001unquote please stand for for dimensions i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america and to the republic for which it stands for one nation under god indivisible with liberty if you guys can remain standing for a moment this past weekend cambridge springs elementary school third grade teacher betty white passed away during miss white's 32 year teaching career she has positively influenced the lives of thousands of children betty was a mentor and trusted colleague who inspired her students to learn and grow at an exponential rate please join me in a moment of silence to remember and honor mrs white for her friendship and service to our community thank you [Music] miss brooks here mr brown yep miss crawl here that's all right miss davis mr d francesco here mr johnston here mr
002lynch here mr valesky here that's right approval minutes recommend approval of the attached meeting minutes for january 10 and january 13. some move second second playing motion and second all in favor say hi all right promotion approved this evening's presentation is maplewood elementary school uh miss sponsor principal is here she's prepared a six minute video for us so if you would turn your attention to one of the streams [Applause] [Music] hey [Music] but you can tell right away [Music] [Applause] so they can be [Music] [Applause] [Music] is [Music] will not allow us [Music] is [Music] oh [Music] you can see [Music] oh [Music] come on [Music] me [Music] whatever language we all understand [Music] [Applause] wow [Music] [Applause] yes [Music] [Applause] [Music] is [Music] you can see [Music] so there's a lot there um i'm
003sure you guys saw any questions principal fonzo's here i thought that would be better than listening to me talking on but if you do have any questions about anything i'd be happy to answer them or talk to you after the meeting and uh i'll put that um i'll put that online through the link on our web page if anybody interested in watching it again i'm trying to find that there all right thank you spawns i appreciate you taking the time to put that together we do have a public comments uh miss brown um i didn't really write anything today but um i wanted to talk about policy 119. um i guess the first thing that i want to talk about is that you know in your own policies again i know i've said this before
004but in your own policies that it says that are not intended and shall not be construed supersede or preempt any applicable law whether constitutional statutory regulatory or common law consequently all board policies and procedures shall be given both an interpretation and an application that is lawful the board shall determine the final interpretation of its policies and procedures but it goes on to say and procedure shall not preempt create supplant expand or restrict the rights of liabilities of students employees or any other members of the school district community beyond what is contemplated by law and are not intended to restrict or limit students employees or others from pursuing any claims or defenses available under law and this is your board policy that was adopted in 2006 and it was last revised in 2014. um i want
005to talk a little bit about the history of the whole crt and divisive materials thing and make sure i have stuff accurate um july 6th of this 2021 there was a resolution that was brought forward um specifically talking about crt in the work session and it moved forward to the voting session july 8th of 2021 there was a motion to table that failed um the motion was put up for reconsideration that was passed and that was because of the sunshine act if i remember correctly and then there was a second vote for motion to table which passed eight to one i got kicked to the education committee for an august 3rd meeting which was public the policy committee meeting for that month was not public though at the august 9th meeting work session there was
006a resolution that was brought forward by the education committee uh that pretty much affirmed you know that we don't have crt in school and that we you know haven't done anything in regards to any of that um there was also a first reading for 105.4 divisive material august 12th at motion there was a motion made to remove policy 105 0.4 from the agenda that motion passed 9-0 everybody that was on the school board at that time voted to remove it from the agenda september 7th um the new chair for policy reintroduced policy 105.4 again and again at the september 9th meeting it was removed from the agenda that motion again passed 9-0 october 11th policy 119 came forward changes for a first reading on october 14th at the voting session a motion had to be
007made to revise the agenda and actually have it put on so that it could move forward for a second reading november 8th was the second reading in the work session and november 11th the motion uh was it failed by a vote of seven to two because basically the chair wouldn't even make a motion that it be voted on because he didn't like the policy that he put forward for you guys to approve um and then now here we are again with the same thing and there was like a line i think added to the policy as it is now for i know it's first reading but it's up for consideration yet again a common theme throughout july up until january was and now was make policy that is good and that makes sense and so
008we don't have to change it we don't have to keep revising it we don't have to do anything to it again everything that's in the policy regarding divisive concept um it's in house bill 1532 sitting in our legislature thank you right now so i don't i guess i don't understand what the rush is what's the rush if you want policy that is going to be sound why not wait and see what our legislature does with that bill it's been in there since june they are still considering it and looking at it it takes time to make a good law so that you don't have to change it so that it can be put into effect in our school districts you guys vote on your representatives in the legislature let them do their job i'm so
009sorry thank you thank you personnel committee mr brown chairman item a recommend approval of resignations for the following employees as listed uh keeley mann kathy myers denise gable kim leibarger uh ken blackburn denise gamer have been longtime employees of the district and we're definitely sad to see them retire this year do i have a motion oh oh that would be me suddenly a second can we have a motion in the second discussion if not all in favor say aye aye objections no objection emotions both approved and b recommend approval of a leave of absent from jessica peters on behalf of the committee so move second motion in the second only failure to say hi hey item c recommend approval to employee sarah watson as a long-term substitute elementary teacher assigned to pca effective february 1
010through the end of the school year they have committee submitted segment may have washington second hold in favor say all right all right motion approved item do you recommend approval to employ tami hem as a three and one half hour cafeteria employee that's the committee submitted a second we have motion in the second one to say hi as a custodian assigned to sega town high school effective january 26th on behalf of communities second motion in a second fairly say aye aye motion approved item f recommended approval to employ faith estus as a temporary custodian assigned to maplewood elementary school effective february 7th committee second motion in second only fair to say hi [Music] item g recommend approve a professional staff member to access one day from the professional staff sick bank lead domestic leave bank
011they have the committee soon second i have motion in the second only be able to say all right bye mh recommend approval of the following volunteers as listed on behalf the committee so who check it motion in a second i want if ever say hi i recommend approval uh to employ bob bullock as a clock operator for the athletic program on behalf of the committee i guess we have a motion and a second all in favor say aye aye [Applause] no objections is approved item j recommended approval of the three-year contract extension with ken newman assistant superintendent through june 30 2025. on behalf of the committee so second we have motion in the second discussion all in favor say aye aye aye motion approved thank you uh athletic committee mr brooks chairman uh athletic travel
012uh recommended approval student athletic travel as listed on behalf of the committee some move exactly we have motion in the second only in favor say hi recommend approval item b recommend approval the resignation of following coaches as listed after the committee some move second we have motion in the second one say aye aye marshall approved item c recommend approval of to employ the following coaches as listed please know there's a new head football coach uh for maplewood listed on there as well jason vargo i'm done sorry i'm trying to pay attention on behalf of the committee still moved second i have a motion in the second only in fact will say all right approval of the spring 2020 coaches list as attached there's uh coaches assistant coaches jv coaches volunteers for all three schools there
013on behalf of the committee so moved sec we have motion and the second favorite say all right [Music] question the proof thank you item e recommend approval to rescind the hire of jordan leandro that as head boys volleyball coach for cambridge springs junior senior high school on behalf of the committee so moved second your motion in a second i'll link able to say aye aye aye aye washington education committee mr brown chairman item a is a non-voting item our special education plan is there for review um the special education office in its entirety as well as with ms feely have worked extremely hard on that plan and it'll be on display for 30 days item b recommend approvally attached updated kelly education agreement exhibit a on behalf of communities second we have a motion in
014a second only in favor say aye aye aye motion approved emcee recommend approval to create and advertise for the position of mental health coordinator on behalf recommend approval to operate the eastern's learning loss program term one as discussed and attached let me have the committee second you have a motion in a second only fair to say aye recommend approval of the attached sale of district equipment in accordance with policy 706. second i have marked them in the second only if they will say aye aye aye yeah promotional approved hey to matt recommend approve the attached resources and materials in accordance with policy 109. on behalf of the committee soon a second a motion in a second all in favor say hi [Music] marshall approved mmg recommend approvally attached affiliation agreement with edinburgh may have committed
015some of the second we have a motion in a second only in fact we'll say hi all right no proof this is a transportation committee mr johnson chairman item a is recommended approvally attached transportation agreement with pmbus incorporated second we have a motion and a second discussion all in favor [Music] recommend approval to advertise a request for proposals for transportation services for the sega town attendance area [Music] recommend approval the attached parent-provided transportation agreement and the health committee can make that recommendation second and motion in a second only in favor say aye aye motion approved nmd recommend approval of the listed contact con contracted student transportation drivers have the committee that make up recommendations second you have a motion in a second only if i would say hi finance committee mr crawford chairman item a
016recommend approval of the attached treasurer's reports hello second we have a motion in the second one if able to say aye aye emotional proof item b recommend approval of the attached disbursements [Music] hi [Music] yep um item c uh recommend approvally attached one-time builders risk insurance policy for 9494. second we have a motion in a second calling in favor say aye aye aye aye motion approved recommend approval of the attached lease agreement with french creek valley christian school come on second we're in motion in a second hold in favor say aye aye aye aye aye [Music] policy committee mr valeski chairman um policies for discussion zero zero six meetings current events and controversial issues 119 school volunteers any discussion this evening question discussions actually i have one question i guess maybe a suggestion go ahead
017it was brought up the other night the meeting and i want mr gluski's opinion on this but about there was a comment made about people teaching their opinions how kids should hear different opinions i think first off that's our biggest problem is we're trying to teach opinions if that's the case you are teaching your agenda uh if we teach facts our facts will always outweigh anybody's opinions so not to put this off any longer by any means i don't know what your thoughts are if that covers teaching opinions or if we need to add something for that or if you think it's not worth worrying about i'm okay with that too it just was brought to my attention and a couple other comments i heard off the side made me realize that's part of our
018problem if we are teaching opinions that's bad i think if i remember right george maybe you can help me on this because it talks about i thought we put a sentence in there about um the teachers like facilitator and uh to promote critical thinking i'm almost thinking there was a line in there but i and i could have made it right right right through it quickly twice but they're again just covering our bases that's all if you look on page two under authority number five there's language in there that nothing in the policy shall prohibit the introduction discussion or proper educational use of historical facts control is that george number five under authority oh yep yeah kind of two i guess yeah i don't know that it i see what you're saying and i don't
019know if that's this is bulletproof in that aspect and not well there's nothing nope nothing's not going to be bulletproof yeah but [Music] i do know that this is a problem trying to get people to speak out on this but they don't but food for thought deep just off the top i mean you have the suggestion or anything really about it uh no it was putting together yes together 2 a.m this morning couldn't sleep trying to figure life out i guess maybe an add-on yeah and i'm sure we want to work this differently but or maybe we don't i i mean i've said from the beginning of simpler this is worded the easier it is to follow and it's easier different principles can to you know adhere i mean i don't want to make things
020complicated and i don't want to put this off any longer yeah if it's a different policy then that's mine but or maybe i'm overthinking which i've been accused we of george at the last meeting and we tried to cover all the bases yes i i know and quite honestly if we could have stayed afterwards after the comments last or monday we would have maybe ironed that out now there is language uh mr brown in the end policy 119 that has not been changed it's been in part of the policy okay and it may be what you're looking for it's on page two under guidelines the fourth paragraph there a teacher may express a personal opinion but shall identify it as such and must not express an opinion for the purposes of persuading that student and
021that's that's why just bringing it up yeah i figured just something um to keep in mind with these policies is the policy on its own really isn't isn't the focus of it we need to make sure that you know through the education committee and through other resources we're making sure that we're providing our building administrators the guidance and the tools to make sure that we're following the curriculum you have out there and that we're teaching what we're asking them to teach you know i've you know policies you know they all they sound nice it's like but you know what we need is practice to make sure that we keep our focus on that as a board recommend approval of the following policies records management and purchases subject to bid slash quotations b approval policies 8610
022right yes yep i'll be happy i'm gonna make that recommendation second we have a motion in the second only favorite say hi all right school safety committee mr brown chairman item may recommend approvally attached three-year agreement with zero eyes incorporated i wish we didn't have to approve something like this but i'll be asking you something a second we have motion in the second all in favor say aye aye aye aye aye a new business uh recommend approval of the attached equal access and protection assurance resolution wave motion some move we have motion in the second discussion all right all in favor say hi citizens comments on non-agenda items there are no registered citizens comments does any citizen wish to make comments at this time is not registered board member remarks uh shall we start with
023the uh our ladies on the phone on the phone yeah let's crawl any any comments this evening i don't have any thank you davis nothing this evening thank you you started me that's fine i'm joking well uh first off mrs fonzo uh presentation was pretty awesome thank you it is good to see the kids enjoying school and seeing the renovated school and the things that you know the teachers and anybody i truly appreciate all that and uh you know the paul the policy subject that come up there's been a lot of talk a lot of regulations but you have to understand i've heard that crt is not in these schools but there are handful teachers that do bring it up it's undeniable it's just it's a fact and more and more i'm learning that there
024are people that are teaching their opinions and not facts and that is wrong we have to put this policy in place we have to hold our principles accountable we have to hold mr newman accountable that these policies will follow through teaching our children facts is what makes our kids smarter that what it's what makes our kids able to handle people without ideas that or i'm sorry with opinions and it just gives our kids a better chance in life opinions have been proven throughout the i mean what's being taught what the media is putting out cnn even claims that they're an opinion-based uh news organization now how can you report the news if you're opinion-based that makes no sense to me so teaching opinions just doesn't work facts is what works that's what we grew up
025learning and that's what our kids should grow up and a lot of my kids are this generation is the fact that we're even talking about this quite honestly this generation that we already have another pandemic and covet is not a pandemic and pandemic is what code has caused in 2020 here's some numbers i want you guys to realize in 2020 there sorry we have seen the highest level of mental illness along with the highest drug abuse and lower self-esteem in 2020 anxiety and depression rose 24 mental health emergency room visits rose we also saw and that was in the ages of 12 to 17. young women were at 51 we saw covet suicide and actual code i'm sorry we saw more coveted suicides than we did coded deaths and minors in 2020 into 2021. these
026are the things that we're facing right now and this uh esther's learning loss is is very important to many of these students because we have a lot of students that the last two years have fallen so far behind we are creating we are creating a misjust uh this justice to this generation and the way we've handled response and shutting schools down when kids have the highest tolerance of code test scores are going to be in trouble we have students that are in a grade level that they shouldn't be in because their reading is poor and it goes on and on and the facts are out there i'm not making this up it's out there with the data's in the internet i looked it up last night uh these are the things that this board and
027this district really need to be focused on i know policies are important but helping these kids out and trying to straighten this generation up and giving them a fair chance that's our responsibility and right now we are not doing a good job and we need to do better teachers need to step up the community needs to step up the parents everybody needs to step up to help these kids that's all i have to say thank you thanks okay i also wanted to thank you for the presentation i remember before covet started we had a meeting out at your school and you had all the stem things showing us all and that was a big eye opener of what your teachers were doing just with nothing you know they had like the most basic stuff and
028what they were able to do with it and i was just really impressed with that and i was hoping we would see more and then code would hit and just shut everything down so uh i'm really impressed with what's going on in your school and i'm liking the uh the renovations and stuff make the school look a little more modern and help more efficiency so i think you're doing a good job with all that i'm proud to see all that we had a citizen comment about policies and stuff in the state legislature why we don't wait but we also have citizens wanting us to do something about it now so you know we have both hand on both ends we got people like you don't want us to wait to see what the state will
029do we've also got other parents that want us to do something now just on our local level so i think we're trying to walk the line there trying to do both trying to appease the people that want us to make sure we have policies that you want here in our district and also wait and see what the state is going to try to mandate us to try to make it statewide so i think that's just that trying to find a balance between it that's why we keep coming back to and changing and adding a word here or there so um and then i also just want to say congratulations thank ken for sticking around with everything that was going on it wasn't easy for anybody you know cove and stuff and have somebody coming on
030starting at a new school and everything so hope things work out and hope you stay happy and stick around that's all i have to say um thank you first just a quick iu5 update we should be expecting the budget the budget books from them those should be coming soon just uh i guess every one person sitting at the table would be excited for that i don't know does anyone else smile you know it's they do an amazing job i've never seen more detailed budgets if you get the full budget but it's impressive um the maplewood presentation that was great something that stood out to me beyond stevie wonder and all the great kids was the gym floor out there that jennifer has been out there so i think dave dixon played on back in high
031school you know he used to have a tile asbestos floor out there to have that new floor out there i think that's great something that the the area can take pride in it can help our our kids now take pride in it and help out with some of the sports um and something that you know when i was when i was the president of football boosters one of our football coaches said you know that being on the booster shouldn't be that big of a deal shouldn't be a major part of your personality if it is then you should look to do something else that's kind of what i've thought about this school board is you know our jobs to to show up and do what we can to make sure that the kids are getting
032the best public education they can and give them the best opportunity to succeed i mean the board makes headlines you know but we're not to focus what happens here um you know what matters is us giving kids the opportunity to succeed we're asked to do more and more if you look and you see the learning laws you see our mental health coordinator you see these things i swear tim and i didn't talk about this before but i agree with every single thing that tim said that there's more and more being asked of our kids and we're seeing more and more obstacles in their place our parents and teachers are being asked to do more and more and they're struggling every day you know and overwhelmingly there's not a an easy way to succeed but i
033can tell from what's happening beyond policy committee that in this school we're making a real effort to make sure that we're doing what's right by our kid um you know overwhelmingly we're succeeding and i'm proud of the work that we're doing and that works being done by our administrators and by our staff you know and while we're not the board tends to get more headlines you know that's really what matters out here we're we're not that important that's it's good thank you um yeah just thanks again aaron for the video and the time he took to put that together it's really good to see um and then secondly congratulations to the retirees that were on the agenda tonight and thirdly just kind of bouncing off what was kind of said with policy 119 is this
034is this is like just a policy which uh i don't mean to make it sound less in that way but like tim was saying it's so important that we enforce not just this but all policies and sticking to curriculum and you know promoting critical thinking among students so it's just something that's been on my mind more lately too is we need to prioritize where we're putting our our time at you know um too so that's it i'd like to thank the sponsor for the presentation and i remember before all this cover crap come along we got a invite to come out and i'm looking forward to one in the future to see the renovations and everything i appreciate all that you do out there to echo mr brown's comments there are teachers that are pushing
035these agendas with the kids i've had a handful of parents come to me but they're afraid to come forward for fear of retaliation against their students that are still coming up through the ranks and that shouldn't be the parents should be able to come forward to the administration with their concerns and not have a fear of their younger kids getting retaliated against as they're coming up through the race so we got a lot of work ahead of us and i agree with you there's a lot of suicides my daughter in her new school two of her classmates committed suicide here within the last two months it's it's wearing on the kids we also had a death of somebody at the uh career center i can't remember whether it was a teacher i think it was
036a wife the facilities director passed away the wife of the board member so like to pass our condolences on to their family this is my second round on the school board the first time we went to the psba for our training this time we went to the iu5 hands down the ieu 5 training was much much better than what pspa put on for us so i'd recommend we continue with that they they covered a lot of bases very informative i'll make sure i reach out to mr uh whitman's intel that's it yep thank you well mr brown i agree with 100 and not much that i can add to what you say about our policy and i agree with you that our most valuable assets are our our children our students and i want to
037remind mr newman the reason why you wear higher again because we depend on you to make sure that our valuable assets get all the education possible so they can become good citizens and so congratulations but it's going to be hard work and we do understand that the call would create a lot of problems but keep in mind that our children are most valuable assets not only to us but i'm sure for the parents and they expect success that we do something about the future thank you that's all i have to say uh announcements the board met in executive session on september 7 and 10 for personnel [Music] september 7 and 10 for personal negotiations i said we didn't renew his contract on his computer skills i'll take a shot do we have a motion to
038adjourn a second biggest engineer thanks so much you