001okay good evening I'm going to call this meeting to order but before we get started I just wanted to take a moment to remember Bob Keeler who passed away on September 10th Bob was a reporter for the News Herald who was assigned to covering School news so he attended our meetings regularly he was dedicated to his work and approached it with true journalistic Integrity you could count on Bob to cover an issue in an objective way presenting just the facts he had a quiet understated Presence at our meetings but he left a big mark on our community he will be missed may he rest in peace and if everybody will please stand for the pledge of them one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice foreign according to policy 903 public comment which is
002limited three minutes should be directed to the presiding officer rather than individual board members District employees or members of the public for confidentiality and privacy rights specific comments regarding particular individuals must be communicated privately to the school board and superintended by email at psdschoolboard at pennridge.org and so I would call everyone up just remember when you come on down I just wanted to discussing an observation from the previous meeting over the past year or so we've had a lot of division in the community we're hoping to bridge this Gap but we need everyone's help everyone who comes up to you here to speak needs to be treated with respect during one meeting a few people yelled Out homeschool after a resident spoke this kind of childish behavior has no place at a school board meeting
003and only further divides the communities please keep these sarcastic comments to yourself imagine if your children behave like this I don't think it would make you proud however I do understand why there's so much anger over the board I get that frustration when they pour their hearts out and all they get is a black stare and occasionally a verbal feedback they probably feel like their child is being attacked and they are being ignored I know that I would act just set angry I felt my family was being attacked this is not excuse the behavior but I see the frustration and lack of response we as a board providing meeting settings not email we will return those very well so I understand why you're upset but remember it may feel good to unload but it sets
004back any attempt at conquerors okay when you come down to the microphone just state your name and your municipality or if you're an employee you just stay that okay the first person signed up is Mike mignona Canadian school board members and Dr Bolton my name is welton's teacher representing the health and phys Ed Department the last policy meeting the slide was presented recommending the health requirement for graduation to become Health Credit and phys Ed for one credit we also heard some board members mentioning uh student choice for ninth grade phys Ed that's why our Department's here tonight because we do not believe that this proposal is in the best interest of our student body first concern we'd like to address is a recommended removal of the health component of Wellness speed our department firming believes
005that all high school students should have exposure to health classes at least twice in the Pennridge High School career eliminating the health component Wellness B and adding it to the ninth grade curriculum will result in minimally covering the necessary content or completely removing valuable Health topics so essentially this equates to eliminating 45 classes of this health instruction concern we have is in regards to student choice we do see a place for students to select their own phys Ed courses this is why we have created electives for the 10th through 12th grade student currently our ninth grade program provides areas of choice and exposes them to a variety of activities embedded throughout the curriculum in return this provides a 9th grade student with Foundation guiding them to make an educated selection of their future phys Ed
006elected classes as well as lifelong Fitness decisions so our department also oversees if ninth grade students are allowed to select their own phys Ed courses facility and Equipment issues would be difficult to near impossible to accommodate while the classes held throughout the school day So based upon this information mentioned our department recommends to continue to provide ninth grade Wellness for one credit graduation credit as well as continuing with a half graduation credit well and speaking and at last we like to recommend you know the continuing over our phys Ed electives remain available for student Choice above and beyond the one and a half graduation requirement thank you for your time consideration East Rock Hill and health present teacher at high school I'm going to continue with what Mike had said a serious concern about our
007health curriculum going from currently 135 to 90 days not too many years ago it was 150 dropped at 135 and now going to 90. so that's that's a serious concern that we have as a as a group uh question for everyone in here how's your mental health okay that's your mental health how's your mental health bit over the last couple years I see mental health as a huge concern across the board our society our student body uh but just look at the examples that we have from our adults in our society look at the politicians Democrats don't like Republicans Republicans Democrats turn on a TV commercial and you got one politician complaining about other politicians the next commercial it's flip-flop the same to people going after each other wonder why we have bullying in our
008schools well I mean why we're bullying air Society help kids get sociable on social media I know some people refer to it it's just is that it's just health and on just a health phys ed teacher but I stand in front of kids every single day and I see I can look in their eyes I can see their faces sometimes I can read their body language and I know there are kids that are really struggling with life really struggling with their mental health and I do not think that this is a time to condense cut shorten up I know I talked school board meeting last year and there was even discussion of hey let's maybe even add on because we know how important the mental health opponent is and our health is health is it's
009real life stuff it's tangible stuff it's it's stuff that kids are going to use throughout their lifetime uh technology you know everyone's got a laptop in front of them students have laptops in front of them all day long our subject Area Health and phys Ed they get a brain break they get a real brain break they get to if you're in the gym you get to run around do something have some fun a little social time we're outside one of my takeaways we're currently in our mental health unit for my uh classes right now is well if you are struggling talk to somebody don't keep it to yourself if you are a student and you're doing okay but you have that kid in your social studies class that is struggling a little bit and you
010saw them post something tell somebody about it tell a teacher go to a guidance counselor I don't got a friend all right so that's my big takeaway I'd say it over and over again in class so I'm going to kind of take my own advice and I'm standing out for my students that are struggling mental health-wise and I'm going to say please consider not making that decision to cut to 90 90 days and please consider maybe even adding more because the importance of mental health in our program thank you um good evening my name is Kathy lockery and I stand before you wearing Three Hats I'm a health and phys Ed teacher at North Middle School I'm a very proud parent of three Pennridge graduates and I am a Bedminster resident I started teaching in
011The District in 1993 and I have had the great opportunity to teach both health and physical education at all three of our levels Elementary Middle School and High School I did take some extended time off to raise our daughters at home but I have not been idle in serving our community I have coached in some capacity either for Pennridge or for a local Youth Organization Deep Run for 25 of the last 30 years I am passionate about our children's Wellness their physical social and emotional Wellness due to my longevity with the district I have witnessed a substantial decline in time spent teaching our Pennridge students in the health and PE classrooms in just the past eight years two of which I served as the K-12 health and phys Ed coordinator Pennridge has cut the following
012we have cut the second grade swim program the seventh grade Health and Wellness Health and phys Ed the 10th grade PE that has been changed from a health and wellness course to just 10th grade Aquatics and 10th grade health and 10th grade Aquatics has now been cut time spent teaching Health in the Elementary classrooms has been reduced due to General scheduling issues the sixth grade PE classes were changed to a semester instead of a year-long course I firmly believe that exercise and movement over an extended period of time have greater impact and benefit for the child many students do not participate in movement activities and will not exercise their bodies once their middle school semester of Wellness has been completed obesity and type 2 diabetes rates are climbing with our youth our mental health is
013declining these are just facts more time has been lost with our students as the graduation requirement for health and phys Ed has been reduced from two credits to one and a half in the high school 10th grade health contains 45 classes of critical material regarding mental and emotional Health First Aid drug abuse addiction and more these lessons are designed for the intellectual and emotional maturity of a 10th grader these 45 classes cannot be embedded or added into the already full 9th grade health curriculum with any type of fidelity we are beholden to follow the state standards but more importantly we are passionate about doing what is best for our students a child's health is priceless and the skills and knowledge gained regarding their health will be invaluable throughout their entire life I respectfully ask that
014you carefully reconsider any more time lost in the health and phys Ed classroom thank you next is Melinda Griffin hi I'm Linda Griffin I work at North Middle School and I have The Misfortune of following Kathy lockery to speak but I do want to talk a little bit about two things number one um the choices at the ninth grade level we use a team teaching model we use it in the middle school as well so there's two teachers that are in that classroom you will already have the ability to implement choice at the ninth grade level in the current format that you're using if you were to go to something like a it was described to us kids make three choices uh you know you can use team sports individual you run the risk of
015pushing away kids who might normally engage in some of those activities in their current structure so for example a 560 kids in front of me and they can visually see where their friends are going they know they're not going to be out skilled at a particular sport if you divide your class in such a way that you give them options with then their current group you can still meet what you're trying to do without over engineering and having multiple having these kids locked into something for 90 days that it may not exactly be the right fit for them and I find when we do that at the middle school level it's very engaging and they embrace it a little bit better the other thing I wanted to address is I was on the curriculum Innovation
016and design committee from like day one and I've enjoyed my time listening to Heidi Hayes Jacobs and Ben a cowlick and I know we've invested a lot of time and money and having those ladies come down and explain us how to write rich and you know very developed curriculum and use authentic assessment if you take the current 10th grade health curriculum and try to put that in with the ninth grade curriculum it's not going to work we did it at the middle school when we lost our 90 days with the seventh graders you have to go through the process of sorting out what it is you want to keep and that really takes a couple years to get that right and then you're skimming the surface and you can't really get any deep and authentic
017assessment you can't do the things that these ladies are bringing us in and trying to teach us how to do and then as Mike mentioned it changes the whole structure of what you look like in the gym with scheduling issues so I really am encouraging you to please keep the health in the 10th grade level so the last time we don't talk to these kids about any health topic is when they're like 14 or 15 years old because these 16 17 year old 18 year old kids they're going to need some advice too and it's nice to have that conversation with somebody who does this for a living you know I know parents do that but it's different talking to your kids about some of the topics that we actually discuss you know at that
018higher level so thank you for your time and consideration [Applause] hi my name is I'm a high school social studies teacher here at Pennridge and I'm here to speak about the proposal of dropping social studies graduation requirements from four to three credits under our current model 8th grade teaches foundations of America which goes from 1492 to 1800. our ninth grade course is early American history which goes from 1800 to pre-World War One and our 10th grade course is modern American history which goes from World War One to the president 11th grade is world history and culture and 12th grade is a half year of American government and a half year elective in order to meet the state standards which includes geography economics government world history and American history the department will be forced to compact
019classes at the high school the result will be one year of U.S history from 1850 to the present in ninth grade 10th grade would be world history and 11th grade would be a half year of government and half year elected the goal of high school is to create engaged citizens and this new model would be taking away opportunities to learn specific skills necessary to be an active member in our Democratic Society an example of a topic that will be affected under this new model in our modern American history course would be our World War II unit which currently is about six weeks and 30 lessons long within that unit we conduct an atomic bomb assessment where students will research write a paper and engage in a seminar usually taking about four to six lessons skills
020in this assessment include research critical thinking Reading Writing public speaking and presenting skills that will carry over to other courses and will be used well after they leave Penn Ridge no matter what their career path goes PA state standards that are also addressed in this assessment include 8.9.6.9 which is writing arguments focused on discipline specific content 8.6.9.3 which is producing clear and coherent writing in which the development organization and style are appropriate to task for purpose and audience 8.3.28 which is evaluating how continuity and change and impact in the United States an 8.3 point you come to evaluating how conflict and cooperation among groups and organizations have influenced the growth and development of the United States feedback from students include that students often refer to this as one of their favorite learning experience from throughout
021the year looking at history curriculums out there on the United States that currently are 1850 to the president this is what I imagine our new course to be a World War II unit that consists only of 12 lessons this would be surface level learning and information with minimal to no breaker teachers would conduct a reconstruction students will memorize and recall information for a test and then students would forget the information and then we'll to know amount of time to engage in authentic projects and activities requiring higher level thinking and learning and no time for things such as an atomic bomb assessment it will be difficult to do every time period and unit justice under this model in conclusion for many students Pennridge may be the last time their lives or they have an opportunity to
022take a history course we want to make sure that all students are leaving the high school with as many opportunities possible to develop the skills to be an active and informed citizen thank you for your consideration Monica Parker hi I'm Monica Parker and since I started teaching at Pennridge I participated in revisiting social studies curriculum every year for the past 18 years each time I've observed an upper present challenge that includes the fact that as time progresses the amount of History we have to teach grows longer not shorter the thought of having even less time to teach more history is always a pressing concern for us I can't help but worry that the consequence of lowering the credit requirements for students might result in a curriculum that has been diluted of substance as well as
023rigor in recent years we've spent a large amount of time and resources writing our current scope and sequence many of us have when we just recently gotten our most recent curriculums approved or are still in the process of finalizing our most recent work I think many of us were looking forward to implementing newly created authentic assessments that might no longer be relevant as a result of any major changes to social studies credit requirements these gains have come after several years of working closely with experts hired by the district to help us align our current curriculum with PA state standards the high school English curriculum as well as the Middle School curriculum adjusting this in any major way would likely impact other groups outside of the high school social studies Department including little schools as well
024as the high school English Department which works very closely with our department and develop we're designing rather many of our courses please consider revisiting the topic after further exploration foreign [Applause] can you defer to Cozumel Nash prior to me speaking okay he wants me to switch please my name is Rob cosnell I'm a Associate's teacher here at the high school I'm also a Silverdale Borough resident I have one child in District and I have another one that's me joining us next year moving from four credits to three credits and Social Services would have a serious implication on the students who take advanced placement courses within the social studies Department especially students who take apos history and AP World History we will see our AP World and apus enrollment numbers drop and our test scores drop
025the Pennridge drops in three credits let me repeat myself we will see our numbers drop and our scores drop Let Me Explain how currently students take two years of American history in high school in their second year when the students are in 10th Grade AP is offered as an alternative to traditional 10th grade U.S history course so they don't have to take AP as an elective if we redesign our courses based on three credits we would offer one year of American history in high school which would be in ninth grade the Air Force 100 students who want to take apo's history would have to take a ninth grade or as an elective either option puts our students at a disadvantage taking apos history as a 9th grader is not age appropriate for the vast majority
026of our students the challenges and coursework demands of apo's History are well known and throwing it at them at such a young age would be setting many of them up for failure as an effect we will see your AP scores dropped these ninth graders are not ready to take apo's history in addition many students wouldn't take it because they would be aware they're not ready for an eighth they are sorry ninth grade apo's history is the second most popular AP course in the nation and this decision would make it one of the least popular courses to take at Penn Bridge if students were focused I'm sorry students were forced to take it as an elective students will have to take American history in ninth grade through self-taking American history not great and this group of
027students will be more limited in the electives they could take since they could take abuse history as an elective this goes against the very objective board members have stated for switching their three credits by creating flexibility moreover we'll be dropping our AP World course to 10th grade currently Apu history sets students up for success in AP World History we would have a greater number of students who wouldn't have the coursework of Av US History we're there for see our AP World scores draw in summary please consider the implications of the decision on all of our students I respect the request that you table's decision allow it to be discussed at a curriculum meeting as originally planned so we can have a more thorough examination into the impact that this decision will have on our students
028by hearing from our Administration team and our teachers thank you thank you and so Steph Nash wanted to speak next okay good evening I'm Stephanie Nash and I've been a social studies teacher here at Pennridge for 24 years I'm here tonight to discuss the proposal to reduce from four credits to three reducing the credit requirement for 43 years would be a huge detriment to our students Social Studies classes teach the importance of critical thinking skills we are the one area in which non-fit where one area in which non-fiction reading and writing are essential toward discipline our students learn to evaluate primary sources analyze viewpoints and apply to real world scenarios while all of our classes will be impact I'd like to focus on three curriculum areas the humanities 21st Century Learning and social science classes
029the humanities course which is off at 9th grade is taught cross-curricularly with English this class was created in order to provide more differentiation for our gifted students so the districts so the district could be in better compliance with chapter 16 of Pennsylvania Law Without this course we would not have as many opportunities for our gifted students to have differentiated instruction the second course the 21st Century Learning is also was also developed cross-curricular with our English Department the class was designed with our BowTech students in mind they are taught The Importance of Being a citizen in the U.S and the responsibilities that go along with it many of our votech students would not have this opportunity if we were to eliminate a fourth year of social studies the last group of classes that I'd like to
030speak on is our social science electives as a psychology teacher I've been Amazed by the ability of our seniors to apply their skills to learn from 9th to 11th grade to situations that are new to them as most of these students have not had the opportunity to explore social sciences eliminating a fourth year requirement would dissuade many of our students from taking this opportunity as they'd rather take a study hall or have early release according to the executive director of the American Political Science Association social science makes sense of the institutions that shape Our Lives is another reason that is important that our students have as many opportunities and requirements to take Social Studies classes in addition social science is a huge Avenue for job opportunities of which many students are not aware having them
031exposed to these classes will only provide more direction for these students as they begin to choose life paths in conclusion I would ask that the board either vote to maintain the four credit requirement for social studies this evening or postpone the decision so the social studies department has the opportunity to discuss this Monumental curriculum change with the policy Review Committee and curriculum committee so the district can make the decision that is in the best interest of our students thank you very much foreign [Applause] studies teacher good evening ladies and gentlemen my name is Tim Diaz and I've had the privilege of teaching social studies at Pennridge High School for 23 years in addition to teaching social studies at penritch high school I am also proud to be appendix graduate class of 85. my wife also
032a pen Arts graduate and I called Perkasie our home we are proud that both our daughter and summer Henry's graduates both our children are now raising their families inside the Pennridge community and as such two of our grandchildren are now students at Grants Elementary so what I say tonight is from the perspective of a social studies teacher but it is also that of a grandfather who wants what's best for his grandchildren yes it's true that the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania allows for school districts to have a minimum of three years of social studies in order to graduate from high school however the Patrick community Through the policies implemented by the parish Board of school directors has always seen the benefit of including an additional year of social studies for our high school students who else believes
033that is good for four years of social studies High School first both the national and state standards for social studies recommend that a high school contain a four-year program of study in a social sciences as such the professional staff has spent a great deal of time creating and maintaining a four-year program of study for our students second the National Council of the social studies this organization is the Premier Association that is devoted to supporting social studies education in the United States this Association recommends a high school social studies program contained two years of American History one year of world history and one year they contains both American government out of social studies elective finally the last point I would like to make is that many times our institutions compare what they are doing to what
034others are doing most of this I'm sorry most school districts in bucks and Montgomery counties see the wisdom of a four-year curriculum in the social sciences as such these districts have implemented such programs in their districts so as I conclude ISS board to take some additional time to consider this decision I guess that this action you're considering to be table tonight and be sent back to the appropriate committee or committees for further review we the social studies teacher at the secondary level would welcome being a part of the discussion at the committee level to express in Greater detail greater detail why a change such as the one that's being proposed tonight is not in the best interests of our students and our community thank you for your time of your consideration [Applause] I've done check
035East Rock Hill um so I um I'm Sorry by saying I did write this comment by myself I am concerned about the first three policies that are being forced through tonight I believe the advocacy policy will have a chilling effect on teacher speech the resource policy takes power of the librarian stands The Librarians are the ones who know the books they know the nuances and the benefits the book had books have to the students I believe a lot of high schoolers are mature enough to deal with the occasional sexual situation in a book if you don't believe yours is there are procedures on the on the books to keep them from checking the books out without depriving other students of their value seems like these policies are solutions looking for problems that don't exist we
036saw an example of this in a recent policy committee meeting when one of the school board members cited the outcry from parents regarding the GSA Day of Silence even though this has been done for many years this year there was so much pushback that they needed to change policies because of it the many parents who complained it was eight people and four of the people don't have kids and don't have kids in the district so I'm not sure why where the disruption was in the classroom to necessitate a policy change there's so much time being spent on these policies that could be spent um talking about talking with the history teacher is about a the change in the changing graduation requirements finally I have a question as to where the directive came from to cut
037short Banned Book week I was wondering if it came from the administration or if it came from the board thank you Kelly kircher hello my name is Chloe kircher and I live in Perkasie and I'm a 10th grade student at Penn Ridge High School I'm here to speak tonight regarding the proposed changes outlined in school board policy 217 for credit requirements for Pennridge High School students beginning with the class of 2026. by potentially decreasing the wellness credit the health curriculum will lose 45 days of instruction that could include important topics such as mental health Monday through Friday each week students come into school with their backpacks resting on their shoulders this backpack holds all the things that the individual needs for their school day including pencils folders and laptops but every student also carries a
038second backpack on their back this backpack is even more important than your school bag but there's one catch it's invisible this invisible backpack doesn't hold pencils or laptops but instead holds the emotional weight that each one of us carry every day we carry a variety of diverse items which make our backpacks obtain different weights a student's bag that holds getting a bad grade where to sit at lunch not having enough food at home not having a good friend to rely on not having adult support in their life struggling with body insecurity grief for a loved one depression anxiety or mental loss a backpack full of mental burdens is difficult for anyone to carry alone but how can someone support this student when their backpack is invisible as a student who is very involved myself with
039tremendous support both at school and at home I still carry an extremely heavy invisible backpack this is why I appreciate the efforts of our Wellness teachers at Pennridge High School and helping students identify stressors coping strategies and support networks both inside and outside of school last year in ninth grade Wellness with Mrs Heath we talked about the impact of good decision making on our mental health this year Mr Nanda Miller has expanded on the work from last year by getting to know each one of his students and the stressors in our lives under the current alignment of Health courses he had the time to speak with each student individually to identify our personal stressors and establish our support Networks with the proposed changes I am worried that future students will not be given the same
040benefit with the proposed changes who at penritch high school will pick up the slack of helping students recognize mental health challenges will all teachers be trained and help students recognize stressors and identify support networks well these same teachers have to give up content time to address student mental health needs I encourage you to keep student mental health and well-being at the Forefront of your decision making and include student voice and these changes moving forward thank you for listening I appreciate your time [Applause] just as she's coming up on them to say thank you to all the speakers so far sharing something that I wish I had heard when we started this process and we did it in committee and we didn't have it with this participation but hearing from everybody especially a passion obviously makes
041an impact on the board and thank you for doing that but hopefully in a future we can do it when we first start this process not halfway through hello Emily Smith um East Rock Hill I've been a resident of Pennridge for 45 years and uh I'm pretty Disturbed at the way our district is currently moving we aren't standing here tonight discussing policy changes because of a dozen or so people's complaints for their religious beliefs we're here because several of our look our board directors are so easily misled and manipulated by social media they've come to believe things that are not at all true it's incredibly ironic that one of the stated reasons for needing a new policy advocacy policy is to prevent our children from being indoctrinated when it's obviously the adults who have already
042been indoctrinated by ridiculous nonsense on the internet recently our school board president posted that safe space stickers need to be removed because they somehow are a Gateway for teenagers to decide they want gender reassignment surgery I don't know about everyone else but all of the men that I've ever met are highly attached to their genitals and would not cut them off even if they saw a rainbow sticker for eight hours a day every day it wouldn't happen because it is complete nonsense to this point your actions in changing this policy will have no positive effect on our school you're not going to save a child from mutilating themselves because that is not something that actually happens do you have any research or data that will show you what this policy is going to how it's
043going to impact our academics because safe space stickers and having an inclusive environment does have research that says it improves academics and this may possibly further lower our rankings all you're going to accomplish by doing this is increasing the bullying rates for lgbtq kids that have already doubled in the last four years you're going to get a staffing shortage because no one's going to want to work here under these restrictive policies and a reputation for just being cruel to students thank you yesterday is short I don't think that a sticker can change anyone from what they naturally are and I did not allege that next up we have Ross McClain roster going to Hilltown um that it did read that about the Banned Book Week band Banned Book week I found that I think I
044thought it was a joke at first but it's real don't understand that okay advocacy policy at the last meeting we had a surprise explanation about how a Supreme Court decision applies to teachers at Pennridge displaying Pride Flags I have these letters from lawyers at the Civil uh at American civil liberties Union and the education Law Center they were sent to you that clearly explained the law and that this analysis was an error my question is did this board intentionally mislead the community or is this done out of ignorance of the law no I missed I I realized that it would apply I thought it did okay okay there's no conspiracy there's all me that in Japan you know it's not a question answer period even though the the member did answer your question can you
045please continue with your comments and you know comply with the zero zero line thank you allowing the pride Flags is totally an air discretion and not directly governed by the Supreme Court decision I suggested at this last meeting I feel like given this misleading situation the board should be should table the advocacy policy and allow further discussion I need to remind you that gender identity and sexual orientation are not just ideas to be advocated they represent people that the school board is obligated to protect your first responsibility is to provide a safe place for all children to learn and to ensure that students feel safe seen and respected in a minute I found a presentation uh made at the last curriculum meeting the overview of the newly adopted PA science standards excellent and very informative
046but I found a few of the comments made by the board concerning there are really no alternate alternate realities for Science and Engineering to teach there is no other side I'm just going to ask a question it's not somehow controlled by the left or the right unless you consider conspiracy theories which I hope we will not be teaching in schools are you suggesting that's a question I can't say that I want to know about creationism in our Public Public Schools I mean are we going to teach that that's not a question I'm pondering okay and it isn't just about facts and the Sciences now even attack on History it seems like everything else is under attack will you be asking teachers another question damn I gotta apologize they have questions but I hope you won't
047be teaching that there are two sides to the January six attacks on the capitol thank you Mr President thank you thank you Colton my computer is not working I can't log in do you think you'll look at it while we're doing this thank you sorry thank you my next for someone that has something on an agenda item is Jane creamy Jane Kramer Sellersville mother of a high school student and member of the lgbtq community um I'd like to start by encouraging the board to table really all of the policies that are on the agenda for tonight uh as the public comments continue tonight I was just struck by the lack of thought that was put into the impacts these policies may have um you know for so many teachers to come out in their free
048time to advocate for um the students and for the curriculum they've worked so hard on I I hope that really gives everyone on the board some pause to really think about not just that policy but all of the policy the advocacy policy all the ones in the agenda what are the impacts going to be um the previous speaker had mentioned a letter from the ACLU regarding the shuttle left probably saying that incorrectly um Supreme Court ruling so I'd like to read a little bit of that letter just to have it in public comment at the beginning of the letter talks about the you know how that law does not apply in the way that it was presented last board meeting which I understand uh was not done at conspiracy theory from the letter consequently the
049district's Reliance on shuttle love to argue either that they cannot allow the display of the pride flag or that if they do it will necessarily open the door to display of every other conceivable message including homophobic and racist displays is misplaced the district undoubtedly still has many other displays in the school that are presumably education related and supported by the district EG American and Pennsylvania Flags support for veterans may be support for Ukraine or the local fire department that's all government speech and the district decides on that and can decide on that without opening the door to the required display of messages it doesn't want it has become clear that District leadership does not want Pride flags and messages displayed but that is a policy choice they make not when forced on them by law
050consequently the decision to remove Pride Flags is strong evidence that the district does not support lgbtq students and further fuels the perception that the district is behaving discriminatorily instead we urge the district to create an inclusive School environment that affirms the dignity and rights of gay and transgender students lgbtq youth who reported having at least one else Kramer I'm sorry your time was up thank you um please reference the letter you received thank you [Applause] Ben Ben Bridgewater sorry hello abandon Bridgewater percocieborough there are some who oppose the advocacy policy because they want to comfort a certain group of students and I think this is good intentions however I believe that it can do more harm than good for example I personally I suffer from a neurological disorder called misophonia that causes me daily stress
051and daily suffering there's not a single day in high school that I did not experience extreme levels of stress it pained me so much that my grades suffered I had to get a therapist I lost friends over it and some students thought I was weird because of it uh where are the posters in the classroom that say that teachers will accept me and accept people like me I have a friend from another school who was very overweight when he was in high school he faced countless fact jokes and was relentlessly bullied for his size he never felt comfortable in his own body where are the posters in the classroom for overweight students like my friend I have a friend who is autistic he doesn't always have the easiest time making friends he was bullied too
052where are the posters that say that autistic kids are just as great as kids who aren't on the Spectrum I have a friend who is a Christian he wasn't he isn't always accepted by his peers because of his faith where are the posters that say that Christians are accepted here in this classroom I could go on and on and on with an infinite number of examples of students who are dealing with a lot or they just weren't treating barely by their peers or they don't feel comfortable because that is unfortunately the experience of being a teenager the problem is when you give special treatment to one group of kids then all of the other kids who are struggling feel that they've been ignored is the answer then to Simply Place one poster for overweight kids
053one poster for Christian kids one poster for autistic kids one poster for for kids struggling with medical illnesses and put them in every single classroom if so then what about the infinite amount of students who are not included in that list if we try to accommodate them each then well first of all we will run out of room in the classroom replace all these these signs and posters but uh second of all there will always be somebody exclude somebody you don't know about so I asked the board please do not leave anybody out but also please do not give special treatment to one group and therefore hurt the rest of the students how do we do this well I have full confidence that our pen Rich teachers already have everything they need to make their
054classrooms accepted uh they will simply be kind loving and approachable to our students that's how students feel safe in our schools please do not give special treatment to some students and therefore ignore the other students thank you [Applause] Josh Hogan West Rock Hill I want to First Call out a wonderful thing that I've just witnessed tonight um I completely lost count of how many teachers just spoke on the topic of the graduation requirements and in all of those comments I didn't hear one inkling of political commentary just pure professionalism and a focus on education and sharing their views and experiences I think that in today's environment that deserves pretty strong Commendation so thank you to all of you for that now building off of that my comment actually hits on this point I want to
055speak tonight to call out that far too often political advocacy does get in the way of Education obviously we henriks are in the news right now uh but I want to actually call your attention to a bordering School District to the South who recently implemented a simple administrative policy requiring that parents be informed about and included in the process of a student using a gender identity in school that does not match this school's official record this seems to me like an extremely Common Sense policy yet media is reporting multiple instances of Staff members in this District who are promising to defy that directive that means they're going to enable a student's gender identity change with intentional disregard for the wishes of that student's parents I consider this to be an existential threat to our education
056system for this system to work effectively all parents must be involved and respected I believe that your policy proposals tonight in particular the policies 105 109 and 321 as well as others do the much needed task of returning somewhat of a focus to parents rights policy 218 helps to ensure a safer learning environment which allows everyone to keep the focus on education where it should be As you move to pass these policies and move our district to the tip of the spear when it comes to these issues let me thank you for another outcome of your strong leadership that has done wonders for Pennridge last month I wrote you a check for property taxes for the fifth time and in all five of those checks I've written to pay my taxes since moving here the
057dollar amount has not gone up one single time I went back and looked I was curious about this this month and I went and looked at every Bucks County School District in Pennridge is the only School District that can say that in the past five years not a single tax raise so great things can happen when we have good leadership Clear Vision firm principles and strong execution I strongly support you passing these policies as proposed tonight thanks [Applause] I have you down as being yes for an agenda item foreign Melissa Smith Bedminster Township I heard several slogans being carelessly tossed around in the last month slogans such as book man and don't say yay slogans meant to inflame the uninformed and divide the community in schools populated by minor children movies shown in class or
058during a bus ride to a school field trip must be age appropriate it would be wildly inappropriate for a school teacher to show a class of elementary students of PG-13 movie or a high school class an R-rated movie yet there are no shouts in the community of movie Banning and there are no banned movie month displays put up in the school hallways likewise books selected for school libraries should be selected based on educational value combined with age-appropriateness this should happen before the book is purchased and added to the school library however sometimes a book slips through the cracks for a variety of reasons when a book currently housed in the school library or classroom appears to contain an inappropriate content the book needs to go through a challenge process where it's temporarily removed from the
059library for review and if it's deemed inappropriate be removed permanently from the library to call this process of a book ban is disingenuous and inflammatory as it fails to take into account that we're dealing with minor children and what is appropriate in the school environment I applaud the school board for updating the resources policy to ensure that the books purchased with taxpayer money for inclusion and Pender schools are content and age-appropriate the slogan don't say yay is now circulating on social media in regard to the proposed advocacy activities policy opponents have recycled this worn out slogan and apparent attempt to raise the temperature by insinuating that the policy targets only the lgbtq community however a quick review of the policy reveals restrictions on staff advocacy as it pertains to personal views on religious and social
060political and geopolitical matters along with the sexual orientation and gender identity so clearly no one particular group is being targeted but rather the school employees are given clear parameters to ensure that during the school day they maintain a neutral class environment I again applaud the school board directors for obtaining school policies to ensure that the students are taught how to think not what to think thank you [Applause] last comment for the agenda items is April Fools foreign West Rock Hill Township respect to the advocacy policy most of the board has expressed their commitment to a neutral classroom environment but it's important to be aware that neutrality doesn't necessarily lead to equity to help explain this I'd like to offer an analogy consider three groups of students each of whom is tasked with seeing what is
061over the top of the wall one group is six feet tall another is five foot five and another group is five feet tall in our neutral classroom each student is provided with the exact same step stool who will be able to see over the wall would you offer a bigger stool to the shorter students or would you ask them to make do with what they were given in an effort to remain neutral now let's consider that in this scenario about 80 percent of the students are in the Chalice group about 15 percent in the middle and five percent of the shortest would that impact your decision to provide different stools to each group of students based on some of the comments shared by the corporate and a few community members providing different stools would be
062upset into the taller students why should they be the only ones without a Baker's stool everyone got one that they should be happy with that it's only a small number of shorter students anyway we can't be expected to cater to them maybe offering a bigger stool implies that the teacher likes the shorter students better the short students shouldn't talk about not being able to see over the wall that just makes the teller students feel bad and it's not their fault they're tall if this sounds ridiculous to you then good it absolutely should but that's exactly what this policy as written will amount to will there be a taller student who complains that they didn't get a bigger stool probably will their parent call the school and claim that the shorter students are being favored probably
063should you build an entire policy around that absolutely not you might think that Heights a silly analogy to use here but consider that height is something you're born with you can't control or alter your height any more than you can control or alter your race gender ethnicity or sexual orientation these don't reflect choices but are simply a part of Who We Are neutrality does not ensure Equity it just allows the current ranking status to continue and while that might be fine with some people in the room it's leaving other students behind the reality is that we don't have a symbol or a sticker for everyone in the classroom and it's not because all students and staff are not important it's because we're not all starting from the same place some of our students just need
064a slightly bigger stool to see over the wall and offering that boost doesn't imply blame it doesn't imply favoritism and it doesn't have to come at the expense of others maybe instead of perpetuating the idea that some utopian state of colorblind equality will be achieved if we just pretend that we're not different maybe we start asking our taller students to actually notice when the shorter students need a boost offer to help them find a bigger stool there is a solution between all and nothing please please consider that before you approve this policy thank you [Applause] okay I'm gonna move on to the president's report sure um a couple things first I want you to publicly say happy birthday to Jordan and Jones oh mine's not today it was um and I am going to make
065comment I'm just gonna ask um I'd like to respond to some of the public comments as well as the false narratives in the media regarding the library policy but I want to warn as parents are at home I don't think we have kids in this room parents at home who are watching if there are children they want to pull us to feed us and we'll leave the room um a popular but false narrative is that we're passing this policy in an anti-lgbtq sentiment to censor students or to impede on Free Speech those are all completely 100 false we are a public school system whose job is to provide an academic education to our students this policy is to protect our children from age and appropriate material nothing more specifically this policy is intended to do
066several things remove all pornographic books from our schools ensure that we have a review policy in place going forward that will not allow books such as these to return our libraries ensure full transparency to parents and the community as to what folks are in our schools and are being added and to outline equipment effective process to have books removed if there is an inappropriate book discovered I personally truly cannot understand why anyone would pose a policy that protects our children from sexually explicit and pornographic cells or interferes with the parents right to know exactly what their child could be exposed to so I'm assuming opposition is policy is a misunderstanding as to what type of material would be removed under this policy just last week as our community sat right here and debated if a
067new process was really necessary and those in favor of the new policy were accused of being homophobes book burners and many other ludicrous and false accusations at that exact time 9 out of 13 votes of concern specific to explicit sexual content were in fact in our schools including our middle schools where children as young as 11 years old to 10. in any setting other than school it will be minimally inappropriate inappropriate and in some scenarios in criminal for an adult to provide a child with such filth well it's a sad fact that implementing policies that prohibit allowing and are providing pornographic material to children as necessary it is in fact necessary and this is not unique to penritch this is happening around the country which is why the process needs to be changed not just
068the books themselves Jordan is going to read a short excerpt from a book that was in our libraries until just days ago while it's firstly uncomfortable for all of us to say and hear the words our kids are exposed to we do need to see it and hear it so everyone understands exactly the purpose of the added language I'm certain that after hearing this and understanding the actual intention of these policy changes this is at least one area the community will be able to agree on as I'm sure there isn't an adult in our entire District who are defend such smarter filth in the hands of a minor you're on them okay so again just to reiterate um due to the content that I'm about to read it's extremely explicit so again if on the
069live stream there's children Frozen please uh pause or come to a separate room as well as if there's any minors in this room I would ask that you please excuse yourself because it is not appropriate okay this is from the book allegedly um by Tiffany D Jackson and this is one that we were made aware of that was in our libraries disgusting puta you smell it through your holy panties some nasty fat girl who can't read getting by her daddy every night and because of it that he's not your boyfriend Marisol says he's just using you you're not the only oh I got a man and me right every night she moans grinding on her chair before giving Keisha a high five there's multiple foul language in the book that is just a short excerpt
070from it to be read this is what um we are talking about that passing through policy 109 will help keep out of our schools not the occasional minor inappropriate age material this is no place in our souls go on to my president's report the school board has been very busy making needed improvements to our policies throughout most of this year the process for some of them has been much longer than typical policy making usually takes but it's important to get things right which sometimes means having to spend extra time but now that we're concluding those major projects I want to provide a preview of where we'll be going next first we will continue to focus on remediating the learning losses caused by government mandated coveted school closures and other interruptions to normal learning that occurred
071throughout the pandemic if you missed our September curriculum meeting please watch the recording to hear an update from Dr Scheid and Dr rubarchik about the ongoing efforts and progress in that area the administration will also be providing regular updates on our students overall academic progress at our meetings as we go forward second in our effort to provide students with a diverse collection of resources from which to learn we are going to review data in our library collections about our library collections to see that we have a good variety of viewpoints represented the board will provide support to District Personnel to review the data and update our library collections as needed finally we'll be taking a look at outside organizations with which Penn Bridge does business or has other partnership Arrangements if you've been following the
072school board for a while you may recall that we've performed reviews of various services and relationships at different times to ensure what we have in place is still beneficial to the school district we value our relationships with outside organizations and businesses for the good they can do for the school Community we're very excited and grateful for the recent expansion of our Pathways program and for the other connections being made with local businesses we also recognize that having Partnerships and allowing outside organizations into our schools is not to be taking taken lightly as we are providing access to thousands of students and their families since we are in this period of exciting growth we feel it would be prudent to use this time to perform a review while also establishing guidelines to Foster relationships which will
073serve the Pennridge community for many years to come and that is my report I will pass it off to deductible 10. thank you we have a presentation great thank you Mr Jones first is just a celebration of a wonderful start to the school year this first slide is just a combination of pictures that attempts to capture the excitement on the faces of our students and staff as we look back on the first month of the new school year I want to thank our students our teachers and their other staff for their hard work so far this year next is Mrs Collins mentioned I want to celebrate our Pennridge Pathways program the Pennridge career Pathways program has expanded this school year and took another exciting step this morning at the high school during Rams period over
074200 students signed up to take part in one of nine different career presentations from biotechnology Gene editing real estate and Title Insurance entrepreneurship Consulting landscaping and Home scamping homescaping Design Early Childhood care occupational therapy Human Resources vaccine and infectious disease research students chose to use their Rams period to hear from a local professional working that field that may interest them students could then choose to receive additional information about that Career Cluster including possible job shadowing and internship opportunities there will be another session in October with our goal to reach as many students as possible with information about a variety of options for their future a special thank you to Pennridge High School business teacher Mr Chris dyer for his continued hard work on the pathways program I would encourage anyone in this audience or in
075the community or if you know someone in the community that has a business or a special talent to reach out to Mr Dyer at C dire that's d-y-e-r C Dyer pennridge.org if you or another local professional be willing to share information with our students lastly I'd like to uh very excitedly announce that Pennridge has five seniors who have received a National Merit award for their performance on the PSATs in the fall of 2021. that is the most during my five years in Pennridge Ava Oliphant has been named a national American semi-finalist and Carolyn Bailey Dylan barrexa Pietro Darrow and Kaden Kwan were named commended students we'll have an opportunity to congratulate them publicly during the opera during the October meeting but I wanted to share this wonderful information as it recently became uh now it's
076just so that is my report Mrs Collins sure and it looks as of this evening we do not have a student report all right and no student liaison this evening so we'll move on to the consent calendar and I will make a motion to approve the consent calendar items a through age by myself and seconded by Mr rice are there any comments or questions from board members all those in favor say aye aye opposed emotional power is nine zero then we will do our committee reports activities Miss patiskey please good evening on September the 7th we held an activities committee meeting Mrs Marchesi presented an international trip proposal to Portugal and Spain for 2024 from June 20th to July 2nd 2024 so I thought it was interesting that um so she's obviously very passionate about
077the trip and she took the initiative to put her own agenda together for the students and the trip company that we're working with liked it so much that they added it to their standard portfolio so as a result I'd like to make an emotion to approve the international trip to Portugal and Spain for 13 days from June 20th to July 2nd 2024. finally batiski and seconded by Mr wurz are there any comments or questions congratulations to Ms Marchese for it's pretty impressive she put together the trip and they they took it I think also with her Australia and New Zealand trip she she changed things as well because of her knowledge and EF accepted those changes too so are there any other comments all right all those in favor say aye aye aye opposed motion
078carries nine zero the next activities committee meeting is scheduled for Monday October 3rd next is Mr fidler Mr facilities facilities Department oh okay I didn't see myself um sorry I skipped myself curriculum with me we just have one agenda item going to make a motion to approve the high school proposal for a new course which is housing and interior design too a second Ed by Mr rice are there any comments or questions get all those in favor say aye aye opposed motion carries nine zero now facilities good evening facilities report we have um I'd like to make a motion to approve the g-e-s-a which is the guarantee Energy savings agreement number seven for South Middle School kitchen renovations replacement of diesel fuel station and various maintenance projects in multiple District facilities at the amount of
079four million six hundred and fourteen thousand five oh four a second okay Smooth by Mr cormack and seconded by Mr rice are there any comments or questions right all those in favor say aye aye opposed motion carries 9-0 Mr Cormac we have approval of obsolete items uh make a motion to the absolute items listed A through Z to be approved comments or questions our next facilities and meeting will be on Tuesday October 11th Street science all right now we're in the funniest I've seeking a motion to improve I'm making a motion actually to approve contracts a through L as listed below second thank you sir okay bye Mr rice and seconded by Mr cormacker [Music] field is in favor say aye aye aye opposed motion carries nine zero Mr rice all right the next finance
080committee meeting is scheduled for Tuesday October 11th thank you thank you Mr Russell Personnel please we have a motion to approve tenure recommendations motion to approve of 10-year recommendations for the following you employees Katrina blocker Chelsea Connolly Samantha fellats Nicole Miller Ali Regal Kelly shooting Sarah Scott Elise Simonson Heidi Stevenson Mario ventresca Danielle Warner Ashley Rita Jessica ashlock and Hannah cook a second that motion it was made by Mr Russell and seconded by Mr rice are there any comments or questions other than congratulations all right all those in favor say aye aye opposed and Carries 9-0 Mr Russell the next Personnel committee meeting is scheduled for Monday October 3rd thank you okay policies I will make a first of all does anyone need any of these three policies voted on separately foreign for the first
081reading yes okay then I'll make a motion to approve the first reading on policies a through C yeah hey moved by Mrs Spanish Clemons and seconded by Mr rice are there any comments or questions go ahead Mr or Dr Bolton I do just want to speak to policy 109 uh this is similar to the information that we shared at the policy committee meeting if we could call it policy 109 please and the concern pertains to the the format of policy 109 if you haven't looked at it uh separates in terms of high school middle school and Elementary School and there are specific delineated um sexual content pieces that is the main uh largest change in 109 in terms of that that focus on sexual content and age-appropriateness for the resources we put in front of
082our students at the end of each of those sections if you go to the middle school one please scroll down yep keep going uh right oh no I I need the other version of 109 open sorry go back up back up literally up one more right there so you see number three on number three and then so there's a delineation of specific types of sexual content and as we've spoken with the Librarians that is the piece as they look at that that tends to make sense for them for the most part those things obviously are not considered um for our libraries where the concern Falls is the area underneath that where there then are some wording languages that are not as clear and it talks about both in the middle school and the elementary it
083talks about permitted but de-prioritized sexual content saying that there may be some other sexual content that is in books we want to choose to not prioritize those but there might be situations where we look at and say yes that is the best resource we just want to make sure that we've made that decision consciously and that there's some decision process there that language as it reads in middle school elementary talks about materials that do not contain other sexualized content such as non-explicit or implied written descriptions of sexual acts or implied depictions of nudity it's identical in elementary high school is a little different the concern really has to do with with putting our library Librarians in a situation for them to be able to judge that when you look at library review sites it is
084very easy for libraries to get a sense for what are the major content and themes of a book it is impossible right it's not even more difficult it's impossible to really judge things that might be implied or not explicit the only way to be able to do that would be to read the entire text which I think is laborious for our our Librarians to be asked to consider reading every text that's there because you may not know if something's implied from that standpoint if a title were right if they did were to know that and the title we're deemed to be appropriate it talks about gaining the consent from parents and so the time and energy that it would take for if you think about the high school we have 2400 students and so let's
085say that's 1800 families to be able to track down the consent for them and the number of families that would not reply and then the manpower to be able to track that down the process the policy does make it very clear in the library are very clear that they are looking at age-appropriate materials and they do understand sexual content and and making sure that anything that is of a concern or even a potential concern then goes through multiple layers there is there building principle there is then district office both the assistant superintendent or supervisor as well as superintendent as well as a review process for parents or any Community member who has a concern at a title that we may not have been aware of or share that same concern and so I'm just continue
086to be concerned about that language and the amount of work it would put on our Librarians and take away from some other key moments in the library so I again would ask the board to consider possible adjustments to that language in one another um I just like to make a comment um I would if someone would have asked me several weeks ago would it make more sense to just say um not to include content sexualized content that's not age appropriate I would have thought that would have been sufficient in a policy after the material the numerous materials that I have seen that were in our libraries it's clear to me that certain individuals don't know what age appropriate means and for that reason I agreed to be more specific in laying out what is appropriate
087and what is not appropriate as a parent the fact that these materials were in my kids Library my kid could have signed them out makes me livid and I look back to when I was in fourth grade my parents had to sign a form for me to participate in the puberty class every single parent had to sign that form people didn't consider that laborious then and now they can read a rated X material that they sign out at the library without their parents knowledge all the way down to the sixth grade level I'm sorry that's completely inappropriate and if that's what we've if that's the level we've sunk into then I don't have an issue requiring that we get parent permission for them to be able to read those kinds of books and I feel
088bad because there are a lot of librarians in this District most probably almost all Librarians in this District who can decipher between appropriate and inappropriate but clearly not all of them and the fact that these materials that that turned up were Justified instead of an immediate oh wow I can't believe that was in there we need to take care of that that to me um you know was a red flag um as as far as the advocacy policy since we're approving it all at once you know I just wanted to share kind of a perspective I think about the stool analogy right and uh um you know we're not taking away any stools we're not taking away but but different not every kid you know there are different groups of kids who are going to
089need extra supports and no one is suggesting taking any of those supports away from any kid um you know I think it's important that and everyone up here thinks that it's important to be supporting every single kid and uh you know making them feel included I've gotten very different opinions on whether or not that means you know to put a spotlight on it versus not put a spotlight on it um you know I've actually gotten a lot of opinions you know from individuals in those groups who say they don't want a spotlight on it they're just going to be included like everybody else they don't want you know um uh that kind of you know attention but at the same time um you know I do think the idea of having something you know it
090also bothered me the idea that if you go into a classroom that doesn't have a sticker then somehow that that's that that classroom is unsafe every one of our classrooms are safe every teach every teacher in our in our buildings cares about every single kid and is a safe person to talk to and wants to support every single kid um and I think you know maybe you know I brought the suggestion of a poster to the the last meeting that really just highlights that and says that every kid is is valued and included and cared about for who they are and that you know that makes sure that no one feels left out and everyone knows that every teacher is a safe person to talk to so you know I think I think there are
091directions to go again I just want to I know that different people you know everybody's putting different legal hats on and you know everybody's a lawyer today um but the reality is we're not we are not the moral Authority and we can't say you can have this in your classroom that expresses your opinion but you can't have that in your classroom that expresses a different opinion and if you think about you know every single person has a hot button issue that they wouldn't want that opinion expressed and we talked about Flags every one of you can think of a flag that you wouldn't that you would be appalled if it was in your kids classroom if we allow one flag we have to allow all flags and think about the flag that you wouldn't want
092in your kids classroom that's just the real reality when you when you when you push these things into a policy you have to take all of that into account and you can't you can't pick and choose we're not the moral Authority we don't have the right to say well these are good and these aren't um and I know that people think that everything's common sense and and we should be able to delineate but we just don't have the right to do that we know the ability to do that um and and that's been established in you know in law so that's all I wanted to say that's just um I wanted to go back to 109. you know just so in the and forgive me I don't know if I'm looking at the same one
093you're looking at but I think both of them have the paragraph that says parental consent must be obtained for elementary school students Well Middle School elementary school whatever before assigning any textbook or supplementary resource materials so I guess in that way it wouldn't be just um getting permission for every book that might be in the library to me that says it's you know if you're assigning it as a teacher then maybe you are expected to know everything that's in that book and in defense of The Librarians once again I'm going to sound like a broken record but this problem is bigger it's someone already said it's bigger than Pennridge it's a bigger problem than just our school district and it's really coming from the inaccurate descriptions of books that people are being asked to review
094and it doesn't it's not explicit review sites don't give you all of the information so if there is a balance there and we aren't mindful of that one of the public commenters said that you know sometimes mistakes will happen and you just deal with them but this policy is aimed to really make sure that those mistakes are very rare and happening so I don't know Dr Bolton if you had a suggestion or if you just wanted to go to the boat the only concern from a librarian standpoint is if that puts so much of this deals with library books and Library resources obviously it doesn't involve other resources but primarily the library and so when it says assigning any textbook or supplementary resources there was a level of concern that means every book in the
095library right if there's anything that is of this deep prior de-prioritized sexual content that's in there that there would have to be some sort of parent approval so if a student checked it out now if you're saying that that word assigning talks about actually telling a student they have to interact with because that's what a signing is as opposed to it's an option there I think the Librarians would welcome that in terms of that expectation but I was not positive that that's what that language meant but if that is what the intent is of that language okay thank you I want to add one more thing with the respect to the Librarians and uh they have a tough job they may have made some mistakes but I think they were not putting those books in
096there on purpose they may have read a bad review and maybe not read every single paragraph of the book so they made some mistakes but I think overall a complete completely support them and I think they're doing a great job so just wanted to add that I do want to point out there was a review of one of these books in question the review of the book said nothing about the sexual content in the book I think it spoke to what was it a violence or something they talked about violence but made no mention of the sexual content and then when you read the sexual content it's enough you know it was really explicit so that's what we're saying when we're talking about these review websites and things so um if this isn't meant in
097my mind it's not meant to come down heavy on anyone it's really just meant to protect our kids and the way that we're able to and then work on things from maybe another angle but we just want to keep this inappropriate content out of the the students hands okay right I would just like to add to that too even from reading the excerpt I don't believe that one of our Librarians read that and said Put it on the Shelf is it's just um that this policy then when you come across like that if it isn't there if the review if the reviews are misleading then at least you have positive to immediately be able to remove it instead of having to go through a more lengthy process and possibly keep it on the shelves so
098I um do want to make that clear too that this is not to come down on the Librarians it's the bigger picture and if coming across anything like this there's something in place to be able to deal with that situation okay I think we can call the question now I'm sorry we're looking at all these together so all three together so we're speaking to all three of these then that's right for the first read yeah the one thing that I was wondering about we were getting some feedback that the term advocacy was was uh confusing to some people the way that we intended it and I'm just wondering and Mike maybe you can speak to this whether we should Define advocacy and I I offer a definition for it but it would be to use
099power position or authority to advise or persuade and if we could include that in um policy 321 we accept that friendly Amendment comment first whether or not they want me to accept that amendment I mean if we do that then we should start over I mean you can't just add something at the last minute ahead of us well this is a honest opinion about it I mean sure I mean that's why this is a first read right yes but Mr Russell that you see the next question is to spend the rules and adopt it on on first read which is permitted under policy 0-3 that's what I think Mr Morris is talking about I'll accept the men the amendment and then if it gets voted down then I'll just make an emotion all right so
100miss bass Clements has accepted the definition read out by Mr Russell which is a friendly Amendment the second or accept that friendly Amendment Mr rice who you accept the friendly amount yeah I'll accept it right so that's been amended as enrolled by as as they gave by Mr Russell and the motion stance as amended so let's move by Mrs Spanish Clemens and seconded by Mr rice how are there who called the question so we'll just take the vote all those in favor say aye aye opposed right okay I got that as an 8-1 motion character um final approval of PSD policies according to policy zero zero three a motion to suspend the procedure of a second read and approved policies 109 218 and 321 based on their first read um I'll make that motion okay
101it was made by the Spanish Clements and I think I heard Mrs Chicken second Edge yeah I just want to add a comment there uh yesterday I learned that we were voting on policy 321 tonight according to my discussions with a bunch of different people we would have a first read a second reading and then a vote on all policies that will vote was scheduled for the October school board meeting now I'm told that because of policy zero zero three which I did not read we could skip all readings and vote on it tonight if the purpose of the first read and the second read is to give the public kind a comment then why is it being rushed to be passed it seems like a great tool to cycle debate and get something right
102through so today we are rushing into a policy that will have a chilling effect on 600 plus for teachers for 600 so all because the board is upset with a few of them the main purpose of the board the start of this process was to remove the pride Flags in the school we felt it was divisible we all agree that the fire pride flag it has to come down on school it's also a symbol that is political in nature an agenda from the left and from the right to have it removed we all agree on that the flags are going to come down okay but it didn't start out that way the product line was originally a symbol of acceptance and Hope it says drastically changed in the last few years it is now a
103political symbol however under the existing policy 321 it forbids political activity which is a pride flag now easily fits under the number of school districts have already banned Pride Flags because they were political they've gone down that road so why don't we just follow their lead well I'm already making this so much more complicated now everyone over 600 teachers will ask themselves whether or not to advocate for their students this has been a part of the job forever according to the policy we're going to approve the teacher may not engage in advocacy activities during work hours or on our property that's the way it is in the policy you can read it advocate advocacy is defined as a public support or recommendation of a particular clause or policy a particular cause could mean anything that
104is so broad a definition that will make a lot of teachers think twice before in giving any kind of advice or help to the children our kids will suffer because teachers will be hesitant to help because their job now depends on whether someone in the district would consider their help advocacy where will they draw the line teachers see kids every day they develop nice relationships with them and that leads to a level of trust now teachers will be forced to send the kids they care about to a guidance counselor who may work with hundreds of kids and doesn't really know the student they will further harm the fragile state of our kids mental health which so many people often as a reminder politics policies will not stop activists they will always find the loophole so
105even if you're attacking a few people who have done this you're going to affect a lot of others so tonight we were voting prematurely on approving an overreaching policy that will further handicap our teachers and bring us significantly legal bills as many groups have already targeted advocacy as an issue all because of fuel we want to get rid of the pride Flags so in investigating this as a political issue I asked the administration is this something that we would agree would be a political if we agreed as a board that this was a political symbol and that we would end up removing it and if I asked if Dr Bolton uh Mr where's any our current policy 321 does say that any employee engaging in political activities is prohibited so anything defined as a political
106activity would be prohibited and so if a pride flag is defined as a political activity yes it would be prohibited under the current policy 321 by the war correct just want to point out to you that it specifically mentions um you spoke of advocacy and teacher at teachers advocating for students which is important in certain aspects the part and the policy that speaks more specifically to what shouldn't happen his areas of advocacy regarding staff's own personal beliefs and the coercion of that to students that's where this is more coming into play not just stopping advocacy altogether that's a huge gray area I mean everybody has their own personal belief they don't necessarily consider it adventism they're teaching and now you're going to force the teacher to think about that and most of these teachers are
107I've heard so many amazing teachers tonight I have no I don't want to burden them with that extra responsibility we can get rid of the flags that's what we started out to do and I'm not in support of that but I agree with the boards that there's definitely enough people who would like to do that so we're going to do that but how we implement it makes a big difference to the public and to uh our students so I'm just asking for this to be considered Ron I just want to say for myself you've said a lot of things that about how the board feels and don't include me and a lot of them okay because you've said several incorrect things about what Our intention is and as far as a burden on the teacher
108it's the same thing I said last meeting I think you're underestimating the teacher saying know what we mean we're not saying they can't help students we're saying that these five specific things it is not the job of the teacher to counsel a student on that I think you're underestimating their ability to differentiate okay I'm not I'm not in favor of fast tracking it for lack of a better term I think we we laid out the plan even though I think it's frustrating at times to go through the plan we need to use that process that that's been established I don't want to you know somehow LeapFrog over the first read and go immediately into implementation and I do think that if we can Define advocacy more tightly and and maybe this is a start maybe
109that's fine but what I suggested I think it's it's better because some people evidently aren't understanding advocacy the way that we're intending it to be so I think we need to be more clear in that regard but I'm not with regard to this particular vote I'm not in favor of of uh putting it implementing it with just one read for clarity and for the audiences ability to follow along policy zero zero three of the school board allows the board by majority vote if it chooses to to dispense with any of the policies of the board temporarily and the motion here based on policy zero two of three allows the board if it chooses but how much will be vote to dispense with the second read if it chooses to do so whether that's wise whether
110that's the most effective way of doing it is it something for the Judgment of the board generally but as a procedural matter it's a rule of long-standing in this district nothing school code requires two breeds of policy again maybe a best practice but that is again determined by the will of the school board a majority of the school board so just a little bit of clarity on where we're at procedurally sorry to be so early I'm sorry you can I was going to look something up in the policy just quickly go ahead who is it going do you know because the the fast tracking we've been on some of these policies now for months and months and months and everybody's saying let's move on focus on academics so I think that was the thought behind
111us do we know how many times we've discussed this this time um yeah I was waiting for everybody to kind of conclude their comments uh but I did want to point out first and foremost this applies to all symbols I think we're getting drawn into this idea that it's targeted at one thing it absolutely is not targeted at one thing it targeted at at all advocacy that influencing because a teacher is in a power position over students who are impressionable so it applies to everything teachers of course will still be able to Advocate as it pertains to a student's education and we expect that 100 and finally these policies now normally we discuss policies and it will go firstly which is confusing it's the first time we talk about the policy that happens at a
112policy committee meeting then you go to the board meeting and you vote on that first read that doesn't mean that it's a policy it goes back another time and gets a second read at a policy committee meeting and then after that second read it goes to the school board meeting and you vote on it and that's when it becomes a policy that's implemented in the school district so you talk about it basically one time because on the second read you're not allowed to make material changes to the policy or also get um Kick Back to first read and I can already see people falling asleep so let me go on this policy 109 has been discussed at one two three four five separate policy committee meeting I'm sorry for policy committee meetings and one board
113meeting tonight and then the advocacy policy 321 has been discussed at three policy meetings and tonight's board meeting so each one of these policies 109 and 321 has been discussed twice as much as we normally talk about policies and so that's where this request is coming from is to just say you know we've we've talked around and around around talked to death everybody has been heard and the thought is that we need to move on so that's why the suggestion was made that we make this a final approval so I have two questions the first one is if the amendment that provides a definition does that constitute a material change Mr Miller if the majority of the board waives the rules they can approve it okay um and then I just um I should just
114lost the second thing that I was going to add but at any rate it they have been discussed at length they've been discussed much more and it's not normally what happens because we don't our policies generally don't generate this much you know they're not as impactful I guess I would say normally we have templates that come from psba and they're kind of cut and dry these were a little bit more nuanced other school districts don't do the policies the same way that we do then they don't have as much time in between their first reads incentive leads it's different ways of doing things so it's not as if it's unheard of to do it in this way either oh and that was the other thing I wanted to point out I can't recall a time
115and I guess Dave Megan and I and maybe Bob I can't recall a time that we suspended policy off out the top of my head I kind of thought there might do it once but maybe well maybe so that's what I thought if there was any times it maybe was was one time so it's a rare occurrence um and not something that should just be used you know willy-nilly I think ideally it's designed if everybody agrees on policy and it's not controversy that this was a good thing the 003 is a good thing for that but there's a lot of controversy on this there's a lot of people here are interested in and I think rushing it through would be a mistake and not fair to the community okay so I think the motion and
116second that we have on the floor can we do this yeah uh we want to separate each one of these okay then um my suggestions do we'll call both I'm 109 10 218 then 321 in order on the motion that's on the floor to suspend the procedure correct approve the boss and approve the policy sorry that is what the motion says the motion to suspend the procedure of a second read and approve policies 109 218 through 21 but we're going to take each one separately so we'll start with 109. this is Channel 8. okay Mrs Vance Clemens yes yes Mrs long green yes Miss jaegan yes Mr cormack yes this is Colin yes Mr Russell no Mr rice yes Mr worth no no okay now please I think that was 7-2 motion carries then the
117next policy 218 student discipline please Mrs Channel Mrs Spanish Clemons yes Ms butitzki yes Mrs glomgren yes Mrs jaegan yes yes Mr cormack yes Mrs Collins yes Mr Russell no Mr rice yes Mr Morris yes okay so that was eight one motion carries and finally policy 321 this is channel Mrs bass Clemens yes Ms batiskey yes Mrs flomgren yes Mrs jaikin yes Mr cormack yes Mrs Collins yes Mr Russell no Mr rice yes and Mr worse no I'm sorry I got that as 7-2 motion carries Mrs Spanish Clements thank you um next is the final approval of PSD policies are there any policies up for final breed that board members would like voted on separately yeah you're like 217. separated from the list please okay anybody else foreign so I'll make a motion for to
118approve policies a through H and J en hey I just moved by Mrs Spanish Clemens and seconded by Mr rice are there any comments or questions on those policies seeing none all those in favor say aye aye opposed motion carries nine zero space I'll make a motion to approve policy 217. I have a question I'm sorry um so it was second yeah it was moved by Mrs fans Clemens and seconded by Mrs Chicken this is 217 graduation requirements Mr tiskey so if it does not pass does it go back to second grade or first read how does that work go ahead Dave it would depend on if there are any changes to it or not if there are no substantial changes to the current policy it could come back as second read at any time
119because it has been approved as a First Rate there's nothing magical about being back-to-back months if it was a substantial change made to policy 217 that it would need to go back to first read and would require the normal two readings that we do unless all seasons so if we were going to talk with the teacher some more in curriculum reading that would be a first read no but we remain a second read until you make changes to it if you made changes to it then as Dr Bolton indicated it would go back to first read unless the board decided to suspend the policy so I just wanted to there was a comment made about um that this was supposed to go to committee and then um didn't and was rushed through that's not true
120at all this policy has been around and around and around for months and it wasn't until it was approved that there was a suggestion to not send it to a second read and then um you know send it back to a different committee so that was not something that was any kind of original plan that was something that was done after it had passed first three there were some suggestions from the first of all the administrative recommendation was to bring the health and phys Ed requirements down to one and a half the that's something that has been um around and around for months um the attached breakdown of that is a um the suggestion from the administration was to have one full credit of um Health requirements and a half credit of phys Ed requirements
121it sounds like our health and phys Ed teachers in in the last meeting we had talked about that being one credit of uh the phys Ed piece and a half credit of the health piece our health and phys Ed teachers have are advocating to leave it at the one credit of health and half credit of phys Ed the way that this is written and even that to the way that the chart is written would not prevent the board from doing that if this goes to curriculum and the board has the health and phys Ed teachers in to do that they can have one full credit still of health and a half credit still a visit it doesn't prevent it from doing that it's actually uh written that way in the policy so you could flip-flop
122that at the curriculum committee meeting if you wanted to so I just wanted to make that clear and then as far as the social studies piece it drops into three credits the curriculum committee can decide what that breakdown looks like I also don't think it's fair to necessarily say you know in the social studies piece that somehow kids are losing choices they're gaining choices because kids can still take those AP um those AP courses but this opens the door to them taking additional courses that they may not have had the opportunity to take I mean we keep talking about Pathways and I guarantee if we bring in science teachers science teachers are going to say that we need an extra credit of science English teachers are going to say we need more credits everybody's passionate
123about their content areas which is great but not every kid is going to benefit from more of the same exact content areas and we're really tying kids hands behind their backs if we're saying look every single one of you needs these exact credits and not giving you know that flexibility to kids who need different credits and we talked a lot about um you know kids who are in band or kids who are in Tech who have very limited credits as it is to choose from to be able to build that I mean we have kids at the tech school who want to open their own businesses they can't even take a business course because can we get some other people to comment too sorry okay I I really respect the teachers who came here tonight
124and I think would be foolish to passes with all their concerns show tonight and I think we should take another step back and look at it you know we've determined that we've spent a lot of time on this but just too important and everybody's got their opinion but I like to rely on the administration and the teachers to have more input on this I will go back to the beginning the very very beginning of this discussion whenever we first started talking about the graduation requirements which yes was months and months ago but I still don't think that reducing the social studies requirement from four to three is a good idea nor do I think it's a good idea to reduce the health and squish it all into one course Mr cousino's point I thought was
125great about the you know Readiness of a student to take AP US History in ninth grade it's just it's not going to be there it's a difficult course and I think when we have been celebrating and rightly so celebrating our success with AP classes that our students have had taken the AP tests and or AP exams and getting those great scores I don't think that it makes any sense to reduce it and also if we're going to talk about reducing from four to three you're cutting down 25 percent of the time but then asking to add some content that we'd like required so I'm not in favor of passing it I don't know if anybody wants to table it until October as Dr Bolton had suggested to allow social studies teachers to come and speak
126and health and PE teachers to come and speak but I'm just not in favor of passing this tonight in any event member can make a motion the table table requires no second I would like to call the question okay tablet the motion table is permitted that's not even a second there is no debate on the motion table under Robert's Rules if you motion the table then the matter is tabled if you motion if you vote not I'm sorry I can speak English if you vote not the table then the matter will be voted on consistent with the motion already made so the motion to table takes precedence there's been emotion you need to vote on it okay okay so the motion on the table is to table policy 217 second read for graduation requirements although
127Mrs China with this has stabbing with the pen and I'm within Arms Reach I recommend that we do this by Voice vote so it's clear okay all right thank you Mrs bass Clemons no yeah Mrs Lundgren yes and can I speak or no just no you can't okay then um okay yes to table Miss jaken no Mr cormack no Mrs Collins yes to table Mr Russell yes Mr rice yes yes the matter the 217 is tabled by above the six to three can be brought off the table by a motion at the next meeting okay all right this is the next policy committee meeting is scheduled for Tuesday October 11th then you have IU thank you diu met on September 20th and I just had a few highlights for you um one of the uh
128one of the greatest presentations was on assistive technology and it was really um it you know it was really interesting to hear of all the different Technologies you wouldn't even think of all the different technologies that are available to assist kids and matching those assistant Technologies to accommodate kids with different needs um they were sharing different uh different ideas too about you know people even in public uh even at a park that can take a picture of a sign and they can read that it can read that picture back to them in a different language so that if they wouldn't have recognized what that sign said um you know technology that can read The Pledge for a student that can read to you speak for you um you know it can blow things up change
129things if people are colorblind using a different pencil graph assistive listening equipment for kids who are hearing impaired um you know they also are able to bring in different funding sources to help cover those different Technologies um you know and sometimes it's about matching the device with the right software they even talk to they even I was surprised by how many even different switches they have you know they have different switches that are at different angles depending on what the kids physical impairments are different sizes using your hand using your finger using your foot it can be proximity if if you can't even move to a certain extent you know it's just really interesting to see how much it's really accommodating different kids Voice output output for graphic calculators um you know there was also
130this really amazing testimonial by a a student and parent from the Bucks County IU it showed a video of this kid being fully included and how her device had helped her be able to communicate because she wasn't able to communicate without this device and the parents had shared that they specifically moved to this County for the Bucks County Intermediate Unit because they would be able to provide that those supports and that that student is successful because of the Bucks County Intermediate Unit um another thing that I wanted to share with you there's going to be a walk for hearing on Sunday October 16th 40 of the profits will go to the IU um there's also for 18 to 21 year olds there's a transition program called project search International and they partnered with our County
131to have internships for people with disabilities and some of those people are then being hired and getting a full-time job out of that position there's also going to be a secondary transition options and resource Fair on November 3rd for kids that are transitioning into that age group to see what programs are available I speak a lot about our wow program that's one of those programs for um you know for for people when they get to that age group the other thing there were there were a lot of things that were shared I don't often bring a lot of what uh comes through the legislative report that we get there but there were several things that I thought were really interesting um to share back that are you know potential um um bills out there on
132and and also some suggestions one of the things was some suggestions that were brought from uh the U.S Secretary of Ed on to deal with school Staffing shortages and some of those suggestions were really interesting I know that there are other states that currently do some of these things and I've seen some success with them one is having a high quality paid registered apprenticeship program for teaching which would allow basically an earn and learn model to help people be able to move into that um you know that field also increasing collaboration across Workforce and education student systems including strengthening career Pathways Partnerships um you know providing opportunities for school-based staff to become teachers and long-term collaboration through inclusion and state plans required by esea idea and Perkins so um you know some different ideas on
133how to do that and um the last one was ensuring it was was just about um had to do with providing a stipulation on a certain wage those things uh you know are different suggestions coming forth and then there were other highlights I'll try to be brief um you know there is going to be a universal free breakfast program that goes into effect on October 1st so that's something uh for everybody to be aware of as well and I think that's been announced through District Communications um and there's you know some different policies it's just you know I won't get into a lot of it because some of it we've talked about but there's some different things that our policies are addressing that actually are coming through in different bills um one other one that
134I thought was interesting to mention too there's an in-person instruction and tuition Grant Program House Bill that would essentially if if there was a situation again where a school district was not providing full-time in-person instruction um and and you know not allowing that that it would actually require them to establish a tuition grant program so if a school district was not um did not have a full-time in-person option they would actually have to pay for students to attend any other school which would even be even if they went to a Christian school or whatever the school district would have to pay for it so that's something that's in a bill um you know that's being considered as well so you know different bills that are going through that might be worth you know looking into
135um that's all I have bucks good evening again I've got some great news for you 2022 summer Co-op program we had 38 students exclusively for summer Co-op jobs in 2022 the current collapse the status is 43 jobs five with Palisades 18 in Pembridge 20 with Quakertown are actually representing 14 technical programs that they have within the tech school I just want to make folks aware that the employers and we're looking by the way we're looking at 38 Employers in Upper bucks that are working with the Tech students each one of the employers needs to have a detailed job description company policies handbook worker comp and site inspection students parents will meet with the executive director any employer to discuss responsibilities in a program and sign documentation I I just tell you that because I really
136believe that we're looking at making sure that all the students that are involved in this Co-op program are have the proper environment to excel in so I think we just need to make the general audience aware of that at the end of 20 21-22 80 students on Co-op mixture of sophomore juniors and seniors 47 of the seniors were offered a full-time employment upon graduation those are impressive numbers I'm really glad to report that to you that is my report our next meeting with the sort of tech school is October 20th 2022. great that's great news and next we have the Pennridge area Coordinating Committee hi there Mrs Chicken or Mrs blogger all right so I met on Thursday September 22nd and I'm hearing from Bedminster they're looking to have more of a police presence at
137the tech school um from Bedminster police since they are at close proximity to the tech school Silverdale recently had their Community Day this past Sunday and it was coordinated by one of our very own Dave Thomas so I hope it went well I don't I'm sure awesome um in West Rock Hill they're discussing um holiday house and its use and they're still brainstorming some ideas and um one thing that is still um concerning is the community center is still only able to be open for three days a week still and there's still a need of funds that they lost since covid so if you are having an upcoming event or you know anybody that needs a place to hold an event uh think of having it at the community center and then the next meeting
138is scheduled for Thursday October 27th okay thank you and Dr Bolton a Pennridge Community Educational Foundation PCF met on September 10th two main items one exciting again in the fall every fall they do classroom grants where our teachers are allowed to come up with innovative ideas and then PCF selects those those selections will be made this upcoming Saturday on October 1st and they will be before the board for approval and celebration at our October meeting and second every fall there's a need for volunteers in pcdef so if there's anyone would be interested in working with the Education Foundation their most timely need is for a Treasurer in terms of from an officer position but they also are looking for people who would just like to help with one event so if you'd like to hey
139I'd like to be involved and I'm willing to do one thing please just reach out to me and I'll get you in touch with the leadership because they'd be glad to say welcome to the group that's the report all right thank you that brings us to Old business do we have any old business new business I don't have any all right so we're back to public comment and I just want to double check I think we have only a few people who are signed up for public comment for this section and the first is Ross McLennan foreign Hill town first I want to apologize to the lgbtq students and community you are in our hearts this board does not represent you so when and how did the bride Pride flag become political I'm trying to
140figure that one out that's rhetorical by the way that's not a question for the board so now I get the Banning of band Book Week you are Banning books okay got it all right please quit trying to cover up the obvious bullying and unabated issues concerning black and brown and lgbtq students students have stood before you and told you there are problems in the high school parents have stood here telling you there's problems in the high school so unless you are a black or brown person or you are a queer or disadvantaged you have absolutely no right to suggest that there are no problems in this school you need to realize you are not only wrong but you look like a fool standing there saying that please stop it please give us some real leadership
141in dealing with this bullying thanks for reading that example of what you fear and have been I don't agree what you feel is Smock and pornography what you find explicit many find is good fiction that their teens need to read to understand the reality of the world kids are exposed to far more sexual content on the internet you're not the morality of plea of police thank you very much okay and then secure signed up again throughout the album so Ross stole my thunder a little bit but because words have meaning and if you're going to use a word you should know what it means pornography is defined as a prenator visual material containing the explicit description or display of sexual organs or activity intended to stimulate erotic rather than aesthetic or emotional feelings I don't
142think there's anybody here I don't think there's anybody that could interpret what Miss flomgren read earlier as Iraq it's not erotic it's a book it is not erotic it is not meant to to relate that's not what it's for and that's why I don't trust this board to make those decisions I trust Librarians to make the decisions and yes maybe it shouldn't be well it definitely shouldn't be in Middle School libraries there are age restrictions but you should not be you shouldn't you're not the ones who can make these because you obviously have political um your politicians you obviously have political uh there's politics behind what you guys do and I mean that's fine that's what you are but we shouldn't take that away from the Librarians we shouldn't these books make a difference in
143kids lives they like there are books that change lives and yes sometimes they may have a a passage that is explicit but that's what that's how kids talk I don't know if you've maybe not your kids okay probably find that hard to believe but kids talk like that and that's what that book is about that's why read the reviews for the book they're open like that book has touched many people and yes there are there are ways now there are procedures in place to keep your kids from checking the books out of the library you can do that you have every right to do that that's parental rights you have the right to do that but you shouldn't be taking away the librarian's choice and what's funny is that it you want to take away
144the books from the library here but you also want to take away the books from the library and Pennridge I mean there are any Bucks County the books get hidden all the time but I'm short people on the screen um and so you what you want to do is Ban books there's no other way to put it thank you I just want to next time um I mean I guess we can go on to the next is it I was just going to mention that that's just not the only book so I just want to make that clear with the definition that you're using if you don't think that that uh excerpt uh goes with that definition okay all right so the next person signed up as Jane Kramer again chili cheese okay all right
145um and finally we have Arthur caterer you state your name and municipality Archer caterer West Rock Hill well the next thing we just saw a first time here in Manuka so appreciate what you guys do my uh issue is two things uh one is the security of the discipline the uh outcome of a student being searched I uh talked to many students and parents and I'm finding out that uh you approved you searched an automatic 10-day suspension 10 days I think that's educational interfering social interfering and parental answering the parents Life by doing that 10 days I think is a little harsh I think you should read group think about that and maybe modify that I'm a 12-year veteran and I was prefer that a boy I agree and discipline that's my that's why I'm
146telling you that discipline is needed and all we do in this world but I think too much discipline can hurt somebody especially students nowadays the other issue is two girls were in a stall yesterday talking one girl very hard issues going on our life right now my daughter was talking to her she was crying to her I'm sorry Mr cutter yes the the rules of the board will require that any kind of individualized student issue has to be talked about with the administration so General comments are fine I made them but individual issues okay students who are speaking in a stall among themselves and uh I guess a new rule I reckon if I'm wrong is more than once you install the automatic suspension one day or whatever it may be sometimes students don't trust
147the guys counselors they need to talk to their own level and maybe that's and students they got the bathroom passed they did they filed requirements to go to the bathroom so they didn't skip class so I just think some of the discipline for students it's a little harsh when it comes uh we should be searched uh students get searched they said to the nurse the nurse clears them their blood pressure is fine their pupils are fine then so they're clear send them back to class but no they then get searched by security security clears them nothing on them send them back to class but no now their personal belongings get searched that's not even on their persons it could be other in the school why is that if the nurse clears up with security clears
148him why are you going through their personal belongings that aren't even on them for that situation they could have something personal in those belongings should their life or for themselves so I'm not you know I just think uh maybe you guys should just read get together and remodify that maybe a little bit discipline is needed no I'm not saying that but get together and maybe we do it for that that's all thank you thank you okay that's the last person that we have signed up for public comment so present yes sir I'd like to potentially end the meeting on a bipartisan note it is also the birthday of Michael Jack Schmidt who has done some stuff in this community so maybe we could also note that in a minute even though I'm a pirate I
149was gonna say I think you're pissing up a little I see the Steelers keychain all right our announcements we have uh we we are having an executive session held tonight following our school board meeting to discuss legal and Personnel matters and our next school board meeting is scheduled for Monday October 24 2022 and with that I will entertain a motion to adjourn a secondary all right thank you we are turned Mr Thomas