School Board Meeting: October 19, 2023

001good evening everyone it's October 19th 2023 this is the October Board of Directors for the school district of Council Rock October meeting I will turn it directly to Dr Sano thank you Mr Solomon would you please join Alexis Marcus and Eric jaffy Alexis and Eric would you go to the podium and lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance please ask everybody to rise please I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank you Alexis thank you Eric and Mr Burns [Music] e [Music] l [Music] oh [Applause] [Music] going [Music] the [Music] oh [Music] [Applause] thank you Mr Burns and thank you to our Council Rock South musicians have a good night Madam

002Secretary govern roll call please Edward Tate we'll be running a couple minutes late Michael Thor present Maran mcke here Joseph h present Ed Solomon here Mike Roosevelt here Bob picky here Yoda P here and stepen numus here thank you man' from there we'll go to Mr T good evening sir how are you doing well how about yourself wonderful evening great well thank you all for having us this evening so get good evening School Board of Directors administrators Dr Sano it is my pleasure again this evening to welcome this year's student advisor board for Council School North in front of you this evening are five students each student represents a particular grade level as well as mbit and later this year we will have a student speaking on behalf of the Star Center um this evening

003we have 12th grade Tim Gracie 11th grade lelay Nagel 10th grade Olivia Esposito ninth grade lilan aluer and for nbit pina niceno at this time I would like to pass the microphone over to our 12th grade representative Tim Gracie hello again Bor I'm excited to be with you all again for my final year of student advising now being the senior class advisory representative of the class of 2024 as you all know I'm here to share with you all the recent happenings of the class of 2024 and what to expect in addition I'll be providing some insight into nord's academics and any recent academic achievements of our talented students and staff here at Council Rock North to start I'll share a bit about the class of 2024 we are so excited to finally have a Disney

004countdown of our own having just 173 days until the commencement of our senior trip our class has recently just dropped our initial payments for our rooming and Hospitality for the senior class trip additionally we have been raising funds for our senior prom through an amalgamation of different methods one of which through the upcoming fall festival in which much of the profits made at the senior class stand are going to directly this cause more on this this Festival is open to the entire community and welcomes everyone this Festival is one in which clubs and outside vendors will be selling food and providing activities additionally we will be having our first of hopefully many antique car shows on the topic of good news and an optimistic future the senior class has finally gotten a blue and white

005night win under our belts over the Juniors although it may have been a surprise to many We defied All Odds and had a great time at our last blo white night now for the academic components I would like to start by congratul the 18 commended National Merit students and the 11 semi-finalists in addition I'm proud to also announced that Council Rock High School North was recognized as a silver member of the AP honor role this recognizes schools whose AP programs are delivering impressive results for students while broadening access additionally nearly 400 students participated in the PSATs this past weekend last but certainly not least Council Rock North has been recognized by US News and World Report as one of the best and highest ranked high schools in the entire nation that's all for me tonight

006I appreciate your time and I look forward to seeing you all again in December number good evening board my name is lelay Nagel and I'm happy to be back again this school year presenting what the class of 2025 has been up to as well of Student Activities as at Council Rock North the class of 2025 jump started this year by organizing and setting up the homecoming dance this year in total over 1,300 students came in attendance and all had a blast coming up we we plan to have a table set up during the Fall Festival as well as a running trunk during trunk Retreat as far as clubs in September everything started to become up and running FBA was recognized as the summer starter elite club Only 76 chapters qualified and we and will be

007recognized in Hershey Pennsylvania as for speech and debate they are still ranked top 50 in the country out of of out of thousands of schools SL programs and they have already competed at a variety of competitive invites where numerous competitors have placed and over 80 active members who are competing on a regular basis on the topic of Music s and buskin is putting on their first show of the Year title the 25th Annual putam County Spelling be on November 16th 17th and 18th lastly our marching band has been competing in competitions and will be performing their show entitled 102.3 wcrn The Rock in conclusion the class of 2025 and the clubs at North have had a good first two months of the school year and will continue to pick up from here thank you good

008evening school board members I'm Olivia Esposito the sophomore CL the sophomore class student Advisory Board representative I'm happy to announce that it has been another great start to the school year at Council Rock North the class of 26 has been working for a new theme for the library crossover display case officers have put up posters for SCB classes of 24 25 26 and are hoping hoping to get the class of 2027 poster up there soon blue and white knight was a great success for the sophomore class beating the Freshman 9 to2 moving on to Athletics all full fall Sports will be officially ending their seasons in the next couple of weeks girls volleyball is currently ranked 19 of 53 the team has 14 wins and six losses their last game of the season was Tuesday

009but they're looking forward to the upcoming playoffs cheerleading both JV and Varity had an awesome fall season they worked hard to prepare sideline cheers at the football games while also learning routines for competition season the girls are also excited to compete locally and at the state level starting next month the girls soccer team has a record of 11 wins five losses and two ties they ended their season yesterday with a win against pensbury and are ranked 19 out of 49 for their season boys soccer is ranked 12 of 49 they have 13 wins two losses and two ties they also had their final game of the season last night both girls and boy soccer teams are in good standings while heading into playoffs field hockey finished finished their season this past Tuesday their record is

01010 wins eight losses and they are ranked 23 of 39 the team is anxiously waiting to find out if they will qualify for the District 1 tournament the football team is ranked 24 of 33 they have two wins and six losses there is one more game before their much anticipated matchup against Council Rock South which will be the closing night for this 2023 football season golf had a successful year and finished with a record of 133 three golf golfers Chase Gilly Mariana Walker and n meta qualifying for the District Tournament tennis finished their year 9 and4 with Avery Gosling and ziny Wong placing fourth in doubles overall for the second year in a row North was recognized as one of the PIAA District 1 Award winners also North was awarded the Ray Coleman sportsmanship award

011which is given to one of the 24 schools in the Suburban one League that is all I have to report tonight but I look forward to the next meeting thank you hello my my name is Lil Al buer I am the class of 2027 representative for the student Advisory Board and I will be discussing the Freshman transition from middle school to high school as well as the student executive board and the things that it has done so far this year the Freshman Class participated in welcom day on their first day of school September 5th they received tours from Rock ambassadors learned how to navigate their schedules and had questions answered before the other students began School The Freshman student government election held on September 22nd made Owen Crown president president Daniel kunio vice president Lucy

012rup secretary Mia Luna Treasurer and Ava mamini public relations the freshman class was able to attend freshman Feud hosted by The Rock ambassadors to learn about blue and white night and have the opportunity to sign up to participate in games the student executive board has organized many exciting events this year and will be hosting more in the coming weeks sebb hosted an activities Fair on September 21st and 22nd where the students were able to find out about and join any of the various clubs offered at North blue and white night was held on October 4th and the profits made went to the district charity autism cares finally SCB will be hosting a trun or treat on October 25th this fun event will give students within the district a safe place to Tri or treat as

013well as double as a food drive for the rown food pantry Additionally the nth grade class will be collecting any leftover Halloween candy from this event as a donation for their project treats for troops thank you hello my name is Pina niola I'm a junior at Council Rock North High School and a level 200 student in the medical and Health Professions program at middle bux Institute of Technology what is currently happening students at at MB are very excited to be back it didn't take long before we were able to start working working on our Hands-On skills in the lab areas the students in our networking and operating system security program are are already already earning their first com Tia certifications NB is do enrollment program introduction to business with with box County Community College is

014underway for The Fall season each student earn three College grades starting their college education W in high school the adult evening program has be has begun the full semester offers courses in welding Electrical Plumbing and panded Automotive technician certification classes thatal classes provide INR ruction current Technologies opportunities for a new career update skills or earn industry certifications for MB October is a month packed with significance across various Fields highlighting the the importance of different aspects of Our Lives it's dental hygiene month reminding us to prioritize oral health simultaneously its con construction month Rec recognizing the dedicated of efforts of construction professionals who shape our Urban Landscapes October also acknowledges the critical role of physical therapy month empathizing the significance of Rehabilitation and therapeutic care in restoring and maintaining physical well-being additionally National First Responders Day

015falls in October honoring the brave men and woman who courageously rushed to the scenes of emergencies ensuring our safety and wellbeing during times of Crisis our cosmetologist Solon extreme is now has been opened since since October 5th our students have been working Tire to master the latest Beauty techniques and now they're ready to Showcase their skills to the world thank you for your time and the opportunity to keep you informed about what is happening at middle box Institute of Technology and thank you for having us this evening we look forward to seeing you in December sounds good thank you guys good seeing you [Applause] all okay from there we'll go to letter F superintendent report good evening again Dr Sano good evening Mr Solomon thank you Mr Solomon school board members members of the community

016here tonight and those tuning in on the Council Rock YouTube channel thank you Mr trusevich and the Council Rock North student advisory for their detailed report and thank you also to Mr Burns and the Council Rock South band for starting tonight's meeting with their impressive performance fall has arrived with an energy you can see and feel in each of our buildings students are hard at work making academic and social strides many special events are planned at our schools in the coming weeks for the enjoyment of our students families and community and just to show how quickly the school year is moving in 14 school days the first marking period will come to a close as we have since the start of the school year the Council Rock administr administrative team continues to visit buildings and

017classes throughout the district Beyond watching the teaching and learning taking place our team's priority is to make maintain an active presence in all of our schools students benefit from these visits when they see the adults around them demonstrate a genuine interest in their success teachers and staff benefit when their administrative colleagues Provide support and feedback our visits provide Insight on everything from schoolwide assemblies to support for an individual student we strongly believe our our present is a power a powerful way to demonstrate our commitment to keeping students first always throughout the year we paused to recognize Scholastic accomplishments of our Council Rock students tonight we will introduce academic Scholars from Council Rock High School North whove earned the distinction of being recognized by the National Merit scholar program by way of background the National Merit

018scholar program acknowledges academically talented students by providing scholarships that shine a spotlight on exceptional performance and encourage the pursuit of academic Excellence at all levels of Education Mr trusevich would like to introduce each of the Council Rock North National Merit scholar semifinalist and commended students to you and the community tonight Mr Solomon would you kindly join me and Mr trusevich at the podium to congratulate our Scholars from Council Rock North again it's my great pleasure to present to you our National Merit Scholars this evening each year approximately 1.3 million students enter the National Merit Scholarship program students who took the 2022 PSAT National Merit schol Scholarships qualifying test are eligible for this Nationwide Nationwide competition of recognition and award the students being recognized this evening have been identified as me MERS of the highest 50,000

019scores those being named commended students have demonstrated outstanding potential for academic success represent a valuable natural resource and play a key role in the school's academic development I present to you couns Rock High School Norse commended students in alphabetical order we do have a fair number of them out this evening either at athletic events or pre scheduled events by we name all of them in alphabetical order Edward Axel rud Jaden Bang Yeah when they come through Elise Bloom Joshua Chang Anna Chang Anish haa Alysa HED Hannah nap chiwan Lim Ethan low Joshua Myers Nicole mov Cy ramth my raal Jimmy Sun lilan Tetro Alexander Walker and August [Applause] young and then the following students have been recognized as National Merit semi-finalists the scores of these individuals fell in the top 16,000 of all test takers

020and represent the top 1% of all students who took the exam the semi-finalist are saki Anu Audrey Chan Angelina Doris Michael dorin Michael fan Sonica Jane Kelly Law Brady at Arna rajes Shane Waton maker and Kevin you [Applause] want [Applause] you thank you and congratulations Council Rock North student Scholars tonight we will be seeking board approval to add two new members to the Council Rock administrative team both of these recommended candidates are veteran Educators with years of experience and we believe they will be a great asset to the school teams that they will be joining first to the board we are recommending Jessica Basta to replace Mr Tim KY as the assistant principal of Holland Middle School Jessica is currently a teacher at Council Rock High School South Jessica brings to Holland Middle School her

021years of experience as a classroom teacher and active faculty member at Council Rock South Jess holds degrees from Wesleyan University in Connecticut St Joseph's University and Herdman administrative certification from Delaware Valley University Jessica is here tonight with her husband Luke and her children Jona Theo and Heidi welcome Jess Basta we are also you can clap that's [Applause] good Jess just has to wait on the board to take action and see what happens right we are also recommending Joe spir to replace Vanessa Robinson as the assistant principal and athletic director at Council Rock High School North Joe comes to Council Rock from the New Foundation charter school where he served as a school administrator for the past 20 years prior to that Joe gained experience as a classroom teacher at both the elementary and secondary levels

022Joe also holds the distinction of having served in the United States Peace Corps teaching in the nation of Nepal he holds the degrees from Townsen University Mary Grove College and Holy Family University he also holds certifications in athletic Administration from the national inter Scholastic athletic administrators Association we welcome Joe here tonight with his fiance Laura [Applause] dvia congratulations to the new Town Middle School Community for the their successful camping for Hunger event that was held last week over 150 New Town middle school students participated in this volunteer activity and 125 campers spent the night in tents on school grounds this annual event that raises awareness about food insecurity and directly benefits area food cupboards thanks to the generosity of our community this year's event at New Town Middle School netted 3,274 lbs of food congratulations

023again and thank you to the m New Town middle school and their students on another successful camping event we are proud to announce that Council that the Council Rock visual arts department once again has been named an outstanding Community for visual arts by the Pennsylvania art Education Association this recognition acknowledges the rigorous inclusive highly accessible and highly visible instructional program being delivered to students in our Visual Arts programs congratulations to all students and Educators in our visual arts department for their hard work in earning this distinction this week is National safe schools week and without breaching our safety measures we're sharing some of what Council Rock does to maintain student safety these three items all fall under the um umbrella of school safety are an important and are important for our community to know per

024Pennsylvania law school districts across the Commonwealth are mandated to perform emergency drills every school year in Council Rock we have been conducting emergency drills in conjunction with local law enforcement First Responders from New Town burrow upper mfield Northampton Township and New Town Township I would like to publicly thank them by mid November all schools in the district will have completed their drills on Wednesday November 29th Council Rock is hosting the Bucks County District Attorney's office for a social media education program at Newtown Middle School this program educates and offers guidance on identifying malicious content and false information and helping you and your child stay safe when interacting on social media this EV event is free it's open to the public and again it is scheduled for Wednesday November 29th at 6: p.m. at New Town

025Middle School information about this event is on our website and is included in our Weekly Newsletter from time to time it is important to explain to the community how Council Rock responds to incidents of a criminal nature involving Stu students any allegation of a criminal act reported in our buildings is immediately reported to the local police and all appropriate authorities as soon as the district becomes aware as mandated reporters Council Rock is obligated to protect the safety and privacy of all students we notify child Pro child protective agencies such as child line when any child is reported to have been victimized Council Rock also conducts an internal non-criminal investigation to secure the safety the interest and the rights of the alleged victim understand that the district is prohibited from commenting on police investigations as a

026matter of law likewise federal law prohibits us from sharing any student related information as a matter of privacy under the family educational rights and Privacy Act if you know or suspect of a criminal act against any child or adult contact your local police department immediately suspected child abuse can be reported directly to child line at 1 1800 0313 once again 1 800 932 0313 this week our very own Star Center in Richboro was recognized with the outstanding project award by learning design magazine as part of its fall 2023 architectural and Interior Design Awards of Excellence the facility in Richboro was identified as a benchmark facility for its incorporation of Next Generation learning space design and planning and as a safe and inclusive learning environment for students with special needs more information on this award and

027the accompanying article will be posted on our website and in the back of the room tonight we have on display for you the plaque that will be displayed at the Star Center last weekend we completed our website conversion thank you for your patience if you log on to the Council Rock web page you will notice our site is refreshed and updated as with any new website conversion there are no doubt broken or missing links or information that needs updating Our IT department is working as quickly as they can to fix any broken links or to correct any errors we respectfully ask for your continued patience as we tweak the website to correct the outstanding issues and again your patience is is greatly appreciated during this process our final property tax and Rental rebate information session

028was held on October 11th but there's still time to learn more about the program as a reminder you must have qualified for the Pennsylvania property tax and Rental rebate before you can submit a rebate application to Council Rock the deadline for filing the Council Rock rebate is December 30th 2023 if you have any questions please contact our business office at 215 94410 44 once again 215 44 some important upcoming dates Thursday October 26 is the education committee committee meeting which will be held at the chancellor Center at 7 pm Tuesday November 7th is election day all schools are closed offices are open Wednesday November 8th is the end of the first marking period Thursday November 9th finance and Facilities meeting will take place in this building at 7 p.m. Thursday November 16th is the board

029of school directors meeting in this room at 7 p.m. Friday November 17th report cards will be available in the Home Access Center Monday November 20th early dismissal for students in grades K to 8 PM k Garten attends and parent teacher conferences will begin Tuesday November 21st once again it's an early dismissal for students in grades K to8 parent teacher conferences will continue and PM kindergarten will attend Tuesday November 21st um I'm sorry Wednesday November 22nd no school for students and parent and teacher conferences will take place that day Thursday November 23rd and Friday November 24th all schools and offices will be closed in recog recognition of the Thanksgiving holiday break Wednesday November 29th the District Attorney's office will be at H at New Town Middle School at 6: PM for the social media education presentation

030and Thursday November 30th the education committee will meet in this building at 700 p.m. thank you and this includes the superintendent's report thank you Dr Sano from there we'll go to letter G solicitor report good evening Mr Cox good evening Mr Salman the only things I'd like to report tonight pending the board's questions of course are the executive sessions that the board held on the 5th and 12th of October both of those executive sessions were on confidential student matters potential litigation and Personnel items that's all I have thank you sir I oh Madam Secretary Mark for the record Mr Tate good evening he's now in attendance um just got a question for the board I have 24 of our community members that have signed up this evening um none of them have checked anything for

031the agenda items most of them have checked non-agenda items um my sense is let's let the folks talk speak to us uh it's not often we get 24 people so if the board's okay with that what I will do is we'll go right down the list we'll do 30 minutes now do the rest of board business we'll move Personnel actions up so those folks can go home and then we'll continue through through board business with public comment at the end again where I left off Mr alago could we do Personnel maybe is that something you wanted to do beforehand I recommend you have to have at least folks who have agenda items that they want to discuss if there are any have their public comment session before the board moves on any action item so

032yes you can do Personnel first as long as uh no one here in this room wants to speak about an agenda item or or in particular those Personnel items I don't have anybody noted on this sheet is anybody somebody maybe possibly didn't check it by mistake does any is anyone here who has signed up for public comment or who has not signed up for public comment want to speak on the issue of any of the board's item agenda items or the Personnel ITA okay Joe we're going to move Personnel items up you want to approve all right Dr Thor would you mind bringing the personel items up please sure they are I found them NL I move to approve the personnel actions as contained in the attachment to this agenda and further move to approve

033the Personnel actions addendum as attained in the as an attachment to this agenda have a second please Mr hickey any comment from the board Personnel actions any objections from the board we have two new principles here waiting for us to approve them hearing none I'm going to ask the secretary to Mark both of them unanimous consent Dr Sho thank you to the board of school directors congratulations Jessica and Joe [Applause] and and Jessica and Joe may I call you to the podium you have a minute to address the board introduce yourself to the board and the community hi my name is Jessica Basta um thank you so much for having me here tonight and I'm also very thankful for my family that's here tonight not only my husband and my children but also my mom

034uh dell and my dad John I'm really excited about the opportunity to impact staff and students uh in Council Rock School District beyond the capacity that I already have and I'm really looking forward to getting over to Holland uh this week and in the coming weeks uh getting to know all the members of my new family there so thank you very much [Applause] congratulations hi my name is Joe spara on behalf of my say's here with me tonight I want to thank you for this opportunity to work in this community a big part of this process it's been students first I saw that through the people I met in the interviews I was excited more when I met some of the students as part of that process and that's been part of my mentality my

035whole career and I can't wait to jump in feet first and head first and and get and follow that same course of action in Council Rock so on behalf of us this is a life-changing opportunity I can't wait to get going and thank you very much [Applause] Joe and Jessica congratulations welcome aboard and thank you to all of our other administrators here tonight supporting both Joe and Jessica welcome I don't want to let let him get out of the room Mr Tim KY um see you sneaking around in the back there I uh you know you and I just spoke a couple weeks ago at the penid game uh I wish you nothing but the best it's a it's it's an honor to know you the those the Rams up there in penridge are eagerly

036awaiting you to take over that school um you've done a great job for our kids my kids thank you for everything best of luck and uh don't forget where you came from although it's only a couple minutes from your [Applause] house are you guys can go home now have a good even evening thank you congratulations all right from there we're going to go to public comment public comment is an opportunity for members of the public to address the board we would sincerely ask you to limit your comments in no longer than three minutes please consider the fact that there may be young children in the audience or watching this broadcast live on crtv when speaking it is our goal to maintain a respectful environment so that members of the community have an equal opportunity to

037address the board without interruption while the board welcomes your ideas and will consider them in deliberating an issue we may not respond to your comments or questions Mr Cox is keeping the time limit we are starting at 30 minutes it is starting at 7:39 the first one up is is it Leone can't make out the last name from Washington Crossing I'm sure he's number two Mr Dan Tarrant I have you down at New Town sir correct yeah a new town thank so you have six minutes that's fine thank you um there's a a bishop in um in Israel right now he just offered his life for the sake of rescuing the children uh from Hamas and uh when asked what could be done to fix the problem he said I think he didn't know right

038answer policy-wise he said why don't we just pray and I just think that's brilliant so I'm going to pray because I think I think our school needs needs God uh I do youth ministry over at St Andrews and uh that's I think it's good for all of our kids so and we're one nation under God so I'm just going to say a quick prayer I'm Catholic so I'm going to bless myself father sonen Lord God I pray for this District I pray that you bless it there's so many good people here people who know you who love you people who don't know you uh but still have love in their hearts for others I pray that you bless the people involved in this district and bless the kids keep them safe uh keep them uh

039who you made them them to be uh keep them undeterred uh in achieving their purpose that you set aside for them in life in Jesus name we pray amen father son holy spirit amen my my big concern so I'm Dan Taren you guys know who I am I'm sure by now it's hard because I've come to you this is the third time I'm standing for the board because no one would have an honest conversation with me and people have said oh what do you want Dan I I I I want uh to be to have a conversation so said oh you should establish all the facts and this formal document I just wanted to talk to you like I'm a youth minister at St Andrews this huge church with like I see over a thousand

040of your kids like and I care about them and and my daughter was raped and I thought wow like maybe you'd have a conversation with me and I appreciate Maryann taking my phone call uh and I I don't know what happened with that I think you said that you told the board our con concerns I I don't know um my fear is that uh or at least the solicitor my fear is that the board doesn't know what's happened with Nia and I honestly felt like if you gave me 10 minutes and a cup of coffee we could have just sorted it out and that's what I came here last time to do and I begged you I said could I just have 10 minutes with the board just to talk before you deliberate this and

041you just ignored me and then I spoke to Robert Cox asking for permission to speak to the board and he just said that he does not agree with that and he would not endorse the board doing that and I said could the board dis disagree with you and do and follow their own advice he said yes they legally can do that but you didn't and I think that's my concern is that no one's really expressed an interest in finding out what's happened like if you care about these kids you have to you have to express an interest and I I know as a board you guys don't have time I know you're volunteers but man like if a youth Minister comes to you on behalf of his own child and the kids here an African-American

042girl like a minority sexually raped by a student four or five years older than her in your building and you can't like have a cup of coffee with me what are you doing you know and I'm Catholic so I go to mass a lot and I go to daily mass sometimes not as much as I should and would like but you know this past Wednesday Jesus said to the Pharisees he said he said to the Pharisees you wash the cup on the outside [Music] only and I feel like that's Council Rock and I take I count myself as a part of that we're not washing the inside of the cup it looks really nice on the outside and kids on the inside are having horrible things happen uh I'm the guy who started Council Rock

043Family speak I'm the guy who made the videos I'm sure you guys knew that uh I tried to give my daughter a sense of privacy while still trying to communicate with a board who would not interact with me uh and it seemed like that was the solicitor's Direction which just seemed crazy it seemed crazy if you care about kids it also seems crazy like if you're trying to save money on lawsuits or something like here's a guy saying I'll come to you with l a lawyer just to talk and you would not talk to me like I was coming as a friend and people ask oh what do you want establish the fact set up the like I just wanted friendship and a conversation to make it better for our kids and you and you

044no one no one came back to me so I just wanted to give you just so you understand the events in case you don't understand them my daughter was raped by somebody who was four to five years older than her at knife Point given a morning after pill later in the bathroom the guy bought condoms for her at the 7-Eleven here on school trips told him that he was going to going to rape her wearing those condoms and she's been to chop and Nova I mean she's been treated through and through she's diagnosed with trauma and do you do you you must know my daughter's name by now right do and you must know the rapist Name by now right it's in your title 9 report you I assume you've taken an interest in that

045there's a Bo not to comment so [Music] sometimes Robert it makes me wonder who's running the district which just as a brother in Christ I I worry that an unelected person is running the district but the person that you have named in your title n report that you could read and in the police report that Nia I we gave Nia's testimony to the police to you um I I assumed you read it I assumed I talked to marann for an hour on the phone and she told you the situation when I came to the board meeting in August you already knew all the facts and I thought surely they're going to deal with this in a just way and you didn't you didn't even respond Robert Cox at the next meeting said to me oh

046yeah I'm supposed to call your lawyer back I owe him a phone call that was the response a month later and the whole time I'm on the clock paying my daughter's tuition at a private school Mr Taran I'll give you 15 more seconds Sir so just to close my my daughter's rapist just the school you you should tell people this guy in your tit report is in jail for stabbing a different teenager after raping my daughter at knif point and telling her that he would kill her and her two brothers sir she ever came forward just one second I know it's inconvenient and then you should know that we got death threats from the oyster shucker and if you don't what an oyster shucker is that's raping somebody at knife Point raping a virgin at

047knife point and so I had to pick my kids up from school and you know what I was worried about these guys think that my kids still go to Council Rock they're going to pick up some African-American kid outside of Council Rock and I'm I'm coming to you still as a brother in Christ as a friend as someone who has respect and just wants to be a part of the conversation thank you thank you sir next up is Joanne [Applause] Tarrant if you're Joanne yes ma'am I'm going to try to hold you three minutes okay okay thank you I have my bullet points first I want to talk about your um schoolwide visits Dr Sano that you're doing they involve like you know instruction helping the teachers what are you doing for school safety beside

048your fire drills what are and and the Alice drills I've been in education for 22 years what what about the peer-to-peer violence inside the schools what are you doing you're not doing anything the stories that we have heard from parents I'm a mandated reporter myself are disgusting disgusting and you are doing nothing everything is a facade let's bring in the National M Scholars let's bring in these people you know the bands and everything everything is a little Utopia and it's not there's real stuff going on in your schools vaping is probably the most benign of them all I am disgusted these children all to serve a safe environment you all have a duty of care Mr Cox for these kids I've been dealing with this since March when my daughter came out with all of

049her trauma when she was admitted to chop for seven days since March do you know what day that was the day that the Council Rock North teacher was allegedly arrested for having an inappropriate relationship with a minor was the biggest trigger for my daughter I'm speaking the honest to God truth our family has been turned upside down I was teaching last week at my school when I had to go outside and call my detective because I received a very cryptic text and I am a teacher so then I had to go to my administration because I received a text from the oyster shocker do you know what we're living you sit behind these papers you like my daughter is a business transaction she is not you were willing Mr delin to give her an NDA

050for four years of school which equates to $84,000 you were traing her silence for her safety and you already raped her and Nia has given me full permission to talk about this Maryann I called you 30 seconds I called you you know the whole story whether you people talk is up to you you failed and if you fail one you fail them all because there's other kids out there that have situations and they're too scared to talk about them and if you're a parent then shame on on you shame on you next up is Eric Erica Walker good evening good evening my name is Erica Walker I am a resident of new town and mother of two children in the Council Rock School District um it is my understanding that you are all aware now

051of the bathroom procedure that was implemented in the sixth grade class at goodno elementary school what you may not be aware of at this point is that I did complain about this procedure five years ago um October of 2018 um in September of 2018 my son was in sixth grade at goodno and at that time he had an IEP I expressed my extreme concern to his teachers and principal regarding the 25 B nurse visit limit that was implemented by the team in September of that school year as a result of that complaint unlimited bathroom access was added to his IEP through an amendment on October 16th 2018 I have documentation of that uh my daughter presently is in sixth grade at goodno elementary school um I attended back to school night on Monday September 11th

052the one topic that was not mentioned at back to school night was this 25 bathroom and nurse visit procedure policy um according to my daughter and I stress my daughter because none of this was communicated um to families the students were told that they were not to exceed 25 bathroom or nurse trips in one marking period several other sixth grade students from different classes also confirmed that they were told the Same by their teachers they were told that if they went over the 25 limit they would have spaces from the following marking period taken the first date recorded in her agenda book was September 5th which was the first day of school the policy was explained to me by my daughter who was very anxious about the limitations this kind of led me to conclude

053that we've reverted back to creating arbitrary policies that go against the districtwide PBIS model which is described as an evidence-based tiered framework for supporting students students behavioral academic social emotional and mental health so my question is where does this archaic procedure fit into this model on September 14th I wrote a letter to Dr Sano and Mr Solomon and expressed my extreme disappointment and disagreement with this policy I mention this is a time when many girls have begun puberty and I feel strongly that this policy restricts the child's ability to take care of their basic needs at their own discretion Mr Solomon and Dr Seno both contacted me right away and it seemed they genuinely shared my concerns and were willing to explore this policy further Dr Seno mentioned that he spoke to the staff and

054former principal of the school to gather more information which I was very appreciative of I was told someone would follow up with me in a few weeks but from there I heard nothing further until today at 3:58 p.m. when an email was sent home from the sixth grade team stating there has never been a policy related to bathroom usage and there is no limit or consequence connected to the number of times A student uses the bathroom I do find this ironic given this board meeting tonight was three hours from when this email was sent I also find it disturbing that this claim was made when I have proof myself that this procedure or policy was in place in 2018 I never heard from good staff or Administration or anyone else as to the continuation of

055the policy the only news communicated to me was by my daughter who told me that her teacher pulled her aside to let her know she would receive additional pages to add to her agenda book in which she can continue to track her bathroom use but the limitation of the number of times per marking period had been lifted that was 3:30 um I'm just about finished is it okay thank you I appreciate it on October 9th I sent an email directly to her teacher an IST support teacher and asked if she still limited to that 25 times per marking period I was told she was not and that she could have unlimited access I thanked them and responded by asking the team to please consider the points that I have made when creating systems designed to

056maintain order in a school especially those that go against the PBIS model as we as parents are repeatedly asked to review it home with her with our children I did not receive a response but I could assume my email was read as I said it wasn't until today at 4:00 when my daughter came home from school and told me that the bathroom limitations were lifted I can only assume that more parents spoke up as this seems to be an odd coincidence this was described by staff as a miscommunication but how can this be a miscommunication when there was never any communication to begin with and my my last comment finally a student should not need a 504 plan or an IEP like my son did 5 years ago to access the bathroom when he needed

057the bathroom it's a basic human need and right that should be offered to all students and if it takes me speaking at a board meeting to advocate for my daughter having these basic rights I imagine there are many more students at the school who continue to suffer anxiety and silence over these arbitrary policies I urge the district and beg you as the board to consider implementing a written policy that does not allow staff to interfere with a students ability to regulate their own bodies thank you for your time thanks for letting me go [Applause] over next up Rory rowski good evening Roy good evening uh Roy rowski Northampton Township I am shocked and disgusted to hear that restrictive bathroom practices are still in place in this District a little more than a year ago while

058South High School was celebrating its new found Blue Ribbon status I was questioning why a South teacher was not only limiting bathroom use for 15 and 16y old students but also offering extra points to students who did not go to the bathroom for the entire barking period let that sink in extra points for not going to the bathroom this was the first for me after work working in public education for 30 years the last 17 as a school administrator in my complaint to the Pennsylvania Department of Education the pte I stated my concerns about this practice that limiting bathroom use and incentivizing not using the bathroom is inhumane and abusive that the practice may cause harmful physical and psychological effects such as urinary tract infections bowel issues and increased anxiety not to mention the potential

059for public humiliation for young women great grades should reflect Proficiency in a subject area not a student's ability to hold it in the practice does not reflect a students first always mindset you would have thought that a complaint to the pte would have led to real change apparently it did not in an effort to resolve my complaint about South I also asked if these archaic practices were occurring throughout the district part of the resolution to my complaint included an email from an administrator dated November 3rd 2022 please know that the policy limiting bathroom use has been discontinued there is no districtwide policy on bathrooms usage rather teachers are asked to be responsive to any student who needs to use the bathroom end quote I am disappointed that this administrator was less than truthful with me

060another part of the resolution to my complaint to the pte was a copy of a memo from another administrator to the teacher involved dated September 26 2022 stating quote please discontinue the classroom practice that offers extra points for limited use of bathroom facilities end quote I am further disappointed to hear that this practice has also resumed at South one of the first rules of school leadership particularly when you are interested in gaining the trust and confidence of parents and Community is to do what you say you will do the Administration has been aware of these harmful 30 seconds bathroom practices for over a year nothing has been done to affect systemic change in this area stop saying students first always until you are ready to live up to that those words don't mean anything when

061practices like this are allowed to continue if you want to demonstrate that you truly put students first always then I leave you with this challenge do not leave here tonight until you have worked together to craft and approve a district-wide policy that prohibits staff from imposing arbitrary limits on students use of the bathroom act tonight to protect our kids regain our trust and put students first thank you sir next up is it Lauren Phillip from Northampton is I right great thank you good evening good evening um my name is Lauren Phillip I'm the mother of three children in the Council Rock School District my oldest has graduated and I have a third a sixth and a third grader at Churchville Elementary I'm here tonight over the concern I have with how the school keeps allowing

062the same child who has physically emotionally and racially been bullying kids for the last couple of years Council Rock has a bullying policy that states bullying creates an atmosphere of fear and timation and detracts from the safe environment necessary for students to learn and may lead to Serious violence my question is what is considered serious violence for Council Rock is it the M multiple police reports that this child has against him from other students is it the multiple physical assaults he has on other children is it the race racist hateful names that he says to kids is it the grabbing the kids in the private parts that he does all of what I just stated sounds like bullying and sounds like it detracts from the safe environment for kids and sounds like serious violence to

063me but the same child is still allowed unsupervised on the bus at recess and is still causing fear and intimidation to other kids two weeks ago my boys came home from school and were telling me the hateful racist names that were being screamed and thrown around on the bus from this child he was also screaming the same names out the window at people I started to write an email to the principal and then stopped and said to my husband that it was pointless as we have had multiple incidents with no real consequences that happen and I wasn't going to waste my time as I have in the past the next week my sixth grader gets off the bus and I can see he is visibly up upset and he told me how this child was

064calling his friend sitting next to him on the bus a cotton picking and I'll leave the rest I'm sure you guys can guess and that kept saying that over and over and wouldn't stop until my son said it's enough no one thinks you're funny and at that point this child continued to say to my son what are you going to do about it and then proceeded to hit him in the head and push him back this is the same situation as that occurred last year with different child when he was calling an Asian child racial slurs for weeks until this child had it and stuck up for himself which at that point I think that child got in trouble for that kids shouldn't have to Contin continually continuously be put in these situations or be

065put in a situation where they are scared they are scared to speak up because they see nothing they see nothing sorry oh no they see nothing as done this is the second incident with with my son and it continues and the school district has done nothing and has continued to allow this child to be in school I don't know what it's going to take for this child to have consequences but it's going to cause somebody to be really hurt and that's my concern thank you you man' next up is Hank Schmidt is it Schmid or shant Hank that's close sorry you state your name for the record though good evening again uh good evening my name is Hank shant I'm from New Town uh region n so I have my ey on them so anyway

066I'm here to well first off I can't I don't recognize a Schoolboard meeting anymore last time I've really been in the Schoolboard meeting was like 15 20 years ago I don't recognize this sorry you I'm just shocked what I just saw so I just wanted to share sh that with you and I also have a handout I want to share with the board it's about what Ed and I talked about at last month's meeting about the uh lack of teachers being available so I hand get because I made a copy for all of you should I just distribute it or somebody come distribute it yeah you can M Mrs Crawford could you grab it okay thank you okay well I don't even know where to start after that but anyway uh I wanted to yeah

067if you that around maybe because everybody should have a copy okay what I'm sharing is information has a line chart it's a trend of teachers graduating with degrees uh each year so I'll wait until they get their copies of the information and this is a followup from uh last month's [Music] Beauty and I'll try and keep it brief all right I want everybody to understand what the information means and understand the simple math behind it so it it basically has a trend of graduating teachers with their teaching uh the degrees and passing the practice test and getting a license so there's a there's a line chart that shows the trend going downward from like 2013 normally uh graduating class year would be about 18,000 teachers graduating in the state of Pennsylvania and uh and and

068this is just only information about Pennsylvania but uh this is a trend showing it going downward over time so normal years it's about 18,000 that graduate a year in Pennsylvania so the trends been going going down well before the pandemic and uh 30 seconds Sir oh 30 seconds I I just I wanted you to see the chart all right so anyway 30 seconds back how's that okay one minute all right so uh 2022 5,100 graduated so if the trend stays there and continues that means on average in the state of Pennsylvania that each school district will would only be able to continue on with about 30% of their teachers because there's not enough teachers that's what the math come comes down to so the trend continues but the lowest point was 20122 it may still

069go down and then the flip side is the retention rate at 7.7% per year for well I mean for 2020 it's been going up since a low of well actually was even four was even lower than 5.4% prior years of 2021 but the trends of attritions going up and the trends of teachers coming way down and the emergency certifications are going beyond the certified teachers of 6,000 of 2022 so do the math I hope you know how to do math I mean better than girls anyway so as you say so anyway uh do the math I recommend that we have two approaches as far as how to well have organizations in the student level try to encourage them to become teacher teachers you know have mentoring in the middle school high school and have programs

070and celebrate the teachers because our assets are supposed to be students first students first and then the teachers are second so if we don't have this you know we're not doing a poor job with students and poor job with teachers we're do it we are the numbers so do something I'll try to help but do the math thank you thank you next up is Wendy King Wendy King Wendy King we'll go to is it I I apologize is it helina from Northampton rivus R is it r i v as from there I'll go to Wendy nowiki I'm sorry you're going to pass completely okay thank you next up Jonathan seamons three minutes sir just State your uh Township please hi my name is Jonathan seamons I live in New Town um and in full disclosure

071I'm also a candidate for the Council Rock School School Board this year um I just uh want to commend uh in contrast to the speakers before me the work of this board and this superintendent since the end of the of 2021 this board has been incredibly productive replaced a divisive ineffective superintendent you created a new tax and rebate program for the families of Council Rock you set new policies and programs to address learning loss incurred across the district to keep that was caused to by schools being closed and kids being masked and you eliminated the last vestages of school closings and mask mandates I am here tonight because I'm concerned that if the disinformation currently circulating in the community about me and other candidates are successful in scaring the good people of Council Rock the

072progress of this board on behalf of all the families and students will stop and potentially be reversed one of the current members of this board is complicit in spreading this Miss information and lies to that end I would like to share the following quote from that board member I am also concerned that school boards have become increasingly politicized and less collegial my intent has always been to encourage Civility and collaboration but yet we all continue to see letters and flyers in our mailboxes and posts on social media trying to scare the good people of Council Rock with talk of book bands and out ofate millionaires ruin our school district this current board member continues to allow his name and picture to accompany district-wide mailings containing these falsehoods the truth is that the people trying to

073undo the success of this board are taking are the ones taking the money and in kind contributions from groups outside of Council Rock and Bucks County these actions are shameful a candidate claiming to quote encourage Civility and collaboration as Mr Tate does in the court above should not spread Li in an attempt to win an election do the people trafficking these lies really think other board members will want to work with someone so dishonest about the very reason they are running for election I urge the Council Rock Community to remember what 2020 and 2021 were like for our kids and our families with closed schools and mass mandates and please remember who brought us those policies thank you sir next up is Heather gotle I I've already I've already said yes to the first one

074so you have three minutes okay okay so I'm gonna stay on track here there's a quote out there that we are all like books um most people only see our cover um the minority only see read the introduction and many people believe the critics and few will know the content and I'm going to tell you the content because I've been with my daughter since March 9th when she started experiencing significant PTSD and was admitted to chop for seven days and then I had to take an unpaid leave of absence because my school doesn't have you know what you guys have as public Educators and I had to take a leave of absence and drive my daughter to chop 25 days straight to and from for the therapy for the trauma therapy that she needed significant

075and her homeschool teachers were amazing they were fabulous but I'm going to tell you the the um introduction right now summer of 2021 extended school year for special education under the supervision of Patty AER as the supervisor at councel North heterogeneously mixed middle schoolers and high schoolers who receive emotional support and by the way if you're not familiar with emotional support it could be a very broad spectrum it could be children that have anxiety like my daughter was predisposed to and it could be also the other end of the spectrum of kids who really need a lot of support for their emotions um and they not they had them in the same building over at Council Rock North for whatever reasons maybe the shortage from Co I don't know what that reason was budgeting who

076knows not only were the in the same building when my daughter was interviewed by the forensics person they asked Nia if she was in the same if if the alleged perpetrator was in the same classroom as her and she said no originally because she was try she's all clouded if you know anything about trauma she's so clouded at that time when it was so overall and she's just feeling out who she can trust yeah but guess what technically we learned from the detective Bullseye they were in the same freaking classroom my daughter was in one cohort he was in another cohort in the same physical classroom the big rule for um you know um 30 seconds ma'am yeah so anyway our daughter had just completed seventh grade Mr Cox and she was in a classroom

077with someone going going into his senior year of high school at least a three-year age Gap at least a threeyear age Gap and now he's in prison just so you know and we've received threats that's all thank you m severly just make the record show we went 35 minutes on public comment we will go to the we'll continue down the agenda and come back to public comment and hopefully get to the the rest of the list from there we'll move to letter I approval of minutes uh Mr Tate would you mind sir Mr hicky would you mind yeah booting up a machine thank you I move to approve the minutes of the meeting of the school board directors held on September 21st 2023 second second Mrs McKay is there any comments from the board any

078objections from the board hearing none I'll ask the board or secretary to mark that unanimous from there we'll move the education committee Mrs mcke good evening good evening and thank you Mr Salman uh the education committee met on September 28th we had a full agenda so please indulge me as I uh provide a report of uh first I want to talk about the Pennsylvania seal of biliteracy which the district is exploring this would recognize students who demonstrate Pro Proficiency in English and at least one additional World Language uh upon graduation furthermore we had updates on the Council Rock Summer Academy nights for knowledge and extended school year there'll be some changes to nights for knowledge which will expand um those nights to include uh English language arts in addition to math and it will also

079expand to include students uh in grades three through High School additionally nights for knowledge will be offered in various uh buildings starting at the end of the school day and they will take place two days a week over the course of four weeks um similar to last year students will be recommended by their teachers but of course no student will be turned away also on our agenda was information about the Pennsylvania youth survey the survey is anonymous and it is voluntary and uh we'll be administered to grades 8 10 and 12 we were joined that night by Dr Tom Barnes uh coming to us again with a presentation on the most recent 2023 pssa results uh we appreciate Dr Boren his anal analysis of the data as that will help inform us uh on our

080long-term planning and implementation information and discussion also occurred on the Council Rock leadership development program and professional learning communities and finally the Bucks County Intermediate Unit will lead a review of the Council Rock English language development program uh that review will take place next week we look forward to receiving the report of their findings and finally I just want to take the opportunity to thank all the various administ ators and teachers who joined us uh on that evening and presented on the various agenda items furthermore my appreciation to my board colleagues for their participation and discussion of these topics as that concludes my report I move to approve consent agenda items BC and D as contained in the attachments to this agenda have a sec oh Mr Tate have a second is there any further

081comment from the board any objections hearing Nano ask the secretary to mark that unanimous from there we'll go down to letter e Bucks County IU good evening Miss B good evening um the Box IU board um met last Tuesday October 17th uh there was a presentation on the IU feeding support team which is a cross disciplinary team of speech language pathologist and occupational therapists their goal is to support students needs in the educational setting so that students can participate to the great greatest extent in school routines there was also a presentation of the career ready bux organization and website this program is managed through the IU it is a combined effort of a diverse group of personnel representing bux County Educational entities working with businesses and organizations from a broad range of Industries to support

082career planning and Pathways that best serve the needs of our bux County students there was a reflection on the positive gains of the 2223 school year and a review of the goals for expansion during the 2324 school year I would also like to share that after discussing our financial gains in cancer rock using an investment consulting firm the IU sent out rfps to examine the possibility of using similar asset management firm we conducted the interviews and next Monday the IU finance committee will meet to make a decision and it is nice to share best practices with the IU and among the other school districts um the next IU board meeting is scheduled for November 21st which happens to be Thanksgiving week that's it great thank you ma'am from there we'll go down to uh G

083Council Ro ucation Foundation good evening Mr Tate good evening Mr Solomon thank you um not much to say about golf except we're playing Monday and there's a couple of slots open uh and the weather forecast looks great so um I invite anybody interested to go to the C website um most important is we're thrilled to announce that the Council Rock Education Foundation Innovative learning Grant cycle is now open and we're eagerly awaiting teachers Visionary proposals as you know it's a major part of our mission the foundation's mission to enhance and Elevate educational opportunities for Council Rock students the grants portal will be open until February 21st there will be two informational sessions offered between now and then the first one is November 4 if you'd like to learn more about the program you can visit

084the cff website and click on the grants tab since 2007 c has supported over 160 educator initiative and District approve Innovative projects and programs benefiting Council Rock students that totals nearly a half million dollars above the annual school budget with no impact to taxpayers in this school year alone cff Innovative learning grants have impacted every Elementary School both middle schools and both high schools in Council Rock in addition to supporting our students through Innovative learning grants C has been happy to donate thousands more to districtwide events and initiatives such as the annual steam night held at Council Rock House uh High School South and the raising our kids great kids available to all CR families we can't wait to see what brilliant ideas our educators are going to have this year now through October 29th

085on another matter cff and Shadybrook Farm have teamed up for Fall Fest 2023 you can purchase your tickets using the coupon C uh code 23 C to receive 10% off tickets and help support educational opportunities for Council Rock School District students and finally Tuesday night the C board met and approved a new strategic three-year plan for the foundation it was created with the assistance of the same team from the Bucks IU that helped the district produce a comprehensive plan so cff has a new strategic plan it'll be on the website and will you invite you to take a look thank you thank you sir Mr hicky I apologize for jumping over you we will move back up to letter F mbit good evening sir good evening everyone uh first I'd like to thank uh M

086nickolenko for her presentation as well as she gives a very good update and keeps your breast of everything that's happening at nbit in addition to some of the things that she may have mentioned we met on October 9th uh some of the highlights of that meeting were was nbit was named the winner in the best best of bucksmont for Technical High students uh a nice honor that just you know some of the accolades just keep on coming in there will also be an open house that I'll probably remind you about next month as well it'll be December 6th from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. the beauty salon for those of you who may want it is now open for business uh they also held their first budget meeting last month which included both superintendant and the

087business Managers from each of the sending districts uh last month I mentioned there was an emphasis on the teachers at mbit and recognizing them and the good work that they do uh part of that uh the teachers had a professional development day there were three presenters at this event who were chosen by their peers so it was actually teachers mentoring teachers at this event the annual health and fire inspections are now complete uh security upgrades of which I cannot go into they are near nearly finished and one possibility that was discussed going forward is since nbit is becoming much more competitive to get into uh the possibility is raised of maybe interviewing students as well as some of the other methods that they are currently using now to allow students into it so they're thinking

088about possibly having interviews our next meeting is scheduled for November 13th and uh thank you thank you Mr from there we'll go to policy uh yeah real quick um I'm going to go off the cuff here I was going to talk about book Banning misinformation but I'm going to punt that to the end of the meeting um the lady that was talking about the timing of the response for the bathroom stuff left um maybe I can help put a stake in that forever um can I is there anybody in the board that has a problem with me directing Mr Cox and Dr Sano to write a policy that makes what we just heard about not part of Council Rock ever again no objection and perhaps if I could pigtail off of Mrs mck's uh Education

089meeting next next week we can do a first read and vote it in the following board meeting because again I said put a stake in it for a reason it keeps coming back to life and I want to end it forever um unless I hear someone say otherwise I know it's a short leash Mr Cox and Dr Sanko but let's end this figure out how to end it and put some teeth in it so it doesn't absolutely oh I didn't know we come back later um I've seen it enough I've heard enough it needs to end so I flipped my lid this morning when I got another email about it I'm done so let's see if we can fix this so it never happens again end of my report thank you sir from there we'll

090go to Def finance committee Miss P you taking the first half of that um the finance and Facilities committee met met last Thursday and discussed various items some of them are the on the agenda today but some others like the 2024 Capital Improvement plan summer projects need further work before they come to the board for approval Mr rap notified us that the Act One Index this year is 5.3% and it needs to be passed by January 4th as you know this is standard procedure does not mean that we will increase taxes by that amount Mr rap also reviewed the 2324 year to dat Financial results for revenues and expenditures the trends are as expected the board tonight is asked to improve Appraisal Services for three properties the chancellor Center the training for property and the

091Richboro Middle School this information will be used for future planning and I don't know if Mr Dade wants to add anything on the facilities update yeah thank you Miss P um I'll point out that among the things on the agenda relating to facilities is an item to hire Indian Valley Appraisal for a proposal to appraise the chancellor Center Richboro Middle School and Twining Ford properties and as Miss P said we had an extensive presentation at the facilities meeting about the potential summer projects for the coming year and if anyone's interested um the recording is on our YouTube site thank you motion I move to approve consent agenda items B through L as contained in the attachment to this agenda have a second please second Mr no or Dr No I apologize is there any further

092board comment B through l in finance committee yeah I'll just quickly say on the appraisal uh I think that it's probably this is a great start but I expect as we heard in committee that there are several properties that have not been renovated but are on a cycle to be renovated and getting appraisals for those properties as well um would would be a good thing for our future planning thank you Mr Rosell anybody else any objections hearing none all ask the secretary to Mark beell unanimous as well miss pal you want to take that last one there um letter M I'm sorry okay I can go there um I move to approve the statement and notice regarding employee number 10009 as contained in the attachment to this agenda have a second on this second Mr

093spring any comment on this are you allowed to comment all right good is there any further comment from the board I'm sorry I I didn't think so that's why I wanted to get that that clear any other comments from the board on this any objections hearing none the secretary to mark that unanimous as well we did n Personnel actions from there we're going to move down to public comment you heard my disclaimer early please let's try to stick to the three minutes if you can I hate breaking you off in in mid sentence um but I will to give a 30 second warning from there we're going to pick up on the list Beth Rod Rodman from Northampton good evening Beth I um hello good night everybody I'm calling I'm here just to show my

094support of the board and the direction that it has been going I do not currently have any children my my youngest child in the district I should say my youngest child graduated in 2021 and it was because of many of the people on the board who got these kids back in school um as a and she was one of the ones I have to say probably one of the few seniors who was actually in school that what twice a week and then the three days and the five because she loved being in school she loved being with the teachers she loved the interaction she was a student leader a student athlete still is um and doing very well in college and I want to thank everyone who was behind that and helping to help that

095happen I also so liked what Dr uh Sano had to say about the U being out in the schools you haven't been here that long you're just getting out there getting to know you know you knew a group from where you were you're getting out you're getting to know everybody things don't change overnight you have to get out there meet your teachers where they are get to know them see what the Dynamics are before you can affect real change and I thank you for starting that process and I for one don't expect in something to happen overnight but that it's a process and it has you know and things keep going and bulldogging going forward um I also want to comment about the teacher shortage I'm a nurse I work at a Child and Adolescent

096psych hospital we also have three approved private schools I'm over the nurse managers there so I'm very well versed in what the shortages look like it's not here it's not just here it's everywhere I have nurses who don't show up for interviews so I understand the pain in trying to find people and qualified people and you know I as a board I don't know what you can do to attract people um I wish I did I wish because we could we're trying where I'm at as well um and I so I feel the pain for your HR department all your principles and all your heads uh department heads um and then I think I just lost I don't want to go over the three minutes but I want to give my support to Ed um

097who is currently running he is my district and I'm fully behind him and I know he has been an integral part in getting um keeping us on board students first keeping things fiscally responsible still trying to get um Innovative programs going I also uh enjoyed hearing about cff I was involved in 2007 Miss uh Fran grup 30 invited me to and so I'm so glad to hear that it is still going strong and that mission is going so thank you for everyone thank you next up is Vanessa [Applause] Smith good evening I am here tonight to call out the lies going around in our district from together for Council Rock Pac and candidates I know this because the lies are about me personally they have sent out tons of communication telling you all that parents

098are demanding books be banned one flyer in particular claims that two moms for Liberty members have advocated for Banning 34 books in Council Rock I am that Mom they are speaking of except they lied to you there are emails public comment District employees that can prove this that these are lies I wouldn't be ashamed of it but I am not a member of moms for Liberty I was asked to be but had to decline actually mom for Liberty members pay dues I have not paid dues during the January 13 2022 board meeting I made a public comment on books I found in our libraries with inappropriate sexual content I specifically said we are not coming to ban these books we are asking for parental consent you see my intentions were never to ban really removal

099as schools don't even have the power to ban but I asked for awareness through emails meetings with District employees I gave ideas on ways that we could bring awareness that would be a compromise for however you feel about books I ask for parental consent for books with inappropriate content I asked for emails to be sent to parents with the books that their children took out of the library or to rate the books almost like movies so kids and parents can be aware of the content in the books on our shelves I did not sorry I did write an email that contained 30 some books that I asked to be reviewed for great appropriateness for awareness purposes not for removal in response I received the steps for the challenging a challenging a book for removal a

100five-page Google form to fill out I did not take those steps I had a meeting with District employees 810 2022 and again stated I didn't want removal but awareness due to no plans in the works for awareness even after many meetings and emails on 826 2022 7 months after my initial public comment I challenged the book gender queer for removal it contains pictures that the solicitor said had could not be displayed on the screen in the Schoolboard meeting because it was too graphic but it could be in our libraries but it's also the same book that encourages girls to masturbate using their fingers or objects and then taste it clearly appropriate School reading material for children 14 to the committee decided the book would stay again with no plans of awareness on 17 2023 a

101year later I challenged the book sold the book has detailed descriptions of men raping children in sex slavery from the book you're lucky to be with me khabib he's squeezing my breast with one hand like someone shopping for a melon then grabs the other he unbuckles his belt he removes my dress he that is then on top of me and something hot and insistent is between my legs he Grunts and struggles trying to fit himself inside me with a sudden thrust I am torn in two I hurt I am torn and bleeding where the men have been I pray to the gods to make the hurting go away to make the burning and the aching the bleeding stop yes I asked for this to be removed from a library for 12 year olds to 17y

102olds but the committee decided it would stay without awareness your child doesn't know what is in these books they're about to read and they can't erase it from their minds I have not challenged Ed another book in the last 9 months so you see together for CR have been lying to you the whole campaign is based on lies do you really want board members who are going to lie for your vote I also believe I'm owed an apology from the pack and the candidates but I won't hold my [Applause] breath next up Michelle Christian I don't know how I come up here next um I have been here numerous times to the dismay of many of you especially our president there have been times where he wasn't real happy to see me here but I

103have to say um regardless of party regardless of this board pass boards um I've always felt that you guys do do the right thing I don't always feel like it in the moment and I have been here to complain about it quite a bit but our kids needed you and you were there I have to say I'm already getting emotional because I know my kids were the lucky kids and it's because of you guys and I've traveled around the country I have family and friends and they would say to me what do you mean your kids are in school that they were floored your kids are in school my my kids depressed at home and I can't get them a therapist and I said no I said and we're outside of Philadelphia and they thought

104that was crazy and it's because of you and and I want to thank everyone here for all that you did and I know some were against it and you had us sit through all of us being upset and some for and against but the mental health of our children I call them the coid kids because these kids are never going to get it back um I've never seen Mom's search for therapists like I saw um masks are a whole another issue but having them in school having that social contact not staring at a screen our kids were all attached I'm having anxiety because I left my phone 5T away from me our children were learning on nothing more than a tablet a computer screen their phone they were and I think in the beginning you

105had them doing work only you know by the end of the day it it was terrible my son I always try not to bring them up he said to me when applying to college he's in college now he's like I can't go to college I didn't really go to high school and how horrible is that he was scared to go but our district did better in the other districts and it's this board that did it for them I had a whole bunch of other things I want to say but I'm going to stay on this point I wanted to talk about things that and thank you because what I heard from this mom sitting next to me needs to be dealt with so I appreciate that you all deal with a lot and it means

106so much and again I don't usually get emotional talking to you but this impacted our children our kids and I complained with my older teenagers but I don't know how parents did it with a k kindergartner and a six-year-old and a seven-year-old and and how are they adjusting now how are they having friends how what are they doing socially mentally academically we can't let that ever happen again we need this board to continue in the route it's going in I thank you all I know our candidates running are are in a bad spot there have been some things that have been said the other candidates I I salute them all it's horrible to be a candidate I have been there done that would never want to do that again it is a horrible thing to

107think you are being lied about what matters is the kids we are on the right path I'm so happy we have a new superintendent thank you I haven't met you yet um I hope not to meet you because that means there's no issues and I don't have to go to you but I I really really appreciate all that you have done my three kids went through this school district my daughter is amazingly intelligent which is crazy that she's my child she throws me under the bus for how smart she is she's just I'm down here and she's up here and that's because of Council Rock Council Rock did that for her my boys are the same they are amazing and and I really want to thank this school district for that I'm not from here

108I'm from North Jersey we moved here specifically for the schools we lived in a teeny tiny house that we couldn't afford to be in Council Rock when we first moved here so um you got an emotional meet tonight I want to thank you please Council Rock let let's keep this momentum going because any change could really really set our kids back and the learning loss and the mental loss we we need them going forward thank you thank you next up is Alex Anon Alex Anon next up is Anne horer evening evening Ann Herer from Northampton for disclosure I am running for the Council Rock School Board in region 7 Dr Seno thank you for mentioning at the start of every meeting to make sure the community knows to be aware of misinformation about around social

109media and outside information the famous saying is don't believe everything you see hear and read do plenty of thorough research ask questions and follow up don't be fooled and don't be deceived I have been living in and serving in this community for 15 years and I have earned my reputation I'm proud of my good name here and I will continue to serve in the community for many months now there's been misinformation and false narratives from the following groups which will be heard as these groups throughout this public comment these groups are the Council Rock Democrat candidates PA Democrat Party and the Northampton Democrat Party bucks United indivisible bucks and other groups and members of Bucks County that need to be made public and the truth openly exposed these groups have consistently been lying and misleading

110our community and I am here to set the record straight after today the truth will be known and I would hope that everyone involved in these groups will stop spreading false information and focus on the issues that are important to the education of our our children I will not allow my name my character or my family's name to be tarnished by false information and lies that the Council Rock Democrat candidates PA Democrat Party and the Northampton Democrat Party and other members in Bucks County think they can capitalize on by their selfish re reasons what are these false narratives Council Rock has a policy 109 in place for a reason no one is asking to ban books the word salad out there has created chaos and and is just not accurate I have stated publicly and

111in writing that I will not support any form of book Banning and I stand behind policy 109 that is in place to ensure what is best for all students at age appropriate levels another false narrative trying to be spun is being a member follower of a social media page which does not make one an actual member of an organization really strange the attack on me a mom who has been advocating for years for all kids staff and teachers and has been an active member of the community Contin to be lied about all candidates of friends of Council Rock not an active member of such organization and not one candidate was asked to be endorsed we are not hiding anything or from anything these groups who spin this narrative and did no further research to find

112the truth it is alarming how parents who stand up for children continue to be labeled as hateful as there are many other groups that are very hateful in spewing these lies these groups labeled me as an extremist how dare they lab label moms who care with the same label they put on terrorists I condemn terrorists as they should too the evil and hate coming from these groups is frightening it is not good for our kids and and the community these groups stated I support the PA family Council I had to look up that family Council as I was not familiar with the name of the group I found I follow PA family Council on social media just as I follow hundreds of groups on social media I do support support families and I didn't realize

113my protecting and supporting families was so wrong the Council Rock Democrat candidates Northampton Democrat Party and the PA Democrat Party and other Democrat members of Bucks County lie and smear other candidates fully knowing their followers will just believe it they won't take care to go look up the truth for themselves these candidates don't know how to run on an honest campaign and love to spew the hate M Warner I got to cut you off thank you all right well they want to keep the politics out of school but yet here we are with all the political games and lies they can't give facts and can't win an argument with valid points I as well as the candidates of friends of coun Council Rock have and will continue to run on facts truth and Merit we

114will stand up for the best education safety and protection for all children and the community thank you next up is Lorie [Applause] Baran three minutes please your best yeah I'll do my best just like other people got extra time so I I will anyhow we can never forget what happened March 13 2020 to our children our community and our normal way of life when the coid lockdowns happened everyone pulled together to help flatten the curve as to help flatten the curve as the nation realized that two weeks was not enough time Council Rock schools switched to online learning it soon became clear to most parents that remote learning was less than effective everyone did the best they could to complete the 2020 spring semester many students struggled both academically and socially to this day we

115still see the lingering effects in July 2020 there was a survey sent out by then superintendent Frasier directed towards Council Rock families regarding the upcoming fall semester the most impactful question that I recall was based on what I know at this time I am likely to send my child to school in September 60% of our school district parents voted yes for this I recall that the initial number was in this 70 or 80% range but then that result was inexplicably removed and replaced with this lower number still majority as we all know from actual events a vocal minority managed to keep the Council Rock schools closed for another six months out of fear of a virus that had the same impact on young healthy children as the seasonal flu it was only through the actions

116of the school board that normal education returned fear can make people irrational but these Brave board members did what was best for the students students first and the community I'm not here to talk only about coid but I am here to talk about Community Education and our path forward and what will ultimately Define us as we look to support candidates for the Council Rock School Board there is so much disinformation fabrication and character assassination taking place that it needs to be addressed the focus must remain on policy future policies and not the political party these candidates have stepped forward to serve our community and children in this unpaid and often thankless position these are good people being carpet bombed by Party politics buzzwords and outright Fabrications the intent is to trigger emotions and avoid real

117issues let's try to not be manipulated our children's education and life skills are at stake to that end I propose we have a candidate debate such that people can hear directly from the candidates it should be easy to arrange the Gathering within a week it can be held right here in this very room with all the political background noise we owe it to the people of the district and the candidates to have real discussions on the pressing issues before us as a final note I do want to recognize the accomplishments and contributions that the school board has made since the 2020 school year I hope that the community recognizes candidates like Ann Herer who has attended every school board meeting since Co began began she has stepped forward to serve even though her son graduated

118from mbit this past year that is the definition of Engagement thank you next up is Natalia from New Town good evening can you just State your last name for the record please Natalia kulia from New Town and I'm going to pick up a little bit about bullying in the school Z I sent here as a mom neighbor volunteer professional and Schoolboard candidate who wants what is best for children as someone who decided to run for school board because I believe kids should be kids and education should be education I'm uphold and disgusted by what is being said by my opponent and her political committee every flyer that has been put out is nothing more than divisive hostile deceiving work of a political party yet my opponent says that she wants to keep politics out of

119school she's bringing hostility into the school zone there pack together for Council Rock on behalf of six Democrat candidates calls us extremist claims were funded by some dark Money Millionaires and regurgitates the same fake Narrative of book bands they're being dishonest the truth is I have been apparent in this community for the past 17 years my kids go to school with Tracy's kids I have no idea what extremist National hate group are part of unless Tracy thinks that being a parent is a hateful group itself which is bizarre concerning Ing and and concerning considering the position that she's running for Tracy's political committee claims that we are funded by millionaires my financial reports are public record and will quickly prove this claim to be false meanwhile Democrats are going to outspend Republicans by Leaps and

120Bounds the together for Council Rock campaign is based on false Narrative of book bands at Tate a cting Democrat board member himself acknowledged that there has never been talk about banning books nor is there such a policy and Council Rock why is he appearing on ads claiming that other board members are Banning books their campaign is nothing more than extremely costly political propaganda and on a side note this is a great example of where schools should be teaching kids how to be truthful how to decipher propaganda how to do research and how to think and speak for yourself and also how to stand up to bullies like together for count Rock Tracy oi and others are deceiving the public and it's wrong the community should ask them to come here and substantiate their this honest

121claims they use Facebook as their source of facts I have a daughter at goodno I volunteer at many events I taught art classes and was a girls onun coach how can my opponent Tracy oi explained to her own kids her neighbors my kids and their friends that she lied and bullied another parent in our school to get elected 30 seconds what do you think the impact will be on my kids what if they get hurt or bullied over the false claims together for Council Rock and Tracy eki doesn't care about kids where is Tracy's Integrity honesty and transparency that she speaks about our opponent are bullies nothing more nothing less they speak about protecting others while attacking members of a minority group I'm an immigrant from Ukraine I'm Jewish and I'm a woman and that's

122why they're attacking their current actions speak loud for themselves they will hurt your kids like they're hurting my kids voters need to know who who is who politic does not belong in schools my stand has always been simple keep politics out of school educate kids spend money on impactful projects and most importantly be honest and do the right thing thank you next up was burned at Heenan I I'm sorry burned at thought it said he it starts with an H Northampton not here next former board member bernardette hean I thought so uh next up Debbie evangelo good evening good evening I'd like to address a very concerning misinformation and smear campaign being waged by the school board candidates known as together for Council Rock one of whom is a current minority School Board director I

123have lived in richbow for over 27 years have raised four children here and all have attended Council Rock schools in all these years I have never experienced such a blatant assault on a sitting Schoolboard majority Council Rock residents are receiving letters from these candidates warning that the current Schoolboard majority and the like-minded candidates running for Schoolboard will politicize education and adopt politicized curriculums they are wrongfully being called extremists being accused of banning books and promoting anti-American values this is pure propaganda and the residents of Council Rock School District deserve better the only board member and candidates trying to politicize our kids education are the overzealous partisans of the together together for Council rock group this is clearly evidence by all the defamatory mailers and signs being paid for by big political parties who have no

124ties or connections to our Council Rock Community and could care less about our kids as long as their partisan agenda is being promoted I am so disgusted by the ugly false smears against the good people on this board majority who work Tire tirelessly on behalf of our children day in and day out I see the signs of a together for Council Rock candidate that states quote she believes in girls end quot what does that even mean did her political strategists think that would be a catchy phrase to Pander to her political base and create even more division my question to her as a Schoolboard candidate would be why don't you believe in boys too meanwhile a sitting majority board member is being vilified and negatively singled out by these same candidates because he actually recognized

125that there's a learning loss problem with all of our students since coid and is doing everything in his power along with the rest to the board majority to fix it through programs like nights for knowledge and steam actions will always speak louder than words and our community needs to hold these together for Council Rock candidates accountable for their politically loaded divisive words and baseless false accusations on a more grateful note I would like to give my heartfelt thanks to the several members of the board's current majority who were responsible for getting our kids back in the classroom during coid eliminating masks and making sure there were no Mand Co shots this outcome would have been much different if the current minority members had been in control thank you for creating stability for our children and

126for your common sense decisionmaking during that dark and confusing time and finally many thanks to the five current majority board members for all your Great accomplishments over these past years and for your outstanding public service to our Council Rock Community and for putting our students first always thank you next up is Cheryl Blake Cheryl Blake hi good evening hi um I'm Cheryl Blake um I have a child in the district and I'm also a graduate of Council Rock um I live in Rich barl so I'm a Community member here to voice my concern about the lies being told by together for Council Rock during the current Schoolboard election cycle I have seen Flyers letters and mailers warning the community of anti-American values and book Banning none of the information on them is true about any

127of the sitting board members or candidates I can only assume that if you cannot run on facts and what you bring to the board you will go negative and never tell people who you really are if your skills are not enough then I ask you not to run for this volunteer position that should be about kids and education speaking of volunteers I want to thank this board for all its time dedication and hard work I've heard a claim that this board Cuts budgets staff instructional spending and forc out Administration however I've also listened to many board committee meetings which are public and the superintendent specifically was asked and informed the community several times that no staff has been cut the recent finance committee meeting that is also public revealed that salaries have gone up because

128we have hired more people once again there are people out there looking to mislead our community and divide us I encourage everyone to focus on the information presented to Council Rock presented by Council Rock to avoid to avoid misinformation and misinterpretation by Outsiders I commend this board for creating nights of knowledge to begin to combat learning loss successful launch of a steam program tax is significantly lower than act one and reliably at or below 2% a turf field at South and many Renovations across the district while following a predetermined renovation schedule many don't understand the time and hours you all put in voluntarily but I also see that many people don't understand how a School District budget Works how a renovation schedule works and how board directors are involved so I thank you thank you

129next up is Liz ya good evening good evening according to Harvard's definition a Banned Book is not allowed to be published not allowed to enter a country not allowed to exist as in the case of book burning book burning during Nazi Germany a recent examle example of a ban was the incandescent light bulb companies are banned from producing them consumers are banned from purchasing them that is a ban nothing like that is occurring here in Council rock according to the Miriam Webster dictionary the definition of a lie is to make an untrue statement with intent to deceive recent campaign literature op EDS and other social media have contained lies about book Banning in Council Rock during the May 18 2023 school board meeting there was a direct question of the board asking if there is

130a book Banning happening in Council Rock Dr thorwart offered to have a policy meeting to discuss the creation of book Banning policy he asked asked Mr Tate and I quote you were policy director before me you didn't see any policy for Banning books did you his answer was no Dr thorwart then asked the board if anyone is interested in Banning books and the answer from everyone was a resounding no the fact is there has never been any book book Banning of books and there will never be banning of books in Council Rock these lies are fabricated to deceive the average voter who does not attack school board meetings and they are intended to divide us as a community if there is any question on book Banning let's have a candidate speak for themselves instead of

131making accusations without Foundation or consultation if a campaign is lying to the public accusing a candidate of the intention of banning books what else will they lie to you about I don't have enough time to list all the great things that the current board has done for our students here are just a few they fought hard to get our kidss back into the classroom appropriately they made sure that the coid shots were not mandatory to return to school they are addressing learning loss from coid with a focus on Steam they created a program called nights for knowledge to address learning loss which was so successful for math that the board is trying to expand it to include English and language arts they focused on the budget they created a five-year curriculum 30 seconds review and

132capital plan and created a tax rebate for senior citizens all of this while keeping our taxes low and real estate values High let's remember that the school board is not a partisan body I like the idea of having a debate I'm sure that the community would appreciate knowing which candidates would like to participate versus those who do not want to participate in a debate thank you thank you ma'am next up is Chris Kristen bresnen looks like from Northampton Kristen let C sorry okay thank you next one up is Peter last name starts with an H yes you're not speaking next up is Renee karif don't want to be the dead okay that concludes the list I have in front of me wait I was in the my name and I don't know how because I

133was like at the end of the list the other Wendy the top of the second sheet I was yes Rene I'm not even gonna take three minutes I'll give you 30 seconds take good evening Miss King Wendy King New Town PA I had come because I'm getting these flyers also and I'm looking at it and all our Democrat friends your names are all on those flyers and I'm reading them saying Mr Tate didn't do that Mr Tate's not agreeing with that I didn't hear any of you agreeing with what's on these flyers by the way you're going to all if if we if the Republicans win or we keep the board the same you're going to lower our property value did you know that you gotta go you just gotta go I just think that

134you need to look at these flyers I think you guys need to make a public statement again because somebody's not listening and and tell them what's on these flyers is not correct um Dave Kennedy's page came up again with that the board um when we had the the the people coming in for the for the job interview to take over to Christian Kristen that you guys manipulated steveen that you didn't take your time you wouldn't listen to the um uh the the evidence and I believe Mr Tate you were the one who who had the the meeting going who did it who who who had the vote going you did it the board would have taken their time they didn't even have a chance we were all kind of shocked about this news because the

135candidates weren't public we didn't know about them until we got here to the board but somebody knew about them but so somebody leaked it and so now they're saying this this page is saying that you guys you know are cheats and you didn't give it time and you didn't investigate it you just pushed it through and I'm thinking I was here I I know what happened I I I believe one of you guys even said do you want to put this off can we do you want to and Mr Tate said no we're voting you voted didn't get what you wanted but you voted so but this was all your fault all your fault so your names to it too all your the Democrat names are on all this stuff so they're representing you whether

136you said it or not and it doesn't look good because all my years of being here 30 years in Council Rock I've never seen anything that is going on this year it's pretty bad embarrassing actually thank you Mrs K that'll conclude public comment I'm s i can you want to speak now you want to speak okay please just state your name who I know who you are but just state it for the record Wendy please thank you good evening Wendy Hi how are you just a minute thank you very much I'm y I'm Wendy nowiki I am a Council Rock parent in New Town um earlier I uh passed had had an entirely different focus it didn't seem appropriate at the time um and um so I passed and I do believe that truth is

137important um and will be seen um but really all I really want to say right now is that I just want to thank the um parents and the community members that came out and spoke that came uh forward with courage um to share their experiences um I thought it was very touching I think it was very important um they shared their experiences with bullying and with trauma um um uh that they've experienced with their children and it took a lot to stand up here and to be vulnerable um especially in an atmosphere that's really fraught with political attacks with personal agendas and that really only can add to the difficulty um I just hope that as a district and as a board and as everyone in this room could just hear that for a moment

138because we need to hear those experiences we need to hear that there are people that don't feel safe that there are students that experience this every day that hide in classrooms between uh when when they're moving from class to class that hide during the lunch um during lunchtime we need to hear that those experiences happen and that we need to do better and so I just I hope that we could hear that amongst all of this circus that is happening um that we can address those concerns with the appropriate level of transparency as a district I realize it's difficult up there I realize that you we can't know everything and that but with an appropriate level of transparency but that we can also come together and build a better more supportive more inclusive and safer

139environment for students to learn and Thrive we just we have to do better by these students and not have this that's all I want to say thank you that concludes public comment from there we'll go to the board comment new business M heavly are you taking the psba part or who's doing the who's doing the bsba FR first right BBA yeah new business Mr res are you you and Mr hickey yes Mr hickey and I um have been appointed by this board to to be the delegates for psba elections and I believe Mrs hly has the motion correct yes please I make the motion to allow the board of delegates of psba to review and make a the conscious decision to vote for the proper candidates candidat in the psba elections including specifically Allison Mattis

140Sabrina NE backer Karen Beck pulley Mara Peta and Eric Meredith have a second on that please I I'll I'll I'll read it since it's a motion please or just say so moved so moved second second for Dr fart do we need to vote on yes okay roll call yes unless there's a consent unless there's OB is there any objection to these these individuals that are I believe running unopposed correct these individuals are running unopposed there any comment from the board any objections from the board are hearing none the secretary to mark them unanimous and send it off to psba from there we'll move to new board business is there any new business to the board yeah I I do have some some discuss back in the spring during the primary Dr thwart had described an

141experience where he went around to different polls and was confronted by voters and the voters were asking about book banss why is Council Rock Banning books some were happy some were upset who knows and Dr thwart described this experience to us and he was confused as far as where did this come from well we now know where it came from and apparently there were Flyers that went out around the primary which confused the community we've heard from the community prior about not bringing in politics to this board we heard community members tonight discussing discussing this politics and this confusing so we also had a public comment um that recited the exchange between Dr thwart and Mr Tate um so it's it's difficult to kind of go back through this Mr Tate's in a unique position

142where he both understands all of us as well as as running and being a candidate for this board is a volunteer position we spend a lot of time on it and we are all the candidates both from both sides in this largely non-political structure are supposed to focus on the kids which is what we're doing we've got Dr Sano that created a new model or a motto the students first so we've heard from candidates over the past months coming up and saying how they don't want politics to come in and yet it keeps coming in so I'm concerned because this is a public school district we have a duty to educate The public's community and that's what we're doing regardless of their ability whether it's high or low regardless of where they come from from

143this is something that all of us are looking to do is educate the kids and it's difficult and it's distressing when we're distracted from that mission with politics so it's a lot of these things have been pointed out I it's hard to sort of capture the emotion of many of the brave people that have come up both tonight and previously to disc describe their their positions and their experiences so I'm concerned because a lot of it is baseless it's factually inaccurate it distresses this community it confuses this community it does a disservice to this board it does a disservice to this district and it does a disservice to the kids that attend this school and I'd like to get an end to it I do not want to see and I've mentioned this to many

144of my colleagues here I don't want to see candidates with their pictures on school property I don't want to see politics rally M missions in our in our facilities because this is dividing us instead of bringing us together so in light of a lot of these comments Mr Tate you did confirm as prior chair for the policy committee and Dr thwart has confirmed as current chair of this committee that we do not have a book ban we don't have a policy for book ban so I ask each of you if you would repeat that just as it as it were to come right from your mouths if unless I'm incorrect I'll start I said before and I'll say again people that ban books are rarely the good guys um I mean it and I mean

145it wholeheartedly um you can split hair somewhere and decide if describing sex scenes belongs in a elementary school library or a middle school library I offered to have that discussion I'm still offering to have that discussion I'd love to have everybody on record for where they stand with that but in the meantime Banning books whoever does that they're R rarely the good guys I'd say never at all um Dr Seno I called you earlier just to confirm this there are no book challenges there's nothing out there it's radio silent if I'm not mistaken on all of this we do not currently have any book challenges is that enough thank you Dr thwart Mr Tate do you have anything to add yeah I'm not going to get into a political debate during a board meeting I

146don't think it's proper or appropriate you want to talk about a policy change or some new policy I'm happy to have that discussion but I don't think a political debate is appropriate during a board meeting and that's all I'll have have to say thank you I agree we shouldn't have political debates on this board I'm not intending to bring that I don't believe I am bringing that I'm bringing a attention because this board is comprised of nine people with Administration that spend a lot of time and have worked together for a long time I think in some cases we've worked with each other for months and in other cases we've worked with each others for years and in several cases some of you have been working with each other for nearly a decade and and

147the community sees that and the community sees Flyers as well and gets embroiled in this so the debate has been been brought to this boardroom I don't want to continue it I'm trying to end it but I think it needs to end all around Mr Funk and Miss Crawford do we house all books that are printed all books that are printed in current circulation in the United States do we have room for them in our libraries no we do not does the collection of books change does our collection remain the same as it did five years 10 years ago 20 years ago 50 years ago or has it changed it continues to change so are the books that we don't have are they banned no thank you Dr Seno do you concur with this I

148concur thank you I sorry I you know this is this is difficult because we do have a diverse Community we have a diversity on this board and that's good we should have difference of opinions and that's the reason why we deliberate we deliberate in committee meetings we deliberate around this around this table we deliberate only in these areas per Sunshine laws and it's because of this deliberation that we express different points of view we recognize that our students and the families of our students also have different point of views and all of them should be valued and all of them should be heard and that's what makes this community strong and I think that that's what we need to get back to is to recognize the focus should be on education the focus should be

149on the students instead of baseless and factually inaccurate statements and actions by few on both sides effectively that do nothing but divide this community create confusion and raise concern so I like the fact that we have people so many people that are engaged in Schoolboard business and that we have so many candidates that come forward to come up here and to volunteer and to give back to help that mission and I thank the board members around the table that continue to do that and in some cases it makes it very difficult we've heard a lot of emotional things throughout this evening and other evenings and it's because of that in a lot of cases we need to hear that because we're not involved in the intimate day-to-day business we're here to interface with the community

150and the administration as representatives of our areas to make sure that education of our kids is taking place thank you thank you Mr Roosevelt anybody else new business Mr hogo please sure thank you um I was just going to respond to uh Mr Tate's comment that you don't want to talk about politics at the board uh Di and um you were a policy chair and there was a question about you know what happened under your tenure as policy chair and I'm just going to wonder if there is a policy for talking about politics at the dis I mean I actually called Mr uh Cox about this earlier saying is there some type of policy or ethical line where we draw and then to talk about politics you know if you're in a campaign it's been

151filled this room tonight it's been really crazy and I think people have been here for 30 years have seen uh that never seen anything like this before and um you know I'll be ha we'll all be happy when November 7th is gone but my my my question is is is is a book uh policy on books and and and the proced procedures and the perceived procedures uh political that we can't speak about it that's that's my question is it political to ask the question how is it political it's a policy on books for children and all they asked as a simple question was whether or not we have a policy on Banning I think that was the question and your answer was I'm not going to talk about politics and I agree it's apolitical but

152I just don't think that you know you can say it it's okay we don't have a policy on banned books and I appreciate Mr Tate you you and I don't always agree but he's a good person you know I think everybody up here is a good person and I am surprised that we get people coming down out of town spending money attacking non-paying volunteers that are doing this out of the goodness of their heart honest to God and there's the lady that gave you the middle finger the one one time I still talking isn't that great so you know you get a lot of beauty you get a lot of beauty up here uh and I'll say this I am very very very proud of our community okay I'm not perfect none of us are

153perfect we're doing the best that we can and we we do it because we care about the children I think I've always kept that clear that what I do is for the children I have three of them all different spans and and in Ables and abilities and we're all blessed to be here I do like the idea that our one friend talked about open the the public meeting with a prayer now that's something we're all losing that's something that's lost amongst all of us you talk about student wellness you talk about helping kids you turn your back on one of the greatest therapists that ever was in mankind and that was a creator that you can believe in or not in many different ways God is good good it's people that that are evil okay

154that that take the wrong path um so I'll say that because you know what I think we've turned our back on it and I think it's a shame and I think um we shouldn't and there's a way to do it without separating church and state I don't not you know I understand there's rules and I'll be glad to have that debate with you guys because you don't ban something like religion because you're trying to separate church and state we're not being run by the church we're being run by public and we should have freedom freedom of speech freedom of religion don't ever forget that that's what our country was founded on and we got to get back to the basics we can all agree that everybody wants our kids to have a great education everybody

155wants our kids to feel welcome and safe in school everybody wants our school board to spend our dollars wisely and everybody wants want us to do right by our teachers and support staff that make a positive difference every day in our school district I want to thank Dr Seno for the amazing job that he's done over the 30 some years at this school district I didn't know Mark Klein but he reminds me of a mark Klein a legend in our school district nobody should talk bad to this man because I saw on the first day I ever came before I was even on the school board this man was at every after school event I'd see him all over the time he's in the school when I'd be revisiting schools even when when he was

156a principal and I was new to the school district and I had an autistic support son at at Holland Elementary School this man pulled up his chair backwards and sat with the whole group of this autistic support program in Holland library and said you know what guys this stinks but we we're I mean we're I'm here to support you he was the principal at that school telling us that we were going to have to well we were moving actually from Richboro to Holland and he was there to welcome us and let me tell you he was a warm warm welcome it was hard to leave Richboro because those students were so so supportive of of the autistic support program there and then we went to Holland then my kid went to um then the same

157child went to Richboro Middle for the last year and then he went to uh Holland Middle School for the second year and then instead of sending him up to Council Rock North it was through some some consultation with Dr senko at the time when he had a life skills program at the middle school at Holland where his sister my son's sister went Emily that he would have that support program if he was able to switch to life skills so my artistic son it was better for us that we would put him in that track instead of sending him to the north uh where he wouldn't know anybody and be further away the school district has been supportive okay and I want to say thank you to Chuck Lambert and I cried when Chuck Lambert retired

158and I'm very hopeful for Anthony devilin here that he's going to continue to carry the torch um I know good people when I see them I know lies when I see them and I'm going to do my best here as a school board director to find what makes us our similarities because we're more alike than we are different so focus on what makes us uh I'm s it's coming it's coming you talking about Mr Tate yes I'm sorry well I like the ramble but but all right so so hold on Jo are you done I think so Joe are you done I think so am I done okay Mr Mr hecky yeah just to just to kind of bring this back full circle I guess to where it originally started I don't believe that uh

159Mr Roosevelt was trying to single you out politically he had asked a general question as to the policy of the district as it relates to book Banning and whether or not we either do or do not ban books your your answer on that is a simple yes or no or I don't know um you can give your opinion whatever I know I've been on the record about where I stand in relation to books here and I would be glad to speak about it to anyone um at some point but I'm not going to do it now after Joe's speech but I think just to bring a full circle you were just asked the question do we ban books in The District not a political qu just a policy question as it relates to book Banning

160and he was just asking believe correct me if I'm wrong Mr Roosevelt just a simple yes no or I don't know this has turned into a political debate I don't think it's byebye okay yeah it yeah M Mr Tate I'm so I apologize I'm not trying to bring in bring in a debate I was actually trying to to demonstrate that we know each other that we've worked with each other as both candidates as well as board members and trying to get you to restate something to confirm for the public that's all that's all I was trying to do if okay anybody else is there anybody else from the board late folks you want to end it [Music] excuse me is there anybody else from the board would like to speak about new business anybody else

161for old business from the board Joe please did I speak too long then I apologize okay I don't time you all I was trying to say is that Dr Seno is awesome okay anybody else have a motion to close the meeting motion to adjourn second second thank you