known as covid19 as an infectious process within the school system the goal of the program is to maintain in-person instruction participation in extracurriculars and athletics it is a voluntary program and does require consent and as miss figueroa said it is supported by the pennsylvania department of health the cdc the chop policy lab as well as being adopted by our districts throughout delaware county and montgomery county the first thing you have to look at is who meets the definition of a close contact and what is that
026definition a closed contact is determined by proximity and time so first you look at someone who was less than six feet away from an individual that was laboratory confirmed as a covid19 case then you say how long were they with the person they have to meet that 15 minute mark in 24 hour period that is not a set one time event that is 15 minute cumulative over 24-hour period which is very important to remember a person who is infected with covid19 is infectious for 48 hours prior to either the onset of symptoms or the asymptomatic test state is where you begin contact tracing the exception in the educational system by the cdc is the k through 12 setting where the positive individual the infectious individual as well as the exposed individual are fully masked and
027that allows for no quarantining that exception does not apply to adults teachers staff or in any other setting but the classroom so if you look at busing you look at extracurriculars you look at athletics all of those would be considered a close contact when you look at the program it is to maintain in-person learning there's a set of 10-day period in which testing will occur it is voluntary it is using the binex now rapid and is a hundred percent optional so what are the requirements for tests to stay it's for an asymptomatic individual in order to test so they cannot have any symptoms they use the binex now rapid antigen testing system which will be given by our trained staff the people that are participating in the program will be tested on days one through
028two three through four and five through seven they must maintain their mask for the full ten days for those individuals that are experiencing challenges wearing masks those individuals have the uh have the ability to test as well on day eight through ten to complete the program so upon notification of an in-school-related cobit 19 they'll receive the testing process they're going to receive an email that they were notified as a close contact if they are positive they will then enter the isolation period and if feasible schools would provide either an alternate location for meals or an added physical distancing within the cafeteria space for those participating in the program and once again it's optional but does require consent and the consent is written so when you look at the cdc findings from studies done in utah
029they looked at this last year during the first go-round with covid and they did a study with 60 000 students 1900 then presented as positive from the test to say program there was also an additional study done that had 200 000 students and only one percent tested positive which is the same as the 60 000. it saved over a hundred thousand instructional days and that's why we're looking at this as a viable mitigation strategy you'll notice that it also mentions test to play at this time the only district that we are aware of that is utilizing this is lower marian we'll continue to keep this as something we discuss in the pandemic team but we have not made a formal decision as to how we would like to progress in that area so what are
030the pros and cons of tests to stay the cons is it doesn't necessarily decrease the prevalence of cases across the classes some exposed children may have false negatives when they test it is a mitigation strategy it is not a standalone strategy we still need to be vigilant in maintaining the other strategies in our health and safety plan it does increase the nurse workload and those students or staff who are participating may be a little late getting into the building because they need to wait for their results to be obtained before they can enter the building the pros is a very effective way to allow more participation in school for in-person instruction as well as activities and athletics it is a very simple test it's evidence and scientific based the frequent testing helps to reduce the
031number of false negatives there have not been tests that are back-to-back false negatives so we can catch somebody relatively quickly it lessens the burden of quarantine on students families and staff as well as reducing the zooming necessity for teachers and students and it helps with potential contact tracing throughout the district so how will it work asymptomatic students and staff will present to a centralized location that we determined in the district we decided that's going to be in front of the gym on providence road at the high school it will be a drive-by testing center the high school will be it will be from 6 45 until 7 10 the middle school 7 10 to 7 35 and the elementary from 7 35 to 8 15. the asymptomatic students will bring their qr code and consent
032which will be attached to their email notification as a close contact it'll be provided on monday wednesday and friday the nurse will bring out the test to the student to self-administer or the parent to sell to administer and the nurse will be there to help the nursing staff will be myself danny darren who is an experienced pediatric nurse in a doctor's office for over 20 years so she's done a lot of these testing and we're having technical support for the scanning of the data by deb sherman that data is only reported to the department of health in a collection process nobody sees that unless there is a need to pull it up by the department of health so nobody from the chop policy lab or anyone else gets to view those results the only one
033who knows it is myself and the parents the individual has to complete the testing program in order to participate and if the student is unresponsive or if the student is uncooperative or is refusing the testing even with the nursing assistants then we're going to have to ask that the student enter into traditional quarantine at that time but we want everyone to participate so if parents have questions or concerns about their ability to do so they're going to direct them towards me and i'm going to help them through the process so that we can get as many people in this as possible so why is it important if you look at our cases and the number of close contacts and the number that are excluded we can have them back in school in person where they
034need to be and they want to be and before i close out there's two other things i'd really like to address that are coming up with this season flu season is upon us and it hits from october through may when there is a mild flu season as seen last year then there is a more prolific season historically that that follows suit and that is what is being predicted by medical experts due to the um mild season we had last year covet is one of the respiratory illnesses that are out there and they are um perceiving that to be also a surge during these coming winter months so experts are recommending that people get their flu shot like they always do they practice uh cold and cough etiquette and proper hand washing during this time and
035maintain your physical distancing and finally for those families that uh recognize and celebrate halloween we want them to do it safely and we want them to have a great time but in order to do that you might want to take a look at the chester county health department they have a few recommendations as to safe alternates for trick-or-treating safe handout of trick-or-treaters um goodies as well as different activities that can be organized within the household setting and any questions all right thank you for that presentation and i think it's great to see the district moving this direction to help maintain that in person instructional time i did just want to comment just for those who probably a lot of people at this point have had a rapid antigen test at some point but just for
036people who haven't this is the swab that's in the front of the nose not the one that's like really deep um so in terms of administering the swab it's a pretty uh straightforward q-tip type swap that gets rotated into each nostril for a short period of time so it's it's not as we have a video tutorial that we can add up to the website to help happy presenting yep great so uh board members have any questions yeah go ahead amy um thank you very much that was very informative and um a lot of good information could you clarify on page six you said that if there's a challenge wearing masks how is that defined and what does that mean those students that have a mass exemption they would be a student who has a challenge
037wearing a mask kevin thanks easy quick question for you you mentioned uh how the how test to stay will work and you mentioned uh the times in front of the high school gym and you have the times listed on there i know having dropped my own son off in the morning a little bit how busy that is alone there is there plans to shut that off so what i plan to do is have signage from the beginning of providence road along the field side going up into the front of the gym it only goes to the front of the gym once you test you exit that line so it should move relatively quickly and do you think that'll keep but what if so you're trying to i'm trying to visualize that what about the people
038that are dropping the regular drop off will that get in your way is what i'm getting at okay that's okay no and we can't we don't want to move it out back where we're in the way of boston right gotcha jen those numbers are since the start of the school year that you presented right that is correct okay thanks any other questions oh sure go ahead kevin one more question from someone so the this is the million dollar question what what about the extra costs do you have any estimates on that the uh for all these test kits and i mean that's got to be expensive yeah the the chop policy lab provides all of the testing equipment so what you are looking at is nursing services that are already being utilized within the district
039and staff that are already in the district wow so you're saying that this is a neutral cost well where we've calculated that it is if um like all um good plans once implementation hits and we realize that if indeed based on the projected numbers it should not incur significant or any different hours if we see a large number of of contact tracing where it requires either additional staff and or additional hours combination of both right we will use our arp dollars to cover those expenditures but we're optimistic based on what we've seen that when you look at the number of closed contacts and the number uh that um were uh quarantined correct that we could uh we can handle those numbers safely with what we have to give you a bird's eye view of this
040week alone the high school had 64 close contacts the middle school had none west had none mpe had 10 and srs had none so it is a completely doable number that number will change every week and unless there is something very large going on um there should be a constant change of people so it won't be the 290 all at the door at the same time just uh to clarify when you say like at the high school 60 close contacts this week those are um unvaccinated so they or they could be either vaccinated out of the uh 64 4 were were truly unvaccinated individuals that had to enter quarantine so most of those would be it is recommended through the cbc that they get testing so we don't want to exclude anybody if a family
041would choose to participate in that process great okay thank you any other oh yeah go ahead and then back uh hi mr sweeney this is a little bit of a collateral uh collateral issue type of question but do we have numbers if we do on how many of those close contacts then came uh went forward to develop covet out of all of our close contacts percentages it's an extremely not small number okay of individuals who had tested positive in the elementary level none okay all right thank you amy uh just a clarification when are you looking to start the program we would like to start it on november 1st any other questions all right thank you welcome all right that takes us to board announcements um and i just want to mention that the board
042met an executive session prior to this meeting to discuss specific student matters so next up is time for audience recognition for response to items for action on the agenda again this is for items that we're voting on this evening there is a time later on the agenda for topics that are not up for vote this evening and just as a reminder public comment is a time for district residents and taxpayers to speak a bit to the board about an issue that is before the board or may come before the come before the board it's a time for us to listen and hear perspectives and experiences from the community while we can't answer questions at the meeting there's always an opportunity to follow up after meetings if there is a specific question for the district and
043as i've mentioned at prior meetings again we want to give as many people as possible a chance to be heard and so we'll continue to follow a three-minute time limit however to help members of the public who are commenting we will give you a a one minute heads up um that you're you have one minute left um and then when you hit the um three minutes we'll just ask you to wrap up your final sentence so we can move on to the next speaker um is there anyone who would like to speak tonight about a topic on the agenda okay so then just go yeah go over to the podium and then uh just provide your name and the street that you live on the name of the street that you live on um my
044name is samantha horstmann i just moved here so i live on 407 trenton court in garden city um the close contact testing um that you guys are talking about today i'm just like when i took my daughter to get covet tested recently um well i didn't get copic tested she got sent home from school for not having a fever she got sent home from school for just having a cough so i took her to the doctors and my pediatrician stated to me that he felt that it was not necessary for her to get cover tested unless she was showing symptoms so my question is is that like why are we testing these kids if they don't have symptoms just so they can enter the building when i have heard that my work treats it as
045if you have close contact with coven you have five days waiting period before returning back to an unquarantined work situation because if you have no symptoms of covate you're then able to return back to work then so with the kids i mean like those numbers up on the screen like it's not a lot it's like one percent like it's it's like not a large enough number to sit there and make kids get tested especially on the elementary school level where it's like a little difficult like my daughter to stick something up her nose just to show up to school when she's having no symptoms of covid is a little insane to me so my statement is is that i just don't feel like it's necessary i really don't and nothing is free so i see
046that you're getting tested like tests for free but nothing is free so where's it coming from is my question so thank you thank you any other comments for items on the agenda this evening okay all right so that takes us to uh our first item for action this evening which is the approval of the october 11th regular business meeting minutes um i do want to mention that um i think there was a i noticed before the meeting i think there was one typo on the minutes um but maybe i will move to put the minutes up for vote hopefully get a second and then i'll just ask for a friendly amendment if we can just fix one little thing and so i move to approve the october 11th business meeting minutes do we have a
047second second all right we'll give it to matt um so i think in the minutes it says under board announcements that aimee was appointed to the education committee but it should also read to the policy committee that was the only thing that was omitted so vote on that if everybody is comfortable with that change or you can let me know if you're not comfortable with that change okay any other discussion on the minutes okay miss figora can you please take a roll call vote ms caruso hi mr henry mr cutis aye mrs lentz aye mr sullivan aye ms vogt aye ms walkman aye ms wikowski smith aye dr grandy hi the minutes pass with a vote of nine to zero all right thank you mr guerra uh so that takes us to personnel uh we
048have seven items for action and personnel are there any items on the list anyone on the board would like to separate from the rest okay so first we have approval of three retirements as listed in the agenda we have the approval of two appointments michael gilligan a part-time instructional support lunchtime monitor at the middle school and elizabeth gamble uh instructional support aid this is actually another one i wanted to ask about i noticed before the meeting it says pre-k instructional support aid but the assignment is high school so maybe we could just clarify that before we bring that up for vote we have approval of one leave of absence which is jessica evangelist at west we have approval of curriculum work focused as listed in the agenda we have approval of two changes of assignment
049as listed in the agenda and we have removal of an appointment to the 2021-22 activity supplementals and approval of an addition and removal to the 2021-2022 fall athletic supplementals as listed in the agenda all items in this section are as attached or describing the agenda do i have a motion so moved thanks kelly do we have a second second thank you wendy um yeah mr abbott can you clarify elizabeth gamble's appointment yes we have the print pre-kindergarten instructional program at the high school and with that program we employed two part-time instructional support staff members to work with the students the high school students in the program and obviously to also work with the younger kids in the pre-k program so that they're they're instructional support staff members we've always added that pre-kindergarten part to help
050clarify what their role is as instructional support thank you i should have remembered that because i visited that room a few years back didn't occur to me when i read it uh any discussion on these items all right mr gore if you please take a roll call mr henry aye mr cutis aye mrs lentz aye mr sullivan aye ms hope aye ms walkman aye ms wilkowski smith aye ms caruso hi dr grandy hi the personnel items pass nine to zero all right thank you um next up is student services we just have one item for action there which is approval of an educational service agreement as described in the agenda uh do i have a motion to move thank you kelly do i have a second second thank you amy any discussion on that item
051all right mr gore can you please take a roll call vote mr cunus hi mrs lintz hi mr sullivan hi miss vote hi miss walkman hi miss mikowski smith hi this is crusoe hi mr henry hi dr randy hi the student services item pass is nine to zero all right thank you mr dora so that takes us to finance uh we have three items in finance are there any on the list anyone on the board would like to separate from the rest yeah uh the open sky contract i guess that's uh c okay so you'd like to vote on that separately yeah okay anyone else all right so we'll take the first two items uh the first is approval of payment of invoices to vendors dated september 22nd to october 19th and second is acknowledgement
052of receipt of the financial statements uh as stipulated uh do i have a motion thank you kevin do i have a second second thank you mary jo uh any discussion on those two items okay mr gore can you please take a roll call vote on the first two items mrs lentz hi mr sullivan aye ms vogt aye ms lachman aye ms wakowski smith hi miss caruso hi mr henry hi mr kudos aye dr crandy hi emotions past nine to zero okay so that takes us to uh the third item in that section which is approval of a contract with open sky energy for the solar panel project uh on the panther pit um do i have a motion thank you kelly uh do i have a second okay i heard that voice down here oh
053amy thank you uh discussion yeah go ahead so um i would i know that this has been years and years of collaborative work um with many stakeholders including students i just wanted to get some clarification on if there are additional funds that are possible as listed in the contract are they coming out of the five-year capital plan or where are those funds coming from well so i can certainly address some of that uh the expectation the expectation is that there are no additional funds that are going to be necessary for this project uh the the panels themselves were donated the funds that are actually being paid as part of this contract were also donated uh the like i said the expectation at least is that there won't be additional funds that the funds that are
054represented in here include an allotment that is supposed to be for the engineering costs as well to the extent that something unexpected were to happen and there would be additional engineering costs at the if they are unexpected but still allow the project to move forward in the present way that it's expected then those would be borne by the district and our engineer has indicated that there is the possibility of a couple of thousand dollars more perhaps maybe if it is a departure from this entirely the district has the opportunity then to simply cancel the contract dr marseille did you opening um yeah i wanted to try specifically would that be coming out of our operating budget because of the nominal expenditure versus our capital so it will come out of our operations budget okay any
055other comments discussion okay mr gore can you please take a roll call vote mr sullivan hi miss vote hi miss walkman hi miss makowsky smith hi miss caruso hi mr henry hi mr cutis hi mrs lynch hi dr grandy hi finance item c passes nine to zero all right thank you ms fabora uh so that takes us to our section on the agenda for audience recognition um this is a time for comments for items that are not on the agenda this evening but items that may come before the board in the future um i won't repeat everything i said before um is there anyone who'd like to speak tonight about a topic that's not on the agenda this evening yes please and just as a reminder just uh state your oh yeah i'll let you
056come around to the door go ahead oh yeah open that door yeah so just a reminder state your full name and the name of the street that you live on hi my name is michelle and i'm on chestnut parkway and i just before i start i just if there's children in the room you might want to have them walk out because i'm going to discuss some information that's pretty graphic that's in the libraries in our schools and it's not appropriate for children some just i'm sorry can you give your full name yes michelle carroll and i also wanted to say uh to dr marseille that i think at one at the school board meetings you and i have gotten off to the wrong start at one meeting i was addressing the whole panel and i
057think you thought that i was addressing you and i wasn't so i just wanted to apologize if you thought that i was directing anything i said towards you it wasn't directly towards you at all and i wanted to thank you for hosting the community meetings last week i had talked to you about the pays uh survey and it was nice to talk to you about that so i really do appreciate that and knowing that you have a daughter in sixth grade i have a child in sixth grade also so the reading material is a little concerning and i also wanna put out there that this is not about race this is not about gender so if anybody thinks that it's about that it's not at all and i i do advise having small children in
058here it's pretty graphic but if you're okay with that i'm sorry you said that this is a book from this is the book in willingford sothemar school district from our library yes which library do you know um before you read it well there's two the one is from strathaven high school and then there's one from strathaven middle school okay um so this is about incest um masturbation and it's really hard for me to talk about this because it's very inappropriate but you then asked me do you feel that yes but i laughed and said get your hand off my butt you giggled that's not my hand you're lying i said you then placed both hands on my hips as we lay side by side there was something poking me you were fully erect at this
059point i was nervous we're gonna get in trouble you can't tell anybody okay you said you promised that you're not going to tell anyone i promised you then grabbed my hand and made me touch it it was the first time i had ever touched a penis that wasn't my own i knew what was happening wasn't supposed to happen cousins weren't supposed to do these things with cousins another part of the book said you told me to take off my pajama pants which i did you then took off your shorts followed by your boxers then you stood in front of me fully erect and said taste it at first i laughed and refused but then you said come on matt taste it this is what boys like us do when we like each other i finally
060listened to you then you got down on your knees and told me to close my eyes that's when you began oral sex on me as well after a minute or so you stopped you then laid on the ground you then laid me on the ground and got on top of me you began humping me back and forth back and forth never penetrating me though it was just our bodies on top of each other going back and forth for several minutes you eventually got up off of me and told me to come to the bathroom that you wanted to show me one more thing you turned on the light and closed the door you began stroking yourself in front of me i just stood there nervous because i didn't know what to expect next you said
061just keep watching matt so i stood there and watched you for several minutes then you began to moan slightly i took a step back because i didn't know what was about to happen and then it did you ejaculated into the toilet in front of me i'm not going to continue reading and again this is not about race or gender this is about graphic information that is in our schools that need to come out i know there's a lot of people saying that this is about other things and it's not if it was a man and a woman or a boy and a girl i would still feel the same way this has nothing to do with any of that so i don't want anybody getting the wrong impression and there's also a middle school book
062i have pictures printed out for you um the title of the excerpt you were reading from please all boys aren't blue and again nothing against this author nothing against any particular group it's just the reading material that is being presented to minors it's very concerning and that's all thank you are you planning to share the you said there you have some of the so yes there was another one i know your time is up but i just want to make sure yeah you are going to share something this one um it's a book in the middle school okay and it's called flamer and flamer yes and it said that i told i told them we should save the money for college which they like i uh um unfortunately your time is up i just wanted
063to make sure i get a copy of that because i'm not familiar with either of the two books you're referencing but i do appreciate it can i i can give you this yes yes yes i'll take it thank you all right is there anyone else who would like to speak to an item not on the agenda this evening yes please again just to remind our full name and the name of the street that you live on and we'll give you a one minute warning when there's uh one minute left hi my name is manaz mcbool i live on turner road and uh my question is not all that complicated after that uh i just wanted to talk a little bit about the school menu and i appreciate that there are a lot of inherent difficulties
064these days with the whole processing the total availability of food so i know that that's a complication that you can't really do much about but what i was wanting to bring up is that our food menus are not well listed so we have kids from many diverse backgrounds um dietary restrictions religious maybe personal choices so if our food choices are better for nutrition guidance is a little bit more specific which what meat which meats vegan not vegan vegetarian not we have a host of allergies so every morning i kind of go through this list and it's a kind of a complicated process so i don't know if that's a very difficult fix but if the nutrition guidelines are a little bit more specific that would make life a little easier plus the other thing um
065that you know dr marseille talks a lot about diversity and inclusion and one of the what better way of including everyone in creating diversity is in our school menu so i have to admit i'm naive to the whole process i don't know how food selections are made or what the whole process is but i was thinking that if we had a more diverse menu um not in any specific like uh like a pakistani food day or not to put a highlight on a specific group and create that otherness but if it's just something that occurs on a daily basis then how wonderful to um have food as as something that everyone can enjoy and be inclusive and has diversity and is something we can all enjoy together thank you for your time all right thank
066you uh any other comments for items not on the agenda all right please again just full name and the street that you live on hi my name is melissa kennedy i live on juniata and swarthmore i'm a parent of two children in the district as well as a pediatrician in the area this month the aap published a declaration of a national emergency in child and adolescent mental health among the suggestions to improve mental health the aep suggests strengthening emerging efforts to reduce the risk of suicide in children and adolescents through prevention programs in schools primary care and community settings so i wanted tonight to highlight a particular group in our district which is at high risk for mental health issues and suicidality suicide's the second leading cause of death among young people with lgbtq youth
067being four times more likely to seriously consider suicide to make a plan for suicide and to attempt suicide versus their peers four times more likely in the trevor project's national survey on lgbtq youth in 2021 42 of lgbtq seriously considered attempting suicide in the past year 75 of lgbtq through cue youth reported that they had experienced discrimination based on their sexual orientation or gender identity that's three and four transgender and non-binary youth who had their pronouns respected by all of the people they lived with and with attempted suicide at half the rate of those who did not and lgbtq youth who had access to spaces that affirmed their sexual orientation and gender identity report lower rates of attempting suicide the ability in fact the ability to identify one accepting adult reduces suicide suicidality by more
068than 40 percent in lgbtq youth schools teach us so much more than reading writing and arithmetic schools also support the social and emotional development of our youth classrooms teach our children kindness compassion and acceptance they expose children to people with different lived experiences and diverse points of view they broaden their understanding of the world and of humanity beyond the walls of the school and the community having blocks that reflect our identities whether those relate to race gender culture sexual orientation or disability is a crucial aspect of education not only does it allow children to see themselves in the stories they read it expands their understanding of others lived experiences thus cultivating a culture of kindness respect understanding and compassion diverse representation in school literature is important not only to the minority but the majority who
069may have a great deal to learn imagine if this district was one of the best districts in the country supporting lgbtq students so i would just like to applaud the district for develop developing and instituting a comprehensive gender expansive and transgender non-discrimination policy and for enforcing it within the schools the staff and the students i'm inspired by the administration's commitment to diversity equity and inclusion in the schools and in the libraries this is life-saving and i hope i convinced you of that tonight and to those of you watching at home who may be troubled by any comments that are made at these meetings i just want to say we see you we're happy you're here we'll continue to fight for your rights thank you uh any other comments for items not on the agenda this
070evening yeah we'll go uh go ahead oh i was just gonna work across the room you can go ahead yeah uh same thing full name and then the name of the street that you live on rachel schundler and i live on chester road i have three children one of whom has graduated from the school district one who is a freshman in high school and one who is finishing her last year in the middle school and um when my middle child who's now 14 was at npe in fourth grade he came home upset about something that happened on the bus and initially he didn't want to talk about it um sort of in the vein of like snitches get stitches and eventually i was like i was like just tell you know like what's what's up
071he's not a kid who's easily riled and he said on the bus um he has three best friends still as a freshman the same three best friends so his friend um who was identified as a girl had told them that you know she she felt like she was misgendered and that she was a he and the the three friends had no issue with that but there was a pretty intense issue with bullying of this little girl on the bus and my son was like in tears he didn't want me to call the parent he was afraid the parent didn't know he didn't want me to call the principal um you know and we had this long discussion and i said you know i have to because this is about safety and this is about love
072right um because the these guys have been friends since first grade and so i called the principal and i called the parent and um it was actually a really productive conversation and i felt so grateful to live in a school district where i was able to do that um and so i came tonight because of some comments that were made at the last board meeting that that i saw not by the board members but by a member of the community about um the lbgtq community particularly about transgender issues and i just wanted to say like as the mother of three kids like i fully support diversity in our curriculum and i support literature that engages children with that diversity um i read a lot of books with a lot of sex in them when i
073was in school they existed then judy bloom got passed around they exist now and i also feel like it's my job as a parent to police what my kids are reading what they're watching what they're seeing on the internet thanks thank you uh additional comments it was any other hands yeah go ahead so full name and the name of the street you live on my name is lauren heinle i live on eastfield char drive i'm going to start with my ending as a case i get cut off my son has been denied entrance to school for the past five consecutive days due to the district's refusal to honor his mask exemption i want to know what the plan what you plan on doing to rectify the district's decision to withhold the free and appropriate education
074they are obligated to provide my children for my children the past two years of their lives have included social distancing and mass mandates we strive for equality in the education system and it's looked upon as a foundational principle that we base our teaching upon but in many circumstances the mass mandate is creating inequality and some of our most diverse students for the child with adhd alaska is an incredible hindrance and distraction to the learning environment for a child impacted with significant sensory sensitivities mask wearing is a behavioral trigger for the teens struggling with depression it's another way to disappear for the anxious child it induces fear for the english language learner a mask is a major barrier to communication for the child coming from a traumatic background a mass can be a debilitating trigger if
075the end goal is to be healthy and to not get sick then wearing a mask is doing the complete opposite in the order in order for a mask to have any effect we know that it has to be worn properly johns hopkins medical center outlines the steps for proper mask usage wash your hands before and after touching your mask touch only the bands or ties when putting the mask on or taking it off make sure the mask fits to cover your nose mouth and chin make sure you can breathe and talk comfortably through your mask wash reusable mask after each use can you guarantee that our students will be following these guidelines if equality is the goal this type of universal mass mandate simply does not fit the equation our children are not equal when
076it comes to their needs to becoming the most successful students they can be they are individuals with needs that require individual consideration from the people that know them best their parents it should be up to each family to decide what they deem is appropriate for their children and stand up for each child's chance to become the best leader they can be at your may 10th school board meeting dr denise jones recommended a full return to the brick and mortar setting stating a virtual learning option at mentum is exclusive for those families that are not ready to return due to pandemic my children and i are not that family why must we who are comfortable being in public be turned away while those who are fearful accommodated in the public setting this last year federal law
077was broken and children's rights were violated when we were not made aware that mass are a medical intervention under eua when we were not told of the significant known risks of wearing a mask of the right to refuse or the lack of appropriate monitoring and reporting of adverse events associated with masking last year parental rights were violated when the state decided what is best for each individual child aside from these legal reasons it's not proven that there are not substantial long-term mental and emotional effects that will cause severe damage to young students they hinder verbal and non-verbal communication with fellow students teachers and faculty students who are not wearing masks are susceptible to bullying due to the current social pressure to protect everyone else social interaction in young children and young adults is crucial to
078the proper development of mental social and emotional well-being for the rest of their lives experts worry about these effects and mass mandates only further these worries i just have two more sentences i object to my child being forced to wear face covering for hours at a time while at school given that many studies have shown them not only to be ineffective in slowing the spread but in fact harmful to children's physical and mental well-being all right thank you uh any other comments yes please so full name and the name of the street that you live on my name is annelise mclaughlin and i live on rabbit run road good evening and thank you for the opportunity to speak about the school district's engagement with the lgbtq community lgbtq students are at a higher risk for
079bullying suicidal thoughts poor learning engagement and academic performance when they are in a school without acceptance engagement diversity and a focus on their safety as a public school wssd may be the only opportunity for a student questioning their gender and sexuality to have a safe space to grow learn inquire feel accepted and engage wssd thrives when it is a safe space for all students and as a parent and community member i look forward to the school district's expanding support awareness and inclusivity of lgbtq students parents caregivers staff teachers and the wssd community a diverse learning community aids in creating well-rounded future leaders and community members thank you very much thank you any other comments for items not on the agenda this evening all right uh thank you for everyone for coming out and and offering
080your comments and perspectives um dr marseille is there anything you wanted to add before we moved on yeah i did i don't want to take up any more time but i do uh i do appreciate um uh the voices in the room uh in the perspectives that um were shared um and um yeah i i i see it um in terms of um the the language uh in uh in that book i'm not familiar with the book or the other um book that you um that that you reference um in the manner and the manner in which as a district um we um in bringing awareness and opportunity and uh thinking about diversity and diversity of thought the extent in which parents are aware of certain bodies of literature that exist in our buildings i'm
081not i believe i have to find out more about that process and where that book resides but i am open to a diversity of thoughts um but uh yeah that excerpt was indeed um graphic in nature um [Music] and i'm sure there i don't know if there are other books like that uh that depict that and i hear you it really does have nothing to do at least to do with uh with gender or race um and i heard that in in your voice so i'm eager to find out as a as a district what our our process is um and you know we did have this conversation uh in some of our community sessions about just awareness and um we may agree to disagree but as a parent i'd like to know and i
082think i don't think that's too much to ask for uh from that um from that perspective um [Music] uh and i i want to thank those who continue to come out to talk about um inclusion and accepting and um i want um [Music] all of our students to feel welcome and to create the space for that um [Music] i know what it feels like not to be welcome um and i don't think uh people intentionally go out and do it um but um maybe a couple but we're not gonna count that um there's a small number but i think the vast majority i think it is the way in which uh what we say what we don't say um that create those particular experiences and um if we don't provide that nurturing space here where
083are many students going to find it so as a community we do have and as a board and obligation to hear all perspectives and make individuals feel welcome but understand parents perspective on the extent in which we move down that that road and we'll have more conversations uh about that i think it's important that we hear each other and we'll find that there's much more that brings us together than what divides us um and me and as i listen i hear i gain additional perspective and things i didn't know and i'm like oh okay i do really see that um i also want to mention that um with regards to um [Music] the menu options in our in our district and that i did follow up with our food services and we are working to
084find ways to remedy some of those particular challenges and to provide very similar to what all of us want is just an awareness of what right we want to know what's in the products and whether or not those products um fit within our lifestyle or our beliefs and if they don't then we want to keep away from them and they're certainly not offer them just want to do that so i think it is important um to do that and you know lastly and most importantly if not this conversation about feeling welcome and included is um you know the conversation around mental health um and there is a tremendous amount of work that we need to do as a district as um there's things in which we are doing or not doing that create particular conditions
085and we have to admit to that uh and and find ways to create balance so as we are thinking about creating welcoming schools we also have to think about some of the unintended consequences of how we define uh success and what that um really means um and um as a former athlete who uh trained 12 hours a day um and ate just tuna fish in water trying to maintain body weight uh there's some aspects of that that is not very healthy lifestyle um and then sacrificing everything else to do that and what does that mean to be at the top of your game and to be extremely competitive but still fine and still find balance so i do think that we've done a lot of work student services recognizes that and and know there's a
086long way to go hence um the manner in which we wanted to take a pulse of where individuals are at um being led uh through the office of dr mccullough and dr sandberg so um it is one of uh the biggest concerns i have as a newbie into the district as i look at particular data points and something that we need to um i don't want to say make a priority because i think this district has made that a priority but i think it um we need to make sure that we don't take our eye off the ball in terms of uh in terms of in terms of that process um and uh you know i i wish uh covey didn't exist i wish you didn't have to be here um in terms of some
087of the decisions that um i make we make that you know may be extremely unpopular uh for families or it goes counterintuitive of obviously um what families um believe in and i and i respect that and hope that we can find um ways to continue to navigate this and hope it's uh um there's an end to that i don't know what that is um i hope it just comes really quickly uh from my uh from my perspective so i just wanted to share a couple of comments and i hear you um in terms of the statements that that were shared so thank you all right thank you dr marseille for for offering those comments uh they're much appreciated um and again i want to thank everyone uh who came out this evening to speak um
088that takes us to our school board reports um i believe uh larry has a report from the finance and finance and facilities committee meeting last week the committee's med wednesday october 20th present were committee members ms wagman mr sullivan mr henry and myself other board members present were dr grande ms lentz miss caruso miss witowsky smith administration present were dr marseille miss fergura mr miss martin and mr club one day uh mr cleveland presided over the facilities portion or the facilities committee meeting and miss martin presided over the financial affairs meeting the facilities committee uh uh mr kombu hyundai uh briefed us on the uh high school secure engine entrance project update um he basically gave us uh the status of the project and expected completion timelines i believe there was one back ordered item
089that was holding things up the two windows or something yeah uh next uh we talked about the wallingford elementary school partial roof replacement one roofing corporation had been sent the contract for execution for a bit of two hundred and fifty eight thousand four hundred dollars uh i think we're waiting on the signature we were waiting on wednesday uh october 20th for signature from the company uh mr henry asked about the time frame for a non-conflicting construction period and i believe it was spring bait is the uh the intended time for it to be form performed uh presuming that everything is obtained again if i remember correctly i think the asbestos panels were a six-month ordered item so keep our fingers crossed on that project uh i think uh mr henry also it's about any asbestos
090concerns and i think uh mr hilary they're they're yeah they weren't asbestos panels that were back ordered did i say especially i'm sorry i apologize everybody it's insulation all right we are not ordering asbestos panels thank you for setting the record straight so uh next we uh talked about the or mr kabundi brought up the high school tennis court resurfacing and he told us that it was actually starting on that day uh wednesday october 20th they were starting the initial preparation cleanup uh next we talked about the solar panels on uh panther pit snack bar and uh mr klobunde uh you know talked about how um basically the panels have uh have advanced uh and come down in price so we were all brought up to date uh with the uh the contract with or
091the intended contract with open sky to install the solar panels um there was some rewarding of the contract at the solicitor's request and everything seems to be moving forward there may be a little bit of of additional cost it's not anticipated but there's the possibility of a little additional cost mr kobandi recommended that the contract between the district and open sky be signed by dr granty mr kombandi talked about uh revisiting the five-year capital plan review um he uh i believe he met with the operations manager and the district engineer to go over it and i think he wants to look at some some of the original areas that were reviewed the whatever was done engineering studies or whatever but he wants to focus on security and safety the fire alarm system upgrades building security
092upgrades electric panel surge protection he wants to focus on equity uh which he uh he he defines in his in the facilities world as accessibility accommodations uh he talked about preventive maintenance the you know he he emphasized that preventive maintenance is is is excellent for avoiding major project costs down the road he talked about the roofs and the building factory facade at uh strath at swarthmore rugged school he talked about paving he talked about hvac uh ventilation mr sullivan and dr grandy added additional areas of concern that uh mr kabandi can consider while looking at the five-year plan those areas are capacity districts classroom space office areas for increased student services sustainability energy efficiency and the athletic fields maintenance and out-of-season restoration uh miss caruso asked about the uh aqua easement for water main replacement
093and uh mr kabundi and uh dr marseille discussed a a written easement language with solicitors from whistler and they recommended it was probably best not to fight aqua's language but rather relocate the water line away from any future potential building sites okay miss wagman asked about whether the underground tanks at swarthmore rutledge school or elsewhere in the district are insured ms swagman asked about past game crowd roughness and crowd control dr masay continued its uh discussion about student-to-adult ratio poorly good areas and crowd control temporarily cordoning off areas police presence etc we talked about subjects for future facilities meetings capital projects operations budget building maintenance facilities policy review security district-wide and use of school facilities media file immediately following the facilities committee meeting we had how long was this meeting you were there there all
094right we're getting the we're getting the full report out here is this like calling the pot black the kettle black i'm sorry um miss martin uh led the uh financial affairs committee uh topics this discussed where the act one index it was presented to be 3.4 percent for 2022 and 2023 school year uh we discussed the background of act one and the method for determining the index exceptions the index were explained a chart was presented showing the past 10 years for the school district in their index versus actual tax increase it was noted that the sharp increases in special education expenses was the primary reason that exceptions were applied for in the past next he brought up covet related expenditures and grants a summary of the major covet related grants was presented explained in detail
095as to how much the district received or will still to receive from each source a schedule showed actual covert related expenditures for school years 20 21 and 22. the schedule included the detail of the dollar offset of grants for covert related expenses and net cost to the district next she uh brought up the status of the 2021 audit school year audit the status of the audit was provided noting that the audit officially began on monday september 27th and the business department is currently catching up with documentation normally provided to the orders but delayed due to extended staffing vacancies it was noted that the orders we will return to our week to complete the work and issue the final statements for 2020 2021. auditors don't issue fine financial statements the district does and auditors give opinions
096on them correct that is correct okay it was noted that the auditors will return shortly and complete the work for the 2021 school year at this point in time the business office is not comfortable providing updated numbers as there are still adjustments to be made a further update will be provided be provided at the november meeting follow-up questions act one index um questions and discussions ensued regarding the significance of act one index for developing the 2223 budget and clarifying the role with the board and determining the ultimate actual increase dr masay noted that there may be difficult decisions to be made by the board in order to minimize that increase and some examples were discussed regarding covet expenditures and grants questions and discussion ensued regarding the major expender expenditure items for school year 221 noting
097that the district was required to provide in-home resources for learning support in many cases furthermore it was noted that there were some but limited savings in other categories of expenses next facilities and financial affairs committee meeting is november 17th middle school room b226 all right thank you larry uh does anyone have any other reports to share this evening all right do we have any old business we have any new business yes kelly um i i wanted to actually just share a comment um and this is a comment that i wanted to share for our students and staff who identify as lgbtq for their families for their friends and for their allies and the fact that so many showed up tonight and talked about comments that have been made at recent board meetings um it is
098clear that some of what has been shared well this is an opportunity for everyone and it needs to be an opportunity for everyone to come forward and share feedback with the board and share comments it's clear that some of what has been shared in some recent meetings has been hurtful and it is not our position in a word um we typically do not respond during public comment for lots of reasons we need to be able to listen and i find that there are people who wait to talk and there are those who listen sometimes and if we talk and respond in time we're not fully listening but as a member of this board we hold a position of authority a position of power and it's one thing to just write our policies that some of
099some folks tonight have commented on it's another thing to speak and i simply wanted to say that i'm sorry that the comments have been hurtful to many i've heard that outside of today and that i believe i'll speak for myself but i know that my board members agree that the focus on diversity equity and inclusion is important to us we just approved an equity audit for that reason uh and i simply wanted to say we see you and hear you and we thank you for coming out tonight and we thank those who weren't comfortable coming out tonight we just i just want you to know that we know you're here and we we value you all thank you any other new business well i said thank you ms walkman all right thank you kelly um
100thank you to everyone this meeting is adjourned