WCASD School Board Meeting on October 25 2021

001good everyone i would like to call the order of the october 25th 2021 meeting for the westchester area school board let's begin with a salute to the flag led by valeria watkins and michael timko from west town thornberry elementary i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america and to the republic for which it stands one nation under god indivisible with liberty and justice for all [Applause] all right let's go wildcats michael and valerie tell us what's going on over there west town thornberry [Applause] good evening my name is michael timko and this is valerie watkins we are excited to be here with you tonight and report on all the exciting things that have been going on so far this year and are in and around west town thornbury the students are

002so excited to be back in the school building to see our favorite teachers every day the pta the pto had a great back to school start with a breakfast for the staff and their restaurant fundraisers have been off to a great start host hosting at both the salty cow and most recently freddy's wte just wrapped up their wildcat walkathon and where we raised over 19 thousand dollars and speaking of miles we don't know who was most excited to see mileage club start up again this gives students a chance to push themselves at recess as they run to earn little feet charms to add to their necklaces the pto has also begun planning for our animal holiday workshop and family bingo they are also looking forward to bringing back our pinot's palette painting fundraisers through these

003events may be back not completely back to normal but we know our students and families are going to love it now let's take a look at what has been happening inside the classroom in kindergarten the students are embracing the fall weather and they all had the opportunity to help cook up some homemade applesauce the hallway smelled delicious and their little bellies were full kindergarten has also been hard at work learning their letters and sounds as well as drawing a picture with labels we can't wait to see what new skills they will learn next the first graders at wte have been learning how to add up to 10 using multiple strategies and manipulatives such as counting on 10 frames and number bonds they just finished observing the three different forms of rocks formed by a volcano

004and are about to research and study the different parts of a community and build their very own second graders feeling cozy in their peaches for the day which was the first reward for filling up their power paul's bucket they loved coming to school in their pajamas and even got to bring their favorite stuffed animal with them for the day great job second grade second graders have also been working on their reading skills enjoying james in a giant peach and expanding their own writing in their stories in third and third grade students are busy charting the growth of their fast growing plants in science and perfecting their cursive writing they have also been having fun playing some greg tang maths math games and telling jokes on funny fridays knock knock who's there mikey likey who my

005key won't fit in the lock fourth grade are also focusing their academics outside as they are building their knowledge of the different regions in pennsylvania and working on their animal research projects the students have also been busy busy mastering factors multiples in math and using manipulatives to solve challenging problems fifth grade also filled up their first power pause bucket and earned extra recess way to go fifth grade the students are working on creating their first business plan of becoming young entrepreneurs they are also enjoying their first novel wonder and are looking forward to watching the movie once once they finish reading the novel in the art room 4th graders currently making paper mache pumpkins with miss griffin made from recycled plastic bags they're also getting a jumpstart on a school-wide veterans day project made of

006recycled cardboard and egg cartons it will be a large cardboard letters covered in red egg carton poppies that reads thank you veterans our goal is to place them out by the road for the veterans passing by and we can't wait to see the finished project autumn is busy in music miss dimizio has been singing through the halls as she joins us in our classrooms for music this year we are gearing up for halloween with the ghost of john and preparing for our veterans day assembly our fifth graders have also been rehearsing for the musical a night at the movies which we will be performing in november as well we can't wait to see everyone back on stage mr davis is so excited to see students back in the gymnasium and outside on the fields getting

007active his brave students in kindergarten first and second grade are finishing their wildcat driving school with each class attempting to earn their driver's license for the year in third fourth and fifth grade students are in the middle of their annual tennis unit and preparing for their upcoming wildcat tennis tournament we can't wait to take the court also after school sports are well underway with the 4th and 5th graders where they are able to continue perfecting their tennis skills this year we welcome miss warlow to our library the wildcats just finished celebrating hispanic heritage month in the library each grade reads books focusing on hispanic culture as well as prominent members of the community we are gearing up for stories about halloween and day of the dead which will be followed by native american history month

008and veterans day keep reading wte that is what has been going on at wte thank you for letting us come here and share all the cool things happening at weston thornberry we are excited for the rest of our fifth grade school year hey michael and valerie please join us back at the podium real quick you don't mind great job with the report i tell you that nineteen thousand dollar number you throughout there is staggering excellent job raising that money for charity um salty cal is one of my favorite but i have an important question for you how's dr cruz doing over there he's doing good i understand he's approaching a very important anniversary i think it's one year this week potentially that's cruz yeah all right well great great to see the wildcat pride on

009full display here thanks again for coming we have some certificates and we'd like to take a quick picture of you too with dr cruz um [Applause] okay we will move on to our next item which is roll call please miss charisshore director bevalaqua here director chester here director jernell here director gallon here director hermann here president mccune here director shaw here director spacman here vice president tiernon here eliana rutterow will porter madison d'ambro okay thank you mr chairshore uh that will move us to public comments on agenda items has anyone signed in mr shore yes george nestor before before we get underway if i could just make some remarks this is now the time period for public comment on agenda items before the board persons wishing to make public comment this evening were required to

010sign in prior to the start of tonight's meeting we will call upon those registrants in the order in which they signed in when a public commenter's name is called i ask that they please approach the podium and begin by stating their name and address if an individual is providing public comment as a representative of a group or entity please state your group affiliation public comments will be limited to two minutes per person per board policy the time will be projected on the screen at the end of the two-minute period the next public commenter will be called upon please note public comments at this portion of the meeting are to be on agenda items only all commentaries should be directed to the board as a whole and not to individual board members comments may be interrupted

011or terminated if the public commentary is too lengthy personally directed off topic abusive and or obscene we will now start with the first speaker all right my name is george nester there we go my name is george nester 1216 gale road in west ocean my comments today are in regards to the advise revised board policy 903 that we're that's going to be discussed tonight i was looking back at the october 18th property and finance committee uh meeting minutes where there was a mention that minutes have been eliminated as they're more comprehensively covered in policy 903 and 906 respectively policy 903 has no mention of meeting minutes at all policy 006 only references the minutes including quote names and subject of testimony however i found it interesting that in policy zero zero six point two there

012was a potentially important section removed which gave more details about the meeting minutes such as referencing legal record of actions taken when verbatim remarks or discussion can be included and when additions and corrections are allowed with the proposed updates there seems to be no place no policy in place that that captures what the meeting minutes should should include which seems to give the board quite a bit of freedom as to decide what can and cannot be included in meeting minutes an example i have for that is a particular incident that happened back in july where it was not in any meeting minutes as to what happened it was not even discussed in the approval of those meeting minutes the following meeting and in fact the only public mention of that incident was in random school

013random post on facebook from other school board members i think the community deserves to know about incidents like that and also be in a public formal setting such as this that is documented in meeting minutes thank you dan gillen 17 beech tree drive at the committee meeting of last week there was there were two comments requesting the time limit for public comments be increased to two from two to three minutes i offer some brief notes in support of those comments first it should be three minutes because of the 14 school districts in this county we are only one of two that limit public comment to two minutes take that a step further there are 16 school districts in adjacent counties that border a school district county in this county none of them have a two

014minute time limit so in this particular portion of southeastern pennsylvania we are only one of two school districts that limit public comment to two minutes this district heavily promotes equity so please make an equitable change to rule 903 and afford the taxpayers of this school district the same opportunity to comment as is offered to other taxpayers in other school districts in the nearby area thank you judy defonzo hi judy defonso gateswood drive i live around the corner from here very convenient to uh to do i'm okay with a couple with a few fewer seconds because i don't really have much to say tonight i really just wanted to reiterate what i had said a week ago and that is that sometimes two minutes is enough and sometimes you need more than two minutes and when

015you look at other school districts they have more time and i think that we need to have more time again sometimes the two minutes is enough and sometimes in order to fully tell your story bob sokolosi's good with stories we'd like to have the same opportunity we can't finish the whole story in two minutes sometimes thank you [Applause] that's it for public comment on agenda items thank you miss chairshore with that we'll move to our next item which is the approval of the minutes of the september 27 2021 monthly school board meeting i'll maintain a motion to approve first by doctor herman seconded by mr bevel aqua any comments or questions scene on roll call please director herman yes director beverlock yes director gallon yes director durnell yes vice president tiernon yes director chester yes

016director shaw yes director spacman yes president mccoon yes motion carries thank you mr can you also enter into the minutes that we met an exec session on monday 10 18 regarding legal matters and then earlier tonight monday 10 25 regarding personnel [Applause] with that we will move to approval of the october 25th 2021 school board meeting agenda i'll entertain a motion to approve first by mr janelle second by mrs chester any comments or questions on that item seeing none roll call please miss cherisher director journal yes director chester yes director herman yes vice president tiernon yes director shaw yes director gallon yes director spacman yes director beballaqua yes president mccune yes motion carries thank you mr chairshore that will move us to the superintendent's report dr sokolowski thank you mr mccoon thank you everyone for

017being here tonight um do have several items for our uh superintendents reporter this month the schools have been definitely very very active uh first would like to recognize that in november uh in the middle of november we're gonna be celebrating american education week and that has been in existence since 1921 as a way to generate support for public education in our schools this year that week we're actually going to be meeting with students the board with students over at east high school in the library and then we'll take some time to visit classrooms so very much looking forward to that our enrollment as of september 30th is 12 093 students we are 192 students over our projection and we have also 263 students uh enrolled full-time in our cyber program uh i would also add

018that we're yielding an all-time high of 79 of age eligible students attending the westchester area school district national school lunch week was celebrated the week of october 10th students from fernhill and pennwood elementary they helped make a video thanking our cafeteria staff for all they do providing lunch for our students on monday october 18th we celebrated the opening of graystone with a dedication ceremony featuring an amazing performance of the star-spangled banner sung by 4th grader eloise mccomas we recognized the commitment of so many district staff and board members ensuring the opening of gravestone on time and on budget october has been national principles month i want to join our entire community thanking all of our principals and assistant principals across the school district for their tireless work serving students families and our teachers in october

019we began the process for developing our new comprehensive plan for the years 2022-2025 hard to say we have four goal areas which are working as subcommittees these are goal area one access to district programming goal area two innovative teaching and learning goal area three is a new goal area entitled student involvement and of course goal area 4 fiscal and capital planning in total we have about 160 staff board members students teachers parents and community members serving on the comprehensive planning process our second community conversations took place on thursday october 21st with about 70 participants uh the depth of conversation the positive outlook and great sense of community were takeaways for the night many of us could have been there all night as it was such a great opportunity to meet new people share perspectives and

020develop a greater sense of empathy and trust our next community conversation will be scheduled for january 20th in honor of national school bus safety week students from stetson from east bradford and hillsdale helped make a video thanking our dedicated bus drivers who get them to school every day safely on wednesday october 20th as part of school bus safety week and in cooperation with our local police departments we conducted operation safe stop operation safe stop is a proactive approach to educate the monitoring that passing them passing school buses when children are unloading and getting on board to go to school in the morning our drivers documented any illegal passes on their routes during the day police officers from our local departments road some of our buses along routes in which we have received concerns usually another

021officer follows the bus in order to monitor any motorists who might have violated the school bus safety laws [Applause] i also want to acknowledge our partnership with keystone volvo for stay out of the cold coat drive this year keystone volvo donated the greatest number of coats that we had seen for needy families and 282 total coats were donated these will go to our neediest families and this marks our sixth year of this great partnership with keystone volvo the chester county health department offered a vaccination clinic this past saturday right here at fugit that serviced about 650 people it was really an amazing coordination of the chester county health department as well as our facility staff in addition to the flu vaccine the chester county health department also offered coveted boosters the clinic will return to

022fugit again on november 13th and we're hopeful at that time there may be a five to 11 year old coveted vaccine available at this time i'd like to recognize the retirement of our director of facilities and operations mr kevin campbell kevin has served as our facilities director since 2003 and he has a total of 33 years working in public schools kevin you have literally left your mark on our new buildings and all the renovated buildings across the school district best of luck to you in your well-deserved retirement congratulations kevin uh and finally uh the pennsylvania school boards association honors board members who have made long-term contributions uh to the school district it is my honor this evening to present miss joyce chester and mr chris mccune with a certificate appreciation for serving eight years as

023board directors here in westchester congratulations [Applause] and mr mckeown that uh concludes my superintendent's report for the month of october thank you well thank you very much dr sukolowski um i think we were all very excited to be at the gravestone dedication uh last week it was a great event and uh marks obviously the continued growth and expansion of our district uh to new all-time highs there 789 percent of uh all market share that's great news okay uh we will move now on to i'm sorry we'll move on to the student representative reports and i see we have uh easton henderson here so we'll go with east high school first and elena red row hi everyone um again my name is elena rotaro and i hope everyone is having a good night so far has

024had a pretty good month since my last report um with the girls having or being really on fire with sports lately um volleyball soccer and field hockey will are all being put into playoffs this week with volleyball and field hockey playing this tuesday night as and tomorrow night field hockey at 6 and my volleyball team at 7 pm soccer will be on wednesday i'm swimming around the same time of 6 o'clock this will be the first time since 2012 that east volleyball will be participating in playoffs so it's a very big deal for my team we're all very excited for this coming week my good friend victoria kim is now being placed as third for state championships for golf now she has made it into all top three positions for the past three years so

025she is insane this past week has also been an exciting one with last monday being the kickoff to our spirit week the themes were middle school monday so we all dressed as our middle school selves me standing in my middle school tuesday was strictly business very similar to my attire tonight leather blazers were all over the place tuesday was wild west lots of cowboy costumes there were some um horse hats there was a lot going on that day um and happy happy holidays thursday where we got to dress up as our favorite holidays i personally was christmas i had a lot of fun jewelry on and then it concluded with spirit day friday where i wore my senior jeans and the rest of the school were their class shirts the pep rally also happened that

026day as well as the homecoming game where we played henderson high school we did lose well nice job um we lost 20 41 um but it was still an exciting night i personally was on homecoming court and was awarded homecoming queen runner-up and i made lots of memories uh student council did an amazing job with all the work of this week especially a lot of blood sweat and tears went into this week and we were all happy that it went so successfully we had a lot of people coming up to us saying how well everything was laid out our decorations were on point um and everyone just said that they had a good time we were a little scared about the weather but it all ended up working out for the best okay thank you

027thank you ms roberto appreciate the report and next up is the victorious william porter from henderson high school [Music] there we go hold the button hold the button hello hello oh just press it just press you everybody hear me all right sorry about that hi my name is will porter and i am the school board representative for henderson high school i want to start out by reiterating what elena said and we did beat them 41-0 on their homecoming i'm not 41-nothing 41-20 it felt like nothing continuing with football this friday night we play oxford for our final home game and it will be our domestic violence game which is a program we're starting this year friday everyone is supposed to wear purple at henderson and to bring acknowledgement to domestic violence and some of the

028struggles that are faced through some of the students at our school cross country and boys soccer both claimed chestnut champions with championships with wins this weekend girls volleyball also became the last team at henderson to clinch a district playoff berth making that all false sports to have claimed a district playoff berth here at henderson andrew hicks toy drive has started up i know it's 61 days till christmas yes i'm counting down but the toy drive has started for children in need and chester uh proper not truster this is a long-running tradition here at henderson and is always very successful the black student union is planning a field trip to historically black colleges in the upcoming days the german language club recently took a trip to the german society of pennsylvania speaking contest has started up

029i believe this monday there were preliminaries the speaking condos has been reworked this year instead of a boys and girls they have all come together and there will now be a speaking contest in the fall for more serious pieces and a speaking contest in the spring for more comical pieces uh we have our upcoming activity fair this friday and with that seven new clubs have been established here at henderson including the cricket club the hosa the re-establishment of astrology and more national air honor society merit scholarship semi-finalists were announced this week henderson is three with vivek and nuemella nahal and ryan brophy and jenna mulhern and kylie coaches have both made state playoffs pass through districts jenna mulhern for cross country and kylie coaches for tennis and we're wishing both of them this luck this

030weekend thank you thank you mr porter i guess we'll catch up on ruston next week next month okay uh that will move us to approval of the personnel recommendations dr ulmer are you in the house good evening mr mccune mrs tiernon and directors of the board our personal report for the month of october is as follows with removals from payroll we have five resignations consisting of three teachers one's campus security officer and one accounting technician we have two retirements mrs linda gianji julio i apologize if i butchered that name i think gian giulio who is a power professional at fugit middle school with 22 years of service and mr rory wilson male coordinator at spelman education center with 37 years of service he reminded me today that it is actually 37.5 congratulations to both flinda

031and rory and we wish you both long and happy retirements with addition to payroll we are recommending the hiring of two new teachers two certified school nurses and two long-term substitute teachers additionally we are recommending the hire of our new manager of communications ms molly schwemler molly welcome to wcasd we are thrilled to have you on board and we look forward to your vast experience and knowledge in helping the district communicate with our community and beyond welcome we are also welcoming a campus secure safety officer a security greeter two paraprofessionals and a library assistant additionally we are recommending one more substitute custodian in personnel events i communicated the status change of a security greeter to a guidance secretary and the awarding of additional staffing to a teacher and certified school nurse i communicated and delivered

032seven involuntary transfers in our professional staff furthermore we are recommending one sabbatical in the professional staff in additional information we are announcing two salary updates seven start date updates one last day update the approval of an mou for salary changes in the support staff for paraprofessionals and included is a list of all drivers and aids from crafts buses and on-the-go kids buses we have also recommended 31 employees to either either tutors and or tutoring site managers across the district in supplemental contracts we have nine additions to annual supplementals 93 additions to winter supplementals three removals from annual supplementals five adjustments to annuals and two adjustments to fall supplementals and last but certainly not least on a personal note kevin i couldn't be happier for you your heart is as big as your laugh and we

033are a better district for having you serve for as long as you have enjoy every second of your well-earned retirement we're going to miss you i'm respectfully requesting board approval for all personnel matters listed above thank you thank you dr ulmer i obtain a motion to approve first by dr herman seconded by mr gallon before we get to the approval of it uh we're going to make a few comments here so first uh thank you linda and rory for your years of service in the district we wish you the best in retirement and enjoying uh time more time with your family uh molly welcome to the district on behalf of the board we're excited to have you join and then mr campbell uh we have a few things to say about you so i'm going

034to lead off with mr beverlock who's probably shared the most time with you on the board mr bev lachlan as everybody knows it was announced tonight kevin is retiring from the director facility and operation role that he's held for many years um i got to know kevin pretty well over the years as kevin and i worked together as an active parent some of my ruston stadium projects that i volunteered for all the outside facility use that kevin and i dealt with all the outside organizations and then during my last seven and a half years as a school board member and on the property and finance committee i got to work and interface with him quite routinely kevin has left a positive long-term legacy with our district in many aspects kevin you've left a permanent footprint

035on most of our buildings as you manage the design renovations or new construction of our school buildings on my account you've renovated seven of our elementary schools all three middle schools two high schools and you built our two newest schools with ruston high school opening in 2006 and graystone elementary school opening this year in 2021 and we can't forget the renovations of our new spelman registration building kevin has kept the maintenance of our projects in great shape handling emergencies planning for future upgrades and developing a formal periodic maintenance to prevent emergency issues from occurring we can't thank kevin and his staff for the cleanliness and excellent condition of all our schools and facilities many of us do not see or fully understand and appreciate kevin's leadership and the effort of the facilities and operations department

036and what they do behind the scenes for snow removal cleanup to ensure our schools are open and safe the maintenance of our buildings inside and out and the maintenance of our athletic facilities to ensure they're ready and safe kevin we don't always agree on all items but i can guarantee on all items and issues you had the students the staff and our educational aspects in your best interest and main focus of all decisions you made we thank kevin for mentoring his replacement wayne burster and ensuring the district would be in great shape for many years in the future under the new leadership all of us will miss his always forward thinking his sense of humor and of course his unique laugh stay in touch as many of us will always have a few questions free

037in the future kevin we all wish you the best in retirement thank you for all your contributions and hopefully you can take some time off to relax soon and at least for a short time period thank you again kevin congratulations this is jiren i think gary said all those things very well i want to say how much i have appreciated and i've been watching you since 2003 in school board meetings with some interesting school board people who thought they knew more about building and construction and renovating than you ever could and you took all of that it with a grain of salt and that incredible sense of humor of yours and sometimes just laughed which was a wonderful way to respond um with russian and graystone i think we saw your vision come to the

038fore rustin looks like a sort of varnish chester county and gravestone has its own unique mark i was sitting underneath the portico when we were dedicating last week looking up and what a nice overhang that is and the stone with the stones so and i appreciate that that a lot of that was you i know there were architects involved but you personally put your stamp on those buildings and you may even have been the person who named it graystone so i i just want to thank you it's a it's a deep honor and a pleasure to have somebody come to the district stay with the district for as long as you have bring all of that experience that you brought from the other county and um make us a better place so i thank you

039thank you mrs tierne anybody else mr speckman thank you um yes working with kevin i've just uh been just exposed to him for a couple years but obviously with multiple kids with the district i've seen his work over a long time one thing i really found was so impressive is since i'm out in the winter storms and things like that his staff is out there snow plowing and shoveling multiple times and his storm comes through and they're doing again and then they're cleaning the schools and getting stuff ready for the next day it's the respect that i think his staff has for him that he knows he's going to be out there too in a truck or doing this he's not just going to be watching he gets involved with it and by having that

040respect for your your people i think that really goes to show your leadership and all you've done for the district so i think that really is very commendable thank you thank you suspection ms chester just quickly uh kevin you will be greatly missed you have such a an endearing smile and an infectious laugh and such a generous spirit i have always appreciated your wisdom and your generosity your knowledge even with my own building i just appreciate you never say no it's always you know well let me see how i can help so i i just appreciate that you will be we're glad we have such a wonderful person following in your footsteps we know he's not you but we appreciate you so much and we wish you the best the best best best on your

041retirement mr nell mr campbell thank you thank you so much for all that you've done thank you for your sensitivity to incorporate what westchester looks like into many of the buildings that you've built or renovated you'll be missed thank you for your contribution it'll be here for decades decades all the best in your retirement thank you mr nell dr shaw kevin campbell one of the things that i've loved most about you is that you don't just bring building wisdom to our meetings i i have been struck over the years at how many times the board and the administration has been grappling with some issue that didn't necessarily have to do with buildings and you would be the person who would come up with the solution it happened at least a half a dozen times that

042i can think of and so i just want to thank you for the wisdom and insight you brought to the district not just about buildings but also about how districts are run and how we can best move forward and take into account the needs of every constituent so i've really appreciated that it's been great working with you and have fun in your retirement even though i know i don't have to say that thank you dr schull mr gallant i just wanted to reiterate what uh many of the other board members have already said but kevin you've earned it congratulations it's been a pleasure working with you for the past four years thank you mr gallon dr herman okay hi years ago when i um a teacher i remember you at a school work meeting i

043was sitting in the audience and i'm like wow who is that guy then i found out your job in the district and i thank you kevin very much for everything you've done you are an impressive leader in many areas and you did a great job serving our district i always enjoyed your expertise and your sense of humor is beyond anything that anyone can even expect um i really believe i see this in you too um my husband was a person who was very visionary with building and just the right stones the the flooring and when you took me on the tour for greystone brian and i went with you privately that one day you explained everything and why it was this way we knew that you had so much to do with greystone and the

044other buildings [Music] and i wish you good luck you'll be very very missed but your transition with wayne has been excellent excellent choice and one little side note i own dachshunds and i know you have a little dachshund and they can be strong-willed so you have a very good character and i i wish you well wherever you're going to go i hope you come back to visit us thank you dr herman mr campbell uh it's always hard to say goodbye you leave big shoes to fill uh but we are fortunate that you have trained your successor mr barrister so we are in good shape there uh i echo many of the sentiments that my board members felt them were shared uh the two things that i will always remember about you most was something that

045mr beverlock would touched on which was you would have we would have disagreements occasionally right but it never carried over we always handled it professionally went right back to business i always admired that quality in you and second i always liked uh how you focused on the educational needs when we were talking about projects and tying it the alignment to that always very impressive and again back to mr walker's point that you always had the needs of the students at the heart of the matter there so very much appreciated and uh you know in closing you've left a incredible mark on this district we're incredibly thank you and we wish you all the best [Applause] mr short roll call please director herman yes director gallon yes director bevel aqua yes vice president tiernon yes director

046chester yes director spacman yes director journal yes director shaw yes president mccune yes motion carries thank you miss chair that will move us to our next item which is the approval of the consent agenda i have not been approached by anyone to remove anything but i will pause for a moment to see whether anyone has any concerns seeing now i'll entertain a motion for approval of the consent agenda first by mr spacman second by miss chester roll call please director spacman yes director chester yes director gallon yes director shaw yes director bevalaqua yes director journal yes vice president tiernon yes director hermann yes president mccune yes motion carries thank you again mr chairshore that will move us to our committee reports and up first is education and mrs tiernon thanks mr mccune at the education

047committee meeting on october 11th we approved revisions to policy 103 discrimination title 9 sexual harassment affecting students and we approved provisions to policy 104 discrimination title 9 sexual harassment affecting staff we heard an enlightening and informative presentation on structured literacy and we heard a very entertaining and informative second secondary library media program presentation that's what i have for the education committee this month thank you mrs tiernon that will move us to people's services and miss chester thank you mr mccune for the pupil services committee meeting this month we discussed the plan for the upcoming school year it the plan includes for 21 22 include special education monitoring the facilitated self-assessment has onsite portion of the monitoring will take place on november 8th and 9th and once they have the results dr ranieri will be sharing

048those with the committee next was a special education comprehensive plan the committee met the subcommittee and the whole committee the committee consists of parents teachers and administrators the subcommittee will be broken into five small groups to focus on major sections of the plan and an update will be provided at the education committee meeting in november social emotional learning plan uh we're currently implementing a two-year plan utilizing services from tom stecker associates and the iu two training sessions have taken place and an update will be provided towards the end of the year uh next topic is disproportionality utilizing some of the early interviewing monies to support equity and social emotional needs across the district and lastly a cheap progress transition program the app program which was previously held at the melton center was operated last year

049out of east and met the needs of the students in person and virtually via zoom this year at the app program we'll be implementing a program in person at each of the high schools the focus will be on credit recovery transitions and mental health and that ends my report thank you mr mccune thank you miss chester we will move on to personnel and dr herman thank you mr mckeon good evening tonight dr ulmer stated personnel recommendations dr ulmer and the personnel department are moving forward in a productive and positive way and it's a pleasure to meet with him on a monthly basis thank you dr herman we will move to property and finance and mr bevillaqua yeah good evening our last property finance meeting was last monday october 18th uh mr scully reviewed the budget

050forecast model the net of all the 20 20 21 changes in october resulted in a decrease of 308 and in the ending fund balance will be designated for future village increases mr scully then reviewed the changes for the 21 22 projections the net of all changes in october resulted in a budget gap decrease of 242 thousand mr scully reviewed the summary of all funds the budget gap after an x1 tax increase is at two point eight nine three thousand or two point eight two point eight nine uh million sorry at this point and uh the administration will continue to monitor that on a monthly basis and the budget forecast model will be adjusted and will continue to monitor mr scully then reviewed the enrollment projections for next year for the 2022-2023 school year and advised

051the committee that the projections are forecasted to be 12 000 161 students which represents an increase of 68 students of the current enrollment mr scully informed the committee that those projections will be used to plan the building budgets as well as staffing needs for next year the next topic in the meeting mr scully reviewed the 2022-2023 building budget allocation which we call the ppa the people spending analysis the ppa factor for the 22 23 uh school year remains unchanged from the current year a factor of 134 dollars cents these waiting factors were kept consistent for elementary and secondary schools the recommended 2022-23 fixed activity budgets were also kept consistent for the middle and high schools this is an item on tonight's agenda this is uh d8 if anybody was following and i do have one

052motion for the board for approval tonight the motion reads as follows approval is requested for the per-pupil allocation factor the ppa of and 134.20 cents per weighted pupil for the 2022-23 fiscal year this weighted factor will be one for full-time kindergarten elementary schools 1.06 for middle school and 1.43 for high school students the fixed activity expense budget totals six hundred and twelve thousand three sixty for all six secondary schools which includes a hundred fifty four thousand three hundred fifty dollars per high school and forty nine thousand seven seventy per middle school the total of the 2022-23 budget building budget allocation is 2491 thousand three ninety eight iso move thank you mr vlogger i'll get a second from mr gallon there any comments or questions seeing none roll call please mr director bevel aqua yes director

053gallon yes vice president tiernon yes director shaw yes director chester yes director hermann yes director spacman yes director durnell yes president mccune yes mission carries thank you miss chairshore back to you mr redblacqua a couple more items in the property finance meeting to speak to mr scully also advised the committee that a child's place we call it also known the acronym acp has been providing before and after school programs in the district elementary school since 2012. the current five-year contract due to expire on june 30th of 2022 based on an annual fixed rent payments of estimated enrollment and space utilization the current contract calls for a fixed annual rent payment of 225 000 for the current school year due to lack of enrollment and reduced space requirements the administration room recommends reducing the fixed annual

054rate for the 21 22 current school year to 125 000. this reduction will only apply to this school year and a new five-year contract will be negotiated with the school-aged child care services for next school year the committee recommended approval and uh this is according to uh the amendment the addendum to the contract with the child's place the next topic dr sokolowski reviewed changes to board policies due to the sunshine act amendments acts 65 of 2021 changes were made to the policies related to the board meetings policy 006.2 rules of order the policy now reflects the current board's order of business with public comments coming before any vote is taken as done in tonight's meeting policy 903 public participation in public meetings in accordance with the new law revisions were made to allow for additional

055public comment such as agenda items to be added after the public comment period has ended policy 6.3 agendas now that there is an agenda section listed under the revision to the policy 006.2 that i mentioned rules of order the policy is redundant will be retired the committee recommended approval of all the policy changes the next property finance meeting is next month on november 15th all are welcome to attend and that ends my report for this evening thank you thank you mr bevalaqua all right that will move us to our other reports and up first is the intermediate unit and mrs tiernan good evening tonight i'm going to introduce to you the cciu learning center now i've spoken to you about the tchs the technical college high schools there are three of them in chester county

056but the iu meets the needs of many many people from birth to all the way as far as you can go and the cci learn cciu learning center we heard about at our last meeting which is always the third wednesday of every month from dr levy director of student services and dr mangan principal at the cciu learning center dr mangan gave some background on the learning center saying it had opened in 2013 and supports students in three different programs the first one is options full-time emotional support program a career academy a full-time learning support academics and pre-vocational shop and the transitions program which is a very important piece a general education as well as the brandywine valley academy instruction with live mental health supports dr mangan also mentioned the learning center uses the school-wide positive

057behavior support program has mental health support for all students who need it and offers a full complement of related services the cciu learning center currently serves two sorry 202 students in grades 7 to 12 ages 12 to 21 and who have varied emotional and behavioral disabilities from districts in chester berks delaware lancaster montgomery and philadelphia counties in addition the board acted on the following new business actions we approved a contract with georgetown university to provide professional learning to superintendents in chester county that is another thing that they do and approved the lease extension agreement with the delaware county community college for space at tch tcha s penox bridge campus we've had a contract they extended the contract because delaware county community college comes to our tchs and offers additional an additional college degree that students

058earn while they're at tchs and at no cost to them so that's the end of my report on the intermediate unit tonight thank you mrs tiernan we will move on to the psba report and dr herman thank you mr mccune good evening again um mrs tiernon and i attended the p-a-s-a pennsylvania school board association school leadership conference delegate assembly we were the two delegates from the westchester area school district that represented us everything went very well it was very professional and the voting continued without interruptions it was very successful and we had pretty good time thank you that's my thank you dr herman we're allowed to have a good time once in a while all right we'll move to the legislative liaison important dr shaw thank you um last time i reported out i reported

059that there's a lot of activity in the state right now with regard to charter schools and i spoke specifically about some warring legislation that has been proposed to both loosen up regulation over charter schools and to provide more guidelines and accountability so but there's two ways that schools public schools in pennsylvania are overseen one way is through legislation and the other way is through regulation so the major difference between those two ways of overseeing our public schools is that legislation can be passed quickly it can be passed with no public input it can be passed at any point in time it's easy to pass but it's also easy to overturn and so when we write and when we oversee schools via legislation what you see is a lot of back and forth depending upon what

060party's in power and depending upon who thinks what is important regulation is really a different way of overseeing our schools it requires much more public input it is much more difficult to pass regulation but it is also much more difficult to overturn regulation and the entity that decides whether or not regulation is passed is the state board of education and the members of the state board of education are appointed by the governor but they are appointed in staggered terms so that no governor completely controls the appointments on the state on the state board of education so the governor governor wolf proposed a set of regulations to tighten up the accountability structure in charter schools and those reg those proposed regulations were proposed and published in september 17 and in the public school the pennsylvania bulletin

061and then there was an opportunity for 30 days for the public to submit comment and that comment period was closed october 18th and so we're waiting to see sort of how the state board summarizes this public comment and we're waiting to see how the state board is going to deliberate on the proposed rulemaking that the governor has proposed so um i will continue to update you as this moves forward thank you very much dr shaw we will move on to our equity report and mr rodriguez thank you uh as dr sakolowsky mentioned we had our second series of community conversations last thursday uh i participated in both of them and they're great events and we're looking forward to the third part in the series on january 20th um who just mentioned oh ms herman mentioned

062the this uh conference uh today i participated in the pennsylvania school board association equity summit uh 10 30 till 4 o'clock but i was able to enjoy it from the comfort of my little office at my condo it was a great time there were leaders from all over the state of pennsylvania there were some superintendents there school board directors principals dei leadership from schools i think one of the aspects i enjoyed the most about it is there were a number of student videos that were about two minutes long each and they talked about how equity played a role in their lives and it highlighted that equity isn't just about race but there are many factors to consider when you're talking about equity and making plans for equity much of the summit had to do with

063addressing the achievement gap different strategies were suggested different experiences from different schools were shared and then finally at the end there was a panel of equity directors from across the state that shared their different roles their different strategies and their vision for addressing equity in their school districts so it was a great event i was glad to be able to be there representing westchester school district and that ends my report thank you mr nell that will bring us to the community liaison report and mr spakman hello thank you mr mccoon well one of the great things this time of year that the community actually is very involved in and the ptas and the different organizations is of course trunk and treating and all the different elementary schools and things like that going through the different

064playgrounds and dressing up i don't even know what i'm going to be for halloween this year but it's a good exciting time in the elementary school seeing the kids dressed up and going out to the playgrounds and really that's what the school just does it's so great making the memories and the things that we all look back on due to our own childhood and all that also this time of year they're in heavy rehearsals for some of the fall shows i know clues gonna be running at ruston this coming fall and stetson is working on a show called all together and all together is about the revival and the coming back of broadway so it's a segment of all kinds of different uh snapshots of different shows and things like that i think it's great

065how the kids are getting back on stage they're opening back up and westchester has such a tremendous history in all the schools of theater and music and i think i talk on behalf of myself as being a parent that has been through multiple ones and volunteering been there late night building sets and costuming and all that kind of stuff it's a great time for parents and community to get out involved in the schools and the theater and the music and volunteer and help with stage crew and doing you know the costumes and things like that because it really gets to show that you get to meet the kids you get to meet the teachers the staff and really sees how the magic of the stage come out and of course make this such a wonderful

066district with all the music and awards that we've won that way it starts really on the ground you know hammering nailing teaching kids how to use screw guns and it's of course a big question is it a screw gun is it a drill all kinds of big talk goes on behind stage and things like that but it's great to see the lights come up the trick-or-treating happening at the different playgrounds and really it's a great time in the district now that everybody is you know back in full swing thank you mr speckman just no british soldiers costumes this year okay all right uh we will move on to other business we have some usual items down there we have our treasurer's report and statement of disbursements as well as our month end financial report they're

067all on consent agenda items but we do have one item on their non-consent dr herman yes approval is requested to reaffirm the election of robert sokolowski to the position of superintendent of schools and approve his contract of employment for a time period of august 14 2021 through june 30th 2026 consistent with the school code of 1949 the board previously acted on the election of the superintendent however the board motion at the april 26 2021 school board meeting did not align with the term of dr sokolowski's employment contract by approving this motion herein the commission of the superintendent shall align with his employment contract which expires on june 30th 2026 iso move thank you dr herman i'll get a second from mr gallon and just again just just a clarification on the date to align with

068the end of the school year and not just uh exceed five years uh so that's all this is here so uh with that any other comments seeing non-roll call please mr shore director herman yes director gallon yes director journal yes director shaw yes director chester yes director bevalaqua yes director spacman yes vice president tiernon yes president mccune yes mission carries thank you miss cherisher okay this will bring us to comments from residents on non-agenda items mr chairshore as we did earlier this evening for public commentary on agenda items when a public commenter's name is called i ask that they please approach the podium and begin by stating their name and address as a reminder public comments will be limited to two minutes per person per board policy the time will be projected on the screen

069please note all commentary should be directed to the board as a whole and not to individual board members be advised that comments may be interrupted or terminated if the public commentary is too lengthy personally directed off-topic abusive and or obscene we will now call the first speaker alexis cooper [Applause] alexis cooper district parent what sir okay um i want to discuss something that i found in the children's history book in one of the elementary school libraries my six-year-old brought home a book titled escaping a sinking ship each chapter was devoted to a significant ship disaster involving large ships such as the titanic i didn't think anything was unusual about the information being relayed until i came to chapter four this particular chapter was about the sinking of a nazi ship called the wilhelm gustloff accompanying

070the introduction was a full-page photo of hitler and his staff i'm going to read an excerpt from the book in january 1945 ten-year-old horst white lived in the german province of east prussia with his mother metta germany and its allies were struggling as world war ii neared its end enemy soviet forces entered horse city they brought ruthless destruction to east prussia as they murdered germans set towns ablaze and stole from shops and homes my reaction to reading this brought up feelings of the wildermann anger and frustration first i have never heard of the wilhelm gustaf disaster probably because it's of its association with the nazis the ship was named after a late leader of the swiss nazi party second elementary aged children do not learn about world war ii until the adolescent years and this

071would most likely be the first time a child learned anything about world war ii if they read this chapter this is unacceptable given that this is portrayed in a way as to promote sympathy for the enemy an enemy that brought the worst crimes against humanity this is offensive and i'm requesting that this book be removed from the school libraries thank you [Applause] stacy wamsley hello stacy wumsley 989 regimental drive east bradford i have four items for community awareness i'd like to share this evening the first is actually regarding the board policies and i just want to reiterate my comments from last week the one of the only two public comments about the fact that we currently only have a two-minute limit and that's the most restrictive actually here in chester county i announced that our

072board and that you dr sokolowski reconsider the fact that we should at least have the recommended three minutes as afforded or recommended by the pennsylvania sunstride act my second item is the school issued ipads following january and february 2021 public comments from a parent regarding the lack of district implemented content controls on those ipads when can parents expect the elementary communication that was to be sent home with the apple support instructions that were promised last spring third um i think the community deserves some answers about what was experienced this past weekend at east high school i've heard from multiple concerned parents regarding incidents of students on that we're actually acting either aggressively or even violently i'm given that we've got police presence here tonight for the school board meeting it'd be good to hear what

073the school district's policies and actions are going to be about enforcing similar decorum at student events such as a football game and last is when will parents receive the results from the 2021 spring pssas typically by now we would have gotten those results and so far there's nothing published by the pa department of education on their website um following those individual student results when does the district expect to have the district-wide results available for the community to review thank you mike winter road i left it on good mike winterroad i'm a republican committeeman of west whiteland and i live on showing road in exton at a board meeting a couple of months back a state police officer and military veteran who lives in the borough pointed out a number of videos and materials on the

074westchester district's website that vilified law enforcement as of last night those materials remain on the district's website along with suggested readings on crt lesson plans encouraging protests materials dealing with gender identity and sexuality aimed at an elementary school audience parents if you do not like the sound of this there is something that you can do about it encourage your child to start or join a young america's foundation chapter at their school since 1960 young america's foundation has been committed to ensuring that the increasing numbers of young americans understand and are inspired by the ideas of individual freedom a strong national defense free enterprise and traditional values they accomplish this mission by providing students access to conferences seminars educational materials internships community service projects and famous guest speakers such as ben shapiro dinesh d'souza and katie

075pavlich why a off yaf also offers field trips to ronald reagan's california ranch as well as legal assistance if a school district tries to prevent a yaf charter from forming unfortunately yes that has happened for more information you can go to yaf.org or you can contact the chester county republican headquarters and ask for me again my name is mike winterroad thank you chris manos can i hand these out to you guys i have one for each of the school board members there you go chris manos east bradford township like everybody who's here on the school board to look at the materials that are being distributed to you the three illustrations that you see there are from a book called gender queer and this book is being distributed in kindergarten through 12th grade learning environments and

076i would like by a show of hands each school member school board member to uh indicate whether by raising your hand yes this looks like it's pornographic so do you all think that this material in front of you this this picture for a kindergarten through 12th grade student learning environment is that pornographic or not at this point i'm going to advise the board not to answer or respond to this gentleman's question the the the board there there is no censorship [Applause] [Music] is it pornographic or not this is a period for public comment this is not a question and answer session i have i have a natural right as a taxpayer in this township to ask these school board members if they view this material as pornographic it is being distributed in a kindergarten through

07712th grade learning environment under under pennsylvania law as people if we suspect child abuse which promoting child pornography to children is if we're suspecting it we're mandated by law to report it because if we don't we're accessories to a crime you know i'm right about that sir the board does not need to respond to your comments you're free to make your public commentary if on topic and appropriate and not obscene okay let it be shown that they're not gonna answer the questions answered i'm gonna ask the public for order in this meeting it is not appropriate to be [Music] i moved to recess this meeting thank you mr tiernan second by dr hermann we will be recessing this meeting for 15 minutes call the meeting for the westchester area school board on monday october 25th

0782021 for the school board directors back to order here uh first i have a statement and then a couple comments and then we'll get back to public comment i'd like to take a minute to address general questions the district has received regarding school board meetings the function of the school board public comments and meeting minutes in accordance with the pennsylvania school board the school board must establish equip furnish operate and maintain the public schools of the westchester area school district the policies and procedures adopted by the board in conjunction with federal and state statures and regulations establishes the general parameters within which the daily operations of the school district are to occur the board also appoints the superintendent who enforces the laws regulations and board policies the school board holds monthly public meetings where items

079such as textbooks grants budgets policies etc are reviewed discussed and voted on items approved at committee level then move on to the full board for review consideration and action action on these items occurs at the school board's public monthly business meeting the public has the right to observe the meetings and offer public comment the public comment period at the board and the committee meetings is not a q in a period but rather an opportunity for the public to share their thoughts on particular action items prior to the board taking action the board encourages residents to reach out to the administration or school board if they have questions about any procedure or process there has also been questions about meeting minutes and the level of detail included in the meeting minutes regarding public comment board policy

080006 local board procedure sets the requirements for the meeting minutes the policy consists is consistent with law states that minimum the minutes shall show date place and time of the meeting name of the board members present presiding officer substance of the official actions actions taken recorded votes and a record by individual members of all roll calls votes taken names of all residents who appeared officially and the subject of their testimony the official board meetings meeting minutes usually go beyond what is required and include more than just the subject of the speaker's testimony in the public comments section all right so a few additional comments here so uh in regards to the first statement by uh mrs cooper uh regarding the the the book uh in the elementary school uh dr misit will be following up

081with you on that book uh regarding uh miss wilmsley's comment mr dr sokolowski will be following up on you with you regarding the psa results and the east high school incident and then the last comment which was from mr manos uh i don't think there was a an action item from mr windermute but mr manos uh that book is not in our district that book is not in a district in our county that book is not in a district in our state so therefore it's not really material to our board meetings uh with that i'll go back to mr jennings for the next public comment george nestor all right uh george nestor 1216 gale road west ocean so two topics i'm gonna try to get to here uh first off we had to make the

082overwhelmingly difficult decision to pull our kids from the district this year something i never would have imagined having to do partly due to the overbearing and unwarranted mandates partly due to the potential segregation and signaling out of children with medical or relief religious exemptions but the icing on the cake was a choice wording in dr scanlan's departing email to the management team sab and school board the choice of morton caused enough concern for us to be worried about retaliation and unfair treatment of our children i can only hope that the rest of the school word and dr sokolowski does not share the same sentiment but unfortunately the damage has already been done and we really don't know what recourse we have now regarding what has already been poorly and unprofessionally said which leads into my

083next topic there seems to be a lot of a number of references in the schoolwork policy about conduct of public comment which we just witnessed here and talked about now but why is it so little on the policies about conduct of school board members themselves you know tie back to my agenda my original agenda topic uh the physical intimidation incident that happened back in july and then also um in addition to that i've seen a number of current board school board members uh as well as incumbents and and candidates who have jumped in on a political smear campaign against some of the other uh candidates coming up for this uh this upcoming election not only is this disgusting in childlike behavior but so much for our children's education being nonpartisan thank you mr nester next

084mr jennings joanne your check sorry [Applause] hi i'm joanne your check 1397 springton lane westchester's equity history timeline notes that our high school's basic level classes have been eliminated to improve minority students access to higher level courses the rationale behind this action is puzzling it will not only improve access but will force every basic student into an upper level course the problematic consequences of such a change must be examined question how would eliminating basic courses affect the upper level classes will their standards remain unchanged if so this action does a huge disservice to students who truly need the repetition and reinforcement that's provided in basic classes you would be setting them up to fail whatever their race students should move to higher level classes only after they've mastered the fundamentals in which they are deficient

085alternatively if the standards of the upper level classes are lowered to accommodate basic level students the higher performing students would be prevented from reaching their full potentials either way eliminating basic courses is a bad idea course placements should be determined by qualifications and demonstrated competence not equity and group identities the top priority of equity ideologues is social engineering not academics enabling these ideologues to influence and formulate our educational system will result in mediocrity if the runaway train driven by equity ideologues is not halted immediately westchester's reputation for academic excellence will soon become a distant memory thank you very much mrs jortek for your comments i will have dr sakarasi uh to follow up with you on those comments joanne i would be very happy to speak with you and share with you a lot of

086information okay thank you sarah getz i think huh sarah gets 814 west marcus street i wanted to thank mrs don mader director of equity and assessment for another successful and thought-provoking community conversation meeting uh dr sokolowski was also there to lead in some local history and it was great to talk to many people and hear their truths i wanted to also thank the teachers that took the time for their evenings to assist in leading and participating in the prompts and the conversations you are seen and appreciated dr reynolds thank you for participating and speaking to the prompts i really enjoyed our conversation here and at hillsdale way to be seen in the community and thanks for the community for showing up it's necessary to hear other people's perspectives and help in a helpful setting and

087without tension filled without attention filled room with a microphone there have been a few instances where certain sides are saying that we need to come together and we need unity i really feel that those conversations that conversation is a great place for this to happen and yet i did not see any of those faces at this event so i'm here inviting all of you in attendance here tonight to come to the january 20th event and sit down with your community and have those conversations and to end with a quote from herman melville be it said see how elastic our stiff prejudices grow when love once comes to bend them thank you thank you very much [Applause] megan rachael good evening my name is megan reichob 1337 park avenue 19380. i enjoyed the community conversation session

088last week thank you to mrs matter and everyone involved seeking to build bridges in our district i attended and truly benefited from the conversations with community members educators and administrators including dr reynolds who floated between groups all of us sitting together and sharing our experiences it was a well facilitated event and one that fostered hope and unity i also want to praise the students and educators involved in the gsa anti-bullying clubs at fugit and east i'm sure they're great at all the schools that have them but that's where my children go october is lgbtq plus history month every student whether they are lgbtq plus an ally or bystander deserves to celebrate the excellence and contributions lgbtq plus people have made dr bishop who was once a student at westchester back when it was known as

089a teacher's college and renowned for her knowledge in education notably about diverse children's literature coined the phrase windows mirrors and sliding glass doors to explain that children can and should learn others experiences be able to see themselves and imagine themselves in someone else's shoes and books and stories that reflect the world around us lastly way to live the equity mission by adding diwali as a day off in november my family is jewish and i've long appreciated how the district has offered rosh hashanah and yom kippur it means a lot to know that while we spend the whole day in services my children don't have to worry about making up work as our student population changes our days off should reflect the most important holidays and festivals they celebrate thank you for your time thank you

090for your comments bernice harvey is this on when it's green hi my name is bernice harvey it's 627 plum run drive as a taxpayer i am very saddened to know how corrupt the westchester area school board is with crt and make no mistake this poison is now completely infused in the curriculum of this district so therefore i am imploring all parents to take your kids out of the public schools investigate private christian or catholic schools and investigate them well because even among some of these this marxist garbage has found a home and look into the many home school options parents have that are unrelated to the district's homeschool curriculum that are available one exam excuse me one example of a good homeschool program is the acellis power homeschool program designed by the acelas academy designed

091for k-12 and finally the gold standard for the best in-home school education is the hillsdale college 1776 curriculum there you'll find a complete collection of lesson plans for teaching accurate american history civics and government for k-12 all can be downloaded for free so do the right thing for your kids and remove them from the marxist indoctrination of this district investigate these options that are available to you and give your children an education that will serve them well [Applause] jennifer mcfarland no you may not that is not how it works it's a two-minute per-person policy could you please start by stating your name and address please um uh my name is jennifer mcfarland east bradford i've stood here before and i have said to this board that i know that the crt is and dei is

092and sel is part of the teacher training that goes on i have proof here i've sent the proof is also on the republican committee website it's and i want to hand to to the ju the board i want to hand them please hand them one each of these in addition i have an example of the teacher training oops teacher training that took place two years ago and one of the i don't have unfortunately enough to pass out but it's also on the republican committee website so you can access that it's the white privilege exercise that all teachers were asked to go through and to determine the amount of whiteness that they have uh and these are all classic classic classic crt types of activities that are going on i've got this information from an rtk

093filed with the school district a year and a half ago if you file an rtk you'll get a two just and i asked for another rtk which was put into a 30-day extension on the same materials for this for the summer of 2020 and the summer of 2021 not really sure why i could get it in five days for 10 to 12 years of information but i couldn't get it because they had to talk to their lawyers i couldn't get two years of teacher trainings so um not really sure how that's going to turn out but the proof is here that they are teaching teachers crt through dei or whatever they want to call it in the westchester area school district as a former administrator i will tell you thank you thank you uh as

094a former administrator i will tell you that if i ma'am excuse me your time is then to embed that in the school you're not teaching it to the teachers [Applause] dan gillian at the august 2000 2021 sorry uh virtual meeting two plot police officers commented on some of the anti-police materials that were on the equity resources page one of those videos is gone the rest remain i think it's remarkable that the school district is still promoting lie by omission references about michael brown and many references to an organization that as of august 19th of this year still wants to defund the police this continued promotion is a disrespect to those two police officers a disrespect to the police officers in this room and a disrespect to all the police officers that served this school district

095on the topic of disrespect the latest response to those who oppose critical race theory principles being applied or promoted in the schools including the parents that spoke out at the meetings over the summer is that it's just crazy republican tactics this comes from the same people who take credit for ending partisan bickering and divisiveness find this phrase divisive demeaning and cognitively dissident this phrase excuse me the equity resources page is a critical race theorists paradise which makes that crazy tactic statement as tone deaf as the repeated denial that critical race theory is not being taught in the schools simply because there is no title bearing its name these materials are partisan and divisive labeling parents is crazy or extremist is partisan and divisive and no serious conversation about ending divisiveness or partisan bickering can take

096place in this district until the legitimate concerns of parents over critical race theory principles being applied in the schools on the website is credibly addressed and not dismissed or ignored there are a lot of wonderful things about this school district there's no denying that but until these problems are addressed all that is going to be overshadowed thank you tammy mayer [Music] tammy mayer east bradford township first i would like this board to share details on the training that georgetown university will be providing the public should be able to review all of the training documents and any affiliated videos handouts etc prior to any training being implemented additionally regarding school board meeting processes and policies interestingly i had planned on talking about this before that issue came up and before i even say anything else i

097want to say i i give you credit for coming back into the room and um even more credit for your interest in when you know parents afterwards came up you acknowledged them you thanked them and you said you would follow up with them i'm going to urge you to continue doing that practice because i got to tell you it does not feel welcoming up here at all it feels like you're just sitting there you you're this is just checking a box and you don't really care what the parents have to say and i don't want to believe that i want to believe that you really do care but you're just having a hard time showing it right now i think part of the problem is we have attorneys sitting here that kick off the meeting

098we have attorneys sitting here ruling what parents are saying and we have you know this stop watch that's running that you all can't see we all see that stop watch but you all don't see that stopwatch it's very nerve-wracking and i'm just going to urge you to find a way to change the tone of these meetings because i think you want parents involved but i sometimes question whether you really do want parents involved i applaud the pennsylvania school board association for disavowing the national school board association's ridiculous letter to biden and i'm going to urge you all to publicly say how you feel about public comments so that we all feel welcome to give them so that we're not afraid to stand up here that you thank us for our courage and you thank us

099whether you agree with us or not thank you thank you mr mayor judy defonzo hi my name is judy defonso i live in east ocean over on gateswood drive i haven't moved since earlier in the meeting i wanted to talk tonight about dyslexia it's dyslexia awareness month and i've always been kind of aware of dyslexia but i had the privilege of being invited out to the pennsylvania special education conference i've actually gone several years the state provides parent scholarships they pay for hotel rooms and conference fees if you're coming from this area and you have a child in special education and i took a session on dyslexia and what the presenter talked about is like the gap between the science that's being researched at one end of the university and then the training that goes

100on in the classrooms where the our future teachers are being taught and in looking more and more um about dyslexia i found more gaps i found that um there's a letter that school psychologists when they evaluate students they're supposed to use the word dyslexia and they can't they have to follow their practice act which is what provides them their licensing and they're not allowed to say dyslexia which i think gets in the way of students getting the remedial programs that are designed to remediate dyslexia i wanted to use the last few minutes of my public comment to mention that the state task force meets five times a year their november meeting is the day after election day 10 o'clock it'll be on zoom if you search patan and state task force the topic is going

101to be dyslexia and the research that was done after acts 69 of 2014 through the pilot program in pennsylvania and what is now considered best practices in teaching students to read thank you thank you judy for your comments i've always appreciated that you've come for the last eight years of my whole eight years on the board and i always like when you say same address as before i haven't moved yet so nancy wood 300 shropshire drive for months i have witnessed individuals addressed this board with concerns about critical race theory often making angry and inflammatory accusations and claiming our teachers and district are conspiring to indoctrinate our students into racism division and marxism political candidates seeking election to this very board have been among the loudest and most frequent of these objectors in response the

102district launched the community conversations program a series of meetings for community members from all perspectives to listen share and work together on a common vision for a stronger community the sessions have been meaningful and productive with community participation including current and incumbent board members but i have been incredibly disappointed that none of the school board candidates who have been so vocal in airing their grievances have attended instead of participating in productive dialogue these candidates continue to use their political platforms and funding to push conspiracy theories they and their endorsing party have held information sessions with no district representation where so-called experts claim to have insider information about our district's subversive plan to promote racism and division instead of accepting the district's invitation to productive dialogue they use these sessions to stoke parent fears promote political

103candidates and sell books given an opportunity to stand behind this podium launching attacks with the comfort of knowing that no one has the opportunity to question or challenge them they're here for it but doing the work of having conversations and finding common ground are evidently off the table our community is smart enough to recognize this weakness and reject it we need leaders who will walk the walk and rise to the challenge of working together thank you mrs wood that's it okay uh thank you for everybody for coming out tonight we will close with a quote from mr beverlock floor is yours all right the quote today is about election day next week on november 2nd democracy can't succeed unless those who express their choice are prepared to choose wisely the real safeguard of democracy therefore

104is education franklin d roosevelt thank you mr bevalaqua can i entertain a motion to adjourn first by dr herman second by mr bill lockel all in favor say aye hi thank you very much everybody you