001good evening everyone i hear my call to order the august 22nd 2022 meeting of the westchester area school board business meeting looking around if you're keeping track or you take little notes and know who's here you don't see dr sokolowski late yesterday he tested positive for coving dr julia reynolds will be leading the meeting tonight dr dr sokolowski's place with me and also appearing on zoom although i don't think you'll actually see their faces maybe you'll see their faces but you can hear them will be mrs fleming and dr dietrich so that's the setup up here it looks a little different i'll put this down now it looks a little different but here we are and we will have our regular monthly board business meeting the first order of business is we rise and salute
002the american which stands one nation under god indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank you now we don't have any elementary students to tell us fun things about their school so i'm just going to give you a couple of words from aristotle educating the mind without educating the heart is no education at all that's it next on the agenda is roll call for here director fleming here director herman here director shaw here president here director here thank you uh that leads us to public comments on agenda items if you have filled out a card at the table in the back mr jennings we'll call you to the microphone thank you president good evening uh now is the time is indicated for public comment on agenda items persons wishing to make public comment were required
003to properly register prior to the designated 7pm start time of tonight's meeting when public commenters names are called i ask that they 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 screens located throughout the room the board asks that all commentary be directed to the board as a whole public comments may be interrupted or terminated if the commentary exceeds three minutes or if it is obscene and or threatening in nature all persons attending this meeting are expected to conduct themselves with decorum and civility in addition to refraining from abusive and profane remarks please also be respectful of all persons and public comments including those comments and opinions that differ from your
004own distracting and disruptive behavior or other actions with which interfere with the orderly conduct of the public meeting will not be tolerated we will now call the first of six speakers emily good evening everyone thank you for the opportunity to address you this evening i live in westchester borough and i wanted to comment on the removal of dawn matter from the payroll i'm a mom of two elementary age kids in the district who are in the audience and they have approved these comments this evening and i'm here just to express my deep sadness and concern that the wcasd wasn't able to retain someone of the caliber of don mater in the position of the director of equity and assessment losing don mater as a part of the wcasd is a loss for all of us
005and for our children my children both have extensive ieps equity means all of our kids being able to thrive and receive opportunities in their educational experience striving for equity means supporting the kids like mine who need help doing some things that might come easy to your kids like speaking reading and managing anxiety can you imagine your child going through a full school year without his teacher ever hearing his voice mine did equity to our family means supporting children with rare anxiety disorders that render them mute in classroom settings when factions throughout the county rose to fight diversity equity and inclusion programs the programs that support my kids and being able to succeed in school i felt secure that don mayer with our support would be able to foster an environment for the kids continued success
006now i'm wondering what could have happened to lead this exceptional person to leave our district we've lost a seasoned professional who implemented thought-provoking programming for both parents and students a conversation that i would like to be a part of in the future is what we as a school district can do differently in the future to retain our best talent talent like don mader thank you very much [Applause] thank you the personnel report that has been posted this evening it does indicate the resignation of mrs dawn matter from the school district please know however that our administration is still deeply committed to our work and equity as many parents and community members are aware we have several goal areas that express how committed we are to closing the achievement gap expanding access and opportunity and ensuring
007that our schools and classrooms are welcoming and inclusive environments for all students and families for the interim please know we are recommending this evening that dr yuna martin will help lead our work in equity as interim director dr martin is recently retired from the school district after serving as an english teacher at stetson middle school since 1999. dr martin is highly regarded across the district and has been a long-term member of the district equity leadership team she recently completed her doctorate in education from immaculata university and will be serving as an adjunct professor at westchester university starting in january of 2023. thank you melissa bennett good evening i'm melissa bennett from west ocean thanks you don't have to repeat what you just said but i'm going to say what i say too i also wanted
008to speak about the separation of mrs dawn matter director of equity and assessment from the district first i want to express my gratitude for her presence and her work she had a remarkable ability to hold a multitude of realities within her work she could identify the larger systems impacting student needs not only within the school district but also within the various large and small communities of these and she could also see the smaller details listening well and supporting day-to-day endeavors to meet student needs that takes incredible skill and i'm grateful for how she paved the way as the first person to serve the district as director of equity and assessment and i also want to just note that she loved her job she loved the students and this community and i know no one can
009talk about hr matters but i'm concerned about this separation second i have lots of questions about the transition you as you mentioned i understand that dr una martin has been appointed as the interim with a daily rate i'd like to understand the scope of her job description and how to support her in this interim i'm also interested to know the long-term plan for the district will we hire another director of equity and assessment and if so what is the timeline in the process for that hire maintaining a director of equity is of the utmost importance and i hope and here it will remain a priority for the district which i'm glad and maybe my most important question is this how we analyze challenge and change the structure in which this director will work so that
010they are supported and sustained to do their job equity work is not easy sometimes it requires that you hold supervisors and close colleagues accountable it needs a nuanced approach to challenge systems while also maintaining personal relationships as well as encouraging and reminding all of us of our accomplishments if we're being honest it's an easy position to scapegoat and so i'm wondering what challenges will be made with what changes will be made within the system so that this person will be able to succeed at the vital work before them i've said to all of you many times i am grateful for this district's equity mission it's important to me that we what we do matches what we say and it's important that we are doing the deep deep deep hard hard work to continue advancing equity
011initiatives thank you [Applause] sarah yes sir against east bradford again this is about dawn i appreciate your statement from before as we learn its own matter will no longer be the director of equity and assessment i wanted to take time to make sure that we remember what she was able to bring to our district i'm aware that this is just some of the visible contributions and that she did even more behind the scenes and for many people in our district i appreciated the community conversations and how they started out gentle and grew into deeper conversations they allowed people to learn from one another and see the struggles and needs as well as their strengths and contributions to the community i heard great feedback on the community leader meeting and her dedication to our community and
012school was spelled by all the dr bernice king live symposium was well done and very educational i understand that there were some feelings about who was able to attend the small in-person part of this event but looking at it from both directions she was going to upset people no matter what she chose to do whether inviting students by specific class by specific clubs by first come first serve or representation matters i'm glad that it was recorded so everyone could enjoy it is also still on the website please go watch it this brings me to my concern for the future this is a delicate this is a delicate position and a very important position it does not just cover race it covers all students every single student in our building needs equitable education she did great
013things with advocating for ieds i will have a child entering school next year with a speech iep and i want to make sure that the role of the director of equity and assessment is isn't a continuous revolving door of educators it concerns me that there have been or will be four people in this for a similar position in four years i find it concerning that dawn is leaving and two people are coming in to take her position that's telling me that she may not have been given she may have been given more than her fair share while it appears that they may be salary and part-time i have been in different positions but i had to take on multiple roles not only to be filled with by multiple people than after i left this points
014to a failing system and needs to be addressed now for the good of the students i appreciated that don challenged the system as well as had excitement and plans for where the school district can and will go i hope the interim director of equity and the interim director of assessment will see this and meet this level of care i have high hopes as i know this district is free and it has had that greatness as a promise thank you rich eagles west chester borough i think we're having a recurring theme here i'm also here to speak about don i'm going to try not to get too emotional but i think it's very important that the board understand how important she was to this district and how deep of a loss is felt by the constituents
015of this town dawn knew that dei was more than just race it was about all the different inequities that occur within our system she worked to elevate all children within our district and according to the mission and she knew that raising a child and educating a child was more than just focusing on the child she brought the entire community together in common conversation letting us have open dialogue in safe places she brought the daughter of a civil rights icon to our district to speak losing dawn is losing a tremendous asset to this to this school board and to this school district dawn should be thanked she was an absolutely incredible woman who took on an absolutely overwhelming job with grace and so i would first like to say thank you which brings me again to
016the same thing that other people have seen an interim role means that we have to understand what the long-term goal is i employ the board to share with the community what our plan is to bring people in to retain a dei person for more than just a year or two this is the third dei person to supervisors and now the director to leave in four years that is not a problem of individual that is a problem of system and that system problem must be addressed we also need to understand what it's going to take to retain more people within our district who are able to be these excellent teachers they're going someplace else and that means they're not staying here with us in this wonderful beautiful town and and school district so i encourage you
017to help us to understand what the long-term plan is help us to understand how a part-time individual who's paid on an hourly rate is able to do the job uh jobs that are there and to help us to understand how we're going to plan to meet the objectives in the strategic plan long term in accordance with what our needs are as children as teachers and as a community thank you [Applause] lisa dorsey good evening lisa dorsey i'm a resident of the borough and i want to i don't want to repeat what all the speakers before me have said but want to echo their concerns i too want to acknowledge the contributions of dawn maider in her position with the district over the last year or so and also challenged the the the school board and
018the administration uh dr zacharovsky's cabin around at around the commitment to diversity and equity here in the district um evaluate that commitment and what can be done differently as mr eagles just said you know we have had and previous speakers we've had uh three resources in that position in the last four years something at this level needs to be done differently so that we can retain that talent and have an impact in our with our student body um again the commitment the departure of dawn maynard concerns the community as you have heard from speakers before me and i'm glad to hear that we have replacements uh in a temporary interim position but that doesn't address the commitment that the the board and the district has said that they have to equity for our student body
019and for our community at large and i'd like to to see an overall review of equity at the student level as well as in the administration and teacher staff and folks that act as role models to our student body our coaches our um counselors our um folks in in role model positions throughout the district i know for sure that there have been departures of several black males in role model positions in the district in recent months and really actually over the last year or so and i think that warrants evaluation thank you [Applause] i'm also here to speak about dawn um could you just begin by staying here yes i'm sorry joking iraqi uh west town so i recently heard that donald matter director of equity and assessment recently resigned i was very disappointed to
020hear as my experience with diversity equity and inclusion and the district has been very positive i took a look at her job description for the role from 2020 and the director of equity and assessment is obviously it's an important role to the district with a lot of responsibilities in fact the job description is four pages and i worked at vandenberg for 16 years and four pages is a lot for a job description um so a couple of the things that she was responsible for is acting as a resource to the superintendent on di and affirmative action develops and implements district-wide training to promote cultural understanding and competency and a climate of equity and inclusion and leads and coordinates the training for 17 schools in this district works with hr to recruit underrepresented candidates identifies areas
021of need for the curriculum assessment of student progress to close the academic achievement gaps facilitate state and national testing and provides training to administration at each school analyze and produce reports serves as the district's title ix coordinator and other duties as directed so this is the job description for one person this is during a time where our district has faced a lot of scrutiny for championing championing dei and ei faces national scrutiny yet many large corporations such as vanguard and boeing have directors of equity and they've been very successful regardless of who does this position and i do think that ms mater did a really wonderful job diversity equity and inclusion are everyone's job in our district i was happy to see this role may be filled by two separate people it might be two
022separate roles but we may as a very large district require a team to coordinate all of these things to require one person to do it all do not set this manner up for success in the future we need to make sure we have a strong team and make sure they have all the support they need so we can hopefully be a model to other districts thank you [Applause] those are all the public commenters on agenda items if i provide a comment dr scott thank you i just want to address our community members that came up in support of our work with equity and i just want to say from me to all of you and to our community that i am fully devoted towards seeing the success of the director of equity position but i
023want to also echo that i do think it's important for us to take a step back to see how we have actually structured this position how we have supported this position so that we can meet with great success moving forward so there will be time that we will take to respect for immediately posting for the next directory so i just want to thank everybody for their support i truly appreciate it thanks dr sokolowski thank you everyone for coming up and telling us how you're feeling about things tonight this will move us forward to approval of the minutes for the july 25th monthly school board meetings do i have a motion to approve uh mr redwalkwa first dr herman has a second any questions or comments about the july 25th school board meeting minutes if not
024uh mr short could we oh please add to the meeting minutes for this evening that we met as a board in executive session earlier this evening on negotiations and we also met on august 15th on personnel do we need a vote for that to approve the 25th all right would you call would you call role please sure vice president yes director yes director chester yes director yes director dietrich yes director shaw yes director fleming dave director jordan yes president yes thank you next we seek approval from the board for the august 22nd 2022 monthly school board meeting agenda and i have a first uh dr shaw and the second uh miss chester and are there any comments or questions about tonight's agenda all right if we can call for the vote director shaw yes director
025chester yes director dietrich yes director clement yeah director journal yes thank you now that leads us to the superintendent's report and dr reynolds standing in sitting in for dr sokolowski this evening your report please good evening mrs tiernon and mr beth macklin and members of the board on behalf of dr sokolowski here's our report today was a very exciting day as we welcome back staff members of the westchester area school district for the 22-23 school year staff and administrators are busy meeting together as teams participating in professional development and preparing their spaces to welcome our students and our families staff will also be kicking off the new school year with a theme of caring and community keeping that in mind as we continue to strive to build a community that makes everyone feel welcome and
026cared for at the heart of this theme is also the importance of showing gratitude and expressing sincere appreciation for all the efforts of our teachers staff and administrators in a spirit of gratitude i would like to share the district's appreciation for 10 employees who have served the district and our students for 30 years and one employee who has been with the district for 40 years those who have achieved 30 years of service will receive awards for their tremendous dedication thanks to all in our technology department who work countless hours this summer to prepare and upgrade all the laptops and students devices in advance of this school year and to all of our facilities department thank you for working all summer to get our classrooms and buildings prepared for the opening of school finally to the
027school secretaries our own unsung heroes who have a big role in getting the schools ready for both staff and students last week for induction we welcome all of our staff back to our buildings and we held induction to familiarize new staff members with our district and to prepare them for a year ahead this group included 84 inductees who we know will bring a great deal of energy to their classrooms our buildings and the district additionally some of those inductees include 13 former west chester area school district vikings warriors and knights who have now come back to work in the district after graduating for the upcoming school year the 2022-23 school year officially begins on monday august 29th our teachers and staff are excited to get the year started and to welcome their students into the
028classrooms we're happy to report that as of today we are showing 12 193 students that are enrolled we are 32 students over our projection and 100 over our actual enrollment at the end of the 21-22 school year for transportation we provide transportation for district students as well as students that are in private parochial or charter schools located within 10 miles of our borders transportation schedules continues to be revised so please be patient we also want to share that we're working closely with the graystone hoa and west town and excuse me west ocean township to resolve the issues of busing being restricted to travel and haram avenue we're a meeting with families tomorrow evening at grayson at 6 30 to provide an update and discuss plans to minimize the significant inconvenience we also remain hopeful the
029matter will be resolved prior to the start of school for students on august 29th regarding school safety and security we are approving two additional campus safety officers this evening with one more recommendation forthcoming for board approval in september these hires will further enhance school safety across all of our 17 schools we are also in the process of completing a grant application to pde for 561 thousand dollars for mental health and school security and lastly we have verbal agreements with the west goshen and westchester borough police departments to place school resource officers at both henderson and east we are waiting to hear back from the townships that are served by the west town east goshen police departments and for good news the westchester east high school band performed at east oceans park end of summer bash
030for over 300 attendees they brought great energy and fun to the event and from numerous submissions across the nation the national association for music education selected the rusted high school world percussion ensemble as a performing ensemble at the national convention this coming november in national harbor maryland the ensemble will perform on the main stage immediately before the opening general session of the national conference and this past school year the westchester area school district raised over one hundred thousand dollars for the american heart association with glenn acres and hillsdale ranked in the top 25 participating schools in the eastern states region throughout their our partnership with the american heart association the district has raised almost 2 million dollars to benefit life-saving trainings and other vital services we want to thank all of our volunteers at each
031school and to our families and our students that concludes our report thank you dr reynolds um this leads us now to the personnel recommendations if you downloaded or looked at a copy of the personnel recommendations i think they were about 25 pages long which is fairly typical for this time of year dr reynolds is filling in not only for dr sokolowski but for dr ulmer tonight so this evening she will be giving us a summary of the personnel recommendations from dr o'mort's office thank you mrs terrigan on behalf of dr allman good evening to mrs tiermann mr becaulaqua and members of the board our personnel report for the month of august 2022 is as follows with removals from payroll we have 16 resignations one administrator seven teachers one reading specialist two custodians four support staff
032and one school nurse in retirement we are recommending the retirement of glenn gray head custodian at emerson elementary school with eight years of service and lisa vanakola paraprofessional at east bradford elementary school with 14 years of service we wish glenn and lisa a happy and exciting transition to their next chapter with additions to payroll we are recommending the hiring of one secondary stem supervisor 17 new teachers one reading specialist one school counselor and seven long-term substitute teachers additionally we are recommending the hire of one custodian one grounds mechanic and one library assistant assistant and one substitute custodian we are also recommending two additional campus safety officers and personality events i communicated five status changes one in our professional staff two in our support staff and two status changes in our custodial group i've communicated 24
033involuntary transfers in our professional staff and one voluntary transfer in our professional staff furthermore we are recommending two sabbaticals in the professional staff in unpaid leaves we have one teacher up for approval in additional information we have three last day updates eight start date changes one approval for an interim director of equity four individual stipends for various increases in temporary responsibilities and 13 special education stipends for special education teachers we are also seeking approval for administrator salaries for the 22-23 school year and mere performance bonuses for the 21-22 school year for the act 93 agreement in supplemental contracts we have 14 additions to contracts for annual supplementals and 10 additions for the fall season we also have two removals for fall supplemental contracts one adjustment for an annual contract and two adjustments for fall contracts
034i'm respectfully requesting board approval for all personnel matters listed above thank you all right we need a first a motion to approve the personnel report mr vernell head's first and mr vettel aqua has the second any questions or comments from the board regarding all of those changes no mr sure tim and i have a comment i would like to wish dawn peter the best in her transition to whatever that's her next right thank you thank you miss chester with that i believe we can do it director yes director dietrich thank you next is approval of the consent agenda which is most of the rest of the agenda um before we vote are there any board members who wish to remove any item from the consent agenda for further discussion at this time there is not
035now we will entertain motion to accept the consent agenda motion to approve this is dr herman and mr bevalaqua questions or comments on anything on the consent agenda okay we can vote herman yes director yes director chester yes director dietrich yes director clermont yes director terminology yes director shaw yes director yes president yes all right we move now with the school board committee reports first is education with dr shaw good evening i'm so happy to be here tonight so that i didn't have to ask dr reynolds you're welcome um we had a very full um education and people services committee meeting on august 8th where we had the benefit of learning about a number of things that were happening over the summer for us and also we received several data presentations we received a summer
036academy report we reviewed parent and staff survey data we took a look at student achievement data and we heard from dr sokolowski about his summer listening sessions in the elementary schools and the major takeaways we also received a presentation of the extended school year activities that occurred during the summer so that is my summary of the education company meeting thank you miss chester do you have a reward for people services dr reynolds would you like to no no i don't we didn't meet and public services did not meet in july we will be meeting in september so we're planning on uh melissa and i are planning on a robust meeting for september so we hope to see you there thank you very much personnel dr herman good evening um thank you dr reynolds for the
037very comprehensive personnel reporting you did a great job thank you that's it all right moving right along property and finance mr bevalaqua good evening we held the property finance meeting last monday on august 15th as we do on a monthly basis mr scully reviewed the august budget forecast model the focus of the review was on the 2021-22 year-end projections for both revenues and expenses mr scully also reviewed the changes to the 22 23 projections the net savings in the 22 23 school year projections totaled 5 336 000 and they'll be used to reduce the budget of the subsequent year the 2023-24 budget cap the summary role funds analysis at this time shows a net gap in the 23-24 school year of 4.8 million assuming a tax increase up to act one limit we'll continue to
038update that on a monthly basis as we evaluate the next item we spoke about in the property finance meeting was mr scully provided the committee with information about reverse assessment appeals the board authorizes the director of business affairs mr scully to review records of real estate transactions of properties within the district to identify recent sales in which the current assessed value of the property sold is at least one million dollars less than the assessment suggested by the sale price of such property in accordance with our board policy 606.2 the administration recommended the district file an appeal and assessments of 10 identified properties for the 2223 school year as we discussed in the meeting the committee recommended approval to proceed with the reverse assessment appeals and you will see that as one of the consent items
039in the property finance for this month on the next the last item in the property finance meeting was mr burst to review the contract pricing from unitec's asphalt services for concrete sidewalks and curb replacements at several schools each of these projects was competitively bid through the cciu as we do on many of our competitive bids this year east goshen elementary fugate middle school east high school and hillsdale elementary school were determined to be the schools in the most need for concrete replacement work the total cost of the contract is approximately 56 000. our 2223 capital reserve project budget for the work was 79 800. so these projects were within the budget allocated and approved these projects were previously approved in the 2223 capital reserve project list the property and finance committee recommended approve the contracts
040with unitec's asphalt services as stated the next property and finance meeting that all welcome to will be on monday september 19th and that concludes my report for this evening thank you all for your committing reports and we move to other reports these are liaison positions other things that board members are responsible for connections to other facets of the community the first on tonight is mr darnell with his report from the chester county intermediate unit thank you president tiernan the chester county intermediate unit board of directors held its monthly meeting on wednesday august 17th at the educational service center on boot road in dowlingtown dr gerhart assistant executive director gave a presentation on the start of the school of start of school for the 2022-23 school year dr gerhart is hopeful the start of the 22-23
041school year will look and feel much different than the previous couple of years he highlighted our main school school-based programs and campuses our tchs campuses are expected to have an enrollment that has not been seen before as of today we have a 14 increase in enrollment from last year with a total starting enrollment of 2569 students with automotive service and cosmetology being the top enrolled programs the next school-based program dr gerhard spoke about was our child and career development center which serves our most vulnerable children and has an eight percent increase in enrollment from last year the cciu learning center has a 22 increase in enrollment from last year which is the highest enrollment five years our brandywine virtual academy bba has a 12 percent increase in districts from la from last year and for
042the 22-23 school year there will be renewed emphasis on career electives at the secondary level lastly dr gerhart spoke about our last two school-based programs serving students under the age of five head start has a slight increase in enrollment however there is an increase in funding which will help us compensate staff for the benefit of retention and retainment of staff our preschool special education program has increased 22 percent in enrollment from the last year including the opening of two newly structured inclusive preschool special education head start classrooms dr gerhart is excited to welcome all students into all of our programs and wishes all of our school districts a great start to the 20 to 23 school year the next cciu board of directors meeting will be held on wednesday september 21st at 7 30 at
043the cciu learning center at 1635 east lincoln highway coatesville pennsylvania that is very important thank you and if you have any questions about the iu mr durnell can help you or the meetings are open to the public or dr fiore over there will be happy to hear from you okay psba report dr herman thank you president tiernan good evening the psba website has something very new it's called the new school director's monthly exchange this is for new school directors or ones that are already on the school board this supports you as you learn how to become an effective member of part of a team the first 30 minutes of each set hour-long virtual session will feature a presentation on the essentials of school board governance school law school finance or goals with time to ask
044questions the presentation will be followed by discussion breakout rooms to review the sessions information and network with school directors from your area and the exchanges take place on zoom on the third thursday of each month 12 30 a.m 12 30 p.m to 1 30 p.m through november 22nd the next session is august 18th and this is something that is brand new so it could be very constructive another point of interest and i'm sure a lot of us in the room know this it's reported by the psba that there is a teacher shortage across the commonwealth pennsylvania will need thousands of new teachers by 2025 according to the state department of ed and what's happening fewer college students are entering the field and more teachers are leaving the profession so the good news is i think
045um in the westchester school district we're doing pretty well we um we i talked to dr ulner and we've hired some really excellent people it's taking time but we have some good people working with us and wanting to come to our district so thank you that concludes my report and we just have to work and keep them here yes yes mr durdell is on again with an equity report thank you president this equity report highlights some of the events and planning that took place over the summer preparation for the new school year on tuesday july 26th district administrators and community leaders throughout westchester gathered together at the melton center for a community leaders meeting this meeting provided local leaders with valuable time to review the previous year's equity goals and discuss the expansion of those
046goals for the upcoming school year this was a very productive meeting and the district plans to extend the community conversation series from last year into more directed frequent meetings with the diverse members of the district and i attended that meeting and i thought it was great i was really pleased with the number of the administrators in the district that were also in attendance on monday august 15 the education committee reported out on a number of student achievement measures while we still see gaps of disproportionality for our african-american and hispanic students we did see a number of student achievement measures indicating that those gaps are narrowing in particular we are seeing more african american and hispanic students accessing higher level courses at the middle of high school levels additionally more african american and hispanic students are
047are accessing accessing the dual enrollment program with westchester university on wednesday evening august 22 august 17th the community engagement specialist mrs sandra bradley hosted a new family orientation for spanish-speaking parents and students this event consisted of numerous interactive opportunities for families to engage with our english language learner staff and learn about a variety of family resources thank you to mrs bradley latinos and our el staff for hosting this very helpful and well attended event as we continue our equity planning work for the 22-23 school year we are excited to work with the tyrone tyrone howard group for the second year in a row the howard group will be offering more in-person professional development sessions for teachers and staff these sessions will engage staff in a wide variety of equity related topics to support teaching and
048learning across the school district lastly we would like to welcome dr glennon morgan who will be fulfilling the director of equities responsibilities on an interim basis this fall as we already heard dr martin recently retired from the western area school district where she was an english teacher at stetson middle school for almost 25 years she has been heavily involved in the district's equity mission for over a decade and has earned a reputation of great regard and respect across the schools and community that ends my report and that ends all of our reports but the last item on tonight's agenda let us not forget is comments from residents on non-agenda items if you have filled out a guard business i am sorry if you skipped yourself on there we have at the end of the agenda
049x of the business yes two of the items are already on the consent agenda the third item is approval of the new position job description of administrative assistant to the assistant superintendent dr herman would you handle that please thank you president tiernon um good evening i'm repeating there is one non-consent item on the agenda tonight regarding personnel it's the approval of the new position and job description administrative assistant to the assistant superintendent approval is requested of the new position and job description administrative assistant to the assistant superintendent iso move all right do we have mr bevalaqua as the first and we need us oh good good and mrs wonsley as the second any questions or comments about the assistant to the assistant superintendent position no i believe we're ready to vote then sherman yes would
050you carry forward now with people who have signed up for the three minutes to speak at the end on non-agenda thank you president as indicated now is the time for public comment on non-agenda items public comments are limited to three minutes per person i ask that you please be respectful of all persons and public comments including those comments and opinions that differ from your own we will now call the eight registrants in succession julian your chapter my name is joanne your check from east goshen hello incidents reported to occurred during pride month at stetson middle school should not be happening in our taxpayer-funded public schools when a student told his father that boys were wearing dresses and a male teacher was wearing high heels during pride month the father asked the vice principal for corroboration
051he was told boys dressing as girls and a male teacher wearing high heels are perfectly acceptable and not in violation of the dress code the administrator reportedly noted that this teacher has worn high heels on multiple occasions and that if the teacher is comfortable in wearing them then the school supports it why other than to promote the lgbtq agenda to impressionable middle school children would a male teacher choose to teach in uncomfortable high heels for several hours this same teacher is said to have traced through the cafeteria during lunch waving the pride flag these unacceptable behaviors are both unprofessional and purposefully manipulative pride flags abounded in june with students wearing them as capes with the approval of teachers and administrators however when a male student attempted to wear a blue lives matter flag similarly a
052counselor reportedly made him remove it and put it in his locker if this inequitable action is verified the counselor should be removed from her position immediately no one who displays such a clear-cut bias should be counseling students i don't doubt that many students found find many of these antics and activities to be amusing and entertaining however they are not only inappropriate but most significantly are indisputable distractions from academics which should be the primary focus of our schools it is both puzzling and disturbing the teachers and school and district administrators enable and indeed support these undeniable examples of indoctrination that have been described tonight you will hear them more i respectfully request that the board fulfill your responsibilities and act to restore sanity decorum and professionalism to our district which seems to be stuck in the
053muck of lochism [Applause] rich eagles good evening rich eagles westchester borough sorry where my high heels today um i wanted to talk today about communication um dawn when she resigned uh her resignation was effective on eight three and one of the things that i think we have to recognize as a board is that if we do not put out words and communications to the community the community will derive their own opinions along the way i think that it is wonderful that we have many positive things in our district that we speak of many positive things that we are doing to help our students to help our community to bring us all together and i think that that's really amazing but oftentimes our reports are a lot of sunshine and no shadow and i think it's
054important that we think about when someone of the caliber and importance of dawn matter leave the organization that we communicate that out to parents we do that when principals leave we do that when assistant principals leave and it was unfortunate that this didn't happen directly when don left it left a lot of community members confused frustrated and drawing their own conclusions about what happened no one exactly knows what happened but the idea that the supervisor's report um was so positive and there was only a commentary as a direct response to people coming up to the podium and speaking uh on what we had observed in the agenda hearing from an agenda is not the right way to hear about something of such importance i encourage the board to be more forthright more direct in their
055communications and to be honest and share where we're failing as much as where we're doing well i think that's an important part of growth both for our students and for our administrators our teachers etc etc secondarily i would like to just say that the delaware valley consortium for excellence and equity report which the director of diversity and assessment was built upon had a foundation of many many recommendations that the district should take into consideration i would like to make sure that per the superintendent's commentary that when we look at that job description we go back to the source of what was recommended to us by experts in the community and realign ourselves with what we're going to do to help align with what the experts have shared with us in our community service and with
056that i would like to say thank you for your attention [Applause] hey michelle one time thank you amanda greenberg [Music] i'm here to recommend that the health and safety plan either be completely abolished or revised to a single sentence the sentence should read each family in westchester area school district will decide what is best for the health and safety of their own family members anderson since the cdc now states that those exposed are no longer required to quarantine unvaccinated people now have the same guidance as vaccinated people students can stay in class after being exposed and it's no longer recommended to screen those without symptoms there's no real need for this plan anymore and we can go back to how things were in 2019 where as long as your child is fever-free for 24 hours
057without any fever suppressants then he or she can return to school to continue to burden our children with the fears of a few is a dereliction of your duty and will further do harm to our children over a virus that they are not now nor have they ever been at risk for serious illness or death there should no longer be any reminders for social distancing masks hand sanitizer stations all over the place or any other preposterous and ineffective measures thank you [Applause] my pledge i will withdraw for tonight and defer to a future time thank you jim jacobs hello jacobs west country okay just go okay thank you thank you everyone for being here my name is jim jacobs i'm a resident taxpayer in west chester for over 18 years i'm the father of three
058boys all who went through the westchester school district unfortunately i had no choice but to transfer my son for his eighth grade year he has a 4.0 gpa no kind life issues except for certain issues that the school brought up honestly i'm nervous being here i don't want to be here i wish i didn't have to be here but i really feel like someone needs to stick up for 10 11 12 year olds who now have zero voice in the school unless you believe a certain ideology um you know this is really embarrassing to me but like there was gay pride week and no one has a problem with gay pride week okay no one has a problem with being anti-gay or if you like the blue light matter flat flag that doesn't mean you're
059racist and i'm tired of that narrative being taught um for gay pride week i was you know kids are encouraged to wear flags capes and there's a an assignment here from harvey milk that encourages them to do that i saw pictures of what was hanging on the wall and people that these kids were encouraged to follow with qr codes i don't know how in the world this got passed by a school district and these qr codes put on the wall okay adam joseph is a prominent gay member of the gay community right here for channel 6 action news carl nassif right in westchester openly gay nfl player but they're not featured it goes so far to the left it's ridiculous they feature bianca del rey i connect this is a raunchy r-rated comedian i cannot
060believe that 10 11 and 12 year olds are taught this is a person to look up to so there's so many flat out wrong things there's selective enforcement of dress codes depending on what the values are of the family and you know i'm talking about a teacher shortage left and right that was half meeting about teacher shortages teachers i know are afraid to speak up they're told they will be punished if they speak their opinion they're told that they you can't say that you're proud to be an american that you're um that you believe and uh you know believe in our country and that like it is just it's unbelievable i had to pull my son out and the scary thing is a lot of parents aren't aware of different situations when we speak to
061parents they say oh that happened to my son that happened to my daughter so i just wanted to get up here to make everyone aware and employ parents to really get together for this upcoming school year to make make sure that these injustices don't happen to our children again thank you [Applause] i just want to say my kids are super excited to start school on monday they can't wait one's been bored all summer and the other one just wants to spend all time with his friends so they're excited i want to share with you and note my concern for teachers as we come into this fall i was glad for the report dr ehrman i'm concerned that schools and communities do not have the right mechanisms in place to support teachers in the essential work
062of teaching our children we know school districts across the country are in crisis and i'm curious about teacher retention so i appreciated what you had to say but i hope we all find ways to continue to support our teachers just for coming back year after year i'm grateful for them second i wanted to share something that i that i started to share i was going to share at the april board meeting and then my son was here and he wanted to speak so i i let him speak instead um but it's been sitting with me still since then and so i just wanted to share i've been thinking a lot this summer about the confirmation of katanji brown jackson to the u.s supreme court her wealth of experience and her grounded measured thoughtful educated presence
063will be an unparalleled asset to the court for the foreseeable future and perhaps like many of you i was overjoyed to witness this moment in history and it's something i've been reflecting on all summer i've been thinking about our confirmation hearings and how they were an unprecedented public display of the way black women are treated in the workplace all across the country justice jackson was perhaps one of the most qualified nominees to ever sit for confirmation her record is incredible and yet she was met with question after question in an attempt to find a gotcha moment a memeable statement or a phrase to defame her it seemed in part at least because she wasn't like he is a black woman it was almost as if people didn't believe she could be so successful it was
064eye-opening to watch it was appalling and maybe not so surprising at least to some people black women after that rose up across the country and spoke up to say that public treatment of just judge jackson was all too familiar black women across the country said they too have been treated that way in their workplaces and i hope we are listening i hope that we in the westchester area school district are holding this reality squarely in the center of our policy making our system systemic structures our curriculum development and our employment decisions we need to be listening to the wisdom of black women and i know if we listen fully and carefully it won't be easily particularly for those of us who are white but it is vitally important for our communities and our children thank
065you [Applause] push this all right i'll never get it right dan gillan thornberry township good evening last month i attended the final listening session at pembroke elementary i was waiting on eight parents in attendance i listened and i learned it was a great idea i appreciated the opportunity dr sokolovsky i hope you're doing well tonight if you can hear me thank you for taking the time to do it i hope you continue to do it during the committee meeting last week it was reported that based on those listening sessions parents felt strongly about embedding sel social emotional learning into the classroom at my listening session though i raised concerns about sel as they did before all of you back in february i continue to have concerns about it and tonight i'm focusing on two of
066those concerns based on my review of their sel vendor flyer number one the flyer says sel is not therapy that is good teachers are educators but not trained therapists trained psychologists it would be unethical for teachers to practice on licensed therapy or psychology however is this statement accurate therapy is individual or groups talking sessions run by professionals sessions that are motion focused and designed to help patients manage mental illnesses like anxiety and depression the same flyer indicates that sel also helps students manage emotions and manage mental illnesses like anxiety and depression given this overlap i have two questions one how does the district differentiate between sel and therapy and how does seo manage emotions depression and anxiety without being considered proactive therapy concern number two the flyer which cites castle the leading sel company states
067that sel is quote not a way to teach students a specific political agenda that is good classrooms should be politically neutral however getting castle's promotion of transformative seo i have my doubts according to castle's promoted publications transformative seo is quote a means to mitigate the educational social economic inequities that derive from racialized cultural oppression what i just quoted is a political agenda what i just quoted is the promotion of political activism so my question is is this district implementing transformative sel in the classrooms and more broadly is castle in the if castle is in the business of pushing political agendas how can our castle-based sel programs be free of political agendas i believe my questions are fair and reasonable and we appreciate that the district could publicly respond to them in order to lend some
068credibility to some of the representations made in this flyer thank you president tiernon and that concludes public comment on non-agenda items as we as dr reynolds said teachers are back in the classroom for with all hopes that this will move along as a positive year for each of our children and we also would like it to be a politics-free environment for our children our teachers our staff as children move forward with the essential of learning now um some school board members have a quote that they would like to share with you so i'm not doing all the talking if they choose to read it could we start with you miss chester if you choose to read yours sure with my quotes on the other side of the room because i was faced hello right i
069would like to though again i know there's a lot of community uh comment about um miss may or ms marilyn sir and so i would like to just note the community to know that you heard i that would be my quote that i hear you we hear you and i think that's important to acknowledge we didn't celebrate her this evening and for whatever she has [Music] opportunity she has next that's wonderful but i think we should acknowledge the time spent pioneering dei as a director in this school board and i want to acknowledge and thank her for that because that's a difficult role to play so malcolm x says education is our passport to the future for tomorrow belongs to the people who prepare for it today thank you [Applause] go ahead dr herman thank
070you thank you miss gestures my pleasure education is not preparation for life education is life itself john dewey okay john dewey thank you miss wonsley success is no accident it is hard work perseverance learning studying sacrifice and most of all love of what you are doing or learning to do pele thank you anyone has never anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new albert einstein let us remember one book one pen one child and one teacher can change the world malala yoshi she's a perfect thank you a well-educated mind will always have more questions than answers helen keller and that is messages from the board intended to be for everyone in the room not one side or the other but for people who obviously by your presence in this room tonight
071care about what happens in the school district care about what what happens to our children when they begin next week so let us move forward with all positivity and joy and hope that that will be a good year for our kids thank you uh do you want your emotion to adjourn the meeting for august is dirt