001good evening everyone i'd like to call to order the november 22nd 2021 meeting for the westchester school board let's begin with a salute to the flag led by julianna petrovsky and simon abrahams of east bradford elementary school i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america and to the republic for which it stands one nation under god indivisible with liberty and justice for all all right let's see what's going on with each brantford good evening president mckeen members of the westchester area school district board dr tsalkalowski and members of the community my name is juliana petrovsky my classmates simon abrahams and i are fifth grade students at east bradford elementary school we are proud and honored to represent our school this evening thank you for inviting us to report on the highlights
002and happenings at each graduate elementary school the most exciting thing about each bedford elementary school this fall is being back in school every day focusing on learning working together and having lots of fun to start the school year up on a positive note dr alston held the school wide assembly to establish behavioral expectations present his schoolwide evp or rewards program and introduced the school's annual theme will be nominee students at ebe knows a safe place to learn whenever they need someone to lean on or to lend a helping hand there's always someone might even be there for them in september east bradford elementary school families wasted no time getting together for the pta sponsored color run fundraiser this event was a huge success in building community spirit and raising money to support school activities for
0032021 to 2022 school year this past october the east bradford elementary school staff and the pto co-hosted the parents night out parents enjoyed our friday evening out while students played outdoor games eat pizza and watched a movie on the big screen it was another successful fundraising event to benefit ede students a few weeks later each bedford elementary hosted close to 300 students or should i say pirates dinosaurs and superheroes and their families for trunk or treat this just for fun community building that was a good time for all as a part of the westchester area school district community outreach program in conjunction with the westchester county food bank east east bradford elementary school has continued to raise fresh organic produce to feed families in need this fall the students harvested and donated over 50 pounds
004of fresh broccoli beets eggplant and collard greens to the westchester food cupboard in the spring with the generous support from our pto the plan is to enhance the garden space as an outdoor education steam center and encourage the sense of stewardship this fall was a great time for extending the classroom beyond the walls of east bradford and making the chest and making chester county eb east campus first grade visited cherry crest farm the students took a hayride to the pumpkin patch visited the petting zoo and learned about life on a farm in contrast the fifth grade traveled back in time to an 18th century colonial pennsylvania farm once or once owned by the pratt family located which is now known as ridley creek state park on the field trip to interactive activities students on what
005life is like for a child living on a farm in the mid-1700s november brought book fair month to ebe the aim was to get a book in the hand and home of every student as usual mission accomplished each bradford has always prided itself in its capacity to give back to the community this november the ebe philanthropy committee is holding its annual holiday food drive and giving treat to ensure that all east radford families have what they need to celebrate the holiday season the winter holiday is season it's a great time to appreciate our diverse cultural heritage as a community this year the students look forward to celebrating the traditional holiday concert at east bradford additionally students in grades k to five engage in many activities across the curriculum to learn how students around the world
006and their communities celebrate the winter holidays at east bradford we believe that every day is a good day to learn we celebrate every day we have opportunity to learn more about our world than ourselves we thank you president mckee members of the westchester area school district board after stop philosophy for generously supporting innovative programming in mathematics science social studies and language arts and for continuing to provide us with the resources technology we need to stay competitive thank you for inviting us to reset this evening and look forward to your great second half of the 2021-2022 school year well done [Applause] guys it's uh always the highlight of the meeting we get to hear from our elementary schools uh juliana and simon you did a great job sharing what's going next bradford really appreciate coming out
007i want to get a photo with you too if that's okay um [Music] please [Music] let's give one more round of applause for each guy [Applause] okay that moves on to our next item which is roll call mr director beverly here director chester here director here director here director here president here director here and madison d'ambro here thank you mr that will move us to public comments on agenda items mr thanks thank you president uh 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 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 if
008an individual is providing public comment on behalf of a group or entity please state your group or entity affiliation public comments will be limited to two minutes per person per court 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 please note public comments at this 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 so chris mattos i um you signed in before i was here and i don't know whether
009that was an agenda or non-agenda item okay so we'll move on to the next person megan rykkov is that agenda item yes okay good evening my name is megan ryb and i live in east ocean first i would like to share my gratitude to the entire board for taking on the commitment to volunteer and serve our community as school board director and i extend extra well wishes to outgoing members brian gallon chris mccune and randall smackman thank you i was unable to attend the education and pupil services meeting earlier this month but i watched it online afterwards i had wanted to go because i was curious about the reason behind classes being retired my ninth grader was sad that comic and animation two and three are being retired before having a chance to advance in
010the course but looking forward to the way that those classes and graphic design two and three are being moved into digital design too arts education is so important and i appreciate the way it was presented about wanting to retain but streamline based on course enrollment i was also pleased to hear some of my thoughts echoed by directors daryl journal and joyce chester regarding the semester electives hispanic cultures and african-american history being retired i agree that it's disappointing the courses are being dropped all while also agreeing that the material can and should be integrated in core courses within the presentation it was addressed how the content in these courses is taught elsewhere in spanish classes in the recently added race and ethnicity course and included in standard social studies curriculum thank you both for raising your
011concerns and to the presenters and all involved in course development for your thoughtful consideration thank you very much for your comments tammy mayer east bradford townships i wanted to talk about the meeting minutes and the policies i can do that now well um so i'm concerned that the october school board meeting minutes have left out the fact that mr mckean emphatically stated that the pornographic book genderqueer was not in our school libraries when in fact it was um yet the meeting minutes leave those word comments out and i'm not exactly sure why i'd like to have some some answer to that um policy 903 um first of all i want to thank dr gary vegelaqua for his kind and thoughtful reply um to my ideas that i presented on policy 903 006 and 006.2 it
012meant a lot to me to get a reply um that was um considering the ideas that i presented just for the sake of making sure that i sort of tie up some nots um the one of the ideas on 903 is that i'm suggesting that the policy ensure that all agenda-related items are discussed before votes are taken no matter how much time it takes overall and also there is a conflict between the presiding officer being able to stop comments and people being able to give their three minutes so somehow that that conflict needs to be worked out um policy 006 the following four items only require a five-person vote not to believe that they are important enough to require a six-person two-thirds majority vote appointing a school director creating or increasing debt reorganizing into a
013larger district and entering into contracts and with policy 006.2 i believe that what's seriously lacking from this meeting these meetings are discussions um among the board members of the public can benefit from hearings so i'm requesting that somehow we fit into these agendas a chance for you all to share some of the ideas that you have been presented and sort of give us your thoughts on those ideas that would be really great to hear from you there's also some ideas to fold into the school board domain like public-facing website pages approval by the school board approval for summer reading approval for read aloud both school library books and classroom library books thank you oh i didn't know that's awesome thank you mr mayor thank you very much for your comments appreciate it and also that
014the feedback that you provided was helpful thank you that's all the public thank you mr chair short that will move us on to the approval of the minutes of the october 25th 2021 monthly school board meeting i'll entertain a motion approved first by ms chester sent by dr herman any comments or questions saying none well called placement shuffle miss chester yes director herman yes director michael yes director shawn yes thank you mr short that moves to the approval of the november 22nd 2021 school board meeting and agenda on attend a motion to approve first notice for the lacqua second by mr speakman any comments or questions cnn roll call please director yes director spackman yes vice president yes director gallon yes director jurnell yes director chester yes director herman yes director shaw yes president mchugh
015yes thank you mr can you also add to the meeting minutes that we met on monday november 15th regarding school safety legal matters and negotiations and then earlier tonight monday the 22nd regarding legal matters okay that will move us to the superintendent's report dr stevoski thank you mr bacoon so as a school district last week we recognized the 100th observance of american education week i again want to thank our teachers administrators and every member of our support staff for their dedication to our students and families i would also like to thank our community for their expression of thanks to our educational team here in westchester whether that was by way of an email social media post or an in-person expression of appreciation thank you very much for recognizing our team this past friday as part
016of american education week the school board and members of the cabinet met with a team of amazing students at east high school and we received a tour through the lens of the students this was just simply amazing we often say that the best part of being a school board member being a central office administrator is spending the time in the classrooms in the schools interacting with students and friday was just absolutely wonderful we saw a lot of dynamic learning and the conversation with the students was really quite informative and with thanksgiving the season of giving is upon us i'm happy to announce many schools have shared ways they are giving back here are just a few examples pennwood elementary school collected over 468 pounds of candy and gave some of the treats to a pennwood
017family who his father had been deployed for six months and teacher diane treon delivered the rest to dover air force base to be sent overseas grace stone elementary school also collected over 197 pounds of candy for our service men and women and bags and bags of food items for families in need the cotesville va hospital will receive personal hygiene items and halloween candy from west town thornberry elementary and handmade veterans cards from east goshen elementary school a east ocean elementary school also decorated the hallway in bellingham retirement community with beautiful artwork created in mrs mccluskey's art classes that's not all east goshen collected snacks and drinks and students decorated bags and filled 1010 all-day bags to help feed the hungry the bag were delivered by the pto to local shelters and the new food covered
018at westchester university for their students many of our students also decorated boxes to support the greater westchester chamber of commerce toy drive for the holidays on the musical scene in november both east high school and ruston high school drama department's fall show was clue on stage is that better all right uh so on the musical scene at easton ruston they both shared the same production clue on stage which was attended by lots of families and students stetson middle school wowed the crowd with the musical we are all in this together and the fifth grade at west town third party performed all night at the movies we also enjoyed the district honors chorus performance that was held at east in early november the honors course includes ensemble performances from elementary middle and high school students it
019was a fantastic concert also on the musical scene in october the ruston band had an incredible u.s banned state championship performance and was awarded the group 2 open state championship this is the band's eighth championship and i can tell you because ruston football is in the district semi's final game the band will also be performing at home on friday night at rustam a list of december's upcoming events can be found on our website under the community tab celebrate the arts also in the spirit of giving our district office is organizing an adopt a family program so we can make this holiday season a little bit better for some of our families we purchase gift cards for two families for thanksgiving and we'll be adopting families in need for the upcoming christmas holiday it is truly
020a wonderful time of year to reach out and help those who may need a little assistance our staff and students are a reflection of our community and all are reaching out to help this holiday season comprehensive plan update our comprehensive planning committee met as a group of a whole last thursday evening the committee is making significant progress towards outlining goals action steps strategies and measurements for the direction of the school district for the next three years i also want to recognize the students who are involved in the comprehensive planning process and particularly the goal area that we've entitled student involvement a little bit of a health and safety plan update for everybody right now many of you have probably heard the recent news about pennsylvania's high court overturning governor wolf's mass mandate the ruling was
021immediately appealed and there has not been a ruling from the athletic court at this time so in the meantime if that mandate uh from the governor is removed we would be defaulting back to our health and safety plan uh that was passed in august and on that note also we had very successful vaccination clinics at fugue middle school in henderson on november 13th and we are looking forward to hosting more clinics in the future i can tell you that fugit was so well run and they actually had therapy dogs there kittens bunnies and i even saw a kitten in a stroller at this time i would also like to recognize the service on the school board of mr brian gallon board president mr mccune and board director mr randall spakman thank you for volunteering your
022time and energy to the sport we have been quite productive over your tenure and i just wanted to share a few highlights that with your leadership we were able to accomplish here in westchester we opened our 11th elementary school due to rising enrollment we also with that we embarked on a redistricting plan that is in place effectively now the board had the forethought before the pandemic to start a cyber program this has proved invaluable not just in terms of the pandemic and providing that safe option for families but it's also really helped us look into the future especially at the high school level with providing more flexibility for students in regards to their scheduling in regards to the comprehensive plan you were also involved in creating two three-year comprehensive plans for the district so your
023imprint will be with us the board remained at or below the act one index preserving the fiscal solvency of the district the district maintains the lowest tax rate in chester county thanks to your leadership you all helped make a difference for our students our community and our taxpayers we wish you well in your school board retirement thank you so much for all that you have done i do have plaques to share with you this evening in your honor it's just an expression expression of our appreciation for all of your service to our students and the school district and at this time i would like to turn to some fellow board members uh who would like to share um some well wishes and comments so i think dr scholl well this evening i have been i
024have the pleasure and the pain of speaking about our departing board president chris mchugh and i've been thinking a lot about the last six years that i've served with chris on this board and i've been talking to a lot of my colleagues about our service under chris and with chris as well as we prepare for his departure this is going to be a very tough transition for us first of all chris was always prepared for every single meeting and he always had a shout out to our student reps or presenters about their sports teams or teachers as a guy with a really big job and five kids at home i am sure that chris's plate is full to overflowing every day but he made being the president seem effortless such was the level of engagement
025and enthusiasm that chris brought to the board without a doubt he has been our district's biggest cheerleader but to my mind the most important lesson that chris has taught us can be seen by how he conducted himself not when times are easy but when times were difficult or challenging as some of you may know chris and i are not natural allies at least if you look at who we are on the surface we hail from different political parties sectors of employment and even probably generations although i don't exactly know his age and not surprisingly we have not always agreed on everything in fact i can recall a couple of times when chris and i vigorously disagreed on matters of some importance i think it's fair to say that we've all disagreed at different points along
026the way under chris's tenure the decisions that a school board makes can be weighty and our different life experiences and perspectives can appropriately lead us to different conclusions about what's best but chris has done something really remarkable during his tenure through his leadership and his example he created a board culture that allowed for vigorous debate while maintaining an unwavering commitment to the well-being of our district disagreement and debate are not bad things in fact they can sharpen our thinking and they can force us to consider multiple viewpoints and together arrive at decisions that are better precisely because of the debate and the discussion but this is only possible under a very specific set of conditions and chris created those conditions for us on the board chris has always been respectful he has always sought consensus
027he always took the time to listen and he has always always put the best interest of our kids and our staff front and center this is why this school board which is diverse in every way imaginable has been able to overcome momentary differences and support each other as we work toward together in service of the common good during what has surely been the most trying period of time in our history chris has created that culture through his own example and through his leadership he is an example of what is best about public service and his commitment to civility and the common good is ever more rare but ever more important at the end of every meeting chris close us out with a quotation and i'd like to do the same to conclude my remarks the
028challenge of leadership is to be strong but not rude be kind but not weak be thoughtful but not lazy be humble but not timid be proud but not arrogant and have humor but without folly thank you chris it has been an honor to serve with you [Applause] i have a few words to say about my colleague brian gallon brian four years have gone very quickly or seems to we'll miss your common sense your calm personality your respectful thoughts and your general knowledge in many areas you always had fiscal responsibility as your top priority and overall we've done very well maintaining our annual budget below the act one limits each year thank you for your service on the school board and good luck in any future endeavors thank you brian for your service [Applause] i just
029wanted to thank chris and brian and randall it has been a pleasure working with all three of you well tonight i'm sharing about randall thank you randall for your four years of service and leadership on the school board you've been an inspiration to each of us with your dedication and commitment along with your positive attitude never wavering with this positiveness even during the difficult months with the cogan experience you always saw the good in every person and every situation one of your strengths is that you always brought a different perspective to our school board discussions your perspectives were very much appreciated and respected although you are a humble person i personally always got a kick of you when you snapped photos of the school district events that you went to and you went to many
030of them you always wanted one more photo you did that tonight randall you are smart with great common sense many people may not realize how your interests are very multi-dimensional here are just a few examples of your interests number one you're the president of the board of the chester county historical society number two you have a farm it's called thornbury farm which is a national and historic landmark 1709 i heard there are trees and wreaths available for this holiday season number three reenactments he does a british one the 43rd of foot regiment and the second pa regiment and he has great fun and i know you go away that is your way to be calm and relaxed well along with that he's been on television he's been on radio he's connected with the vpc travel
031sci-fi and the national park service for valley forge he has a video that just came out and this is because of his land preservation work you are a very accomplished person who has served on property and finance committee and you are also the community liaison for the school board the four things that you will be most remembered for are dedication to the students that is foremost with you fiscal responsibility in our district community importance and connection and the willingness to work with all members of the school board listening to all ideas and helping us come to consensus and making us a most effective board randall you have a big heart we are all going to miss you i have a suspicion we will see you at more school events three of your five children are
032still in the school district enjoy more time with your family and your special friend clover thank you [Applause] clover is our pot-bellied pig which is a rescue that was uh given to us on uh st patrick's day so clover seemed an appropriate name for our rescue paint again so that worked out well yes thank you very much i really appreciate it um and i think all of us that are leaving the board have really um been so impressed by the respect the work that everybody does here because this is a volunteer based organization and especially in the last months and things like that how we've really turned and pulled together and trying to do the best we can for everybody in every situation we have um and yes with darby still being at ruston madison
033and stetson and jude in third grade stark weather i would be here for quite a while attending because it's good for uh education if you don't mind i'll give a quick closing quote of my own just for this little chapter um i'm wearing a go mask and it's been good it's just good to love many things for there lies the true strength and whoever loves much performs much and can accomplish much and what is done in love is well done vincent van gogh thank you very much everyone thank you mr spencer mr yellen mine will be sure to tweet i just wanted to thank everybody for a fantastic four years that i've been able to serve with you you may not have always agreed on all topics but we were able to come together as
034a board and do what was best for our community thank you thank you mr young mr gallacher's batman and thank you for your service to our schools and our community i appreciate you both sharing your talents and expertise with the board over the last four years uh brian i always appreciate you always true to your values and would never compromise randall you've always been very authentic and someone who cares very deeply about our community and your family as i actually want to thank all my fellow board members past and present uh the administration and the staff for all of your collective members to make this district as great as it is there's been no shortage of accomplishments dr sokolowski handled a number of them when you give unconditionally you always receive so much more in
035return the past eight years have been an amazing journey and i'm thankful to have shared with each of you i believe with no regrets and implore each of you to stay true to our district mission what all you do matters too much i know some days it may not feel like it but that's when you dig deeper and you double down it's in their most challenging times where you learn what you're really made of and more importantly what you're really capable of stay strong keep making a difference i'm with you you know my number don't hesitate to call back would it be all right okay would you mind mr spect and president mchugh mr gallon uh just a photo and i can present you with your plaques to recognize your service absolutely so thank you
036okay thank you all right mr mckee we are ready now to hear our student representative reports awesome okay up first is miss elena redbrown from east high school um i just want to say your speeches were wonderful and i don't even work with you every day but i was tearing up anyway good evening um i hope you're all doing well as you know yes i'm elena rederow and i am the east board representative we've had a pretty busy month since my last report um regarding sports our winter season has just begun just this past friday november 19th we are very proud to say that our very own sydney slusser was named girls soccer national division mvp for the chesmar league all-state and all southern eastern pa from the pa soccer coaches association following up with
037some more compliment accomplishments chloe bittegary heather krebs james sunda daniel chang alex chen caleb quaso julian mabee david lane and zach agamilian will participating in the pmea district 12 band orchestra and choir performances in the music festival coming this winter season moving on to other group news westchester east deca has officially 173 members and is preparing for their district competition in king of russia this will be their first live competition since 2020 so we are all looking forward to hearing about how it goes the bca or breast cancer awareness club run by michelle greenwald and jordan scarlotta hosted a three-on-three basketball tournament on november 10th of 25 teams to not only raise awareness but also fund breast cancer research the bca successfully raised 500 girl up east feminist support club is returning with their feminine
038product drive to provide girls bathrooms with emergency feminine products the club is looking forward to seeing many donations east also has had its success in the school orchestrated play clue on the tenth on the 11th 12th and 13th early this month mr swigga and student director ellie blank did fabulously the class of 2023 hosted a spike ball tournament this past wednesday november 17th they successfully raised around 150 for their class this past week was also american education week and to honor and celebrate our staff we had teachers dressing themes each day to help them destress the week ended with the superintendent breakfast in which i had the pleasure of meeting some of our wonderful board members as seen here today um the students at the breakfast were known as east finest as dr brown likes
039to say um and we brought the board members around on a tour and they got to see easton all as action and glory i even got the chance to sauce the dance with a couple of the members here today and i came out sweating lastly the little vikings thanksgiving celebration took took place this past week it was a great opportunity for the parents to meet some of the big teachers that work with their kids during the day the students did some fun themed crafts and overall had a great time to further spread the idea of thankfulness the student council began the grateful grams similar to the popular valentine's day roses the grateful grants are written to people students wish to say that they're thankful for and student council passes them out we are eager to
040see the number of grateful grams that will be passed out tomorrow morning on behalf of all of east's staff and students we are thankful and grateful for the hard work that our district does and board and we wish you all a very happy thanksgiving and for those of you retiring or leaving i hope you all do well in the future um that is all for east and thank you thank you ms argo i know uh your the visited east was amazing this week all the board members over there were very [Music] delighted with what they saw and just inspired so kudo to you and your classmates thank you all right we have a pinch hitter for mr william porter tonight we have laini kayodes from henderson high school hello my name is lainey quinones i'm
041the henderson class president and i'm here on behalf of our school board representative will porter um with the cold weather approaching quickly are when our sports are starting up the boys and girls basketball teams are both holding tryouts this week and they looked bounced back after rough seasons last year our girls softball team is also holding tryouts for their season our henderson dance team is preparing for their performances and are excited for the basketball season the wrestling and indoor track teams look to build off of last year's great performances and make another deep playoff run our academic team has also been successful this year so far on their has also been successful this year so far on our musical scene the release of the castles for mama mia has yet to come out but the
042student body is excited for the production uh bake sales has have also been booming with lots of clubs raising money for their respective events now that we're into the holiday season the angelia hoods club has started their 12th annual toy drive for those of you who may not know the andrew l hicks foundation and the affiliate club were started in honor of henderson student andrew hicks who tragically passed away during his senior year at henderson their mission is to help the impoverished children of westchester the toy drive is their biggest event of the year and in over two weeks they've collected 1 200 toys uh school's finally starting to feel back to normal for students as seniors have finished most of their college applications and are starting to get accepted and as my freshman and
043sophomore classes have begun to feel what it's like to have a normal high school experience um and that's all for henderson um i'd like to thank everyone for having me tonight and i thought all your speeches were wonderful thank you canvas make sure all right and uh betting last year tonight is miss madison d'ambro from russet high school hello everybody and a special thank you to our departing board members thank you for your service and your time on the board all right boston for the past month has been quiet and still crazy so our student council since the last time i've been here did decorate our theater elementary schools for halloween that is pennwood west south marbury and starfielder i know miss you loves to hear it um and we are just planning upcoming fundraisers
044and i believe the blood drive coming up in february for student council our sports for fall are still going we finished out russ and girls soccer with the banquet last night volleyball finished um earlier this week and our wrestling football like dr sokolowski said is advancing to the division one final game this friday night at ruxin after defeating plymouth white marsh 1914 this past friday it was a very very good game and again running back desean jacobs has destroyed all of ruston's records with 193 yards and two touchdowns last weekend and our boys soccer star muhammad hindawi won chestnut player of the year so that was really exciting on that front um moving on to just activities at ruston the wonderful theater program did like he put on clue this past weekend and it was
045fabulous it was a great success our school as a whole ran a fabulous food drive for the uh westchester food cupboard and ruston collected twelve thousand dollar and gift cards to help sixth arson families put thanksgiving dinner on the table our breslin unicef club hosted a trunk retreat in october for all of our local families and that was a huge success and we are currently planning a holiday 5k at rosten which will be december 18th uh our chalk club will be donating holiday baskets to hospitalized kids this upcoming holiday season and wrestling daca recently took a tour of lincoln financial field and went to a philadelphia 76ers game which was super exciting and similar to east bruston's deca program is still going strong and we're really really excited for the upcoming competition thank you miss
046tambra again thank you all student representatives i really appreciate your continued service to our district and your individual high schools all right that will move us to the approval of the personnel recommendations dr alder good evening mr mckeon this is tiernan and directors of our board our personnel report for the month of november is as follows for the removals from payroll we have 10 resignations three teachers three custodial department employees one paraprofessional two secretaries and one staff nurse we also have two retirements this is peg calgary english learning learner teacher from east goshen elementary school with 18 years of service and mr gary hague supervisor of grounds with 22 years of service congratulations to both peg and gary we wish you both long and happy retirements with admissions to payroll we are recommending the hiring
047of three new teachers five long-term substitute teachers eight paraprofessionals one network specialist one part-time custodian one secretary one accounting technician and one substitute custodian in personnel events i communicated four status changes three in the teachers unit and one in the custodial unit i communicated and delivered four involuntary transfers in our professional staff i also communicated and delivered two voluntary transfers in our professional staff and one voluntary transfer in our custodial staff furthermore we're recommending two half-year sabbaticals in the professional staff in additional information we are announcing five last day updates a resentment of a status change acceptance six start date updates a sabbatical update the agreement of an mou to raise custodial department salaries the correction of language in four employment contracts and the names of all drivers and aides from crafts buses and on-the-go
048kids buses we have also recommending 103 employees to be either tutors and or tutoring site managers across the district in supplemental contracts we have 22 additions to annual supplementals five additions to winter supplementals one removal from an annual supplemental five adjustments to an annual supplemental and one adjustment to a winter supplement and respectively requesting board approval for all personnel matters listed above thank you thank you dr holmes entertainment motion to approve first by dr herman seconded by mr evolopla any comments or questions yes director chester yes director charlotte yes director journal yes president mchugh yes thank you mr thank you dr ohler thank you very much okay that moves us to the approval the consent agenda before we go there i just want to see if there's anyone who wants to remove any items from
049it mr red lockland yes this evening i have one item that we'd like to remove from the consent agenda and that's under property and finance it's uh item d5 the approval of the revised board policy 903 for public participation board meetings second reading i'd like to make a motion to remove that from the consent for tonight thank you mr revlocka can i get a second sent by mr cornell dr scott golovkin you provided a little context yes uh last wednesday there was a ruling out of the eastern district of pennsylvania that found that the pennsbury school board had been in violation of sunshine loss and with the the adoption that we were looking at with 903 we thought it would be prudent to pause until we await further guidance from pspa perhaps further guidance from
050the courts as to how that policy would be impacted so just i know there was this is fair that you had spoken about the policy so at the time right now we're going to be tabling it until we are able to have a better understanding of what the implications are from pensbury and how that might impact the draft of our policy at this time thank you mr speaker yes thank you dr scott so yes uh i believe there was preliminary injunction which means it's a evolving situation and it's certainly uh pruning in your words there to hold off until final details are settled okay with that any additional comments from any board members scene roll call police mr chairshot director ben affleck yes director journalist yes director herman yes director spockman yes director chester yes
051director shaw yes director gallon yes vice president yes president mchugh yes thank you mr chair sir all right so we've moved that off now i'll entertain a motion to approve the consent agenda first by mr van laakla second and by dr hernan any comments or questions seeing none well call mr yes director herman yes director sean yes director jornell yes director chester yes director yes dr yes vice president tiernon yes president mccain yes thank you mr okay that will move us to our school board reports our committee reports and first up is education and this is tiernan thank you on november 8th the education committee met we approved a number of policies we discussed the policies and then approved them to send them forward to the consent agenda we listened to and approved new course
052proposals retirement of some courses which had which just needed to be changed around and um the last thing that we will do this evening which is not on the consent agenda i'm sorry we heard uh an application from collegium charter school for us to renew their charter for another five years that gave us the opportunity to hear from the ceo of collegium and for some of our board members to ask questions or express concerns about things that they saw in the in the report that we received we agreed last in november 8th we agreed in talking with the ceo of the charter school mrs barber that it would be a wonderful thing if the westchester school district could offer the opportunity for collegium teachers if interested to participate in some of our staff development if
053if they thought they needed it and for us to share with them uh things that we had learned along the way about helping children succeed so when we were finished that review we voted and we said that we would like to approve their renewal for another five years so tonight approval is requested to renew the charter of the collegium charter school for a period of five years commencing on march 1st 2022 and ending february 28 2027 iso move send it by dr herman any comments or questions from board members go ahead mr dumb yeah i just for the sake of transparency i will be abstaining from the vote i'm a teacher at collegiate charter schools they're all being upstanding sorry yes mrs turner i just wanted to add too that upon approval this evening i
054will be working more closely with collegium ceo this is maria barber and the district would like to review student achievement data more than once every five years we would like to do that twice annually and try to strengthen that partnership to help collegium the other part and this is advice that came from our solicitor is that we will be looking at a charter school renewal policy that will more closely detail the procedures for the westchester area school district to approve upcoming charters so thank you very much thank you dr saklowski yeah i thought it was a very thorough conversation that we had on that i appreciate uh dr shaw and miss chester for raising their valid concerns and dr flatlowski working to establish the right guardrail so we have good governance going forward with this
055school uh any additional comments mr no i stayed in my reservations at the education uh committee meeting and i am happy that we will be doing some diligent follow-up i think that's important as we continue in our relationship with collegium thank you anybody else all right see no more uh real qualities vice president's hearing yes director herman yes director chester yes director thank you mr back to you mrs tierney that's the end of my report thank you all right thank you mrs tiernan up next is people services ms chester thank you mr mckeon uh we also met on november the 8th that pupil services meeting at which time we had a first read on policy 2 student records on student records and we also had a first reading on administrative guideline ag-1 which is the
056family educational records privacy act or ferpa the policy was expanded to include a parent's email and parent's phone number we also um as part of our meeting had a presentation provided by ms don matter on discipline data as a response to our concerns of disproportionality and punishment for children of color the report indicated comparison by race in the westchester area school district as well as the county and the state i will say there was according to the report marked improvement in our rate of disproportionality for students of color in the district which was very nice to see and something that we should keep our eye on as well the discipline of feds has reviewed were academic pertaining to academic conduct drug and alcohol tobacco use violence and weapons uh concerns probably we want to keep
057an eye on conduct and violence as offenses for all categories of students in the district but as it pertains to the county and the state our numbers are reflected well so that was our meeting for people services and we have no meeting in december and that's we'll see you in the new year for people services thank you thank you miss chester okay we'll move on to personnel and dr thank you mr mchugh the personnel department and personnel matters are moving forward under the leadership and direction of dr ulmer in a very positive way thank you that concludes mine thank you dr earn all right up next is property and finance and mr beverlock good evening the last property and finance meeting was held last week on november 15th mr scully reviewed the budget forecast model
058as we do on a monthly basis and the changes to the 2021-22 projection resulted in a dead savings of approximately 1.7 million the net of all changes in november resulted in a 2022-23 budget gap decrease of 593 k a summary of all funds shows the budget gap after an act 1 tax increase to be currently at 2.3 million and the we'll continue to discuss those in the property finance on a monthly basis looking for additional savings the next item we discussed at the meeting was dr sokolowski reviewed the application for naming the school district facilities submitted by dr feyden and the purpose of naming the greystone elementary school library to the dr james r scanlon student learning center in accordance with our board policy 701 administration guidelines one the property finance committee will complete a
059cost analysis of the naming and will return to present the analysis at a subsequent property and finance committee meeting in the future the next item that we discussed was mr mark groves our capital projects manager reviewed the change orders needed to complete the construction of gravestone elementary school we went through each of the items in detail and reviewed and asked questions based on those the total of all the change records for grayson elementary school were less than one percent of the contract which is which is excellent and the committee recommended approval of the change orders for the construction of the elementary school and that was on the consent agenda for this evening the last item in our meeting was dr sokolowski reviewed on the revised board policy 903 which is the public participation and board
060meetings second reading and we've made we've made some potential changes but as discussed earlier and dr sukolowski alluded to we uh we had removed that from tonight's consent and we're continuing to look at it for the potential of the changes and bring that forward at a later meeting the next property and finance meeting will be on monday december 20th prior to the school board meeting welcome all to attend and that concludes my report for this evening thank you thank you mr lachlan that will move us all to our other reports and up first is the intermediate unit and this is kieran again at the intermediate unit meeting last wednesday in addition to a number of other things mr levitsky director of administrative services the business director gave a presentation on the budget now just as
061we have presentations on the budget every month so does the intermediate unit because as i've said before here the intermediate unit has three different budgets that must all be reconciled and approved not just by the iu board but by all of its member boards so the entire county boards have to approve of all those budgets [Music] he gave an update on the development of the 2223 iu core occupational education categorical and marketplace service budgets the proposed budgets will be presented in their entirety to the board and the superintendents for consideration in february and march 2022. in addition to requiring approval by the c that i just said the cciu superintendents directors will approve the core and occupational education but budgets will be approved by us we may invite we don't have to but we may
062invite mr obitsky and dr fiori to visit with us to explain those budgets if any of our members sitting members new members have questions about how that whole thing comes together so um that's it for the uh edu the cciu this month and we do not meet in december thank you mrs tiernan that will move us to the psba report and dr herman thank you mr mchugh good evening psba is very proud of the pennsylvania public school success and one of the overarching themes is great things are happening in public schools just a couple of examples are mentoring virtual family nights making connections and these things are happening in schools in pennsylvania if any of you would like to find out more about the great things that are happening in pennsylvania schools you can go
063to bulletin.psba.org you can also read and watch more stories and this is very informative at www.successstartshear.org and one fact that i didn't even realize nearly 2 million students are in our pennsylvania public schools that is quite an accomplishment and very positive this concludes my report for this evening thank you thank you dr herman we will move on to the legislative liaison report dr shulman good evening um in the legislature there's lots of activity right now at the committee level on a variety of issues including eitc and opportunity scholarships which are essentially school vouchers and also attempts to prohibit vaccine requirements in schools but these bills are still under debate and have not moved forward and are not lie yet but i will keep you apprised of that but i do want to brief you once
064again on the pennsylvania school funding lawsuit and you're going to get sick of me talking about this but this is one of the most important potential lawsuits that public schools in pennsylvania may ever experience and the reason that this lawsuit has been filed is because there are many pennsylvania students across the state in both large and small urban and rural districts that lack the most very basic education supports and services like libraries books nurses safe buildings and this is because our funding system in pennsylvania is based heavily on local taxes and the capacity of districts to raise taxes varies enormously because the wealth levels vary enormously across the state so the plaintiffs argue that this severe inequality violates the pennsylvania constitution which clearly states our obligation to provide a thorough and efficient education to all
065of our students but lest you think that this is a partisan issue i think it's really illuminating to understand who is suing and who is being sued so the plaintiffs that are suing are six districts of all sizes and locations including philadelphia lancaster panther valley greater johnstown and shenandoah valley in addition the pennsylvania association of rural and small schools is suing as is the naacp and the families of children that attend those districts who is being sued the governor of pennsylvania the pennsylvania department of education the secretary of education and the leaders of the house and senate so this is a critically important um lawsuit it has just begun it just came before the commonwealth court in november um and it was filed and first filed in 2014 so it took seven years to reach
066the courts um so i will certainly keep my board colleagues and the general public apprises as this case moves forward um but it really is important and if if the plaintiffs are successful it's going to change the way pennsylvania public schools are funded so it's a big deal thank you doctor appreciate that okay that moves on to the equity report mr ornell thank you mr the district completed our community conversation series for our spanish-speaking families with great success a big thank you to sandra bradley who continually supports and strengthens public latinos also a big thank you to our spanish speaking staff who helped facilitate the event we have surveyed survey data from the october 21st community conversation event 100 of the respondents enjoyed the community conversation event on october 21st 92 of the respondents gained
067better perspectives of others in our community 96.2 percent of the respondents felt that others in their group were actively listening to each other 81.4 percent of the respondents said they were in a better position to trust that i have had an open conversation with someone in the community 96 percent of the respondents said they felt empathy when others shared their truths 100 percent of the respondents said they plan to attend the next community conversation on january 20th overall the event was received with positive feedback and improved survey results from the first event some respondents made the following comments grateful for a community doing this work hopeful unity engaged much needed connected happy and finally the westchester area school district is partnering with the westchester police department in expanding community engagement and continuing diversity equity and
068inclusion work dr sokolowski and mrs matter serve on the westchester police department's strategic planning committee and are working with chief moorhead on some of the police department's strategic goals that include trust and transparency and community relations that ends my report thank you mr bell all right that will bring us to the community liaison report mr spadman thank you mr mccabe as you know the district always does tremendous holiday music and concerts or i know there's some winding up on everything from the elementary level middle school and uh high school level i'm always excited this time you'll be able to get out there and hear the holiday music with all them also it's some neat things have happened the hillsdale elementary helped with the revo to everhart park so it's great how the different elementary schools
069and your schools get out and take actually pride in their community as well and the western area school district raised 282 brand new codes for handling for families there are disabled students disadvantaged students and things like that because this time here it's always good to have that fresh coat and things like that so we do forget some of the needs of people in our very own district with this time of year always please remember also your teachers your classroom aides your secretary your cafeteria workers your maintenance and your bus drivers to always give thanks and appreciate everything it is done to support the district on all levels thank you you mr spadman and up uh well i guess that concludes our other reports so we do have other business tonight uh and in addition to
070the usual approval of the financial reports where they're on the consent agenda to believe we have one item that we also want to pick up dr thank you mr mchugh approval is requested of act 93 administrators compensation plan for the period of july 1st 2023 through june 30th 2027 iso move thank you dr ehrman can i just say second by dr shaw dr southwest he had a contact uh yes uh the act 93 plan that is proposed tonight i think is very similar towards the rationale for establishing an early burn teachers agreement back in september this will help maintain the competitiveness of the westchester area school district to recruit as well as retain our talented administrative leadership so i would be very supportive of this act 93 agreement thank you dr sarkozy i too am
071very excited about this agreement um we are seeing uh constant finite resources across the board and we're not being able to fill as many as we'd like to and so securing the talent that you do have is critically important and i look this year at the accomplishments of the board and locking in dr sokolowski acquiring dr reynolds securing our teacher contract and now capping it off with the act 93 agreement is positioning the district for continued success so i am thrilled about this one i'll pass the call to anyone else who has any comments seeing them roll call please dr herman yes director shaw yes director chester yes director metal aqua yes director galland yes director journal yes director smackman yes vice president tiernon yes president mchugh yes commissioner thank you mr and a big
072thank you to all our 93 administrators out there we know it's been a rough year and a half and just wanted to know we'll be able to board how much we value your efforts so pick my applause [Applause] okay that will move us to comments from residents on non-agendas chris i'm sorry sorry before we call anyone else i just want to reiterate persons wishing to make public comments this evening we're required to sign in prior to the designated start 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 if an individual is providing public comment on behalf of a group or entity please state your group or entity affiliation public comments will be limited to two minutes per
073person 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 speaker christmas christopher manos uh east bradford township at the october 25th school board meeting the words trust and leadership were used to describe the school board during the same meeting i provided the school board with three sexually explicit illustrations from a book listed in the westchester area school district website's resource section the school board took a 15 minute recess returning from the recess
074the school board director emphatically stated that the book was not in our library not in our district not in our county and not in our state that statement was and is factually incorrect after the recess the board could have simply stated that they would follow up with me about the book being in the library there was no reason to lie when they could have taken a day to confirm the information the next day a parent located the specific book with a quick search in two of our school libraries 36 hours later on october 27th at approximately 12 20 p.m i received a telephone call from dr sokolowski during the call he stated that he had personally gone to the library and found the book looked at the content was not happy about what he saw
075and stated that my concerns are valid and had the book pulled from the two libraries for administrative review yet two days later a district-wide email was sent describing the book as an award-winning text clearly many in this county do not understand the dangers to minors and pathologies associated with the promotion and distribution of sexually explicit content to minors the type of sexually explicit content is irrelevant the fact that there is sexually explicit content of any kind in a public school system is alarming and is cause for very real concern this school district is literally promoting and distributing sexually explicit content to our k-12 students this is a form of child abuse a form of grooming and a form of indoctrination this is not mongering this is a fact i am a mandated reporter your time
076is up okay i'm a mandated reporter and i'm reporting this melissa bennett west ocean thank you president mccune vice president tiernon dr slakolovsky and directors of the board i want to express appreciation for all that the district is doing to build strong community thank you to don manor for and others for the community conversations in september and october i look forward to the one in january thank you to all of you on the board and administration for the solid health and safety plan put in place in august as circumstances change at the state level in the county it is reassuring to know that westchester area school district has a plan to care for the safety of our children based on science and local transmission numbers thank you to our incredible school librarians for finding resources
077to meet a variety of student needs i particularly appreciate the work they do to provide books that include positive strong characters who are black and brown who identify as trans or not binary who are gay or lesbian i'm aware that our teachers are working extremely hard in these most difficult times i am thankful for all the teachers of our district and especially for those who are working to engage our students on deeper levels with caring conversations and meaningful content i hope all families will find ways to show appreciation for the teachers in their lives and finally i would like to encourage the board and the district to continue on a path that strengthens our community by valuing the district equity mission to keep providing and growing the curriculum and resourcing in a way that allows
078each student to find themselves in the subjects we teach and the stories we tell this is community building at its finest making our students into leaders who care about others in our community and our world thank you thank you very much in the spirit of thanksgiving for expressing your appreciation uh for the teachers in the westchester area school district thank you george lester george nestor west ocean so i had to change my comments up a little bit um the first one was in regards to the commonwealth court ruling on mass may day sunday december 4th i'm glad to hear that it is closely being monitored and was preemptively mentioned but i have to just i have to say that it's unfortunate to hear that pending outcome it'll just be a default to the health and
079safety plan that was previously created because it seems like that's something that should be regularly reviewed for updates my other comment was in regards to the federal course court case with pennsburg excuse me the pennsbury school district i'm definitely happy to hear that there'll be apollos on updating the district's policies here is uh my opinion is that there's been set very there have been alarming similarities in that case and things that have happened here i am very interested in hearing what the board's paying for it is with that and i currently hope that the board will take into consideration the community's concerns as well moving forward that's it thank you [Applause] mr nestor thank you very much that was actually uh sort of like agenda items but i appreciate the feedback thank you megan good
080evening i'm megan ryankuff i live in east ocean genderqueer a graphic novel by maya kobe an author illustrator with gender neutral erm pronouns started as an explanation to air family about being asexual and non-binary it's suspicious that concerns are being raised when this year more anti-trans bills have been passed than ever before parents have taken a few pages out of context to distributed board meetings across the us yet there are more pages in the book dedicated to citing biological research on how sex and gender are not binary and powerful passages about consent and identity all lost when the work isn't taken as a whole my opinion of a book does not influence concern about censorship westchester has policies which allow for parental input and alternate material options we can support the right for families to
081decide what is appropriate for their children but draw the line at allowing those voices to restrict content from other students who might benefit from the work especially in this case when the memoir isn't required reading for any class a book challenge solely referencing out of context images and false assertions is censorship the district complaint form asks for more information such as did you read the entire book is there anything good about this book and in its place what book of equal literary or educational quality would you recommend both the supreme court in miller v california and the district's policies are clear challenged material must be viewed as a whole i urge the board and administration to follow the policy with rigor maya kobe herself said please leave the queer books on the library shelves where
082the queer teens can find them as if we were teen i desperately needed them and the career teams of today need them too our message as a community and a district should be clear transgender non-binary and gender expansive youth and adults belong here the same as everyone else thank you [Applause] edgar crispy edward that's in moscow bethan rasika westchester last friday marked the 158th anniversary of the gettysburg address where abraham lincoln spoke the words government of the people by the people for the people over the last 20 months the school board seems to have forgotten that you are elected by us and for us and as a result three out of four incumbent school board directors have been voted out of office our community has spoken that we are not happy with the current board's
083actions we expect the board to represent us not the political agenda of outside agencies however your decisions seem to suggest otherwise most board members are endorsed by the psca that endorsement means that you are beholden to the teachers union and not to the people who elected you to this office and i want to differentiate between the teachers union and our hard-working teachers i fully support the efforts of our teachers and staff who have worked tirelessly over the last 20 months implementing their poor decisions i believe that the psea does not represent the true needs of the teachers who pay the dues does not care about our community and has blatantly ignored or overridden the needs and desires of parents teachers and students during the pandemic both the psca and the nsba have their own political
084agendas that appear to be unrelated to instruction and academic outcomes we are pleased that we will have new representation on the board and have high expectations that these new board members will act on behalf of the voters who elected them our board needs to model civil discourse where we can actively listen to one another respectfully disagree and work towards solutions that meet the majority of needs in our community for those board members who are up for re-election in two years i hope that you will take your responsibility seriously as we are already recruiting school board candidates for the 2023 election cycle who will truly advocate on behalf of students parents and teachers and not simply be an extension of the psca thank you [Applause] stacy hi stacey winsley at east bradford township for the last
085few months many community members have expressed uh frustration with this current two-minute limit on public comment so i just wanted to offer a comment of acknowledgement and appreciation to dr sokolowski for putting forward um the additional changes that would allow for a combination of three minutes as recommended by the pennsylvania sunshine act i realize this was an agenda item but really my comment is just about appreciation and acknowledgement of you validating what you have heard from the community so with that um i do encourage you i understand that the decision out of pensbury is new um but i would say that we should not hesitate to move forward with changes that encourage community conversation um the ones that were in there tonight about the three minute limit and the changes to the address notification allows
086people to speak confidently and without with regard for their privacy and safety so um as one of the new freely elected school directors i also wanted to offer my own comment for a quote for the evening to our community as a whole as we embark on this new chapter for our district this is a book from sandra day o'connor we don't accomplish anything in this world alone and whatever happens is the result of the whole tapestry of one's life and all the weavings of individual threads form one to another and that creates something thank you all for your service i look forward to joining you next month thank you thank you very much fred burns tonight i want to speak out again against the masking of my child and many others i'm faced with a
087decision to put my kid back in the cyber by wednesday but december 4th they're ending the mandatory masking unless the va supreme court gets involved or an emergency regulations put in place chances are it's going to go back into the school district hands which is you currently have a health and safety plan with the transmission level plan we all know that that's not going to low i don't think it ever was going to go to low so my thing is trust can i trust this school board to put the decision back into the parents hands and return it to optional every other activity my kid is involved with outside of the school has the option to wear masks and guess what most of the kids don't have the lawn you voted seven to one to
088mandate mass on our children president mccoon even gave me personally somehow as he said this is a fast-moving delta variant and that it would be quick yet here we are still november 22nd it blows my mind that gym and physical activity is even allowed with massive where does this end are you next going to mandate mandatory vaccine on our children as well when will the district have another look at this my trust just isn't there i can't hear calmly the last three times it doesn't seem that you even really care or have an opinion of what the parents think or what the parents against the masking have i'm the type of parent that it's very hard for me to stand up here and say this i would have just trusted you to do your thing
089and know about education instead now i'm stuck here to question everything you do and no longer trust there are plenty of other parents that feel the same way they're just scared to come up here and talk as it's very hard you should be doing what is fair to all the parents not just a few december 4th you'll have the opportunity to do that you should rescind the masking and allow students back to school masked or unmasked thank you [Applause] tammy mayor steph anderson seth anderson anderson avenue westchester i'm sharing this comment on behalf of my husband who has been an english teacher in the district for 12 years but could not be here tonight the purpose of public education is not the indoctrination of values it is the examination of ideas again the goal of
090public education is not morality it is knowledge on questions of morality we defer to rabbis pastors imams and those who make it their business to know with deep certainty what is right or wrong we on the other hand are an educational institution we just want to understand how things work when we read hamlet our goal isn't to understand the morality of hamlet's behavior nor to find an exemplar for what moral behavior might entail our goal is to examine how a writer from the 16th century has used the english language to move people and in asking that question we make discoveries iambic first soliloquies ironies old illusions recycled and new idioms minted we don't read the gate great gatsby for its instruction in moral courtship we don't read the crucible for its instruction in moral puritans
091and we don't read hamlet for moral recommendations about conflict resolution we don't read these books for their values and we don't read these books so that we can imitate their characters but we do examine those books as works of art what are their attributes how did the writer accomplish a goal it follows that no book should be banned certainly not burned because of its so-called moral qualities and anyone here wishing to ban a book because of its value should pause and consider how dangerous it is to use state power to limit which values we may encounter that's exactly what we are doing when we talk in our district of banning books it's the suggestion that state power should be used to define morality school is not sunday school and at its root this isn't about
092morality it's about freedom intellectual freedom as a concept runs deep in this country's veins freedom of intellect freedom of the mind to inquire and pursue interests this country doesn't limit the freedoms of others it sticks up for them and our community should be no different i thank the board for its commitment to not stifle the access to information and urge our community to uphold intellectual freedom and free access to all ideas even the ones we may personally demonstrate thank you nancy wood 300 shopshire drive public education is under attack by a movement claiming to be about parental rights self-appointed watchdog groups use tactics of spectacle fear and disruption they have gained momentum through political funding and religious ties they are following a formula that is handed down and plays out in meetings just like this
093all across the country in a pattern that is predictable for anyone who is launching tonight i ask you to consider where this movement falls in history those of us who grew up in the information age are raising our children in the disinformation age a time when conspiracy theories and false narratives are used as political weapons by forces seeking power critical thinking is the antidote to disinformation it has never been more urgent that we raise a generation of critical thinkers citizens who can think for themselves and discern truth public education is the answer and therefore it should not surprise us that public education is under attack students cannot learn to think for themselves if education merely reinforces a singular perspective culture or set of ideas and therefore it should not surprise us that diversity is under
094attack citizens cannot challenge propaganda without science and facts and therefore it should not surprise us that science and facts are under attack we must be aware of a movement that claims to promote liberty and freedom of speech but seeks to ban books and suppress factual information we must question a movement that claims to be about parental choice but acts as though it has a monopoly on morality seeking to make choices for everyone those of us who believe in public education need to defend it please find time in your schedule please find courage to speak out thank you [Applause] katrina nolan 504 oak circle west ocean i want to thank a moment to thank all of the teachers staff administrators and the board for putting the health and safety of our students and community first after
095an exhausting year of cyber school due to family risk factors my 8 and 12 year old children are thriving this year in person a layered approach that westchester area school district has taken to keep our children in school with minimal disruption is working as we approach thanksgiving it's important to show our gratitude so thank you thank you for following the science yet i feel a deep divide in my community and it's not just about covet and masks as parents and guardians we're role models for our children every single day i was at a parent teacher conference today and a mother and child walked past without masks and the woman made a point of commenting very loudly that no one can force them to wear masks this isn't about force it's about a sense of community
096and not putting others in harm's way i want to believe that we're more alike than different let's be good examples for our children my children including my two and a half year old don't even remember their wearing masks most of the time they're just happy to be participating in activities let's rise above and show that our community will not succumb to division thank you ms mayor were you passing to speak later in turner to forego your public comment thank you and then last call for edward kritsky hearing and seeing nothing that concludes public comment this evening thank mr kent i just want to thank all of our parents and community members who came out tonight to share your thoughts really appreciate all of you being here and providing feedback to me as well as the
097board this is very valuable so thank you very much thank you dr sarkozy sticking with your theme of thanks as thanksgiving is approaching us again i want to thank the board uh the cabinet that you've sought leslie to head there and all our educators and all our staff what you do again matters very much and you know we recognize that you're on the front line and there's a lot of challenges going on in the community and just let you know that you have mine mr gallon mr spakman's uh unwavering thanks and respect and i would tell you to keep on doing what you're doing and never surrender and with that i'll give you a quote to close out with you will never be criticized by someone who's doing more than you you will always be
098criticized by someone doing less remember that denzel washington motion to adjourn first mr noah got a second miss chester all in favor say hi [Applause] you