001call the meeting for the westchester area school board on monday october 25th 2021 for the school board directors back to order here uh first i have a statement and then a couple comments and then we'll get back to public comment um i'd like to take a minute to address general questions the district has received regarding school board meetings the function of the school board public comments and meeting minutes in accordance with the pennsylvania school board the school board must establish equip furnish operate and maintain the public schools of the westchester area school district the policies and procedures adopted by the board in conjunction with federal and state statutes and regulations establishes the general parameters within which the daily operations of the school district are to occur the board also appoints the superintendent who enforces the
002laws regulations and board policies the school board holds monthly public meetings where items such as textbooks grants budgets policies etc are reviewed discussed and voted on items approved at committee level then move on to the full board for review consideration and action action on these items occurs at the school board's public monthly business meeting the public has the right to observe the meetings and offer public comment the public comment period at the board and the committee meetings is not a q in a period but rather an opportunity for the public to share their thoughts on particular action items prior to the board taking action the board encourages residents to reach out to the administration or school board if they have questions about any procedure or process there has also been questions about meeting minutes and
003the level of detail included in the meeting minutes regarding public comment board policy zero zero six local board procedure sets the requirements for the meeting minutes the policy consists is consistent with law states that minimum the minutes shall show date place and time of the meeting name of the board members present presiding officer substance of the official actions actions taken recorded votes and a record by individual members of all roll calls votes taken names of all residents who appeared officially and the subject of their testimony the official board meetings meeting minutes usually go beyond what is required and include more than just the subject of the speaker's testimony in the public comments section all right so a few additional comments here so in regards to the first statement by mrs cooper uh regarding the the
004the book uh in the elementary school uh dr misit will be following up with you on that book uh regarding uh miss wilmsley's comment mr dr sokolowski will be following up on you with you regarding the psa results and the east high school incident uh and then the last comment uh which was from mr manus uh i don't think there was an action item from mr windermute uh but mr manos that book is not in our district that book is not in a district in our county that book is not in a district in our state so therefore it's not really material to our board meetings with that i'll go back to mr jennings for the next public comment george nestor all right uh george nestor 1216 gale road west ocean so two topics i'm
005going to try to get to here uh first off we had to make the overwhelmingly difficult decision to pull our kids from the district this year something i never would have imagined having to do partly due to the overbearing and unwarranted mandates partly due to the potential segregation and signaling of children with medical or relate religious exemptions but the icing on the cake was a choice wording in dr scanlan's parting email to the management team sab and school board the choice of morton caused enough concern for us to be worried about retaliation and unfair treatment of our children i can only hope that the rest of the school board and dr sokolowski does not share the same sentiment but unfortunately damage has already been done and we really don't know what recourse we have now
006regarding what has already been poorly and unprofessionally said which leads into my next topic there seems to be a lot of a number of references in the schoolwork policy about conduct of public comment which we just witnessed here and talked about now but why is it so little on the policies about conduct of school board members themselves you know tie back to my agenda my original agenda topic the physical intimidation incident that happened back in july and then also in addition to that i've seen a number of current board school board members as well as incumbents and and candidates who have jumped in on a political smear campaign against some of the other candidates coming up for this uh this upcoming election not only is this disgusting in childlike behavior but so much for our
007uh children's education being nonpartisan thank you mr nestor next mr jennings joanne your check sorry [Applause] hi i'm joanne your chak 1397 springton lane westchester's equity history timeline notes that our high school's basic level classes have been eliminated to improve minority students access to higher level courses the rationale behind this action is puzzling it will not only improve access but will force every basic student into an upper level course the problematic consequences of such a change must be examined question how would eliminating basic courses affect the upper level classes will their standards remain unchanged if so this action does a huge disservice to students who truly need the repetition and reinforcement that's provided in basic classes you would be setting them up to fail whatever their race students should move to higher level classes only
008after they've mastered the fundamentals in which they are deficient alternatively if the standards of the upper level classes are lowered to accommodate basic level students the higher performing students would be prevented from reaching their full potentials either way eliminating basic courses is a bad idea course placements should be determined by qualifications and demonstrated competence not equity and group identities the top priority of equity ideologues is social engineering not academics enabling these ideologues to influence and formulate our educational system will result in mediocrity if the runaway train driven by equity ideologues is not halted immediately westchester's reputation for academic excellence will soon become a distant memory thank you very much mrs jortek for your comments i will have dr sakharosi uh to follow up with you on those comments joanne i would be very happy to
009speak with you and and share with you a lot of information okay thank you sarah getz i think sarah gatz 814 west market street um i wanted to thank mrs don mader director of equity and assessment for another successful and thought-provoking community conversation meeting dr sokolowski was also there to lead in some local history and it was great to talk to many people and hear their truths i wanted to also thank the teachers that took the time for their evenings to assist in leading and participating in the prompts and the conversations you are seen and appreciated dr reynolds thank you for participating and speaking to the prompts i really enjoyed our conversation here and at hillsdale um way to be seen in the community and thanks for the community for showing up it's necessary to
010hear other people's perspectives and help in a helpful setting and without tension filled uh without attention filled room with a microphone there have been a few instances where certain sides are saying that we need to come together and we need unity i really feel that those conversations that conversation is a great place for this to happen and yet i did not see any of those faces at this event so i'm here inviting all of you in attendance here tonight to come to the january 20th event and sit down with your community and have those conversations and to end with a quote from herman melville be it said see how elastic our stiff prejudices grow when love once comes to bend them thank you thank you very much [Applause] megan rachael good evening my name is
011megan reichob 1337 park avenue 19380. i enjoyed the community conversation session last week thank you to mrs matter and everyone involved seeking to build bridges in our district i attended and truly benefited from the conversations with community members educators and administrators including dr reynolds who floated between groups all of us sitting together and sharing our experiences it was a well facilitated event and one that fostered hope and unity i also want to praise the students and educators involved in the gsa anti-bullying clubs at fugit and east i'm sure they're great at all the schools that have them but that's where my children go october is lgbtq plus history month every student whether they are lgbtq plus an ally or bystander deserves to celebrate the excellence and contributions lgbtq plus people have made dr bishop who
012was once a student at westchester back when it was known as a teacher's college and renowned for her knowledge in education notably about diverse children's literature coined the phrase windows mirrors and sliding glass doors to explain that children can and should learn others experiences be able to see themselves and imagine themselves in someone else's shoes and books and stories that reflect the world around us lastly way to live the equity mission by adding diwali as a day off in november my family is jewish and i've long appreciated how the district has offered rosh hashanah and yom kippur it means a lot to know that while we spend the whole day in services my children don't have to worry about making up work as our student population changes our days off should reflect the most important
013holidays and festivals they celebrate thank you for your time thank you for your comments bernice harvey is this on when it's green hi my name is bernice harvey it's 627 plum run drive as a taxpayer i am very saddened to know how corrupt the westchester area school board is with crt and make no mistake this poison is now completely infused in the curriculum of this district so therefore i am imploring all parents to take your kids out of the public schools investigate private christian or catholic schools and investigate them well because even among some of these this marxist garbage has found a home and look into the many home school options parents have that are unrelated to the district's homeschool curriculum that are available one exam excuse me one example of a good homeschool program
014is the acellis power homeschool program designed by the acelas academy designed for k-12 and finally the gold standard for the best in-home school education is the hillsdale college 1776 curriculum there you'll find a complete collection of lesson plans for teaching accurate american history civics and government for k through 12. all can be downloaded for free so do the right thing for your kids and remove them from the marxist indoctrination of this district investigate these options that are available to you and give your children an education that will serve them well [Applause] jennifer mcfarland no you may not that is not how it works it's a two-minute per-person policy could you please start by stating your name and address please uh my name is jennifer mcfarland east bradford um i've stood here before and i have
015said to this board that i know that the crt is and dei is and sel is part of the teacher training that goes on i have proof here i've sent um the proof is also on the republican committee website it's and i want to hand to to the the board i want to hand them please hand them one each of these in addition i have an example of the teacher training oops teacher training that took place um two years ago and one of the i don't have unfortunately enough to pass out but it's also on the republican committee website so you can access that it's the white privilege exercise that all teachers were asked to go through and to determine the amount of whiteness that they have and these are all classic classic classic crt
016types of activities that are going on i've got this information from an rtk filed with the school district a year and a half ago if you file an rtk you'll get a two just and i asked for another rtk which was put into a 30-day extension on the same materials for this for the summer of 2020 and the summer of 2021 not really sure why i could get it in five days for 10 to 12 years of information but i couldn't get it because they had to talk to their lawyers i couldn't get two years of teacher trainings so um not really sure how that's going to turn out but the proof is here that they are teaching teachers crt through dei or whatever they want to call it in the westchester area school district
017as a former administrator i will tell you thank you thank you uh as a former administrator i will tell you that if i ma'am excuse me your time is [Applause] dan gillian at the august 2000 2021 sorry virtual meeting two plot police officers commented on some of the anti-police materials that were on the equity resources page one of those videos is gone the rest remain i think it's remarkable that the school district is still promoting lie by omission references about michael brown and many references to an organization that as of august 19th of this year still wants to defund the police this continued promotion is a disrespect to those two police officers a disrespect to the police officers in this room and a disrespect to all the police officers that served the school district on
018the topic of disrespect the latest response to those who oppose critical race theory principles being applied or promoted in the schools including the parents that spoke out at the meetings over the summer is that it's just crazy republican tactics this comes from the same people who take credit for ending partisan bickering and divisiveness find this phrase divisive demeaning and cognitively dissident this phrase excuse me the equity resources page is a critical race theorists paradise which makes that crazy tactic statement as tone deaf as the repeated denial that critical race theory is not being taught in the schools simply because there is no title bearing its name these materials are partisan and divisive labeling parents as crazy or extremist is partisan and divisive and no serious conversation about ending divisiveness or partisan bickering can take place
019in this district until the legitimate concerns of parents over critical race theory principles being applied in the schools on the website is credibly addressed and not dismissed or ignored there are a lot of wonderful things about this school district there's no denying that but until these problems are addressed all that is going to be overshadowed thank you tammy mayer [Music] tammy mayer east bradford township first i would like this board to share details on the training that georgetown university will be providing the public should be able to review all of the training documents and any affiliated videos handouts etc prior to any training being implemented additionally regarding school board meeting processes and policies interestingly i had planned on talking about this before that issue came up and before i even say anything else i want
020to say i give you credit for coming back into the room and even more credit for your interest in when you know parents afterwards came up you acknowledged them you thanked them and you said you would follow up with them i'm going to urge you to continue doing that practice because i gotta tell you it does not feel welcoming up here at all it feels like you're just sitting there you you're this is just checking a box and you don't really care what the parents have to say and i don't want to believe that i want to believe that you really do care but you're just having a hard time showing it right now i think part of the problem is we have attorneys sitting here that kick off the meeting we have attorneys sitting
021here ruling what parents are saying and we have you know this stop watch that's running that you all can't see we all see that stop watch but you all don't see that stopwatch it's very nerve-wracking and i'm just going to urge you to find a way to change the tone of these meetings because i think you want parents involved but i sometimes question whether you really do want parents involved i applaud the pennsylvania school board association for disavowing the national school board association's ridiculous letter to biden and i'm going to urge you all to publicly say how you feel about public comments so that we all feel welcome to give them so that we're not afraid to stand up here that you thank us for our courage and you thank us whether you agree with
022us or not thank you thank you mr mayor judy defonzo hi my name is judy defonso i live in east ocean over on gateswood drive i haven't moved since earlier in the meeting i wanted to talk tonight about dyslexia it's dyslexia awareness month and i've always been kind of aware of dyslexia but i had the privilege of being invited out to the pennsylvania special education conference i've actually gone several years the state provides parent scholarships they pay for hotel rooms and conference fees if you're coming from this area and you have a child in special education and i took a session on dyslexia and what the presenter talked about is like the gap between the science that's being researched at one end of the university and then the training that goes on in the classrooms
023where the our future teachers are being taught and in looking more and more about dyslexia i found more gaps i found that there's a letter that school psychologists when they evaluate students they're supposed to use the word dyslexia and they can't they have to follow their practice act which is what provides them their licensing and they're not allowed to say dyslexia which i think gets in the way of students getting the remedial programs that are designed to remediate dyslexia i wanted to use the last few minutes of my public comment to mention that the state task force meets five times a year their november meeting is a day after election day 10 o'clock it'll be on zoom if you search patan and state task force the topic is going to be dyslexia and the research
024that was done after act 69 of 2014 through the pilot program in pennsylvania and what is now considered best practices in teaching students to read thank you thank you judy for your comments i've always appreciated that you've come for the last eight years my whole eight years on the board and i always like when you say same address as before i haven't moved yet so nancy wood 300 shropshire drive for months i have witnessed individuals address this board with concerns about critical race theory often making angry and inflammatory accusations and claiming our teachers and district are conspiring to indoctrinate our students into racism division and marxism political candidates seeking election to this very board have been among the loudest and most frequent of these objectors in response the district launched the community conversations program a
025series of meetings for community members from all perspectives to listen share and work together on a common vision for a stronger community the sessions have been meaningful and productive with community participation including current and incumbent board members but i have been incredibly disappointed that none of the school board candidates who have been so vocal in airing their grievances have attended instead of participating in productive dialogue these candidates continue to use their political platforms and funding to push conspiracy theories they and their endorsing party have held information sessions with no district representation where so-called experts claim to have insider information about our district's subversive plan to promote racism and division instead of accepting the district's invitation to productive dialogue they use these sessions to stoke parent fears promote political candidates and sell books given an opportunity
026to stand behind this podium launching attacks with the comfort of knowing that no one has the opportunity to question or challenge them they're here for it but doing the work of having conversations and finding common ground are evidently off the table our community is smart enough to recognize this weakness and reject it we need leaders who will walk the walk and rise to the challenge of working together thank you mrs wood that's it okay uh thank you everybody for coming out tonight we will close with a quote from mr beverlock floor is yours all right the quote today is about election day next week on november 2nd democracy can't succeed unless those who express their choice are prepared to choose wisely the real safeguard of democracy therefore is education franklin d roosevelt thank you mr
027beverloqua can i entertain a motion to adjourn first by dr herman second by mr bill lockel all in favor say aye hi thank you very much everybody