001we're called to order the November 21st Street Sugar Valley Board of school directors and welcome everyone who's here and those joining us online will you please join me in the place of the United States of America settings Mrs Martin could we please have attendance all board members are present tonight then we have a forum also in attendance are the superintendent and the administrative cabinet this is the second meeting of the month where most official votes are taken many of which are listed on the consent agenda which includes those items which are routine or have been discussed at our work session last week details of all items related public documents as well as minutes of past meetings are available on the district website in the posted agenda our meetings observe the requirements of the school code
002legislative directives the original act 84 Sunshine Law or subsequent amendments judicial readings and our district policies to the best of our understanding and ability details of all items related to public documents as well as minutes are available on the district website and posted for the agenda are there any additions deletions or changes in the agenda if not I'll Entertainer motion to approve salute second well there's some figures say aye superintendent's comments thank you madam president I've been in public education for 27 years in my observation there was a definite cycle that occurs throughout the school year don't even get me started about the full moon if I see teachers and administrators already nodding their head in agreement the beginning of school year is a high and everyone is excited to see their friends their colleagues
003and are ready to start the new year as the year moves on we see a dip of energy and a rise in less than desirable behaviors as we move into November after the holiday season we're back on another high starting a new year and a new semester before we start another slow slide into March saved only by the spring break that takes us through to the summer being aware of this unofficial observation is the first step to overcoming negativity during these two lows once aware it's time for Action we do not need problem finders we need problem solvers remember back in the day if you had a problem with someone the school the teacher or the administrator you spoke directly to them at worst each thought I was able to hear each other correctly one-on-one
004regarding a specific incident at best the communication led to collaboration and problem solving unfortunately that's not always the way it is today social media has impersonalized communication that's the negative side of social media it's taken away from the personal contact the last time I checked the Facebook group cannot have a child in the District Individual parents and Guardians have children in the district concerns are personal and only by personally sharing those concerns to level most influential to solving the problem usually at the classroom or the building level will problems and solutions come to fruition during covet we had two competing Facebook factions stand up CV and CV for change that became vocal presidences on social media there are good at publicizing their complaints in closed non-trump non-transparent private group forums this may have served a
005benefit for their members but as a district we need Positive Solutions that are good for all students all faculty and all staff maybe Facebook groups or other interest groups should open up their platform or even start a new open group may I suggest CV you belong here that highlights Solutions and practical ways to solve problems that encourages volunteerism in the schools we do have a phenomenal fire program one that also steps up and works to help fill open support positions of which we have many one that finds ways to work with teachers and building principals to solve problems before they impact Children's Learning I am hopeful now let me restate that I'm confident that coming out of this November low we can find we can focus on positivity in reestablishing tried and true face-to-face communication
006and relationship building as our students have already started their Thanksgiving break and with Thanksgiving only days away I am personally thankful for many things regarding CV I am thankful for our dedicated Educators who make a positive difference in the lives of our children every day I'm thankful for our engaged parents and Guardians who are the first role models for our children and who set the tone for their children's school day even before they walk through our doors I'm thankful for the power of positivity in a time where public education is taking a hit by a vocal minority the overwhelming power of the majority that supports publication public education and the participants within to include the bus drivers the building support staff to teachers to cafeteria staff custodial and maintenance staff administrators classroom building and District
007support staff I'm thankful for the students they come to school every day ready to do the best they can ready to learn ready to grow and ready to become whenever they want to be I'm thankful for a district that practices my stated belief of every child every day without exception with that being said I'd like to wish everyone a safe and Happy Thanksgiving holiday thank you for accommodations they are long Katarina lingel at CV High School Junior and Christian divorce sophomore was selected for pmea which is Pennsylvania music educators Association district 7 course students qualify against singers from seven different Pennsylvania counties the Lancaster Lebanon League announced the 2022 field hockey All-Stars to the first team our seniors Elena culbert Michaela Rainier and Sophia Livingston Junior Danae Ulrich was named an honorable mention seniors Caroline
008Culp Ellie Hershey Isabel Miller plus Kurt Colbert reinier and the wigston were named academic All-Stars six senior student athletes have signed National letters of intent to continue their athletic careers at the Collegiate level Leah book Saint Joseph University soccer Elena Culvert Millersville University field hockey Rebecca Hartland from Millersville University volleyball Riley hack Phil Fairfield University soccer Sophia Livingston Kent State University field hockey and McCauley Ryanair Frostburg State University field hockey for the second month in a row a Conestoga Conestoga Valley student was named to the material handling and logistic work immersion program CTC student of the month CV High School senior Xavier Allen was selected as October student of the month Xavier was selected because of his grades attendance performance at the works work based program learning placement at the J group and his willingness
009to always get along with and support his peers two girls soccer players received All-Star 11 League recognition senior midfielder Leah boot was named to section one first team classmate Asia whose name in academic All-Star in addition the team received a section one sportsmanship award four boys soccer players were recognized for the Lancaster Lebanon League sophomore Kayden brenderman and Senior David Irwin were named to the section one first team senior Josiah Layman and Junior Nate show Vader earned second team honors and Senior Jacob Carr was named as section one academic All-Star four girls volleyball players were named Lancaster Levin and The League All-Stars senior Rebecca hardcraft and Emily karnaki renamed to the first team summer gets in Madison Williams renamed to the second team and Senior Camden mail was named an academic All-Star girls cross country
010Runners Siana Dougherty was named her life is still evidently All-Star teammate Abigail Phillips was recognized by the longest relief for a GPA of 3.5 or higher on Monday November 14th the East Lampeter Township Board of Supervisors recognized several CB high school students for their paint the plows project last year members of the Creative Arts Club painted a plow for Eastland Peter Township under the guidance of CV high school art teacher and Club supervisor Cara Hearst in addition several cvvi constituted by Virtual Academy students painted a second file for the township these two clouds will be out and about on Township streets this winter foreign not very often we hope seniors Mackie Vickery and George Williams and Junior Adrian Bonacci along with Kara Hurst attended last Monday evening's meeting to be officially recognized by the Board
011of Supervisors and we commend all students and staff who have achieved makes special achievements board comments we're going to use this time for a moment most of you know we had a scheduled a forum beforehand it was sparsely but interesting and attended and our purpose for that was not just to bring up everyone up to date to the student achievement after kova the tie the last of that program's new strings together but to introduce you to the gentleman who's going to be helping us lead the search for another superintendent who didn't want Tom to be the man behind the curtain that people heard names but didn't know who he was so I asked if he would stay at the board meeting and give the same introduction to those that are listening online and those that
012are attending this meeting so I'm going to turn this over to Tom Templeton all right thank you uh Tom Templeton um I am been commissioned by the board to uh conduct the search for the next superintendent and I've had the opportunity to meet with the board now on two different occasions to start this process uh and as that mentioned we had a quick focus group here earlier this evening just a very quick snapshot of of who I am I've been doing uh superintendent searches executive searches for the last 20 years uh districts all over Pennsylvania and uh very excited to uh to do this work here in Conestoga Valley I've been researching The District extensively and I am I'm pretty prepared to say that I think we will have not only a successful search procedurally
013and logistically but I'm excited by the fact that we can potentially get some good candidates to apply for this position we are going to be advertising the position throughout the rest of November and December at which point then the January and February period is can is reserved for analyzing and interviewing candidates much more on that down the road we are going to be putting uh some information on the website so that uh community members and internal staff can follow along just logistically in terms of where the search is Etc we're going to be doing focus groups coming up here right after the holidays and surveys as well for the community we want to try to be as thoughtfully transparent as we can in terms of getting as much information from the community as possible because
014that will help the board to make thoughtful decisions related to candidates interview questions goals for the district Etc so a lot more to come but that's that's where we are now and I guess to the board that uh outside of Thanksgiving Day and Christmas Day and I'll stay away from Sunday as best I can um look at your emails because we've all been communicating but uh any anything else that uh any questions I can answer or anything we anyone that has any questions uh Mr templeton's email will be on the website yes there's other information so if there's something you feel only he can answer if not well we're the boards you know where to find us thank you all right thank you Tom thank you guys all right see you soon have a good
015thanks again all right foreign comments I did attend the llmea all-county orchestra yeah this weekend fantastic great for kids to get together with all the craziness in the world I've always said it's nice to have instruments in kids hands did a fantastic job enjoyed it and it was a good experience I thought we'd be very proud of our music program very much nice job anything else I attended the high school play which was Puffs So for anybody that was a massive Harry Potter fan like me they would have understood everything that happened and for any way that is an interest in Harry Potter you would have been completely confused but still entertained like the rest of my family um but no the kids did awesome it was really really cool um and a lot of
016parents stayed after because the whole set has to be broken down um so I was in the auditorium for the fourth day in a row and yesterday was the breakdown and it happened quick and efficient and it was just really cool to see um that group the drama club and they have something called traditions where they'll like lift each other up and say nice things about each other and stuff it's actually really really cool it's a really cool little community of kids where they belong and they can act together and all that stuff it's just really really cool so I was impressed we have a lot of our students who actually made careers out of performance not just the famous ones a lot of yeah no relation by the way right yeah right they graduated
017with my son and the other board comments on District activities if not this is a chance for public input is there anyone the public that would like to address the board at this point on an agenda item if it's an agenda item we'll accept common staff not that we comment again later for other items okay is the middle school on the agenda no all right okay we'll get we will get back to you comments for CVA comments from other employee groups if not we have in front of us a very long consent agenda all these items we've discussed before or they are routine are there any questions or changes from the agenda the consent agenda not all except immersion I move except the agenda as presented second aye Mr Mr aye Mr s aye Mr
018gensel aye Mr Hurst Dr Martin aye Ms Trowbridge aye Mrs Croft aye hey we will open uh the table to uh any reaction debrief entries in what went on with uh our very personal forum I just think it's important um like Tom when he talked about the the surveys and the in-person groups that are coming down the line I think it's important that the district advertise that as much as possible and that um parents and everybody that needs to be involved we try to spread the word that's the time to get the voice your voice heard about what you want to see and what you'd like to learn about the process but a lot of people have a lot to say so now that's the time to come out so once you see those advertised
019across the community please consider coming out and letting your voice to the search which is one of the reasons I had that added to the list of questions for now because I think that's important for them to self-identify and I think Tom's willing to do that any other reaction I was surprised to see in some ways anyone on such a cold like two days before Thanksgiving um they did identify a few uh concerns uh qualities they felt we should have and as he said that would become a very long list but uh you also notice and this is one of the advantages of a focus group once you start them talking you know that at first I think they have nothing to say but once one or two starts talking or you try them a
020little suddenly yeah they do have some concerns they do have some interests and uh I'm looking forward to them being able to avoid in our perspective as to what it is we're looking for psba policy and administrative regulation support Dr Z do you want to address that yes ma'am we'll be looking for an action item on this one as we discussed psba has a policy service where they will go and look at all of our policies and update them with all current um mandates laws regulations and then give those to us and then we go through them quickly and there's some personalization in each of them but it is not the tedious five every every month so um it also looks at our administrative regulations which you know those are what we use to implement
021the policies so we're asking the board for approval to engage psba in that service I think it's important to note that a lot a lot of these uh apology that we've talked about lately we have to personalize so that doesn't go away uh because at 903 I understand it's not being changed in psba that's public input so we will have to put our own uh fingerprints on that I think it's one that we need to review carefully but uh it never hurts every several years to have somebody scrub the whole thing down uh do you want something approval or would there be a contract later there are two options right there's an option one for policy review service only an option two for we are looking for option two with policy and admin reg okay
022thanks and I believe last when I've done this in a previous District I usually ask us where we want to start so we'll start with the Personnel where we are now and move forward so we're not we'll have to start at zeros and one hundreds two hundreds she will be approving this later no we'll prove that tonight okay this is not listed as a uh an action okay then I will accept a motion to make sure you get what version is you're making a notion for I moved to approve option two as presented second could we have a roll call vote please retali yes all right aye Mr Benigno aye Ms Gruff aye motion Passage discussion of early audit requests um I'm bringing Dr koser up this was a follow-up to the discussion last week
023regarding the equity audit and Jill as directed went and we do have a request for information that we are going to present to you this is not the final selection but just the request for information and Jill will quickly discuss that so based on the dialogue last week and Dr Martin had asked me had asked to start looking at this idea of an equity audience I was part of the comprehensive plan as you know conducting an equity audit was included in that comprehensive plan and as part of the board goals and so what you see in front of you is the work of our action team our growth and achievement action team we're the team that's responsible for implementing those pieces of the comprehensive plan and so we knew this was part of the plan
024we knew this was part of the book The Board goals and so we have been pulling some ideas together looking at resources from other districts and so we we had some pieces of this ready to go which is why I could get it to you so quickly within the week and some we wanted to just bring it to the board to take a look at this is a request for information so what we are planning to do is it's not a full RFP request for proposals which means the public website newspaper the RFI goes out to who we select and so our plan was to actually send this to several of our local intermediate units because they are kind of that liaison between pde and school districts and they have the curriculum expertise in this
025area and so our goal would be to send to several different intermediate units obtain their feedback their proposals and then as you can see on the last page we have specific criteria that we would be reviewing throughout this process so we wanted to get this in front of you this evening have some discussion around any questions or areas for clarity any questions about what we're looking for in an equity audit Dr Martin I know this was a big issue for you or was that your request that came this quickly yes I don't have any questions because I'm well aware what it is okay and you're satisfied with the way this wouldn't shut up yes anyone else have concerns about the equity audit uh what's the timeline on this so we're hoping to um put this
026out within the next couple of weeks our goal would be that we've identified someone for the December board meeting January at the latest so that we can begin the work in February of 2023 and then we have reports built in on June 15th and October 15th of next year so it'll be a almost a full year process when you look at the magnitude of um analyzing all of the data and then convening those focus groups and looking at our policies and procedures questions any questions does the you said so the Intermediate Unit runs the audit so then all the data mining that happens is that all through them or do is our staff involved in that like two continually I just I'm just curious about that so it depends on how they come back with
027the proposal um the most valuable is when it's a combination of both right where the the consultant is leading that data analysis and that deep dive with our own internal stakeholders but they may prepare some of the reports ahead of time and put together the charts and the graphs and the information that make it easier for our team to really unpack and understand to re-identify people who receive this or did you expect to find more than what we knew which I use we're going to send it to yeah um so right now iu13 iu12 15 Chester County IU I'm sure the number and possibly Montgomery County IU those are some of the different ones who may have experienced the organization to do this are there are a lot of other organizations yes we wanted to
028stay with the IU because of that really specific curriculum expertise and because they are very well versed in the Department of Education and some of the resources that have been made available to us through pde okay quick question does this come with any kind of advice or anything is into how that corrects some of these things or is this just strictly information for us to great question the best you know figure out what you need to do with it great question the the best thing about an audit is it's a completely Outside Agency who's helping to take a look at the system and so part of the report will be the highest priority areas for improvement and how to go about what steps to go about yep absolutely any other questions remember okay thank you
029thank you thank you our next is return to policy 123 uh interscholastic Athletics uh I would remind the board that um we have the same choices we had before um had some minor discussions we've had a legal update um and again we can continue the gathering information Beyond just the the legal that we've gotten legislative that we've gotten we could wait and see and just pass on any current action we could review and approve it as it is as usual that's not necessary if we don't uh necessarily review and approve it it stays that way anyway or we could discuss changes or additional policies so I open it to discussion don't everyone talked at once I did not want to hog the discussion since I'm doing that abroad that someone else would jump in I'm
030I'm open to uh revise policy that's my recommendation was that four uh is that option for to revise the policy sure uh um that was for discuss any changes and or an additional policy so that's my recommendation which four additional policy or changes in the current changes in the current policy changes in the account we will have to tell us which ones if we're going to discuss it what do you mean the policy yeah one two three excuse me one two three now if if your choice is that we make changes to the policy we have yeah you need to identify what those changes are there's nothing there to discuss I do have that what the changes should be but I don't know if we're there I think we want to discuss options correct okay
031and then no that's all my recommendations option correct before I give what the changes should be okay I would like to at least give you my opinion on what option it should be is there anyone that has a different opinion as to what we should do next so so whether or not we make changes depends on what those changes are precisely okay yes anyone else well I guess it falls back in your court changes as long as someone gives you something to discuss something to discuss so would you like me to to run with this however you want yes that's perfectly fine so I went back to the to the root root cause piece of it we've had the legal overview um we've had a lot of a lot of discussion and a lot of
032review about this and whenever we talk about fairness in in sports okay literally or uh we talk about let's just call transgender in in sports from that perspective when something of the district such as that happens and nothing has happened in this District but when something does we always go back to what is policy and our policy does not address it so as a board in all fairness transparency if a male soccer player wants to go play on the female team through the transgender piece of it we could not say no because of our current policy I am now if it's dressed quite accurate it's not that they want to or that they do okay okay that they feel that they should yes it's part of my nature who they are that that I should
033I should play on the woman's team women's track team now yeah I transgender student once to participate according to their trans identification we would allow it we would have to allow we'd have to allow and what would you like this change too so I do not want I'm not recommending a full new policy such as what Hempfield did okay back in 2007 we had addressed this in policy one two three [Music] um in in a sentence because right now we address it with the PIAA and the Pia doesn't address anything it's a one sentence statement in the Pia that said that will accept the principal's decision as to a student's gender okay that's what we have right now so what I want to do is I want to put in the original language back from
0342007 that says the Conestoga Valley School District hereby limits participation on girls interscholastic teams to female students only and participation of boys in our Scholastic teams to male students only that's precedence because that was what was in the policy before and I do not remember taking it out but we had a lot of policy revisions but that's the historical language of the policy that's step one then step two is we need to identify what is a boy and what is a girl and we have a couple different options of doing that option number one is that we can identify it as a biological boy and a biological girl um in the sentence in the language to bring it back or we can um identify as a male or female based upon the birth certificate at
035Birth so we have a couple different options there in terms of identifying what is a boy and what is a girl so the one method is through the birth certificate what's the other the other method is adding biological Warrior biological growth to the sentence is what is one idea because right now we had just identified as boy and girl and if we're having it as a gray area of what is a boy and what is a girl you need to identify what the gender is comments I guess for me it's a matter of like that's like you said the choice is a biological boy of Elijah or as a birth certificate um that's kind of where I'm stuck on what I feel but I agree that the wording needs changed and I agree that we
036should look we should look into into doing that this evening if that's what we need to do not vote obviously but what I would I would support the birth certificate part of it and what if they don't have a birth certificate well your luck because we could do that if they don't have a birth certificate we could do nationalization documentation that's not always available either they were born out of the country especially if they come from a third world here we go outside the United States of America the original country issued birth certificate printed on Specialized security paper with a raised security seal that is issued at the time of the student's birth is that always available yeah it's honestly that's not uh maybe maybe not but I'm assuming yes if they come to the
037country and they need a passport I'm assuming they're going to have to have diversity to register for to be a student yes let me show you what don't they need that kind of documentation to register as a student and I just didn't know what happened to people who come from a third world country where they're yeah here's the here's the out for the because we can we can um shoot holes the outliers from that perspective but the last sentence would say any waiver from this requirement must be approved by the school board so that means if you have a student who doesn't have a birth certificate who comes from maybe a war zone or something of that nature if they don't have any of the documentation then that request comes in front of the school
038board and we make the decision so if we're going to require birth certificates of everybody right not just some people we have you can't you can't change the requirements to be on a team just for certain students you would have to get birth certificates from everyone on the team okay so everyone that participates in sports at CV would have to produce an original birth certificate we could go down that path if you think it's uh well I think you can't do it for some students and not others well we've done it when they register for kindergarten yeah you have to present a birth certificate to register for kindergarten and as a student in the district so we don't actually have to request birth certificates they're already on board so in the student's profiles it is
039identified as male female on the student profile yes I want to say yes it is so we could have it where if you want to change your student profile fine but if you want to play a sport through a change then you have to produce your birth certificate so you can change your student profile but you can't you can change it yeah at the DMV you could change your driver's license to reflect the gender identity of your choice however you can't change your age that's too bad I know I even though I didn't I'm not 55 identify as 45 but they didn't and you look so she I do yeah she looked at me like I was just she was going to come out of this glass and just strangle me but uh but the
040reality is that you can't change your driver's license if you if you see that that's a new wrinkle I have a problem with the fact that you can change your identity but you can't act on that change I see sex and gender identity as two separate issues like you are a sign the xxxy chromosome with your sex your biological sex but then gender identity is something completely different and might not match your biological sex so that's kind of I see it as its own little entity that may need its own Focus that is separate from I think that's how I compartment because on all the forms you fill out as a parent like it's sex male female or gender male female and I think those words got and then you add gender identity like just
041basic definitions of words got everything all muddled so like gender identity is completely like it might not match yourself I think that's what the heart of a lot of this whether or not gender identity when they talk about uh if you discriminate some laws more modern laws also include gender identity some of the other ones just say gender and then the courts have to decide if that covers gender identity too which sometimes they say yes and sometimes they say now but uh I don't know if the two are actually considered as separate as you think that I would have to talk to an expert in that field you know I think everybody approaches this differently and there's no doubt the terminology has changed back in 2007 one of the regions that was changed as I
042remember is because we did have some uh boys back then that wanted to play field hockey just because they like field hockey and we changed that show that they could do that but no one had a problem with it but it had nothing to do with sexual identity it simply had to do with I like the sports I don't think field hockey is a identified as womans or males male feel healthy I feel like you feel lucky here's the thing you have to put your mind back in the culture of the time you do back then if there were if the same sport was played by two genders you had girls basketball and boys basketball you had girls tracking voice track any of the ones that weren't identified there was a common cultural understanding that
043football means boys football softball means girls football the girls softball and baseball means Boys Baseball there was just a common cultural understanding that's why they don't identify them that way um times change and now football doesn't have to Mean Boys football and baseball doesn't always mean boys baseball so the entire landscape is changing and I don't think we can use doctors but that's just for a decision that what doesn't say it's just girls or boys you're still going to have the same argument from some people I know Mr genso had some concerns which I'm not sure I understand but I'd welcome to hear them again but we can't rely on the old definition and the old perception of these Sports because the world is changing too fast and our policy is not changing with it
044well what we tend not to do is is passed a policy for the minority who passed the policy for the majority and then very carefully carve out if ever an exception is needed uh this um this particular group of people and I finally came across some of the numbers um the number they took the the uh the Center for Disease Control and cooperation with I think ESPN it was came up with what percentage of students play sports what percentage of boys what percentage of growth slightly long for girls I have the numbers somewhere um and when they were then they applied this to the transgender people and they came out to 0.44 percent of students so it's less than a half of one percent so we're talking about passing a policy to cover Nationwide 154
045students high school student now on the college level that that's completely different landscape but there are estimated to be 154 students as I applied their percentages to the numbers I had I came out with 154 Nationwide and we're passing a policy to cover those people um I think we're passing a policy for fairness in sports yeah that my opinion is I agree with Mike and my issue with uh the policy and the sports and stuff I mean is fairness and safety for the players and stuff so with that being said I agree that and I would my personal opinion is you just put it in back the old policy and biological mens play on the men's team biological females females team and then like you said and you can have the sentence about exceptions exceptions
046yeah such as in like if one wants to play a sport that the other that they don't have that type of thing we can then address it and go forward I still think there need it can't just be a yes what an anti-safety well I mean if you have wrestling out there and you have a biological male that wants to wrestle as a female the safety factor of other girls and I know and for instance field hockey and you mentioned about field hockey is primarily a female sport in the United States other countries that's mostly male but the I know a lot of women playing field hockey that when some met in outside school and like Club teams and stuff like that that then men were allowed to play and then they they pulled out
047because of the fact that how much harder they would hit the ball and stuff and get it higher and stuff like that they're like it's not worth losing teeth it's not worth taking a ball to the face and stuff being hit at twice as hard as what they were normally their reaction and all that kind of stuff is program you know what a normal player hits it at then all of a sudden you have somebody coming in hitting that ball twice as hard as what they're used to and their reactions aren't up to speed on that and stuff so it's if you had a female suddenly played that way I can hit a ball pretty darn hard right and I'm not I'm not saying that that's any male is going to be twice as strong
048as a female I'm not saying that at all but I'm saying there's an obvious biological difference between men and women and so when you bring it into like a contact sport or a sport that has the potential where one individual being much stronger than another one poses a safety hazard and I'm not saying you can eliminate all safety issues and all that kind of stuff but I'm just saying this is in my opinion an unneeded risk safety risk when they have a males team that they could play on if that's my that's my part of our stated purpose of this policy is that safety issue then it would have to apply equally to the girls and the boys so if you had a girl on the plate especially ferociously or strongly you'd have to not
049allow her I think Mr gensel had mentioned a 200 pound male wanting to play hockey no I'm saying it's deceptions that but what Phil is saying is right and we see evidence of this stuff because it happened with the swimmer you have people that are exceptional within their field that happens all the time that's why we have an Olympics the exception will move on yeah but the tradition has always been that they stay within their sport for those biological differences which is why someone at the bottom of the barrel on the male side can go to the women's side and could potentially do well it may not always be the case we're always talking about slim margins across the board yeah but at the same time the same token while I feel the same way
050I I want the heart of the issue for me is always going to be I would never want trans students any of our trans students to feel like they don't belong at CV to feel that they are unloved to feel that they don't belong in the community because that is not the case they belong at CV have trouble where I have trouble separating is if my daughter either of them had pursued a lifelong dedication to a sport and a biological male someone who's currently transgender comes over and that is and their chance is taken away by that because there's still grayer in there it doesn't matter how you slice it there's a gray area in there the way it's recognized the way it's reported Across the Nation this is not something that's set in stone
051that's why we're having the conversation there's still a split on how this stuff should be decided it's a matter of safety and uh appropriate competition levels right fairness and it also gets it also puts I I still have an issue with um biological women girls in locker rooms in a biological manner I can't separate that in mind well that just separated but I know there's no there's no protection for those girls actually it's not it coincides well no because I'm not saying we don't address it yeah but whether or not you get to play on the field is different from where you change clothes okay they're two separate issues that are addressable if they Define me because if I'm a transgender male on the girls soccer team then I technically could go and change in
052the girls locker room because I'm one of the woman that suffers not automatically well we don't have a policy that says that how do we so this is the Cascade effect yeah yeah and each item has to be some school districts here's my last question what are we going to do if next month there's a legal ruling other than what our policy says I don't know but I don't want to not do or not do something on a what if like that's well what if nothing ever happens oh it has to because what I'm what I'm saying is ruling is out there it has to be ruled one way or the other and it's going right but the way our leaders it could get pointed down the road for 20 years and then what I'm
053saying is we do a policy now and then we cross that bridge when we come to whatever I don't want to keep pushing it off based on oh what if no it's not a what-if way in the future the uh the Title IX regulation is already written the 1960 days has passed for public reaction it's gone to the legislature those 60 days are about up and that will become the rule right until within within the next month so what I'm saying is for one month maybe we should just see where we stand and then we can have a policy that we know even if we change it is written aligned with the law all I'm saying is I think there's a bunch of court court battles that are going to continue but during those Court
054battles the law stands as it is until it's struck down or the judge puts a hold on it or whatever it may be I I don't see I'm with Mike I don't see the the problem in adding those like three sentences back in our policy I don't think that's like the hardest job in the world it's just some useful input from the table we'd welcome it just search that because not every state not every location in every state allows for birth certificate changes to happen the same way there are some locations in the united states that allow for the gender of X without any doctor node or any surgical evidence there are some states that allow surgical evidence only there are some states that act only on personal attestation someone could have a birth certificate
055that did not identify the transgender but identified him as the ident that indicated their newly identified gender yeah tell me the birth certificate that says female but they're really a transgender female that means they could fly yes let's see let's just avoid the birth certificate right well then we're talking about birth certificate at Birth not birth certificate it's been changed it's probably not available anymore what but but that birth certificate has been nullified well Mike I think was saying is that there is an issue with that then you can put if there's something that we need to you were saying if there's a circumstance that requires that then like you said you might not know that you provide a birth certificate original birth certificate and we don't know that that's circumstance can we make an
056assumption that kindergarten registration are going to register at the sex of birth but not if they register in some school in some other state get their birth certificate changed and then come to Pennsylvania remember we're talking about a total of 154 students here just takes one that's just it that doesn't bother me the total 150 students that does I can that is why we don't we don't have a policy that's the main thing we don't have it and 150 students Nationwide doesn't I don't care what we need to do forward see me my policy for somebody do we have uh age requirements for high school football only what pia has what I don't know s-p-i-a-a is that because older football players have a advantage over younger players I have no idea why I can't answer
057that so we know restrictions of people that could play we have age restrictions we have grade restrictions we have great restrictions that sounds like discrimination but if someone maybe is 12 but identify it's a 16 should they be able to play identified to six teams that's pretty much a cold fact my concern is that uh I I just feel like it's a solution looking for a problem it isn't really in front of us it's never been in front of us it probably won't be in front of it that doesn't mean we wouldn't want to address it if it happened I would have no no problem with adding something that uh suggested if there's a uh a eligibility challenge did he went of course through the D but then to the administration without identifying it that
058way whatever the law is at the time we follow I agree with Mike what is the law right now today may the Lord within the next couple weeks is going to be we've always heard that we've heard it yes guys we've heard with all due respect we were talking about this seven years ago at the National School Board Association what we're talking about this seven years ago at the National School Board Association which Nationwide and what actually ends up being active is different Street now what I'm willing to do the compromise you know I'll give you your two weeks and then we'll talk about December and if nothing happens in that until December then we we move forward do you want any other studies done at all no okay you want to send that on
059the agenda in December we'll do December or I'll even give you an extra 30 days I'll even make it to January whatever you want okay and then but just make sure we're clear that if the state or the federal government has not passed anything in Title IX we're moving forward make sure those expectations are clear so as of now in January agenda will have this policy discussion on it again right discussion with action you have to if you're going to change policy you have to go through the process you can't just just make it up and pass it you have to yeah we'll do through the working Section okay okay and then we'll have our draft vote either yes or no on the next meeting January work session January work session now if the Federal's
060in the state level has not done anything then we as a board we move forward and give you 60 days that we should we will decide we'll decide on how we want to do it yes we have not followed the sport and I'm not sure how everyone stands and I'm not going to ask you and I will live with whatever the board decision speed I think it's time to vote and you've done that we've all done that so can I just ask a question just of course just so I feel like just just the entire process so let's say we would put some terminology in there and um there's a transgender student that maybe is questioning that eligibility requirement if the policy is in place that technically you're saying that they can't participate in the
061sport what does that look like from an administrator standpoint like what are the steps that you have to go through to enforce this policy depending on how the board policy is written um will determine how we enforce and if we say there has to be an appeal process if the district says no to an athlete they have the right to appeal and they will appeal the decision if they so choose and I'm not sure about if it goes through District 3 that goes to POA if it goes through the legal system but they do have that right um because what you're potentially passing is a word policy that excludes people from participating if not interested so you have to be um very careful about that and I would say that we will definitely need legal
062advice before I could legally so that so that leads me into my next issue which I don't disagree with the fairness piece of it um but I do have an issue with the potential of the appeal and spending hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars and legal fees I have a problem with that from that perspective so I just want to lay that out there do I understand where we are now is if we if we have limits they automatically have the right to appeal that no matter what our policy says about exceptions they have the right to appeal for the especially with this because you can bring in Title IX whether or not it's been updated and approved or not yeah the argument can still be a Title IX argument so now you're bringing in
063the office of civil rights you're bringing in a different ways to appeal there's so many more layers to this and I I do I do understand what you're saying and what the end goal is but I also think that this is like a systemic thing and we sitting on a school board can't necessarily make those decisions and have them stick because it's going to go up and I I just don't see the risk analysis piece for me just isn't there because the amount of students that this could impact is so small it's just not I just don't see it big picture wise making sense I just want to make sure that when you say that this would apply to all transgender students what about the transgender female that is not the 150 200 pound athlete
064that's changing that is truly has gone through transgender process and she just wants to be part of the team and now she plays and she's sitting on the bench all the time would she be allowed to play she's not taken anyone's place what about the transgender female that or transgender male that used to swim for females and now swimming for males and is not not a threat to anybody on the swim team or what about the person who's not transgender but is just a heck of an athlete is going to take someone's spot because they're just a better athlete I mean I think that there's a lot of nuances in this that that discussion has to occur because a lot of our minds to be made up I want a growth mindset here when we
065have that discussion in January that it's not simply x y X is it's not just chromosomes it's we're dealing with Children Here what is the policy for to change your sex in the school I'm sorry is there a policy you talk about policy if if we have a a female that wants to become male or what is what is the What is the process to do that with documentation in the district I don't know what the process for documentation is either way I have no I have no idea you know we talk about I don't know about it I I know I sound like I'm playing Devil's Advocate but to be honest the concerns of safety and the Fair competition are the two that bother me the most I don't and I don't know how
066to balance those with the rights of the transgender student John I I'm left at no man's land okay can you uh clarify when you say bother you the most I'm sorry when you say those two issues bother you the most what do you mean by bother uh there's an issues that concern me about allowing transgender students in whether there's a safety issue which there can be there's no doubt because once they're teenagers uh the hormones have already given them larger lungs larger hard stronger muscle all sorts of things it won't change necessarily just because they change gender uh and the unfair competition part um as Dave said that works both ways how about the one that isn't any threat to competition just one can be part of a team that's right I worry about not
067serving that that child so I I'm not thinking I don't know where there is a policy that treats everybody equally that I don't think we're saying you can't play I think we need to have a policy okay we want to include you you might want to play on this team but you might be need to play on that team or Case by case or whatever set we're not saying no I think with the safety and everything it might be okay maybe you need to stick with this versus this and I mean it's just an option but I'm not saying no to anybody they want to play a sport they should play a sport because they can't play the sport they want necessarily well like football football field hockey you might wear pants versus a skirt
068because we don't have Kilts running around but um like it would only be an issue if it's boys soccer girls soccer kind of thing but they can still play soccer yeah they can still play that that's my concern every child will be able to play but it might not be on the girls if they want to be on the girls they might be playing and it might not be a sport they want no they we're gonna say you have to play basketball if they want to play soccer I think they could still play their sport they want to play but instead of if they want to say I want to be on the girls team but they really should be on the boys team but ditched on the appliance to their sport should have separate
069teams right like boys and girls soccer it's not like soccer but that doesn't that doesn't cover the other sports well like feel like it doesn't I mean I feel like you can be male or female yeah whoever wants to play can play there's girls who play football I mean so what you're saying is if we don't identify it as a girls or boys team then it's open to both I that's personally what I would assume as a parent I'd be like okay you're too tiny you're not gonna play football it's parent um but that would be there's another Michael it doesn't say girls hockey then it's already opened that's right it is already open excuse me it is already open well actually it's open so this would only apply to those sports that are identified
070as single gender or that have two separate teams and you're suggesting that someone would be assigned based on the safety and I think competitiveness they would add or subtract from that team it might be a board decision they bring that because that's an anonymity I'm not going to get involved in individual decisions on what child can take what team maybe you want to do that but I'm going to miss that meeting so so we had in the original policy we had limits participation limits participation okay on girls interscholastic teams to female students only okay so it's identifying it last time as limits participation to girls to female students only and participation of boys interscholastic teams to male students only let's see 2007 15 years ago back then we understood that hockey was engross team that's
071what it meant because we all shared that same cultural definition of certain Sports art for girls so I don't think we should be looking backwards you know but Diana brings up something interesting a transgender could play on the girls hockey team well Title Nine says we have to have students have equal access equal aspects to all aspects of schools programs and activities it doesn't say they have to go specifically into one bucket or another well this is they have to have equal access to be able to that that list I gave you some time ago yeah in our policies it uses different phrases for discrimination and equal access and doesn't and gender doesn't matter but the word transgenders not used because it wasn't in popular parliaments then but you almost have to assume that it
072would also apply but I never I never realized that the way it's written or The Way It Was Written then even because it wasn't called girls hockey it's called feel lucky that's a transgender student a non-transgender male student completely I've seen it so is that are we happy with that folks or is that what we're trying what what some of us are are trying to avoid so what's the sense in having a limit on some teams but not on others unless you want to eliminate like field hockey the transgender can play all right they don't feel like you just don't have to play soccer girls soccer you still have the male interest to have a separate team what's the difference between a transgender playing on a girl's on the field hockey team from a transgender
073playing on the girls soccer team seems to me that one is fairness of this sport we've got ourselves back in the corner here don't we and no Brad finds it amazing at all foreign okay from a very high level I think we do need to revisit the policy simply from the fact that if I'm understanding it right now we divert to PIAA which then throws this responsibility at the feet of the principle I don't I do not think that's where the responsibility lies no I'm not a prince I think that's where it should be a superintendent perhaps from the very fact of that issue alone I think the policy needs to be Revisited I think aside from all of these other issues that we've been discussing I I agree I think we should specify that
074any challenge to eligibility on for any reason should go through the athletic director and and the superintendent that's the chain of command there there's I don't think a trainer command know that yeah that runs around the superintendent oh really well we could do that if you prefer I'm just setting up yeah but what I'm saying is it's obvious and I felt that way too that putting that responsibility on a principle did not seem the appropriate place it's if they didn't understand the organizational aspect of school districts and I think it opens us up to individual opinions that could change from principle to principle yeah I I just think that's a misplaced responsibility if I agree for the sake of arguing because once it it seems to be the discussion is either a yes or no
075and Mark made a profound bread Phil you've made a comment earlier about we're not basing this on what if I'm sorry the argument but this whole policy discussion is based on a what if what if we have a transgender specifically transgender female no one has ever talked about a transgender male playing sport no one has ever said that here what is the possibility what if a transgender female who is a great athlete compared to other females that is what we're building this policy on I'm just listening that's all I've heard I've not heard transgender male I haven't heard transgender female who just wants to be part of a team that's not gonna and put the fear of anybody into anything this is all I've heard so I just want you to be careful Diane made
076a great point that if you go down a a certain path and there is you have to listen to our legal advice too I just want to make sure everybody's aware of that before we move forward yeah can I two comments real quick just as far as in the what if I think I'm saying what if dependent on other people like legislators and stuff the what if for us I think that's part of our duty is to have policies in place for the what-ifs you know when hey when this happens what do we do well we go back to the policy so that's why the difference that we know normally happen right correct and then they are what I'm saying but being brought up and presented with it I think it's irresponsible would be like
077no we're not going to address it because it won't happen and then it happens and then we don't have a policy so now that it's being brought up then I think we need to look at it as being a thing my other real quick question was we have uh academic requirements to participate in athletics and stuff correct is that a PIAA saying like they set what the what is the requirements are and we follow them correct okay I just wanted to make sure we didn't have our own anything separate and it's the same for all schools that that keeps the playing field and that's why I wanted to make sure my other question I don't know Roger knows this if Pia policy says it should be decided by the principal and we do it differently
078will they have an issue with us I can't answer that I will tell you that practically a principal's not going to make that decision no right super certainly hope it would be a team decision nevertheless it will be viewed as the principal's decision right because that's what it's supposed to be right and if we have someone who is not engaged with the team and feels like this is their burning issue and they're going to make the decision that they think is right at that given time they have the authority to do so again what ifs I get it but nevertheless I do not think that that's properly placing the responsibility for that decision I don't I don't want a principle deciding this I want a principal administrating at a school building that's been an issue
079for me from the beginning too although it seemed to be a minor one but my concern is if someone else makes a decision and PIAA says it would be done by the principal can that person say well I need this principal's opinion and maybe the principal disagrees with superintendent or the principle refers to a policy that doesn't exist what happens when the because we have we have legal backing one way on that legal advice and if it comes to the superintendent and I have to make the call and I go to the solicitor for advice and he says that's not a call you make that you cannot exclude because of X Y or Z I'm not just whatever the reason that puts me in a predicament that do I enforce a board policy that is
080I'm getting contradictory legal advice so I that just it puts the superintendent in a bad spot I'm just sure I just want to put that out there as well because that's going to be a heck of a decision do I go against legal advice to support important policy and exclusion and there's a whole nother can of worms that comes along with that again I think we really need to think about the bigger picture and remember all the pieces the moving parts to it well I thought we had we've been talking about before since summer can't be wrong but there's always been moving Parts some things are going to be unpopular or not talkative at the end of the day with do what's right and we have to do what's fair and we have to do
081what's best for our district for all the stakeholders including our taxpayers yep do we really know what our constituents wanted us to do everyone that has talked to me responded with the policy that I wanted to changes I want to make no one's coming now no one's here like man I'm Township or him field yeah didn't do anything they passed away they decide to wait and just follow it away because the boardroom was filled and they didn't want to address it because well I I'm telling exactly what telling you exactly I'm not trying to reach someone I'm not trying to read what other books are dudes and I don't care whatever I I think people chewed on this long enough for the moment um we we will we will take your advice and put it
082to January the first meeting in January for the work session and if that's his request I will I will honor however because we're waiting for what Congress is going but wait if we get any better and if there's nothing better then we will move forward and then if it does change with the law that we will make the changes in accordance with the law but it could take years and right now I see there's a risk um that I think we should address be back here in January so I did just procedurally so I'm clear if and if it posed revision to the policy comes at the work session in January there's the potential we need to vote on that in one week or by the next month it has to be written and reviewed
083okay so if we decide what we want in it than within the next meeting or the next work session we would review the actual policy I would just think that for all of us who want to avoid the situation where we see it for the first time one week and have to take action that is why I I received some information questions through my email where we're going to be making changes tonight and I made it clear this was the discussion so first you discuss if you're going to do anything then you agree with what you're going to change and then they give us your written copy there's nothing going to be railroad to Discord I promise you so our decision is to wait until January and then we'll see what Congress does and then
084we'll decide what we'll decide what we'll do next is that fair yeah do or not do it or do or not do it we can always just say you know what it's too hot we're gonna pass or we can say you know we're going to do what we think is best and move forward like we always do the more we talk about this the more different complications come up that we're going to have to make sure we address and sure any policy change if we make them sure so with the whole timing of things so if it does happen that changes are made can those changes you mean that we make changes or the Law changes no that we would make changes okay um what would that look like timeline wise as far as probably
085February but I'm come on as far as running it through legal counsel at least February because it would have to be written reviewed in legal counsel then brought from first reading so the earliest that could be would be February got and then when implemented or a minute at the next school year Athletics historical fall for mid-year mid-season yeah that that's the problem isn't it or we vote no to the changes yeah I just want to make sure yeah I I think if you try to change something mid-season you'd really open yourself up until next next yeah next season so we all at least agree on one way yes it's for next year okay well we actually got something done here tonight that was that we all agree on no changes till next year whatever they
086might be I appreciate everybody's frankness and sincerity in this I truly do uh finance and operations report are there any issues you want to discuss curriculum and instruction to report anything in there you want to bring to our attention yes okay um I would like to see some of the information in there was very great specific in some of the buildings um some of the what some of the buildings no before that what was great specific uh okay I would like to see more not just kindergarten did this maybe something um that all the students are doing as far as that curriculum piece you know what I'm saying one of the things that Dave and I have talked about with this reorganization uh is having a picture of K through 12. or K-5 curriculum as
087it's consecutive and cumulative that we see it as as a picture and that is something we've been working on with his uh organizational chart and that listed he got out to us yeah uh the next step after finding out who's responsible for which chunks of the curriculum was to then change our agenda to where we get reports based on that well that's great much as we used to get SAS reports that covered the entire department uh now that we've reorganized it it's in a slow process that is where I was hoping to get back to with the board got a chance to see the bigger picture of curriculum fantastic okay keeping you happy is the best we can can I can I piggyback off just a curriculum piece real quick sure so next week is
088when they're doing the first Stepping Stones when they're doing what uh the men the new math program the stepping stone is being initiated I've heard a lot of excitement even from teachers with that is it possible to get a report on how that's going is January 2 soon I mean December too soon for that December will be too soon January it's maybe in January I would just love to hear teachers feedback with kids just a point that be in the curriculum report yeah I imagine it would be yeah but yeah I just want to make sure it's specific to that piece I just want to know how Stepping Stones is doing just that first separate attachment that would be great yeah just specific about that one because it's such a new program okay anything else
089see as soon as I mentioned last week I don't know if you read it you had to prove to me that you do [Laughter] coupons no that's a good report are you um the IU report to posted there was nothing special or unusual going on psba report uh I did not post it because nothing's changed they had their Conference in October and uh delegate 70 November so they had no other programs going on if you look at your daily Edition it's the same thing December January so it seems silly to make a report I will mention one thing you should have all gotten your uh I put a copy of it insurance I tucked it underneath this particular balloon excellent addition this one I got that one I really advise you to read the articles
090the other things I would advise and this was something Dave mentioned before and I they picked they gave me a copy of when I was up there the social media guy page six for board members please read it if you don't have it I'll make a copy of page six and get it to you uh it it's a good guide for that other than that it seems basically what they're doing uh they're looking at privacy issues for students and with the way technology is I don't know how they're ever gonna nail that one down uh they're talking about financial literacy we already have a good program here I don't think we'd have any problem of course any science and math standards are still coming up but uh with the new election I think everything's going
091to stop and shift gears we'll have new new heads have shown the Committees so uh but digital won't do anything about Charter Schools what can I tell you Lancaster Academy has not I've met this month uh CTC anything interesting happening excuse me getting meeting oh okay uh nominating teams I explained uh so I'm sorry construction to me I skipped you I'm sorry Fred please uh I can I can do both but then we'll start my new first uh Middle Town I'm sorry or I'm sorry yeah Middletown Middle Town smokes that's exactly right which one but the middle school okay and uh so this week should be a very productive week we're we're hoping um at the end of six days or or six or seven days or I'd like to be able to come back
092and give a give a report on that but uh so the contractors are uh there's a ton of contractors there there's a lot of activity going on um primarily some of the big things are our window the remainder the window installation um uh the cafeterios yeah the cafeteria windows are in the music Windows the last section is not in but that's that's priority tomorrow morning first thing it's on site it's on site yes verify that it's afternoon um the other big thing that's going on is the gym so we're we're trying to push that through uh I'll I'll back up a little bit to the to the music and and the tech ed areas uh um music other than the window I think is is basically down to the carpet there are three door frames
093that are missing but the fundamentally you'll be able to get in there and operate in there is it's it's to finish the carpet that has to be installed um but the gymnasium uh is still now reliant on the HVAC system to come in the line uh they're progressing with their painting ductwork overhead uh athletic equipment starting this week but the wood floor is the big thing we need HVAC in there and that's probably that's probably a couple weeks out so that is to the point where they can use it to acclimate the wood floor and install on the wood floor foreign and again it's you know there's a lot of contractors there and and six days from now there should be a a huge amount of progress excavator in this photo here the excavator is
094outside spreading Stone in the uh in the area outside of the cafeteria line Paving today uh all the things that he can get out of the way the patio was concluded outside the cafeteria though correct they're they're stoned yes they were the concrete yes yes concrete was laid yes the concrete was laid that's correct okay they're spreading the stone beyond that [Music] yeah they can get Paving until the end of the year their times of course can we get like Buffalo God then these old problem but bite your charm yeah um so that's fundamentally you have any questions on that um that's the current state of the of the gymnasium rate yeah the floor uh was delayed because the business went out of doing a business correct for the flooring contractor for the flooring which
095flooring Jim Floyd in the company that was supposed to supply the gym flooring business not that I'm aware the coin the floor supplier the floor and supplier the the installer is still in business yes we got a letter yeah yep sorry but we're closing our doors uh 31st president reaching it yeah did you get new flooring yes and the good news is the the installer is probably one of the best around okay okay they're very good so what are you looking at for timetable for that gym that's that's that's I think it's going to be uh tough to get by the end of December yeah January february-ish March January January yeah February February I'm okay with that sorry just do it right please yeah take your time I know we talked about not rushing and
096cost poor quality all that stuff so will be right Smoketown um just heavy in demolition right now heavy in the uh stripping out areas ceilings are throughout the entire building are being removed so that the HVAC people can get in and do their surveys remove some of whatever ductwork has to be pulled out whatever electrical stuff has to be pulled out um uh demising walls existing demise and walls are being locked down in in the the classroom sections um this is a perfect picture of that um uh I'd say demolition has progressed pretty well through it's all the way through a and they're they're pretty well in the area C uh and again the project continues to to work in ABCD uh in that in that progression um some new work has started uh in
097that primarily uh uh Shoring that has to be done uh in order to take out some walls in order to change existing levels beams things like that um so they're setting that up and there's some uh there's some metal stud framing going on which is uh By Design to uh to to pack out or fur out the the inside the classroom side of the uh Carter walls in a and b so some of that moving forward you know slowly so they don't get too far ahead that the that the uh the code official will get upset but he's aware of what work is going on in front we we talked in our meeting last week no major surprises yet without the demo or anything that we found I'm assuming it's easier and faster to do
098it with no kids in the Upstream yeah it's it's a I mean it's just it's very wide open in there too it's we talked about maybe use that model moving forward that's the discussion yes as in Leola yes thanks Roy yep okay may I move on without missing anything you're fine you're good you're from the nominating team as I explained last week we do it this way uh being done as long as as I can remember to allow ourselves to give a full consideration for people interested in having an office because back then we had four offices uh and uh to have a Frank discussion about who's ready and able so the report from um Mr Kelly's group will automatically if we accept the report be nominated that doesn't mean nominations you're closed but it
099does tighten them up so yes thank you so uh the nominating committee because it's the three individuals as myself it was Fred Tillman and Kathy toll bridge we had a really good conversation um all the way around about the best structure for the leadership roles of President and Vice President moving forward especially with the new superintendent search sometimes the president is replaced every year the vice president is replaced every year sometimes it's a mix and sometimes we keep it the same Etc depending upon the situations you may have a contract you may have a superintendent search something big that you want to keep that continuity so the nominating committee is recommending that I get Groff be nominated for president and Mark Gins will be nominated for vice president um for the next year uh it's
100our decision now if we want to accept not approve accept that report so that we can move forward from that basis next month I mean we accept the report all these in favor all right okay then we will start there next month are there any other reports this is another time during the evening you've been very patient um when we accept public input and I assume we have one person to the public who would like to address us please but we'll take one at a time okay um it's a policy of this board to recognize public comment we're recognizing it's not a public forum discussions with the board or question answer session uh with the um the suspension of this board of policy 309 we no longer ask presenters for their address so I simply
101need to ask you to please state state your name for the record it was the birth record would you please stand and come closer to us so we can so um first of all wait a second I'm not finished are you a district resident yes okay do you speak for yourself or for a group um I'm with myself um for and with Conestoga Valley stands up okay um so yeah yeah you're right I I did not realize you were going to go into that much of a construction report yeah it's my fault go ahead last name r i c k a r d thank you you're welcome go ahead thanks so first of all I'm sure we're all glad that uh the UCB Middle School is able to be open we're glad that all sixth
102seventh and 8th graders are mostly in their main building and able to learn in a more traditional setting after the complications of the last several years but the last several months have given these students as well as their families and their Educators more opportunities to practice being flexible we applaud the students faculty and staff for their adaptability and positive attitudes we know obviously that the opening of the new Middle School didn't go to plan however the opening date kept being bumped back from January to June to August to September in point of fact there is still no finish date in sight to start the school year students were split between the original middle school and the IU building five miles away and out of our CV District this left students unable to access some classes
103and families in something of a tough spot regarding our already stressed transportation system some other challenges students and Educators have reported facing now that the building is open are the windows covered in plywood unable to be secured which allow the weather to impact the temperatures in the rooms classrooms are missing doors which are also unable to be secure that's a safety concern the lack of the elevator whose shaft is left open and dangerous and it means that students with disabilities are unable to access certain areas rodent droppings in the student areas due to the ongoing field mouse infestation mold in areas left open to the weather music classes are taking place in the hallways and Ensemble rehearsals are having to take place in the Senior High when the weather permits because middle school students have
104to walk to the high school where the overworked teachers are being helped by students who happen to have the fifth block party our middle school students our Educators our families our community our taxpayers deserve better parents and other taxpayers deserve to know why this opening was so bungled and why our tax dollars are being so mismanaged why has the board announced a 2.3 million dollar budget surplus when a student's needs aren't being met this seems like a learning opportunity our students and Educators should learn that we value them enough to be willing to name our concerns and what we can do to fix them quickly additionally this is a learning opportunity for our CV community Let's Help full disclosure about what went right and more importantly what went wrong and how we can avoid these
105problems next time from what I understand Abacus is also responsible for remodeling Smoketown as a parent of a student with special needs who is assigned to smoke town I want assurances that Abacus and our Conestoga Valley School Board are going to be on top of avoiding delays and slow communication similar to those with the middle school project I want assurances that what that when something goes off schedule we will be informed immediately and that we will have safe and accessible backup plans I want to be assured that my tax dollars are being wisely allocated and that our families and community at large have a school board that will hold our contractors accountable anti-task I ask that you inform our tax paying Community when we can expect the middle school project to be complete I ask
106that the board do an evaluation of this project to see what went wrong and why and to prepare a plan to make sure this kind of thing doesn't impact our students families families and Educators so negatively in the future I usually make one question about Mr Johnson 10. is your mold problem in the Middle School [Music] thank you just Tyson hi Tyson as you know I've been here every meeting for 23 years um and then the last year I've seen no evidence at all that there's any problem with the current 123 policy there's nobody been coming to the board asking about it you know there's been no administrators no athletic director you know there's there's just been no evidence and I just worry that this is not the best use of your time and your
107energy and possibly my tax dollars seems to be you're looking for a solution to a problem that doesn't exist at CV right now if and that's a word I heard a lot tonight if if the problem comes up that there's a situation that arises if there's a conflict with this current policy that is when you should address it I encourage you strongly as a board to focus on education issues and not political ones obviously she didn't I did not mean that as you did anyone else it's okay the board dates are are there are there any other in issues concerns from the board before we go if not I'm going to wish everybody a safe and Happy Thanksgiving uh and I will take a motion to adjourn your executive session for legal and personal reasons
108always in favor