Special Meeting of the School Board: February 28, 2023

001foreign videos very good let's do it all right here we go good evening ladies and gentlemen it's February 28th this is a special meeting of the board of school directors for the Council Rock School District I it asks you all to stand and to begin to Pledge of Allegiance please Madam Secretary I have a roll call please Edward Tate present Michael thornward present Mary McKee here Joseph Hildago here Ed Solomon here Mike Roosevelt here Bob hickey here and Yoda Pali here folks would have moved down the public comment public comment is an opportunity for members of the public to address the board we would ask that you limit your comments to no longer than three minutes please consider the fact that there may be young children in the audience or watching on the broadcast live

002on crtv when speaking it is our goal to maintain a respectful environment so that members of our community have an equal opportunity to address the board without interruption while the board welcomes your ideas and we'll consider them in deliberating an issue we may not respond to your comments or questions first up is Priscilla Linden good evening you're going to do it after okay uh I apologize agenda item Jennifer igval did I say that right sure good evening I'm Jennifer igbal from Newtown and good evening everybody since the purpose of tonight's meeting is to interview candidates to fill the region 9 School Board vacancy I'm here to raise concerns about one of the candidates I heard from a neighbor that one of the candidates under consideration is Mr Stephen nelmis I hope that's not accurate because

003based on posts shared with me from his Facebook page this is not a person in my opinion that we want representing the Council Rock School District I recommend that you take a look at some of his posts he shared several memes that I I think virtually anyone would find offensive and hateful and I did bring just a couple screenshots of examples um to show I know it you can't see it on on TV but I just for visual aid wanted to to point a couple out and again these are just a sampling so um my first example this meme is from March of 2022 and it shows a picture of University Pennsylvania swimmer and the meme is clearly mocking transgender transgender people and I'm not comfortable reading the wording out loud but again I recommend

004that you look at this person's Facebook page the second is another meme um that he shared dated September 2022 and this post is a meme that says this is why young people in America are confused and it shows head shots of various public figures and clearly is promoting um it's promoting racism conspiracy theories and again it's mocking transgender people among other things the third post that again I'm showing just as an example is another meme dated October 2022 so this is the most one of the more recent ones we live in a world where your kid cannot pretend to be an Indian but a grown man can pretend to be a woman I don't think I need to explain why I find that offensive um and again this was posted in October 2022 so we're

005talking about very recent activity that is offensive it's anti-lgbtq and does does not reflect the values of our community this man cannot be the best that the Council Rock has to offer if he's appointed to our school board I think it's clear he will not be representing every student faculty and staff in our district again I hope I'm wrong and Stephen Thomas is not being considered but if I'm right please do the right thing and eliminate him from consideration he may look technically qualified on paper but his public posts reveal otherwise thank you thank you foreign recess we're back [Music] all right we're back pardon the interruption I'm going to move down to the letter e approval of the minutes for discussion board candidate interview process Mr Tate would you mind please Mr hickey I

006moved to approve the minutes of the discussion for the board candidate interview process by the school board of directors on February 23 2023 second second Mr Hildago is there any objection to this any further comments hearing none I'll ask you have comments Mr Mr Roosevelt I do I want to just ensure that um that we have an opportunity to perhaps amend this and or clarify elements so as I understand it procedurally there's a motion on the floor to approve the minutes as written if there are amendments to the minutes um you could make a motion to amend the the motion to address your Amendment to the minutes but we're there's an attachment in there too right we're we're only approving the minutes we're not approving the motion tonight correct what's before the board right now

007is the minutes summarizing uh the previous meeting uh the next agenda item will be an opportunity to uh confirm the procedure that you intend to use for the selection of candidates so approving the minutes does not um by in and of itself require you to then confirm the procedure that's in those minutes thank you I just wanted to make that clear thank you okay any objections to this any further comments hearing none I'll ask the secretary Mark that unanimous from there we're going to go down to confirmed procedure for selection of the candidates board it is in in the document attachment uh if you need to refresh your memory I'd be happy to read it um it's all the way towards the bottom I believe this is not the right okay under the approval of

008the minutes is um the summary of the discussion there's a launching point this version now I'm going to go over again all right here we go So based on what we talked about last week the the first during the first round of interviews the candidates will draw a lot to determine the order which they'll be sitting for questioning there's a bucket over at the podium we have three candidates this evening they will pick from there and that will be the order that they will be being questioned or interviewed each candidate will be asked one question by each board member or for a maximum duration of 20 minutes whichever is shorter each candidate will be asked the same question by the board the remaining candidates will be sequestered not to be questioned and will not have

009access to their cell phones or computers during this period following the first round of questioning motions will may be made by the board to appoint any of the candidates If no candidate is appointed the board may vote to advance two candidates to the second round of interviews during the second round of interviews there will be an open round of questioning during which time any board member May pose questions that's basically the summarization of what we discussed last week so from that is is everybody a week later you slept on it are you fine with that would you like to add something there was there was a discussion piece that in all of our notes where I believe as Mr Hidalgo wanted an opening remarks from the candidate to be added in there was also something

010about asking the same question to all three candidates which I don't think you you put in there which I was obviously I don't care either way okay that all the that we have we ask the same questions and so on I think the meaning is that we are just approved Dr Thorpe please I'm sorry and and not being there I apologize for that just one quick question for our solicitor um and that's it um these candidates applied they sent a letter they sent a resume um to the school district applying for this job that is now public record or is as soon as we begin this process correct correct okay I I I'm saying that for the candidates not for us I suspected it was the case but uh you know that that needs to

011sometimes you don't know this when you run for school board and stuff so um that that was my only question thanks correct that record would be subject to requests under the right to know we would recommend in that case that personal information like home address well home address will be numb but cell phone that would be redacted but otherwise yes any other points of interest from the board so the summary I just read is Mr Mr Roosevelt I'd ask you to read the motion from that sheet if you don't mind [Music] I'll make a motion at this time that we include a two-minute opening statement for each candidate this is based upon the precedent of the past three board proceedings where a vacancy was filled candidates were given an opportunity for an opening statement in

012light of that I move that a candidate will have a two-minute opening statement that second Mr odago any comments from the board Mr Tate I think that in theory it's a good idea to ask the candidates for a opening statement I wish we would have done it last week I feel a lot of hesitancy about doing it at this moment um when we haven't asked candidates to prepare a statement I think it's really putting people in the spot in a sense you're testing their ability as an extemporaneous speaker as opposed to their qualifications for school board um you're right Mr Roosevelt that was past precedent um we didn't give instructions to our three candidates um that included the prepared statement so I'm reluctant to do that for that reason would you be more comfortable if

013we amended it that the candidate has an opening statement if they would like and they're able to waive it also and proceed with questions Mr belly while you're thinking Mr Tate was ready to go um we did discuss about that at the last meeting extensively and I was in favor of an opening statement but the majority of the board was against it so we agreed for the benefit of time not to have an opening statement so I don't I agree with Mr Tate it's not fair the last minute not to give the candidates the opportunity to prepare and then ask them to have an operating statement um I was also in favor of asking everybody the same question so it will make it fair in the first round for everybody so by giving them the

014option now if someone chooses not to take it it's gonna it's not gonna be their benefit so I don't think it's fair I submit that they don't know the questions that we're asking them either so having a two-minute opening statement isn't that much of a preparation it's an opportunity to respond just as they're getting questions from us that they're going to be able to respond in perhaps should we move to roll call Mr hildago's got a hand up please yeah thank you so again it's optional if you want to do an opening statement it is a precedence we did speak about it last week There's no there's no um you know we're not going to hold against you if you don't have an opening statement but give the opportunity because that's kind of how the

015process usually starts to the public for the public edification they haven't seen what we've seen so given them that opportunity there's a reason it's not just us looking but the uh the public also deserves the opportunity if I mean a candidate should have an opening statement ready in because it's always been that way uh if they do or don't if they didn't choose to my question could be if you want to make an open and statement make one you know and have to ask everybody the same question the first round so I don't see it as a big deal either way thanks yes Mr Pelley again please so I watched the YouTube when uh you Mr Hidalgo were interviewed for the opening and you actually read your opening statement you had the chance to prepare

016it and read it and it was an excellent opening statement I have to so I just don't think it's fair to put this to this candidates the last minute and if it's not I mean I would prefer to have an opening statement we discussed it last week but not the last minute so I'm gonna be a known that yeah I agree Miss with Miss Polly uh we discussed this at length the other night we came up with our set of rules and the one thing that I had mentioned that if someone finishes their questions before 20 minutes that they would have the opportunity to say whatever they wish to say to take up that time so if they only have if they only used up 18 minutes they can make an opening statement or anything

017that they would like to say to fill that time and it's their choice whether or not they choose to do it so I'm I'm against an opening statement precedent also had a closing statement which seems to satisfy the scenario that you just laid out Mr hickey all right so the motion on the table is from Mr Roosevelt to add a two-minute opening remark uh we're going to go to roll call because I think we're good but let me have a roll call Mrs Everly please Solomon no picky no Joe Hidalgo no Mary McKee no you had a Pally no Michael Roosevelt yes and Tate no and Dr thorwood as I missed the meeting I abstain yeah yep so it doesn't carry right from there Mr Roosevelt we're going to read the motion for the procedure

018that I just highlighted and make it a motion please I move that the procedure to interview and appoint a board candidate be as follows which is as Mr Salman read prior to the motion being opening I have a second for that second Dr thorbert any objections to that I want to clarify that we're going to ask the same questions to all the candidates in the first round because that's why we agreed and it was not so it's it's summarizing it it's 20 minutes Mississippi is going to call a board member's name the board member is going to give a question that now becomes the question from that board member for the first round okay so I agree the candidate has 20 minutes to answer as far as it can go um I just you know

019my hope is that we can get through eight or at least a board member has a chance to to throw their question out there whether it's the first candidate second or third okay hearing nothing I want to ask you to mark that unanimous from there all right from there I'm going to ask the following three we have three candidates board uh Miss Miss Nicole Khan Miss critina Chris I'm sorry Christina Chandler as Mr Stephen nelmis come up to the podium Mr Fredrickson they can just come up to the podium and draw draw and draw their numbers or at a table whatever's easier yeah folks just hold on one second hold your numbers Mr Tate would like to address the the applicants all in one if you could yeah I just wanted to say um thank

020you all for through all three of you for coming um it's uh in a way a bit of a challenging experience a number of uh current board members have gone through we worked hard to make this this process is comfortable for you as possible and it's comfortable for the board I look forward to working with who's ever Chosen and but the two people who aren't chosen I hope you stay involved with the with the school district um and uh I'll leave it at that thank you thank you sir can I ask who drove who pulled number one okay you're up first Mr nelmis oh who's I'm sorry who's two ladies Miss Chandler's too yeah I just want to remind you folks as you go into the other rooms you're not allowed to use your phones

021or iPads or any type of Technology or good evening Mr is it now miss no miss good evening welcome to the Council Rock School Board of Directors applicant process for the vacancy of region nine from here Mrs Everly our word secretary is going to call a board members name from there the board member will submit a question to you you have 20 minutes at this juncture to answer as many questions I will be clocking you up here but if you could you can use the timer at your desk hold on one second sir I think the clock will start once the questions asked if that's fair foreign oh good okay Madam Secretary please Marion McKee thank you good evening Mr Nomas and thank you for being with us tonight the board is responsible for approval

022of curriculum and curricular materials do you have any personal philosophy or Viewpoint regarding what appropriate curriculum should be or appropriate instructional materials do I have to hold the button the first part of that could you just repeat the first part of that certainly the board is responsible for approval of curriculum and curricular materials do you have a Viewpoint or a philosophy about appropriate curriculum and materials I definitely a broad question right um I I haven't been involved in curriculum development I could give you a little bit of History though um uh from my perspective so prior to to this I was a school board director in the Bensalem School District back in the early 2000s and during that process or actually before that process I was on a couple curriculum planning committees where for quite

023a few years prior to participating as a school board director there um from a philosophical perspective I think it's you know a gathering of you know the best data looking at looking at outcomes looking at equal opportunity for all students across the board challenging them right and then also knowing that there's a you know quite a bit of diversity within the Council Rock Community uh the opportunity needs to be you know shared and fair for for all students so sorry I can't get more into detail with math and science and uh and things like that so hopefully that's given me a little bit of perspective can I would you like me to extend it any further you're welcome Dr horward I'm gonna go where I finished the last few years um the last several years

024have seen tremendous loss of learning from kids we put masks on them we closed early we shut down schools um my question is twofold do you think that was a good idea and would you advocate for it again just make sure you're pushing that button please and maybe bring it closer to you pretty good is that good so I know the scores are down I've watched the the meetings and I've had my son lose my youngest son was a senior when when covet hit um I you know they're down across the board right Council Rock Philadelphia um uh Pennsbury across the board right um I I think that you know those decisions that were made then I think looking back hindsight I don't think that they were the best choices I don't think the schools

025have you know should have been closed um you know from that perspective um my quite my question so you know was the decision to stay at home the best for the kids right and I think that's the point that's the focal point um being a board director um first and foremost right are the children in mind uh and not just is is the learning involved is the health involved right it's it's the social aspects right did they where I mean not just scores from from testing scores um you know socially they're disconnected from school you know and that leads to you know possible Behavior implications um stress right their development uh was missed there's some gaps there so it's the whole child I think that was affected by it and I think that's somewhat underscored

026when you look at the big picture so um was the decision the right decision hindsight probably not and would I be um on the side of closing the schools again if it were the same and I had to say no Ed Tate thank you Miss heavily Mr Nomas um how important do you think social and emotional learning are and how important is an active commitment to diversity equity and inclusion in a school district do you do you think simply put the we have a responsibility to teach students that everyone should be valued and respected no matter their gender age race ethnicity religion or sexual orientation I'll answer the last part first and I do believe that everyone should be treated equally regardless of race sex gender whatever the clinic whatever the characteristics may be right

027and my belief is that all students should be treated fairly and all students should be treated equally for their opportunity to for their education and the first part of the question had to do with how important are social and emotional learning so my focus you know of you know of the school is everyone gets the same opportunity and attention that they deserve so regardless of the circumstances and regardless of the characteristics um also transparency so because this is a new kind of topic a new language for people I think uh of utmost importance is that these principles and the philosophies right and the uh you know and the procedures that they be transparent to the parents right into the community and that the community and the parents agree with you know what you know what

028the policies set are um when it comes to diversity equity and inclusion and also social emotional learning so yes I I think it needs to be addressed but I also think there needs to be inclusion from the community um whether or not the parents you know uh you know what what their what their say is okay you're good Mr Solomon oh lucky me good evening again so thanks for coming appreciate it I've gone through your resume at length um tell me because this was a question that I received and it sticks with me to this day um father of a couple kids married um busy work life very very detail-oriented in professional work and I'm sure you have some outside interest hobbies and what some you know everything else that goes along with that how

029are you going to manage all that and the school board as well so good question so like I said I have experienced as a school board director from 2008 to 2010 uh in Bensalem so I understand the responsibility I also understand the amount of work right the homework that you guys do um prior to the meetings and the responsibility right when you're you know you're casting your vote you're you know you're responsible for doing the homework and understanding that work um so that's from 2008 to 2010 uh during that time um I I work two jobs I had kids I was a coach right it's just time time management uh I'm currently fully a full-time employee I'm also currently enrolled in gaining my Master's in nutrition and functional medicine which is my opportunity for later

030on in life through retirement through doing counseling so it's just time management uh putting down the TV remote is probably the is probably the biggest culprit of time uh time sucker so um knowing that I I wouldn't be here before you if I didn't think I could you know put the time in in order to do the appropriate job thank you okay Bob picky good evening and thanks for coming two-part question how would you view your relationship with the administration and how would you view your relationship with other board members so my relationship with the administration and and uh and also with the other board members so that's my current role in my current job is I'm a medical liaison in the farm industry working in the breast cancer research space so um and 50

031of my job is relationship building uh working with Physicians throughout the country based over the Northeast Corridor here um in the in the breast cancer research world so uh and we're big Pharma so not a lot of people want to talk to us right but uh that's that's my job and I've been effective I've been doing it for 15 years uh from relationships so it's and oh I I door knocked when I ran for school board in Bensalem right I have been a committeeman here and there you know over the past 10 years uh in Wrightstown uh I don't necessarily only go to what uh the list says right it says you know go to these I I go to every house on my street right um whether they be DS or whether they be

032ours or whether there's an i there right for Democrat Republican and independent right because they're my neighbors first right before they're Republican before they're Democrat before they're or they're independent so you just have to treat people like humans and give them respect and and uh expected it to be returned uh my question is uh which of our committees would you be interested in serving and what special talents and experiences do you bring to the board okay so committee wise um I did enjoy my uh participation in being on the IU board uh back in the late 2000s so I would definitely be interested in that I think they're all important right you would have a committee if it wasn't important um also depending on what the highest priorities are for the school district right so

033I I would want to be on I'm uh maybe the um the finance committee right because it's you know it's always a top you know concern right with with taxes and you know where budgets are going who's getting money and how much of it's you know going to different places so uh from I guess they would be my top two so the IU representation um and then also uh finance committee the second part was uh special skills so I'm so I'm a pharmacist by profession I I've been a practicing pharmacist and from in a pretty diverse role so I was uh I worked in retail pharmacies where which is typical I worked in Hospital Pharmacy I worked in uh Managed Care Pharmacy and now I work in in research and I've done a fair amount

034in cardiovascular care and also uh uh in cancer so uh from a special I guess um uh talent wise I'm very scientific I've I've probably been engaged in school for probably 45 to 50 years 53 years I've been on the earth so whether or not be a student or a teacher I I was a appointed faculty member with the University of Florida College of Pharmacy as well so education is you know what I've been doing most of my life okay you finished Mike Roosevelt thank you for coming out tonight thank you for uh um your your presence here and your consideration and your homework I too have gone through your resume and um and your your opening statement and my first question is a large part of the qualities of a successful board School Board

035director is respectful Co-op um conversation and relationship building to gain consensus to have five votes we often come in thinking that we've got lots of different ideas at the end you've got to get five to get it across that takes relationship building and respectful understanding of each other thinking of all of your interactions with this District its Administration and its School Board what have you done as far as communication and are you comfortable with all of your Communications thank you so am I comfortable in debate is is basically what you're saying right is because you have to come to consensus I think the premise needs to be you know at the end of the day why are we doing this right and we have to you know respect what it's you know unfortunately in today's

036world especially of politics it's all or none okay we don't see many you know debates that are formal right everybody bashes one another um I I'm not part of that I I have you know I'm a registered Republican I've voted across the lines I had you know friends and we have those hard discussions um and I have people who would you would call I guess an extreme Democrat but I'm I've been friends with for 20 years we talk all the time and and we talk we debate right but at the end of the day we walk away and we're still friends we've been friends for 20 something years um and uh so I I don't have a problem with with you know differences uh you're you're entitled to your opinion and I think it's actually

037healthy right where having the debate with someone who has an opposing opinion right is something that you can learn from right and they'll maybe they'll learn something from you as well uh and I just I just think that you know debate is good right otherwise we would just have the um you know our superintendent making all the decisions right the reason why you're here and it's you know it's right now there's a you know probably more of a Republican party uh fulfillment of the board versus Democrat right but it's it'll turn right it'll it hasn't been like that forever right and it gets that way because of healthy debate thank you okay Mr aldago thank you so much for coming I appreciate it um if you were to develop a mission statement for life you

038know and how would you tie in what you're trying to do by volunteering for the school board how would that correlate with your mission statement I I didn't really think of it until you just said that right so a mission statement it's I worked at the temple School of Pharmacy for a couple years and and the dean there she said to me you know wisdom you gain over time right and I think I was probably in my early 30s and uh she was probably in her late 50s she was the dean or the assistant Dean I forget which at the time and she's Steve's life's life life's kind of funny she says for the first 40 Years of our life you know we try to get KitKat we try to get the degree try to

039get the Astra to get the car to get the family you know all these things you know all these attributes right she says but then the next 40 all we want to do was give right because we find that you know giving and supporting and um and helping others it lasts a heck of a lot longer right it lasts forever um so that would be my statement right give back because guess what you can't take it with you thank you is it everyone okay so now that is the end of the board's questions you do have four minutes and 54 and Counting seconds um it's your time sure I I would like to uh clear my name so at the beginning of the meeting there was a public uh opinion of uh something that was

040proposed that I had posted on Facebook I if you had a Bible here I'd put my hand on it and I would tell you that I have not opened up a Facebook page in more than five years I have never posted it I don't think I've ever posted anything to Facebook since its Inception uh and the title or the top of that Facebook page says Stephen Christine gnomas my name is Stephen Christopher nelmis so I I I I don't really even do social media so I just wanted to clear my name and I want you to know that those statements that were put up there were not posted or authored by myself so I definitely would you know appreciate your consideration for for judging that and um I usually tell people try not to get

041your facts from social media right I have you know being a pharmacist I have lots of people that come to me with these you know Miracle theories right and they and they they learn them on the internet right and I said I've gone to school for you know umpteen years right at my pharmd uh I'm board certified I've done Harvard you know post-bac certificate programs I don't get my information from the internet I get it from my peers right so just be careful where you get your information from um and I would like to give a little bit of a statement so um I so why do I want to be a school board director is you know and represent region nine uh in you know primarily writes down and then also some of the

042new town um so I want you to know that I did reach out to all the board members uh last week or the week before after I turned in my cover letter in CV and uh to you know to open it up for questions so did you want to clarify my character things were meant in the in the CV things like that um and a couple got back to me and I thank you for that um but I want you to know that I did reach out to everybody and I did speak to a few so uh you know just just FYI so I didn't hear back from everyone but I want you to know that um I really didn't think of being on the school board until I found out Kristin left right so

043um being a committeeman in Wrightstown I I doorknobed with Kristen I I believed in you know many of her philosophies and her principles um and I think that you know this is only an interim position right it's until November 2023 right and then I think you know at that time at the voters vote right I think I can follow Kristen's footsteps and and kind of continue her philosophy and her you know and what the voters voted for her for um going forward until November um I also think that you know being a school board director there's a learning curve right you don't come to the meeting March whatever the next meeting and think you're going to make good you know coaching decisions you need to learn the ropes right you need to understand the system

044and I think having the you know three years of experience as being a school board director although it's you know 15 years ago I think sentence a lot you know adds a lot of value to you know the interim person you know in that time so my learning curve will be small um and I think I represent uh many of the uh the common you know philosophies and thoughts that that Kristen had you know brought to this you know to the school board you know during her stay um what else um yeah so I and I guess so I say I shared some of the you know Common philosophy with Chris and I think there are two that are the Mainstay right and I would like to stand on them right and the first one

045being you know it's kids first so the decisions that I would make and the decisions that I would hope you all would make with me you know if I was you know appointed to the board would be you know at the end of the day is it the best decision for the students not for you not for the you know superintendent not for the administration you know not for me for the kids right the kids come first right and and I think most parents and most most people can agree with that and the second is I think um we have to remember that there's a huge budget here right so and and 75 one minute left and 75 of that is paid for by taxpayers who don't have children in the system so I think

046not saying that's a bad thing or a good thing I think but we still need to respect that right we have a significant amount of financial diversity within Council Rock right we have people who have 10 million dollar houses and if you raise your taxes they don't care they're just writing a check right they just want the best for the kids right but we also have people who are in apartments right and they're the reason they came to that apartment was because they could get a Council Rock Education it was one of the decisions for me moving you know from 30 seconds rights down so I I think we just need to be financially responsible you know and keep kids best interest in mind so thank you thank you sir foreign he needed a break

047we can clap when he comes back in if thank you good evening Miss Chandler I'll just reiterate some of the things we said earlier the board is going to go around to ask you questions uh you have 20 minutes in this round you can take as long as you want on the question uh the board is prepared to ask you eight questions one from each board member so we will start the clock once the first question is asked by the board member and again you have 20 minutes to answer as long as you want okay Mr Hidalgo thank you good evening thank you for coming if you were to if I was to ask you what your life mission statement was what would it be and how would it correlate with running for the school

048board I don't know to have a official mission statement but my goal life is to be a good parent I'm a parent of a seventh grade student of this District I believe in democracy and civic duty and I think I'm ready for you know a large Public Service commitment that this School Board position would undertake I think I have a lot to give back I think it's the right time in my life to dedicate the time to public service and you know better ensuring that the students of this District you know have the best quality public education that they could have it's great and Mr Roosevelt thank you for coming here tonight thank you for all of your time and your preparation for this evening I have reviewed your resume and my first question is

049a large part of the qualities of a successful School Board director is respectful conversations and relationship building to gain five votes a lot of times we come in with some ideas of what we want to do but ultimately you have to get five thinking of all of your interactions with this District its Administration and its School Board what have you done for as far as communication and are you comfortable with all of your Communications I feel comfortable with the way that I communicate with school district with teachers that I've interacted with administrators I believe in the collaborative open dialogue I studied conflict resolution as a graduate student so I understand that getting tests often requires compromise having positions where you may need to stay firm on the items that you you know are to your

050integrity and your ethics and then other ones that you're willing to compromise on in order for the good of the whole um I have a fresh perspective and an open mind I am not from this area I don't have very many people I don't have any political connections here um I think that that could be a value okay Yoda Pali uh thank you for coming tonight my question is which of our committees would you be interested in serving and what special talents and experiences do you bring to the board um thank you you're nice cool I think the obvious ones are in higher attending can you push that button please that's going to be held down it's okay I didn't think you had it okay are you gonna start over sorry about that apologize for

051breaking in full time I think the finance committee is the one that's the most obvious based on my current professional experience where um you know I'm currently working with higher education clients to better align their resources to ensure that they are able to get out of deficit spending that they don't have cash flow problems um that they're able to do Bond refinancing um I have experience doing just general Accounting in general um you know very comfortable with numbers um I think the next I also have experience working in capital planning Capital project planning at a variety of universities that I've worked for probably most interested in policy and education but I think my skill set is probably best suited for financing policy Dr thorwood thank you um for the past three years our kids have

052lost a great deal of education and other things so my question is knowing what looking back on that do you think it was a good idea to close schools Mass kids let them out early and the second part of that is would you advocate for it again yeah I think it's hard to make retrospective decisions because we know so much more now and we have more data at the time they're I feel like people were working off of Public Health officials that were providing the data that they had on hand I feel like I would have stayed the course that you did is now that we see the data of what happened to children that were out of school and the learning loss that happened for some lower income kids it went beyond that they

053missed meals I think moving forward I would Advocate to keep children in school if at all possible knowing that I don't know the future if there was ever a deadly illness that was targeting young children you know keeping them alive would be my first goal because they can't learn if they're not alive Mr hickey good evening I have a two-part question how would you view your relationship with the administration and also how would you view your relationship with the other board members it's great I don't have a relationship with barely anybody I've spoken to some board members I've spoken to people adjacent to board members um you know I've watched the committee meetings I've watched many school board meetings even before I was running for this position but I have not been actively involved in

054contacting members of the board take thank you Miss heavily could you tell me please in your opinion how important are social and emotional learning and an active commitment to diversity equity and inclusion in a school district do you think simply put that we have a responsibility to teach students that everyone should be valued and respected no matter their gender age race ethnicity religion or sexual orientation absolutely I I don't know if this gets to the question I have an answer prepared for a controversial topic that maybe I will just pull a little bit of it but you know in general our country has a complex history and I think we're teaching that in K-12 I think giving an honest understanding of our history can help students better appreciate the progress that we've made as a

055nation to date I think teaching is a hard job on a good day the focus this District needs to be is on questions like are we giving students good literature are we giving them great thinkers to interact with so that they themselves could become great thinkers are we giving them diverse perspectives that will help them understand and navigate the world around them all of our students including our 16 minority students are low-income students and our students with disabilities all deserve to see themselves in books and educational materials research shows that students who see positive representations of themselves and their curriculum have improved educational outcomes including decreases in Dropout rates and suspensions increases in student participation confidence academic achievement and graduation rates okay Mr Solomon hi good evening again um extensive resume a lot to read

056a lot of research on myself thank you for coming appreciate it so I'm going to ask you the same question that I was basically asked during the same process you're going through pardon me question is very extensive professional career active mom active Aunt family member Uber driver um for the kids oh yeah yeah all the time I know that um how are you going to manage all of that that you do on a daily basis and then add this to the mix and just kind of walk me through um what your thoughts are on that it's no secret I work full time I am fully remote so I do have flexibility with my work schedule I could also not work nine to five I could you know work on weekends um so in general I

057have the type of job at the moment that allows for flexibility to be able to take daytime calls attend meetings at in the evenings um I have I've an only child she does have activities and responsibilities but I don't feel like it's something that I'm not able to manage myself I have spoken with colleagues that serve on their local school boards or have served on them to ask about how they felt it affected their work or their ability to complete their work and they said it adds to it if anything it's complementary work so I feel like I understand that this is a large undertaking but um I think I have the capacity at the moment set of lists is Miriam McKee thanks very much and thanks for being here with us tonight my question

058may seem a bit redundant to you since you've referenced it before when addressing Mr Tate's question but for the sake of consistency among all our candidates I'm going to repeat the question that I have for you you know that the board is responsible for approval of curriculum and curricular materials do you have a personal philosophy or a Viewpoint regarding appropriate curriculum or instructional materials sure this is another question that I anticipated just given the divisiveness of this topic on the topic of book Banning and censorship I understand that books are challenged often with great intentions and to protect kids from difficult ideas and information including sexual explicit content offensive language topics exploring sexual orientation gender identity race and racism the fear is that these Publications present ideas and raise questions from children that parents are

059not yet ready to address or that they just simply find age inappropriate opponents of this view believe that even books or materials that many find objectionable may have educational value and the decisions about what to use in the classroom should be on professional judgments and standards and not individual preferences it's my opinion that the role of the school board is to prepare to face challenges from parents and others in the community on the topic of book planning and censorship by enforcing a sound policy to handle Grievances and objectives of and objections Council Rock has this policy in 109r4 and I do not believe it needs to be amended at this time I think parents have the right to restrict what they themselves or their children read but that their grievances should not prevent other children

060from reading or viewing materials that are valued teaching professionals at the helm of our classrooms have determined to be of pedagogical value if I run the school board I would encourage parents teachers Librarians and students to engage in constructive conversations about how our educational curriculum materials are positively being used to Foster intellectual curiosity critical thinking open-mindedness and introspection I hope we can all agree that these are useful skills and characteristics that our students will carry into adulthood as they become productive members of society thanks that concludes the board Mr Chandler you have seven minutes and 46 seconds left you can talk about anything you can give an opening statement closing statement whatever you feel we just will not be answering questions um I think in general I bring a perspective I would bring a perspective

061to this board that's just currently not represented um for example I'm I'm under 40 years old I think maybe a lot of teachers in this District other parents you know are in my age demographic or younger than I am and may feel misrepresented at the moment I'm a single full-time working mom I also you know it's my understanding that about 87 percent of our population is married um but that 13 isn't and they have a say and having at least one board member that represents that population I also think would add value to conversation um I think you know I'm probably under the median household income and also adds value to conversation such as you know raising taxes and you know the implication of student fees on families um I in general I'm a complex

062decision maker as you can tell I try to over prepare even if I'm not the most eloquent speaker I like to think through systemic issues and consequences of decisions um I have experience I have a lot of experience with what we haven't talked about is my professional experience with Grant Management and seeking external sources of funding I feel like that is a skill set that I could bring that others may not be able to bring to this area it's my understanding that you know we could always use more money encourage teachers to go seek some external funding to relieve some of the the budget in general um I thank you guys for coming up with a fair process for taking the time to come up with a process to do this and giving me this

063opportunity thank you Mr Fredrickson I'm going to take a five minute recess please Mr Ted are you good okay I'm glad you're good there we go Matt are we back on yes sir yes sir all right here we are and our last applicant good evening Miss Khan I will reiterate what we oh push the button down I apologize the button's got to be held the whole time um I'll just reiterate you're gonna have 20 minutes at home you can get up to eight questions whatever residual time that is left over if you get through the eight questions is is yours opening statement ending statement whatever you want to talk about you will not it will not be a q a though okay all right from there we're going to ask the secretary to read off

064the board members going to ask the question good evening my question is twofold how would you view or would you will you view your relationship with the administration and also how would you view your relationship with other board members good evening um thank you for having me this evening and thank you Mr hickey for your question I think my relationship or how I view I expect my relationship with the superintendent and the administration would be um would be open I have been regularly attending meetings throughout the last few years I'm very familiar with the faces and the names I'm also currently very active in my my son's elementary school so names and faces are familiar to me I feel very comfortable and I if I have the opportunity to serve on the board that I

065there would be an open line of communication and I would be approachable my door would always be open and I feel very confident that I would be able to go to the administration to speak with anything that would be of concern um in terms of the second part of your question to address the school board members uh once again I this is not a unfamiliar scene seeing many of your faces at the committee meetings or past board meetings throughout I welcome any and all conversation I will be there not only as a listener I think that's important as well as I look forward to conversation whether that's Lively or not um and getting to know all of you if I have that opportunity thank you thank you hey Dr thorwood thank you um for the

066last three years we've watched our kids suffer suffer learning loss suffer social law self suffer mental health um based on what you've seen over the last three years would you agree or disagree that what was done to Children during covid was a good idea and the second part of the question is would you advocate for any of that again thank you doctor for your question I have definitely personally been witnessed and sat in the audience attended meetings throughout the past three years it was an unprecedented time I know many of you sitting here as current board members went through those times and it was difficult I believe for anyone as a parent at the time when they started all at back three years ago my son was in kindergarten I lived through it as a

067parent um also being heavily involved with the school I had the opportunity to speak with many with many parents Educators throughout the last three years as many of you know and those in the uh the audience and those listening this evening I also ran as a candidate two years ago so I had that unique opportunity to speak to hundreds of community members including all stakeholders from students through parents through retired senior citizens faculty staff there are many also in our community that are Educators in other districts or their or their children attend nearby school districts I think it's it would be entirely unfair for me to sit here this evening three years post everything that went through I I agree with you Dr Thorpe that the mo we're still dealing with the the effects of

068the learning loss the social emotional learning the mental of the mental health of not only our students um you know faculty staff and our community members um I think at that time three years ago there was obviously this was a topic that was highly um controversial and divisive in many ways and we're still mending the bridge and still dealing with the aftermath so those three topics that you you mentioned are very important to me and I look forward to continuing that work with all of you I know it's still a topic of discussion that happens at many of the board meetings and committee meetings with that being said I can't say that I would do anything differently or would I support the benefit that we all have not only as a school board sitting here

069or districts across the country is that we have that benefit of hindsight we also have the benefit of everything that we've learned through that process we know what didn't work what didn't work we will always I would expect to learn to listen to The Experts whether it's another National Health crisis we know the learnings and what you know what the detriment of that did of leaving our students out of school but then again like I stated it's it it's important to keep our school and students open but to sit here in hindsight to say whether it was wrong or right we I think you all did the best you could based upon the information that was given at the time and I thank you for your question second half was would you advocate for it

070moving forward I'm sorry could you clarify moving forward um would you suggest lockdowns masks and stuff in the future thank you for that follow-up question I think in terms of lockdown or closing schools I it would have to be a situation of what the exact circumstances were I guess this is a hypothetical question of what may happen which is hard for me to predict if there's going to be a National Health crisis but at the time that I if something were to happen again as I stated previously I would sit with the administration I would sit with all of you sitting at this table listen to the um the national experts and health experts to see what their recommendations are and how and have a serious conversation understanding the importance of keeping all of our

071students safe and in school as well as the Educators and support staff thank you okay Mr Solomon good evening again miss gone I'm going to ask you one of the questions that I was asked in the same position you were in several years ago um I've gone through your resume uh juggling your personal professional life how are you going to add this to an already busy plate thank you Mr Solomon for your question um well you know we as parents and most of my work happens to be right now voluntary so I do this out of a passion for our district and our students and our schools it's a fine balance but I think it's with anything else in life whether you're juggling you know career work home I don't think that will prevent my

072abilities or capabilities to serve on this board um you know throughout the last three years I have continued to show up and be here regardless of the outcome or regardless of how the last elections went um and that's because it I I'm interested I'm invested in this community in our schools heavily I'm passionate about education um you know personal story in terms of of public education I was adopted when I was seven along with my brother so a public education for me previous to that was not an accessibility or or availability to me so having been adopted in a first first generation immigrant here her I truly value education um I continue to volunteer my time in the schools because I see the benefit of that and I hope to do that continued work if

073I have the opportunity to serve on the board thank you Mr Roosevelt thank you for your time today and your uh your preparation for this meeting I have also gone through your resume and my first question is a large part of the qualities of a successful School Board director is respectful conversation and relationship building to gain five votes any times we may think that we've got some ideas but you need to get five to get it across thinking of all your inter all of your interactions with this District its Administration and its School Board what have you done as far as communication and are you comfortable with all of your Communications thank you Mr Roosevelt for your question in terms of [Music] my communication and understanding what this role would require I fully am aware

074of the majority vote and to get anything done you need to have majority vote or five votes as you stated um I believe one of my strong attributes or qualities that I do bring to this school board would be the fact that I have spoken with I would say hundreds of community members voters students I've been highly involved I've had students reach out to me throughout the last couple of years parents reach out to me I often also extend communication to to inquire about their thoughts or perspectives um again I find that one of the important attributes to have is to not only be a great listener to keep an open mind and always be willing to have that discussion understanding it might not always go my way but that you know a discussion understanding

075and being willing to listen and again the door will be open the phone available to communicate with any of you and all of you and I look forward to that and I would hope that would be the case thank you Mr Hildago it's Khan for being here again nice to see a familiar face um so I think when when Mr Solomon asked about time management you probably answered some of my question um it's kind of a on the Fly type of question if you were to if I was to ask you to develop a life mission statement you know what would it be and how would it correlate with running for the school board tonight thank you Mr Hidalgo for your question my life mission um I you know first I'm a I'm a parent

076of a young school-aged child in Council Rock I have um in my previous profession had been an educator in in schools and also had some many leadership roles throughout that process um you know I mentioned earlier from my previous experience and my life experience that I've always leaned toward education um part of the reason I ended up in the profession that I chose having lived here in the Council Rock School District for almost 19 years I've lived here longer than any other place in my adult life part of the reason I decided to run is all the experiences professionally my opportunities have I've had to work in schools or work with with students faculty getting to know all of you and attending these meetings I would say you know at this point in my life

077mission is first to be a mom and if I have the opportunity to give back to the community by serving as a state as a school board director I think it would be an honor and a privilege so I thank you for your question Mr Tate thank you Miss heavily in your opinion Ms Khan how important are social and emotional learning and an active commitment to diversity equity and inclusion in a school district do you think simply put that we have a responsibility to teach students that everyone should be valued and respected no matter their gender age race ethnicity religion or sexual orientation thank you Mr Tate for your question that's an excellent question I also um again as a and and in terms of the social emotional learning um I know that's many many

078of you sitting up here on this board I've heard on many numerous occasions that committee committee meetings and seeing it on the agenda that it's of um the utmost importance uh sitting here as also as a as a parent that lived through the last three years with a with a kindergarten that had to go through you know remote learning online online learning and also understanding from a perspective as as a parent as a mother as a woman as a woman of color um as an adoptee as an educator that I feel that social emotional learning is actually one of the um in mental health being a very prominent platform that I feel very strongly and passionate about along with education I think this is a great opportunity for me to serve on this board if

079I have that opportunity to bring all of that perspective my unique experience as well as um I've been heavily vested I like I said I've been dedicated I've showed my passion and my devotion I believe I've continued to show up um so I I look forward to that opportunity as well as diversity equity and inclusion um again we live in not only in Council Rock but we live in a greater world right there's a lot of interconnectedness we want all of our students to Great graduate out of Council Rock and become successful members of the community at large and to the world I once again as as a mother educator and minority and a female I would love the opportunity to bring some of those viewpoints and also speaking with the numerous numbers of families

080and students that have reached out um looking for other perspectives and ways that I can Advocate and help them in their educational careers thank you for your time Mrs McKee thank you and Miss Khan thank you for being with us tonight um as you know the board is responsible for approval of curriculum and curricular materials do you have a personal philosophy or a Viewpoint regarding appropriate curriculum or instructional materials thank you Miss McKee for your question I believe that as an educator I do bring some experience from my previous experience to the board I also understand that you know as elected School Board directors we we are kind of overseers you know we're there as not only the bridge between our community the families the students um for the administration so in all you know

081as for example the education committee there is a committee we in Council Rock are fortunate enough to have a wonderful Administration cabinet and there are support staff and professionals that are experts and in look researching looking at the data and vetting that process and bringing their best findings to all of you uh first to actually Dr Sanko and his cabinet and then to all of you for final board approval thank you okay and Leslie Miss Paley thank you for coming tonight Mrs Khan um my question is which of our committees would you be interested in serving and what special talents and experiences do you bring to the board thank you Miss Polly for your for your question uh I'm gonna defer to say educational committee would probably be my my um most passionate but obviously

082I'm willing and able to uh fill in in any of the positions or roles that are suggested to me um having you know sat through many of those committee meetings all of them actually throughout the last three years uh regular face in the audience um some of my unique expertise I think in terms of my ability to be a great listener my ability to to reach out and speak with um constituents stakeholders again I've I can't emphasize the fact that I have been I've been doing this for a while um hundreds again of voices that range not only within my voting region but far beyond um from you know the hundreds of families that I work you know I've worked with or had the interaction and opportunity to work with through my volunteering as PTO

083leadership as well as when I have a campaigned in the past I've continued to have some of those relationships those lines of communication communication I've continued to be a listener in all of these experiences I have not only been able to had the great opportunity to meet people across the district um what's sticks out to me is that they continue to have those conversations with me I I value and I see that individuals are willing to speak with me um my perspective and viewpoints they would want to hear continue to hear and they seek out including students staff teachers Educators Educators from other areas as well so thank you for your question thank you we're good Miss Michael Mrs Khan that concludes the board questions you have two minutes left in your 20-minute allotment you

084did well you have two minutes to say a closing anything you want to say please feel free I don't really have an opening or closing statement prepared but I just wanted to say I know I see the work that all of you put into this it is um a not a volunteer non-paid position I thank you all for your time and dedication and commitment to our to our district and our students I know you know each of you sitting up there are there for that purpose and that would be my same ultimate goal as well um thank you so much for your time and coming out on a Tuesday evening for this thank you man I'm just going to ask you to just step outside for a second thank you Mr Fredrickson or just a

085couple questions of Clary um three applicants 20 minutes each we accomplished that do we want to and I'm throwing it out there because it's not real clear do we want to bring them back in while we we discuss them you want them left and sequestered and I open the room up Mr Tate you wiggled your fingers at me sir I hesitated I wanted somebody else to go first but I figured but you got it yeah I got it all right yeah in the spirit of a public meeting I think we should invite them back in um as a little bit awkward as it might be I think that's the right thing to do I hear from anybody else Mrs McKay I was going I Echo that um again while it's it's can be very uncomfortable

086that has been the practice in the past when there were just two we discussed with them present okay I just want to reiterate that we may go to a second round with do you still feel the same way I just add that caveat that's all do I understand the question before us is do we bring our candidates back and discuss preferences in front of them or do we go to a second round and then discuss is that yeah well for us I I think there's where I was going was did we bring them back and just and discuss where we're going do we go to us and the discussion could bring up we we find an applicant we go to a second round or something else Mrs Pelley so when we discussed this last last

087week we said that at this point we are going to do um an informal ranking and then we decide if we're going to proceed to a second round but I that's fair I just want to know if we want to bring if we want to bring those folks we're going to have the discussion about the candidates when they're present it's going to be very uncomfortable for all of us but uh I thought that that's what we agreed on I don't see it in the minutes that's why I I talked to Miss Aronson and here we are if we're comfortable with it it's fine with me I mean we'll bring them back in and we'll have an open conversation is that good okay Mr Fredericks can bring the candidates back in please foreign if you don't

088mind folks you can sit right back at the table there's three seats there at the front yes sir thank you applicants if you will on behalf of the board thank you for your time this evening we've completed the first round we've brought you back in we're going to have a wide open conversation if if we can find a consensus for one applicant can we find some consideration for a second round um that's that's where the board sits right now so I would open the floor and start working around who wants to go first if they're leaning towards a certain candidate um I'm sure nobody wants to go first Mr hickey had the face going so sorry you raised your hand on top of it uh if if I had to pick a candidate you know

089I would pick Mr nomos he would be um I I thought he you know the questions that he answered I thought he answers on thoroughly succinctly um he mentioned a couple of items specifically whether by question or in his speech that pertaining to me he did advocate he he was probably I think maybe I misheard but he was the only one who mentioned that about kids being first which I thought about he referenced the taxpayers uh not being a part of the district and also uh I see that he has school board experience there he'd be able to step right in not very comfortable doing this and I also realized that this position will be a temporary one but this is someone who I know can you know hit the ground running and at least

090carry us through for the next six months Mr Ricky may I ask you if you're not prepared that's fine do you have a secondary selection at this point I'm just trying to keep score about that's all uh I can come back to you come back to me please thank you somebody else want to go Miss Pally please um I think all the candidates gave really good answers in our questions so um we also have to look at what everybody's experience and has been the issue that is bothering me a little bit about Mr nomos is that I chat with my on Facebook because of that comment and it's right in front of me I see pictures of Mr Numbers and his family in that specific account so it's hard to believe that um he has

091nothing to do with that page and I do believe people can post whatever they believe and they can have all kinds of um biases I just don't think a bias is the right place for a school board member or School Board director So based on that um she would definitely be my last Choice actually I don't think he would he he should qualify I mean but I would ask you or whoever is once to look at these pictures because I can't believe that it's somebody who looks exactly the same his wife looks exactly the same and it's not the same account for the others I think um Nikki Khan is definitely my first choice as you know Nikki lost to Christine Marcel for seven votes and Christine Marcel with their one and only she was

092she almost lost the election to Nikki so Nick is gonna win no matter if we appoint her or not I think she's gonna win the next election so by being on the board earlier she's gonna have enough time to get up to speed as we all need to do that thank you can I just ask you for the sake of my record keeping do you do you slot Miss Chandler second then or is she okay thank you who wants to go next Mrs McGee please thanks very much and again I I recognize the discomfort that comes from doing this um and I referenced it last week when we talked about this process but it is necessary that we deliberate publicly um so I want to start by saying You Know It just strikes me that

093that expression it's an embarrassment of riches to have such fine qualified candidates uh Step Up express interest share your Devotion to the district and your interest in civic duty I'm very impressed with all of you and I thank you very much for taking this on I was very impressed with all the answers tonight I believe you're very sincere in your desire to serve the district if asked do I have a preference at this point I would have to say my preference would be Nicole Khan for for a number of reasons firstly because I have seen her continuously participate in meetings attendance at meetings participation on committees involvement in our schools I believe her to be very knowledgeable about the function of the district very acquainted with the Personnel involved and in terms of uh support

094within our community I believe that to also be evident while we I know would be very well served with any one of our candidates tonight and again I express my gratitude uh my preference at this point would be Miss Khan and I would solely go with a preference at this point instead of a ranking I'll come back to you though thank you anybody else ready Mr odago Dr thorbert Mr Roosevelt just Just Call My Name I'll talk I know you will Joe call my name Joe the floor is yours thank you I I appreciate all three candidates very much for coming out you all bring different qualities and Star Quality to the table and I appreciate that to come up here and do what we've done is uh is uh is for sure uh something

095to be said for your character in your in your wants um that being said if I had to uh do ranking I mean I could say why each one has a very good qualities but it's a difficult decision to to come up and speak and and figure out who's number one who's number two is number three I think again any of you would do the job with Valor um but in the first round and this is just the first round we might go to two rounds but at this point if I had to make a decision I would go with Mr nelmo's first because of the answers that I've gotten from you the work experience and um you know you've been at these jobs for a long time so I know you're you're well set

096in that my second would be Miss Khan because she's been at every meeting that I've seen for for many times we haven't had many discussions but I've seen her passion and we share a passion you did mention passion so that's a a good character and I really present really appreciate Miss Chandler because she presents absolutely polished and perfect you're a professional and I just have to rank people in different ways but you have you have excellent skills so maybe there's a job here for you if you ever want to be a a grant writer or something for us thank you so much thank you Mr doggo anybody else I'll go Mr Roosevelt please once again thank you all for coming out here uh and and I the uh uncomfortability of this position that you're currently

097in is not lost on me this process is uncomfortable it uh it could be considered your a public job interview right and uh and and many of you may be running for this position shortly this spring and perhaps and you're maybe on the ballot this spring on one party or both parties and you may make it to November where the voters of your District get to decide so this is a transparent process we've tried to follow our precedent and we've TR and we have followed transparency you've seen some of our deliberation we continue with that and um the decision at this board is who can pick up the seat at the moment until it's up to the voters to decide so this board is not usurping any decision of democracy or anything of the interested

098candidates or anything of the interested community we have a decision of who can pick up the ball and run with it at a very difficult time so for that I'm looking for a candidate that is communicative that is able to reach out that is a willing to cross and develop relationships with everybody sitting here at this board and we only had one candidate that actually made an effort to reach all and was successful at reaching several we also have one candidate that has a background in school board we have two other candidates that have a distinctive background that demonstrates skill that demonstrates knowledge that demonstrates volunteerism that demonstrates a commitment to this Council Rock and for that we are very grateful that all three of you are here um I am not looking for somebody

099that has an extensive educational background I'm looking for somebody because I believe at the core of this you're representing your constituents you're representing all of all of the area of number nine and right now we're looking at discussions of is the North and South fully represented I see myself as a representative of every family and every taxpayer in this entire district and that is the position that I'm hoping one of you also sees and I believe anybody can represent their District well so those are some of the things that that I'm looking for um and I just wanted to communicate a little bit of that before I indicated ranking um which is difficult who else he needs to talk Mr forward I haven't ranked yet this is called a dramatic pause so but yeah so

100for that I would I believe that Mr nomos has personally speak spoken to me on the phone before he's sent emails to all of us and he's received callbacks and communication and that's that was the core of my question as far as what have you done not will you do what have you done and are you comfortable with your communication and I believe that that can be answered in a variety of different ways but mrnomos answered that question the best for me um and uh and I appreciate the the difference of how you can take some of these questions so Mr nomos would be first for me and I'm also I'm picking up on what Mrs Pally said that this is not a moment to bring in division and bias so Mrs Chandler a second

101for me thank you Dr thorber please my question to all of you was loaded it and it was loaded um because I'll never forget what was done to Children only one of you actually had the guts to say I wouldn't do it again that was my litmus test for for this it's that simple I think there should be a reckoning for people who advocated for what was done to children and this is my small contribution to that Reckoning so for that reason alone right now I'm gonna go with Mr namas can I put you on the spot do you have a second at this point okay great Mr Tate you want to flip between you and I foreign your Elder yeah I I I'll start out by pointing out I I think the obvious to

102to everyone in the room which is um as Miss Pally pointed out um Miss Khan was very nearly elected to this seat when she and Kristen Marcel ran for it and those were two highly qualified candidates and they both got virtually the same number of votes and our friend Kristen got seven more um this is an opportunity for us to honor the opinions of the voters of of that region um so many of whom voted for Ms Khan that's one thing I know some people think that's probably not the star strongest argument and I would agree I think qualification um is really the key here all three of our applicants are terrifically qualified very well spoken I heard nothing tonight that alarmed mirror concerned me I was highly impressed by all of them Ms Khan

103talked about being a listener and she talked about listening to the community which I think is a big part of it you know School Board directors represent their region but they don't take a poll or we don't you know turn over issues to the community to decide it's up to us to decide based on our under our understanding of what the community expects and Ms Khan does a wonderful job of having and building and maintaining contacts in the community the other thing she talked about was listening to experts um she talked about that in in two respects one is of course covet which is you know hindsight tells us we made mistakes I think it's clear um we listen to experts who not all the time were correct um if we had a to do

104over we'd probably do things a little bit differently but we don't the key is listening to experts as many experts as you possibly can the other the other area where Ms Khan referred to experts was in terms of curriculum none of us here I I don't think are experts in curriculum well I take it back Ms McKee is close to being an expert in curriculum with so many years in the classroom but I think listening to experts and respecting expert opinion and then asking the right questions is really the key to doing the job well and the third thing I'll mention is dedication um after the election Ms Khan could have gone on with her business and her life and um we would not have seen her again but I think it's absolutely remarkable the

105number of meetings committee meetings which there have been meetings when there have been three members of the public and one of them is Nikki Khan um or two members of the public a lot of committee meetings that's that's the case um and she's also been a regular attendee at board meetings and I don't think you can understand the challenges facing our district which are significant but fortunately I I should say you know there's not any big black clouds hanging there but there are a lot of things that we have to wrestle with and by understanding the particular dynamics of this school district as well as the general operation of a school board I I think Nikki has a huge leg up by the fact that she's been dedicated enough to be here and see what's

106going on and understand the issues I mean if you talk about picking up the ball and running with it I think Nikki Khan is is the best qualified person to do that sir do you have a second one are you just there okay all right I'll go last um folks I've been there sitting in that same seat it was an hour and 19 minutes Soup To Nuts um it was the longest hour 19 minutes of my life it does get kind of warm there um a lot of good things for you folks and I I appreciate the board's comments uh I think it's it's it's not lost on us that we have applicants that are Desiring a position that that became vacant for different reasons um different backgrounds different professional and and and personal backgrounds

107um public comment tonight concerned me Miss Pally your comments concern me as well in regards to following up on that but I think we have to do a little due diligence here and level the playing field if we're going to go there um somewhere around I want to say March 30th uh there was an email that went out of the Soul fine Stone area from Mrs Khan and she talked about a school board meeting that was going to be on April 7th she's contacting these folks because I wanted you to know clear path where our district is headed if we don't organize a voice or collected opposition to extreme far right foreign political agendas in our schools I read that email Mrs gone I assume you sent it I don't appreciate it I spent a

108lot of time up here I've never been called an extremist and so I became a school board member so once I add that to the scenario and it goes on I'm not going to read it because I don't think this is the type of politics that should come in front of the board but that levels the playing field for me with that being said Mr nomos I've spoke to you three times I spent an hour and a half with you last night where we talked about a lot of philosophies and the one thing I took away from my conversation with you last night is you have a lot of beliefs that Kristen Marcel did you know how I feel about Crystal Marcel I don't leave any any stone unturned I care deeply for that individual

109her and I led this district and helped lead this District back during coven and we disagreed on things much like our conversation last night and the two previous conversations I don't agree on everything you're saying but I think the thing that I left there with he's going to be someone I can have an argument with Miss Chandler the thing that captured me with you is I'm not seeking this position to achieve any political agenda it's highlighted on your cover I don't know you never met you uh your background's fascinating you are you are someone that the board should look at because you're interesting you have an interesting perspective and you laid it out I don't want to surmise but under 40. single mother doesn't necessarily have the economic background of some people in our district

110that that's a dimension and a voice that this board could use um Mrs Khan I I do agree that there's a race coming up I do I know you lost by seven points uh I've heard about statistical ties I don't believe in statistical ties if that was the case we'd had an eagles parade two weeks ago they lost my three votes I wish you all the best I hope no matter who gets the seat that you consider running for this position and let the voters decide because that's who should be deciding the seat not eight board members this is my only opportunity to fill the seat for The Wrights down and Newtown community and they voted for Kristen Marcel for me I need somebody that's going to have the same type of thinking same type

111of ideology same type of fight that Kristen did it may not have been shown to the up teeth tonight Mr Nomas but I've had that conversation with you and I'm comfortable with making you number one and this channel you would be my number two is it possible to have a reason I want to ask our social history question or I can go out with her five yeah five minutes where's the good five minute recess please thank you Miss Pally for asking matter I'm sorry are we all Mr Fredrickson thank you thank you Miss belly for for asking for a break to consult with our uh solicitor so I'm just keeping a score here and based on uh just numbers I have one two three four I have five board members that are nodding towards Mr

112nomos I have one two three members nodding towards Mrs Mrs Khan I have for a secondary I have Mrs Chandler for three so I think the question for the board now is do do we go into a second round has the board heard enough from the initial round which is what we discussed on last Thursday so I would open it up to to anybody yeah Mr take your hand went right up sir thank you I'm ready to make a motion um I move that we appoint Nikki Khan as the new board member to region nine it's nine correct that's correct I need a second please second second Mrs McKay any objections have a roll call please any further comment I'm sorry maybe I need to make a commodore the emotional in in play is for

113Mrs Khan yeah roll call please Marion McKee yes it's Solomon no Mike Roosevelt no Bob hickey no Dr Thorin no Yoda Pally yes Joe Hidalgo no and Ed Tate yes so that's three yeses and one two three four five news motion fails five three Mr hickey I'd like to make a motion if possible please do sir I'd like to make a motion to nominate Mr nomos to the Council Rock School Board region nine region nine have a second second Dr thorbert any comment or objections Mississippi please so as I said before um Everybody gave really good answers to the questions and I think everybody was prepared we have different evidence from different candidates how much they have been involved and how much we've seen them in their riddicks and so on um the thing that

114really bothered me with Mr namos is again the public comment so I went into the Facebook page and um I see his pictures all over the place um and then when we asked him about that he said that he has nothing to do with that when it's it's not easy for me to understand um so I his response was not sufficient for me in order to understand um what is true and what is not and um I have real objection to um appointing him in on the board based on this thank you um Mr hickey from the solicitor I want to ask you to go back on that motion sir amend the motion to say you'd like to and I'm using throwing words at you a point not nominate Mr nomos so make a motion

115to amend your previous motion I would like to make a motion to appoint Mr nomos to be the Council Rock representative from region nine do I need to second that again please do sir all right with a second spell your comments are you're finished thank you any other comments for the board all right hearing on please for a Roku Dr thorward yes it'd take no Michael Roosevelt yes Yoda Pally no Mary McKee no give a dog go yes uh picky yes and Ed Salomon yes there's one two three four five yeses and three news motion passes five three congratulations Mr nomos thank you all right judge are you getting your outfit on I thought you slept in that Mick Steve I don't know if you have family or friends here okay so you need somebody

116to hold the book for you if all right congratulations I was just told to speak really loud I'm probably gonna need a copy of that okay yeah uh Rob can you hear me okay so sir you'll repeat after me uh Stephen nomos hi Stephen knows do solemnly swear you solemnly swear that I will support the Constitution of the United States and Constitution of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and as a school board director and his school board director of the Council Rock School District I will discharge the duties of my office with fidelity congratulations sir thank you to the best [Applause] he's got it so oh I'm going to get him to sign like I said and then we'll we'll sign and then I'll mail it yeah got it perfect should we um congratulations [Laughter] for

117your continued support [Music] uh all right folks we're going to get right back into this please we still have to finish up a couple areas here Steve on behalf of the board welcome aboard literally um push the button at all times uh from there because you'll easily forget from there we're going to go the second set of public comment the same the same disclaimers in place I understand there's a couple other people want to make comments but first uh Priscilla Linden wanted to go first or she signed up good evening again upper Makefield the uh Facebook page in question has been cleaned in the last hour there were several comments about bias and partisanship I heard that from Mr Obama's I did not hear that from Nikki Khan I think this selection was preordained and

118a travesty thank you very much I understand somebody else wants to speak do me a favor just state your name where you're from so I can write it down and you have three minutes once you start good evening Jackie Rock Newtown Jackie Rock Jackie Rock Roc Cadillac rock and roll I want to ditto what she just said if that I have no idea I don't know this man I don't know if that's your Facebook page page but if he said it was not and yada said that it was I think there should have been a check into it I work at Bucks County Community College and I teach in computer science I have access to cyber Security Experts and I can check if that I can have them check if that was wiped during this

119meeting and the fact that five of you didn't seem to care is really telling to those of us that have children and grandchildren in this District if you didn't care enough to even take a recess to check it what does that say about you that doesn't say anything about bipartisanship he said he did not that was not his post well if he lied and I'm not saying he did I don't know the man but if he lied and sat here and none of you cared the five of you didn't care that is Despicable and I will do everything in my power to make sure the rest of you do not get revoted in when you run again it's a boring that you would do that and not even take you took a recess when you

120heard it but you didn't take the recess after he sat here and said he didn't do it and you Oughta saw it Miss Pelly if he lied he's no better than our national people who lie about everything they do and get away with it it's horrible and I'm I'm offended by the five of you who didn't even take the time to check thank you anybody else state your name and where you're from again please Jennifer igbal Newtown um so I also just wanted for the record strongly Advocate that you research into the decision that you just made um so Mr Stephen Nomas claimed here and he mentioned something about swearing on a Bible or taking an oath that he knew nothing about this account that it's not his that he hasn't posted in months maybe

121his family member may have posted maybe that's you know neither here nor there but what I do know is that in the two hours since this meeting started that account looks very very different than it did at the beginning of this meeting um about at least a Year's worth of posts have been deleted so if you go into that same account now the last post is something like September I think it was September 9 2019 or I don't remember offhand but the account is changing so that just prompts me to wonder is it either that this account has nothing to do with this gentleman then if so why is that account looking so different and I implore you to research that and I too am very concerned that Mr Solomon I I respect your comment

122that this should be a bipartisan decision and about the fact that you wanted to even the playing field by demonstrating that um perhaps uh Nikki Khan's political views do not necessarily align with those of Kristen Marcels and the five members who upvoted to appoint Mr Nomis um but political views are very very different than racist and hate oriented and exclusion-oriented comments those are not political those are something that I think everyone can agree are bipartisan beliefs that our school district stands for thank you anybody else on the agenda we go right to closing is any board comment at this point Mr Hildago you want to make a comment I just have a question if because we came to this meeting tonight all in Fair honest uh open we try to be very open about this

123process was the board made aware of this information or was it just sprung on us and on did you receive anything via email or did any board member aware of it before this Facebook page before because literally public comment all of a sudden this this comes up not giving us the opportunity to research it but now we're going to be scolded for for not having the opportunity to research we should just stop I'm just wondering my question is for the president did we receive anything from the about this before the public comment today in email I have not received an email regarding this I have not received a phone call regarding this I've had no conversations with Dr Sanko or anybody from the administration that may have been also notified or could have been notified

124first I heard it it was just they just happened to be here and found it on the Facebook and printed it out in the other room or something I don't know I'm I'm now I'm just you know throwing darts we the board received an email from a member of the community at 9 18 pm it is currently 9 32. not before the fact correct anybody else oh Joe Dr Philbert I'm sorry Joe we didn't release the names of the candidates before the meeting just an FYI so I oh very interesting there's another good point anybody else hearing none I want to ask for a motion to join the meeting motion to adjourn sure second second Mrs McKee thank you have a good evening all right