001foreign ordered the July 25th 2022 meeting of the Westchester Area School Board business meeting please rise to salute our flag I pledge allegiance to the product of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all of them everybody Welcome to the meeting this is Tara short roll call for the board vice president [Music] here director Chester here director Darnell here director Fleming here director Herman here director Shaw Mr President here director here here okay right right before public comment I will say that I went to church on Sunday so because it was The Minister's last Sunday and everybody had things planned to celebrate his existence and the love for him and fishing come uh costumes it was just going to
002be wonderful and when we got there we found out that he had been diagnosed with covid and so he wouldn't be there so he appeared on the wall uh and that people talked to him on the wall and he could talk back to us of course we have two of our board members with us by phone tonight and um whoever is closest to that phone you'll listen to them and make sure they're not um taking a rest or something but welcome Miss Chester and Mrs Wamsley okay Mr Jennings thank you president and good evening now is the time for public comment on agenda items persons wishing to make public comment on agenda items were required to register prior to the designated 7 PM start time when public commenters names are called please approach the podium
003and begin by stating their 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 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 the commentary is obscene and or threatening in nature as a reminder 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 own distracting and disruptive behavior or other actions which interfere with the orderly conduct of this public meeting will not be tolerated we will
004now call the first of two speakers on agenda items hi Judy defonzo I'm still living in East Goshen Township I wanted to talk about uh the truck register towards the end there's a bunch of 60 100 120 checks um and actually I got one of them uh their refunds for kids who miss taking the AP exam my son had gone sick for one of the AP exams and had wanted to take it as a makeup and apparently you need to register like in advance to take the makeup and no one ever told them so we ended up kind of calling me at the last minute it's like Mom the test is tomorrow do what you can do I couldn't do anything because there was no test in the school for him to take the next
005day and um you know we had gotten reminders on schoology about you know sign up take the AP exam but there was nothing if you missed the test on how to take the makeup and I know I talked to um Dr Werner about you know going forward and making sure that the students are made aware that if they do miss it that there is a way to take the makeup and you have to I guess it's about a week before tell the person who coordinates the AP tests that you want to take the makeup and then you don't have to issue those 60 and 100 tests and the kids get to take the test and get the credit and I think they're happier when they get the credit so that's it for tonight for right
006now we have the same time oh one bill could be um Mrs Turner we used to do a thing at the end where you did a quote can we bring that back I really like that has kind of fallen off the agenda yes we can thank you Mrs Bunton thank you for your comments uh Dr Reynolds and I will follow up with the administration in East with regards to the communication if there are things that we can do better absolutely thank you Christopher Manos good evening everybody Christopher Manos I'm from East Bradford Township and in light of tonight's education agenda I have a couple of pieces of information for you all to review at some point and it basically pertains to the content that's being taught to our children in the school district much of
007it which is excellent and I thank you for all of the Excellence that you do on the flip side there are theories that are found that are up for debate and one of them I believe is global warming and the first document that I've given to the solicitor is from the competitive Enterprise Institute the title of this article is wrong again 50 years of failed egopocalyptic predictions what this presents to you is that there have been 50 years of predicting climate and environmental disaster and it's continuing on today and I think it is indisputable that human activity impacts our environment but there is a lot of other content that I think if we're going to have diversity equity and inclusion we should have a diversity equity and inclusion of competing ideas so that's my first
008point the second pertains to an article from the epoch times and it's based on Research done by James Lindsey that's basically titled marxists seek to destabilize American society through sexualization with young people and the research goes back to show that this has started since at least the 1910s in Hungary and Lindsay points to George lucage a devout Hungarian Marxist who served as Deputy commercial of Education in 1919 during the short-lived Hungarian Soviet Republic he introduced sex education to children at the elementary level and he sexualized the children of Hungary in order to separate them from their family to separate them from their religion their nation and their culture and this information I think really needs to be reviewed by all of the people that are involved in the diversity equity and inclusion agenda because I
009think that there's a real need to review this type of historical information so we don't go on the wrong path with this agenda thank you that concludes public comment on agenda items thank you for your input this will move us to approval of the minutes for the June 27th school board meeting do I have a motion to approve Dr Herman and a second Mr vibelacqua any comments or questions about the agenda from the 27th no then we don't call for the vote Dr Herman yes vice president yes director Chester here directly yes director now yes yes and Mr chair if you would add to the meeting minutes for this evening once we approve to the many minutes for this evening we met as a board an executive session earlier this evening on personnel and also
010school security matters Monday July 11th and also on Monday July 11th on legal and unlegal and personality sometimes we actually exchange this information before the meeting but tonight now next we seek approval for the July 25th 2022 school board meeting agenda may I have a first Fleming Mr Darnell the second any questions or comments call for the vote for plumbing Georgia durnell yes director Chester yeah director Hermann yes vice president yes Dr Watson yeah yes Commission and that leads us to the superintendent's report Dr sokolowski thank you president thank you president Tyrion I do have a lot to share um so although it's summertime we do have many students involved in a wide range of District programs across all levels this summer at the elementary level we have 391 students enrolled in the Summer Academy
011which is a small group focused instructional literacy and math we have 197 students enrolled in jumpstart which is an enrichment program for English language Learners in addition to language instruction jumpstart students also participate in a wide range of activities including an exciting field trip opportunities at the secondary level we have 91 98 students enrolled in team-based learning we also had 111 students taking the original credit courses for acceleration and we have about 80 student s and remediate for Recovery classes so all of our schools still remain quite active over the summer on the enrollment update we are also very busy at our schools enrolling students at this time our overall District enrollment is at 12 091 students with more registrations coming in particularly at the kindergarten level as Dr Mr chair with me before the
012meeting I would also like to thank our facilities and operations department for all their hard work this summer conducting the summer maintenance and cleaning schedules as they work around all the summer programs that are taking place they've done amazing work updating the terrazzo flooring at East fugit carpet replacement at Henderson the team has also done a lot of repairs and painting projects I'd like to also thank Mr Wayne burster our director of facilities and operations for all the work that he's been able to coordinate over the summer on the note of state budget I would like to inform our parent security members that with the passing of the state budget in early July the district is eligible to receive nearly 2.1 million dollars in additional funding from the state for the 22-23 school year as
013a result of this increase in funding we will be adjusting our budget forecast model to reflect additional funding in the following areas basic education funding we saw an increase of a little over 1.3 million special education increase of 131 000. also we saw that there will be grant funding opportunities in the areas of school safety and mental health and that total came to 576 thousand dollars uh insofar as the allocation for these funds I'd like to note that we anticipate for the basic education funding increase of 1.3 million we plan to use these funds to address the increased cost associated with existing programs uh costs for new enhanced curriculum areas and costs associated with increased enrollments the special education funding will help support the passing of act 55 this new legislation prevents a student with
014a disability who was enrolled during the 21-22 school year and turned the age of 21 to continue their enrollment in the 22-23 school and their services of course would be outlined by their their IEP plan in regards to safety and mental health grant funding it is important to note that these additional funds must be used for specific purposes and cannot supplant existing services for programs our people service department and our school safety team are currently working on plans to allocate These funds for our students tomorrow night will be the last of the elementary listening sessions that I've held across all of our elementary schools I'll be concluding with the parents at Pennwood Elementary and I will also be providing at our education committee on August the 8th an overview of what has been very informative
015very helpful listening sessions all of them were scheduled for just an hour but most of them have gone on for an hour and a half and in some instances for two hours and they've just been enjoyable there's been the opportunity to exchange amazing stories with families but also to hear critically about areas that parents think that the school district continues can continue to grow and here's some good news a few of our teachers and students I would like to recognize Westchester Area School District art teacher bet Naughton was named the 2022 Pennsylvania art Education Association outstanding art educator of the year Rising Henderson High School senior Ryan Hughes will represent Henderson in the Westchester Area School District at the enactment all National Honor Choir at the National Harbor outside of Washington DC in early November
016and lastly the Westchester food cupboard continues to serve families in need of healthy free food options on Tuesdays and Thursdays in the Henderson High School parking lot in just a week they provided over 3 600 pounds of food to Westchester families press enter that concludes my report thank you that was a lot of good news next up are personal recommendations from Dr Almer good evening Mr Tiernan Mr Beverly directors of our board our Personnel report for the month of July is as follows with removals from payroll we have 11 resignations one principle one assistant principal one school counselor six teachers one most term substitute and one secretary we had two retirements for approval Mr Brian Shetland grounds mechanic at the warehouse with five years of service and Mr Brad Sonic's head custodian Stetson middle school
017with 20.5 years of service we wish both these retirees the best and they'll hope they have a happy and healthy new chapter in their lives with the distance to payroll we are also recommending the hiring of seven new teachers for long-term substitutes and a staff nurse in Personnel events I communicated for staff status changes one in our professional staff and three in our administrative staff we would like to welcome Mr Anthony fourio as our new assistant principal at Stetson middle school you have to do is a social studies teacher at Henderson High School and previously taught social studies at Stetson Anthony's here Anthony can you give away good to know you okay welcome ahead additionally we're welcoming Miss Jackie Pablo as acting principal at Mary C house Elementary School Jackie is an assistant principal of
018Hugo Middle School we would also like to welcome Mrs Brittany neighbor as teacher on special assignment as faculty assistant principal at fugit Middle School Brittany is currently a biology teacher at Ruskin High School in transfers I delivered and communicated five involuntary transfers from the teaching staff one in the administrative staff one in our non-bondering staff and seven in the support staff I also deliberate and communicated three voluntary transfers in our teaching staff five in our support staff and two in our custodial staff in additional information I am updating six start dates one withdrawal from a summer contract one last day update a stipended awarded to Deb Whitmire for her work associated with Title One stipends for Carolyn Hatt Amelia and Karen Salida in the HR department while we await our new assistant director of Human
019Resources in supplemental contracts we are asking for the approval of the addition of 14 fall season contracts 506 annual contracts for the 22-23 school year five removals from the 220 to 23 school year and two adjustments for the 22-23 school year and respectfully requesting board approval for all Personnel matters listed above thank you [Music] thank you thank you okay uh do we have a motion to approve a second Dr Herman questions or comments from the board okay seeing none called the vote Mrs cherisher vice president yes yes director yes director Darnell yes director Chester yeah director Fleming yes yes thank you next is approval of the consent agenda which is everything on here before we vote are there any board members who wish to remove any items from the agenda seeing none we will entertain
020motions to accept the consent agenda motion to approve Mr Grinnell with the first is fine with a second call for the vote questions or comments from the board questions or comments anyone we're good to go director for now yes director Plumbing yes director Chester yes director Herman yes director Walmsley yeah director Chester I I already said yes sorry I meant always president yes yes all right Miss Chester are you ready yeah we're moving now to the school board committee reports and since Dr Shaw is not available Mrs Miss Chester will give the education and people services uh reports for our committee meetings thank you Mrs Karen I'm very brief report this evening uh the meeting was challenged on June 27th before the board meeting seventh word policies were were viewed and approved and everything that
021is on the education between exact technology said so um that isn't the long and short of my report for Education the next meeting will be on August the 8th thank you at 6 30. thank you excellent reports thank you Dr Herman for sorry sorry you're still talking to miss Jester oh it's going to say beautiful Services uh is even shorter oh sorry people Services yes there was no meeting for pupil uh services and well one other thing I would like to acknowledge Dr Bell who I know is he'll be leaving us is just thank him for all the uh the work that he's done for the district and I've enjoyed the work with that together thank you thank you for that is my report thanks very much Dr Herman personnel thank you president Tyrion good
022evening a combined to property and finance and Personnel committee meeting took place on Monday July 18th in the Personnel portion of the meeting we reviewed and approved several new job descriptions and positions that further enhance the areas of cyber security and support for students and families in need those positions are network operations and safety manager Network coordinator pupil services coordinator operations supervisor school safety is extremely important for our staff students and school community the Administration has recommended hiring four additional campus safety officers csos and the committee approval approve this request finally the committee approved a revised Westchester Area School District management team organizational chart in addition to the new network operations and safety manager position this revised chart also realigns reporting structures that are designed to improve communication and collaboration that will best support the
023educational experience of our students this structure will also provide greater capacity for professional development of our teachers and staff all of these items were listed on the consent agenda and have already been approved tonight this is the end of my report thank you thanks Dr Herman and now Mr Beval Aqua property and finance yes good evening my permanent Finance reportedly brief tonight we have a property Finance meeting last week as Herman stated on July 18th we've set two items on the agenda last week that we discussed Mr Wegman discussed the approval of the revised policy for policy 237 which is the use of personnel and District technology devices and the board approved that you'll see that I'm consent as do you want the agenda and the only other item we had is Dr Sabowski gave
024us a review of the differences between sros the school resource offices and the csos that can't can't the safety officers and that went hand in hand with the person helped take the drumming game on the additional csos the next apartment Finance meeting is on August 15th and then it's my report for this evening thank you very much all right there are other reports if you don't have a report it's okay to say I don't have a report but first up is a report on the IU Mr durnell uh thank you President we did not the IU did not meet in July however our next meeting will be August 17th at 7 30 at 4 55 Boot Road to downtown campus good thank you and Dr Herman anything about psba thank you president Tiernan I do
025not have a report tonight thank you and we're doing we're doing a good job you didn't have anything else to add there right nothing okay and Dr Shaw did not leave us a legislative report did you have anything Mr shockles Dr sokolowski I did not thank you that's okay it's all right and Mr Darnell equity presidents here uh superintendent Bob sakolowski director director of equity and assessment and stolen matter and our community resource specialist Ms Sandra Bradley met with the West Ocean police chief Mike Carroll and West Virginia Community and board members at a police Community advisory committee meeting last month to continue to work to strengthen the Westchester Area Community through diversity equity and inclusion efforts and to support safe and positive Community interactions for all to support building bridges for our Spanish-speaking and
026African-American families in West West Ocean Don matter and Sandra Bradley did a presentation on the history of policing in the Hispanic and African-American communities we look forward to building upon this exciting work with the West Ocean police and community also summer Keystone testing season is upon us Dawn matter East fishing assistant principal Sarah Graham in the district's technology team have been preparing sessions for these important exams so students can have greater access to a summer testing opportunity to meet your Keystone graduation requirements all summer Keystone schedules and pathway graduation requirements are placed on the district website that is my report thank you very thorough all of you thanks for keeping us up to speed on the board's connections to the community and other organizations let's learn about tonight's agenda's comments from residents on non-agenda items
027Mr Jennings thank you president Tiernan tonight we have two registrants for public commentary on non-agenda items I will just simply remind the speakers and members of the audience to please adhere to the public comment policies as announced at the outset of tonight's meeting we'll Now call the first speaker Judy deponzo hello Jude fonso here I did not move since earlier I'm still in East Goshen um over the summer I've been doing a lot of thinking um and I've been thinking about Columbine High School in Littleton Colorado Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown Connecticut Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland Florida West Medical Minds Amish school in Bart Township right over Border in Lancaster County Uvalde Elementary background in the Valley Texas and I've been thinking about that in terms of one of the philosophies I
028have for my life and that's a Serenity Prayer God grant you the serenity to accept the things I cannot change Purge change the things I can and wisdom to know the difference and in all honesty I'm running out of serenis with kids being shot in school I just can't be Serene about this so I'm trying to figure out what I can do to change and I know last year we had a a meeting or a segment went viral I'm hoping this goes viral I'm wearing orange today orange is the color of gun safety or shooting awareness it's the color that Hunters wear so that they don't get shot and I'm going to encourage everyone to come to school board meetings as a reminder because what happens is that we have these shootings we talk about
029them and then they fade into the woodwork and I think we need a reminder much like we have the pink ribbons and the pink socks like the NFL wears for breast cancer awareness we need something for uh gun safety and I'm going to encourage everyone to wear orange or get a little orange ribbon I'm hoping maybe I'll go with the lower orange ribbon instead of the shirt this shirt's a little on the big sides the only thing I could find in my wardrobe that was orange so I'm wearing it today and um I'd like to take um that nobody next um 20 seconds for a moment of silence for all those families who have lost children including two in our own Westchester Community with the passing of uh Bianca and um Kate Irvin both by
030gun violence so take a couple of moments for the Summers thank you everyone Christopher manners thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak and share my thoughts about education and my concerns about sexually explicit content in our educational resources I do want to clear up some misperceptions and misconceptions my concern pertains to sexually explicit material and content in a significant number of educational resources nothing else the type of sexually explicit content is irrelevant why because this type of material and content is created by adults for minors and has the potential to be used in a predatory manner why is this relevant because I'm a mandated reporter as a former assistant Sunday school teacher assistant Cub Scout then leader and currently approaching my sixth season as a soccer coach I'm required to pass an FBI
031background check and take courses such as concussion training and how to spot signs of child neglect toward child abuse boarding this training we learned that as a mandated reporter we are by law obligated to report it even if we suspect the potential for childhoods if you research what the Pennsylvania criminal statutes are for child abuse you'll find one of the statute States and I quote the promotion and distribution of sexually explicit content or pornographic material to minors is a felony so to the entire Westchester Area School District and to the school board I ask all of you what is the educational value of content and material of this type thank you Judy I don't think Mr panzo I don't think that I could have done a better job if I had looked very hard for
032any kind of book doing the feeding as you ended your portion of the meeting I I believe deeply that over the summer all of us all of us have reflected on the horrors and the losses sustained when children are shot um I like your idea orange and as you can see for no good reason at all tonight I picked out this color which could be orange or other colors however I appreciate your reminding us that there are things that we can't change and there are things that we can and I believe that all of us are working very hard to make our schools as safe as they possibly can be we're working with local law enforcement we're working with local Municipal governments to see how this community can best move forward to keep every one
033of our children safe so thank you for reminding us of that and I don't need to do a quote tonight but we'll do better next time thank you um do I have do I hear a motion to adjourn Mr durnell any objections all all in favor say aye thank you