001so good evening I hereby call to order the November 28 2022 meeting of the Westchester area school board meeting tonight it is our honor to welcome two students from Pierce Middle School who are right up on their feet Shayna Tate and Thomas Pettit along with some from their family and their principal Mr joji Antonio now just wait a minute my speech isn't over yet Mr Joe d'antonio tells me that he and his staff chose Shayna and Thomas because they are outstanding Pierce Middle School Representatives strong leaders interact in very positive ways with peer students and the staff and they will now lead us in our salute to our flag so everybody will rise to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for what it stands one nation under foreign Thomas
002please let the board and the audience know what is happening at Pierce Middle School this year thank you for the opportunity tonight to share about all the things that are taking place at our school Pierce is off to a great start this year and here are a few highlights so one of the first things that has been happening is we had a Veterans Day assembly Pierce recognized five local veterans along with Mr Atkins who is an eighth grade science teacher at our at our school leading up to the program students learned about different branches of the military uh students were able to write questions and the questions were answered by our veterans during the assembly additionally peers partnered with Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Coatesville Pennsylvania and we collected care items for the veterans students
003also created a mural in honor of Veterans Day which was displayed in the atrium when you walk into the school uh Pierce Middle School recently uh held a painting at Henderson High School uh to the fundraise uh families in Westchester dealing with cancer to raise money we had a teacher dunked at spirit wear sales and haircuts for her members of the football team partnered with a faculty member and whoever had the least amount of money at the end of the week would get their head sheet at school we've had a number of events taking place in December and here are the review so every Friday in December we hold a spring day this Friday's theme is festive winter socks other themes for the month are festive winter pajamas hats and sweaters um leading up to
004the holiday break Pierce is going to partner with the Westchester food coverage to help them stop shells with non-perishable food items we are collecting canned Meats canned fish cereal peanut butter jelly soups canned fruits and spaghetti sauce uh Pierce Mills was also owning a school club uh this steam Club was ordered through a flex supplemental it is being led by Mrs agadella and Miss Morrow uh it focuses on math science computer science and such and programming and Technology we're running three sessions fall winter and spring uh all three are booked uh due to the great outcome of all of them so far uh we have a book fair also uh we have a Scholastic sport Fair held from this uh December 2nd to the 9th to support our schoolers positive climate and culture students are
005in Pride cards throughout the week they do that by being helpful positive and demonstrating the profile of a charger at the end of the week we have a drawing during the morning announcements and it's for prizes uh Thomas will like give out some of them these are hot items so please you see this whole Marketplace or uh or Ebay we'll know where it came from our music program has many wonderful things taking place this year we've announced what the spring musical is going to be which is Andy Jr our concert Corral students have peers we're proud to participate in the annual honors chorus festival at Westchester East High School students have the opportunity to work with a famous composer Mr Michael John Trotta he commissioned a musical piece for us this year concert Corral performed
006the song and the night shall be filled with music for the first time live ever at the festival on Tuesday December 13th fearful hold their winter orchestra concert at 7 pm uh Pierce Middle School holds a program called best buddies more students have been signing up the support is phenomenal the best buddies program is one special needs students here with their fellow classmates to form a friendship this has been a great source of learning team building and problem solving for students in this program is 107 51 drones made arts and crafts and the physical activities uh a fun thing that was was fun for me it was a transportation engineering class held by Mr Dumas uh it was really fun students work together to make drag cars paper airplanes and Rockets this is a class
007talk shop safety and a property some shop tools everyone enjoyed the rock again pretty much because since we're able to fully customize the rockets and then once we're finished we launched them thank you so much for letting us being able to talk here tonight I really appreciate it wait wait wait what is the mascot at Pierce that's not an animal charger and what is a charger he rides in the back of a corner according with his Lance that he runs into people with he or she runs into people with yeah okay so you don't ever get dressed up like Chargers do you is there a charger that shows up at some of your events um thank you uh that's not me I don't fit in the Georgia costume but they're they're uh there is an
008old costume yeah like a knight it's it probably from the night the days of the nights it's pretty close yeah So Jamie you uh played volleyball in the fall and you uh also sang in the chorus and you were part of the group that sang with the Henderson group last week at uh Good Samaritan and you Thomas I here play rugby I do yes I do play over here this this woman here played rugby herself and you don't want to run into her in a crowd she has skills so um you look uh pretty cleaned up for a guy who goes out and rolls around in the mud in the afternoon but it was really nice of you to come nice of you to bring Mr d'antonio with you thank you all for giving us
009some insight into the good things happening at Pierce because it sounds like you are just about ready to head for the big high school life you're doing things best buddies they have that in Henderson so you're going to be well ready to get there and make your mark there so thank you all for coming and uh we're going to give you a round of applause [Applause] just take a minute and then we'll be right back to the serious part of the meeting today thank you ma'am congratulations thank you very much we need a tall balance in the middle all these short people that's it and look at me it's a great job thank you thank you thank you both for coming thank you good job you did a great job that's great next on the
010agenda Mr chair short is the roll call for the board [Music] here you're at your Chester here we can connect here here all right that leads to public comments on agenda items if you have filled out a card at the table in the back Miss sunquist will call you to the microphone there's one registered for agenda item public comment persons wishing to make public comment were required to properly register prior to the designated start time of tonight's 7 PM meeting when the public holiday is called please approach the podium and begin by stating your first name last name and municipality public comments are limited to three minutes per person the three-minute time clock will be projected on the screen's located rooms the board asks that all commentary be direct to the board as a whole
011public comments may be interrupted or terminated at the commentary exceeds three minutes or if the commentary is obscene and or threatened in nature all persons attending this meeting are expected to conduct themselves with deplore and stability in addition to refraining from abusive and profane marks please also be respectful of all the persons in public comments including those comments and opinions that differ from your own distracting and disruptive behavior or other actions which interfere with the orderly conduct of the meeting will not be tolerated we'll Now call them the speaker thank you hello um this is my first public comment so I'm well nervous but uh I noticed on the agenda that there is plans to redo the turf field the East High School the football field and a lot of times the terms are made
012of latex which I have any Creator who plays football he and I are both allergic to latex so it is a concern when he goes to east um so I was curious if the material that is used will have latex in it or any other you know so continue and be safe thank you very much if you if you leave us your email address somebody will get back to you it is I did leave it on the paper all right we'll get back to you excellent thank you thank you all right well thank you that will move us to approval of the minutes of the December sorry October 25th 2022 school board meeting May I have a motion to approve Mr Beval aqua and um Miss Fleming a second any questions or comments on the
013minutes from last month parole vice president yes yes director Williamson yes director Chester yes director Shaw yes sir directory yes Mr yes thank you next we ask for approval for the November 28 2022 school board meeting agenda tonight's agenda Mr chair would you add to the meeting minutes for tonight that we met as a board an executive session on November 14th for personnel and negotiations and legal matters we met also on November 21st for personnel and negotiation matters and tonight November 28th we also met on personnel and legal matters may I have a first to approve tonight's agenda this dietary and a second Dr Shaw thank you any questions or comments about tonight's agenda alrighty director Dietrich yes director Shaw yes director for now yes director Hermann yes Mr Chester yes director wormsley yes director
014Plumbing yes vice president yes president yes thank you this leads us to the superintendent's report Dr sokolowski your November report thank you president Tiernan during the week of November 14th we recognized the 101st observance of American Education week I publicly again want to thank our teachers administrators and every member of our staff for their dedication to our students families Community as well as their own colleagues I would also like to thank our community for their expression of gratitude to our educational team here in Westchester whether that was through an email a social media post or an in-person expression of thank you I can't thank our community enough for showing appreciation to all of our staff speaking of teacher recognition fugit Middle School teacher Joanne trodly received the Lifetime Achievement Award from Millersville University Department of
015applied engineering safety and technology engineering Educators Association award program on October 21st Joanne thanked the district for the years of support and all the professional development that we have provided for her on November 10 said school board members in cabinet met with students at Henderson High School to chat and receive a tour of the school through the students eyes we often hear the comment that visiting schools is the best part of serving on the board our visit was no exception as we saw a lot of dynamic learning in action we were also able to observe the luncheon learned period or what is called that Henderson is the warrior block the feedback from our students guides about this built-in time during the day was very supportive we're looking forward to a review of the new high
016school schedule at the education Committee in January on November 11th many of our schools across the district honored our nation's Veterans as you heard earlier from our students at Pierce each School recognized this special day in their own way through assemblies visits from veterans and active duty service members project and other activities I was able to attend the assembly at Glen Acres where staff and students honored veterans with beautiful music certificates of appreciation and special very special performance from the East High School marching band in addition to learning about the history and the importance of Veterans Day it was an absolutely wonderful event the season giving giving is upon us as we start to enter the holidays and I'm happy to share that many of our schools focused on giving back and thinking of other
017members as we went into the Thanksgiving Holiday from food drives to delivering meal students and staff made a positive impact on our community and I'm going to let Mr durnell share a little bit more of that detail when he provides his report this evening on the music front this month we were grateful to enjoy the district honors course performance that was held at East High School on November 7th the honors course included Ensemble performances from the elementary middle and high school students it was a fantastic concert that concluded with a beautiful piece of music commissioned and conducted by composer Michael Trott and actually that evening at leaving the performance I can tell you that there were tears of joy having that experience at East High School that night our Rustin music department has quite a
018lot to celebrate this month as they look forward to next week in early November the Rustin World percussion Ensemble directed by Mr Michael shoremont performs at the naftme National Conference and next week the Rustin marching bands they will pack their bags and they will head to Hawaii to represent Pennsylvania veterans and those who served on the USS Pennsylvania in the Pearl Harbor Memorial Day Parade on December the 7th we wish them safe travels and are so proud of their tremendous work I would also like to congratulate Henderson senior Ryan Hughes for recently being named to the 2023 nafme all Eastern choir he will represent Henderson as well as the Westchester Area School District in April in Rochester New York and finally the Westchester area school district is hosting a job fair that will be held
019on December 7th uh this will offer a morning virtual session uh as well as an in-person early evening session at Fugue middle school as the district has recently renewed the support staff contract and raise rates for many of these positions who were hopeful the job fair will hear a number of new employees who will join our team here in Westchester president Tyrant that concludes my report tonight thank you thanks Dr sokolowski now would you like to if there's if there's anything left for the people we'd like to I thought you guys were going to work this out ahead of time oh it did oh okay it's getting great all right so if you would like to begin Emily hello everyone thank you for having me tonight I hope you all enjoy the holiday break looking
020at November at East it started off with a successful first quarter and I'm dead as all of us know and we would like to thank all students and staff at East for making this possible again looking at our first event in addition to the Corral performance at East we also had our BCI or breast cancer awareness Club we're on our annual basketball tournament where 40 players participated and we were able to raise over 250 for breast cancer awareness thank you to Michelle Greenwald our senior student advisor who was able to make that event possible moving on looking at our vetum club it is our mental health awareness Club here at East and our school is currently holding our spirit week today numerous students engaged in pajama day and spirit of it being a Monday after
021break and tomorrow we hope to see the school filled with jerseys to remind everyone that we're in this together as a team the spirit week is being held in honor of yellow ribbon week which is in order to spread awareness towards Suicide Prevention which is a preventable cause in our community to give resources to students to overcome such battles looking at our business department Deca has been filled with fundraisers this month in November starting off with our Thanksgiving food drive which was able to collect canned goods to donate to the Westchester food cover which allowed to help families all over the community with their Thanksgiving meals in addition to this we also held two fundraisers on the third week of November including both a bake sale and a pie your favorite teacher in the base
022to donate money towards the Make-A-Wish Foundation which is the ca State philanthropy we also have our music department East was honored to be able to send six six students to the Mass youth choir at Philly's Thanksgiving Day Parade congratulations to all these students on this honoring achievement looking at each student council we spent our November coordinating our grateful grants campaign where students were able to anonymously send in messages to other students as to why they are grateful for them in addition to this we are also busy planning our December month which will be filled with holiday activities such as holiday photos and our annual toy drive lastly East would like to recognize the Viking leaders program which coordinated its first ever friends friendsgiving on November 22nd during our lunch and learn where mentors and mentees
023were able to engage in the Thanksgiving feast in order to increase Unity across the program and acrossal rates report thank you Miss mcarify and Sean Joseph from Henderson yeah so on November 7th we had choir honor festival at East High School's resounding Auditorium it was a very lengthy performance and special thanks to Mrs Werner Mrs Alice Mr Kramer and the musical faculty that made cool Fest possible going two for two and performances Henderson's High School's music department held their favorite their fall Coral concert at the Church of the Good Samaritan my favorite highlight was the PA premiere of the performance illuminari composed by Elena thanks to Mrs Boyd for the company the accompaniment of the flu as well as Mr Kramer Mrs Kelly Miss wheeler and especially the Church of the Good Samaritan for letting
024us use their space we look forward to our holiday program to take place on December 20th at ASAP some compositions that we're practicing preparation for our holiday program include Dona novi's pashem Christmas time Little Drummer Boy and more Monument delegation from Henderson is nearly ready to attend 39th iteration of the ivy league modern Conference held in Philadelphia even more so we are excited to compete with Rustin and enrich our learning experience with debate and negotiations recently the Mario and delegations from Henderson and East High School were able to partner out for the 60th iteration of the North American Invitational Monument Nations conference and cut Transportation costs for nearly every student attending we are thrilled that both delegations can attend a conference known to be the best in the nation all the while collaborating for training
025and achieving our personal best and then the last update um Deca is very excited for the position competition held on December 19th at Westchester University I myself and signed up for business law and ethics and I am looking forward to that event very much [Applause] Mr CJ sorry Anthony oh yeah I'll see you there there you go I hope everyone had a wonderful November and I must say November was a fantastic month to be a golden Knight starting off with our Veterans Day celebration we founded four of our teachers who are former service members those teachers being Mr Burke Mr coach Mr Hutchinson and Mr decorated the building along with their classroom doors thanking them for their service in addition to that they each received lunch and a thank you card as a small token
026of our moving on on November 17th Rustin held its second annual student voice day a group of 50 plus students were selected to participate in a day filled with activities such exercises and social emotional learning self-management and awareness diversity and equity it was a place for supported Community along with giving feedback at the end of the day all the students were challenged in their groups to create an action plan a place to make your school a better place those are being handed to Administration to be reviewed receivable event moving on we had our food drive National Honor Society along with girls of Crossing posted Thanksgiving food drive 430 pounds of food were raised along with 400 worth of Supermarket gift cards all proceeds went to the Westchester food cover in addition to more drives BSU
027is holding a toy drive all toys are being taken now through December 9th for those and moving on to the more Sports lifestyle we'll start with academic team you love I miss Karen and don't you know I know these guys do too they enjoy it we wait for this every month well here it is here it is we're starting off with academic team okay so what academic Teamworks is it's a series of Four competitions where you get a mountain a certain amount of points each competition and that amounts to a total at the end to determine the winner so so far two of the four chessmont rounds have been held varsity team at Ruston tied for first place in the second round of competition and the third round of competition will be hosted at wrestling
028on December 19. moving on to football and what an emotional ride football has been this month four rounds where we unfortunately fell to Upper Dublin into District 158 finals it was a shame they couldn't even keep the lights on the lights went out during the second half or 15 minutes it was cool during the first five minutes but then it got really annoying until then yeah it was very dark until they end cold very milky but then they came back on and the game was played where unfortunately Upper Dublin did get the best of us 21-7 but we can't let that overdue what an amazing season the boys put together the boys first face Radner then Kenneth and Kenneth was an awesome win because they beat us earlier on in the season but then they
029came to our place and I think we meet him by 21. 21 points and that and that epic rematch of last year's District final we played Strath Haven but this year at Strath Haven's house and this was this one was very bittersweet because last year everyone at Ruston felt like the refs had too much of an impact at the end of the game going into like four overtimes it was ridiculous but this year what an epic epic game it was where it went again to overtime for Strath Haven fumbled the snap on their two-point conversion for resting to win the game and then like they did to our field last year we rushed their field so it's a very good feeling a very good feeling but again remarkable season from the boys and we look
030forward to seeing that there Mr Sinclair and then continue their success last year moving along along the lines of football we had our Powerpuff came though this this book was on and it was all and it was on again but nevertheless it happened and the seniors absolutely annihilated the Junior's 26th year out and yeah then we had cross-country where we had three of our Runners qualified for PIAA cross country championship those Runners would be Magnolia Brianna Anderson and Ellie Kiefer who took a very impressive fourth place for ice hockey is Emily so kindly importantly at the beginning of today's meeting he's took their first loss in two years to Rustin eight six this past Wednesday and what an epic game I heard it was moving on we had our Signing Day for all those senior
031athletes committed to athletic schools where they could get a picture with some rest and background signing papers with their families in their college gear very cool I saw them all in it I played Instagram awesome thing they do now as per your request Miss Tiernan in the last month we have a question I have a question for you uh-oh you remember at the end of the month you asked us to bring questions what is it it's more it's for the whole entire course okay oh it's a whole board but it's regarding the new schedule because I've been having a lot of people ask about that and in our sort of return to normalcy now we're changing the schedule for the fifth time in five years uh-huh so we're curious as to see what that will
032look like and why we're changing it something that if we're trying to return to normal we just keep changing over and over again is that a challenge or a question it's a question it's a question and I know a lot of people are done well I would say in the in the nature of always getting better we have to remain flexible and thoughtful about the way we do things and so sometimes it's necessary as we did when we did that bold move of giving to the schools a break in the middle of the day where we walked around and saw students relaxing and talking to other people not about school not fighting each other in the cafeteria for the last donut but actually taking a break like a human being in the middle of the
033day but that took some courage and so it takes an Administration with foresight and also a flexible approach I believe to say you know we need to fine-tune it didn't quite work the way we wanted it to we have a better idea and so thanks to you we get to try it out awesome how's that answer do you like that one all right CJ as I mentioned earlier too you're invited to the education committee January and we're going to provide a bit of a review but as of now no changes yet for next year other than fine-tuning what we have put in place for this year but this work is still evolving um we're always looking to provide the best experience for students oh thank you now I think it's interesting that the board is
034we sit and listen to these three young people who are clearly going through their last year's school and getting ready to go out into the world it's interesting to hear the kinds of things they're doing and to start to think um what are you uh Sean what are you doing with um with um business law and ethics [Music] hmm yeah so your honor I can see that coming down the line business law and ethics that kind of mind CJ I see myself in my rocking chair listening to you it's an epic game and Emily I'm not quite sure yet I think you have a variety of opportunities over to you you haven't quite committed yet am I right I am like a big business person so I'm Jack Jessica all right and again I say
035to any of you if you're ever asked to volunteer at a Deca event where where students compete against each other and work together to come up with business plans and do things that you wouldn't think a person could do without a college degree they do that right on the spot and they are poised and they present beautifully so if those are opportunities to see how far Advanced our students are right now right before they ever step foot out of the security of the high school so I thank the three of you again and we realized that there you compete with each other you're put you're from the same district and you support each other every day right right okay thank you for coming again and we'll see you in December we have a meeting on
036the 19th it's closed you can like if you're wrapping presents for some event you can just bring them in your scotch tape and stuff and keep on attacking up we understand all right um that leads us now to the Personnel recommendations from Dr Almer if you would share with us thank you good evening Mr chairman members of our board I hope everybody had a wonderful Thanksgiving our personal report for the month of November 2022 is as follows with removals from payroll we have five resignations one custodian three teachers and one security reader with additions to payroll we are recommending the hiring of two special education teachers seven long-term substitute teachers two special education power professionals three Library slash office assistants three custodians one technology specialist and one secretary in Personnel events I communicating one status
037change to our administrative staff we are recommending Ms Jackie Pablo for the position of principal at Mary C house Elementary School Jackie is currently the acting principal at Mary C house and has served as an assistant principal at Virginia Middle School a fifth grade teacher at Exton elementary school as well as teaching at Upper Darby and Coatesville school districts we are thrilled to have Jackie as a potential principal in the district Jackie's with us this evening Jackie can you please stand and give us a raise [Applause] congratulations I also communicated one status change in the support staff I communicated three voluntary transfers in our professional staff and two voluntary trip voluntary transfers merger Studio staff furthermore we are recommending two sabbaticals in the professional staff in additional information we have two last day updates for
038start date updates one salary update two stipend announcements the request for approval for one memorandum of a letter standing and a list of compliance of drivers and ease provided by crafts buses and on-the-go kids buses we've also added 92 teachers to the tutoring list for tutoring site managers homebound 504 or Construction in the home in supplemental contracts we have nine additions to contracts for annual supplementals six additions to the winter season we have one removal from the winter contract furthermore we have two adjustments for annual contracts I'm respectfully requesting board approval for all Personnel matters listed above thank you as usual another busy month all right um they and I have a motion to approve Dr Oliver's report for now and a second from Dr dietry questions or comments on the Personnel report you know
039we will take a vote director Fleming sorry sorry now yes director Dietrich yes director Chester yes director Fleming yes director vice president yes Cameron yes director armsby yes director Shaw yes president yes thank you all right next is approval of the consent agenda no one has requested anything be removed from the consent agenda for tonight so may I have a motion to approve that consent agenda and happy birthday to you uh Miss Chester and a second from Dr Herman thank you very much any questions or comments on the consent agenda no take the vote director Chester yes director Newman yes director wormsley yes director Fleming yes director Charlotte yes vice president yes yes commissioner okay thank you we now move to the school board Community reports Dr Shaw anything from education this month a few
040little things um the education committee met on November 14th and we had a very full meeting um in addition to approving a number of things for the consent agenda we had an update a progress update from Collegiate charter school and that's a charter school that the Westchester area school district has granted and so we grant our chart we renew their Charter and we also asked them for periodic funding we reviewed the 2023-24 School Board calendar which was the highlight I think of the meeting and we had a long and I think really interesting um update from acting Dei director doctor Dr Martin and she explained to us her approach to diversity equity and inclusion this year and then Dr sokolowski provided a review of the health and safety plan and with that I was include
041my report we do not have an education committee meeting in December thank you Dr Shaw and second services with Miss Chester thank you Mr chairman uh we had uh two very thorough presentations on our pupils in our pupil Services meeting on 11 14. the first was on Mental Health supports and um and really just talked about what was going on in people's services so we really appreciated that that was given my Miss halter and Melissa Kleinman so the first is I'm not sure that you're aware of all the staff that is working in Google services because almost goes to the 12 Days of Christmas 36 full counts they're 33 School nurses 17 School psychologists 12 Mental Health Specialists nine case managers seven Behavior Specialists six apt staff members three intervention Specialists two career counselors and
042one Community engagement specialist is still smiling so we talked about some of the activities that um were happening with impugle services [Music] comparisons between what was going on in 2021 and what's going on from August to present there have been uh suicide risk screeners in 2021 22 school years over 544 from this year August to present there have been 102. for um violence risk craters in 2021 to in the 2021 school year there were 148 August to present there have been 44 violence risk screeners social emotional learning where students learn skills on self-management social awareness responsible decision making among other things the benefits being Med students are better self-advocates they learn how to utilize more available resources and supports and they feel safer in their school environment the safe to say uh something program where
043students or parents or Community people can call in if they see something that doesn't seem as if it's right or appropriate 20 21 22 we had 189 tips and 20 in the this year we've had 36 to date and then under mental health specialist care we have 352 students across our 17 schools and um we as far as student attendance Improvement plans last year in the 2021-22 school year we had 409 from August to present we had 78. in addition to the people Services presentation we had a wonderful presentation by our Communications team Wayne um Molly schweler and um Beth Hayes where they talk about the types of communication they are they are developing and and Publishing for the school district and they include crisis communication which releases vital info internal support which supports his
044superintendent assistant superintendent the administration with key messages that need to be disseminated they are involved with media and engagement so they tell us all about the celebrations happening in the school district the events the good news which we love hearing about um and the point of contact so the distribution points that they have created and managed their 24 187 points of distribution so it's that let's include the website on the website they manage for 19 different what I didn't even think about that 19 different one for each School the 17 schools one for the district one for the Cyber program they work in local media we have over 660 media mentions in the last year the newsletter with 220 182 average viewers social media which has 2 329 1810 breaches and 24 332 followers and
045Facebook with 1 683 uh 639 regions that's a lot Twitter Instagram and Linkedin also have uh Twitter 564 000 over Instagram over 36 000 impressions in LinkedIn over 45 45 422 impressions the crisis Communications again deal with the uh you know those messages that need to go out to support the admin and the board and the superintendent because and it reaches out to the admin into the board to the staff to the community to students and families as needed so we really enjoyed that presentation we look forward to your next it was very informative so thank you so much I appreciate it and that is my report I'll accept that can I just say congrat happy Native American heritage month I just wanted to present thank you that wasn't part of my report but timely
046though that was part of my report that's okay um it happens everywhere and CJ that's why things have to stay in in a flex situation when you're dealing with that many uh email messages and that many points of contact you just stay on your feet so that's what we're doing I know kids don't want having their schedules changed besides that remember that Kobe thing remember that whole pandemic thing oh yeah yeah that that probably required some schedule changes as well I was thinking about that all right Personnel Dr Herman did you want to talk about the psba delegate oh the convention that comes next this is another oh your personnel that's right yes um I first of all would like to congratulate again um Miss Jackie Pablo we're very very happy for you today and
047as usual Dr Ulmer thank you very much for your comprehensive Personnel review and that concludes my report very sure okay thank you you're welcome and property and finance is yes thank you uh good evening the last property Finance meeting was held me first the scholarly reviewed the budget forecast Ed to be on a monthly basis the changes to the 20 22-23 projections resulted in the increase in the fund balance designation for future Village increases of three million three hundred fifty thousand the updates include actual budget salary amounts for existing employees as well as Staffing additions for next year for the 2023-24 year the net of all changes in November resulted in the 2023-24 budget Gap a decrease of 460 thousand dollars the administration will continue to review the projections for potential savings to reduce the
048millage impact 20 23 2400. the next item is Discovery presented information on act 57 of the 2022 which took effect on October 10th and the amended local tax collection were utilized by the district to enforce property tax collection the resolution will allow the district to waive penalties for taxpayers who do not receive a tax bill on a property they acquired within the last 12 months window prior to the school district's issuance of the tax bill particularly recommended approval to the resolution of act 52 of 2022 that is on consent tonight it's item D1 in the agenda then we continued on Mr burster and Mr Scully combined and provided a dual update providing the committee with an update to the 20-year Capital plan very detailed review that we had Mr Scully provided an overview of the
049process and the timeline for Gathering data for new housing starts from municipalities into the townships provide that feedback that the school district Mr Scully reviewed the current District enrollments and advised the committee that based on the pending and approved residential new housing plans within the municipalities the district could see an additional 1 672 new units over the next five years Mr burster then reviewed the current and future operational capacities of each of the buildings Mr burster reviewed the long-term capital project List cost estimates and timeline Mr Scully then reviewed The Debt Service borrowing schedules and advised the committee that the annual Debt Service payments associated with these proposed long-term do not exceed the 10 percent of the operating budget in accordance with our border Policy Department and finance committee recommended approval of the updated 20-year
050Capital plan and this is on consent tonight under Mr furster then reviewed a bid award for the 2023-24 capital reserve project and as for two new artificial turf fields at East High School instructed and provided by Keystone Sports construction with a budget of 3.5 million the committee recommended approval of the bid award for the 23-24 capital reserve project as stated and this is also on consent for its agenda item D3 the next property and finance meeting will be held next month on December 19th just prior to the board meeting with all the welcome and that ends my report for this evening thank you that was quite an interesting view into the next 20 years of capital projects where the school district was 20 years right that takes us now to other reports first one is
051from Mr durnell regarding the cciu thank you president Tierney the Chester County Intermediate Unit cciu board of directors of its monthly meeting on Wednesday November 16th at the Educational Service Center on Blue Road in Downingtown all 12 participating school districts were represented at the meeting Dr Dr George Fiore presented Dr Noreen O'Neill director of innovative Educational Services with flowers as recognition for the PA Association of school administrators service to the profession award that she was awarded at pasa's annual luncheon Health on November 10th 2022 in Harrisburg Miss Mary Jean Curley director of communications and learning Solutions introduced her cross divisional team the team gave an overview of BBA Brady wine Virtual Academy and how it takes a village to operate a Virtual Academy Ms perley began the presentation with an overview of the enrollment of
052BBA stating that in 2018 2019 we served approximately 800 plus students and this year we are closing in on nearly 2 100 students this growth has increased the collaboration among our divisions specifically with our I.T division to ensure that we provide are providing quality program to our students school districts have many options for starting an online program and BBA is one of those options as an intermediate provider we have the opportunity to partner with several content vendors as well as several learning platforms which enables customization of our district Partners serving over 38 District Partners throughout the Commonwealth BBA has been able to save districts 26.8 million dollars in the 2021-2022 school year alone Mr Harper reported that 2100 students are supported by 7 72 PA certified teachers and 34 support staff giving daily direct instruction
053one-on-one instruction and Virtual Office individual student advisor support as well as parent support of our 38 District Partners 17 of them use devices that are managed through the cciu this year alone the ID it department has processed over 948 devices our administrative services division has shipped 621 books 591 learning assets so far this year Helen Spina and Lisa to his neck piece I spoke about curriculum as well as how we support our special education students who attend BBVA there are currently 479 students identified as to as student special needs these students receive direct instruction and support from our special education teachers through group individual lessons Mr Joseph Lipinski director of administrative Services gave a presentation on the budget Mr lipinski's provided the board with an update on the development of the 2023-24 cciu core occupational
054educational category categorical and Marketplace Services budget the board acted on the following business approved an articulation agreement with the Delaware Valley Community College for tchs students in the early childhood and education program to receive six college credits when students in the program meet the criteria also it was approved the following CTE programs offered in the 2023 school year applied Horticulture at the cciu Learning Center Building Trades program the program was requested by Oxford Area School District that will be hosted at the Oxford High School and welding program at tchs Pickering the next cciu board of directors meeting will be held on Wednesday January 18th 2023 at 7 30 pm at the Educational Service Center on Boot Road in downtown that was a pretty long meeting wasn't it it was but it flew by there's just
055so many options that the IU provides for students very impressive and you don't meet until January that's correct there's no meeting in December thank you very much for your reports now Dr Herman would you like to talk about you can say no if you if you care to the psba delegate invention which we attended remotely I think we'll go ahead then thank you president um on November or November 5th 2022 Saturday Saturday School directors across the state came together at the delegate assembly to adopt psba's legislative platform and legislative priority issues each year items in the platform are developed by school boards and receive initial consideration by the psba platform committee proposals recommended by the platform committee are presented to the delegate assembly and final determination the legislative platform contains two sections legislative priorities and
056Accord legislative principles and supporting Concepts so I have two parts these were the conclusions of how the delegates of the delegates voted and this will be in effect uh 2023 2024. part one um legislative priorities for the 2023-2024 session number one provide significant continued state and federal financial investments for school districts number two prioritize the mental health and safety needs of students number three enact comprehensive and meaningful Charter School reforms that reduce the financial burden on school districts and require the same high standards of achievement performance and accountability number four 's efforts to provide financial aid to students would use those funds to enroll in non-public schools or efforts that would divert state or federal funding away from school districts in order to fund such programs part two this would be the court legislative principles
057and supporting concepts for 2023. these were the key ideas that came across support and effective child-centered public education strengthen the work of local school boards support for increased equity and accountability and serve adequate and Equitable funding and the supporting Concepts as part of this describe in more detail psba's position on legislative issues that are related to each of the core legislative principles and I want to thank president Tierney and Dr Shaw who are attended as delegates to represent the Westchester Area School District and that concludes my report thank you and we are going to give others the opportunity to attend that delegate convention next year on some special day because everyone should have the opportunity to listen to that that's fair already uh legislative liaison report that would be Dr Shaw thank you um the
058big news since last we met is that we had a midterm election and we have a new governor uh Josh Shapiro and um trying to be the teams a little bit about what the governor-elects education agenda would be and some of what he is likely to support would align with the psba legislative um priorities and and a couple things wouldn't it's just kind of an interesting situation um the first thing to note is that he's likely to be a proponent of fair school funding when he was attorney general he felt a brief in favor of the lawsuit that is currently pending regarding unfair funding in Pennsylvania so we can expect continued support with regard to overall increases in K-12 funding an area that seems to be a little bit gray is the area of school
059choice he has voiced some support for school choice for kids that are in the lowest 50 in districts 15 not 50 sorry low is 15 districts in the state and so I'm not sure if that's going to have legs or why it's applicated that if that was sincere or um or he had another reason to say that but I will certainly provide the board of updates um as any agenda emerges another thing that Mr Shapiro has said is that he'd like to less Independence on standardized tests it's unclear to me what exactly that means so far so as that rolls out I will also keep you updated and interestingly he is emphasizing the need for more apprenticeships he's really committed it seems it's one of the things he spoke about most frequently to ensuring that
060students in high school would be prepared to enter the world of work when they graduated so uh this is a slightly different stance than we might have seen in earlier administrations that have emphasized uh college going for all seems that Mr Shapiro is not necessarily in that camp although having apprenticeships and entering the workforce never precludes you from voting College um the other major thing that occurred is that for the first time since 2011 the House of Representatives turned blue so the Senate remains red obviously the governor's office is blue but the house is blue and so it's unclear what this is going to mean except it is likely to mean that there's going to be more negotiation with regard to legislative agendas and bills Etc foreign thank you very much and finally Mr durnell
061your Equity report thank you president Tierney I would like to focusing colleagues sentiment I have been Native American Heritage Month on Thursday November 3rd the Latin association's student organization or lasso of Henderson High School met during the warrior block uh for kamida E conversation that yes I I practiced that but not very well students held casual conversations in Spanish as icebreakers to create connections between our Spanish speakers and those still learning the language on Thursday November 17th Doctor Ken just Watson from the Howard group led a professional development session for Westchester Area School District Equity leaders and administrators entitled impact implicit bias part two the session focused on helping staff examine their own biases and prejudices where issues of race are concerned the role of race racism and the manner in which racial microaggressions can
062affect students prospects for Learning and future academic success were dealt with directly given the racial diversity in schools today it is critical to understand the role that implicit bias can play in instruction expectations teacher student engagement and relationship building participants engage in active learning activities that consider the origins and impacts of assumptions stereotypes and microaggressions participants then explored strategies for disrupting bias and considered ways to make school and classroom spaces more equitable during the week of Thanksgiving many of our Schools staff and students ensured that they made a positive impact for those in need throughout the community we heard of several of these examples tonight East Goshen Elementary how the food a fall food drive and packed 1 000 plus bags of food for local food shelters Greystone collected over 200 in staff donations during
063hunger and homelessness Awareness Week to donate to local charities and Mary see house collected over 200 as well in toiletries to donate to those in need Ruston High School will have a fall food drive to benefit the Westchester food cupboard we heard about that tonight the district partnered with the believe and Achieve Foundation to provide meals to 35 of our Spanish-speaking families the meals were distributed to each of the families and our community engagement specialist Sandra Bradley and others were able to talk and connect with families and speaking of the district's Community engagement specialist Mrs Sandra Bradley we would like to thank all we would like to thank all of those assisting and translating and interpreting services for their efforts supporting families during parent conference week especially Miss Bradley's worked with Andres Latinos as well
064as outside agencies to provide translation services for non-english speaking families these translation services were provided in at least four different languages and resources were created to assist Educators in holding effective and meaningful conferences through through an interpreter and that concludes my report thanks Mr Burnell it's good to hear how we are meeting the needs of our very interesting and diverse community and thank you all on your committees and your extra duties uh out with the Westchester school district and School Board in its various connections to the larger community we don't operate in a vacuum now finally for this meeting a result as a result of our last two executive sessions the board has a number of non-consent items to approve under other business director Herman Personnel chair will move items three through nine forward and
065vice president chair of property finance will bring forth number 10. so and then we'll have uh comments on non-agenda items from the community so if you would like to just take this away and take us through these motions Dr Herman thank you president Tiernan if you're following along on the agenda it's under other business and it starts with item number three first X3 approval of the revised human resources job description human resources specialist approval is requested of the revised human resources job description human resources specialist ISO move comments about a new HR position all right because we did talk about this in our executive meetings correct all right so the vote please director Herman yes vice president of Alaska yes director lonsley yes director Chester yes director Dietrich yes director Shaw yes director Journal yes
066director yes I lived here now yes thank you and our next position X4 approval of the new human resources job description and position Human Resources generous approval is requested of the new human resources job description and position Human Resources generalist ISO move do I have a second yes questions comments all right we will vote director Herman yes director Dietrich yes director Chester yes director Camille yes director Shaw yes director wormsley yes vice president yes yes all right moving forward approval of the new human resources job description and position Human Resources lead generalist approval is requested of the new human resources job description and position Human Resources lead generalist ISO moved thank you okay well thank you oh a discussion I'm sorry breaking down here discussion comments questions go ahead director Herman yes director Shaw yes
067director Wellesley yes yes director Chester yes yes vice president yes yes okay approval this is X 6 approval of revised technology job description Communications technician approval is requested of the job description Communications technician ISO move a second here we are now second questions no okay we can vote Dr Herman yes director General yes director Chester yes director Charlotte yes director teacher yes director Herman that's all right yes director Longley yes Mr President yes yes X seven approval of the new people Services job description and position registered Behavior technician approval is requested of the new pupil Services job description and position registered Behavior technician ISO move uh Miss Chester take the vote please uh questions or comments about the new position no could we have the vote please yes Chester yes vice president yes character planning
068yeah yes Mr Cornell yes director Williamson yes yes yes all righty Dr Herman next eight approval of the 22-23 non-bargaining support staff salary ranges approval is requested of 20 22-23 non-bargaining support staff salary wages ISO move and acceptance Mr Darnell 's questions comments all right we're ready for the vote director Norman yes yes Chester yes president yes one more Dr Hermes lastly nine approval of non-bargoning support staff compensation benefits and work environment guide for a five-year term beginning on July 1st 2023 and ending on June 30th 2028. approval is requested that the non-bargaining support staff compensation benefits and work environment guide for a five-year term beginning on July 1st 2023 and ending on June 30th 2028 ISO move second Dr Dietrich questions and comments okay ready to vote director Herman yes director teacher yes yes
069Kathy Chester yes director General yes yes and finally our last item Mr Vega yes number 10 under other business approval is requested of the computer design and immigration LLC also known as CDI contract for Network Services in the amount of forty five thousand six fifty and the second Dr Herman questions comments there we go vice president yes director Herman yes director Chester yes yes director wormsley yes director Charlotte yes director Dietrich yes president yes thank you and that leads us finally to tonight's agenda uh on the agenda is comments from residents on non-agenda items if you filled out a card miss sunquist and miss Kershaw will call you to the podium for three minutes of comment there are nine registrants or non-agenda item public comment this evening when the public commenter's name is called please
070approach the podium and begin by stating your first last names and municipality public comment is limited agreements per person the board asks that I'll commentary be directed to the board as a whole although Commons can be interrupted or terminated if the commentary exceeds three minutes or if they are obscene and or threatening in nature all persons attending this meeting are expected to conduct themselves with decorum and civility in addition to refrain from abusive and proclaimed remarks please also be respectful of all persons in public comments including those comments and opinions that differ from your own distracting and disruptive behaviors or other actions into interfere with the orderly conduct of the meeting will not be tolerated we will now call the first speaker Wesley Easter we pronounced it right too yeah west of Easter West Whiteland
071Township I hope everyone had a nice Thanksgiving surprisingly there was very little drama at my Thanksgiving now we're on the countdown for Christmas 18 school days left until breakfast downtown County on a serious matter last weekend there was a shooting in Colorado at an lgbtq plus bar that took five lives that entered 18. one of the victims who was a woman named Ashley and she was taken from her 11 year old daughter imagine having to explain to an 11 year old that they just lost their mom to a haycon can you even explain it the girl lost her mom because of the because the world is full of hate two of the victims were transgender just like me as I continue to just live countless members of my community are losing their lives last Sunday
072the 20th was transgender Remembrance Day just one night before two more trans people were added to the long list of those we have lost I'm devastated I've always wanted I've always told to be myself yet this is what happens to those who are I'm scared to tell people who I am I'm scared to talk about my identity I'm scared to live I've been so lucky I live in an amazing School District Pennsylvania just elected a supportive governor and Senate which I could not be any more grateful for I got to start hormone replacement therapy in August I get to place Boys Tennis again in the spring I sometimes think that I'm living in a bubble while so many lgbtq Plus members are losing their lives on thriving in line it's not fair it's not fair
073that there are so many shootings it's not fair that so many lives are lost it's not fair that I a 15 year old had to fear for my life it's not fair that people get to think that my community is indoctrinating and manipulating others it's not fair that our suicide statistics don't matter to some people how many more lives need to be lost in order for people to care how much longer will it be before I can just live without constantly worrying about this when will I be able to just be a teenager it has almost been a year since coming out as transgender and I cannot believe how far I've come despite the absurd amount of hatred in the world I'm finally happy to you or members I beg you to continue to keep
074this District safe continue to support the lgbtq plus Community thank you for all of you do but there is still plenty of progress to be made thank you Dr sarkolowski for your dedication and support thank you [Applause] thank you very much thoughtful and timely comments Anthony Montgomery uh Anthony Montgomery in Chester County seven notes okay as a freshman of Ruston High School I can confidently say that students no longer feel safe in this school district with the rise of hate crimes in today's world you would expect that schools will be taking more action to protect their most vulnerable but this doesn't seem to be the case many students have spoken out about feeling unsafe in school in a school setting that does not provide emotional support and so far this school district has proven to
075be guilty of just that of course the administration recommends a cue a few quick visits that many students do not believe will help in the list for example safe to say one example of how safe to say doesn't really help is that we don't know what to report in the first place many schools just stress responsibility onto their students which is especially nerve-wracking when recording this situation no matter the severity level this also leads to another reason on why safety site does not help as much as it should most students feel neglected when reporting yet Administration district-wide pressures students to rely on it as a safe means of simple but the plain fact is that these incidents are never taken seriously if they are reported and most students have a frustrating relationship with state to
076say because of that so then what does Administration recommend students do next well from my experience we are told that we will be safe and supported if we go to our counselors but most students don't feel safe going to their counselors for reasons something to save the same I've heard many stories about students going to their counselors and feeling unheard and being told things like keep your head down and maybe they'll ignore you or there's nothing I can do about it for the people we're supposed to go to for comfort and support only try to shut us up about the ease reoccurring problems we start to lose that little bit of trust we have when students lose access to resources learning plummets I'm sure we all know that most students facing also obstacles that require
077them to turn to these Solutions are more likely to be students of color and or lgbtq plus so this lack of support is directly hurting our most vulnerable groups who we should actually be protecting now how can this be when the district preaches diversity and equity it seems to me that these services are only Advantage solutions for problems that have been going on for years so why has nothing been done that's a question I want you to take home tonight why has nothing been done and what can I do to change that thank you [Applause] good evening my name is Megan rykop I live in East Goshen I've got to say teachers receiving gender identity training is great and I praise the district for ensuring our Educators understand about their transgender non-binary and gender expansive
078students it reminds me a lot about how back at Glen Acres a teacher aide and counselor worked with my older child on a presentation all about autism my oldest is autistic and this was such an amazing experience classmates got to hear what autism is like for my child because there's an expression if you've met one autistic person you've met one autistic person it helped cures understand a little bit better about how to relate and how might they be different but we're all so similar my kid got to self-advocate build self-esteem and was respected and supported by the school isn't that what we want for all our children and here's the thing statistically there are lgbtq Club students in every one of our schools and teachers should be appropriately prepared to work with the families who
079with the assistance of medical professionals affirm their child's transition furthermore just as there are protections for students with disabilities lgbtq plus students also have rights the U.S Supreme Court and federal courts have included sexual orientation and gender identity under unlawful discrimination on the basis of sex the Department of Education Office for civil rights has made it clear it will enforce Title IX in the same way based on current political administrations in the U.S MPA and Court interpretations yes lgbtq students are protected under federal and state state laws but those can be changed under different Administrations I am publicly asking the board and administration to take measures to protect our transgender non-binary and gender expansive students proactively ahead of potential reversals by Future Administrations we can look to cciu policy 103.2 and Great Valley District policy
080103.3 transgender and gender non-conforming students for ideas it is imperative to know there are real people on the receiving end of the anti-lgbtq plus rhetoric heard in the news and said at district meetings and some public comments trans and non-binary students have stood at this very Podium sharing how much the words of our community hurt and negatively affect them there are moms and dads using their parental rights to ensure their transgender child in elementary school is safe we should not be othering our neighbors co-workers and children's classmates a person's right to exist is more important than discomfort with their existence thank you thank you [Applause] from McFarland Jennifer McFarland who's Bradford I stand here once again to remind you that you've been presented a curriculum and a narrative that creates victims and victimizers oppressors and
081oppressed less than feeble weak powerless victims people that need schools or government to save them from their peers to save them from their families and to save them from society why why mislead them why instead don't you offer a narrative that says you are empowered you have hope and you can succeed isn't that what schools are supposed to do Inspire us to be our best tonight I have a gift for Dr sokolowski the book is called agency by Ian Rowe the founder of vertex part partnership academies and a senior fellow at the American Institute excuse me American Enterprise Institute chairman of the board for Spence Chapin a senior visiting fellow at the Woodson Center you can read the rest of his bio in the back of the flood but this book is not to be
082kept by Dr sokolowski it is meant to be read by all members of the board perhaps a board book study and then to be discussed and carefully considered as a new direction for the board in the district one that inspires and empowers and one that creates agency in all of our kids thank you foreign my heart breaks that you have failed us and I don't mean to be making this personal issue but you did I'm not talking only about lgbtq kids on talking about all our kids from the get-go the way you have the room set up anything but friendly you have put parents against each other I admire a mom that every board meeting comes and sits next to her child and fights for his or her rights and somebody like Anthony who comes
083here has the court for a second time come and stand here and beg you for help you know what happened last night when Anthony was here with another beautiful child they spoke about what's going on in the school that my two of my twins go to I reached out to them and we had a conversation and your director of equity was part of it some of your board members stopped by do you think any of us got any call to know any of our kids are hurting and then somebody had the audacity to ask me Anita do your kids have accent too is that why they are hurting in school so I beg you you are all admirable people with a lot of Education you need to open this communication these parents shouldn't be sitting
084against each other change this room format change your mindset our kids need us not only do lgbtq kids kids who are different kids who have blue eyes maybe they want purple hair or kids who walk funny who are fat skinny tall whatever they are they need us we need to come together and I don't know how many times we are going to have to say this to sinking but this is hurtful this is not a board meeting this is absolutely hurtful to have our kids stand here in 20th century whatever with the budget of 280 million dollars big for protection and these are kids who are brave enough to be here how about the other kids who are not coming here what do you have to say about that and I do pray and hope
085that you are really too bad about our kids this is not healthy for any of us this is not the way to build community and you can make a difference going forward thank you [Applause] sorry West Oakland Township um I stand here today to discuss the topic of book Bannings as a current student at the Westchester Area School District I find that banning select books from our libraries asks against wcasd's mission statement to educate and Inspire students to achieve their personal best by removing certain resources such as books from our libraries it does not allow for students to expand their knowledge of the outside world I believe that I provide a unique perspective as a current student as I've personally read and been taught some of the books in question and I think that they
086teach something special to help students in their future lives and careers certain guidelines that were proposed by concerned parents should be specific to each and every family and should not be imposed on the entire community in the eighth grade I distinctly remember reading poet x one of the books being discussed in class this book expanded my interest in race studies where I later went to the school library and found resources to broaden my knowledge similarly in the ninth grade I read A Thousand Splendid songs from my afro-asian class which discussed the brutalities of lives of young girls in the Middle East but you filled my interest in women's studies that eventually helped me write my AP research paper on the impact of socioeconomic status on the Women's Health the great thing about Westchester schools is
087that they have almost every resource to help me expand my interests in every way possible my current librarian Mrs vandergast is always eager to find out my latest project or what's new on my reading list I think that I wouldn't have been such a curious person without the help of my school library and its commitment to always helping kids Foster their interests if the school starts to ban books sorry if the school district starts to ban books they're diminishing learning opportunities from students who might not have access to reading materials otherwise but if some parents feel strongly about a book I propose that wcasd established a system where parents can regulate what books their own child has access to this way the district is unable to prohibit learning while also allowing parents to guide their
088children to what they deem as appropriate even though they might not be checked out regularly every book in the library has something unique to offer and to every student especially with the rising controversies on topics such as lgbtq and women's rights I think that is extremely important for students that students are provided with resources where they don't feel ashamed to explore and understand more about their surroundings in a safe and protected manner I have listened to the concerns of a few parents but I can personally speak as a current student in the wcasd program that these helps these books help provide Insight on sensitive topics and allow each and every student to understand a world that might seem big to step into thank you foreign oh sorry dope oh second okay uh I use Z
089sheep pronouns uh where I live in West Goshen today I come here with my friends and my background to discuss change something that this district has been destroyed the unity ever since I've been born change is something that isn't incremental but it's something that we need to do now as you know recently we had a shooting in Colorado Springs that was directly targeted towards the lgbtu community um it's something you probably don't know is that in the hallways every day that me and queer kid and you know anyone who's a minority faces discrimination I hear words like and and the n-word constantly in the whole the hallway I'm not afraid I'm afraid to tell people and this has been going on ever since middle school and the thing is the safe spaces that we have
090are slowly dwindling away like I'm an officer of the Ruston GSA and we have to go into height and we can't put our stuff on to flex time manager because we're afraid of parents attacking us recently we had a Nazi join um we dealt with it and we're afraid and what we need is help from you guys and as much as I appreciate all of your help it's very little and what we need is fast action and I'm scared for my life coming up here to say this but this thing about all the people in the black student union and the intersexuality lines just trying to live their life just trying to be a regular human being and hearing all these things having a safe space to take it away what we need to do
091is protect these people not just me but Anthony and Wesley and everyone back here we are all human beings together and the only way to come back hate is through change um finally I guess my last message here is this we need to focus on change and I trust everyone from the school board to do that thank you thank you Rachel stutter [Music] so I was informed that I'm at West Town I'm new here I'm so sorry um my name is Rachel stetter and I'm a junior at favorite lesson high school I'm also a queer trans woman and I'm happy to be able to represent my community today in front of the school board just would like to take a moment to thank everyone here gathered and the previous speakers were just so passionate I'm
092very thankful that they were here today to talk about something similar to what I'm going to say um so and then I would like to also go on to thank the board for assembling this forum for those who the processes of this our district concern and Those whom it does not I must confess my motives for coming here are not selfish unselfish and thus I'd like to take the time to discuss my personal journey in the district and in this community I come from Chicago and if this community was on Chicago's many neighborhoods the folks who come here weekly to complain bitterly about our schools very minimal acceptance of lgbtq kids would be home safe and sound watching NCIS with a little bowl of Werther's original terminals in Chicago we wouldn't have talks about banning
093this or that book because it has a vague reference to queer sexuality in Chicago we wouldn't even need to ask for what I'm asking for here in Chicago queer kids needs would be accommodated I guess the agenda just went out in the Rust Belt I realized that this isn't Chicago but that doesn't mean I can't beg you to consider making gender-neutral bathrooms available on all the floors of my school and other schools so I don't have to walk 10 minutes just to get there so trans kids from East and Henderson don't have to walk 15. to use a bathroom with a sign that says staff only no students there are 14 gendered bathrooms in our school there's four on either side and then there's there's four on the very bottom and there's only two gender
094neutral now I'm not really great at math but I don't think this doesn't mean anything to do with polynomials you have no idea what it's like to go into the men's restroom dress like this and go into the bathroom with a crossed out trasticas on stalls and doors dividers removed just like this to stare at bathroom signs with fear and apprehension because either way I'm putting myself in potentially dangerous situation a situation they'll never prepare you for in any health class even health class let me just recall a conversation I had with my health teacher so if I go on hormones how will my body internalize alcohol confused pause I don't know or maybe the rushed five minute lesson at the end of the year where my identity was a solution to a question on
095an index card queer kids are in danger we would love to offer our voices further if they are necessary and thank you have a nice day [Applause] that is our last comment there was a duplicative registration all right thanks wait a minute we're not finished you might as well just sit down for a minute because we'll then we'll discuss the meeting but we approve we want to say we appreciate your coming you're expressing yourself I'm sorry my key inspiration here uh at this time of my life is learning to be a listener a lot of times I'll keep my mouth shut and I will appear to be listening to my yard but my mind is racing ahead because when people speak we think a whole lot faster so inside my head I'm thinking but but
096I have an answer for all that well I don't we all don't we all do this and and most of us are not very good listeners it's hard work it's almost a skill that has to be learned I don't know if school can do it but it needs to be learned so this is where I would like to read to you tonight for my final quote by a woman named Sharon Browning who does some thinking about just listening ours is an era in which every thought publicly expressed is hyper scrutinized and efforts to articulate positions of comedy and kindness are attacked everyone ends up bloodied and self-justified and positions are hardened and nothing changes all of us on this planet are here for a reason the time is now for contemplation inquiry curiosity and dialogue
097with whomever is right in front of your nose each of us has to listen so I think listening is a recognition of the inherent dignity equality and common Humanity of all it is an act of justice and I encourage all of us to try to move ourselves when we are in a conversation with a person to actually listen and try and understand and so I thank you all for attending our board meeting tonight this was a Westchester School District board meeting and I'm grateful that you came and I hope you'll come back next month and that with that uh do I hear a motion to dismiss there we go we have and we have Mr Grinnell Dr dietry and Mr Grinnell all in favor I