West Chester Area School District Board Meeting 01/24/2022

001i called to order the january 24 2022 meeting of the westchester area school district school board business meeting let's start with a salute to our flag led by shiv ben taraman and shantika kota of the westchester cyber program if we could all stand alright one nation under god indivisible with liberty and justice for all all right dr herbert if you wanted to introduce your students and what they're doing here absolutely so thank you so much for having us this evening one of our responsibilities is the k-5 cyber administrator and i have two wonderful fifth grade students here with me i have shiv then katsuraman and i have cheyenne coda and they'll be telling you a little bit about our creator by cyber program while here while the k-5 cyber program was not initially in the

002district strategic plan westchester developed a program to provide an option for district families throughout the panda land in the first year the native body cyber program had over 1 100 students in it during the school year our data 5 program started with approximately 150 students we have one class for grade currently the teachers work hard to provide the same excellent educational experience that we provide in all of our 11 working workforce elementary schools the students in the elementary sider program have been able to participate in a welcome back social class party learning coaches and we appreciate all they do at home to support their learners [Applause] thank you joining us this evening we also have student representatives from our middle school sidereel joining us this evening we have tia krishna liz flood andrew zoo is

003sydney funds him i've been in the cyber program for the last three years and it's been a wonderful experience i really enjoyed the flexibility the teachers are very supportive and crazy and helpful there are many concerns that cyber program can be formally pursued or program but from my point of view i've had many wonderful experiences through which i was able to interact with other students for example the church will need your 70 children was a great way for me to meet other family students similarly the west chester cyber newspaper club with the wwcc newspaper club was a great way for me to interact with other center years we were able to publish our articles poems and artworks with ease this club helped us to develop a sense of professionalism in our writing in our first

004tradition we were able to you're able to publish many wonderful pieces we were able to form a shedding that worked well with our day-to-day lives we collected many materials and combined it to make a wonderful publication the club members had full freedom of choice of when and how the work was made it was left entirely to the student's wish in the future the club members and our advisor ms chelsea samurai have can get better and improve based on feedback from the years to conclude there are many ways through a cyber student and myself have been able to connect their home schools i have been able to connect with my preschool every week from math count and science olympia club i appreciate being able to represent the wcc newspaper club this evening and thank you all

005for your support hi my name is [Music] also i love the teachers in the program we make sure that the classes are fun my science teacher mrs hager has created their class into the as you learn about the different types of energy she has created in this world where you put in the answer and if it's right it starts to reveal a picture after you after you put in all the correct answers it reveals the entire picture also chooses our assignment scores and turns them into points then we choose from a list of rewards that has been like the chance to read through this title she was created in her class in such a way where i forget that i'm doing school on the computer even though i'm cyber i love the fact that i'm

006also involved with my home building stetson middle school i go to the building to participate in extracurricular activities in my course class but i'm also able to play in my home school volleyball league i love that i'm a stranger to my own school and that i still get to participate in things [Applause] um hi my name is sydney muns and i'm an eighth grader and has been in the westchester cyber program for two years one of the best parts of my experience in the cyber program has been participating in this cyber student leadership committee my favorite part of being a cyber student is being able to work at my own pace i still keep a busy schedule and take advantage of opportunities at my home school and within the cyber program i really enjoyed our

007field chair to churchville nature center i was able to meet the other cyber students for my classes and make new friends i hope the cyber program is able to do more experiences like that being a part of the middle school cyber gifted program has been an amazing experience mr romain has done a phenomenal job at keeping me engaged and supporting me as i explore creative writing i have recently been able to work with the other members of the gifted program on a collaborative project and i have been able to bond with a select group of students and use our resources online to different critically and create together something i know i can use in the future i appreciate being able to represent the westchester cider this evening and thank you for all of your support

008on behalf of the special decider program i thank you for your continued support [Applause] thank you dr barnello thank you dr eberle thank you to our elementary students and our middle school students and i don't know if you can hear me can you hear me thank you for coming so it sounds as though they're having a very good time and uh we appreciate everything that they are doing and is being done for them i think we're going to pause for a picture if you can send everybody up all right all [Music] yep i can get sydney just behind you so i'm just so if you just hold that in front of you that would be great train right there for you there you are all right all righty okay we're smiling but you can't tell

009it and uh could you just move over just a bit there and i'll get sydney right behind you thank you so much and one more thank you all great job thank you [Music] thank you [Applause] thank you so thank thank you um i think that everybody who's all the way to the back or to move up to the front seats don't you okay okay i'll give up on that now you may get up and come forward if you would like to be closer to us next on the agenda mrs cheryshore is roll call for the board vice president here director chester director here director here thank you that leads to public comments on agenda items if you have filled out a card the table in the fact mr jennings will call you to the microphone

010and he will do an intro thank you very much this is now the time period for public comment on agenda items before the board this evening persons wishing to make public comment were required to sign in prior to the designated start time of this meeting when a public commenter's name is called i ask that they please approach the podium and begin by stating their first name last name and municipality if an individual is providing public comment on behalf of a group or entity please state your route or entity affiliation public comments will be limited to two minutes per person per current board policy the two minute time talk will be projected on the screen at the end of the two-minute time period the next public commenter will be called please note all the comments at

011this portion of the meeting are to be on agenda items only 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 two minutes or if it is obscene and or threatening in nature we will now call upon the first speaker melissa melissa bennett west ocean township i'm speaking about the calendar which is a consensus some in this room know that i am ordained christian clergy and while i'm not currently working in a congregation i've served christian churches as pastor for 20 years i would like to speak in support of expanding observed holidays beyond judea christian holidays i appreciate that diwali was included this year and hope it will continue to be included in future years and i'm glad to see

012eid al fator in the calendar for next year i hope that when e falls within the school calendar it will be included as well please consider making at least one of the e holidays as a full day off for staff and students rather than a teacher and service day incorporating these holidays in the school calendar is not only good for the students who celebrate them but it is good for all students to know more about the important traditions of their peers it doesn't matter if they are celebrated by the majority of students or not it is good for our community thank you [Applause] so just share melissa with everybody here tonight tonight for the calendar this is a first reading of the calendar our calendars require two readings and we will have an opportunity in

013the february education committee to continue to have the discussions about the 22-23 school year so thank you thank you for taking time to come share your thoughts with us we know getting up to speak is not easy you know that we are listening you know that we are taking notes this is a public business meeting a gathering of people interested in how we are educating our children all right next we will approve the minutes of december 20 2021 school board meeting do i have a motion to approve dr herman as a first mr grinnell as a second comments or questions all right roll call please director harman yes director yes vice president yes director yes director chester yes thank you that will move us to approval of the january 24 2022 school board meeting agenda

014do i have motion to approve dr dietrich dr shaw our first and our second comments or questions all right roll call please director teacher yes director chester yes thank you uh mrs chairshore please add to the meeting minutes for this evening that we met as a board in executive session earlier this evening on legal matters and will you please add that we also met after the 20 the 12th 2021 school board meeting on health and safety on wednesday december 29 2021 on school safety on tuesday january 18th on personnel on thursday january 20th 2022 legal and school safety and we met or as i said earlier tonight so we've had those executive meetings if you will add those to the minutes and that leads us to the superintendent's report dr sokolowski thank you mrs turton

015uh and much good to report uh from the month of january uh as everyone knows last monday we celebrated martin luther king day that was a day off for our students and for our staff but many of our students and our staff members were involved in community service either prior to that day or on that day of january 17th just want to share a few examples at excellent elementary school fifth grade student council volunteers pack bags containing toiletries for the men at the outlet house homeless shelter kindergartners at graystone elementary held the classroom food drive for the westchester food cover homeroom activities morning meetings discussion special classes with more to come regarding dr martin luther king history month was held at stark weather elementary operation gratitude was carried out during the cougar care period at

016bucket middle school during homerooms and this focused on appreciating our first responders and military at east high school both the girls and boys basketball teams continue their tradition of supporting the westchester food cupboard through an annual mlk day food drive and students from all three of our high schools volunteered their time to pack sort and organize canned and non-perishable goods for the chester county food cover so those are just an example of some of the great services that were offered by our students during the month of january a quick little note the second marquee period will end this friday january 28th it was originally scheduled to end on tuesday but with some of the events that we've had with the weather we decided we'd put it back towards the end of the week and that

017will also provide more students if they need to make up work with a little bit more time and here is a great recognition john and the westchester east high school football player was recently named a maxwell football club mini max winner each year 55 players are selected from across the state of pa players were nominated by their coaches throughout the 2021 season and were evaluated based on the criteria that includes football performance academics and community service congratulations to john adam penwood elementary fifth graders held a winter drive for the maternal and child health consortium of chester county the mchc is a non-profit organization dedicated to helping low-income families with young children access the resources and support that they need to stay healthy to help the nchc the pennwood students dropped off boxes filled with coats

018gloves hats socks and sweaters for children in need and here was a great lesson at hillsdale elementary fifth grade students at hillsdale started the new year off by thinking about what one word would inspire them throughout the year based on the book one word by john gordon miss korg's fifth grade class worked together each to choose one word that would inspire them and the rest of the world for the new year the fifth grade student council at fernhill was busy collecting donations for our local spca students created posters shared information with families and volunteered to speak to their classmates about the donation drive the fifth grade student council completed the donation drive and they actually went to the brandywine spca to drop off the donations and treats that they make for the dogs while at

019the spca students spend time volunteering to make toys for animals walk the dogs and spend time with cats wonderful opportunity there a little update on health and safety as many are aware last thursday the chester county health department removed contact tracing in school settings at this time the cchd has determined that due to the current level of community transmission that contact tracing is less effective in the schools as compared to more high-risk settings while the common crown variant certainly impacted us here in westchester earlier in the month we are starting to see an ease of cases as the month continues to progress for example we've seen a 48 decline in student cases as compared to two weeks prior but i would just indicate that case counts are still at very high levels relative to what

020we have seen throughout the school year for example the week of october 4th we had 18 student cases as opposed to 230 that we saw last week and finally january the pennsylvania school board association recognizes that january is school board appreciation month so as a way of saying thanks to our school board for all the time they spend volunteering to help our district move forward we have provided you with certificates of appreciation and bags containing items from our 17 schools so i hope you enjoy that and i was wondering if our board members if you wouldn't mind to reach into your bag we have a very special gift this is a piece of framed original stew artwork from our middle schools and if you wouldn't mind if we could come to the middle and we'll

021take a picture with our artwork and also i have here something here that is so cool what did you get i got a horse we're a little heavy on that side but [Laughter] another thank you so much thank you everybody and this this is a very exciting month we we take these bags home we take them out one by one our families admired what they what we got they feel jealous because sometimes they're uh really nifty things from schools but the pictures that the students do for us are special i have a whole place in my dining room wall where i have student artwork that is certainly some of the best stuff i've got in my house now we are pleased to introduce and have you listen to our high school student representative reports and

022first up is elena rotaro from east high school if you can find yourself unlike that would be good good evening everyone um this has been pretty low key since my last report that we're still finding ways to raise money for fundraisers and achieve a lot of academic and athletic success on the topic of sports cheer placed second in their uca regionals and will advance to their states this coming friday in addition both boys basketball and boyce iced hockey won their games last week against henderson um and as dr sanchez he said boys basketball hosted their mlk annual fundraiser and had much success with that in late december the western east women dive hosted their relays for camp event in coordination with the other two high schools the three teams worked together and raised 3701.90 to

023fight against patriotic cancers this year the money will be donated to help fund the research at dupont hospital for children and their center for code and sorry cancer and blood disorders specifically it will be given to dr aaron crow crow gay a phd who has given a 2500 grant develop patriotic specific cancer geometrics uh so you've been saying further information programs our special olympics bocce ball team was victorious in their first home game of the season against downingtown west in the best of three games east one won against three this marks their first win of the season as well a big shout out to our students that came to show their support the east wrestling team basketball teams had some excellent sharing skills and the cheers team provided a peppy walkout for the athletes to

024run through the smiles on their faces were priceless and special olympics liaison said it was the best entrance they'd had in a long time the dogs were back in the library this last friday and east was more than happy to welcome murphy meatball and otis it was a great time to get the chance to relax with some puppies it took everything in me not to take oda's home which would have been very difficult because he was probably over 200 pounds nahs had their tea party last wednesday where members poured colored tees into paper and sketched what they found in the tea dry marks the room smelled absolutely amazing with all the tea bags opened and everyone had a great time enjoying the creative juices teas flowing be sure to check out all of nahs art

025at the annual coffeehouse art show this coming march 11th that concludes my report on beast thank you [Applause] elena are you a senior i am yeah william yes davis yep interesting interesting it is now january and you are past the halfway mark up just about and i would imagine that thoughts of what's coming next are just as important to you right now as your parents are home weeping as what is behind you so we still appreciate you're coming to fill us in on what's happening at your high schools and if you have any thoughts as you go through this process of looking ahead or looking behind and making some comments for us we we really value those as well all right william from henderson hello and good evening everyone my name is gordon i'm the

026school representative for henderson high school uh the month of january was a very busy month for the clubs here at henderson high school the android hicks foundation announced its relaunching of the warrior guides program for anyone who doesn't know the warrior guides program is a mentorship and leadership program where students are matched with chester 4th through 6th graders in an attempt to lead them through the andrew hicks foundation program which attempts to prep them for college and careers beyond high school and the andrew hicks foundation uses warrior guys as a way of introducing these children to these programs the henderson bsu black student union held its annual mlk food drive they collected over 2 000 cans at the mountain center in downtown westchester and then donated them to the westchester food cupboard in athletics henderson

027basketball uh now has its first winning season in over six years and are looking to make a state playoff run uh henderson wrestling has continued its dominance over the chessmont league and is currently undefeated in dual mean play and henderson swimming continues it's more than stellar performance i would say of winning chestnuts the last three years and as dr president kenyon was saying as it is my senior year i am looking forward to what is up next but um i'm also trying to appreciate these last this last year i have with my fellow students and i believe it has been great how much the school has really been trying to foster this school spirit and create this community that was lost due to covet at the end of december we had our first ever december

028spirit week consisting of much like we do at homecoming of spirit days and finishing on friday with a x period of about an hour where students were invited to participate in multiple events uh the most popular of which being the student faculty game uh the students were very sadly defeated by the faculty i believe it was a little rape because there was 22 fouls it's a little angry afterwards but i got over it fast but no it's been great just how much the administration's really been doing to try and create this community and bring students together and i am looking very very much looking forward to college but i really enjoy my senior year so far and i'm looking forward to what's upcoming thank you [Applause] davis hello uh i'm davis patel in first um

029representative uh madison d'ambro uh last year i was the school board representative from ruston uh this year i'm currently the sitting student council president at ruston so it's good to be back and good to see you all so let's get started at ruston on monday for martin luther king day we made 250 bag lunches of sorted sandwiches healthy snacks and water bottles for safe harbor the salvation army the saint agnes day room and the community and youth women's alliance um 250 is more than double the amount of lunches we made last year and for context 250 sandwiches is 28 loaves of bread which i struggled to carry out of the grocery store um i want to give a special shout out to student council vice president ella harrison for coordinating that as she did last

030year it was an excellent success and i'm very glad we got to do it now on to sports our girls basketball team is on a seven game winning streak and is currently 11 and three um our i want to shout out track junior ava alexander who was pa track and field performer of the week she is the best triple jumper in the state and as a leader in many other of her events uh our hockey team last week now on their senior night defeated henderson five to four and last but certainly not least our brand new bonte team defeated east in our their first home match unfortunately we couldn't have spectators due to the rising covered cases but the wrestling students section is very excited to make appearances about your games going forward moving on

031we have our literature for leaders book drive which is going on from now to february 28th we're collecting unwanted books from home to donate to the purple heart foundation last week the hosa future health professionals group had a bake sale to benefit patients with terminal illnesses they raised a lot of money and sold a lot of great baked goods during that day deca is currently preparing for states next month at hershey and this weekend um we have two big trips our model uh team will make its first um away conference um since the pandemic um two years ago we went to the university of virginia and we haven't been able to do anything since this will be the largest malignant delegation rustin has ever sent with 38 students competing over a dozen committees um at

032the university of pennsylvania conference in philadelphia and our science olympiad team last week they went to silent ohio for a competition where they placed in several events our science olympiad team is one of the best in the country and this weekend they will have an overnight meet in northern coconut and uh last but certainly not least our academic team will face off in a rescheduled match also due to covered we rescheduled and we will face downing town west and renaissance on monday uh that concludes my remarks thank you thank you we very much appreciate the three of you coming to update us on what is happening at your schools and also keep us surprised of what is happening in your own lives when you get good news and may have made your decision you can

033let us know but i'm looking at three young people who are going to represent us very well no matter where you go in the world you're very interested all right that leads us to personnel recommendations from dr olmer well thank you very much good evening this is tyrion mr revelaqua and directors of our board our personnel report for the month of january is as follows with removals from payroll we have two resignations one teacher and one secretary we have six retirements for approval cheryl gladioso for power professional at exton elementary school with 18 years of service linda mangold music teacher at penn wood elementary school with 19 years of service betsy mclaughlin english teacher at fugan middle school with 25 years of service and noon school counselor at fern hill elementary school with 17 years

034of service eric patterson mechanic at our warehouse with 26 years of service and deb tim zach for paraprofessional with 17 years of service we wish all of our retirees the best and a happy and healthy new chapter we will miss you all and thank you for our service your service with additions to payroll we're recommending the hiring of four new teachers nine long-term substitute teachers two paraprofessionals one hvac mechanic one library assistant and one custodian in personnel events i communicated for status changes in the professional staff i also communicated and delivered three involuntary transfers two in our professional staff and one in our custodial staff i also communicated and delivered two voluntary transfers in our custodial staff in additional information we are announcing updates updated to 16 start dates the update correction of a previously

035reported name one last date update one resentment of a supplemental one resentment of a paraprofessional job acceptance the approval of a letter of agreement with the westchester area education association for six teachers on assignment for elementary and secondary schools to assist in pandemic related issues and the names of all drivers from crafts bus and on-the-go kids buses we are also awarding tenure to seven teachers according to act 14 of school code which is law to gain tenure an employee must serve three years in a school district or intermediate unit as a temporary professional employee they must have a satisfactory rating during the last four months of the third year and maintain appropriate certification when these requirements are met the employee's status is changed from temporary professional employee to professional employee and they're entitled to a

036professional contract all professional employees must achieve the following to earn 10-year tenure through school code one they must have three years of continuous service two they must have a satisfactory rating during the last four months prior to obtaining tenure three the time counted towards tenure must be at the same institution or in this case the same school district four it can be granted for part-time or full-time employees five they must be working during the entire duration of the three-year probationary period to be granted tenure six substitute teaching in any capacity including long-term subs does not count toward tenure and lastly tenure is granted automatically once requirements have been met we once again congratulate our seven professionals that have earned tenure in tutoring we are recommending the approval of 60 tutors and site managers in supplemental

037contracts we are asking for approval for 10 annual contracts four winter contracts and 112 spring season contracts we are also recommending nine annual adjustments and two winter season adjustments i'm respectfully requesting board approval for all personnel matters listed above thank you very much dr homer i would like to read if you don't mind the names of the seven teachers to whom we have branded tenure i think we always read the names of people we're going to miss terribly but sometimes we don't read into the record although it's in paper the names of the people who are going to be joining our staff and whom we hope will become part of the westchester family and stay for a long time they've shown because we have all the records of what they've done they've shown exemplary service

038for three years and now we are saying they're permanently certified so tonight we welcome lisa bagata michelle cassidy mary galla gadoletto brian moose lacey needleman tara paratya and bradley treadway i don't know if you're here tonight but we welcome you into our family thank you very much dr alma for your report thank you now are there any uh questions or comments about the personnel recommendations [Music] uh all right miss fleming and dr herman now can we call for the vote anyway i don't think they do ok yes director chester yes vice president yes next is approval of the consent agenda before we vote are there any board members who have looked over the consent agenda in which to remove any items from that agenda at this time seeing none we will entertain motions to accept

039the consent agenda do i have a motion to approve dr daitri mr vevalakwa comments questions all right mrs character the vote please directory yes vice yes director shaw yes president yes thank you we move on now to the school board committee reports the first report is dr shaw an education committee thank you mr b um on january 10th we have a long and spirited meeting of the education committee um and we have a number of items on the consent agenda but i do want to note a few things that happened at the meeting the first thing that happened is that dr florio along with her assistant directors and curriculum supervisors presented a summary overview of curriculum proposals for the 22-23 school year and just to note that this information is presented annually in advance of

040seeking approval of the school district's general fund budget and these items are included in that budget as this process unfolds there will be ample opportunity for community members and students to be involved as we consider textbooks and curriculum items dr misit also presented a first reading of the 2223 school calendar and we have received comments about that and discussed elements of that and she'll be presenting a revised version of the next education meeting and finally dr sokolowski provided us with a pretty thorough review of our health and safety plan thank you the next report is pupil services with miss chester thank you president i um as dr shah said that the education party meeting was very long which minimized the time available for my meeting but this is a topic that we will definitely revisit

041again it's on social emotional learning data that was presented by dr ramirez so i promise this by saying it's so good to see our three student reps here and see how well they're thriving davis it's good to see you back i barely recognize you um and so that's always a good marker to see you all to know that you're you're moving ahead you're crying but we do have those students that need extra support so we we looked at some of the trends for social emotional learning and we've seen enough tick in suicide environment risk assessments for the first half of the school year with the first half of the year totaling the entire year for 2021 and the same trend holds true for welfare checks safe to say something uh which it is a system

042in place to help students report um their friends or things that they see where it relates to self-harm for a student or harm to others attendance for individual plans for 2020 2021 have increased from 28 20 18 19 school year by over 30 percent and over um 41 for the 1920 uh school year this year we're on track for um right now we're about the same number as we saw for the entire school year last school year so what do we have in place to help support the social emotional learnings supports and interventions have focused on three partners areas students supporting students supporting staff supporting parents district supports includes 12 mental health specialists school counselors intervention specialists trained de-escalation teams in each building student voice days a focus group input from students and behavior support

043plans for the staff and it's good to identify and to be able to support the staff because they are feeding our children comprehensive behavioral health team training has been put in place this is in collaboration with thomas decker associates of associates and the cciu surveys for administration and teaching staff the cciu direct support in each building social emotional learning core training and focus on improving staff morale with various activities and acknowledgements for the staff and then for parents there's a parent training series also supported by the iu and tom stecker associates so we're looking um to keep the focus on the trends and impact of these uh responses to and interventions to these trends and learning more about how we um enhance social emotional learning so that it supports our students and it supports our

044staff and it supports our children thank you that was a very long evening um next we have personnel with dr herman thank you mrs tiernan dr ulmer gave a very thorough personnel report thank you dr olmer um this concludes my report here at i'm sorry you can't hear me uh dr ulmer gave a very thorough personal personnel report thanking dr ulmer this concludes my report you didn't hear because there wasn't much to hear fourth is property finance with mr beverlock yes good evening january property finance meeting was held last tuesday january 18th in the committee meeting uh chris bamberg from pfm is for the firm that does our bond consulting provided overview of the financing process and timelines mr scully mr chamber provided the committee with a financing update for an opportunity to refinance bond

045series 2012 single a 2016 double a in for approximate savings of one million and twenty four thousand dollars the committee recommended approval to allow the district's financing team to proceed with the preparation of a parameters resolution for the refunding of the following funds that just pensions and we approve that so it's more to come on that in the near future the next item we discussed was dr sokolowski to discuss changes to the first reading of the revised policy 903 public participation board meetings as many remember we talked about that the previous month but there were two changes that were incorporated so it came back to a first reading the changes that were incorporated into policy 903 was as follows increasing public comment time event from the current two minutes to three minutes to along with

046surrounding districts as well as a common time women suggested in the sunshine act updating the policy to reflect the replacement of public comments signing sheet of the individual public comment registration drives these cards will be completed by each speaker that opts to speak that night prior to the scheduling start of the meeting and require the speaker to list their name address and topic for verification purposes then once the public comes to the podium the speaker's asked to stay just their township or borrow instead of their formal address the committee recommended approval to revise board policy 903 called the participation board meetings first reading it will come back for our second reading and the subsequent month the the next item that was discussed in the meeting is uh crystal richmond director of technology presented and committed

047a 2022-23 technology capital budget it included it includes adding and replacing student staff technologies replacing the aging switch here in the school's spelling administration building updating wireless access points staff computers the purchase of laptop computers for grades six and nine and the ipad devices for k and the third grade other critical areas addressed are substantially multi-year security camera deployment across the district while maintaining existing system infrastructures in place today the committee recommended approved the 22-23 technology projects and the capital reserve fund and i do have a motion for approval tonight for the board this is d6 if anybody's following the agenda so today we're asking for approval of the 2022-23 technology project capital reserve products this approval is requested not to exceed a total budget of 4 million 83 000 261 do we have a

048second dr herman questions or comments about mr bevalaqua's motion all right could we call the call to rule vice president yes director herman yes director chester yes director yes director detroit yes director shaw yes director flynn thank you mr vivalakwa you have two more yes continuing on uh mr burster our director of facilities reviewed the 2022-23 capital fund and capital reserve projects um he reviewed detailed the capital fund projects which consisted of a roof replacement faced overall calling phase 30 and less than high school for a total price of one million three hundred fifty thousand six eleven and i do have a motion for tonight for the board and this is d4 if anybody's following the agenda and d4's approval is requested for the capital fund project not to exceed the one million three hundred

049fifty thousand six eleven for the bay of boston high school phase three ruth replacement do we have a second uh mrs fleming all right call for for the vote vice president yes the last item we had was uh director facilities reviewed in total the 2022-23 capital reserve projects he went through each and every one in detail these are specific ones that both district-wide and unique and specific and isolated schools after reviewing all items in in total detail the committee recommended approval of the capital fund projects not to exceed federal reserve projects got to receive 2 million 323 and 177 and i do have a um approval motion for that too and this would be um d5 approvals were recommended for is requested for the capital reserve projects not to exceed the 2 million twenty 323

050thousand one seventy seven with the list of the items that we have discussed in the detail committee i said thank you could we have a second dr herman thank you very much and the vote vice president yes director herman yes director yes director plumbing yes director shawn yes director chester yes president other item i yes the uh mr scully also reviewed the budget forecast model and the changes made since the previous month december of 2021 as we normally do each month the total net changes for the 20 21 22 projections is 592 500 which increases the fund balance designated for future military increases and will be utilized to reduce the 2022-23 budget gap then mr scully reviewed the changes to the 2223 forecast model those projections and utilization of the 2021-22 savings will reduce the

051budget gap by the 532 000 i mentioned and then mr scully reviewed the final the financial summary as we do each month and a summary of all funds analysis showed a net gap in the 22-23 school year of 700k assuming a tax increase up to their current act one limit the administration as always will continue to review the projections potential savings to reduce the village impact for the 2223 district final budget this is not for approval but we'll continue to give updates on a monthly basis the next property finance meeting will be held on tuesday because of the president's day holiday will be tuesday february 22nd welcome to its end and that concludes my report for this evening thank you thank you mr bevulaco thank you all and that takes us to other reports the

052first report is from the cciu the intermediate unit i'm giving the report but this is my final report as liaison to cciu mr daryl durnell will be taking that job uh will be the westchester area school district liaison to the cciu and therefore a member of that school board he will be sworn in in february he will attend meetings activities and make the monthly report to the board and we are looking forward to that mr turnout thank you for taking on this task uh very briefly over at the iu and i will say that mr durnell came to the january meeting sat through the entire long evening about 5 30 to 10 10 30 yeah and um still said he would be the leading one of the others very very happy he listened to not

053once but twice mr turtle of her binding company presenting an overview of the 2021 audit reports which included technical college high schools and the cciu and they both received an unqualified audit which is the highest possible score they're always happy to get that report mr libitsky director of administrative services gave a presentation on the budget similar to the update provided at the november 20 2021 meeting mr lubitsky gave us an overview of the development of the 2223 cciu core occupational education category categorical and marketplace services budget there's so many budgets over there daryl you're really gonna like that the proposed budgets will be presented in their entirety to the board and the superintendents for consideration in february and march and mr libitsky and dr fiore will be over here at the next property finance meeting

054so that everybody who cares to come can hear how the iu does its finances and its budgets and what kinds of things they do over there so it will be a much shorter report but it will be very interesting and we wanted them to come in person so they'll be here in february and that ends my final report on the intermediate unit and opens us up for dr herman's report on psba thank you mrs tiernon welcome to our newest school board members laura dietry karen fleming and stacy lonesley and right now i'd like to share a little bit of background information on the role of the pennsylvania school board association in relation to school board members psba is a resource to our school board in helping to onboard new board members and help them understand

055that the board does district governance while the superintendent and his or her staff manages the district most of us took one to three days of training before becoming members and our present new members as well as re-elected members must by state law get trained or retrained psba offers weekly webinars for board members to learn and to talk together online about the challenges we face this concludes my report thank you very much dr shaw legislative report well um on february 8th governor wolf will be giving his very last state of the state address the governor of our state gives an annual report every year right around the same time early february and this sets in motion the budgetary process in the state of pennsylvania which is comprised of really long committee meetings as elements of this

056budget are discussed and revised um so we'll the next time that i report back here i'll be able to talk to you about what's in his budget um one important legislative action occurred in late december and that was something called act 91 and it was passed to provide more flexibility for filling for using substitute teachers for this school year and for next school year and the reason that we need these more flexible um guidelines is for a couple reasons one is that we've got so many educators that are out sick from covid and the second reason is that over the last 10 to 12 years the number of new teachers a number of newly certified teachers has dropped pretty dramatically i think to maybe about half of what it was 10 years ago and so

057we have a general shortage of teachers and that's exacerbated by all the teachers and staff within our stakeholder so act now allows school districts to ask retired teachers to fill vacancies for emergency or short-term subs it also allows eligible college students and recent college graduates to serve as substitutes and teachers with inactive certifications can now sell for 180 days instead of 90 days and that is the sign report thank you very much and mr grinnell and equity reports please thank you president in celebration of native native american heritage month in november students from the westchester cider social studies classes traveling to churchville nature center and participated in a hands-on experience to learn how the lenape native americans adapted to local geography as part of its 100th anniversary celebration the council for exceptional children had recognized

058mr nick holchini special education teacher at henderson high school for his role as an exceptional educator who goes above and beyond on behalf of children and youth with disabilities and gifts and talents congratulations nick dawn matter westchester area school district director of equity and assessment met with the area's police chiefs to continue the work to strengthen the westchester area community through diversity equity and inclusion efforts and to support safe and positive community interactions for all save the day for our final installment of part three of our community conversation series which will take place march 31st at 6 30 at bayern rustin high school a change from the january 20th date due to pandemic impact in our area event registration will be emailed and posted on social media as we get closer to the event special

059guests for the community conversations include police chiefs from all four police departments that serve the westchester area school district thank you to all the area police departments for supporting our community connections and strengthening efforts and finally as communications were already sent out we are excited to invite our district to the strengthening community symposium a free and free event featured featuring a moderated conversation with dr bernice king daughter of martin luther king jr the symposium will take place virtually on tuesday february 15 from 9 a.m to 1 30 p.m our very own director of equity and assessment dawn matter was chosen to serve as one of the moderators for the event we look forward to sharing this exciting experience together and we hope to see you on february 15th that concludes my report thank you mr

060grinnell thank you all for your reports finally in other business we have approval of the revised westchester area school district management team organizational chart chapter takalaski yes we have shared with the board a new organizational chart headed into the 2223 school year this chart actually reflects currently where we are where we were a year ago with maintaining curriculum supervisor positions that is so essential at this point as you heard at our education committee meeting back on january the 10th we had a lot of extensive work when it comes to curriculum proposals so therefore having the expertise of our curriculum supervisors is vitally important so we are looking towards having our k-12 english language arts supervisor k-12 math and hip-hop science supervisors in those positions starting july 1st approval questions or comments approval of the revised

061westchester area school district management team organizational chart approval is requested of the revised westchester area school district management team organizational chart with authorization for the district to proceed with immediate posting of unfilled positions with a start date of july 1 2022 iso thank you do we have a second for that motion miss chester now do we have any questions or comments or regarding that motion i'll get this straight you just wait no then i we will vote director carmen yes director chester yes director dietry yes yes director flemming yes director yes vice president yes thank you the last item on tonight's agenda is comments from residents on non-agenda items if you've filled out a card mr jennings will call you to the podium that's correct and when approaching the podium please begin by stating your

062first name your last name and your township or borough please keep in mind that all the comments will be limited to two minutes per person per current board policy the board asked that all commentary be directed to the board as a whole public comments may be interrupted or terminated if the commentary exceeds two minutes or if it is obscene and or threatening in nature we will now call the first speaker sarah and excuse me for commencement cass de lucio lucia castelliciano good evening my name is i'm president of east ocean township and i'm a mom of three kids in the district and i'm here also representing moms for liberty westchester area school district i thought deeply about what to talk about tonight i considered bringing global research citations from top health officials and talking about

063how cloth masks simply do not work and we all know it but nothing more than a facial decoration is quoted by medical analyst dr lianna nguyen amongst many others in the field but truthfully the image of my own six-year-old daughter coming home telling me that she was told not to speak so closely to her classmate during snack time came to mind first and it's not okay what also came to mind was my ten-year-old son getting written up on the bus for not wearing a mask after seven hours in it every single day and it's not okay i thought of my 12 year old son being told in gym class that he'll be academically docked for not adhering to the math requirements and it's not okay my kids can't come up here and tell you how

064every day is a struggle for them more and more we all know that the virus has changed but this school district's response to it has not a school board member's comment indicating that kids say it's not even a thing in regards to masking was not only reckless it was extremely irresponsible my kids strongly disagree with you and so do our community children if you took the time to ask them but perhaps you didn't know this because no one ever surveyed our kids or listen to their mothers and fathers as they stand here and take time away from their personal lives when six-year-olds come home and say they have stopped playing games like i spy with their classmates because their double mass teacher tells them that they're too close to each other please ask yourself if

065this virus that we've been exposed to by now is more dangerous than the psychological damage that you're doing with my kids you don't need a medical degree to know the answer do you each day that you insist on our kids being socially distanced separated quarantined obsessively mass you only make this damage more prolonged our district has failed our kids and what's worse is most of you up here tonight are completely okay with it and i'm here to tell you it's not okay make mass optional please thank you [Applause] thanks three more points on masking the first is the narrative the narrative for plot masking that has been mandated in this district for the past five months is crumbling someone just mentioned the comment of the cnn commentator that they are facial decorations i agree with

066that other reporting such as that cloth masking delays indoor transmission by only as few as a few minutes meaning they are relatively useless in an all-day classroom city seven given this reporting i strongly disagree with those who think that going mask optional is reckless ridiculous against common sense or against the social good point number two wildfire one of the directors recently commented that masking is needed to prevent the coded spread or that it will spread like wildfire without masks however the data from nearby nearby mask optional district shows otherwise at least in one example that i found central bucks the school district 18 000 strong larger than ours has the following student case counts for january 250 204 and just under 150 last week less than ours significantly less than ours and declining similar to

067ours without a mass mandate point number three hope and health safety plan director wellesley two weeks ago recently commented that many parents have no hope of going mass optional under the current plan let's speak with her directly on this but i am one of those parents kovit is going to be around in some form for the rest of our lives it is airborne we cannot control it not with social destiny distancing not with vaccines and not with masking this plan presumes we can control covet when we cannot it is also an effective mass mandate permanent mass mandate during the school year this is unacceptable i think our children deserve better and i think the school district can do better thank you [Applause] scientists specializing in brain development have confirmed that portions of the brain that

068evaluate risk and make informed decisions are among the last to mature usually not until the early 20s with that in mind i can think of few decisions that require a fully developed mature brain than deciding to change one's gender which is why i find it very troubling that there are books currently in our middle school libraries that promote changing gender before puberty one of these books is ped a crime fighting novel where the main character decided at age 3 that he was a girl at age 10 he was implanted with puberty blockers at 13 given hormones that made his hips widen and breasts grow surely all the necessary details for a crime fighting novel this book is currently available in all three middle school libraries the next book i want to talk about is george

069it's the story of a fourth grade boy who wants to be a girl george discusses taking female hormones having surgery and taking androgen blockers to stop the body from becoming quote all man-like george's brother while making a scissors motion asks his little brother if he wants to go all the way the story culminates with george dressing in girls clothing and underwear and using the women's restroom at the zoo again george is only in fourth grade and this book is currently in the feuded and pierce libraries aside from the issue of brain development we must consider the issue of emotional maturity presenting sexualized material in the minds too young to make sense of the complex emotions they arouse can be anxiety producing to a child i would think that a focus on social emotional learning would

070conflict with exposing children to anxiety-inducing materials most children or most parents are unaware that these books exist in our middle school libraries they deserve an explanation as to why their children are being exposed to these kinds of persuasive materials at a vulnerable age thank you [Applause] [Music] um after listening to comments from certain board members at last week's education committee meeting i have to wonder why so much resistance to moving towards mass optional i'm just wondering why there's so much resistance dr sokolowski made a point to recognize the cdc's information that this current variant is less severe like you pointed this out the symptoms are what you would find within any typical cold and flu and i think everyone in this community by now has gotten them there's so much talk around the mass keeping

071rates of transmission low in schools how can you prove that low case rates are due to mass where is the evidence have you looked at the data of case rates in mass optional versus mass made in districts or you're just revealing your own issues with anxiety there are many options to empower people to feel safe such as antiviral treatments vaccines masking avoiding crowds and there are no options for our children and teachers to empower them to be in control of whether or not they want their face covered harm reduction does not include doing so at the expense of personal freedom my kids never gave informed consent to wearing a mask they do it out of social pressure the board needs to make decisions with the most current information they have instead of engaging in maladaptive

072behaviors such as making justification stemming from one's personal fears moral posturing and catastrophizing outcomes what's the worst that can happen from going mass optional this is sort of perception of harm needs to stop thank you [Applause] but over the past year or so my girls have dealt with multiple situations that i find quite boring tonight i can only talk about two um the first happened at the end of last year when my daughter's seventh grade teacher asked the class if uh who would be getting vaccinated two days later the math teacher asked the same question um in both instances my daughter word was one of the few that left her hand down this unnecessary curiosity clearly and visibly separated my daughter from her classmates as students do this could have easily been turned into a

073situation where my daughter has been would be showing it by her class the second happened earlier this year when my sixth grade pre-adolescent daughter came home with a book that her reading teacher gave her um for an assignment titled george as you just heard the book is about a train's curious boy in fourth grade she questioned me about the book so i glanced through it it wasn't long before i realized it was inappropriate i had her bring it back curious about the book i read through it and i it confirmed my response i emailed dr sakulowski and met with the principal about this and two other in a few other situations i was told all staff have been told they're reminded that they are not to discuss potentially political hot button issues such as advocating

074masking or not masking advocating vaccinations or not vaccinating or stating personal political affiliations during instructional time i don't agree with the far right any more than i do the far left i raise my kids to be independent to be good people and to contribute to this society that's my job as a parent i'm asking for a policy that limits the teacher's ability to freely discuss or promote any hot topics to the in the classroom these policies should also have disciplinary actions if broken thank you [Applause] i'm here saying the same thing i've been saying i appreciate that you're keeping the health and safety plan i am for asking i believe following the science and the research that they currently recommend while i prefer to continue receiving contact tracing notifications i understand that you're following chester

075county health department and their recommendations again i have a preschooler that's in the high schools she cannot be vaccinated i appreciate that everybody's masked to help keep first as well as my family who has immunocompromised family members that we take care of um it would be helpful to know though if there may be a higher need to test in order to keep her safe as well as those family members thank you [Applause] [Music] i understand that everybody here has feelings for against masking but there is a sign on the front door that says masks must be worn in this film there is a sign on the front door that says mask must be worn in this building we have asked politely it is the policy of the school district at this point that we will

076remain masked i'm looking at people who have their masks completely off who are um and so if if if you want a mask that's fine if you want to leave that's fine i'm not saying that you need to unless you're willing to put a mask on otherwise we're going to adjourn this meeting at this time [Music] for 15 minutes all right thank you the meeting will reconvene i'm going to turn it back over to mr jennings and miss character and we will listen to the remainder of the people who wish to speak to us tonight thank you president i would just like to remind the public that it is the policy of this district and this facility to be properly masked at all times that includes when you are speaking at the podium maybe public

077comment there is a microphone there and the board will have no problem uh hearing the public commentary with that we'll resume jodi no rocky um i'm here tonight to show my continued support for masking in schools earlier this month my seven-year-old tested positive for cloven he's vaccinated and it was a mild case but i was really concerned about my three-year-old who isn't able to be vaccinated yet keeping the kids apart is really difficult as anybody with kids know their little brother always wants to hang out with the bigger brother and we kept them masked but it's hard to keep them apart we use good quality masks with air filters and my three-year-old did not get the virus locally but i think this shows us how important it is for our students to continue to wear

078masks at school kids don't know which of their peers teachers etc might be high risk or not able to be activated for a variety of reasons we need to continue to require masks for maybe even surgical or highly rated masks and share age-appropriate education on masking and vaccines with our children so that we can continue to work together against thank you [Applause] john riley that justice township i would like to thank the district for stopping the illegal house arrest program fully known as contact racing that nonsense stole thousands of in-person school days from healthy kids the evidence shows that less than one percent of healthy kids sends to the house arrest program converted to infectious cases all that contact tracy did was help pump up non-infectious case counts with high ctr high ct pcr tests

079and create unlawful coercive pressure to submit to the jab to get back into class sooner so i'm glad that program is over i'll tell you why i think you guys stopped to contact tracy you're too afraid to admit that you've been following garbage guidance based on community incidence rates plenty of evidence shows the community incidence rates have no bearing on in-school transmission risk but you continue to push this low value high harm mandate crap on children case in point the director with the stl report talked about all these upticks and emotional damage and problems i don't think you covered the speech impediment and the writing delays positioning in the younger kids i don't think you covered those two areas also in the report so you've got evidence right in front of you the damage your

080policies are causing and you also have the evidence two times over they've been mass optional for over a month and their community incidence rates are actually lower than the mass mr riley we can hear you just fine please put your mask back up over my nose yes i'm talking on my mouth we want to hear what you have to say but please do that yeah thank you dropping contact tracing will help lower the case counts so that you can get to your hopefully get to your point of your plan where mass becomes optional when they stop the testing boom the crisis is going to go away and you won't admit you've been following gorge's garbage plan so your poli these policies are drunk they're calling harm please go mask optional for these kids thank [Applause]

081george you all right george nestor west ocean in the january 10th education committee meeting you saw a fellow board member speak up against the narrative the argument that board member was trying to initiate or initially attempting to make was the notion of giving parents hope that their hands would not be tied indefinitely hope that they would be able to have their criminal rights restored and be able to make informed decisions for their own children the resulting behavior of the board members was a complete abomination addressing some of the comments made you wear a mask as an adult with common sense it's ridiculous we would consider this cannot believe that people are questioning this they would not sit on this board and people are going to be inept comparing not wearing masks to drunk driving these

082comments are direct attack on every parent community member that feels differently than you do they do not have common sense they're ridiculous they're net as a reminder you represent quote all the residents of the school district not just the ones that voted for you or subscribed to the same narrative it's not your position as a school board member to judge or shame your constituents it sounds like it may be that may be helpful for some of you to reread them and pay attention to the policy section 0-0 code 11 on board governance standards and codes of conduct so make the other comments reference taking note to the mission of the district wearing a mess for the social good you must teach wearing a mask to be kind and courageous the board needs to make the

083decision for the kids in the community if we give people a choice it will spread like wildflower comparing wearing a mess to a dress code i'm sorry but it's not courageous to suppress critical thinking and just comply when there's evidence showing the opposite of what you're being told also you took a note to the constitution per that policy you're supposed to act as the quote general agent of the residence of the school district in matters of public education that applies to your personal opinions at the door and stop letting feelings drive decisions for others you should be ashamed of yourselves [Applause] shine bruno um at the january 10th education attendee meeting i missed the owner fund surge stacey wansley a member of the board miss quoted a chat policyman's statement about the importance of in-person

084instruction for students in the 21-22 school year the policy lab recommendation was misrepresented that that is named to prioritize in personal instruction suggesting that infer no matter what this is not true policy law states that improper masking and encourage vaccinations schools should continue in person for the foreseeable future of that issue respond to the also believe that she has contacted their families who are afraid to speak to the word and afraid to share their two feelings surrounding masking in school clearly tonight tells us that that information is simply not true so for so far most of tonight's comments have been about making mass action to my fellow parents i understand i do but speaking of someone who lost two beloved family members two coded not something else coded i implore you to hear your neighbors

085on the other side we all have been categorized into us versus them and fellow parents i'd like to suggest that you take note of who is doing the categorizing it certainly does not seem to be us parents who have created two camps who have drawn the line in the sand but rather the elected official or officials who seek to gain from their election please understand that there are parents who feel when you rally around parent choice from asking you lead those of us who wish to mask our child without a choice that's are effective and work well when everyone is wearing ones when the ship is sinking and lifeloads are offered do you suggest for the group it is your choice to enter a light boat or swim in the icy water no you get

086everyone into every possible vote saving as many as you can and riding out the storm until safety can be assured for everyone enrolled thank you [Applause] anita and gary i have a question um don't start the club because i want to know something in my vlog we were not supposed to address the general public you know you uh directors as individuals the lady just attacked wonsley twice three times so why wasn't she stuck ma'am could you please make your problem yeah but that's another last question because i can't go around you can i go to that because i have plenty of proof for each of your directors and the way they behave will will you allow me to do so sir will you allow me to do so because if i go around and direct

087most of their out there please make your public comment [Music] you ask that the clock you stop all right so i am going to go what do you want to talk about now let's see what you want to talk about mask or the fact that boy am i off how do you turn this on okay so what did we talk about the guns dancing school drugs in school you guys walking around with a mask and telling our kids to be masked asking our kids what gender they want to choose which one you want to talk about 10 15 minutes don't you think we deserve to know why you took a 15-minute break all these people want to go home i don't care what side you are in don't you think we deserve to know why

088you took a 15-minute break why aren't you telling i'm us you why why did you take 15 minutes break and did not come back and okay you have something to discuss but you are just leaving us out in the door you have police officer that i'm sure wants to get back to his duty you have your staff standing there and you have parents here why aren't you leveling with us first you called to cancel the meeting what was that about and then you tell us 15 minutes break and you come back like nothing happened is anybody going to ask that question are you going to answer the question nothing is that what you're supposed to do sit there and just stare at us who are you taking direction at us i'm a mother i have

089a husband who had a heart attack before thanksgiving and i'm here and i'm asking you why did you take 15 20 minutes break taking our time you could have told us put your mask back if not get up you even try to stop the meeting and you're gonna just sit there and stare at us is that right is this this is why people are angry yes this because you guys are sitting there like zombies they're not talking this is ridiculous [Applause] just to be clear before moving on the meeting was not adjourned it was recess for 15 minutes because the public was the meeting was disorderly thank you [Music] smith while you're pointing and directing things in my my direct area i was told that the police officer that i have an exemption that you

090know about that's accepted within the district i don't need to show you any of that information thank you oh would you like to would you like to speak to us for two minutes okay okay can can you not turn off my mic because you're violating my rights oh i'm sorry we forgot that your god we gotta put put it on let's go i can't control it would you like to just go well i okay you're violating my rights with an exemption that is filed within the district how do you feel how do you think the kids feel that are exempt with mask exemptions because people like you that are scared it is disgusting i feel really sick for the kids that have mass exemptions and are made to feel like they probably have cancer walking

091into a school because they cannot wear a mask you already know that the typical kindergarten child has spent half their life in a world in force masking the kids are not okay anecdotal feedback board member is not science it's not research i'm imploring you to change and address the issue with the health and safety plan this board and administration forgot that you do not work for unions and political parties you work for the 12 000 students in this district whom you are failing children are taught to comply with adult rules be silent and not speak up against their rights our district has now overstepped again an academic and fiscal punishment for mass non-compliance the future is being silenced and taught to blindly obey so much for teaching free and critical thinking it's high time to

092let children and parents decide what is right for their families triple vaccinated adults are setting the rules guns in school suicide assessments which i can't name names but miss mester connected as you know they've doubled this year research has showed that masking impacts mental health if you're worried about the suicide risks let them breathe academics academic setbacks these kids are never going to recover from these vaccinations i'm asking they're not fixing anything it's ironic that england our mother the mother country from who we fled for liberty has decided to lift all mandates and restrictions and allow for more freedom than the united states by which it is founded do better [Applause] um hello i'm jennifee from east bradford i wanted to address a comment made by a board member recently where they compared mascot's children

093to drunk drivers as someone in a family that lost someone to a drunk driver i found your comment extremely insensitive and thoughtless to compare a child to a person who breaks the law and sometimes takes the lives of innocent people is disgusting steph anderson west ocean township i want to thank the board of the district for looking to science and experts for your health and safety guidance and i continue to support the current plan that maintains masking in schools over the pandemic masking has been a hot topic and many have come to board meetings to share their experiences of hardship with masking policy so i wanted to take a moment to share why the masking policy has been a positive for our family first madison has allowed my husband to be able to stay present

094in school to educate the 150 students who come to this classroom each day my daughters and their friends are having a fantastic school year and don't keep masking a second thought because i understand it's a measure that enables them to stay in school with minimal disruption after a roller coaster year last year my girls are able to stay on top of their learning stay connected to teachers they love being able to see their friends every day and participate in all the in-school and after school activities they missed out on last year masks and other mitigation measures have enabled our students to be in person with their teachers or peers something many advocated passionately for all last year why would you want to compromise that it concerns me that anyone would advocate a move that would

095threaten to disrupt the education of so many kids in our community please continue doing all you can to keep kids in school and learning thanks [Applause] i just want to thank the resource officers for hosting muslim meetings that helped calm so many parents down um i do have a request that i know golden has changed a lot that you do in school but if we could break back or overexercise on programs that stop waiting and drug use or educate that king's motorbike it will be helpful i also want to thank the admins for running the sdr programs in the high school my daughter attended a love full day that happened and she came back really impressed she loved the exercises she loved meeting other children and talking to them because it was all through high

096schools together and it had a really positive impact on that so please continue with the social wellness programs they they really do help us flourish socially because a lot of them do feel the stress of not just the situation right now but the world all that's expected of them and the educational world i am very thankful for everything that this administration has done thank you nolan good evening dr katrina west ocean township i never predicted that i would be a regular speaker at school board meetings but with a pandemic hit my roles as mother and scientist intersected and prompted me to be vocal as a virologist i've been supportive of the layered approach within the health and safety plan to reduce the spread of quota 19 in schools i personally do not agree with the

097recent update from the health department to eliminate contact tracing in schools but i understand the decision testing and contact tracing resources have reached capacity this is not good news transmission in chester county remains at levels never before seen i'm here tonight to voice support for continued masking in schools i'm hopeful that spring will bring a much needed reduction in cases and hospitalizations locally in turn making masks optional at that time but for now the guidance is clear masks are a necessary measure to mitigate the spread of the virus in times of high transmission a recent meta-analysis by italic at all showed that mass wearing reduced coca-19 infection by 53 not every mask is equal and i encourage anyone who can upgrade their masks to do so to help stop the transmission of this highly transmissible

098variant i know every single one of us is tired and wants this all to be over but in the middle of winter we need to do whatever we can to care for our community including unvaccinated younger siblings of our school-aged children aiming up compromised students and staff and grandparents who need the joy of seeing their grandchildren without worrying about the very real risks of this virus thank you for continuing to follow the science [Applause] melissa bennett first i want to thank dr brown the resource officers and the staff at east and dr sophilovsky and other staff for the good communication about the incident of east on friday i appreciated the offering of the zoom to east families and the way you thought through what was best for students second in light of the chester county

099health department decision to remove contact tracing from schools i want to express that requiring students to mask and staff to mask in the schools all folks in the schools is even more important i hope sometime we will be able to lift the master requirement i don't particularly love it but it does free me and my students my children and their friends to feel more free at school but now is not the time to lift the requirement without being able to track student exposure we need to continue layered safety measures to protect our students from excessive transmission of coping we want our kids and staff in school not sick and out front in addition evaluating accurate data and timely communication i would ask the school to remind families of the importance of reporting to school when

100their student is positive and i would ask to update the dashboard daily so that parents who are interested have an accurate sense of covered positive cases in the school each day finally thank you for the ways the district has worked to share more about social emotional learning and why that teaching model is so valuable attending to the whole student their social and emotional needs environment history and realities has a huge impact on their learning outcomes and is vital to academic success i encourage and support prioritizing equity and inclusion our students need to hear the voices and stories of all people not just those the majority or those in power but those who have historically been denied power hello rachel i mean westchester the top 10 things i was surprised to learn about the westchester area

101school board inspired by david letterman's top 10. number 10. what yeah i'm sorry number 10 i'm surprised to learn superintendent number nine we sit here for two hours only to speak for two minutes no other speakers are timed we need more than two minutes number eight probably needs to be revised i said the school district pays a lawyer close to two hundred dollars an hour to earn the stock watch for comments i'm not going to show you who's running the stock election it's not working very well so i'm not sure why we can pay for this service when our students are probably capable of performing this task as part of community service number seven all the veteran school board members sitting here tonight wrote signed and posted a letter online in november vilified candidates who

102are attempting to get elected to the board this is cyber bullying number six the peer pressure on our kids smoke drink or these drugs is nothing compared to the pressure to mask and vaccinate even worse this pressure comes from the top from you the board and this trickles down to our schools as you heard from a parent already who spoke about this tonight number five our district has over 100 code recovered students that's equivalent of two high schools full of students and the health and safety plan makes no accommodation for those who are recovered number four at the end committee meeting on january 10th a board member had the audacity to compare an unmasked child to a drunk driver this was a shocking and reckless statement number three at the same committee meeting on january

10310th a board member said that the choice to mask is dangerous i have news for you each of the children in this district has parents who can make decisions for their own children your job is from schools not to mandate medical devices nor is it your job to act as an arm of the chester county health department number two the gift that keeps on giving was that january 10th board meeting it seems there's some discrepancy between war members both of loyalty to the constitution or to the board that is probably something the lawyer could help you guys to understand the legality of swearing over and the number one thing i was surprised to learn about this board is that no one needs reality tv because these phoenix are more entertaining [Applause] kristen palmer hi kristen

104palmer east ocean i'm here tonight to discuss two routes we can take one continue to follow unproven strategies pushed by public health or two accept that covet 19 is endemic and is here to stay i'd like to present to the board a course of action that should be taken immediately one remove all mass mandates for k-12 schools masking should be a personal or parent decision begin to treat code 19 as a seasonal disease like the flu cod is an airborne respiratory virus particles much smaller than water droplets and from copper sneeze anthony fauci finally confirmed the virus will not be eliminated but we will eventually infect all of us on january 18th of this year cbc acknowledges clock mass or inferiority protection against transmission 115 2022 there is no good evidence to support the use

105of clock mass there have been no randomized controlled trials were done at the admission to show clock mass work there are two randomized control trials on cloud nasty damn mask and bangladesh both showed no effect of cloth mask also both showed no effect of surgical mass for anyone under age 50. kids do not suffer kids do suffer harm from masking surgeon general issued warning of a mental health crisis for our youth december 7 2021. hearing and speech problems have increased depression anxiety weight gain widening learning gaps increase in substance abuse increase in suicide generations of children view each other as disease vectors and adults need to be more important and adults needs are more important than theirs now cdc recommends n95 however neglects to consider both filtration properties of material and human behavior can the

106mass be worn appropriately gaps around the nose take a drink or scratch will cause disease discomfort know the cluster randomized trials to prove that n95 is effective at preventing the spread this may really delay time to infection however we will eventually all be infected i also want to address that what action steps we are taking i know i have one more minute i'm just going to say one more thing i'm sorry two minutes is not a lot well i'm pleading that this must end we are running our unprecedented experiment on argument excuse me but this is heartbreaking that these kids are doing this [Applause] uh in 1978 the anthropologist margaret reed was asked by a student what is the earliest example of human civilization that you found in one of your excavations and the student

107was surprised because they expected the answer to be an arrowhead or a piece of pottery but instead margarite uh responded that they found a healed human femur who was 15 000 years old she said that's civilization and the student didn't understand it and they said i i'm sorry she said yes you have to realize that in the animal kingdom a broken leg is death if you're predator you can't hunt anymore you die you're prey you can't run anymore you're dead this person broke their leg and the other people around that person took care of that person until they had survived they provided them food they provided them shelter they provided them with the things they needed to live dr mead stated that civilization is when we take care of each other i support the mass

108mandate because it allows us to take care of each other and the data as i'm a teacher in the district i've been teaching for 18 years is it pleasant teaching with the mascot no but our kids kind of used to it they are we establish standards and norms all the time and the thing is that if we're able to protect each other that is civilization that is community um there's all sorts of data but i just want to say that today university of michigan came out with a study that said that in schools that did not have mass mandates there was 62 percent higher transmission rates than in schools with mass mandates that study came out today from the university of michigan i appreciate the next mandate let's protect each other thank you very much

109[Applause] names you would who is entitled to feel that they belong in our community what is the impact educational or otherwise on those who do not these questions are some of the themes of the ongoing wcasd community conversation series and they are central questions to the work of diversity equity and inclusion anyone questioning whether there is a continued need for a focus on diversity and inclusion in our schools really only have to look as far as public school board meetings like this one these meetings are their own form of community conversation and they reflect the goals concerns and values of our community in a recent meeting members of our muslim community including students spoke to request that their religious holidays be observed in the same way the district acknowledges those of other religions they shared

110the impact of not having experienced this type of inclusion and generously extended themselves as resources for anyone wanting to learn more in response a community member stood here and declared that only majority religions deserve to be observed in another recent meeting a community member felt it was appropriate to publicly question whether our board and administration are racist not based on any of their words or actions but instead based on the laundry list of inflammatory talking points she read in a book in the same commentary she made defamatory statements about black boys if these incidents troubled me and if these words are still ringing in my ears i can't even imagine what it felt like to our muslim students our students of color and their families all members of our community belong in our schools and

111all members of our community should know that they are valued i applaud the district's steadfast commitment to equity and inclusion thank you [Applause] i still live in east ocean um on saturday morning i was literally through my email and i came across an email from westchester communities that care it's a group that works within the school district they do in the presentations on mental health and social emotional learning they work with administration with presenters and whatnot within the email was a reference about a reading book lost at school and it's one of my favorites because it's written by ross green and i'm a roster and murphy and i've come up here before and spoken about him um the kids we lose and i got to meet him at one of the springs local screening to

112the movie and i talked to him and we really need to come together and this is the if you read this book and he's got several books if you don't want to read lost at school there's the explosive child there's lost and found which is a sequel to lost at school he's raising human beings and it's about how to talk to kids it's about how he gets all along with people and he has a mantra his mantra is kids do well if they can and he's got corollaries to that mantra and that's parents who help they can school board members do well if they can everyone does well when they can and i'll tell you this this pandemic has definitely put a stress on us and i don't think we're doing as well as we

113used to it was supposed to be a two week situation and it's now 22 months that we've been uh dealing with this pandemic and you know if you're looking for something that's going to help with social emotional learning and i also asked him to fit a lines of time and informed education and he said yes it does and i would encourage you to read one of his books and talk to your children and work with other adults you can use the same techniques on anyone it's all about coming together it's all about talking it's all about having good communication good communication makes for a good relationship thank you ladies and gentlemen i was thinking to all of you we listened to all of you the nine elected school board members must listen to all of

114you with respect and with an attempt to understand how seriously you are trying to tell us how you feel and it is as important to us to listen to one side of the room as it is to the other side of the room covered and all the issues around the pandemic have meant new layers of responsibility and challenges for all school districts but at the core of our purpose i can't say this enough you talk about a mantra judy at the core of our purpose there are students and an education and readiness for post-graduation life that is owed to them what do we want to be known for in the westchester school area for being a community that is focused on educating preparing and nurturing the next generations our focus and that of our constituents

115and community members must return over and over to this our students their education and the readiness for what comes after graduation every decision we make must be necessary to that focus in every decision we make it is our children students it is our district and it is our community that is at stake this is the mission of the westchester public schools and must be the mission of our community i thank each one of you for joining us in this journey we do not need to sit in this room and insult each other we do not need to take pot shots at each other we can speak we can be civil and we can listen that is what we are here for thank you very much for coming to the meeting i hope to see you

116again is