001[Music] misters every row call please this is denny this is ellis here miss destler yeah miss hilferty this is jones here this is powell here mr season here mr tinsley here mr here 2.01 is our approval of minutes motion is to prove the minutes of the regular meeting of june 23rd 2021. questions or comments all those in favor proposed motion passes 2.02 is the invoice listing motion is to approve the invoice listing for june through july of 2021 questions or comments all those in favor all right post quotient pages pal treasury excuse me treasurer's report as of may 31st 2021 10 delco's balance was 34 million 310 04.84 during june 2021 local state federal revenues killed six million three hundred twelve thousand ninety three dismissed disbursements were issued in the amount of eight million three
002hundred ninety two thousand four o five as of june thirtieth twenty twenty one pendle boost current balance is 32 230 0 172. the motion is to approve the treasury report for june 2021. do i have this motion questions those in favor aye opposed motion passes number three is the dciu report mrs powell delaware county will be ending its contract with the chester county health department effective july 31st 2021 therefore delaware county will now be back with the pennsylvania department of health department of career and technical education survey class of 2020 graduates the year after program completion in may june pennsylvania's career and technical education cte programs are required to survey former students who graduated the previous year this survey asked questions about the employment and or post-secondary education status of the graduates generally about half
003of the students in pennsylvania who completed cte program the previous year respond to the survey below some some of the key components 2 out of 254 responses 60 include either full-time or part-time 57 of graduates who were employed are working in areas related to the dcts program 48 attending attending a post-secondary education program 57 percent of graduates in post-secondary education program are in a related program to their dcts program six percent of those graduates indicated unemployed and not attending a post-secondary education program also as of now dciu was awarded the head star early head start grant for five years june 30th 21 through june 29 2026. that's it number four on tonight's agenda is a superintendent thank you mr armor uh good evening everyone here tonight for our july meeting of the pendleco board of
004school directors our district has really been enjoying a pleasant and productive summer in our buildings with summer programs going very well i have nothing but positive reports from the schools and the classrooms that are serving some of our students who attend for summer program i want to especially thank our staff who have volunteered to work during the summer to make sure that our students receive the help and the support that they need during summer months these are people who are making a very positive difference in the academic growth of our students the significant renovation work that was planned at the high school continues at pace if you have gone by the high school you see that that renovation is moving forward at very sharp pace if you pass by the high school you may have
005noticed the new repairs to our exterior a complete new window replacement project where windows have been replaced and the current front paving project that is occurring as well inside the total and complete renovation of our athletic locker and team rooms is also occurring as planned this school is looking very sharp and it will have a terrific exterior appearance to finally match the great things that are happening inside at times i use the superintendent's report as an opportunity to clarify some questions of residents who have reached out to the school board on various topics with tax bills having been sent out this month some residents have had questions inquiring why their taxes were raised by amounts higher than they had come to expect in the last few years as we know this tax season was the
006first in which our calculations were based on the updated home values following the county reassessment the county reassessment ultimately resulted in a half million dollar shift from commercial properties to residential taxes collectively our residents really assumed an additional five hundred thousand dollars in taxes as a result of that shift residential taxes now account for 85 percent of our district's local tax revenue up from 84 we have 10 264 residential four wheels and 386 commercial or industrial folios in our district 5835 residential properties faced tax increases as a result of reassessment about 4 418 of them enjoyed a decrease in their taxes as a result of the reassessment there were 147 properties that saw a decrease of more than 1 500 in their tax bills 36 properties had an increase of more than that amount so
007some residents seeing such large increases for the first time assumed that that was due to pandelco district taxes however our taxes would have accounted for no more than 3.2 percent increase this year any other increase in excess of that was due to the reassessment so i received a letter from a resident saying why did my taxes go up by 30 i can understand that it's nice for this gentleman to send me the letter and i have to explain of that 30 percent only a tenth of it was due to school district taxes despite those tax increases uh we still have the fourth lowest average property tax bill in delaware county and certainly by far of those of those districts that surround us as a result of the low taxes our district has the second lowest
008per-pupil revenue in the county and for that reason i thank the school board for continuing to craft the budget that helps us maintain the revenue that we need to properly fund our schools so that our students feel no difference in the educational program compared to their other peers residents with questions about the reassessment you should contact the delaware county board of assessment and they should do that certainly by august 1st of this year today i distributed to the school board for the first time a draft copy of the pendleco cares committee charter for their feedback a further select group of some students staff and some community members will also be asked for their input the draft reflects the directives to bring back to the board of committee charter so that the important work of the
009carers committee can start once it's approved i anticipate having any necessary revisions completed quickly so that the board can vote on that charter in late august potentially ahead of the start of school the committee will not be breaking new ground and they will be able to follow the lead of institutions like the dciu delaware county intermediate unit through their center for equity offers a collection of equity resources that could be useful to county school districts it can be reassuring that with the delaware county intermediate unit representing all of the districts throughout the county those resources are well vetted for our consideration and nonpartisan use finally with our students returning to school in less than seven weeks i want to note that our health and safety plan for the next school year remains aligned with the
010cdc and the pennsylvania department of health guidance for the reopening of schools at this time based on that guidance masks are recommended for use by unvaccinated individuals in the schools staff and students but not required if that public health guidance changes our plans may change as well but as of today pandoca will continue to support and reiterate the cdc stance on masks that they are recommended but not required we expect to be open for five days of in-person instruction we will continue any other necessary mitigation measures that will keep our staff and students healthy and safe any student or staff member who chooses to wear a mask is welcome to do so especially as they have been an effective way to stop the spread of cloven 19 in our schools this past year masks are
011only required at this time on buses since buses have been deemed to qualify as a form of public transportation that currently requires members although we have every intention to be back to school when it fasted much closer to normal and we're very much looking forward to that we do have to have backup plans in place so the school board is being asked to approve again this year our emergency instructional time resolution in the event hopefully in the unlikely event that regional coveted conditions deteriorate in the future and districts are faced with confronting another widespread outbreak let's hope that that is not the case but we will be prepared with a backup plan uh in the same way that we did last year you know i was just so impressed with what our staff accomplished last
012year with what our parents accomplished last year and what our students accomplished navigating through the year of learning during coding and nationally there's some catastrophization where people are talking about how kids are so far behind and it's terrible when they come back to school oh my gosh they're going to be years behind and i don't believe that's the case in pendleto you know our kids did work our teachers were around our parents our god parents made so many sacrifices to make sure that their kids were online when they had to be online to help teach them and there wasn't anybody there to teach for them and as a community we should be proud of what was accomplished during that period of time there are districts near us that never opened and you know they had
013their own challenges we were able to confront those challenges and make sure that our kids didn't fall behind they will be ready for life if we're given an opportunity to do the job that we have and i'm very proud of what parents students and staff accomplished last year hopefully i don't go through that again but i have a lot of confidence that they made the best out of a very bad situation most of them never worked hard and most parents will agree the same those parents never had a harder time parenting than they did during a pandemic keeping the kids going and doing as well as they did so again you know with the region having much higher vaccination rates uh than other parts of the county that are facing some upticks i am optimistic
014that we will have a really good positive school year ahead thank you thank dark style announcements for the public tomorrow in the coordinates of act 48 the sunshine mall board met executive session to discuss personnel and litigation matters number six comments by membership all right number seven items for board information this time i'd like to call miss heart rooster up to uh she has a few words to say she's the president of our teacher's association our community achieved something wonderful this year devoted parents upended their worlds to provide safe places for their children to learn loyal relatives friends and neighbors stepped up to babysit provide emotional support for each other even deliver meals many of which were prepared by our food services staff steadfast administrators planned for opening day after opening day found ways to
015implement every new recommendation from the department of health and continue to complete all of their typical duties including supporting staff and students and all that we need our board approved policies to keep everyone healthy and purchases to keep students connected and educated hardworking students showed up ready to learn flexible intelligent teachers demonstrated dedication to our students and our profession we learned and implemented new tech tools best practices for teaching virtually health and safety protocols and more so we could cover standards in entirely new ways while keeping students physically and emotionally safe we repeatedly adapted to changes in instructional delivery and building procedures as our model changed from virtual to hybrid to fully in person our wonderful support staff was with us every step of the way as we look forward excitedly to a new school
016year we value a relationship of mutual respect where residents of astin brookhaven and parkside and the employees of the school district can thrive as one penndoco proud community thank you thank you number eight is comments by members of the public this session is listed listed in 15 minutes on agenda items only if it is not an agenda item it has to wait till the last of the last session of the meeting please state your name address and keep your comment in less than three minutes out of respect from hello hello my name is heather clavonia that at 14 colony hill circle good evening i want to thank the board members and the parents for being here tonight supporting our district and our children tonight i am here as a parent who is greatly concerned about
017things discussed during our last meeting things that are happening in our classrooms not in some far away district this has to include is it for a specific agenda item yeah it's for comments so the first one is limited to only agenda items and then we have a second one at the end it's 30 minutes it's just part of our bylaws we have to go by in the uh okay i apologize but if anyone this section of the meeting is to talk about if you have something to talk about that's on the agenda for us to vote on tonight and then we at the end of the meeting we have 30 minutes okay my apologies does anyone have any comments about agenda item situations anything that's all new jen okay do you have any questions so
018my name is christina nolan um i live at um 532 west portland road um and so i guess what i would like to um know is if there's any further explanation about like the significance of that dcid report and the like partnering that they were that she was talking about sure so the dciu report um as a district that is involved with the dciu mrs powell sits on their board up there every district has someone that sits there so we have now asked ms powell to report back to us how things are going what our participation is tonight she gave us you know how kids that are graduating from that part are they using it the district spends a lot of money sending our kids up there and we'd like to know what we get
019out of that and back to it so you know only six percent that go to the dciu and gradually don't use that in some form after the high school level so it's just a report on how things are going with the teachers or how many kids we have up there we added it back we didn't have it during covey because they were all shut down and kids really didn't get a chance to go up there okay thank you i have a question is the pendelco cares gig part of the agenda you did not because you spoke about it so we're going to start with on page two item number nine goes to page three four and ends off page five references the penducal budget 2021 conductor budget for the act 93 plan pdea agreement pde
020spa agreement pds spa agreement the pa school code 1108 b is the administrative recommendation to approve all personnel items as presented questions or comments all those in favor opposed motion tests board will utilize the consent agenda for items number nine point zero three through nine point one six any board member that would wish to pull any to vote individually with that i need a motion to approve 9.03 through 9.16 please note all contracts preparation solicitation of bids are subject to the review and approval of our semester we'll add this function questions or comments well there's a favor opposed motion passes number 10 is comments by members of the public once again this is limited to three to three minutes per person and it's a half hour so again all comments come from encoding and please
021state your name and address okay hi i'm heather for bundy i'm from 14th colonial circle tonight i am here as a parent who's greatly concerned about things discussed during our last meeting things that are happening in our classrooms not in some far away district but here in our classrooms at penn delka i am concerned of what will happen in the future or what may have already started that us parents are not aware of last meeting our board heard discussions of inappropriate assignments that were given signs being hung in classrooms and even inappropriate attire being worn by staff but what concerned me the most was to hear that inappropriate conversations are being facilitated by staff who then instruct our children that they cannot share what is being discussed with us their parents this breaks our trust
022parents are not the only ones concerned there are students and teachers who do feel uncomfortable and feel the shift from academics to activism that is happening in our district this board has heard these concerns before so i will not continue to repeating them i am just here to say the stereotyping of our children needs to stop it is the school's responsibility to equally identify students who are falling behind not based on color the color of their skin or whether they come from rich report but on their actual academic struggles the school has every right to reach out to parents of students struggling and support them however they need but in the end each student who enters a school comes from a different family with a with different beliefs i'm sorry and um and different parenting
023styles there are just some issues that cannot be fixed by the school limb if we are honest true support and change only come to fruition with parent buy-in and commitment and parent buying and commitment is not something based on raising income this board was elected to oversee the district because we have trust in their decisions we are not here to bash the board most of us parents have chosen to raise our families in calde in pendleca because of the school district's reputation but over the last year things are changing we are counting on you the board to not follow the movements and to stand up for us and our children there is no place in our school for those who are overstepping their mission and educating our children led by their own personal opinions and
024personal beliefs it's just not right lastly i know the superintendent was awarded and received a certification from the national superintendents association after the latest board meeting i looked into the program and certification and there was a final capstone project the capstone project is a practitioner-oriented project that will challenge participants to use their knowledge gained during the certification program current expertise and work experience to analyze a real-time district issue that requires intervention participants will develop and implement an action plan to address the issue in a comprehensive and lasting way i have three questions for the boardroom we're done what was our school dish was our school district used for this and has been in place and where can we specifically question the name thank hi my name is cindy tibbetts i live at 36 dalby lane
025in aston i'm concerned about what will be taught in our schools teachers deny they will be teaching crt but i've been doing research on the national superintendents association aasa the program leading for equity is on podcast and video what i've listened to is disturbing and inappropriate for public education these are training sessions for teachers and our superintendent has already had certification in the course it is called re-imaging education 2025. here are some highlights from the speakers that caught my attention superintendent loubelle brown on the podcast he states we have been an organization that has perpetrated a white supremacy culture we are no longer on an academic journey we are beyond what horrendous things happen today we are going to talk about a journey that is an authentic one one that includes laboratories in our school
026districts laboratories for social change we will shift our teaching practices starting at the elementary level all policies should be evaluated meals code of conduct field trips special ed and athletics this should not be based on grades he lists characteristics of white supremacy culture he challenges teachers if you want to address racism you have to call it what it is white supremacy second speaker lilly talcott she talks about single tracking math because all whites and asians were in higher math classes and black children were in lower classes single tracking was more equal and fair she goes on to say they have grown this initiative from having conversations about blm to shift how they incorporate black history and critical race theory notice that she actually says on the podcast critical race theory she states it by name
027third speaker david patak she spoke about centering black voices and re-socializing white folks three things john bell one acknowledge the purpose of white supremacy two create space for student power deconstruct policy grading testing course offering and discipline affinity group and infusion week finding common space and guiding white folk to do the work the white group explores their white privilege this video is just one of many the aasa is promoting i recommend the school board directors if you have not seen it please watch it i also recommend that these videos become available for community and parents to view so they can see what's going on in the schools this is not education there needs to be total transparency on what is happening i thank you [Applause] my name is colleen bruder i live at 165 judy
028way in aspen so um i want to talk about uh to be back off of what the speaker before me said transparency um you know you can rebrand it however you want critical race theory white supremacy whatever it's all the same concept so how can we be sure as parents what is being presented to our children in the classroom our children spend seven to eight hours a day in a class every day to get an education this time should not be used to influence them on a political narrative that's being spread across the country parents have a right to know what is being said to their kids in the classroom and classrooms doors are closed one of the fifth grade classes in pandoco actually has a sign with rules that includes what's what is said
029here states here you can spend that any way you want to try and justify it but it is not appropriate for any classroom let alone a fifth grade would you ever let your 10 year old child go to somebody's house with a rule that said what happens here stays here completely inappropriate we have cameras in daycare doggy daycare buses our law enforcement have cameras on them why would it be so unreasonable to have cameras in the classroom or to have a recording for parents to view through schoology or some other means just so we can be aware of what's being presented to our children and what resources are being used to educate our children we just had a year zoom for students the board meetings were available through through zoom you know we always talk
030about certain children who fall behind in certain groups wouldn't the speedway wouldn't this be a good way to encourage parent involvement so that way they can review the material that's being taught taught in the classroom as well as bring transparency it was stated in the last board meeting that schools have been given unconditional trust well that trust is being broken educators have used the privilege of teaching our kids we trust these educators to do right by our kids and that trust is being broken they are teaching and bringing their personal views and political narrative into the classroom this is not what public education should be about so it's up to you the board to restore our trust in the pendleto school district you took time last year or the last meeting to support who you
031thought was the best candidate for the football team because you have the community support so please have the courage to do what is right for our children courage is contagious especially when it comes to children [Music] [Applause] good evening um my name is caden bart i live at 610 cambridge road in brookhaven i stand before you as a concerned taxpayer constituent alumni former president of national honor society most importantly i'm a brother to a girl its entry in fifth grade at coburn and the push for this new national agenda in schools that we are seeing being worked into our district it scares the crap out of me my sister should be concerned about playing her roblox making friends and learning the basic fundamentals of education not that why sorry not gender identities not her race
032this stuff is not for elementary school kids my sister should not have to accept her own whiteness and understand her own white privilege at nine or ten years old going back after that video that was surfacing around with the national superintendent association assuming necessary for their next push in education uh it's not on the school district to teach kids morals and things that should go back on their religion um it comes back to the parent that's on the parent to teach them you teach them subjects you don't teach them to think back on or how does this assignment make you reflect on your own religion or your own race and that did happen in this district in eighth grade this new curriculum is at its core races and it's important that we're even considering bringing
033it here you should never ever ever separate kids in the boxes based on anything other than their academic uh level uh in school race should not matter it doesn't matter in the real world it shouldn't matter here and the only people that talk about it are racist whether you're awoke or if you're a racist that's the only time it doesn't matter i know firsthand that if this curriculum must pass and we do go through stuff like this people will leave i do know people are already leaving the district and everybody i've talked to says they're out as well i'm a third generation vanguard my grandparents medicine valley and that was something i kept very proud of myself i loved it but stuff like this past my kids will not be going here um sorry as
034a recent graduate i can tell you firsthand that activism uh does exist in teachers it's a little uncomfortable because someone's never standing here today but it does happen um you know i was one of the few out conservative kids teachers tried to challenge me on stuff and it never went through i even went through um to create a club called the young republicans clubs they used to exist in the 90s and i thought it was a nice place you know conservatives on now on college champions i see it all time even in high school that you know we're kind of you know we're got the short end of the stick there so it's a good place for kids you know like mine to come together just to talk well came to administration they came back
035and said why don't we do the young americans club it's much more inclusive this is a great idea now we can bring in other people and we can bounce ideas off of each other that maybe this is voluntary not coming from the curriculum this would be a place for people to really come together discuss things that really you wouldn't get especially the other side um when i advertised this club it was met with a lot of pushback my flyers were taken down and nothing was done about it the only reason i talk about this is because we talk about not being inclusive enough so how come my conservative use not be inclusive enough we can have teachers become activists in the classroom putting up posters wearing shirts things that should never ever enter a classroom
036i shouldn't know the political affiliation of a teacher i should definitely not be pushed to feel that same way all right thank you very much my name is melissa labrie i live at 101 greenbrier place in aston today i want to thank the school board for supporting the creation of the diversity equity and inclusion task force not a curriculum by adopting this resolution at two separate board meetings over the past year several incidents have exposed the need for the adults in this district to communicate about these issues supporting critical thinkers will truly be ready for life that is what a democracy is which is what public education promotes and what the code of conduct for this board demands at last month's board meeting many parents spoke about their concerns board members responded to these complaints
037in a way that we all expect the school board to respond with acknowledgement and empathy and as i observed comments by members of the board i thought wouldn't it be nice to be a parent who feels heard and supported by their children's school board because that's not how i feel and it's not how many people involved in this board's care field especially our teachers we have witnessed parents and students address this board with concerns about bullying with no consequence we have listened to collected testimony of children being targets because of their race and being deemed as other the teachers have asked for a solution through forming a task force to address these issues unfortunately the response from the sport does not always demonstrate compassion in fact some board members have pushed back ignoring other people's
038experiences because they are not their experiences when school board members only choose to respond and acknowledge concerns that are in alignment with their personal beliefs then that sends a message to others that their experience is not valid and that they are not supported worse when we move to censor student reports about their experiences or teachers addressing real life issues that do affect the humans in their classrooms we send a message that our culture within pandelfo school district accepts only the needs of some as i watched the parents speak last week i understood their emotions no parent wants their child to be othered no parent wants their child to feel guilt or shame for who they are it is okay however to acknowledge that other people do have different perspectives and experiences and then is on
039the district to self-evaluate and act to improve not to attack our teachers work too hard and their emotional health is too important to treat them like the enemy their working conditions are our children's learning conditions disrespect is contagious but so is trust and empathy how the board responds and takes responsibility for its representative duty reflects the type of schools we will have students learn from teachers who take guidance and direction from administrators who act on the policy this board sets one policy this board has set is to move forward with a task force that helps teachers make improvements around diversity equity and inclusion which are all tenants of the pennsylvania school board association the u.s and state constitutions and this district's code of conduct let's invest in these efforts and stand by our commitments thank
040you [Applause] hi um i'm brooke sullivan i live at 3701 mount road um diversity equity and inclusion well that's what it was called now it's called pandelco cares because we were sneaky about it right first of all i'm not going to listen to this don't call it diversity this is this was on the february board meeting do not call it diversity equity inclusion call it pendleton cares that sounds better to people but dei teaches that white people oppress people of color that heterosexuals oppress homosexuals and that america was founded on racism you can say it's not critical race theory but it's the exact same thing that critical race theory teaches um it's unacceptable to foster revised history and politics onto our children it's an abuse of power first of all because when an activist posing
041as a teacher tells our children police kill black people um that child knows that he doesn't have the power or authority to do anything or say anything but to do or say exactly what that teacher has has indicated that she wants agreement on which brings me to what's said in here stays in here first of all i don't know how many of you have been in vegas but there's a reason that what happens in vegas stays in vegas it's because it's not good you know you don't want anybody to know what's going on to me this is abhorrent it's an activist it's complete activism and we can't have that foisted on our children political statements on shirts signs posters flags they don't belong in our schools and do we know how many rainbow flags there
042are hanging in our schools because i can tell you one thing the rainbow flag represents lgbtqia plus and god i don't know it'll probably add to that but what it doesn't include is cisgender straight people so in your um you know desperate act to act inclusive you're actually excluding a whole lot of kids and these kids see these flags and they see all the love and joy poured onto people you know of a certain demographic or a certain lifestyle or a certain certain preference and we have a teacher who said that he had several students come out to him as lgbtqia nine-year-olds nine-year-olds several is more than two and um i don't know there's no more than 24 kids in a class right so we're looking at three times the national average so either there's
043some inappropriate conversations going on and children being led to believe that this is what will get them affirmed or somebody needs to come and do a massive pollution search on this area because we have a poisonous anomaly we have three times as many um as many lgbtqia plus people in one classroom than the nation does on average that kind of sounds suspect to me so something is going on here it's either physical or it's social conditioning one or the other um i i just i can't i mean i can't send my kids back i pulled them out last year because of this and here we are you know and i just i don't even know my children are not going to play a pronoun game there's a definition to pronouns do any of you have
044an english degree because you know i mean most of us went through some basic english and we know what the pronouns are what aren't pronouns we know what nouns are we know what these things are um i i'm just and i'm really surprised that nobody batted and i at the whole you know so many students coming out they're nine thank you much for your comment we won't [Music] hi judy saunders 62 east cheltenham road in parkside i don't have a prepared speech so i'm gonna wing it um i'd like to tell you a story i have two children who then came through penn delta school district gifted program national honor society president um laundromat literacy great kids you guys are responsible for that not just you the teachers and me and the community and that's
045great my oldest went to hofstra top of class and i'm a big fan of the workers movement it's one of the things near and dear to my heart mother jones is one of my favorite people in the world and my daughter at hofstra which we're paying fifty six thousand dollars a year for said no that's born out of like it was a really racist development it came out of these really dark places here's some books you should read and i said oh my god i clutched my pearls how dare you take on this religion of mine that i have come to love and adore i mean she's right up there with dietrich bonhammer she is a hero of mine and she sends me books and she was right it's unfortunate that i was just reading
046what i wanted to hear i was just reading what made my thing comfortable to me it glorified it it mythologized it it wasn't its actuality and it wasn't its reality and i pushed back i understand the need to push back i literally did i snapped at my kid i said you know bernie madoff's signs are still on your building that come on and she was right she literally was right she taught me something and the reason she was able to think in that broader concept into taking a lot of information and digesting it and becoming what she became which is an amazing child is that she had your backing to be an activist to be an ally to be an advocate my husband wrote a letter my husband is a wonderful human day he advocated
047through the knights of columbus which is a religious organization for the mainstreaming of special needs children during a time when rooms were full of people who didn't want those children next to their children who protested it we're reinventing the wheel reading writing arithmetic we're going to make all the other kids dumber and it didn't this man just stood at the end of the finish line and hugged special needs kids as they crossed the line now we have those kids in our school doing beautifully we have our children understanding empathy because those are their peers there were people just like you in crowded rooms screaming about those people coming in just like there were people 40 years ago screaming without black kids being taught next to white kids we have to let our kids be better
048than this we need to let them move forward times change teaching history teaching them truths is not going to hurt them i think they're smart enough to ingest this and come out on the other side better than us and that's our job that they're better than us at the end of the day thank you hi my name is kayla valley i live at 103 east shelton road i wanted to come tonight to give support for our teachers we have two autistic sons both have been a part of autistic support in multiple disability classrooms we are so thankful for every teacher and support staff who have worked with them over the years students who attend elementary schools at house the districts autism and mds classrooms have already been given a huge advantage from a young age
049these students have had an important opportunity to be a part of a disability positive environment that embraces diversity equity and inclusion they are learning firsthand yes some people are different but they are still worthy of acceptance and belonging like everyone else these children have struggles and successes and they might look a lot different than yours but it makes them more aware more compassionate more helpful adults who are better prepared to navigate the world diversity equity tolerance acceptance and inclusion are not bad or dirty words they're not marxism i know there are people who want to use these words to make you afraid but it's merely a distraction inclusion is not indoctrination it benefits everyone it is vital and healthy for a well-rounded citizen and community it concerns me we hear people make complaints about our
050teachers being allies or advocates to hear people complain about diversity or inclusion in our schools every teacher is an ally and an advocate to every student in their class it is their job to make sure all kids feel included and accepted there are students whose needs struggles backgrounds perspectives may be different than the majority but they are still all worthy of a safe environment where they feel seen heard where they are accepted and they feel like they belong the only thing we lose when we embrace equity inclusion and diversity is ignorance these attitudes are going to create a hostile work environment making it even harder for teachers to do their job as if it was not already hard enough my fear is that this will directly result in our district losing many good teachers this
051is already a mostly thankless job and now there are people advocating to keep them under surveillance and outing them to be reprimanded or fired our teachers deserve our support i do not think that we should be making looking for new ways to make their job impossible if these attitudes continue please do not be upset to see resignation letters turned in do not complain when your child's favorite teacher leaves the district do not be hurt to hear new teachers do not want to work in our district do not be surprised when there is a teacher shortage don't be surprised by any of these consequences expect them thank you [Applause] [Music] i'm souffy schaefer 2350 clearly lane i am sure glad that no one's actually considering or recommending uh including critical race theory and a k-12 uh
052curriculum i my comment is about the board getting involved in operational level decisions in april the board rejected a uh rejected the recommended candidate for the football coach that candidate was selected by the administration recommended through a competitive selection process which adheres to all of the equal opportunity standards and the board i'm sure was motivated because they really want to improve our football that motivated strictly by improving our football program i really want you to consider what the full impacts of these types of decisions are when the board reaches down and makes operational level decisions about hiring there are unintended consequences number one the student body is well aware that this that coach ellis was not selected by the administration student value is well aware that the teachers the athletic director and the and dr
053seinhoff could do nothing about getting their recommended candidate the job that this was selected hand selected by the board and when you do that it creates a perception within within the student body that that person is untouchable that that circle around that person is untouchable now i'm sure this is a perception i'm sure coach ellis is a wonderful coach i've heard only good things about him and i'm sure he would take seriously any any incident that was brought to his attention but there is still this perception which puts our students at risk if something happens in the locker room they feel like they can't go talk to anybody about that because the teachers can't do anything because the superintendent can't do anything because this person was hand selected by the board in fact is a
054brother-in-law of one of the members of the board it puts our students at risk number two it creates a hostile work environment for our teachers this makes it extremely difficult for our district to attract and retain good talented teachers and that hurts all students and there's a direct through line to the spending on external tuition our cyber charter schools which is escalating there's a direct through line to us not being able to meet the needs of our students because we can't attract and retain high quality teachers and number three you're wasting money this cost our district money dr steinhoff mentioned that there's 500 000 dollars thank you very much for your confidence three minutes or so thank you we spent 200 [Applause] good evening my name is 2160 arbor lane and aston i have a
055second grader at panel i'm here tonight in support of penn delco teachers not because last year was probably the hardest year in their careers although i'm sure it was not because of something wild i read on the internet i'm here because whether it was a bad year or a good year our teachers deserve the support of the communities they serve and at a minimum the respect of the board at many meetings throughout this past year members of the board thanked and celebrated our teachers their hard work their flexibility tonight dr steinhoff even called them heroic it happened so often throughout the last year that i started to laugh because it just kept going surely our teachers knew how much they were appreciated but last month members of the board publicly belittled and insulted our teachers
056and no one up there pushed back no one up there said i disagree no one even played along and said well maybe there's a few bad apples but overall our teachers are good and meanwhile how embarrassing no one deserves that sort of public attack from their employer how heartbreaking that must have been for teachers to hear and see that to see that all the praise and gratitude that have been thrown around in the last year was maybe just fluff just some filler to eat up meeting time our teachers work hard to support our children to help them learn and grow and be prepared for the world they are going out into our teachers seek out additional education and resources to improve themselves and their classrooms our teachers deserve a district that respects them and supports
057them and trust them to do their jobs the best they can i'm grateful for our pendanco teachers and i will continue to stand with them and work to make our community more respectful and supportive for all [Applause] hmm number 11 on tonight's agenda commented by members of the board i'm speaking tonight on the superintendent's training and as i watched the many many training sessions from the aa sa it was truly upsetting not my wildest dreams could i ever imagine the national superintendents association would consider the many extensive equity training sessions to be a part of their focus that they called reimagining education 2025. why would training be done if it was not meant to bring back to the districts they say racially racial equity training is part of the redesign at a february superintendent's conference
058they proudly introduced one of the speakers the speaker was saying i'm sorry they went on to say that the speaker wrote a series called nice wayne parents and said that the series is about how white parents are the biggest impediment to school desegregation i was shocked with the language being used by the training sessions the language was divisive and dangerous and only for our community but especially for our children and it should be condemned what will society look like when these children grow up training also included dealing with more conservative areas and how to deal with pushback they're trading said to use different words this is a betrayal of our community and i stand with the many parents taxpayers kids and teachers who are opposed to this redirection in education from the national superintendents association
059don't take my word for it watch them and you decide i'm calling for the board to bring transparency to this issue and i'm asking for the following goes all equity training given to be posted on the um the pentadalco website see soul training for teachers from dei or make the training sessions available from parents to view remove all flags except for those groups representing our country or our school remove all signs that do not redirect directly relate to academics meaning one plus one equals two all club signs should be posted on bulletin boards in one area provide cameras in the classroom from parents to easily access denounce and remove pandelico's membership from any organization that uses dangerous and divisive language in its training material or mission and replace dei resolution with the charter building program
060and return responsibility to the elected board where they can get parents students teachers and the community involved to further enhance our accomplishments in the work and restore academic emphasis it's up the board to to address these [Applause] i just request we look into the cameras in the classroom please if our police have to wear them i would like um to at least get some type of estimate for this don't we can talk about it but that we can talk about it it's a contractual issue with the teachers our cops can do it i don't see why [Applause] everybody all right next meetings are august 18th study session here at the service center august 25th business meeting here service center second