001good everyone i would like to call the order the october 25th 2021 meeting for the westchester area school board let's begin with a salute to the flag led by valerie watkins and michael timko from west town thornberry elementary 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 [Applause] all right let's go wildcats michael and valerie tell us what's going on over there west town thornberry [Applause] good evening my name is michael timko and this is valerie watkins we are excited to be here with you tonight and report on all the exciting things that have been going on so far this year in and around west town thornberry the students are so excited to
002be back in the school building to see our favorite teachers every day the pta the pto had a great back to school start with a breakfast for the staff and their restaurant fundraisers have been off to a great start host hosting at both the salty cow and most recently freddy's wte just wrapped up their wildcat walkathon and where we raised over nineteen thousand dollars and speaking of miles we don't know who was most excited to see mileage club start up again this gives students a chance to push themselves at recess as they run to earn little feet charms to add to their necklaces the pto has also begun planning for our animal holiday workshop and family bingo they are also looking forward to bringing back our pinots palette painting fundraisers through these events may be
003back not completely back to normal but we know our students and families are going to love it now let's take a look at what has been happening inside the classroom in kindergarten the students are embracing the fall weather and they all had the opportunity to help cook up some homemade applesauce the hallway smelled delicious and their little bellies were full kindergarten has also been hard at work learning their letters and sounds as well as drawing a picture with labels we can't wait to see what new skills they will learn next the first graders at wte have been learning how to add up to 10 using multiple strategies and manipulatives such as counting on 10 frames and number bonds they just finished observing the three different forms of rocks formed by a volcano and are about
004to research and study the different parts of a community and build their very own second graders feeling cozy in their pjs for the day which was the first reward for filling up their power-poles bucket they loved coming to school in their pajamas and even got to bring their favorite stuffed animal with them for the day great job second grade second graders have also been working on their reading skills enjoying james in a giant peach and expanding their own writing in their stories in third and third grade students are busy charting the growth of their fast growing plants in science and perfecting their cursive writing they have also been having fun playing some greg tang maths math games and telling jokes on funny fridays knock knock who's there mikey likey who my key won't fit in
005the lock fourth grade are also focusing their academics outside as they are building their knowledge of the different regions in pennsylvania and working on their animal research projects the students have also been busy busy mastering factors multiples in math and using manipulatives to solve challenging problems fifth grade also filled up their first powerpoles bucket and earned extra recess way to go fifth grade the students are working on creating their first business plan and becoming young entrepreneurs they are also enjoying their first novel wonder and are looking forward to watching the movie once once they finish reading the novel in the art room 4th graders currently making paper mache pumpkins with miss griffin made from recycled plastic bags we're also getting a jump start on a school-wide veterans day project made of recycled cardboard and egg
006cartons it will be a large cardboard letters covered in red egg carton poppies that reads thank you veterans our goal is to place them out by the road for the veterans passing by and we can't wait to see the finished project autumn is busy in music miss dimizio has been singing through the halls as she joins us in our classrooms for music this year we are gearing up for halloween with the ghost of john and preparing for our veterans day assembly our fifth graders have also been rehearsing for the musical a night at the movies which we will be performing in november as well we can't wait to see everyone back on stage mr davis is so excited to see students back in the gymnasium and outside on the fields getting active his brave students
007in kindergarten first and second grade are finishing their wildcat driving school with each class attempting to earn their driver's license for the year in third fourth and fifth grade students are in the middle of their annual tennis unit and preparing for their upcoming wildcat tennis tournament we can't wait to take the court also after school sports are well underway with the fourth and fifth graders where they are able to continue perfecting their tennis skills this year we welcome miss warlow to our library the wildcats just finished celebrating hispanic heritage month in the library each grade reads books focusing on hispanic culture as well as prominent members of the community we are gearing up for stories about halloween and day of the dead which will be followed by native american history month and veterans day keep
008reading wte that is what has been going on at wte thank you for letting us come here and share all the cool things happening at western thornberry we are excited for the rest of our fifth grade school year hey michael and valerie please join us back at the podium real quick you don't mind great job with the report i tell you that nineteen thousand dollar number you throughout there is staggering excellent job raising that money for charity um salty cal is one of my favorite but i have an important question for you how's dr cruz doing over there he's doing good i understand he's approaching a very important anniversary i think it's one year this week potentially that's crucial all right well great great to see the wildcat pride on full display here thanks again
009for coming we have some certificates and we'd like to take a quick picture of you too with dr cruz [Applause] so uh so okay we will move on to our next item which is roll call please miss charisshore director bevel aqua here director chester here director gernell here director gallen here director hermann here president mccune here director shaw here director spacman here vice president tiernon here eliana rutterow will porter madison d'ambro okay thank you mr chairshore uh that will move us to public comments on agenda items has anyone signed in mr shore yes george nestor before before we get underway if i could just make some remarks uh this is now the time period for public comment on agenda items before the board persons wishing to make public comment this evening were required to sign
010in prior to the start of tonight's meeting we will call upon those registrants in the order in which they signed in when a public commenter's name is called i ask that they please approach the podium and begin by stating their name and address if an individual is providing public comment as a representative of a group or entity please state your group affiliation public comments will be limited to two minutes per person per board policy the time will be projected on the screen at the end of the two-minute 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 all commentaries should be directed to the board as a whole and not to individual board members comments may be interrupted or
011terminated if the public commentary is too lengthy personally directed off topic abusive and or obscene we will now start with the first speaker my name is george nestor 1216 there we go my name is george nester 1216 gale road in west ocean my comments today are in regards to the advise revised board policy 903 that we're that's going to be discussed tonight i was looking back at the october 18th property and finance committee meeting minutes where there was a mention that minutes have been eliminated as they're more comprehensively covered in policy 903 and 906 respectively policy 903 has no mention of meeting minutes at all policy zero zero six only references the minutes including quote names and subject of testimony however i found it interesting that in policy zero zero 6.2 there was a potentially
012important section removed which gave more details about the meeting minutes such as referencing legal record of actions taken when verb verbatim remarks or discussion can be included and when additions and corrections are allowed with the proposed updates there seems to be no place in no policy in place that that captures what the meeting minutes should should include which seems to give the board quite a bit of freedom as to decide what can and cannot be included in meeting minutes an example i have for that is a particular incident that happened back in july where i was not in any meeting minutes as to what happened it was not even discussed in the approval of those meeting minutes the following meeting and in fact the only public mention of that incident was in random school random
013posts on facebook from other school board members i think the community deserves to know about incidents like that and also be in a public formal setting such as this that is documented in meeting minutes thank you dan gillen 17 beech tree drive at the committee meeting of last week there was there were two comments requesting the time limit for public comments be increased to two from two to three minutes i offer some brief notes in support of those comments first it should be three minutes because of the 14 school districts in this county we are only one of two that limit public comment to two minutes take that a step further there are 16 school districts in adjacent counties that border a school district county in this county none of them have a two-minute time
014limit so in this particular portion of southeastern pennsylvania we are only one of two school districts that limit public comment to two minutes this district heavily promotes equity so please make an equitable change to rule 903 and afford the taxpayers of this school district the same opportunity to comment as is offered to other taxpayers and other school districts in the nearby area thank you [Applause] judy defonzo hi judy defonso gateswood drive i live around the corner from here very convenient to uh to uh i'm okay with a couple if with a few fewer seconds because i don't really have much to say tonight i really just wanted to reiterate what i had said a week ago and that is that sometimes two minutes is enough and sometimes you need more than two minutes and when
015you look at other school districts they have more time and i think that we need to have more time again sometimes the two minutes is enough and sometimes in order to fully tell your story bob sakulasi is good with stories we'd like to have the same opportunity we can't finish the whole story in two minutes sometimes thank you that's it for public comment on agenda items thank you miss cherisher uh with that we'll move to our next item which is the approval of the minutes of the september 2021 monthly school board meeting i'll maintain a motion to approve first by dr herrmann seconded by mr bevel aqua any comments or questions scene on roll call please director herman yes director bevel aqua yes director gallon yes director journal yes vice president tiernon yes director chester
016yes director shaw yes director spacman yes president mccoon yes motion carries thank you mr chairshore can you also enter into the minutes that we met in exec session on monday 1018 regarding legal matters and then earlier tonight monday 10 25 regarding personnel [Applause] with that we will move to approval of the october 25th 2021 school board meeting agenda i'll entertain a motion to approve first by mr jannel second by miss chester any comments or questions on that item seeing none roll call please miss cherisher director journal yes director chester yes director hermann yes vice president tiernon yes director shaw yes director gallon yes director spacman yes director bevalaqua yes president mccune yes motion carries thank you miss chairshore that will move us to the superintendent's report dr sukholovsky thank you mr mccune thank you everyone
017for being here tonight um do have several items uh for our uh superintendent's report of this month the schools have been definitely very very active uh first would like to recognize that in november uh in the middle of november we're gonna be celebrating american education week and that has been in existence since as a way to generate support for public education in our schools this year that week we're actually going to be meeting with students the board with students over at east high school in the library and then we'll take some time to visit classrooms so very much looking forward to that our enrollment as of september 30th is 12 093 students we are 192 two students over our projection and we have also 263 students enrolled full-time in our cyber program i would also
018add that we're yielding an all-time high of 79 percent of age eligible students attending the westchester area school district national school lunch week was celebrated the week of october 10th students from fernhill and pennwood elementary they helped make a video thanking our cafeteria staff for all they do providing lunch for our students on monday october 18th we celebrated the opening of greystone with a dedication ceremony featuring an amazing performance of the star-spangled banner sung by fourth grader eloise mccomas we recognize the commitment of so many district staff and board members ensuring the opening of greystone on time and on budget october has been national principles month i want to join our entire community thanking all of our principals and assistant principals across the school district for their tireless work serving students families and our teachers
019in october we began the process for developing our new comprehensive plan for the years 2022-2025 hard to say we have four goal areas which are working as subcommittees these are goal area 1 access to district programming goal area 2 innovative teaching and learning goal area 3 is a new goal area entitled student involvement and of course goal area 4 fiscal and capital planning in total we have about 160 staff board members students teachers parents and community members serving on the comprehensive planning process our second community conversations took place on thursday october 21st with about 70 participants the depth of conversation the positive outlook and great sense of community were takeaways for the night many of us could have been there all night as it was such a great opportunity to meet new people share perspectives
020and develop a greater sense of empathy and trust our next community conversation will be scheduled for january 20th in honor of national school bus safety week students from stetson from east bradford and hillsdale helped make a video thanking our dedicated bus drivers who get them to school every day safely on wednesday october 20th as part of school bus safety week and in cooperation with our local police departments we conducted operation safe stop operation safe stop is a proactive approach to educate the monitoring that passing them passing school buses when children are unloading and getting on board to go to school in the morning our drivers documented any illegal passes on their routes during the day police officers from our local departments rode some of our buses along routes in which we have received concerns uh
021usually another officer follows the bus in order to monitor any motorist who might have violated the the school bus safety laws [Applause] i also want to acknowledge our partnership with keystone volvo for stay out of the cold coat drive this year keystone volvo donated the greatest number of coats that we had seen for needy families and 282 total coats were donated these will go to our neediest families and this marks our sixth year of this great partnership with keystone volvo the chester county health department offered a vaccination clinic this past saturday right here at fugit that serviced about 650 people it was really an amazing coordination of the chester county health department as well as our facility staff in addition to the flu vaccine the chester county health department also offered coveted boosters the clinic
022will return to fugit again on november 13th and we're hopeful at that time there may be a 5 to 11 year old coveted vaccine available at this time i'd like to recognize the retirement of our director of facilities and operations mr kevin campbell kevin has served as our facilities director since 2003 and he has a total of 33 years working in public schools kevin you have literally left your mark on our new buildings and all the renovated buildings across the school district best of luck to you in your well-deserved retirement congratulations kevin and finally the pennsylvania school boards association honors board members who have made long-term contributions uh to the school district it is my honor this evening to present ms joyce chester and mr chris mccune with a certificate of appreciation uh for serving
023eight years as board directors here in westchester congratulations [Applause] and mr mckeon that uh concludes my superintendent's report for the month of october thank you well thank you very much dr sokolowski i think we were all very excited to be at the gravestone dedication uh last week it was a great event and uh marks obviously the continued growth and expansion of our district uh to new all-time highs there seven eight nine percent of uh all market share that's great news okay uh we will move now on to i'm sorry we'll move on to the student representative reports and i see we have uh easton henderson here so we'll go with east high school first and elena redrome hi everyone um again my name is elena ruderow and i hope everyone is having a good night
024so far um east has had a pretty good month since my last report with the girls having or being really on fire with sports lately um volleyball soccer and field hockey will are all being put into playoffs this week with volleyball and field hockey playing this tuesday night as in tomorrow night field hockey at six and my volleyball team at seven p.m soccer will be on wednesday i'm swimming around the same time of six o'clock this will be the first time since 2012 that east volleyball will be participating in playoffs so it's a very big deal for my team we're all very excited for this coming week my good friend victoria kim is now being placed as third for state championships for golf now she has made it into all top three positions for the
025past three years so she is insane um this past week has also been an exciting one with last monday being the kickoff to our spirit week the themes were middle school monday so we all dressed as our middle school selves me standing in my middle school tuesday was strictly business very similar to my entire tonight leather blazers were all over the place tuesday was wild west lots of cowboy costumes there were some horse hats there was a lot going on that day and happy happy holidays thursday where we got to dress up as our favorite holidays i personally was christmas i had a lot of fun jewelry on and then it concluded with spirit day friday where i wore my senior jeans and the rest of the school were their class shirts the pep rally
026also happened that day as well as the homecoming game where we played henderson high school we did lose well nice job we lost 2041 but it was still an exciting night i personally was on homecoming court and was awarded homecoming queen runner-up and i made lots of memories student council did an amazing job with all the work of this week especially a lot of blood sweat and tears went into this week and we were all happy that it went so successfully we had a lot of people coming up to us saying how well everything was laid out our decorations were on point um and everyone just said that they had a good time we were a little scared about the weather but it all ended up working out for the best okay thank you thank
027you miss forever appreciate the report and next up is the victorious william porter from henderson high school [Music] there we go hold the button hold the button hello hello just press it just press it can you everybody hear me all right sorry about that hi my name is will porter and i am the school board representative for henderson high school i want to start out by reiterating what elena said and we did beat them 41 nothing on their homecoming i'm not 41 nothing 41 20. it felt like nothing continuing with football um this friday night we play oxford for our final home game and it will be our domestic violence game which is a program we're starting this year friday everyone is supposed to wear purple at henderson and to bring acknowledgement to domestic violence
028and some of the struggles that are faced through some of the students at our school cross country and boys soccer both claimed chestnut champions with championships with wins this weekend girls volleyball also became the last team at henderson to clinch a district playoff berth making that all false sports to have claimed a district playoff berth here at henderson andrew hicks toy drive has started up i know it's 61 days till christmas yes i'm counting down but the toy drive has started for children in need in chester uh proper not truster this is a long-running tradition here at henderson and is always very successful the black student union is planning a field trip to historically black colleges in the upcoming days the german language club recently took a trip to the german society of pennsylvania speaking
029contest has started up um i believe this monday there were preliminaries the speaking contest has been reworked this year instead of a boys and girls they have all come together and there will now be a speaking contest in the fall for more serious pieces and a speaking contest in the spring for more comical pieces uh our we have our upcoming activity fair this friday and with that seven new clubs have been established here at henderson including the cricket club the hosa the re-establishment of astrology and more national air honor society merit scholarship semi-finalists were announced this week henderson is three with vivek inumela nehal de perva and ryan brophy and jenna mulhern and kylie coaches have both made state playoffs um pass-through districts jenna mulhern for cross country and kylie coaches for tennis and are
030wishing both of them this luck this weekend thank you mr porter i guess we'll catch up on rust in next week next month okay that will move us to approval of the personnel recommendations dr ulmer are you in the house good evening mr mccune mrs tiernon and directors of the board our personal report for the month of october is as follows with removals from payroll we have five resignations consisting of three teachers one's campus security officer and one accounting technician we have two retirements mrs linda gianji julio i apologize if i butchered that name i think gian giulio who is a power professional at fugit middle school with 22 years of service and mr rory wilson male coordinator at spelman education center with 37 years of service he reminded me today that it is actually
03137.5 congratulations to both linda and rory and we wish you both long and happy retirements with addition to payroll we are recommending the hiring of two new teachers two certified school nurses and two long-term substitute teachers additionally we are recommending the hire of our new manager of communications ms molly schwemler molly welcome to wcasd we are thrilled to have you on board and we look forward to your vast experience and knowledge in helping the district communicate with our community and beyond welcome we are also welcoming a campus secure safety officer a security greeter two power professionals and a library assistant additionally we are recommending one more substitute custodian in personnel events i communicated the status change of a security greeter to a guidance secretary and the awarding of additional staffing to a teacher and certified
032school nurse i communicated and delivered seven involuntary transfers in our professional staff furthermore we are recommending one sabbatical in the professional staff in additional information we are announcing two salary updates seven start date updates one last day update the approval of an mou for salary changes in the support staff for paraprofessionals and included is a list of all drivers and aides from crafts buses and on-the-go kids buses we have also recommended 31 employees to either either tutors and or tutoring site managers across the district in supplemental contracts we have nine additions to annual supplementals 93 additions to winter supplementals three removals from annual supplementals five adjustments to annuals and two adjustments to fall supplementals and last but certainly not least on a personal note kevin i couldn't be happier for you your heart is as
033big as your laugh and we are a better district for having you serve for as long as you have enjoy every second of your well-earned retirement we're going to miss you i'm respectfully requesting board approval for all personnel matters listed above thank you thank you dr olmer i obtained a motion to approve first by dr herman sickened by mr gallon before we get to the approval of it uh we're gonna make a few comments here so first uh uh thank you linda and rory for your years of service in the district uh we wish you the best in retirement and enjoying uh time more time with your family uh molly welcome to the district on behalf of the board we're excited to have you join and then mr campbell uh we have a few things
034to say about you so i'm going to lead off with mr bevilla who's probably shared the most time with you on the board mr beflocko as everybody knows it was announced tonight kevin is retiring from the director facility and operation role that he's held for many years um i got to know kevin pretty well over the years as kevin and i work together as an active parent some of my ruston stadium projects that i volunteered for all the outside facility use that kevin and i dealt with all the outside organizations and then during my last seven and a half years as a school board member and on the property and finance uh committee i got to work and interface with him quite routinely kevin has left a positive long-term legacy with our district in many
035aspects kevin you've left a permanent footprint on most of our buildings as you manage the design renovations or new construction of our school buildings on my account you've renovated seven of our elementary schools all three middle schools two high schools and you built our two newest schools with ruston high school opening in 2006 and graystone elementary school opening this year in 2021 and we can't forget the renovations of our new spelman registration building kevin has kept the maintenance of our projects in great shape handling emergencies planning for future upgrades and developing a formal periodic maintenance to prevent emergency issues from occurring we can't thank kevin and his staff for the cleanliness and excellent condition of all our schools and facilities many of us do not see or fully understand and appreciate kevin's leadership and the
036effort of the facilities and operations department and what they do behind the scenes for snow removal cleanup to ensure our schools are open and safe the maintenance of our buildings inside and out and the maintenance of our athletic facilities to ensure they're ready and safe kevin we don't always agree on all items but i can guarantee on all items and issues you had the students the staff and our educational aspects in your best interest and main focus of all decisions you made we thank kevin for mentoring his replacement wayne burster and ensuring the district would be in great shape for many years in the future under the new leadership all of us will miss his always forward thinking his sense of humor and of course his unique laugh stay in touch as many of us
037will always have a few questions for you in the future kevin we all wish you the best in retirement thank you for all your contributions and hopefully you can take some time off to relax soon and at least for a short time period thank you again kevin congratulations this is jiren i think gary said all those things very well i want to say how much i have appreciated and i've been watching you since 2003 and school board meetings with some interesting school board people who thought they knew more about building and construction and renovating than you ever could and you took all of that it with a grain of salt and that incredible sense of humor of yours and sometimes just laughed which was a wonderful way to respond with russian and greystone i think
038we saw your vision come to the fore rustin looks like a sort of varnish chester county and and gravestone has its own unique mark i was sitting underneath the portico when we were dedicating last week looking up and what a nice overhang that is and the stone with the stones so and i appreciate that that a lot of that was you i know there were architects involved but you personally put your stamp on those buildings and you may even have been the person who named it greystone so i i just want to thank you it's a it's a deep honor and a pleasure to have somebody come to the district stay with the district for as long as you have bring all of that um experience that you brought from the other county and um
039make us a better place so i thank you thank you mrs tier anybody else mr speckman thank you um yes working with kevin i've just uh been just exposing him for a couple years but obviously with multiple kids with the district i've seen his work over a long time one thing i really found was so impressive is since i'm out in the winter storms and things like that his staff is out there snow plowing and shoveling multiple times and storm comes through and they're doing again and then they're cleaning the schools and getting stuff ready for the next day it's the respect i think his staff has for him that he knows he's going to be out there too in a truck or doing this he's not just going to be watching he gets involved
040with it and by having that respect for your your people i think that really goes to show your leadership and all you've done for the district so i think that really is very commendable thank you mr suspection mrs chester just quickly uh kevin you will be greatly missed you have such a an endearing smile and an infectious laugh and such a generous spirit i have always appreciated your wisdom and your generosity your knowledge even with my own building it's i i just appreciate you never say no it's always you know well let me see how i can help so i i just appreciate that you will be uh we're glad we have such a wonderful person following in your footsteps we know he's not you but we appreciate you so much and we wish you
041the best the best best best on your retirement mr nell mr campbell thank you thank you so much for all that you've done uh thank you for your sensitivity to incorporate what westchester looks like into many of the buildings that you've built or renovated you'll be missed thank you for your contribution that will be here for decades decades all the best in your retirement thank you mr nell dr shaw kevin campbell one of the things that i've loved most about you is that you don't just bring building wisdom to our meetings i i have been struck over the years at how many times the board and the administration has been grappling with some issue that didn't necessarily have to do with buildings and you would be the person who would come up with the solution
042it happened at least a half a dozen times that i can think of and so um i just want to thank you for the wisdom and insight you brought to the district not just about buildings but also about how districts are run and how we can best move forward and take into account the needs of every constituent um so i've really appreciated that it's been great working with you and have fun in your retirement even though i know i don't have to say that thank you dr scholl mr gallon i just wanted to reiterate what many of the other board members have already said but kevin you've earned it congratulations it's been a pleasure working with you for the past four years thank you mr gallon dr herman okay hi you at a school board
043um i was sitting in the audience and i'm like wow who is that guy then i found out your job in the district and i thank you kevin very much for everything you've done you are an impressive leader in many areas and you did a great job serving our district um i always enjoyed your expertise and your sense of humor is beyond anything that anyone can even expect i really believe i see this in you too my husband was a person who was very visionary with building and just the right stones the the flooring and when you took me on the tour for greystone brian and i went with you privately that one day you explained everything and why it was this way we knew that you had so much to do with greystone and
044the other buildings um and i wish you good luck um you'll be very very missed but your transition with wayne has been excellent excellent choice and one little side note i own dachshunds and i know you have a little dachshund and they can be strong-willed so you have a very good character and i i wish you well wherever you're going to go i hope you come back to visit us thank you dr herman mr campbell uh it's always hard to say goodbye uh you leave big shoes to phil but we are fortunate that you have trained your successor mr barrister so we are in good shape there uh i echo many of the sentiments that my board members told them were shared uh the two things that i will always remember about you most was
045something that mr beverlock would touched on which was you would have we would have disagreements occasionally right but it never carried over we always handled it professionally we went right back to business i always admired that quality in you and second i always liked uh how you focused on the educational needs when we were talking about projects and tying it the alignment to that always very impressive and again back to mr walker's point that you always had the needs of his students at the heart of the matter there so very much appreciated and uh you know in closing you've left a incredible mark on this district we're incredibly thank you and we wish you all the best big man applause [Applause] mr short roll call please director herman yes director gallon yes director bevel aqua
046yes vice president tiernon yes director chester yes director spacman yes director journal yes director shaw yes president mccune yes motion carries thank you mr chair sure that will move us to our next item which is the approval of the consent agenda i have not been approached by anyone to remove anything but i will pause for a moment to see whether anyone has any concerns seeing now i'll entertain a motion for approval to consent agenda first by mr spacman second by miss chester roll call please director spacman yes director chester yes director gallon yes director shaw yes director bevel aqua yes director journal yes vice president tiernon yes director hermann yes president mccune yes motion carries thank you again mr chairshore that will move us to our committee reports and up first is education and mrs
047tiernon thanks mr mccune at the education committee meeting on october 11th we approved revisions to policy 103 discrimination title ix sexual harassment affecting students and we approved provisions to policy 104 discrimination title ix sexual harassment affecting staff we heard an enlightening and informative presentation on structured literacy and we heard a very entertaining and informative second secondary library media program presentation that's what i have for the education committee this month thank you mrs tiernan that will move us to people services and miss chester thank you mr mccune for the pupil services committee meeting this month we discussed the plan for the upcoming school year it the plan includes for 21 22 include special education monitoring the facilitated self-assessment has uh on-site portion of the monitoring will take place on november 8th and 9th and once they
048have the results dr ranieri will be sharing those with the committee next was a special education comprehensive plan the committee met the subcommittee and the whole committee the committee consists of parents teachers and administrators the subcommittee will be broken into five small groups to focus on major sections of the plan and an update will be provided at the education committee meeting in november social emotional learning plan uh we're currently implementing a two-year plan utilizing services from tom stecker associates and the iu two training sessions have taken place and an update will be provided towards the end of the year next topic is disproportionality utilizing some of the early interviewing monies to support equity and social emotional needs across the district and lastly achieve progress transition program the app program which was previously held at the
049melton center was operated last year out of east and met the needs of the students in person and virtually via zoom this year at the app program we'll be implementing a program in person at each of the high schools the focus will be on credit recovery transitions and mental health and that ends my report thank you mr mccune thank you miss chester we will move on to personnel and dr herman thank you mr mccune good evening tonight dr olmer stated personnel recommendations dr ulmer and the personnel department are moving forward in a productive and positive way and it's a pleasure to meet with him on a monthly basis thank you dr herman we will move to property and finance and mr bevillaqua yeah good evening our last property finance meeting was last monday october 18th
050mr scully reviewed the budget forecast model the net of all the 20 20 21 changes in october resulted in a decrease of 308 and in the ending fund balance will be designated for future millage increases mr scully then reviewed the changes for the 21 22 projections the net of all changes in october resulted in a budget gap decrease of 242 000. mr scully reviewed the summary of all funds the budget gap after an x1 tax increase is at 2.893 000 or 2.8 2.89 million sorry at this point and uh the administration will continue to monitor that on a monthly basis and the budget forecast model will be adjusted and will continue to monitor mr scully then reviewed the enrollment projections for next year for the 2022-2023 school year and advise the committee that the projections
051are forecasted to be 12 000 161 students which represents an increase of 68 students of the current enrollment scully informed the committee that those projections will be used to plan the building budgets as well as staffing needs for next year the next topic in the meeting mr scully reviewed the 2022-2023 building budget allocation which we call the ppa the per people spending analysis the ppa factor for the 22 23 uh school year remains unchanged from the current year a factor of 134.20 these waiting factors were kept consistent for elementary and secondary schools the recommended 20 22 23 fixed activity budgets were also kept consistent for the middle and high schools this is an item on tonight's agenda this is uh d8 if anybody was following and i do have one motion for the board for
052approval tonight the motion reads as follows approval is requested for the per-pupil allocation factor the ppa of 134.20 per weighted pupil for the 2022-23 fiscal year this weighted factor will be one for full-time kindergarten and elementary schools 1.06 for middle school and 1.43 for high school students the fixed activity expense budget totals six hundred and twelve thousand three sixty for all six secondary schools which includes a hundred fifty four thousand three hundred fifty dollars per high school and forty nine thousand seven seventy per middle school the total of the twenty twenty two three budget building budget allocation is two million four hundred ninety one thousand three ninety eight iso move thank you mr verlaka i'll get a second from mr gallon there any comments or questions see none roll call please miss chair short director
053bev alaqua yes director gallon yes vice president tiernon yes director shaw yes director chester yes director herman yes director spacman yes director journal yes president mccune yes mission carries thank you mr chairshore back to you mr blackwell a couple more items in the property finance meeting to speak to mr scully also advised the committee that a child's place we call it also known that acronym acp has been providing before and after school programs in the district elementary school since 2012. the current five-year contract due to expire on june 30th of 2022 based on an annual fixed rent payments of estimated enrollment and space utilization the current contract calls for a fixed annual rent payment of 225 000 for the current school year due to lack of enrollment and reduced space requirements the administration recommends reducing
054the fixed annual rate for the 21 22 current school year to 125 000. this reduction will only apply to this school year and a new five-year contract will be negotiated with the school-aged child care services for next school year the committee recommended approval and this is according to the amendment the addendum to the contract with the child's place the next topic dr sokolowski reviewed changes to board policies due to the sunshine act amendments acts 65 of 2021 changes were made to the policies related to the board meetings policy 006.2 rules of order the policy now reflects the current board's order of business with public comments coming before any vote is taken as done in tonight's meeting policy 903 public participation in public meetings in accordance with the new law revisions were made to allow for
055additional public comment such as agenda items to be added after the public comment period has ended policy 6.3 agendas now that there is an agenda section listed under revision to the policy 006.2 that i mentioned rules of order the policy is redundant and will be retired the committee recommended approval of all the policy changes the next property finance meeting is next month on november 15th all are welcome to attend and that ends my report for this evening thank you thank you mr bevalaqua all right that will move us to our other reports and up first is the intermediate unit and mrs tiernan good evening um tonight i'm going to introduce to you the cciu learning center now i've spoken to you about the tchs the technical college high schools there are three of them in
056chester county but the iu meets the needs of many many people from birth to all the way as far as you can go and the cci learn cciu learning center we heard about at our last meeting which is always the third wednesday of every month from dr levy director of student services and dr mangan principal at the cciu learning center dr mangan gave some background on the learning center saying it had opened in 2013 and supports students in three different programs the first one is options full-time emotional support program a career academy a full-time learning support academics and pre-vocational shop and the transitions program which is a very important piece a general education as well as the brandywine valley academy instruction with live mental health supports dr mangan also mentioned the learning center uses the
057school-wide positive behavior support program has mental health support for all students who need it and offers a full complement of related services the cciu learning center currently serves two sorry 202 students in grades 7 to 12 ages 12 to 21 and who have varied emotional and behavioral disabilities from districts in chester berks delaware lancaster montgomery and philadelphia counties in addition the board acted on the following new business actions we approved a contract with georgetown university to provide professional learning to superintendents in chester county that is another thing that they do and approved the lease extension agreement with the delaware county community college for space at t tch h s penox bridge campus we've had a contract they extended the contract because delaware county community college comes to our tchs and offers additional an additional college
058degree that students earn while they're at tchs and at no cost to them so that's the end of my report on the intermediate unit tonight thank you mrs tiernan we will move on to the psba report and dr herman thank you mr mccune good evening again um mrs tiernon and i attended the p-a-s-a pennsylvania school board association school leadership conference delegate assembly we were the two delegates from the westchester area school district that represented us everything went very well it was very professional and the voting continued without interruptions it was very successful and we had a pretty good time thank you that's my thank you dr herman we're allowed to have a good time once in a while all right we'll move to the legislative liaison important dr shaw thank you um last time i
059reported out i reported that there's a lot of activity in the state right now with regard to charter schools and i spoke specifically about some warring legislation that has been proposed to both loosen up regulation over charter schools and to provide more guidelines and accountability so but there's two ways that schools public schools in pennsylvania are overseeing one way is through legislation and the other way is through regulation so the major difference between those two ways of overseeing our public schools is that legislation can be passed quickly it can be passed with no public input it can be passed at any point in time it's easy to pass but it's also easy to overturn and so when we write and when we oversee schools via legislation what you see is a lot of back and
060forth depending upon what party's in power and depending upon who thinks what is important regulation is really a different way of overseeing our schools it requires much more public input it is much more difficult to pass regulation but it is also much more difficult to overturn regulation and the entity that decides whether or not regulation is passed is the state board of education and the members of the state board of education are appointed by the governor but they are appointed in staggered terms so that no governor completely controls the appointments on the state on the state board of education so the governor governor wolf proposed a set of regulations to tighten up the accountability structure in charter schools and those regu those proposed regulations were proposed and published in september 17th and in the public
061school the pennsylvania bulletin and then there was an opportunity for 30 days for the public to submit comment and that comment period was closed october 18th and so we're waiting to see sort of how the state board summarizes this public comment and we're waiting to see how the state board is going to deliberate on um the proposed rulemaking that the governor has proposed so um i will continue to update you as this moves forward thank you very much dr shaw we will move on to our equity report and mr urnell thank you as dr sakolowski mentioned we had our second series of community conversations last thursday i participated in both of them and they're great events and we're looking forward to the third part in the series on january 20th um ms who just mentioned
062oh miss herman mentioned the this uh conference uh today i participated in the uh pennsylvania school board association equity summit uh 10 30 till 4 o'clock but i was able to enjoy it from the comfort of my little office at my condo it was a great time there were leaders from all over the state of pennsylvania uh there were some superintendents there school board directors principals uh dei leadership from schools i think one of the aspects i enjoyed the most about it is there were a number of student videos that were about two minutes long each and they talked about how equity played a role in their lives and it highlighted that equity isn't just about race but there are many factors to consider when you're talking about equity and making plans for equity much
063of the summit had to do with addressing the achievement gap different strategies were suggested different experiences from different schools were shared and then finally at the end there was a panel of equity directors from across the state that shared their different roles their different strategies and their vision for addressing equity in their school districts so it was a great event i was glad to be able to be there representing westchester school district and that ends my report thank you mr nell that will bring us to the community liaison report and mr spacman hello thank you mr mccoon well one of the great things this time of year that the community actually is very involved in and the ptas and the different uh organizations is of course trunk and treating in all the different elementary schools
064and things like that going through the different playgrounds and dressing up i still don't even know what i'm going to be for halloween this year but it's because it's an exciting time in the elementary school seeing the kids dress up and going out to the playgrounds and really that's what the school just does it's so great making the memories and the things that we all look back on due to our own childhood and all that also this time of year they're in heavy rehearsals for some of the fall shows i know clue is going to be running at ruston this coming fall and stetson is working on a show called all together and all together is about the revival and the coming back of broadway so it's a segment of all kinds of different uh
065snapshots of different shows and things like that i think it's great how the kids are getting back on stage they're opening back up and westchester has such a tremendous history in all the schools of theater and music and i think i talk on behalf of myself as being a parent that has been through multiple ones and volunteering in their late night building sets and costuming and all that kind of stuff it's a great time for parents and community to get out involved in the schools and the theater and the music and volunteer and help with stage crew and doing you know the costumes and things like that because it really gets to show that you get to meet the kids you get to meet the teachers the staff and really sees how the magic of
066the stage come out and of course make this such a wonderful district with all the music and awards that we've won that way it starts really on the ground you know hammering nailing teaching kids how to use screw guns and there's of course a big question is it a screw gun is it a drill all kinds of big talkers on behind stage and things like that but it's great to see the lights come up the trick-or-treating happening at the different playgrounds and really it's a great time in the district now that everybody is you know back in full swing thank you mr speckman just no british soldiers costumes this year okay all right uh we will move on to other business we have some usual items down there we have our treasurer's report and statement
067of disbursements as well as our month end financial report they're all in consent agenda items but we do have one item on their non-consent dr herman yes approval is requested to reaffirm the election of robert sokolowski to the position of superintendent of schools and approve his contract of employment for a time period of august 14 2021 through june 30th 2026 consistent with the school code of 1949 the board previously acted on the election of the superintendent however the board motion at the april 26 2021 school board meeting did not align with the term of dr sokolowski's employment contract by approving this motion herein the commission of the superintendent shall align with his employment contract which expires on june 30th 2026 iso move thank you dr herman i'll get a second from mr gallon and just
068again just just a clarification on the date to align with the end of the school year and not just exceed five years uh so that's all this is here so with that any other comments seeing none roll call please mr director herman yes director gallon yes director journal yes director shaw yes director chester yes director bevalaqua yes director spacman yes vice president tiernon yes president mccune yes motion carries thank you miss cherisher okay this will bring us to comments from residents on non-agenda items ms chairshore as we did earlier this evening for public commentary on agenda items when a public commenter's name is called i ask that they please approach the podium and begin by stating their name and address as a reminder public comments will be limited to two minutes per person per board
069policy the time will be projected on the screen please note all commentary should be directed to the board as a whole and not to individual board members be advised that comments may be interrupted or terminated if the public commentary is too lengthy personally directed off topic abusive and or obscene we will now call the first speaker alexis cooper [Applause] alexis cooper district parent um i want to discuss something that i found in the children's history book in one of the elementary school libraries my six-year-old brought home a book titled escaping a sinking ship each chapter was devoted to a significant ship disaster involving large ships such as the titanic i didn't think anything was unusual about the information be relayed until i came to chapter four this particular chapter was about the sinking of a
070nazi ship called the wilhelm gustloff accompanying the introduction was a full-page photo of hitler and his staff i'm going to read an excerpt from the book in january 1945 10 year old horst white lived in the german province of east prussia with his mother meta germany and its allies were struggling as world war ii neared its end enemy soviet forces entered horse city they brought ruthless destruction to east prussia as they murdered germans set towns ablaze and stole from shops and homes my reaction to reading this brought up feelings of the wildermann anger and frustration first i have never heard of the wilhelm gustaf disaster probably because of its association with the nazis the ship was named after a late leader of the swiss nazi party second elementary aid children do not learn about world
071war ii until the adolescent years and this would most likely be the first time a child learned anything about world war ii if they read this chapter this is unacceptable given that this is portrayed in a way as to promote sympathy for the enemy an enemy that brought the worst crimes against humanity this is offensive and i'm requesting that this book be removed from the school libraries thank you [Applause] stacy wamsley hello stacy wumsley 989 regimental drive east bradford uh i have four items for community awareness i'd like to share this evening the first is actually regarding the board policies and i just want to reiterate my comments from last week but one of the only two public comments about the fact that we currently only have a two minute limit and that's the most
072restrictive actually here in chester county announced that our board and that you dr sokolowski reconsider the fact that we should at least have the recommended three minutes as afforded or recommended by the pennsylvania sunstride act my second item is the school issued ipads following january and february 2021 public comments from a parent regarding the lack of district implemented content controls on those ipads when can parents expect the elementary communication that was to be sent home with the apple support instructions that were promised last spring third i think the community deserves some answers about what was experienced this past weekend at east high school i've heard from multiple concerned parents regarding incidents of students that were actually acting either aggressively or even violently i'm given that we've got police presence here tonight for the school board
073meeting it'd be good to hear what the school district's policies and actions are going to be about enforcing similar decorum at student events such as a football game and last is when will parents receive the results from the 2021 spring pssas typically by now we would have gotten those results and so far there's nothing published by the pa department of education on their website following those individual student results when does the district expect to have the district-wide results available for the community to review thank you mike winter road i left it on good mike winterroad i'm a republican committeeman of west whiteland and i live on showing road in excellent at a board meeting a couple of months back a state police officer and military veteran who lives in the borough pointed out a number
074of videos and materials on the westchester district's website that vilified law enforcement as of last night those materials remain on the district's website along with suggested readings on crt lesson plans encouraging protests uh materials dealing with gender identity and sexuality aimed at an elementary school audience parents if you do not like the sound of this there is something that you can do about it encourage your child to start or join a young america's foundation chapter at their school since 1960 young america's foundation has been committed to ensuring that the increasing numbers of young americans understand and are inspired by the ideas of individual freedom a strong national defense free enterprise and traditional values they accomplish this mission by providing students access to conferences seminars educational materials internships community service projects and famous guest speakers such
075as ben shapiro dinesh d'souza and katie pavlich why a off yaf also offers field trips to ronald reagan's california ranch as well as legal assistance if a school district tries to prevent a yaf charter from forming unfortunately yes that has happened for more information you can go to yaf.org or you can contact the chester county republican headquarters and ask for me again my name is mike winterroad thank you chris manos can i hand these out to you guys i have one for each of the school board members there you go chris manos east bradford township i'd like uh everybody who's here on the school board to look at the materials that are being distributed to you the three illustrations that you see there are from a book called gender queer and this book is being
076distributed in kindergarten through 12th grade learning environments and i would like by a show of hands each school member school board member to uh indicate whether by raising your hand yes this looks like it's pornographic so do you all think that this material in front of you this this picture for a kindergarten through 12th grade student learning environment is that pornographic or not at this point i'm going to advise the board not to answer or respond to this gentleman's question the board there there is no censorship [Applause] [Music] is it pornographic or not this is a period for public comment this is not a question and answer session i have i have a natural right as a taxpayer in this township to ask these school board members if they view this material as pornographic it
077is being distributed in a kindergarten through 12th grade learning environment under under pennsylvania law as people if we suspect child abuse which promoting child pornography to children is if we're suspecting it we're mandated by law to report it because if we don't we're accessories to a crime you know i'm right about that sir the board does not need to respond to your comments you're free to make your public commentary if on topic and appropriate and not let it be shown obscene they're not going to answer the questions questions i'm going to ask the public for order in this meeting it is not appropriate to be answered [Music] thank you mr tiernan say goodbye dr herman we will be recessing this meeting for 15 minutes