001okay apparently foreign [Music] like um foreign thank you foreign thank you of directors of the school district for the city of Allentown for today March 23 2023. prior to tonight's meeting an informational executive session was held to discuss the legal status of the century promise contract contract negotiations with the Allentown Education Association and Food Service employees and adjustments transportation services the board welcomes and invites public comment you may address the board on agenda or non-agenda items the first opportunity for comments at the beginning of the meeting is limited to agenda items only if you choose to address the board please fill out a comment card and hand it to Deputy superintendent Ramos the common cards are located near the podium at the close to the door once recognized please come to the podium state your
002name and address for the record and kindly limit your remarks to three minutes we will now have roll call Ms Brown Miss Conover Miss Harris Miss Matheson here miss Noah Brown yeah Miss Ortiz here Mr Palmer Dr Santana here miss Wilt here eight board members present thank you please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance uh [Music] forward March color guard oh right scary because I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible foreign [Music] total thanks for it first please thank the color guard for being with us this evening from Allen High School I have no remarks this evening Dr Burks good evening and thank you president Matheson good evening School Board of Directors to our entire learning community
003members of the public we are excited that during the month of March we celebrate women's History Month yes as well as social work each day social workers bring great barriers and a plethora of innovative ways that help millions of students and families live their best lives we want to give them a huge thank you and acknowledgment for the the incredible team that we have within the district in Allentown our social workers the titles that we have are social workers as well as our homeschool visitors as well as homeless school Liaisons they all have social work backgrounds this group of individuals they partner with students and families to provide resources and address barriers in their homes schools and the community that interfere with student achievement they also also bolster students affective developmental skills so all that
004edge of jargon just means they help build sense of identity value commitment to learning sense of agency and have students feel great about themselves and have them the uh the students and their families provide them with access to resources within the community let's give around the pause with the social workers women's History Month dates back to 1978 and the efforts these efforts were led by Educators initially the education task force of Sonoma County organized events in their schools to highlight women's contributions to American history culture and Society the teachers never intended for their idea to take off started with a teacher but the following year communities across the country organized their own celebrations our schools have been celebrating women's History Month with different activities to celebrate and Empower our students here in Allentown for example
005our middle school students 60 young women took a trip to Camp Fowler and celebrated International women's day on March 8th the group from all four of our middle schools spent the day with local female leaders who aim to engage and Empower these young women with a sense of purpose and confidence and Leadership all throughout the district our teachers have been engaging students in activities and lessons around celebrating women and the contributions that they have made so please give a round of applause for women and the contributions that women have made to our history into our country I have several um and if the young people I don't know if they want to to sit at a color guard or is that do they have to are they okay um okay I have several updates to
006share this evening first I want to thank my incredible team yesterday we celebrated our first you are the light celebration I want to thank Mr sang and the human resources team and all members of the uh the light committee we have more than 260 members of our Learning Community participate and let me tell you it was a lot of fun we want to thank the Allen um Naval ROTC as well as member of members of let me get all the schools right um UTC their dance uh Ensemble they were amazing uh as well as our students from Allen and they have a production coming up and so it was it was a lot of fun so if you were not recognized this month as a trend Center or as a change age agent or hero
007or heroine there's opportunity to be recognized for your contributions to our learning community so thank you and I want to thank and please give a round of applause for all those individuals who were highlighted yesterday and we will share their names on our books today I had a fantastic time you know there's very asked many aspects of the work of a superintendent and one thing about this particular part of my work is that makes me really happy and smile and energizes me is when I have an opportunity to spend time with students and today it was the first day we launched the superintendent's student advisory Council and those students who are part of the council they will serve as advisors to me and it's a two-year term so we have some seniors on on the
008particular committee but we told them that they have to serve as alumni so when they are home from college they have to come back and meet with me Kim's like I'm not coming here so but we had a great time students shared some really Keen insights with me about their schooling experience here in the district and so what's good because we were able to immediately I was meeting with my uh cabinet my extended cabinet right after that and share some of the things that the students provided as insights and things they want to change and immediately we started putting those things into motion so I want to thank all of us oh they're here too Laura they're here today so I want to thank you very much for your commitment and let me tell you
009some of the things that I share with the students and the things that they share with me they were so um deeply thought through uh to a point I mean I'll be honest with you and don't tell them I know there's some adults in but they gave me some really insight and I've used this particular clip that I use often and the things I was just amazed and so and I say all that because our students are really Sensational here in Allentown they really brilliant gifted and talented and we need to harness opportunities they're Collective Geniuses to empower them and use their leadership skills and so basically the superintendent student advisor Council one they'll serve as a virus advisors to me also as ambassadors throughout the district and we have a project that we're going
010to work on student-led that we will execute in early May so look forward to seeing the students put some things in action in order to change our learning community and be and lift their voices throughout our learning community so thank you so much looking ahead I want to invite the school board of directors and members of our Learning Community to join me at a press conference for fair funding next week so all the people who have all these voices if you're not working because it's during the day so if you work for us we want you doing your work okay but if you are available families students we want to have some students come over over to with us to Bethlehem now I'm from Connecticut we pronounce that Bethlehem but around here I heard it's
011called Bethlehem so is that right okay so so on Tuesday March 28th at 11 A.M um thus some of the school board of directors and I will um join forces with Bethlehem Area School District to host a joint press conference calling on legislators to equitably fund schools across the Commonwealth particularly Urban schools Allentown and Bethlehem are members of the Pennsylvania League of urban School caucus which consists of urban districts and different areas of the state so simultaneously so we will have a press conference in Bethlehem but they'll be at the same press conference happens in happening in Harrisburg up in Pittsburgh down in the Delco area and we're going to join forces in solidarity to push our government our state government and as well as our legislators meaning our governor and such to increase funding
012um for the urban schools throughout the Commonwealth so please stay tuned and watch and cheer us on and if you and we want to hear you elevate your voices we have some celebrations I don't know we want to say congratulations to Trexler Middle School for receiving and let me tell you I am so competitive so when I heard this in a meeting with other superintendents I was like yes yes so they were recognized and received an award for what's so cool about Manufacturing yes and we they were also acknowledged for the out or outstanding career pathway award at the annual Lehigh Valley what's so cool about manufacturing video and we are going to give you a quick glimpse of that video now okay a career pathway is a series of structured and connected education programs
013and support services that enable students often while they are working to advance over time to better jobs and higher levels of Education and Training for years Lucia has been providing our community with career opportunities within their company so I was looking for a company that I could grow with I also started at an entry level position at the warehouse I've learned many different jobs throughout the company just kind of showing that Lutron doesn't just offer a job it offers a career you cannot just pick up something like this and know how to create it the people who manufacture these follow the career path to get here my career path started in high school taking Electronics courses at LCT F how much courses in college at Ultra C during that time I started working for Lutron
014as a production operator which blew into a position as a production model leader special and specific career training is required to do cool things like this you can even customize one for your own home business or classroom thank you when I started a new Tournament 2004 I started in the packaging department and then I was rotated to different areas and then I realized that there were good opportunities at Neutron so that was something I really wanted to do in a long time encouraging employees to have agency over their career path helps them achieve their professional goals and find more fulfillment in their careers in my career currently I'm in a leadership position I deal with a lot of people throughout Neutron I help them with their career goals being on a career pathway allows employees
015to work with a large variety of people in order to boost creativity if motivated employees feel better and feel accomplished they will stay on that career path with Lutron let's give a round of applause for Trexler Middle School so we want to thank Trexler and principal Morrow and the entire Learning Community for their great work and and see how great our students are and that's Middle School just wait until they get to high school so another big congratulation goes to our high school students who are recognized by congresswoman Susan Wilde as part of the Seventh District Congressional Art competition for the second year in a row the district 7 winner came from William Allen High School thank you so we want to acknowledge jovit Cortez um she had her winning charcoal piece under she will
016have her winning charcoal piece on display for one year in the canyon tunnel gallery of the United States capital that is in Washington DC you go let's give her another round of applause our final celebration everybody knows I'd like to have fun and celebrate people so please indulge me because it's important to Value people and show them that you care about them and when you do hard work you should be praised for it and so our final celebration tonight and this is going to be really exciting and I think we have um principal Clark here to help join in this Services now Dr Ross we're gonna do this now or is this down one later okay all right so on this tonight we're going to accept the motion to allow one of our incredible we're
017asking we're presenting to the board to accept emotion to bestow uh this graduation award to Shane riznick he's a William Allen student who's graduating early because he's going to go on to the Marines Corps in April so we want to have I should be clever for that also going to pursue a bachelor's degree so I'm not going to steal the Thunder they're saying not the perks that's not your role to do this part so I'm sorry but uh later on in in our board meeting we'll mention all the wonderful things he has done and we are so excited and we want to say his families are Mom Grandma everyone is over there so yes so thank you and we're so honored that you've allowed us to serve with you and help impart in his life
018and so we're really proud so thank you very much oh thank you so thank you that concludes my remarks for this evening to thank the color guard and let them know they could go off duty now if they would like okay so you can go at this time we are taking public comments only on agenda items are there any cards tonight there are no public comments on agenda items thank you may I have a motion for the approval of the minutes so moved okay is Miss Harris Miss Wilt if I get the name is correct is there any discussion please call the roll Miss Conover yes Miss Harris Miss Matheson yes Miss Noel Brown yes Miss Ortiz yes Mr Palmer yes Dr Santana yes Miss Wilt yes the motion passes we're ready to go to
019some reports from the various Community boards that we serve on the Allentown Public Library Miss Harris Ms Wilkes is there anything tonight yes um the library board met on March 17th and they are gearing up for their spring activities for the adults in the room who may not be tech savvy they have Tech Tuesdays um every Tuesday morning at 9 30 um for computer Basics internet Basics internet searching they also have programming in the evening for mindfulness how to attract butterflies and birds to your garden and a whole host of other things so if you're interested in learning anything about that go to the Allentown Public Library website and for our youth there's a whole list of things running the gamut from tween Anime Club that meets every Wednesday at 4 P.M through April 19th
020to preschool Story Time Thursdays at 10 A.M through April 27th family story time Saturday mornings at 10 through April 29th with a special Eric Carl story time um oh sorry that one passed um and then there's special Saturday events um between book club they're having an extravaganza I would imagine that has something to do with an egg hunt from April on April 1st knitting training camp um a block party Wings of Fire book club Library Day celebration on April 22nd in conjunction with Earth Day and build a cardboard City day a family event on April 29th if you want more information about all the activities happening at the library again please see the Allentown Library website for information anything else that's that's all for it the Allentown school excuse the Allentown Recreation Commission Mr Palmer
021as well that would be me too that was a pretty truncated meeting um a lot of reporting on uh gearing up and preparing the parks for the summer um two couple key things I just wanted to highlight valenia Park which is um down on roughly 6th and wall uh Sixth and chat Union Street um right across from Building 21 they're working on finishing up the construction they will have a soft opening to remove fencing to access the park sometime towards the end of March or early April depending on the weather and then they will set the grand opening date to follow with a spray Park opening um also summer job postings are listed on the website there's um opportunity for 16 Parks um workers and that is for high school kids on up as well
022as four for the golf course and they're always looking for um lifeguards check the website if you're interested they are offering classes on how to become and become certified as a lifeguard and then there's a wonderful summer opportunity for that at one of the various pools in Allentown I think that's it thank you I'm reporting for the school district Foundation the high notes Gala which is a celebration of the Arts in the school district and the ASD foundation's largest fundraiser is about a week away it's Saturday April 1st we thank everyone who will be attending the ticket sales have ended there are 40 sponsors 31 advertisers and nearly 70 silent auction prizes donated by various members of the community and businesses this is truly an example of community support for the Allentown School District we
023thank everyone involved especially our high school students and teachers from Allentown Building 21 and Dara who are performing contributing art and managing all of the Sound and Lighting for the event I'm looking I plan on attending I'm looking forward to that the students at Muhlenberg Jefferson Union Terrace newcomer Academy and Central Elementary schools are asking great questions like what inspires artists as they participate in Spring artist residency programs in those buildings all ASD students in grades K-12 including Virtual Academy are invited to submit an original piece of art for the stamp art contest we are offering in partnership with the Allentown Fallout Society I can't say it to celebrate their 100th anniversary this year a video explaining the contest is on the foundation's home page and entry forms are available in every school or at
024the foundation itself the deadline to submit an entry is April 28th all are welcome to view the art and celebrate the artists at a reception on Saturday June 3rd at the Allentown Art Museum a thousand dollars in prizes will be awarded Rob middle school students continue to learn strings with instructors from L Systema and high school seniors will be available will be eligible to receive scholarships through the Foundation students should apply through their high school guidance office lcti all right MS Conover good evening lcti met last night there's I will say that there's one thing to report open enrollment for the summer program for grades five through eight is open now until the slots are filled um one of the other things that I want to make a comment I noticed that they're I'm not
025going to name any of the schools but I would like to see our district do some of the same things and maybe the Community Partners can assist but they are certain schools that are assisting the students with the tuition for the summer program so that's something that we to look forward you know I would like to see done in our district and I also want to make mention I wasn't here a couple of weeks ago we had a meeting um but Dr Greener wall who has replaced Dr Russian is doing an exceptional job up at lcter as it relates to diversity and many of the things that we've talked about in terms of our kids gaining access and you know all the things that we talk about the hard conversations um I will say that
026I saw it the last time I was at the meeting and I'm beginning to see it more and more and I just asked that we begin to open our eyes and start um seeing you know look for a positive change if we're stuck in a negative place um I'm I'm gonna be the first to say that I'm I'm exceptionally happy for what she's doing with our students up at lcti safety task force Ms Conover Ms Harris tonight the city use a city youth initiative Mr Palmer um we met uh the last Tuesday of last month there is also a meeting coming this Tuesday for our youth to come out to as well um on our last meeting we had Dr Burks who actually uh came to our meeting she answered questions she spoke um she
027addressed our students and laid out asd's plans um they were very happy with that as well as we had uh the mayor at the meeting as well he addressed the board added another board member she should be getting sworn in by council at the next meeting um there was also talk of a budget for some summer projects that our youth board did start doing as well as there will be an annual report in front of Council next Wednesday if anyone wants to come out and see that and um that was everything that we put together in that meeting thank you now we'll hear from our student Representatives Nora Zacharia will you report for Alan please good evening first William Allen would like to take a moment to welcome Dr bricks as our newly permanent hired
028superintendent our super our student representatives and alternatives to the board had the pleasure to meet with Dr Brooks today a student Advisory Board of students had the opportunity to meet and discuss with Dr Brooks about certain School issues thank you for taking the time to meet with students and others from the Allentown community at William Allen we are honored to announce that for the second year in a row one of our art students has won the 7th congressional district Art Award juvisi Cortez will have her artwork Candy Apples hanging in the Canon tunnel gallery of the United States capital for one year in addition to the first place we had four students receive honorable mentions the William Mountain debate team is preparing for scrimmage this spring there are four rounds planned and the resolve is
029should Pennsylvania ban the sales of assault rifles students against the decisions host at the center for humanistic change as they brought their impaired and distracted drivers simulators to Allen on February 27th and 28th over 500 students had the opportunity to use a computer driving simulator to experience how distracted driving can negatively impact reaction times and the potential consequences of resulting accidents the National Honor Society hosted a clothing closet that was open to the public on March 2nd they also held a blood drive on March 14 2023. students who are part of the generation next went on a college visit to tour Kutztown University next week William Allen will be hosting an entrepreneur series local Business Leaders will be coming to speak to students about how they got started in their businesses and to start making
030a connection to become a mentor for students who might want to start their own business in the future also next week William Allen Dance Academy will present space time and energy their annual dance performance Thursday and Friday shows have sold out but a third show has been added on April 1st at 2 pm contact Miss Blanco for a ticket board members and central office administrators if you are unable to attend the nighttime show or matinee show join us on March 30th for an in-house performance at 9am tickets are currently on sale for the spring musical Little Shop of Horrors being presented on April 20th through April 23rd by the William Allen drama club William Allen had the honor of hosting the districts for you are the light celebration this celebration honored Award winners from the
031different schools selected by the students and staff the Allen athletic department hosted another meet the team night to recognize all of our Spring sport athletes as well as high Community tables a DJ and a photographer the Allen spring sports are off to a good start including boys volleyball winning their first game baseball starting off their season 2-0 track and field and softball both have record numbers this year as always all sports Spring sports are free admission and schedules can be found on allenathletics.org thank you Kimberly Arias will report for Building um good evening it's good to see you all in a while um some events that we would like to celebrate is as part of our student as us part of our support for our students preparation for College and Career we are happy to
032announce that 100 of our senior has of our senior class has my graduation eligibility requirements under act under Act 158. our seniors received additional additional career preparation support from Lehigh Valley Career Link last week in a series of workshops on resume writing and mock interviews our students also continue to prepare to engage in Civic life our spring voter registration and poll worker recruiting and training events have been planned we once again expect to earn the governor's Civic engagement award for successfully registering our seniors to vote before they graduate our students will be joining we'll be joining students from across ASD and serving our community as co-workers and translators in support of the May 16 primary elections our senior Capstone projects are well underway Building 21 senior Diana Elias organized and hosted a blood drive in
033partnership with Miller Keystone on March 16th other projects in The Works include a student giving back to her childhood teachers by organizing an art supplies collection project to benefit South Mountain Middle School a change strive to raise funds for to purchase all items off of the Elite lvhn Children's Hospital wish list the creation and burial of a time capsule a PA native species Wildflower Garden a free little library to be hosted at Building 21 in Allentown City Park cleanup project many more projects are in development as our students use their learning to impact our community several students have several groups of students have been taking their learning to the Amazon Art Museum this month our AP English classes visited the museum to explore and find the inspiration in the work and the artwork as they
034practice writing ahead of the AP exams our intro to our classes are visiting tomorrow to study the art on display and some of our seniors will be visiting the museum next week to learn more about art curation as part of their research for the Capstone project which is develop which is to develop a permanent Art Gallery space in our building our AP classes were visited by PA state representative Mike schlossberg last week as part of their study of Fahrenheit 451. and and and the questions around Free Speech censorship and book Banning students learned about many factors that are involved in selective reading materials for school use as well as the ways that students and families can enter Civic conversations for this matter in their local state and National governments our flag football team continues to
035practice daily and we and will be traveling to their first tournaments in April we are still seeking additional support for this activity we would like to recognize our in-school communities and schools coordinator Heather annunciata she was she was recently recognized by nationally by the CIS Organization for the worksheet at GNR building 21cis students are doing as acting attendance varies at Union Terrace Building 21 hosted ASD Communications manager Melissa Reese this week she presented on social media marketing to our 10th grade career exploration classes students enjoyed learning about what it takes to go from having an Instagram account to manage to managing the media presence of an organization like ASD speaking of social media our coffee our copy and conversation monthly event for families this month included a presentation social media safety for our parents this
036presentation was made by The Crime Victims Council of Lehigh Valley we'd also like to congratulate the first the student and teacher from Building 21 who recently received the first ASD you are the light Awards congratulations to senior Rashawn Brown and social studies signature Miss Justice please join us in congratulating our student Gabe De Jesus every year the Allentown Arts commission honors outstanding citizens in the Professional Arts award and emerging artists at their Annual Arts from each Allentown High School and receive a scholarship award Gabe will be recognized at a ceremony at the Civic Theater of Allentown on May 11th on Thursday May 11th finally the date is set for our our annual spring fashion show deer steers this year's show titled fantasy we'll take place at Building 21 on Thursday May 11th doors open at
0375 15 PM the show will begin at 6 in preparation for the event Building 21 students Building 21 our students will be at the Allentown Arts walk on Thursday April 20th from 11 30 a.m to 1 30 p.m with the help of our mascot Fuego they will be exhibiting and selling some of their artwork as well as show tickets thank you and Eliana Rios will report for Daryl good evening on behalf of Daryl we would also like to congratulate Dr Burks on being named superintendent of the Allentown School District we have had the opportunity to get to know her over the past several months when she has visited our school and invited us to participate in various meetings the students and staff at Darrell High School are excited to work with her and welcome her
038to Allentown and we are hoping that she will hold her truth to her promises and commitments to our students and Families on Thursday March 23rd student council will be hosting our first ever Globe Bingo night donations by various staff members Community Partners and businesses have helped us to make this event happen doors open at 5 30 and students have been purchasing tickets these past couple of weeks hoping that they will either win a mini fridge airpods gift cards theme baskets and a brand new 50-inch TV we look forward to sharing the success of this night's events with you at the next board meeting project prom is underway all throughout March we have been collecting new and gently used prom dresses and accessories for our prom which will be held at Bear Creek mountain resort on
039May 19th beginning in April students will be able to make an appointment to try on dresses and suits if guys donate for prom again this is just another event that could not have happened without the help and staff from our community finally we are nearing the end of March and our service projects one of our service projects is Huskies helping Huskies we have collected items and monetary donations for the sanctuary at Haskell a non-profit animal shelter here in the Lehigh Valley we are enjoying some friendly competition among classes to see who can raise the most money and currently the junior class is in the lead but we have one more week to go so hopefully seniors can can beat them spring sports are underway and we're excited to start our 2023 spring Sports season our
040boys volleyball team is starting off strong with the two-in-one record falling short by one set from Southern Lehigh our boys baseball team is excited to announce that they will be playing against our town Rivals Allen again at Coca-Cola Park on April 11th at 3 pm our track and field team will be hosting their first meet on Tuesday March 28th at 3 30 pm at JBC and all events will be free to get in our Seussical dates have been set we are excited to announce our annual musical Seussical they will be performing in tariff's Auditorium on April 27 28th and 29th and all shows will start at 7 pm tickets can be purchased online of deriff's website and that is all we have for our update thank you on this evening's board of directors report we
041must sadly recognize the passing of one of our dedicated employees the William Allen safety officer Mr James Fiedler I will now read the obituary minute which will be followed by a Moment of Silence is with sincere regret and deep sorrow that we record the death of James Fiedler on March 1st 2023. in recognition thereof the board of directors submits the following obituary minute and resolution whereas James Fiedler was a faithful and devoted employee of the Allentown school district for almost three years and in his position as a security officer at William Allen High School he carried out his duties in a caring and professional manner and whereas he treated colleagues other staff and students with a cheerful attitude and willingness to help and whereas he provided the students of William Allen High School with a
042pleasant and encouraging environment and whereas his passing is marked by a deep sense of loss across the district resolved that the board of directors take note of the untimely death of this faithful employee by causing this obituary minute and resolution to be spread upon the permanent member minutes of the board this 23rd day of March 2023 with a copy to be sent to his bereaved family may I now have a motion for the approval of the board of directors report Ms Conover is their second Ms wilt is there any discussion on the motion please call the roll Miss Harris yes Miss Matheson yes Miss Noel Brown yes Miss Ortiz yes Mr Palmer yes Dr Santana yes Ms Wilt yes Miss Conover yes the motion passes eight zero thank you may I have a motion for
043the approval of the secretary and treasurer's report so moved and as well is there a second Miss Harris and we have a maker in a second is there any discussion seeing none call the roll please Miss Matheson yes Miss Noel Brown yes Miss Ortiz yes Mr Palmer no Dr Santana yes Miss Wilt yes Miss Conover yes Miss Harris yes the motion passes seven one thank you this evening we have a special item on the agenda it was previewed in the superintendent's report but I would like to take this item first and then we'll vote on the rest of the superintendent's Agenda Report separately eight item 2A on that report is a recommendation to Grant the early graduation of William Allen High School student Shane Resnick who in short order will begin his enlistment in the
044United States Marines Mr Resnick will you please come forward you know I think may I have a motion to Grant the conference of the diploma for William Allen student Shane Resnick as he has completed All-State and local requirements for high school graduation [Music] is there any discussion on that motion please call the roll Miss Noel Brown yes Miss Ortiz yes Mr Palmer yes Dr Santana yes Miss Wilt yes Miss Conover yes Miss Harris Miss Matheson absolutely yes the motion passes 8-0 thank you they're going to make me cry so thank you so much for being here today foreign directors to everyone who are the public as superintendent Alan Thompson district attorney so foreign [Music] chain as you know this is Bittersweet for the entire Allen Family um first of all I want to say thank
045you so much for for allowing us to be a part of his life it meant so much when you ask any teacher what it has been like to have shame as a student they have nothing but great things to say so I say thank you very much Shane you may think we're giving you something but you gave every employee every student all of you and I'm going to describe you a little self-discipline courteous confident responsible a team player you're also very diligent and you're a leader I'm going to embarrass you a little so a couple months ago we were hosting the Regionals and we had schools from all over come out and visit and Shane was well dressed in a suit fine young man he's always as you see tonight and there was a young
046man from another school who was struggling with his tie Shane not knowing this young man walked up to him and said hey do you need my help and Shane and first young man and I said he's talking to you and Shane fixed his tie that touched the young man so much that he went back to his seat and he said I don't know him and he just fixed my tie and it looks good and that young man stays in contact with ching up to today I want you all to know that Shane is graduating with the three with a 4.3 GPA during his time at William Allen he has been a member of the NJ ROTC four years and this year he served commanding officer he has been on Scholastic scrimmages and for two years
047he's been the cap he's a captain this year German Island German Honor Society three years since 10th grade School newspaper and journalism one year 12th grade Upward Bound College Prep three years since 10th grade Shane will be joining the Marine Corps program he has decided to enlist in the split option program which allows him to complete recruit training and start college on time in the fall he will be in training pipeline to commission as an officer once he completes his bachelor degree it gets better guys in the fall Shane will attend the University of Scranton where he will major in history and a minor in theology he has accepted a spot into the special Jesuit libertal Arts honor program which will afford him the opportunity to receive a second degree in philosophy wow Mr Resnick
048Miss caliber parents we have grandparents Elaine Calabro Marianne Farr Gerald Lynch um Sergeant who's recruiting Sergeant which is Sergeant travoltz we have the counselor here miss Lynn Morris JROTC Commander Mahala and Mr Thatcher and Mr Cowan as you see this is the representation of a community thank you all for being part of Shane's life it does not end and I'm still going to be looking out for those letters good luck Shane very proud of you let's give it up for sure you are destined for greatness we just we are so honored to have you a part of our learning community and we wish you much success in your future Pursuits and you owe us to come back and pay it forward to other young people within our community and you are exceptional and we are
049so honored so thank you thank you thank you Jane I want to say that I'm looking forward to you becoming the commandant of the Marine Corps to be on the chief of staff of the president by 2043 okay okay and in and and because of the things that you're doing present absolutely okay we'll do 20. your hand and sending you off out into the world establishes wow thank you thank you man um that's awesome [Music] that was that was wonderful that made my day yeah actually I need my ear may I now have a motion to approve the rest of the superintendent's report I'll make that motion a second your last name just went out of the doctor said yeah please call the roll excuse me is there any discussion Michael seeing none please call
050the roll Miss Ortiz yes Mr Palmer yes Dr Santana yes Miss Wilt yes Miss Conover yes Miss Harris yes Miss Matheson yes Miss Noel Brown yes the motion passes eight zero may I have a motion for the approval of the Personnel report I make that motion Ms Harris is there a second Dr Santana is there any discussion on the motion seeing none please call the roll Mr Palmer yes Dr Santana yes Miss wilt yes Miss Conover yes Miss Harris yes Miss Matheson yes Miss Noel Brown yes Miss Ortiz yes the motion passes eight zero yeah may I have a motion for the approvals of the finance report Mr Palmer is our second Ms Wilt is the second is there any discussion on the Finance report seeing none please call the roll Dr Santana yes Ms
051Wilt yes Miss Conover no Miss Harris yes Miss Matheson yes Miss Noel Brown no Ms Ortiz yes Mr Palmer yes the motion passes six two thank you may I have a motion for the approval of the building report I make that motion Ms Harris is there a second second Dr Santana is there any discussion on the building report seeing none please call the roll Ms Wilt yes Miss Conover no Miss Harris yes Miss Matheson yes Miss Noel Brown yes Miss Ortiz yes Mr Palmer yes Dr Santana yes the motion passes 7-1 at this time we are taking public comments on non-agenda items if you're recognized please come to the podium state your name and address for the record and kindly limit your remarks to three minutes do we have any cards yes Miss Susie hello
052thank you for letting me speak respectfully board Administration and Dr Burks um as of today 15 positions in the cafeteria as you can see there's a lot of us here it's only a small amount um in on March 10th we were given training and our acting director said look at the tray check for missing items we want to get reimbursed for it being a compliance meal but my question is how is one person supposed to watch two people coming at them and without the right components you're gonna lose money because we're not going to be able to claim that meal we were also told in this training have a relationship with the student my question is how do we do that when we're saying to them hurry up hurry up take your juice take your
053juice put your number in hurry up because we now have to come up with some time that we now don't have available because the positions were taken away in these kitchens the other thing that we were told is keep inventory keep your cost and ordering uh affected effective inventories keep your numbers smart and again I ask when if I'm now running to top fruit how am I going to get in my freezers or on my shelves to take an inventory for me to be able to know what I need for that next menu cycle that's coming at me so I implore you to please the board you are our last stop administration's going to look at numbers Administration is going to look at a lot of other facts but the board you know you want
054you are here because of the students we are here because of the students and that is all I'm asking please take heavy consideration to what is happening um 15 missing positions that is all I yield the rest of my time thank you we got any other cards Melissa Kiefer good evening my name is Melissa keeper I live at 510 South Bradford Street I've worked for the Allentown School District Child Nutrition service for 20 years now to our children were not known as Mrs Kiefer Mrs Jones we are the luncheon while everyone sat at home safe behind closed doors we worked throughout the pandemic but no complaints with a smile on her face like we do every day many of us came down with Cove at handing meals out to our children we did this because
055we care about them we have been working without a contract all year no pay raise no thank you we have been told our health and benefits May quadruple for some of our ladies some of our ladies at times during the year will not even make enough money to pay for their insurance premiums we have worked without a food director for two years and our kitchens have run smoothly and all our children have been fed we are working short staffed every day and still completing our responsibilities many of us have given up our lunch breaks and even worked past our Times Daily we saw over 3 600 breakfasts and over 12 000 meals every day not to mention after school programs something to consider it's just not serving the children it's all the preparation we needed
056to complete the daily menu we are now being told there'll be driving eliminations hours Cuts in some of our schools open businessians not being filled and no extra time will be given out to workers for those open positions this extra time is needed to complete our daily tasks because we are so short staff we are told cuts are necessary because we have no money then why today was I told we're going to be supplying Subway and Domino's to a certain School and special lunches which is against our contract this is all a direct of mismanagement from higher authorities so why are we with job cuts and our children with less choices on our menus being punished for It While others are getting special treatment we are tired and stressed to the maximum we have gone
057above and beyond what has been expected of us we cannot give any more it is impossible we know the operations of our kitchen and what will work and what we're not we have somebody come in and tell them it can be done and I am telling you it cannot be done the thing that breaks our hearts even more these Cuts will directly affect our children's lunches the quality and quality of the food we need to prepare every day cannot be achieved with these kids cuts We're The Lunch Ladies we are tired we are depleted and we could not give no more thank you Lisette Oquendo hi everyone can you hear me all right um I would say the last time that the district supported to meet with us um it's emotional and they told us
058in June 6. that um they're going to give us a meeting and they cancel it and now this month and March 23rd is when we will have the set of the contract we don't know that yet because we'll be working without a contract and yeah we are tired you know they make us wait it's hard wait ing we can like you know especially we have to work hard we they ask us especially the cooks you know we had to do inventories they wanted to do inventories they wanted to feed the kids they want us to do so many stuff and and they call their hours uh we don't have time um um we don't have enough staff it's really hard and it's very it's very stressful very stressful the way we are working and um
059and the way we are treated we not treat right I think they should they should treat us a little better and have a more consideration than us and especially you know between these kids we go we love the kids about you know if they don't back us up and they don't help us out how we're going to do the the our work that we're supposed to be done right thank you hurt song Lori Herzog and I'm with the Allen come um I'm here tonight to speak like everyone else my kitchen during the pandemic was down five positions I have two I had two openings yet to fill they didn't fill it they eliminated those jobs now you're going to have girls rushing around it's not like I have three cafeterias right off from my kitchen
060I have one right off from the kitchen I have to go up a ramp up a hallway go into the annex serve students there I have to go up a ramp go into another Hall and go up a flight of stairs to take food with being short-handed I can't be running to all three calves checking and being cooking and then when I'm short-handed we got to close down lines these kids aren't getting through the lines then they're lucky if they have 10 minutes to eat that's not helping our students they're going to class 10 minutes to eat they eat something and they throw the rest away because they got to get to class so um our students need enough time to eat and we need our positions back um this picture down here says the
061Saints of ASD we've been through the whole pandemic every day we had been there and I love my job when I come to school and I cook for Allen's student it's like feeding my family and I'm near every day but I don't have enough time like the inventories my orders you know if I'm out on the serving line no thank you has Simpson I got a lot to say suppose ladies thank you as a board we should be ashamed one out of every five kids in our Stu in our school district is homeless or hungry one out of every five students in our school district because homeless are hungry and these ladies don't have a contract you should be ashamed you should be ashamed let's let's continue with the shameful Acts my daughter was attacked
062at Allen High School she was sucker punched while another fight was going on during the school did not provide her with the safety Plan before an officer provided her with criminal charges in our school district they don't have to speak to a parent in order to charge our children as long as an administrator is there that's good enough how is that a child and then what's worse when they decided to try to charge my child it wasn't because they came and looked for her she was actually doing the right thing she was in the office telling that the little girl she already had to beat up who sucker punched her I'm not I don't want to fight again so I'm telling I'm telling again less than a year after a knife was pulled on my
063dirt on a school bus after being called a y'all still ain't find out a way to support and make sure that my daughter was safe she wrote on her note when they had the Allen uh thing are you safe in school she said no luckily my daughter is trained in Aikido so she can defend herself but she still did not feel safe in school she tells over and over and over and over again she didn't get a safety plan for a year and 15 a year in three months 15 months because it started in uh South Mountain she got her safety plan today she got her charges on Friday five days five days after I had already came up with the plan with Dr Burks five days after we came up with a plan with
064the school administration she was not in any eminent danger and there was no eminent danger possible but no one decided to call her parent first which is a child with high anxiety and decided to tell me that the teacher who's standing next to her is her advocate how dare you how dare you my phone rings when you need me I'm always there how do you not call me before you try to charge my daughter and then you call a restorative justice without even giving her safety plan how was it restorative justice how are you helping anyone whoever is the head of the policy committee should resign and the reason they should resigned is because we have a prison to a school of prison pipeline we still haven't fixed you can strip search a child in
065our school district without calling a parent that's your policy and you haven't changed it you haven't you tried to fire Dr Burke who think God called me on a weekend thank you for working every day call me on the weekend to check on my daughter's safety checked on her safety on a Saturday night because she still hasn't slept because Friday she was approached by an officer who told her she could possibly go to jail and she doesn't go through a program what's worse if she does sign up for this stupid program that you offer if any for any reason she would have to defend herself again she now opens herself up for real charges because she just waved her first offender rights how are you protecting our children stop all of the lambasting stop all
066of the posturing and tell me how you're protecting our children most of you have been on the board for a long time you hadn't years to fix these policies you had years to review these policies you had years to secure our children our children are not safe they are not secure and you offer them prison before support you offer them charges before of course you want to shut me up because you didn't respond to me of course but I'm not going to step away until somebody says something real of course of course I sent all kinds of procedures where's the procedure to protect my daughter what time is that of course Miss Phoebe you are the header if I won't be making some of you without because you were the one who made sure my
067time was up but you didn't respond for my daughter um security please sit down there's no problem I don't have to sit down I'm not asking you I'm asking security we don't need to support him out he's fine he's a parent please stop thank you thank you are there any other cards yeah is there any old business to come before us this evening seeing none is there any new business seeing none may I have a motion to adjourn so move Mr Palmer Miss Conover all in favor all right any opposed thank you folks that should have been the first thing I was deliberately yeah