PDSD School Board Meeting August 18, 2021

001[Music] mr zebly roll call please daddy present present mrs ellis here mrs nessler here ms hilford mrs jones i can't hear you if you're there john here this is powell here sorry mr c sack mr tinsley here mr armor here 2.01 is the approval of minutes regular board meeting of july 21st 2021 whatever this motion second questions or comments are those in favor opposed motion pass 2.02 is the invoice listening motion is to approve the invoice listing for july through august 2021 do i have this motion so moved second questions or comments all those in favor aye hi post motion pass 2.03 is the treasurer's report in this pal okay as of june 30th sorry i have to squint because i'm going off my iphone as of june 30th 2021 penn deluca's balance was 32

002million 230 172. during july 2021 local state and federal revenues totaled five million five hundred fifty six thousand four hundred thirteen disbursements were issued in the amount of four million seven hundred eighty thousand thirty six as of july thirty first twenty twenty 2021 pandoco's current balance is 33 million 6549 the mission is to approve the treasurer's report for july 2021 do i have this motion it's removed number three tonight's agenda the dciu report tonight ms powell has reported that there is no report um number four superintendent's report dr stein good evening everyone who's uh joining us here tonight to participate in the august meeting of the pendleto border school directors i always plan ahead with remarks about items that were expected to be voted on in a board meeting and i will work through and

003edit some of my comments here to make sure that i'm addressing items that we anticipate action on this evening uh an item that is uh currently on the board that is scheduled for approval is a new three-year collective bargaining agreement with pentacle education association i want to thank our hr director and business manager who put in many many hours outside of the countless meetings to make sure that a final plan that is designed to fairly compensate reward and retain our teaching staff would come to fruition our school board president mr armor vice president ms tinsley represented the board throughout the year to get this to the finish line with an approved tentative agreement working to ensure that planned terms were aligned with the board district and staff needs i want to thank nicole brewster and

004sherry freeman as officers of pdea along with her committee of teachers for the volunteer work in representing the professional staff the second labor contract that we have worked on to update this year and again it reflects well i believe on pandelco you don't see dysfunction around a contract development process that is a routine process involving public agencies well-designed collective bargaining agreements helped to attract and retain talented staff pandelco only had one administrative vacancy in the past few years and more than 97.4 percent of our staff are returning to pendleton classrooms this year which is an extremely positive sign for the condition and the environment in our district i had intended to make a number of remarks about our cares committee i will omit those this evening for the purposes of time also on the agenda

005tonight is the proposed updated health and safety plan since the start of covid our board of directors have consistently directed the administration that we follow the guidance of expert public health agencies nothing more and nothing less board members are not infectious disease experts and requiring school board members to make health and safety calls is a level of responsibility that i really think is unfortunate for that reason we have been successful in keeping covert at bay in pandelco by honoring the guidance the explicit guidance from the health experts and not taking steps to exceed or loosen what the experts have to say the plan that is being presented to the board reflects the board's intention and approach to the development of a required health and safety plan for instance with respect to masking which is the

006topic of the day the plan reads the cdc and pennsylvania department of health quote recommends universal indoor masking of all staff students and visitors to k-12 schools regardless of vaccination status and quote those words are taken directly from the guidance for schools from the pennsylvania department of health and the centers for disease control if that guidance changes i would expect that this plan will be amended again to ensure that school board members in their representative role as representatives of the community have continued opportunities to support the plan that they believe is best for pandelco board members had the opportunity to make a motion to propose an amendment to the plan the draft that is scheduled to be approved tonight was built on the direction and intentions that have been given to us thus far so

007notable aspects of the plan per the cdc's order on wearing masks on public transportation masks are required to be worn by passengers and drivers on school buses until this order is lifted that's part of the plan that they've been given that they're going to act upon per the cdc and pennsylvania department of health schools where not everyone is fully vaccinated should implement physical distancing to the extent possible within their structures that's in the guidance and that's in our plan schools will logically limit and reduce the gathering of large groups of people in a single close contact congregate setting to the extent possible that's in the guidance that's common sense that's in our plan the plan indicates the district will support and implement public health guidance on isolation and quarantine the district will report all confirmed

008cases of cover 19 to the health department using prescribed reporting procedures just as we did off last year the closed contact definition excludes students who were within three to six feet of an infected student here's the piece if both the infected student and exposed students wore masks so that has significant implications on the reduction of the number of students who could potentially be called into quarantine now with the expectation that the board may have an approved plan in place at the end of this meeting communication to families would then be sent out over the next few days reiterating our coven 19 mitigations and our plans for the 21 22 school year this summer the district has continued to push forward with the final phases of our renovations at the high school our architects and our

009facilities department have been monitoring the work in an effort to stay on target the exterior of the high school has been significantly improved with new windows and a clean and polished look separately the remediation on the fuel leak next to and behind coburn continues to occur and it has been as people who live near there a very active summer parking lot or roadway damage from the cleanup process is expected to be addressed expeditiously we plan to have students and staff back at coburn which is terrific news given the loss of a week to school a week of school to end the school year last year at aston elementary work to replace a water supply line is continuing and we are moving forward with efforts to replace the hvac chiller unit that supplies the classrooms it's

010been quiet it's been quite the summer for our directors of facilities it just keeps on attacking musicians as they develop with positive outcomes in the end and we thank you for his efforts which have been extreme and well regarded throughout the summer i received a couple emails from parents who were as they are awaiting you know direction on the mitigation plans in place had asked will we be back in school five days a week absolutely we will be absolutely back in school five days a week and i apologize if there was uncertainty about that i recognized that we had the alternative schedule last year but we are planning to have students back under this health and safety plan and expected to have a really outstanding 21 22 school year next week our new teachers will

011be on site with new teacher orientation all of our staff report the following week and students that are in for our first day of school the day fong labor day shows us that it is now full speed ahead thank you mr warmer thank you board school directors thank you dr steinhoff all right number five announcements for the public tonight the board met in executive session to discuss personnel and litigation matters number six um comments by members of the board i will start off by um offering my sincere apology for keeping those of you waiting um we had an extended executive session to try and get through some of our agenda items that board members had questions about it was very important that we got those answers before we came to the meeting for voting anyone

012else leon i had a question and i should have thought of this earlier but um as in regards to kova testing in school will parents be notified and um can have to consent to the testing of children if they are sick in school i would have to refer that to you dr stein i don't know yes mrs no we uh as we've had in the past we do have access to the binex now uh rapid tests we have not given tests to students without parent permission so any type of uh medical uh decisions that have to be made we don't make them on our own um i know there's a concern you know that i've heard in other districts where parents have come forth and said you know i want to make sure that i

013i get permission before my kid gets vaccinated we don't give vaccinations um and certainly something like that of course would always require parent approval so even that's how i sometimes people in the community can kind of hear certain things that really don't add up but in terms of testing we do not we are not planning widespread school-wide surveillance testing that would involve testing without parent input or knowledge there have been times when in the past where students have been in the nurse's office and parents and the nurse agree that they have coveted leg symptoms and there may be agreement to use the rapid test in that circumstance but we'll continue to make sure that parents are informed uh before any type of medical decisions are made anyone else mr armor can you please confirm that

014no student of pendelco will be questioned whether or not they have been vaccinated or not that would be correct thank you so uh last public comment i would have um as dr steinhoff said in his superintendent's report mask masks are required on school buses if you would like your student to ride the school bus they are required that is a state mandate that is not optional public transportation if you ride septa if you ride any type of bus that is a public form of transportation they are required they will be available on the bus but must be worn or the bus will not be allowed to be your form of transportation not optional there also as dr steinhoff had notated in our policy um our reopening health and safety plan um require requested recommended not

015required but if your child is wearing a mask they would not be forced to quarantine if they were around that is your choice and and us as all parents have that choice as well but that is a uh that is a change in the recommendation before if uh two kids were still masked had the um one and one came up positive then they both still had the quarantine now if a child is mass they are not considered so exposed that correct dr steinhoff if uh both students are masked they would not qualify as closed contacts as long as they were wearing the mask properly correct okay thank you anyone else all right number eight tonight is comments by members of public this is limited to agenda items only we have 15 minutes for it three

016minutes maximum per person please use the raised hand function in the chat box and we will allow you in doctor sign off the first individual with their hand raised is amanda scott okay miss scott has been brought on uh miss scott you're free to address the board please state your name and address for the board before your comment please my name is amanda scott i'm at 413 high grove lane i'm speaking to agenda item 9.15 i am the mother of three pendleco school district students only one of which is eligible for covid vaccination i'm also a career-long public health professional our district health and safety guidelines should be grounded in science and data and not politically charged our students and teachers want to be back in the classroom and they need you to act on

017their behalf to ensure a successful school year cdc pennsylvania department of health chops policy lab and the american academy of pediatrics all recommend universal indoor masking in schools regardless of vaccination status as well as a three feet physical distance thing they are advising school boards to make decisions based on local transmission and vaccination rates there is no one-size-fits-all mandate for the entire country garnet valley rose tree media springfield and haverford school districts have all adopted indoor masking mandates based on the current state of transmission they use the decisive term required in their safety and health plans versus our plan which uses a loose term recommended what separates us from these other local school districts other than geographical boundaries there's nothing in the water that would make a pendle student any less susceptible to disease transmission

018than a garnet valley student using the term recommended in our plan will lead to non-compliance conflict and unnecessary exposures as dr steinhof stated we had zero in-person cases of in-school transmission last year taking a less protective approach this fall fall would be foolish and risky in the draft safety and health plan the only exclusion criteria for contact tracing is if both the infected student and an exposed student wore masks if masks are recommended but not required we will have scores of students at home quarantining missing valuable in-person instruction because you do not have the courage to be decisive and mandate masking like so many other school leaders in our county i implore you to change this language as well as consider publishing the public dashboard again so we have transparency this school year thank you

019talk shout out the next individual with their hand raised is amy cousin miss cusin has come in as a panelist and she's welcome to address the school board please state your name and address for the board please thank you mr zevlie um my name is amy kuzen i live at 2160 arbor lane in aston the item i wanted to speak to tonight is 2.1 the approval of minutes i do want to thank the board for getting the agenda up so early today and all the materials that we could look things over before the meeting tonight my one question about the meeting minutes from last month the section at the end comments by members of the board it's a very brief mention of mrs essler's comments including the aasa school superintendents association the meeting minutes do

020don't really can't seem to capture some of the back and forth uh of mr signoff and mr armor sort of questioning mrs asler and then getting some clarification on what she was describing and whether or not dr steinov participated in that which he did not um that was the part of the video recording which was edited for some background sound is my understanding um something that was inappropriate to be recorded background in the meeting it's just very disheartening to see that that part of the meeting where there was some back and forth in the board which i think is important to have differing opinions um was left out of both the video recording for possibly for what i understand legitimate reasons but also here in the written record um it's just disheartening to see dr

021steinhoff um portrayed in a way which is not accurate when he seems to be doing a really good job so that was my concern thank you thank you the next individual with their hand rate is raised as mk mk you should be able to address the board at this time please state your name and address and proceed with your public comment mk are you there we do not hear you the next person with their hand raised is patriot arborist patriot arborist you're able to address the board please unmute your microphone there we go ladies and gentlemen of the school board of pendleco when i set out to raise a family in this country which is the united states of america i set out to raise my children can you state your name and address for

022the board oh i'm sorry it's michael j platt 4291 concord road aston pa 1914 ladies and gentlemen when i set out to raise a family in this country i set out to raise my children with the same inalienable rights that i was given by our constitution however until i was 18 years of age my parents were the sovereign power over my ultimate decisions regarding my house rules curfews who i was able to see who was a positive influence who was a bad crowd and ultimately the health decisions made for my body until i became an adult an adult has the power to choose his or her own route for their health in the united states of america however when a set of responsible adults have a child that unit called a family has the power

023to decide what is right and what is wrong in regards to how their child is to be protected from disease in this world not the state not the federal government not a non-regulatory commissioned vaccination company the centers for disease control okay and certainly not a school board if you expect parents to bend me and let you become the parent to our children then take all of our kids to your homes and raise them you have absolutely no authority dictated anywhere in any capacity in the judicial legislative or executive branch of our government system to impose rules that challenge the rules overseeing a parent and how they parent their children you've already overstepped boundaries that were never meant to be crossed with our children over the last year and a half do you understand why we

024are so upset read a little bit about marxism read how the goal of a communist society is to replace the family unit with that of the father figure as the government i have studied this extensively over my lifetime and i'm fearful that you don't understand that we the parents are into the game being played here this is the land of choices i will not let you stand between me and my choices for my child's health decisions no one should ever even have to address this in this country ever but here we are and remember i cannot nor would i ever replace my children but we can all replace you that's it thank you the next individual with their hand raised is that shower is now able to address the board please unlike yourself uh yes

025thank you very much uh first comment i would um like to address the fact about the um um yes i'm sorry joseph tyshall i'm an aston township resident on donnelly avenue since 1985. i i should have known to say that first i apologize uh my first comment is i'm very disappointed that the superintendent is kicking the can down the road on the dei he said he had comments and he wasn't going to put him in today i thought this purpose of this meeting was to continually address what happened at last month's meeting in addition i'd like to agree with the person who was just on a moment ago the cdc is not a governing body and also i would like to point out that mandates do not have the force of law so therefore they

026are not required they are to be followed guidelines are to be followed but they are not required um in addition we're talking about testing the kids to my understanding and i'm not sure what tests you guys are talking about specifically but it's my understanding the fda recalled a test that was the most uh used test for the past 18 months or what have you and so i'm just concerned about that finally masks our faces are our identity and when you mask children you are taking away their identity and their individuality if you look at the numbers in pennsylvania and everywhere else and again this whole thing with delta i'd like to know what test can determine which is delta and which is not but the point is masking these kids is a poor decision that

027will have repercussions on them for years to come earlier past year when i was walking cutting through sun valley northly what i saw was abhorrent i had saw groups of kids made to be standing up you know five six feet apart waiting for the bus and it looked like something out of a gestapo movie i'm sorry to say that but this is a constitutional republic and as such we the people are in charge not the department of health not the federal government not the school board this is up to the parents to make these decisions and i predict you're going to see a lot of people pulling their kids out of the school district and going to homeschooling and other means um and what else did i have oh and also i would like to

028comment again it's my last point on the video the youtube video from the last school board meeting that was scrubbed and had parts of it removed that were painting maybe the superintendent in a bad light not to keep referencing the crt dei but we know that this is a problem i understand it's not an agenda item tonight but when when you have a superintendent who says that's why i was told not to use words may i finish speaking sir there we go now you showed your true colors leon thank you i'm not going to have someone sit here and be right our superintendent on something that i chose to it's it's my choice my tax dollars that pay for that that's fine good you have a i chose to edit the meeting because of background

029noise that was inappropriate on our youtube channel and that's the answer for that question we have one more person with our hand raised and we'll be out of time and mr and mr armor and just for for the record all seven of us all seven board members they decided dr seinhoff had it on the agenda the seven school board members decided to pull the cares committee because we want to talk to it and more in collective so to dr steinhaus defense he didn't pull that we did we as an all seven of us pulled that because we want more information because we want to make sure it gets done correctly so added doctor signoff this defense quite frankly at war administration us as well as the committee members from the board want to have a

030little bit more further discussions and we thought we didn't want to rush and do it correctly and do it correctly once and for all so i just wanted to make sure that comment we can still have an extra um public comment mr armor i didn't want to yes no problem we have time for one more um could you please let kim speak as we already tried mk and uh we have time for one more so if we could go with kim mr zebly that'd be great kim you're welcome to address the board now just on mike your account please state your name adjust and the agenda item you're speaking about hi um my name is kim mccarthy um and i am inquiring about uh 9.21 involving the volleyball coach situation at sun valley and i

031would like to let it be known that we need a qualified coach and i would like the board to support the team and stand up for female athletes in the school district because it doesn't seem that we are getting what we need for these girls it's been a tough couple months and i just am asking for you guys to step up and do what's right and allow us to have people to come in and help it was being proposed as a coach to have these girls have a great season and that's pretty much it i mean we need somebody to lead the team they're a great group of girls and they're kind of falling behind because nobody has stepped up since the previous coaches resigned and i hope that you guys will take it seriously

032with the volleyball community and do what's right for our team this is ken carpenter i'm on the same voice thing here um i'd like to also say i feel that our athletic directors really dropped the ball on this one second um they have to unmute so can kim can you unmute so that kim you can continue to speak did you hear anything okay i can hear you now kim thank you go ahead nothing so far oh no no but we heard all yours there was suddenly another person speaking and i i don't the board didn't catch any of that all right um my name is ken carpenter um i'm also on this call obviously um i just want to say that uh i feel that our athletic director has really dropped the ball on us

033with us um things were worked out and then we were given the run around on all these coaching stuff and we've been trying to help we've been we've been given solutions and we've been ignored so and now we have unqualified coaches that are being proposed time and time again mr zeppelin mr board president uh asking you guys to help a comment is one excuse me ma'am public comment comes from one person at a time you had stated your name and address to conclude your public comment and then the board can determine whether they will take another public comment from the gentleman on the call he will need to state his name and address and make his comment i'm sorry done in an orderly fashion so the minutes can be kept thank you i apologize i

034didn't know this is my first time so uh ken carpenter 414 shoe brooklyn aston pa and i stand by my comment i just made was that was that all recorded was thank you all right and uh that's uh that's pretty much it all i have to say is i feel to our our our athletic director really let these girls down this year there's five seniors this year who are going to have a bad season because help is not being given and health is being denied by the athletic director so that's all i have to say about that thank you thank you all right we are at the point where we have come to the end of the 15-minute section that is part of our board by-laws um we will move on there will also be

035a public comments section at the end of the meeting 9.01 is the pdea collective bargaining agreement motion is to approve a collecting bar collective bargaining agreement between pendleto education association and the pendleton school district from july 1st 2021 through july 30th 2024. mr zebly can you please take roll call on this mrs denny yes this is ellis yes this is essler yes mrs jones yes this is pal yes mr tinsley yes mr armor yes ocean passes 7-0 thank you nine point sorry we're still in the if it was comments for that i was going to say before the vote i see her on there i know there's a bunch of teachers but um myself mr armor dr signoff um suzette lee i don't know if i said your last name is tyree um and nicole

036um or miss armbruster and uh and your staff we spent a lot of times off and on i think since the winner of 2019 then got tabled for a year for nine months so i just want to say thank you i was glad that we were able to get it um prior to 9-1 so um it's been a lot of time and and energy and i'm just i'm very helpful that and nicole you and your team and and all the teachers on this call we were able to get it resolved or conclude it thank you mr tinsley i would echo he's saying there's a lot of long hours and a lot of time spent by both sides on this situation so 9.0 or 9 continues um zero two on page two page three four five

037six and seven concludes on page seven with nine point zero four the reference of the pendulum budget 2021 2020 20 21 penducker budget 2122 act 93 plan pda agreement pd espa agreement pds spa agreement and the pa school code section 1108 b is the administrative recommendation to approve all personnel items as presented do i have this motion second questions or comments all those in favor aye aye motion passes [Music] so we're going to do a consent agenda tonight items 9.08 which is a student handbook and nine point two zero which is the pendulka cares committee charter have been tabled until next month uh we were in executive for two hours there are still questions that we need to go over for it did not want to put them off but we could not wait to

038get to the meeting any longer so we will reconvene between now and then and have them on next month's agenda so there's also in addition 9.21 which i'll read individually at the end so i need a motion for 9.05 i'm sorry does any member wish to have one pulled from in there i would i would like 9.08 clarified with mask and vote separately we have pulled 9.08 we're not voting on that lisa lisa you're muted i'm sorry covid health and safety plan i just wanted to make clear there our mask policy right now and i wanted to vote it on separately that's fine i'm sorry if i didn't make that there with all the numbers that's fine so 9.05 through 9.18 excluding 9.08 is what we are voting on so i need a motion to

039approve 9.05 through 9.18 excluding 9.08 do i have this motion second questions or comments please note that all approvals are up to the solicitation solicitor's approval do i have this mode or i'm sorry all those in favor hi hi opposed motion passes 9.19 is penducal school district coven 19 health and safety plan motion is to approve the updated covet 19 health and safety plan for the 2021-2022 school year as presented as ms sessler stated uh we are in the um suggested stage recommended but not required so i have this motion it's tim heft second questions or comments all those in favor aye aye opposed motion passes 9.21 there's a motion to permit the volleyball booster club to assist the varsity and jv coaches if the coaches welcome the assistants as with any volunteer situation all

040clearances are necessary and any other applicable laws apply do i have this motion that moved second questions or comments mr armor i um just want to point out that on this motion 921921 alone uh the administration does not support uh this recommended additional direct motion that's been added by the board uh nevertheless if it's approved uh we will administer the will of the board thank you thank you questions or comments all those in favor all right fine opposed motion passes leon uh mr armor can i just um iterate one thing i just want to make sure it's publicly i just want to make sure it's publicly known the only way for sun valley volleyball team to have a season this year was to approve the candidate that was on the agenda this evening so i

041wanted to be known out there to the public for our athletes that the board has approved this coach and we support her and want to help her moving forward we want to make sure that we support her and our team we would never let them down thank you number 10 as miss jones just commented any other comments by members of the board i'm sorry comments by members of the border last but does any board member have any other comments all right we're back to public comments this is limited to three minutes per person up to a half hour anyone who does not get to speak during this part of the public comments section is welcome to submit their statement to the board via email first individual with their hand raised is elena albaretto please state

042your name and address the board hi my name is elena albaretto i live at 62 colonial circle in aston pennsylvania i'm talking about you know masking in school and things like that i had a brief conversation yesterday with dr steinhoff and we talked about some things and we've been in touch about my children do have health issues and no i do not want to hear that okay you should keep your child at home because i've heard it from people my child should just my children should be able to go to school just like everyone else goes to school um i just wish the way we look right now in pennsylvania that we would um have some kind of thing in place with masking because i am worried that we are going to soon look like

043florida where i have family schools are closing with over 80 people in quarantine um i think that's ridiculous i don't think we should even try to be in that position but my kids will be going with math to school um also the two guys previous that were spoken to during um tonight's meeting that they thought that my bodies whatever that's their personal choice i accept it but they didn't have to go bashing masking because right now we need that form of protection um another thing i do want to address to the board so they know my son was at panel this summer for a um camp and i would talk to mr light and he helped me through the process but there was a teacher telling my son overall several times that he could take

044his mask off so i want to make sure that we let our teachers know if we're sending our kids in with masks they are to keep the mask on they are not to redirect and tell our children to take that mask off so um i hope again we will revisit this masking and you can understand my concern as a parent with two kids with respiratory illnesses and i know i have a lot of group of parents that feel the same way that i do thank you very much the next individual is c zap bonavita please state your name and address for the board hi my name is amberlyn bonavita i have a son coming into kindergarten and a daughter who is about to start sixth grade um can you state your address man oh i'm

045sorry 2400 weir road in austin um i'm inquiring about the masks being recommended and not required i echo the opinions of amanda and elena earlier in the meetings um masks are recommended for unvaccinated people in most establishments so why is a school any different ages 12 and under aren't able to even be vaccinated and a lot of parents are deciding not to vaccinate their children anyway so i'm just concerned with why isn't the health of our children our top priority the kids aren't even really worried about the masks as much as the parents are and it's not a personal attack on anyone's freedoms or anything it's just really a public safety issue and in the past week alone 18 of new cases of covid were children so it's going to lead to overwhelming our hospitals

046again mainly the children's hospitals and as of right now we're nowhere near hurt immunity because delaware county is only 56 vaccinated so i just wanted to voice my concerns as well about the the mask mandates thank you the next individual is professor edmund please state your name and address for the board uh my name is paul eggleston from 2881 penn coast avenue um i just wanted to say uh dr steinhoff i wanted to thank you for the opportunity that i had in pandelco it was uh i enjoyed my time there i enjoyed the people that i worked with and and i wanted to thank you for giving me the opportunity to work there um i wasn't going to get on to say anything but with one of the comments earlier i felt necessary to jump

047on and i wanted to speak for a moment in defense of mr rafferty as someone felt it necessary to attack him earlier um as someone who has worked with and for mr rafferty um i wanted to say i very much disagree that he has done a poor job i think he found many highly qualified coaches i think he's done an excellent job in his position and i think there are other circumstances that have driven a lot of qualified coaches out of your district that's all i have to say thank you very much the next individual with their hand raised is sufi please state your name and address for the board hello my name is sufi schaefer uh residing at 2350 clearview lien in aston and i'm wondering if um the administration will maintain the dashboard

048that we had all through the last school year so that we can monitor what whether there are any cases in the school how many are quarantining and whether or not there is any transmission in the school right now our plan is not to maintain a dashboard you know we certainly can revisit that part of that is because we no longer have access to the data that we are comfortable with with our alliance with chester county health department i think if we feel that we can get the data and have a level of fidelity to that um that enables us to report it you know with some accuracy we could take a look at that again but at the moment on the absence of our participation with the chess county health department takes away uh some

049resources that we had before you know i wish there was we didn't have this gap in time between the chest county health department and the delaware county health department you know starting up in the winter time but we're going to have to work our way through it and if we can find access to data that you know is informative for parents certainly we'll provide it but right now that is not our plan but certainly take your request under consideration and see if we can identify a way to get you know just more certainty on the data it seems really crucial in that i think everyone did a phenomenal job last year the mitigation factors distancing masking all of that led to zero transmission in our school which is phenomenal um and we all want kids

050to be able to be in school um so many really uh have trouble with the remote learning so um it would i think put a lot of it would put all of the controversy about masking away if we knew whether or not there was transmission going on in school and if we could know in real time or as close to real time as possible whether we needed further mitigation factors like requiring masks because there is transmission happening at school so it seems like it is pretty essential um to be able to react and keep everyone safe but i understand the issue if you don't have the data the next individual with their hand raised is nicole armbruster please state your name and address for the board nicole armbruster uh 4210 springhouse lien and president of

051pendleco ea i just wanted to thank the board tonight for approving the collective bargaining agreement and echo dr steinhoff mr armour and mr tinsley basically um thank you for everyone who is a part of the team uh for this long year we appreciate your efforts to balance the needs of the community and the staff as well as the additional time commitment thank you connection steel was being promoted as a panelist i believe he's next is that correct mr zedlin yes thank you please state your name and address for the board uh hello my name is rich deal 30 victoria drive in aston the point that i want to bring up today is also reference to the volleyball um i just want to express i'm disappointed in the process to the filing of the high school

052volleyball coaching position and the efforts made by the athletic director however with that said i support the new hire but i feel it's very essential that we provide that coach support and to get additional assistance for her i believe this would be the best situation for our players as well as the coaches for this school to have success and i just hope this is being taken seriously um because at the end it's about the kids and in a coveted world with everything that's happened already we need to support them especially our upperclassmen going into their final years this is important to them so it should be important everyone and we should get the support they need that's all the next individual is amy kusin uh thank you again mr zebly uh my name is amy

053kuzen aye billavon arberlin my question now is related to the lunch and breakfast pickup program that was last year the free meal program i know it's been extended at the federal level in pennsylvania's start i think it's a waiver process to enroll in that i was wondering if our district will be participating in that again for students living in our district i think it was really helpful to a lot of families in the community to make sure kids were getting free lunch at school and kids who were home younger siblings getting some healthy food to start the day and i know it really brought a lot of the community together in sharing meals when someone maybe had a little more than they needed passed it along it was really nice to see the community come

054together um facing that around the school district so i hope we are participating in that again i hadn't seen any information um one way or the other thank you the next individual with their hand raised is sarah constand please state your name and address for the board good evening my name is sarah constand and i reside at 15 hoga lane hoag in aston thank you for your time and effort you have shown regarding our district's health and safety guidelines that being said it is still disheartening to hear the board's inability to strongly support the research of health care and infectious disease professionals while many of us continue to support the importance of public health it is crucial that we protect our youngest population who as of this moment are unable to receive the covid19 vaccination

055looking forward please strongly reconsider your level of support for our entire community's health care thank you for your time the next individual is devin scarpedo please state your name and address for the board david if you could uh unmute yourself and begin to speak you'll find across the board hi my name is devin scarpedo i'm at 2515 duttmill road we recently just moved here i am a pandelka graduate kindergarten all the way through high school and i just wanted to say it's almost 10 o'clock and you guys are still up doing this and i really appreciate it um i was kind of looking forward to you guys saying that you were going to mandate masks um i was just curious if the teachers were are going to be required to wear masks um and that's

056really and i just want to say thank you for everything you do and i'm excited because my daughter is starting kindergarten this year so i'm super excited thank you the next individual is heather jordan uh miss jordan was promoted in as a panelist oh here we go please state your name and address for the board ms jordan if you're there we cannot hear you right now i'm just jordan my computer is a little slow tonight my name is heather hi sorry my computer's a little slow um my name's heather jordan i live at 29 woodbrook way i have two kids in the pendleco school district i wanted to say first i am a little disappointed with the non-mandating of masks just looking at all the case studies and everything that's going on right now i'm

057very disappointed that it's not being required um especially to protect our youngest kids because i have relatives in the district that are too young to be vaccinated and it's heartbreaking to see what my family's going through knowing that they may not be fully protected um but with that being said i do want to add i was questioning what in the world with the social distancing of three feet how is that going to make classroom sizes how is it going to affect that how will that affect lunches assemblies um my two other questions were if the the child is forced to go into asynchronous learning due to having to be quarantined will they be able to just jump right into asynchronous like last year is that even an option and then my third question was i

058wanted to clarify if one student is masked and one student is unmasked does that qualify as close contact or not i i did not hear at the beginning it kind of cut out if you could clarify that please thank you for your time uh while i uh look up the specific language that we have in our plan i'll let mr kaminka address the question regarding asynchronous learning so i think your question was specifically towards students who would have to quarantine for an x period of days um we would be able to assign asynchronous content yes i'm sorry that was a yes i'm sorry my computer cut out was that a yes yes yes so if you're referring to if a student is out for extended time due to any medical issue we could assign some

059asynchronous content uh that the student could complete independently while they're out so they would not have access to a teacher then it would simply be work that they do asynchronously that's correct so if the student needs help with work what do they do they can message the teacher and the teacher could uh respond and answer that over the phone with you or and the parent and the student depending on the age of the student or they could actually correspond via messaging through throughout school with you as well so when the physical uh distancing piece the plan that the board approved read schools where not everyone is fully vaccinated should implement physical distancing to the extent possible within their structures um schools should strive to maintain at least three feet of physical distancing between students and

060classrooms where the risk of transmission is reduced so um our facilities director has has been in the classroom we actually have measurements going way back when we first started to address covert and um you know the three feet number something that we're very comfortable with um again what the goal is to ensure that whenever students are in the building let's honor the spirit of physical businessing and try to have that distance to the degree that we can when you don't have that degree there's an expectation that there's increased mitigation efforts right um and that that could be barriers that could be on the expectation that people would be wearing mass but looking at the size of our classrooms we've been given some assurances that the three feet issue is not going to be a limitation

061to having people in school so thank you the next individual is april tapper that's one second mr zedley i saw april tapper on the screen i don't right now uh do you see april top on the screen i don't the next name now is lily egbert please state your name and address to the board and unmute yourself hi my name is ellie egbert and i live at 210 spring valley way in aston and i'm actually a current 12th grader at sun valley and i just really want to say that i do oppose the motion posed by the board to only recommend masks as i did spend my entire year list last year completely virtual in my room and it really did it stunk and i don't want the irresponsibility of other students who don't who

062are unvaccinated or go out and don't follow social distancing guidelines because most likely those are the people who aren't going to be wearing the mask in school and if i were to be near those people who don't partake in caring for their health and the health of others and i have to do asynchronous learning by myself in my room my last year of high school that really sucks and i'm pretty sure other people would agree and i do agree with the opinions of the other parents who spoke tonight voicing their support for the mask mandate i understand the concept of your body your choice but it is not the same as requiring students to get vaccinated as that is something that actually goes into their body masks have been proven to not inhibit a child's

063ability to breathe and if there is a medical reason for them to not wear a mask then they can obviously bring that up to the school as an individual basis but i thank all the teachers for all their help this year they did a wonderful job with the virtual learning and i would really appreciate it the board would try to reconsider their motion for the recommendation thank you we could try april topper again and april you're being promoted as a panelist thank you lily for your comments you'll be back to an attendee for april if you can unmute yourself and state your name and address for the board miss tapper you're still uh muted if you could unmute okay we're gonna uh presume that miss um tapper is still having some technical difficulties we'll move

064her back to attendee troy strickland is the next name mr strickland's being promoted to a panelist unmute yourself and state your name and address for the board i'm mr strickland if you could unmute yourself and you have the opportunity to speak to the board oh okay he's coming through now don't see him now mr zebly we lost him do you like to move on sure uh maeve lichtenstein is the next name maeve you have the ability to speak to the board just on yourself thank you hi there uh my name is laura lee lichtenstein mabe's mom i'm joining on her ipad i reside at 115 vin smith avenue um dr steinhoff i sent you an email i am mom to me who is immunocompromised and was not until coveted um she had an extreme inflammatory

065uh reaction to kovid called miss c which occurs weeks later um and i was really hoping and praying that you guys would make the right decision around masking it's super disheartening and i do hope that you'll reconsider but i do want to know what is it is have you discussed what the threshold is that will make you reconsider when you will revisit this is is it only a governor mandate will numbers impact that what can change your mind i would say as as the situation evolves we will keep an eye on it and address accordingly thank you do anyone else put their hand up uh anthony kalis all right this will be the last one anthony you can unmute yourself and state your name and address for the board you are still on me anthony

066at this time we have you as a participant able to speak to the board but we need you to unmute your account okay okay hi sorry um can you guys hear me yeah uh anthony police 2390 clearview lane um i know i'm at the center here but i would just like to say that i am in support of the school board's decision uh for the recommendation of masking as it is in accordance with cdc and the pennsylvania department of health and every i realize that other school districts have gone a step beyond that that doesn't mean that we have to um i think it's a reasonable approach and it's mods for as things go on and that's all i got to say thank you all right at that time we've come to the conclusion of

067public comments section of the meeting uh number 11 is comments by members of the board i'd like to say thank you to the fellow board members we did uh go zoom tonight i would much rather have been in person however i am out of town and did not want to miss the meeting uh as well as with the large uh group of people interested in tonight's meeting we wouldn't have been able to fit everybody into our current boardroom thank you everyone leon i have a comment if you don't mind it'll just take a minute i know it's late um i just want to thank the board for uh tabling the cares committee charter um i don't think we can go into this blindly and um i want to point out a couple of things because

068i'm the researcher i've been looking at this stuff for a while now and the resources that we're using right now i think the board really needs to look at them um i'm going to just give you a couple examples and i appreciate if anyone has any comments that they would make them when i'm done i want to point out some of the words they use and pictures they use in these organizations and i want to ask a question does the board want to align themselves with the district with material from these organizations so let me go on and say these are some of the things they say creating social justice activists white dominant white superiority social justice social change culture of oppression building race equality dismantling white privilege dismantling racism and building racial justice in

069institutions police brutality and i'm going to say one last thing there's a picture on the ptl national website it shows the capital it shows a platform with the noose it was photoshopped and it shows a picture of a person standing in front of it with a trump sign wrapped around them so i hope that everybody does their homework with these organizations and the resources that we're using and we actually have a chance to discuss this in person because as of yet we haven't and i think it's going to be healthy necessarily dropped out for i'd say the last 30 seconds that's right try to speak now i'm assassinated you dropped out about the last 30 seconds okay i just want to say i don't know if you caught the last of it but i was

070talking about the police brutality and about the picture i don't know if you got that or not but there's a picture on the national ptl that is the capital it has a platform with the noose it has a man in front of it in front of it with the trump site wrapped around them this is on the ptl national website it was photoshopped and it's disgraceful and there's other ones too so what i'm trying to get across to the board is do your homework we need to talk in person this is very important and i'm going to appreciate the time with the board talking about these things and maybe reviewing some of the information thank you miss us sir any other comments by members of the board mr armor i want to just address that

071one of the public speakers earlier indicated that the quote athletic director dropped the ball and he has let the girls down this year and i just want the record to reflect the fact that while we've heard that opinion the superintendent knows a thing or two about what the administrators do and mr rafferty is an exceptionally hard-working and dedicated athletic director uh the people who are with him know that uh the students know it um he works around the clock to put together the best sport programs that he could put together i think the process that he was asked to follow this summer being atypical from the process we ordinarily use has slowed down his ability to fill coaching positions but he has absolutely done everything that he could do to make sure that the girls

072could have a season and that the volleyball team could start one time so i just want the record to reflect that uh superintendent has the utmost respect for our athletic director and i disagree that he dropped the ball or he let the girls down if there's any issues that should be put on me um but certainly not on our athletic director who i think does everything that he can to improve the sports programs for the kids at sun valley thank you dr steinhoff just to comment on that it is correct though that our sun valley volleyball team you has have mentioned you had stated that we would not have a season if we did not hire that coach tonight correct we were down to one qualified candidate just i simply asked if that was correct

073the athletic director was i i appreciated the fact that he was working very hard to find a candidate with a season starting in four days so i'm happy that we have one qualified candidate who is willing to coach i'm happy that the girls are going to have a season at this point in time but i think it's an opportunity for us as a board to reflect upon the hiring scenarios how we got here what slowed the process down and whether maybe we should go back to the processes that procedures that were used in previous summers where we didn't have this issue let it be known that i asked the question correct or incorrect dr steinhack the volleyball team was not going to have a season if we did not approve that coach tonight correct oh

074that's absolutely correct it's sad that we were at a place with just a couple days left um i mean we had numerous interviews um and i i think it's telling that we got to this place for this sport given the involvement but i am pleased and i appreciate that the fact that the board approved the recommended candidate she's going to do a fantastic job i'm going to put the focus back on the girls where it needs to be and we're going to have a great season so i'm really looking forward to that so maybe we need to change this process so we are not in this type of situation moving forward and let it be known that the sun valley volleyball parents have been working eagerly to try and get help to our girls our

075players with well-qualified coaches who could come in there and support this new hired young lady in her position we want her to succeed and we want our sun valley volleyball team and girls to succeed so girls we are here for you and we're here for the new coach thank you all right any other comments by members of the board all right next meeting is our study session september 15th at the service center uh and our business meeting september 22nd at the service center at 7 30. motion for germany second nice good night