001i'm ready think we should leave good evening everyone i'd like to call to order the december 20th 2021 meeting of the westchester area school district school board business meeting let's start with a salute to the flag led by haley arabia and georgia green of stetson middle allegiance school 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 now haley and georgia welcome to the school board meeting welcome also to your parents and your principals this is mary kay from chala we thank you for your report tonight on what is happening with the stetson middle school falcons as we are almost at winter break women hello my name is georgia green and i am an eighth grader
002at betson middle school as someone who's been going to stepson for 30 years now my favorite thing to do has always been musical activities like the yearly musical and musical and band concerts cover 19 has stopped these activities from happening from happening last year although we did have a beta concept in the spring we missed our annual winter concert we also did not have a musical at all last year which deeply upset me this year however we had a halloween winter concert in the amazing musical so halloween concert this year was set up by our new band director kyle risch we wanted to make sure that no matter what happened we would be able to perform in front of others at least once this year and i am very grateful the halloween concert was outside
003in front of our school was a little chilly but exciting nonetheless the 7th and 9th grade band played a collection of three songs ghostbusters black forest overture and thriller it was a blast and i was very glad to be back to performing the year and that the seventh graders got a chance to perform in front of others with consensus we did get to do it again shortly after though during the winter concert stetson stetson's winter concert was a blast but was also combined with the westminster we played adrenaline engines together and then played the star-spangled banner in blackboard's overture on our own were on rescue stage which was a different setup than we were used to but we did have a day-long dress rehearsal the whole summer sunday through band took the field trip to
004reston from second to seventh period and it was a back flip when we arrived we were separated into rooms by which section of the band we were in i am in percussion and we were put on the stage we learned a bit about the instruments that rest in the world would be like playing there then we practiced a bit and the band got all back together again we had a presentation by professor by a professor at u-pen who told us about all the band opportunities and scholarships we could get if we could continue to be into college after that we said goodbye and went back to school that afternoon he had a concert in which the practice was still fresh in our mind and i think that we did amazing not to get another amazing
005thing that happened with this year's musical all together now directed by residents choral director ann ellis all together now the classic is a compilation of constant plot results from different musicals to celebrate the return of theater after coogan 19. this is an amazing choice because i know that i was missing stetson's theater during copy 19. we were here almost every day after school and had amazing costumes and props i had an amazing time and the greatest thing was bonded with everyone in my past i really miss being on stage but the connections i made with the other classmates was the best thing i did i now say hi to people that never looked out in the hallways before and have little lives with them which i've heard copenhagen is the best thing i've asked for
006thank you for this opportunity to share [Applause] hi my name is haley arabia and i am an executive member of the stetson middle school student council i would like to take a few moments to talk about the student council's accomplishments as well as our current projects aside from promoting school spirit and a sense of community within our school stetson student council have chosen to direct our focus this year on giving back to our community during the month of october student council paired up with our counseling department to raise awareness about drug abuse prevention through national red ribbon week to bring students attention to this cause we held our first spirit week and awarded tickets to students for participation as well as for being a helpful member of our school community students use these tickets at
007the end of the week for a school-wide raffle to win prizes helping our community has always been a stetson mission for the month of november and in the spirit of thanksgiving we set up a food drive to donate to the westchester food cover in addition to our normal food drive where students can bring in items to school we hosted our first ever drive-by food drive where student council members gathered outside to collect donations from people within our community so that they didn't have to leave their cars we also connected with our local west town east ocean police department who made an extremely generous donation to our food drive we are extremely thankful for our community's contributions all together we donated 328 pounds of food to our local food bank during the holidays we've taken another
008step towards helping our community we have donation boxes set up for toys for tots and presents for puppies today also happened to be the final day to purchase candy grams at our school which is a new fundraiser idea that allowed students to purchase candy canes with a kind note for their friends for a dollar we made around 600 from our fundraiser and we are donating half the proceeds to our own safe harbor in downtown westchester thank you so much for your continued support for our stetson student council [Applause] haley and jordan don't go anywhere we're coming back to get a picture taken i warned you about that i do want to say you too you two ladies wait a minute georgia stand up you two you three you are the reason that we are all
009in this room here tonight and other monday nights we we are here because you are the highlight of the board meetings hearing from actual students thank you for coming to the meeting i couldn't be happier i think you two are probably ready for high school right now both in your ability to express yourself with confidence and clarity and the amazing work that you are doing in middle school a food drive and uh did you say your percussion are you percussion oh i am impressed yes and you are going to go to high school right now and be able to contact people in the community donate to organizations that need your help you are doing school and so much more we are impressed and we are grateful so thank you both for coming and that was
010a good thing for us to hear thank you [Applause] yes hmm ladies you're not taller than i am um [Music] one more hold yourself thank you thank you thank you have a good week and a great day thanks mary kay thank you thank you ladies go home and do your homework now [Applause] next on the agenda is roll call for the board this is karashore vice president pebble aqua here director chester here director dietrich here director darnell here director plumbing here director herman here director shaw here president tannen here director longsleeve here to elena here william porter madison here oh yes sometimes i forget that i'm up here uh this is this leads to this leads to public comments on agenda items there are no public comments oh okay all right thank you what i
011wanted to say to everybody who's sitting in front of us right now is thank you for taking time to come share your thoughts with us although nobody wanted to share tonight we know getting up to speak is not easy we are listening carefully to your remarks we are taking notes audience this is a public business meeting a gathering of people interested in how we are educating these students so moving on we will now approve the minutes of two separate meetings and since there were two separate boards at these meetings we will do this twice the first board the first meeting we will approve the minutes of is november 22nd 2021 and so the board members who were on the board at that time will vote others the other three will abstain for this vote okay
012do i have a motion to approve the minutes from the 22nd ms chester and dr shaw i i have trouble looking sideways karen but i'll guess uh call for the vote mrs character director chester yes director shaw yes director dietrich yes director fleming casting president yes thank you now we are voting on approving the minutes of the december 6 2021 reorganization meeting may i have a motion dr herman and mr gurnell good call for the vote director herman yes director here now yes director yes director chester yes director fleming yes [Music] thank you that will move us to approval of the december 20th 2021 school board meeting agenda motion to approve mr beverlock [Music] on the uh on the board meeting agenda for tonight all right there is two items on the board agenda referenced
013under property and finance section b i'm making a motion to remove items d1 and d2 tonight are there any comments or questions on mr tribal's request to remove d1 and d2 which we discussed in property and finance hearing none could i have a motion please to approve the agenda so can we do a motion to amend the agenda all right could i have a motion to approve the amendment to the agenda ms jeffrey dr hermann thank you this is karashore director detroit yes director herman yes vice president yes director shaw yes director now yes director chester yes director fleming yes director yes president yes now now we are going to have a vote to approve the amended school board agenda for december 20th 2021. mr devil aqua up first ms chester a second roll call
014mrs chair short vice president before that black ball yes director chester yes director fleming yes director lonesome yes director yes director yes director herman yes director dietrich yes president yes thank you mrs cherishmore would you please add to the meeting minutes for this evening that we met as award in executive session twice earlier this evening on legal and safety matters as well as confidential student matters this leads us to the superintendent's report dr sokolowski thank you mrs tiernan and december has certainly been a busy and festive month tis the season for holiday concerts our 17 schools are celebrating the holidays by showing off their musical talents i hope that you were all able to enjoy at least one of our school's concerts whether that's chorus bend or orchestra we have many many talented musicians as
015we heard from our stetson students earlier throughout our district and the districts actually for consecutive years we've been recognized by nafni the national association for music education as one of the best districts in the country for music for students our school board back lana runaro may mention this but on december 16th last thursday evening east high school deca students ran a silent charity auction supporting home of the sparrow a local non-profit assisting women and children in our community i especially would like to thank alana i would also like to thank elena newton and also our deca teacher advisor mrs carol lill for making this happen this year to spread holiday cheer and brighten the spirits of army's spartan company unit who are members of the army who are unable to return home for the holidays
016this year west town thornbury elementary students dedicated time to write letters and holiday cards to be sent overseas in time for the upcoming holidays similarly hillsdale elementary teacher mrs mcgrady and her class also honored service members by creating 30 care packages filled with much needed items in addition to food and non-perishable items students thought that the service men and women could use some personalized thank you notes silly jokes and fun pictures to brighten their days in conjunction with the holocaust museum henderson students hosted an interview very recently with rachel goldfarb a holocaust survivor students were able to hear mrs goldbar's story and ask her questions we also in the month of december high school students interested in pursuing a veterinary career in medicine visited east bradford veterinary hospital last week actually students gained a unique
017experience in the daily life of working in a veterinary setting and learned about the various careers within the field thanks to the staff at east bradford veterinary hospital for sharing their expertise with our students the pennwood elementary girls on the run fall team recently concluded a wonderful season celebrating a 5k involving teams from chester delaware and montgomery counties the team spent eight weeks complete leaving various lessons within the girls on the run curriculum each lesson incorporated exercise and running as well as just simply creating that sense of community westchester area school district german teachers frau fusco and eric taglin took students from puget ruston henderson and east to the bethlehem kristen kindle mark this german-style holiday market offered traditional food and gifts glassblowing demonstration and an ice sculpture it's time to give our schools a
018thank you for all their busy service project that they provided our community and i just want to provide examples from one of our elementary middle and high schools hillsdale elementary together with the community hillsdale donated over two thousand dollars in gift cards teachers worked with toys for tots to fill 34 bags with toys and gift cards for hillsdale elementary families in need uh fugit middle school staff collected cash for residents of the copson home a local residential facility providing medical and nursing care the feuget middle school student council also planned a comfortable dress event for this upcoming thursday the 23rd of december to raise funds to donate to the red cross for victims of the recent tornadoes particularly in the state of kentucky and then finally at ruston high school the school raised over four
019thousand dollars for gift cards for rust and families in need and as well the walker home club collected items such as blankets and winter clothing for local women's shelters uh the national art honor society painted christmas cards for the residents of fair acres and also in some areas of giving for the school district this year's district-wide united campaign efforts raised more than 17 thousand dollars most of this these funds will go to help families in our local community and chester county and thank you to all of our staff who contributed to the united way campaign fund the westchester uh education foundation station also raised funds during the holiday auction luncheon on december 8th these funds range to supporting classroom mini grants and the opportunity for high school students to attend pennsylvania free enterprise week this
020summer i would also like to talk a little bit just about health and safety as i know that is something that's definitely on a lot of our minds recently the pennsylvania supreme court ruled that the health department overstepped their authority in mandating mass and returned this responsibility to the local school districts the westchester area school district's current health and safety plan was approved back in august prior to this quarter this plan requires that our students k-12 our staff k-12 would be masked as long as we are in an elevated level of transmission and we are currently in a high level of transmission during the week of december 6 we saw this is on our cova dashboard the highest number of positive cases reported in a single week this school year with 51 student cases the
021week of december 13th however the week have just concluded we saw that number even though that we're seeing cases rise across the state across the country we saw a decline student cases were only at 33 however we are seeing a rise in the number of cases amongst our staff i want to be very open with our community that we will be having discussions in january regarding our health and safety plan this first conversation will start at our january 10th education committee with the ultimate goal of our board reviewing and passing for a vote a revised health and safety plan by the end of january i would also like to talk about threats towards schools this is definitely not a great holiday topic at all but this has certainly been something that's in the news since
022especially the tragedy that occurred in michigan on november 29th i want to assure our families as i communicated last week by way of email and had many many conversations with our parents with also our ptc ptoc group that we take any and all threats to our schools whether credible or not with the highest degree of priority as a learning organization we also look for ways to improve from each of these situations on december 14th i can share with everyone that our security personnel and i met with representatives from our local police departments to review each of these instances that have occurred to look for ways that we can do even better in response to these threats one of the areas that we definitely have been able to solidify would be overnight communication whether a threat
023is credible or not to make sure that we're getting information out to students and families as promptly as possible we are also going to seek a method for being able to obtain student particularly high school students and middle school students cell phone numbers so in the event that we have to communicate things at a very early hour that is getting out to our most important individuals our students as promptly as possible i want to share as well that our next community conversations this is the third part of the three-part series will be held at 6 30 p.m at ruston high school on the 20th of january and i finally just want to wish everyone a very happy holiday season i'm very excited looking forward to 2022 much to celebrate and much to be proud of
024the westchester area school district mrs tyrion that concludes my report thanks dr sokolowski thank you for summing up the end of the year that was in no way easy but certainly has contained a remarkable amount of generosity among our students and their parents are reaching out to not just to our community but almost globally that's a very impressive school district and thanks for getting us off to the beginning of the new year 2022 because better things are yet to come now we're pleased to have our high school student representative reports beginning with elena ruderow from east high school hi everyone i hope you're all doing well east hasn't had much changes this past month but the halls are definitely getting more excited as the winter season approaches um but we have had some successes regarding
025sports and clubs so starting off with the westchester golf and country club and the bruce e hefke memorial scholarship organizational community we're very pleased to announce victoria kim as the recipient of the first annual bruce e hepke memorial scholarship victoria is a current senior at westchester east high school she will be majoring in mathematics at williams college next fall while east while at east victoria has excelled both academically and as a four-year member of the viking golf team she has also volunteered several hours of her time to help serve her church and community victoria's accomplished compliments um on the golf course have been nothing less than spectacular playing in the pia girls state golf tournament for the past three years finishing in second place in 2019 first in 2020 and third in 2021 additionally victoria
026has been playing in the peggy kirk bell and ajga girls golf tournaments for several years traveling and competing against the top female junior coffers in the east coast region she's absolutely amazing and i consider myself very honored to have been in her camp class sophomore year another special congratulations goes out to the east cheerleaders for earning second place out of the 12 teams in the uca regional cheer competition in lancaster convention center the girls earned themselves an automatic bid to compete in the national high school cheer competition in orlando florida this coming february east deca competed in their district competition two weeks ago bringing home 79 medals with the following breakdown 13 in first place 10 and second place 23rd and 33 finalists the students will now be preparing for their state conference in hershey
027february 16 through 18th gertlap is still supporting the menstrual equity in our school by having club members continue to collect feminine products in order to make them more available to girls bathrooms in addition we've been visually demonstrating our support for all the girls in our school by creating inspirational and empowering posters and displaying them throughout the building homeless wear like dr sokolowski said had a silent auction this past thursday night and it was very successful and it raised one thousand nine hundred dollars for their organization the student band three mile island performed as the students and parents mingled and participated in the raffles it was a great time i even got the chance to color at the kid's table and draw a picture for santa east also hosted a talent show this past friday where
028all proceedings went to a mental health organization charity everyone did absolutely amazing and it was definitely worth it after i spent two weeks getting very very excited for it um the band i previously said the three mile island band won the whole thing it was very exciting um they successfully raised eight hundred dollars in addition to this dway came on thursday during all lunch periods and seasons pizza pizza and frasier had a dine and donate that same day where twenty percent of the proceedings would also go to mental health awareness organizations centers will be coming to town on a tuesday tomorrow in school for students to take pictures and donate their money to student council to help fund and raise money for women and children in our area pictures will be a dollar a person
029and we are hoping for a good turnout and lots of donations i hope you will all have a happy and healthy holiday season and east will report back in the new year thank you thank you elena now will porter you said you haven't heard from him no henderson is missing in action okay rest in high school manny d'ambro go forth thank you and i hope y'all did really well um rustin itself has been in a pretty much a lull for the past month although we have been busy in our holiday spirits and our giving moods our unicef club held their first annual holiday 5k at ruston this past saturday um raising almost 500 for unicef and for children global um part of me children worldwide as dr sokolovsky said we raised around four thousand dollars
030for russian families in need um for their holiday needs and i know dr morano is very very proud of that as our community um our walker home club collected and our donable items and national art honor society has christmas cards for the resident of fair acres and russian which athletics has been off to a wonderful start it is a big week for our boys and girls basketball teams 9th grade jd and varsity have upcoming games at shannon and unionville this week our indoor track had a recent meet and the students have brought home many many medals and they're off to a really great start it's one of our biggest indoor winter sports for preston and we're really proud of that our wrestling team has also begun and at their recent meet many many nights have
031taken home hardware and placed themselves student council has nothing to report we are planning an upcoming blood drive for february so we'll report back in the new year and our administration is very excited to introduce our social and emotional learning day which will happen this thursday which basically gave students the opportunity to select different activities throughout the day for a switch up for a change a nice day before break the goal was to integrate students within each other create a sense of community a safe space and environment that kind of thing students had the opportunity to choose from everything our teachers will be bringing in some of their own pets so we'll have a dog therapy we will have logic and strategy games a rugby analysis period movies sports trivia and so much more the
032list was forever long and an alternative to our selected activities for the day will be a school-wide kickball tournament which has become huge so we're excited to see how that goes and our administration is very very excited to bring that to our students and try and bring more of the community to western so thank you all have a wonderful holiday season maddie and elena thank you so much and we all as a board wish you and your families a healthy and happy break from your studies and a great finish for your senior year which is coming into its second semester that's big so we know that you are distracted in many ways by thoughts of the future but you are giving us wonderful information and a sense of what it's like to be at rustin
033and east and and if will comes back at henderson so we wish you two all the best and thank you for all coming to the meetings and um participating in the self-confident way that you do uh that leads [Applause] that leads us to the personnel recommendations from dr ulmer good evening with mrs tiernon mr vedalafa and directors of our board our personal report for the month of december is as follows with removals from payroll we have two resignations one staff nurse and one paraprofessional we have one retirement he is sydney algier first grade teacher at west town formula elementary school with 15 years of service we miss we wish miss algiere the best in her future endeavors in addition to payroll we are recommending the hiring of three new teachers eight long-term substitute teachers one
034staff nurse three paraprofessionals one secretary two custodians one technology specialist and one substitute custodian in personnel events i communicated six status changes two of the professional staff three of the support staff and one of the custodial staff i communicated and delivered four involuntary transfers two in our professional staff and two in our support staff i also communicated and delivered one voluntary transfer in our professional staff in additional information we are announcing updated 11 start dates the update of a previously reported name one last day update the moving of a sabbatical to another semester and the names of all drivers and aides from crafts buses and on-the-go kids buses we also have recommended 24 employees to be tutors across the district in addition to the approximate 125 that we approved last month in supplemental contracts we
035have nine additions to annual supplementals two additions to winter supplementals one removal from an annual supplemental and three adjustments to annual supplementals i'm respectfully requesting board approval for all personnel matters listed above thank you thank you dr omar ford any questions or comments for dr omer we we appreciate all of your work trying to keep us staffed and healthy and that has not been easy this fall so we hope everybody gets so healthy over break that there is not one need for a substitute when we come back i i really really hope that's going to happen seeing no questions and saying i have motions to approve this report mr bill delaqua as dr herman mrs cherisher of the vote mr vice president yes director herman yes director williams yes director darnell yes director chester yes
036director shawwal yes director e3 yes director fleming president tiernon yes all right next is approval of the consent agenda before we vote are there any board members who wish to remove any items from the consent agenda nobody mentioned anything earlier but i think i'm supposed to ask all right seeing none i'll accept motion to accept the consent agenda uh miss chester dr dietrich mrs cara short the boat director chester yes director dietrich yes director journal yes director yes director shaw yes director fleming yes yes director herman yes president yes thank you we moved now to the school board committee reports dr shaw education anything to report no president tearing because we do not have a meeting i know but i thought i would ask miss chester anything to report people services yeah our nine meeting
037followed they're not meeting so we have no meeting now you too your next meeting is january the 10th all right so we look we invite everybody to come on january 10th to the education and people services meetings dr hermann anything to report no not this month thank you i guess it's been a little slack around here too and um mr bevalaqua property in finance good evening i do have a report tonight the property finance meeting was held tonight prior to the board meeting um in the property in finance meeting mr scully as he normally does each month review the budget forecast model committee the changes to the 2022-23 expense projections included a reduction in total expenses of 657k changes to the revenue for the 2022-2023 projections included an increase revenue of 511k the net of
038all changes in the past month resulted in a 22-23 budget gap decrease of 1.16 million the summary of old fund shows the budget gap currently after an act one tax increase to be currently at 1.29 million mr scully then reviewed the 2022-23 budget calendar reviewed multiple options on the budget calendar and the committee decided to maintain the taxes within this act 1 increase with no exceptions and the adoption of the final budget in may of 2022. going to the agenda we do have one item for approval uh this came out of the committee as approval but needs board for formal approval and i'm looking at item d3 if anybody's referencing the agenda so i'll make a motion for approval of the act one resolution for the inflation index budget limit approval is requested for the
039resolution for act one inflation index budget limit iso move thank you second for that motion karen karen this is plenty thank you so much you just blanked out thank you very much stacy all right this is jerry short vice president yes director clement yes director chester yes roger shaw yes director yes director harmon yes roger darnell yes president chairman yes motion carries i do have one last item that we discussed at the department of finance this evening mr scully also reviewed with the committee the 2021 real estate property assessment appeals that could impact the 20 to 2022 tax base on the review goes from informational and he'll give us an update uh here on his tax appeals the next property and finance meeting it is welcome to will be on a tuesday night since it
040follows the the uh martin luther king holiday and the meeting will be on tuesday january 18th and that uh ends my report for this evening thank you thanks mr viva lapo next we will hear comments from residents who have signed up before the meeting to speak to us this is chair short will you call people to the microphone please before doing so i'd just like to read some instructions if i may thank you thank you persons wishing to make public comment this evening were required to sign in prior to the designated start time of tonight's meeting when a public commenter's name is called i ask that they please approach the podium and begin by stating their first and last name and township if an individual is providing public comment on behalf of a group or
041entity please state your group or entity affiliation public comments will be limited to two minutes per person per current board policy the two minute time clock will be projected on the screen at the end of the two-minute time period 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 two minutes or if it is obscene and or threatening in nature we will now call the first name america uh good evening everybody good evening everybody my name is from the west whiteland township um um so this is the perfect time to address another an edition of a holiday since we are currently in a holiday season muslims around the world partake in the
042celebrations of two equally important holidays evil twitter and evil evil twitter marks the end of the ninth month of fasting which is ramadan it is in essence an earth reward for all efforts that muslims have put forth during ramadan excitement and cheer spread as kids get money gifts treats and most importantly fun memories with family and friends either does the second holiday commemorates the abrahamic traditions of love and sacrifice and is celebrated in a similar manner with friends and family holidays are a gateway to learn more about different cultures and traditions including the two eve holidays by the westchester area school district will not only create a great sense of belonging for muslim students but will also create a platform to enlighten others this way the parents will be spared of making a tough choice
043between academics and celebration these tweets are just as important as rosh hashanah yom kippur as well as christmas and easter so i would finally urge um the west secretary school district to consider adding both to ease to the color also if the eat holidays fall over the weekend i would propose to um as monday being the day off since it falls after that is all i have thank you so much thank you very much we are going to be presenting in our education committee a proposed calendar for the 22-23 school year and that draft at this time will honor the date of april 23rd of 2023 in honor of diddy that will be correct when we send out our agenda for the education who's thinking about this friday the 23rd yeah good evening everyone my
044name is alicia booth and i'm a junior at henderson high school i think i'm the only one from anderson to talk about tonight eve initiative um i just wanted to say thank you for letting me have a chance to speak um and i have been a part of westchester um air school district for about 10 11 years i've been here since first grade um mercy house and then i went to pierce middle school um growing up i just uh every year i would see i was like participating in like holiday activities and like holiday parties and we would do like christmas crafts and do stuff for the jewish holidays um and i would just feel left out because uh i felt like we weren't being representative it represented it sorry um and i would always
045take a day off as and like um know spend time with families and fill up our tummies with yummy food and um i just feel like having eid off would just be so much would help so much of having a representation of the muslim community in this district and i feel like being a part of henderson high school i am pretty involved two of the clubs i'm in is equity student union and i'm president of dc student union and i would just love having the opportunity to help promote diversity and um after mrs stephanie started the initiative i would just love to be a part of it and help um talk to you guys about having offered we love that you guys take that into consideration thank you so much signing is before i begin
046i would like to mention that i have a child who currently attends anderson high school i also have the two older children who are who are eliminated however i am respectfully requesting that the school administration and board recognize two muslim festivals both either and as a school holiday for students and teachers we are requesting that both youth holidays are treated equally as other villages and trustee holidays where schools and offices will be closed for both student and staff recognizing what he knowledges will bring awareness for students of all faiths to learn more about each and every identity and it impacts on islamic [Music] good evening everyone um uh first of all my name is shafiq i'm here as a part of the muslim community here in westchester i live in we live in west virgin
047township i have four kids who have been through middle school elementary school middle school and high school my daughter is now in college through henderson and one of the things which she always told me uh as she's uh she's a confident young lady in college now one of the things she always tells me is how much she values education from west chester school district and that's uh we as a family have been all over the us we have lived in uh new jersey indiana and finally we uh have settled our booths in this community and the reason we have studied our roots in this community is because the diversity the inclusivity uh the the togetherness which we have seen in this uh in in the school district and uh even in this area we have
048been into a great valley school district we have been to garnet valley and we have decided for the last 13 years to be a part of the western syria school district and that that's where i'm coming from is the two holidays as my other colleagues have spoken about the evil uh evil sweater as dr sacrobs he already mentioned but also equal other half because they both go together both these festivals are part of worship of our religion both of them teach about sharing caring and taking care of our friends relatives as well as the persons who are most suffering within the community so as a part of the as a part of honoring the diversity the inclusivity in this community you would like to petition to the board to accept both of these ideas as
049part of a scheduled calendar holiday system so that they can be observed by everybody so that not only the muslim community but also the community around us knows about them and then we can also share the rest of the community in our happiness and include thank you very much for giving me a chance to speak we want to thank you members of the community who have come forward to ask for to be included in a worldwide appreciation of our holidays and i ask you if you have time to come back to the education committee meeting where this will be discussed so we're not discussing it tonight but we will be discussing it in the public on january 10 at 6 30 at the education committee meeting you are welcome to come be a part of
050that discussion okay thank you for coming forward tonight anybody else mrs character partying sultana this evening respected members of the west australia school district and the community members i'm parveen sultana from west whitelands township today thank you first of all for the opportunity for discussing this islamic holiday on the pulling the islamic holiday the school calendar year and i really thank you for the encouragement that we received the email replies from purple's velocities today i'll request i'm a very proud member of to be a part of the west australia school district i'm requesting that i know the calendar years are made in advance but for this year 2022 the in-service day for may 17th the teacher in service day if that can be moved to may 3rd that is our easily fitter day so that
051day that will give us an opportunity to celebrate with her as their family so so that would be a request and i thank you again for giving us this opportunity and i wish everybody happy and safe holidays thank you again thank you mama hello everyone good evening respected members of the world and our community members my name is mulvar sayer i am from west wildland township i wanted to thank the board and my lovely community for this opportunity to discuss the addition of edel feather holiday on the school calendar first of all i would like to congratulate the school leadership for the positive change and transformation that we have seen including uh eagle feather as a school holiday and as it relates to the recognizing and promoting diversity and inclusion as you are committed to
052building out the diversity and inclusion strategy for our district we are proud to have an opportunity to participate in this vision i have been in the school district over 10 years and i have three kids in the district i did my mba from delaware university this unit this university has provided a wonderful environment where diversity ethics values for every race caller ethnicity i cherish this environment and it was an exemplary environment to tell my kids and grandchildren in future i have been very blessed to live in united states which is the world's greatest kindest wonderful country which gave a place to live for me and my family in my opinion so i certainly enjoy american heritage tradition values such as celebrating halloween thanksgiving and of course christmas so as part of this i wish i
053would like to celebrate our own traditional holiday such as either faithful with my family and friends either feather is the occasion for special prayers family visits and giving gifts so i would kindly request to include thank you mr c thank you very much i also just want to say i really appreciate your kind words and recognition of the school district it's much appreciated thank you jennifer mcfarland set up from mcfarland to east bradford township recently i wrote a letter to the board i look forward to its response in order for the public to understand what the letter was about i have decided to come forward and talk about a book that i read that gives a voice to those of us who are not woke racists you might be awoke racist if you think that
054anti-racism is a new civil rights battle or if you think that black lives matter more than all lives matter if you think that racism is baked into the structure of society and whites are complicit in maintaining that structure you might be a woe racist you might be awoke racist if you think that white people must show exquisite sensitivity around blacks including suspending of standards of achievement and conduct if you believe that forcing teachers to waste time on anti-racist infusions into the curriculum is any different than china's cultural revolution you might be a racist you might be awake racist if you think that it's racist that black boys are over represented in those expelled or suspended from schools for violent acts even though the data shows that black boys are twice as likely to be involved
055in those violent acts if you think that if you are white you are personally and permanently tainted by white privilege and everything you did you might be a white racist awoke racist in addition you might be a world racist if you believe you are the bearers of wisdom and empathetic and if you deride others for not adhering to your religion of anti-racism thank you to a black american colombian university professor dr john mcwhorter for identifying and documenting this new and virulent form of racism so are you members of the board doctor stop alaska thank you vote racist something to think about thank you over the holidays thank you and merry christmas thank you for acknowledging and welcoming parent input my comments tonight are related to the health and safety plan that will be reviewed and
056voted on next month i am requesting that the board members have the courage to do what is right for our children and teachers and eliminate the requirement for forced masking in schools despite that despite the fact that there is no state mandate it will take courage for you to act despite the fact that there is not a local county mandate in place it will take courage for you to act it has been almost a year since we advocated for the change from six feet of distancing to three the board was nervous a year ago and would not consider moving to three feet until cchd sanctioned that change it was because of brave parents who spoke up and lobbied the commissioners that cchd adjusted its recommendations despite the board's reservations we have seen no issues or
057problems with the change from six to three feet even the cdc changed their guidance after chester county did the same parents who fought for three feet are also fighting for the elimination of masks in school the commissioners are clear that they have no recommendations or guidance around masking many districts near us and across the state have already made it masking optional here in chester county oxford has had the courage to make the right decision marple newtown pandelco ridley springfield have all eliminated masking in york county red lion school district never instituted force masking despite secretary beam's unconstitutional order i am not going to argue science randomize control trials or data with you there is no wan this is no longer a public health question this is simply a legal question does the district have the
058authority to ask our children with the recent supreme court decision i believe the answer is no and unless your solicitor has 100 certainty that they can defend divorced mass mandate i implore you to have the courage and conviction to do the right thing and eliminate masking for our students thank you [Applause] david primary good evening everybody my opinion is that cloth and surgical masks do not effectively stop the spread of clothing mask mandates are about making some feel safe but not actually about making classrooms safer this is consistent with what dr fauci said back in march of 2020 last year during the 60 minutes interview i still believe he was being truthful and honest that day if you disagree with me prove me wrong post some randomized controlled trial studies showing that masks prevent the
059spread of microscopic parasolized viral particles date the cdcm by extension in this district has mandated masks based on observational and other types of studies these studies that most show correlation but not causation and they cut both ways they don't control for variables they are minimal scientific value they are subject to political manipulation and speaking of political manipulation just last week the left-leaning atlantic publication criticized the cdc director for relying on shaky science to promote mass mandates if the cdc is relying on shaky science this district should not be relying on cdc frankly the consequences of masking both long and short term are frightening for my children they include partial breathing restrictions health issues lack of cleanliness psychological harm and learning impairment i'm far more worried about the consequences to my children long-term asking than i
060am again my premise is that the nest do not prevent immediately prevent spread of covered indoors if you disagree post some scientifically valuable randomized control studies to prove your own if you can't do it please stop relying on the cdc stop relying on the shaky science stop making policy based on subjective feelings and end the mask mandate thank you for your time tonight have a great holiday everybody thank you very much i just uh wanted to invite you that if you have research that you would like to send to me i'd be welcome to review that uh random controlled trials for covent i unethical in terms of some students would receive mass and some students wouldn't buy it so i did want to address that i also wanted to address dr fauqui when he made
061those comments in march 2020 it's my understanding that that was before we saw you know why it's a great number of schools close for that year thank you i understand that i just have a different opinion uh james hagerty uh christian my daughter is a student at fugit and during that whole um right that wasn't a threat to scarole teachers principals nobody plays again later that week we went and talked to crystal fierce and she stated that we didn't know what the students knew so we didn't put anything out to the students dad was afraid all day long until she got me why not alleviate that fear you guys did an investigation with police and everything else but you don't tell students who are reading twitter and she's getting knowledge from twitter which is false
062and you're not correcting that why that's all i got thank you very much i do want to acknowledge that our staff was informed so that they could share that with students uh but as i shared in my note uh part of the the challenge in that situation was attempting to stay ahead of social media which became incredibly difficult uh so putting out because dr pierce i believe that put out the communication that morning and also a follow-up communication that evening as well yeah and that that is something as i shared with you as a district fortunately that was a non-credible threat um but we want to be sure that if that ever does transpire again that we are able to be more forward with our communication as i expressed in my report earlier so thank
063you it's not as practical thank you james sarah again hi sarah dances bradford i just wanted to speak to the covid health and safety plan that's going to be discussed next month i'm in favor of continue masking through the year until we know about more of what's coming with the variance yes i understand at some point masks will be lifted but not all children have been able to get vaccinated and that all teachers and staff have been boosted i also want to remind you that each of the high schools has a preschool class in them full of children that do not meet the age requirements to get vaccinated so i'm asking that if masking is lifted that we at least wait until spring and that those children are considered and keep the high schoolers with
064those preschoolers in those classes masked going along with preschoolers in the high school i was not notified about the threat at east until we arrived that morning the teacher waited for the principal to send out the email then she sent hers most of us were already on our way in obviously very scared as soon as we pulled up and we're meeting with the police officer as well as the teacher explaining the situation i appreciate that there are steps being put into place to fix this issue i did notice that the following threat the tick tock fund was communicated and explained the night before so that one was fairly early that day we do know that rumors fly children read things on social media we need to be ahead of this there needs to be more
065transparency on how the and the direction in which these threats will be handled as well as making sure that the children are aware thank you for for following through with that thank you sir i appreciate it [Music] i am john wright from west whiteland and talk about the health and safety plan we're a nation of walls guided by the u.s constitution and the pa constitution both founding documents are designed to protect citizens from oppressive government overreach the school district is municipality under pa law and only has powers expressly granted to it by the pa legislator and must be strictly construed school districts do not have the authority or power to void or ignore state or federal law no health department or school district has the authority to mandate experimental medical devices for healthy children masks
066like all eua investigational treatments are not approved by the fda they're merely issued a temporary authorization to accelerate the investigational process and since eua devices and treatments are investigational they are experimental the fda granted an e-way for mass under very clear conditions may not imply they offer antiviral protection or be used as infection prevention or reduction cannot be labeled as respiratory protected excuse me not labeled as respiratory devices and should not be used for particulate filtration furthermore fda requires disclosure of potential risk and the option to decline westchester health and safety plan applies masking do the very four things the fda says they can't if they issued a conditional emergency use authorization however a pa general assembly voted to end the emergency so there is no authorization the parents in this room know conditional okay
067means why doesn't our school board under pa and cares act informed consent is required for experimental medical devices intentionally violating informed consent is considered medical battery and punitive damages are provided by statute the cdc or health departments cannot override federal law or pa law neither can westchester school district policy thank you [Applause] thank you john i think we're still awaiting the uh the written opinion from the pa supreme court but that that would be helpful to have thank you predators fred burns west ocean oh man um what is done in love is done well it was a comment a quote given last week during last month tell that to the struggling kids who with my the strong the kids struggling mightily with anxiety and psychological issues due to the masking including my own nephew and
068many others my own daughter feeling peer pressure to keep the base going outside because she feels as though she'll get in trouble if she doesn't take it off tell that to the teachers against masking that feel they have to keep their mouth shut shut in fear of scrutiny i had the the pleasure of uh doing a zoo meeting with the children's first based in philadelphia for parent empowerment they're reaching out to different parents throughout the county um they reached out to chester county i was i don't want to say pleasantly but i was encouraged that i'm not crazy as most of the parents felt the same issues that i have with trust with this school board that you're not making decisions based on our children's interests but other powers that being trust is broken and
069if you haven't noticed there's a continuing number of parents growing against them asking and against other decisions that you're making the pre-a supreme court finally shot down the mass mandate yet now we're just deciding to review this now why isn't this on the agenda tonight this is a big issue this is if you clearly understood what i've been up here peacefully talking about since september this would be talked about right now next what's the next question that comes to any parent's mind the vaccines what what's going to happen there are you going to mandate them doctor strawski emailed me no that that's that's the state's decision but what happens when the state puts it back on you like they did with the masking are you going to create a new this is what's going through
070a regular parent who normally wouldn't be up here's head so whether that's crazy or not it needs to be addressed and when you have when you meet what january 10th another two weeks there i'm just so frustrated thank you [Applause] stephanie o'brien hi good evening send me a brian west town township i attended the first westchester area school district community conversations in september due to the political social and economic situations these past years i've been wanting to start being involved more in the community and for our children so i signed up with the expectation of having some honest and difficult discuss discussions facing our kids today i thought parents neighbors teachers admins were going to start the process of talking and i mean literally talking that night we were told prior to the breakout sessions
071by ms nader that we will not talk about certain topics and we will not debate or argue which is fair as i heard that and i thought that what truly are we going to talk about tonight and what are these topics going to be not what i expected from the email but i said to myself be patient and let's see how this goes i was in the classroom with two teachers as a mediator slash leaders along with about 10 adults in my group it was a board member and the rest were parents and one was a school board member the lead teacher prompted the groups with a question so we had about 15 minutes to discuss the topics there were about five questions i recall one question share your childhood mentor and what kind of
072impact did they have another was what kind of struggles did you face during the childhood i will clarify these as not exactly verbatim but you get to just what i'm talking about i will say it was a very nice conversation among our fellow adults it was a nice exercise and everyone shared and listened respectfully at the end of the session the teachers directed summaries of the on white paper with output one of the things i said is we need to get back to love of country the point of this is i think this is a bunch of fluff and we need to get down in the ground in the dirt and have these difficult conversations thank you [Applause] happy holidays everybody christopher manos east bradford township uh i just wanted the board to uh really
073seriously reconsider the health and safety plan um i have observed as a soccer coach as a member of the cub scouts and boy scouts and interacting with a lot of children like you guys do that there are a lot of kids that i know that they're healthy they don't want to be masked anymore they really just want to live their lives normally and i think that the the masking is having a psychological impact on kids and at some point we have to free the kids from this we have to let them live their lives normally because this is not normal and this cannot be the new normal thank you very much [Applause] marylander so my comments are in regards to the health and safety plan i'd like to thank my very articulate friends who said
074wonderful things um what i want to point out is or when you go do your health and safety plan if you can ask some questions like the following what studies what do the studies show of the educational impact of wearing masks were all those studies and what do they show so maybe something to ask the staff to bring to the board meeting um i saw the educational impact here and 300 fewer students are taking sat tests from you know from last year to 2021 i don't know if they've given up on college i don't know if they don't care about their future i don't know what's driving that behavior but i can see from the data that you have reported that students are disengaged and fewer students are being able to access resources the other
075thing when you have this meeting not just have our input but could you put on a survey to all parents ask for them what their input is what their thoughts are i believe that happened in september 2020 and then like i think 73 or something or 63 some big number of overwhelming majorities said they didn't want masks and hybrid schedules so it'd be nice to get that input too so i'd just like you to consider that and lastly in regards to the randomized control trials continent of course you can't ethically do that but you can do that by observing townships or school districts that never had masks and those that did and compare so you're not going to put anyone in harm's way but you can almost get to that level of certitude so it
076is that information is findable it's out there because of that so thank you very much for your time merry christmas everyone i hope you have a christmas holiday a wonderful christmas holiday [Applause] as you may be aware many colleges and universities they they dropped that requirement and that actually has been something that the past 10 years some of our most successful universities don't require students to submit sat or acts so that was really more of a function of college board making that decision that our students not engaging thank you [Music] thank you for being here thank you thank you all as we get ready to adjourn i would like to recognize and thank the staff students and board members who have worked so incredibly hard all summer and all fall to keep our students learning
077to support the students and the teachers and to the parents who have worked so hard to keep their families going through unimaginable times the result is that our district continues to be one of the things that makes westchester a special community that values public education maintains strong property values and most importantly continues our mission now speaking of our mission miss chester would you kindly remind us of our core mission statement yes i'd be happy to president our mission the mission of the westchester area school district is to educate and inspire our children to be their personal best and we hardly need to add all children to educate and inspire all of our children to be their personal best thank you thank you our next meeting will be the education and pupil services meeting on january
07810th with that do i hear a motion to adjourn and all in favor say aye aye thank you all for coming