001the first thing we have on our agenda is public comment thank you and good evening uh now is public the time for public comment on education committee meeting agenda items persons wishing to make public comment on agenda items were required to properly register prior to the designated 6pm start time of tonight's education committee meeting as always when public commenters names are called i ask that you please approach the podium and begin by stating your first name last name and municipality as a reminder public comments are limited to three minutes per person 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 they are obscene and or threatening in nature all persons attending this meeting are expected
002to conduct themselves with decorum incivility 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 tonight for education committee we have two public commenters the first is judy defonzo hi there everyone hope everyone is enjoying your summer judy dafonzo still living in east ocean township i have two policies that i wanted to comment on this evening i'll start with the simpler one first policy227 back when we were re-numbering the policies uh brett bender was very kind of thorough in changing things to superintendent or his her designee and it seems we're getting rid of his her
003except in policy 227 so for consistency's sake under delegation of responsibility i feel that his her should be um removed from the policy so that we can have consistency uh my other comment is a little bit more complicated it's on uh policy 218 and it talks about reasonable force and threats to safety and i'll tell you threats to safety is a little bit of a trigger for me because it you know it often leads to seclusion and restraint and things like that and the paragraph i'm thinking about is when a student's behavior indicates a threat to the safety of the students next last paragraph in the policy students school employees school facilities etc staff shall report to the student to the threat assessment team in accordance with applicable law et cetera et cetera i think
004a lot of stuff happens before that happens because if there is a real threat you kind of want to make sure that the threat is taken care of and it seems that the policy says that we jump from oh there's a threat to let's get the threat assessment team together and i think this the wording needs to be changed because i know that if there's a real threat and you know a student has to be de-escalated you have the cpi-trained people who come in and de-escalate or restrain in a safe manner and then kind of after things are calmed down and let's just say it takes a little bit of time to gather the people who would be involved with the threat assessment team it's not going to kind of be an instantaneous while the
005thread is going on and the paragraph kind of reads a little bit like that and those are my comments for this part of tonight's meeting thank you thank you next up is rachel langdon hi rachel language westchester so my comment is more a question about not not a specific policy but just in general the policies that are being reviewed tonight um if you'd be able to speak when you're talking about them about what's driving the new policy change and maybe you do and i'm just asking if you could if you weren't planning on it like does it come from pspa does it come from within the district does it go before like legal review um or is it like a legal review before it gets to tonight does it get to legal review after tonight
006and um is the terminology fixed or is it not which i'm guessing there's some flexibility based on what you just said but i'm wondering if there's like terminology that is absolutely fixed and if so you could point that out thanks that concludes paul mcconnell next up on the agenda is this approval of the may 9th 2022 combined education and people services committee meeting minutes approval yes yes okay three zero okay next dr reynolds is going to walk us through a number of revisions in various policies thanks dr shel there are a number of policies here so i'll be able to go through them in uh the border we have four policies and two administrative guidelines to review and to the question that was posed these are policy updates as advised by psba and a number
007of them are inclusive of some verbage updates not being able to point them out by policy the first policy which you alluded to is policy 218 and student that's student discipline this policy is all encompassing that allows us to move forward with our code of student conduct and disciplinary actions schedule the main note that you'll find here is again some update in verbiage as well as reflective of updated court rulings that reflect off-campus speech and conduct so that's the major change that you'll find in 218. we were also able to just make some some updates as far as for the verbiage piece but this is the encompassing policy that will capture our code of conduct and disciplinary action schedule the next administrative guideline that corresponds to policy 218 is basically a guideline that is presented
008to the board each year for review the administrative guidelines that are approved correspond to those that are outlined for our code of student conduct and disciplinary action schedule so in this regard there aren't many updates here the main thing that we did spell out is the difference for elementary student expectations as well as secondary student expectations and we streamline in some cases it's still outlined middle and high school and we streamline that for secondary expectations overall and those are the major updates that you'll see in the ag for 218. there are some revisions that encompass policy 237 which mr weidman will speak to in just a bit and we also wanted to streamline the definition for weapons in schools any questions about 218 or the ag so if i can just ask a general question
009though i was on the policy committee which meets every month at the iu i still find policies to be challenging because there are a variety of reasons why it uh they're brought before the body for reconsideration and sometimes it's a matter of a more appropriate use of a term or a word and sometimes it is that psva who recommends things through a legal lens says that they need to be changed and sometimes we recognize that what we've said just isn't clear or is repetitive but the policies are not just floating out there on the internet they are also the things that our students get in their code of conduct every year now we review that every year the code of conduct before it's reprinting we look at that every year and there are things that
010have to be updated corrected shortened just because they need to be so do you find that our own legal people sometimes take a look at them and say dr sokolowski we'd better tighten this up it's not clear at all and we ran into some difficulties last year can be because of occurrences within our own school district or i do believe as dr reynolds shared here these changes are being more broadly suggested from psba than they are so from the school district and for example the off-campus activities and some of the terminologies there the school district in terms of discipline and procedures for extracurriculars that may like for example there may be a football game that is held at a local high school the rules and regulations of the westchester area school district apply so what
011i see forward here is just being more explicit about that but that's not anything that's been very problematic in the westchester this policy in particular is taken from the template from psba so all of the policies that were bringing before you this evening have been reviewed in collaboration with our solicitor thanks so that's 218 as well as the ag that accompanies it the next policy is 218.3 student integrity this one encompasses plagiarism and the main change with this policy is outlining the action schedule so changing unlike i alluded to for 218 overall for 218.3 in our previous policy it had outlined the consequence for middle school and high school the consequences are outlined but we bundle them together for secondary so you'll see that middle school and high school are combined into an action schedule
012for secondary for plagiarism and academic dishonesty and that's the major change in 218.3 dr rollins do we have programs that teachers can use use to check or verify or look at student work to see if there is in fact plagiarism yes i think i don't know the specifically by name but i do know for um for ela for specific content areas in particular there are programs that are referenced so that it can flag if there is content that is directly pulled particularly from an internet source and so part of what we do turn it in that's what dr glory had could turn it in yes that's that's been around for a while um what we do then is try and teach students as soon as they start using resources to write papers about how much
013can be lifted copied adapted word changes and these the program as far as i understand is pretty good at catching so you can sit down with a parent and a student after the first time that happens and say oh look they're so similar and then talk about how not to do that again it's a tough one though i think as much as we're dealing with things online it's a very tough thing and there are teachers i think who have a lot of their writing done in class for that very reason excellent point the next is policy 220 and that's student expression and dissemination of materials and in this in context with updated verbiage this takes the policy and it updates the word distribution to dissemination so you'll find that throughout the policy that has been
014the update there and it defines how information is shared and delivered and that that really is the main point as far as student expression it also provides a bit more specificity as far as how information is reviewed before it's posted but throughout this policy the main update is you'll find wherever there is distribution it's changed to dissemination and making sure that the policy is current for guidelines for disseminating materials and that would be materials that are for any non-district sponsored activity what can i clarify for a school newspaper no non-district yes the administrative guideline that goes with 220 what that does is it creates an opportunity to share specific examples of the distribution replacement for the word dissemination so dissemination we're just making sure that the policy and the guidelines that we're following for information
015to be disseminated to match in both circumstances so you'll find with the administrative guidelines it also has how long information can be posted first it has the timeline for information to be approved for dissemination how long it can be posted and the statement that is going to be available if a flyer in particular is posted for for review just say for instance there's a flyer about a community that that's a non-sponsored district activity it can be reviewed two days before it's looking to be posted it can be posted for 10 days after the event and when it is posted the date has to be marked on it as well as a statement to say that the westchester area school district is not um what was it responsible and does not endorse so that specifically stated
016that statement is listed in this administrative guideline so this would be for posters for things online for anything where students are putting up information about their own things yes with approval yes and lastly we have policy 227 and this policy is for controlled substances and paraphernalia this policy is updated because it aligns with the expectations that were outlined in for off-campus conduct and conduct for non-school hours so we needed to make sure that the controlled substances and paraphernalia policy was updated with language for off-campus conduct as well as conduct that takes place outside of school hours all other guidelines that are outlined in this policy remain the same any questions dr reynolds brought those together because they all are related to student discipline and you can see how some policies were reflective in other policies
017so i appreciate the presentation but they do have to be voted on individually can you read it on four they are voted on for a first read first read to that also as well that there are community members that are here tonight that if you have specific feedback you're welcome to email dr reynolds or myself and that that feedback is important and sometimes you know there are good ideas that come in terms of uh you know whether it's more detailed or whether it's streamlining some of the verbiage thank you great so first policy to vote on is on the revision policy 218. second is the administrative guideline 218 ag-1 yes okay that's 3-0 [Music] revised policy to 18.3 student integrity yes okay um revised policy 220 student expression yes yes okay um administrative guideline 220
018he one yes okay and finally um revised policy two two seven on controlled substances yes okay you know three zero for all okay education community the first guide on the agenda's public comment wait for ryan ryan no public comment tonight thank you appreciate that the next item on the agenda as we always do is approval of the minutes from the last meeting the property finance meeting was held on may 16th anybody in the committee have any questions all right approval of the may 16th minutes as stated okay yes all right three nothing we're good with the minutes the next item on the agenda is the approval of federal program bids and dr floria is going to walk through there for us okay thank you so i am here seeking approval of our federal program bids
019for non-public schools give you just a little bit of context you know that we receive federal funds in the form of title one two three and four for public school students title one is used for student achievement and parent family engagement we really use the funds to purchase additional reading support at our elementary schools that are above the average poverty title two is used for professional development title three for english learners and title four is called student support and academic enrichment a little bit of latitude with that one but again that's used for students k-12 non-public students are allowed to have an equitable portion an equitable share of those funds as a district we have the opportunity to oversee the administration of those non-public funds or we can go out to bid which is what
020we have done and we are able to choose a third-party contractor for that oversight in the past we have used the cheshire county intermediate unit and we are recommending tonight that we continue with that we need to do this rfp every three years so we won't be doing this again for three more years but each year we do renew the contract we have a consultation with the iu and with the non-public schools to decide if anything needs to be updated or changed in the contract the feedback we have gotten so far is that the non-public schools are very happy with the partnership as are we so we're recommending that we continue that for title one two and four for the non-public schools and to the property finance committee this this item is a for approval
021tonight we'll bring this forward to the board of dating subscript any questions on the federal program bids okay so i'm looking for approval of the federal program bids as stated by dr floyer all right three nothing we're good there thank you dr florio for explaining the details there uh mr scully you have an update to the consent agenda thank you yes uh from the consent memos there was it was brought to my attention that there was a typo um in the marketplace services for the aspire program that is one of the marketplace services through the intermediate unit when we filled out the form we filled it intended to fill it out for 102 500 we filled it out for 102 comma 5-0 so i just want to point out to the board that there is
022a typo in the pnf agendas uh we will change that and fix that on the contract going to the iu i would also guess that the same comment be made at the board meeting since it is a consent agenda no changes estimates or anything the total is still total thank you thank you mr scully for making that update on the typo we'll bring up at the board meeting the uh the next item in the last item on tonight's property finance agenda is review and approval of the revised course good evening i wanted to discuss the update of our use of personal and district technology devices it was formally use of personal technology and electronic devices the genesis of these revisions came in the form of a psba revised template for school districts to consider we
023took i took a look at that in conjunction with our solicitor and we determined actually that our uh existing policy 237 actually was a more robust policy than what was being recommended by psba greater level specificity a wider array of scenarios covered now part of that reason might be that some of what's contained in electronic devices policy could also appear in an acceptable use policy in other districts it doesn't in hours so what we had decided together was to update our existing policy we chose not to open up the acceptable use policy at this time and which would be a prerequisite to adopting some version of the psba template and simply build on on what we have and there were essentially a few things that come to pass over time uh that necessitated the update
024one obviously the technologies the array of electronic technologies uh has has changed significantly so now this policy includes wearable technologies and that comes in the form of watches and glasses and so with not typical glasses augmented reality glasses and other other technologies of that sort that are coming down the line that no doubt we'll see in our schools the other issue that we wanted to address was we've had a change in process since the last policy we don't really have a bring your own devices specific policy that or process that requires students to pre-register their devices which was our um which which was our process uh until very recently now a student can bring in their own device under um under the rules and regulations this policy sets forth and they can just simply connect
025it to our guest network which has been changed altered to be an acceptable alternative to a byod segment to our network so that language needed to come out additionally we had some language that referenced off-campus activity and potential discipline that might result from off-campus activity including participation in extra-curricular activities as a dimension at the education committee meeting the legal landscape on the district's uh latitude in that regard has been um has changed and it's been significantly reduced so that language is actually coming out of of this policy and lastly we wanted to incorporate the one-to-one since the vast majority of the technologies used on a day-to-day basis by students is district only and that's really the part that could be in our acceptable use policy but we decided to add it here and not open
026open aup i did want to point out that a member of our community prior to the meeting i believe um this memory service she still lives in east goshen pointed out something to me that i think is really quite uh it is quite accurate and and that is well we discuss still photography and video photography because we have students who either bring in photographic equipment or we loan video cameras through our video programs and newspapers and so forth we also loan still cameras and some of those cameras may still be the old film 35 millimeter so i i will for the second reading make an adjustment to encompass analog and digital still photography as well as digital video photography so i i thank that resident from east ocean for pointing that out uh and i
027think that's really that covers all of the uh all of the changes are there any questions that i can answer for you all right thank you mr whitman all right so this policy report policy 237 is also for approval tonight for property and finance to bring to the board karen all right three nothing we're good as stated and that ends tonight's property and finance meeting and just a general announcement we're in recess until seven o'clock the board meeting will start at that time thank you foreign i hereby call to order the june 27 2022 meeting of the westchester area school board business meeting we will begin with salute to the flag and to the republic for which it stands one nation under god indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank you welcome everybody on
028the agenda next is roll call for the board ms chairshore here director chester director dietrich here direct your journal here here director here director shaw here thank you that leads to public comments on agenda items if you have filled out a card at the table at the back mr jennings will call you to the microphone mr jennings thank you president tiernan now is the time for public comment on agenda items persons wishing to make public comment were required to properly register prior to the designated 7pm start time tonight when public commenters names are called i ask that they please approach the podium and 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 located throughout
029the 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 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 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 now call the first of three speakers good evening my name is township i want to commend and congratulate the district on the completion of a successful 2021 school year my comments are regarding the
030updated student discipline policy i really appreciate the addition of age gender identity pre-pregnancy ancestry and marital status to the list of non-disciplinary reasons in the policy these policies are clearer direct easier to comprehend and i hope these updates will be incorporated i would also like to comment on the food menu prices i understand that supplies have been difficult to arrange my daughters who are vegetarian had a very difficult time getting lunch options from the school cafeteria this year seeing the prices of the various meals and other card items i would request the board located in some vegan or vegetarian options that would be healthy cheaper and hopefully easier to find other school districts have added simple meals like pita sandwiches rice bowls veggie burgers to supplement the menu and offer more choices it would also
031help children with dairy and gluten or nut allergies as a lot of these foods can accommodate them please consider expanding the menu cheeseburgers cheese sandwiches is not enough for a veggie option i would like to thank the director of diversity and inclusion.long matter for incredible work this year i enjoyed attending the community conversations immensely especially the last one where we sat down with the chief of police and various officers i hope people continue to have such conversations in the future thank you and thank you to the board admins and staff and everyone else i hope you have a lovely summer thanks [Applause] thank you hi rachel langenberg westchester uh i like the idea of the suggestion that had vegan and vegetarian options i hadn't thought of that but i think that's a really good suggestion
032so most of my comments are kind of more like going forward could we consider like for example on the agenda the approval before special education settlement agreements like we don't need to know details but it might be nice to know the you know overall cost of that and then the cost of participating in the ccie marketplace is really unclear and i'm thinking based on the earlier meeting that the cciu marketplace is the services to non-public school students again not super clear and then um on page 185 of the board document and line item number one i don't expect any of you to look at that right now but just if you think of it fund number one there is a listing for great minds pvc for thirty seven thousand eight hundred one dollars and twenty
033cents and i wonder if there's a way to confirm the nature of this purchase because i know that great minds publishes eureka math which was something the district was looking at for the elementary level that then ultimately got voted down in favor of i forget what it was but anyway but they also offer written wisdom curriculum which was like really highly contentious in the downingtown area school district and so like if we're going down the same road as downingtown it'd probably be good to know that um and so if it was for wind wisdom then i feel like that probably should have come before the education committee maybe i missed that um so anyway i'm just wondering is there a way to verify the nature of that purchase do i need to put in a
034right to no request to get like a copy of like the the line item the check i don't know detail i would have is only going to be a summary detail so it's not going to give that kind of detail so that you might be better you don't write that okay sure all right tomorrow okay thanks hi there mike winter west whiteland i too would also like to direct your attention to page 185 the agenda for that line item that shows the payment 37 801.20 made the great minds pvc great minds is an organization that creates curriculum materials and implementation products for schools and one of their products as a previous speaker just mentioned is a curriculum called whitman wisdom now some of you may be aware that this same curriculum was considered an improvement
035down in town and the parents fought very vigorously against it whitton wisdom is a very vile curriculum it's been rejected by parents across the country it's violent dark it's graphic and it's geared towards k-5 students well here's where things get really interesting parents in downingtown recently discovered through a right to no request that the school district approved payment for win wisdom the curriculum months before first discussing their intentions to use it with the public so by the time they voted for it the check had already been cashed well in advance so my question to the board here tonight are you trying to carry out the same plan here in westchester and if not then what is your involvement with great minds pbc anyone well i guess we'll just have to uh add that to the
036list we'll get back to you if you could actually email me if you've been like tonight or tomorrow morning and i'm sure i'll give you a detailed answer thank you be happy to do that thank you that concludes public comment on agenda items we'll hear from three others later in the meeting on non-agenda thank you that will move us to approval of the may 23 2022 school board meeting minutes do i have a motion to approve mr bevalaqua a second dr herman questions or comments on last month's the may 23rd or the may 25th no we're doing one at a time of the may 23rd school board meeting that was a special meeting where we talked about the health safety plan that was not a full board meeting that took place two nights later on
037the 25th so what we're talking about right now is our approval of the minutes from the first meeting on monday night the 23rd we have a first and a second are there any questions or comments from the board all right would we could we take the vice president yes director herman yes director dietrich yes director firmino yes director straw yes director grinnell yes president yes thank you now we need approval for the wednesday may 25th 2022 regular monthly meeting and that took place because we needed to approve the budget so uh motion to approve do i have a first dr dietrich and a second mr darnell okay questions or comments about the wednesday night regular meeting then we will call for the vote director dietrich yes director journal yes director shaw yes director fleming yes
038director herman yes vice president yes president tiernon yes thank you now mr please add to the meeting minutes for this evening that we met as a board in executive session earlier this evening on personnel matters we also met on wednesday june 22nd on personnel and student safety matters next we need approval for the june 27th school board meeting agenda do i have a first dr shaw a second mrs fleming questions or comments about tonight's agenda all right director shaw yes director plumbing reporting yes director herman thank you and that leads us to the superintendent's report dr sokolowski thank you president tyrion uh as everyone has mentioned summer is here uh but the district is once again offering extensive range of summer learning opportunities many of which began today at the elementary level we started our
039summer academy which provides small group instruction in literacy as well as math our jumpstart program for our non-english speaking students also began this week at hillsdale elementary and the secondary level we're again offering a robust menu of different opportunities for students that includes not only remediation courses but also courses for original credit and last year we brought for the first time what we call preview learning classes which are courses that allow students to get sort of a head start and build confidence as they're going into the next sequence of courses we also have theme-based learning that are in areas that are as broad as art music humanities and stem our facilities and operations department is actually at a really busy time this year conducting all the summer maintenance and cleaning schedules around the district and
040in addition to supporting our families throughout the summer the westchester area school district has partnered with westchester food cupboard to create a space at henderson high school student parking lot where families can receive groceries and non-perishable items two times a week over the duration of the summer in the area of summer professional development this room has been actually quite busy over the last two weeks that we have been on summer break with teachers engaged in professional development i do also want to share an important part of the meeting and the opening of our last meeting was student safety and the work that i have been doing with our director of facilities in operation and our supervisor of safety and security mr rick thornton we have had several meetings with west ocean west town east ocean
041and westchester borough police departments to consider strategies and potential agreements to further enhance our securities at school these meetings have been very productive and i do expect to make some recommendations to our school board later in july that will go into effect for the 22-23 school year i would also like to announce that we will be reconvening a committee of parents administrators school board members that we entitled safety and security committee and this this committee last met i do believe back in 2018. i'm also in the middle of hosting summer listening sessions at all of our elementary schools the purpose of these sessions is simply to listen and discuss parent feedback about the past school year as well as look forward to 22 22-23 thank you to the parents who were able to attend the
042sessions over the last two weeks we held them at glen acres east ocean and last thursday evening at mary c house not only is it enjoyable to meet with parents in a relaxed setting it is also super helpful for me and our administrative team to have these dialogues all the sessions went well past the scheduled hour but they were very very fruitful and this week we will have our listening sessions at graystone tomorrow night at stark weather on wednesday and fern hill on thursday night and lastly i would like to recognize mr mark rothman who is our certified athletic trainer at east high school he was recently named the preceptor of the year award in pennsylvania for his work supporting our student athletes as well as guidance students who are interested in athletic training careers
043and president's hearing that concludes my report as you can see we are being efficient tonight all right that leads us to the personnel recommendations um ms joanne redden will be giving the report this evening thank you for your report good evening ms tiernon mr bevalaqua and directors of the board our personnel report for the month of june is as follows with removals from payroll we have 11 resignations one custodian one transportation clerk and nine professionals we have two retirements for approval mr gerard christopher quinn music teacher at pierce middle school with 14 years of service and miss mary beckett paraprofessional at west hill foreign berry elementary school with nine years of service we wish all of our retirees the best and a happy and healthy new chapter in their life we will miss you and
044thank you for your service with additions to payroll we are recommending the hiring of three new administrators this month mr mark poncer esquire is our new assistant director of human resources mr poncer comes from us from the southeast delta school district where he is currently serving as the assistant principal at the del cross school mark is here this evening mr thomas t.j seinberger as our new principal of east goshen elementary school mr seinberger comes to us from the north penn school district where he has been serving as the principal of montgomery elementary school for the past six years and mr ryan zirin our new athletic director at east high school mr zirin comes from us from the colonial school district where he is currently serving as health and physical education teacher we welcome all of
045our new administrators to the westchester area school district and we are happy to have you on our team we are also recommending the hiring of 23 new teachers one athletic trainer one school counselor six long-term substitute teachers a campus safety officer a custodian two secretaries at a grams mechanic we welcome all to the district in temporary summer staff we are recommending 132 teachers and paraprofessionals for our summer programming in additional temporary summer staff we are recommending 12 temporary staff our technology and custodial departments in personnel events four status changes were communicated one in our professional staff two in our support staff and one in our custodial staff in transfers eight involuntary transfers were communicated in the teaching staff additionally six voluntary transfers were communicated four in the professional staff and two in the support staff
046in personnel events dr recommending the approval of two sabbaticals for the next school year both teachers qualify for their sabbaticals according to the school code of 1949. in additional information i am updating one start date updating a salary seeking approval for four memorandums of understanding all for the westchester area education association and lastly we are seeking approval of non-bargaining support confidential salaries and merit bonuses for the 2022-2023 school year for the compensation benefits and work environment guide for supervisory technical and confidential employees in tutoring we are recommending the approval of two tutors and in supplemental contracts we are asking for approval of four contracts for the fall season of the 2022-2023 school year one removal for a contract in the fall season of 20 22 23 school year and one adjustment for a fall season
047contract for the 2022-22 and e3 school year i am respecting respectfully requesting board approval for all personal matters listed above thank you thanks miss ridden that was very thorough and it sounds like you had a very busy summer um and i just i'd like to say welcome to mr poncer we usually just you can just stay there we don't ask you to do anything at this meeting you will have your opportunity done [Music] mr pinezer was uh taking care of some scouts at camp porsche this evening and um uh had to put his suit on and drive up to westchester for this meeting so we're glad that you came to meet us and look forward to seeing more of you as school gets underway i know a lot of these people will be working with
048you on a daily basis the board only gets a little peak every now and then but thank you and it's good to have you here thank you so a motion to approve the personnel report dr herman and mr bill blacqua is a second questions or comments on anything from the board all right i'll call for the vote director herman yes vice president yes director dietrich yes director shawn yes director journal yes director yes president yes thank you next is approval of the consent agenda before we vote are there any board members who wish to remove any items from the consent agenda this evening mr bevalaqua i just just have one comment on the consent agenda for tonight as stated in the previous meeting by mr scully in the property finance committee on d3 which is
049the approval of the cciu marketplace service contract there was a typo mr scully alluded to and on page 84 and that that dollar value has been corrected of a hundred and two thousand five hundred dollars for that contract so i'm just making that statement mr beverlock which of our meetings was at one meeting or two meetings ago we had dr fiore [Music] speak to us about the intermediate unit budgets was it two months yeah a couple couple months ago and they did quite a thorough job of explaining the three different budgets and where the money goes and okay that's just a reminder if you want to go back and look at that on tape it's probably taped but that was very helpful okay um i need a first and a second for the consent agenda
050i'm not looking at you people again okay dr daddry and um mr gernell thank you questions or comments all right the vote director gentry yes director journal yes director fleming yes director herman yes director sean yes vice president yes president yes all right we moved now to the school board committee reports and the first is education with dr shaw thank you mrs kiernan the education committee met tonight and right before this board meeting actually and discussed a number of uh policy revisions that were approved for first reading student discipline and other guidelines related to student content so dr reynolds will briefly review those policies and then we will require a full board vote as it did not go on consent for tonight good evening in alignment to updates from psba guidelines and updated verbiage we're
051seeking approval for first read for the following policies revised policy 218 which is student discipline this policy reviews are overall policy for our student off campus speech and overall conduct we also have policy or excuse me administrative by line 218 ag-1 that's a approval seeking approval for a code of conduct and disciplinary action schedule which aligns to policy 218. the third in connection of policy 218 is 218.3 student integrity this aligns our action schedule and combines the middle school consequences with the high school consequences to a secondary action schedule revised policy 220 which is student expression and dissemination of materials this changes the verbiage for distribution to dissemination for student materials the administrative guideline that corresponds to that seeking approval for guidelines for student expression and dissemination of materials and this gives specific guidelines for
052how those materials should be disseminated and lastly policy 227 controlled substance paraphernalia this aligns to policy expectations to policy 218 for conduct off-campus and during non-school hours we're seeking approval for first read for those policies do i have a motion yes we need to do one policy at a time i'm sorry already okay did you want to do the first and i'll do the second how about that yes okay second okay we have uh doc dr dietrich and mr darnell ford questions comments reported vote director dietrich yes director journal yes director herman yes director yes director yes vice president yes i'm seeking approval of revised administrative guidelines 218 ag-1 code of student conduct disciplinary action schedule first reading assume [Music] second okay questions or comments from the board then we'll take the vote director sean
053yes director detroit yes vice president yes director journal yes okay next up seeking approval of revised board policy 218.3 student integrity first reading iso move do i see a second mr journal any questions or comments okay director yes director journalist yes director yes vice president yes director herman yes yes president okay next we seek approval of revised board policy 220 student expression dissemination of materials first reading iso do i have a second miss plenty any questions or comments okay yes director clement yes director dietrich yes director herman yes okay next up seeking approval of revised administrative guideline 220 eg1 guidelines for student expression dissemination of materials first reading iso can i get a second dr hermann okay questions or comments okay yes vice president yes okay and finally seeking approval of revised board policy 227
054controlled substances paraphernalia first reading i assume do i have a second mr journal questions or comments hearing none maybe have a vote director shaw yes director journal yes director fleming yes director herman yes director dietrich yes vice president yes president thank you we do not have a pupil services report tonight dr chester director chester is not here and um we did not have a pupil services committee meeting all right personnel with dr herman good evening thank you president tyrion um i'd like to thank miss redding for her very thorough comprehensive personnel report taking the place of dr palmer congratulations to our retirees and a warm welcome to our newly hired personnel and mr poncer thank you for joining us tonight and welcome to our school district that concludes my report thank you thanks dr herman
055and finally property and finance good evening we held the property finance meeting tonight prior to the board meeting there were two items on the agenda and i'll give some updates on those and these are both for approval time from the board the first dr florio gave us an update on federal program bids a little bit of detail behind the scenes here in accordance with the uniform grant guidance for federal funds and address the need to serve non-public schools districts are required to do a request for proposal for title 1a which is improving basic programs title 2a which is supporting effective instruction in title 4a student support and academic enrichment services the administration recommends approval of the rfp to the cciu chester county intermediate union the contract begins july 1st 2022 and ends june 30th 2025
056so a three-year contract each year the school district and the cciu will revisit the contract in may to determine whether or not to renew the contract so this is approval item and this is d6 on the agenda approval is requested for the title 1a 2a 4a contract awards to the cciu iso move and the second police uh dr herman questions or comments hearing none will have the vote vice president yes director harmon yes director teacher yes director gernad yes director yes director clement yes president yes the last item on the property and finance committee tonight mr wagner gave us an update on policy 237 which is the use of personal and district technology devices this is also an approval item tonight it's d7 on the agenda approvals requested for the revised policy 237 use of
057personal and district technology devices formerly known as the use of personal technology and electronic devices first reading iso move and a second uh miss fleming yes thank you questions or comments hearing none we will vote vice president of alabama yes director yes director yes director sean yes director yes director herman yes president yes thank you all right other reports mr darnell intermediate unit thank you president the chester county interview unit board of directors held its monthly meeting on wednesday june 15th at the educational service center on boot road in daily town this month the board had our we had our reorganization meeting as we do here for the school district and we elected officers for the upcoming year the board also approved a slate of dates and locations for the meetings throughout the year the
058board does not meet in july or december but the other month the other monthly dates are listed on the website the cciu executive leadership presented an end-of-year review of the 2021-22 cciu organizational goals including highlights from each goal area cciu focuses on four goals over the 20 21 22 school year which are aligned directly with the 2019 through 2024 cciu strategic plan defines cciu's educational role ensure cciu's financial viability communicates cciu's mission and foster mission and foster educational role i'm sorry cciu's organizational culture and brand the areas highlighted for each goal are extensive and can be found on the website in the 2021-22 organizational bold end-of-year report along with copy of the presentation of the meeting a few notable themes that carried throughout all the goals are increasing engagement across all platforms and among all
059stakeholders as well as being a valued source of knowledge and expertise to all of our stakeholders we also approved the 2022-23 organizational goals and we approved the appointment of christy simkins as the cciu safety and security coordinator for act 44 guidelines we also approved the extension of the referral and sign-on bonus for all staff groups through october 1st 2022 that's been a valuable source of getting a higher qualified staff and the next cciu board of directors meeting will be held on wednesday august 17th at 7 30 pm at the education educational service center in downingtown that is my report thank you psva that would be director herman do you have a report tonight i just have a reminder okay all right um this is to anyone on the school board who has not been to
060the psa psba delegate assembly it's a great experience it will be held on saturday november 5th at 9 00 am and if you go to this if you decide to go to it you will have the option to attend the event virtually or in person so if you've not had this experience it's a great one and i believe you would let um miss chester short enough right you see number three you dr shaw and i have already volunteered ourselves yes and we by a claim have been voted on tonight to go to that uh opportunity they were gathering us this year yes well yeah we could go that's it you could take the trip the day trip thank you president you're welcome that concludes my report and dr shaw what's happening with legislative items this
061is a busy season as you know because we are looking for a budget to pass um and the governor's education budget ask is upwards of 1.75 billion dollars this year um but there are rumors that only about 500 million of all of those asks are being discussed to settle the budget and for those of us who care about adequate and equitable funding of public schools this is a big deal it would be a huge loss for public education particularly because there are uh two billion dollars more in revenues than had been expected in april 2022 alone state revenues are five billion dollars higher than expected and the state still has two billion dollars in american rescue funds um in addition to 2.6 billion dollars in the state renegade fund so um we don't have time
062to talk about the politics of all of this but if anybody would like to reach out to their legislature and urge them to support the governor's request especially those legislators that are indicating that they would not support it this would be the time to do it since typically we try to get budget passed by the end of june there are also just a couple of pieces of bills legislation that have been proposed that i wanted to point out one of them is senate bill 1277 which is regarding parental control of student exposure to sexually explicit content in schools this bill would require districts to identify and inform parents of sexually explicit materials with no clear method or criteria of how to do this there's no definition of that um there's another bill called the tuition
063voucher bill um that would require changes in audit requirements and require payments made directly to programs not parents in the with regard to voucher dollars finally there is a right to know uh law update and the update is with regard to the def to a definition which is a person who by the person's conduct demonstrates an attempt to annoy or harass a local agency this wording um is ambiguous but it appears to have some um support in the house it has passed the house and will head to the senate during its next session so we will keep you posted on that but there is some movement to define what a vexatious requester is and to put some parameters around that kind of behavior but no definitions no clear definition chat and with that i have
064to include my request thank you dr shaw and director darnell i do not have an equity update this month but i would like to say happy belated juneteenth to everybody who celebrates and have almost happy belated pride month for everybody who participates in pride events that is thank you and that leads us to comments from residents thank you president tiernan uh now is the time for a public comment on non-agenda items again when a commenter's name is called please approach the podium and begin by stating your first name last name and municipality as a reminder comments are limited to three minutes per person the board asks that all commentary be directed to the board as a whole please also be respectful of all persons and public comments including those comments and opinions that differ from
065your own we will now call the first of three speakers anthony montgomery westchester school district this will hopefully be the last time i come to a board meeting with the intent of speaking out against the miss streaming of minorities at stetson middle school i don't want to have to beg for students be held accountable for their terrible behaviors especially if their behaviors include threatening or constant harassment of other students i'm angry that when a child is threatened their bully gets no consequence not even an email sent home i'm tired of being told that everyone has different opinions and beliefs and it's important to learn to coexist which is really just like for discrimination is acceptable if you learn how to live with it you cannot coexist with racism without being racist you cannot ignore homophobia
066without participating in it and you definitely can't laugh at ableism without and expect to get away with it but these kids do they get away with it thanks to their counselors their teachers their parents and their principal because they know that their students are following in their footsteps this kind of social and educational neglect is what leads to brownsville supermarkets the proud boys sexual assault the five percent higher suicide rate for lgbtq plus youth than their heterosexual counterparts and so much more this type of hate starts early and grows silently under your child's missed education this hate feeds on the fact that our child that our schools are too afraid to educate on the past they are fearful that their own hidden hatred will be revealed in the process shining through the cracks of their
067carefully built infrastructures we need to get past this fear and destroy the walls of presidents ahead of us we can do this by expanding on the past present and future of our nation teaching about the war on terror brown via the board of education and any future policies that could have serious impacts on our lives show us how to analyze and critique the systems put in place show us the loopholes and how they destroy the american working class show us how to be the future with equality liberty and justice for all steph anderson west ocean last month the 22-23 school year budget was approved on an eight-to-one vote the following day local pac students first westchester came out with a blog loud lotting the one dissenting vote from someone who the pac financially supported as
068a candidate and went on to explain their rationale with completely inaccurate numbers which is concerning as misinformation can mislead confuse and enrage the public unnecessarily my concern is a taxpayer and a parent is that this dissenting vote was casted based off of inaccurate and incorrect information even if someone following the budget talks it is still a lot of information to consume and i'm not even in a position to vote on this decision i wanted to suggest that the district creates a financial primer for the public before next year's budget approval which i believe may be beneficial to community members and board members alike so that everyone can have a better understanding of the financial matters of our district i would hate to see things like education and property values compromised due to ignorance on the
069issues especially from those in decision making and leadership positions thank you alexis cooper musk ocean um if you really care about what i talk about in this book but this book i found in henderson and um cut my about this book in regards to this it's called the novella you know pillows there's bed sheets um there's a picture of a man and woman kissing um the author's website i wanted to find out more about what this book would be about um and it says that it's rated mature 17 plus correct me if i'm wrong isn't the youngest age in high school 14. so there are students between ages 14 to 16 who can still check this book out you know maybe many of you might not this is a big deal but this is a
070really graphic book and unfortunately because there are kids here i will not be discussing any synopsis of this book because it is way too graphic um however i will definitely share personally this book i read it and um [Music] i mean everything about this book is not for any adolescent this is an adult book and it contains very questionable content like very extreme subversive questionable content um so i guess i will address this personally and i can share explicit graphic stuff from this book at another time all right thank you that concludes public thank you do i hear a motion to adjourn miss fleming all in favor say aye aye meeting is adjourned you