001good evening welcome to the special board meeting for uh Tuesday September September 24th before we call tonight's meeting to order Dr McGary will you please quickly outline the public participation procedures yes we have now moved into a typical special voting meeting where it's comment only and we will take uh inperson comments uh as the board processes through a specific report uh they will have a conversation among themselves if they feel like they need to have a conversation and ask any questions and then they will then they will then open it up to the public at that time a member of the public that's in person can come forward provide their name General location where you live and the specific report that you're commenting on you can provide a comment of three minutes to the board
002the board will take that into consideration before moving forward there is also a general comment period that you'd had to have signed in prior to the beginning of the meeting General comments will be read at the conclusion of the meeting this evening um after all the other um comments and agenda items are covered those who are participating virtually can call it in or phone it in at 610 789-7253 this needs to be updated again I'm happy to do so board president Fields okay thank you Dr McGary the special meeting of the Apper Derby School District Board of school directors will please come to order I would like to note that all board members previously pulled tonight are still present the district posted this evening's agenda to boards at least 24 hours prior to the commencement
003of this meeting is there a motion to approve that previously posted agenda so moved second it are there any amendments to offer there are no amendments the agenda has been moved in seconded all those in favor please say I I those opposed please signify by saying I oppose those abstaining please signify by saying I abstain motion carried we go down to the supplies report director Muhammad yeah just read go ahead uh the supplies report is in the hands of each board member and has been made available to the public I move to the adaptions a second second thank you are there any comments from the board I just want to take the moment to thank everyone for having come out this evening to make their feelings known on the system itself and I actually hope
004a lot of our kids will bother watching this video because it is an example of how this community really stepped up their game and having really substantive conversations about things that matter and people that we all love that being our kids and those that provide services to them I would just like to thank the members of the community who are here and who spoke um spoke politely but passionately um on this issue thank you I just want to thank everybody who came out parents community members teachers staff um we really need everybody to be involved so just stay involved and thank you for your comments um I Echo those sentiments uh you all you guys were here you heard a lot of the comments that were read they were sent in and the public speakers
005uh this is one of those things that um a decision has to be made there are some people who think it's the wrong decision some people think it's the right decision but a decision has to be made right and so we'll make decision we'll see how works out after that that's just that's just how it works okay um if if it doesn't go your way doesn't mean you're wrong or that we're right it's just a decision had to be made and and and that's what we did after this are there any comments for the public so this is an opportunity if you want to speak again you do for this comment period you did not have to sign in so if you would like to speak feel free to come up um later there'll be
006an opportunity to uh speak again uh we are voting here this is the vote okay um so are there any comments from the public Edward gans's 1905 Green Hill wrote so thank you to the board um thank you to the district for taking the time to give careful consideration and listening to everyone who um participated submitted comments um hey we want our children safe we want our children safe physically and we want our children safe mentally you do have a hard decision to make uh I think that we all trust that you will make the best decision um and that we just trust you that you will always continue to move forward to protect our children mentally and physically um and do what's necessary to continue to reinforce their their safe psychological and physical development
007so if it goes that um we do in fact put the detectors in place I would ask that the board look into um the any possible psychological impact on the kids that they monitor it closely across the years and that the board keep in mind that just because it's in place doesn't mean it doesn't it can't be taken out of place please be diligent and watching out for the children and um you know undoing things that you might find harmful or if it all turns out to be extremely positive I applaud you for your Brave efforts and um and what you do so thank you very much for listening and a couple years ago when the app tight as they say was not for this um all we asked uh as people who were in
008opposition to this because we didn't want to have any negative impact on the kids was that we asked the community and give them a chance to speak um let us know how the community felt so that decisions weren't being made in a vacuum uh so again thank you for letting the community speak thank you for hearing the community and please consider carefully both sides of what you heard from the community um when making your decision but thank thank you for your service uh that's all I have to say hello again so uh Mike benty 200 on Boulevard so we're looking at two incident that happened in a matter of a few weeks the media put out um you know articles on this particular incident and it got people scared um the media controlling that narrative
009and um what happened here is it's definitely fear and I'm not saying that it's not caused for fear right um but I think we're rushing here right the school year just started I think that we need to just pump our breaks a little bit um I heard that uh the community has been involved in the process I have to disagree with that as former president of Beverly Hills uh Middle School um you know I'm still in contact with people there and um and it's quite obvious that there's only been maybe one homeschool meeting I think we should just pump our breaks Let It Go through the pr proper channels through the home school meeting talk sleep on it come back to it at a later date um let's use critical thinking here we want our
010kids we want to be models to our kids let's use critical thinking here let's not rush to one the one size fitall metal detectors or what everybody else is doing let's actually think about this what are the alternative what are the psychological impact I heard some concerns about the long lines which is a valid concern right so let's just cool off here um so other thing I want to encourage board members to not fall victim of group think let's not fall victim of group think right and I'm going to leave you with this quote for the people um that's influenced by fear right the media does a really good job at that there a quote from the Bible Isaiah 41:10 fear not for for I am with you be not dismay for I am your
011God I strengthen you yes I will help you I would uphold you with my right my righteous right hand thank you for your time again John Canon Clifton Heights um it's really unfortunate that every school board in this nation has been thrust into the situation that we're into uh people who have the power to alleviate some of these problems have chosen not to we're fighting a environment of Discord and violence that all the good intentions in the world will I believe Prevail against but at the same time we're fighting a environment of money that does not want the problem of violence solv somewhere along in this nation I believe we've lost a doctor at one of these killings in the schools that may have caused cancer cured Alzheimer's cured heart disease we've off the scientists
012that may have found an energy source that's clean and not only will provide us with the needed energy but save our planet and when we talk about our kids I think that's something we have to consider too we've lost an educator somewhere along this process of killing our CH allowing our children to die at school that may have produced one of these people it's a weighty decision that you have and I know as Dr McGary said there are uh considerations asud the psychological impact upon the children also I just urge you to do what you find in your heart to be the right thing to do thank you Melissa Baldwin 328 North Oak Avenue in Clifton um so I just wanted to finish my thought from earlier so in sorry um The Washington Post put
013out a report that since Colin B in 1999 383,000 students have experienced gun violence that's 8 and a half times the size that you can fill citizens Bank Park eight and a half times just students and that report was uh updated as of September 18th of 2024 a report coming out from CNN on September 20th shows that 79 school shootings happen in the last school year the 23 24 school year so far for the 2425 school year there have been 16 and we're only a month in we've already had two incidents in this school district just in this school I don't know what even happened at any of the other schools if anything else has happened it is something that needs to be addressed our students need to be safe yes they'll be outside longer
014yes they'll be cold they'll be wet guess what they go to the ballpark and it's and it's raining they go and hang out with their friends outside while it's raining they go and play in the snow they do all of those things to keep our kids safe it's important it's important for their peace of mind it's important for are Peace of Mind I'd rather have them be outside and get sick and have to deal with a cold and flu than have to plan a funeral it's a totally different thing I'd rather have them in bed for a week and have them be sick than to never be there ever again losing a loved one to violence is unconscionable it is not something that we should worry about when we send our children to school it
015should be a safe environment it should be a place for where they could go and learn and not worry about what's waiting for them around the corner in the school we need better protection and maybe this is just step one bring in other things as technology advances we can we can put more things into work we can have other ways to protect them people I'm sure go to all these different events people go to different venues people go to to the mall people go to the doctors you don't even realize you're going through these these uh protections these detections a lot of times you don't even know they're in Disney World and I I want to address the press for a minute this is something that everybody comes to for a sound bite come to
016something positive upper Derby has an amazing program here I get asked all the time well why don't you put them in Pro private school number one I can't afford and number two there are things that we do here that are not in the private schools we have an amazing band we have an amazing P music program we have an amazing computer program we have Arts programs come to something positive there's so many great things that upper Derby has and I'm sorry I know I'm over my three minutes but there are so many great things that upper Derby has show them show them off thank you so Ian clarich Lane I I just a couple Last Words um apparently I'm on the other side of this than a lot of people in the room here uh
017but with 4,000 kids in the high school um I feel like if there was an overwhelming urge to have weapon detect detection systems here for over a million dollars being spent while you can't put a price on the security and safety of our kids I would think that this room would be overwhelmed the parking the we would just 4,000 kids you know how many parents aren't here right now to express their opinions you know and it's one of those things that if it's you know I just feel like if everybody was that passionate about it across the entire District we would have a stadium filled with people uh voicing that opinion but I'm sure Dr McGary has a lot of things that he can use that money for hopefully to help family and community within
018the school um there I don't know if it's still in effect because my kids aren't that young but we used to have a summer playground programs at all the elementary schools and so forth um and that's where the kids would go during the day to do something um I I know that uh one of the football boosters Nick had mentioned that there wasn't a lot of activities on the other side of landown Avenue in the Beverly Hills uh Middle School area if we can build on more Community stuff to get the kids and families more involved hopefully um again you know I don't believe that there's any cost that's too expensive for the safety of our kids but I just feel like that money would be spent better on improving what we already have and
019making it more positive um rather than you know overreacting to a couple of early um season early um School season incidents here so thank you again um for everything that you guys do it is very much appreciated and it doesn't go unnoticed I know it's a very difficult decision it's one of those damned if you are damned if you aren't kind of things but if you could please put as much thought and information at your hands and uh make a very informed decision we do appreciate you taking the time to do that um thank you again have a good night uh I kind of want to Echo I'm friends with both Ian and Melissa they gave great comments both on different sides and while I tend to lean more towards Ian with his feelings of
020I don't want to call it a waste of money but it certainly could be better spent money uh Nicholas Hoy Edmonds Avenue uh you know we have as he mentioned 4,000 kids in this High School 12,000 people in this District yet it's the same dozen people doing everything out in the community right I see again Melissa is with me on the Westbrook Park Youth Association Ian and his wife astred help out with the snacks stand for football games I'm on the board for Dre h leag president of the football boosters help with the cross with Greg rer here for their boost sometimes I feel like the Jamaican family from in Liv in color with all the jobs I have but there's so many things that we can do if more people would step up as
021I put in my letter it takes a village we need villagers in this community where we have all these people the only thing being organized east of Lon Avenue is a football league the only thing that's being helped to get these kids something active is that one program here on the western side everything's all kind of seted around Dre home middle school and dermon field if folks were able to get off social media and come help us when we come out and have these meetings and we have a positive event we had 10 people come out and welcome the new principal when we have the guns come out 100 people still out of only 4,00 people that's all that came out that's ridiculous the next day we had coffee with a superintendent at a school
022of 500 people four four parents came out I get it people work you have different times but at the same time only four out of 500 only a 100 out of 4 th000 folks we need to get out there we need to be out there for our kids and sit behind social media saying things that this has to happen sending in you know sending your kids without being involved being engaged that's not going to get anything done we need help out here you need to come and step up and help us help things with the kids so I'm sorry I don't know much more than that Amy Sandman 8 Fairfax Road I am not only a resident as I have mentioned I am employee of the upper Derby school district and up for Derby high
023school as Dr McGarity had said administrators as himself should not work 24 hours a day s days a week monitoring threats there are so many things that we can be doing yes but you know what we have to pay attention to threats I know that because I am there in the high school when these threats are happening so if you want things to get done outside of this then put the metal detectors in place so that we can pay attention to other things that need to get done cuz this is wasting our time sleep on it we've slept on it for eight years this is my fifth time talking about [Applause] it and being at the high school when there is a gun in the building and you're there your butt's not there I'm sitting
024in there and I'm not going to be a Sitting Duck for your feelings any longer now the board knows what they need to do and we should trust that they do it in good judgment there are no more comments um so all those in favor please say I I I those opposed please say I oppose those abstaining please say I abstain motion [Applause] carried old business okay new business okay um we are now at the time of the public hearing we will call on Upper Darby School District residents who signed in to address the board in the order in which they signed in followed by emailed and phone comments we would ask that you come forward give your name address and present your comments in the three-minute time limit in accordance with policy 903 time
025allotted for General comments both in person and submitted will not exceed 1 hour um I I I do want to say uh again thank thank you to the public for coming out right uh I too would R much rather be talking about like the quality of lunch at the high school because I hear about it every day at home all right but these are the things that are in front of us okay so uh first person that signed in Melissa Baldwin you're good fantastic thank you Melissa Timothy J Campbell good evening members of the board I just wanted to thank you all for the decision you guys made and it was a very proactive decision and I hope that everybody else was happy with their decision with your decision um that's what I came here
026for hoping that we could move forward and look at other Solutions but this is a step in the right direction so I just wanted to thank you all and thank you all for your time being here tonight uh Tara urbanelli Brenton Road I just want to say thank you very much for your votes we really do appreciate it and again thank you for everything that all the Educators and all the administrations do for our state students we really do appreciate it and again I agree that more good things need to be talked about in Upper Derby School District than the negatives cuz there's a lot of good things going on here thank you uh Michael benty 200 uh Boulevard uh I would have to say that I'm disappointed not one member from the board disagrees
027like not one there's a group think that I was uh telling you guys to refrain from right so clearly it's an emotional based decision I think in my opinion we rushed this um because the logic is if it was to be logical about this we would look at everything that's already been in place to prevent this type of thing from going on in the schools right it's not working obviously so insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result I told you in my first time I came up here John Bartram High School ninth grade they had metal detectors and assistant principal got shot in the leg for break up a fight right y'all heard y'all heard uh we heard the comments about the um it's not 100% right just
028like nothing else is 100% so all I was asking for is just to look at the pros and cons look at Broward County school high school down in Florida they just implemented uh weapon detector system they've having a big issue big issue you can Google it the kids are outside it's it's it's a massive issue now they got to revisit it the school board got to revisit and come up with a different plan all I was saying is just let's just take a deep breath let's not make a decision on emotions right I know it's hard right all my life I I actually struggled with it now I'm I'm I still have problems control of my emotions right it's very very hard thing to do right but as Leaders we expect that from you guys
029to have the logic to say hey let's look at this first but y Rush made it you made a decision but hey it's it's business as usual um and I just wanted to say that you know as a resident of 10 years and uh you know most of you guys guys I know a lot of you guys um from before nothing personal nothing personal at all right but I just am disappointed that um y'all rushed to make this decision so that's all I had to say everybody have a good night all right thank you uh to to the board um for your leadership thanks for making a decision thanks for making a decision that um will protect our children right I mean we need them physically protected and you can't please everybody might not even
030be pleasing me but I am not disappointed in the decision that you made and I definitely know it was made in good faith to support our kids to protect our kids and I hope it works out well for our kids again I ask that you watch out for their psychological well-being afterwards and monitor how that may or may not play out you have all the research you have the the peers um and you have the good intent that you'll probably do that so I thank you for that so the school board and the school administration the staff Dr McGary how you guys stand up put your necks out and try to do what's right for these kids I I cannot applaud you enough but I'm going to use you as a shining example to call
031out some other people some other members of our community who I hope that you can talk to and say look we shouldn't have to do this alone as the school board because this is a community so specifically which I would have offered as part of the solution not to implement um the detection systems should still be part of the solution uh after the implemention implementation of the detection systems so I'd just like to reach out to our police Community our um Civic Community leaders our neighborhood leaders our Municipal leaders like Mayor Brown and our church leaders and again to the parents and the students themselves I have asked time and time again that the board show you the respect of faith and your ability to Rise Above This circumstance of miscellaneous gun violence so I'm
032asking all of us to continue to step forward to work together to use our leadership just like the board has tonight just like the district has continuously to lead our community to a higher and better place now that our kids are a little safer physically they still need emotional leadership they still need Community leadership and they need to be guided to be the best American citizens that they can be by the leaders we have in place except for Mayor Brown many of which I didn't even see here tonight while we made this Monumental decision on these children so please rise up to the title you have leader don't leave it to Schmucks like me from the community to do your job and don't leave it to the Schoolboard only to do your job thank you
033all very much for what you've done so I just wanted to thank you all for the decision um I know it's hard and even though my daughter only has two more years left in autistic support I also have two nieces and a nephew in this district and my niece is in her last year at Westbrook Park so I am fully invested still and I'm not going any anywhere so um but yeah this is great in addition to everything that we do offer I mean everybody keeps saying about the kids emotional well-being and their psychological well-being Dr McGary addressed that we have those things this is just an additional thing for more protection for our kids and I really hope that it does work out well and I have faith in you guys so thank you
034again thank you uh there are virtual comments yes there are President Fields our first comment is from Maisy Moore located at 909 Mason Avenue in Drexel Hill this comment was received on September 24th at 519 p.m. via email it is a general comment I am an advocate for a weapons detection system instituted in the USD udsd after witnessing multiple mass shooting incidents I believe it is it's not only logical but NE necessary to put every measure in place to protect students in administration I understand the concern some may have with the cost of exe and execution of implementing a new security measure I would urge those who have concerns to weigh the risk of not implementing this security measure against the dangers of losing loved ones before a decision is made I would ask that
035you remember those who have suffered the loss of a spouse child parent colleague and friend at Sandy Hook Coline Rob Elementary Etc as the list goes on there's no cost nor con inconvenience that will ever measure the value of a loved one thank you for your time thank you to the committee for all you do in the community and for your service end of comment our next comment is from Bernard galato located at 519 windmar Avenue it was received on the 24th of September at 5:40 p.m. via email it is comment good evening board members parents and concerned residents my name is Bernard galadi by trade I have 40 years of experience in public safety and I specialize in School Safety and Security regarding the recent safety concerns at upper Derby high school and what's
036concerned for all schools in Upper Derby School District I encouraged that the board will consider the purchasing of metal detectors in hiring the staff to operate them however the board of directors and the administration of the Upper Darby School District should seriously consider a more comprehensive approach to security and safety including but not limited to adopting and implementing the Pennsylvania Commission on crime and delinquency School Safety and Security School Safety and Security committee School Safety and Security assessment criteria once an assessment of each school is complete the board and the administration will have a better understanding of exactly what is needed to keep students teachers staff and the school Community safe with regard to Upper Derby High School specifically where my daughter is a senior I have observed the following given the morning and after
037school congestion the school board should consider hiring police officers to help mitigate any incident emergencies or disas F that could take place while students are waiting in long lines to get into the high school and when crowds of students are leaving the high school additional Staffing should be employed to actively engage in monitoring students in vehicular traffic at this intersection of school Lane and Lance down Avenue Huey and Lance down Garrett in Lance down and state and Lance down consideration should be given to redirecting the bus and vehicular drop off Zone as having them in the same location is not considered a best practice the access point to the school should provide separate access points for students and visitors below my signature I have provided information from the Pennsylvania Commission on crime and delinquency School
038Safety and Security committee School Safety and Security website regarding criteria for conducting assessments and implementing a layered approach to School Safety and Security I sincerely hope each and every school board member takes the time to familiarize themselves with the commission's work and will direct the administration to adopt the recommendations the next comment is from Samantha batdorf located at 1022 cob Street in Drexel Hill the comment was received on September 24th at 7:04 p.m via email it is a general comment the comment this comment I apologize this comment was received past the time cut off that is the conclusion of our comments our virtual comments for this evening president Fields thank you director be the the last comment will keep as as the uh record on the record um but it just we just won't read
039it thank you everybody is there a motion for the adjournment of the meeting so moved second all those in favor please say I I meeting is adjourned