001just give them one minute there i hereby call to order the regular school board meeting for thursday august 19 2021. do the pledge of allegiance [Music] welcome everyone nice to see you here roll call please miss bibla here mr brogna here mrs mccurdy here mrs mcgovern here mrs spath mr swank here mr costello here mrs haddocks here and mr boone present eight members present an executive session was held prior to tonight's meeting in regard to contracts personnel safety and active or pending litigation we will be seeking approval of the minutes of the special board meeting of july 29th and also of the treasurer's report of 2021. superintendents report good evening mr boone board president members of the board of education members of our visiting uh community on social media and those in attendance thank you
002for making your way out this thursday august 19 2021 regular meeting i'd like to begin by stating that our decision on masks the my recommendation is to wait until the august 30th meeting to make that decision on which way we're going to go we understand and we certainly will listen to you this evening you're free to speak on uh any topic and certainly have your comments heard by myself and by the board of education our rationale for waiting to the 30th is really just to see what's happening in the other districts that are opening up and how it's going for them and that's what we're going to do we have lots of data we know the recommendations by the cdc the department of health but yet we understand this is really really uh important to
003so many of you on both sides and i want us to be on the same side but we at the my recommendation the board has agreed to wait until august 30th for us to make that decision so but again if you're here to speak on that or any topic we absolutely will listen intently and uh and welcome your comments with that a few other things that i would like to mention we are officially now one to one with our chromebooks um and just so that mother knows that baby is not disturbing us they're you're welcome to stay we'd love to hear of that so please don't feel you have to leave the room um our chromebooks we are one-to-one uh now we still have to set them up but we have made you know a
004real strong desire to have one-to-one for our students it's been an initiative for several years has nothing to do with covet but everything now to do with covet because we know some of our kids are relying more on technology than they have in the past but we are one to one with our chromebooks thank you to the board of education and all those who assisted in this initiative taking place jonathan and damian still have a lot of work before every student has that chromebook but they will have that chromebook they can walk around school with them keep them in their backpack we understand things are getting banged up that happens they're kids but we're gonna try to just encourage them to be as careful as possible with these chromebooks second i've got two very special
005thanks thank you that we want to give out the first is to malats farm malats farms is in drums um grape farm i've been going there for years it has nothing to do with this but may lats donate donated to us at our last children's produce market how many bushels i i mean approximately eighteen hundred years of uh of corn eighteen hundred ears of corn uh just amazing people um one of the mail ads happens to be a really great teacher and you know that that word great fits him well if your children had him you agree with that but thank you to the may ads farm for helping our community enjoy some really great um corn also like to thank the family of the late janet chamill of mountaintop who donated a piano to
006our secondary campus to our students as you know we put on some amazing performances here and this piano will come in to uh will come into play tremendously and get great use so we're so thankful for the family of janet and her memory can live on in the beautiful music that is coming out of that piano so thank you to the family a few other items here for our families now a lot of you were not in school last year and we understand that so what we're going to do is on monday august 30th we will have self-guided tours and what that is is our elementary children as well as their parents are able to tour the school between 9 00 a.m and 6 p.m you can come in there would be just a sign-in
007sheet and then you'll be able to walk around the school and there will be staff on hand for most of this uh but it's really a self-guided tour just for your child uh to get comfortable if they're a little anxious starting school this year elementary nine to six secondary will be four to seven pm now we had to recruit our tremendous cheerleaders on this because this school is a little larger you can get lost if you're not familiar because it is remember both a middle school and a high school and it could be confusing so our cheerleaders have um offered and accepted our request to be tour guides so uh uh august 30th elementary 96 self-guided secondary four to seven and again you will have a guide here if you would like with our cheerleaders
008uh parents bus routes are posted on our website so please look at them if you have questions call now we're ready for your phone call uh i ask you to please the first couple days be as patient as you always are with us because busing is always a challenge the first couple of days who's coming who's riding the bus who's not riding the bus you know even the drivers are getting acquainted with their routes so um those routes are up they're on our website if you have calls you have questions you have concerns please do it now so we can get it uh resolved by september 7th speaking of buses i can tell you today that masking is mandated on all transportation on all public transportation that still remains in effect today uh and last
009thing i'd like to mention something we're so excited about here uh we awarded the at our last special board meeting uh our before and after school care contract to building blocks you may know building blocks they are a local provider of these services and they are going to be working right inside fairview and rice they'll be there every morning and they'll be there after school a lot more details to come quickly for you but in the meantime if you are interested or want more information please i encourage you to call building blocks directly mr boone mr president at this point i uh i wrap up my superintendent report and yield back to you thank you mr maholic solicitors report tonight thank you okay our committee reports financial planning uh i guess mr swank thank you
010mr boone i will be seeking approval of items one through nine questions or discussion by the board questions or discussion from the public on this agenda item okay seeing none transportation mr costello no report at this time policy mr costello thank you mr president i'll be recommending consideration uh for item one of the policy committee questions or discussion from the board or the public human resources mrs mcgovern thank you mr boone um number 11 should read kyle quitney k-u-t-n-e-y is a social studies teacher he's a master step one number twelve should read cynthia wasley w a s l e y as the b c i t teacher and she is a master's she's uh she's a master step one also number 13 should read megan gernoble g-e-n-o-b-l-e and she will be the special education teacher
011for artistic support and life skills she is a bachelor of step two okay uh we we do have a correction uh the item number 12 is a typo uh she is bachelor's step one not masters that's what i thought then peter put it in and i read it the way he had it that's my mistake i'm sorry so i will be recommending items one through fourteen questions or discussion by the board or the public academic programs mrs bibla i recommend consideration and approval of items one through nine questions or discussion from the board or the public co-curricular mr swank thank you mr president i will be seeking approval of items uh looks like it reads one one two and three so it would be items one through four questions or discussion by the board or
012the public mrs haddock's physical plant no report tonight thank you technology mrs mccurdy mr president i will be seeking approval for item number one questions from the board or the public positive behavioral intervention mrs bibla no report mr boone any questions or discussion by board members on non-agenda items the the public on non-agenda items and if you are coming up to the podium please come up to the podium so that we can hear you state your name and address please good evening my name is libya pushkash that's piazza and peter u s k a s i live at 28 garden avenue in mountaintop and my son will be attending um ninth grade this year uh my concern in question is regards to the critical race theory that we've been hearing so much about and what
013is the school district's uh position on implementing or not implementing or how is that being treated so critical race theory is not a part the pennsylvania state standards it's not a part of anything that is taught in the crestwood school district okay that's perfect where can my son get a chromebook he does not have a chromebook also okay uh let's do this can you please give to mrs otero your information and we'll make sure he gets them may not be for a couple days yet because again there's a lot of setting up but he will absolutely have one just you know for school absolutely no he'll have one i appreciate it thank you thank you uh other sir hi my name is larry braunstein i live in 14 pine street mountaintop in fairview township i
014have a son who's starting as a freshman hopefully in 17 days i appreciate everything that you guys did last year to get the students through the year from the superintendent level down all the way to the janitorial level it was a you know major accomplishment um regarding mass i hope that um during the next uh two weeks between now and the next meeting um you guys look at all the literature that's out there the peer-reviewed studies and um you know when you make your consideration please keep in mind that the parents are probably the best sources of information regarding that individual child sure we have issues with a virus okay so there's a virus but i know as teachers and as parents and professionals that you look at the child as a complete individual so
015you're going to think about how does this affect their behavior if we're going to implement mass and social distancing you know is there going to be an increased incidence of depression which we know has happened is there going to be an increased suicide rate in these individuals you know a lot of these children uh lost a year and a half of their development they missed out on you know a lot of interactions with their peers they missed out on learning in person i remember when i was a child you know we interacted with other kids we you know worked off of verbal communication facial cues smiling laughing i hope that you will consider everything and the full embodiment of all the information there's no longer a state of emergency so therefore it does not come
016from the state level the cdc does have the recommendations out there but as we know the cdc has been all over the place the data has been all over the place dr fauci has flip-flopped numerous times so looking to you to hopefully do what's in the best interest of the children work with the parents and that will guarantee that there will be a great relationship going forward between the board the teachers and the administration throughout the school year thank you thank you thank [Applause] you other public testimony i have one hi i'm terry smith of smithh of 20 longmiddle lane my son is also going to be a freshman at the school this coming year and i would like to again with the mask mandates hope that you would consider that not all children can
017and should wear masks due to health reasons i personally can't wear them because i get chronic eye issues from wearing masks my son has rsv continued through from from infancy he still has issues with his lungs and he can't wear a mask so i'm hoping you consider not every student can not every student should and i just would hope that you would appreciate as a parent i know my son and what he can and cannot actually do so thank you thank you thank you [Applause] i also wanted to visit the mask issue um i do work in the medical profession and i don't know how schooled everyone is as far as the efficacy of masks particularly there's been a lot of studies and research that points to the n95 as being the most effective mask
018to wear versus cloths or anything else when you have a coveted patient we're not wearing bandanas we are not wearing cloth masks okay an n95 indicates a 95 percent effectiveness on particles so in other words you have 95 of the particles being filtered out in addition to that i would put in an insert which would reduce the particulate count because the coronavirus is at a 0.3 so you're even at risk with an n95 and if the school board and the district does want to go in the direction of masks i would request that the school provide on a daily basis and 95s for the children because the rest is a joke it's ineffective when students or children cannot vent they get cavities they get mouth sores they get facial rashes so if you're going to
019go on the mask route i would request that you do the best for our children and that it's an n95 with event and with that being said the other side of the conversation as this mom pointed out there are children that cannot receive the vaccine my son is one of them right now he is on a biologic and receives infusions every six to eight weeks i can't mess with his immune system so i think i don't want to discriminate and say okay you know you got vaccinated you get no mask okay um you're unvaccinated so poo poo on you you have to wear a mask i really would like the decision be made up to the parents i know what's best for my children not you okay and i'm going to go under the medical
020advice of my doctor if you want to put forward a medical exception that we need to get from doctors i'm all for that um i am not interested in getting um spirit masks or things that are just ineffective um so i just wanted to offer that testimony thank you thank you good evening uh my name is eric kemmer uh last name kemmer k-e-m-m-e-r-e-r i'm from uh 31 forest drive and mountaintop uh my daughter's going into second grade in rice elementary and i'm also going to speak on the mask i think just like everyone else stated the mass should be left up to the parents it shouldn't be left up to the cdc the school board or anyone else my daughter who has an issue wearing mask she gets sores behind her ears and she comes
021home in tears crying because of these sores it is affecting the way she is in school her learning ability and everything else not to mention she's coming home every day with headaches and every so it is affecting her learning and they're already two years behind because of not having the chance of being in school also too going off of research back in 2015 the university of new south wales did a study on the clock mask and on the n95 and with clock mass 97 of the particles actually pass through the mask not to mention the vast increase in bacterial infections and bacterial pneumonia that come from the mask my thing is if somebody wants to wear a mask for somebody that doesn't it should be their own freedom and their own choice if somebody wants
022to so be it but also if somebody doesn't wanna let them have that choice as well uh i have a brother-in-law that is in the research field he has a phd and he said that with the cloth mask basically they are ineffective and if you are to wear them you have to be changing them every 25 to 30 minutes because of the bacteria build up the moisture and everything else that comes from them so just i mean let the parents have the choice thank you thank you any other public testimony yep hello cindy green g-r-e-e-n-e 7425 blue ridge trail endurance i have two separate questions the first is as we've as we've been seeing districts that are open already are starting to see some outbreaks have you created a plan for mitigating outbreaks in the
023school district as they may or may not happen this school year yes we have a health and safety plan and again it's going to be trying to social distance to the best of our ability which is three feet that's going to be in a lot of our locations but not all of our locations we know there are some classrooms where three feet won't be possible i understand that piece of it but what happens if an outbreak happens in the crestwood school district where you have a situation where say a couple of hundred students at the high school test positive have you created a plan for keeping students in the school or are you going to shut down so in terms of a couple hundred or even a couple dozen the jrc who whose uh state
024agency that we work with they would be the guiding you know factor on that point they would tell us if it's reached a point where even mitigating circumstances are not going to be helpful in just time so if it's you know two three four cases i think we've become very very good at um being able to isolate do our contact tracing confidentially um and protecting as many of our students but if it's a major breakout uh we'll take the lead of you know the agency that that we've been working with very closely for the past 15 16 months okay so so there is no definitive we will shut down and go remote or we will you know try and stay open there's it's going to well again they will tell us okay exactly at that
025point and they did last year at a certain point last year they said you've got to shut down for three days uh and we did that but uh you know we don't we don't anticipate that we are prepared obviously for any situation as as we've seen in over the past year but uh we're hopeful that that doesn't happen okay my other question is kind of along that lines but it has to do with some of the technology that you said that you purchased so you've now increased us to one-to-one um chromebook to per student have you also thought or incorporated any combination of synchronous and learning with students who may have to remain remote i.e teachers teaching in the classroom students are remotely participating in the classroom so our option this year would be a
026cyber program uh listening to our our staff and and even staff across the the state that was a real challenge and they felt and i watched it neither of the students in person and those students at home received the academics they should have i mean we pivoted we made it work but it certainly wasn't as good as it could have been uh so our our offering this year is a is a cyber program it's one or the other yeah one or the other all right well i was just thinking in terms of outbreaks yes if there's an outbreak and we close we will revert to virtual so you'll go completely virtually you'll go completely now that please let me be very clear that is only going to happen if we need to close which we
027don't anticipate but if we do our staff our administration and our technology is prepared to do that now again i'm going to say to our families if you have some technical issues mainly connectivity please let us know when there's no problems okay last year we were able to connect um several dozen of people but if if we wait and gosh forbid if we should have to close down for a few days uh it might be difficult we'll try to get you the connectivity immediately um but i'd say if you know you have an issue now let us know so we can be prepared for that but yeah we would be able to flip the switch as as we say it um and go fully uh virtual again okay don't want to do that hope that
028doesn't happen but yes we we need to be prepared for that okay thank you thank you so much thank you larry bronstein 14 pine street our last parent brought up a good comment about what would cause shutting down the school or if there were an outbreak i just wanted you know we have a couple weeks here for everybody to bone up and get educated on what's been occurring over the past year first of all the test that was being used for covid to find covid was set at a threshold it's a pcr test polymerase chain reaction and the guy who invented it said it's non-specific and it's basically basically useless they're a bunch of false positives so the number the number of people who were said to have coveted was actually extremely elevated beyond what
029it actually was now i refer you to the literature you have two weeks because this is going to come back up again on the 30th also the current test does not screen for the delta variant okay so that's another issue there so what are you going to do that's the one that's prevalent so every kid that has a cold we assume they have covet or a child who doesn't have who has a false positive cova test we do contact tracing we've been through this before and you know just i agree with waiting to the 30th and i i hope that everybody does the research for the next uh 14 to 17 days and you mentioned the jrc who is the jrc again so it's a company originally we were going directly to the department of
030health okay they have now gave the um communications with the schools to this state agency so it's a state agency it's a state agency and they are the ones that if we get a case we call them so is that every school that that's every school district in the commonwealth every school district in the commonwealth so you're just following protocols we're following the protocol okay um again i'll just say and and they've been they've been i i think really good they're very responsive in getting back to us sometimes it's more than 24 hours right but that was in the heat of it right right but even this summer when we had just a few situations they you know responded to us very quickly right again the times that we've had to shut down certain things
031right it it came at them right and i understand that and that's why i respect the fact that you're waiting to the 30th and uh again uh please look into the pcr testing that was ineffective that's why we had and had a lot of false positives that's why we had no flu last year because they were picking up the flu and calling it covet okay and the same now with we have a delta variant that you can't test for so what is that and right now we have hospitalizations of the pediatric population they're not in there with covid they're in there with rsv okay the reason why rsv has peaked now and they've never seen a peak this early is because kids have been masked okay it's typically a fall you know viral illness so
032we've screwed up every part of the kid's immune system and again i'm for parent choice and i appreciate the fact that you're going to take the next couple weeks and do the research thank you thank you other questions or discussion if not we'll go to the voting session roll call please ms bibla here mr brogna here mrs mccurdy here mrs mcgovern mr mcgovern maureen are you there she might have got disconnected mrs bath mr swank here mr costello here mrs haddocks here mr boone here seven members present financial planning uh i guess mr swank i'm not sure mr brogan has a copy with him that's fine i'll um go ahead here um i'll make a motion to approve items one through nine i so move we have to motion the minutes first very okay uh
033we need a motion to approve the minutes of the special board meeting of july 29th 2021. notion who is that second uh [Music] yes i mrs mcgovern are you there i am here but you keep cutting out on me okay we're gonna try to fix the mic for you i think jim was just delayed i think that was okay in motion for approval of the treasurer's report motion second miss bibla yes mr brogna i do that mrs mcgovern yes mrs mr swank yes mr costello yes mrs haddocks yes but i abstain from check number 1738 we're doing the treasuries report mrs headaches and mr boone yeah thank you yes motion carry financial planning mr swank thank you mr president i'll be making a motion to approve items one through nine iso move second second roll
034call miss pebbler yes mr brogna yeah mrs mccurdy yes mrs mcgovern yes mr swank yes mr costello yes mrs haddocks yeah is this where the check yes yes no it's the one from check 1738 correct and mr boo yes motion carried policy mr costello thank you mr president i'll be making a motion for the recommendation and consideration of item one iso move second bibla miss bibla oh yes so we can do all in favor aye aye aye opposed motion pastors motion carried human resources mrs mcgovern i'm recommending items one through fourteen iso move second mr swank uh before we vote uh it should be noted on item thirteen megan genova is the wife of teacher vincent gennoville on our staff okay roll call miss bibla yes mr brogna yeah mrs mccarty yes mrs mcgovern yes
035mr swank yes mr costello no to item 11 and no to item 12 and yes to the rest mrs haddocks yeah and mr boo yes motion carried academic programs mrs bibla i'm seeking a motion of items one through nine iso move second miss bibla yes mr brogna yeah mrs mccurdy yes mrs mcgovern yes mr swank yes mr costello yes mrs haddix yeah and mr boone yes motion carried co-curricular mr swank i will make a motion to approve items one through four iso move second mrs mcgovern ms bibla yes mr brogna yeah mrs mcpurdy yes mrs mcgovern yes mr swank yes mr costello yes mrs haddocks yeah and mr boom yes motion technology mrs mccurdy mr president i'm seeking emotion and approval on item number one i so move second bill all in favor aye aye
036any opposed hi okay uh intermediate unit thank you mr president minutes are on file in the superintendent's office and on the district website the next liu meeting is scheduled for september 22nd at the light house academy at 6 30 p.m thank you wilkes-barre area career and technical center yes i do have one item to report it was decided on monday at the last meeting that all students attending from all sending districts will be wearing masks full time and they will be following the meal procedure that they follow last year so all students will be eating in their classrooms the minutes are on file in the superintendent's office and on the district website and the next ctc meeting is september 20th 2021 at the ctc at 5 30 p.m thank you and also i would like
037to note for the parents out there for the on our website uh there's a free and reduced lunch application i would like to remind everyone that um we are tentatively approved for the sso program the seamless summer option which means all meals here at the school will be free for this school year however even though that is the case i still would like you to all parents to fill out the free and reduced lunch application that is critical for our title one money it is critical also that if the federal government uh starts with their goes through with another pebt um food stamp uh card that is important for the parents to qualify for that so it is important that even though our meals will be free this year that every student and parent fills
038out a free and reduced lunch application um and they're on our district uh it's on our district website it's completely online so thank you for that thank you mr board and just uh mr president if i may a very very important announcement and i can only share a little bit with you tonight uh but i'm going to ask you to please uh keep a um and an eye out for information we have uh that's related to a very special event on september 17th it's our salute to our service men and women it's going to take place here i believe beginning at 5 00 pm again there's going to be much more information coming out and the activities that are taking place but it's our way of honoring and memorizing those people who have given so
039much of themselves and their families for our freedoms and and for us to be able to meet like we are meeting tonight and discuss as we discuss tonight this is a very special event um and something that i know is going to just be tremendous for our community september 17th please uh keep it uh set aside a lot more information will come and when you hear some of the things that will take place it's going to be great so keep that in your note your notebook doctor because i know you've got a very busy schedule as well but uh this uh september 17th indiana will have much more information coming i i do want to say that uh martin bibla has really spearheaded this pro this program uh a gentleman i spoke to last night
040for uh well over an hour tremendous tremendous person doug costello active he's active right now in the u.s military and uh they're working together with the township to be able to provide some again just some some great activities to honor these people so look forward to more information being shared thank you thank you mr maholic our next regularly scheduled committee meetings to set the agenda will be on september 9 2021 and a regular board meeting on september 2021 at the secondary campus we will most likely have a special meeting to wrap up some things before school starts on august 30th in the evening and those will be held here in the cafeteria need a motion for adjournment okay second all in favor aye aye thank you hi we're adjourned foreign you