001foreign [Music] school board meeting of November 22nd 2022 I think we'll start the first thing here is a call to order and roll call Mr panarello here Mr up the Grove here Mr zawada here Mrs Scott here Ms diroff president Mr Hemingway here Mrs Hogan present Ms nyman here Mr Brophy here all present next is the Pledge of Allegiance and a moment of silence please one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all okay just to remind everybody November 22nd 1963 was a date that shocked the nation so let's hope that things like that the assassination of presence that and public figures or any assassination at all don't continue on and we get the become more civilized and how we treat people and think of others okay there was a previous executive session
002on Personnel lasted 15 minutes next approval of October 25th 22nd 2022 School Board of Directors meeting minutes to have a motion Hogan emotions Hogan motions a lot of seconds roll call vote Mr panarello yes Mr uptergrove yes Mr zawada Mrs Scott yes Ms diroff yes Mr Hemingway yes Mrs Hogan yes Ms nyman yes Mr Brophy yes motion passes and now for a thing I'm kind of worried about here this is our our student Spotlight and I have in front of me a whole lot of people to look like it could speak of that violence thing I just talked about and not and not go there I'm going to continue on that frame uh but this is the student Spotlight I I don't have any information right over to Mrs Moore okay there you go you
003have it yeah good evening everyone um Amy musapapa who is sitting behind me and is the executive director of the foundation for Boyertown education and I meet every Monday morning to collaborate and keep each other in the know as we have gotten to know one another she has shared her experiences with Donnie ellickson and his Taekwondo Academy both as a mom and as someone who works with Mr ellickson on marketing their program um to say that her passion is contagious would be an understatement and I found myself spending a recent Friday evening at the Academy watching mesmerized as children and adults practiced For an upcoming black belt test out of ellickson's Academy alone basd has more than 25 students who have achieved their first degree black belt or higher since 2004. included in this Falls
004group are three seventh graders they are each 12 years old Mr ellickson does not permit his students to test until they are 12 so as to allow them time to mature they did not take a junior or youth test all three of these kiddos took the regular first degree black belt test as part of a group of nine school age students and additional adults and they passed they are now black belts at 12 years of age shortly each of the black belts here tonight will introduce themselves they are here not only to celebrate their martial arts achievements but to celebrate an amazing program which focuses not only on their specific form of martial art but also on their academic performance Behavior at home and school and their character there are five tenets of Taekwondo courtesy
005Integrity perseverance self-control indomitable spirit while the research exists we don't need to quote that research to recognize that mastering those tenants has a direct impact on the development and performance of these students across all aspects of their lives including their educations within the first five minutes of talking with Mr alexand I had my story and knew the focus of tonight's student spotlight he didn't talk to me about fighting or self-defense he talked to me about his students who are also our students he talked to me about expectations he shared that in order to be eligible to test for their black belt a martial arts student at his Academy must not only be the master of their craft they must also perform academically and demonstrate respectful Behavior both at home and at school as attested to
006by their parents so if they're not performing in school or behaviorally he does not allow them to test for their black belt Mrs muzapapa has shared that students at the Academy are given writing and art assignments as part of their training eyewitness sheer Beauty as the students perform to music to honor the history of their art yes they are physical specimens trained in combat and self-defense but they are so much more than that thanks to their training tonight Mr ellickson is here to talk about the ties between academics and the martial arts as they relate to his program we will share our video and you will meet the students here with us tonight you will hear from his three children all of whom are black belts as they share how their practice of Taekwondo has
007impacted their academic career and from Mrs ellickson about the Academy's journey into the world of reality television and finally you will have a chance to ask questions so without further ado Mr Alexa thank you Miss Allison uh that warm introduction a lot to live up to there my name is Donnie ellickson uh my wife Jana and I run ellickson's Taekwondo in Boyertown those that don't know we've been there 28 years I started the school when I was 19. I was a didn't have a great upbring I was a bad kid martial arts literally saved my life uh so that's where I teach from um I'm a tough love instructor I pull no punches and I expect a lot out of my students and they uh they step up you know it's it's an amazing process
008we feel blessed to be part of it um my children Tristan Charlie and Piper uh all got their black belts those who don't know we live at the Taekwondo school so um we have an apartment above the Taekwondo school so as you say we are all in [Laughter] um uh you know our our black belt test which we're gonna kind of get a peek at in a little bit I know is kind of the focus of tonight um you know it's uh it's not an easy test we pride ourselves on being a challenging test uh from day one when students come in we observe the students needs I always like to think that I'm in the inspiration business uh Martial Arts Fitness goal setting all that stuff happens stress relief but really we're inspiring we're
009trying to inspire a student from day one maybe to lose weight maybe to get in shape maybe learn self-defense maybe to better themselves I think a common um lesson that we're all doing is what we want to be better tomorrow than we are today uh you know and it's it's not a perfect system but as long as we're striving you know to be better tomorrow then I think we're making an impact on ourselves and the community um the black belt test um yeah it's we don't have a junior test we don't don't have a youth test these students go through the same black belt test that adults do and challenging is really the only um is the only way to make it as far as you know I guess that's what the way I was
010raised it worked for me so you know we're passing on the same lessons to them it's not easy there's obstacles but each class almost every class or at times in a person's training they hear the quote are we going to quit or try harder I mean that's us to the core you really have those choices in life you know you're going to quit or try harder and we're not big on whining so we just like get an action and move towards uh you know bettering ourselves for the situation we live by example those that don't know our School collapse in a snow blizzard in 2010 February 10 2010 our life changed um the schmoyer building is where we're at the old schmoyer building for those that know that is where we're at and it collapse
011in a snow blizzard whole thing collapsed lost everything thank goodness not a person was inside I mean gosh they're so so lucky on so many levels um but after that I had uh after about two months of depression I said what do we got to do we got to make a plan to get out of this you know you know so I put together a plan we rebuilt the school took three and a half years a lot of community friends and family ended up chipping in it was built with a lot of love and it's just a testament to you know the people that are passionate about what we do there um covid um you know we um uh we we did amazing through covid my staff did amazing through coven somehow we uh managed
012we engineered a heck of us again uh when March happened 2020 a couple weeks of depression not knowing what the heck I was going to do I mean I literally have a school where everybody's 100 50 people are in the room breathing all over each other right so imagine that and I live upstairs so I literally had over a hundred people a day come in our home starting June 2020 so we kept doing and were able to do uh what we love you know and uh so we again after two weeks engineered a heck of a system a safety system even our breathing we changed the we closed our mouths breathed in and out through the nose we didn't do sparring no close contact but with some minor adjustments we were able to keep doing
013we loved so the point of those two stories is um in my position I got to walk the walk right because if I'm if I'm in the inspiration business I'm asking these guys to do X Y and Z then I have to do the same things too I have to look at myself my own faults my own shortcomings and try to better them and I'm very honest with my staff my school that's really an extension of my family um so our black belt test as Miss Allison said students I guess um a long time ago I realized that we had something that people wanted to do kids and adults especially the kids and in the very beginning if you could inspire a kid to want to train who want to learn martial arts and want
014to get their black belt and it's amazing what you can have them do so each belt test all of these students have to get signed from their parents as they're coming up Bell tests are about every four to five months um we run a like I love to say an old school program takes about six to eight years to get your black belt in our school a lot of commercial schools are three years nowadays that's kind of the you know people want that black belt really fast um so anyway about every four to five months they're testing and they have to get a paper signed from their teachers saying academics is up in school and behaviors up at home uh and if they don't get that signed then we have a meeting and then the
015mentoring begins I do a mentorship with them for once a week I meet with the parents um they establish the problem whether it's grades or hitting their sister or not doing their chores or not going to bed on time we address the problem and then every week I meet with them so it's in a cat you can imagine it's accountability program they have to come in they have to face me and it's a short conversation from there every week is I tell the parents a 30-second meeting I want to know is it the same is it better or worse I'm not big on talking I want results so um and they step up they step up because they want that belt right they want that carrot you know so it's a pretty beautiful process um
016so that's the belt promotion permission form um pay it forward we started about 15 years ago Pay It Forward has nothing really to do with martial arts but a lot of about giving back um as part of a student's black belt test in their last year of training they have to do 25 hours of community service um they we've worked with the train we've worked with ambulance we've worked with BBB bmba stuff around our Academy so they have to give back they do 25 hours of community service so each year we're doing about four to five hundred hours of community service in the community which nothing about martial arts but it gets that warm and fuzzy feeling um so that's about all I have we have a video that's um did a video for us
017yes it says a video of our black belt test uh enjoying thank you for having us everybody thank you for inviting us thank you for taking interest and don't pause hello through that process and find Tenants come into play in one's character pretended courtesy self-control perseverance and by the time you make it to Black Belt it's not just the physical reality that can happen if there's parts of an effective character which uh you know in many ways even more important than a physical [Music] our challenges from young kids to teenagers to adults and those challenges are there for a reason but we're there to help communities those challenges [Music] yes [Music] because yes [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] we atmosphere here as we like to say an atmosphere of burning Justice [Music] yeah we've been
018staying here to Dojo I'll probably chirped at least once a class you know when we're having a challenge and we're having that moment with the kids and when we quit or try harder and it's just such a great example of one of those great life lessons because you're going to be met at some point many points in your life where you have challenges so I think that's a great believer for adults too and because we need by example here the same thing applies to all the instructors you know awesome [Music] [Applause] so our black folks head we don't have a junior black book now we don't have any black belt test our kids and teenagers go through the same blindfold tests as all the animals so when you hurt your black belt here at Albertsons
019you really are [Music] thank you [Music] so at this time I'm going to ask each of the students to stand up where they are and introduce themselves and then we're going to spend some time with the rest of the Alex and family so if you want to go ahead and go first that would be awesome uh Adriana Sheridan graduated class of 2018 and I am a first degree black belt she's a bell Deputy I'm a freshman at bash and for sure I'm Dylan Swank class of 2021 and I'm a third degree black belt my models online I'm a sophomore at bash and I'm a second degree black belt I don't it just like I was class of 2018 I'm a first degree black belt can you see drum and eighth grade missile last for sure
020Alex and a freshman first degree black hole Owen Seaman senior at bash first degree black belt Luke is famous I'm a senior of Ash and I'm a second degree black belt Harry Miller I'm an 8th grader at Middle School East and I'm a first degree blocker uh James tibiage a sophomore at bash first degree black belt my name is Axel Gonzalez I'm fourth degree black belt I graduate 2008. Walsh us class 20 25 sophomore second degree black belt [Applause] he knows if I could have you join me up here that would be great my burn Charlie and Tristan they're going to talk to you a little bit about their experience and how martial arts has impacted their academics hello um I'm a ninth grader at Boyertown and I've been doing Taekwondo since I could walk
021um a saying we have at the Academy Matt lessons life lessons Matt left sins that I've believed have helped me in academics um is manners life balance and hard work for example manners have opened the doors for communication with myself and teachers um I've learned that balance is important when juggling School sports and martial arts my father has drilled in to me that nothing great in life is achieved without hard work these lessons have given me confidence in school sports and life in general that's right hi my name is Charlie alexand I'm 12 years old and a seventh grader at West my family and I live above live above my parents Taekwondo Academy I've been in martial arts ever since I can remember martial art has taught me that life is full of obstacles and
022challenges and that when I have a challenge in school or life I have two choices I can quit or try harder at different times in my in class my father would yell do we quit or try harder the whole class sails back try harder sir this matters because if I'm on a test or a quiz or Etc I know that I have to try harder and not give up um I'm Piper oxen and I'm a seventh grader at Middle School West um oh martial arts has helped me with academics um with my self-discipline because if I have an assignment I don't like procrastinate and do it like last minute I do it before the due date and um even if I don't want to do it I still do it and um it also boosts
023my confidence like in class um um I feel like people that do martial arts are more likely to like raise their hand or volunteer to do stuff because they have the confidence to do it so that's how martial arts has helped me in academics so as I mentioned when I introduced everyone the elections and their Academy have ventured into the world of reality television um so if Mrs alexson you could come over and let us know a little bit about that and then we have one final video for you guys foreign hi good evening my name is Jana ellickson I am the parent of Charlie Piper and Tristan and the wife of Donnie I got my black belt in the year 2000 and have been training and teaching at the Academy ever since so in
024July 2021 we were approached by Donny's instructor Grand Master John Chung to do this martial arts reality TV show so two days later without much knowledge or Direction our family was interviewed by Discovery plus TV personnel and we failed we failed the interview they didn't want us and when Mr Chung found out he said to them you need to have this family involved so the second interview we passed so we got on this TV reality show and um they started filming our family and three other schools we competed at five different tournaments they filmed the wins they filmed the losses parent kid Dynamic and also the student teacher Dynamic and a bunch of drama in between um the show was quite is quite entertaining was quite entertaining and represented our family and our Academy really
025well in conclusion we had an amazing experience we met some great people and we learned and we grew so thank you very much for having us and have good holidays thank you thank you [Applause] thank you you have ten ranks in martial arts under black belt there's 10 ranks in the military system Marshall Arts military Marshall combat art and we follow that rule we start out with the no belt it's kind of like a book private when you join the military and then their senior officer 4 degree Blackwell 50 degree black belt and six degree black belt and that's why we're here today [Music] on our grand masters of martial arts [Music] [Applause] [Music] foreign so Donnie doesn't know this and I appreciate the extra time we've taken tonight for student spotlights but um I
026went and did some snooping around trying to look at kitty Kai a little bit and my impression of kitty Kai in general when not viewing Boyertown stuff um there's a lot of it's It's About The Art of War for lack of a better way to say it it's about sparring and kicking butt and all that great stuff said a little stronger than I just said it um and I just need you to know that not once have I seen that out of you not once that's not your focus and I'm beyond impressed at what you're doing with young people today and the impact that you're having in our schools so I wanted to say thank you to you um it's been a really neat experience putting this together so congratulations to all of you thank
027you all for being here tonight um any questions before I let them go what age group do you team we started not a lot of schools do we started at three and four year olds uh three and the three to four three to five year olds I'm sorry is Little Dragons it's light on the martial arts big on the developmental so that age is to get him out having fun get him sharing taking turns working with other kids um what age I taught I taught I don't know if anybody knows these ladies from the community but I taught two ladies one is 78 years old Ruth Miller okay thank you and take Hoyer was 73 and uh Ruth got to a red belt I'd say they loved sparring because nobody would hit him they just
028go in and punch people in the head and nobody would hit him back they were a trip as as old as you come um there are I I do take safety into consideration I have to so uh the the very we let everybody come try two free weeks and that's kind of the process of people interviewing us and we interviewing them I'm inquiring about joints knees backs uh you know ankles hips stuff like that so as the process but um you know we're laid back you take it one class at a time absolutely absolutely well I just wanted to acknowledge the group and um it is a pleasure to have you here and it is also um wonderful for us to expose our students who don't follow traditional activities and I think that everybody has
029should have an opportunity to have the spotlight so you have provided this opportunity to include all of these wonderful students that are past and present Boyertown Area School District students and their passion that they have um with this activity so thank you and and thank you for being here this evening I know that you were a little nervous for you know your introduction um I can feel it every Tuesday that I sit here so um but thank you and and thank you for you know mixing both the the um Taekwondo and the academics piece of it because it is a good connection so and I do have a new model I can quit or I can try harder so um thank you you very much I'm going to step out with them for a second
030and then I'll be back [Music] here thank you I guess it's pretty obvious why this this is the the best part of the meeting for me the most enjoyable part and part I look forward to each week so but now we need to move on but here's another good part of the meeting also I look forward to at this point I'd like to go to the uh to the student representative report you're by yourself tonight what's so you're gonna do both sides yeah it's gonna just be me so well you can say who's saying what if you'd like okay all right um you ready to start all right so as you can tell Olivia's not here tonight um she wants to apologize uh she has a minor cold going around and she was advised not
031to be around a lot of people so she'll be sitting this one out but hopefully she'll be at the next one so this month we had a lot of exciting things going on um one thing was we had our first Luncheon of the year unfortunately we couldn't get the information in for this report but we're hoping for the next one all right first thing we had Harvest ball that was supposed to be held at bash this month unfortunately we had a lack of tickets sold so it is rescheduled to March 3rd and we're hoping that a lot of students come out and have a fun night and buy our tickets also on the 4th of November we had the warrior towns njrotc program had their military ball Olivia was in attendance and she had shared
032some of her experience there so I'll read it for her she said I was actually invited to this event and it was definitely a night to remember there was amazing food good laughs and tons of crazy dance moves it was very special night for the seniors of ROTC something really cool that the senior girls did this year was one it was time to announce the queen of the ball the girls all wanted to stay princesses so they could all share the spotlight for their last year and ROTC together okay once up okay we also had the powder buff came um thank you for everybody who came out to it seniors and juniors both had a very fun time um seniors won congratulations to them and yeah thanks for all who came to that okay another
033thing so we had link remembers that are eager to be involved in their last event in August there are continued discussions about possible upcoming events include a club Fair on the 23rd of November and they are excited to see the outcome of this event on November 4th and 5th bash had the incredible opportunity to host the 86th annual pack State Conference pasc is the Pennsylvania Association of student councils which is Statewide organization the state conference is an annual event that allows student leaders advisors and keynote speakers from all over the state to come together and learn about leadership Network strength strengthening their skills and simply meet and create bonds with people who are just like them bash hold a successful tuning conference that hosted over 800 plus participants the theme of the conference was cooking
034in which the participants gathered their ingredients hone their skills and prepare their dish for leadership and success through a variety of activities workshops speakers networking opportunities and more the conference ended with learning how to enjoy the dish made with a large reflection on what was learned throughout the conference and an impactful speech from A bash a pass bash pasc student who is now successful adult and remains active with the pasc state executive board overall the conference ran amazing because of all the help and support that was given from the school and Community leaders during this two two-year planning process also Middle School East had a busy month on the 17th there was a quora concert full of amazing horses then the 18th was the end of the first trimester for them which is a huge
035deal already a third of the way through the year also on the 18th there was the Wild West Royal dance for students and I hope everyone had a great time last thing is Middle School East also finished up their canned goods drive on November 16th we want to thank everyone who donated and we're sure that the students couldn't wait to see what teacher got to wear the turkey costume all right thank you for everyone at the meeting tonight for listening to our news and we're hoping to have even more stuff for next time have a Happy Thanksgiving hey thank you very much we now move on to public comment period number one we do have some speakers we have two speakers for uh for a comment pairing one so I will read the uh sorry
036yes okay okay I get ahead of me so I'll read the uh the statement of on the comment period of period number one on behalf of the board of school directors I would like to welcome you to this meeting we welcome your attendance and input from stakeholders to assist us in making recommendations and decisions related to the Boyertown Area School District this procedure and rules for public participation are detailed in BSE policy for 903 this document is available in the vasd website participants properly registered with the board secretary will be recognized by the presiding officer comment period number one is limited topics on tonight's agenda participants must preface their comments by the announcements of their name participants are encouraged to direct all statements inquiries and questions the presiding officer and or the Bullet board as
037a whole note that we value will not compromise the Privacy our students and staff please see us outside the realm of public meeting if you have a concern about any individual staff member or student if your public comment includes a question Mr Stewart or a member of her staff will be in contact with you to confirm your question and provide you with information comments are limited in three minutes and comment periods are limited to 30 minutes individuals may indicate a desire to speak a second time if there is time left in a 30-minute period finally note that we do record our board and committee meetings and we post them on YouTube with a link to our website we request that if you do wish to take pictures or record the meeting yourself you do so
038in a non-disruptive and discreet Manner and use those materials respectfully and responsibly first Speaker tonight will be Christa Collins 14b program of studies good evening thank you all for the um having the board meeting tonight um so I am Krista Collins Washington Township I do want to divert from 14b for a second though because it still shows on the agenda the in the vote for impact club and also um the walk for lives Club I thought those were being taken off of the consent agenda vote for this evening no okay they're on itemized okay I didn't realize that okay thank you so um all right so I'll start on um curriculum so I wanted to talk about item 14b and I wanted to ask the board why we are voting the pass a middle school
039curriculum when the original presentation was done over a year ago I believe it was October 20 of October of um board meeting if I'm not mistaken please feel free to correct me if that's not correct um the curriculum meeting from November 10th did not focus on the changes to this curriculum but it was more of a broad overview that should not count as prior notification or discussion what are the differences between the old curriculum and the newly proposed curriculum how will this challenge middle school children and prepare them for high school these are just a few questions that I would appreciate a deeper dive into as part of an open and transparent board discussion as we all know the test scores are way down all over the country the after effects of covid have done
040much damage to our kids so it's important that it's in it's more than reasonable to ask the board to make sure that you do all the due diligence necessary to investigate a new curricula before passing it and make sure that these findings are available to the public with ample time for us to comment on them for this reason I am requesting that the board abstain from this vote until a more thorough presentation can be done for current members of the Boyertown School District also in passing something is long-term and as important as a new curriculum I would ask that the board members who create the agenda not bury things like this in the consent agenda which they originally were under the consent agenda because then you just pass them as one lump sum and there's
041no discussion there's no transparency so um moving these things to allow for board discussion allows everybody to ask a lot more questions otherwise it's just up to us to come up here and talk at you guys and hope that you listen also I would like to ask that you do do not vote to give the give accounts to impact club and the walk for lives club tonight simply until we can evaluate what they are asking for in their requests there is nothing in there for parameters as far as who are presenters who are speakers what Unity day encompasses and also what is the leadership camp that they're talking about on their request to have the account and also the walk for lives Club it says that they will donate the money raised to qualified groups
042is basically what it says it doesn't use the term groups so if they're raising money and they have students coming in and buying a t-shirt or a bracelet or whatever it is I think that's awesome but you need to make sure that they are not inadvertently donating that money to a potential political organization or group that would then donate that money back to political organizations there's a lot of things going on with new 501c3s that pop up they act like they're doing great things they're donating money to the needy the hungry any of that if that's what they're truly donating it to that's great great but I think that we should put some requirements in place to make sure those things are not inadvertently donated to groups that maybe don't really have the best interest
043in mind thank you very much next Nicole's else passing okay okay uh Allison could you let the orders in into the room so they can pursue for that presentation this is for the uh audit report 2021 . you've been left in so they're they're ready to go okay Freeman we are ready for the presentation of the auditors hey it's good evening I hope everybody's doing well tonight uh I was fortunate to be able to uh enjoy the previous presentation via your live stream so I'm unfortunately not going to be as exciting as the Taekwondo but I think it's something very important and I thank you for having me out here to discuss uh the results of our audit for the year ended June 30 2021 so our audit for the year ended June 30 2021
044uh had two main focuses so the first was on the financial statements uh for the year end of June 30 2021 and I'm pleased to report that we are issuing an unmodified clean audit opinion on those financial statements and the second was on an opinion on compliance with your major federal program which for the year under audit Was Your Child Nutrition cluster the national school lunch program as well as the National School breakfast program um and we also issued an unmodified clean audit opinion on compliance with your major federal program as part of our audit we're required to disclose if we identify any material weaknesses it's missing deficiencies keep the internal controls over financial reporting or in the internal controls over compliance with the radio Federal program I'm pleased to report that we did not
045identify any such deficiencies um briefly highlighting some of the financial results for the year you'll see the district ended uh that the year with total assets and deferred outflows of resources at the entity-wide level of about 209 million dollars compared to a liability and deferred inflow base of 339 million dollars of the bulk of those liabilities are the proportionate the district's proportionate share of the net pension liability in the keyser's plan and I will tell you this was as of June 30 2021 at that point in timepieces is about 54 funded uh the most recent numbers we've seen they were up to 63 funded so we are anticipating that that pension liability number is going to shrink in future years for the year um entity why you saw about 128 million dollars in Revenue against
046124 million dollars in expenses which saw an increase in the net position or a reduction in the net deficit of about 3.4 million dollars so that means at the entity-wide level which is a little bit different from your budgetary basis because it doesn't look at near-term cash in and cash out it looks more at um all of your assets including buildings and equipment and all of your liabilities including long-term debts so to get a little better understanding for how the year went for the district I like to look at the fundamental results in your general fund budget um which was about 124 million dollar Budget on the revenue side unit on the expenditure side and you'll see the budget originally anticipated uh having to utilize about 1.1 million dollars in available fund balance as a
047result of revenues particularly transfer tax type revenues being a little better than the anticipated about two percent over budget and expenditures coming in about four hundred thousand dollars under budget you were in fact able to uh not have to take out a fund analysis to be able to save a little bit more in your fund balance to help balance your needs in future years I will let you know that for the June 30 2021 financial statements there was a new accounting standard that was required to be implemented regarding fiduciary activities but this impacted the district scholarship the Student Activities funds but primarily the Student Activity spots historically those funds were just treated as amounts held on behalf of others just as an asset and a liability but under the new accounting standard we were required
048to assist the district in modifying the financial statements so that your Student Activity funds now show additions and deletions as inflows and outflows and show a net position in the Student Activities funds giving you a heads up about kind of what's coming next there is a new accounting standard uh for the June 30 2022 on lease accounting so for your District it's not going to have as big an impact as it will have for some but historically only certain um leases that were the region criteria were treated as assets and liabilities and the rest were just treated as operating leases where we just reflected an expenditure went paid and at the fun level that's going to stay the same but at the entity-wide level uh that first set of numbers that I was looking at
049all except short-term leases which are leases less than a year in length are going to be considered intangibles right to use asset and a related lease liability um so your financial statement you're going to see an increase in your assets as well as your liabilities they'll be approximately the same amount so it's not going to impact your bottom line significantly um looking at your June 30 2021 financial statements has Gatsby statement 87 been in place you would be looking at about an extra two hundred thousand dollars on the asset side and on the liability side so not major but it is a change that I wanted to make you aware of because it's something that um if any of you work in other Industries where you look at financial statements it's a a standard that
050has been um going first from the major public corporations and smaller now it's hitting governments and non-profit organizations so I did want to bring that to everyone's attention wow at this point I'd like to open it up to any questions that anybody may have about the audit results of the audit process or about anything else that I might be able to speak to the full audit report was shared a couple months ago with the board in one of the updates Christine yes I'm glad we finally got this audit report it's like uh 10 months past due um I would have hoped that you would have been here I do understand the issues out there but we always got a hard copy of the report which I know we can still look at on online so
051it's it's good to see that we did get this finally uh hopefully this will not happen again because 10 months past due is unacceptable in my book so thank you and so I I will admit I um I'm having a little trouble hearing what's in the room um but I I believe I heard that the comment was in regards to the timeline and I agree there were well there were a number of circumstances that at 928 certainly the timeline was not where we wanted it to be and it's not what we anticipate going forward either any other questions please I see no other questions okay well thank you very much sir don't fear for any other questions thank you for your report uh we'll look forward to the future ones coming in and uh keeping
052us keeping us in the the good side of the law so that's uh that's what we're looking for we want to stand a good side of the balance thank you very much next will be reported president I have none uh next will be Finance reports a Treasures report draft October 2022. good evening have some more numbers for you um some highlights from October of 2022 Treasures report for local Revenue uh delinquent tax collection was approximately 34 500. earned income tax collection was approximately one million three hundred and seventeen thousand three hundred transfer tax collection was approximately a hundred and eighteen thousand four fifty for state revenue the pde basic Ed subsidy was approximately two million four hundred and sixty eight thousand eight hundred and sixty dollars pde property tax relief payment was approximately one million
053seventy six thousand three hundred and the pde Pre-K subsidy was approximately thirty five thousand seven hundred for federal revenue Grand subsidy was approximately 2 167 500. and regarding October expenditures salaries benefits and Professional Services accounted for 65 of the monthly expenditures and that concludes the treasurer's report and Happy Thanksgiving everybody thank you very much Happy Thanksgiving to you very motion to accept the report Hogan moves about to grow seconds broke over Mr panarello yes Mr uptergrove yes Mr zawada yes Mrs Scott yes Miss dear off yes Mr Hemingway yes Mrs Hogan yes MS nyman yeah Mr Brophy yes motion carries okay next we have the secretary's report no report this evening next solicitors report no report next superintense report Mr Brophy under the consent agenda I will be looking for the board of school directors
054to authorize the entry into a grievance settlement agreement with the Boyertown Area Education Association to resolve grievance number 2022-001 Hogan moves there's a lot of seconds okay okay roll call vote Mr panarello yes Mr up to growth yes Mr zabata yes Mrs Scott yes Ms dearoff yes Mr Hemingway yes Mrs Hogan yes Ms nyman yes Mr Brophy yeah motion carries under the superintendent's itemized agenda I am looking for a motion to from the school board of the board of school directors to approve the resolution and Amendment for the portnoth Law Associates delinquent tax collection agreement to align with changes in Consumer Financial Protection Bureau guidelines Hogan moves nine in seconds any discussion seeing none I'll move to a roll call vote Mr panarello yes Mr up the Grove yes Mr zawada yes Mrs Scott yes
055mroff yes Mr Hemingway yes Mrs Hogan yes Miss nyman yes Mr Brophy yes motion carries next I am looking for the board of school directors to approve the 2023-2024 programs of studies for grades six to eight and grades 9 to 12. I do want to reiterate that both program of studies was reviewed last board meeting by Dr mayori and the only change to the bash middle school program of study will impact the math uh alignment so that it is aligned with both the high school um that is aligned from middle school through high school it is to support the algebra Keystone preparation revise course names to better reflect focus of course and align the PVE mandated Keystone exam to end trigger courses also the other change in the high school program of study is to
056now include a 0.2 GPA bump similar to AP courses for bash dual enrollment courses to add dual enrollment microeconomics and the Esports gaming Concepts and Equipment also to include bash ocean world studies no longer a dual enrollment course so bash would like to bring that into the high school as well as the bash act 158 Keystone graduation Pathways they updated the graphic to provide Clarity the program of study is the course selection it is needed to be voted on because students begin their course election in the beginning of the school year it also impacts our budget with regard to Staffing and what our staffing needs are by no means does it imply resources textbooks Etc you're not voting on anything other than the program of study which is done routinely each year so that students
057can begin to put their schedules together for the next school year Hogan moves discussion Mr zawad um on page 11 under basically student honors I was under understanding that this had been discussed prior to us um maybe on the board back in October I believe 2021 uh and it was my understanding of me watching uh the video of the YouTube that basically the question came up about the valedictorian and solidictorian and then I was under the understanding through earlier to this week that this was going to be put back in and if there was an issue uh we discussed that if it was too much pressure on the valve Victorian satellite Touring that they didn't want to public speak it would be added you know the next person down the line or somebody else would
058be because we don't put anybody Under Pressure that they don't need to be put under I'm not looking at that but I think it's something that should be acknowledged and and noted in somebody's um in their packet or whatever you want to call it their history whatever so when they do go to college or that's a plus when colleges are looking at that kind of stuff not just necessarily a GPA so my concern was about taking that out and going back to the original so don't worry about touring that was voted on by the school board to move from Battle of Victorian salutatorian to using the Greek um language to acknowledge our students certainly the language within the program of study is acknowledging that the top two students who would have earned those positions would
059have the opportunity first to be speakers and then if they should not want it then it would go to either Administration you know seeking to appoint or moving to another way of selecting our speakers but certainly the class president also gets to speak so the way it's written now that's going to go away about 20. by 2025 there's no longer going to be the announcement of a valedictorian salutatorian it will be again moving to the to the Greek uh language yes could I ask why I mean we've had this for so long number one number two if the person doesn't want to speak the way I read this then somebody else would pick who the speaker is going to be I'm thinking mentally in my mind it'll be a popularity contest certainly avoid a popularity
060contest but I do know that Mrs Daryl the high school administration explained when this was pushed put forward to the board why they were seeking to move from Victorian salutatorian and it had more to do with the um competition for these spots and and taking courses that otherwise um they may not have really been vested in and I'm going to ask Dr Foley to to be able to come up to the podium because I believe that this was approved at a school board meeting last year that in 2025 we were moving away from that I realized it was but I maybe I had time to think in the last year I don't know but I I don't like the idea of somebody else picking for someone to speak when that child worked 12 years 13
061years to get the marks that he got he or she and I I don't know I got a problem with that well we're not refusing we would still be I know I know okay said I don't know when I went to school back in the Stone Age I didn't we didn't have a choice if if we earned the spot we spoke and is that the problem we don't want to make anybody do something they don't want to do as we as we discussed the last time first of all the decile system that we're looking at which is the Latin version of these things it gives more students opportunities yes there are some situations where these students may not want to speak so if they don't want to speak then the answer would be is is
062then we would have an opportunity for someone else to speak um I know you mentioned something about a popularity contest what we're looking at is with the administration and some english teachers and things like that students would then have a little audition and then they would be selected from that audition who would be speaking from this point forward if they choose to however one and twos don't have the opportunity to speak can I respond to that if if they didn't want to speak to me that's silly to say it for any 12th grader to say I don't want to speak but however if they don't want to speak couldn't they write a speech it's somebody that the English teacher or you or somebody would would give I mean these are their own words that could
063be a possibility but what we discussed prior to this was is that we would have an opportunity for students to audition to speak if they didn't want to if they didn't want to speak themselves so but it's it's a possibility I mean we still have some time this doesn't take effect until 2025. so we still have a couple years to work out those pieces if if we choose to do something different thank you very much verse 9. if I recall there was a lot of carrying on back then when we made this decision also and I kind of are we committed in writing to doing it this way now or can we change it again we can certainly bring it back to um if if the the school board if the majority of the board
064doesn't wish to move away from salutatorian valedictorian um by the time we get to 2025 it certainly could be reviewed and then I guess my next question would be if going down the list the first person doesn't want it or the second person doesn't want it why wouldn't we go to the third person that would be in line rather than doing what you want to do I mean there are a lot of options that we could do moving forward that could be one of the things to move forward it's just my past experience has been that sometimes if you give other students an opportunity to speak it just works out so that everybody has an equal opportunity to speak at that point so I just think this might be something that we just need to
065bring back up again and have more discussion on it because it doesn't seem like people are happy with it so thank you Mr Perfect um I'm sorry to Dr Foley sorry I don't make you sit down again um so I just I just wanna make sure that I understand you're saying that one and two will still have the opportunity to speak and that a third student could also correct the way it works right now is the class president always speaks right okay so then you have the other two student speakers have typically been one and two okay all right so if moving forward if one and two does not want to speak then what we would do is take that if one wanted to speak and one didn't then we would just audition for one
066right if neither one of wanted to speak then we'd audition for the two so one and two are guaranteed a spot they have an opportunity if they choose not to do it then we would go to another option okay and then um just from my recollection and I know it was quite a while ago um but I remember I don't remember if it was you who presented or some but Mr mayori maybe um but they said there was as Miss torture said a lot of competition and a lot of um kids taking classes and that maybe they weren't really interested in just so they could get that bump to get up and I think that's one of the reasons was cited as one of the reasons why were we were shifting to this um because
067it would really allow kids to take classes that they're interested in um that would help them in college and then like develop them you know as Learners and students and they're in the field that they're interested in um so I just wanted to make sure that that was that I'm recollecting that correctly yeah you are correct that was part of our discussion with that yeah because I think that was kind of like the main the main reason right that's one of the main reasons besides also acknowledging a wider body of students correct yeah that was one of the main reasons and also knowing that the deciles especially when colleges and universities ask us they don't ask us for one and two they ask us for who's the top ten who's the top 20 of the
068class not the top 10 students but the top percentage of the class right okay great thank you I appreciate it any other questions Mr zawada um really it's two the first one I want to thank Miss torsha for when we explain the other courses and for other board members explained to they're 100 right I'd rather have them taking something that's sitting in study hall so I appreciate the explanation on that my question now is whether to Mr President or Mr uh solicitor uh can we move now to make that change in the draft now to reinstate the valedictorian solicitoring if we have the votes now we would not be able to because it was something that was in policy so we would need to bring that policy back forward thank you that is correct I
069have to go to policy to do that right we would bring if this board wants to bring that policy forward to reevaluate prior to 2025 we certainly can because this this is not right we can move and take a vote to bring forth that policy to bring it you know to revisit at our we have a policy committee I know we're all Committee of the hold but do we have a designated policy uh committee okay so if the liaison is willing to put that on the agenda for a future uh meeting then we can move forward on that basis and have it as an agenda item I don't think we need necessarily a vote obviously there's an intent to discuss it at least amongst a number of your board members and uh we'll see where
070it goes that would be a committee of the whole meeting and the policy would be the specific portion of that meeting that we would go through that so the request would have to come in who would the requests come in through the policy liaison or go to the policy of liaison and then the policy liaison would then review it with the administration and would then eventually make its way to a committee of the whole meeting okay so in that case Mr zwadi at the second you'd have to I guess approach the policy committee with that uh can one board member do it is that to be a certain number of board members it really doesn't matter it really is in order for something to get on the agenda there's two methodologies uh methodology number one
071there's a request that's made to the committee chair and the committee chair agrees and agrees to move it forward uh the the next uh option is if there is no willingness on the part of the committee chair then the board can take an action to uh direct that that issue gets addressed at a future meeting okay so by three board members or five uh what the the board act the board can take an action by a majority vote of the board okay that's good that's good but an individual can make a request that something gets on the edge on the agenda of a particular uh Committee of the whole meeting and it's up to the committee chair as to whether or not he or she will move it forward that's good okay thank you okay
072with that wrong anyway okay I'll put it in an email to you that's how it's black and white I would probably direct you at first to maybe review the presentation from the previous meeting I looked at October 12 2021 that's what I was told was when it was I remember watching Mr Stout and Dr Foley presented and it was it was brought up the questions there I did not remember seeing a vote at that time so I don't know if that's when it was voted on I did review I mean I looked at yeah we'll move on that from this and make the request and we'll go to a future policy meeting yeah thank you thanks again but we need to vote okay so we did we did the Motions okay that's right they're so
073long ago I forgot okay uh so the discussions are done uh roll call vote please Mr panarello yes Mr up to growth yes Mr zawada yes Mrs Scott yes Miss deeroff yes Mr Hemingway yes Mrs Hogan yes Ms nyman yes Mr Brophy yes motion carries next I've been looking for the board of school directors to approve the creation of a Student Activity account for the walk for lives this account is needed to deposit money received to make payments for buying t-shirts to sell catering events transfer funds to a dualified provider of help such as the United Way your way home initiative fund Hogan moves zero seconds so we can lose their second discussion please this is water upon there uh we've had this discussion I've been talking different board members uh as far as this
074particular group um they do specialize in in students um suicide and hotline so but it wasn't pointed out so my question is to listener now um are we able to be maintenance and extreme established committee or um basically are we as school board members are allowed to question materials or anything that's being presented in that club or I mean is it are we able to being that it's it is a school function it's not funded by the school but it's it's school students are we allowed to ask maybe what their mission or give a presentation to the board exactly what they do I don't believe we have a policy per se here that addresses the formation of clubs nor do we have any kind of policy that dictates our overview of Clubs so your question
075is a very interesting one so yes so this is a Student Activity um Club governed by Student Activity rules of pde all of the expenditures would need to be approved by the students that raise the funds the students and the class advisor the guidelines are very formalized by pde so there wouldn't be school board oversight but they would be approved by the individual students that are involved with the Student Activity yeah the the pde regulations and state law requires us to approve the activity accounts but it does not necessarily grant us specific authority to probe into one particular Club versus another do we have an idea of how many clubs we have we have probably well Mr Foley at the high school we have the most at the elementary schools it's basically by grade but
076at the um High School I don't know Dr Foley if you have the number I don't have I have a rough number if we're talking about just clubs or we're talking about clubs with fiduciary accounts because that's different we have a lot of clubs we probably have about 60 clubs and those are all clubs that are running with advisors and things going on within the school um however the ones that have fiduciary accounts are the ones that would be raising money for certain things which would go through and as the Auditors talked earlier in our presentation those rules all changed in June of last year as well so this summer Mrs Nicola her office and myself in particular put together a whole set of packets of information that has the very strict guidelines on how
077this all works including their notes how they run their meetings what what students are allowed to do what so when we look at that there's probably we probably have about 40 clubs that are in fiduciary accounts so okay so getting back to your uh specific question it doesn't appear as we as if you as a board automatically have the right to request specific information about one Club versus another could the board theoretically develop a policy that addresses the extent to which you want to have oversight over clubs theoretically yes I have not seen many boards go into that area nor uh have I seen higher levels of concern about clubs but if the board wants to get involved in the process of sanctioning Clubs that is something that I would suggest that you address through
078the policy uh function of the board but I think if a board is going to go in that direction I'm not so sure that we can pick one Club versus another I think you would need to do that kind of review on all of the clubs versus singularly looking at one Club versus another unless per se there was some Financial fraudulent issues that would arise we do report on the weekly checklists any payment out of any bank account that is held by the school district I don't believe prior to um current Administration that that was done but we'd report every payment that comes out of any District bank account that would include the fiduciary fiduciary funds of the Student Activity and scholarships as well so you would see those payments I I think what I
079was reading and maybe I misconstrued what Mr zawada was saying I thought he was more interested in looking at the mission and or uh certain of the documentation the club versus the club's Financial uh expenditures the financial expenditures are already being addressed so I was trying to address if the board wants to go beyond the financial and that I think that would have to be addressed most effectively by board policy again it's it's um transparency so parents know students know what the the class or what the club is about my other question is if we have roughly 40 clubs that have fiduciaries why are we voting why are they why when these are all these other clubs going to have to have to open up bank accounts no we have one bank account for each
080fiduciary group so we have a bank account for the Student Activity um fiduciary duties and we have one for the scholarships they're separated out within the um within each of those in the accounting records by type of club or type of scholarship so we can do individualized reporting but they are all in one bank account so every time a new student activity account wants to be opened that's what you'll see on the board agenda so that's creation of a new student activity Club in like the high school or the elementary school or middle school so back to my um again I'm so this club's existed last year in Prior years foreign no no these these these clubs are not necessarily new it's just now they've decided that they wanted to start raising funds to donate
081to like multi-serve and those other places so we have a lot of clubs in the school that have no fiduciary Accounts at all because they're just want to get together with their friends and and do whatever on like a sports club for example where they want to play sports um but not everybody will apply for a fiduciary account just these two particular right now that we're looking for the one in particular you're talking about now is a is a club that they've decided that's you know they would raise funds for specific organizations in this particular case the United Way was one of them and the other one was is the um your way home for homeless and and other children that are struggling let me ask a question of miss that akola have we as
082a board approved all of the fiduciary accounts even those those that were in place a decade ago to my knowledge yes every time a new um club that was going to be raising funds as a student activity that was brought before the board quick and again um so these clubs didn't raise money last year no okay that's that's the new aspect that you're asked to vote on right now thank you now it's okay no it's okay um so just a quick question probably to Dr Foley who's who sanctions these clubs now right now when you say sanctioning them like who who I guess say a bunch of kids want to approach who how does that happen yeah the process that we go through is as they come and they meet with Administration and then we
083say all right so based upon what you're saying to me now you're going to be looking at this you have to find a divisor so then the students will go back and find an advisor and then based upon that they'll create that once that happens then we ask the advisor to say hey yes this is the club that I'm going to be advising and doing these things and sometimes it's they'll meet after school once a week for from three to four and like I said like you say and play a game of basketball or whatever that activity could be but the point is is yes that's kind of the way it happens now I have an idea I would really like to do this I have an advisor once everything's in place and we say
084this is a good place or safe place for them to be then then that's how it moves forward so you would say that they're student driven oh they're all students every one of them okay um and they're they're completely voluntary no student is forced into a club yeah they're completely voluntary absolutely volunteering okay um Oh I thought someone snapped I'm sorry and um these These are self-supporting clubs financially right yes you said that um so as far as how do students know like what clubs are available is there like a list how do they How do they how do they know like you know first of all Word of Mouth you know they're friends number two there's if you go to the website all the clubs are listed there and as um we talked about
085earlier the the link crew is on in fact tomorrow going to have a club fair so what will happen is they'll have an opportunity for a freshman and other students to go down and look at what clubs are available because we know that connective tissue to the school is real important anything we can get kids involved in school with we're going to try to do right so they're transparent and kids can access them they know that they exist there's different ways for them to to look into what's available to them they're student driven um they're self-funding they're voluntary um I think these actually sound like really great things and personally I I commend these students for wanting to um just to serve our community by raising funds so um that's all I have thank you
086I appreciate it let me raise one other issue just for the uh benefit of the board and uh I think your questions uh point to that in 1984 the federal government passed what is known as the equal access Act of 1984. and that law provides um it prevents public schools that receive federal funds like Boyertown to deny students their rights to participate in student initiated clubs um uh on First Amendment grounds so if we don't like and I'll use uh a you know the snake healer Society of uh Pennsylvania if we don't like that the viewpoints espoused by that group we do not have a legal right to restrict that particular student-initiated group from uh participating in the school so we have limited rights that is already statutorily regulated the separate issue is one of
087accounting on how we account for student funds in the fundraising basis but if if for example we do not like the mission or the viewpoints espoused by a particular student initiated group we have limitations under the Equal access Act of 1984 under the circumstances if we refuse all federal funds we're not subject to that but that would not make Patty very happy okay I think what we're talking about tonight is policy 618 which is strictly the account the establishment of the account I understand but the question is today's vote today's vote is just simply approving the financial accounting perspective but reading between the lines uh in Mr zawada's question I wanted to mention that we do have uh limitations under the Equal access Act of 1984. so I guess my question is if we refuse
088to elect we if we say no tonight to them opening the account we're just we're we're not allowing them to do any fundraising but that's not having any effect on the establishment of the club per se theoretically no so we would just be hindering their ability to function uh that is correct ly but I mean there may be uh you know I I I'd rather not go into too much more detail okay at this point in time but it it raises questions all right I'm first one I want to state I'm not against any club any club can be here I'll support any club anybody's passion is welcome to join that club these particular two clubs um and I know we're working on the first one but they all seem to be lumped together if
089you look at the application it was concerning information put down by what they do so my concern was I don't want to not fun like I said I learned a little bit more about the walk thing uh my concern is um and it was brought up earlier by a a comment from the from our parents that basically is there is there a way that we can know where the money's going that it doesn't turn into into a political donation um is does that do we have that Authority Mr sultanic to say you know we you know that where that money is particularly going not that it turns hey United Way a lot of these uh you know there's homeless stuff is 100 we don't like these accounts do we the financial statement Auditors will audit
090them as part of their testing so as part of their testing we would theoretically know where checks were cut out of these particular clubs all of the checks were cut by the business office and all of them are reviewed prior to being issued to make sure that they have the required student sign-offs the student documentation do we maintain a specific list of those checks that are cut from this group so theoretically that's public information correct but we hold no we hold no we don't audit them per se and we don't say we don't like that you wrote a check to this particular vendor nor do we have the authority to stop them do we probably not I think it's probably not is there can it be a policy added or discussed well we can always
091talk about a policy you know it it's it you know let me use an example once again if they were giving money to a terrorist organization that may use an extreme example that doesn't get too politically polarized under the circumstances um that might be an issue where it might raise a concern on uh you know finances behalf we've never had that situation before uh and the question is if the board passes a policy that it wants to review this then you're almost creating a responsibility on our part to view those expenditures and then intervene at certain times I think we would need to think very carefully about the extent to which we want to regulate we run in these issues to take it out of this context also similar issues with respect to booster clubs
092how do we regulate booster clubs who raise money what and we they don't currently because they're usually separate and autonomous entities and some districts have seen their booster clubs Treasurer abscond with all of the money that was raised on behalf of a particular team and there is always this um view as to the extent to which the board this board would try to get involved and regulate an autonomous 501c3 booster club under the circumstances that raises funds so the issue is whenever we want to regulate we also then assume a level of responsibility and in the case of booster clubs most districts don't regulate because we don't have enough resources to go and check into on a daily basis what they're going to do you know if we're going to start regulating booster clubs per
093se Patty's team would have to go and look on a regular basis to see the legality of the expenditures and the deposits and most districts are saying that's a separate organization we don't want it to reflect badly on our students but there's how far do we want to extend our review and grasp that is an issue a policy that we won't decide tonight no understand that but also the booster clubs are not a student activity they're right am I correct they're parents they are separate organizations they're not part of the school district I would just like to review policy 618 in under the delegation of responsibility the superintendent or designee is responsible for developing the administrative regulations governing Student Activities funds however the building principle is responsible for working with students and advisors implementing policies
094procedures and maintaining fiscal records the principal Shall Serve as custodian of the funds and shall approve all checks drawn upon them so we do have safeguards in place um that is our role our job as administrators to you know supervise and administer so I believe you know at this point that it would fall back to Dr Foley and then my little limited knowledge of accounting is that we have safeguards in place that he doesn't get to to sign off the check and approve it then that comes towards um to Mrs denicola and I can guarantee you that anything that is not um where it should be won't be moving forward the Simon okay for example they have down here United Way and your way home as fun things can we say somehow that that's only
095the people that they can give to or can they change that at any time and give to whoever they want they can give they I'm sure they're going to be fundraising on a continuous basis and they generally have their autonomous right to contribute where they want on a regular basis and I think the question is do we want to as a board police that or not you're reading their basic purpose is to fundraise for families in emotional crises who are lacking basic needs that's the purpose for I'm sorry that's walk for lives let me yes that's that that is their their purpose so if we're going to um say that some people fit this and some people don't I think that that would not men well I I think that if they're identifying people who
096perhaps couldn't afford a Thanksgiving um dinner and they put a basket together to help Supply a healthy meal um that's great go ahead and I understand that and I'm all for that you know helping everybody out that you can but what happens if it's Manny Moe and Jack down the lane who really don't need it but I mean there's got to be some type of control or my next question would be to Mrs denicola the auditors don't necessarily come in and audit all of these accounts so they could be doing something that wouldn't strictly be by the books that could happen but I would tell you in my experience the Auditors always touch on Student Activity Accounts at some level they're not going to test every single item but they'll take a sample to make
097sure it has the appropriate documentation they're not required to test it annually but in my experience they do test all of the accounts at some level each year again it's it's to be supervised by Administration an Administration is going to be supporting you know what the club's activity would be it goes back to supervision and and what the role of the the administrator is in that building as well as as the person who is guiding them they're they're our teachers um so I believe that we have the responsibility to be able to determine that you know is this a good place for it to to go or not and to have that discussion with the the group okay I'm gonna vote for this tonight with the thing that we do some looking at putting some
098policies in place policies are by the word of policies and procedures would be the um works that Dr Foley and his team would be using it wouldn't be a policy that we would adopt necessarily um with with aspects to their funds being expended I I what is the focus of this group again like how are they selling themselves to the students oh I'm sorry I'm sorry the focus of the group how are they selling themselves to students what what do you know in this particular case um it's a group of students that walk just like when you did the the the walkathons and those kind of things they walk and they do that in to earn money so that they can provide these organizations yeah that's it yeah okay they're they're trying to help others
099yes okay helping each other okay okay roll call vote please Mr panarello yes Mr up the Grove yes Mr zawada yes Mrs Scott yes mroff yes Mr Hemingway yes Mrs Hogan yes Ms nyman yes Mr Brophy yes motion carries next I will be looking for the board of school directors to approve the creation of a Student Activity account for the impact Club the impact club's Student Activity account is uh impact Club is focused on leadership the impact Club will work on promoting connections acceptance and inclusions um those are some of the things that they have written down as their intended purpose they have been working together and um the responses back from our school counseling supervisors that they're really doing good work um Dr Foley could you elaborate a little bit sure this is a
100group that is representative of the entire School population and what I mean by that is is anybody and everybody is welcome to be part of this club um this is a club that has done training with Tom Stecker which was the consultant that we worked with throughout the school district prior which is with this leadership piece comes in and from this point they've actually taken stuff that they learned from their whole student body and they actually did a presentation to our entire staff to say hey just so you understand when you do this we do this so we want you to help us go in this direction so they give a lot of really good feedback and this group of kids are so passionate and energetic like they're fun to watch their most recent thing
101that they're working on right now is working with ADL and working in the build a better Warrior town community and they're actually coming up with some ideas for the mural that's going to be replaced and redone so they're working very strong and very hard with kids in the in the school as well as students and Community things outside of the school so that's why they're looking at both areas of these this so it's a pretty interesting Club it's a lot of fun I am looking for a motion from the board of school directors who approve the creation of Student Activity account for the impact Club Hogan seconds dear elf uh moves Hogan's second discussion sorry um Dr Foley can you spell stacker or gentleman's last name it's stuck I think it's s-t-e-c-h -e-r thank you
102yeah any other questions Mr panorello no Mr uptergrove yes Mr zawada no Mrs Scott no Ms giraffe yes Mr Hemingway yes Mrs Hogan yes MS nyman no Mr Brophy yes 5'4 motion pairs next I'll be looking for the board of school directors to approve the Personnel agenda items as presented a lot of motions second any discussion I see no discussion so we'll call vote Please Mr panarello yes Mr up the Grove yes Mr zawada yes Mrs Scott yes Miss deeroff yes Mr Hemingway yes Mrs Hogan yes Miss nyman yes Mr Brophy yes motion carries that completes my report Mr Brophy okay any old business no okay no old business we'll go to a public comment period number two let me get to that one [Applause] okay we have some people signed up to uh to
103speak at this one so let me read the requirements on behalf of the school board the school board of school directors I would like to welcome you to this meeting we welcome your attendance and input from stakeholders to assist us with making recommendations and decisions related to the Bordentown Area School District this procedural rules for public participation or detailed in PSID Port policy 903 this document is available in the BISD website participants properly registered with the board secretary we recognized by the presiding officer public period comment period number two is for persons wishing to discuss any District items not not appearing on the evening agenda participants must preference their comments by announcement their name participants are encouraged to direct all statements inquiries and questions and presiding always ends of the Court as a whole note
104that we value will not compromise the privacy of our students and staff please see us outside the realm of public meeting if you have a concern about an individual staff member or student if your public comment includes a question Mrs dorsche or a member of her staff will be in contact with you to confirm your question and provide you with information comments are limited three minutes and comment periods time is under 30 minutes finally note that we do record our board and committee meetings and we post them on YouTube with a link to our website request if you do wish to take pictures or record the meeting yourself you do so in a non-disruptive and discrete Manner and use those materials respectively and responsibly first person would be Krista Collins good evening um first I
105just wanted to go back to the impact Club because the summary was not actually read in full I think that some words were picked and chosen and specifically left out with Miss torshia read it um this is an sel-focused leadership group um they will plan and Lead SEL fundraising activities such as SEL Unity day and again that is not necessarily a bad thing I'm not here to say that it is necessarily a bad thing okay but the questions come in when they're talking about Professional Services such as speakers and presenters for Unity day and travel to sel summer camps who are they sending to the summer camps what are these camps what are the agenda what is the curriculum on the summer camp you need to look into all of these things and understand what
106they are and I'm just going to say it this is how drag queen Story Time happens in elementary schools okay not necessarily but yes it does happen and that is a reality so we need to be making sure that we're promoting good things for kids and not bad things for kids and then parents find out after it happened okay so that's number one number two is I wanted to speak to the board about concerns required regarding curricular materials the days of Simply publishing a state approved curriculum and moving on our thing of the past as parents we know what is best for our kids and we want to know the details of what our children are learning residents and taxpayers also have the right to know what our tax tax dollars are funding one of
107the biggest takeaways from the November 10th curriculum presentation is that curricular materials lack proper vetting and oversight within the district the current policy that pretty much any teacher is free to pick their curricular materials without them being reviewed and bring them into the classroom is exactly how a critical race Theory worksheet ended up in the hands of an entire class of 12 year old students at Boyertown West while I understand that this issue was brought to the attention of the principal and the administration and that the worksheet has since been removed that does not change the fact that it never should have happened in the first place as a board you have the authority and the expectation to protect our students from all kinds of indoctrination for example when I dropped off pocket constitutions to
108be handed out to 8th graders during Constitution week these booklets had to be vetted before being given to the student body that was the appropriate thing to do and I thanked the person that did it um why are we not doing this for everything including curricular materials presented by the teachers I am requesting that the board make a motion to create new policies or change existing policies as needed to keep questionable curricular materials out of the hands of children these children have so much to learn and have Bright Futures ahead of them I cannot imagine why anyone would sit back and allow discussions about a child's privilege or oppression based on their race gender or religious beliefs this is getting out of hand and it needs to stop we keep telling you that we want
109our children taught how to think not what to think please put policies in place that help accomplish this simple ask thank you Nicole zilics impact club and walk for Life Club c903 Impala I'm sorry for me yeah because that was still in the first one Barb Furman you're up please kind of the policy 93 and policy and curriculum materials good evening Barb Furman New Hanover Township first of all I want to really praise those children and the leaders of the elksen's group they are practicing the value of work hard work and discipline and we thank them for that so love thy neighbor this community has done amazing things together I have been involved in a number of things and all of them and I see people that sit here that I know have been involved
110in them they're designed to do what is best for children first of all I am grateful for nine people to represent us on the school board we elect the people and we cannot watch everything we elect you because we trust your judgment so when things are not going uh the way we would want then of course the next election comes I've attended school board meetings Township meetings County Commissioners meetings many of them the success of the leadership weighs heavily on letting the public speak freely and honestly Town Hall style pros and cons and things such as of things such as masking which I've asked for for over a year and political ideology creeping into our children's classrooms we need more time to speak and we need to speak with each other to each other in
111a town hall fashion an open policy that allows people to speak at meetings even when they have not signed up ahead of time as in policy 903 should be implemented books and resources in classrooms and at the Children's fingers tip at school is a different issue than censorship and banning books you speak about all the mental health issues that you must deal with we lament the lower test scores State safety in the school is an issue every week children are getting at the least confusing messages from adults that may not align with the values at home when I taught for 35 years I was not a mental health expert but I cared about the wellness of children the teacher was always secondary to the child and the parents if you wonder why one of the
112most active Defenders of our public schools has taken a 180 degree turn we did not leave the Public public education public education left us time thank you okay now Nicole's house community and board input good evening Nicole zawks um actually I'm going to speak a little bit about the impact um Club um since it was brought up I'm really sad and disheartened that four board members voted no for this um and really unsure why I know there's a lot of questions about wanting to control these clubs voluntary clubs um so I really suggest you speak to your solicitor in regards to the legality of that because I really think that there are a lot of questions of whether or not that is even something the board could do um in regards to trying to control
113say what they're raising money for or anything like that so I suggest you have that conversation with the solicitor um also um I know there's been a lot of talk about the 57 bus Lately from multiple people in the community and I want to thank them because I actually bought the book and read it this weekend um there is some profanity and people in the story do um are gay transsexual or see themselves as neither female or male or both um but my take away from this book was that the value in it um and this being a non-fiction book which means it actually did happen um it was well written it was extremely emotional and there were so many lessons to be learned um in this book including forgiveness compassion remorse all these things
114so I highly highly suggest if any board member wants to ban this book from our schools they read it first I have a copy and you're more than welcome um to borrow it if you like I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving thank you Cassandra Rooney Cassandra um I think a 40 year old woman's review of a book is different than 11 12 year old I think you would all agree that's not the same thing it doesn't matter you're over 40. um so at the last meeting um many people said leave it to the experts and the Educators I disagree I think we've been forced to question various aspects and what hides behind them when curriculum was reviewed at the last meeting it was mentioned that locked items were out of the district's control
115there were areas at the bottom of the screen clearly unlocked within the district's control that section is curricular materials so change it this is the exact section that I've had two assignments removed this school year from seventh grade they weren't taken off just for my opinion whatever you choose to call it Dei CRT SEO it doesn't matter it was found this school year and in our district we need a policy code committee again I don't care what you call it to take the time to check random teachers for these types of devices materials no one will get this done without some action and less excuses the teacher and principal were involved in preventing the questionable material in the seventh grade ELA class but that will not prevent me from coming here and speaking about it
116so that other parents teachers or anyone is aware and more involved for any concerned parents there is an opt-out form on pji.org if you would like to prevent this negative data farming I recommend checking the private information section our effort is not to bring blame Educators as some of you are unaware of the agenda some of our Educators aren't brave enough to say no I have no doubt there is pressure from the union state and federal levels but we have to stand against the underlying agenda it is the opposite of inclusion it's grooming also lastly the board behavior is a huge concern we need new leadership on the board imagine saying you have no comment because you don't want to add to the drama or you sit there and think by name every public speaker
117oh except the ones you didn't agree with or that you dread listening to the community speak get off the board or step it up the problem exists and saying that concerned parents are not preventing facts which was also stated by one of you at the last meeting here's the assignments it doesn't get more factual than the assignments in my hand stop denying the problem stop saying you can't change it because that last meeting you said you could change it it was within your control move on to board comments now tonight this board comments not board debate so when you go around make your comments I'm not coming around anybody a second time tonight we've turned we've turned board comment and meeting her portion of this board into a board debate back and forth it's time
118to stop that so when you make your comments you'll go around once and then we're done uh start with misteroff I just want to say how entertaining it was to have that group here tonight with Taiwan I can't even Taekwondo Taekwondo sorry and uh I asked the questions of the age because some of our little children as they start young enough and get taught some of the morals that they teach in there I think would be very helpful to us and I appreciate all the other questions that were asked by everyone not just a few that I liked and didn't like and uh I welcome the public to ask any questions they like hope everybody has a lovely holiday and I hope that they think about what they're doing when they come to our board
119meetings because the children are watching thank you Mr up the Grove I don't have any comment except for the fact that I want to wish everybody a Happy Thanksgiving this is Scott I just want to say Happy Thanksgiving thank you to the parents um we do have some policy work to do but we can get to that uh you know after the New Year possibly but anyway thank you all and thank you for that presentation um else because now I know what I can do with my grandson because he needs something like that he's over so thank you Mr zawada Happy Thanksgiving to everybody in the board the administration the students the community I hope you have a great Thanksgiving and remember why we're celebrating Thanksgiving um basically one statement I want to make and
120I think Tony and I agree on this is we're not book Banning we're looking for a way to work with the administration that we can almost put some type of ratings on these books so the parents have to sign off whether it's PG-13 like the movies or rated X I'm not asking for but if a parent should know if they want their child to read this so we're trying to figure out a way but we're not trying to uh ban books I believe we need to set up a policy and we'll have to do it at some point that I think that there should be some type of uh um way for a parent to see what's going to be taught in their class if we need to sit down and start a committee to
121look into that with the administration uh this year alone the House of Representatives and the Senate of Pennsylvania did pass a um a law H.R 382 1382 rather that was calling for transparency for teachers and their lessons it was vetoed by the the governor but uh basically it was passed by two of the branches out of the three so it's something to look into uh I think every parent has the right to know ahead of time what the possibility what their children are going to learn and with that again I want to thank uh the Taekwondo group they were phenomenal if we could it's almost like some of the countries that make their kids when they turn 18 have to serve in the service for two years before they're allowed to be in public because
122it does put a good training on uh and um and I appreciate tonight and the back and forth what we got accomplished a lot of good ideas and again I can't relate it enough I'm not trying to ban books as a curricula chair thank you and again Happy Happy Thanksgiving this time okay wishing everybody a Happy Thanksgiving um after working the polls I did hear some feedback from different people in the community um one being from some of our nurses staff um about their unhappiness with the way things are they're still leaving even though they're press employees there's still issues there um they don't feel comfortable or they don't feel happy with the district uh so I think we need to do some polling there as to what's going on because I saw that I
123think we lost two more of our staff nurses or that on our agenda again so I'd like to look into that see what's going on because I heard a lot um but um we do need to do some work on some policies and hopefully in the New Year we can get things going and get moving again and enjoy your holiday stay safe I want to start by thanking Lexi for being here she did the whole thing tonight solo so that was cool um the karate class was awesome Taekwondo sorry um that might be perfect for my little guy too I was thinking about that when they were talking um what else do we have to address so I want to clarify my votes tonight because I'm sure people are wondering um if it was written
124on that the way Miss torch had said it I would have voted for it but it was riddled with SEL which I don't agree with so that's why my vote was there um as far as everything else everyone have a good Thanksgiving it's okay thank you Mr Brophy um yeah so just to piggyback um SEL social emotional learning um we have a mental health crisis among students and this curriculum teaches um kids really much needed skills to navigate their emotions to navigate relationships friendships relate any relationships it's it's very very valuable it is not political um and I wasn't even going to mention this but I feel like um when we were talking about integrity earlier I feel that I I must so when we're talking about I hear it often CRT which is right
125now a political buzzword CRT is critical race Theory I'm sure everyone knows this it is a theory of law that is taught in law school it's taught in some high-end sociology classes it is not taught to high school students it is not part of our curriculum which I know um has been discussed previously um this is a political football and it really has no place in this boardroom um so those two things I feel very passionate about I feel that we should be teaching kids how to navigate their emotional world and how to connect to each other um so I'm gonna stand back off that right now so um thank you to Lexi always it's always a pleasure to have you here um I hope Olivia feels better soon please pass along you know my
126wishes my well wishes um just wanted to say Happy Thanksgiving to everyone to all my colleagues to everyone in the public and I always like to this is like a season of gratitude so I want to give a big thank you to you know our teachers our administrators all of our staff who work so hard to um to give our kids all the opportunity that they have every day when they walk through our doors and to the school board who also works very hard so thank you to my colleagues for the work that you guys do um and that's all so thank you Mr Hemingway all right just a quick quick comment uh to the public and also the board members when they do speak don't assume that I agree or disagree I listen that's
127my job is to listen as leadership I serve the entire board not individuals or groups or cliques or whatever you want to call it I feel the same when that branches out into the community I serve the community not any individual group I base my decisions through what I'm listening and hearing and learning from all of us and I try to base my decisions with what I think is best for the whole my opinion doesn't matter my job is to gather the facts gather everyone's opinions and and try to derive a non-parental decision a non-individual Community member decision but remember that I'm here to serve everyone and from that is how I base my decisions so don't assume anything whether I agree or disagree a lot of times I have to make a decision honestly
128I don't like to make it goes against what I personally would believe so just watch how you speak to me and I will do my best to serve everyone Happy Thanksgiving okay move the announcements please our upcoming meetings will be December 6th Board of school directors reorganization meeting seven o'clock here at the Ed Center and December 13th Board of school director's meeting which will be held at the first career and Technology Center only campus this will be a virtual meeting for the public and then we have our two meetings in the new year January 10th and the 24th and they will all be here and we will move back to the buildings um come February second to grow then [Music] [Applause] [Music]