001At this point, Mr. Rush, meeting is yours. >> Thank you. Hello everybody. The meeting is now in session. Please stand for the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Can I have a motion to approve the minutes from the last policy meeting? >> So moved. >> Can I have a second? >> Second. >> Any comments or discussions? Seeing none, all those in favor say I. I. >> I does recommend it for work session action meeting or policy 221 and 325 dress and grooming policies 332 working periods and policies 619 district audit. Uh, could you would you like to take over, Dr. Waters? >> Uh, sure. Good evening, everybody.
002Happy Tuesday. I hope everybody had um, an enjoyable um, Memorial Day weekend and um, enjoyed today's weather even though it wasn't so great this weekend. Um, tonight, um, as Mr. Rush stated, we do have four policies to bring before you that we are recommending some revisions to uh, policy 221 dress and grooming, policy 325 is also dressing uh, dress and grooming, one for students, one for staff. Policy 332 working periods and policy 619 uh, district audit. And so tonight, stepping in for Mr. Summers, we do have with us uh, Mrs. Bethany O'Neal and she will give you an overview of each of these uh, policies and the revisions in them. >> Thank you, Dr. Waters. Um, so all changes that we're going to be talking tonight are to existing policies. Um, I'm going to take
003221 and 325 sort of together because as Dr. Waters mentioned, they're sort of counterparts to each other. And if we start by looking at 221, there's an addition here under um authority, which is that second paragraph. And these changes to both of these policies um are based on a law called the Pennsylvania Crown Act that was um recently enacted and went into effect in January of this year. The Crown Act stands for creating a respectful and open world for natural hair. Um and while district policies already have provisions against discrimination, the intent in these two policies is really just to make it explicit um that um discrimination is prohibited against um discrimination for these two um protected hairstyles and head coverings. And like we said, they're really the same language in both of these policies.
004One is geared students and three uh 235 is geared towards employees. So let's take those two together. Any comments or questions? >> Uh no, it's pretty straightforward. Um Anybody else? >> Yeah, just a two two-part wondering here. One, do does the administration have a sense of how much of a change in practice this might actually turn out to be for students and staff? And two, um how will this be communicated out to to students and staff? >> So, I can jump in and um I know Dr. Bauer actually um, led um, a dress dress policy I guess a few years ago now um, and that was one of the things that was discussed in those meetings. So head coverings, how you know, students wear their hair um, and we have I would say gosh for
005probably at least 5 years so correct me if I'm wrong. Um, but we've kind of had this in effect where you know, we have um, made sure that there's discrimination around any of that and that's something that was um, discussed like I said back in those committee meetings when we changed our policy. So this policy like Bethany said is something that we have to add to um, things that we've already been doing and when we had those committees in place it was representative of not just teachers but also staff um, and students. And so that came out really clearly. One example um, even with hoods, you know, like we used to kind of say take your hood down but we recognize that some students for that hood being up it's kind of a protection and
006so we really kind of pulled back on some of the things that we used to do um, 20 years ago in North Penn. Todd, do you want to add anything? >> I apologize if you are hearing a printer in the background. My son was printing a project that I can't figure out how to stop it. Um, so >> [laughter] >> with that Dr. Waters you said it beautifully. Um, we Dr. T asked the question what changes do we expect in terms of practice students and staff? None. Um, this is really in accordance with the law but we had made these changes years ago. Um, we really want students to bring their full selves to school and feel comfortable um, and recognizing that sometimes that hat was causing friction between staff and student uh, that was
007unnecessary. Um, so whether it is as outlined in this policy, whether it's a cultural or religious thing, or as Dr. Waters said, some students just want to wear a hat. Um as long as that hat is school appropriate, um we are we allow them to wear them. So, I see no change uh for our students or staff whatsoever. >> Thank you. I didn't really answer the question, but that was Yes, you're right. Yeah. No change. >> Great. Thank you so much for that. >> I do have a question. >> Quick question. [clears throat] >> Oh. >> Quick question, sorry. Is this being pushed um to middle school like past the high school level, like middle schoolers and elementary school, too? Cuz I just remember when I was in middle school, there were way like I
008know high school is more lenient, but in middle school I I remember like being told a lot to take off my hood, and I know you said not a change in the past 5 years, but I was in middle school like 2 years ago, so. >> Yeah, this has been um this policy is for all of our students, so it's like K-12. Um and I don't remember, Dr. Bauer, the exact year. I know I was on your committee, but the years are all blending together, but if you were asked to take something off, we apologize. You should not have been 2 years ago at middle school. >> Yeah. [laughter] >> Yeah, uh you're correct. I believe it was 4 years ago. Um and there was some time for it to trickle down, cuz we really
009did start at the high school. So, it is possible in middle school you had that experience. I'm hopeful that there's a change now, for sure. >> Thank you. >> Um Did There was a second part to the question. Uh And the second part was uh How is this going to be rolled out to the students? I don't know if if uh Mr. Teo was satisfied with the answer or not. >> Well, it sounds like it's been both uh uh put into practice already from what Dr. Waters and Dr. Bauer are saying and yet um as we just heard, you know, I think there's still some roll out that's occurring as we change um the practices in school. So, it sounds like things are already underway um to that effect. >> Wonderful. Thank you very much.
010We can move on to the next policy. >> Okay. So, let's move on to 332. And if we look at policy 332, the only change that's here is if you look at the second paragraph under authority, we added three words and state law to that. Um the board has the authority and responsibility to determine hours and days during which district programs and services shall be available to students in the community consistent with the administrative compensation plan, individual contracts, applicable collective bargaining agreements, board resolutions, and we add and state law. And those three words were added there to include a citation to uh the Pennsylvania um school code, which sets minimum requirements for the number of instructional days and hours. >> Any questions? >> N- none for me. >> None for me. >> I'm good. >>
011Okay. So, hearing nothing else, um we'll move on to the final policy, which is 619 here, that has to do with the district audits. So, the thing to um focus on here is the removal of language that refers to the um Auditor General's office. So, that deals with the fact that for years the that office conducted an annual or supposed to be annual audit of school districts uh for their finances and recently this was a few years ago they determined that they could no longer uh do that for all school districts and so we have some changes there now where the responsibility goes back to the Pennsylvania Department of Education. So we wanted to remove that language from the policy stating that that office um the Auditor General's office would be doing those audits. And
012so that's the main takeaway from this policy change. >> I don't have any questions. >> Just a clarify clarification question. I think this is for and and might be for Dr. Waters. So who audited North Penn last? Was it Department of Education? Or um at the state level? >> Are you talking about like the most recent >> yeah, the most recent one. >> that yeah, that was um our federal programs audit. So that was for like our title one, title two, three, and four grants. >> Oh. No, no. I think did we have like a financial audit? >> Oh for the financial audit? >> Yeah. We have We have a audit every year uh budget process. We have uh professional services policy which we talked about at the last meeting for uh legal services. But
013um auditor is also among the professional services. We go out to RFP for every 5 years. And we use uh Z A and it's Zelenkofsky Axelrod. Uh that's who does our audit. So you can see why I call them Z A. >> Okay. >> So so that's a good clarification is whereas it used to be the Auditor General's office that did these audits, now because the responsibility's back with the Department of Education, now the district is contracting out to perform those audits. >> Interesting. Okay. All right. Great. Thank you very much. >> Any other questions? >> Uh comment and a wondering. One, having listened to the Z audit a couple of weeks, months ago, um really just appreciate the work that uh Ms. Hauser's team does to create to ensure that all that's done appropriately
014and as the district is making that available to the public, you know, everyone can see with great transparency uh the district's finances. Um so, really kudos to uh Ms. Hauser's team for shepherding that process. My my wondering is this shift from the from the Auditor General's Office to Department of Ed, is this something that's taking place this year for the first time? >> No, this one is for No, this has been for the past few years. >> I'm sorry. Maybe my sound just went out. I didn't hear you. >> I cut out? Um so, this was this was for the past few years. This change has been in effect. >> Okay. So, then we're just changing board policy to reflect um actual practice. Got you. Okay. Um I'd be curious if we can talk about
015this down the road, but um what the administration's perception or experiences have been with PDE and their capacity to be able to provide um support on these audits and whatnot and if it's done in timely fashion. Just just for my own learning around the the work of what PDE is doing. Not about the district, but would be curious to know what the experience has been, but thank you so much. I really appreciate that, Mr. Neil. >> Okay. I recommend the following policies for first read: policies 221, 325, 332, and 619. Do you have a motion to approve the policies? >> So moved. >> Do you have a second? >> Second. >> Uh any comments or discussion? Seeing none, can I have a vote to approve the policies? I. >> I. >> Um Are there any
016informational items for discussion today? Seeing none, do the student reps have anything for the committee? >> None today. Not today. >> Does anyone from the community wish to speak? >> I don't believe so, cuz I think these are some uh internal folks that are watching here in the attendee. If you do want to speak, you got to put your hand up. I'll give it uh 5 4 3 2 1. No public comment for policy committee meeting tonight. >> Great. So so um the summary of items for work session are policies 221 and 325 dealing with dressing and grooming, policy 332, working periods, and policy 619, district audits. The next meeting is on August 25th. Uh can I have please have a motion to adjourn? >> So moved. >> Have a good night, everybody. >> Thank
017you. >> Good night. >> Mr. Neil and Bob, thank you. >> You're welcome. >> Take care.