001My name is Calum Velasquez. I read Spanish because at Sotomayor School, I learned English and Spanish. Today is the month of African American History with Policia y un baile espadrillo que la diferente. What happens to a dream to third? Does it dry up like a rain in the sun or fester like a storm and then run? Does it stink like rotten meat or crush sugar over like a syrupy sweet? Maybe it just sags like a heavy load or does it explode? My name is Nikoi. I'm in kindergarten and today I'm going to read Hey Black Child by Eugene, Eugene Perkins. Hey black child, do you know who you are? Who you really are? Do you know who you can be? What you want to be, if you try to be, what you can be. Hey,
002black child, do you know you're strong? I mean, really strong. Do you know you can do what you want to do, if you try to do what you can do? Hey, black child, do you know where you're going? Where you're really going? Do you know you can learn? What you want to learn, if you try to learn, what you can't learn. Hey, black child, do you know you are? Hey, black child, be what you can be. Learn what you must learn, do what you can do, and tomorrow your nation will be what you want it to be. Hi, my name is Tashmara. Me llamaron negra. Negra. Y yo no entendía. I ran and ran asking, black me? No, it can't be. But one day I finally understood, I am black and I felt so good.
003Because black is beautiful, because black is strong, because black has a soul. I am black, I am black. Just think these are pre-k kindergarten first grade and second grade students. No second yet. That's right. The first grade students. Let's give them a round of applause. This is our new dual language immersion academy. Just this year we established this school and look all the great things that are happening and I'm so excited for our principal, Ms. Principal Aponte. Let's give her a round of applause. And Ms. Recker, let's give her a big round of applause. And as they assemble, I want to thank the families for your belief in us and sending your children to our new school. I just want to thank you, and I honor you in your partnership with us. So let's hear
004some more from Soda Bayor. Let's give another round of applause for Soda Bayor. What a sensational job. Just think, we teach our children young. Look at all the great things. Some of them read better than some of us, but I'm just saying. Great job. Let's get more glory on the balls. May I say one more thing? Evie and Miracle, it is because of you that the pre-K was started. Remember? You wanted to go to school with your cousin, and you were too young. So we changed the policy just for you two, so now everyone has the benefit of it. All of the families of the students, if you could just please stand so you can be acknowledged. All the families. Thank you so much for your partnership and all the amazing things that you are
005doing at Sotomayor. When I talk with Principal Ponte, she's just so happy to have you as partners and all the great things and investments that you're making in your children and our great school. So, yes, yes. So, let's give a round of applause for our students. I just want to say, can you hear me? This is Lisa Conover. Unfortunately, because of all this stuff that's going around, I'm not with you guys in person, but I just want to congratulate our students. And I just want you to know that I'm looking attentively at how they're performing, and I'm so excited and so happy that I could actually witness that. So I might not be there with you in body, but I am there definitely in spirit. Thank you. We're going to move on the other side
006of Allentown. And thank you, Ms. Conover. We're going to move on the other side, and we have our students. Let's give a round of applause. We can give a drum roll, right? Let's welcome the Hayes Harmony! Under the direction of Ms. Rerick and Principal Shago, Assistant Principal Aiden, and Assistant Principal Walter. Let's give a round of applause for Hayes Harmony. And I want to thank all the Hayes families that are here. Let's give a round of applause for the Hayes families that are here to support. Board of Directors, administrators, parents and families. This is Hayes Harding. This is midway through last year. I'm very proud to say it's continually growing, having more and more performance. So Hayes Harding. Persevering and moving forward, you are destined for greatness and nothing's going to stop you. We have
007another number? No. No? Okay. Let's give a round of applause. Yes, yes. I don't know if the school has a theme song for the year. That's the one. But we need that song. Yes, I love it. We need to have them perform at You Are the Light. Yes. Yes, we are looking forward to hearing that. I think I have some singers for some of our end of year celebrations. Give them another roaring round of applause. I want to thank your families again. And I didn't say this when Mr. Aponte was here, but I think I have the person who's going to introduce me at convocation from Sotomayor this year. So, yes. I still have chills. That was beautiful. Sheesh. You never know. Let's give another round of applause for our students. Say I am so
008proud. I'm taking credit. Let me tell you. All my children. Excellent job. good evening everyone i'd like to call i did i get on all right there we go all right i'd like to call to order the finance committee of the whole meeting of the board of directors of the school district for the city of allentown for today february 20th 2025. Prior to tonight's meeting, an informational executive session was held. The purpose of the executive session was to engage in informational updates presented to the board on a number of different district initiatives, such as confidential matters pertaining to personnel, review of special education, due process matters, consultation with solicitor on the termination of a construction management contract. informational updates and discussion with council on the status of new executive orders and an update pertaining to
009district real estate and the associated design and finance of new schools as well as a school real estate tax programs the board welcomes and invites public comment you may address the board on agenda and or non agenda items the first opportunity for comment is at the beginning of the meeting and is limited to agenda items only Comment cards must be received by the start of the meeting, which is now. We will not be receiving public cards once the meeting begins. A copy of the public comment policy is located on the table next to the comment cards. According to our board's policy, any person may address the board in accordance with the procedures and limitations of this policy, either on issues or... On issues presented in resolutions being considered or on other matters affecting the administration,
010management, or operation of the district. Remarks of a personal nature directed against any individual will be ruled out of order. If you choose to address the board, please fill out a comment card and hand it to the board secretary, Mr. Simonson. Comment cards are located at the podium near the door. Once recognized, please come to the podium and state your name and address for the record. Madam superintendent, do you have some remarks? Yes, thank you, Madam Chair. I just want to say a few remarks in this particular segment of our evening together, and then I will continue on with the rest of my remarks later if the board is okay with that. First, when you think about, you know, it's going to take our collective community to continue to support our students in their overall
011growth and development. We are fortunate that we have so many agencies, community-based agencies, universities, colleges, nonprofits, corporate execs. We have a very rich community here that's very committed to ensuring that all of our students feel indeed safe, empowered, and loved, and valued in our learning community, which we are fortunate. And I just want to acknowledge one... Gentleman who's here tonight. I consider him a friend when I first came to Allentown I would see him as a walk to work in the morning and we will have conversations about the district and He would encourage me to continue on and if I asked him to do things and you know when you were in the acting role Sometimes you're like all these people gonna you know support me and have me stay here, but he was quite
012encouraging and so and I want to acknowledge him tonight because When he said, I really want to do something to make a significant difference in the lives of the children of Allentown, he wasn't just talking. And it's not also so customary in his role that he would be on the other side of this doing some great things to really encourage the children of Allentown to be successful. So with that said, I want to thank my friend. District Attorney Hallahan, Houlihan, I always mess his name up, so I don't like to call him by his first name like most people because I don't think it's respectful, given his title. But just that he took some actions. We talk about students and organizations feeling valued and supported and loved, but that love is an action where you
013do something. So I want to thank you, my friend, Attorney Hallahan, for you joining us here tonight. and the investments that you and your team are willing to make in our peer mentoring program, our work around family and community engagement, these efforts that are aligned with our strategic plan, and helping with something that is really dear. Because when you think about this, there's a research institute called the Search Institute, and they talk about the 44 developmental assets, and that the more assets a child has, the more inclined they'll be successful in school as well as in life. Those assets meaning they're involved in the community, church, civic groups, dance, and we saw all the great things happening here today. And so, and this one thing that we have not really invested in as a community,
014but he's willing to make a huge investment in elementary athletics. And so we're excited that he's going to help us jumpstart those efforts. And I want to just say thank you. Thank you publicly. Thank you on behalf of it now. We have 17,000 students in the Allentown School District and the 2,600 employees. I honor you. I thank you for being my friend. And I thank you for even holding me accountable. And you're like, Dr. Burks, we need some action. And so I thank you for your action. And I hope, Madam Chair, are you okay if Attorney Holmheim wanted to say a few words? Please. Thank you for your kind words. It is unusual for us to donate the money that we did, but I want to make clear that where the donations come from is
015not taxpayer money. It is money that comes from the drug forfeiture funds. What we do as part of the district attorney's office is we forfeit assets from essentially drug dealers, and my view on that money is that that comes from the community. That doesn't come from drug dealers who create money or print money. It comes from drug addicts who spend it on, give it to drug dealers in exchange for money, and we know where that money comes from. It comes from families. It comes from friends, from girlfriends, from wives. They take it from their children. They take it from their neighbors. They take it from wherever they can when they're in the depths of their addiction, and that goes to the drug dealers. And then it comes to us in the prosecutor's office. And under
016Pennsylvania law, we're given the discretion to do with it what we think is appropriate to help the community and things that will prevent crime. and prevent drug abuse and drug use in our community. And we often think short-term in that. So we buy things for the police and we promote law enforcement, but we're starting to think more long-term. And that's what the genesis of this idea was, to look where, A, where that money mostly came from, which, of course, is Allentown, the largest city in Lehigh County, and the discretion that our office has to spend that money. We thought we would sow it back into the community from where it came from. Kind of the idea being that we should sew it. what we have reaped from the community in a way that will then
017encourage the community in long-term crime prevention, long-term cures, and the best place to do that, to reach the youngest people in our communities through our schools. So that's the idea for it. We worked with this district to try to find programs that we didn't design but that the school district thought was most important or most beneficial. And hopefully we've done that, and we are going to hold you accountable. And if it works... then we're going to plan to continue to do it for as long as we can. So good luck to you with it. Thank you. I really appreciate you. Thank you so much. Thank you. Yes, and I'll talk about the other item. Thank you. At this time, we are only taking public comments on agenda items. Once recognized, please come to the podium,
018state your name and address for the record. Please note remarks are limited to three minutes, and the microphone will be disabled at the end of those three minutes. Please also know that the Board of School Directors appreciates public comment. However, we are not able to respond to those comments. Administration will address your concerns and update the Board on the status of your concern. Do we have any comments on agenda items? Not on agenda items. Okay, thank you. We will begin this part of the finance meeting with a budget discussion presented by Mr. Cuff. There's no action to be taken on this at this time. Good evening again. As an organization, we're in the midst of budget season, as we know, and just kind of the things that we are planning our resources around focus on
019our mission and vision and core values as an organization. As you can see, as I mentioned before, here's the demographic information of our students, our staff, and the classifications of how many staff that we have was in that previous slide. And all of our funds for the 2025-26 school year will be based to support the goals that are listed here. So it will be a focus on students reading or becoming proficient in literacy by grade three. focusing on Algebra 1, and as I mentioned previously, Algebra 1 is the gatekeeper to college access and success for students. Students who perform better in Algebra 1 tend to be more successful in school as well as in life. Heavy focus on graduation rates, focusing on the whole child, and of course, developing our theme-based schools. We have many
020efforts underway of expanding multiple pathways for our students. And of course, we want to present a balanced budget, which I did not say. There's many initiatives that we will have heavy focus on for the upcoming year, and some of them we're continuing on from this year, building on the work. So related arts, athletics, of course, our World Languages Program for our middle and high school students. Looking closely at our curricula, we purchased an extensive amount of curricula. for our core content areas, but there's further work to be done as it relates to purchasing curricula for our athletics. I'm sorry, for our electives, I apologize, our electives, as well as we enter into AI and other ways that we believe that students will be more positioned to be successful in life. We are adding additional courses
021in our program of studies this year. Of course, we're all excited about our K-8 new school project. expansion of transportation services for our students. Again, creating those multiple pathways and our family and community resource center that is due to open in 2026, by December of 2026. So all our resources will be focused on these efforts. I tell you that clicker. As a community, we've created a budget timeline. and our overall communications plan. Just to reiterate to the board, right now we're here in, again, February. We said we would come back at the Committee of Whole meeting and the regular board meeting in March. We'll have additional budget discussions for the board's consideration. later on it right currently we are in the midst of conducting school quality review meetings with all of our school leaders and
022we'll move into our departments looking at their data academic as well as behavioral data and And I'm trying to use, not use certain words, so I apologize for that and the climate that we're in right now. But looking at how we distribute our resources across the district so that we ensure that there's access for all of our learners. We will present heavy budget forum so please mark your calendars for May 20th and which the overall community Will have an opportunity to learn more about the budget process We'll go in depth on what what are special funds or federal funds and title you hear these terminology But we will create a platform for everyone within our community to understand how we fund the district and to clarify things around people like, why don't they just do
023this and why don't they just buy that? We're going to explain in great detail and have you engage in the activity. If you had to spend a certain amount of money, what would you do with it? How would you prioritize your resources? We will put the budget on display for 20 days so that the public will have access to give us feedback. We also will continue to produce our budget book in which every school and every department will have detailed all the staffing within that particular department or school, as well as the resources, be it federal. As well as general fund dollars Tonight, I didn't mention this but we have our friends from and we'll talk about the late But they are here and the part of our budget budget timeline is present work with
024Lehigh Valley Lehigh Carbon Community College as well as we use the Everyone knows I don't like acronyms and stuff, so I've got to pull all the names. But Lehigh Carbon Technical Institute and the CCIU, which is the Carbon County Intermediate Unit. So we'll talk about their budgets as well in discussion this evening with the school board of directors. Mr. Scott. Thank you, Dr. Burks. So this evening, I want to quickly, I'm going to try to be quick and concise. I know we have a lot on our agenda tonight, so I'm going to try to give you. Good information, brief, but good information. Here you're going to see our fund balance, historical look at our fund balance over the last 10 years. And you'll see through the leadership and the direction of Dr. Burks and the
025school board over the last couple years, we were able to actually have a increase our fund balance. And you'll see the jump that goes from 21, 22, 23, and 24. 24 is an unaudited figure, but we're pretty certain where the number is. So I wanted to highlight this, and this is one of the things that we're looking for, particularly now as we go forward, and we're looking at building the K-8 new school that Dr. Brooks alluded to, and part of building that, you have to have a strong S&P rating, your strong Moody's rating. So this is something we've turned around, and now we're actually in a very good fiscal position. where we can move forward and start putting stuff in place so we can add more assets to the community, to the families and the
026students of the Allentown School District. You'll see here, these are our major cost drivers for the school district. It's pretty common, the cost drivers that we have, they're pretty similar across most school districts. And I want to highlight one area that Ms. Harris had brought up last meeting. She caught it and we commented that our salaries and benefits make up primarily 60% of our budget Which is which is great in most districts It's a little bit higher and the only reason that that percentage isn't as high in Allentown is because of our large charter school costs our charter school costs I'm going to talk about that a little later on briefly But our charter school calls are hovering close to about 80 million dollars per year So that's why that number is a little skew
027from a normal school district. But nonetheless, those are our major cost drivers that are going to be charter schools. Most of our costs relate to personnel costs for salaries and benefits. Our debt expenses are, and we're going to talk about that as well. So I'll slide over to the next slide. So what we're looking at next year, coming up for the next school year, through our collective bargaining agreements with all of our employees. We're looking at roughly 4 to 4.5%, and I just went on the high side. It's in between 4 and 4.5% of salary increases. Our benefit increase is roughly a 5.2% increase, and those are our salaries and benefits, as I stated on the previous slide, that's roughly about 60% of our budget. So that's common in most school districts. It's common in
028most businesses. Most of your costs are going to be related to personnel expenses. Our other increasing amount is going to be our charter schools, which is roughly... Like I stated roughly 80 million close to the world covered 80 million dollars going to be next year for charter school expenses And I say that because later on I'm going to talk about areas that we can advocate that we can possibly reduce charter school costs going forward It's at the point now where charter school costs are affecting every district before it only affected certain districts and certain zip codes right now the charter school cost is growing at a astronomical rate So there's going to be a lot of push, and I think that's something we can advocate for to control the charter school costs going forward. Also,
029our debt service. Actually, our debt service is fairly low compared to a district our size. Our debt burden, you would think a district our size would have a higher debt burden. We do not. So we're in good position right now. As Dr. Berkson mentioned, we're looking at building a new K-8 school. So we're in prime position. Our debt ratio as well as our strong fund balance were in prime position to make the moves and have something that we can add to the Allentown School District. So last month, I mentioned that the governor was going to release his budget. So our governor did release his budget early this month in February. There's a long list of items there that the governor, their proposed increases. And I'm going to say everything right now is proposed. Because for
030those of you who have followed the budgeting process in Harrisburg, everything is proposed, and then it gets validated at the end of June. So there's a long list of items here, but I'm just going to focus on the top three, because the top three are going to be direct correlation to what happens here at Allentown School District. The first one is our BEF. So what's BEF? BEF is Basic Education Funding. That's our major subsidy that we get from the state that provides the majority of our money that we receive and most of our resources. The second is SEF. SEF, Special Education Funding. That's the money that's allocated earmarked that's supposed to offset the expenses for special needs services and things of that nature. The third increase that's the largest one you're going to see up
031on that board right now is the increase in new adequacy investment. So this is something new. So prior years, the major funding will come in the BEF calculation. That's where we get most of our subsidies to support the school district. So last year, well, a couple years ago, there was a lawsuit that went out for the fair funding formula. So it was ruled that the funding was not done actually in a fair way. So they came up with a basic ed funding commission, and they came up and they calculated that certain districts, particularly districts like Allentown, districts that are similar to us, weren't funded fairly. So they came up with a dollar figure that they were trying to target for school districts like us to make it look good across the board for all districts.
032So last year was the first year that we received the adequacy investment. So we were the beneficiary of a very generous... investment that they provided last year. So this year we're getting that equal investment for this year. So what right now, and we were very cautious last year in our approach because we wanted to make sure, because a lot can happen, like I said, between now and June 30th. So, again, our recommendation this year, we're going to be cautious until we know exactly what we're going to receive. And also, in combination, and Dr. Burks alluded to this and we talked about this as well, we're not sure exactly where we're going to be with our federal funding, so we have to be cautious as we move forward with our budgeting during this year. So, I'm
033going to talk quickly. So, with BEF, I want to talk about that and how we can advocate for more funding for that. So just so you're aware, we will still get other increases in state subsidy. There are other formula-driven subsidies that are PISRs. PISRs is the retirement system that all of the employees are a part of. Those are all formulary reimbursements, so they will increase as our activity increases. There's also reimbursement for Social Security, reimbursement for the amount we pay our employees, and there's also reimbursement for public and non-public and charter school transportation. And I say formulary because the amount of reimbursement we receive is a reflection of our activity and what we do as a school district. So those will increase as our activity increases going forward. But I want to state again, and
034Dr. Birx alluded to this, our primary source of revenue is from the state. So that... adequately invested is humongous for us. It's great and we are very appreciative of it, but we need to be cautious as we move forward in this process. So someone may ask the question. Here we go. Thank you. You see a lot of money that they're allotting. So the question becomes, how is the state funding this? So right now they're dipping into the savings, into the reserves, the funders. So the government has laid out a couple of proposals that could possibly offset some of those expenses going forward. Because keep in mind, once you dip into your savings, eventually you're going to run up against a brick wall. You're going to run into a stop sign. So you'll see right here,
035and I don't need to read it. Potentially if he can enact some of these initiatives, there's additional money for video game terminal expansion. This is anyone who's, if you've ever been into a restaurant or a saloon, they have games there that people play. So they want to tax that. The taxing of legalized adult marijuana, a corporate net income tax, and then the big one, and again, this is something that... Again, it's been on the table. They're trying to push it forward was to increase the minimum wage from seven dollars and twenty five cents to fifteen dollars And that would generate approximately a fifty one million dollar increase so Okay, so I talked about the BF and all those items So the BEF, sorry for using the acronym, but it's easier for me to roll it
036that way. The BEF, this is the lowest amount we've received in 10 years. So statewide, the average that most districts receive was 0.92% this year. So in past years, most districts received anywhere from 3% to 6%. So this is the least amount that we've received. Again, a lot of the money went into the adequacy funding. So as I stand before you, while we received a lot of money there, as we go forward and we build forward on the funding, I think this is a good time for us to advocate for additional funding for basic ed funding. You can call your legislators. You can send emails. You can talk to whoever you know. We need to advocate right now for additional basic ed funding and additional special education funding. So again, like with special ed, the
037statewide increase for most districts was 2.7%. That's an all-time low since 2014-15. So while we got a lot in adequacy, or we potentially have a lot, I think this is an opportune time that we need to rally up, talk to people, and fight for additional funding for basic education as well as special education. The other area I think we need to advocate, and I talked about this earlier with charter schools, is cyber charter reimbursement. This was actually on the table last year by the governor. It didn't go far, so this is another area where we need to advocate. There is potential savings for a district like Allentown. So right now, the approximate savings that they enact, what's on the table for the governor, is approximately $378 million statewide. So imagine not to allot everything 378
038we could get our fair share portion and considering that we pay roughly 80 million dollars That would be a significant reimburse or a significant cost reduction for the Allentown School District So as we move forward Ongoing as dr. Burks has said we're in a process of having our own I call them SQRs. I'm sorry for this. We're having our quality review meetings with our schools. We're having our meetings with the department. So we're tabulating all of our projected expenses for next year. So we're in that process. And as we go forward, a lot of it is going to be related to personnel costs. We have to go through and figure out where are we going to lose as far as attrition, how many new people do we need to bring new employees on, and what's
039going to go forward. Other discussion is PISA's. PISA's right now, going forward, is a less than a percent increase, which is humongous for us. For those of us who have been through this for a couple years, there were years where the PISA's increase was roughly 15, 20, 25 percent. So we're in a good spot right now. Next year is less than 1 percent. I think for the next two years, it's still less than 2 percent increase for PISA's, which is very good news for us as we progress forward. We'll have more information on the transportation expansion, what it will look like going forward. And again, a lot of it is going to happen with the governor's budget. We have to see what the process is. I will be attending a conference tomorrow at the Montgomery
040County IU where they're going to talk about the state and it's a presentation from a local PASBO organization. And we will continue to analyze our charter school costs. So again, this is our next steps coming up. You'll see in March, we'll have a property meeting. We'll work on the preliminary draft of the budget and deadline for homeowners to file their homestead applications is coming to us in March. And again, I want to touch again on what Dr. Burks mentioned. In May, we will have that community forum. It's a good time. It's a good time for those who don't understand the process to come out and hear how the budget is formulated and what the impact is on our students. And I hope I didn't go too quickly. Are there any questions? Okay. So can I
041jump to our partners for this next item? No, there's one quick thing in between, the tax assessment item, because that's also not an action item tonight. Then we'll move to the action items. Okay. So if you want to talk about the tax assessment issue. So we do have a tech. Thank you very much. So right now. Our request is the school board of directors authorized Fox Rock's child to enter to an agreement for the property located at 2571 Mitchell Avenue in the city of Allentown and further identified as by the parcel number. Setting this assessment of the property at 3,734,600 for the tax year 2025 and for each subsequent year tax year until a change in the property's assessment pursuant to applicable law. So what this is, is this is a district-initiated task assessment. So
042what we do is the district will initiate task reassessments on certain properties that we feel are not at the true value. So this is one that we initiated, we negotiated, and we came to agreement. So the end result of this would be approximately a $23,000 increase for the district for years going forward. Is there any question about that? So that we need to go forward. We'll take action another time. Awesome. Okay. Now, we do have nine action items. So we need to start with a Lehigh-Carver County Community College budget. Thank you. So the next area we're going to talk about, we have our partners, is what I like to call them. These are our partners that work with the school district and have a great interaction with the school district. First is Lehigh-Carver Community College.
043Currently we have roughly 859 students attending LCC. We have eight studying here. Our average over the last five years is 754. It's a great relationship that we have with them. This is available to residents of the Allentown City. Currently, right now, their budget request is $1,621,563, which is a decrease over the past year. Decreases is coming from our enrollment has dropped down. So our our weighted Portion of the bill has dropped down for the high carbon Community College. Are there any questions? It happens over time so the five there's a if you look at their budget, there's a five-year trend So, and there was a big year, there was a big spike, I think, in 1920, which is probably related to COVID. So there was a big spike. So that year fell off the trend
044right now. So now we're kind of back on the move. 2020, please don't take us back to 1920. Sorry. Sorry. I'm looking at the numbers. I'm sorry. Unless you can do the Charleston. No, no, no. It was a good time, though. So. Long story short the the the volume over years the average fell down. So this is why there's a reduction Good currently now the Allentown campus. Is that still open or did it close? Still open. Okay well I'm I'm looking at the I looked at the budget and again my question is always gonna be You're getting what how does 35 cent every dollar coming from us? Yeah, it's like that and yet We're not, we don't see the representation in the staff. We do not. Dr. Ann, we have been going through this since
045I've been here. I'm leaving this year. This is my last year. And I'm asking my board members to hold them accountable because they are getting a lot of money from us and our students are not represented. They're not getting all the things they need to get. You say, yeah, we have a great partnership. Yeah, because they're getting all the money. Yeah, it's a great partnership for them, but what are we getting in return? Not seeing us. Thank you. Thank you very much. I have my hand up. Lisa Conover. Go ahead. So my question is, when I hear you say, maybe I'm not understanding it correctly, that this enrollment decrease has happened over time. I mean, I got on board in 2017, and there was a huge push. for us to even have a relationship with
046LCCC and the other colleges. And so we were one of the, what was it, 2000, what year was it the first class came out? What is this, is our fourth year? Fifth year, these years go by so fast. But my question, fourth year. So I don't, and I'm not saying that you're not, I'm not gonna, I'm not taking that. in terms of our representation. I'm not saying that's true or not true. But I have some concerns. I'm not debating it. I'm just saying I just want to make sure that my position is clearly with the enrollment. What is going on that we can't really maintain our enrollment? Because I know in the beginning of the year, myself, I'm not a micromanager. But I asked questions and they were, you know, I've had families say that
047they didn't know about it or I've had situations where I heard that maybe on the other hand, maybe the school, LCCC is not as responsive as they should be. And again, my question is around. Let's keep going. Let's get better, not give excuses as to why the enrollment. I mean, I know colleges, period, the enrollments are down. But we shouldn't have that problem as it relates to early college or dual enrollment because our kids come to school every day. And I did hear early on that instead of us having 16,000 students, now we have more students, 17,000. So if our numbers are going up. We need to take a very hard look at our reason why we're not maintaining enrollment in LCC because I know, too, that we've had situations where kids start, then they
048don't have, they feel like they don't have the support, and then they stop. I don't know what it is, but whatever it is, we've got to figure it out. But I know I'm not buying the fact that it's just, you know, it just happened like that. No, I think it's something that we're not doing. And that's LCC as well as ASD. Because, again, when I came on this board, we had to fight. I remember when they said our kids couldn't learn. We had maybe like five kids from the whole district that was enrolled in dual enrollment. But when we mentioned it about our other students, it was like this is something that can't happen. And then I know Thomas Parker pushed for it to happen. And we pushed. We fought like, you know what? I
049haven't decided whether I'm going to run or not. But whether I run or not, I'm still going to be the lady with no hair and rollers in her hair if I see that this school is going by the wayside because we want to move forward. We don't want to go backwards. Madam Chair, if the board would allow, we do have Dr. Beaver here and her team. And if they could just give us some quantifiable metrics as to for enrollment and so they can just explain because they have the data if that's okay. Hi, thank you for the opportunity to answer some of your questions. So I'll try to start and go back to what Ms. Harris was asking about. So collectively, all of the school districts, we have 13 sponsoring school districts between Carbon County
050and Lehigh County. So the 13 school districts will be, what we've requested is $6.2 million across the 13 school districts. It's the same amount that we've been requesting for about the last. fourteen years we haven't asked for increase it represents between ten and eleven percent of our budget so the pennies on the dollar it's a little off uh... the Allentown School District is our, let me see here, our second? No, actually our largest representation from all of our FTEs. So when we talk about the average of 753 FTEs, that's our largest. And in total, we have, from our sponsoring school districts, just over 2,500. Okay, what is your budget for the year? Our total budget is, just a second. Forty seven point eight million dollars comes from Allentown one point six million That's all yes,
051so it is it has decreased quite a bit. Yes. Well, that's great So the 1.6 is decreased by 18,000 over last year so the other thing that I'd like to speak to is the enrollment because with the increase in our dual enrollment in our early college Those aren't reflected in these numbers those students aren't in there So as that has been growing that I believe is what is making the Allentown shrink a little bit Okay, so we're really not getting the right number because you're not putting in what we put in for ASD puts in for the early college. Well, you don't pay for those. That's why they're not put for any school district in that. Okay, so then that makes sense, Dr. Beaver. Right, exactly. Thank you. And I was going to say, Trustee
052Conover. Sure, Trustee Conover, the fact sheet that we handed out tonight, we can get one to you, but you'll see the early college and their grade point average. To your point, yes, you've worked very hard on it, and we have success teams, and they are very successful. I mean, on it you'll see that the second year, early college students that are getting ready to graduate, your highest GPA was 3.91. I mean, it's huge. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for answering. So you understand that's accountability piece. So now we find out that there's not an issue. So let me provide clarity with that. Because I thought that our early college was in there. And so since we now we know that's not, that means our students are excelling at LCC. Thank you so much. I
053appreciate you. And next month we're taking the early college. We have a bus to take them to Kutztown so that they can see and if they want to continue. And when you mentioned about is our campus operational at the Donnelly Center, the scaffold's there only because we're getting a whole new front facade. And so that should be down in time. Hopefully by graduation. Yes, but it's wonderful news. Thank you so much. I'll do the commercial Do we have evening classes there? Yeah, I'm an Allentown boy. Okay, that's what I want to make sure so okay, so we're like 10% of your budget Okay, and then what that comes back to if it's 10% of your budget where is where is the Representation for the students that look like us and you're in your in your
054faculty So I have that here, too. I knew you would. So I know when we talked about this last year, looking at, so you asked faculty. Let me answer your faculty. So at faculty, our African American is at 3.1. It's slightly down over last year, but we had 100. and 24 open positions this year that we hired to, and we hired 6.5% of those hires. So we are continuing to advertise across different platforms to attract a whole diverse complement of employees to support all of our students. Great, because that's something I've always worried about, especially now with this administration. It's not a push. to have, you know, faculty look like us. So I thank you for that. You're welcome. Any other questions that I can answer? Thanks again for your partnership. We appreciate your support.
055Is there any other discussion from the board? That was just for Lehigh. I'll try C, correct? Correct. Okay. Now, may I have a motion to move this forward to the regular meeting this evening? So moved. Is there a second? Second. Lisa Conover. Okay. There has been a maker and a seconder. All in favor, say aye. Aye. Opposed? Then it carries forward. Lehigh Career and Technical School? It's actually the intermediate unit next. Okay. I'm sorry. I can go. That's not a problem. Hold on. There you go. That's whichever. Okay. We'll go to Career and Technical School. No, seriously. It makes no difference which order we go in. We're flexible. We'll work. So currently right now the proposed budget for the Lehigh Career and Technical Institute is $7,038,514. This includes our services for 523 students in the
056half-day program, 114 in the LCTI Academic Center. This is actually, again, a decrease of $181,103 from the prior year or from the current year. Is that it? Yes, ma'am. Discussion? Yes. How many seats do we hold on the board for the trustees? Four this year? That's one more this year. We got an additional one. It's based on market value. I know. It's the feudal system. And the feudal system is how much land we have. That's pretty much what it is. We have more students than anyone else, but yet we have less representation. It's the way it is. So I encourage our board, and I do mean this, I encourage our board, because I know I'm going to be doing this once I leave here. I can really talk the way I want to talk, and
057I can do the things that we all need to do as an Allentown school district and a city of Allentown, is to start looking at growing our own, which means having our own school. This is not everybody thinking that. This is me, Ms. Phoebe. If I have to go to the state, federal, whatever it is. We're building schools. Why not keep on building so we can train our own? And that way we keep our money in-house. Thank you. Thank you. Anybody else? Pardon? Jeff, whatever you need to add. Or may I move it forward? Yes, ma'am. Absolutely. May I have a motion to move this forward until the meeting later this evening? So we have a maker and a seconder. Is there any further discussion? All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Nay. It moves forward. Thank
058you. So the last of our partnership budgets that are looking for approval tonight is for the Carbon Lehigh Intermediate Unit. Our contribution will be 1,125 for 09. This is a slight increase over the current year of $1,223 for the operating budget for the Lehigh Intermediate Unit. Is there any discussion? I have nothing to say about that. Is there any other discussion from anybody? In that case, may I have a motion to move it forward? So moved. Second. Is there a second? All right, I did hear one I think hey all in favor aye opposed yes Okay, and we have representatives here if you would like to stay Yes, we do Dr. Coons you should introduce yourself My name is Holly Keller. I serve as the business administrator at LCT I Lehigh Career Technical Institute Dr.
059Green and Walt would have been here this evening, but she Apologizes for not being here and you may not Wish her to be here because she is currently has the flu so she didn't want to share germs She did talk to me earlier today and insisted that she did not want to share. Yes, not sharing. Yes And we are, I just wanted to mention that February on the national calendar is CTE month, Career Technical Education Month. Based on that I want to take the opportunity tonight to thank you and to celebrate you for supporting those students that are taking the plunge to experience and have a career and technological experience. We appreciate that and appreciate the support that the Allentown School District provides to us. I hope it continues for a long time. Thank you.
060Hi, I'm Greg Coons, proud executive director from the Carbon Lehigh IU. Thank you to the board members for having us here today. Thank you to Dr. Burks. We've had a great partnership with our superintendent council. Also, thanks to Andre for serving for the CLIU representative. Exhibit B, right? What do we need? Yeah. Exhibit B should have been an action that would need to be moved forward. The test assessment that I presented. We did it. Did you move it forward? Yes. No, we didn't vote on it. I thought we did. Okay, my fault. I apologize. No problem. It needs to be. No, I was told that we shouldn't move forward tonight. That's why. No, it's being voted on tonight. Okay, in that case, I'll backtrack. May I have a motion to move the tax assessment issue
061forward? So moved. Second. Second. Is there any other discussion? All in favor? Aye. Opposed? It moves forward. Thank you very much. Sorry about that. No. Yes, thank you good evening to the distinguished members of the Board of Education Dr. Burks district administration as well as community members of Allentown City It's great pride that I bring this action item to the board this evening and that is for a request for the board to approve purchase of approximately 17 acres of property that will be used to build a new state-of-the-art school for the children in the city of Allentown. And I will read that action item for you. The Board of Education to consider approval for the district solicitor, and Ms. Enners is here this evening, to finalize and execute an agreement of sale with City Center
062Group. for the purpose of purchasing improved land to be used for a new K through 8 school pursuant to the attached resolution that you have in your board docs. Are there any questions, please? None. May I have a motion to move this item forward? I make that motion. You are seconding it? Second, sure. We have a maker and a seconder. All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Aye. Then motion carries. And the next item is about the site log IQ construction management to serve as the construction management firm for the new K to 8 school project yes, the next item is related to the new school as well and Just to give you a little bit of background the district administration did a request for proposal for services related to construction management For the new school three
063proposals were received and were evaluated by team as well as through district solicitor uh... proposed reviewed proposals that as well excuse me so the action item before you this evening is for the board of education to consider the appointment of site logic construction management out of king of prussia pennsylvania to serve as a construction management firm for the new k through eights projects school project for flat fee of $978,873. May I have a motion? Is there any discussion on this? When we do the motion, I'll have discussion. Yeah. May I have a motion to move this forward? I'll make the motion. May I have a second? And we have a second. Now, is there any discussion on this? Yes, absolutely. We are going with another company that we've never had anything to do with before,
064that we have never, they've never done a building with us or anything. We are not choosing Alvin H. Blitz Company when they have done, in the last five years, they have donated over $20 million into our school district. They just did a media, a television station pretty much. at the William R. Construction Company did that for our students that now we can have 24-hour TV as we go forward. We keep saying, and this is one of the things they keep saying, grow our own, grow our own, grow our own. However, we grew our own and we're using somebody else. The Blitz Company, they go to Allentown, they graduated from Allentown. I'm very disappointed. I don't, you know, when we were struggling, And I said it before and I'll say it again. We were struggling. We
065were poor. We didn't have any money in the bank. We had to do $10 million payday loans for three years for every summer just to pay the teachers. The food company was here with us. They kept funding our projects. Even when they did Hayes Elementary School, they saved us $8 million. $3 million from even before anything was when they were just designing it. I don't think this is the best thing for Allentown. That's how I feel. I respect how everyone else feels, but I'm disappointed. Any other discussion? Just for clarity for the public, can you just explain our procurement process and how we went through the process, please? Yes, thank you. I appreciate that. Yes, so we developed a request for proposal document that included the services needed to provide construction management services for the
066new school, which includes estimating throughout the process and providing construction services, management services during the project, as well as post. Construction services as well. So there's really three phases of that process. We did receive three proposals They were evaluated by a team include board members were invited to be part of that process as well in a district to that evaluation We did invite our district solicitor as well as a second Attorney firm to review the proposals and opinion on their proposals as well Thank you. I know that the boots Was fee was higher by five million dollars. It was higher However, they have a track record of saving us money. They have a track record We they worked very very hand-on with us and We don't know I still say I don't know we're gonna
067get when it comes down to our primes and our subcontractors What it's gonna cost because it could take it all the way to 135 million We're not sure or it could go over. We don't know so I knew with Alvin age, but they would have made sure that they stayed under like they did before with Hayes Elementary School further discussion into that case all of those in favor of moving this item forward, please say aye aye nay Motion does carry and we'll see it a little bit later this evening. Thank you We now have Dr. Wharton Vee is requesting approval from the school board of directors for the phase four guaranteed energy savings agreement amendment with McClure Company. Thank you. Thank you, board. Thank you, Ms. Phoebe, for actually contributing to helping me do this.
068So I appreciate it. So tonight we're looking at what we're called Phase 4 of the GISA project, Guarantee Energy Savings Agreement Amendment with McClure Company. This started with potentially 13 projects for the next year. We were able to prioritize those projects to needed now projects, and we're down to three. Projects for this summer those prep so tonight I'm asking the board to approve these three projects one is the William Allen school steam to hot water HVAC conversion currently the older building that has a steam plant we're looking to go hot water steam is Antiquated steam is also more dangerous than hot water steam expands The next one is to help our staff McClure has been helping our staff for quite some time Especially with all the new equipment in the buildings to learn our equipment
069and to better operate our equipment We are looking to extend that service for another 12 years. So we have 28 buildings comprehensively We have about four or five individuals that do HVAC, but not exclusively HVAC. So McClure has been helping to augment our staff in getting them trained up to speed, and we need that. investment one more year. The third item is the William Allen High School physical education HVAC. Currently that HVAC system is undersized for the enormity of the gym, which means when there's a lot of kids playing, it's going to get steamy. That sweat, that steam is not being filtered through quick enough to make the air cool and to make the air dry, and it precipitates other problems like a wet floor. A wet wood floor doesn't do anybody any good because
070it starts to buckle. So we want to get the new HVAC right sized for the size of the gymnasium so we don't have those conditions. And what's not on this too, behind the scenes, obviously we're looking at older buildings. And with older buildings, sometimes you have... asbestos on old pipe. So when we're doing the boiler plant, the hot water steam plant, and looking at the old piping, some of that might also have asbestos. So there's a contingency in there to address the environmental remediation of that asbestos if it were to happen. So what does it do? The renovation project will address many dimension of resources, resources being our infrastructure and long-standing gaps in educational opportunities, making sure that the building's good for conducive learning as well as our educators. In addition, the Allentown School District
071strives to improve learning environment by focusing on the health and well-being of students and staff. In my world of operations, I concentrate on three things. Warm, safe, dry. If I cannot guarantee that to this board, to Dr. Burks, then I'm not worth my salary. So what we did with Ms. Phoebe and with McClure is make sure that the projects that I have before you tonight are absolutely needed to keep our buildings warm, safe, dry. And I do believe that they are. So we're looking at $7,291,132, of which $1,875,000 comes from a grant, and that's going to be expended towards the hot water conversion. And then it was like a $2.5 million grant, but we have to kick 25% of that grant in, so that's why it's $175,000. Any questions? Yes, let's go back to your
072second. I have questions too. So don't forget me. Go ahead. Go ahead. So one of my questions, you said warm, safe, dry. My question is how long did you say 12 years? No, I didn't say 12 years. How long is that going to last us? Because that's an old building. Well with new equipment I would actually put an estimate of anywhere from 15 to 25 and the reason why that 10-year gap is We have the unique ability school districts have the unique ability to maintain their equipment much longer than useful life So I'm confident that my staff Well trusted colleague Kirk Cressley will always maintain our equipment very well 15 to 25. And again, it's absolutely contingent upon how we do preventive maintenance. If we are keeping up with what the manufacturer says. Then we
073can prolong the life of any piece of equipment and we traditionally do case in point some of our older schools are still running and Why because we keep them up case in point this boiler plant right now the steam plant has been around for a long time why because we We're able to keep it going. We have pride in our work and our staff is motivated and dedicated to making sure that our environments are to your point. Miss Conover warm, safe, dry. The other question is how much what what what's the number look like? What does the number look like for the contingency? How much money do you have? It's an extra $100,000. It is in that number. It's just not in it. We know you're going to eat that up already. But my other
074question comes, if you find out, because we know that's an old building, so we know you're going to also find some asbestos in there. What happens if we find more than $100,000 worth of asbestos? I would have to come back to the board and explain that. All right, let me answer my question. I have a question. For the oh, sorry I hear it back here and I'm looking back No, no, go ahead. No, I noticed that you did state that the contract is for 12 years. 12 months. I'm like 12 years. Okay, see that's what we, that's what's causing it. Yeah, that's the problem. I got 12 years. You said 12 years and I'm like 12. No, no, no. It's one year worth of preventive maintenance of 12 months. So you meant 12 months, okay.
075I apologize. Sorry, Ms. Conover. No wonder you had us all. Sorry. I was going to ask, what kind of savings are we getting for 12 years? Okay, I get it. My apologies. Well, 12 months is not a long time. I just want y'all to know that. How many months in a year? 12 months. So, after the 12 months, then what happens? We got to go back into contract with you again? No, there is a there we are intending to look into Looking for bids to assist us with preventive maintenance specific to our HVAC and infrastructure equipment So we would go out to bid to look for it. What does a bid number look like? Truthfully, I wouldn't know until the bids came in. And I'd be guessing if I were to tell you a number.
076I really would. I want you to guess. Because I want to have an idea of what it would look like. Even though you can't. McClure is charging about... I'd say $800,000 a year to help us with preventative maintenance. So I would stick with that number only because that number has been around somewhere in that realm for the last three years. Good enough. Thank you so much. You're welcome, ma'am. So with that, with McClure, I know they pretty much have a monopoly on our school district. I'm tired of that. So I'm asking... you to please start looking at other companies. All the new things that are coming up, to please start bidding them out because it's unfair. These people have made over $100 million of dollars from us. And I could assure you that my colleague
077Allie and I are absolutely looking into that. Yeah, because all the money that was going forward, they got over $100 million from our school district. And when I think we could have did better. Understood. Thank you. Thank you. Anybody else then may I have a motion to move this forward I make that motion All in favor Mr. Seng is requesting approval from the board for the agreement with Nyman associates for short-term staffing assistance Good evening. Dr. Burke's and our esteemed board This item is for the approval of a contract in the scope of work to provide specialized services in our schools while the Allentown School District continues to recruit qualified individuals. This will specifically help us fill areas in special education, psychologists, speech-language pathology, behavior technicians, occupational therapy, and nursing. Is there any discussion? Seeing
078none, may I have a motion to move this forward? I'll make the motion. I'll second. We have a maker and a seconder. All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Then it moves forward. Thank you. Thank you. And you are also requesting approval from us for the agreement with Lehigh Carbon Community College. Yes, exhibits J and I are related. J is an approval of a memorandum of agreement with Lehigh Carbon Community College. This is in regard to the board's approval that we're requesting for this memorandum of agreement to partner with the Allentown School District and Bloom Board for our district's implementation of our paraprofessional to teacher pipeline. So this proposal will assist and support our paraprofessional employees in their acquisition of higher education credits and teacher certification. This partnership will allow our district paraprofessionals to earn an associate's
079degree through Lehigh Carbon Community College at a discounted rate in advance of earning their bachelor's degree through the ASD and Bloomberg-Ellebar Emerging Educators Partnership. Are you suggesting that we take both of those at once? It'd be up to you, Madam. Can you give us a little bit more explanation of the L of R? So the L of R program is a partnership that this board previously approved with Bloom Board. This is specific to our paraprofessionals agreeing to end their union, which is also an agreement for the district to provide support for them financially in exchange for a tuition reimbursement program that they work for the district for five years upon completion of that program. Is there any discussion about either of those items? May I have a motion to move both forward? I'll make the
080motion. Second? You have seconded that, Lisa. That's correct. And all in favor? Aye. Then the motion carries. Both of those items will move forward. Thank you. Now we are taking public comment on non-agenda items. Once recognized, please come to the podium state your name and address for the record Please note remarks are limited to three minutes and the microphone will be disabled at the end of those that time Please also be informed that the Board of Directors appreciates public comment. However, we are not able to respond to these comments Administration will address your concerns and update the board on the status of your concern. Do we have any comments this evening? Hi, I'm a mom of four that my kids attend obviously on-site school district. I have two at Central Elementary attending for second and
081third grade. Since August, I have been trying to get both kids a 504 plan and an IEP. Obviously, I have not received one yet for neither of my kids. She's a little nervous. I am nervous. I don't want to get emotional. No, don't get emotional. Okay. Before this even happened, my daughter had recently left the school. First time that it happened was in kindergarten. I was told school board knew about it. This happened maybe six times now. This affected obviously my whole family. I have my oldest daughter that was removed that first day this happened. She obviously was nervous, thought my daughter was kidnapped out to school. So I have kids attending therapy because of the anxiety that had caused since then. So my daughter had left the school maybe about five, six times already.
082I do not get any help. My daughter is diagnosed in eight different things. So it is due to a health cause. Because the staff at Central Elementary School cannot help my daughter or have the proper staff at the school to help her needs, they give me several calls five, six times by 11 o'clock a.m. with sending her home saying that they could not watch or give her the help that she needed at the school. Because of that, I ended up getting truancy. I have not received a letter in the mail stating I had a truancy problem, but did get child services called and showed up the day after Christmas to my home stating that this happened. She has said it had nothing to do with me. Obviously, she doesn't know why she called, and they
083didn't take the proper steps that lead up to that situation because obviously it's on the staff at Central. There was multiple times that I showed up at the school, alarms were off. I asked each time. The reason was it annoys the teacher. The teacher's going in and out. This is not the only time I, it's not only my daughter because there was a time that I did leave the school as I walked out, walked up the hill. There was a child that I saw come out of the school and I made sure I safely returned her into the school. So it's not just my daughter. Now I am getting, now I'm being told that they will hold both my daughter and my son who is dying. We're going to make sure Mr. Sickett. Mr. Sickett
084will talk to you. And Ms. Monley. They can't talk. They can't talk. Please go over and talk to Mr. Sickett. Ms. Monley is my chief officer of family and community engagement who was a direct report to me, and she'd be happy to hear what you have to say. And I apologize that you feel that we're not listening to you. Please, they will be happy to listen to you, and someone will have to give you a lot of time. But now is not the appropriate time. Yes, they will talk to you. Yes, ma'am. And that is also the executive director of special education, Mr. Brian Sickett. Thank you. Miss Matheson, we have one more card. It's from mr. It's from mr. D Scott and I just the topic did say agenda items, but I wasn't sure
085what that was. So he's Can you guys hear me? Yes First I wanted to speak on behalf of the new school that's going to be under construction in Allentown school district I wanted to talk about how we should support our youth in our community by allowing our youth to participate in this construction project. I believe that we should make a difference with allowing the youth to participate in some capacity to build the schools that our youth would be attending. And I know that you guys had voted and everything on... passing the agenda items that came before me speaking today but I wanted to know if there was a possibility for a recent so that we can allow part of our passing that bill to allow our students to participate and our youth in Allentown to
086gain the skills that would lead them in the future So I just wanted to say that. I know you mentioned something about the butts construction, you know, spearheading the project. But if there's a way. Oh, no. Oh, you just mentioned it. I'm sorry. But what I was saying basically well, I would like for the school district to possibly allow black and brown students that are in construction field to participate in developing the new school district and just being a part of that Labor force and I don't tell the school district. That'd be great Please and thank you. Thank you. Yes. Thank you Is there any old business that come before this committee is there any new business May I have a motion to adjourn? So moved. A second, please. So moved. All in favor? Aye.
087Thank you. All right. I'd like to call to order the policy committee of the whole meeting of the board of directors of the school district for the city of Allentown for today, February 20th, 2025. The board welcomes and invites public comment. You may address the board on agenda and or non-agenda items. The first opportunity for comment is at the beginning of the meeting and is limited to agenda items. Comment cards must be received by the start of the meeting, which is now. We will not be receiving public comment cards once the meeting begins. A copy of the public comment policy is located on the table next to the comment cards. Per our board's policy, any person may address the board in accordance with the procedures and limitations of this policy, either on issues presented in
088resolutions being considered or on other matters affecting the administration. Management or operation of the district remarks of a personal nature directed against any individual will be ruled out of order If you choose to address the board, please fill out a comment card and hand it to the board secretary. Mr. Simonson Comment cards are located at the podium near the door once recognized Please come to the podium state your name and address for the record Any remarks from our superintendent? Yes. Thank you. Mr. Nicoloff so As an organization, we are continuing to make progress of reviewing and updating our policies. And I want to thank the School Board of Directors for its commitment to ensuring that we have updated policies and regulations and supporting us with the development of our regulations to ensure that we run
089our organization, essentially our learning community, efficiently. But there's an area that's very top of mind for us all. as we face and navigate where we are at the state of public education today. So as you all may be aware at this point, there's been lots of national news coverage about the state of public education. The new administration has been actively implementing policy changes, many of which have a direct impact on public education. Over the past month, there has been significant discussion surrounding equity, diversity, and inclusion, particularly as it relates to school districts, nonprofits, and higher educational institutions. On Friday, February 14, 2025, the U.S. Department of Education issued new guidance to governors, college presidents, and superintendents across the country, including me. myself outlining how federal laws will now should be interpreted as relates to diversity,
090equity and inclusion. This guidance requires school districts to reassess how certain policies, programs and communications align with these directives. Entities were given 14 days from February 14th, 2025 to comply with these new orders. First, I want to say, as an organization, we have a deep commitment to ensuring that every student who attends the Allentown School District receives high-quality education, and we will not waver, and we will remain steadfast to that. As a district, we have a commitment to creating a community where each person, everyone in our learning community, feels safe, valued, empowered, and loved. We will continue to build on the unique strengths and gifts of everyone within our learning community and remain focused on focus was to increase student achievement and empower each and every one of us who have been entrusted in the
091care of our children. In many ways, This moment is more about language than action. The new federal orders focus on ensuring that policy and programs are framed in a way that shows that we're including all students without prioritizing or targeting any specific group. This means the way we describe certain initiatives may evolve as an organization. But the heart of our work. And as I've mentioned to our team, our North Star is our children. And the instructional core may sound like an educational term, but from every person within our organization, from our custodians to all levels, understands that the instructional core is our focus. And that is the relationship between students, teachers, and content. We will continue to focus on serving the educational needs of each student by igniting their passion for learning and creating an
092academic culture that will never change. Above all else, we remain committed to you, all 17,000 of our children and the 2,600 sensational professionals who have been entrusted in their care. While we navigate this journey together, I encourage everyone here, we all know that it's sad that I'm afraid to say the E word, but throughout our strategic plan, we've unguarded our focus in ensuring access to everyone within our learning community, but most importantly, our North Star, our children. So, as we work together, To ensure that we are compliant, I want to say this for all my Facebook friends. We will comply with the order. However, we will remain steadfast and continue to focus on our children. So as always, we get better together. And right now, seriously, all of our strengths are needed. Thank you so
093much. Thank you, dr. Burks at this time we are only taking public comments on agenda items once recognized Please come to the podium state your name and address for the record and please note Remarks are limited to three minutes and the microphone will be disabled at the end of that time Please also be informed the board of directors appreciates public comment. However, we are not able to respond to these comments The administration will address your concerns and update the board on the status of your concern. Do we have any comments? All right. Today we have two policies to present. Mr. Tseng will present the first policy. This is Policy 309. It is a second reading on assignment and transfer. Good evening, Dr. Burks and our esteemed board. We bring back Policy 309 with two edits
094for you that were identified in red from the last reading. Under delegation of responsibility, we added that the contents of this policy shall not supersede any of our district's negotiated collective bargaining agreements. And then in that last line, we do have that the policy shall not prevent reassignment of an employee during the school year for good cause as determined by the administration and approved by the board. Any questions? All right. Seeing none, may I have a motion to move this policy forward to the regular board meeting tonight? I make that motion. I second. All right. Any discussion? All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries. Next we have policy 830.1 presented by Mr. Delphin. It is data governance and storage for a first reading. Good evening, Board. This policy addresses the Board's
095commitment to sound data governance related to integrity and security of the data collected, maintained, stored, and managed by the district. The purpose of this policy is to ensure all our... partners and also our use of data on the district is being protected as we know it has been several cyber security incidents and we want to be sure that the district is ready for any potential cyber security attacks by having this type of policies to bring to for the course approval In this policy, we also discuss what personal identifiable information is, such as social security, driver's license, financial accounts. Most importantly, in this policy, we also address the use of personal electronic devices and resources. This is important for us because... We want to make sure that the data everybody understands that the data that is
096transmitted for the district with district devices or personal devices belong to the district. And lastly, we also want to hold our service providers accountable to make sure they understand our data policy when it comes to storing and protecting PII for the district. Any questions? With no questions, may I have a motion to move this forward to the regular meeting later tonight? I make that motion. I have a second. All right. All in favor, say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Thank you, Mr. Galvin. At this time, we are taking public comments on non-agenda items. Any? No. All right. Any old business? Any new business? May I have a motion to adjourn? So moved. Second. Okay. All in favor, say aye. Aye. Any opposed? We are adjourned. Good evening, everyone. I'd like to call to order the education
097of the whole meeting of the Board of Directors of the School District for the City of Allentown for today, February 20th, 2025. The Board welcomes and invites public comments. You may address the Board on agenda and or non-agenda items. The first opportunity for comments is at the beginning of the meeting and is limited to agenda items only. Comment cards must be received by the start of the meeting, which is now. We will not be receiving public cards once the meeting begins. A copy of the public comment policy is located on the table next to the comment cards. Per our board's policy, any person may address the board in accordance with the procedures and limitations of this policy, either on issues presented in resolutions being considered, on other matters affecting the administration, management, or operation of
098the district. Remarks of a personal nature directed at any individual will be ruled out of order. If you choose to address the board, please fill out a comment card and hand it to the board secretary, Mr. Simonson. Comment cards are located at the podium near the door. Once recognized, please come to the podium, state your name and address for the record, and kindly limit your remarks to three minutes. Superintendent, do you have any remarks? No, I'll save them for the regular board meeting. Is that okay? I'll save it to NASA. Thank you. Thank you. At this time, we are only taking public comments on agenda items. Once recognized, please come to the podium, state your name and address for the record. Please note remarks are limited to three minutes and the microphone will be disabled
099at the end of the three minutes. Please also be informed that the School Board of Directors appreciates your public comment. However, we are not able to respond to these comments. Administration will address your concerns and update the board on the status of your concerns. Do we have any comments? Thank you. Tonight we have five agenda items. The first item is a request for approval of the Olweus Bullying Prevention Program presented by Dr. Savoy. Good evening. Good evening. The Alvarez Bullying Prevention Program is a continuation of our work around bullying prevention. We are renewing our license in the platform this year. The resources will educate staff, students, and families regarding the definition of bullying, how to recognize bullying, and intervene as it relates to the state-mandated bullying prevention program. This platform also comes with a bullying
100survey that our students in grades 3 through 12 complete, which gives us data based on how our students, what our students think and feel about being safe and whether or not they feel bullied in school so that we can respond accordingly. That was actually my question that I had because being that it's a renewal, do we have any data from this? Past year on that we do but I don't have it right now What happens is we get the data the school individual schools get their data and they respond with a action plan For their schools regarding the data. Okay, if we could just get an update sure That'll be great. Thank you Any other comments questions? May have a motion to move this item forward to the February 20th 2025 regular school board meeting
1012nd, thank you. Is there any discussion all in favor? Say aye aye aye aye. Any opposed. The eyes have it this moves to our meeting tonight. The 2nd item is a request for approval of the 20252026. Dual enrollment agreement with Kutztown University. Not the Savoy. Yes, this is our 1st year with a. pending partnership with Kutztown University. They have a education program and a general education program offering our students the opportunity to participate in cohorts with other students in the Lehigh Valley. This is a dual enrollment program. Question yes, okay, um since Chris sounds like you know, 38 minutes Yeah, 30 I was gonna say 45, but thank you. Are they coming to our school? Are they come to our high schools? How are we gonna be doing that there? We're working with transportation right
102now. We are practicing routes Trying to ensure that students can get there. I think they get there at 8 o'clock. They have to be there from 8 to 10 On two days, I think it's two days a week three days a week. So this will have to be We have to be intentional about students being staying up on their coursework at their school in addition to handling the The workload at Kutztown because it is three days a week What we have talked to transportation about is how early do our students need to get there to be there at 8 o'clock? And then we will pick them up at 10 o'clock. So we are in conversations to ensure that we're being preventative And intervening when we need to intervene, but it's the time did like it
10338 minutes to get there and the meals They will be back and if not we do Mill vouchers and such like we do and I okay Is there any flexibility with that time if we figure out that the bus route no one work for the children? So they have this is in the Cooke's town has schedule just like Penn State has that I'm getting ready to talk about where they have the cohorts of class cohorts of students attending class at the same time and we negotiated the 8 to 10 so that it doesn't interfere with the rest of the students day we've experienced like in the middle of the day which interferes with students taking finishing courses at the school so in the morning or in the afternoon is the best time Okay, so when
104we roll this out like we do with LTC we had our students come and you know hear the program Are we going to be doing the same thing absolutely? Okay? Absolutely President, I just want to say to the school board of directors, when this opportunity presented itself and our team shared it with me, I was very emphatic about ensuring that we want our students to have multiple opportunities. And I said the same thing you said to Ms. Phoebe, because I'm not originally from the area. I'm like, that seems kind of far. But with that said, we want to make sure that we, I gave my team the charge to put in the appropriate safety nets in place for students. So we need to have assigned staff. dedicated staff to ensure that the students are getting
105there some of those technical things as well as there's counseling support as well any tutoring support because it is a lot to ask with students at that level to get up that early it's hard for some of us to get up that early so but i did say that we want to ensure that we meet with their families before students enroll in these courses because universities don't work like K-12 institutions. If you don't show up, you don't pass classes, they don't say, oh, you didn't ride, or your mommy didn't call, and all those things that happen in K-12. So we are going to be very intentional in the commitment. I'm glad we're working on this early so that we can put the right safeguards in place for students. And we will come back to the
106board with an update. And the contract is just a one-year contract. So if I may make a comment. It's a one-year contract. Yes. Oh, sorry, I'm the person who said yes. That's what's kind of them. Yeah, when we started the early college program, LCCC was very supportive because even though our kids are going to be traveling from here to there and we know what colleges are like, because of the program, they understood that we weren't just turning our kids over to the wolves. They had the supports in place to prepare them because if we think, that we're gonna send them to Kutztown and because you're late because the bus didn't show up and you fell in and it's okay. That's setting them up to fail. So we need to be real more, I would like
107to be more knowledgeable in terms of what those supports are gonna look like. And then the other piece was we talked about, maybe not with Kutztown, but I remember we talked about maybe having a classroom at our, maybe on one of our campuses. You know, so see what kind of options are there as well. But if it's going to take 38 minutes to get there, you're going to leave room for traffic or stuff happens. So they're not going to be just getting here and rushing in. That means they're going to have to be leaving our schools maybe like 630 in the morning or preparing or something. But we need to take a closer look at that because I would not want to set them up to fail. Correct. We agree with you, Ms. Conover, and
108I share some of the same concerns. We want to offer opportunity, but we want to set students up. And so before students attend, we will make sure that we come back to the board with, here are the safety nets that we've talked with their families, explain to the students the level of commitment, and not to talk them out of it, but it's a huge commitment to get up that early. There may have to be an eventual option because if there's snow or something happens, we may have to look at a virtual option in case of emergencies or something like that. You can check with the university. I just want to be mindful like we're not I have a couple of more dual enrollment program So this is not the only one One option in advancing
109the options for our children and just to hear L Tri C Say that they're taking the students up there, too We need to make sure there were with that too to make sure because this is one of the options that I'll try see is having for our children, too We've heard the board. Sorry I know from past experience when my son did go to Kutztown during the pandemic, there were virtual, but there also was, they were especially, because I spoke to the Minority Affairs, and they had a lot of stuff for our Allentown School District children because they know what's going on. I mean, we're growing a system. We're growing education. And they knew at that time, because we already had our education evaluation, that they knew we were behind. Because we did not have
110a standardized education. We did not. So I know, like I said, from past, what Kutztown has to offer, and they do offer quite a bit for our students. So I'm very happy to see this. Is there discussion? May I have a motion to move this to tonight's meeting? Make that motion. Second. Any more discussion? All in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? The ayes have it. We will move this to tonight's meeting. The third item is a request for approval of the 2025-2026 dual enrollment agreement with Lehigh Carbon Community College. Thank you. We are renewing our partnership with Lehigh Carbon Community College. This is dual enrollment and our early college program for dual enrollment. Our students have opportunities for electives, courses in education, social studies, science. high level math and English. They also account for
111credit, dual credit counselor courses that students need to graduate. And this is also an agreement for our early college program. Is there any discussion on this? The eighth grade history class, was that dual enrollment or no? Was that just AP history? I thought we had one at one point. I'm not familiar with that. Smith, do we have a... I know we don't have a college one. Is it an AP history class? Is it okay, Ms. Phoebe, to ask her question again? Ms. Smith, I thought we had an AP class for eighth grade. It's not a part. So it's no longer. It wasn't last year nor this year. Well, let's look at that again, please. Thank you. Thank you. May I have a motion to move this forward to tonight's board meeting, regular board meeting? Make
112that motion. Second. Is there any discussion? All in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? The ayes have it. This moves to tonight's meeting. The fourth item is a request for approval of the 2025-2026 dual enrollment agreement with Penn State University. This is our second year with Penn State University. Again, we worked out the schedule so that our students are attending at a time that is most appropriate for them to continue their education at the school level. 12 students we were offered 12 Student engagement opportunities this year. We did that we are maintaining the 12 and may take it to 16 contingent we did a Facilitated a survey to see who was interested before we continued with this particular Dual enrollment students maintain their interest. So we're going to keep we want we want to move
113forward Any discussion on this item may have a motion to move this forward to tonight's regular board meeting I make that motion. Is there any discussion? All in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? The ayes have it. This item moves forward. that last item is a request for approval of the Junior Achievement Finance Park and Careers Symposium presented by Dr. Segal. Yes. Junior Achievement of Southeast and Pennsylvania is a nonprofit organization that works with schools and school districts to provide support focused on financial literacy and college and career preparation. What they have agreed to do in this area, and they... that they were interested in Allentown School District for quite some time. That's what was shared. And this is an opportunity for us to have Finance Park in Allentown School District. It is like a
114simulated little city. that they bring to the district. And I think we're focused on high school students, maybe some middle school students, and they go through a financial literacy simulation. They get a checkbook. Here's your money. You have to go through a little city, balance your checkbook. There are lessons that happen before and after this engagement. Students in the past, students have enjoyed this simulation because it... makes real learning real life for them. And when we think about college and career readiness, not only do we want students to have opportunities, but we want students to be physically responsible. In addition to that, they are supporting us in a career symposium. And I believe we're scheduled for the career symposium sometime later in the year where students will have like a conference experience based on four
115pathways, four career pathways. And they will actually engage. And then outside of the symposium in the four pathway panel discussions, there will be resources available for our students within the Lehigh Valley to support them in either college or career awareness, career readiness. Any discussion on this item? I have a question. For that financial literacy simulation, is that a single day event? It is. Okay. Thank you. May I have a motion to move this item to tonight's regular board meeting? Second. Is there any discussion? All in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? This item moves forward to tonight's regular board meeting. At this time, we are taking public comments on agenda items. Once recognized, please come to the podium, state your name and address for the record. Please note remarks are limited to three minutes and
116the microphone will be disabled at the end of three minutes. Please also be informed the school board of directors appreciate public comment. However, we are not able to respond to these comments. Administration will address your concerns and update the board on the status of your concerns. Are there any comments? No? Okay. Is there any old business to come before the board? Any new business? No. May I have a motion to adjourn this meeting? So moved. I make that motion. All in favor say aye. Aye. This meeting is adjourned. Can we take a three-minute break? Yep. We'll take a three-minute break, and then we'll go straight into our regular board meeting for tonight. Thank you. Good evening, everyone. I'd like to call to order the meeting of the Board of Directors of the School District for
117the City of Allentown for today, February 20th, 2025. The Board welcomes and invites public comments. You may address the Board on agenda and or non-agenda items. The first opportunity for comments is at the beginning of the meeting and is limited to agenda items only. Comment cards must be received by the start of the meeting, which is now. We will not be receiving public cards once the meeting begins. A copy of the public comment policy is located on the table next to the comment cards. Per our board's policy, any person may address the board in accordance with the procedures and limitations of this policy, either on issues presented in resolutions being considered or on other matters affecting the administration, management, or operation of the district. Remarks of a personal nature directed at any individual will be
118ruled out of order. If you choose to address the board, please fill out a comment card and hand it to the board secretary, Mr. Simonson. Comment cards are located at the podium near the door. Once recognized, please come to the podium and state your name and address for the record and kindly limit your remarks to three minutes. We will now have a roll call. Mr. Secretary, please call the roll. Ms. Brown, Ms. Conover. Present. Ms. Harris? Here. Ms. Matheson? Here. Mr. Nikoloff? Here. Ms. Noel? Here. Ms. Ortiz? Here. Ms. Sierra? Here. Ms. Tabercio? Here. Six board members present. Please rise for the pleasure of allegiance followed by a moment of silence. And for the board president remarks, first I would like to say happy Black History Month. This is a time where we honor the
119resilience and achievements and profound impact of black individuals throughout history. It is a reminder that history isn't just dates and names, but stories of courage, innovation, and the ongoing fight for equality. I believe that we are making history right now, and we have the opportunity to make waves in our fields of education. Let's use this month to make history, learn, reflect, and celebrate the richness of black heritage, which is an important part of our shared human story. I would also like to acknowledge that recently, this past Friday, our own Zaliye Sierra won the Youth Impact Award at the Preventative Measures Gala. Zaliye has been doing tremendous work in the community, and I just want to acknowledge what she's been doing and tell her to keep up the great work. I also wanted to highlight Dr.
120Burks, who's recently received the Superintendent to Watch by the National School Public Relations Association. Dr. Burks, keep making waves. We thank you for all that you do, and we thank your team that is behind you, because behind every great leader is a great team. And I also wanted to acknowledge that Dominican Independence Day is February 27th. And we want to remember that day as the day that Dominican Republic broke free and forged its own path. And we want to acknowledge because we have a very large Dominican community here at ASD. So we want to celebrate with you. Okay, we have our Dominican friend over here, Ms. Anna. Ms. Anna Tabersio. And I know they're doing the flag raising on that day over at the city on the Sunday. We did get a chance to do
121the ribbon cutting at Allen High School for the new media lab. And it was such an amazing, amazing, beautiful thing. And I would like to thank the Boots organization, all the community partners, all the elected officials. the school board of directors and Dr. Burstyn and the administration for making this media studio happen. It is beautiful. It's a state-of-the-art studio, and I know we're going to add more things in there, but the kids are going to be doing their own film and podcasting. They did the reveal as a news presentation, and it was flawless. They did an amazing job, so I am so happy that William Allen would have this access. to this beautiful film studio. I also wanted to acknowledge Chelsea, our homeless liaison, who recently shared the works and needs of our homeless community
122at the Allentown Commission on Homelessness at the Business Town Hall. Our friends at Capital Blue Cross hosted over 60 partners and community members to learn more about homelessness in Allentown and how downtown business community can help address the challenges that our unsheltered neighbors face. So I want to thank Chelsea for showing up and representing us and speaking on behalf of the needs of our children in the district. I also wanted to thank Jose Rivera of the United Way. Jose was a speaker at Allen High School and Deeriff High School. He discussed truancy and chronic absenteeism and how we can partner with parents to address the issues. Jose did a phenomenal job. It was a huge turnout. The parents were so engaged. There were parents that were really acknowledging the fact that they know that their
123students aren't showing up, but they couldn't figure out what... what it was and some came to the realization that some of the students are having some language barrier issues and they're not exactly comfortable in the setting so they rather hang out. the park with a group of kids that they feel comfortable with versus showing up so now the parents have to figure that out and we have to figure out has an as an administration how do we get the kids to feel comfortable especially our English language learners that are in the school that feels like they're in a fish in a pond so I want to thank Jose for allowing that space and opportunity to happen and Allen High School in Deer of High School principal for really opening up the space it was a
124really great turnout so thank you for that and lastly i would like to thank asd administration um for being able to adjust and adapt For the past month it has been challenging every day something different happens But you guys have been adjusting adapting pivoting But you guys have been keeping the students first and I have to acknowledge that that you are grace under fire Thank you so much for all that you do for our students and that ends my report for tonight Dr. Burks Thank you madam president, and I just want to thank good evening everyone. I guess we're good night To everyone to all members of our learning community my team to the members of the public of course to our families and students I just have a few short remarks tonight one. I
125want to thank the school board directors who have been who were present for our most recent celebrations including the tv production studio so i want to thank you publicly miss brown the well and miss phoebe for coming to join us at william allen high school it was indeed a great day of course i won't reiterate some of the things that the board president said about honoring all the people in our learning community and the celebrations but i honor everyone who's celebrating all groups who are having celebrations as well and Yesterday, I want to thank Ms. Matheson for attending our You Are the Light celebration and for our team, our talent management team and the committee that was responsible for coordinating all these efforts for You Are the Light. And it was a very fantastic evening.
126We had lots of recognitions that evening, including the winners of our Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. essay competition. are you are the light winners from our schools, so staff as well as students. And then it was very moving that we acknowledged, and I don't want the right to know people to get me, but I had to get notes from Mr. Seng, so that's why I'm looking at my phone for a second so I can get this right. So we recognized 29 total employees who served at least 35 years of service in the Allentown School District. And it was quite beautiful because their families came, extended families. And I thought I was really moved by the fact that nine of those people, of the people that we recognized yesterday, they had 40 plus years of service.
127And we had two employees with more than 45 years of service. So I just want to say thank you again. I said that at the ceremony, but I just commend you for your hard work, your steadfast commitment. And what I said yesterday, and everyone knows I usually balance some comedy with some of the serious conversations, but sometimes you can't get people to do things for more than 45 minutes. So you think that someone would stay 45 years and give in love and devotion to the students and the families of this community. hearing them, again, I truly appreciate you, and I'm so honored to serve with you in this walk to really deliver on our promise to our children and our families, and of course the staff, particularly, you know, I love all staff, but we
128know the teachers, everyone has, the teachers are the greatest lever in impacting student achievement, so I just want to say thank you, everyone, for that. Let's see, I think I covered all the... celebrations from yesterday's and of course miss brown will mention all the recognitions for African American History Month and Dominican history culture and all that good stuff and we I just want to remind us as a learning community as we continue to navigate this very unprecedented times in our history that truly we are getting better, a lot better together at this time. And we are creating a brighter future together for our students and families. And I just wanna say I appreciate all of you and the great work that you're doing. Have a great evening, and I won't talk anymore, I think, for
129the rest of the evening, so thank you. I doubt that. At this time, we are taking public comments on agenda items. Once recognized please come to the podium state your name and address for the record Please note remarks are limited to three minutes and microphone will be disabled at the end of the three minutes Please also be informed the school board of directors appreciate public comments However, we are not able to respond to these comments administration will address your concerns and update the board on the status of your concern any Robert Smith jr. Thank you Good evening. I'm Robert E. Smith, Jr. I'm a taxpayer that lives at 1060 East Gordon Street on the east side of Allentown. That's across the bridge, if anyone doesn't know where it is. I want to premise my remarks.
130I want to appreciate the board secretary, deputy to the superintendent, Jen Ramos, and Dr. Birx. You're always very kind and accessible, and I appreciate that. Quickly. I don't like the meeting format, all the committee meetings and the board meeting. That's too much in one night. The public doesn't have access. I mean, I had to get online and then rush down here to say my piece. I mean, the public, there's not a lot of public here. It's mostly administration, and I think the public needs to be more involved. I appreciate the meetings for the budget coming up. Anyway, what I'm really here for is the land deal. Now, everybody knows I am for a middle school, K-8, on the east side, which will be about a block away from my house. My property values will go
131up, and so will the 300 excess homes up there will go up. There's going to be a billion dollars worth of construction up there. They should have gave us that land for free. Now, I don't care what Senator Brown said. He made promises for a football field to the east side. He promised us the land. He didn't say it was free, but he didn't say it was going to cost us $14 million either. Riley spent $28,000 an acre for that land, $5.3 million. And we, taxpayers, are now paying. $14 million? That's almost a million an acre. This is not right. And I am for that middle school. And it's going to be beautiful. But right is right. I don't care Republican, Democrat, Independent or what. When they look at the Allentown School District, they think
132we're a gold mine here. Because we've got the students. We have 17,000 powerful students and 26 million, they act like a million, but 26,000. 2,600 administrators. But my God, they look at us like we have a gold mine. The O'Reillys and all the other politicians and all these other businesses, they're coming to the school district for money. I think it's a bad deal, and no offense against the person who negotiated this, but we're an asset to the properties up there. Having a school district next to those homes is going to increase their value. We could have got a better deal. $14 million is too much, and they took advantage of us. And I don't think it was right. And I needed to come here and tell you that. And I hope it's on public record.
133The second thing is McClure. We've got to do these contracts in-house. Everybody knows when you subcontract out, it's going to cost more than we do it ourselves. We have excellent staff. We can grow our own at LCTI. We don't have to pay millions to McClure. We should do it ourselves. Subcontractors and consultants. Overpriced us all the time. Now listen, you pay a consultant and what does the consultant tell you? You got to raise taxes. How ridiculous is that? You're paying thousands of dollars. Thank you. May I have a motion for approval of the minutes? May I have a second? Is there any discussion? Please call the vote. Ms. Conover? Yes. Ms. Harris? Yes. Ms. Matheson? Yes. Mr. Nikoloff? Yes. Ms. Noel? Yes. Mr. Bercio. Motion passes 6-0. Thank you. At this time, we'll call for
134our informational updates. Is there any update from the Allentown Human Relations Commission? Not at this time. Thank you. Is there any update from the Allentown Public Library? Thank you. Did you have something? Oh, I'm sorry. I was going to say that we just wanted to... Can we turn her microphone up? Mine is up. It sounds... Can you hear me? Or speak louder. Oh, I speak delicate. There you go. Okay, the update is we were just going to get an update as far as the finances, and that was it. Thank you. Any reports from the Allentown Recreations Commission? We're just updating on the future projects for spring and summer at the parks. Thank you. There is an update from the Allentown School District Foundation. At the Executive Director's recommendation, ASD Foundation's Board of Directors voted earlier
135this month to support the district's upcoming multidisciplinary expo in the amount of $6,500 to help cover the cost of the project supplies, venue rental fees, and awards. The foundation is also supporting ASD students participating in the Pennsylvania Junior Academy of Science regional competition taking place at Northampton Community College on Saturday, February 22nd. This includes funding for project supplies, registration fees, and busing for 24 middle school students. Students who achieve a first place rating will move on to the three-day state competition in May, which will also be supported by the foundation. Over the past nine years, we have funded PJAS regionals for 533 ASD students and PJAS states for 93 students. The ASD Foundation Scholarship Program for ASD graduating seniors continue to grow with two more $2,500 scholarships secured this month for William Allen High School
136and several others in the works for all three ASD high schools. We anticipate awarding more than 60 scholarships this year and application information will be available through the guidance office in the early spring. Preparations are underway for our 15th annual High Notes Gala, Get Your Dresses and Suits Ready, which will be taking place on Saturday, March 22nd at the America's Hotel. Our goal is to raise at least $131,000 to support ASD student programs in the areas of literacy, STEM, civic education, the arts, and scholarships. Please join us for a wonderful networking opportunity featuring a gourmet dinner, dazzling student performances, and a silent auction. You can pick up an invitation from the rack in the lobby or contact ASD Foundation if interested in supporting this exciting fundraising event. The foundation is always looking forward to new
137volunteers to support our efforts, including classroom and event volunteers, committee participants, and board members. We are pleased to announce the recent addition of Taylor E. Brown to our board of directors by unanimous vote. Ms. Brown is experienced in fundraising, public relations, and financial development, which we believe will help... us advance our vision of the enrichment education enriching the education of asd students and that ends my report there's no report from the cliu tonight is there a report from the lehigh carbon technical institute not this time okay there's no report from the city youth initiative and now we will have our student representatives alicia rodriguez from allen high school um good evening Mark your calendars for April 10th to the 12th as William Allen's cast and crew for this year's musical at venue Q, the school
138edition, has been rehearsing and ready to put on a show. You can purchase your tickets at William Allen's box office. A 10th grader, a gear up student, Aaliyah Moneen, was chosen to be featured as a youth artist in the LV Chamber of Commerce State of the City event at Da Vinci. So congratulations to Aaliyah. More about the construction club. First of all, I want to thank the students involved, the mentors from Alvin H. Budd's Construction Management, Dr. Burks, Andrea Noel Brown, Ms. Phoebe Harris, state representatives, and community partners that were all on hands to cut the ribbon on the new space. So thank you for that. The studio contains both a control room and a set complete with a broadcast stage and podcast interview space. The studio includes professional broadcast and editing equipment that will
139allow students to create and produce various types of content and broadcast that will be shared with both the school and community via YouTube and two cable channel partnerships with Service Electric and Astron. Students taking media production, digital literacy, journalism, and theater will work in those spaces through any interest of students who are welcome to as well. The studio was under the direction of Michelle Bruno along with Amanda Riggle that are working to create content to broadcast this school year with the goal of producing live broadcasts next year. The entrepreneurship series was successful in January and will return again on Tuesday, February 25th. This month the topic will be local business owners reaching out to students to explain what it takes to start your own business and to hear the stories of how their journey was
140beginning to now. William Allen has sadly closed their winter regular season, but there have been some good things. For the boys basketball, seniors Keith Jackson and Manny Polanco have been named to the Lehigh Valley Senior All-Star Team. Keith Jackson has also been named East Penn Conference All-Conference Team. And the boys qualified for District 11 playoffs, hosting their opening round in the Canary Cage with a victory over Pleasant Valley 69-28. They play again on Saturday at Strasburg high school facing Pokemon West Island athletics recently inducted four members into the Hall of Fame including Dennis McWhite Amy Cotter Tenants Roderick and Wayne Thomas the introduction ceremony was capped off with a big win over deer of 64 to 36 That's really good The Allen A Student Athlete Leadership Club continued touring this winter to ASD elementary schools.
141I am part of this club, so I really loved enjoying reading to the kids, making crafts with them. It was a really good experience, and just seeing their little cute faces watch you read a book. It's really amazing. The Allen girls wrestling team made history this season, completing their first season in school history as an independent girls wrestling team. The girls also hosted their first ever home meet in school history, and a few of them even qualified for the District 11 wrestling tournament. Allen's swim continues one of their strongest seasons in recent years, including a big win over Deeruff on Senior Day, winning 98-56 for boys and 124-17 for girls. Congratulations to the Allen's swim team as they head to districts. Allen boys wrestling Will Shakir has recently been ranked as the top fifth wrestler
142by Lehigh Valley Live, and he has qualified for the District 11 tournament. Currently in ASD Athletic Club Race, Alan is in the lead 8-4 for varsity sports. And the best news of all, that Alan Canary was voted Best Mascot in the state of Pennsylvania by Sports Illustrated. And the Canary will soon be part of the regional contest, so hopefully you vote so we can be the Best Mascot in the USA. Thank you so much. And now from building 21, we have Kimberly Rice. Ms. Kimberly. Good evening. Congratulations to Alan. Good job. The month of February has been all about tracking our academic journey, celebrating our growth, and seeking support to ensure we meet our goals. On February 10th, our building hosted our quarterly student recognition event. Students were joined by friends and family as they
143celebrated for their academic achievement, attendance, and behavior successes. Last week, our students were joined by their families as they conducted student-led conferences with their advisors to review their progress and set goals. This month also saw the beginning of our school our after-school academic labs They these are important are our important part of our commitment to ensuring all students receive the support They need to remain on track and their progress towards receiving academic credit for their courses Many of our teachers are remaining after school and designing new opportunities for students to continue to learn practice and demonstrate the skills They need to complete their learning portfolios and earn academic credit As you know, learning at Building 21 isn't confined to our building. We'd like to congratulate two of our seniors who recently completed their pre-apprenticeship programs
144with the IBEW. Both are on track to be admitted as full apprentices after graduation. And today, our winter cohort of LVHN interns completed their healthcare futures apprenticeships. And next week, another cohort of interns will begin that program. We are very thankful for the many partners in our community who help us to provide these opportunities to our students. And that's the news from Building 21. Thank you. And remember, just like our Phoenix, together we rise. And before moving on, I was at Building 21 today, and I understand the current... Situation happening right now and I understand I've known all of you for multiple years serving on this board and I understand all of your Feelings and how you want to approach this but I was at building 21 earlier today, and I was told a lot
145of Concerns that students and staff had about this and if that's okay, I would just like to say some of those. Yes, so We enjoy that curriculum that allows us to explore the diverse history and our cultures. We are concerned if we would be able to continue with our current curriculum because of that. And students were very excited to see the diverse role models being honored and the naming of our new schools. And we worry if we will be able to continue celebrating their legacy. And this also causes concern for staff of wondering will they have to now conduct their classroom differently now to be in order with this? And students, well, a lot of students were very concerned to see if they would be able to advocate for their own culture within their schools.
146My peers have seen the benefit of Allentown becoming a more equitable district compared to the past, and we appreciate that. And, of course, we are an ever-growing district, and we want to keep moving towards the future and moving and growing. And I'd just like to point out, like earlier tonight, the poem that the little boy read called Hey Little Black Boy, that wouldn't have been able to be. said at a meeting today and I think speaking for everybody I would want my future siblings kids or just future generations in general to be able to say that or Learn more about that Thank you. Thank you so much Thank you so much for sharing that Kimberly and now for from dear F. Caden Hi, good evening. Dieruff has also had a pretty successful winter athletic season,
147although we did get our fair share of whoopings at the hands of Allen. Everything she said is true, as much as I hate to admit it. Our indoor track did see two school records broken, though, with Andrew Perez breaking the one-mile time and Jaquan Sanders breaking the high jump. They are now moving into the spring season, so hopefully they will continue up that success there. Our girls basketball has had an absolutely phenomenal season. They play the opening round of districts tomorrow against Easton at Northampton at 7.30 p.m. It'll be a whiteout, so if you're showing up, please make sure to wear something white. And this has been a season to remember for the girls. They beat Central Catholic for the first time in 42 years. They made it to district playoffs. Twice in a row
148for the first time in also 42 years. All five starters have at some point dropped double figures in a game. Marissa Price. Velasquez was named Lehigh Valley live calling all sports and morning call player of the week, although not all in the same week, that would have been really impressive, but she was named player of the week in all three of those along with Brianna Fernandez being named, uh, calling all sports player of the week. JLo Rosario was named second team, all league and Anaya holder, uh, justice McChrystin and JLo Rosario were all, all named all division, all stars. So Our girls have had an absolutely phenomenal season, and I will be there tomorrow to cheer them on at districts. It's going to be really exciting. It's not something you get to see very often.
149And if any of you have ever been through DERIF, Ms. Piston is losing her mind, as you would expect her to. In other sports news, in their second year of competitive existence, our special ed inclusion bocce team has made districts, which is not a sentence I get to say every day, but it did happen. So they'll be playing on Tuesday. I have a couple friends on that team, and it's actually quite fun to watch. So I don't know if I'm going to be able to go, but that'll be really exciting to cheer them on. If we came home with a bocce districts trophy, I feel like that would be amazing. Our NHS, our National Honor Society, recently jumped in the freezing cold Delaware River for the local polar plunge, raising over $2,600 for Special Olympics,
150which happens later in spring. That was really exciting if you weren't getting in the water. If you were, it was a lot less exciting, I have to say. And our assistant principal, Miss Moore, has created a new safety schedule, which should hopefully streamline a lot of things in DERIF. I don't know too much about it, but... Hooray, I think. And finally, and this one I'm a lot more excited about, there's a new and improved school calendar on the Allentown School District website that is supposed to make family events, athletes, student clubs, extracurriculars, and academic celebrations much more easy to access. They're all in the same place. As somebody who has to constantly explain to my parents where I'm at and what I'm doing in terms of extra clubs and sports, that's going to be really
151convenient. So if you have a kid... in DERIF, I'm sure you'll find that very helpful. But I think that's everything from DERIF. So thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you guys for your reports. Now for the Board of Directors report. May I have a motion for approval for the Board of Directors report? I'll make the motion. May I have a second? Is there any discussion? Yes. I'm looking at item B. It says, to the extent that certain agreement between the school district as owner and Alvin H. Boots, Inc. as construction manager dated February 3, 2017, as amended from the time to time pertaining to the new middle school remains in a full force ineffective. The Board of School Directors hereby determines that the contract should be terminated for convenience and without pause pursuant to
152Section 9.5 thereof. And hereby directs the... the school district administration insolvent to send a seven days written notice to Alvin H. Butts. I'm sorry, I don't have my glasses on. I don't have them with me. Of the termination for Section 9.5, set agreement. The Board of School Directors does not make any admission that said agreement remains in full force and effect. And this action is without prejudice to any rights or remedies the school district may have under said agreement. at law or equity um i understand that and i'm just saying i don't like it as my own self as it knows my own self as a board member as an elected official um i don't like this i am not going to agree to it i know the other board members are but we had
153our word out there and now the word is gone any other discussion please call the vote miss harris absolutely not Ms. Matheson? Yes. Mr. Nikoloff? Yes. Ms. Noel? Yes. Mr. Bercio? Yes. Ms. Conover? Yes. Motion passes 5-1. Thank you. May I have a motion for approval of the policy agenda? Make the motion. May I have a second? Is there any discussion? Please call the roll. Ms. Harris? Yes. Ms. Matheson? Yes. Mr. Nikoloff? Yes. Ms. Noel? Yes. Ms. DiBercio? Yes. Ms. Conover? Yes. Motion passes 6-0. Thank you. May I have a motion for approval of the Secretary and Treasurer Report? Second. Is there any discussion? Please call the roll. Ms. Matheson? Yes. Mr. Nikoloff? Yes. Ms. DiBercio? Yes. Ms. Conover? Yes. Ms. Harris? Yes. Motion passes 6-0. May I have a motion for approval of the
154superintendent's report? I make the motion. May I have a second? I second. Is there any discussion? Please call the roll. Ms. Noel? Yes. Ms. Tabersio? Yes. Ms. Conover? Yes. Ms. Harris? Yes. Ms. Matheson? Yes. Mr. Nikolov? Yes. Motion passes 6-0. Thank you. May I have a motion of approval for the personnel report? So moved. Second. Is there any discussion? Please call the roll. Ms. Tabersio? Yes. Ms. Conover? Yes. Ms. Harris? Yes. Ms. Matheson? Yes. Mr. Nikolov? Yes. Ms. Noel? Yes. Motion passes 6-0. May have a motion of approval of the finance report second is there any discussion? Yes We heard from our president. We heard from our superintendent what Alvin H Blitz did and also from our Allen Representative what they did with the studio something we've never had before that was with the William
155Allen construction company It's oh to me. I'm sorry. It's it's great that they did that for us. It's okay. They did that But we're not going to give them the contract for the new school. But it's okay for them to invest $20 million in us the last five years. It's okay for them to support our drive team and do all the other things they do for our students and give money to Allentown School District Foundation, but we can't see them as the ones that build our new school. I have a problem with that. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Harris. Any other discussion? Please call the roll. Ms. Tabersio? Yes. Ms. Conover? Yes. Ms. Matheson? Yes. Mr. Nikolov? Yes. Ms. Noel? Yes. Ms. Harris? No. Motion passes 5-1. Thank you. At this time, we are only
156taking public comments on non-agenda items. Once recognized, please come to the podium, state your name and address for the record. Please note remarks are limited to three minutes, and the microphone will be disabled at the end of the three minutes. Please also be informed the School Board of Directors appreciates public comments. However, we are not able to address your concerns. Oh my God. We are not able to respond to these comments. Administration will address your concerns and update the board on the status of your concern. Mr. Secretary? No comment. All that. We have some old business to bring forward. May I have a motion to untable the motion to appoint Juana Breslin to the Allentown Public Library Board? I make that motion. May I have a second? Is there any discussion? Please call the roll.
157Mr. Bersio Miss Conover yes thank you Miss Harris yes Miss Matheson mr. Nikolov yes miss Noel yes motion passes 6-0 thank you Now, as that motion is now on table, may I have a motion to fill the vacancy on the Allentown Public Library Board created by the resignation by Ethel Drayton? Ethel. Ethel Drayton Craig, sorry. And appoint Ms. Juana Breslin to fill this vacancy. I make that motion. Is there a second? Is there any discussion? Pardon? Yes, who's Juana Breslin? Who's Juana Breslin? Juana Breslin Ortiz? Well, that's her legal name. So she's a student that graduated from us. She's also part of the Ortiz Arc Foundation. And she has been here in Allentown all her life. And she was asked by the library board some time ago to be put on the library board because
158we didn't have enough people to replace Ethel. Ethel Cray. Any more discussion? Please call the roll. Ms. Tabersio. Yes. Ms. Conover? Yes. Ms. Harris? Yes. Ms. Matheson? Yes. Mr. Nikoloff? Yes. Ms. Noel? Yes. Motion passes 6-0. Is there any additional old business to come before the board? Is there any new business to come before the board? May I have a motion to adjourn? I make that motion. Second. All in favor say aye. Aye. Everyone have a great night. Get home safely.