001e e e good night I'd like to call to order the meeting of the board of directors of the school district of the city of Allentown for today October 24th 2024 prior to tonight's meeting an informational executive session was held the purpose of the executive section was to engage in informational updates presented to the board on a number of District initiatives as well as confidential matters pertaining to Personnel consultation with the district solicitor regarding a petition for the Union repres represent representation of the custodial maintenance Union and an informational update and discussion with Council pertaining to District Real Estate and the associate design and finance of new schools the board welcomes and invites public comment you may address the board on agenda and or non-agenda items the first opportunity for comment is at the beginning
002of 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 not be receiving public common cards once the meeting begins a copy of the public common policy is located on the table next to the common 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 other matters affecting the Administration Management or operation of the district remarks of a personal nature D 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 Simonson common cards are located at the podium near
003the door once recognized please come to the podium state your name and address for the record and kindly limit your remarks to three minutes we will now have the roll call Mr secretary please call the rooll Miss Brown Miss con over Miss Harris here Miss mat Mr nicholoff here miss Noel here miss Ortiz here miss Sierra Mr Verio here we have eight members present thank you please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance followed by a Moment of Silence of the United States of America for it stands one nation indivisible with liy and justice for all and for the board president remarks I just have a short remark tonight I did have the opportunity to be at the parent advisory Council for the superintendent this past week and I was completely blown away by the families
004that show up to represent ASD on the advisory Council please give them a hand a round of applause please it was a packed house and what they expressed was the fact that everything that they discussed with the administration every whether it's an initiative or a policy they felt like they were being heard it was being implemented and the the the parents that were there last year who are back this year said that the things that they suggested the super intendent listened and the administration implemented it so I love the fact that we are being driven by the needs of the families and not just what we think the families need and that's what I took away from that situ from that Gathering so I want to thank the administration I want to thank the superintendent
005for putting that Council together the parents obviously love it they feel like their voices are being heard and as a board and representing my colleagues I know that we are happy that we're hearing the voice of the community in that sense and I also want to thank the families that were out tonight celebrating with us for all the students that are going to be your representative um here on the board again thank you students for your service thank you for your time thank you for your dedication and we are here to support you and we welcome your voices and that ends my remarks and now for the super superintendent remarks thank you um Madam president to good evening to our school board directors uh to members of the public uh to all of our families
006who are here tonight as well the students let's please give them another round of applause uh good evening to to my leadership team and to all the Educators who are in the room tonight of course and to the public thank you so much and as always I'm grateful and honored to serve as your superintendent last even just a few moments ago as our our board president said we had the unique opportunity to learn about our exceptional student leaders who will serve on our school board of directors as well as various commissions uh for this Academic Year and a you the accolades and the highlights of the resumés of our young people very impressive so we are so looking forward to this year learning from you and elevating your voices and so tonight we will in
007a few minutes um honor Again by having the board it will be presented that they're approved by the board and we will also take another photo in this room that was a request that you get official photo with the school board directors in this room and so we're excited tonight I again I want to thank the families um for allowing us to serve you as well as your children we appreciate you uh next week I will have my first student superintendent advisory Council and many of the students here are who are the school board of directors are also on my superintendent advisory Council and let me tell you they are amazing group of young people I had opportunity to work with with and many of them are on the superintendant of the school board of
008directors again this year uh representatives to the board and some as Miss Brown noell said many of the things that we initiatives that we have moving forward as it relates to many things our Mental Health Services our back to school bash our um Allentown youth inter internship Corp all those ideas came from the students so I want to thank you for your leadership and for elevating your voices to help continue to move our district forward they said we wanted uniforms we wanted all we want instruments and we responded to what the students requested so thank you students as we are because of you and again I want to thank the families who came out this week we identified about 80 families who are members of the superintendent family advisory Council and on last week about
00940 of them came and the uh individuals who did weren't able to make it they like what I'm going to be there next time and I want to thank the families because in these sessions we ask families their input and feedback on various initiatives that we are going to um that are going to impact the district and we share with them and get advisement from them as to how we move the district forward and I want to thank all everyone on our team who planned all these activities for the past few days I want to thank you so much for your hard work and commitment on Friday October 11th the district was awarded the Seven Seals award and we're excited about St from um the employer support of support of the guard and Reserve so
010please give the our talent management team for a round of applause for receiving that award this recognition is a testament to the district's unwavering commitment in support of serving our members of our learning community and individuals who are serving in the reserves although we would think that organizations would be very compliant or supportive when people are serving and allowing them to leave their regular job to go and serve our country sometimes people are not as welcoming and so we this is one of the highest awards that can receive and so I want to thank uh Mr sang and Miss Allen and the entire Dr Holly major and others and the whole team for your hard workor and commitment so thank you so much this award was nominated we were nominated uh for this award by
011Mr Libo and he's an eighth grade teacher at South Mountain so we want to thank you uh Mr Lee bro for your hard work work in your service to the nation the um we also and in that recognition when they presented the award they they stated the alltown school district stands among most the utmost Employers in the Commonwealth to be recognized with this honor reflecting its commitment to fostering a supportive workplace for those who serve and this award will be displayed here in the administration Center along with the statement of support that demonstrates our artwork commit commment to the guard in reserves so thank you for everyone for their hard work and congratulations again to our talent management team well everyone say Saturday Saturday please join me this weekend to attend the annual Allen versus
012DEA football game earlier today Allen senior Kam Kam Mani Wimberly who is among the leaders rushers in the EPC was featured in the morning call so let's give him a round of applause Wimberly has had an excellent football season and is currently enrolled in our leh high Carbon Community College early college program with a remarkable GPA of 4.45 wow Wimberly will play his final game with the canities on Saturday so you don't want to miss this game we will celebrate foot ball chair band the RTC seniors beginning at 12:45 p.m. and the game will kick off at 2:00 p.m. so everyone who's listening our students will really appreciate you being there cheering them on and we're going to honor the cheer team as well and I heard that on the way over that the cheerer
013doesn't get enough recognition because they're cheering for everyone else so as October closes are we in honor of of national bullying prevention month we had various activities taking place across the district we had class um sessions in our classrooms and this entire month we raised our awareness of bullying across the district so I want to thank our team and everyone involved in these efforts and standing I also want to thank everyone for standing in solidarity on Unity day on October 16th we were all wore orange and we also highlighted members of our Learning Community for our you are the light celebration we had more than I think about 15 50 or more people who attended the UR are the light celebration so I want to thank everyone and everyone who Ur the lights for September
014congratulations again and thank you Trexler for hosting this event October is also National principales month so please give a round of applause for our principles earlier this week we honored and recognized our principles at our our monthly executive Leadership Learning Academy we want to thank you for your hard work you know there research that suggests uh of course the teacher is the greatest lever and impacting student achievement but second to the teacher is the principal so I want to thank you for you your hard work your sacrifice all the late hours and the love that you and your team show our students every day thank you very much tonight we will also receive updates for our Architects on our new family and community resource center so we're excited about presenting that particular presentation and this
015particular family and community resource center will serve as a multi-purpose Center and we recently I I mentioned previously we received a $500,000 uh award a grant uh towards creating this family and community resource center and this Center will be located at the building uh 21 campus and we will provide Mental Health Services uh Health Services we're partnering with various Partners in the community Workforce development as well as uh elll Eng as a second language classes and such so we're really excited and one thing about this project I know we're in 2024 but it has to be concluded by 2026 so a lot of work needs to happen between now and 2026 so our our Architects will present um we thank our partners United Way uh Lehigh Valley Health Hospital the Workforce Development board for your
016assisting us as well as our elected officials okay as we look to November I want to encourage All Families to begin to look for information related to conferences and receiving your child's report card for the first semester so for the first year so for all the families listening to my voice you are welcomed at the secondary level as well 3K to 12 to come into our schools and talk with your teachers about your child's report card this is a practice that we want that we haven't been engaged in so we want to implement this across the district so cuz you still need to know what they're doing at the high school level as well doesn't stop learning and everything doesn't stop at the elementary level so we welcome you in please look for more information
017uh for from your schools and also if you could assist us all the families who are in the room and the ones who are listening to encourage other families to come in we truly believe in partnering with you and ensuring that our students are successful and back to the same research that I I shared uh there's a gentleman named Tony Bri he's a researcher and he says that you know first again against the teacher as well as then the principal and the third families parents you are also a major lever ensuring that students are successful so we honor you and we appreciate your partnership that concludes my remarks for this evening thank you madam president thank you at at this time we are only taking public comments on agenda items once recognized please come to
018the podium state your name and address for the record and kindly Li limit your remarks to 3 minutes it too quickly the arit okay okay forget forget that okay is that okay sorry about that yes we're gonna have a presentation good evening everyone as Dr Burks had mentioned um through her vision the district is actually encountering and working on a family community Welcome Center so this evening we'll have one of the representatives swarupa samant from the DI group group and they will give us a quick presentation of what the building layout looks like excuse me it could you turn up the volume it's really hard to hear people okay it be zoomed I think it's no I think uh it's uh over focused it needs to be smaller yeah that's better now he wants super
019far uh good evening everyone um I'm swarupa Sal I'm representing uh di group architecture and I thank you all uh for this opportunity um to you know work on and reflect on this exciting project which is going to be pride and joy for the district um we started um uh with uh the district's vision of having the family and family engagement and welcome center for uh the community and um we were um assigned with a wonderful design team from the district uh led by Dr Mulo uh Dr Wayne and um we have been meeting just wanted to give a background in terms of uh what we' have done so far we came on board uh early summer and we started working with the district um team we met them periodically identifying what the needs were
020and what their Vision was um and what you're seeing right now is is more of a site plan um for what it might look like um the grade out building on the bottom is uh Building 21 which all of you all know um as you come up the Lehigh Street on to Union um you have this big upward RAM and welcome center uh is going to be placed right behind that um being that the site is a little bit upheld we wanted to make sure that you know the presence of the building is identified and everyone coming along that way sees where the Welcome Center is and that's why you have it the way you know you uh you see it here would we go to the next slide please can we go to the
021next one second page one more up here we okay oops if you do page two I think you should be yeah this is good enough um so um knowing that Building 21 uh was going to be the connecting link uh to this Welcome Center uh we still want it to have its own identity and its own um presence um so what we have done is um the welcome Center's entry way is more um of coming from the Union Street side uh and it has its own entrance where on one side you have the administrative area whereas on the other side you have the healthc Care Center which was also part of the this program um the green uh long Corridor that you see would be the connecting link which where the students or the school
022um Building 21 school could come into the Welcome Center but at the same time it has its own security and entrance um on the other side what you're seeing on the screen actually is the lower level where which is where it would connect and and when you enter in you are going into these um meeting areas on one side which are uh which can be subdivided to be uh multi-purpose uh rooms whether it's you know teaching facility or is it it's a gathering facility or meeting facility and on the other side you have um different offices that were identified in the program whether it was workfor development um or other areas uh being that this was going to be um at the lower level and also um you know having people within the building that
023are going to be there for the entire day we try to have some kind of a uh spill out space as you know if they have to come take a break they have a small Pao on one side whereas on the other side where you have the meeting rooms you still have another patio or a spill out space that if you want to have the Gathering or meeting inside and outside we have created those small areas um you have stairs and elevator in the center of that lobby area which connects you to the Upper Floor if you could go to the next slide please okay so as you come up the stairs you have the lobby area which also becomes the main entrance um for the welcome center from the other side um where you
024enter in you have security uh room or security clearance right there and then you can come in you cannot come in right right away uh there is a guard or a security right there uh when you come in you have the administrator's office on one side who's going to be overseeing that facility and then you enter into these testing areas and the um um uh offices where you will be um you know taken care of on the other side the whole area that you see in blue is actually a healthcare Suite which is going to be um used by the district or the students and then the community as well go to the next slide these are some of the elevations um that we foresee for the um uh facility um while on one because
025of the topography or the side that is going from two story to one story uh on one side it would look like a big giant mass but on the other side we wanted to make sure that you know it evens out so um uh we we try to create get in as much light as possible into the building with by creating these sloped roofs if you go to the next slide please some of the sections that show what this uh what the you know how the circulation flows within the building you come up at the higher level at the ENT that's your entryway and then um you have stairway connecting to the lower areas into the meeting rooms and uh other offices but at the same time there is a door that is going to
026be secured that will be you know um uh checked on by the security staff you cannot just go in and out of this building it there is a there are checks and securities at different um doors next slide please and we have some of the uh 3D views uh showing what that uh building might look like uh as you enter in you have these um uh small smaller entryway but on the um on one side where you have the administrative area um you have smaller offices but at the same time the higher clear story Windows let in the light onto the other side of the room uh making it um uh well it space during the day uh with minimal need for lights um you have some of these other um view showing um the
027East and the West Side uh one of the I one of the comments we had received was um you know you have this new building coming up against an existing building that has been there for a while so how do we dress it up so one of the idea ideas was to um use like a rain screen which is a metal mesh and it can be anything it but right now we were trying to you know match or um complement what we were doing with the building um to have that play um against the wall so that um as you're see looking at this new beautiful Welcome Center you don't see um an older facade you see a dressed up facade uh adjacent to it so what you see on the sides uh next to
028the building is Building 21 with a newer facade and we have some more uh views there and one of the things that we were looking at doing was you know identifying the um logo onto the building so that everyone knows its presence um and it's quickly identifiable uh we were also within the building features trying to bring in uh this District colors uh from the logo and that's why you see all these uh um peers that are coming vertically through the building in the blue and the green that the District School logo has any questions um if you go to next so um the next sheet actually is more of the tabular program um that identifies the building and the following is the schedule if you want to go into that like we all said
029that we want to have this building ready by the end of 2026 so the schedule identifies that and we've already you know uh already completed the schematic stage we have our Engineers uh and Consultants on board uh they've started working on the project simultaneously so you know there's more progress on this um and we excited about it so I would like to thank s for her presentation and asup had mentioned there is also a design committee and if they're here could they stand to be recognized uh Miss Audi Torres miss Mr Tom Smith Dr Kirk bbom Miss Dawn Ard and Miss Jenna Mo mle I just want to make sure we acknowledge everyone for their work their hard work and dedication thank you very much you again I want to thank you um for the
030the group for their partnership and leadership in this work and as a district we had an opportunity to apply for a resource so we want to centralize our registration services as well as provide more for our communities and what came out in some of the discussions when I talked with families as I entered the district about having a One-Stop place for families to have resources so they don't have to go all over the city when they enter the school district and so again we seize the opportunity to apply for resources to do this that so I want to thank the team and as we build out the entire process we will engage other stakeholders um to um some of our teachers as well as other leaders as we move forward in the next phase of
031the process so thank you thank you at this time we are only taking public comments on agenda items once recognized please come to the podium state your name and address for the record and kindly limit your remarks to minutes any oh thank you may I have a motion for approval of the minutes I make the motion may I have a second second any discussion please call the roome uh Miss connover Miss Harris Miss Phoebe Harris Miss mat yes Mr nicholoff yes Miss Noel yes Miss Ortiz yes Miss terso yes Miss Brown yes motion passes 70 thank you and now for our information updates we're going to start with the Allentown human relations Commission on September can you hear me can you hear me it didn't sound like sorry on September 30th the Allentown human relations
032commission hosted the Pennsylvania human relation commission County tour this event was very informative futuring a diverse group of attendees while there were a few parents present the majority of the attendees consist of community members District employees Community Partners representative of elected official offices reflecting the commission's commitment to fering a broad Community engagement for and for the purpose of confidentiality reasons I will not go into detail of certain conversations that were had and presented in this public space but during the event app parent raised a significant concerned um regarding on how she was treated during a school board meeting by two board members um this issue along with many other issue uh within the district the city and Lehi County underscores the importance of continuous education and awareness around discrimination and ensuring that all individuals are
033treated with fairness and respect um in light of recent discussions within the community that has been brought to the human Rel Allentown human relations commission attention as well as insights from the equity report and other local concerns the commission recognizes that critical needs for enhancement education on both unlawful discrimination and diversity equity and inclusion and belonging practices while deib and anti-discrimination efforts are distinct the absence of deib practices can leave organizations exposed to discrimination claims the commission emphasizes the importance of integrating these principles to mitigate risk and create inclusive environments Additionally the commission has reiterated that the Allentown human relations commission has reiterated uh the the Pennsylvania human relations commission offers no cost education training on these topics as experts in handling discrimination cases phrc Pennsylvania human relations commission is well positioned to provide this
034training ensuring that organizations and individuals are better equipped to be proactively to proactively address discrimination and Foster an inclusion the commission strongly encourages all stakeholders to prioritize education on unlawful discrimination and deib practices by implementing comprehensive deib strategies organizations can better Safeguard against discrimination claims while promoting a culture of inclusion equity and respect as it relates to the Allentown School District it is important that we recognize the many different intersectionalities as it relates to the discrimination in um deib as we continue to grow we're doing a lot of great things in the district right however there are many things that have been brought to my attention by community members um employees uh new employees old employees um I won't mention any names however anyone that has expressed um cases of discrimination retaliation working in a
035hostile work environment um by law I am required to report it to the human relations Commission because as I serve on the Allentown human relations commission I am also a board member and that can be perceived as a conflict of interest in addition to the Allentown human relations commission is not currently investigating claims so we partner with the Pennsylvania state human relation commission to ensure that all people people who um of all protected classes that are covered in every jurisdiction are treated fair with dignity and respect and are not being exposed to unlawful discrimination thank you thank you m Mar is there a report from the Allentown Public Library not at the moment thank you and I have a report from the Allentown School District Foundation the Allentown School School District Foundation is partnering with
036the school district on several programs to benefit ASD students in addition to the Arts science literacy and social studies programs highlighted in last month's report we have resumed Elementary after school steam clubs and Middle School string lessons we also promote the availability of teacher Innovation grants and reviewed 30 applications which are currently under review additionally we are working with ASD on several special events and we invite everyone to participate to show your support for the students since 1959 Allan and dff high school have faced off for for an annual football game that celebrates the perpetuates and perpetuates the two schools fabled rival rivalry oo poor thing in this Spirit ASD and ASD Foundation are joining forces through an online fundraising challenge that benefits and strengthens the entire School District the ASD High School rivalry challenge
037is running online from 10:00 a.m. October 18 to 10:00 a.m. October 26th the school that rates the most in donations will receive a shout out at the Allen dff game on October 26th and will see their flag flying at the other school's campus for the day this is rough okay the funds raised will support all ASD students through educational and enrichment program that aligns with the Strategic mission of the foundation and the district the 16 winners of the Hispanic Heritage Month arts and letters contest will be recognized at as's November 20th you are the light event special thanks to everyone from ASD ASD foundation and local Arts communities who assisted with coordinating promoting and judging the contest and to the 55 students from throughout the district who submitted beautiful artworks essays and poems celebrating his
038Hispanic heritage give them a round of applause please also on November 20th ASD foundation will host our 12th annual Middle School Latin dance competition at William Allen High School this is a big deal guys beginning at 7 pm. we hope you will join us for an exciting evening featured featuring close to 60 ASD students who are participating in salsa moring lessons funded by the foundation this fall admission is free thanks to our event sponsor Mr sha leay a local State Farm Insurance agent please feel free to contact ASD foundation with any questions about these programs and events that ends my report is there report from the lehar um Korean Technical Institute I I really just have an announcement tonight if you know at eth or nth grade greater in allent town please let them know
039that the annual lcti open house will be from 6:00 to 8 p.m. on November 14th this is an evening that people just really enjoy uh it does Park up so get there early thank you and that ends our information reports for the evening now for the good stuff and this evening's board of directors report we are approving our 2024 2025 student representatives to the board prior to tonight's meeting we held a reception in their honor at the Lehigh Valley Heritage Museum we would also like to recognize and thank the members of the ASD foundation and human relations commission who are here tonight to welcome our new student board representatives to their boards at this time we ask that our high school principls introduce their student representatives in alternates Mr Frank Derek from William Allen High
040School please step to the podium hello everyone I'm Frank Derek happy principal at William Allen High School very happy to announce our 2024 2025 Canary student representatives to the board Alicia Rodriguez Jessica guaman Jessica guaman Yuro Santiago Lenny Bell Castro Valeria Nunes Fuentes and not not able to be with us Christian Michael sa and Annie Esther Dade thank you probably come this way and now for Mr Jose Vado from bilding 21 good evening everyone Jose Rosado proud School leader at Building 21 high school it's a pleasure to be here with you all today introducing our student Representatives it's with great pride that uh We've selected them to represent us it's in many ways because of the passion the power the agency that they possess and the impact they've had at Building 21 and I look
041forward to them having that same impact within the Allentown School District across and in our community so I ask you to join me in welcoming those Representatives Kimberly Aras iel Rodriguez Enriquez Adriana Rodriguez Ashanti Romero donate call iani Alexander Jay vet bz and unable to join us this evening Lila Perez go all the way down guys keep going all the way down and now for Mr Jeffrey from De High School Mr Schmidt I'm sorry it's okay good evening superintendent Dr Burks good evening uh esteemed board members and ASD Community it is absolutely my pleasure to present to you this incredibly talented uh group of IND individuals who will represent deer of high school as student board members um for the school year 2425 um I am very very proud of all of you um Kaden
042Sprayberry Jennifer Luna alante JC gimenez Rosario [Laughter] an Alisia Striker Tesa Vasquez Natalia Herrera Munos Benjamin keriso and Gabriela Gonzalez got you go okay now may I have a motion of approval of the board of directors report may I have a second second second is there any discussion please call the well Miss Harris Miss Phoebe Harris miss maton Mr nikoloff yes Miss Noel yes Miss Ortiz yes Miss terso yes Miss Brown yes Miss Conover motion passes 70 okay welcome to the board she want us to you want us to come okay you guys just a little everybody up here parents oh memberse you got all right so if you're in the front too it might families thank you so much we thank you for coming out I please feel free to leave now if you
043would like to like it's getting seeing you huh Dr Swan why you didn't come up why you didn't come up I was looking for you okay you know I'm short so most of theud I couldn't even see still in the middle of a good night thank you thank you so much thank you guys we're still in the meeting I just Only You a mess okay yeah okay so we're g to continue on with our meeting for the night we also have a special presentation on the agenda tonight um Dr Roth will present an update from the homeless task force Dr Roth thank you Madame President Dr Burks members of the board it's my pleasure to be here tonight to provide you a uh quick update on the work of the homelessness supports task force um
044that convened last year and does uh also involve um three of our board members who have been there two of them who've been there regularly so thank you so much for your support have the next slide please or does this work thank you so tonight we're going to to um go over the task force activities in progress thus far uh we're going to talk a little bit about the landscape of homelessness specifically here in the city of valentown and how that affects our students that we serve we're going to talk about some of the actions and solutions that we have been pursuing as a task force and I'm going to share with you some of the next steps and recommendations that we are going to be bringing forward so in September of 2023 the alltown
045School District School Board of Directors adopted a resolution uh regarding the creation and Adoption of a homelessness prevention and service plan um as a result of that uh the alltown school district hosted a partner Summit to establish a homelessness supports task force to dive into this issue and to start asking questions about what we could do as a district as a community um as a group of organizations in order to support our students and families who are experiencing homelessness um since January 2024 and to present the Allentown School District homelessness um the T the task force has met eight times at various partner locations and we have work to gather information to identify priorities and collaborate develop actions um I put the statement up there the homelessness supports task force aims to create a collaborative
046network of Community Partners and resources to support District families experiencing homelessness this has become our Focus this has become our Drive um and why we do the work that we do so some of the activities that we have um engaged in as a result of the homelessness supports task force we've had site visits to partner organizations to gain a deeper understanding of their services and what they can provide and to explore those opportunities for collaboration um we've had active participation by by members of our homeless our two homeless liaison in organizations like the Lehigh Valley Regional homeless Advisory Board um the Salvation Army housing task force and the Pennsylvania education for Children and Youth experiencing homelessness Region 8 um in order to advocate for policy changes and for resource allocation we also have really um
047developed a strong commitment to expand those Partnerships and service connections to benefit our students and families that are experiencing homelessness um for example I'm going to give you two brief examples of of where this has come to fruition so I had the pleasure to um visit Daybreak that is sponsored by the conference of churches um and Riley Cruiser was um gracious to open up his doors and take us through so members of the task force visited to see what that program was how we can potentially partner what are the types of resources that overlap as as a result of the work that they do um we also so we're lucky to have um Valley Health Partners um join us so uh Joshua and JJ I want to give a shout out to them they run
048the street medicine program and they actually were um literally a godsend to us because we did have a student that was um experiencing homelessness who was not able to access health care because he's one of those students that is 18 years old falls into that category of not being able to necessarily access some of the things that he needs and we were able to partner um get Joshua and JJ to work with that student and provide him with um Mental Health Resources that he he so desperately needed so in terms of understanding that the landscape uh we of course we we need to start with the prevalence of children experiencing homelessness um now I want to talk about this data because I know there is um there is a data there is data and their
049story behind the numbers right and some of the numbers that we see and some of the numbers that we don't necessarily see so um each year organizations that support children's and Children and Youth experiencing homelessness need to report that information to eia the ecy Region 8 uh website and the resources for that they we identify students right who are experiencing homeless other organizations and partners in alentine identify students who are experiencing homelessness and then we report that data back to um and into um eia so you'll see up there the numbers right of students that were reported as experiencing homelessness um in the Allentown School District catchman area um you'll note right 624 in 20192 20 and it dropped to 160 in 2020 2021 that does not mean that we necessarily hit a drop correct
050but it's not necessarily that we actually had a drop in students we had a drop in the reporting reporting of the students and I think that's one of the things that we are are still struggling with and part of what the work of the task force is focused on is number one overcoming that uh stigma of homeless experiencing homelessness and being able to help our families realize and help our community and our uh providers and even us that are part of the district to understand what homelessness actually is and what it means because it's not necessarily this stereotypical thing that we uh that we have seen right that has been to a certain degree and I'm going to say romanticized but I don't mean it in that particular way but in the way that it's
051been put forward in TV movies and so on and so forth um as of um so we're currently getting the data and the numbers verified for the 23 24 school year but as of October 23 2024 um our homeless leaon have identified 290 District students experiencing um homelessness so it's it's a um it's something that is very much become very near and dear to my heart and to many of the folks um who are of course a part of the homelessness task force that we have partnered with um one of the things that has come up as part of our conversation is the lack of affordable housing this is cons consistently something that has been raised by members of the task force um I I want to say that that is not necessarily something that
052we can undertake as a task force because we are truly focused on uh the application of mckin vento and what we need to do in terms of removing the barriers for students who are experiencing homelessness so though although we would love to solve that problem um I don't believe that we are going to be able to do that solely with this homelessness task force so right now we're really focused fusing our efforts on on getting the resources in order to support um our students and and and families that comes through in the um the next statement right the the impact of homelessness that it has on students so we're we're really looking at the ways in which when families or students do experience um homelessness that we are wrapping our arms around them and getting
053them the services and resources that they need so that they can be successful so that they can feel like they are getting the supports that they need that they are able to um come to school they are able to um face and receive the supports that they need for sometimes the very traumatic events that have brought them to homelessness um the task force identified the need for coordinated services so we have a lot of organizations as you all are well aware within the Allen toown that are very much willing and want to help so our task force has looked at ways in which we can coordinate communicate and really create those bridges between those organizations and I will say that we've been successful in that because um member organizations have heard from us about the
054things that our students need and we've heard from them how we can partner uh with them especially around what we we've deemed sort of that handoff of you know when a a student or a family that is experiencing homelessness has found a connection with somebody how do we build upon that connection for them to trust somebody else in order to be able to get the help or assistance that they need um we've identified of course the resource gaps 247 shelter access is something that continues to be a challenge um in the city of alentown as well as other areas uh rental assistance and eviction prevention programs and again those are two things that the task force recognizes and wants to try to influence but not necessarily to a level where we can affect that particular
055change however we can provide trauma informed care for educators support students mental health and provide transportation assistance the uh collaboration and partnership so one of the things is our homeless Liaisons have actually um gone out and visited various organizations and partners on their own to again build those relationships and build those um lines of open communication and there's a list of the various partners that they they have um that they have visited many of them are also a part of you know the the homelessness uh supports task force which when it initially launched we had over um 40 individuals representing 26 organizations and I would say pretty consistently we've had about 10 organizations that have been represented at each of our task force meetings so some of the actions and solutions we've started uh resource
056mapping and sharing those resources so for example we completed a review of hotel and motel list and you might say Dr Roth what's that all about why did we have to do something like that we have a lot of hotels and motels that are both located in the city of Allentown and are around the city of Allentown so we've actually created a resource list so that our um organizations know which are in actually Allentown which are outside of Allentown and which ones so when students are experiencing or families are experiencing homelessness and go to a hotel we know where they fall so that we can then partner appropriately in order to get them resources so for example a family from that may go homeless in Bethlehem may move into a hotel that is in Allentown
057right we want to help Bethlehem in terms of serving those students and those families so we've created that list so that we have that identification to be able to communicate and say like okay here's where this family is located here's how and who needs to be involved in terms of support uh We've developed uh an internal resource listing our homeless leison have been fantastic in that in terms of sharing that back out with the points of contacts at each school but also the organizations um with which we have partnered um I mentioned earlier that review of the process that what we're calling that warm handoff and then and this has been I think one of the the most powerful is that shared and distributed information concerning events we will sit down around the table and
058often share what's happening what's happen in what's happening what are you doing when is it happening how can we get that information out to our families so that they can again bottom line is we've we've tried to um create situations in which our families can um be treated and feel as if they are human and a part of the community right that they have what they need to partake in all the wonderful richness of the things that are available um in the city of Allentown and of course disc of funding sources and allocations which is always important for us so in terms of actual targeted support um we we've looked at how can we meet both immediate and long-term um um students who are experiencing homelessness so um I'm really proud of the work that
059um we did at the William pen building this year because we um actually have made that a centralized location to store supplies needed for students and families experiencing homelessness so many of the supplies and and um items that were purchased through the um ARP Esser Grant targeted towards um homelessness supports are actually stored at the home at the uh William Penn building and what makes me even prouder and I shared some pictures up there is that um Dr Burke's wonderful ayic program we had interns this summer and this was their project they organized received inventoried and stored all of those materials and resources and and over the summer were available when we had some families that were experiencing homelessness as a result of a fire actually be there as the homeless Leons came and could
060help to get the resources together for them so it was a very powerful moment for for all of you uh we are currently uh in conversation to partner with Second Harvest to investigate expansion of the food pantry location So currently we have one at Jefferson we're looking at ways in which we might be able to EXP expand food pantries in other areas um or other locations uh within the district and we're also um investigating and this has become a a really you know passion project for many of us drop in centers for students and families experiencing homelessness being able to provide that space because as I've learned um 211 is is getting backed up there's a lot of red tape that families need to go through and so forth so we're trying to create those
061places or those situations where again families can come in and they can feel welcome that they have a place and that students can um enjoy some programming um this summer just to let you know like how this and I know many of you are aware but I want to put some numbers so that you can get the context so this past summer um Allentown city um experienced four fires that displaced five families that included 15 people and six students since the school year began right we're not even into uh heater season right and plugging in some of those devices because many of these were electrical fires four fires eight families 30 people 15 students one of them an unaccompanied minor so when we talk about having those resources literally we'll get a call or a
062text from Chelsea or alley we've had a fire what do we need they talk to the parents the parents give them a list and it's everything right they sometimes need everything phone chargers clothing right shampoo um food everything and we have it and are able to um to supply it to them in terms of next steps and recommendations we're going to continue to build those relationships and strengthen our Partnerships um our next task force meeting is Wednesday October 30th um from 2:30 to 4m right here in this um in this room uh please come out to learn more about what we do um we're working on communication strategies to um expand um our reach to the wider community so you know I've I've tapped um thank you Dr Burks for bringing Lindsay Parks into the
063into the district so I've started talking with her about ways that we can involve other organizations um alumni um anybody who is willing to help Catholic Charities has actually approached us because they have folks who are literally lined up willing to give money and we know we can use the money right we can we can definitely use that especially in these particular areas um investigate and secure funding for initiatives such as dropin centers um and those additional ESS essential items for families I did have the opportunity with um Miss Buffalo to visit the um nights keep which is a dropin center at reading High School um that Services their students at the high school level who are experiencing homelessness and I'm going to share that for any of you who are interested I'm going to
064be share thatting at the homeless task force meeting on October 30th and then of course the uh district has been doing a fantastic job of going through their District policies so I have um stepped up and said our group will help with reviewing District policy to 51 homeless students as part of that review thank you questions do anybody have questions nobody have a question no go ahead because I want to finish my thought on this go ahead right mhm I think you touched on some things when you were talking about um well when you said all that you said my question goes to because we're doing extremely we doing a very good job with getting the supplies and things like that but um do we have a way of one question is do we have
065a way of determining what students are sleeping outside as opposed to ones that are Church surfing because we hear this I've been on the board seven years right almost I think and um we hear this um we have 800 we have a thousand we hear these numbers right and so that mean for almost seven years I went to bed and I woke up and I'm still here so there's still kids our kids that are sleeping in the streets I know that one time I read that Valley youth house was giv out tents Once Upon a Time um I hear that we have a tent city right and sorry and so um that question do we have we do we have do we know how do we know so that comes through the collaboration and the
066communication so by partnering with um JJ and Josh Joshua through Valley Health Partners Street medicine who are out and regularly visiting that tens City they have eyes right they have eyes on on folks and can report and bring things back to us now I don't I don't want that to sound like they're I mean they're coming back they're coming back and they're saying like hey we believe there may be right and that gives us the opportunity to to to cue into that um we work very closely with the Synergy project um with Valley youth house so as they are out with that that Outreach again what we are one of the challenges we face is that we number one finding out who is so we we're challenged in that area we are challenged in that
067area and then so the Second Challenge is once we do know right sometimes them being um trusting and accepting of what that looks like like I I am aware of I don't I don't believe they're sleeping outside but I do know of one uh situation that we believe a family is homeless and they do not want to tell us that right so what we are doing is we are trying to We are giving them supplies and we are helping them out so that hopefully at some point there will build that level of trust so that we can then link them up with the appropriate resources to get them what they need so I don't want to this could be a very long conversation but I do want to have have it but I don't want
068to spend well I do want to spend time so I'm not going to let me just say what I'm going to say so do can we create or have we consider I'm on the same task force by the way um ways of having people come come to you because I had an experience when I was in a store I may have even shared and a kid one kid was getting ready to steal food and so I'm I'm very observant so I'm seeing what's going on and so I appropriately I guess appropriately approached the just told the people I'm paying for that you know and I paid for it but then we had a whole conversation about school and stuff like that but then when I looked outside there was a parent and you can clearly
069see that they were living outside of their car can we or what can we do what what do we need to CH to fix that one CU one thing we know that the weather is getting ready to break M and we know that we don't want our students um out in the element you know because if somebody dies you know I would hate to see some flowers laying in that spot right because we could have been proactive so I would need to know and I'm asking this question I'll probably ask it when we sat down with the other groups what can we do now I think all everything we're doing is is wonderful but what can we do now to make sure that they get shelter there's people um I think I heard you say
070there's Catholic Charities that wants to give money they may be people who have our partners who have buildings but maybe the buildings are not coated for that but it's better than sleeping in a car car like what can we collectively do to use those resources that people are willing to have I mean to say I'm sorry but we just don't have any room that's a problem for me so what can we do we do as a district and I understand that maybe some of my colleagues may feel that is to some extent we can't eradicate homelessness but what can we do to turn that number from what it is and to be able to have people come and say hey look you know we don't have to tell it to the world but I don't
071have a place to sleep tonight what can we do you tell us what we I'm and I'm a Bo I'm a board member I want to hear what we can do so that we can start being proactive and get out there and get that other piece we shouldn't be coming to a board meeting saying this is the still the same challenge that we had when rooster was here you know so that's one question you ready yes okay when monies are allowed this is a might be a district question when monies are alloted because I know the district does get money cuz we bought what did we buy with the money that we had we got plus thousand or something I mean how much did we get you remember Dr Frank Kelly can speak to that
072specifically if you'd like to a response to that well doctor okay and remember we having this conversation because for every problem right we're trying to get a solution and so this is not it's hard conversation but I'm going to ask question so how much money did the district get for homelessness so for the ARP homeless children and youth Grant we received a little over 400,000 so I'm rounding to about $401,000 and the grant funding was from July 1st of 2021 through September 30th of this year and what did we do are do you know what we did with it sure so we used a portion of it to support um inhouse some salaries and benefits for people who were working um and supporting our homeless liaison in that department we also spent a large chunk
073of money on supplies so some of the supplies that Dr Roth had spoken about as well as some gift cards so gift cards for um places such as um food food places places to get clothing gas gift cards a small portion on um hotel.com gift cards but really um because as Dr Roth said SPAC is of a premium so we certainly don't have space to have sizes for everyone so the gift cards really um help provide that support when we may not have those items on hand so we did spend approximately $185,000 of that Grant on the supplies including the gift cards and the hygiene supplies Personal Care items things like that we also spent the um recently heard about the van that we purchased and that was about $68,000 so that is a um
074a a passenger van that we can keep some of the seats in we can also remove some of the seats in the back in case we want to use part of it to take supplies in case of an event like Dr Roth talked about such as a fire or something like that where we need to get people to places and get supplies to people so we do have the van we also spent about $30,000 on supplemental Transportation so that we use all the money I didn't do the man we use all the money yes so how the other question before I go where I'm getting ready to go when you receive when we receive that money is there anything in there that says you cannot use money for shelter there isn't anything that says that
075specifically but there are very clear um regulations and guidance that all other options have to be exhausted Ed so we heard Dr Roth talk about um places in the community other organizations so they do make it very clear that you have to exhaust all of those options before using the funding for that for um so what for that so what I think I'm hearing and correct me I'm trying to follow right we have Partners in the community that are willing to who have not even willing they have exhausted all of their shelter option so that would be a time that we would kick in we could use that money to actually if Dr Mosley huh had a house that was sitting there doing nothing and she you know we could possibly partner with her to
076use that dwelling if we jump through the Hoops we needed to jump through to provide shelter is that correct so the the funding that I spoke of ended on September 30th I I'm I'm not talking about when it ended I'm acting like we have it forever so could we have used that funding where I'm going this District everybody's doing a commercial for this district and we doing very well but we used to buy book bags for kids that didn't have books you you understand what I'm saying you see where I'm going no what I'm saying is we have homeless children and the goal is to provide shelter and if we had spaces within the community that people could provide and we could jump through those Hoops to make sure that those spaces are available or
077up to par up to the standard I should say then we could put families temporarily with that plan you talked about getting them in places and spaces and with the soap I mean anybody can buy soap I mean you know we can do drives we can we can do a lot of things to get that I'm not minimizing what has been done but I'm just saying you spelled out that we bought a van that we can take seats out of that we can possibly transport things to give to people who don't have shelter I think it's it's important to keep in mind that all of the decisions with with regard to the funding were not made in isolation so it wasn't me making I'm not blaming I'm not blaming I'm just I'm making it C
078though that it was a group effort um the two homeless Le aison were involved in the decisions with regard to how the the um the funding was spent okay so I guess what I'm getting at is there's a practice there's something that we're doing there's a culture we have created that we have to undo because it's not working goes back to before we had a curriculum I said why are we paying people when we're not educating you talked about some of that money had to go to the people who are actually doing the work and people have to get paid nobody not doesn't get paid except us um but we have to pay them right but what are we paying them for if we're not getting the job done couldn't we rethink that moving forward
079or is it that we feel like it's not the I don't know I don't want to go that far I'm not going to put that out there X strike that but we could use the funds that we have we had in other ways because I heard you say again Catholic Char Charities they have money but what do they need again so one of the representatives from Catholic Charities indicated to me that they consistently get calls from individuals who want to help and want to give money right especially when it comes to homelessness in those particular areas so we actually discussed that at our last task force meeting and that's what some of the members are doing right now is investigating and asking that exact question that you're asking where might there be space where might
080there be a partner that we can partner with in order to provide drop in spaces spaces when a student or a family has lost everything and they don't have a place to say for them to be able to um as you are well aware and I won't go into much of the detail but there are a lot of um and not hurdles from us but hurdles from other um organizations that need to be overcome that are challenges that they're facing as well so at some point right at some point I think we will need to sit down and talk about what they are experiencing in terms of those hurdles in terms of securing those spaces and being able to open them up for uh individuals to stay in and do you think that that could
081be done you from a task force standpoint or do we need to create some form of committee well so what I will what I will say right is that again the task force course is is charged with building those relationships and collaboration and communication in order to enact mckin vento right to try to remove those barriers to of students experiencing homeless homelessness to them being successful so we can all agree that not having a place to stay is a huge barrier that is a huge huge huge barrier but as as one of our task members said like this is a very complex very challenge Laden um um situation that we there many people are passionate about and we need to keep working at it right but we're not going to necessarily be able to and
082it kills me to say that because I like to solve problems but I don't think we're going to be able to solve it as quickly right like you you mentioned and again I rooster is like an icon to me right because I heard so much about what rooster did even when I wasn't in Allentown right but you like you said these are the same problems that rooster was experiencing right and if if anyone could have done it it would have been rooster right like I feel like he really had so many of those connections and were able to do it so that doesn't mean we shouldn't stop trying but I think we we're we're we're trying to overcome some of these initial barriers and Things by building those relationships Politics the politics and and let
083me just say this to you if we all can sit in this room because I know I I don't know about you guys and I'm kind of tired tonight so y'all for so please forgive me cuz I'm struggling but if we can commit to doing a 2:30 to 4:00 because time is money during in the middle of a week in the middle of all the other things that we have to do I think that it's time for us because the district has campaigned this is how we've come as far as because when I got on here they was telling us in 2025 we were going to have a massive deficit and so this is 202 4 but that's not the story right now but at any rate if we could do collectively get with those
084partners and we do we start campaigning for the things that really matter because I will tell you I'm part of I'm the education chair but even but I'm a mother I'm a Ed you said you said it Dr Burks parents are first teachers if we can't meet the needs of our children in terms of shelter we have some m we have to meet their needs that's the one of their number one needs and so I would like to see we we can do it Dr Roth there's so many we have so many we have we have uh landlords or people here in the community and people in the lehab valley but in the community who have properties that's just sitting here that's doing nothing we have churches that are willing to do things you know
085some Churches go I've talked to pastors and they're doing work in Africa because they can't do it right here at home and so I would like to charge this board this District to get together with the partners that are willing to do the work to try to figure out how we can knock these barriers down and we can house our children we can get them adequate housing whether it be tempor why we push them to the next level because we're doing a lot of talking about and and I sell houses so you know it is what it is but we're we're we're building up a lot of stuff in our city but we have children right here in the district children while we're talking tonight they're sleeping in cars they're sleeping on the streets and
086it is our job to make sure that we do everything in our power to make sure that they receive the services and they receive the shelter we have to be real clear about that you know and so folks may say um you know what we we're never going to be yeah we're never going to you could say never but that doesn't mean we don't keep going and we don't try and I don't feel like we're doing I don't think we're doing enough in terms of making sure that the funding is allocated properly or we're fighting the right fight for lack of a better word and that's all I have to say but again this is a discussion but we have to do something I don't want to do another another winter I would like to
087see up there and say hey we had 600 families that we couldn't place and we had 598 that we placed and we have we have processes in place so that we can do this and we can do that that's it that's all I have so much to say and I'm sitting here listening I'm trying to allow my heartbeat to slow down so I can stop hearing how hard my heart is beating I'm very upset very disappointed I am damned angry I am so angry right now however I can still conduct myself in a professional manner right first I want to thank you Dr Roth I want to thank you I want to thank the homeless liaison I want to thank the partners and anybody else that has contribute to what we have accomplished this far
088I know a lot of things are not within you all's control my first question is is there a reason the homeless liaison is not here tonight can somebody answer that it don't have to be you if you don't know but if you do know I would like to know because I made the request to have an update on the homeless task force and I would have liked for the homeless Le aison to be present as well as you to give any information and feedback that is necessary to update the entire board on what has happened since the creation of this task force so could you answer that question or someone answer that question um so um the request came to me from Miss monley to do this presentation I think it was last week and
089unfortunately both of the homeless Le aison had family commitments for this evening okay so the the request came to you last week I made this request a couple weeks ago um to a lot the time for everyone that needed to be here to be here so they can answer questions so anyone that can attempt to answer this next question does the homeless liaison still utilize a database where they collect information as they verify each student as being out of one of the categories of being homeless do they still utilize that database I believe it was like a Google sheet along with a intake form I know some time back um that's the process that they used and once you fill out the intake form it it automatically transfers to the um Google sheet is that
090still the process do you know or can somebody answer that maybe Tiffany Pock that's still the pro okay so do you know what date the state database requires the information to be reported because I know it's on a school term beginning of the school end of the school term that it should be submitted so the number should have been submitted but I don't want to say that exactly because I don't recall the date so to your understanding is it that the data should have been from the 2024 should that information had be submitted already okay so when I look at the presentation it does not provide that information and even if the state the database did not submit the report um because the homeless Le aison is collecting that data on their own and as
091they verify who's homeless and who's not that's a number that we should have known what that number look like up until the end of the year I I do have that number I didn't I chose not I should say I didn't chose chose not to because I I wanted to compare apples to apples right like so I wanted to be able to come to you and say Here's the echa data right here is the echa data last year um on that database that you were talking about 526 students okay so now we're approaching winter let me go back because I have so much written on my I want to say that I find it very disrespectful that as you were given this presentation and I encourage anybody to go back and look at the video
092right I find it very disrespectful that we're having a conversation regarding students who are homeless without a home to live and we have leadership folks right that are on this de and they don't even seem interested so that's where my anger is coming from right now I am extremely upset by that we do a well job with highlighting the things we want to highlight in this District but we do not highlight the most important things we have so many barriers that are eliminating our students to have the ability to good education access to good education I've said this many times if our students cannot eat and don't know where they going to lay their head at night how do we expect them to come in a classroom to be focused and obtain an education it's
093disgusting I have a question maybe Dr Burks can answer this I don't remember so I'm just asking how does the Strategic plan address our students in homelessness just for framing there are thousands of people who are involved in the strategic planning process from the school board of directors to all the Educators there's representation our community leaders leaders students and families and all the many hours of discussions we we have a family and Community engagement gold homelessness was not elevated in any of these comments nor did the school board of directors vote for homelessness or or put any input for the Strategic plan to have a focus on homelessness okay thank you for that comment um so I was unaware of this 400,000 plus um grant that we we got um could someone share were we
094the recipient or subrecipient of the grant do you know to my understanding I thought this was an essers grant that was awarded in in 2021 it was an esser's Grant 2021 it had to be expended in September 30th of okay I have to say um 400 plus thousand is a lot of money compared to what our partners get um could you tell me what are the eligible activities within that Grant or could somebody tell me what were the eligible activities in that Grant and the name of the grant please Dr friendley do you have that information readily available though she she needs a few minutes to look it up that's fine it is the American rescue plan Esser fund homeless children and youth Grant all right and do you by chance know what the eligible
095activities for that is is that's what she looking for I I I believe I have it up on my computer all right I'm sorry I do not have the website pulled up I had it pulled up previously okay so I can get that information to you now thank you um I want to go back to the Strategic plan for a minute because I don't think this go by that e right we have Partners parents um businesses Community all type of Community Partners private public nonprofit whatever have you um students and no one addressed homelessness and no one thought from what Dr Burke said no one bought up um homelessness oril wasn't a high lighted issue I guess um 400,000 400 plus th000 seems like a significant amount that we should be focusing on because every
096dollar that comes within the district is supposed to benefit our students in some way right [Music] um You said the dollars was spent on gift cards uh about 68,000 for a van what is the use of this van and are people sleeping in the van anybody sure so we decided um we had the option to purchase either a cargo van or a passenger van we decided to purchase the passenger van which allows us the option then to transport people should we need to um but it also allows us then to remove some of the seats as I said before should we need to keep some of the seats in front to transport people as well as have a portion of the van for supplies and transport people in which way um it could be for
097um Outreach Services it could be for um Family engagement activities it could be for um providing services or connecting families to services but the passenger van allows us to have those options that the cargo van would so we couldn't utilize one of the current Vans or buses that we have that is already paid for for the students we took homeless dollars to spend on a van which doesn't seem um as helpful to the students because we have the means as a district to provide the services you just stated that the van would be utilized for um there are um sorry I didn't want to interrupt you it's okay I'm I'm just and this is not my feelings are not toward you I just no that's okay I just didn't want to interrupt you if you
098were in the middle of the plot um I think the um the request for the van came because our homeless leaon talk with other school districts and there are large there are larger districts districts that are in urban um environments that really have found ways to utilize the van successfully and really this was a request from our homeless leaon they really did um want this okay in addition you mentioned earlier that some of this funding went to salaries did we get new employees to assist the homeless leison that those salaries went to or did the salaries go to employees that are already hired by the district like what I would have to drill down and I I'm not trying to be deceptive I just I wasn't here for all of that since I I'm only
099started a few months ago so I'm not 100% sure but this the use of uh the funding towards salary and benefits I know that part of it was for uh clerical support because certainly when you're putting in lots of orders for Hygiene supplies and things like that it does require a lot of manpower to do that and I get that 100 a th% if that was the thing but um but I don't know to answer your question the specifics Dr Ru you mentioned um Daybreak you all visit Daybreak how has that been a partnership that supports our students um I'm familiar with Conference of churches in Daybreak and how that is main that's not really Geared for family so correct but what it what it did was it helped us to understand deeper what they
100do and how they do it and what some of the challenges are so that actually when we had conversations with other partners about what they could do to support students they understood how that program was not geared for students right that that and here were some of the reasons why it wouldn't work there and how it could work somewhere else so that was that was one piece right the second piece was and we're still in negotiation around this but they often get a lot of food that they don't have space for and again I'm um Folks at William pen and Facilities department has been very gracious to me because I've been trying to squeeze every bit of an inch that I can out of the William pen building because that's right down the road from
101other street from Daybreak to be able to um potentially partner to be able to store some of that food that we could then dist distribute to our students and families okay my next question is um I remember I don't remember exactly when but we talked about getting away from gift cards I remember our superintendent mentioning so why are we getting gift cards again and a lot of our partners provide gift cards to our students who are unsheltered and I can name a few off the top of my head so I'm trying to figure out I think you said 30,000 on gift cards Dr Frank Kelly please so the gift cards are um part of our supplies category so I don't have it specifically broken down but supplies overall so including um hygiene products Personal Care
102items and the gift card purchases probably about 108 I'm rounding $187,000 [Music] um again the gift cards a a big request from our homeless leaon because um part of what that does we had to use the funding by September 30th but we have the gift cards now so the gift cards allow us the opportunity to even though the funding ended we still have the gift cards so we can use those in the future and how did so what and I'm not being rude please but what it sounds like to me is we needed to hurry up and spend this money so fast that we just picked some things and we said we going to spend the money here to say that we did something so that's what it sounds like to me right um we
103had a committee that had the homeless Lea on it as well as previous leadership and they were aware that the resources were available and so given the time allotment and the resources were available and because of some of the bigger efforts that they could not spend the funding on they tried to broker with uh hotels so so there can be more of a seamless trans there were some complexities with that there was lots of back and forth with the state as to what things could be spent on or not spent on there was lots of discussion and so we would have been uh negligent if at the time allotted with the time allotted if we did not spend resources yes I did say that I was not the biggest fan of of purchasing gift cards
104however I did consult with our team and they said Dr Brooks we have accountability measures in place to ensure that we can get the funding in make sure we incumber the funds and that we have adequate uh accountability so that our famili will get their need and that there won't be any deception because yes I did say that I was very concerned about that and we want to spend these resources so there's a lots of time but there was also transition and Leadership and I have to commend Dr Frank Kelly and Dr Roth for helping to ensure that we met the deadline as well as our finance team because it took a lot of processing it took a lot and the most importantly the homeless liaison and these requests they said it was very um
105cumbersome for them to have to put things in their cars and plug things around and this was a request of theirs and so we went to the state to the state back and forth and said okay is this an allowable thing that will help them to do their jobs and serve the families so I just wanted to make sure that I shared that for the record but Dr Frank Kelly you had firsthand account most recently of the conversations and that's why I keep deferring to her because instead of me third parties sharing a message so sorry Miss conov I appreciate that comment however I'm well aware of how these grants work in state grants because one that's what I do right um and I understand that's why my request was what were the eligible activities
106I understand if I was in the same predicament as staff members putting donations in my car I would request something too but again I want to reiterate as I stated earlier we have ASD Vans we also have our own school buses where we could utilize to assist with things like this um may just address the ASD Vans right now we are looking to purchase Vans because of the conditions in our current Vans and so they wouldn't be in a position to take these vans on and that's why we're fortunate for our partners at St Luke's because they have a lot of us reach resources to purchase vans so that we can support our sports activities now does a district need to um purchase a different additional uh Fleet and such absolutely because they're very old
107but I just want to make sure it's not like we had a current van we would had to purchase a van for something else anyway and this was a request for them so we don't have vans that we feel that they can take on and ride around we need new so I remember riding in a ASD van recently and it didn't feel like it was going to break down so maybe that's true whatever but anyway um I just I don't want to keep y'all all night but this is an important topic and based off of some of the things that I heard I feel it really is important to talk about it um and just for the record the van that you may have been in was a van through STA and and Mr kuln
108could explain that better than I can we call it the van it has her name on it but it's we pay additional resources to use that service so if I miss I'm G finish looking at I wrote DB over everything I done I'm not done but you can go ahead I'mma collect my thoughts so I just want to just just say it sounds like um you said you may mention about um transitional leadership that's been a problem for a long time so as a result of of transitional leadership that's part of our homeless problem too pardon that was part of the problem we had transitional leadership we we've had over the years yes we've had some transition and most recently transition in that area of the oversight and so and I don't want to get
109into Personnel matters who it's not I don't want you to go there but I'm just making note and then the other thing was with the with the cards we can call that a spin down right can we call that a spin is that proper spin down I'm not sure how you're using that term can you clarify Mr mean in other words they had money they didn't get any cooperation with the state or any of the agencies of places that they were trying to spend the money on so that they can provide services for the homeless children in our district so they said let's buy some cards and we can have those and we can use those CS if we need them so that's called a spin down you spend down the money we can call
110that's what that mean you don't like that word you want another word you got another one for is I don't like the word I don't think the the way it's being represented is not the way it occurred but they we wanted to incover the funds to make sure that we can provide homelessness services to our families because the funds were available and we did not want to and I'm not the finance person and Miss Simmons or Miss um Smith want to speak to the grants because they manage grants if they want to speak specifically what the term is just so we have it accurate for the record the public if that's permissible if you like that I don't need that okay I just wanted to make sure that we was understanding the same thing but
111we we had some money that we need to hold on to because the time with the clock was running out for the homeless students in our district right is that safe to say we want to ensure that we spent the money for the students because we had it yes same thing thank you and the other part is strategic plan and I just want to be clear because you did say that school board members and people will to were very it was it was an inclusive process but I don't think and correct me if I'm wrong that homelessness was excluded in that strategic plan we have a commitment as a a district to serve all of our students every group every student every educator every administrator we have a commitment to providing resources and to utilize
112our resources to support all student groups special you name me ell all of them sucess as it relates getting education correct but there's nothing that specifically says the word homelessness and so that's why I want to clarify and and that's exactly where I was going so it is part of our strategic plan it's just not itemized or spelled out or announced as homelessness that is correct so therefore we as a district have an obligation to make sure that we give our homeless students the support as well as all students yes we do federally locally State yes and the reason why I asked that question because in the beginning when we had our discussion you may mention well the board members was involved and that and every so that sound to me that it was a
113little defensive and and I just wanted to get clarity if it wasn't that's why I wanted to get clarity stating it was not meant to be defensive it was stating that there's nothing the question was directly to homelessness and I addressed that no there's nothing in the Strategic plan it was about the Strategic plan so there wasn't anything that strategic plan but didn't say homelessness it said to SP all okay potato potato I got it out thank you have no can't go back and correct it so however all right let me back up because I'm not done um we had five years to spend the funding on this grant right am I correct it was about a little over three years so July 1st of 21 through September 30th of this year okay and when
114did we actually start spending funds do you know if you don't know it's fine but I don't know um I know that some of it was probably started right away especially with regard to the Staffing my guess um but I would say that a large bulk of it was spent toward the end of that uh Grant period okay um something else I think in order for us to move from where we are and where we want to go for all students as we talk about we want to have a more safe inclusive learning environment for our students but if we're not acknowledging that we have many students that experience homelessness it's really not going to change anything right so we have to acknowledge that and I think it's important that we stop talking about how
115this is a national issue right because it's almost like we just brushing it to the side when we're not nationally we're in Allen Town so we need to focus on the students in Allentown when we talk about we want to build new schools but we don't want to talk about how we need to ensure that we're making Partnerships that are supporting the needs of our students as it relates to homel we talk a lot about Partnerships and collecting dollars from everybody but Catholic charity have people that want to donate so we need to figure out well you all need to figure out what that process looked like and what services are going to cover for our students and maybe it needs to be a larger conversation because if 4 plus 100,000 the only thing that
116came out of it was salary gift cards um and a van when we have students who can't get access to homes I think that's an issue and I'm not sure if everyone is aware but the process has changed in the way that you can get a referral to a shelter right for students well for everybody or everybody but we're talking about students and families right um so previously if a family became homeless you would either call 211 or you will walk in which takes about two three hours to get a call or you will walk into a site a intake site such as maybe um Conference of churches they would do your assessment take your intake um depending on where you are on the list you will be at the top or the bottom right
117um and then once the intake process is done you would receive you can request for a referral however you can't do that anymore it does not work like that so it's about to get cold and the what bothers me the most is knowing that in order to get a referral to a hotel you have to actively be living on a street or be out of your home in order to get a referral I can guarantee you if we had more friendly faces around here and morale was up we would have more students even teachers that have experiened homelessness CU I've you know had that happen um people become desperate when they're in these situations and I've watched parents refer themselves to Children and Youth just to ensure that their children have a place to stay
118so if we're not making ourselves approachable when people are most desperate that is very concerning because it means people feel like they're going to be in more danger than the situation they already in and I know people are tired and they probably don't want to hear this but honestly I do not care I don't care how you feel so the mumbling that's happening over the mic I could hear you um and again if so why you looking at your notse going ask the question um I have one another question and then you can go ahead I'm just a little overwhelmed um how are we utiliz in our Partnerships to ensure that this winter our students are not out in the cold that's where um through the grant funding and Miss um Simmons told me that
119the amount for hotel gift cards is approximately $5,000 and I know that doesn't go very far but it's at least a so I know that there's a part of that where again our homeless Liaisons they become aware our point of contacts at the schools when they become aware they can then make those arrangements and hopefully get a family into a hotel and as Dr Burke said they they worked really hard right they worked really really hard to create agreements with hotels so that we wouldn't have to do gift cards that they could just simply go and it just was not that they didn't try very hard to do that there were just so many barriers to getting that not you know like bit barriers in terms of like the purchase orders and how it had
120to look and all those types of things so that's why the gift cards came in right and we're doing that um the um the what we've asked right and this is where it becomes about that communication like if we're aware and know that something is happening with a family then we can sometimes lean in and do what we can do but then we also through this process have learned where there are other places where those families potentially could go right like I know we've talked with um with Family Promise right and Family Promise has there and they they've actually struggled with some of the things we've talked about in terms of wanting to be able to provide space and have met many barriers to do that so we need to wait what barriers is in
121place with that organization barriers in terms of um locations and and okay I agree with that so um the um so it's the it's that piece of the communication it is the um knowing what the programs are and what groups that they can take like you brought up Daybreak right so Daybreak they know we can't send a family to Daybreak right but we could send uh an adult right of a family who maybe needs the services at Daybreak they could go to Daybreak and if we can partner with someone else who might be able to support and help the children during those times when they are there that those are the types of of conversations that happen they happen dynamically they happen you know kind of in the moment and it's really hard to say
122like I I don't mean this the wrong way but it's not like it's necessarily a checklist it's really like an on each individual basis with each family as it's as it comes to the homeless layons yes I agree with that last part however I do not think and I don't think you said this but just to throw it out there Al although Daybreak is good at what they do they definitely it is definitely not a safe space for our students to be no no no no absolutely no I want to be 100% clear on that no we've talked about that we've discussed that what I I use that as the example because I used that earlier for for one of the visits um I want to make mention your first I it was either your
123first or second slide could you go to that for a second please all right right there I think uh no sorry that one yep okay so is the homeless um the homelessness support Tex task force aims to create a collaborative collaborative network of Community Partners and resources to support District families experienc in homelessness is that your understanding of what the homeless task force was created to do that was what came out over the iteration of the meetings that we had as a task force so if you recall we had the we had the kickoff in November of 2023 we had multiple partners we were at The Innovation space we did all the you know the kind of mapping and really I mean the power in the room was that everybody really wants to solve the
124issue of homelessness right like that's why they were there and they wanted to be able to support students so that's where we kind of collectively took this very broad look at everything and then as we started to meet as a task force and flesh things out and had some very difficult conversations at times it came down to what is it that this task force can do in the immediate right to be able to help support our students and families that are experiencing homelessness and that's what came out um as part of those those conversations and thank you I knew that because I was there and I just want to say when I presented this resolution to address homelessness the goal was never to eradicate homelessness right but to meet out students where they are to
125create well to strengthen our already relationships and Partnerships with organizations welcome new ones and allow them to provide the resources that the the district needs for our students to eliminate the barrier of access to education because of their homelessness situation um the last thing I want to say because I can go about this all night I breathe this because it's nothing more inhumane to see a child to see a family living on a street and having people that have the ability to change their life be very dismissive to it um we as a district have to do better lead ership has to do better and I believe that until we address the issues with all our students but our most vulnerable we will not be able to be the greatest version of what a district
126should look like so my ask is that we create urgency around our students who are experiencing homelessness and I'm going to say this and you can take it how you want to take it but because we know these issues exist if I hear that any of our students have passed because they were living on the Street Allentown Lehi Valley Washington DC whoever wherever whatever I'm telling you my voice is going to rain and roll like thunder because the reality is we are not doing enough as it comes to our students that are experiencing homelessness and that's all I have to say tonight are you finished Mrs Conover are you done as well again do we need what do we need do we need a committee to to deal with those batteries what do we need
127do we need anything else I'm sorry I don't want to cut you off but I just want to clarify something so initially when I requested for the homeless um task force right I didn't request the homeless task force I requested a committee and it was miscommunicated um or mis understood for it to be as a task force because we don't report on it and this is the first time we had a presentation since we started last school term and I think we should receive updates on a regular basis as we do on the rest of our other important committees um so maybe we can establish that right now because this is a presentation and discuss discuss purposes but I want to publicly state that and maybe it's really not nice for me to say this
128but I know if I don't say it here and I say it behind the doors it's really not going to be addressed so therefore I feel the need to mention that we need to make this a priority and in anybody that don't you understand where they stand as it relates to our students who are experiencing homelessness and now I'm done for tonight so real quickly my reasoning for asking about the committee or is because we have identified what those barriers are so we need to sit down and we need to talk about how we're going to knock those barriers down and create urgency around that so I don't know if we need to do it in the task force we need to do it in the hallway or we need to do it but that's
129what we need to do because if we constantly doing the same thing over and over and we come in before each other saying this is what the problem is we're just spending our Wills and so this is what I'm asking what do we need to do um I know we're doing something right so we're not but what do we need to do so that we can collectively go to the barrier and say this wall is coming down we have to collectively do it and so what what do we need I mean if you don't know I'm just saying then if you don't know can you come back to us and let us know we have a task force committee whatever term you want to call it okay because when I saw when I thought a
130task force is when I think of task for I think working group and so that's why it was called the task force as committee and so I would think the committee would make recommendations and work together we have um and in spirit of and I can't let this comment go we do advocate for resources across the district for all students with all partners and I personally have been in communication with clv because they do this work with homelessness the CEO and so she is willing to make a very strong commitment to helping us to overcome these barriers and so I said I wasn't going to say nothing but I have to say something to that so caclv um has the six Street Shelter the Sixth Street Shelter believe have 25 Apartments it's like a 6mon
131plus waiting list they can't do it by their self we need more people and Salvation Army is another shelter that address homelessness as it relates to um families but if a student is let's say we have a student that's 18 year old a male they're not allowed there let's say if a student is still in school at the age of 20 1920 and they receive like special education services so they're allowed to stay longer but they're not welcome there so there's not enough places who provide like um and I'm not discrediting CAC I appreciate everything they do for the community but what I'm saying is we have to step up and do better because the one thing that I stated when talking about the creation of this right was that I I don't want this
132to be another committee to meet to meet again to meet again about the meeting we had last month the month before that and then it turns into atire year we have to change how we do things so the question is as I was talking and I'm listening I'm sorry do you feel this is to the dist to us we talking to each other do you feel that the district is doing enough as it relates to homelessness I think that we can do a lot more for every group of students every group and we have a task force I think having the task force working collaborative together there are resources out there that as a collective group Community Partners just like all the other entities that we F that we have in pursue opportunities so there's
133federal grants there's resources the Partners I think in working together so we have all these various entities coming together to support students who are experiencing homelessness so I think that that's the group because they're all the partners we have board members we have staff members that should be the driving group that works towards addressing these matters along with the city the county and all other groups and that's what those Partnerships is about but we just had 400 plus th000 and anyway um so I to the 30th meeting that's what I'm looking for I'll be there early this time and not to cut you off no I'm just saying because what happens is we all many of us in this room have are in that meeting too so we know what the bar barriers are we've
134collectively talked about it over and over and over again but now we're going to be about it and so whatever those barriers are we're going to be standing on this doorstep with rollers in our hair okay we gonna get it done and so and I'm sure that the district will provide us with the support that's needed if not then that means all nine of us board members we're going to have to start calling meeting after meeting after meeting because it is all students because right now we can't identify which student what student is homeless right so technically we're going to say all students are homeless but I'm looking forward to the meeting thank you Dr Ro Ross that's a nice comment but we can't even address we can't even say homeless students we have to
135to say all students and that's not accurate all students are not homeless students but some students are homeless students understand that so what I'm saying is when you have when you have leadership I understand that I'm looking forward to the 30th okay so we can address the homeless issue with our students I got it I caught it all right thank you very much see you on the 30th I haven't spoken hi Dr R thank you for your time certainly I have a couple of questions and I just have one statement in regards to the county I saw that they are a partner what resources are they providing to the district or any suggestions that they're giving in regards to the task force so we have representatives from um Lehigh County Children and Youth who are
136part of the um that are part of the task force have attended the meetings both in person and virtual and what they are also trying to do is flip a little bit of the perception around Children and Youth because to Miss Brown's very valid point we do have families that will in crisis situations you know self-report themselves right to Children and Youth and they're trying in those situations to not put forward that perception of what happens when a child is taken away right so they are also looking at other resources and grant funding that they have available to be able to funnel that into these types of um to these types of efforts and that's good but the county is bigger than Children and Youth yeah and I don't you know so I would like
137for us to engage more Partners in the county go to the top of the top because what I want to talk to our board members about like systems and solutions we have a system problem but we're not activating ourselves as the solutions to it here's why I say that we're about governance but we have policies in place that have barriers in the policies and there's also restrictions in place by the state and we're not exactly addressing it and we have advocacy there's so many things that we can do as a board but we don't do it we don't move within our control and I can say because I'm a person I take accountability I I could point out here but I'm a point up here too when we had those strategic plan meetings and we
138were in those rooms and we were talking about the Strategic plan for ASD we were talking about all students but for whatever reason we were so distracted with other things that we didn't get to point out and say you know what it's all students but this here this one right here we need to highlight this separately as a part of the Strategic plan going forward so I can raise my hand and say drop the ball she did no one else has to admit that drop the ball but this is a system issue and if we don't understand our roles as board members how we can move within those roles and activate ourselves there's only but so much because here's the thing I'm thinking about the money that that um the Catholic Church want to give
139you and I thought to myself I don't know if I want us to take it you know why we're too Limited in what we can do with it there's too many limitations and barriers in our policy and procedures that blocks the work that we can actually do so I'm thinking like who can we partner with to actually give the resources to them so they can do those extra things that I'm hearing Miss Brown talk about and Miss con over because we're so limited in the things that we because what we really want to do is provide a home and a safe space for them but we are limited even in the policy even in the new policy that I read it's still Limited it only speaks about us making sure that we can the kids
140can flow through the system they can get registered into school if they don't have their birth certificate they can still be able to get to school they can get from point A to point B that's all the policy is talking about it's not it's not telling us that we can move within any type of guidelines to provide the housing or do anything like that so I want to say if we're going to do this committee I am ready like you guys said if we we have to go to the capital wherever we have to go do the stomping grounds to get the work done but we got to get the change in the policies we have to get the change there and if we can start moving in our roles and understanding our power in
141governance governance here we have that power here to do that I get it you guys are doing work there's a lot of work that needs to be done there's a lot of holes there and to be honest I'm happy that strategically you guys got the gift card so we didn't lose the money so we can use the gift cards for something but we should have been we should have known about this funding to start activating that funding for years not 2024 for years so that's all I'm saying tonight because Lord knows the reason why I'm here is because of the system I do the work out there but here I want to know what my power is here to change the system because the system is a barrier and we can knock Administration all we
142want they are still Limited in what they can do for the overall goal that we want to achieve and please don't take it wrong I am not saying we're not dropping the ball on things you know what I I hate saying this when I first got on this board I called us the master of none ASD is a master of none hatte to say it but that's how I saw ASD education the ball drop mental health the ball drop everything there's nothing that I can look at and say we've mastered that let's move on to the next thing and that's why I'm wholeheartedly behind the Strategic plan because For the First Time Ever we have a plan to run with I don't want us to deviate from it because that happens too much it happens
143too much we do a plan and then we push it to the side and then we look at the Band-Aids we get obsessed with the Band-Aids and don't realize that we need a whole cast to fix the problem what we're talking about tonight in this issue is Band-Aids it's Band-Aids I want to see system change and we have the power to do it as the nine we get too distracted with little mediocre personal all kinds of foolishness that we're losing sight of the goal and the power that we have whenever you guys are ready to activating that I'm ready I'm ready because enough is enough know your power so I have to make I'm gonna move on to the next thing comment after that so you stated Miss LaTasha I am not in your power
144please don't cut me off I'm not cutting you off but what I'm saying is this here's the thing with governance said the school your power you right allow everyone you just stated you what you just stated was against the non board members against you're right so I'm going to speak on my behalf on me as the board member because what you just stated was not totally accurate so I'll keep it brief and then you can have your last words and you can move on but as it relates to me I need to make sure that when you speaking right cuz reaching that higher power I act within my role and I do many outside of my role we had a whole national issue that was addressed in Washington DC I saw many of our community
145members There Our Community Partners and one other board member who was addressing the issue on homelessness everything I do is to address the system and having a conversation what you said was good however that's what's happening here today you vocalizing it here today but you know just as well as I know when we're not at this table the conversations are extremely different so we not going to act like that's not what's happening but at the end of the day I think it's important if there can be an amendment right because the comment was all students but it seemed like and I don't know if this is what you intended to say or the impression that you you know was given if you were implying that but during the street strategic plan there was a small
146part when that the board had to deal with I've never wavered from addressing homelessness issues anybody that knows me and don't know me that has encountered issues with homelessness it has been addressed so I feel what you just said was implying that I'm not doing my job because of the way you present it and maybe you can go back and look at the video and you know pay attention to what was stated but I really want to express that the goal is not only to make sure that things are happening here at the district level but I'm operating outside the district level to ensure that our families are getting what they deserve as it relates to homelessness thank you Mr M may I have a motion for approval of the policy agenda I make the
147motion may have a second second is there any discussion please call the rooll Miss mat yes Mr nikolov yes Miss Noel yes Miss Ortiz yes Mr terso yes Miss Brown Miss Conover yes motion passes 60 thank you may have a motion of approval of the second secretary and treasur report so move may have a second is there any discussion please call the RO Miss mat yes Mr nikolov yes Miss Noel yes Miss Ortiz yes Mr berio yes Miss Brown yes Miss con over yes uh motion passes 70 and let me make a correction for the record the previous was uh 70 as well thank you I'm going to ask the board of directors to separate um two things in the superintendent report I like for us to vote for A and D separately and then
148vote for B and C separately but that is okay what was the first one I'm sorry we're going to vote for A and D together and B and C together so um may I have a motion to approve A and D in the superintendent report report I make the motion I second I second any discussion please call the RO Miss Noel yes Miss Ortiz yes missio yes Miss Brown yes Miss Conover yes Miss mat yes Mr Nicola yes Miss Brown motion pass to 70 thank you now may I have a motion to approve B and C in the superintendent report I make the motion you have a second second is there any discussion please call the RO Miss Noel I abstain Miss Ortiz yes Miss terso yes Miss Brown yes Miss Conover yes Miss mat
149yes Mr nicolov yes motion passes six with one board member abstaining thank you we are removing Rachel zuk kixs from the Personnel report because she has descended or resignation so may have a motion for approval of the Personnel report I have a question could we separate um item number two do the resignations from the Personnel report please vote on it separately resignations okay okay so we'll do the resignations first and then the rest of the Personnel report may have a motion for approval of the res um if I may uh uh it looks like did we miss um you did A and C but you did not do yeah we did a and d and then B and C separately they did we did A and D 91 then we did B and C did
150I miss something yes B and C was voted together okay we're good okay we're good perfect sorry no problem okay so may I have a motion to approve the resignation report of the Personnel report I make the motion may I have a second second is there any discussion please call the r Miss Ortiz yes Mr berio yes Miss Brown no Miss Conover no Miss uh Miss mat yes Mr nicholoff yes Miss Noel yes motion passes 5-2 thank you now may I have a motion to approve the rest of the person on report make the motion we have a second is there any discussion please call the RO Mr bero yes Miss Brown yes Miss Conover no Miss mat yes Mr Nicola yes Miss Noel yes Miss Ortiz yes motion passes 61 thank you um we're
151going to pause for a second um to welcome the new leaders that we just voted on in the personal report I I thought we did it week good evening Dr Burks and our esteemed aard we have two new uh administrators joining our team tonight that are present at the meeting in alphabetical order as they appear please welcome Carlos Reyes who's our director of Investigative Services and Labor Relations please also welcome on the agenda as our chief operations officer Dr Robert whartenby e thank you very much your strengths are needed everybody down maybe I don't know did she take yeah I know I know I understand you wait I'll give everybody two minutes yeah it should really allow your I apologize we just need two minutes Mr Brown we're waiting for Mr Brown that check I
152would just go okay may I have a motion of approval for the finance report have a second second is there any discussion please call the r Mr pero yes Miss Brown Miss Conover yes Miss mat yes Mr nikoloff yes Miss Noel yes sorry my vote is no no motion passes one thank you at this time we're only taking public comments on non-agenda items I would like to again remind the public of our public common policy 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 once recogn please come to
153the podium state your name and address for the record and kindly limit your remarks to three minutes Mr secretary do we have any comment cards marceli Maldonado good evening even um marisel Maldonado formerly known as mareli Rodriguez address is 302 south5 Street Island toown PA 18102 um so I'm here today to address um I was actually hired by the Allentown School District as a pargal um officially November of 2023 started working January 2024 um within that time frame um I was um an environment that wasn't the best for me I would say um I was felt like I was targeted a lot and um I had mentioned my concerns a lot of times to the principal and higher up um never heard anything back kind of felt like I was pushed up against the wall
154basically um kind of had no support um it then ended in um me having to go into administrator leave for something that I was falsely accused of um I denied it um was written up for it um an investigation a thorough investigation supposedly was done um but it was just three written statements no proof no physical proof of anything um it was just three statements of people that cooperated together um I kind of felt like they already wanted to push me out of my role um due to other things um against me but um I took the write up and decided to have a fresh start um I was told after I was uh reinstated from the administrative leave um that I would uh be given the information to where I would be a assigned
155to I was told the day before the assignment where I was supposed to be assigned to um it went against you know um I had to spread myself really thin to make it work um I do have children 18 and one two so it's kind of difficult when you had to worry about child care and then the school changing the times um with my daughter so um they put me in an assignment that didn't work with my daughter's school when I was first hired it was for me to be to work in the school that my daughter was attending at that time um so that I can coordinate correctly with everything else um when I started the assignment um I was put in a setting MDS setting um I never had experience nor the proper
156training and um if you want to get technical I didn't have training when I first started in the first position in just an autistic classroom um I was told I would get that training um and it still threw me in into a new assignment without the first training or the training for the new role that I was assigned to I reached out to HR executive director um that same day literally 30 minutes after starting my new shift um at Allen High School and I didn't hear anything back um I also called of the admin building several times left voicemail spoke to HR secretaries um I needed um proof that I was in uh working for Title 20 so that I could continue the funding for my daughter's my younger Daughter's Care so I could continue
157working excuse me um I reached out to my union rep several times um she advised me to write an email CC her and the HR executive director didn't receive a respond back at all this was um September uh 7th I believe um and then um I continued like I said I continued to make contact um I was told by HR secretar that they would speak to the HR executive director and get back to me I spoke with someone two days ago a HR secretary because I found out that um apparently I was terminated and I had no notice of it um and it was obviously unlawful um they said that they tried to send a letter to my address but being that no one responded back to me I was unable to um update my
158information um so I'm standing here today because I really don't know what's going on as far as my employment I spoke to my union rep two days ago as well she said she didn't receive a letter either of what's going on um she said said that she tried to make contact several times and no one has gotten back to her either and um that is why I'm here today I just wanted to speak my truth and kind of get it out because I felt like um we're overseen I know that it's just a paralal position it might not mean a lot but um I just wanted to to say that you know I did well in my job and um it's something that I really love to do and it's just unfortunate that you have
159good people working for you guys and you would treat them in the manner that I've been treated I want to make a comment but if you have something no we're not allowed to make comments well I'm talking to y'all I don't need to say well we're not allowed especially on a personal issue we cannot make any comments on this right now so we can't make comments to her I'm but I'm going to what I can tell her is that we hear her and there will be some followup but outside of that we can't say anything okay so I have a question for the solicitor then when you done go ahead so Mr solicitor as I stated as we were going through the discussion the presentation for homelessness right well no I think it was during
160the human relations commission post as I sit here as a board member and again we all have legal obligation to provide feedback if someone has presented us with um a statement or comment that they have they feel that they have been discriminated against by law we are supposed to acknowledge that now I I am maybe a little different than our board members because of the roles that I play and as a board member I am publicly hearing someone mention that they feel that they have been discriminated against so my question to you is because I could be held accountable for what I just heard without providing information and feedback on how this person what this person right is or just publicly stating what one's right is if they feel they have been discriminated against what
161is the policy around that and am I able to publicly State what their rights are just as the the state the question is no she is represented by a union will be considered to be direct dealing with a union if you are giving her direct advice over the subject so it would be inappropriate for you to provide advice to her under the circumstances you are also not legally responsible individually for the determination uh that I think the board previously voted on I believe on a resolution of Abandonment in this situation okay I wasn't aware of that but I was not trying to provide advice or any determinations but just stating what one's rights are and you that is that is not your okay so that's why I asked you the question thank you for answering
162it yeah no problem thank you time's up yeah we we have to honor and I actually gave you four minutes my apologies yeah thank you is there any other comments Diane Hollowell uh don't mind the attire it is spirit week this week and today the teachers got to dress like students so I will spare I will spare you showing my belly because sometimes we actually seriously we feel like we're at the beach I've never seen so many student bellies and my years in the district anyway Diane holwell for any of you new people I'm the librarian at dir I haven't spoken in a while so I seen so many new faces uh that one of the big Reasons I'm here tonight is I want to give a huge shout out Kurt I'm calling you out
163where is he to Kurt kresley and his team Kurt has been very wonderful having his guys scheduling pickups of pallets of items from the resource center which is formally called the teacher store I have been coordinating supplies we get them delivered to deerf you guys do an amazing job and uh I contact all the principles we have a lot of happy principles and staff and the last load I was able to give EV every student in six elementary schools uh Christmas presents there so they're getting Paw Patrol books and anime books so thank you Kurt much appreciated it and I do have to tell you I thought that was the last one I thought they were going out but they're not so I'm going to be emailing you again for more that's why I had
164to call you out at this meeting so you would keep deting it uh and I did bring here I only have like 17,000 more pens left so it's like opra please take these pens and I will like I'm G to leave that box here uh I also want to give a shout out to our principal Mr Schmidt he had big steps to Bill and he's doing a wonderful job there we appreciate him and I just want to give you an update on our Soro account being a librarian for any new board members sor was formally called overdrive we are in a Consortium with 14 other school districts we share ebooks magazines and audiobooks and last year our Allentown students checked out 3,758 books and since the start of this school year when I just check
165this morning we are at 518 checkouts and it only cost us $2,000 a year it's like a steal not only can they check out these books audio books and magazines but the site also keeps track of their reading stats it gives them online badges for any genres they read and it shows how long they have read and since six of our schools six of our elementary schools have no Librarians in them at all we are hoping that the staff at those schools keep getting the word out about this amazing resource and I'm just ending with this I'm sorry because this is the most frustrating thing I'm just throwing it out there not sure who is in charge of our copying needs but we are constantly out of toner and replacement parts and having that copier
166in the library and then oh my God the one in the g-wing is not working the one in the faculty room's not working like I don't know if we can go back to that other company but that's all and I will leave these thank you Leslie Franklin thank you oh good evening my name is lesie Franklin I am the alentown Education Association president though this is my third year as aea president I have participated in aea leadership roles for over 15 years many of my exec board members and faculty reps are joining me tonight uh the recent results of the equity and inclusivity audit have generated quite a buzz the district email sent out this week generated even more time and patience have been given with this last transition in District leadership to see where
167priorities would be placed I'm speaking tonight because the need for educational resources continues to grow in most of our buildings the audit stated that ASD employees reported higher levels of school belonging compared to students I just want to make it clear that a higher level does not necessarily mean that people do feel like they belong or even feel comfort in their work environment a vast majority of employees in the Allentown School District buildings spend every day upset and frustrated we hear the educational jargon being used promises being made and the glamour being touted yet for the last few years we have lost so many of our faculty members in our district buildings due to a dis connect in expectations this is evident in the lack of classroom and building Necessities for all of our educational
168professionals and students it makes it difficult for us to perform our duties effectively we would love to say that we're a one to one District but we have a hard time providing a new teacher with a computer and an email address when they start we have a harder time getting the same resources to students most are without charges Chargers and headphones to allow for successful independent work completion it's also been communicated that educ two educational professionals that broken computers student computers will not be repaired or replaced adding to the inequity concern I'm shocked to say that we don't have enough curriculum materials uh to meet all of our student needs we don't have access to working copiers and printers as Diane had mentioned um we're struggling to be able to provide what we need for
169our students our buildings are also going without Basics like paper pencils crayons the fight for toilet paper soap hand sanitizer and tissues is also unacceptable building issues need to be addressed including leaks non-working bathrooms there are even intercoms and phone systems that aren't working right now I'm bringing attention to the really really big issues not even getting into other issues it's been pointed out that we have limited resources but we have spent money on costly new programs and a new school for a fraction of our students please please we need to con we need to continue to work towards not watching resource thank you Melanie Christopher hi Melanie Christopher e Pennsylvania um I'm here just as a teacher um I've shared with the board uh a little background about my family I shared last year
170when I came in to talk about computers for students that um my grandmother when she was a young girl came from Puerto Rico went to Florida she's supposed to go into fourth grade her English wasn't good enough so they put her in kindergarten the next year she went back to Puerto Rico and they wanted to drop her back a grade because she missed an entire year school and she stopped going to school she finished third grade and that was it my grandfather similar story not exact but he also didn't finish outside of elementary school I share this with you because um as part of the Fallout of that while my mother and her siblings spokes SP Spanish they were not allowed they they decided to drop their language and and and not use the Spanish
171language in fact they wouldn't tell anyone that they were Puerto Rican they said they were Spanish from Spain and that's what they told their children we were not allowed to learn the language in our home in our homes my cousins my siblings and I for fear that we would be treated the same way that my grandmother was treated and the way my mother and her siblings were treated when they came back here went to Staten Island and finally landed in East Orange New Jersey in in Middle School in junior high I signed up for a Spanish class my mother refused to help me with my homework and when I called my grandmother um and asked her for help my teacher Mr wasinski would say Miss Alina my name in my Spanish class I can tell
172your grandmother helps you with your homework because it's all wrong the message that was sent to me inad ently through my family and my teacher was that the Heritage and the culture that I that I received from my grandmother the blood that courses through my veins that comes from her is not valid and you spoke to conferences earlier and I the reason I'm bringing this up is that at the elementary schools when we have conferences there are not enough inter interpreting services and that causes families to shy away from coming into conferences I did notice that there is a new administrator who is hired with a new position that deals just with translating and interpreting services and I want to say that I'm I'm I'm happy about that position I'm happy that you found someone
173for that position and I hope that um the conferences that are coming up shortly that the getting interpreting Services into the buildings is going to be a priority so that our families know that their first language their native language and their culture is important and that we value that I also want to to mention about the homeless program the homelessness the USDA has a food share program where they hold the district they hold School District thank you very much can you do us a favor That Homeless Park can you send it in an email yeah sure thank you is there anyone else that's it is there any old business to come before the board is there any new business to come before the board yes um I'm a little emotional so you may have to
174correct me Mr solicitor to ensure that this is done properly however after hearing some of the things that we just heard I think it is imperative for us to to have a internal investigation on how complaints are employee andain complaints are handled um and to learn more about these issues I understand that's my that's what I want to do but can I discuss right now how I feel I'm just a little I'm sorry I'm trying to could you speak up it's it's hard for me to hear you my question is so in new business I would like to propose an internal investigation on how employee complaints are handled you can't do that in new business you need to get that on the agenda under the Parkland decision okay so my question to you and this
175is a because I don't know as a board member I cannot sing add anything to the agenda unless the superintendent and the board president agrees so how can I get that on the agenda you're going to have to address it with both of them and convince the rest of your board that uh perhaps you need to have a policy uh change under the circumstances I you know I understand I understand what you're I understand what you're saying uh under the circumstances I'm not sure just so you know uh the vast majority of our employee relations issues are interfaced with unions that are self- enforcing uh issues if indeed there were inappropriate investigations under the circumstances for most of our unionized employees they have an Avenue to challenge that okay so then my question to you
176is since you raised that issue um well since you made that comment um the process of complaints is it it should be with Union and admin staff so if those issues from what was just stated a minute ago um Union has reached out and there has been no movement so there's an obligation on leadership's part and if it's not getting to leadership we need to know that and as board members it is our responsibility to ensure that we are governing correctly and the only person that we oversee is the superintendent so what I need to know is if the information is getting to our superintendent and if it's not you know it should be and if it is then that is a board issue that needs to handled so how do you approach that well
177I'm not sure because the collective bargaining agreements that we have have multiple steps in the process uh which do include the superintendent sometimes includes the board in the process and then ultimately uh can go to arbitration uh for resolution and uh so that process is already built in in a highly defined procedure for our collective bargaining agreements so if we weren't following procedure they would be raised in that process or through the arbitration process where a third party determines whether or not we complied or we didn't comply okay thank you okay yeah and I just want to say for one these complaints were not raised with the superintendant and if a school doesn't have toilet paper or crayons or resources we do have them in the district and that was just one data point we
178have no quantifiable there was nothing quantifiable that was stated that these 10 schools these teachers we will have our team just in response to that find out who doesn't have crayons who doesn't have a toilet paper because that should not be because we have those resources but there was no here's 50 or 60 and we meet with the teachers union my team does often and so we will be happy to provide resources in those areas that were for mentioned but this is my first time of being hearing this and we have elevated a lot of resources to our schools and there shouldn't be schools that don't have toilet paper and crayons because we have them so I'm not sure what's happening at the school level but my team will um the principal supervisors or executive
179directors of instructional leadership will contact the schools we don't know did someone talk to I think Mr deline went to talk about technology we have people talking with these all these things that are not allegedly being provided Ed thank you I have I have forms and just for the complaint complains I do have forums that people can talk to me I have real talk with Dr Burks people have come here and I'm going into schools so I talk to schools things that were raised I'm going to each uh faculty meeting and there were some areas that teachers felt like they needed support and we immediately executed our team to support them so I welcome teachers if you have um some matters that you want to discuss I'll put some space here at the central office
180again because I moved them into schools because I thought people would feel more welcome if I go to them and I did and so and I'll continue to do that we want to uh ensure that our Educators have what they need we've invite we've invested a lot of resources I'm very shocked to hear there's not curriculum we spent $ million on curriculum so our curriculum team is going to now along with the principal supervisors find out what curriculum is missing and if we need to buy additional resources we will thank you someone just press the Buton so can we talk about the process really quick to get things on our agenda because obviously if there's something going on we need to address it so there has to be an investigation and I don't know if
181I was following you I'm not um looking to investigate whatever claims I'm not talking about what happened here but if people are leaving we need an outlet and and we need we need an investigation to find out some of the things that we're being we're hearing we don't want it to get to where it's U another kind of situation and then that is something and I don't see why leadership intended would be against that so that is something that um need to get on so so just just for Clarity on the agenda the board members sent an email saying what they want to put on the agenda I communicate with the superintendent what is being requested and the superintendant lets me know when she can get whatever data in place if we have a meeting
182coming up within a week or two and there's a bunch of stuff already on the agenda then it'll make it on to the next meeting however you stated today that you would like this on the agenda and he told us exactly what to do he said that you have to put in the request and then I'll give it to the superintendent then the superintendent and us as a board make a decision that we want that implemented we want that investigation done we talking about agenda we're not talking about investigation so what whatever agenda be clear I've been too much power let me just say something to you can I can I finish I just need to finish because here here's the thing again the education piece is missing that's what I'm saying it's in our
183policy I am just following policy so then and and it's gonna take five but I don't want I don't want to go back and forth M con I just want to finish my point what I don't want and this is the reason why the policy is in place it's nine board members nine board members can send in something that they want to put on the agenda on top of the business that needs to happen with the district and now everything needs to stop to address all nine things there has to be a buffer something has to be in place to manage that and that's what you guys are not understanding okay full full transparency argument this Clarity we are a board of nine voting Meers your board of 10 if you have somebody coming to
184you saying I have a problem and let's just hypothetically just say if it was with leadership and Leadership looks them in the face and say you know what maybe we can talk and Leadership is the problem you can't put leadership ship the power of leadership and the one president to have the power to tell us whether we can put it on our agenda or not that's not what I said that's what I'm saying you're not you're not hearing me I said the power of the five makes the decision and then the superintendent is activated to do that that's what I said that's what I'm saying we're not listening to understand we're just listening to respond to this for we just need a wrap it so for full transparen what happens if there's a div Miss
185Conover we all care about these kids I don't like this perception that's being brought up tonight like I'm done yes motion to adjourn this meeting make well I was making a comment full transparency well I could speak without the meeting being you know anyway I remember receiving in an email stating that the only way an item can be added to the agenda is if the Su per policy is if the superintendent and the president agrees so that's not accurate e