West Chester Area School District Board Meeting 04/25/2022

001all right i hereby call to order the april 25th 2022 meeting of the westchester area school board meeting business meeting let's start with a salute to the flag tonight led by warren myers and sravya wait a minute cheryl tierra mamidi of the exit elementary school also known as the evil's nest so ladies i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america and to the republic for which it stands one nation under god indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank you everybody we'll have a seat thank you both korin and sramya listen i'm good remember i told you i would tell you what's happening next welcome to the school board meeting welcome also to your parents and family and your principal dr terry lynn alston we thank you for your report tonight

002on what is happening at exton elementary school as your fifth graders are you the fifth graders as you get ready to leave the nest for where are you going next year few days all righty so uh if you would that now let us know what is all the excitement that is happening at the eagles nest good evening school board members my name is karen myers we are representing excellent elementary the best elementary school on the planet fifth grade class good evening my name is travis denimade and i am in mr brown's fifth grade class we are very excited to be here the same thing we are proud of some eagles our colors are red and white our school motto is soar success optimism attitude and respect we recently celebrated exo's 80th birthday two years late

003but better late than never it was a great celebration every class submitted items for a time capsule that were representations of our time one plus make sure to add a mask and a covet test kit just a couple of weeks ago the entire school participated in completing a mural with artist in residence caitlyn chow be sure to check it out on our website our murals message voted on by students and staff is we're stronger when we work together as student council members we are proud to have participated in two worthwhile service projects those projects were that martin luther king day of service project packing donations of toiletries for the outlet house men's shelter and monetary collection and donation to the spca well i'm looking forward to going to middle school next year the thing i'll

004miss the most about excellent is the kind of positive people who have helped support me well i too am looking forward to going to middle school next year the thing i'll miss most about extend is all my teachers and friends come visit us at extend where we do our personal best every day period no exceptions or follow us on twitter good evening and thank you for having us [Applause] nobody in this room has any doubt that you are going to go to middle school and do a great job you are both confident speakers in front of a room full of strangers that takes a lot of guts it also took some practice but i think that the two of you wrote that report yourselves sometimes i think no no sometimes i think that the principal

005writes those and um you're sounding quite genuinely as though you too had written all your fond memories at the best school on the planet well maybe the universe i don't know so you have raised money you know how to do that you have you have reached out to the community to the men's shelter you have reached out to the spca and you have celebrated your 80th anniversary which i know people in this room celebrated with you because they went there a long time ago and i have seen that mural online i will be able to have a visit in person because it is wonderful so i am thankful that you came tonight i'm grateful to your parents for coming in with you thankful to your principal for being here and um we look forward to

006seeing you again perhaps when we visit fugit and again some of the people on this board will be around when you graduate from high school and they will give you your diploma now to get ready for that moment i'm going to bring you a certificate all right and we'll have our picture taken and then you can go sit down would you care join us now we're going to turn around and this is dr sokolowski who's the superintendent have you met him he's a very important guy this is for you and thank you for coming you can hold that like this and this is for you we're in thank you for coming you can hold back and now we will stand beside you and look proud and happy all right big smiles and again thanks [Applause]

007sometimes at night i pretend i'm a general and i try and plan out how this could all go so smoothly but it involves cutting a hole in this table so that i can walk directly to that podium instead of running around the outside all right this is jerry shore if you would the roll call for the board vice president bevel aqua here director chester here director dietrich director journalist here director plumbing here director herman here director shaw here president tiernon here director wellness league here elena rodriguez here will porter madison d'ambro okay all right it is time for public comments on agenda items so if you have signed in in the back and uh your name will be called and uh you'll come up to the podium and speak thank you president tiernan as indicated

008now is the time for public comment on agenda items only persons wishing to make public comment on agenda items were required to properly register prior to the designated start time of tonight's meeting when public commenters names are called i ask that they please approach the podium and begin by stating their first name last name and municipality public comments will be limited to three minutes per person the three-minute time clock will be projected on the screens located throughout the room at the end of the three minutes the next public commenter will be called upon 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 i will note that we

009had two public comment registrants for agenda items however those stated agenda topics on registration cards are not truly agenda items therefore those two individuals will be given an opportunity to make public comment but at the appropriate time toward the latter part of the meeting during agenda item number 11 being comments from residents on non-agenda items so if you signed up for agenda item and you do not hear your name called that is the reason with that said we'll get underway we just would like to uh we do have not everybody likes to sit in the front row but i think we have about four or five seats for those of you who may be standing in the back seat along the sides you're welcome to move up wesley eastern hi i'm wesley and i live

010in west whitman township as most of you remember i spoke at the last board meeting i'm speaking here again to continue to advocate for my community first i want to thank the school board you have no idea how much it means to me and other lgbt lgbtq plus students that you kept the book genderqueer in our high school libraries as part of the job you have i hope you know how amazing you're all doing when i started here last time i was fighting for a book that represented lgbtq plus equality and a life-saving resource i stand up here now defending mine and others human rights rights i shouldn't even have to fight for i stand up here not talking to the school board but to the people the people sitting here in this room the

011people that continue to attack resources that help students resources that save lives seo provides a resource for all teachers and administration help those struggling the travel project states having at least one accepting adult can reduce the risk of suicide attempts among lgbtq plus youth by 40 sdl provides the opportunity for all teachers to be that one adult our lives matter we're not hurting you our life has no impact on yours yet you're attacking us we're kids advocating for ourselves we've been told our brains aren't developed yet but we're doing a great job standing up here speaking to a room full of adults my life could be easier i could not have to stand up here fighting against adults i would love to tell people on trans without fear but as we see here i can't

012people say that it's a choice that i chose to be trans i love who i am but do you think i would choose this do you think i would choose to be discriminated against do you think i want to fight for every right i can't believe we're in a society where suicide statistics don't make an impact suicide statistics teens are killing themselves these statistics aren't made up they're real they're very very real but i guess they don't matter to you you ask for data yet when it's given to you you don't accept it you don't accept the fact that teens are killing themselves because it proves you wrong one of you also asked for the number of kids in the school district that are lgbtq plus i think these suicide statistics should give you a

013pretty good idea for those of us that are still here we're advocating we're fighting and we're not going away you shouldn't be mad that your opinion isn't right you should be happy that we're saving lives i will not stop i'm going to continue to fight every single time i'm not going away thank you [Applause] uh just your bravery coming out and speaking out i do want to share with our community members that are here tonight uh i am anticipating because the district and as wesley had mentioned uh we've made a great investment in social emotional learning it was something that's always really been a part of the westchester area school district but in this year it was something that was extremely important as our as our theme is healing and learning so i want to

014share with everyone tonight after public comment just some particulars and actually have a handout for folks that want to know more about seo with wesley thank you again for your comments [Applause] tammy mayer and then priyanka tammy mayer east bradford township so i'm commenting on um the policy nine and three many of these comments in fact all of the comments i made back in november and i'm back here again because i still would like those comments incorporated so under where we're talking about authority um it should be that we're talking about the period um if the board determines that there's not sufficient time at a meeting for public comments um there should be a note here that at the end of that sentence that says prior to the school board voting on that agenda you

015would need to decide whether or not everyone's going to have to everyone can provide their comment before you actually vote on that the second thing is is board committee meetings or work sessions on the second page it says there will be public comment period at the beginning of each committee meeting or work session on agenda items only and i just again urge you that if you really are in fact interested in hearing what the public has to say that you would give the public a chance to provide input on non-agenda items at your committee meetings because it's at your committee meetings that you all are making all of these decisions that then just make its way to the board meetings and it's at the board meetings that you just basically put your final stamp on

016it so if you are interested in hearing what the public has to say i ask you to please change that the other thing is is that you've changed it so that it says that you need to fill out and complete the card um the public comment registration card and you've purposefully done that instead of and you've eliminated the idea that you know you would have to put your name and township etc i don't think that this is okay the fields on the registration card then could be changed at any time by anyone in the meeting and so you could you could decide that it's okay to ask people for their party affiliation in order for them to speak at these meetings that would not be acceptable so i do think that you need to specify

017what is on that card and what information you really do need to collect from the people um the other thing is that you're saying that they have three minutes or less to talk on on agenda items i'm sorry you just leave it three minutes or less i'm asking that you please add per topic for agenda related items because you could cram a whole bunch of things into one agenda and if people can't fit all of that into three minutes it's a problem which is what i'm trying to do right now and then at the end it says that the presiding officer may establish a time limit on public comments as part of the meeting and i do think that that time limit needs to be established ahead of time not after the fact so my

018question here is what is the time limit for example for today's meeting i'm assuming you need overall timeline time limit not just the three minutes but the overall for the entire community to speak what's the time limit when would when will you make that decision so we deliberately did not set a time limit for tonight so there is no time limit except for your three minutes okay so if i it just might need to be clarified in this clarify that ahead of time i understand what you're asking i'm saying in the in the policy i was commenting on the policy yep thank you so much hi my name is priyanka gupta and i'm from westpac i noticed a lot of retirements on the agenda for this meeting and the last one we are losing a

019lot of experienced and dedicated long-term teachers which is really sad i was especially saddened to see the name of mr mccauley from who is an amazing teacher he taught both my daughters and they are better human beings and better students because of his teachings so i wish him all the best but i'm really sad that he's no longer going to be at uk i also wish all the other teachers best of luck for the future and thank them for their commitment and dedicated teaching to the school i would also like to comment on the change in the high school schedule to deduct three minutes from periods and remove the home room to create a separate lunch slash enrichment period i think it's a good plan especially if all the kids have a lunch option many

020high school kids end up eating lunch in the corridors or quickly at their desks in the beginning of a class because their schedules don't allow them time for a lunch additionally kids with ieps and others struggling with a particular subject or issue can have a proper sit down with their teacher or with their counselors and get the help that they really need home rooms are usually used to use for this purpose but many students so it makes sense to remove that and put it into the lunch period that you're doing um with busy schedules especially if students are involved in sports or other extracurricular activities it's hard to meet teachers before or after school so this will be a huge benefit to these students i hope it's a success in 20 to 23 and becomes

021a permanent part of our high school schedule for the future finally i would like to thank the board for their support of our children and the third-party public education thank you rachel and then hello rachel langenberg westchester i'm here regarding the proposed high school schedule and change the pa school code for instructional time under act 80 requires that high school students receive 990 hours of instruction annually and act 80 includes a list of activities that may or may not be counted as instructional time so no time to read act to 80 team in just 3 minutes but the section that is pertinent to this discussion outlines that study halls are considered instructional time but not lunch recess or teacher meetings those are not um instructional time so is this proposed lunch activity considered a study

022hall considered instructional time or not um will cutting six minutes oh sorry will students be permitted to leave campus for the proposed lunch activity period like they are currently for um lunch or study hall their juniors and seniors so if so then it would seem that the proposed lunch activity would not be counted as instructional time like if the students aren't there and this would mean that the district would not be upholding potentially depending on how you do the math state law by not having 990 hours annually um and then i'm wondering is there documentation somewhere that shows the current number of instructional hours at the high school level like according to act 80 or is that something i have to put in the right to know for rachel you can email me but that

023is something that i believe annually that we report out to pde uh that we meet those requirements so i'd be happy to get that back to you thank you [Applause] hi judy defonso i still live in east ocean i want to talk a little bit about policy 903 and the fact that it's limited to school employees who can come to this podium and speak because we have a lot of people who work with our students um the people at aramark who serve lunches are bus drivers who work for craft or on-the-go kids as well as substitute teachers that may be employed through kelly services where they're interacting with the students and they may have knowledge and want to be coming to the podium and i don't see where they fit in unless they also happen

024to be a resident they work you know live in downingtown or great valley and they work here although they're working as a contractor through a third party let's just say a moment for inclusion and i think that they should be given an opportunity and i don't see that in policy 903 currently thank you [Applause] melissa bennett and then nancy wood good evening i'm melissa bennett from west ocean township in 2016 our family moved across the district and started at fern hill fugit and east that feeder pattern we've had the privilege of experiencing four of the teachers on the removal from payroll list tonight on tonight's agenda mr mccauley mr mcgee mrs belzick and mr mullish i'm grateful for what these four teachers have given to the westchester area school district and specifically for the impact

025on my family but i want to focus my appreciation on mrs belzick both of my kids have had the pleasure of working with her and she has been an incredible gift to the elementary orchestra program this year alone three different groups of fourth and fifth grade fernhill students wanted to perform small group string ensembles for the talent show she created or found simple pieces for them to play songs from the pirates of the caribbean from the mandalorian and from encanto yes we don't talk about bruno mrs belzick has been encouraging and challenging and oh so much fun she will be missed by our family and at fern hill even while we're excited for her adventure as a grandmother arts education is vitally important to the development of our students thank you to teachers like mrs

026belzick and mr mullish and i know there are many many more who pour their hearts into working with our students i'm grateful for them i also want to express gratitude to dr reynolds and her team for the work to evaluate the high school schedule thank you for building time into their day for enrichment and intervention and for giving space to simply eat lunch if they need to i appreciate greatly the ways the district works to care for a multitude of student needs and situations in front of us thank you [Applause] hi nancy wood um peace forever attention before my oldest child entered high school i heard rumors that high school students often scheduled classes over their lunch period like many parents hearing these rumors i was shocked and i supported myself that i would never

027allow a child of mine to forego such a needed break during the day by the time my son was a sophomore we found ourselves between a rock and a hard place in order to fit in all the courses he felt were important for his future success and to meet his educational needs he didn't have many options other than to schedule through lunch it has made for some long and stressful days and it has made it difficult for him to fit in time to meet with his guidance counselor his iep case manager or to meet with teachers for the extra help that he sometimes needs my son is not unique these are common and well-known issues in our high schools and i have been for a long time i applaud the district for acknowledging these issues

028and finding a creative solution with the proposed schedule changes on tonight's agenda the proposed solution allows students to take eight full credits without forgoing lunch or other needs and it also appears to maintain teacher planning time i can't imagine why anyone would have an issue with what seems like a positive and much needed change and i was disappointed to see students first westchester pac putting out a call to action to ask parents and community members to come out tonight and question the change based on a claim that the district was quote unable to define or describe what would be occurring occurring during the additional period that's simply false in the april 11th meeting of the educational committee dr reynolds presented the plan in great detail and explained that the new period will be used to

029provide students with consistent access to lunch in support of student wellness as well as to provide easier access to enrichment intervention and clubs i also am concerned that there may have been some misinformation in the student's first westchester pack with the claim of six minutes being removed from every period and i'd like to ask for clarification on that there's eight periods in the day if six minutes were removed from each period that's 48 minutes which is longer than the new period which i believe is only 35 minutes if i'm reading it correctly i believe that the elimination of the 10 minute homeroom plus a removal of three minutes per period is what makes that give me 35 minutes so if you guys could clarify that would be helpful given that students first westchester pack is

030affiliated with a sitting board member if this is information being circulated i think it's important for the board and administration to address that and to ask for a correction thank you [Applause] meghan markov and then matt mckenzie good evening my name is megan rydenkill and i live in east ocean there's been a lot of changes in the district between the time my um husband me and my siblings all graduated from henderson and when my children started school here and one of the changes i have never been on board with is the way an emphasis on academic river rigor be it parent or district driven superseded basic health needs like fueling the body with food i have friends whose high schoolers don't have lunch because their schedule is overbooked and i was not comfortable with my

031high schooler doing the same i think the proposed change to the high school schedule is an important course correction with added benefits not only will the students with very full schedules have the chance to have lunch students with ieps can benefit students with mental health needs can benefit students whose parents work and lack transportation options can benefit as stated in the education meeting earlier this month this proposal is staff and student need driven some iep provisions fall under what was called for of enrichment and intervention there was a indication of opportunity for increased club participation and frankly one of my favorites it would do away with the once monthly two-hour delay my work schedule precludes me from driving in late and i'm really not keen on my kid walking in when there's no sidewalks on

032the way to east this opens up additional time for iep case managers and our school psychologists and other mental health professionals within the schools to see students on their caseloads if you don't have a student with an idp i don't know if you can understand how frustrating it can be that students have to use a class period for provisions of their iep like social skills or ot it was much easier to manage at the elementary level and even at the middle school level with what few people's care period students with ieps have the opportunity and desire to attend school from a variety of different ways and they all have different plans of what they would like to do after school some may want to go to college and it's not equitable to have it where

033students with ieps have that time taken away from them so this is just kind of like an equity across the board opportunity ultimately i am in support of the change changes [Applause] um i do want to just as i mentioned after wesley had spoken to talk a little bit about scl as that is something that is an increasing investment in the westchester area school district and at this time i'm going to ask dr reynolds and dr misit are going to provide everybody here with handouts one of which is a document that explains what sdl is and what it is not the other would be an invitation for parents to attend a session to learn about sdl in the school district because this is something that we truly partner together but just some of the the

034key tenets of social emotional learning they are social awareness self-management social awareness relationship skills and responsible decision making and so by instructing students in these areas i believe very strongly that when you think about your psychology maslow's hierarchy of needs uh and that very first top priority uh is that social sorry the social and physical safety for our students i would also like to point out that in this world today we are formally i know my administrators have heard me say this before but we are now formally out of the information age and into the digital age and the world is only moving faster so by having this opportunity to teach social emotional learning to our students we're actually preparing them for their future and as we know today with the speed at which things

035move there can be a degree of anxiety there can be a degree of stress so in order that students are able to make the most of their academic opportunities and overall school experiences that is why scl is a great investment and i also would just also hearken back to the west chest area school district whole child education is very much a part of who we are we think back about six years ago when we started our full-day kindergarten garden uh program uh play-based learning uh we also took time about six years ago as well to revisit our homework policy and as some of our parents have mentioned tonight in regards to our high school schedule that is something that's really a relic of the industrial age we are now in the third decade of 21st

036century but yet in our schools we still have a schedule that's largely very much a reflection of the industrial age which we've been out of for a long time tonight as well i know dr shaw is part of her legislative report we'll also share with everyone that there is a bipartisan group that's working together across chester county this includes our local legislators our state legislators as well as members superintendents and members of school districts to be a part of supporting the mental health needs that we know are in such need not just across chester county but across our entire world so dr shaw is going to talk a little bit about that but i do just want to at this time provide a little bit of background for everybody about scl so thank you very

037much [Applause] that will move us to approval of the march 28 2022 board meeting minutes do i have a motion to approve uh mr vebalaqua and a second uh dr heron any questions or comments about the minutes all right mrs chair short would you please add to the meeting minutes for this evening that we met as a board in executive session earlier this evening on personnel as well as on march 31st on a legal matter april 11th on a legal matter april 19th on personnel as well thank you and now would you call for the vote vice president vettel aqua yes director herman yes director chester yes director dernald yes director warmly yes director fleming yes director shahar yes president yes thank you next we seek approval for the april 25th 2022 school board meeting

038agenda may i have a first please mr darnell and a second miss fleming now questions concerns about tonight's agenda so we therefore request him we have the request and we will talk about that when we get to the consent agenda so just for clarity we are going to have a high school schedule as a discussion tonight that has been removed from the consent agenda and as many of you that spoke about that where dr reynolds and i are going to be able to provide folks with more clarity uh regarding the proposed high school schedule okay mr will take the vote now director journal yes director fleming yes director shawn yes director herman yes director chester yes director yes vice president kevin yes president tiernon yes mission thanks now do you have a superintendent's report dr

039scott i do have a brief report uh because we do have with us our high school principals dr jason sherlock dr stefan brown and dr michael morano here to recognize some outstanding achievements of their students i just have a few items to share with everyone regarding my superintendent report one would be april is autism awareness and acceptance month for more than a quarter century the autism society launched a nationwide effort to promote autism awareness and we are very proud and honored to be part of the education process for our students with autism they are talented creative and very inquisitive as one of our principals indicated autism is not a disability it's a different ability this friday our westchester area education foundation will host a breakfast to thank community sponsors for their generous support in particular

040we are going to recognize bentley systems of extend for their great generosity over the years the first week in may is teacher appreciation week and i know that there were there are a number of teachers who are retiring that we're commenting on uh this evening and this is certainly going to be a great time to reach out to all of them may 1st is school principals day and tuesday may 3rd is dedicated to our teachers and in may we will also recognize over 150 employees who have retired from 2019 to 2022. we haven't been able to have a formal recognition for them in person since uh that time and this is going to represent over 3 200 years of service to the westchester area school district i simply want to wish all of our retirees

041the best in retirement niche ratings just recently came out the westchester area school district ranked 26 among 495 pa districts and 267th out of 11 nearly 12 000 districts across the country and we were one of just 36 districts in pennsylvania to receive an a plus overall grade from niche and the westchester area school district was honored with best communities for music education designation from the national association of music merchants that we know is nam and this has been i think consecutive years that we've been able to have that honor and i would like to thank our assistant director for teaching and learning dr kristen barnello for all her support for the arts and tonight at this time i would like to call dr brown to the podium to recognize some students released [Applause] good

042evening i was really hoping jason would go first good evening i was really hoping jason would go first thank you for having me school board welcome or thank you for having me i'm going to introduce some of our kids i have just four kids tonight that i'm going to introduce three over here i just kind of want to reiterate and share with you the backdrop of how these kids got here and yes they're being recognized for some state achievements and awards but the reality is that their presentation to you tonight speaks to their character speaks to their growth speaks to their motivations speak to who they are as young ladies and and young men so with that being said um i'm just going to call you all up and then introduce them individually so heather

043lane and claire if you guys could come to the front rdn here is heather krebs she was honored for pmea allstate wind ensemble on the double bass which she started playing in fourth grade as an exton eagle she's a member of our senior strings and also a member of ccyo which is chess county youth orchestra that is a [Music] you have to try out for that and it's very difficult to get into so i have a crisis on the end we have lane ovard our national merit finalist who was awarded the americana scholarship lane's going to be attending the university of pittsburgh in the fall to study neuroscience which aligns with our work at east where she developed a publication on eurozone neuroscience designed to educate middle school students in the field of neuroscience she's

044our norse code editor and also helps run our medical research and fundraising club outside of school she works at giant and volunteers at the mitzvah circle which is to support women and children in the middle lane and then next to me is claire chen claire is a national merit finalist uh claire will be attending schreyer's honors schreier's honors college at penn state university studying liberal arts she runs our reminding melton club which supports the mountain center through east high school she's on our academic team who are going to states in a few weeks and is a member of the national art honor society and as well she also plays volleyball those are the three here i also want to do share uh senior matt bergen was also a national merit finalist he was awarded the

045astrazeneca pharmaceutical scholarship matt will be taking his computer science talents to lehigh university where he's obviously going to study computer science matt's a three sport athlete he runs cross-country uh winter track and spring track he volunteers for habitat for humanity and uh makes his money working at swiss farms and i will introduce all of our other kids at the next board meeting because our deca kids are international competition thank you so much for having us and uh dr jason sherlock is going to recognize some pension students all right arguably the best school on the planet ms tiernon dr scott flosky members of the board thank you for allowing me to present some of these recognitions tonight the first couple the class of 2022 had 10 national merit scholars qualifiers uh of the ten we had

046three students who were named as finalists these three students represent the best of the best in the country and i'm honored to introduce them tonight uh so ryan and vivek if you guys you guys could come up say a few words ryan brophy ryan is an active member of the henderson marching awards and cross country team during the summers and weekends he volunteered at the chester county food bank an american red cross where he also served as vice president of the henderson red cross club in the fall ryan plans on attending the university of virginia to pursue a bachelor's in computer science congratulations brian [Applause] is the captain of the henderson varsity academic team he has led the team to compete at nationals in 2020 and 2021. vivec is also the president of the henderson

047science olympiad team and earn awards including pennsylvania double a disease detective state champion he will be pursuing an undergraduate degree in computer science and biology at georgia tech with the goal of working at the intersection of computing and personalized disease detection and treatment congratulations vivec and we had one more students who could not be here tonight nihal devapura nahal is the president and founder of the henderson red cross club she is also the editor for calliope henderson's literary magazine and is a board member for the student united way now all will continue her education at the university of north carolina in the fall so congratulations [Applause] in addition we have a few other students who have achieved state and national recognition this year and marina if you guys could come up uh bernina noor bernita

048is a senior at henderson high school bernitha had an article published in the national high school journal of science discussing an algorithm she created to help detect brain tumors much earlier from mri scans we are extremely proud of bernitha's accomplishments she has been volunteering at community volunteers in medicine and the volunteering program at chester county hospital bernitha is also enrolled in the allied health science and technology program offered by tchs purnipa has been accepted into a dsmd program through esf and upstate medical university located in new york with her declared major of biotechnology congratulations [Applause] is only a sophomore at henderson high school she started students for animals club at henderson high school which is currently having a drive to support the spca marina won first place at the pharmacology at the state hosa it's

049a future health professionals competition and has qualified for the international leadership conference in nashville tennessee congratulations [Applause] and now for our all-state musicians this year henderson high school had three all-state musicians i don't think we've ever had three ever it's quite an accomplishment these students endured several rounds of auditions to get to the all-state level including district regional and all-state audition we recognized their hard work and dedication to their musical craft so ryan sam and andrew if you guys could please come forward uh first up is ryan hughes ryan is only a junior at henderson and is thrilled to have been selected as saint tenor one in the pmea all-state choir after participating in various pmea choral festivals since his freshman year this year he ranks second in his voice part at the district level

050fourth at the regional level and 18th in the state ryan has a bright future and we are excited to see him continue to excel next year congratulations next up is sam brocknell who was one of two accompanists who successfully auditioned from across the state of pa sam is a senior at henderson high school where he's a member of nhs and the tri and music honor society at henderson he plays cello in the orchestra and chamber orchestra and accompanies the various choral ensembles on piano next year he will attend nc state university where he will study aerospace engineering and pursue a piano performance minor congratulations [Applause] and last but not least andrew pruden andrew is a senior at henderson high school and placed third in the state uh for ten or two section he spends much

051of his time singing in henderson's concert and chamber choirs of which he is the president under the direction of mr jonathan kramer andrew also serves as staff editor of henderson's literary magazine calliope and plays by viola in string orchestra under the direction of mrs katrina kelly next year andrew will be studying political science at the university of pittsburgh and intends to continue singing in his community congratulations and last but not least i i would like to recognize the westchester school district's senior strengths the westchester area school district senior strings is comprised of 37 audition members from 9th through 12th grades at east henderson and ruston high schools mrs katrina kelly henderson high school orchestra director directs this group of string musicians in september of 2021 miss kelly submitted recordings of the ensemble in order to

052audition to perform at the pmda all-state conference in december of 2021 senior strings found out that they were selected as one of the ensembles to perform at the conference held this year in the poconos senior strings was only one of three orchestral ensemble selected to perform at the conference being selected to perform at the allstate conference as either an individual music student or with an ensemble is a monumentous accomplishment this the the audience at the concert are tough critics as they are all music educators the wcasd senior strings has been selected a total of five times in the past 25 years a feat basically unheard of and speaks to the quality of the strength teaching in westchester school district tonight concert pastor daniel chang a junior from east high school and director miss katrina kelly

053are here to accept this acknowledgement on behalf of the entire westchester school district senior strengths so ms kelly and daniel could you please okay thank you everyone dr morano from rustin high school is here uh to share some praise for some resting students thank you dr thank you very much for having me it's this evening certainly an honor to be here with all of you can i ask bryce and cameron to come forward two of rustling high school's fine student musicians i'd like to recognize tonight bryce what's that one kelly is a senior at rustin high school he has sung in both the wrestling concert and chamber choir under the direction of miss ann ellis beginning in his sophomore year price has successfully auditioned for both district 12 and region six choir this past year

054price placed third in the district at second in the region the last two years bryce was selected for all-state choir as a tenor one this past april bryce won the chester county choral society vocal competition winning a monetary prize and singing at their spring concert in addition to singing bryce also plays for our baseball team in rustling he plans to continue playing baseball for penn state berks next year while majoring in kinesiology and keeping his passion for music alive by singing with a local choir bryce congratulations [Applause] cameron is actually here representing our entire knights marching band on october 23rd if the rust and golden knights marching band competed in the u.s band's pennsylvania state championship competition at westchester university in the group 2 open classification the band came in first place in their division

055which was the 8th state marching band championship in our 16-year history as a school they took home awards for best music best visual best overall effect best color guard and best percussion the band performed hamilton featuring selections from the hit broadway musical of the same title this also entitled them to participate in the national championships at metlife stadium the band is hoping to improve even further in the coming year as only four of our seniors including cameron are leaving us but we expect a large influx of new freshmen to keep the tradition going representing the band tonight as i said is cameron marvel he was one of two four-year members of the band this year cameron was the front ensemble section leader for the year cameron has been playing in the pit of the marching

056band since ninth grade playing the vibraphone the xylophone the marimba throughout his time in the band cameron will be attending westchester university next year you will be pursuing a degree in math batting cameron also will look forward to being part of the legendary golden rams marching band congratulations cameron thank you dr morano and thank you to all of our students and our families that are here tonight to enjoy that recognition we will be back also uh in the month of may to honor more of our upcoming graduates i do also as we heard a lot about the excellence of our music program the westchester area school district as we said we are one of the top music programs in the country and it's not just about the quality of the play but it's also about

057the participation so it's an excellent experience i want to thank all of our directors from elementary school through high school for offering the grant that great experience for our students and dr sherlock i think you actually made the kind of funny to me you talked about how music educators can be tough critics guess what my wife's a music educator all right we have our we have two of our three student reps tonight elena roderick from east and maddie gambroe from ruston will porter is at we have a sighting at a deca competition at the national level i guess so he said he couldn't come tonight for that reason but elena uh and maddie you have only one more board meeting to attend but don't look so sad um it's almost as though we've watched you

058grow up from your your initial visit with us you know at the beginning of senior year and now the next time we see you will be on the field at graduation and some of us will be at your schools to shake your hand and make sure that diploma is right side up when you graduate okay elena let's hear something about east everyone uh thank you for having me and i hope y'all have a great night uh congratulations to everyone who was just rewarded i'm very impressed i don't not need to be talented at all so again i could be impressed with anything um i have quite a bit to talk about as for east events as april was very packed the month was kick-started with the house of hope concert on the first of the

059month between the performances the artist audience and homeless bear themselves everyone had a great time and east is very proud of the turnout and of course the fundraising the event raised over seven thousand three hundred dollars for the cause uh spelman humanitarian scholarship award was giving out given out on april 6th of the month the ceremony though hosted at east celebrated high school seniors from east ruston and henderson the award was given to students who demonstrate leadership and growth through their extracurricular activities and community service dwa was also there as a special treat for all the amazing students and families congratulations to those students and you should be very proud the blood drive was back at east this year on april 8th and our students came ready to donate student council did an amazing job

060setting up the for the american red cross in the gym by running the canteen area and the registration table i stayed away from the actual action as i would have passed out but there was lots of donations being made and we were very happy with it such a great outcome uh we would like to say a big thank you to american red cross for giving us the opportunity and the teachers and staff thank you again for everything that you donated uh this school speaking contest was on the 13th this year and it was one of the best i've yet to see i've also only seen one but i would i would argue that with events with the elimination of the boys and girls speaking competition the combination made it an amazing roster everyone was great

061and clearly demonstrated what it means to be a great public speaker i was surprised that the judges were able to pick just three run winners out of the great students ella prieto a senior landed in third place louis sims a junior in second and finally aaron clay a junior in first place great job to everyone who spoke i was very impressed um last week was also packed with back-to-back events boys senior tennis night was uh just last week with the national business honor society induction ceremony happening last wednesday congratulations to those graduating senior seniors and everyone who got into bhs the girls lacrosse pink out fight for her game was last thursday and they raised over 300 for the amazing cause naejs was finally able to go on their field trip for the first time

062in three years last thursday this year we were able to go to the metropolitan museum of art in new york city everyone had an amazing time and i would say that i post men depression after that the gsa had their day of silence on friday and it was great to see so many people involved in showing their support uh students teachers and staff are seen wearing their day of silence t-shirts or not speaking as part of their peaceful protest for the voices to be heard gsa also had their prom last saturday and everyone looked absolutely amazing and had a great time wes i saw your instagram post you look great um east junior prom was also last saturday and the school was transformed into a magical enchanted garden once again everyone here looked beautiful and

063also had a good time like dr sokolowski said the autistic acceptance spirit week was starting this week and east is ready to show their support each day is a different theme with everyone's different attire magnificent mind monday was today and you were supposed to do something with her head where people were seen wearing hats i decided to cut off all my hair neurodiversity tuesday is tomorrow with what's your passing wednesday and thursday being a world autism acceptance day and sensory friday friendly friday i can't wait to show my support this week in such a small and meaningful way the mr east boys pageant show competition will be coming this friday april 29th the contestants will be modeling showing off their talents and proving their worthiness with their title for mr east i've been looking forward

064to this event all year so i'm very excited to see who will win that is all for my report thank you and maddie would you please catch us up on ruston's doings i am very excited to share another wonderful month of events at ruston the school would like to extend a huge congratulations to sophomore maddie miller and senior dejean jacobs for our track and field team they recently broke two school records at their recent meet at shippensburg maddie broke the 800 meter record by three seconds finishing with a two minute and 15.35 second run and place third overall desean beat the high jump record with a new standard of six feet two inches and the video is crazy if you want to look at that on rusty's twitter tennis team hosted the cm all-american tournament

065on friday with sam page and carter gillen both seniors winning their first round matches our baseball team beat sun valley friday with phenomenal pitching by junior kyle kearns who threw a complete shutout game which is very exciting and our boys and girls lacrosse teams are off to wonderful starts as well as our softball team who is starting a phenomenal season our senior nick meisner is accompanied will in atlanta right now for deca nationals and our bringing hope home club is planning their annual spike the rock fundraiser which is a volleyball tournament held at boston to raise money for bringing home a wonderful organization that we have built an amazing relationship with bringing funding and assistance to local families with cancer there are philadelphia-based and we adore working with them uh as far as school updates

066as dr sachelas he said we are very excited to be hosting the education foundation friday morning with our breakfast recognizing community members and local partners um our junior prom was this past saturday and our senior prom will be at the waterfall in panama delaware at the end of next month but before our next report our student council elections will be this week as you mentioned i'm coming up to the end of my term as school board representative but no doubt we will have a wonderful replacement and teacher appreciation week will be celebrated next wednesday with a breakfast catered for our teachers just to thank them for everything that they've done and students have the opportunity to fill out a google form to write messages to their teachers and an overall thank you that will be

067delivered to their classrooms next week some joy and thank everybody for what they've done our librarians also received a custom cookie basket last week for all that they do and our environmental club had a spring earthquake cleanup this past week and it was wonderful and a great success thank you both of you women as graduating seniors you know this is a bittersweet and a busy and a challenging time and there are parents out in the audience who haven't stopped crying since april started because it's just one more reminder that you're going to your next place soon that's exciting and it's wonderful and and yet you know some of us who are here still feel a little sad that you're leaving but not that sad so so we look forward to hearing all the wonderful things

068you'll be doing in new places next year and uh and i i know you're going to say one more thing dr herman i just want to say that there's a rust and coffee house is that right reston coffee house on the 27th do you know about that okay do you know about a henderson now that's we um at east karen i know where we were but it says in the 20th century we will check our schedule thank you uh thank you as uh as mentioned will couldn't be here tonight so he made a few remarks in which i was going to talk a little bit about henderson thank you for this opportunity to display graduating seniors artwork from anderson high school up front we are exhibiting 15 works of art from our seniors that showcase

069various various mediums such as oil paint acrylic paint head and ink digital art and photography many of these pieces were included in the county-wide art show at the chester county art association last month at the art show charudi bettagar's peace ghost house won first place congressional award and will be on display in the nation's capitol building for the next coming school year in addition jessica written's digital photo photography photography titled sister won second place in the county for the photography category we appreciate your continued support of the arts in our school district which has allowed these henderson artists to achieve their personal bests for the arts in addition will stated that starting in sports this month has been very big for henderson the boys baseball team is currently 11-1 and sit at top of the

070district rankings they have been dominant in almost every game they've played leading the league and home runs and throwing the most strikeouts last thursday night the warrior track team competed in the annual henderson invitational over 20 warriors set personal records and won in multiple events while celebrating the seniors girls lacrosse won their senior night last week as well and put up a dominating performance taking down oxford 16-6 the boys look to follow in their footsteps this wednesday when they take on avon grove at home for their senior day last sunday the andrew l hicks foundation posted their first ever open lacrosse instruction at drexel university henderson students along with volunteers from other high schools and local colleges put on a three-hour clinic for over 200 chess or children to learn about the game of lacrosse

071the foundation was very happy with the event and the children loved it over spring break the henderson national honor society art honors society as well as multiple sanderson seniors went on a trip to europe they spent 10 days visiting paris florence rome and vienna they toured many historical sites visited many museums and even had time to get in a little shopping this friday is wellness day at henderson high school students are looking forward to a short in friday and participating in many activities such as rock painting puzzles sidewalk chalk and and multiple sports deck and nationals are happening as we speak in atlanta henderson has a group of 20 students making the trip they'll be competing in events such as marketing entrepreneurship and more and lastly i just wanted to uh congratulate our music department

072who a couple weeks ago went to the state capitol performed at the state capitol and uh we're honored uh by uh the state legislature um and and we're given an accommodation so it was really really a cool experience and again it's a testament to our musical program here in the westchester school district so thank you you actually i think this is the first principle filled in for the student rep that was great and we can assume that will wrote every word of that for you so when you text him tonight in atlanta you tell him he did a great job and you may be considered for the role again next year but thank you so much for taking your time to come [Applause] thank you all seniors i know you have homework to do and

073principles this leads us to personnel recommendations from dr ulmer who has again bittersweet news for us as always as always no not always no tonight's a really good news yeah good evening mr tier i'm mr red lockwood and directors of the board our personnel report for the bunch of month of lunch the month of april is as follows with removals from payroll we have 10 resignations five teachers one school psychologist one secretary one paraprofessional and two custodians we have six retirements to report first this is mary belsick music teacher from fern hill and mary c house elementary schools with 23 years of service this is mary lytzenberg music teacher at mary c house elementary high school in elementary school with 20 years of service dr christopher lenardi assistant principal at boston high school with 20

074years of service dr yuna martin english teacher at stetson middle school with 23 years of service mr william mccauley social studies teacher at fugit middle school with 33 years of service and mr douglas miguel gray social studies teacher at fugitt middle school with 20 years of service we wish all right retirees the best in the happy and healthy new chapter in their lives we'll miss you and we thank you for your service with additions to payroll we are recommending the hire of ms jennifer holstein as our new supervisor of special education in the east feeder pattern jennifer is coming to us from the upper darby school district where she is currently serving as an assistant principal jennifer went through a comprehensive interview process we are thrilled to have her join the westchester area school district

075team jennifer is here this evening jen can you stand up and wait for us [Applause] congratulations to pearl javier we're also recommending the hiring of two teachers one long-term substitute teacher two paraprofessionals a secretary and one substitute custodian in personnel events i communicated two status changes in the administrative staff first we would like to welcome mrs melissa kleiman as our new director of pupil services melissa has served in many capacities in the district most recently the supervisor of special education and the rust and feeder pattern additionally we would like to welcome miss nicole verbose as our new behavior specialist coordinator nicole has been an autistic support teacher at exton elementary school and our expertise will be invaluable in this new role both melissa and nicole went through intensive interview processes and we're thrilled to have

076such talented and dedicated professionals in these extremely important roles in our organizations congratulations to melissa and nicole they are both here with us this morning this evening you please stand to give us a wave congratulations to you both and we're really excited and thrilled to have you i've also delivered and communicated two status changes one from our paraprofessional to a secretary and one staff nurse to a certified school nurse this is the district's transfer season which can be very stressful and emotional time for many employees transfers are a natural and important aspect of our staffing process some are voluntary others are involuntary i communicated and delivered 81 involuntary transfers in the past couple of weeks i also communicated delivered 35 voluntary transfers most of our transfers will be starting at the beginning of the 2022

077school year in additional information we are recommending four updated start dates two notifications that two employees are ineligible for higher a memorandum of understanding with the teachers association paternity summer pertaining to summer programming pay rates and the names of three drivers and one aide from indigo kids busing in tutoring we are recommending the approval of four new tutors in supplemental contracts we are asking for the approval for one annual contract for the 21-22 school year one winter season contract for the 21-22 school year and 115 fall season contracts for the 22 22 23 school year and respectfully requesting board approval for all personnel matters listed above thank you board had a chance to meet school purdue event the board had a chance to meet these three women before the our meeting tonight and some of

078them will not have a good night's sleep for the next 20 25 years i know that they're big jobs they're important jobs for us and we're very grateful that we have you here we know you're up to the task but they're big ones so welcome to the district or welcome to your new position in the district and we look forward to seeing more of you now um i'd like to thank you dr ulmer for your report good news not such good news um we used to have a personnel director who would come and visit you know in the spring when it was time that time of year and um the teachers would look anxiously out the window and say is dr doom out there because they knew there was the possibility he might drop by

079and tell them the news about their new assignment that they didn't want to hear so i understand giving 81 pieces of news like that in one week that took quite a bit of fortitude on your part congratulations uh now we need to approve the personnel report do i have the first mr bevalaqua and um dr hernan uh could we have the vote sorry questions or concerns is there anything you wanted to say i've been talking a lot is there anything any of you wanted to say about no okay we'll vote vice president michael yes director kerman yes director wellesley yes director chester yes director yes director fleming yes director yes president yes all right we moved now to the and we will start with the education committee dr shaw i guess you didn't like that

080all right um we will move now to approval of the consent agenda and the first thing i will tell you is that i had a board member asked to remove number four from the education committee a consent agenda which is approval of high school scheduling so that there could be more discussion among the board in consideration before we vote on that item so that will be discussed when we get to the education committee report after we vote on the consent agenda now could i have a first to to move to dr herman you want to do that one and um and mr bevalaqua will be the second and we will any comments or questions at this point right now about the consent agenda all righty we'll call for the vote director herman yes vice president

081yes director chester yes director journalist yes director schwall yes director fleming yes director lomsley yes president yes now committees dr shaw did the education committee take it away thank you president tiernon on april 11th we actually had a joint committee meeting of the education and pupil services committees and i will report out first on the education committee and then we'll hand it off to ms chester who will report on the people's services committee at the education committee meeting we voted to approve the final 21-22 school calendar thank you very much dr vincent we also heard a presentation by dr mesa and dr reynolds on their data-driven plan to offer summer programming that will enrich all of our students and meet the needs of our students as they enter into to make sure they're really well

082prepared when they enter into the next school year um finally we heard a rich presentation from dr reynolds regarding the proposed revisions of the high school schedule so the way i'd like to manage this discussion tonight is that i would like to hear from dr reynolds dr sokolowski will be speaking to about this plan and how it has developed and then we'll go around the horn and i'll ask each board member if they have any questions or comments and then we will vote on whether to approve the proposed um so i first just wanted to start with sorry can we just get it first in a second so it's on the table and then we'll do all the discussion sure all right so to put this motion on the table that we'll vote for for

083the uh approval of the high school scheduling may i have a first miss fleming and the second mister here now and now questions and concerns here we go dr shawn and as i had mentioned earlier uh with my comments regarding the the high school schedule that we heard from several parents and community members this work has been undergoing formally really since january of 2018 and at that point in time the district started to build their comprehensive plan the comprehensive plan that is running from 2019 to 2022 and in fact actually in april of 2020 it had been my plan as the assistant superintendent to present to our education committee a proposal for a new high school master schedule that we would then adopt in the 21-22 school year much happened in between that time and

084where we are today what is most notable in terms of the high school scheduling as we were planning it then we were beginning to set forward plans for having a high school cyber program and the design there was really not so much for students to be full-time cyber students but was to offer students that opportunity while later in high school to be able to take a class virtually but then the pandemic came and in a matter of a couple of months really three months we developed our k-12 cyber program that is still with us today but for the high school level what we were also addressing with the cyber program because during that year 2018 we also had done a late start time report and we found that for the district it was just simply

085too expensive for us to go down that pathway of a late start time because of the cost for transportation but we did have beginnings to start to plan the cyber program which offers students that kind of flexibility so if you are a broadway performer that you could be a part of the the westchester cyber program is a full-time student we also have some very tremendous athletes uh some gymnasts that i do know of who need to be at a gym in delaware three days a week by 1 30 p.m so offering that the cyber program offers that flexibility when we go back to when we looked at our comprehensive plan from 19 to 22 we had some goals that were set forth with the high school scheduling one as you heard from a number of

086folks this evening was to ensure that every student had lunch wow pretty fundamental thing the other part would be is we heard a conversation about it as well we started professional learning communities back in around the 2009-2010 era and one of the features that we have at the elementary school at the middle school is we have built in time for teachers to collaborate in their professional learning communities whereas the high school schedule as you heard the best that we can do given our current schedule once a month we offer those two hour delays so teachers can work together in their plc's for two hours but this new high school schedule what it would ensure would be that that planning time would be embedded uh for teachers to be able to work within their plc's and

087finally i would just also add that having and this has been known for years that if as a school if you're able to offer enrichment and interventions the most effective time to do that is during the school day whereas our current high school structures are such that a student would have to maybe stay after school or come early to school in order to receive many of the interventions and enrichments that we can offer so i did want to turn to dr khalia reynolds who has been not only leading our development of our current or comprehensive plan that will start july of 2022 but she is also leading the high school master scheduling group and she will provide for everybody a little bit of an overview thank you so much dr sokolowski i have to say

088that this work is a compilation of many voices and points of feedback and perspectives from a committee that you mentioned has been engaged for years as we re-convened as a committee in the fall of this school year one of the things that was really important for the committee was managing the rate of change our teachers our students our families have been through so much and we wanted to hold to our priorities that were that were set and outlined as far as our high school schedule we also wanted to do that in the spirit of change in what is manageable we can't do it all tomorrow but we wanted to hold to those three main scheduling priorities which are one to make sure that we had a day on the intervention and enrichment period for all

089of our students we also wanted to ensure that all of our students have time for a lunch and lastly we wanted to ensure that teachers have time for embedded professional learning time through plcs so that they can continue to collaborate on those best practices now as a result of that there are a number of changes that we took a look at as far as what was advantageous for the upcoming school year for the 22-23 school year and what we would continue to explore as a committee moving forward so we really started small but those changes are in keeping with our mains those three main scheduling priorities so what we are changing is actually let me start with what what is not changing the arrival time of our of our schedule is not changing and the

090end the dismissal time of the schedule is not changing we're also keeping to an eighth period day what is adjusting is that we are revising the minutes so we have a 42 minute period from 45 minutes so it's a three-minute adjustment for each of our our periods that was a question that was presented earlier and we also took a look at eliminating homeroom so eliminating homeroom and then having those three minutes of adjusted periods for each of our spirits throughout the day that's recreated this intervention enrichment period right in the middle of the day and that's that's by design we wanted to make sure for the point of equity and access that we didn't eliminate that opportunity for our students that go to tchs we wanted to make sure that those students would still be

091on our campus and could access those intervention and enrichment offerings that we would have for students so that's where we are we still have the same start and end times we still have same eight instructional periods a five day rotation and we will have those four lunch periods with the intervention and enrichment time possibly serving as a fifth possible launch for students that are fully scheduled for those eight periods where the committee is right now is really in the detail and refinement so the thing that really worked well as far as this being a continuation from the current comprehensive plan for 29th or 2019 to 2022 and uh served us as a gateway for 2022-2025 with student involvement so we had feedback along the way as we were engaging in our comprehensive plan for design

092for 2225 to inform our work as we were engaging in this and so one of the pieces that um dr miss and i heard from student involvement from that group of stakeholders is yes there's a lot that we want to do and will we have the block so that's that's one piece that as a committee we will continue to explore for possible changes for later but not for 22-23 where we are right now is taking a look at this proposed schedule and just refining the details for the intervention and enrichment period making sure that we have flexibility between enrichment and intervention that we have a balance on set of offerings that we also are taking a look at our wellness opportunities for students that are embedded in the day and so that's that's our work

093right now our scheduling team will be convening soon so we can um have a frame for that i know what was i mentioned earlier as far as open campus so we are taking a look as as a committee to refine and put some parameters around open campus but as far as the schedule that you have in front of you this is what we're proposing for the upcoming school year thank you so much dr reynolds and if you'll stay there we're going to go around and see if any of our school members have any questions or comments i'll start with you mr jenna uh i i appreciate the work that you all have done on the schedule i really just have one comment i like the fact that that period in the middle really gives opportunity

094for support for all students some students need intervention some students need enrichment it doesn't leave anybody out um that's really really common thank you for the work you've done thank you you'll be out of the committee thank you mr swanson thank you hi dr reynolds thank you so much for bringing this um tonight for community awareness i think it's really important as you can see we have a bunch of different level of participation versus education when we initially introduce this so i appreciate you taking the time a couple of questions that i believe i forwarded to you in advance of the meeting um that i'd like for consideration for the public if you don't mind answering them um you would you dr zokolowski who addressed my impression on its relationship to the comprehensive plan and

095how that's really the initiator of this right it's like what drove it i'm coming to the forefront um but when we met at education we talked about in the original presentation about students feeling overwhelmed during the day or possibly even worse schedule um so in terms of there being a risk of like putting another brick on the pile right another period to be scheduled um that's fluid uh in nature right and kind of like schedule it at will at need um flexibility is great but at the same time just looking at the the larger lens of you know how students feel about managing another time period during the day what is our ability to sort of like measure that as we implement the program and make sure that that's achieving the goal that we have

096set with us so that's one question the other that i wanted to ask is um also the accessibility so in the education presentation we talked about some of the enrichment activities right being uh limited capacity right that there would be a certain amount of either space or time available right so just accessibility for the students if access to technology is needed for them in order to schedule those sessions and just make sure that they actually can connect with the resources that we're trying to operate on um so that's those are the things i want to make sure we address thank you appreciate that so for the first question i think one of the pieces that's really important to us with agency for our students making sure that they had an opportunity to have a level

097of awareness as far as where they need additional support and where they want to have that either enrichment and interventions for us out of balance one of the things that we find as far as or found as far as being over scheduled and we've heard this from a number of parents particularly those in the room is to say there's a packed day and so even making sure that we can still continue to maximize learning opportunities for our students but still ensuring that there's a time to just take a break have some lunch connect with friends we wanted to make sure that that was a priority that students didn't have to balance eating lunch versus having an opportunity for another learning experience so as far as the transition time yes it's still another transition but with

098a balance as far as making sure that there is a break for students to have lunch to have that social connection and also to just make sure that there's a time of of rest for them so that was as far as just balancing the needs i will say that that is something that we continue to explore particularly for our work moving forward what's the impact for students for their learning needs and then also their overall wellness needs and we really do look for feedback from our students as far as voice and choice and fostering that agency which leads me to the second and kind of the third follow-up question that you asked are connected and that's one of the things that we've been exploring just as a committee we took an opportunity to take a

099look at the schedule they've been proposed and built connect with our departments and our leaders in each of our schools and different teachers and then be able to say what are the considerations what are the things that we're not seeing what are the other questions that you have and so one of the pieces that came up is how do we manage this because any time that we're looking at a change or a proposed adjustment we have to make sure that we're measuring that what's the causality what's the impact for our students and how do we do that when there are a number of different variables every day if we're saying we want to have this daily enrichment so i will say that the team really got to work and said what's what are some platforms

100that can help us with that one with making sure that teachers get to say i really need to see the student for math and that has to take precedence as far as uh deciding over a different activity of interest i need to make sure that this intervention is built in so we're exploring now we take a look at a platform that has answered all the questions that refrain from our teachers and administrators and feedback that we have and that's a platform that we're looking to explore we've not confirmed or finalized it but it is something that we want to make sure how can we achieve all of the needs without adding another thing for our teachers without adding another point for administrators and still ensuring that we have a way of capturing those metrics not

101only at the end of the year but as we go on because that's one of the pieces that our administrators especially our schedulers have said we're anticipating needing to make some adjustments and we've also looked to build by borrowing so we've connected with other school districts not only in our region and our company of of the county but results we've also connected with other districts in other states to say what are the things that you've had to adjust what are the things we should we should love to be loose on what are those things we should look to be tight on and one of the resounding themes is that we need to make sure that student voice is at the center of what we're doing so that's one of the pieces of how do we

102balance making sure that we can manage different students moving around safety and security making sure we're accountable for students but also making sure that there's a voice as a component we haven't had it all figured out but we do have the majority of it figured out and that's part of the work of as far as our next steps closing out this school year and even leading into the summer to make sure that those details are finalized and we do have some really good platforms that we're excited about that will allow us to accomplish all those goals thank you i really appreciate that um i know one of the concerns expressed to us by a parent was that part of the instructional day today is now allocated for homework as part of the district and homework

103policy so at least that was that was communicated to us but that's what the parents concern was um so i just really appreciate you taking the time to clarify like what the impact is of instructional time and how it can still add value for the teachers and we'll look at your delay once a month and the alternatives for alternate access to enrichment and to support so thank you thank you mr bible yes i don't have any comments based on the education meeting and detailed discussion at that meeting and also dr brown's update today was clear thank you i just am glad that you mentioned that we are not the first to come up with a lunch and something pro break in the middle of the day and as dr sokolowski reminded me we're moving out

104of the 19th century and we are moving into a work arena and a place where it is considered to be valuable that students have the independent ability workers have the independent ability to move around and work in small groups and go back to other groups and move around if we have not learned anything in this whole year of listening to our seniors and our high school students and our middle school and our elementary students talk to us in ways that you say my they certainly have a good grip of what is happening to them in the world when we have students like elena and her fellows who manage a good ten activities in addition to their studies in a week and i'll bet their parents are not reminding them all the time because you might

105have to deal with an elementary don't forget don't forget your notebook don't forget your stuff because it's a search point they have five other kids and they cannot remind them anymore so the important and critical piece of this whole thing for me dr rounds is you have had student voices at the center of this we have intended as a district to change the high school schedule since the last comprehensive plan that i was a part of now we're actually doing it but the center voice that's the center of the voices that's being heard and we'll get will continue to be heard to find out is it working are you getting what you need out of this are the teachers seeing the kids they need are student voices and by golly they are able to express

106themselves with great clarity and good sense so i think that is probably the key reason why i am so excited about this possibility and you will work out the details of which platform it is you'll use to keep track of where everybody is and who's the county so thank you thank you dr herman yes good evening um i wanted to share that at the end committee you did a very thorough job a very excellent job and so did your team explaining exactly the plan the goal and the movement and you had stated that it wasn't all done yet you were still working on it the other point i wanted to make is that change takes time we all know that the high school schedule plan has been a work in progress over the last few

107years and you stepped in and i want to commend you for the work that you have done and your team um and for the continued work that you're planning on doing the one piece that makes me very very happy i've been in this school district not only as a school director but as a teacher for many years it makes me very happy that before we get involved with any huge project or new incentive the research is always done and we just some people think that we just have a meeting or two immunity decisions that is not the way it works things go on sometimes for months sometimes our plans move on for years but the research that's put into it and you mentioned you visited districts you talk to people and the fact that you

108include all stakeholders is very very important and the only way that the change comes is when people like you and your committee take the time and don't rush into something and thoroughly do an excellent job and we all we know sitting on the school board many of us have been here a long time it takes time and we don't make decisions quickly we do it very thoroughly and then we refrain so thank you very much thank you first i want to say thank you for the energy put against this initiative i this in my nine years on the board one of the things that um that i can clearly recall from parents is their concern that their kids aren't taking lunch and i can tell you as they graduate to the work course there is

109something called work-life balance they should learn that early and have agency over making some of those choices for themselves i appreciate the stakeholders that were involved because you had the key stakeholders that are going to be impacted by this change and i do like that the change is fluid so we make the change and the fact that we're making the change we have to identify this as an area um that could be tightened up we make the change and then we take a look at the change we see the impact so um congratulations on doing that kudos to the group that was involved and i am behind it thank you thank you thank you um thank you dr reynolds and to the committee uh as i stated at the education committee when this plan was

110uh very well presented i'm a parent of three former students all of whom were very over scheduled and rarely had a lunch period so i am a big fan of this plan and i think it will be a great improvement over the current schedule and i thank you again for the work that you put into it thank you and with that can we have a vote mr shark director plumbing yes director journal yes director shaw yes vice president devil aqua yes director wellesley yes director chester yes director herman yes president tiernon yes motion carries thank you all right sorry dr chester mrs chester [Laughter] so for the second half of our joint meeting we approved three contracts the first being the legal contractor suites stephen's council we approved them um for another year with no

111hourly increase so that was good news and then we approved the pediatric therapeutic support three-year contract which will have an annual increase of two percent and thirdly was the approval of heather kumar kumar wilson reading a tutor annual contract for reading services for those students who can't receive services during the school day due to lack of certified instructors so they will be hired through this concern and there's no change in their hourly rate as well so that was good news after that we had a presentation by dr ranieri on our special education monitoring result results overview every five years we are in line for another uh monitoring an audit from pde and this time we we pretty much got through without um any major red marks put it that way so we're pleased about that

112and we'll be updated along the way by dr lemiri and at this time i would just like to welcome uh ms clyman and i look forward to working with her in the future so that's my report thank you thank you that takes us to personnel dr herman good evening oh no yes usually i start off with um this is a very busy time of the year and dr ulmer thank you very much for all the work that you do again and how comprehensive you are because i know this i'm here to be very crazy for everything that you do um i would like to congratulate all the new hires i'd like to congratulate all the retirees and i want to repeat what dr older said and president tiernan we have three individuals jennifer holstein nicole

113burgos and melissa kleinman um they are very dedicated very experienced and very talented and what i'd like to repeat again is we are so grateful to have them thank you dr kerman just very brief now mr viva laqua yes good evening the last property and finance meeting was held last monday on april 19th in the meeting that nightlist discovery reviewed the budget forecast models were due on a monthly basis we reviewed the budget for the 21-22 school year the net projection changes for the 21-22 school year resulted in an increase in the fund balance designation for future military increases of 807 000 and an increase in fund balance designation for construction of 5 million mr scully then reviewed the changes to the 20 20 22 23 school year projections and utilization of the 2122 savings

114resulted in a budget gap decrease of a half a million dollars chester county tax rate increase is currently at one point nine percent next year which is under the act one limit which is set at 3.4 for chester county the administration will continue to review the projections for potential savings to reduce the village impact for the 22-23 final budget and improving that budget next month in may the 2223 proposed final budget was presented by mr scully and included a comparison of revenues and expenses for the 21-22 current school year and for next year the 22-23 school year the 2223 proposed budget increase from the current budget by uh 17.6 million or 6.3 as i stated earlier that also includes a planned contribution to the capital fund in the amount of five million we applied to

115future construction projects the increase in the operational costs not including the transfer of the capital was 12.6 million for 4.5 increase mr scully then presented a resolution to adopt the proposed final 2223 budget in accordance with the actual timeline mr scully advised the property finance committee the changes can be made to the proposed file budget up until the time of the final budget approval as a state at the end of the next month of may the committee recommended approval of the resolution to adopt the 2223 proposed final budget and if anybody is referencing today's agenda this is d6 so i do have a motion at this point approvals requested for the resolution to adopt the proposed final budget for fiscal year 22-23 iso all right do we have a second miss chester thank you uh

116questions or comments from the board sister if i could just comment i want to commend mr john scully our director of business affairs for putting this budget together as you know every month at property and finance john always delivers budget projections for the following year so this is not anything you know much of our work it's not anything that we're we just decided in the month of april uh but this work has been ongoing uh for really the past year and as mr vettel aqua did point out the act 1 index was set by the state at 3.4 but we're coming in at 1.9 and this also represents uh for the westchester area school district the lowest millage rate in chester county as well as delaware counties mr scully i just wanted to thank you

117for all of the diligent work and just a reminder again for the board that this is just a pre-approval that as we continue to progress through the remaining days of april into may there could be continued adjustments to our final budget so thank you and thank you mr scully that budget is something that you wrangle to its knees until it comes into the right place so we appreciate it because it didn't spring like a mushroom last month it has been coming along this entire year and the board has been part of the work that's been done to get it to this place so thank you all right we can vote okay vice president number one yes director chester yes yes director herman yes director cheryl yes director fleming yes director yes president tiernon yes very

118good now the last excuse me i do have two more meeting items no yes two brief items two other items we discussed in the property of finance mr scully reviewed the results from her questions reported services for the school district for a three-year term and bbd llp was submitted the lowest bid the total cost of 78k and the very recommended approval of the bid as stated the last item in the property finance meeting dr sokolsky presented and reviewed the additional changes to the rise of law policy 903 which as we spoke some of the public spoke about tonight public participation in boarding in the second reading the committee recommended approval of the revised board policy 903 as written and the next property finance meeting will be on wednesday may 25th and then ends my report

119for this evening if you're sure we're going to move on uh director gernell would you pull us in on the iu the intermediate unit thank you president the chester county intermediate unit board of directors held its monthly meeting on wednesday april 21st at the child and career and development center in cooksville pennsylvania dr siobhan will be director of student services introduced her administrative team who gave a presentation and overview of the child career development center the team reported that currently the ccdc child development center serves 393 students overall has 47 classes and has 170 staff members they spoke about the three branches of ccdc pride instructional design and engagement mental health and behavioral practices and connection and belonging the team spoke to the collaboration and supports in place to enhance all the students needs and

120learning they gave real-life examples of the different ways that students have been supported to meet their unique needs and how there is an overall feeling of connection and belonging throughout the school mrs marine linehan director of human services introduced her team who provided a status update on recruiting retention and wellness initiatives mrs linehan's team reviewed the goals of recruitment which is to recruit highly qualified candidates to work as teachers and support staff in the classroom and to consistently review recruiting efforts to ensure that we are attracting highly qualified candidates they spoke of the challenges that most schools are facing which is significant which is a significant decrease in the number of instructional one and two certificates issued in recent years versus 10 years ago another member of the human resources team also noted the number

121of applications submit submitted is down 41 since since 2016. she spoke to the current recruitment efforts which include advertising employee testimonials on social media and the offering of referral and sign-on bonuses all of which are producing positive results the team spoke to current retention efforts which include the our new talent development center this new program will encourage career development and growth for all cciu employees interested in exploring growth opportunities the program will offer support and resources and help with retainment of highly qualified cciu employees mrs linehan's linehan concluded the presentation with a brief overview of the current wellness initiatives offered to the cciu employees finally dr fiorio executive director introduced dr robert jarvis a consultant for the cciu who is conducting a study on diversity equity inclusion and belonging to to present a status update

122the purpose of the study is to provide a focus and direction to the leadership team and dei committee in formulating strategic priorities for building an inclusive and supportive work culture within the cciu to date multiple interviews with the executive director cabinet members and dei committee have taken place as well as a survey that was sent out to all staff and completed by 865 staff members which is a 50 percent return rate the survey resulted in key findings broken down by strengths and assets challenges and opportunities for improvement dr jarvis reviewed next steps which include continued study of hr policies and strategies survey and focus group meetings with staff review of family and community engagement practices of educational programs in support of diverse students success a final report which with findings and recommendations will be delivered

123during the month of june the next cciu board meet board of directors meeting will be held on wednesday may 18th at 7 30 at the technical college high school and on pennock bridge campus in westbrook pennsylvania that concludes my report thank you mr durnell very thorough all right psba report dr herman thank you president um psda continues to advocate for public education therefore psba continues to encourage school board directors to apply for leadership positions in the psba organization the form is on the website and the website is brand new updated and very user friendly thank you legislative liaison director shaw thank you on friday april 22nd the iu hosted its annual school director and legislative briefing this was a very well attended session with multiple members of this on board here in addition to dr

124sokolowski and there were two issues that were discussed the first was regarding uh the k-12 staff shortages that we are seeing across the county and across the state and the second which is what i'd like to brief the public on tonight is a cross-sector bipartisan effort in chester county to address the mental health needs of students so this is really was really heartening for me to hear as as we are hearing now mental health needs are growing in for students across our county according to a 2021 youth survey in chester county over a third of our high school students report depression over 20 percent of our high school students have seriously considered suicide 15 have made a suicide plan and 10 percent have actually attempted suicide notably five and a half percent of sixth graders

125seven percent of eighth graders in eight and a half percent of 10th graders did the same so this is clearly a crisis that we're facing um but the exciting part of this is that beginning in july 2021 the cciu the chester county superintendent and the office of state representative chris sapi began working to address these growing mental health issues experienced by our children in february 2022 this group held a full briefing and every state senator and representative attended that briefing from both sides of the aisle and they identified four solutions that they would like to work on the first is to address the critical shortage of mental health professionals that we're experiencing the second is to embed crisis counselors in schools so that students have help when they need it the third is to open

126in-county inpatient care centers by looking into using vacant hospitals and former school buildings and the fourth is to create family partnerships for continuation of care in the community for each one of these solutions this group has formed a work group and those work groups are currently underway i found this presentation and the initiative that they described to be refreshing in its boldness in its practicality and in its bipartisanship i want to thank dr sokolowski for his leadership on this front and i look forward to hearing about the progress of these groups and i will report back to the community and to the board as this initiative continues and we seek to work together to address the mental health needs of our students thank you very much and the equity report i have nothing to report

127tonight all right yes i just wanted to make one update at the end of my report i did this informed people the date for the next property finance meeting the next property finance meeting will be monday may 16th the board meeting is wednesday may 25th it is confirmed thank you yes uh now we are ready for comments from residents on non-agenda items so if you would take it away there christopher manners and then julie moyer oh sorry if i may just repeat some of the key instructions here we're going to call you up one by one i ask again that everyone begin by stating their first name last name and municipality as a reminder public comments will be limited to three minutes per person with the time clock being projected throughout the room the board

128asks 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 with that mr manos and then mike richards good evening my name is julie moyer i live in west town township my youngest son is transgender and i lead a support group for parents of transgender children called transparents i'm here today to talk about the flyer that was posted in the area regarding the books that are thought to be sexually explicit most of the subject matter of these books involves the lgbtq plus community i'm here to support keeping these books on the shelves and like to talk about why this is so important according to the trevor project website lgbtq youth are

129more than four times as likely to attempt suicide as their peers i can attest to this from my own personal experience with my transgender son while attending ruston high school prior to his transition he experienced severe depression and anxiety he self-harmed in the form of cutting himself and had an eating disorder we were really fortunate that the counseling department at ruston was extremely supportive and gave us resources for therapy that helped my son pinpoint the source of his sadness we are also fortunate that the self-harm did not extend itself to something worse than it was as horrible as it was to see my child go through this i'm grateful to the westchester school board for voting to keep books like gender queer on the library shelves i wish my son had access to that book

130and if he if he was if it was available to him while he was in school he would have greatly benefited from having access to such resources it's extremely helpful for children to know that they are not alone that you can love who you love and that sometimes the body you are born with does not match your gender there seems to be a campaign of misinformation that insists that books are brainwashing our children these books are meant to be educational and promote independent thinking if anyone wants to avoid books geared towards the lgbtq community then the answer is simple don't read them but we shouldn't make these books unavailable to the people that need them these books can show a child who is on the verge of suicide that there are others experiencing the same

131thing that they are important and then they do matter we need to find common ground we all want our children to receive a quality education in a safe environment to that end i say let's stop worrying about what books are on the library shelves and start focusing on more important matters such as safety in our schools and finding teaching and supports there that can educate our children so that they can become productive and successful adults the mission of my support group is to write a safe space for parents to tell their stories ask questions and share resources so they can go back and support their children we don't want our children to be part of the statistics i quoted we have over 130 parents on our mailing list and i can assure you they feel

132the same way our numbers are going we're not going away no matter how much others try to sweep our kids under the rug my son is now 25 years old and thriving he graduated from college has an apartment a full-time job pays his taxes and is in a long-term and loving relationship with his partner isn't that what we all want for our kids they need us to acknowledge them and support them please just let's just do that thank you for your time [Applause] mike winter road west whiteland numerous speakers last month accused those of us who wanted the genderqueer book removed as being intolerant of transgender students those speakers are missing the point because they're only focused on the existence of a transgender character in the book and not the content of the book itself

133the fact is along with genderqueer there are a large amount of school district library books containing graphic and obscene content with heterosexual characters as well as homosexual and transgender characters our concern is with the content not the characters we are also concerned that these books don't just sit innocently on library shelves in fact this past january neighbor of mine stood right here and told the school board how his daughter's 6th grade teacher gave her a book about gender transition for reading hour now that's one incident that we know about what don't we know about that's the thought that scares us with that said i'd like to draw your attention to another book called all boys aren't blue it is currently in the henderson and rustin libraries i'm going to read you an excerpt where the

134author recalls having sex with his cousin while they were both in their early teens you told me to take off my pajama pants which i did you then took off your shorts followed by your boxers there you stood in front of me fully erected and said taste it this is what boys like us do when we like each other so i finally listened to you the whole time i knew it was wrong not because i was having sexual intercourse with a guy but that you were my family i only did that for about 45 seconds before you had me stop then you got down on your knees and told me to close my eyes that's when you began oral sex on me as well it was the strangest feeling in the world despite the guilt

135i was feeling there was also euphoria after a minute or so you stopped you then laid me on the ground and got on top of me you began humping me back and forth skipping ahead the boys then moved to the bathroom you began stroking yourself in front of me i just stood there nervous because i didn't know what to expect then you began to move slightly you ejaculated into the toilet in front of me that's just one scene in this book federal statutes specifically prohibit obscenity involving minors so what's a minor in pennsylvania it's 18 it's under 18. you have a lot of kids under 18 in your three high schools where this book is at now what most people don't realize and what i want the public to understand tonight is that schools are

136protected by what's known as obscenity exemptions meaning an obscene book such as this one is allowed a school library if it serves an educational purpose if parents like this want books like this removed this is where the focus needs to be as long as this exemption remains in place this problem does not go away now if there are any pennsylvania legislators or candidates or office listening tonight i'm telling you it is time high pass time to remove these books from schools and remove this obscenity exemption i ask you who among you is brave enough to take on this issue and help make our schools safe spaces thank you [Applause] steph anderson and kay whittle steph anderson west ocean township last week many of the secondary schools participated in the yearly glscn day of silence as

137a parent and a taxpayer i was simultaneously heartened by the support shown for this event by our schools teachers and administrators yet dismayed by the community response for those unfamiliar the day of silence is about bringing awareness to the harmful effects harassment and discrimination have on lgbtq people in our schools by wearing black and remaining silent for the day this is an annual event that has been observed for well over a decade as this seems like an easy way to support our lgbtq youth i was shocked by the many people in our community including parents and other students who were up in arms over the day falsely claiming it would be disruptive inappropriate or even exclusionary to participate in it this culminated in heated discussions on social media a flurry of complaints to our district

138and even counter protests which ironically and unfortunately only serve to further confirm the lack of acceptance most lgbtq students face as we witnessed over the last year this is not an isolated incident of non-acceptance recently a flower posted in a westchester neighborhood showcased 80 books which were purported to contain what was deemed as sexually explicit content yet nearly all the books listed are those with lgbtq focused content many of which aren't even sexual in nature despite the fact that there are plenty of books with explicit heteronormative sexual content not listed this as this adds this to the other attacks we've faced over the past few school years on curriculum on equity on conversations about race muslims hot muslim holidays gsa clubs it begs the question what message is this sending to our kids what messages

139are being received by our students i'm truly concerned that if we continue to give credence to these attacks we will see an increase not only in the mental health struggles of our students but in harassment and bullying of populations of students who are already struggling as well because kids look to us not books for instruction they look to the adults in the room for guidance on how to act and how to speak so if the adults in the room keep attempting to diminish the voices the representation and most importantly the experiences of our most vulnerable students we are opening the door for kids to do the same to their own peers we have to address the impact these ongoing attacks by our community are having on our student population all students are protected and have

140every right to be represented in our schools whether that be by books by classroom lessons by clubs or by events the district motto is educating and inspiring our students to achieve their personal best students are hindered from achieving their personal best when they are constantly being told that who they are whether that be sexual about their sexuality their gender their race their religion isn't acceptable we cannot give fearful community members the ability to infringe upon the rights that all students have to a free public education an education where all students are represented and supported to be their best selves thank you hi my name is kay whittle and i live in east christian township and i'll be reading because other people have said what i want to say better than i have i can't but

141i would say they do not support the ban of these books from the secondary schools i think books are powerful i i feel like that the the discussion earlier or the reading earlier was supposed to be to be surprising and horrifying and i'm going to say that i don't think it is what i heard was an expression of human sexuality and i do think that part of what students are in school to learn is about themselves about their bodies about other people and about the world around them i support inclusivity and diversity in the selection of books that engage our students interests and inform their understanding of their bodies and their sexuality and i want to say that i worked in the library put myself through school working in a library and i was not

142not a librarian but i um was really i did acquisitions work and i wanted to assure people that books are not selected for libraries [Music] randomly that that books are researched and recommendations are made and professionals others who understand what our students need actually speak to the kinds of books that appear on shelves in our library and i think that's very important and i just want to say that i trust the educational professionals and the libraries to make decisions good decisions strong decisions about the books that appear on the shelves in our library i would hope to see inclusive works and diverse works and works that respect the sexuality among other characteristics of our student population so i'm not afraid of that and i hope that uh that you i would like to see that

143the the books that our professionals and that our students uh enjoy and learn from stay on our bookshelves so thank you very much brian zucker and then hello thank you for the opportunity to speak tonight my name is brian zepka i grew up and currently reside in westchester my township is west goshen i'm a gay man and the author of the young adult novel the temperature of me and you my book was recently featured in an anti-lgbtq flyer targeting the westchester area school district's library collection it was one of over 80 titles labeled as sexually explicit and a danger to our children my book is neither sexually explicit nor a threat to any child the temperature of me and you takes place in a fictional westchester it follows a 16 year old boy on his

144quest to find his first love he works at a dairy queen based off the one next to giant and burger king on westchester pike he likes video games and paint by number kits and he goes on his first dates at starbucks and ridley creek state park this is not about the fact that my book is sexually explicit this is about the fact that the main character in my book is gay and trying to ban this book for that reason is wrong because these actions are based on lies and fear the efforts to ban books across the country are frustrating and sad but it was uniquely painful to have westchester parents accuse me of endangering their children in a community i care so deeply about coming of age as a queer person is often isolating and

145lonely lgbtq kids in westchester lack of the privilege of walking into town and having their relationships validated at every corner without an accepting family peer support group or large queer community many turn to books or media to find themselves reflected on the page or screen in a previous school board meeting discussion around the novel genderqueer members of the public hoping to remove the book argue that there must be another more appropriate option i'd like to point out that only three percent of published young adult books in 2019 featured lgbtq characters this number is slow to rise due to efforts like these flyers in our community that continue to bury our goals every lgbtq storyline provides nuanced representation in an otherwise dismissive world these books are not just books they are lifelines earlier this month i

146visited rustin high school to discuss my book i would like to share one of the messages i received afterwards this is a quote from a student there's been so much negativity recently but it's so good to know that lgbtq people from small towns like westchester can make a huge difference you showed me that no matter who i am who i love will not stop me from doing what i want to do being who i want to be and leaving an impact on other people as these challenges to the book collection continue to arise i hope you will pause to ask yourself if your most vulnerable student cannot see themselves reflected in their home or at school and then they turn to the library where the lgbtq section has been cleared how could they ever feel

147like they belong in westchester thank you [Applause] my name is bob leopold of thornbury township i'm appalled by the ignorance and the tolerance on display and some of the public comments that we've heard of these meetings especially but not exclusively the pseudo-scientific mumbo-jumbo we've heard from the tag team of mcfarland and manos i'm not an expert on sexual orientation or gender identity but i do know enough to know that kids aren't being taught to be gay and trans in schools and they're not learning to be gay and trans by reading library books while not an expert on sexual orientation and gender identity i am sorry to say that i do have some first-hand knowledge of the cost of ignorance and intolerance 42 years ago my youngest brother the sweet funny creative high school student shot

148himself in the head my mother was out of the shopping trip got home to find the note and lock the bathroom door she called my dad a dentist who left his patient sitting in the chair while he went home broke the lock off the door to find his youngest son dead we still don't know for sure that he was gay although there was some circumstantial evidence of that but we do know that he was being bullied mercilessly at school because other students thought he was gay one thing that keeps me up at night when i can bear to think of it at all is that somewhere along the way he might have heard me say some of the stupid anti-gay things that ignorant teenage boys and others are want to say that's a thought that

149haunts me to this day so i'd ask all the parents who are intent on protecting their children this question what if in protecting your children from the imaginary arms of indoctrination grooming and library books you're doing real harm to other children by creating environment exclusion and intolerance i hope none of the students in this district follow in my brother's footsteps but if they do i hope everyone in this room takes a good hard look in the mirror and asks themself if their actions made such an event more likely or less likely me i want to be on the less likely side [Applause] um hi everyone my name is davao gupta i'm from west waiking township and i'm a senior at west chester east high school this year i took on the position of co-president of

150my school's gender sexuality alliance and it warms my heart to know that i have helped to create a safe space in my school not just for lgbtq plus youth but for anyone who just wants a place to express themselves socialize and have fun it's spaces like these that allow students to feel safe and accepted for who they are even if it doesn't conform to what society expects of them this acceptance can have drastic effects on the mental health of lgbtq plus students and as my co-president and friend wesley mentioned having at least one supportive adult can reduce the risk of a suicide attempt amongst lgbtq plus youth by 40 percent at the last meeting that i attended statements were made that claiming that being lgbtq plus causes kids to become more depressed and to commit

151suicide more often while it is true that students who are part of this community are at higher risk for mental illnesses it is not because of their sexuality or gender identity bullying harassment abuse hate crimes and other forms of systemic discrimination are what really contribute to why we are suffering more than our heterosexual and cisgender counterparts furthermore destroying our safe spaces is only going to cause the prevalence of depression and other mental health issues amongst lgbtq plus youth to increase you cannot take away our emotional and social support systems and then claim that we're at risk because of our sexual orientation and gender identity the best way to protect all students not just those who are lgbtq plus is to make sure that they have spaces that allow them to express themselves and to feel

152safe accepted and loved in a few months i'll be leaving the westchester area school district and i want to make sure that east high school's gender sexuality alliance remains a safe space for students of all gender identities and sexualities and that it remains available for them to enjoy and partake in thank you [Applause] hi i'm amy figuere of west christian township i have the questions and concerns about the sel or social emotional learning work being done in the district one what are the curriculum materials being used to teach this at each level in the district are these curriculum materials being made available to the parents before they are used with their children if so where are they available are they easily and readily accessible for us to view i did see there was a zoom

153community mountain table about this social emotional learning earlier this month the first session in the series was stated to focus on the five competencies of social emotional learning and how these competencies are essential in the classroom and in the home it's stated that we will establish self-awareness self-management social awareness relationship skills and responsible decision making as a foundation for social emotional behavior and academic growth first the skills listed self-awareness self-management social awareness relationship skills responsible decision making are unclear and subjective and most importantly the responsibility of parents to teach second trying to connect these skills to academic growth is a stretch to say the least where is the data to support this in my experience teaching academics supports academic growth two what was the process for choosing and improving the scl curriculum was the community

154awareness being implemented in our district with parent community input taken into account is so how were committees formed were these committees composed of a troop frost section of our district three who paid for this curriculum what company and who is benefiting from this billions in federal public relief money for schools are being used for these programs advocates and companies that produce these materials lobby congress and the federal education part department to ensure legislative language precisely matches what they're selling nationwide sales of excel materials shot up 45 in the past year and a half to 765 million dollars in 2021. three what kind of training did teachers and staff receive when implementing the seo curriculum how could they have been adequate i've been a pennsylvania public school teacher for 20 years and in no way my

155qualified to teach such a curriculum in school i was called pedagogy and my subject area took one course on educational psychology i'm a good teacher but i'm not a counselor do not have the resources and education to act as one and do not pretend to be one the reason i have some of these questions and i'm concerned is that the social emotional learning is often explained by administrators and teachers as a way to teach children empathy manage emotions and build healthy relationships this is very ambiguous language and at the discretion of the teacher in addition these lessons are not the school's job as each it is our job as parents to teach these lessons and facilities values across the state of pa right now the pssa is being given is the test of academic subjects

156how does the sel impact their degree curriculum how much time is taken away from academic subjects to focus on sel and couldn't this time be better spent actually educating our kids thank you in advance for taking the time to consider my questions [Applause] hi leanne smith west wesleyan township i think there was a sediment lost last month there are many books in our libraries that are not appropriate for even high school aged children some book topics include sexually explicit material stories of physical and sexual abuse and even some child grooming books that are listed for ages 18 plus like the complete idiot's guide to tantric sex high schoolers need to read that guys that's an ebook in the high school library there are plenty of heterosexual books it has nothing to do with that it

157is content not character i think you need to take a fine-tooth comb to the libraries in the district i've been sorely disappointed in this school district one thing i mentioned at the parents sel zoom meeting is that the number one thing of importance to my children's schooling would be transparency it doesn't seem that's an important issue with the district sometimes it seems hard to get as simple answers from district employees sel is another topic since when did teachers become counselors are they being trained to do so is that taking away valuable teaching time i understand that some children need additional assistance and they should be treated in conjunction with the parents not without them i am all for helping everyone that needs help with mental health should i even started seeing a therapist recently but

158that cannot be achieved without the parents involved and again i'll ask with no answers how much has this all cost the district and the taxpayers i believe it's my job as a mother to teach my children social emotional learning which has started at home when they were babies with all that being said i am so disappointed with the schooling that i've decided to remove my children from the district at the end of this school year it makes me sad to be removing my children from the only school they've ever known but i feel that it's in the best interest of my family to do so i feel like there is no transparency i've asked yes or no questions i don't get answers um it's just really sad and i think you know i think there

159there could possibly be more children leaving the district than you could be aware of thank you [Applause] hi good evening my name is lisa mansuedo i'm from the borough of westchester i'm the mother of three boys two of whom have already graduated and one who's a freshman at ruston next year all right should i start over you get my time back all right um my name is lisa mansueto uh borough of westchester i'm a mother of three boys two of whom have already graduated and one who is a freshman at rustin my concerns have been growing for some time really revolving around the communication to the parents but also about what really appears to be a systemic lack of common sense and really questionable leadership i was asked to read some expert excerpts from some

160of these books and i asked to take a look at it before i agreed to do so um and i will say that the ones i'm about to read to you have nothing to do with lgbtq they have nothing to do with diversity equity or inclusion or sel one this book is called tricks and it's exactly what it sounds like it's straight up pornography with a hefty dose of cocaine heroin prostitution and rape this book is available to be checked out in all three high schools now my son is 14 years old so i just ask you to think about that as you listen to this i already paid 200 for a good time with you might as well make it very good he's on me yanking my hair pushing me to my knees he

161flips me over you're even prettier from behind did you know that i heard his zipper lower it is the loudest sound ever he yanks down my shorts in a single swift motion he is on me humiliating me in every possible way right here on the kitchen floor as promised he is rough biting pounding shredding ripping for a fleeting second i think maybe someone will come through the door to save me and then despite everything that's happened to me i laugh out loud save me what did he say i already paid for a good time with you i've been sold and just who would sell me the answer is all too obvious my mother under the sink i find the pine saw carry it to a shower it stings which means it's working i scrub my

162body over and over washing away all the evidence of this afternoon on tv they want you to call the cops tell but what do i say hey mom took money to let some guy rape me who would believe that but i would ask you who would believe that this is an appropriate thing for our children to be reading in high school [Applause] alexis cooper and susie whitman alexis creeper alexis cooper west scotia township um imagine procuring books for school libraries and deciding to include books in print or online that contain foul language graphic descriptions of sexual situations including rape sexual abuse and aggressive physical acts such as digital penetration how about self-help books that claim to improve one's sex life with detailed illustrations of sexual acts it's reality of our school libraries and the attention

163of the school librarians seem to feel that minors should have access to all types of content even if the content is not age appropriate here's a poem from the book milk and honey he guts her with his fingers like he's scraping the inside of a cantaloupe clean henderson's online library contains the book the complete idiot's guide to tantric sex one of the objectives of this book is to and i quote these five chapters reveal a new view of sex and orgasm how to truly make love making last what to do to get fit together and all the steps to having the most exciting and fulfilling nights together here's another quote from the book on his nights of pleasure let him know that you are totally his servant you are there to please him and he

164does not have to do anything in return these passages pale in comparison to some of the other content found in these books i included the most graphic examples on these posters for everyone to see which brings me to my next point if parents challenge books over sexual content and in the committee's form to review the book in question why is it acceptable to allow minors on these book review committees to read sexually graphic materials if this happened in any other social setting an adult would be facing charges yet schools have all the protections and zero accountability in regards to exposing innocent youth to things that are unsuitable leave the controversial matters to the parents we know what's best for our children thank you [Applause] um so there's you know some illustrations and i know the

165principal but i will have this stuff out in the hall so if anybody wants to look at it out there thank you your time is up thank you my name is susie whitton and i'm from west ocean township and i was asked to read an excerpt one of the other women just read some from tricks the book and i was given this to read and i guess from what i understand this is obviously about sexual matter but not in the s and alcohol and drug use and everything else and i'm just i'm just really uh taken back by the fact that this is in my child's school i remember encyclopedia britannica i remember getting books from the dewey decimal system i don't remember any of this stuff being in there when i was a child

166or in high school any of that and it just really i just questioned the people that are in charge of getting these books what exactly is their purpose i mean did they actually read the books or were they recommended were they paid off i don't understand this i mean this is just like swollen with desire demanding lips still locked to mind she remembered what if i gave you this her hound her hand found my own urged it along her body's contours all the way to the place between her legs the one i had never asked for the heated moment yada yada i mean it just i don't even read this stuff and i'm an adult and i'm not saying you can't as an adult but that's my choice my minor children do not have the

167choice when that is in their in their book collection i shouldn't even be in a public school system they have libraries chester county library system if they want to explore something there they can go to those libraries there's over 15 you know destiny libraries in the chester county system and you know it's something that i would like to talk to my children about not you not the librarians not everybody in school it's not their place to decide what my children have access to in their libraries it makes me sick to my stomach that this has to even be a concern of mine that these kids are you know exposed to this well and i realized that with the internet the kids unfortunately have ex you know they're exposed to a lot more things than we

168were when i was a child that we didn't have the internet and things like that but i also remember that innocence that i had and that finding these things like this just takes that away from my kids and my my daughter will be starting anderson next year maybe at this point because this really disappoints me as a parent it makes me really sad you know that this stuff is even accessible you know so thank you for letting me share [Applause] donna and tammy mayer i'm not at my address is east goshen township upon witnessing the board's recent actions and approving a sexually explicit book namely genderqueer and establishing these gsa clubs i have come to one conclusion your actions far exceed your mandate which is to educate our children in the basic modalities of reading

169science man history etc oh computer science never did that mandate include exquisite sex and transgenderism we we as parents and grandparents are requesting that you step back and examine your recent actions first of all this issue of sexual confusion in our children is not for you to just to handle in my professional experience i have noted that it is far better to refer these children to those professionals equipped to help family physicians pediatricians child psychologists and the theologians all of which have experienced great success in dealing with a confused child yes the stress can be deep and troubling but with professional loving counseling it can be alleviated as a medical professional i have witnessed these changes and i highly endorse this avenue of relief an issue which i trust you have fully uh you're fully

170aware of is the board's potential liability have you thought about it there are school districts all over our country suing school boards because of this type of action excuse me i think you're opening up yourself to problems and i would caution you make sure you've got that liability our children are precious but we're not going to subject them to the wrong kind of treatment be wise but over and above that do what your mandate requires of you do no harm check out matthew 18 verse 6. amen [Applause] township i was planning to talk about something different um but i need to switch gears for a moment and just say two things one is i am appalled that this school board just sat here and said nothing not a peep when a gentleman stood up in

171this microphone and called out two community members by name that should never have been allowed and if they called your names in out if they called each of you out by name it specifically says in policy 903 which we are reviewing tonight that that's unacceptable and yet you all found it perfectly acceptable that a community member should be called out by name in this room i'm shocked shocked that not one of you had the courage to sit here to stand up and say that is not allowed in this room excuse me mr gary please do not interrupt you're being disruptive i'm not yes you are you are and i i don't have that opportunity i'm sorry but you you're running my clock right now i just want to address that i i don't i didn't

172ask you to address it okay well you're asking the board to address it and i would like to speak on their behalf that is why i'm here i i don't understand because i've i've been up at this podium and i have asked questions many times and not once has this board ever answered my question there have been many questions asked by this audience tonight and not one of us have ever been answered generally speaking that's blatantly false because i sit here at every single one of these meetings and there are other means there are occasions i take that back there are occasions where there are some answers but it specifically says in your policy that you do not allow back and forth we do not and this is a public comment period this is not

173a public comment and question uh question and answer period so you're saying that in this particular in this particular session are you suggesting that in this particular session the the community is allowed to have a back and forth with the board is that what you're getting at no that's not what i'm getting at this is a public comment opportunity you're allowed to make your public comments i advise oftentimes this board not to engage not to answer questions okay there are other means in which questions can be asked and answers can be delivered to the public that happens day in and day out by phone calls and emails and i witness every single one of these board members after meetings address individually and groups of people after the meeting after the meetings and before the meetings

174there are great opportunities for that and that that occurs each and every meeting but this board is not going to engage each and every individual that makes a public comment tonight or asks a question but but what i'm saying is i understand that but you're you're now saying that you're going to stop me so that you can reprimand me for what i've just said however you didn't stop the person who actually called the names out in public i'm confused i'm sorry i am i'm not saying that to be difficult and i'm very confused i cannot stop a community member from naming somebody else they did not make a threatening comment at that point i would have asked did not make threatening comments however i can't stop somebody from saying somebody else's name so let's continue

175i ask that you finish your public comment you have about a minute and 50 seconds remaining the other comment that i want to make is with regard to the flyer that was just handed out by dr sokolowski i again am so i don't even know what we're to use at this point that there's not a single mention of a parent involved in anything on this sheet of paper which tells me and it tells the community exactly what we've been concerned about all along which is you don't care about the parents perspective or the parents involvement because you don't even document it as something that is a successful thing and you don't document it as something that you're interested in even addressing there's literally no mention of parental involvement on this entire document i just think

176this is wrong i don't think we're heading in the right direction here on this i applaud you for your desires to do the right thing i just don't think that you're you're heading in the right direction and that you're doing the right thing for kids and parents alike i'm asking you to please reconsider the parent involvement and what you're doing and care about what parents think care about what we say care about what we want our kids to know and to learn from us not from administrators thank you [Applause] the second document that was passed out was actually an invitation for parents to learn more about scl and we actually i have referring to the document that you referred to noting the goals of sel and how successful it is the goals don't mention parents

177the successes don't mention parents that's what i was getting at oh cry christian callahan marionella claus good evening my name is christian callahan i live in the west wetland township and i i'd like to thank you school board directors for what you do i know you spend a lot of time and effort in doing what you do here so i do want to thank you for that i'm here tonight to highlight a book i think is inappropriate in three of the school all through school high school libraries this book is called beyond magenta and i'd like to just read a brief passage from this book i was sexually mature what i mean by sex and mature is that i knew about sex from age six i used to kiss other guys in my neighborhood make

178out with them and perform oral sex on them i liked it i used to love oral and i touched their you-know-whats we were really young but that's what we did so this book um in the high school libraries has material that apparently is deemed suitable for minor students a six-year-old performing oral sex this book is not suitable this language is not appropriate a six-year-old is just not right on wikipedia it says according to quote according to the american library association this book was the 27th most banned book in the united states between 2010 and 2019. wikipedia also says this book was one of the top 10 most challenged books in 2019 and in 2015 unquote so i strongly urge you to remove this book and others like it from the school libraries thank you [Applause]

179and then mary moore good evening my name is mary moore and i live in westchester and um this is tiernan i'll light up looking at you because i think your husband taught my brothers henderson and i think he knows where they actually sat in class i have three children who well two are graduated from the westchester school system and i have a child in 11th grade my one son william he's autistic and i can't complement the school system enough because they saved his life when he was suicidal they um helped get got him the help he needed and he's really thriving now i'm very very proud of him i have a gay daughter and she very safely made it through high school as she said there were comments made but she knew she was always

180in a safe place it was a difficult thing to come out um i also grew up with a gay brother so i know what it used to be like at those times and i i can't tolerate listening to um pulling little excerpts out of books i was a reader i read everything always and um i just think access to information is essential to make a whole person um i wanted you to know i came tonight because i just seen what was happening and um and i wanted you to know that i strongly support the work that you do i support the election that puts you in place i can't thank you enough for this it's tedious work i know because i sat through this meeting i thought i would lose my mind and please no

181i thank you for staying sane through the core petition and that the great majority of people um do not agree with those ludicrous claims i just thank god we don't have something like smallpox and people crying about masks i work with children i work with kindergarten through high school and the dyslexia interventionist it was difficult to work with masks i never heard a single child complain about it most of them would tell you i don't want to make grandma sick they were beautiful children they sacrifice for the community as we raise them and as they are supported in school to do i want to thank you for defending defending our diverse student body and know that i will be here remain here uh to for that because the bullying is unacceptable thank you [Applause] and

182megan reich good evening um and thank you for what you do and thank you for this opportunity my name is bobby suryk and i'm a resident of east bradford township i'm a taxpayer a parent a grandparent and a former teacher and i can no longer attend these meetings and remain quiet that the board the administration and the teachers have made these recent decisions because they feel the need to sexualize our students and attempt to keep parents at bay is a sad commentary in education today another subject the 1619 project created by new york times correspondent and won a pulitzer for commentary rather than history which is noteworthy in itself or as some have called it a drama project haters of this great country have seized on this ideology and began the onslaught of how to

183change the country by starting with the children and hence has crept into our schools thus the genesis of crt and the sexualizing of children of course the program comes with more high paid exports who always know what is best for the children i understand that position pays a six figure salary the teachers union and the national level at the national level with randy weingarten at the helm who explained why it's bad idea for parents to get involved in the curriculum and i quote her this is a way in which wars start we know and you can look it up the union and randy weingarten made a deal with the cdc to keep the schools closed and they complied just as the local at the local level the schools relied on the chester county health department

184who relied on flawed statistics to keep the oppressive mandates in place all of this created fear and anger and awakened the parents who fortunately became aware of the indoctrination of their children without their input or consent it is past time to write this ship and say no more much has been done to our children during the extended lockdowns including delayed development delayed speech lags in their academic performance interruptions in social social and emotional development and created unnecessary fear and so much more statistics are being compiled on the sacrifices the children and parents have made thankfully the secret is out parents and others are standing up and speaking out to hold those who made the decisions accountable thank you for your time [Applause] good evening my name is megan reichel i live in east ocean school

185is more than just academics it's about transitioning our children to adulthood and as a parent of ninth and seventh graders each passing day is a stark reminder of how independent they want to be or how independent they already are and the goal of parenthood in my mind is to prepare them for a life in which they contribute to the world however that fits their individuality that's my job as a parent but i can't discount the way that the hours spent in school prepare them for college or the workforce and the great wide world that awaits them there's recently been some wonderful things happening in the schools i want to talk about elena had spoken about the cross blood drive at east and i was so proud my high schooler gained a real appreciation for a

186vital community service simply by holding a friend's hand and now plans to donate next year when for a long time they have had a needle phobia and i'm proud of the long-standing tradition of westchester area school district students participating in day of silence i am like i said i have the two children one at east and one at fugit and my kids were fully aware that this was an optional event my oldest wanted to participate with fellow gsa members in wearing a day of silence shirt unfortunately was sick that day and my youngest heard about wearing black in solidarity with lgbtq students and allies initially i was like yeah no i'm not interested and then actually accidentally we're black anyway because that's the bulk of their wardrobe and east gsas are wonderful clubs and i'm

187so thankful for both the students involved and the teachers who serve as supervisors i appreciate the administration's leadership the board's leadership in facilitating an environment where students can exercise their right to peacefully protest my list is autistic and i'm also thankful for the autism spirit weeks in honor of autism acceptance month that the schools are holding i really love how the themed days embrace narrow diversity and educate about differences my middle schoolers really excited to have this weekend with the pj day and i'm really looking forward to hearing what autism foundations the proceeds go to thank you very [Applause] and much wood hi judy defonso i still live in east ocean i had prepared something i was going to tell you about my cat temple and how he um misunderstood some body language when i

188was talking to my son because i was very kind of full of emotion and stuff like that and i decided to talk about something else tonight in hearing people come here to the podium i hear a lot of parents who have a lot of questions now i've been coming to these school board meetings for quite a while and i think i have a very good understanding of how things work what the rules are a lot of the inner goings i've taken trainings through the iu i've taken trainings through the school district i've done trainings through penn state department of education um and i feel like i'm very well informed but i know that that took a lot of time and effort and and i see your parents with a lot of questions and they say

189when you come to a podium and you're asking a board come with an ask come with something specific and i'm asking you tonight to consider especially in light of the fact that we do have a lot of personal changes to maybe have a question and answer session with parents and the administration um we can have it moderated by the ptoc where we have you know let's just say them filtering through so we don't have duplication but to kind of get parents better informed i mean i really don't know what the what how the library books are chosen there has to be a criteria they need to be age appropriate i'm not sure what the rubric is for um picking those sorts of things and i've been very involved for a very long time the social

190emotional learning package i'm familiar with because i attended an mtss um meeting up you know sponsored by pde i got a parent scholarship to it and it was one of the programs that was used by the city of boston that's what i know about it i'm not too familiar with it but i was figuring well if it's good enough for boston and you know they were doing a good job with it it's probably a good program for westchester as well but again i'd like to see more transparency we used to win awards for transparency um back in the day i think it's mostly the website but you know just to have the information out there to to really educate the parents because we're with you we come to the podium and we really want the

191students to do their personal best and we want to work with you and the whole thing is that i think we need to come together and have better communication so that can happen more realistically so uh something to think about over the summer maybe we could start something like that and october after all that uh back to school open houses are done so thank you [Applause] hi nancy wood east bradford we've been hearing an awful lot about parental rights lately but students have rights too i have to imagine this is a scary time for wcasd students grappling with sexual orientation or gender identity if there's any doubt that the lgbtq community in our schools has been under attack stop and think about what has happened here over the past couple of months a candidate for

192governor publicly attacked our wcas d-lead student gsa clubs a non-supportive community member publicly demanded that the district provide a head count of lgbtq students in our schools there have been calls for bans on books with lgbtq representation numerous posts on social media have called our teachers rumors and pedophiles and claim that parents have a right to be notified if students express sexual orientation or gender identity at school there was a counter protest against a student-led demonstration to highlight the harassment and discrimination lgbtq students face as we've heard tonight hateful anti-lgbtq flyers were posted in our community last month and tonight in this very meeting lgbtq students and their families courageously spoke explaining the impact of these attacks and what type of support and protection they need to feel safe in our community immediately afterward we

193had community members stand up here and attempt to invalidate their perspectives and actively work against the needs that they described for students in our schools who are questioning their sexual or gender identity especially those who do not have supportive families at home this must be a terrifying time these students deserve to know their rights and it's critical that our teachers staff and administrators understand student rights as well the aclu of pennsylvania has a fact sheet entitled know your rights a quick guide for lesbian gay bisexual and transgender high school students among other things the fact sheet points out that students have a right to be out in school if they want to be no one including teachers and school staff have a right to out a student even to their parents students have a right

194to form gsa clubs in schools like arts where non-curricular clubs are permitted these and other student rights are protected with legal precedent the aclu has provided this back sheet and resources for students who have questions or are concerned their rights have been violated i am officially requesting that the district make this fact sheet publicly and widely available in our high schools to both students and teachers i'll follow up with an email so you have it readily available for review and i also have a few copies here tonight for anyone who would like one thank you for your consideration [Applause] melissa bennett and then jen mcfarland i'd like to yield my time to my son jude hello i'm jude bennett johnson i live in west ocean township i'm also a sophomore at westchester east high school

195i really like the new schedule i think it gives me a little more freedom throughout the day it's pretty cool i like a half hour just a little break it gives me a freedom of choice to choose an extra class and speaking of freedom of choice i don't think that any of these books should be banned because we at east high school as students have the right to choose what we want to read and if you want to if you as a parent want to have a conversation with your children about what they're reading and why they're reading it etc that's fine but you should not be depleting others access to their own literature or information because they can have their own conversations with their parents and there needs to be like access in order

196to further the conversation about sexuality about gender and just about overall identity as a young adult because as a teenager you are trying to find your own identity and taking these books away does not help us it only limits how we try to explore our own identities as teams thank you [Applause] uh just as a point of order i was told in a previous meeting that i was not allowed to seek my time to anyone okay so to address that the comment card was filled out for both the parent and the son and indicated that he was a student and she is a resident and taxpayer of the district so they were proper registrants for public comment thank you is that clarified thank you jen mcfarland east bradford championship sorry i'm just laughing at the

197clock um we've been members of this audience have been mistakenly identified as anti-gay anti-lgbtq homophobic i can assure you that that is none of the above um we are not anti-bullying we're not any of those things our concern is specifically can you give me my family please be respectful of the public monitor let's show tolerance everyone so we're simply here to say that we believe that this material in the library is inappropriately placed there and inappropriate for children of this age whether it's middle school or high school it's just not appropriate for a child whose brain is not developed yet who cannot take the material and make reasonable decisions about their lifestyle and their lifestyle going forward if anyone would care to look up brain development you can look it up on the net lots

198of articles and research out there and will tell you the brain is not fully developed until the age of 25. so um again we're not against those lifestyles in fact i have a reading for you from heterosexual book just as the bradys were getting locked in jail and this book is called looking for alaska and it's in the high schools have you ever gotten a blow job uh that's not the blue the blue you know like left out of left field left field like like in baseball like out of nowhere what made you think of that i've just never given one she answered her voice dripping with seductiveness it was so brazen and i thought i would explode i never thought i mean from alaska hearing that stuff was one thing but to hear her

199sweet little romanian voice go on so sexy all of a sudden no i never had i think it would be fun yeah do i um yeah i don't i mean you don't have to i think i wanted to we kissed a little and then with me sitting up watching the brady bunch watching marsha marshall marsha up to a brady antics laura unbuttoned my pants and pulled my boxers down a little and pulled out my penis what she looked up at me but didn't move her face nanometers away from my penis it's weird what do you mean weird just big i guess i could live with that kind of weird she wrapped her hand and put it into her around it and put it into her mouth should i do something i don't know everything i

200learned from watching foreign with alaska suddenly exited my brain i thought maybe she should move her head up and down but when that choker so i just stayed quiet should i bite it like don't bite i mean i don't think i mean i think that felt good i don't know if there's something else so i could go on i could continue reading about this sexual encounter um not really sure about the literary value of it not clearly not sure about the literary value of genderqueer which is just cartoons so um i question as to why these things are in the library and continue to be in the library and one question i have one question is it okay to traumatize non-lgbtq kids to appease the lgbt community or don't they matter [Applause] amanda greenberg and

201then thank you hi um thanks for everybody's patience tonight i know it's been a long night um i'd like to bring up another name oh i'm sorry amanda greenberg east ocean sorry i'm still getting the hang of this um i'd like to bring up another book um again it's not lgbtq so it's got nothing to do with any of that it's just the content that i feel is inappropriate it's called easy written by kerry cohen kaufman well the book is written as a cautionary tale and can possibly deter some people specifically girls from becoming sexually active before they're emotionally ready it's really not uh the graphic nature and the fact that it's a 14 year old girl having sex with older men which is statutory rape just so everybody's clear is inappropriate for children some

202may read it as a cautionary tale but some more immature minds can read it as a how-to on how to gain dangerous attention when not receiving any positive attention at home this is evidenced by the 14 year old girl in the book describing the decay of her family's situation and feeling neglected by the people in her life and wanting to look elsewhere for attention and realize that using sex is a great way to gain that attention if this board is going to insist on keeping sexually explicit materials in our tax-funded taxpayer-funded libraries where young impressionable and not yet fully developed minds go then i'm an action oriented person so i actually have a suggestion um i think there should be an 18 plus section of the library kind of like when we were all younger

203there was an 18 plus section of the video stores where it was behind a curtain and all of that you know why can't we just have a section in the library that's in the back behind you know curtin or something and on the student ids they have an endorsement that that says they are either 18 or older or that their parents have signed off and given permission for them to have access to this sexually explicit material or you know whether it's violence you know sexually explicit whatever it is these books sure you want to have access to them fine but you have to be an adult legally or have parental permission i'm not saying take it out of the library i'm saying don't put it in a place where miners have access to it because

204miners brains are just not developed enough to be able to process the information and be able to make sense of it that's all i'm asking for i'm not asking to ban it outright i'm not asking for any of that i just want it to be more responsibly laid out for kids because kids deserve to have their innocence for as long as possible because this world is hard and it's going to smack them in the face eventually we don't need to introduce it any sooner than it needs to be [Applause] chris mattos marionella boss and alan oliver if any of these people here all right thank you all for speaking our next meeting a business meeting is may 25th that is a wednesday wait i'm not done wednesday 7 p.m so you can find us here

205at 7 00 pm on wednesday may 25th that we will be voting on the budget and one last please sit down for a minute just a minute thanks i came upon this quite by accident written by e cummings so i'm speaking to you to be nobody but yourself in a world which is doing its best night and day to make you everybody else means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight and never stop fighting the meeting um tonight [Applause] we're talking about choice and we're talking about listening to the voice of our students and students my pledge to you we are going to turn that volume up we are going to hear the student voice [Applause] you