001good evening everyone at 702 i hereby call to order the may 25th 2022 meeting of the westchester area school area school district school board business meeting before we begin with the salute i would like to ask all of us in the room to come together quietly in a moment of silence to acknowledge the terrible loss of students and teachers at uwalde texas thank you all very much uh dr sopholowsky yes thank you president um just do want to offer a couple of remarks uh before we get in our board meeting tonight i want to acknowledge the emotions that we feel in this room in our school and our community regarding the horrific and sentenceless tragedy that occurred in nevalda texas as i shared in my communications last night the parents and staff this occurred more
002than a thousand miles away from westchester but we feel it we feel it right here we feel the impact we also feel a great sense of sadness for all the families who lost wahlberg yesterday as a result of this shooting tonight as we're voting on a district budget for next year i do want to share with our parents and community the westchester area school district certainly increases its efforts to ensure the wellness which in many ways is references to some of its soft security measures as well as the hard security measures in our building we're also a learning organization and it's therefore important to learn more about what occurred in texas to look for strategies to further improve our school security but i just want to share a few things that our district has embedded
003in the most recent years in the area of security we've added a safety and security supervisor soon we will have added three campus security officers we will have also greatly expanded interior video surveillance coverage in our buildings at henderson high school we relocated the greeter station from the main lobby to the vestibule for better and safer entrance into the building we also added a cloud-based system that flags concerning internet searches from students also in recent years we've improved cellular amplification in our building for communication purposes in the event of an emergency in the area of trainings for all of our staff there are a number of required trainings that came about in recent years youth suicide awareness trauma trauma-informed care and also alice training which is otherwise known as armed intruder drill training and this
004is something that we're going to be expanding we're already planning to expand this summer and developing with our security team building teams across all of our buildings we've also required monthly cyber cyber awareness training for all of our staff as we know that cyber security is also a threat in our world today in the area of preventative resources we have gone from three mental health therapists to 12 in just the last two school years we've also increased our focus and investment for social emotional learning we do administer a lot of this as a result of the state system the safe to say system suicide violent risk assessment and screeners to better support our students our family and our community so i just wanted to acknowledge the emotions but i also wanted to share that we
005are a district of action we are a district that is responsive and we will continue to hold safety and security as the utmost responsibility thank you president thank you dr zakulewski now we have a salute to the flag tonight led by kayla holman and michael corso of fern hill elementary school the home of the bobcats so with the two bobcats who have been joined brought in by their families we welcome you and your principal dr um jennifer southmaid who did not write their speeches is here smiling proudly on and so come up to the microphone be sure the button's pushed okay you'll take care of that mr whiteman and then we're going to stand and you're going to lead us in the salute and tell us about her health of the united states of america
006and to the republic for which it stands one nation under god indivisible with liberty good evening my name is kayla holman and i'm here with michael corso we are proud members of student councils from fernhill elementary school we are excited to present to you in may as it has been an exciting year for us at burn hill and we will highlight our experiences with you there have been there have been a lot of changes that were until during the 21-22 school year redistricting changed our frontal community this year over two-thirds of our students are worried brindle uh i'm i'm one of those new students i'm lucky to have been able to make some new friends at for hill doctor salsman also joined us as our new principal there were so many news changes and new
007faces our school's focus for this year was called new beginnings vern hill introduced our pbis system this is focused on school-wide expectations that we call solace paula's expectations are for all students to practice kindness act responsibly work and play safely and show respect after all of these changes we have learned that we are adaptable and can work together the best part of this past school year was that we were able to do things that we haven't been able to do in a few years some of the highlights for me were the paradise farms field trip halloween parade classroom holiday parties working with therapy dogs fifth grade valentine's dance and the fourth and fifth grade track meet burn hill fern hill is more than just a place that teaches us reading writing and math we also
008learned about practicing kindness and giving back to our community for example our student council gave a donation directed at brandywine valley spca and we also got to volunteer there in february our second grade just finished an economics project in beanie baby seal that raised 716 dollars for the friends association in westchester we also held our united walk last week that raised over five thousand four hundred dollars to support the family spending breast cancer fernhill's new beginnings also focused on healing and learning as we are still dealing with the impact of the pandemic our community is learning and growing together a great example of this includes heritage day held last week our school celebrated diversity and learned more about different cultures even though we're time as fifth graders that burned hill is finding down we still
009have a lot to look forward to fifth grade the fifth grade uh different vine camp arrowhead field trip the fifth grade celebration breakfast and the fifth grade graduation even after we graduate we will still remember this phrase once a bobcat boys bobcat thank you now kayla and michael as you reflect michael you said you came to fernhill this year and um i know that redistricting is a war that strikes terror into the heart of some people but you're telling me that you adjusted and in fact have thrived even though you went to fernhill this year and will go to where next year i will go to cuba middle school you'll be a puget where will you be uh i'll also be infused okay all right well you know two people that's good so you'll be
010you'll be um your school will be splitting up a little bit next year but then all one if you get it all right that's good that's good okay now if you will just stay right where you are for a minute dr sokolowski and i will run around this table take pictures with you again thank you very much for coming and i've got to say you two tag team very well move smoothly back and forth and didn't miss a beat so we're going to give you another round of applause [Applause] i dream about that all right here we go there [Music] thank you all right on the agenda is roll call for the board mrs chairshore please vice president here director chester here director dietrich here director now here director fleming here director herman here director
011shawl here president tiernan here director longslav [Music] and i hear cj mccune for madison d'ambros yes thank you that leads to public comment welcome mr mckeon um that leads to public comments on agenda items if you have filled out a card off the table in the back mr jennings we'll call you to the microphone or mrs um cherisher will call you to the microphone and you'll have three minutes to address the board on agenda items thank you president tiernan and good evening this evening we have two registrants for public comment on agenda items and then we'll hear from approximately public commenters toward the end of the meeting for non-agenda items as a reminder persons wishing to make public comment were required to register prior to the designated start time of tonight's 7 pm meeting when
012a public commenter's name is called i ask that they please approach the podium and begin by stating their first name last name and municipality public comments as the president indicated 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 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
013interfere with the orderly conduct of tonight's public meeting will not be tolerated we will now call the first speaker sarah missed it uh sarah miss at west ocean thank you president tiernan and school board directors for the opportunity to speak tonight about the retirement of principal mr dennis brown supervisor dr paul joyce and director dr tammy floria the tremendous impact that all three retirees have had on the lives of the students in the westchester area school district is hard to even put into words throughout my career i've tried to model even a fraction of the compassion and care for all students the deep knowledge of the learning process and the commitment to building up other leaders and educators that these three individuals have shown through us throughout the years principal brown leads east ocean road
014runner green dennis has been a road runner for the last 20 years i will never forget dennis's dedication to east goshen when he agreed to dress as a princess for a school assembly because his students earned enough road runner tokens and i would remember the roar of all the fourth and fifth grade students at this year's track meet chanting his name as he sprinted down the track i'm going to miss dennis's big heart i don't think anyone has a longer title than dr paul joyce he is the supervisor of science health and physical education family and consumer science and technology education paul has left the mark showing his passion for science and education all over this district but one will never forget that he handed principal mary kay pachella and pair of lupus to cut
015the ceremonial ribbon which he made out of pieces of invasive fine at the stetsons water quality education center dedication last year thank you for your 30 years of commitment and service paul i'm particularly going to miss working with my dear friend tammy tammy and i have worked side by side for over 10 years of her 20-year service i will forever remember and be grateful for her intelligence her kindness and her laughter there is no one who cares more passionately for children than tammy she listens with love and is guided by care and deep knowledge of what's best for kids when finding solutions one of tammy's greatest accomplishments was the detail of research purposefulness planning and the implementation of our full-day kindergarten program school districts from near and far come to see what we are doing
016for our youngest learners because of tammy's commitment to excellence i'm going to miss working with you tam thanks for sharing yourself with the westchester irving school district so tammy dennis and paul thank you thank you thank you for your leadership and your dedication you will be missed [Applause] ocean township a little bit of a tough effort to follow i kind of wanted to say some of the same things uh because i know um i've i've had an opportunity not to work as as closely with the as you have but i wanted to uh note how much uh expertise leaves the um the school district when uh individuals retire i know that i've had a lot of occasions where i've had to work with cheryl strinak and she's been great with you know helping and her
017knowledge and that sort of thing uh tammy too i know she's got a relationship with westchester university and i think sometimes that because of that we kind of get first shivs on some of the recent graduates in order to hire them and bring in you know new teachers um i also wanted to talk about dennis brown uh i did not meet dennis under the best of circumstances and i have some doubts about him um because he's got the autistic support going on at uh east ocean and in the beginning i don't know that he really kind of got autism autism is kind of tough to understand and there was a bit of a learning curve and a lot of people doubted that he could climb that curve and he really from what i've seen was
018able to climb that part and i'd also like to remind the administration as they bring in a new principle to east goshen to realize that either we have to bring in someone with that kind of a background in autism or we're going to have to do what we did with dennis brown and uh you know teach him because i'll tell you i've been dealing with autism for 25 years and it still surprises me from time to time there's a lot to learn every autistic individual is different and with having a self-contained autism support class so i believe that the first one was at east goshen elementary um that we really need to bring in someone with expertise when we go to replace him and again i wish everyone on the list a long and happy
019healthy retirement and uh you know hopefully come by and visit and you know put in the good work for westchester thank you [Music] [Applause] thank you both and uh we thank anyone who comes and speaks to us that will move us to approval of the april 25th 2022 school board meeting minutes looking to approve dr herman second director chester any questions or comments about the april 25th minutes very very well would like to vote then director herman yes director chester yes director shaw yeah director wensley yes vice president bevalaqua yes director terminal yes director fleming yes director dietrich yes president tiernon yes now mrs chairshore will you accept my uh auditions about the meeting minutes for executive or do you want them after whenever you tell me thank you uh mr chairshore would you please
020add to the meeting minutes for this evening that we met as a board in executive session earlier this evening on personnel security and safety and student matters we also met on the 9th of may on legal matters and the 16th of may on personnel and real estate matters next we seek approval for the may 25th 2022 school board meeting agenda for tonight may i have a first please mr rebel aqua a second mr darnell any questions or comments about tonight's agenda all right call for the vote vice president federated yes director gernell yes director wellesley yes director chester yes director fleming yes director director dietrich yes director yes president yes thank you now this leads us to the superintendent's report everybody batting down the hatches here we go doctor i had a very brief report
021but what i will be doing is i will be turning things over tonight is a night that we want to recognize particularly our board reps our seniors at our high schools students who've had great accomplishments that our high school principals are here to recognize them and they're going to be embedded in my report in just a couple of minutes but i do want to share that as everyone is aware just about two weeks we will have our graduation ceremonies at our high schools we are going again with the model that we had last year that we're going to try to get every graduation outside at 10 a.m and avoid those afternoon thunderstorms and that way we can really maximize the families that will be able to be there and enjoy that moment and i just
022want to wish all of our seniors the very best in their futures know that you can reach back to westchester you can call me anytime for any supports i just wish all of you the very very best and i would also like to thank our teachers our administrators support staff parents and our board members who have provided our seniors with a lot of guidance over the years and many of our seniors of course started 13 years ago as kindergartners in our school districts in our school district would also like to recognize ms jennifer franz fifth grade teacher at stark weather was named as a finalist this year for the citadel heart of learning award back on may 2nd and was recognized at the mann music center in philadelphia jen was selected from literally thousands of
023nominations of teachers not just across chester county but across the philadelphia area for this recognition very prestigious incredibly high honor congratulations to jen as well as all the teachers who are recognized by citadel federal credit union and before turn it over to our our principles in just a moment uh i did want to share that this announcement went out just yesterday uh i will be hosting this summer hopefully we can start before uh july what we're calling listening sessions at all of our elementary schools this is something i was hoping to do last summer but just got a little too busy but this summer the listening sessions i'm going to be inviting parents early evening in the summer to elementary schools their home elementary schools bring your lawn chair bring your beach blanket uh we're
024just gonna have a great conversation for about an hour uh and that's gonna be just incredibly informative uh for me thinking about as we as we go into next year setting goals uh you know and continuing to strengthen our communities strengthen our partnerships uh together uh so at this time uh i would like to invite dr stephen brown to the podium to recognize students from east high school for some great accomplishments arriving uh school board cabinet thank you very much for having us tonight um i just want to kind of share some information about some of our students needs and some background as to how they got here we have three deca students that is our business program they all as i was informed tonight were not only successful at stakes but they went to
025nationals in atlanta uh last month and were all tremendously successful they were first place in states but top 15 internationally in atlanta internationally so in order from closest to furthest we have elena newton who's going to michigan university michigan we have nikita gandhi who's going to go to pitt and grace treon who's going to become a southern belle in georgia these students have i guess persevered more than anything over the past couple years their success in becca is not just exclusive to them it's in large part due to their teachers says carol lill mr jeff connor are a huge part of their successes the work that they put in over the past few years is tremendous it i've been in those classrooms what they have to do to prepare for states is extraordinary but then
026what they have to do to prepare for the national competition in atlanta is even more extraordinary so these are amazing kids they were at once fifth graders like those other kids that were here earlier and it's awesome to see them grow and mature into young adults and they're going to be leaders and that's ultimately why we're doing what we do so ladies congratulations and thank you dr bradley university of michigan wolverines congratulations elaine [Applause] and i wore their colors oh and and sharing about what these uh kids were being you know kind of spoken about tonight i left the house without my jacket but that's all right fellas coming up [Music] in addition to our academics we also have athletic success uh mike cardrelli and ethan fredericks closest are our ice hockey captains our ice
027hockey team was very successful this year but was also very successful last year uh they won states both this year and last year they went 46-0 uh over the course of two years that is tremendous to not lose a game um is impressive and i think for me what as a former coach what i recognize is that what it takes to accomplish that is a true team effort and although these two are the ones that are here uh you have an entire group of kids some of them play some of them don't as much but they're just as as responsible for that success as these two young men so 46-0 back-to-back state championships in ice hockey congratulations [Applause] thank you dr brown i would like to invite dr jason sherlock from henderson high school our
028principal to honor some of our amazing students in anderson uh dr scott lawson vistern and member members report thank you for allowing us to recognize some excellence tonight uh last last month we recognize our music and academics tonight we're going to be recognizing some of our uh outstanding athletes so our first up is our bocce team seniors megan grime molly dolan and coach wagner could you please step forward our unified apache team won the county championship against unionville and advanced the state play of playoffs at desous university at states they beat strathaven and north penn advancing to the state championship in the state championship game they faced a great plymouth white marsh team and were victorious 6-4 this marks our first state championship in unified bocce i want to say once again congratulations to megan
029molly coach wagner coach mcmahon and the entire henderson lochie team [Applause] uh coach uh ron uh socialkey morgan endler and kayla chukowski could you please come forward i am pleased to recognize our girls ice hockey team the girls won the icshl championship and blew their opponents away in the flyers cup defeating unionville high school to win the flyers cup by a score of 3-1 congratulations to morgan kayla coach saschake and our entire henderson girls ice hockey team congratulations [Applause] and i have one more this is an individual crystal marlin could you please step forward and coach pott please please come up here too congratulations coach krista is one of the most accomplished swimmers in the history of henderson high school throughout her high school career she combined her talents and incredible work ethic krista is
030the individual school record holder in five events and is part of each of the school's relay records some of her most memorable events occurred at this season's district championship meet and state championship meet crystal won the 200 freestyle at districts and then followed this victory up by becoming the first female state swimming champion from henderson in 30 years her time of 1 minute 46.92 seconds at the state meet is also the eighth fastest time in the history of pennsylvania high school swimming making her performance even more impressive once again we congratulate krista on this tremendous accomplishment we wish her well all the best in her future academic and swimming career at penn state university and once again thank you for allowing us to recognize our outstanding students tonight thank you [Applause] and from ruston high
031school on behalf of principal dr michael morano i would like to invite the assistant principal dr chrissy eagles to recognize students from rustin good evening everyone so i'd first like to start by recognizing our science olympiad team so we welcome all of our students up to the front so we are very proud of our science olympiad team wrestling placed third overall during the state tournament april 29th and 30th the following eight students got first place for ruston and outperformed the other 35 teams we have ricky chen natalie chi cassandra hung sanjay kandasami aiden lefever jacob lefever sohan petkar and alex welter the duo of aiden and ricky placed first in three events yes you heard me correct three events detector building gravity vehicle and trajectory natalie and cassandra place first in the chemistry lab while
032alex and sanjay placed first in right stuff jacob and soham placed first in the solar power which required them to both design a solar cooking device as well as taking a test on concepts related to solar power amazing accomplishments i'd like to give a round of applause everyone next up i'd like to recognize one of our star athletes miss ava alexander so ava who as a sophomore led her team to its first league championship became a league champion in two events won a district championship as an individual while the team finished runner-up and qualified for the state championship meet in three different events resulting in two state medals including a state championship title in the triple jump and finishing by winning an international competition in the bahamas in the triple jump the under 18 v
033aaa nationals during the indoor track season ava reached the qualifying standard for the indoor state meet in seven events she would help her lead her team to finish second place in the state while collecting four more medals including defending her state championship in the triple jump first in triple jump second and long jump third in the 400 meter and fifth in the four by 200 meter relay ava would then wrap up her indoor season by competing at the nsaf indoor national championship meet she would earn all american status in two events becoming national champion in the triple jump with a leap of 41 feet 3 inches and by helping the distance medley relay team along with ellie kiefer lindsey boakman and maddie miller to a fifth place finish what an outstanding athlete and the student
034academic record too [Applause] thank you dr eagles and congratulations to all of our students tonight being recognized wonderful accomplishments great celebration i hope you have the very best final couple weeks of school and a fantastic summer and i think mrs tyrion at this time we're going to move to our student reports yes student representative reporters but this is our our these are our final reports that we're going to hear from our our student representatives uh and we did want to take a moment before they give their reports and we're gonna get it after okay we'll do that after but i just want to point out that we have uh two future tigers uh will porter will be attending louisiana state university oh my god last seconds i'm sorry i was i had my heart set
035on lsu and uh we visited ole miss on a whim t-shirt from east high school will be attending westchester university uh and she will be a golden rant uh maddie danbrido who who's not here this evening is going to be attending clemson university that would have been will our second tiger so i lost that thanks for giving me my toast but this time we would like to hear elena your final report from east high school good evening everyone thank you again for having me congratulations to all the students that got recognized tonight specifically elena grace akita ethan and michael congratulations guys um easton may was bustling with activity and excitement as always um may 1st which is recognized as national decision day was when some seniors celebrated their college decisions in the parking lot before
036school wrapping all their college gear i thought this was a very bittersweet way to start the um our last month of high school the full first week of may is also known as teacher appreciation week to celebrate this student council plan treats and surprises for each day that week on message monday we just delivered flower shaped lovers letters that students wrote notes on to specific teachers and thanking them for everything that they do on treat tuesday we placed candy bars in each of the teachers mailboxes and everyone pretty much enjoyed their little uh their treats on wednesday we serve huawei coffee to the staff and teachers we would publicly like to thank the kindness that they showed by donating uh to the cause of teacher appreciation we received nine boxes of coffee in addition to
037a box of creamer sugar straws and lids all for free so yet another reason to love wawa specifically the one with hayley they just need to change their apartment um finally the week ended with the teacher luncheon hosted by student council in the gym lobby on thursday it was a great way to see all of our teachers get the time to relax and enjoy the full weight of our appreciation uh we had planned uh a philly friday on that following friday our prom day but the weather sucked so we postponed it the kona ice for today it was thoroughly enjoyed uh the following day again was our senior prom on may 6th everyone looked amazing and had a great time kingsmill was absolutely beautiful and post prom was just as fun i especially loved the
038bounce house and the live mini concert that was performed by student bands in the cafeteria at 2 30 in the morning thank you to all the parents and staff that helped make that night so special may though warm and full of anticipation was also prime time for testing ap testing was all now behind us and we all made it through safely um keystone kiss keystone's just finished this week um as well so i hope all the students that tested this month are proud of the work that they did and are ready for their summer break um the national honor society induction ceremony was held on may 11th this society awards students that show academic excellence through leadership community service and character congratulations to all the students that were inducted the senior art show opened on
039may 12th and lasted a week in the link the show itself lasted for about two hours it was extremely hot especially on that third floor after they dropped the air conditioning um but it was a great way to see all the friends and family that came to support students and admire all the art um dr brown awarded his principal's award to his favorite piece and then this was followed by the awards from the art teachers for both individual works and portfolios at a whole these pieces will be shown at our senior assembly as the year closes so does spring sports all teams have amazing seasons and congratulations to all the seniors and their senior nights the senior flash day of class instruction will be this friday may 27th and their elementary school walkthrough on may
04031st graduation will be on june 9th and will be live live stream for all who wish to watch i would also like to just give a thank you to everyone here and always being here to hear what i have to say about east and thank you for the board members to give me the opportunity to speak this year i have learned so much about my school my district my community and the world that is the last of my reports and have a great night go down the line here uh on behalf of maddie we have cj mccune deliver the report from ruston high school uh cj i understand that you will be the school board rep next year from ruston that's correct that's correct so you're getting a little bit of a jump start so
041congratulations uh but let's hear our great news for rusty all right good evening everyone obviously i'm not maddie maddy cannot make it tonight i'm cj mckean i'll be next year's school board representative i would love to start with talking about our student council elections which happened at the beginning of this month with abby dimarius as president of school or school board no student council model winfield is our vice president alexandria paquel is our communications director paige bryant is our secretary and myself as school board rep in sports our boys lacrosse team unfortunately took an 8-6 loss last night in district semi-finals to marvel newtown which is unfortunately where my dad went to high school girls track and field were district 1 champs they are outstanding and i cannot even begin to explain how good they
042are because they are truly incredible while doing so the girls set a four by four school record runners were ava alexander couture darwin amelia four and maddie miller i can talk about couture a bit because i've known her since fifth grade and i remember those fourth and fifth grade track meets and always so fast always so fast and i always wish i could do that fast i play soccer but i've never been that fast so it's incredible on the boys side deshawn jacobs set another school record with the triple jump becoming just a trend in the triple jump it's funny because the record that he broke was already his own record so he's doing outstanding things he'll be at westchester next year playing football rone degnan and sam page were became fourth place in chesmar
043tennis um i'm on the tennis team i know them very well with great great kids and outstanding tennis players i my main sports soccer i i did tennis because keem me active during the spring and whatnot and it's a lot harder than you would racially anticipate and i was pleasantly surprised it keeps me active so i like it tonight softball which was number one ranked they're playing number nine seated union or phoenix bill in district quarter finals i do not have the results yet i wish i could oh they won they won [Applause] uh in other events we had our art show last week which i'm sure you see all this artwork in front of you i'm pretty sure all of it's from rustin don't quote me oh if it is all of it is
044from rust a lot of these photography assignments i know because people in my class took them i'm in photo three and some of the work that goes on is very very impressive we have an awesome set up at russ and mr rscott does a fantastic job and it's very very impressive senior prom was last week i was not there i'm a junior still i'll be a senior next year but uh it was hosted at the waterfall in clemont delaware um i was disappointed about the lack of instagram posts i saw i was expecting to see more but i saw enough so yeah i have to be right but um i heard great things nothing but great things to say maddie raved about it when i texted her about it in addition the post prom was
045a big hit with the theme of candytopia i saw a bunch of pictures and videos of people getting hypnotized and whatnot which looked really really neat and one actually sam paige from tennis uh he was one of the people that got hypnotized he was talking about it last night sounded like wild stuff and the prizes too i heard there's some crazy prizes people winning like two thousand dollars it's insane uh tonight is our jazz band concert so that's probably happening right now and then this friday is our annual senior picnic it's also the seniors last day so we'll be wishing them for what farewell and our graduation is on uh june 7. uh and another a big big rust event that happened this month was spike the rock everybody everybody gets involved in spike rock
046if you're not involved in spike the rock i don't know what you're doing because it is it's an awesome event i'd like to shout out um alexis maclean who she pretty much runs spectre throughout from the student side she's a student council member uh she's also a spelman humanitarian award winner she's a d1 commit to drexel lacrosse and uh first team all chess month in la crosse but more about spike the rock uh it's a volleyball tournament that takes place through all day during one school day there are teams of eight players or tops eight players and then a lot of teams end up having coaches and mascots so it ends up being more like 10 to 12 people per team and it raises it's all to raise money for bringing hope home which is
047a fantastic cause and in total they raised 27 533 dollars and 28 cents [Applause] i'm looking forward to working with you all very much next year um russ we've had a great year across a great year at rustin and i we actually had a meeting the new school board school i keep saying scoreboard student council members with dr morano today to discuss our ideas looking forward to the future and we're all very very excited thank you [Applause] and now we'll i don't know if you have any more surprises for us but the floor is yours to share about all the great things happening in henderson ah nothing crazy hi everybody um tonight uh i'm gonna start off by apologizing um i i didn't tell you guys i'm sorry yeah i was visiting lsu um inbound
048tiger day uh we had to fly out of memphis so we thought we'd stop by oxford um signed up for a tour last minute and i absolutely loved it and a last second trip trip last second uh grant and it changed my opinion a lot and i loved it um what day um it was i flew into louisiana um went through the tour and i flew out of memphis in the afternoon the next day so we drove up to oxford after doing all the lsu stuff stopped by i signed up for a tour and flew out uh later that afternoon so it was very last second but uh i loved it i loved every minute of it to probably come so i just flipped my decision i'm sorry about that i was apologizing i'm really
049excited back to the actual report uh this week in henderson uh is the senior spirit week today was anything but a backpack students got very creative in what they used to carry their bucks some of my favorites included a wheelbarrow a shopping cart a toaster a golf bag and younger siblings siblings around for the day uh it's not really very fun uh looking forward to the rest of the week tomorrow senior citizen i plan on wearing my mom's bathrobe i'm not going to tell her that yet but um and friday is costume day so just to express a little bit of everyone's self it was the last second thing but everyone uh seems to be really getting into it the spring speaking contest was this past tuesday students recited humorous pieces from memory and were
050graded on speech pace stage presence and movement senior tyler perron won with a very impressive performance that was quite funny to watch the senior art show was also this past tuesday over 40 hundreds and seniors displayed their painting sculptures photos and more for the general public displays range for from full portfolios from some of our more artistically inclined students to some of those with very small board pieces for students like me who just needed er credit um but tonight was extremely pleasant and i enjoyed seeing the abilities and the final products from many of my much more talented classmates the spring drama is running this week henderson the show too much light makes the baby go blind uh 30 plays in 60 minutes is a hectic and hilarious piece that consists of 30 small roughly
0512-minute plays performed in a random order selected by the interactive audience it's really meant to bring the audience with the show and uh the students that i talk to are very excited uh entry is one to six dollars at the door depending on the dice you roll so if you're feeling lucky and while you're gonna see a good show you can get in for a dollar if not six but um as the year one is down at henderson one sports team is still going strong the henderson boys baseball team defeated central bucks west today by a score of 5-1 in the third round district playoffs continue this friday the boys are led by a strong senior corps they finished the season 19-1 they were the first student district one and uh ranked as the fourth
052seed in the entire state so very impressive stuff that they're doing the henderson senior prop was two weeks ago at kingsmill as well i very very much enjoyed the night it was a beautiful venue and it was awesome to see some of my teachers in a more loose setting breaking it down on the dance floor so that was that was very funny to watch mr mccormick really got into it after prom was also a spectacular i want to um thank any of the parents who are here that may have been a part of it and participate in it uh it was a wonderful night i really enjoyed it and i want to thank everyone for putting that together [Music] there's a lot of stuff going on uh to finish up for our senior year uh
053we have our walk-through of our elementary schools on monday as well as our senior picnic tuesday tuesday move off monday memorial day sweet but as the years went down it's a lot of looking looking back but also looking forward i know many of our students are very grateful for their time here in the westchester area school district and i want to thank all of you for doing everything you can to give us the best education the best experience possible and i personally want to thank you all for this opportunity to work with you guys throughout the year it's been a great learning experience i've enjoyed every minute of it and thank you guys so much elena and will well it inspired me just in terms of a reflection for you will be future westchester high
054school alumni in just a short couple of weeks and will you nail it the doors are open for you to walk through there is so much opportunity before you will and the story elena well the story that you talked about you know making a decision to go from one school to another that's just an example of the opportunities that you have ahead just walk through those doors make your decisions set your future all right but don't ever forget westchester at this time we would like to recognize elena and will we have um [Music] some recognitions that we would like to offer you and some thank you we have our certificate of appreciation i also want to invite you you are welcome to take your name please with you it's my understanding that we have a
055couple of former student board reps that use the name plate at their dinner table so that they know that that's their size i have written you uh both individual notes of thank you appreciation and honestly recommendations moving forward really appreciate your leadership uh also tonight thank you for keeping us entertained very much enjoyed it thank [Applause] you all this stuff [Music] this is for you and you can open those [Music] when you know what the school is you know what it is congratulations [Music] an english major right uh okay thank you so much [Applause] i know thank you all again and thank you for one of the most interesting school board years i can remember and there were times that i was concerned about where you were in the room and what was happening but
056you came through this like champs and elena i can see you sitting at westchester university running something within a year well you'll be doing the same thing we we leave you with we you take your lead with great pride from us and we know you're going to be successful you too cj but that's another year i can't talk to you again all right this leads us to personnel recommendations from dr almer good evening this is tiernan mr grebel aqua and directors of our board our personnel report for the month of may is as follows we have three resignations two paraprofessionals and sadly our assistant director of human resources was joanne redden who is moving from us to the chester county intermediate unit for another role in human resources she's been an invaluable member of the
057westchester area school district machine and we well i will miss her terribly the iu is very lucky joanne please know that you'll always be a part of my team we also have six retirements [Applause] we also have six retirements up for approval mr dennis brown principal at east goshen elementary school with 20 years of service dennis thank you for your humor and help and over the years this is helen cashman paraprofessional at east bradford elementary school with 18 years of service helen i've always had so much fun working with you throughout the years and you'll be very hard to replace dr tammy florio director of teaching and learning with 20 years of service tammy i'll miss you terribly you're always a willing and helpful here when i need advice the shoulder to lean on and
058the sounding board i'll miss you mrs margaret freeze paraprofessional at glen acres with 18 years of service peg thank you everything that you have done for our kids for all of these years dr paul joyce supervisor of science technology education family consumer sciences and health and physical education that is not an exaggeration with 30 years of service paul you're one of the only people in this district that knocks on my door daily just to say good morning and ask how my family's doing that's pretty cool and i'll miss talking with you and your kindness ms cheryl strunak secretary of the director of pupil services with 21 years of service cheryl thank you for always helping me find my way around the pupil services office that place is a maze and you can get lost very
059easily and cheryl always led me with through with the way with the smile we wish all our retirees the best and happy healthy new chapter and we'll miss you and thank you for your years of service with addition to payroll we are recommending the hire of mr michael ferriss as one of our new supervisor of special education in the western fear pattern michael went through a comprehensive interview process and comes to us from norristown area school district where he is currently serving as the supervisor of middle school special education michael is here this evening mike you stand up and wave mike welcome to the west chester area school district we are thrilled to have you on our team we're also recommending this hiring of seven new teachers one school psychologist one long-term substitute a staff
060nurse a custodian and a secretary of the principal at hillsdale elementary school welcome all to the district in temporary summer staff we are recommending 145 teachers site administrators speech language therapists tutors and caseworkers and nurses for our summer programming in personnel events i communicated two status changes in our professional staff first we would like to welcome ms karabelli as our new supervisor of secondary language arts cara is currently an english teacher at pierce middle school karen can you please stand up additionally we'd like to welcome miss laura mentzel as our new assistant principal at ruston high school laura is currently teaching biology at ruston high school as the department chair laura can you please set up be recognized both cara and laura went through intensive interview processes and we are thrilled to have you such
061talented and dedicated professionals in these extremely important roles in our organization congratulations and we can't wait for you to get started with us in these new roles it's also going to be very difficult to replace both of you i've delivered also delivered to and communicated two status changes in the support staff in transfers i delivered and communicated seven involuntary transfers in the teaching staff and two in our support staff i also delivered and communicated four voluntary transfers three in our teaching staff and one custodian in personnel events i am recommending the approval of three sabbaticals for next school year all the teachers qualified for their sabbaticals according to the school code of 1949 which is law in additional information i'm updating three start dates updating the number of years of experience for an employee updating
062a grade level change seeking the approval for two memorandums of understanding one for the westchester area education association and one for our support staff education association we are also seeking approval for drivers and needs from crafts buses and on the go kids lastly we are presenting the award tenure for 28 teachers each teacher has met the requirements set forth in the school code of 1949 by having earned tenure by being found proficient within the last four months during the third year of teaching congratulations to our newly tenured teachers it's quite an achievement in tutoring we are recommending the approval of six tutors in supplemental contracts we are asking for approval of three annual contracts for the fall season before the 22-23 school year two removals for contracts in the fall season of the 22-23 school
063year one adjustment for an annual contract in the 21-22 school year and one adjustment for a fall season contract for the 22-23 school year i'm respectfully requesting board approval for all personnel matters listed above thank you dr homer and i can't tell ask you if this was a busy time of year a little bit just a little bit uh i need a motion to approve mr bevalaqua dr herman are there any questions or comments from the board regarding dr olmer's report or any of the retirees that you would like to congratulate you'll add it later when you have your time all right fine seeing nine call for the vote please vice president by the way yes director herman yes director chester yes director dietrich yes director fleming yes director long sleeve yes director yeah director
064thank you thanks dr olman next is approval next is approval of the consent agenda before we vote are there any board members who would like to remove any items from the consent agenda seeing none we will entertain motions to accept the consent agenda motion to approve this ms chester dr dietrich comments or questions on the consent agenda all right very well take the vote director chester yes director dietrich yes director lonsley yes director trinidad yes director director fleming yes director herman yes vice president beverly yes president yes thank you now we're moving to the school work committee reports and ms chester i believe you are giving both education and pupil services tonight yes i am very well so i'm before i give him i'm sorry trouble with the table trouble with the knife um i
065wanted to say congratulations to the retirees and um dr glorio we'll miss you sitting behind me uh and also to dr ranieri who is a little under the weather tonight but working with her has been a pleasure over the years so we had our joint meeting on may 25th and at the joint meeting dr misik led a wonderful presentation on the teachers on special assignment aka ptosis she led a presentation on their wonderful performance and and how helpful they have been to the teachers into the district six ptosis were assigned to schools across the district to assist teachers and administrators as they work to strengthen our schools communities as the teachers and the students return to their buildings their three guiding principles were communication collaboration and problem solving each of the six ptosis spoke to
066us about their experiences and their contributions and they apparently were really excited to be on that special assignment we were impressed by their energy and that they brought to the job and by the obvious value they added to our schools during the year when in which our educators and students navigated unprecedented challenges so thanks to peter atlan miss melody dunn mr steve fitch mr anthony freyo miss lisa stoddard and mr jason thomas for thompson i'm sorry sorry jason for um for providing such good work we also got to review some instructional materials dr carr dr ian carr dr kristen barnello provided us with an overview of the process of reviewing instructional materials for adoption in three content areas which were algebra 1 and 2 statistics and grades 7 and 8 social studies each presentation was
067thorough and thoughtful and we were impressed by the engagement of parents and teachers as part of the review the education committee voted unanimously to accept the recommendations of the committee committees to approve the new texts and instructional materials for the 2022-23 school year resources for these new materials were included in next year's budget and these items are also included on the consent agenda this concludes the education committee half of the report thank you my pleasure would you care to give a report on fuel services as well and continuing thank you services beautiful services was also on may 25th and um we had the approval of one psychologist agreement and then we had a presentation by dr renery on the pediatric therapeutic support or pts we've been using um doing this since pts provides physical therapy
068occupational therapy psychology speech nursing behavioral and mental health staff which is supplemental we've had doctor meneri talked about the long-term stability of the therapy team 14 of the 18 therapists have been with the district for more than 10 years and 8 out of 18 have been with the district since the inception of the contract in 2007 westchester's student population receiving special ed services increased by 17 between 2017 and 2022 occupational therapy and physical therapy costs increased only 8.5 over the same period so that's 8.5 compared to 17. although there are more students on the caseload this year because of the pandemic the average cost per student is down 12 for occupational therapy and 11 for physical therapy compared to that of last year so why use the multi-tiered system of supports or mtss it helps
069us to stop over identifying or labeling kids in order to get them help it reduces disproportionality delivers direct therapy services on the short term as needed basis up to a year controls our caseload numbers reduces unnecessary diagnostic diagnostic costs and reduces response time to support our students that are struggling to address the marked increase in kindergarten referrals pts piloted kindergarten bootcamp that's boot camp with the cake at fern hill elementary school at east ocean elementary school at glen acres west town thornbury and the results are being tracked now to be reported later the district-wide mtss spending in 2018-19 was divided up by building based on per student allocation each building received an allocation in 2020 to be used for tier three direct services tier one and two costs are covered by the people services budget
070covered by the people services budget and to date none of the buildings have used all of their allocation so there's money remaining this concludes the pupil services portion of the report and our next meeting will be on june 20th 2022 at 6 30 p.m thank you thank you miss chester we are now moving to personnel it's your time dr herman thank you good evening congratulations to dr tammy florio mr dennis brown this is joanne redden dr paul joyce and dr leanne ramirez all of you are examples of what our district is all about excellence you have each given many years of service and we appreciate this we will miss you and your continued dedication to the district and mostly to the students enjoy your well-deserved retirement and to all of the other retirees thank you
071very much for all the years that you've worked for us to make our school district the best um i also had the opportunity to be on the team the interview team with cara bailey michael fieris and laura mentzel and one thing i would like to point out is we have always held the standard being excellent we grow we are very open and we continue to learn and i just wanted to tell you that every time i'm in an interview the people that we interview are the best with the best and it just makes me feel very very proud of who we are and i thank the school board members i thank our administration our superintendent assistant superintendent and all of the parents that helped us with this so that's it that concludes my my um
072reports thank you dr herman now mr beverlock who likes two minute reports says information it's going to be a little longer than that okay take it away mr biblica property and finance quite a bit of detail tonight good evening the last property finance meeting was held last monday on the 16th of may mr scully reviewed the budget forecast model as we do on a monthly basis the net savings of the 2021-22 school year was 613 000 and will be utilized to reduce future billings future village increases the net effect of the 2122 2223 adjustments resulted in a budget gap decrease of 420 000. mr scully then reviewed the 2122 and 2223 budget-to-budget comparison for the school board and he reviewed the read all revenues and expenses the budget total expenses increased by 17 and a
073half million dollars or 6.3 percent but remember as we spoke about in previous months 5 million expense increases is planned for the contribution to capital reserve funds related to the elementary school construction projects as previously discussed the total revenues increased by a little over six million dollars or 2.4 percent mr scully then reviewed to the committee of the board the historic trends of the school district's tax increases from the delaware chester county he reviewed the historic trends of the employee benefit costs and retirement expenses we also discussed the district facts books which gives a comparison schedule to show historical tax rates revenues and expenses the fact the fact book of anybody's interest is located on the district website under the department of business and finance a very good reference the next topic we've discussed mr
074scully review property tax and homestead farmstead exclusion process for people's knowledge of what the homestead farmstead really is it's an annually the state provides districts with the means to lower property tax via this homestead farmstead exclusion which is funded by the state's gaming revenues this year the state provided the district with 4.2 million dollars for property tax relief which equates to an average of 174.80 exclusion amount for each qualified property the committee recommended approval to adopt the 2223 homestead farmstead exclusion resolution as stated and we do have a resolution tonight it's a number it's number d9 on the agenda swallowing the rate of approvals requested for the 2223 homestead farmstead resolution which provides a tax reduction to each approved homestead and each according farmstead property in the amount of 174.80 iso move all right we
075need a second miss chester questions or comments mr bevalecko all right let's call for the vote vice president yes director chester yes director shawn yeah director d yes director fleming yes director lonsley yes director herman yes director turnout yes president yes all right continuing on um the next topic mr scully reviewed the final budget resolution for the 22-23 school year and the annual tax levy resolution for the 22-23 school year the final budget resolution for the 2223 school year provides a general fund appropriations of 296 million 971 thousand 916. this is d7 on the agenda anyways and i do have a motion for the school board tonight fiscal year approval is requested for the final budget resolution for the 2223 fiscal year budget in the amount of 296 million 971 916 iso move thank you
076in a second director plumbing i have a comment yes sure all right mr jennings yes all right thank you i just want to offer a great comment before we vote on these next two items um first i'd like to thank uh john scully wayne burster and gary vavalot here for everything they've done to bring myself and the other new members of the board up to speed since december over these past six months we have reviewed a lot of data expenses bids projections and student head count separately we've reviewed changes to curriculum personnel special programs but ultimately all roads come back to the budget what can we afford why is something we're someone worthy of investment as we look at a future that is fraught with increasing inflation and a community with a rising number of
077fixed income or low-income residents it will be critical we find ways to minimize to maximize our investments and minimize our financial exposures with the 20-year trend on enrollment essentially flatten our annual budget continuing to rise on a steady and seemingly fixed trajectory it will be our challenge to not just assess how to control our expenses but to measure the return on our investments whether it be curriculum personnel special programs or infrastructure with the recent passing of a new comprehensive plan it is more critical than ever that we execute our strategic plans following smart goals brothers not familiar with the smart goal they are specific measurable actionable realistic and time-backed so as we prepare to close the books on the current 2021-2022 school year i hope that we can all work towards smart goals in the
078new year and the years to come thank you thank you thank you director and with that any other comments all right will you call for a vote i do also want to commend uh mr john scully our director of business affairs and his team uh for the work uh that they have done and really this is a process as as john presents those budget forecasts every month working very progressively to find ourselves in this position where and john thank you this represents some of westchester's lowest military among the lowest military in the county not all school districts yet have passed their budget but that has been our trend and john has certainly provided that leadership and i want to concur with your appreciation for our business office thank you vice president yes director fleming yes
079director detroit yes director shaw yeah director chester yes yes all right continuing on the next topic was the annual tax levy and what that means we were just talking about the tech the annual tax levy resolution for the 2223 school year sets the real estate tax for chester county at 22.4364 mills and delaware county at 9.934 approval is requested for the annual tax levy resolution for the 2223 school year which authorized a real estate tax levy in the amount of 22.4364 mills for chester county and 9.9343 mills for delaware county a d transfer tax levy in the amount of 0.5 and an earned income tax levy in the amount of 1 iso move and a second mr darnell dr herman all right doctor you didn't cut out that yes yes director chester yes president yes
080all right continuing on mr scully also reviewed the food service program equipment purchases and renovation plans we do on an annual basis the schedule amounts for all the equipment that will be replaced as part of this renovation projects and spans from the 20 to 2022 through the 2030 and future year forecasting the 2223 equipment replacement budget totals four hundred ninety one thousand nine hundred seventy two dollars the committee recommended approve the equipment purchases for the 22-23 school year the next item we discussed mr burster presented the committee with bid results for a capital reserve project for the pierce middle school paving project the project was previously approved in the 2223 capital reserve project list within the budget of 265k due to increased costs of fuel and materials it's recommended the district reject all the bids
081and revisit this project at a later date the committee recommended rejecting all the bids for the pierce paving project and proceeding in that matter the next item mr burster advised the committee that the district has received a request on behalf of marshall jones property owner of 801-803 street road west town township adjacent to boston high school for an easement a small easement through the wetlands on the westbourne side of beta roster campus the system has been professionally designed at all costs and approvals with the expense of the property owner with no expense for the school district the committee recommended approval of this request for easement and i do have a motion tonight this is d6 anyways following approval is requested on behalf of marshall jones the property owner of 801 to 803 street road west
082town township for an eastman through the wetlands on the west town roadside of baird ruston campus exactly and a second for mr darnell uh questions or comments about that eastman very well we'll call for the vote lomsley yes director herman yes director journal yes i think i did have one change uh this is sheriff short i did i was kind of staying from that vote i apologize i forgot one it's too carried away voting so i'm abstaining do in fact i have a relationship with that resident thank you right request for 801 to 803 street for west town township yes director chester yes director bernie yes president yes just to finish my report this evening we at this point we do not have a schedule for a property finance meeting in the month of june
083if anything changes we'll put out public announcement and uh that ends my report for tonight thank you mr bevalaqua not really so long on other reports if required we will we will hold property and finance on uh june 20th and also we will hold pupil services and education committee as needed on on as needed on june 20. thank you all right intermediate unit mr gernell it's a pleasure to say that thank you president the chester county intermediate unit cciu board of directors held its monthly meeting on wednesday may 18 2022 at the technical college high school pennocks bridge campus in westbrook pa i drove the grove but i never get married but when i did it was worth it the following items were discussed dr kirk willard director of career technical and customized education and
084dr brian hughes assistant principal of the tchs penalty bridge gave a presentation that highlighted the tchs penthouse bridge partnerships and unique opportunities that are provided to the students their partnerships with october area school district and oxford area school district provide tchs pentax bridge with the classroom space needed to offer the welding and commercial arts and design media programs they gave us they showed us examples of the work i have a mug that i could use for coffee or for aggression if i wanted to and the students welded it it's really heavy and sturdy we'll probably put flowers in it in our home also they showed a magazine that they put together with covers that the students designed and the artwork and the technical skills that went into it were amazing it's amazing what they're doing
085out there delaware county community college partnered with the tchs pandox bridge to provide students with the hvac program with the opportunity to pursue free free associates degrees the tchs panox bridge also partnered with the local businesses to provide our allied health students with the experience of working in different types of health care facilities without these key partnerships students in these programs will not be able to gain experience and career growth in their field of interest the board acted on the following business we approved some changes to the 2022-23 marketplace pricing schedule in regards to the practical nursing and the branding brand wine valley academy programs we approve several out of county contracts for various marketplace services as follows technical support pins administration support child accounting administration and instructional design services we also approved all recommended
086personnel action items including routine terminations resignations retirements nominations changes in status creation of positions supplemental salaries and pay rates the next cciu board of directors meeting will be held on wednesday june 15th 2022 at 7 30 p.m at the educational service center in diamondtown pennsylvania that is my report thank you um we have psba report dr herman thank you president tyrion good evening each year all school districts in pennsylvania to send school director representatives to the delegate assembly at the delicate assembly of legislator priority issues have brought up and voted on at this time school boards are invited to submit proposals for consideration for psba's 2023 legislative platform the window for our board to submit proposals will be open from may 20th to july 22nd boards may number one voice support for the continuation of
087specific current platform statements two create new proposals three amend existing platform language four suggest the deletion of a current statement proposals and rationale for proposal must be approved by the board and verified by the board secretary all proposals will be considered by the psba platform committee on september 17 with final consideration by the delegate assembly on november 5th in addition this year school directors will be invited to participate in a separate process to select psba's legislative priorities for the upcoming 2023-2024 session of the general assembly and more of information will be coming on this so the delegate of the delegate assembly um we will be needing volunteers a few school or directors um that will probably be coming in the fall but we always no we'll we'll do it like you oh okay might you
088all right well we'll have it done by june so if any school board directors would like the opportunity to do this we welcome you it's an interesting experience isn't it president thank you that concludes my report thank you and dr shaw from far far away on your telephone the legislative liaison yes i'll just give a brief update um there'll be a lot more reporting june as we get close to the end of the state fiscal year right now there are a couple of bills that are that have been introduced by that muslim habitat that might be of interest one has to do with teacher certification reciprocity which is designed to make it easier for us to certify teachers in pennsylvania that received their certifications out of state and in doing so would help to address
089the future shortages that we have across the state there's another guild and introduced house bill 972 which is with regards to transgender students and sports and it would prohibit students who are clinically biologically male for participating on girls sports teams that bill was introduced and passed in the house and will hit the senate on the 6th of june um other than that we're just awaiting the the passage of the state budget and the proposal that other wolf has put in to increase public education spending at historic levels and that concludes my report thank you i guess we're all awaiting the state budget reveal all right director jenelle do you have an equity report this month i did yes uh elizabeth garduno a caseworker at hillsdale and east bradford elementary schools organized and led a parent
090engagement event that was held on wednesday may 18 2022 in the evening at hillsdale at hillsdale with spanish-speaking families from east bradford and hillsdale the family night was well organized included excellent fun activities for the entire family a math center a reading center and two other activities with exercise basketball jump rope and tug of war for all the activities in these centers parents and children work together it was awesome to see so many families coming together in hillsdale interacting with teachers reading specialists in administration the event also attracted some middle schoolers who engaged in the activities and in the fun there were at least 35 families in attendance fully participating and engaged in all the centers at the end of the evening several moms mentioned that the evening went by so quickly they felt sad
091that it had ended that they had never experienced anything like it thanks to elizabeth garduno and our spanish-speaking families for making this event a success on may 26th the henderson rustin and east that's tomorrow the henderson wrestling and east black student unions will hold its second annual hinte ceremony the first kinte celebrated in 1993 the idea conceived by four staff members at westchester university who wanted to celebrate the obstacles overcome by african african-american students graduating that year the university has since seen over 2 000 students walk with the kente souls and the tradition has since spread to graduation ceremonies at colleges and high schools across the country we are honored to carry on this tradition of the bs students i attended last year with a great event attending tomorrow the district completed the final community
092conversation series on april 26th with great success a big thank you goes to the district staff who helped to facilitate the event we would also like to thank all of the parents students staff community leaders and area police chiefs and lieutenants for attending we would like to share some survey data from the april 26 community conversations event 100 of the respondents enjoyed the community conversations event 81 of the respondents said this event strengthened their perspective regarding others in the community 100 of the respondents felt that others in the group were actively listening to each other 81 of the respondents felt that after attending this event they that they had a better position they were in a better position to trust that they can have an open conversation with someone of different experiences in our community
09395 of the respondents plan to attend future community conversations events next school year and 100 of the respondents support the district's efforts to help strengthen the westchester area community overall the event was received with positive feedback some respondents made following comments inspired motivated reflective seen heard and hopeful that ends my report one question for you what time is the ceremony tomorrow it's from four to four to six okay okay inside that's good all right thank you very much at this time we will be accepting comments from residents on non-agenda items mr jennings this is karashore take away thank you president uh as indicated at the outset we have about a dozen public commenters on non-agenda items i will just remind everyone to please begin by stating your first name last name and municipality public comments
094are limited to three minutes per person all persons attending this meeting are expected to conduct themselves with decor and civility distracting and disruptive behavior or other actions which interfere with the orderly conduct of this meeting will not be tolerated we'll now call the first speaker jody no rocky uh dianna sar westchester borough i've been thinking a lot in recent weeks about some of the language used in public comments and uh it's language why i think about it is it's language that's designed only to churn fear and create distrust and so doubt where there is no cause but these words nonetheless get tossed into the air like so much confetti but land like bombs so i want to speak for a moment about teachers who continue to work while the bombs are falling all around them
095excuse me teachers know a lot they know that public schools are the bedrock of a healthy community and that the district must be committed primarily to ensuring that health teachers know that the goal of education is to open our students to the immensity of the world and to help them navigate that world successfully the young people of this district need the skills to grow as independent critical thinkers readers listeners writers speakers so education is actually the hard opposite of indoctrination because indoctrination depends upon shrinking the world by removing its depth and breadth for example by erasing the perspectives of lgbtq plus people people of color and women and actual historians and thereby they create a world smaller and shallower and simpler but false within the work of educating teachers know that their students are whole
096human beings whose wholeness needs nurturing they account for the social and emotional development of young people in designing instruction a consideration that has been made ever since teaching began and in other scenes like handling the aftermath of an active shooter drill teachers know how to assess the value of whole texts dismiss the overall worthlessness of excerpted passages in determining the appropriateness of materials for their curricula the vastness of what teachers know comprises their expertise in the work of teaching and learning work that is highly complicated intricate delicate it's a powerful collective experience and one that should be the strongest voice heard in all decisions about curricula texts materials instructional design and so maybe you're sitting there saying well doesn't this go without saying and i would just say this is a dangerous time for anything
097to go without saying and we should say more often loudly publicly because otherwise we leave space for lies and misinformation and willful ignorance thank you [Applause] i want to take a moment to thank dr sakolovsky and the rest of the board for everything they've done for the students of the westchester area school district time and time again you've proven that you truly have our best interests at heart i also want to thank all of the teachers and staff who have contributed to the person that has become you all have worked so hard for the students of the school district and that work deserves recognition in a few days i'll be graduating from east high school i've benefited so much from the programs opportunities activities and experiences that this district has offered me and countless other
098students some of whom will also be graduating i want to make sure that those opportunities will still be available to students coming into the westchester area school district i will remain here long after these two have passed out more than that i want the number of opportunities available to marginalize students to increase implement social emotional learnings as students of all backgrounds are able to learn about the importance of mental health implement the schedule changes for high schools that all students regardless of their schedules are able to have a free period to eat lunch hang out with friends seek academic help or talk to their guidance counselor more importantly don't let hate when out over what's best for the youth of this school district because we're not only your students or your children we're your future
099so far you've all done an incredible job and ensuring that every student has an equitable educational experience and i praise and applaud you for doing so i know that you'll keep on doing so even after i left the district thank you thank you very much for coming out tonight to offer your praise for your teachers and the experience that you've had in the westchester area school district i wish you the best of luck upon graduation thank you western wesley keister white in township you're fine it happened a long time i promise the first time i actually didn't make a speech so we'll see how this goes i'm taking public speaking next year that doesn't help me now but you know light note uh congrats to dr florio uh she was my principal at klein acres
100elementary school until third grade maybe um and cj right okay uh so i played tennis this year too and i was like oh yeah this will be easy you know yeah no no um and we actually had 16 seniors this year so uh big senior day and uh you know big a lot of people leading the team so if you know anybody who wants to play tennis you need those 16 spots replaced i just want to thank um i don't know i guess as a board you changed the guidelines for public comments um you know last meeting got a little ugly to say the least um so uh thank you for that um uh again made it didn't mean that didn't make a speech so yeah anxiety here i'm sorry um uh i guess you
101know kind of funny to see empty seats tonight um since the past two meetings have been packed um but uh and again i just want to thank dr sokolowski and mrs tiernon for you know making comment at the beginning of the meeting for the shooting yesterday it's very sad and i just you know i think people coming up here complaining about about books and then their shootings of you know elementary students i mean we had fifth graders up here today and um you know so um and uh like uh director shaw said over her phone um the trans um women in sports um as someone who is trans um you know ending the tennis season as someone who did play you know i'm forever grateful to the school district the school board dr sokolowski westchester
102each high school so thank you for that opportunity and i hope that that continues for all trans students who want to play a sport it was a great experience and i couldn't ask for a better team [Music] and just wanted to thank dr sokolowski independently for just all of his support and and the school board i've met with him multiple times he tends to respond to emails in person rather than just responding but we met um thursday for i'm starting the advocacy club and he was very willing to hear my voice and other students voices um so thank you for that and again thank you for the continued support from the school board um as much as i would love to see you all again i probably won't come back to a school school board
103meeting um but uh thank you and i hope you have a great summer so thank you leslie platinum phrase for you speaking on the spot extemporaneous okay steph anderson seth anderson west ocean uh tonight i just want to share my gratitude for all the westchester area school district teachers it's been a long three school years for all of us and teachers are no exception they've had to ride the chaos and uncertainty of the pandemic personally at home with their own families as well as at school with their students they pivoted adapted reworked and adapted again on repeat to meet the needs of our kids this year's been an especially trying transition back to quasi-normal which has brought many challenges of its own and our teachers have shown up each and every day to care for
104and educate our children in the face of these challenge and challenges in the face of attacks on their curriculums and even in the face of allegations that they are indoctrinating and grooming our kids many would have given up considered it not worth the harassment and toil but our teachers keep showing up and i'm so glad they do because i'm not sure what happens if we lose them i want our teachers to know we see you an overwhelming majority of our community community sees the hard work you're putting into your lesson plans the creativity you tap into the time spent after hours thinking of new ways to engage with your students your concern for kids your patience your endurance your sense of humor and above all the passion you have for education i have been blown
105away by the teachers my kids have the privilege of learning from we see you and we appreciate you parents if you have been as impressed and grateful as i have for our teachers please tell them they need to hear it they need to know what they are that what they are doing matters teachers what you do matters it matters deeply when an adult is asked about their fondest memories from their school days i guarantee the first thought that comes to mind as a teacher who has an impact on their life thank you for the school year and hang in there because the finish line is in sight [Applause] alrighty hester sorry thank you for the opportunity to speak tonight i'm here to talk about the gender sexuality alliance and why it is so vital why
106is so important queer hate is widespread in our world even today you can be arrested for being queer in around 70 countries and that's me rounding down and you can be killed for it in about a dozen even in our home country today we have politicians and even district residents who want to halt inclusivity for our students the gender sexuality alliance is a safe place for any student to find support as they travel on the very confusing and uncertain journey of youth and discover who they are personally i enjoyed making new friends and finding a community where people weren't so judgmental and weren't so cruel for no reason in this group we put our creative and entrepreneurial skills to work by hosting a fundraiser for a non-profit outreach program called the trevor project it worked
107to prevent youth suicide and help queer teens and all teams feel safe our goal was to raise 500 in one month although many of us were completely uncertain that we would reach that by working together we raised over one thousand and six hundred dollars i want this reward to know that means a lot to so many students in the westchester district that you defend our club and all students inspire the risk it may bring a good a good school board is one that tries to ensure the safety and well-being of students i don't see a good school board i see an incredible one one that's willing to put themselves at risk for their jobs for their reputations to do their very best to protect the students every each and every one of them it's my
108hope that you will continue to support an inclusive student population it really makes the world a much better place thank you [Applause] virginia burton west town not long after my twins were born eight years ago i had a third grader a fifth grader and an eighth grader and i just couldn't keep up with my elementary students who were all in virtual cyber schools i reached out to mr menix and he gave me a tour of the building it was only october but somehow he knew all the students names he was he has a natural ability to lead with positivity he has been a constant support is compassionate and helped me with solutions when i was almost forced to remove tyler this year as his sensory issues caused him to struggle to tolerate the mass my
109older students had mrs johnson mrs doran and miss brooks and they were all wonderful and welcoming my twins started during the year of the pandemic and had mrs comstock she kept our spirits up after we were sent home by creating a music video with all the families creating their own separate part in first grade they had miss nickish she was a rock star she had all these little faces on her screen and somehow she kept controlled the whole situation she made everything fun and interesting with her silly science experiments she had these wigs costumes and funny voices and there were times i could not stop laughing miss nickish along with mrs spelling and mrs condon supported us through virtual school with an iep and tyler excelled last year the first grade team created virtual classrooms
110where the students could explore and i firmly believe this is what has made jordan such a good researcher he tells us facts that i have to fact check using google ms morris who is our second grade teacher loves the show survivor and started the year by decorating the classroom like the survivor set and even got past survivor cast members to take videos to the students she had survivor challenges and tribal council we call her extra and she really loves these kids she keeps jordan challenged and has nurtured tyler's natural empathy she sent us an email this morning telling us that she was planning on hugging our babies extra tight today mrs gadoletto made sure to read them books from the library mrs loveland can make an artist out of anyone mr morrison entertained us with
111his funny songs and miss douglas kept them moving in p.e while i caught the lamps they were knocking over mrs pitt and mrs mcleod answer our endless questions especially when there is an early dismissal because we still don't know what time school ends even though it is may mrs d'antonio can rock our car line like no one else mr moore was so sweet when tyler asked his teacher if he could go speak with a custodian to solve the issue he was having with his broken shoe he returned to class with duct tape around his shoe and smiling from ear to ear mrs doyle our school nurse who is retiring this year will be sorely missed and i have had way too many conversations to count with her due to the clumsiness of my twins this
112is just a glimpse into our stark weather family because i only have three minutes and i could not be more blessed by them while yesterday's shooting could have many solutions it was ultimately caused by heat and the condition of the heart that's certainly not what i see as stark weather and i am forever thankful thank you jen uh to acknowledge too miss morris's classroom the survivor theme from the beginning of the year until now uh it's just an amazing classroom and i enjoyed visiting the students there and talking to miss morris it's it's wonderful thank you if i make mrs burton that was a beautiful speech as a former member of the wolf pack it's dark weather you just named so many incredible names the staff there truly is incredible from mr phoenix to all
113those others my own children shared many of those teachers and support staff so thank you for acknowledging them i did wish mrs doyle a happy retirement yesterday at the ceremony so thank you for speaking up and recognizing them kiera lee riches west home township anthony montgomery west town townships we've decided to speak today because of the overwhelming amount of discrimination that we and many other minorities have faced at step street people like me and experience discrimination on a regular basis within our school environments and we feel unsafe because of it i'm certain that everyone in this room has experienced tremendous discrimination in some way for adults when they face experiences that could be bothersome they could go to hr have faith that their discomfort will be resolved in a proper way for students like us
114the school board is our hr though it seems to be incompetent at its job seeing that most of not all minorities at stetson alone are suffering and feeling unheard these instances are very common when victims bring these instances to life to light they are often treated with apathy and told to ignore and not engage with their harassers and keep well because the administration thinks that coexisting with discrimination is the only way to deal with it we can say that this method does not work we have many people that can testify that they have been bullied harassed or discriminated against in some way so we the students have come up with a way to fight against the inequality of our schools youth against injustice youth against and justice exists to stop the spread of inequality within
115our school district helping students and children across the school district to feel safer in their environments at school by having periods where students are taught about specific topics specific topics by real professors and lecturers these lecturers can be applied to real work real world problems going on today like roe v wade nielsen first grade climate change and even matters that might be considerably controversial topics like the black lives matter movement because in the end the only way to stop the harassment and torment that we are facing is to educate and hold the hold and hold the perpetrators accountable we believe that children should be educated no matter the age race religion or sexuality and by spreading this knowledge we can make a change we can make a dent in a hard world of oppression that
116blocks us from the future i want to close off this speech by saying that we as 8th graders who have no power over our schools should not have to be standing here begging you for begging for you to do their your jobs and protect the children of the school district it just shouldn't happen thank you [Applause] but i just want to also acknowledge the two eighth graders that just came up i i just think that takes so much courage too not only did they come up and present a certain situation but they brought a remedy for that situation that takes a lot of critical thinking i appreciate that so much you just didn't come up and say there's a problem deal with it you came up with a problem and a solution so thank you
117for putting at eighth grade thank you for putting that kind of thought into your presentation this evening hello again and judy defonso still living in the east ocean um i want to talk today about state standardized testing in pennsylvania we call it pssas and keystones but every state has it because it's mandated under the every student succeeds act and no child left behind before that so we've been doing this for 20 years and although it's not something that i love it does provide data and when you look at our states mississippi is on top and you may ask why what did they do what's their secret several years ago mississippi trained their teachers specifically with language essentials for teachers of reading and spelling it's a program it has eight modules i believe and it takes
118two years to complete it's about two hours a week to get through all eight modules and their scores improved i'm assuming that the students are all reading better as a result of the teachers having better knowledge and how to teach reading and spelling right now um this training is in so much demand that a single teacher wanting to take this training cannot take it it can only be taken through a school district and right now pennsylvania department of education through patan is offering this training for free and our special educators are all required to take it and i'd like for this to be available to all students or excuse me to all teachers so that they can have this training if they should choose to take it and i was wondering if maybe this school
119board would do a resolution encouraging [Music] our teachers anyone who wanted to take this training for to work with our administration to register for this training again it's free mr scully doesn't have to find any money in the budget to do this and it would be totally voluntary for any teacher who would like to have this training it's so popular and that's the reason why you told me to get it through a school district i believe the state of georgia is also doing uh this training right now as well as the state of uh texas and we'll see what happens down the road with their test scores and uh again i'm hoping that we can get this for our teachers because again um you know our children are our future and if teachers have better
120tools they can teach better and we can have students who have farmers who are more successful thank you [Applause] melissa mostly i just wanted to come up here and say thank you even when i struggle with a decision of this board even if i struggle with something that happens in one of my kids schools i remain grateful for the work you do and absolutely grateful for the work of our teachers and our school staff every day our schools have become battlegrounds literally and figuratively with regular arguments about content and accessibility with personal attacks on teachers and political maneuvering to find gotcha moments our staff including this board and administration put yourself on the line of fire in the line of fire for our kids every day and i am grateful for the work you do
121to stay grounded caring focused and reasonable more than ever we need to keep fostering learning environments of compassion and empathy our children need caring communities of adults working together to support their growth into caring adult citizenship and we all need a reminder that violence in word or deed is never the answer when we're struggling i look forward to the partnership we continue to build and continue to develop as parents and teachers as school officials and community members so that we may strengthen our whole community for our children and for all of us thank you [Applause] thank you all for taking the time and the courage and the thoughtfulness to write down and think about and revise because it's not easy to put a speech into three minutes and revise your thoughts so that all almost
122all of you came out right at the end more importantly we are listening to what you are saying and uh so we're grateful when you take the time to come and speak to us and we go back and um we do you know i've taken notes all of us have taken notes we'll go back and we'll talk about who makes a resolution how a resolution to do anything it gets determined and usually the educators that bring things to the board not the other way around so we'll be listening to them too but thank you again we're almost at the point where i can say we have made it through a year and uh and a challenging one at that so we wish all of the seniors um success and high flying as you leave and
123if you have anybody in that audience who's going to be swimming and taking classes at penn state they just never will sleep they will get under five and stagger to the pool and it's all downhill from there but but they will do it they will do it because they're sitting here doing it now all right um our next meeting as we said is multiple committee meetings they'll all be short i'm sure on june 20th and then we will see you next month at the end of june and we don't meet again then until the end of july that's our big vacation month so uh with all that yes one more thing yes have one i love them they are amazing yes they bring such positivity to our meetings yes i i just and you'll be
124great thank you [Applause] all right we'll see you at graduation do you want your emotion to adjourn someone oh second was chester now i bet there's a couple seconds around here so yep this is fleming and daryl and dr hermann we be done thank you the meeting is adjourned