001good evening i now call the october 11th 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 and justice for all all right thank you i would like to start by asking miss bagora to take the roll call miss caruso present mr henry mr cutis president mrs lentz here mr sullivan here miss vote yeah mrs walkman here miss mikowski smith here dr grandy here mr berman here dr marseille mr darson here dr grandy you have nine voting members present all right thank you mr aguero uh so as always we will start with
002our student representatives report mr garcon it's finally the big week homecoming the whole high school is excited to watch the football team crush the pen crest lions and finally go to a somewhat normal high school dance we kicked off spirit week just dressing up like highlighters sorry middle schoolers the real middle schoolers are having a blast with their clubs and sports this year the middle school is offering 36 different clubs ranging from clubs that support the mind and body diversity and acceptance sports science and technology reading and writing games music and the arts they also engage in panther pride lessons that take place twice a month in their connections class they take part in a lesson that focuses on social emotional learning or expectations listed in the panther pride matrix that can be found throughout
003the middle school over at the elementary schools fall festivals and fundraising events have created a lot of excitement srs would like to thank all those that came out to their night in the field to support srs programs and activities throughout the year speaking of excitement i would like to thank dr marseille for hosting community conversation sessions with people from each school even if they aren't able to go my peers love that they have an opportunity to share their voice with an administrator and at the last meeting the issue of transportation came up and many students have started carpooling and walking home instead of taking buses still there are a large number of students on buses especially the combined three o'clock activity buses on my bus today there were two students in almost every single seat
004due to the growing number of positive cases at the high school there are numerous students that would rather take a 30-minute walk home than ride the bus transportation is difficult for a lot of people so there need to be more steps taken to increase the safety on buses as well as the school the school has done a pretty good job in terms of coveted safety but i hope that we keep in mind that we're still not back to normal the homecoming dance is going to be fun but i hope that next year we'll be able to have the fun without the worries of it being cancelled by rain let's have the panthers crush the lions and coped thank you all right thank you mr daryson i have to confess i have a middle schooler and
005a high schooler so i was trying to unravel what the middle school day was today for the it's like what does it mean to dress up as a middle schooler i wasn't sure but that's for another day um okay so that takes us to uh our superintendent's report although the first item on there um is a presentation of donation uh from the foundation for wallingford swarthmore schools is miss michelle lowry here all right yeah if you could go up to the podium that would be great good evening everybody the foundation for wildingford swarthmore schools which i'm here to represent unanimously approved funding classroom initiatives to encourage teachers to request and receive funding for innovative and excellent programs and materials for their classrooms we would like to give each elementary school eighteen hundred dollars and then
006twenty seven hundred dollars to the middle school and thirty five hundred dollars to the high school for a total of eleven thousand six hundred dollars in addition we unanimously voted to begin raising funds for the positive behavior intervention and supports and also for the trauma coaching we will start fundraising for those mental health programs now the foundation is able to fund these major projects through successful fundraisers such as the panther pajama run this year saturday november 13th corporate sponsorships and individual contributions the foundation for wellington sophomore schools is an independent nonprofit 501c3 organization that supports innovation and excellence in the wallingford sophomore school district through community support and involvement the foundation works in partnership with all of the wallingford sophomore school district funding partners to strengthen school district schools from elementary through middle school and
007high school levels with increasing pressure on school funding the foundation's goal is to provide a mechanism for community engagement with our schools and a funding stream for innovative programs and student enrichment that otherwise might fall to budget cuts so with all of that if members of the wssb community would like to learn more about our initiatives or the foundation or get involved as a supporter or a member please please please visit www.supportwssb.org or email at foundation4wssd gmail.com thank you very much and i have a check do i give that to you [Laughter] [Music] can we thank you thank you thank you very much hand this to you yes and i'll hand it directly to the um okay and she wakes no time she wastes no time in picking it up all right well um again
008i just want to thank the the foundation uh for all the support for the district and certainly um not just the board but all those uh in our community who've contributed to the foundation uh to enable the donation to the district so thank you for that um let me turn things over to dr marseille for his superintendent's report thank you uh dr matt i also want to echo my personal thanks and i obviously speak for the board in terms of the work that this foundation has done for many many years and continues to do so it is no small task no matter what district you are living in with obviously trying to find ways to supplement as much as possible um the type of experiences and resources that we want to afford to all of
009our our children so we um do feel fortunate um that we have such a dedicated foundation that um continues to seek ways um and it's good to hear that after obviously submitting this check they're right back at work trying to get some additional um monies for our positive behavior prevention system program that is so dear and near to our work and connected to everything that um that we do uh so absolutely want to echo those thanks uh again so um i'll try uh not to be the longest part of the meeting uh this this evening but i do have a couple updates that i will go some of the slides relatively quickly because um my teammates with me will probably summarize some of the educational affairs meeting that that took place but i want to
010briefly talk about that but i first wanted to recognize that it uh it has been a hundred days um it seems much longer than uh than that but it definitely has been uh it is embarrassing to say that um there are still packed boxes um at the uh at the house um i blame myself not my wife and uh waiting for furniture to come in and there's delays there as as well so uh you can't unpack it if you don't have any place to put it in terms of that process but it has been 100 days and i um obviously will spend more time talking about my experience as it goes on and it's difficult to encapsulate everything in a hundred in 100 days and all the experiences i've had and i've just begun to
011scratch the surface with the wonderful uh conversations i've had um with um with our students uh with our community members our parents our guardians to kind of hear their stories and some themes have come out and will and i think those themes will continue to come out as i have more meetings coming up but there was really this central theme around the extremely talented and dedicated staff of this district and i said that earlier um that when you can sense the passion and the love in the room as a as a parent you're happy uh to know that your your child is loved and supported and we want that for every single student even though we hear the good the bad and the ugly as well but strive to that process so i've been every
012individual i've spoken to who's given me the opportunity to have space has talked about um our staff and and their level of commitment there's also that conversation about filing balance between excellence and the holistic needs of our students what does success really look like how are we accurately defining that is that represented in everything that we do how do we acknowledge the non-traditional ways in which we think about what excellence means and then very seminal conversation around social emotional supports what that looks like a social emotional learning curriculum what does that mean for counselors the role of counselors specifically conversations around the high school as well as that's come around and then there's this conversation around building stronger communities a sense of belonging and that sense of belonging is not just about being inside this
013building it's about families having a sense of belonging it's about having their voices heard as well right it's about though we have a township in a couple of boroughs how do we make sure that we stay connected with each other um and we're having some great conversations with the pto's hsas about how to rethink that and then the equity access and opportunity um the idea that as good as we are we can do significantly better and that um there are experiences that we know we want to afford to every single student and uh there are ways in which we need to knock down some barriers in order to in order to provide that and part of that is knowing where we are and that is this idea about being data focused data informed and data
014driven so that when we are making decisions yes it's really about both the qualitative um but also the quantitative as well and they're going to be deeply rooted in wanting to find out more and i think our our work moving forward puts us in a really great um integrate in a great direction so if there's any concerns about me going anywhere it's not going to happen um until the board tells me hey marseille um it's not working out uh which i hope is not the case so we're going to be here for a while um working together um to make this the the best possible place and obviously a destination of choice as it continues uh to be a beacon for many of our families i got an email today from a family uh who's
015moving um from out of state and uh well you know we had to we have to try to figure out the enrollment in particular schools and what they were expecting what that means but i'm glad that they're coming so it's great um that they're closing uh on a house relatively soon and making their arrangements so we continue to be that place where individuals want to be and we want to make sure the individuals here are well loved and supported and they stay here uh as as well um so with that we're going to have a couple more sessions that are coming up uh i hosted a session uh at the middle school and i want to thank those parents for uh for coming out i saw one of our board members amy caruso who dropped
016by to say hi and lend her support and her ear as well so it was good to do that they're really informal conversations where i really want to hear the stories of our families um though many of my meetings have been uh really in person some of them have been really private intimate but this does give you an opportunity in a small group to kind of uh and i pose that question to families about you know share with me your lived experience as a parent or a guardian uh or community member um but then help me understand that through the lens of your child or your children what's working really well and what is it that um i like to point the phrase that you know where do you want me to put that flashlight
017right in terms of what you want me to illuminate and think about more as uh as superintendent school so i'm really excited um about the next couple of conversations and the other conversations that will take place um during my first year of learning and listening and obviously moving to uh to action and i love the opportunity that the storytelling gives us and informs that um you know i was asked by one of the board members to kind of um revisit this particular slide um and to talk about our field trips uh and uh last meeting i had shared uh the board last monday's legislative meeting where we were with field trips the way in which we were trying to put criteria together to think critically about the health and safety of our students while they're
018on those trips and um we've approved a lot of trips uh however there's some trips that we have said based on the way in which um the proposal was presented to us we're just really not comfortable not ready to move that but the the challenge with some of these trips is not the trips that are necessarily in the now it's the trips that are happening in march and april right after the new year in terms of where we're going to be and we absolutely want to offer an extremely rich experience for our students in terms of our co-curricular uh program we think those are extremely vital the curriculum office takes those those trips very seriously in terms of how they supplement and support uh the curriculum um but what we want to do is to
019make sure that we want to remind families that though there are some trips that we've preliminarily approved that are going to take place in march and april we just don't know what the landscape will look like we are hoping just like our student rep talked about in a place where we won't be doing that the overnight trips are are complex they're complex because we want those sponsors to really um identify ways in which how are they going to be prepared for the and if though we don't want to go down those scenarios it's unfortunately where we have to be so if you are taking large group of students to overnight trip what does that look like um the challenge we're having with some of the overnight trips as we are saying yes but be prepared
020at any time that it might shift even though it's several months from now is that securing nursing we have a significant challenge with identifying nursing we've talked about this with student services not only with nurses but also our health care providers as well and we've had an opportunity briefly to share and some recent updates with the board about how we're thinking about that differently and it's not just while inverted the behavioral health industry period and the medical field as well so we do want to make sure that as individuals are asking for these trips that we're approving them contingent that they're able to be able to demonstrate their ability to provide that what we don't want is to take 200 students to an overnight trip and not be prepared in the event that someone is
021ill and securing nursing staff because we normally would send one of our nurses um where we are right now we need all of our nurses here but we have to try to figure out how do we make those trips um viable because we want them to take place um so many of the trips we've given provisional yes um but we need more information from you in terms of how that's going to happen and to inform parents that it could be rescheduled or cancelled so i want to share that trips uh have to go through the pandemic team because we do analyze that so if we uh have not seen uh if there is a trip that's in question it's probably because with the team has not seen a full a full application uh in terms
022of that process the ones we've seen we've kind of run through uh as well but for trips that are far out we'd want to do that i'm still in the air in terms of what we're gonna do about some of these international trips that are happening in the uh in the spring um and trying to figure that process out uh but we're still keep continuing to analyze those and want to share with parents that we don't want to not have these trips many of them are cumulative experiences uh that our students have been looking forward to they're part of tradition um and you want to try to find some remnants of that during this unfortunate colby experience but i wanted to share that with the community as well we also obviously continue to navigate through
023our health and safety plan and what that means for us um we also really are excited and i want to thank um our our team but always um uh ms deb sweeney who's been uh instrumental in and and working with springfield pharmacy where they are agreeing to providing flu and shots and shingle shots to our staff on the 29th so we're excited about that what's even more exciting is that when um when pending the uh approval of vaccinations for those uh 11 5 and up uh they have agreed that uh they will put together and host a vaccination clinic for us so for those families who are um out there thinking about the vaccination or have committed as a family that they're going to move in that direction yes there's lots of places where you
024can go but we wanted to offer something that is more localized and maybe a little bit closer or maybe a little bit more a little easier to schedule in terms of process so we're working on that uh schedule but we're just excited that they um are willing to uh move forward with us in the event that uh that that takes place and uh and thanks for our team and ms sweeney for uh putting that into uh into place um you know uh not much has has changed since the last time i reported these numbers we continued to be at a high level of of transmission um and uh even though our positivity dipped a little bit but our cases increased increased and this is not uh an opportunity to um to raise alarms or to
025scare individuals i know this administration has received communication with regards to you know how many more letters can you send a day can you convert to maybe a weekly notification the level of stress that obviously happens when you get a notification like that um and there are uh some districts that don't report it every single day when it happens they do report it at the end of the week or they send a notice saying please check um our dashboard um but i do understand the handful of parents who have communicated around this daily barrage of updates and um we really wanted to try to stay and keep the community as informed as possible uh not to obviously raise any more anxiety as you get those notifications i'm trying to find that balance between notifying our
026community about where we are and not over taxing individuals around that around that process but i say this because i think in talking to my colleagues across delaware county my superintendents that we meet with weekly and then dr rubin and others who join our conversation i do think that one of the things we're looking at and um the a large number of the superintendents in delco have moved in this direction and i think it's something that we need to explore is something that i want to bring to the board in a subsequent meeting here at the at the next legislative meeting so to talk to you about the possibility of moving to a text to stay i do believe that as we are entering into the flu season in addition to where we are now
027that we are going to see higher cases and that's normal and that's unfortunately the pattern we saw last calendar school year and part of that is mitigating the number of students who and staff who are considered closed contacts who have to quarantine and if there's a way in which we can implement this test to stay where if they're asymptomatic and we test them every single day that they're able to uh take advantage of uh the instruction in person um as we are um looking and i think um uh and mrs uh fagor you can correct me if i'm wrong but i think we have over um uh close contacts that we've had to have to go through and then over a hundred and some change that had to go to some uh temporary online experience
028until they came out of their quarantine um but it is an option it it doesn't come without its programmatic and financial challenges as always in terms of staffing and scheduling what that really looks like the dciu is extremely supportive of this they've moved and given their thumbs up my colleagues have jumped into this and i think montgomery county uh is following in our footsteps and wanting to implement a test to stay as as well so i think it behooves us if we like to share those with the board as a possible added layer um and try to figure out how we work out the uh the logistics of that um our numbers uh with regards to back generation vaccination rates have not changed uh significantly a couple percentage points up and down uh for those
029families who are um we we encourage you to speak to your medical provider and see whether or not that is an option for your uh for your family and then i'm really happy that um through our student services uh department and as we are taking a a temperature check on student outcomes specific to academics right we everyone's concerned about learning loss and where our students are and what's the impact and we're doing map testing and trying to gauge where our students are it goes without saying that we need to make sure that we're checking obviously the wellness of our students and our student services put together a survey k-12 participated today in that survey and it's extremely well done if you can look at one of the questions it is age-appropriate in terms of asking
030k through 12 um you know how are you feeling um to be back how are you feeling with friends how's things happening in school so we can find a way in which as well as they can articulate and we tried to make sure the questions were appropriate how they are feeling how they are processing to determine the level of support that we may need to put uh into place and i believe uh dr mccullough that are um we have them scheduled throughout the week for different grade levels uh three through five and then six through 12 as well so uh i will take her ned her head not in the audience as yes that's exactly uh what it is and then i will not uh belabor these sled uh these slides but the head affairs
031committee did meet um i want to thank the parents who showed up i wanna think more critically about the way we're advertising our meetings i think these are very important at affairs conversations uh they're relatively a new concept in terms of the frequency of the meetings but um it's we want to rise to the challenge and push out more information to get our families out and appreciate the parents who came we talked about the comprehensive plan the purpose of the plan why the states required their plan and the steps that the district is going to put into into place but we also had a a robust conversation on school start time and uh took uh the board and uh audience members back to where we were several years ago and with the work that we
032have done leading up to that process and really a timeline with what our next steps are and it's relatively right around the corner as uh some of you who attended the meeting did have some additional requests uh around some data points that we didn't think about as deliberate or intentionally um that we need to go back and get some additional uh information so it's a full court press to try to get that we had a meeting today um uh and dr jones off is trying to um codify that uh as as well um and then our commitment to making sure we get um a lot of information from the upcoming data or audits that are that that are that are coming uh we shared the timeline as well in terms of that and then obviously
033we want to share with you um the edit affairs future agenda uh and we're gonna put that in our website we're going to push reminders that you come out key conversations as well i said this before that if you want to really get to know what's happening or what direction ed affairs is that the next policy though i love all uh committees is the policy committee right uh uh because the board sets policy i mean that drives the direction of the district and we're gonna um a little bit more legwork for me to pick that up but i i promise everyone that we're going to get that started as soon as i get a better handle where we left off in terms of that meeting um our future uh facilities and finance uh meeting on
034october 20th there you have the agenda we'll post that on our website so you're able to see the topics that we're going to discuss we encourage you to come to those as well obviously every committee is important i just mentioned too that i i love does not love the other but finance is extremely important um and we know where we left off last year um and unless unless that was an anomaly and um those days are long gone um then we have nothing to worry about but i don't believe that is the case and there's a lot of work uh to be done uh that balance that came up in conversation about what we need to do um at the district uh more strategically moving forward um like all districts we want a lot of
035things for our staff and a lot of things for our students a lot of experiences we want to maintain the level of service that we are um come expected to however um the dollars are harder and harder to come by in order to do that and i think we need all hands on deck to kind of strategize through that so please come out to those meetings as well um and i could not end this without i'm not going to show the video but you guys should see the video right um where our students put together a homecoming a week it is absolutely awesome uh and i encourage you uh it's my first uh everything's like my first right um so but it's good to say it right um so i'm excited about that and all
036the other experiences that that happen throughout um the district what i want to propose to the board that eventually um at some of these meetings um i really would love to every month bring a principal to the meeting and have the principal kind of share out some of the wonderful things happening across their building um throughout the school year so you can get a really good snapshot uh because obviously the e-blasts play a big role in it but i i'm a proponent of giving my principals a front row seat in terms of bragging about their staff and their students and the innovation that's happening there so far we'll touch on that um after the in january if it pleases the board so that concludes my uh report and i ask you to go and check
037out the video uh but we're not going to play that but please it's awesome thank you dr marseille and i know the first thing i'll do when i get home um all right uh that takes us to board announcements um i have two board announcements um the first is that the board did meet an executive session prior to our meeting this evening uh to discuss specific personnel and then the second announcement is i'd like to appoint our new board member amy caruso to our education and policy committees so thank you amy for volunteering to serve on those committees so that takes us to uh our audience recognition for response to items for action on the agenda this evening and just as a reminder this is a time on the agenda where we give an opportunity
038for public comment specifically for items that are on the agenda for voting this evening we'll have time later for topics that are not on the agenda and as a reminder public comment is a time for district residents and taxpayers to speak to the board about an issue that is before the board or may come before the board and we're here to listen and hear perspectives and experiences from our community and while we can't answer questions at the meeting there's always an opportunity to follow up after the meetings if there's a specific question for the district and as always in the spirit of giving as many people as possible a chance to be heard uh we'll continue to follow a three-minute time limit and uh we'll ask uh miss figura to give a one minute heads
039up uh to our speakers uh just so you know to start wrapping up is there anyone who would like to speak about an item on the agenda this evening okay so uh just remember everything i said later when we get to items not on the agenda if there's someone who would like to speak then all right um so that takes us to our first items for action which is the approval of the september 27th business meeting minutes and i so move uh oh we got a second alright thank you how pre-emptive all right uh any discussion okay mr maguire can you please take a roll call vote yes that was quick was that mr sullivan yes okay yes to the minutes miss caruso hi mr henry hi mr cutis aye mrs lentz aye mr sullivan
040hi miss vote hi miss walkman aye ms wikowski smith hi dr grandy hi the motion pass is nine to zero all right thank you miss figura um so that takes us to personnel there's 13 items for action this evening and personnel are there any on the list anyone on the board would like to separate from the rest okay so let me read those items first we have approval of four resignations or retirements as listed in the agenda then we have the approval of 12 appointments uh the first one is liam gallagher accounting supervisor and randall masseur health and pe teacher at the middle school marianne parker a long-term substitute special education teacher at the high school christine benson a bus aide uh brandi johnson administrative assistant at the middle school stacey barnes part-time instructional support
041as a lunch monitor at west leonard mar mcgarvey part-time instructional support lunch monitor at the high school william lynch part-time instructional support lunch monitor at the middle school diane king instructional support at the high school kayla frazier a bus aide joseph uh ladano a substitute bus driver and kenneth adams a substitute bus driver we have approval of the appointment of ethan ake little as director of human resources effective november 15th uh 2021 through june 30th 2024 we have the approval of three leaves of absence as listed in the agenda we have the approval of four additional assignments as listed in the agenda if approval of appointments the 2021-2022 activity supplementals as listed in the agenda approval of appointments to the 2021-2022 fall athletic supplementals as listed on the agenda we have approval of a point
042this is the 2021-2022 winter athletic supplementals as listed in the agenda we have approval of the appointment of staff members as mentors during the 2021-2022 school years listed in the agenda we have approval of one change of assignment that's stipulated with the approval of an addition and removal to the instructional technology liaisons we have approval of compensation of fifty dollars per chaperone for the high school homecoming dance not to exceed a thousand dollars or one chaperone per 30 students and finally we have the approval of payment of unused sick days as listed in the agenda all items in the section are as attached or described in the agenda do i have a motion thank you kelly do we have a second you wendy uh any discussion on those items okay uh mrs fabor can you
043please take a roll call though mr henry mr cutis hi mrs lentz aye mr sullivan aye ms vogt aye ms walkman aye ms lukowski smith hi miss caruso hi dr grandy aye the personnel items pass nine to zero all right uh thank you mr gore and um just wanna want to congratulate uh ethnic little here in the audience tonight is our new director of human resources thank you and congratulations thank you if i can a few minutes before we get to our next agenda i also want to congratulate and thank dr uh dr little because as um we were vetting him out he was vetting us out i always say that when you think about individuals who want to be part of your team and it's a two-way street as well but i uh so
044we're excited uh for his start there will be several opportunities but i'd be remiss and i think the board feels the same way as i always jump in on the mic not to press that button is that there's uh many more thank yous to come with regards to uh mr mr abbott and the work that he's done his district over 30 plus years um and there's not enough for meetings left to thank him but i'm sure there will be plenty of opportunity for us to recall i don't think there is a position in this district he has not done and everything and he's done it he knows it so it is kind of bittersweet as we think about that and um obviously my tenure here and how helpful he has been in terms of institutional
045memory that's the biggest one of the biggest challenges around institutional memory what does that mean so though we're happy for dr doctor little be here we'll have plenty of time to to really thank mr abbott for all the years that he's served on behalf of children in this community thank you for that dr marseille and uh i can't echo that enough um mr abbott has really been legendary in our district in terms of all of his contributions and uh you know we we did uh ask him to stay on a little longer if you recall he was supposed to retire at the end of june and he said no offense to the newly appointed but i asked him to stay a little longer i did arrive i did ask him if he'd do me one
046favor even though he doesn't know me yeah and he said no i think you're a lot of papers now yeah i already got that favor so uh we will have plenty of time to honor him and we certainly will um so that takes us to our next section on the agenda which is student services we have two items for action uh are there any on the list anyone would like to separate from the rest uh first we have approval of 2021 2022 related services provider contracts as stipulated and second we have approval of a tuition contract for the 2021-2022 school year as stipulated these items are as attached or described in the agenda do i have a motion thank you miss wikowski smith uh do i have a second second thank you that's caruso all
047right any discussion all right uh mr burger can you please take a roll call vote mr cutis aye mrs lentz aye mr sullivan aye ms boat aye ms walkman aye ms wikowski smith hi miss crusoe hi mr henry aye dr grandy aye dr grandy the item's passed nine to zero all right thank you mr aguaro so that takes us to facilities in finance we have three items for approval uh are there any on the list that anyone on the board would like to separate from the rest okay first we have approval of an agreement with kandora's technologies for an annual network penetration and vulnerability assessment as stipulated second we have approval of a consulting agreement with kandora's technologies for 25 hours of remote network support for the 2021-2022 school year and lastly approval of a
048contract with top a court llc for resurfacing the high school tennis courts in the amount of thirty seven thousand five hundred dollars all items in the section is attached to or describing the agenda do i have a motion uh do i have a second second thank you larry any discussion i actually have one quick question dr mercedes um do you know when we would expect the tennis court work to be done for those interested in knowing when that would happen this month this month yes okay so that was something quickly okay thank you all right any other discussion all right mr gore can you please take a roll call though miss lentz hi mr sullivan aye this vote ms walkman aye ms wikowski smith hi miss caruso hi mr henry hi mr cutis aye dr
049grandy hi motions pass nine to zero all right uh so that takes us to our time for audience recognition for topics not on the agenda this evening uh is there anyone who would like to speak tonight about a topic that's not on youtube sure go ahead just as a reminder uh start with your name and the street that you live on and then mrs maguire will give you a one minute warning when you hit two minutes all right can everyone hear me yes yes okay uh good evening school board i'm robert costalia putnam boulevard in wallingford i'm a senior at strathaven high school when i was in 10th grade i took the required health and visit 2 classroom part of the curriculum is transgenderism and being forced to accept that i was asked questions and
050penalized if i gave the wrong answer the questions were such as is gender malleable true false i was confronted with following my religion or selecting the correct answer this is a violation of my religious rights when i was in seventh and eighth grade we had diversity trainers come down from the high school to this very building and indoctrinate us into this ideology we were told about pronouns and mutilating our bodies and we said that we were to celebrate that i feel i'm under attack especially as these classes begin embracing this ideology i don't say this out of hate this is out of love for all those in the world who are feeling lost and confused i ask that all references to transgenderism and transgender people be removed from the required curriculum and let the parents
051decide whether they want their students to consume this content policy 259 ag-1 titled gender expansive and transgender students ensuring equity no discrimination approved in june 2018 should be repealed this includes the diversity days at strathaven middle school where children as young as 11 are taught about told about genital mutilation and other surgeries there must be an opt out for it there wasn't when i was there and if there is and there always has been there it wasn't made clear at the time this policy allows boys into girls locker rooms and girls into boys locker rooms if they say they're a boy or a girl there's a lot of danger here and that's being ignored and that's concerning my main policy with 259 ag-1 is states in this while inadvertent slips or honest mistakes may occur
052the intentional and persistent refusal to respect a student's gender identity is a violation of district policy is this district saying that it failure to comply will result in disciplinary action i assume this applies to teachers and students if not already it will very soon uh it's very concerning to see our district move into a more authoritarian direction with regard to this issue my questions for you are if a student or staff member refuses to follow this policy due to personal beliefs will they be punished for it and if so how do you justify that i respect all people but i serve god first i follow deuteronomy 22 5. i ask the board to give the parents the authority they need to decide whether they want their child to be taught this i made a personal
053choice i'll never knowingly call a boy a girl or a girl a boy if anyone has a problem with that they can talk to me and because this is a hill worth dying on to be clear because i know people will respond to these comments i want you to know that i love all people just like jesus taught i just don't like what some people do including what the district is requiring in certain classrooms thank you all right is there anyone else who would like to speak about an item not on the agenda this evening okay thank you all right um so that takes us to board reports um i did want to ask uh jen if you could give a report from the educational affairs committee thank you dr grandi so this is the
054summary of the minutes from the educational affairs committee that meeting was held on october the 6th of 2021 at 7 p.m at strathaven high school in room b20b226 the district administrators that were in attendance were dr marseille dr jones who's chair of the committee dr mozakowski co-chair of the committee miss figura and mr crawl the school board educational affairs committee members who were in attendance were myself mr henry miss vogt and miss caruso dr grandy and miss wakowski smith were also in attendance from the school board the two main agenda items were the pennsylvania department of education's comprehensive plan and school start times investigation review and whatever next steps we will take as a district both main topics were presented by dr jones first the comprehensive plan that is a compliance document that is submitted
055to the department of education every three years it's required the process is review of the district's mission vision and values as well as the core foundations of the district such as curriculum instruction and professional development part of the plan is to conduct a needs assessment to identify district accomplishments and concerns dr jones explained the process and the timeline that we have to complete this document and that's due with the pde in march of the process will include collaboration from the core administrative team as well as a review committee made up of community members business leaders teachers and parents among others the comprehensive plan will be posted for public review for a period of 28 days before final board approval and submission to the pa department of education so the second main topic that was addressed
056at the educational affairs committee was the school and start times this is an investigation into the possibility of having our older students begin the school day later based on the science surrounding sleep and adolescence it began in may of 2019 and it was it began in may of 2019 it was interrupted in march of 2020 when the whole world changed because of the pandemic dr jones outlined the steps the areas of research and the planning that occurred in the committees in the past that occurred in the committees in the past to investigate the school and start times and its implications for our school district until last year in march since then there's been an 18-month long gap where there have been several significant structural organizational and leadership changes in our district the aforementioned committees are
057reconvening and using work done prior to the pandemic as a springboard and plan on reviewing the three final schedules that were identified as well as transportation implications such as routes and costs there's going to be a first presentation of these findings at the educational affairs committee meeting in december and there will be again a second presentation of the findings and present presentation to the members of the school board in january that concludes my summary thank you dr ramsey thank you are there any other reports from any other out of district roles of board members okay thank you all right do we have any old business this evening any new business all right thank you this meeting is adjourned you