ASD Committee of the Whole / Regular Board Meeting 09/18/2025

001Check. I'd like to call an order to the finance committee of the whole meeting of the board of directors of the school district for the city of Allentown for today, September 18, 2025. Prior to tonight's meeting, anformational executive session was held. The purpose of the executive session was to engage informational updates presented to the board on a number of district initiatives as well as an update regarding the process for the evaluation of superintendent confidential matters pertaining to student safety and personnelformational updates discussion with council pertaining to tax assessment appeals and costs associated with the neighborhood improvement zone. The board welcomes and invites public comments. You may address the board on agenda or non-aggenda items. The first opportunity for comment is at the beginning of the meeting and is limited to agenda items only. Common cards

002must be received by the start of the meeting which is now. We will not be receiving public cards once the meeting begins. A copy of the public comment policy is located on the table next to the comment cards. Pair our board's policy. Any person may address the board in accordance with the procedures and limitations of this policy either on issues presented in resolutions being considered or in other matters affecting the administration, management or operation of the district. Rec um remarks of a personnel nature directed against any individual will be ruled out of order. If you choose to address the board, please fill out a common card and hand it to the board secretary, Mr. Simson. Common cards are located at the podium near the door. Once recognized, please come to the podium and state your

003name, address for the record. Superintendent, share your remarks, please. Good evening, everyone. Good evening, school board directors. Good good evening to everyone in the audience uh as well as the public and our leadership team. Good evening. >> Good evening. >> Okay. Okay. So um madam chair is okay if I just share all my remarks in this half of the meeting and not all throughout the meeting. Okay. Thank you so much. So this past week um has been particularly difficult for our learning community with several complex incidents that cause disruption in our schools. We know that recent news has raised concerns and these events remind us of the critical importance of a maintaining a safe, supportive, and inclusive learning environment for all of our students, staff, and families who are part of our school district. Just

004want to take a moment to thank our team at Harrison Morton Middle School. I want to say thank you for staying focused on the focus which is our students, our teachers and the presence of content. We know that instructional core that is the center of all the work that we do. I want to thank them for showing flexibility during this week's change in leadership. I know that together we will continue moving forward and make the rest of the school year a great one. I want to thank the members of my extended cabinet for extending some additional support to our schools for the past few weeks. I want to thank you and for our school year despite some of the things that go along with just living in the world today. We started off strong. So

005I thank you. So, I want to remind people as it relates to the Harrison Morton matter, this is a personnel matter. Please know that we are unable to share additional details beyond the facts that have already been stated in my previous communications. We ask for your help in not attending or adding to the speculation and allowing the official process to move forward. This situation affects real people, real staff, real families, and all of us who are navigating this challenging time. Our focus as a district remains on supporting our students and staff and ensuring that our schools continue to be safe, caring places for learning because we are in the learning business. And there are 16,700 sensational, creative, talented, gifted, and ingenious students and almost 3,000 staff members who have been trusted with their care. So,

006I want to remind us of the commitment that we made as a collective community and broader community of that commitment to the children who live here in Allentown. Our focus remains on keeping them safe and we deeply appreciate you understanding not just their physical safety but their psychological safety. Again, we deeply appreciate you understanding and being patient. And we trust that we will work together as a collective community to ensure that everyone feels safe, valued, empowered, and loved within our learning community. Unfortunately, this week, we've also seen a number of safety threats against our schools. When this happens, we take these uh threats very seriously. We are working with law enforcement and our school leaders. And I want to thank the school leaders in the room. Let's give our school leaders a roaring round of

007applause. I want to thank you as well as our central office leaders for investigating each of these threats which take an invaluable amount of time away from instruction because as I mentioned in my previous comments it is our collective responsibility to stay focused on the focus is our students teachers in the presence of content at This time we know that these incidents do not happen in isolation. And we and just think about this. Across the nation, mental health challenges are rising for both youth and adults. Nearly 40 thou 40 I'm sorry, 40% of high school students report persistent feelings of sadness and hopelessness. And about one in five adults report having been diagnosed with depression. The percentage of adults receiving treatment has also risen significantly in recent years, underscoring the growing need for mental health

008support. Again, I want to reiterate that the Allentown School District is committed to addressing these challenges headon. We are expanding as I mentioned earlier uh this year in our commitment and over the past year of uh the work within our strategic plan lighting the way a blueprint for innovation and excellence. We are expanding our school-based counseling and mental health supports and online resources such as Hazel Health and as well as our partners and we want to thank all our health partners for their support in and our with to our learning community as it relates to mental health. We also offer confidential employee assistant uh the confidential employee assistance program for our our staff if you need to talk to someone. As I mentioned, we are partnering with local as well as some national organizations to

009be additional support to our students, families, and staff. Our goal is to go beyond responding to crisis and focus on prevention, early intervention, and building resilience in our students and staff. Together, we will continue to place safety, well-being, and learning at the center of our work. Despite all these incidents that people were rallying around, I'm so happy I had an opportunity to visit so many classrooms throughout this district. There was some amazing learning and teaching happen happening. And again, I want to thank our school level teams, all the school leaders, staff, everyone there for your hard work every single day. I really appreciate you and I'm honored to serve with you. September is attendance awareness month and we we could clap for the schools because they're doing hard work. September is attendance awareness month and

010I'm so happy to report that 13 of our schools are currently maintaining it maintaining an average daily attendance of 90% or above. Let's give them a round of applause. and four of our schools have an average daily attendance of 94%. Let's give them a round of applause. And I know we love competition around here. So, the communications office is going to send the names of those schools who they are, our top number of student of schools, school teams. And just to put out there, I know all the school leaders particularly are competitive and we have some prizes for the people with the top attendance. We're just letting you know. So thank you again. While this is great progress, our average attendance across the district, however, is right now about 89%. Our our goal is 100%.

011You know, I shared with the extended cabinet one day that I did not miss one day of high school for four years and Dr. Rocklin was the first one to laugh. But we know it's important that when students are in school, they learn and we provide valuable resources to them. Not a lot of people are happy about that. Just kidding. So, also we encourage our staff to come to work every day. We want a 100% staff attendance rates as well. Let's collab for that. [Applause] from September. Oh, and this month is also Hispanic Heritage Month. [Applause] From September 15, 2025 to October 15, or 2025, we proudly highlight the incredible contributions of our Hispanic community both within our local neighborhoods as well as within our learning our learning community. Let's give them a round of

012applause. [Applause] During this time, we will highlight all um all the great things that are happening within our schools and throughout our community and celebrate the remarkable contributions that Hispanics have made to our nation as well as to our learning community. And we're going to uh give you a quick snippet as part of this presentation. Last year, our students who attend uh Central Stream Academy and Dada Elementary School, they partnered with Mr. Terry Thorne. He is a produc producer who lives in Hollywood and he used to serve as the CEO for the Rugrats in the Simpsons. He worked with our students and his team and he came here right here to Allentown. And when I met Mr. Thorne at a conference. He talked about the great things he was doing and we said and I

013said, "The only way that I'd be willing to work with you if you highlight the great heritage and culture of my community, the 77% of the Latino students who attend our district. So, we're going to give you for all of you who missed this in May when it debuted, you missed a treat. So, we're going to give you a little snippet and we're going to take this show on the road and highlight the cont the contributions of uh Puerto Ricans uh who are in our learning community and throughout the nation. Let's here give a round of applause for was Principal Principal Bodner here. I can't talk today. Bodner, she's not here tonight. Well, not yet. Okay. So, we want to thank Principal Bodner for and her team for the hard work and the students. And

014remember, these students were in third, fourth, and fifth grade, just to put this in context for you. And they created an animation film. Let's have a quick preview of Passport to Puerto Rico. >> Welcome to 1485 Puerto Rico. What are you doing down there? Still getting used to my time trouble legs, apparently. So 1485, huh? Can't Can't get more boring than that. Might as well have handed me a note textbook. Sorry. Books are rarely seen in 1485. I guess you'll have to follow me. Why not just order a canoe off the internet? Did I mention it's 1485? Right. Oh, right. No internet. Only 15 minutes. >> Hola. I'm Roberto. >> I'm Alejandra and my father is making a canoe. Do you want to help? >> I don't know how. >> We make everything by hand.

015It can take a while, but I love helping me. Padre, >> you love working with your dad? >> Work? This is not work. >> Jazz do know a lot of stuff. >> So does me, Madre. Everyone works together for the community to thrive. >> Teamwork. >> We fish and hunt for meat. Plant and harvest crops by hand. Our our elders teach us what plants are safe to eat and which ones are not. >> I don't get it. There's so much to be learned. The old way has much value. People learn to work together because they have no choice. >> Nowadays, it's harder. It's pretty much every man for himself. Do you think that's better? No, I think teamwork is better. >> We also have songs and dances that bring the community together to play tribute

016the gods. >> Like church. >> Exactly. Like church. Community, fellowship, and family. These values have always been important to the Puerto Rican people. I think it's cool that the ancient people of Puerto Rico figured out how to thrive on the island you using the what the island and sea had to offer. >> I'm off to help my uncle fish. Enjoy your adventure. >> Let's give it up for Passport to Puerto Rico's Central Elementary Stream Academy. [Applause] >> That came from children. It's going to take the collective community. how timely it is for today. It's going to take our collective community to continue to come together to uplift us all and to continue to be supportive of our overall learning community, support our families, our students, and ourselves. And for all that, I'm going to do

017this and if someone may criticize me for this, but I'm going to do it anyway. Well, all of members of our learning community who are Hispanic, can you please stand who are in the room right now? just want to acknowledge you for your hard work, your commitment. I want to say thank you so much for your leadership and your service and all the great assets that you bring in to our community, our learning community. I thank you and I'm honored to serve with you. And finally, I want to take a quick moment to recognize the administrative staff at Muinberg Elementary School. Woohoo. They were recently awarded a $7,500 grant from Highark Foundation for their breathing freely, learning fully, improving air quality project at their school. This grant will cover the p purchase of shipping for

01814 highquality air purifiers for classrooms at their schools and we will celebrate more more information is to come in the upcoming weeks. So I want to thank you for all your hard work. Give them another round. Thank you. So I won't talk that much more for the rest of the evening. Back to you Mr. Bersio. Thank you. >> Thank you Dr. Burks. At this time, we're only taking public comments on agenda items. Once recognized, please come to the podium. State your name and address for the record. Please know remarks are limited to three minutes and microphone will be disabled at the end of three minutes. Please also be informed the school board of directors appreciate public comments. However, we are not able to respond to these comments. Administration will address your concerns and update the

019board on the status of your concern. Do we have any comments on agenda items, Mr. Simon >> Bob Smith. >> Nothing new. >> Good evening. Robert E. Smith Jr. 1060 East Gordon Street, Allentown, PA. That's on the east side of Allentown. Um, agenda number five on the agenda concerns me. The lease between the school district of Allentown and St. Francis of Aises. $4,000 a month for not doing for not using it at all. That could be up to 10 months. $11,000 a month for rental is absurd. Plus St. Francis when we did use it. Our students had to leave the building to go to another area to use the restrooms. Plus, there's been inspections that have not they've failed inspections in the past. So all I ask the board to do is please make sure

020there's no mold at St. Francis and please make sure there's no violation so our students and safe there. That's all I ask you. Please investigate this. Make sure there's no mold in St. Francis and make sure there's no violations for the safety of our staff and students before we get into any agreement. Thank you. >> Thank you, Mr. Smith. Thank you. We have five actions items on the finance agenda this evening. The first three action items will be presented by Mr. Cuff. Mr. Cuff is requesting approval from the school board of directors of tax assessment for601-1643 Union Boulevard 2002 to 2009. >> Good evening school board of directors and Dr. works. We're seeking approval from the school board of directors to authorize Fox Rothschild to enter to an agreement for the property located at 1601-1643

021Union Boulevard in the city of Allentown, setting the assessment of the property at $4,389,000 for tax year 2025 and $4,243,500 for tax year 2026 and for each subsequent tax year until the change in property assessment pursuant to applicable law. Just let me go to the others. You do one at a time. >> Yes, you are able to go ahead. >> Thank you. Also, we are seeking approval from the school board of directors to authorize Fox Rothschild to enter to an agreement for the property located at 2001-209 Union Boulevard in the city of Allentown, setting the assessment for the property at $6,171,200 for the tax year 2025 and 5,829,200 for tax year 2026. and for each subsequent tax year until a change in the property's assessment pursuant to applicable law. And we have one more, please.

022Also, we are looking for approval from the um school board of directors to authorize Fox Roxchild to enter to an agreement for the property located at 612-618 West Hamilton Street in the city of Allentown setting the assessment of the property at 2,340 thou 340, $800 for the tax year 2025 and for each subsequent tax year until a change in a property's assessment pursuant to applicable law. That's it. >> Thank you, Mr. Cuff. May I have a motion to move these items forward to the >> motion? Second. >> All in favor? >> I >> Thank you. >> Next, Dr. Warby is requesting approval from the school board directors for the purchase of additional AI ready interior and exterior surveillance cameras from Applying Technology Solutions. >> Good evening, board. Good evening, Dr. Burks. So, what you have

023before you is a request for uh excuse me, I apologize, just lost my train of thought for AI ready cameras. So, we're looking into innovation. We're looking for innovation specifically within our security system. AI cameras is one way to go. What's nice about this, it's not going to cost the school district any money. It's from a $45,000 grant that we received from PCCD a couple years ago that hadn't been expended. Obviously, we didn't want to lose that money. So, we did a project modification with the state uh for these AI cameras. So, that's what you have tonight before you. And that will expend the balance of an an existing grant. Straight through. Okay. The second one for your consideration tonight is as Mr. Smith brought up, it's for St. Francis. And there's a couple reasons

024why St. Francis. Obviously, we're increasing student population. The other thing that we're looking at is in case we have to move students and remobilize them at a location called a swing space for any any issue that might arise. Uh it was a great question by uh Mr. Smith. You know, has the property been inspected? Yes, it has. Where, as a matter of fact, we're also going back on Tuesday with the city to go through it at approximately 9:30 in the morning if I'm not remiss. uh in terms of paying $4,000 a month unoccupied that will allow us to use that building at any point in time should we have an issue like we did last year at Harrison Morton. So it's to me it's a expense well provided uh being that now we have a

025location to house students if need be. Uh from a perspective of the payment being $11,000 per month occupied while we're using the building, it was considerably higher prior to our negotiation. Mr. Ali and myself negotiated the first time a couple thousand off. It was about $12,740 per month. And then we went back again uh as of late last week and reduced that even further. And they were very amanable to that. So, I do welcome and I do thank St. Francis for being a community member for all our 17,000 students as well. So, thank you. >> Thank you, Mr. Waterme. May I have a motion to move these two action items? Motion. >> All in favor? >> I. Any opposed? Okay. Motion carries. Once recognized, please come to the podium. If there's any public comments, state

026your name and address for the record. Please, no remarks are limited to three minutes. Microphone will be disabled at the end of three minutes. Please also be informed the school board of directors appreciates public comments. However, we are not able to respond to these comments. Administration will address your concerns and update the board on the status of your concern. Are the comments? >> One comment, Mr. Keith Greenley. Uh, good evening. Keith Greenleaf, 328 South Fulton Street. Uh, three kids in the district, one at Rob, two at UT. I'd like to begin by saying how fortunate we are to have the teachers and the administrative staff at Union Terrace and Rob Middle Schools. They're nothing short of amazing and our students benefit daily from their hard work and dedication. I'd also like to thank Dr. Burks

027for the positive changes she has publicly highlighted within our district. However, I must share that what has been publicly uh highlighted does not align with the leadership actions we are actually experiencing. The massive departure of administrators under her tenure is deeply concerning. The public deserves a clear explanation for this turnover. Furthermore, I must ask why Dr. Burks received an 8% raise with taxpayer dollars when her contract specified four. Don't recall ever hearing about that. Think there may have been PA Sunshine Act violation there. The instability in leadership does not reflect the kind of performance that should result in such a reward. Turning to Union Terrace specifically, the lack of transparency has been unacceptable. To date, our school community has received zero communication regarding Miss Gill's leave in April, zero communication about her resignation from central

028administration, and zero communication about the future of Union Terrace's leadership. During the summer months, assistant principal Miss McDonald received no support from the district office. The lack of transparency shows a lack of integrity and breaks the trust of our school community. Trust that we deserve. Second, there's growing concerns for student and staff safety. At Union Terrace and other schools, violent special needs students are being placed in settings that cannot safely meet their needs. Why the district does not provide an alternative school for these students when IU20 and IU21 already operate such programs with staff who are specially trained to support them. This failure puts both students and staff at risk. Third, professionalism in communication continues to be a problem. Too often when families call administration or schools, phones are answered and people do not identify

029themselves. That's if the phones are even answered. Rob, you can call any time of day. The phone rings, rings, rings. Voicemail. They don't return voicemails. I want to thank the board for giving me this time to speak this evening. I raised these concerns because our students, our staff, and our families deserve transparency, integrity, and safety from the district leadership. Thank you. >> Thank you. Is there any old business to come before this board? Is there any new business to come before this board? May I have a motion to adjurnn? Any opposed? All in favor? >> Amen. I'd like to call to order the policy committee of the whole meeting for the board of directors of the dis school district for the city of Allentown. Uh the board welcomes and invites public comment. You may address

030the board on agenda and/or non-aggenda items. The first opportunity for comment is at the beginning of the meeting and is limited to agenda items only. Comment cards must be received by the start of the meeting which is now. We will not be receiving public comment cards once the meeting begins. A copy of the comment policy is located on the table next to the comment cards. Per our board's policy, any person may address the board in accordance with the procedures and limitations of this policy, either on issues presented in resolutions being considered or on other matters affecting the administration, management, or operation of the district. Remarks of a personal nature directed against any individual will be ruled out of order. If you choose to address the board, please fill out a comment card and handed to

031the board secretary, Mr. Simson. Comment cards are located at the podium near the door. Once recognized, please come to the podium. State your name and address for the record. Remarks are limited to three minutes. Superintendent, any remarks? >> Thank you, Mr. Moff. Uh, we continue to make great progress in reviewing, updating our policies uh this school year of last school year and of course this year. On the agenda this evening, the administration is recommending five new policies that will ensure that we are continuing to operate efficiently and effectively. Thank you, Mr. Nicolo. >> Thank you. Do we have any comments on agenda items? >> We have five policies tonight. Uh we have Dr. Seavoy coming up to do policy 220. If it's all right with my colleagues, I'll have her stay up here and do

032her other two as well. Okay. >> Good evening, board of directors and Dr. Burks. Policy 220 is student expression and dissemination of material. This policy was updated and revised with three actions in mind. There's an attachment that is with the policy. That attachment will be part of the admin regulations. We have to amend it and revise it to represent Allentown School District. In addition to that, distribution was changed and updated to um I'm sorry. contribution and we updated it with dissemination for consistency with other policy content. And lastly, there is a current or recent federal Supreme Court decision with BL versus Mahoney Area School District that impacted our revisions to this policy. The policy provides the right of the public school students to freedom of speech and is guaranteed by the Constitution of the United

033States and the Constitution of the Commonwealth. The policy addresses student expression in general as well as dissemination of expressive materials that are not part of the district sponsored activities. So, they're non-school materials. This policy does not apply to materials sought to be disseminated as part of the curricular or extracurricular programs of the district will shall be regulated separately as part of the school district's educational program. For the purpose of this policy, dissemination means students distributing or publicly display displaying non-school materials to others. Expression means verbal, written, technological or symbolic representation or communication. Non-school materials mean any printed printed, technological or written materials regardless of form, source, or authorship that are not prepared as part of the curriculara or approved extracurricular programs for the district. Student expression is prohibited to the extent that it violates federal,

034state, or local laws, board policy, or district rules or procedures. is defamatory, obscene, lewd, vulgar, or profane. Advocates the use of use or advertises the availability of substance or materials that may be reasonably believed to be con that reasonly believed to constitute a direct or serious danger to the health and welfare of students such as tobacco, vaping products, alcohol, or illegal drugs. The board requires that dissemination of non-school materials shall occur only at the places and during the time set forth written and written procedures. Those are the admin procedures, admin regulations that I discussed earlier. Such procedures shall be written to permit the safe and orderly operation of schools while recognizing the rights of students to engage in their protected expression. We ask the board to approve the policy. Thank you. The next policy is

035policy 235. There has been no revisions noted to this policy. The policy set forth guidelines by which student rights and responsibilities are determined consistent with law and regulation. The board has the authority and responsibility to establish reasonable rules and regulations for the conduct and department of district students. At the same time, no student shall be deprived or equally equal treatment and equal access to the educational program, due process or presumption of innocence and free expression and association in accordance with the board policy and school rules. As for approval, the next one is 235.1. Again, this policy does not have any revisions. The policy set forth guidelines regarding the conduct of surveys and collection and use of information for marketing purposes consistent with law and regulations. The surveys conducted outside of of by outside agencies, organizations

036and individuals shall be approved by the superintendent prior to administration of administration to students and parents have the right to review policy. I mean review the surveys before they are disseminated and we must inform the parents and families be um notice give them notice of the surveys. We ask for that approval. >> Any questions or discussion? I have a motion to move these three policies. >> All right. All in favor? >> Any opposed? None. Okay. >> Thanks, Dr. Seavoy. Next, uh Dr. Wharton B is going to be presenting two policies to us. First of which will be policy 222 on tobacco and vaping products. Good evening again. So tonight we're going to have a first reading on the tobacco and vaping products policy. Uh as you will see in this policy there's a lot of

037red. So since 2000 they made considerable changes and obviously those considerable changes have come from multitude of factors. uh you know a a state uh allowance on regulations allowing certain smokable products to be continued as well as a greater amount of younger kids who do use vaping materials. So this is very timely. This is very concerning. Uh so the board recognizes that tobacco and vaping products including electronic cigarettes present a health and safety hazard that can serious have serious consequences for users, non-users, and the school environment. The purpose of this policy is to prohibit student possession, use, purchase, and sale of tobacco and vaping products. The second one that I have before you tonight is actually something that we moved forward. It's in the 700 series. Right now, we're still looking at the uh 300

038series, but I thought this one was valuable because over the summer, Dr. Burks challenged me with uh our staff throwing away stuff. We have the tendency to collect stuff and I guarantee you can open any drawer and you'll find stuff from the 70s here which isn't unusual but how do you dispose of it? So over the course of the last couple months with the help of Mr. Sultanics team, we were able to craft a uh a policy or actually a an AR, an administrative regulation on when and how to throw out things, which prompted me to start to think if we were to throw out a chair that is bought with public dollars, how do we write it off? How do we account for it? Books, anything. And we need to bring these processes forward.

039So the first thing that we needed to do is write a policy on disposal and surplus of uh public material or property and supplies and the then to bolster that by writing ARS which are currently being written. So that's why this one is here before you tonight. >> Any questions or comment? >> I do have one question, Dr. Wharton. How do we land on the uh $23,800 mark for uh when we need approval after a certain value? >> Yes. So, what Mr. Nicholov is saying, the state has a range of dollar value where we have to come before the board. So, if there's a dollar value that's 23,800 collectively, say we got rid of all the chairs behind the Diaz and we're place them and that amount was well over 23,000. I need to come

040to you. I got to say that I'm taking this capital expense. I got to tell Mr. Cuff, I got to tell the board that we're going to be basically uh discounting 23,800. So when we look at it collectively, we might come to you to the board. Here's a classroom full of furniture. That's no longer good. We have to remove it. It has a value of X. So we're going to have to determine that value as well. >> Thank you. >> May I have a motion to move this forward? >> Make that motion. All right, I hear a maker and a seconder. All in favor? >> I >> All right, do we have any comments on non-aggenda items? All right, I'll make a motion to adjourn this meeting. >> Make that motion. >> All in favor?

041>> I meeting adjourned. Thanks. >> Good evening, everyone. I'd like to call to order the education committee of the whole meeting of the board of directors of the school district for the city of Allentown for today, September 18th, 2025. The board welcomes and invites public comment. You may address the board on agenda and or non-aggenda items. The first opportunity for comment is at the beginning of the meeting and is limited to agenda items only. Common cards must be received by the start of the meeting, which is now. We will not be receiving public cards once the meeting begins. A copy of the public comment policy is located on the table next to the comment cards. Per per our board's policy, any person may address the board in accordance with the procedures and limitations of this

042policy either on issues presented in resolutions being considered or on the other matters affecting the administration, management, or operation of the district. Remarks of a personnel nature directed against any individual will be ruled out of order. If you choose to address the board, please fill out a common card and hand it to the board secretary, Mr. Simson. Common cards are located at the podium near the door. Once recognized, please come to the podium and state your name and address for the record. Any remarks from the superintendent? >> Thank you. I'm pleased to report that um as an organization, the students in our schools are receiving their devices. uh we're this process is underway and as an organization we are working really closely as part of our strategic plan on efficiency and organizational effectiveness. So we

043implemented some new procedures as to way we distribute our technology throughout the district as we're aware that some of our schools are Verizon innovative learning schools. They receive two devices and so there is God bless you. So we are I to my understanding at this point I believe about 85 to 90% of the schools have their devices. Some of the our larger schools are still working through the process because um and I want to say this publicly um when I went to family meetings throughout the district we really underscored to families that we need their support in ensuring that we get the devices back in district. We want our students to have we've been advocating and we've have some national friends. Yes, we've had some accomplishments because we've had five of our schools become Verizon

044Innovative Learning Schools. About a 14 million investment, 12 to um depending um either financial or human capital resources and technology investments in our schools. And so, but we want to ensure that we get the devices back. So, so for families, please inquire with your school communities. some of our students um haven't gotten their stu their uh devices back from the summer back to school. So, we want to just upgrade the technology and then we will redistribute them if you haven't returned your techn returned your technology for your utilization the summer or during last spring. Again, I want to thank the our five middle schools as well as Bridgeview Academy for the launch of the Verizon Innovative Learning Schools project. Yay. We have our friends coming to visit us from Digital Promise as well as Verizon

045within the next week to provide some professional learning uh for the staff and we want to again thank them publicly for helping us to fund some of these positions so that we can continue to move our district forward. Um tonight we'll also hear from our team and Miss Smith is um coming to uh highlight our continuous improvement plans. she and our school leaders are here to speak to that um and providing um an overview of our goals and objectives for our schools for this year. So, thank you, Miss Smith. >> Oh, sorry. >> Your turn. >> Thank you, Dr. Burks. >> Sorry. >> At this time, we are only taking public comment on agenda items. Right. >> Once recognized, please come to the podium. State your name and address for the record. Please note remarks

046are limited to three minutes and the microphone will be disabled at the end of the three minutes. Please also be informed the school board of directors appreciates public comment. However, we are not able to respond to these comments. Administration will address your concerns and update the board on the status of your concern. Do we have any comments on agenda items? Tonight we have three agenda items. The first item is being presented by Miss Smith. Miss Smith is requesting approval from the school board of directors of the school improvement plan. >> Good evening, Dr. Burks and school board of directors tonight. Before I begin our formal pro uh presentation on continuous improvement plans, I have to introduce our school leaders who are here in support of their plans. We have worked very hard in the spring

047and in the summer to develop plans that are fully aligned to our strategic plan so that as they're implementing them this year there is complete alignment. So I'd like to introduce Dr. Noff and the William Allen team. Please stand. Mr. Ros Mr. Rosado from Bridgeview Academy. Tonight, the staff of Harrison Morton is doing their open house and celebrating with their families, so they are not present today. Uh, Mr. Delgado, Mr. Fritz, Mr. Maro and his leadership team, Mr. Mr. Schmidt, Miss Maguire and her assistant principal, Mr. Cresenzo from Muenberg and his assistant principles, Miss Frasier and Mr. Schlaggel. I'm also excited because one of those leaders will come up and present part of the SL one of the slides tonight. So, I have a co-presenter tonight. Our overview, we will review our vision and mission.

048We were go we're going to discuss our 2425 accomplishments. We'll talk about our focus areas, our school improvement designations, our alignment to our district improvement plan, our instructional vision, and our next level work. As with every presentation, our mission and vision is at the core of what we do. Our mission is for us to serve our diverse educational needs of each student by igniting their passion for learning and creating an academic culture. Our vision is a learning community that increases student achievement by cultivating positive relationships, offering rigorous and meaningful curricula, and empowering our Allentown community. This is new for us to start with accomplishments. And we did this intentionally today because, you know, we end every single presentation with next level work. These accomplishments are based on last year's school improvements next level work. So

049we thought it was important to begin with some of our successes. So you will see that we have established data wise instructional rounds and school quality reviews as best practices to enhance instructional effectiveness. We increased the elementary students at or above benchmark by nine percentage points in our star reading assessment. We increased the percentage of students who were at or above benchmark in our STAR math assessment by 13 percentage points. We increased kindergarten students at or above benchmark in dibbles by 28 percentage points. We reduced chronic absenteeism to 32% in our schools. We decreased our out of school suspension by 5% with Rob Middle School. Mr. Delgado is here today. decreased that number by 33%. We increased the number of our graduates. Our class of 2025 was 12% larger than our class of 2024. We

050increased our early college graduates our our early college graduation rates by 57%. 57%. And more students are continuing to take advantage of our partnership with Lehigh County Community College. We expanded our parent teacher conference schedule to include K to2 families, increasing participation by 42%. our English learner student group's academic p uh performance with a 47% in level four proficiency and a 67% increase of students who have successfully exited the language instruction educational program and collectively our elementary schools weda scores grew by 22%. So that next level work when we talk about the next level work this is why it's important because these are the outcomes we're receiving from that next level work. We cannot start our school improvement plan presentation without coming back to our strategic plan lighting the way a blueprint for success uh

051blueprint for innovation and excellence 2030. Our priorities and goals in our strategic plan are directly aligned to all of the work in our district comprehensive plan and in our school improvement plans. As a district, we have district-wide areas of focus this year. We are focused on literacy instruction. We are focused on theme-based schools. We are focused on algebra 1 that family and community resource centers coming alive. Our um artificial intelligence will be focusing on policies and regulations. new school design and our leadership pipeline development. Our district comprehensive improvement plan, which we approved in the spring, we have our goals. We're literacy proficiency in grade three will um increase by 9% by the end of June 2028 as compared to June 2025. We will be the percent of students passing algebra 1 by 9th grade um

052by at least 9% by the end of June 2028. as compared to June 25. As a board, you know that you approved um a new way of us delivering algebra instruction to our students this year. So, either our students are getting either that lab where they're having more than just one algebra class a day or they're in a double period of algebra. and our graduation rates will increase by 9% and the percentage of students who attend 90% of or more of school days will increase by 9% by June 2028. So our district plan is to June 2028. School improvement plans are one year but all of our work goes from strategic plan to our district comprehensive plan to our continuous improvement plans. You will see in our goals that we have these are samples from

053our schools. There are attendance goals, there are literacy goals, there are math goals, there's a social emotional development goal and a graduation goal. Again, that's what our district strategic plan is. That's what our district comprehensive plan is. It is aligned. So, as samples are by the end of the 2526 school year, we will increase the average Dibbles composite score for kindergarten students by at least blank percent compared to the beginning of the year results. school will put what makes sense for their school in that percentage. Um, for social emotional development by June 26, the average domain score on the SEAL learning social emotional learning will increase to a 3.4 as measured by student responses on the school climate survey. So again, schools are taking and creating goals based on our district strategic plan and our

054continuous plan at the district level. All of our goals are aligned to priority one academic excellence when it comes to literacy and math, English language growth and attendance. And you can see some samples there, whether it's increasing scores through our star benchmarks or by um increasing scores on the PSSA create uh in high school increase the number of students passing English two and algebra 1 which are keystone tested grades. So we were very intentional in the types of goals that we were creating. These goals would align to priority two uh safety in the whole child development, climate and culture and graduation. Um increase in favorable feedback on the Pennsylvania Department of Education climate survey. Increase in parent and uh engagement and attendance at school events. Decrease the number of suspensions compared to 2425. All of

055our schools, whether they're designated or not, have a school improvement plan. There are some schools that are designated by the state of Pennsylvania um either for continuous improvement in all areas or for a specific student group. So, we wanted to highlight what those schools are. So, our CSI schools, the comprehensive school improvement, those are the schools that are at the bottom 5% of the state that receive title one funds. That's a three-year designation. And this year, William Allen High School, Bridgeview Academy, Harrison Mort Middle School, Rob Middle School, South Mountain Middle School, and Trexel Middle School are CSI designated. Derif is designated as an ATSI plan and that is an additional targeted support and improvement and that is for their student groups, their English language learners and their student with disabilities TSI which is targeted

056support and improvement. That's our warning. That's the one-year designation that they're just the state saying, "Hey, make sure you're focused on these areas and if your scores improve, you're off the you're no longer designated." But Moser was designated for students with disabilities. Muenberg was designated for English learners. Roosevelt was design uh designated for two or more races. Louis Derf High School was designated for our black student group and Hayes was um designated for English learners. We have talked to you about data wise and we're talking to you about continuous improvement. Last year we did we showed us on this slide it was plan do study act and the continuous improvement. We thought it was important to show you that we are invested in the data wise process prepare inquire and act and that swoosh which

057is called is directly aligned to the Pennsylvania department of education cycle of improvement um for school improvement. So the work that we're doing is not is completely aligned. It's not two different projects that we're doing. Everything's aligned in that model of continuous improvement. This year, I am very excited um because in August with our leadership team, our act 93, we created an instructional vision. So, this instructional vision is leading our work as a learning and teaching team with what we're doing. And our instructional vision is our collective instructional vision is to create a coherent system that improves student outcomes at scale by focusing on the instructional core. The vision serves as the moral and strategic compass ensuring that all aspects of the educational system from leadership to professional learning and classroom instruction are aligned toward

058the common goal of high quality learning and teaching. We're looking to elevate teaching practice, strengthen the instructional core, foster that culture of coherence and trust, and commit to continuous improvement. So, all of our professional learning that we're doing from a learning and teaching team this year is going to be revolved around this instructional vision. But in order to have an instructional vision, you need to have strategies that support that. And we have nine high quality strategies of instructional practices that we will be using to support student achievement. Starting with clear learning goals and success criteria, standards aligned rigorous lesson design, high impact questioning and academic discourse, the gradual release of responsibility, the I do, we do, you do, formative assessment and responsive feedback, differentiation and culturally responsive teaching, explicit teaching of metaccogni, cognitive and self-regulation

059skills, data-driven instructional decision- making, positive culture built on trust and relationships. So, these practices are what's going to help us achieve our instructional vision with our next level work. We're talking about school quality reviews, the data wise process, and um our instructional rounds, but I think it's time for you to hear from a school leader on how school quality reviews data wise with our instructional leadership teams and instructional rounds is helping within a school. So, Mr. Schmidt, if you can come up and briefly discuss about number one for us. >> Thank you, Miss Smith. Uh thank you board members and thank you Dr. Burks for having me. Um yeah what's really exciting about uh if you hearken back to slide number 11 um you'll see that that swoosh that data wise process that process that

060is very datacentric around identifying problems of practice identifying action plans to address them. And we really do view that as principles here within the district as the ultimate tool that we have um for protecting that instructional core, that triangle of learning between the teacher uh the content um and the student. Um that lives in all of our school improvement plans really within three major ways. The school quality reviews uh which we do at the end of each year of course uh is a process of looking at our data across the schools both our financial data our resources data but also school safety instructional data reviewing that data coming up with action plans and then we present those action plans um to our to our board our superintendent and the cabinet uh at that time um

061the data wise process is of course from the Harvard Graduate School of Education that is a process that we do within our instructional leadership teams of reviewing uh our academic data both our local data as well as our state data. We then identify problems of practice which we will then really keep the focus on the focus when we go in and we are observing our classrooms. We are really looking at just that data in particular. What is the problem of practice we're trying to identify? what are we seeing within the classrooms that tie back to that problem of practice and then identifying actions within our instructional leadership team which we will then apply and then go through the same process that data wise process of reviewing what's working what's not working and that is a

062continuous process that then of course repeats as well um the third way in which you would see it would be within our instructional rounds this is a process also introduced to us um by the Harvard Graduate School of Education uh I was fortunate enough to be a part of instructional rounds at three different schools last year. Uh this often will take place um with direct school leadership but also instructional leaders from other schools as well as instructional leaders from the uh the district coming in participating in a process of the school itself has identified a problem of practice and then all of these observers are reviewing that problem of practice taking data on that problem of practice giving feedback to the schools which they would then apply to their own action plan very very similar

063um to that process of data wise. So what you can see within these three protocols is a real kind of commonality in terms of the importance of looking at our data, reviewing our data, being honest about what we're seeing, both in terms of strengths, but particularly identifying those problems of practice, those areas of need for us, and ensuring that we are then aligning our actions to them. Where does that live most prominently, of course, is within uh our continuous improvement plans, within the school improvement plans that we submit at the end of each year. >> Thanks, Mr. I think I might be losing my job. Um, it's important to note I could have asked any one of the school leaders sitting behind me to come up and do that and explain that um, bullet to

064you. Um, Mr. Schmidt just happened to be the one that I sit in on his instructional leadership team meetings and so I called on him. Mr. Schlaggel, you were almost next. In addition to that as our next level work and those are things that we said was a highlight last year but we're going to get even better with those processes this year. We're also going to provide professional development on highquality instructional practices that support our instructional vision. We're going to implement school governance councils at each school. We'll expand tutoring offerings for students. We'll deliver high quality professional learning to teachers, reading specialists, instructional coaches, school and district leaders on effective teaching strategies and core content topics. We'll implement a multi-tered system of support and we're going to establish data dashboards for to support continuous improvement.

065[Applause] So finally, I'm requesting the board action to approve our comprehensive support and improvement plans for Rob Harrison Morton, South Mountain, Trexler, Bridge View Academy, and William Allen. I'm asking you to approve our targeted support and improvement are ATSI plans for Derf High School and targeted support plans um TSI for Moser, Muenberg, Roosevelt, and Hayes as well as Derif. >> Thank you, Miss Smith. Any um questions? >> Wow. >> Go ahead. Testing. Testing. Yes. Yes. Yes. I want to thank you guys for putting in the work and the due diligence to come up with this comprehensive plan. You guys are leaning into it. We saw the results of last year because you guys leaned into it. And most of the time we run away from the hard work. We we see something and we we

066see that it's negative and we don't think that we can make any progress with it. But look at the progress that was made from you leaning in. So I'm so excited to see what we're going to do this year. I know it's going to be greater than what we did last year. I know the student outcomes, we're going to see it there. And kudos to you. And please, please, please on behalf of the board, please thank your school community for all the work that you're putting in. [Applause] Any other comments? I have um a comment. So, and sent it way better than me. But I just wanted to say how having an a strategic plan like this is building not only hope, but it's also, you know, just creating that stability that we need in

067our district. So, I just want to again say thank you to everyone who put their hard work into this strategic plan. Thank you to our leaders. Thank you, Miss Smith. Um, just for all your hard work that you do in our district for our kids. [Applause] I have another comment and I usually don't comment but I got to say that the percentage of kids that actually graduated from not just their high school diploma but LRYC numbers don't lie and I was there and you know Mr. Derek is not here. We have a new principal at Allen and I just don't want anyone to feel discouraged about anything that's going on because I'm the one that visits the school and I know what's going on and anyone that needs help here. We're here to help everyone

068cuz this is not about us. This is about our children and that's why I'm here. So, thank you Mr. Smith for everything that you do and every single principal. I put him out there because my daughter goes to Der. >> All right. >> I got to be honest. and um everyone else knows that you know what it's just a call away and we're here just like we're here right now. We're always here and if there's a problem with as far as like the phone and everything Mr. Dado, he's right there also. And I'm sure that he's willing to hear and he always has. And that's why I'm proud of this district no matter what we go through because the numbers don't lie. And you could see it when the kids actually speak. And in every

069graduation that we went to, there was so much inspiration. And we cried >> because there were so many honoral students and so many artistic kids that you wouldn't even believe that these kids actually were from Allen from um building 21 and Duraf like they actually wrote a story and parents got up and they were crying and we were also crying because a lot of them even got scholarships. I still have my books at home because believe it or not, a lot of people are surprised and every day we get hit with different comments and thank God we're built for this >> because if we weren't, we wouldn't be sitting here. And that's all I got to say. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> May I have a motion to move these items forward to the

070September 18th? >> Second. >> Any discussion? All in favor say I. I. >> Any oppose? Motion carries. The next two action items will be presented by Dr. Seavoi. Dr. Seavoi is requesting approval from the school board of directors for the St. Luke's Community Health Navigation. >> Good evening again. The district is requesting that the board approve the memorandum of understanding between St. Luke's Health Network for in the for the school district based community health navigation support in Allentown school district. St. Luke's through the through its community health department provides community health navigation and support services to schools to school districts in its service areas with the community school model. St. Luke's employees community health workers qualify to serve as a liaison between the school members and the health and health care and social services. The

071community health workers primary role is to connect students with necessary and appropriate services to promote health equity lead to success in school and improve health care outcomes. This is at no cost to the district. It is a memorandum of understanding where we're seeking approval to continue the partnership. I think there's a second part here. Um, Dr. Zavo Seavoy is also requesting approval from the school board of directors for the Smart Futures renewal. >> We're requesting that the board approve the renewal of the electronic subscription for the Smart Futures Career Planning and Portfolio Platform. This platform allows us to record our work, students thinking, and students planning as it relates to the career education and work standards that are mandated by the Pennsylvania Department of Education. Our students from elementary through high school can complete assignments

072and benchmarks in order for us to receive the um scores in the future ready index. Bigger than that, we just talked about graduation. This helps us help our students have effective post-secary plans because it doesn't stop at graduation. That's why this platform is important. >> Thank you, Dr. Seavoy. Any questions? >> No, just a comment. I just I would like to thank our partners at St. Luke's for all that they do. Um, their partnership is so so amazing for our district, what they do for us. So, I want to thank them on behalf of the board for their their continuous partnership. Are there any other comments? May I have a motion to move these? >> I second. >> We move quick over here. All in favor say I. >> I. >> Any oppose? Motion carries.

073At this time, we are taking public comment on non-aggenda items. Once recognized, >> comments, >> no comments. All right, we skipped through it. Is there any old business to come before this board? >> Yes, Dr. >> Yes, please. >> I Yeah, you can go ahead. >> Excuse me. I just wanted to commend you, uh, Principal Bner. You were not here when I acknowledged you, the students for Passport to Puerto Rico. So, I want to say thank you so much for your leadership and of course continue to commend the students and we're looking forward to the next animation film this year. So, thank you so much and we appreciate you. Let's please give her a round of applause. And Dr. Brooks, I I've been doing this the past couple of weeks. I I prefer us to

074close the loop. So, there was a question and a concern about union terrorists. Do you have any communication about what communication was sent out to the school community pertaining to their principal? >> Yes, thank you. I can't get into many details because as we know these are personnel matters, but it was um our team had we sent out a communication on September 4th and this is more of a test and I know we have a new uh parent square uh system but we're also using dojo now I believe um Miss Ree. So, I I want to make sure that families are receiving our communication, and this is why I wanted to get this information, but we did send out a me a letter to families on September 4th. And I think I have Mr. Schmidt

075back there shaking his head. He is a parent of a student who attends Union Terrace in sharing with families that the principal's last day would be on September 5th and that there was a family meeting and we shared that we were going to uh have an acting uh principal supporting uh principal our our acting principal principal McDonald and some support to her. We do have a retired uh school leader supporting her who's been there and I'm not sure since when but do you know Miss Ramos if that's okay because I know we had some support over there. >> Okay. So since August Mr. Wheeler who's a very experienced retired uh school leader um who's been supporting the now acting principal. So, I just want families if they did not receive this letter, please let us

076know because we want to make sure that all the contact information is in parent square as well as we're using still school messenger and dojo and everything else as we make this transition. Kind of like the cell phone sometimes when you transfer things over. So, I just want to make sure because um it really um was of concern to me to hear that we didn't communicate and I was aware that I had seen the letters and they went out. So any family from Union Terrorists who did not receive this information, we do have some plans to also update you. But do we have we do have an acting principal? We also have an experienced principal who is supporting her. So thank you. >> Thank you Dr. BS for the clarity. Is there any new business

077to come before this board? May I have a motion to adjurnn? A second. >> All in favor say I. I. >> Any oppose? That concludes this meeting. >> Nothing building. Nothing for building. >> No, we don't have any. >> Oh, look at that. Okay, we will take a quick three minute break. That three minute turns into like five minutes, but we'll take a quick five minute break and then we'll come back for our regular scheduled meeting. [Music] What? When you win? Enough is enough. >> Anna, did you for this. >> I'd like to call to order the meeting of the board of directors of the school district for the city of Allentown for today, September 18, 2025. The board welcomes and invite public comment. You may address the board on agenda and or non-aggenda items.

078The first opportunity for comment is at the beginning of the meeting and is limited to agenda items only. Common cards must be received by the start of the meeting, which is now. We will not be receiving public cards once the meeting begins. A copy of the public comment policy is located on the table next to the comment cards. Per our board's policy, any person may address the board in accordance with the procedures and limitations of this policy, either on issues presented in resolution being considered or on other matters affecting the administration, management, or operation of the district. Remarks of a personal nature directed against any individual will be ruled out of order. If you choose to address the board, please fill out a comment card and head into the board secretary, Mr. Simson. Comment cards

079are located at the podium near the door. Once recognized, please come to the podium and state your name and address for the record. We will now have the roll call. Mr. Secretary, please call the role. Miss Brown, Miss Connover, Miss Harris >> here, >> Miss Mat >> here, >> Mr. Nicoloff >> here, >> Miss Noel >> here, >> Miss Hortnett >> here, >> Miss Sierra >> here, >> Miss Tersio >> here. We have uh two members virtual, five member present for a total of seven uh board members. >> Thank you. Please rise for the pledge of allegiance followed by a moment of silence to the flag of the United States of America and to the stands. One nation indivisible with liberty and justice for all. And for my board president remarks tonight, I'm going to

080keep it brief, but I'm just going to speak from the heart. So right now in the world we're living in, it is constant noise, constant noise, constant distraction. And when that is happening, it makes you lose sight of the vision, the mission, and the goal. Right now, I'm going to ask everyone to silence the noise. How can you silence the noise, you might ask? because it's crazy around us, right? Silence the algorithm. A lot of what's happening is here. It's on the devices. It's on the Facebook. It's on the Instagram. All of it is happening here. And you get to decide what you put in your system. You get to decide what enters into you. What are you receiving? If your algorithm is all negative, you're just going to put out negative. If you're putting

081positive in you, you can put out positive. So, when I'm seeing the world that's exploding right now with nothing but negative, even Allentown exploding with nothing but negative, my question is, what are you putting in you? It is sad what I'm seeing. It is sad. We lack empathy. We lack care. There's a point in time when someone is going through a crisis and we would reach out. We would care for them. Now, we just pick up a device. And what I'm seeing is we're destroying not only ourselves, but we're destroying others. We're putting out things that's not even true for a reaction on a device for people that we don't know. And if we're telling our kids that they should be mindful of this device, we as adults need to be mindful of this device

082as well. We have to be mindful of what we're saying and what we're doing and what we're putting out into the world. All of us in here, we're called right now in this season to be leaders. We need to lead right now. I had the opportunity this week to go to Harrison Morton with Dr. Burks and what I saw there was leadership. I saw the teachers teaching. I saw controlled environment. I saw the kids learning. They were focused on focus. And I was like, "Wow, even the kids got it." But when you look at the world and you look at the adults, it's like we're we're going crazy right now. So, I'm doing a call to action tonight. Anyone out there under the sound of my voice, silence the noise, put more positive out there

083than negative. Especially if children are in your care, because what you feed them is what they're going to produce next. I don't know what kind of fruit you're bearing right now because all you're receiving is negative. But I want to bear good fruit. So I'm very mindful of what I say and what I do. I'm known as the board president. Oh, she doesn't she doesn't talk. She doesn't respond. Why? I'm focused on focus. When I leave the seat, I have to bear good fruit. And God has to I have to hear God say, "Well done, my good and faithful servant." cuz he put me in the seat. So, I'm asking you to do the same thing here. Be mindful of what you're putting in your system. Be mindful of what you're putting out there because

084our children are watching. They're watching and they're up next. What will the next generation look like if we look like this? That's my remarks. Any remarks, Dr. Brooks? >> Thank you, Madam President, for your such um heartwarming remarks and inspiring in the uh remarks and the call to action of our collective community to come together for the benefit of our children. As I've said throughout the night, it's been a resounding theme. We need to stay focused on the focus our children, the teachers and the presence of content and the work that we do. It's all about them. We are in service to the students and the teachers and their families in our continuous improvement work. As an organization, we are not perfect. We're not infallible. There's a lot of work that's still um that is

085necessary to ensure that every sensational child that we have been entrusted to care for gets what they need and that we empower the teachers and staff. We know I know we often just say teachers but as we know the research suggests that the teacher is the greatest lever and impacting student achievement and second to teachers are the school leaders in all the work every person within our learning community and our extended community. Our aim we would hope is to support them. So thank you president Noel and I hate to shift to you know technical aspects of our work. However I wanted to share Miss Smith is going to in my remarks come and give some updates on P school and our transition of where we are at power school. Thank you Miss Smith. >> Thank

086you Dr. Burks. Good evening board of directors once again. Many of us know the challenge of adapting to new technology. Think about the last time you upgraded your cell phone. Some of the data may not have transferred properly. You may have been missing a phone number. You have been may have been missing a favorite picture. Often it takes time to learn new features before everything feels natural again with your cell phone. Transitioning to a new student information system like P school is very similar. It is a significant complex shift that requires patience and learning. Our teachers, leaders, and staff are approaching this transition with dedication and resilience. While there is an expected learning curve, the progress has been steady and meaningful. Power School offers p powerful capabilities that will ultimately streamline our processes to provide

087stronger tools to support student success. This past week was especially productive, and I'd like to highlight a few key milestones that demonstrate the collective effort and momentum underway. All historical grades from 24 20242 25 school year have been successfully imported. We are creating a plan to validate the data to make sure everything transferred correctly but it is in the system. This ensures that our student records remain intact, secure and easily accessible within P school. School leaders are being supported in using P school's discipline features. We've also offered ongoing office hours since the middle of the summer. So during our office hours, we have hosted over 106 sessions over 54 days for a total of 343 participants. And one of the features in Power School is there's it's very easy to log things and create reports.

088So, our learning community since the first day of school logged 2,90 parent communications in P school with 2,000 of those specifically regarding attendance. That's amazing. Our next steps is validation, data validation, data validation of contacts, da, of emails, of grades and also progress report reviews. So, we are prepared for November. Next week I have elementary teachers coming to work through the process to make sure that there aren't any glitches when it comes to our progress reports. The transition to power school reflects hard work and collaborative spirit across our district. Confidence is confidence in the system is growing as staff become more comfortable with its capabilities. With a continued focus on professional learning, data validation, and support, P school will deliver those long-term benefits we anticipated. streamlining operations and strengthening our ability to support every student's

089success. Thank you for your continued support as we navigate this important transition together. I look forward to providing you more updates in the weeks to come. >> Thank you. [Applause] >> Thank you, Madam President, for allowing us to provide that update. And again, I want to thank everyone in our learning community for making this transition from P school to parent square with us. Uh we've learned a lot through this process, but again in the spirit of continuous improvement, we get better together. All of our strengths are needed. And I I'm just want to commend all the teachers as well as leaders who said I, you know, I have a little bit more techsavvy than others who have volunteered to facilitate sessions. And so we're on the move. So thank you, Madam President. Back to you.

090>> Thank you. At this time, we're only taking public comments on agenda items. Once recognized, please come to the podium, state your name and address for the record. Please note the remarks are limited to three minutes and the microphone will be disabled at the end of the three minutes. Please also be informed the school board of directors appreciates public comment. However, we are not able to respond to these comments. Administration will address your concerns and update the board on the status of your concerns. Is there any public comment? >> Yes. Leslie Franklin. Good evening, members of the board and district administration. My name is Lesley Franklin. I'm the A.E.A. president and I reside, so to speak, during the day at 21101 Mac Boulevard. As we end our fourth week with students, A.E.A. Members are pushing

091forward while exhausted and overwhelmed due to staffing shortages, exhaustive turnover and admin that have everchanging expectations for staff. Minimal support in classrooms for teachers working with our students that have the highest needs. Displaced students and staff causing major disruptions to learning but still expected to make things work. A lack of classroom supplies and technology. ongoing shortages with bathroom supplies. I spoke about these things at the beginning of last school year and we're in the same spot that we were in at that time. Focus on what needs to be done so we can get better together. Thank you, >> Bob Smith. My name is Robert E. Smith Jr. 1060 East Gordon Street on the east side of Allentown. Two items. One on personnel. There's eight administrative positions and there's an R next to all of them.

092I believe the administration center network engineer is a new position. I also believe the administrative center audiovisisual engineer. I don't know if this is a typo, but if it's a new position, it should be stated as a new position and not a replacement position. Also, eight new administrative positions. No maintenance contract. The maintenance people need a contract. We seem to give a lot of administration. I see all the agreements at the beginning of this agenda. All the big administrators are getting raises. Everyone's getting a raise. And the small wage earners still don't have a contract in this district. The maintenance people need a raise. We're the lowest paid in the Lehigh Valley. They do all the cleaning. They do all the work. They need a raise. Now, let's go to the finance. Madame President, there's

093something called righteous anger. Jesus had it. You brought up God today. Item H. Request board's approval of Iota Network LLC Deli subscription for the term of five months from March 2025 to July 2025. Is that a typo or do we vote on things that already happened? Just wondering because that's what it says here. Those dates are in the past. And this company also has an ex board member that works there as the revenue chief of revenue. He resigned from this board in disgrace and then gets a contract with this school district and now you're going to approve this again even though it already happened. So I don't understand why we're even voting on it if it already happened. What difference does it make? Must be legality. This is may be legal, but it's unethical. Could

094you imagine running for office and somebody has a contract with the school district and sends a mailer out against you trying to determine the schoolboard race. I wonder how you would all feel about that. Well, that happened to me, this person that works for Iota. We need a policy that anybody that is a school board member that resigns in a certain amount of time shouldn't have a contract with the school district and also shouldn't try to manipulate a schoolboard race so he's not worried about his contract for his company. This is highly unethical. Also, you talk about slander. I'll save something for the end, but this person slandered me in a district and you're approving a contract with him tonight. I ask you notro canales. >> Good evening. I live at uh center city Allentown.

095I want to begin by acknowledging the disappointment and frustration that I know many of you are feeling and the trust that we have in our schools and his leadership is something that's weighing really hard on our heart and in our community. But I want to make it clear that in recent events, while we may have fallen short, the decision may have caused pain and confusion. And for that, I am truly in pain. And I I want the community to know that we validate their feeling. But at the same time, my primary po purpose tonight is not to offer excuses, but to take full and complete responsibility and to take our actions and how as a parent who worry about my child in school and friends who are teachers in our school district and how this

096have impacted us. And I want to understand that this is the moment where we need to connect as a community with open heart and share commit and your commitment to do better as we navigate this difficult time. I also want to ask for your mindful partnership. I want the world of social media, while it's a powerful tool for connection and can also become a place where we unintentionally spread rumors and falsehood, where we implor all of us to pause and consider the information that we share online. Let us be a community that awaits before we react, that seeks to verify before we share, and that prioritize a thoughtful, respectful conversation over a rapid and often damaging spreading of misinformation. The words that we claim that we share, whether on our personal page or in our

097community group, have a real and profound impact on our school and our community at large. We need to be learning how the rebuilding our trust is a priority and it is a daily effort that I take greatly. It's not measured by our words but our consistent empathetic action. I am committed to do this work and I invite you to join me in this moving forward not by letting what happened by using this experience to build a stronger more compassionate school community for all. I want to thank you for your courage and for your willingness to come tonight together and be ready to hear from you and I applaud you for everything you have done for this school district and as a mother of a child who um is in his final year and I just

098want to say I appreciate you and all your work you do. Thank you. >> Thank you. May I have a motion of approval of the minutes? >> Can I make that motion? >> Is there a second? Second. >> Is there any discussion? >> Please call the RO. >> Miss Harris, >> yes. >> Miss Mat, >> yes. >> Mr. Nicolof, >> yes. >> Miss Noel, >> yes. >> Miss Hartnett, >> yes. >> Miss Sierra, >> yes. >> Mr. Berscio, >> yes. >> Motion passes 70. >> Thank you. And now for information updates. Um any updates from the Allentown Public Library? >> Yes. Um in our last board meeting, we were actually speaking about collaborating with the health bureau about putting a vending machine with free products, not just for the teens that will go to the

099library, but the unsheltered. >> Thank you, Mr. Mercio. >> Thank you. >> Any updates from the Allentown Recreation Commission? >> Yes. I want to share some exciting September updates from the parks and recreation commission department that directly impacts our students and families. Valenia Park this noon was officially renamed Clyde Bos Park honoring Clyde Bos who was known as the barber godfather in Allentown giving our students and families a renewed sense of pride in the local community. [Applause] Jordan Park skate park is nearly complete with phase two, providing a safe, modern space for skating and outdoor activity. Roosevelt Park will begin upgrades in fall, including improved playgrounds and basketball courts for families and youth. And finally, the urban forestry master plan launched this month, which will bring over 300 new trees to underserved neighborhoods, creating healthier

100and more enjoyable outdoor spaces for our students to play and learn. That's all for my update. >> Thank you. And I do have an update from the Allentown School District Board School District Foundation, I'm sorry. The Allentown School District Foundation supports approximately 20 programs per school year for district students. Many of these stu many of these programs are funded by educational improvement tax credit funds contributed by Pennsylvania businesses. We are currently partnering with friends and education friends of education to make these tax credits available to more businesses as well as individuals who may be eligible. To learn more, contact the foundation's executive direct director, Patty Bruno. Continuing our mission to encourage, promote, support, and fund positive educational experiences for the student of Allentown School District. We are currently sponsoring several programs, including competitive teacher innovation

101grants for full-time teachers, nurses, guidance counselors, and coaches at all grade levels. literacy volunteers for preK through grade three classrooms and the Latin dance lessons for middle school students. Also, a Hispanic heritage arts and letters contest for all grade levels. Additionally, we displayed students artworks from our past visual arts residencies at West Park's Arts in the Park on Saturday, September 13. These residencies will resume resume later this fall along with several other programs designed to help the district's students grow academically, creatively, and socially. And if you'd like to learn more about the programs and the support and also the the innovative grants, you can go to all school district foundation.org. And that ends my update for the school district foundation. I do have an update for the CLIU. So Shaun Ladon shared that the extended

102school year program successfully completed another year. She clarified that ES ESY is not summer school or credit recovery, but rather a continuation of a student's educational program as determined by their IEP. The two main factors for eligibility are regression and recruitment. Students who risk losing too much progress during natural school breaks may qualify for ESY to minimize learning loss. This year, the program served 244 students in classrooms and provided related services to an additional 124 students with a total of 450 referrals. While not all referral students attend due to family circumstances, these numbers represent those served through CLIU programs. Also, there has been a new update to the CLIU website. Um, he explained that the update was prompted by the retirement of a popular content management system and provided an opportunity to improve the accessibility,

103streamline navigation, and refocus the site on external users while shifting internal resources to other platforms such as Diligent and the internet. And that ends my report for tonight. >> Is there a report from LCTI? >> No report tonight. Thank you. Okay. And now back to business. May I have a motion of approval for the board of directors report? >> I make that motion. >> May I have a second? >> Second. >> Is there any discussion? Please call the role. >> Miss Harris, >> yes. >> Miss Mat, >> yes. >> Mr. Nicolof, >> yes. >> Miss Noel, >> yes. >> Miss Hartnett, >> yes. Miss Sierra, >> yes. >> Mr. Berscio, >> yes. >> Motion passes 70. >> Thank you. May I have a motion of approval for the policy agenda? >> I make that motion.

104>> Second. >> Yes. Any discussion? Please call the RO. >> Miss Mat, >> yes. >> Mr. Nicolof, >> yes. >> Miss Noel, >> yes. >> Miss Hartnett, >> yes. >> Miss Sierra, >> yes. Mr. Berscio. >> Yes. >> Miss Harris. >> Yes. >> Motion passes 70. >> Thank you. May I have a motion of approval of the secretary and treasurer's report? >> Make that motion. May I have a second? >> I second. >> Is there any discussion? Please call the role. >> Miss Mat, >> yes. >> Mr. Nicoloff, >> yes. >> Miss Noel, >> yes. >> Miss Hartnett, >> yes. >> Miss Sierra, >> yes. Mr. Tersio, >> yes. >> Miss Harris, >> yes. >> Motion passes 70. >> Thank you. May May I have a motion of approval of the superintendent report? >> I

105make that motion. >> I have a first and a second. >> Is there any discussion? Please call the role. >> Miss Noel? >> Yes. >> Miss Hartnett? >> Yes. >> Miss Sierra? >> Yes. >> Miss Tersio? >> Yes. >> Miss Harris? Yes, >> Miss Mat. >> Yes, >> Mr. Nicoloff. >> Yes. >> Motion passes 70. >> Thank you. And before I um ask for an approval for the personnel report, we have an update to the effective date of the retirement of Mr. Andrew Andrew Rob Rabbi. I don't want to butcher his name. I'm sorry. um as he communicated to our district office in writing on the afternoon of September 18, 2025, the update is to alter the effective date from October 6, 2025 to January 9, 2026. Now, may I have a motion of approval

106for the personnel? >> We have a second. Any discussion? Please call the vote. >> Miss Hartnett, >> yes. >> Miss Sierra, >> yes. >> Mr. Mr. Tersio, >> yes. >> Miss Harris, >> yes. >> Miss Mat, >> yes. >> Mr. Nicoloff, >> yes. >> Miss Noel, >> yes. >> Motion passes 70. >> Thank you. Tonight, the board approved new administrative hires. Mr. James, would you please come forward and introduce our new hires? >> Thank you. Thank you to our school board directors and Dr. Burks, before we begin with introductions of our new hires, just like to share a few uh updates with regards to some information that has been shared this evening regarding uh administrators who are in transition in Allentown School District. Just need to be sure that it's very clear that currently we

107have 33 administrators in Allentown School District. We've had two, I want to make sure that's clear, two administrators who have left our school district. One because single parent and need to get closer to home. And the second administrator received a promotion and is going to a neighboring school district. And we appreciate what these two administrators have done for the students and families and communities within Allentown School District. We are not experiencing a transition in administrators in Allentown School District. You see the work that we've done. We've shown you the outcomes, achievement outcomes and accomplishments that we've made in this district. We will continue to build the leadership capacity within our school system. And in order to do that, we have to ensure that we have strong leaders within our district. And we will continue to

108do that. I would like to say that's 94% of retention of our school administrators within Allentown School District. I think that should be applauded. Natural attrition is normal. We have folks who need to leave for various reasons. They may leave due to retirement, career changes, education may not be for them and they may need to try a different career and personal reasons, family issues, health issues. >> That's normal. That's natural attrition. And that happens in every school district in America and in every organization, in every work organization. In order to retain our educators within our district, we all have to see that as a priority. It's not just Allentown School District employees who should have that as a responsibility. It should be our community, all of our stakeholders, ensuring that we retain our educators within

109our district. And I think we need to make sure that we are clear of where the responsibility lies for all of our educators within Allentown School District. So I would like to begin by stating that in addition to our leadership appointments tonight, the district is proud proud to welcome 44 new teachers and 36 par profofessionals. [Applause] And I would like to also add, I know there were some comments this evening regarding our classroom teacher positions. We are 98% of our classroom teacher positions are filled across the district, maintaining one of the strongest staffing rates in recent years. And I think we should applaud that again. [Applause] There are many school districts across this country that are experiencing vacancies in high numbers 100 150 and I've spoken to many of my colleagues across the country about

110the the struggle and the challenge and our district is at 98% classroom teacher field rate. I think we need to applaud that and we need to speak about that on social media. So, let's welcome our new administrators to Allentown School District. Let's continue to build the capacity of what we need to do in this district to ensure that all of our students, all of our students learn and do well. Let's begin with Can we have all of our new appointees to stand, please? Let's get excited. [Applause] I have Marie Augustine. Marie is our new director of grant accounting. [Applause] >> Mr. Eduardo Guzman Marita [Applause] Mr. Eric Rosa is our director of safety and security. [Applause] >> This guy is very special to me. We've been con we've been talking for like two weeks straight.

111Bobby Rutherford is our audio visual engineer. Congratulations. [Applause] Jamie Yish is our payroll supervisor. [Applause] There you go. >> Crystal Perez has been promoted to director of health services. [Applause] >> Carlos Ryz, acting executive director of instructional leadership. [Applause] Ejama Equinamir is our chief of performance management and accountability. [Applause] >> Dr. Amelia Coleman, Deputy Superintendent, who will cover academics. Let's not get quiet. Let's give a round of applause. Glad to have these additions to our team. We're excited about them and the work that they're going to do and contributions they're going to bring to Allentown School District. Congratulations again. At this time, we would like to also highlight our contracts that were approved tonight by our school board of directors. And we're very excited about these three contracts. The first contract is the agreement with

112our administrative assistants. Just some highlights on that three-year term, July 1st, 2025 to June 30th, 2028. Salary adjustment 3% increase. Let's give them a round of applause for that. Another important highlight is the vacation carryover. Up to 10 unused days may be paid out as compensation. I think that's that's a good addition to their contract. And then we also have the uh contract of our cafeteria managers. Again, a three-year term, July 1st, 2025 to June 30th, 2028. Uh, we have our 10-month manager work year has been increased to 197 days from 194 days. Uh, a salary adjustment of 3%. Let's give them a round of applause. [Applause] We've added a new position, culinary manager. And then also with the vacation carryover, those employees will be uh be allowed to uh up to five unused days

113may be paid out as compensation. Let's give a round of applause for our agreement approval. Thank you to our school board directors for that. And then our final contract is with our act 93 employees. I think uh Miss Bodner is here. >> Yes, >> there she is. Come on. Come up with me. Bis Barton is the president of the act 93 and we're so glad that we have engaged in this agreement with you and your committee to certainly make this happen for all of our Act 93 employees. So congratulations. >> Thank you. Thank you. And the highlights, yes, the highlights from that agreement is three-year term July 1st, 2025 to June 30th, 2028. Another 3% increase. Yes, annually. And then also with the vacation uh carryover, we have up to 10 unused days may be

114paid out as compensation. That's great news for those employees. Those are just some highlights of the agreement. Congratulations to all of our agreements and thank you to our school board directors for approving these. Thank you. [Applause] >> Thank you. was good energy there. >> You were on fire. >> I need to leave, Miss Phoebe. I gota You don't pick up all of that. >> That's right. >> You guys are right. >> Then I'll give grace. Give some drink. >> Okay, guys. We're almost there. >> All right. >> But a few more public comments, I'm quite sure. >> Okay. Again, congratulations and welcome to the ASD family. I love the fact that we discussed all the contracts that we're approving um going forward. I know especially when we joined the board. I remember we were in

115we were in negotiations and talking about how can we improve our pay rate for our teachers, administr we're getting there. We're working at it and we're we're almost at the finish line. So, I'm I'm really happy about that. May I have a motion of approval for the finance report? >> I make that motion. >> Second. >> Is there any discussion? >> Please call the role. >> Miss Sierra, >> yes. >> Miss Tersio, >> here. >> Sorry, I was drinking water. >> Yes. Okay. Thank you, Miss Tersio. >> Miss Harris. >> Yes. >> Miss Bath. >> Yes. Mr. Nicolov, >> yes. >> Miss Noel, >> yes. >> Miss Hartnett, >> yes. >> Motion passes 70. >> Yes. At this time, we are only taking public comments on non-aggenda items. Once recognized, please come to the podium,

116state your name and address for the record. Please note, remarks are limited to three minutes and the microphone will be disabled at the end of three minutes. Please also be informed that the school board of directors appreciates public comment. However, we are not able to respond to these comments. Administration will address your concerns and update the board on the status of your concern. Mr. Secretary, >> one comment. Robert E. Smith Jr. >> Robert E. Smith Jr. 1060 East Gordon Street, Allentown, PA. on the east side of Allentown. I want to thank Dr. Burks for >> Thank you. Go ahead. >> Go ahead, Mr. Smith. >> I want to thank you for your kindness, accessibility, and confidentiality when we talk. Thank you for the board. I'm very upset with you guys tonight. That was really a

117shameful vote that you just did >> on item H especially should have been tabled. What you did was okay something that already happened and you voted for an ex board member receiving money from the school district who used the school district for financial gain. Any board member who does that, it's unethical. And look back at it and all the details and you'll see what I mean. What you did was wrong. There's mold in other buildings besides the three that was tested. William Allen has mold. You need a This should have been done in the summertime. Every building should be checked for mold. This is causing health issues for teachers and students. Going forward, every building should be tested for safety. This is not a political issue. This is a health issue for all students and

118all teachers. And I'm not going to do a verbal back and forth with a loud voice in this room, but it's easy to manipulate numbers on a month. Let's go over a year or two years. Let's look at that. Always easy to manipulate numbers over one month. A six-year-old walks out of the school and ends up on Hamilton Street. Let's talk about safety. The mother had some noise about that. You know what she wants? She's not going to file a lawsuit. All she wants is an apology from the school district. I don't think that's asking too much for a mother who let that the school district let walk right out of the school. Shame on the district for letting that happen. Bullying of employees. Let's start at the top. You want to pay it forward?

119I can start being nice on social media and keep make everything nice. Well, how about leadership in the district? Let's start paying it forward. Let's not yell at our employees, our secretaries, our teachers, or anybody. How about that? How about let's being kinder to our employees? Let's start being kinder to everyone. I'll take your I I'll take your words tonight for that. But let's start in the district first and then it'll spread out. Let's pay it forward one person at a time, one administrator at a time. And you all know who I'm talking about. >> Personal attack. >> Yeah, this is this is becoming very personal, Mr. Smith. And I want to hear you. So, if you can refrain from the personal attacks, that'll be great. I think your time is up anyway. She's going

120to give him back his 15 seconds. Oh, it's okay. Thank you. >> I didn't mention any names. >> The truth is hurt. Tough to hear. I know. The truth is tough to hear. Thank you. Is there any other comments? >> Is there any new business to come before the board? And I'm guessing this is >> Thank you. I just want to make a correction in the data that I presented earlier. That 33 number was certainly central office administrators >> and the data that I presented was effective July 1 of this year. Uh so I wanted to make sure that that was clear. I thought I had stated that but wanted to make sure that was clear. Okay. >> Thank you. Thank you so much. >> Is there any more new business to come before the

121board? Any old business? >> May I have a motion to adjourn this meeting? >> I make that motion. >> Second. >> This meeting is adjourned. Have a great night everyone.