001just waiting for our colleague to hop on to zoom and then we'll begin the meeting okay on your calendar for lunch yes okay all right i'd like to call to order the meeting of the board of directors for the school district for the city of allentown for today february 24th 2022 prior to tonight's meeting an executive session was held to discuss confidential and legal matters as always the board welcomes and invites public comment you may address the board on agenda and 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 which is located at the podium by the door and hand it to w deputy superintendent ramos who's holding up her hand
002once recognized please come to the podium state your name and city of um record for the for record for the record sorry and kindly limit your remarks to three minutes um mr secretary can we please have the role ms brown miss conover prince harris here ms matheson mr miller here ms ortiz here mr palmer present mr thiel here miss wolf here my board members president thank you if you all could please join me for pledge of allegiance and a moment of like silence to the flag of the united states of america and to the republic for which it stands one nation under god indivisible with liberty and justice uh at this time i just want to it's my opportunity for remarks and i just want to welcome everybody to the board meeting this evening it's
003nice to see so many people here um i will yield the rest of my time to dr stanford uh thank you madam president and members of the board as you all know the safety and well-being of our students and team members in our buildings is my number one priority we have to make sure that our places of business and learning are safe secure inspirational and nurturing environments we have to make sure that we honor respect and love each other as human beings as an important important value of our district the only way to achieve this type of environment for our students and team members is to focus on the culture and climate of every last building across the district as you have heard me say on time and time again in quoting peter drucker culture
004each strategy for breakfast culture and climber are the heart of an organization the people let me say that again the people are the lifeblood we have to focus on building strong and durable relationships with each other in order to achieve the success our students deserve and need from us as the adults as a result of these beliefs i've asked the team the administrative team to work on the development of a safety and wellness awareness and celebration campaign throughout the month of march on march the 1st the district will launch students for change a contest to invite middle and high school students to submit proposals outlining how they would make their schools safer together there are a lot of details with this project that we are working on but we are very excited to be able
005to share more information with you next week additionally the week of march the 14th through the 18th is national say something week allentown school district will participate in this national week of awareness which is focused on adults and students becoming more aware of each other's well-being by creating an aligned and seamless system of social emotional learning instruction and programming during this week we will also focus on bringing greater awareness to saying something when we see each other struggling with a safety or wellness issue schools and team members will also engage students in activities during the week to celebrate and improve the culture and climate of our buildings in order to create a safer more secure inspirational and nurturing environment for all adults and students in that building also in march our student services office will
006administer the pennsylvania school climate survey this survey is designed to provide schools with formative and subnative climate data for use with needs assessments program development and short and long term planning the domains measured by the surveys include social emotional learning student support and safe and respectful school climate although the above items start in march there are some things already underway including a couple of governance level items for you all as board of directors first we are taking steps to better secure our middle and high schools with some additional technology and other safety features that will be very very valuable to our school administrative teams in order to create those safer and secure learning environments second on tonight's agenda you will see a request to approve a vendor contract to conduct safety audits at all of
007our schools across the district third looking ahead to the next regular board meeting in march it is our intent as an administration to have a behavioral health vendor contract for your review and vote to provide more services in our schools as many of you know i have had the pleasure of holding parent focus groups and student focus groups over the last couple of weeks and i can tell you that the number one issue in these meetings with our parents and students has been mental health issues that our students and families are experiencing you know all across the district this is just the beginning of our efforts and focus on bringing greater attention to the safety and wellness of our students and team members my final comment is to update you on our partnership with lcti
008at our last meeting there were some questions and concerns raised about our partnership with lcti in a conversation with dr rushton he requested that we share with him our list of issues and concerns i will be working with you all over the next couple of days to create the list of issues and concerns to share with dr rushton in the very near future he has already said to me that he is willing to work with us on our issues and concerns he is committed to working with me and i am committed to working with him to make sure that we are providing our students the opportunities that are available at lcti together i know he and i can make sure that our partnership continues to grow and thrive for the benefit of all allentown school
009district students who want that opportunity at lcti i will definitely keep you all up to date on our progress on both topics as we move forward madam president that concludes my remarks thank you dr stanford at this time we'll take public comment on agenda items and if i could just remind everyone when you come to the when your name is called please come to the podium state your name and city of um residence for the record and then kindly um limit your remarks to three minutes mr secretary sharon chair in billington sharon billington street in allentown for years asd has been talking the talk about diversifying our workforce unfortunately now that we have numerous openings that would encourage this hiring to occur the teacher working conditions are limiting it from actually happening with other school
010districts also looking to diversify and paying upwards of twenty thousand dollars or more per year to start why would a person of any color want to work in allentown asd teachers were never the highest paid but they but in years past they came because they got a good benefit and retirement package that was the hook then most grew to love their schools and especially love their students but that hook has been whittled away with until there is no longer any incentive in order to compete and give our kids the high quality education they deserve and we we have to have the backs of our current and future teachers and staff we have to have contracts long-term contracts in place we name may not be able to pay the same salaries as other districts but we
011can support our teachers in other ways because when a teacher feels supported that support is immediately transferred to the student and to the student's family instead of demanding more of our teachers by overclouding crowding classrooms taking away their prep time constantly changing curriculums and dealing with safety security and comfort concerns in buildings and perpetuating the poor communication that exists between the admin and the rank and file we need to show that teachers are valued every day that is the message that needs to go out not the lower pay we cannot hire teachers that look like our students if there are no applicants willing to even apply additionally numerous conversations over the past six years have encouraged that we must grow our own but i have yet to see anything that emphasized emphasizes the teaching profession
012in pastor curran program of studies therefore i challenge the board and the administration to develop a curriculum and courses that focus on teaching professions and to coordinate with lccc and other local colleges to offer incentives to allentown students to go into this professional pursuit our students learn by what they see so let's show them how rewarding teaching can be and that the difference a teacher can make in a child's life and in their future thank you very much sarah jane bruce sarah jane brace allentown pennsylvania good evening board members thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak tonight in the superintendent's report you are being asked to approve a book donation to jefferson elementary i started with a goal of five hundred dollars and thanks to the community we ended up being able to
013donate over eighteen hundred dollars in books to the school as you all know covid decimated our school libraries to no fault of their own kids took books home in march 2020 and they were lost moved to new houses new states new countries or misplaced never to be seen again these funds raised by board members parents teachers and community members have allowed for over a hundred books to be purchased to help replace some of the books lost i wanted to make sure i was able to publicly thank everyone who donated to the fundraiser shared it on facebook or told friends about it and i need to give a special thanks to the firefighters union who met our initial 500 goal with one simple donation thank you the kids appreciate each and every one of you so
014much these books are all being put into the carolyn miller book collection so her love of reading can live on in jefferson elementary isaac is here to give a special collection of books to mrs custer and mrs kerbin he picked these out with money given to him by friends of miss millers at christmas time many of the books purchased are filled with characters who look like our students so they are represented in what they read one of the books being given tonight is called your life matters which features african-american heroes reminding kids that they are rooting for them well the teacher in me would love to read this whole book to you i will just i'll just leave you with the final pages of the book so rewrote rewrite those stars child sketch your dreams
015high in the heavens we are with you and the when the world feels upside down we will remind you again and again your life matters our children's lives matter in asd miss miller made every child know that their life mattered every single day they were in her classroom she will be missed but i know she's looking down on all of our jefferson stallions and saying your life matters i hope we can find a way to support all of our libraries like this donation supported jefferson thank you thank you very much alicia rutherford thank you alicia ruth roth uh north ninth street in allentown um good evening i would like to address uh the company that is being proposed as part uh i believe 9.6 in the agenda uh to perform the comprehensive safety audit for
016the allentown school district and the proposed plan for the audit that company being safe havens international i am asking for the school board to vote to at least table that part that discussion or vote no on it i have read through their proposal and i have or there are grave concerns so this audit is supposed to be a comprehensive safety audit it's supposed to be taking into account the not only the physical safety of our students but our students uh mental well-being and this uh company and their plan does not sufficiently address that if they really address it at all as i was reading through it through their plan the only thing that i was able to see on their proposal that directly addressed any mental health concern for our students is under the district-wide
017assessment where they propose to evaluate suicide prevention and screening strategies as someone who has suffered from clinical depression uh since she was a young kid and in fact had my first thoughts of suicide at 10 years old i can tell you that assessing like if they are only assessing suicide prevention that's not a i apologize this is obviously an emotional topic for me suicidal thoughts don't pop out of nowhere if you are intervening at that moment you have not intervened soon enough these thoughts develop over months over years periods of time that where intervention both can and should happen if safe haven is international is only concerned in terms of mental health with how asd is addressing suicide prevention to be quite blunt they're just asking if you've put a net under the bridge not
018what you have done to prevent anyone from getting to the point of thinking about jumping so i again i would really encourage the board to please please vote to table this until there they have had more time to review uh this company and ultimately uh go in another direction thank you oh audition oh so really quick i know ten seconds um additionally none of the staff that were mentioned in that bio had any training in any sort of mental or behavioral health that's it sorry thank you thank you cece gerlach hello uh my name is cece gerlach 109 south 9th street 18102. um i'm here as a organizer for lvsu um i share uh alicia's concerns with the um the audit company that that was chosen we were elated the last time we were here
019to to find out that the the the next day that there was going to be a safety audit conducted that's awesome and then with just 24 hours of notice we were able to see what that company is and i remember being there and getting those last-minute documents and it's it's not right i can tell you across the street that doesn't happen you get the information well in advance you have time to read and plan and think 24 hours to look at a document that is so important school safety the safety of our children just unacceptable so i would also urge members of the board to vote to table this item tonight so that you can actually look into it you can call up some of the other school districts see how it's going if it's
020going well if it's not going well i mean just with our network we've been able to identify a couple of school districts that just demographically are completely different take chapel hill north carolina it's a very affluent school district very few people of color but yet they reference that as one of their school districts that that they've worked with so how many other districts are similar um you know philly's right around the corner it'd be easy just to contact them and see how is it going do they have any regrets i'd be interested to know what the specs on the rfp were for this specific um bid and as alicia pointed out the staff four out of five come from a law enforcement background which is awesome if that's all you want is that perspective but
021no counselors no mental health perspectives um it's just it's not holistic um and i appreciate the superintendent's comments about some of the other initiatives that are going to be happening that's awesome perhaps when you all have that full picture written out a strategic plan on how that all works together perhaps then you come back and vote for this but if right now it's all verbal and it's not like a comprehensive plan all the wonderful things that the um superintendent said then perhaps don't vote for this tonight just wait wait until you see how it all fits together um so i would encourage the the board and the administration to look at alternatives um to see if there's a better company out there than this one that's it thank you thank you sharon finnegan hi sharon
022finnegan uh 299 chance road allentown 18104 and i just want to make sure that i'm speaking at the right time this is about an um issue discussed at the last meeting this this time is for things that are on the agenda so yeah the graduation pathways yeah okay yeah okay so i'll start your time again all right thank you um i would like to offer input on one of the pathways described as a graduation requirement at the last meeting um it was the one asking for volunteer hours i'm not exactly sure what it was called but some of the qualities i remember from the shared screen that was put up were discipline and empathy and listening to the information presented one of my first thoughts was about adults returning to college and the opportunity given
023to get credit for life experience if you get credit for things you've already accomplished you can skip certain courses and get your degree faster so there are some kids who have undue burdens on them family responsibilities family situations homelessness even um so my thought is that if these children can show that they have gained empathy learned responsibility done these things then maybe this could be acknowledged and they could be given credit for the life they're living i understand that the ask is minimal it was something like 10 hours very doable but ultimately that's not the point this would not be a special favor not a giveaway or a concession this would be a valid acknowledgement of legitimate life experience that already fulfills the requirement thank you that's it thank you everyone at this time um
024may i have a motion for the approval of the minutes this is conover's their second mr theo is there any discussion seeing and hearing none please please call the role that's caught over miss harris yes ms matheson mr miller yes miss ortiz yes mr palmer yes mr thiel yes miss wilt yes miss brown yes 9-0 passes thank you very much um that leads us to our information update and um ms brown is there anything to report from the human relations commission yes um the human relations commission sponsored the embracing your melanin black history event created by allentown school district student nashira brown who is the founder of the black scholar society this event was held this past saturday on february 19th at the art house the event was an excellent event i also attended the
025event myself it was educational inspirational and moving uh there was poetry on diversity equity and inclusion uh the there was poetry also on the perception of social media and its negative impacts on our lives uh there was a gospel rapper who rapped about the negative impact he experienced with social media and how his relationship within his faith has transformed him to be better a senior athlete from moravian college spoke on his failures that actually turned into his great success and it inspired him to become a greater student and also a role model toward the end we received a motivational and an empowering speech from leonard leitner the chief operating officer of the city of allentown which i also found to be motivational and beyond that we the human relations commission also is in a process
026of planning for the next banquet and that's all i have thank you very much miss harris i was not able to attend did we did we have a library meeting this month we did but i was able to attend but there is no um report this month all right thank you very much mr palmer i know that i wasn't able to attend the parks and rec but i believe you were there do you have anything that you'd like to report uh yes parks and rec did meet um there was discussions of bringing the summer programs as well as looking for lifeguards there are hiring processes taking place for lifeguards now you can contact the city if any students would want to put in for being lifeguards as well as looking for funding for flag football
027programs there was talk of asking the philadelphia eagles for some funding and some other organizations for some funding thank you very much ms ortiz the school district foundation yes uh we did meet this month the high notes gala is the biggest news right now we're actively promoting both parts the high notes reception tickets are 150 dollars at the americas hotel on saturday march 19th at 6 p.m and the high notes video matinee tickets are 10 at dare of high school on saturday march 20th at 3 p.m um information on both events can be found on the website middle and high school performance groups are being featured and the funds raised to help support performance groups and other allentown school district foundation programs so we hope you all can attend that um students at the lehigh
028parkway elementary school are authoring their own books through the foundations i am on a bookshelf program under the direction of mr donald stahl mr stahl recently told us that a second grade student is authoring the program's first bilingual book and we anticipate the return of the authors night at barnes noble in the spring details are coming later on that that's all i have thank you very much has found anything from the iu um at this time um i'm still waiting to receive information on the meeting for next month so no meeting attend nothing to report okay thank you you're welcome um lcti it's fun over ms mathison or mr last night we said farewell to the current business manager and said hello to uh the new the new individual who will be taking over and
029we began the search process for a new executive director because dr rusted will be retiring uh that that's my part of the news lisa you're next [Music] good evening the um the enrollment the application process for um students from asd to attend lcti has begun it the enrollment period will end on the 30th the enrollment is now i know i mentioned this in our last um board meeting but it's now online they do have paper um options but for the most part they're using this new um online process and it allows your families to be involved in the process of your enrollment open rolling also we have they have a fifth grade i call it an exploratory program where the fifth graders get a chance to um to to apply and to go and and
030spend a day at um lcti and we have about 917 fifth graders throughout our district who are currently um registered and excited about um attending let me see what else i have here and i know i said i hope i said it um the enrollment period ends the 30th of april so if you're interested please um begin to enroll now and that's about it okay thank you very much um safety task force our meeting was about on it and having a safety audit for our schools here in asd i didn't hear what you said i'm sorry what did you say about the safety audit can you lean into the mic so that those listening on youtube um our meeting was about the safety audit for asd okay thank you and i think uh dr stanford
031pretty much said it all and we're pretty much um excited about what's happening in our district as it relates to um safety um i know that um that many of us may not really be getting the whole picture i know you know i heard some comments that were made but well i want to say that we are moving in the right direction and um i'm looking forward to to some of the things that are happening that was mentioned and i'm glad i'm happy to also say that our partners have been included in some of our meetings that we've had and they're excited about the changes that are being made within our district as it relates to safety and that concludes my report thank you very much ms harris was there a city youth initiative report
032um there was a report okay right well then that brings us to our student leaders um so the first on my schedule here is jamir chapman from allen i could just make sure that make sure that you lean into the mic so that everybody including in cyberspace can hear you february was the month to celebrate our senior athletes william allen celebrated six members of the boys basketball team two members of the girls basketball team one member of the wrestling team five members of the swimming and diving team three members of the cheerleading squad and 13 members of the indoor track and field today william island celebrated 13 students for the student of the month which are nominated by teachers a video of this month students will be available on the william allen website in honor
033of black history month william island provided many activities an interactive calendar was provided to teachers to use in their classrooms as well as placed on the william island website each day featured an influential african-american with a link to read or listen to a biography of the individual weekly announcements were made by the black student union featuring an individual or information on a historical event impacting african americans teachers and staff received a bag of chips to enjoy in honor of george speck an african-american chef credited for inventing the potato chip the black student union presented a health and wellness film the fair featured local african-american business owners in the field of health and wellness setting up tables for students and staff to visit to hear about the service they offer in addition advisor ms utterback led
034a discussion with students focusing on wellness topics today guest speaker shandu mcfadder founder and executive director of gmac spoke to the william allen student body gmac focuses on helping the youth in the community realize their impact and make and their make around them on friday february 25th weather permitting shia mcpherson will be at william island to present a lyrical performance followed by william island dance team if the weather doesn't permit for this to take place tomorrow it will take place on thursday march 3rd 2022 9th grade students enjoy the movie redtail as one of our canary cash incentives students earn canary cash for being safe respectful and responsible next for the current ninth graders began this semester gen next is a program brought to william island last year by alumni willi wilber sakai to help
035prepare students for college it is a four-year commitment that teaches students what to expect while attending college and help aid them in the process of applying for college and financial aid we look forward to reaching out to the 8th grade students to get them registered for the third cohort at william allen high school next year march is national women's month events will be planned to celebrate this month the information will be provided once finalized over the president weekend break the william island construction company with the help of the buds construction company completed their alma mater project this project was designed to make the north greatest field more at home mount island and bring a renewed sense of school pride and community the project broke down the first verse of the alma mater into 10 lines
036each line was designated a spot on campus the students chose the location with specific lines in mind for example three through future days of life is across the library and next to the college sings in the tunnel if you get a chance to stop by william island to check out the alma mater wrapped around the campus or visit our website and click on the link to view the pictures today student athletes were part of a positive coaching alliance workshop called honoring the game social media use this program was brought to william allen as part of the nest program currently being offered for our student athletes boring to hand jobs william island high school will be presenting greece the musical april 21st to the 24th tickets are on sale now don't miss out to see some
037amazing theatrical talent that concludes the report very much good evening and thank you for having me superintendent stanford met with students representatives at voting 21. he along with use of doll from the century promise saw students feeling inspired motivated and empowered huge shout out to superintendent stanford for his visit we look forward to his next visit and reckon sorry in recognition of black history month motivational speaker cody martin presented to ninth grade students today again students felt inspired and truly enjoyed listening to the message he shared additionally students worked on the various displays currently observed in our building during the month of january students celebrated their accomplishments with attendance behavior and academics by watching a school-wide movie students meeting all the criteria and the month of february will be recognized with a newly designed voting
03821 t-shirt we have about 20 students who regularly participate in our 21st century after school program enrollment applications for 2022 and 2023 school year are being accepted please encourage interested families with 8th grade students to apply by visiting brodie21.org enroll families can visit the enrollment page for additional information the page includes all relevant information related to the process again the information can be found at burden21.org enroll parent conferences were held on wednesday february 16th the focus was to review students ppls with families and share opportunities related to acceleration um that when these remediation and recovery semester one dual enrollment class have ended the semester and semester two had begun we are offering six to enrollment classes this school year we are excited to share that many of our year four students have applied and aren't
039being accepted into colleges and universities thank you for your time thank you for your report and greg soto from durov good evening my name is gregorio soto jr i'm a senior at the year of high school and the primary board representative our executive council has started creating a plan to give back to the community as well as encourage husky pride within the school one plan we have is to volunteer at the local allentown elementary schools to clean up their parks read with the students and play games with them and more the track and field indoor season has made many accomplishments which include studying seven indoor school records as well as sophomore richard suarez being one of six district 11 athletes qualifying for the state championship at penn state in late march all of these accomplishments
040were achieved no matter the obstacle and we look forward to continuing to build our program with additional resources as our athletics and activities programs continue to grow and expand there is lots ahead for our athletes today the class 2025 had the privilege of listening to mr cody martin speak to them about overcoming adversity chasing your goals and the power of having a positive mindset we would also like to say a special thank you to the martin luther king and course coretta scott king foundation for their support and investment in our in our pack sadly for those who who do not know the husky pack is mourning the loss of our beloved mascot kiska who passed away last week at the age of 11. while we are heartbroken for mrs coleman and our husky family we
041are planning to honor her legacy in many ways this spring for now we are celebrating kiska's life by remaining tethered together and sharing our husky pride with the community finally to end this on a more positive note many of our students have been accepted to colleges and universities which are include but not limited to already university cedar crest college delaware valley university the sales university east stroudsburg university moravian university and many more thank you for your time thank you very much thank you all for your reports um this evening um at this time that brings us to the point of our meeting for the board of directors report um they have a motion for the approval mr theo is there a second this is ms brown is there any discussion seeing and hearing none please
042call the role harris yes miss matheson mr miller yes ortiz yes mr palmer yes mr thiel yes mr will yes ms brown miss conover yes nine zero passes thank you very much um item number 10 secretary and treasurer's report mr theo is there a second mrs conover is there any discussion that's item number 11. superintendent's report is item number 11. i'm sorry i'm going off of my my list here okay which includes the countdown for the public speaking stuff so it doesn't correlate to the agenda that you own okay well no further discussion okay so i'll stop saying the numbers that i'm reading off of here um no further discussion please call the world mr miller [Music] yes ms ortiz yes mr palmer yes mr thiel yes miss will yes ms braille yes that's conover
043yes it's harris yes miss matheson 9-0 passes thank you that brings us to the superintendent's report um mr theo is there is there a second there's ortiz is there any discussion on the superintendent's report yes yes i i heard ms harris first look at item b the program of studies um i just wanted to if this possible brandi couldn't come before us again because she did explain it a lot better um what those 10 hours were with the pathways were it was the five pathways that a student could graduate and one of them was having the 10 hours of service learning um when she explained it to me again it made sense it's not to hinder our children you know it's they're not going to be held accountable if they don't those 10 hours no
044that's one of the pathways so that life experience can go towards that 10 hours to me that is a win-win so i am very happy to support that i thank um brandi missouri for um explaining that and also offering that because that that just opens the door someone no longer having failure we're having children complete at education who have difficulties not everybody has difficulties but some do and so that life experience can count for that 10 hours that's another pathway to make sure these that we give our children success and they graduate so i just want to thank uh missouri for that thank you very much miss harris appreciate that ms brown sofa item e uh the safety audit um i request to have this item tabled um as a board member i feel that
045it is a disservice for me to vote without having the ability to make an informed decision with receiving the information last night um i do not have the ability to do that and with a conscience uh for someone who has previously in the past worked as a mental health technician and mental hospital i feel that i have to have the ability to address some of the comments that was made today and just request that it be tabled at this time uh procedurally uh since i made the motion i'd be more than happy to have that told separate and then my motion would just re retain uh everything on the superintendent's report except for the safety audit which we can do separately okay so so just just a gentleman kind of you know correct i want
046to repeat what you're saying just um for clarity for my point of order but also for clarity for for those um in attendance and listening on on youtube because the motion was on the table to to vote on the full superintendent's report you are asking to you're putting them you're amending the motion no he's he's agreeing to withdraw the motion and if the person who made the second agrees to that it can be withdrawn otherwise we'd have to vote on the motion to amend thank you attorney sultanic thank you who seconded it that wasn't true who made the second i think the motion was the table and then you said there was a second one are you in agreement with amending the motion to pull that particular item so we can vote on the remainder
047of the superintendent's report um yes so i have a question well we have to vote on this motion first if i'm not mistaken attorney's holding what did ms brown do but she she engaged in when i asked if there was any discussion on the superintendent's report which was appropriate because that it was a component of the full report that we were voting on or that we were that was on the table okay let me just let me let me be clear in terms of what the issue is um the the recommendation right now is to vote on the superintendent's report that was the motion that was stable correct correct well nothing was tabled nothing was stabled yet no right right correct i was saying that was the motion that is on that that is before
048us i should say right rather than using on the table okay now in actuality it's the entire superintendent's report that is before the board is that correct correct correct and the most the motion to table was not for the entire superintendent's report but it was only a portion of the superintendent's report the one contract correct okay so it would be appropriate since it's a superintendent's report for the superintendent to withdraw that recommendation if he's willing to otherwise then the motion to um amend the report would be in order so is the superintendent willing to withdraw that motion right now voluntarily or because it's the superintendent's recommendation uh no i'm not okay so if you're not then um this this uh mr theo you were was that a motion that you would have normally made to
049approve the superintendent's report coming from your committee no not for my commitment okay who made uh i couldn't tell i'm sorry i didn't i did make the motion though i made the motion and it was seconded by miss ortiz so to to eliminate the motion to approve oh you made the motion to approve the superintendent's report i'm sorry entirety correct okay so you're willing to amend your motion to reflect everything except the contract in question correct correct and who made the second ms ortiz to your motion ms ortiz did and willing to make that change she said yes earlier you still need to say yes okay i'm sorry i couldn't hear that okay so then based upon that without going through the motion to amend the motion before the board will be everything except that
050one contract but then with the intention to vote on it to then somebody can make a motion on that after we do the entire thing with intention to conduct business on that item and separate from the full report attorney sultanic it could be if somebody's willing to make a motion for that separately but mr thiel motion is saying i'm willing to approve the superintendent's report without that being in there and ms ortiz agreed to that and then point of order procedurally to conduct to we could then ask i could ask for a motion for that's yes yes let's finish this motion first i just wanted to make sure okay all right so the motion on the table uh not on the table i'll stop using that word the motion on the floor is to um
051before this is the superintendent's report the superintendent's report items 9.1 9.2 9.3 9.4 9.5 and 9.7 excluding 9.6 correct okay is there any discussion on those specific items only on the items that we're not talking about that item right now mr palmer only on on the items that are that we're just clarifying yeah everything except 9.6 and hearing none you please call the roll miss ortiz yes mr palmer yes mr steele yes miss wilt yes ms brown yes miss conover yes miss harris no miss matheson mr miller yes eight one passes now separately there's may i have a motion for the approval of 9.6 exhibit e so move that's okay who i'm sorry nick and then who was my mr miller was so what potion by mr miller seconded by a second about me but
052i just want to well we need to put the motion on the table first and then we can discuss okay so the motion is on the table so second about me okay is there discussion yes so the question is you just said the motion is on a table is it to table it or is it to move it forward so that's what i'm trying to get a clarification my motion um procedurally is to move it forward if there's discussion or or any kind of request that needs to be made now now okay so at this point the discussion could i state should i state again my reason for not wanting to move forward yes because now is the time for discussion okay just wanted to clarify so am i correct in my mom okay so
053in that case um my request again is to table this item uh due to me not receiving the information in a timely manner i received it last night and as a board member um well i would like to say not only as a board member but also as a parent of students in the allentown school district their safety is of concern to me um but in addition to that i feel that this is is a disservice for me to not vote with an informed decision so in that case i would like to have it tabled so now i would need a motion i would need a second to that from the full board on whether or not you're in agreement to table um the exhibit e yes a vote of yes means that the motion
054will be tabled and that we do that by roll call correct so yes uh i think given what i suspect to be the divisions of the board on this issue that would be a good idea all right mr um can you please call the role and then so again just to clarify for our newer colleagues what we're voting on right now is whether or not we want to table um this exhibit for future um review and discussion etc mr miller miss matheson miss harris no is conover miss brown yes miss wilt no mr thiel no mr palmer um am i able to speak freely right now you're voting on on the motion that's on the table okay yes miss ortiz i'm gonna have to say no two seven fails so now the underlying motion is
055still on the table so you can vote on that contract correct a vote of yes would mean approving the contract a vote of no would be against the contract may i ask you a point of order question on attorney sultanic we had discussion and a and part of that discussion was that motion to table so we we conducted the business of the motion to table which which failed does does that mean that all discussion is closed or is because now i might am i able to ask if there's any discussion on the original you can have discussion on the underlying contract right now all right that's what i thought but i just wanted to clarify is there any discussion on exhibit e um i just uh in terms of voting for that this is one
056of the issues that i have is just the timing of it i didn't get a chance to look into it really at all and in terms of just some of the places that they have been to it doesn't seem to fit our same demographic i do see some of the work that they have done and it does look like they were even called back in some places so i can't say that they do a bad job i don't i just don't know the job that they do um as opposed to working with our students i do believe that safety is important for our students and i would like something done as soon as possible but that was the reason why i just had to ask for some kind of tabling just to be able to
057look and do it further miss harris i understand for the new people for you know miss brown mr palmer ortiz because i was like y'all five years ago the public has and the board members who are on the safety task force have been working for on this for four years this is not something new this is not taken lightly this is taken in a very we we are strong on what we believe in we know we have problems in our school district we know but we know we need to get solutions and this year has been not good it's been the worst year i've i've seen so i there is importance an urgency to get this done it's not like we're doing willy nilly no we have really really researched i am going to stand
058behind dr ramona and you know because the in the choice that we have made for this for this it's about the behavioral health of what's going on in our district and she has done her her research and has made it very clear she knows what she's doing and i'm asking i am asking the community and asd to have faithfulness on this one because this is not an easy this is not an easy decision it isn't it has been years in the making and if you know me you know if it's not good i'm not going to stand with it and i'm standing beside this around this little fence all around it i believe in this and i'm asking you to believe us with the decision that we make i don't see that i'll do that
059twice or once i'm sorry i just pressed it and it's like no i did it i trusted him oh you did you came up as student right that's why i was confused uh i just want to say that this this was not an easy decision for me um it's probably one of the hardest that i've had to make yet um i understand that my colleagues they need the time to review all the information to make a a well-informed vote um however this this has to be done it hasn't been done since i think about 2010 and it's safety is one of my top priorities as a school board director so that's all i have to say i just it it wasn't an easy decision but i did what i thought was the best thank you
060any other yes so with all due respect um something my mother always told me is you never sign a paper without reading so with having information that i'm supposed to make a decision on without having the ability to have it in a timely manner to make a decision again i feel it's a disservice to why i'm in a seat so um i'm obligated to our students um and the families to make sure that i'm making decisions on their behalf uh i can't say that i'm for it or against it again because i just received the information last night so this is not about whether i'm old or new but this is about making the right decision and again um safety includes you know many areas and mental health hopefully as a lot of you know
061is a huge concern of mine um working in a mental hospital i've experienced many of our asd students that came through and with that being said if there's a concern um that those needs are not being met or addressed or even looked at that's an issue for me so with good conscience i have to make sure i'm doing what's right to make an informed decision and that's why i'm doing what i'm doing so um again moving forward hopefully i would receive information in a timely manner but this is where we are now so i have to do what's right for our students so thank you [Music] for mr thiel thank you mrs will i just want to thank dr stanford and your address earlier in the meeting where you reference this as being part of
062the strategy moving forward and part of the campaign program i deeply appreciate the holistic view that you took in a holistic approach even empowering our students and allowing them to be part of the voice and the process for the climate and creating the climate and the healthy climate within our schools and also you know addressing climate issues with our teachers and our staff so um just uh thank you to you and your team and the entire team for putting together a comprehensive plan and this is one part of it um it's it's great that we're not contracting out all the elements um in your plan but we're taking ownership and responsibility within you and your team as well as the the students themselves to become part of the process so thank you very much thank
063you sars yes um i just wanted to bring forth the point with this group that we're having to safe haven um i noticed that it's not about this one is more of the behavioral health the mental health will come from another piece that's going to be coming from something else but this is more about the the behavioral health and that and the climate there thank you thank you thank you um if i may add i just wanted to i think everybody pretty much said it all and i'm very i said it earlier that um it's unfortunate that many don't see it but i'm hoping that in in the very near future you wake up one day and say hey now i see it but we work i want to thank you guys for working really
064hard at this for the work that's put in i've been in a lot of those meetings and i and i'm i'm a mental health baby i grew up in a mental institution my mother retired as a mental health nurse so i know um you know this is the behavioral health and climate piece and then having that mental health piece separate i think it's gonna it's gonna do well for our district um so i just wanted to say and it's for this they're they've done work in philadelphia um atlanta um there's several park county dc and more places so if you want to do your due diligence you know look into them you know everything i know that we've all been through a lot in the past and it's hard for us to trust the process
065but i'm just asking that you trust the process because we've all come together to make sure that our kids are getting what it is that they need that's pretty much all i have to say tonight this math is someone she loves you okay well then i think everybody has had the opportunity um at this point i just would echo what you said mrs conover um i think a variety of people have touched on on my perspective as well and i i also was going to thank um the administration and recognize that this is just one one piece of of the puzzle moving forward in the climate and culture and safety um uh audit inclusively moving forward so um with that um i'm going to close the the floor and ask for a vote um so
066if you could please call the role let's go on over miss harris yes ms matheson mr miller yes ms ortiz yes that's the palmer no mr theo yes that's will yes miss brown no seven two passes thank you that brings us to the personnel report for tonight um may i have a motion for approval of the personnel so moved ms mathison the second by ms ortiz and mr miller um is there any discussion on this motion mr phil yeah i'd just like to there's obviously lots of names of folks retiring here in this personnel report but i just wanted to highlight the two names in particular um two principals who had served very long time bob wheeler and um david hahn uh david hahn first came to union terrace so my kids were both at
067union terrace so he has a special place in in my heart in my family's heart and uh he was also the first one that taught me the term kiddos if anybody knows and i just want to just my my my personal kind of hats off to mr han for uh serving the community our students and staff all these years thank you thank you mr thiel you stole my thunder um but um mr hahn and i were standing at the the parade for the 250th anniversary of the city of allentown and we were struck up a conversation on where we had gone to high school and learned at that time that we both graduated from emas high school the same year but had never met each other prior so um that was that's my fun little
068story about mr han which i think i shared with you when we toured the school but as always i i always um there are there are a lot of names on here my like many of you i've i've been a parent in this district for a very long time and there's a lot of names in this this report um retiring shifting positions etc etc and i just want to take a moment to to thank all um in our buildings that are that are serving our our students and our community as a whole and i want to wish those retiring um lots of uh good times ahead and and for those taking on new positions within the district thank you for continuing to serve the community so with that um any other discussion all right can
069you please call the roll mr palmer yes mr thiel yes miss will yes ms brown miss conover miss harris yes that's matheson mr miller yes miss ortiz yes nine zero passes thank you that brings us to the finance report mr thiel so move so moved is there a second mrs conover is there any discussion on the finance report miss harris yes um i would like to discuss on um item a google ltci's operating budget which is seven million dollars um we did hear from dr rushton especially last two weeks ago and i was very disturbed by what he said when it came to the staff when i asked him about diversity and he said the staff was 100 white and the way he said it it hurt it got me right into my gut because
070to me and i'm gonna this is how i heard it he was proud of him we're upon out of every dollar comes from allentown which is 85 percent minority majority to me he was a slapping mic in our face allentown because it was 100 white he said it and to me it was like a challenge what you gonna do about it that wasn't cool uh i know our superintendent is going to be working with him and i thank you for that but he also said that two years ago he did an equity policy and that that would be policies because of the years of us complaining about what our students were going through so to me that meant he had selective hearing they heard what they wanted to hear and did it with a few
071things that they want to do but the rest they didn't care so i know our students are there and they need to be there and i'm going to look in that way because it is these are skills that our students need but when an institution and he's just a principal not a superintendent a principal like all of our other principals that we hold accountable can say this and think he can get away with it i think it's okay it's wrong and so i just needed to let that be known [Music] any other discussion on the motion seeing none please call the world mr thiel yes that's will yes miss brown yes is conover miss harris yes ms matheson mr miller yes miss ortiz yes mr palmer yes 9-0 passes thank you very much at this
072time mr hargett are there any public comments on non-agenda items yeah first one amber clarke hello amber clark allentown pennsylvania for those of you that know me unlike two years ago i will not be here to ask you for a hundred and forty thousand dollars for bus cameras because we took care of that already so um [Music] today tonight i'm here to talk about my daughter's school the arts academy charter elementary school she's been a stellar student there since 2017 and we've been there this is her fifth year some of the board members may or may not be aware but we have been up for renewal for two years now and all the other charter schools in the district have been renewed and our school has not we have followed all the rules we have
073provided document after document after document and our children cannot afford to have the threat of their school being closed uh hanging over their heads um i understand that uh the um the whole charter school um i don't know atmosphere you know i need more coffee um it can be a touchy discussion but charters don't exist without the permission of the district so we are here because you allowed us to be and we are just asking for you to please please look at and review the documents that we have i provided for you via binders and and and everything else so um this is not an accusatory i speech here this is a please please take a look at it and again you may or may not be aware that it's there and that we've been
074waiting but we have a lot of work to do financially in the school such as building a third floor and providing more programs and that can't be done until you look at the paperwork and and hopefully take some positive action my daughter who is here to speak tonight she has benefited from so many programs at that school she's benefited from theater art uh music dance she's learning how to play the xylophone she has uh and and i think all of these things have led to her becoming the amazing human being that most of you know her to be uh and uh the same goes for uh all the other children at that school and many of whom are here this evening so i'm here to just ask you to please take a look at the
075arts academy charter elementary schools renewal paperwork and please don't let us wait any longer to be able to continue to service our children's needs thank you thank you olivia clark ortiz i'm finally tall enough you could just state your name olivia um um my name is olivia clark ortiz i go to arts academy elementary charter school um and i'm here to talk about how i how i want my school to stay open and not close and i really love my school it has a whole ton of stuff like music theater um [Music] arts and stuff um and to me the school is like family like all of you are like everyone who's at my school is like family to me it's really awesome how um the school is like um [Music] being really great and
076um uh [Music] um i just want to say that i love this school and mommy what are you doing speaking here don't interrupt this important um conversation okay okay so yeah um sorry about that um anyway this uh just saying that i don't want my school to close i want it to stay open forever and and i'm almost going to go in fifth grade so that'd be really cool if i complete the whole um basically like a like a revolution when the earth goes around the sun when i go around the whole school and complete my journey so yeah um i love the school i love everything about it so [Music] yeah i'm done thank you very much olivia carla carla ortiz good evening uh carla ortiz allentown pennsylvania i am olivia's other mother and
077i usually don't speak on these things because you know that woman that is so strong and i am i or so much usually speaks for the whole family but i figured uh i need to say something tonight and uh she gave you all the details about you know arts academy and about how it's important for us to for it to stay open and i just wanted to you know mention that me growing up i never had a place right that i could learn academically and creatively like my kid does and i think that's so very important for her that she not only gets to learn what i learned she gets to learn all the things that i did not have the chance to learn right because they were not available and besides that right i
078want to say thank you to all of you because without all of you she would not be there she will not have the chance to do what she's doing um so i won't take a lot of your time because i know there's a lot of speakers but i just wanted to say you know look at it if you haven't had the chance to look at it it's very very important that my kid stays in school and stays doing what she loves to do and you know you all are very important part of that thank you thank you chloe hennigan hello my name is chloe and as the most recent graduate in my family from arts academy i would really like to talk to you all and share my feelings about the school getting bigger in
079fifth grade last year especially because of kobe it was really tough it was a really tough year for the students we succeeded to graduate but always i always wondered what it would be like if we had a chance to have more if we had a chance to have more time and if we had a chance to have more space how much better it would have been if we could have been able to experience our last years in our favorite school doing something some extraordinary things don't get me wrong my school was the best school around and the teachers that worked had worked there and the teachers that we had worked extremely hard for us and i am thankful for what they were able to do by helping us reach the level of potential that we
080did but i can't help but wonder what i would have been like if we had more now my little brother goes to the school and he's in kindergarten and is and it is his turn to be treated and cared for with the same love and respect i got from my teachers and he and all of his classmates deserve the very best chance and the very best place to do it i may be young but my dad has explained to me how important in the charter renewal is and what it means for my little brother i know how hard my dad works to take care of us he's one of the staff and at the school and so i know my little brother will always be taken care of i really do want him to have
081every chance to succeed in school and be a great student and with the charter renewal approved you all help my dream come true so please for the future generations of arts academy say yes to the school's renault thank you jason hennigan good evening my name is jason i'm allentown pa i am a previous graduate of arts academy elementary charter school i am here to ask you please give serious consideration to renewing the arts school charter the school has done so much for children like me who have faced struggles in reading and math it helped and it helped me develop my artistic talent i loved to dance and i loved to draw and because of the art school i was able to develop my talent in a way that i can use them to better my
082future and i just want to make sure that other children in my neighborhood have the same chance that i do the art school it's a great fun place to be a part of and i've always hoped that it would be able to offer more kids that come to the school with even more than what i was given so that way they can grow and become wonderful artists who have confidence in themselves just like how i've grown up and developed i feel that the school should be given the same opportunity to develop things are always changing in our lives and the best way that the arts academy can keep up with those changes is by growing as a school and the only way to do this is through the city of valentine's approval of the new
083charter which will help them change for the better thank you so much for your time love hitting again senior love hannigan senior allentown pa good evening ladies and gentlemen um i know a few of you um but i am a behavioral specialist at the arts academy elementary charter school um so far you've heard from two of my four children who have graduated from the school you'll soon be hearing from my oldest child um and i'm actually one of the behavioral specialists that is in charge of bali juice which is olivia clark ortiz as you all know her um and i come to you tonight looking for a helping hand i know a lot of you may be new to the situation but as amber stated the situation has been two and a half years long
084and if we can get this to a conclusion it helps me continue to do not only what i'm good at but what i love we have acts recently within our new charter for an increase a small increase in the cap of 50 students for allentown but that's to help us grow and with what we need it's it's necessary as you can see the the success of the children that um that adore who we are um this is the first school that i've ever been a part of that has allowed me to literally build from the bottom up i started out as a parent volunteer became pto president of the same arts academy charter school all four of my children my oldest children have graduated from that school and was hired as a creative movement instructor
085through martial arts and now i'm one of the behavioral specialists so i ask you all to give some serious consideration to all the documents that we've provided to all the information that we've we've um we've given to you all the middle states accreditation is one of my favorite things about the school and we have a seven year approval a seven-year approval with no contest that just speaks to the type of school that we are it just speaks to the type of atmosphere that we create and i look at the school representatives from the high schools and i'm very proud of these individuals i'm just asking for the opportunity to give the children in the primary school setting the same advantage in the same opportunity to reach those points thank you for your time love him
086again that's awesome [Music] good evening my name is love anakin from allentown um i love hennigan junior sorry i'm the oldest of my siblings to graduate from arts academy elementary charter school and i'm just asking for a few moments of your time to consider our points i think it's really important that this chart of renewal happens because when i know when i was coming to each stage of my graduation there was a point where it was in question whether or not i should transfer and i know every time i chose to stay where i was for me it was a choice and i don't want that to be forced on the next few generations because what they have is really is really good and i think closing those opportunities isn't fair to them the school
087has done many great things as well as help me guide sorry help guide me along the path i'm on today i'm currently the 12th grade student body president of my high school as well as being a straight a student with multiple options and opportunities to go to college to complete my dreams and becoming a digital artist i believe the foundation of good character begins in elementary school and i am forever grateful for the teaching and guidance provided by the team of arts academy support of the staff and encouragement of my creativity which helped me harness my talent that gave me the chance to create my identity i'm not sure i would be in the place that i am today without it everything that the arts academy has done and can do for students they've for
088the students they've come across are exactly why this renewal is so important i'm a prime example of this program's success i know i don't have a lot of time to speak i just want you to please consider that not only have they created a success story within me but there are so many others that have come after me that are on the same path so renewing the school's charter will ensure that multiple children like myself are guaranteed the same opportunity thank you so much for your time thank you hello my name is nadia alicia allentown pa thank you for the time that you're allowing for us to speak here i'm here to support the need for a charter renewal that was requested over two years ago for the arts academy elementary charter school both of
089my children attend the school and the school's administrators have trusted in myself as well as a few other individuals here today to share our thoughts and our support so i understand that some of the members of the board were perhaps unaware of this and perhaps they're also unaware that the delay of the renewal is harmful uh to the sustainability of the school the development of its programs and most importantly the quality of education for allentown resident students as an educator and uh administrator it is clear to me that this is not a question of whether or not the charter is worthy of approval the school is actually an exemplary school in many ways um as you perhaps are able to hear for from some individuals here today rather i would like to take this opportunity
090today to speak in support of an expedited renewal of the charter as it has been presented including the needed updated update to the enrollment cap which is also necessary for its success and sustainability and building its capacity for the future um this is going to allow the school and enable the school to enroll at least some of the hundreds of students um that live in allentown who have waited over a year to enroll in the school some of them who have kind of given up by now um so i would like to request for an expedited renewal i know from all of the information that has been shared with me and with others that the school has stressed it in that this school is certainly worthy of this renewal i have been in the process
091of other charter renewals and it seems to me from all of what i understand and have been previewed that really there should have been no delay of two years for this charter to be renewed and to continue its path as every other charter does especially if it's a school of this type that has been very successful in many ways and has affected so many lives uh so positively so that is what i will request today of all of you if you were not aware that this has been um in process or you know whatever the the label may be at this point for the past two years uh now you are and i would request that you look into it and that it gets expedited thank you well lotta pollutes me good evening my name
092is feleta posochne and i live in 2365 lancaster avenue i'm a parent of two students in district in recent weeks all neighborhood districts changed optional masking parkland southerly high salisbury nazareth whitehall tamaqua quaker town allentown diocese is not northwestern katasaqua penn aguirre easton wilson northampton since november bethlehem plans as of march 1st meanwhile the board extended mask requirement to the rest of the year school can you please explain why and please do don't tell because of high numbers of covet in lehigh valley because most of the school districts i've mentioned are in lehigh valley so you're telling me they don't care about their students it feels more like discrimination of allentown students is it because you're still expecting esser funds that requires universal masking social distancing cleaning facility contact racing with warranty quarantine vaccination cleaning
093hand washing and respiratory etiquette and let me mention about contact racing every time there is a covert case in my some school i receive a generic phone message an email with the generic letters from may and august 2021 i look at the at our website uh for the last 10 days there was two cases in two schools in twenty schools zero cases in four schools one case um and generic message always says individual in our school has tested positive for covet 19 so i ask them it's always one case let's talk about hand washing my sounds inform me both schools don't provide soaps and paper towels they dry their hands into pants that's not helping my son's eczema visiting other schools during swim meets i saw they have tattoos faucets and patches papers dispensers meanwhile
094animal schools don't have soap and paper towels in ireland school there is only one bathroom open per building the rest is closed what are we doing with astr funds also my son brought to my attention that filters in the water station are never changed always displaying red light that indicates to change them are we still talking about the health of the students masks are not effective m95 maybe give some protection but not if one all day students don't even wear them properly a long time mask wearing can have negative physical and mental effects and consequences i witnessed during the swim meet one swimmer left the mask somewhere and before heading out to the bash coach handed him one of two masks picked up somewhere student put the mask on the face how disgusting is this
095i hope it was his mask as we can see on social media our new athletic director mr anderson hardly ever has a mask during the event surrounded by the students with the masks as you watch super bowl nobody had masks prove the pandemic is over please let me know i will force to wear the mask for five days seven or eight wires eight hours what is your experience i'm not asking you or begging today i'm demanding to change the policy to optional masking and give choices to students their parents and their doctors thank you for your time diane hollowell all right diane hollowell lower stocking uh this year our administration at tariff initiate initiated a new program to help build morale among students and staff so it's really cool every week we can nominate a
096staff member or a student and on a weekly televised high ski headline they get recognized i'm just out of curious like gregor over there i just had him talk with the the vice president of turner whiteman and turner so the kid's looking at an internship right now so i'm very proud of them so thank you all right i also see the top five things you need to know in the allentown school district they have implemented a show the love recognition so tonight i just want to give a couple public shout outs and some recognition last time it was to mrs wilt and her amazing effort in coordinating a book drive for the district tonight i want to give a shout out to our district's i.t department i never realized how much responsibility ron our i.t
097guy here has put your hand up ron okay not only is he responsible for our 1900 plus student chromebooks but also staff workstations windows devices networking problems and he always seems to have a smile on his face which i see through his eyes because he is responsible and wears a mask also i had a chance to meet more of the i.t department when miss wilt had them come over to deer to live stream our shark tank presentations every one of those i.t people that i met that day were an incredible representation of the district's professionalism they were very knowledgeable and they had wonderful interactions with our staff so working back there live streaming these meetings tonight i want to give a shout out to jose andy rebecca aya and charlene for all their networking skills
098and making sure our schools and administration are up and running thank you [Applause] thank you very much abraham colossals abram dalacinos allentown pennsylvania i just want to take a quick second to thank the board for hearing us out thank the the parents and the especially the students who have come out here to support the aaecs charter renewal um a little bit about myself by gregor over there i'm a dear attending dear graduate class of 2003 go huskies but i grew up in asd i've been in the environment of the school district and what it was then compared to now is slightly different so when i became a parent and about five years ago when we were looking into what school we wanted our kids to go to the focus became uh not just uh wanting
099my kids to be awesome people to grow and be educated but also the environment and the culture that would be surrounding them within the school and when we found out about the arts county language charter school i always have that verse nadia over there actually talked me into going and checking it out because i had a i had a different taste i guess for charter school beforehand but in going to the school getting involved in the school meeting amazing people like amber clark who spoke earlier and her daughter olivia or like mr hennigan here and his kids it really opened my eyes to the opportunities that were there for my kids and the environment that they would grow up in so my kids are definitely amazing people don't get me wrong but more so than
100anything i love what the school is offering my daughter who used to be shy and introverted over there isabelle through the school she's learned she's learned an interest and a passion for dance she has an interest and a passion for being theatrical she is an absolute artist through the school she was offered an opportunity to go to gymnastics at the parquets and we actually then enrolled her into parquets because she loved it and she grew so much from it as well as now they offer the opportunity of music and she is now playing the guitar and it's been absolutely incredible to see the development and the growth within our kids so i stand here humbly asking you to review and to approve the charter renewal as the education there is exceptional the atmosphere is even
101better and the faculty and sense of community that you get within the school is bar none so i appreciate your time thank you very much thank you natalia vasquez okay sorry i wasn't everybody living that's why i'm like come with me because i be spanish more than english that's why i was nervous anyway please can you say that we never getting rewarded after school because for me this is the best school of all my kids i'm the mom of the year you know olivia about two weeks ago i told my mother how about we check out the other school maybe the other school is better than here she said no this is this one is one way better than the other school because aramis has entirely had the problem how to speak with people and
102so far this will help him to speak really with him which is loving him he helped us that's where i want you to check and the large academy school please that's it amy herzeg [Music] uh good evening my name is amy herzeg i am a resident in allentown and a parent of a student in the allentown school district and i wanted to speak about the mass mandate that still exists in the district and there's no discussion of it changing even though i watch what's going on in the valley and all the districts around us and they are just about all going mask optional right now they're following the statistics and the cases and what's happening and they're changing their plan accordingly i know that the health and safety plan in this district was just updated
103to the end of the year to include a mass mandate till the end of the year i know changes can be made and i i want to ask and employ the district to look at making changes so we can feel like we're progressing getting back to normalcy when i look at the cova dashboard which i do follow because i love that the information is out there to see i know that the highest number of cases in the school in the past 10 days is two many are at one and i think most are at zero i do get a call all the time when there is a positive case in my school in the last 10 days and you know parents have the option to put their children in mass kids have the option to
104wear n95 mask if they choose which they're saying now helps to reduce the spread of covid the vaccine is readily available the district makes it available at clinics all the time um as well as you can get it in the community anywhere you can go virtual if you are afraid of being at risk but i would like the district not to be complacent and just letting this go on until the end of the year and actually look at changing things like every other district does i do think wearing the mask all the time it is hard to recognize people's faces after a while maybe it's my i see my eyesight personally but sometimes until i'm close to a person i can't even tell like you know who some people are sometimes um lehigh county right
105now has more people i think than northampton but less daily cases than northampton county has so i just implore the district and the powers that be that make these decisions to look at these things and you know make choices sooner than later thank you thank you [Applause] thank you very much is there any old business to come before i i just wanted to say uh in regards to just the students speaking i'm not making any promises either way but you're being heard and it takes a lot of courage to come up here and speak i know that and i just wanted you to know that thank you mr palmer is there any old business to come before the board any new business to come before the board i have a motion to adjourn miss conover
106is there a second miss harris all in favor aye meeting adjourned thank you all for coming you