001out there [Music] foreign good evening everyone and welcome to the January 17 2023 meeting of the Dover area school board if you would please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance foreign thank you Mrs almond could we have the roll call please Mr deshow here Mr eifert here Mr emmick here Mrs Herman here Mrs Meese here Mr rothauser here Mrs Whitmer here Mr Wolverton seven present okay thank you first we have our student board presentation so uh Camden Buell or Brooklyn or hello Camden hello all right hello I'm Camden peel the senior student rep for the Dover area high school and um I have some news about what's been recently happening at uh Dover area high school so um firstly I'm going to highlight some of our choir happenings Jensen gladfelter Bobby rep and Kylie snowbaker
002recently represented Dover at the pmea district 7 Festival over the weekend and both Bobby and Kyle will be moving on to Regional choir next month but that's a very big honor that's all throughout of course the district and that means they were uh very very talented singers in addition to that this Sunday Renaissance and some a Renaissance alumni as well performed at Carnegie Hall in New York under the direction of Dr Peggy uh DET Willer I hope I said that right and um that's very impressive it's a very big honor and it's a testament to the performance of our music program at our school um in addition to that the track team though not officially starting until spring managed to gather a few Runners including myself and we went to the Susquehanna University Invitational it
003was quite the experience a very good way to experience for some of the newer members what a track meet is like and a nice way to also warm up the legs especially after this break I will say however the air quality uh quite similar to last year was Ms miserable very difficult to breathe but I attribute that to the facility probably not having the greatest of air filtration Gary Lang and Lucas Runk are in first place in the marketing management in deca's District competition that's the second year in a row for Dover that they've done this and that's a very big honor the Decca program of course is um the entrepreneur entrepreneurial program at the school and it does wonderful things setting up all sorts of different activities in fact I believe a little later
004the presentation I have some more information about them Gracie yergis qualified as the pspa state finalists in the category of literary magazine poetry and she'll compete at the state level in Spring again a testament to the writing quality of her furthermore our future farmers of America Association had their midwinter confession and Brianna Grimm John Croft Samantha Perkins and Louise weitzer all received the Keystone FFA degree which is the highest degree that can be awarded to them so that's very good FFA I know a lot of the students are very involved and very committed to that so uh much good on them for being recognized for that commitment keystones are taking place our Tad tick in place and um to my knowledge most students did not have any significant troubles with them I personally as well
005as I assume most of the Junior and senior class enjoyed the later rival in addition to that currently the finals for semester one are taking place over the course of today and tomorrow those are half days and again I enjoy the ability to be able to leave with some earliness the flexibility that provides is quite nice and uh on Friday the second semester starts and to start it quite fittingly there will also be a PBIS reward day uh Deca organized the big give a while ago in December which was to find some pajamas and whatnot for foster children and that's of course very nice again a testament to the DECA program and all it does for the school and lastly Mr deal our new vice principal started on Monday and I look forward to seeing
006what he will contribute to the school environment I'm going to invite Brooklyn up now to talk about some other things if possible good evening as Cameron said my name is Brooklyn Orr and I'll be covering the sports at Dover High School the competitive cheer team placed eighth out of the 18 teams for District 3 small competitive Spirit championship in December there'll be one out of 12 schools from District 3 advancing to compete for the PIAA State competitive Spirit championship at the end of January this is the first time Dover has advanced to the state since 2017. last Thursday the unified Bocce team had their first meet of the year against Dallas Town Miss Chris fourth period class created a marketing plan for the event and helped a fans in the stands event and sold tie-dye
007t-shirts to help cheer on the team we look forward to their next home match our boys and girls swim team did very good at the Clearfield Arctic swim classic The Voice placed first and the girls placed fourth congratulations to Dalton Richter for committing to Delaware Valley College for lacrosse he plans to major in small animal science and preparation for a veterinarian school Gemma galagani signed her nla excuse me nli to continue her track career at the University of Buffalo she'll be majoring in biology pre-med while there girls basketball won the Gettysburg tip-off tournament 44-36 with Hannah Hayes receiving all tourney team and Mackenzie gamber attorney MVP last but not least a sophomore uh excuse me um jazari Albany placed third at the Cumberland Valley girls wrestling tournament she is the first female wrestler at Dover
008to place in a tournament thank you okay Camden and Brooklyn thank you very much for your reports tonight it's something I look forward to every month hearing all the great things going in the going on in the buildings are there any questions or comments from the other board members at this point okay thank you all right with with that we'll move into our presentations first Dr Cartwright thank you Mr President in honor of school board's commitment to our students schools and communities January is once again designated as School director recognition month Pennsylvania's Pennsylvania public schools educate nearly 2 million students including the 300 3 300 students in Dover Area School District the nine members of each local school board are a vital part of the district's team making informed decisions that lead public schools and
009provide opportunities for every student to succeed School directors who are unpaid are public servants who devote an average of 10 hours each month to the challenging and complex responsibilities of board business including voting on budgets adopting policy and conducting comprehensive planning their role has only been made more challenging by the ongoing effects of the pandemic and related issues that impact the well-being of our students and their their families the Dover area school board has taken the step of adopting the pspa principles for governance and Leadership a framework of action steps designed to increase board's Effectiveness research shows that school board actions have a direct effect on student achievement therefore it is crucial that boards engage in actions to increase their effect Effectiveness for the betterment of the students they serve to thank our board members
010each level of our schools created something different for you elementary students made the cards for each of you there's a stack of cards made by elementary students at each of your places this evening this Banner behind us was made at the middle school and the coasters that you have at your place were made by high school students and I believe that Mr Benton wants to tell us a little bit about exactly how those were made hello everyone just a little bit about The Coasters John Hartley uh if you pull out your coaster John Hartley is the one that created he 3D drill the the Box itself so it is interlocking we did glue them so they would stay together and Mr Smith Nolan Smith and Mr Tim Smith actually helped with the 3D design on
011each coaster and they were all printed with the new laser printer that we've received through our supplemental Grant through CTE thank you Mr Benton yeah so tonight we celebrate School Board directors and these are tokens of our appreciation for you thank you thank you very much [Applause] okay we have a bunch of big athletic guys out there waiting to come in here for their presentation so Dr wiesling recognizing the football team well thank you for introducing me as one of those big athletic guys right I apologize to all of our boys and girls and our guests here in the audience we are going to have some big athletic guys walk in here and they may end up blocking your view a little bit so I apologize uh for that but thank you Mr eifert and
012thank you Dr Cartwright and school board members for once again providing the forum for our athletic events our athletic teams rather who we love to celebrate every single week and I know Dr Cartwright provides those updates of our celebrations uh weekly in her Friday Focus but our opportunity to come here to a board meeting to recognize our post-season advances that our teams do if you recall back in November I was a able to bring some of our other fall teams and and those athletes in for recognition however at that time our football program was still in the district playoffs so we didn't have the opportunity to recognize them so we have some of our football players entering the room right now as well as some parents and our coaching staff come on in guys you
013can keep coming in I'm going to turn the mic over to coach snellbaker who will provide some update or some insight as to some of the accomplishments uh that not only the team as a group uh advanced in the districts but also some individuals and I know like I said earlier Dr Cartwright had always provided some of those individual updates throughout her Friday Focus but before coach snowbaker comes up because I know he won't mention this himself I do want to acknowledge and recognize coach snellbaker because just like our players and our teams get recognized throughout the season so do our coach is have the potential and so like I said I know he will not mention it himself but I do want to identify that coach snowbaker was selected as the York Adams interscholastic
014Athletic Association coach of the year which is selected by his peers in division two so that's quite an honor as well as there's a an organization called Game Time PA which recognizes if you notice Dr Cartwright's Friday Focus we have a lot of our athletes who get nominated for their weekly Stellar performance and they get nominated and you get vote on those individuals uh that same group of organization or a group of authors Sports writers they also nominate a coach and so that group nominated coach snowbaker as the York Adams inter classic Athletic Association Division II coach of the year so we we are among uh good company here so let me introduce you to coach snowbaker well that honor only comes from the coaching staff that I have with me and uh you know
015they put in countless hours as well and so they should you know if you wouldn't mind giving them a round of applause as well first I'll say thank you thank you for having us out uh be here tonight to to talk a little bit about our our 22 season um it brings pleasure to be able to to uh really to to talk about some of these guys not only individually but as a team um we had a lot of accomplishments this season uh way back towards the end of last the 21 season we started talking about you know the 22 what's our goals and we started putting in the fact that we wanted to get to week 11. you know we have 10 10 week season but we wanted to get to that week 11
016to give these guys a little bit of taste of what what districts taste like we went eight and two in the regular season which would then end up giving us a week 11 game which qualifying for districts we receded high enough to host the first round home game and I think that's the only two times that's happened in in dover's football history so that's a goal and accomplishment that these guys have reached and and proud of them for that we won that first round game uh played garden spot took our second round game we went to Exeter Township we came up short in the field that night that a little different animal is that into the state that we played and uh so knowing that now we're now hoping to build off of that for
017the next season coming up talked about that as a team team goals and team accomplishments I'd like to talk a little bit about our individual stuff uh we came up with a thing this year called be the example and we felt this was big for for our team to bring us together as a team and and kind of gel together and when we did this it was more along the lines of at the end of our practices our summer stuff we would we would acknowledge who was going above and beyond what they had to do so we took that beyond our practices and then we took it to the school I emailed Mrs fasic and asked if it'd be okay if I sent this out and basically what I wanted to do was if a
018teacher saw one of our players going above and beyond in this would they let us know so then I can acknowledge that in front of the team and to the surprise of it and I and I say that because I know teachers I I am one myself you get busy during the day and to take the time to do some of this stuff is is tough but we had some teachers do that for us and to recognize some of these guys is desire heffelfinger Sean Henderson Noah Wentz Lucas Runk Eric Campbell Ben Reed and Elijah Knight were some of those players that went above and beyond and we were recognized so not only are we trying to do it right on the field we're trying to get and do it right into in the school
019as well so it was just something we did this year we'll probably carry it over the next year to continue it just to see if uh you boost the morale and bring things together inside the walls as well on the field there's an All-Star voting that is done by the York County coaches we can nominate them and then York County goes through and and and they will nominate who they think is is the best of what we have and that's just throughout your County division two some of our accolades go to special teams our kicker is Nathan Miller I'm a freshman he got an honorable mention and our partner he's here tonight Gavin Mullins he got first team uh returner Thomas smizer who is here as well I got an honorable mention for returner going
020to the offensive side of the ball our Center Ben Reed got second team guards both of our guards were were honored Don Pfeiffer got honorable mention and Josiah Hefner got first team offensive tackles again both of them were honored Logan shade and ryler Poteet both got honorable mention tight end Braden zirkle got second team wide receiver Thomas smizer got first team running back Gavin Mullins got first team and quarterback Eric Campbell got first team again this is for the York County coaches defensive side both defensive ends were nominated and both of them brought home recognitions Gavin hake and Reese Husson got honorable mention defensive tackles both again Dakota Baker and Sean Henderson got honorable mentions inside linebacker Lucas Runk got an honorable mention Braden zirkle was first team our outside linebackers Julian Markle got honorable
021mention Zach Townsend got first team Corners Phil Ford the second team and Thomas Miser was first team safety Gavin Mullins was first team that was all your county game time as Dr wiesling had said a little earlier game time goes through and does theirs as well and we were well represented there as well with from those those people we had nothing to do with nominating them they took their their nominations uh Zach Townsend Gavin Mullins Eric Campbell and Braden zirkle all God honorable mention and Thomas Miser got first team as a corner we did have an All-State first team All-State Thomas smizer and we had he was also nominated second team PA Football news as a wide receiver our biggest award we don't deal with it it's just a nomination it goes to a senior
022uh it's called the Mini Max Awards I don't know if you've heard of that but it's uh the oldest organization in in the state and it was established in 1935. and what it does is it recognizes excellence in performance at the high school Collegiate and professional levels of the game this club recognizes 55 players across the state of Pennsylvania so you're not just talking York County you're talking the whole state of Pennsylvania and 55 are are recognized the winner of this representative Dover we have one this year and it's Gavin Mullins Kevin you just stepped forward there for us to our knowledge uh Gavin is the second player uh in Dover history that has won this award um we had one back in 20 won it and now 2022. so congratulations Gavin what we'll do
023is there's a uh we'll go down to Drexel Hill and on February 5th and basically it's all of Pennsylvania's 55 will be there and they will pick out the winner for Pennsylvania and then this also spreads across to New Jersey and Delaware and they'll take the top one out of New Jersey Pennsylvania Delaware and then that winter will be the overall Max Prep winner of the year so we're just fortunate enough to have one that's here in in our school that they thought was worthy to to be nominated or to be honored with this this award so thank you for your time again thank you for having us here it's just a brief synopsis of our season um it was a great year for us thank you [Applause] we do have certificates for all of
024our players but we will hand those out privately outside instead of announcing everybody's name and doing that we'll spare you some extra time here this evening but we would like to have all of our players who are here representing the team just come forward here into this section we're just going to get a quick picture with you and Mr eifert Dr Cartwright do you want to be a part of that as well okay awesome [Music] female ready all right hey guys real quick thank you oh yeah do you want the coaches all right coach um one two three all right guys excellent very good all right thank you [Applause] foreign [Music] feeling better okay big night in here because now we also have our kindergarten buddies Weigel's Town Elementary is Dr Strauss ball stuck outside
025the football players tackled you trying to get in here huh needed to practice my blocking techniques good evening we're going to change gears we're going to go to the elementary level now from the football players to Elementary so I'm Bobby strasbaum the principal at Weigel's Town Elementary School and on the board agenda it says that we are going to give a student presentation on kindergarten buddies actually we have several buddy programs at Weigel's town so we're going to talk briefly about all of them so you're going to hear a few things from our teachers and then we have quite a few students here who are going to explain their experience in the Buddy programs that they participate in so before I turn it over to the students and the teachers I want to thank all
026the teachers the parents and the students who came out this evening and gave of their evening to share a little bit of time with our school board tonight so I will turn it over to them good evening my name is Miss Fury and I am one of the kindergarten teachers at Weigel's Town last year I had started buddies with kindergarten and fourth grade students this year we expanded to include all of our kindergarten classes the fourth graders come two mornings a week to work with kindergarten students when learning games reading and to reinforce kindergarten skills the Buddy program is well received by all it allows our fourth graders to help with learning and serve as a positive role model for our kindergarten students our kindergartners enjoy spending time with the older students and showing what
027they know we have two fourth graders Michaela and Zane and two kindergarten students Amelia and Scarlett who will be sharing what they enjoy about Buddies Michaela will start you're ready um hi uh one thing I like doing with the kindergarteners is um talking to them because um they are really kind and funny another thing I like doing his oh wait I I don't know um one more thing I like about the personality is that they listen really well foreign I'm really glad I'm doing the kindergarten helpers one of the many reasons I love the kindergarten gardeners is because they are really smart too that is why I love the kindergarteners hi my name's Zane and I like helping the kindergarters learn by playing games like math Bingo and one pack of 10. foreign love to
028play number Bingo and um I love to play um learning games with my fourth grade Buddies hi my name is Scarlett I like to play pop game with my first grade buddy it's a hardwood game thank you and next are you coming up Miss McDaniel hello I'm Miss McDaniel so I was able to take um fifth grade and first grade students a small group over to Providence Place so our fifth graders are going to share a little bit about what that experience was like and then our first graders are going to share what they enjoyed about it good evening everyone I am from Marcus town and I am in fifth grade I'm going to tell you about Providence Place we got to get partnered up with the first grader hi my name is Layla I'm
029also in fifth grade and I'm also from weigelstone elementary and together we got to practice reading some picture books with our first grade Buddies at Providence please be right to the elderly it was so much fun they loved it and so did we we made their day and that was our gift to them but in Surprise back they gave us some treats back thank you for listening to us tell you about Providence Place and have a good rest of your day hi my name is Taylor and um I like to I like reading with buddies and to other people because it helped me to learn more about them it was special for me to meet new people and I wouldn't see at I wouldn't see at other places [Applause] my name is Noah and the
030residents were very excited to get our books and listen to the stories they wanted to see their books closer we'll look at them longer because they really like them I enjoyed sharing my books with them and then finally we have two fifth graders that will be talking about our fifth grade and autistic support Buddies foreign good morning girls and gals sorry she's tired she means ladies and gentlemen oh my apologies my name is Gabriella and I'm Cassie we're from weigelstown elementary and we're here to talk about recess Buddies so about recess buddies we we were buddy we were buddied with partners for the first half of the year and for the second half of the year we get to rotate partners and guess what almost every day too War buddies with a student from Miss
031trimmer's autistic support classroom also we help them with their social skills and we give some new experiences thank you for listening to our presentation good day have fun foreign real quickly I'll close by all these buddy programs are the kids volunteer to do them some of the kids give up their recesses they give up their home room time with their classmates to go connect with other students in the school so we're very proud of the fact that we just put these ideas out there and somebody grabs them and takes them and runs with them so these programs are a lot of fun to watch them grow and develop so so thank you everyone foreign I want to say thank you to all of the boys and girls that presented tonight I know that can be
032very scary getting up in a room like this in front of all these grown-ups uh you did a fantastic job uh family members that are here with them you can be very proud of your children they were wonderful tonight so let's give them all another round of applause [Applause] okay thank you another customer tomorrow [Music] well after the last two presentations the parking lot has really emptied out so we can now find our cars Mrs Herman you can walk four miles down to your car after this so okay next we have our Global read-aloud program Ashley Tice and Kimberly Stolper did I say that right thank you especially not Kim stilper it's just border I'm filling in for Kim Stillberg she was on a medical leave all right Jess thank you so thank you for
033letting us present I'm Ashley Tice one of the 8th grade ELA teachers we had the privilege of running the global read aloud once again this year the global read-aloud is a worldwide initiative where Ace one particular book the eighth grade read strongest fire Fierce as flame is read by tons and tons and tons of classrooms all around the world at the same time the person that organized it her name is Pernell rip she's been doing this over a decade and she sets the pacing and there are certain chapters that we have to read each week we do activities with it we brought some of our students along with us to share what they were able to complete as enrichment for the reading getting it I was gonna say there are a lot of benefits to
034reading and the global read aloud um so you'll see some of those listed there the biggest thing was the connections because it's done globally the students had the chance to connect with those all over the world about the same text that they were reading which was a neat experience for a lot of them it was highly engaging due to the novelty the creative outlet that it allowed the students were paying attention on the edge of their seat wanting to know what happened next not liking long weekends and all of those things throughout the course of reading it also helped build their cultural lenses the books that we studied were out of India so a lot of cultural things and experiences and things they were exposed to that they could relate to our culture as well
035in sixth grade we read Thirst by varsha Baja and so the highlights there are they learned about the global Water Crisis and that'll be tied into actually science here in the near future some cross-curricular opportunities for them they studied Mumbai and discovered its culture they did a lot of comparing and contrasting to how the character in the book was similar and different to their own lifestyle here we collaborated via zoom jamboard and a postcard exchange a lot of what we did was digital again those opportunities would not have been there had other students around the world not been reading with us really proud of my students for their weekly kahoot challenge it was trivia based on the book the book that we read had about 20 000 students competing worldwide in the kahoot challenge the
036top 150 students were recognized each week and I had several students those weeks being recognized in the top 150 so that's a huge accomplishment they had Creative Learning opportunities they had Choice board activities that they could use as their outlets and we held in-class Democratic discussions to engage their higher order thinking skills so here are just some pictures of the things that they created throughout the story so as mentioned our book Choice was strong as fire fierce's flame that was the Middle School kind of older middle school choice for this year and it focused on British occupied India in the mid-1800s so students had to do background research at the beginning they presented to each other Mrs stopper's class and my class were able to collaborate with a schoology course so they participated in weekly
037discussions and commented back and forth with each other the nice thing about this in order for us to do this I was able to purchase these books majority of them from the Dover Eagle Foundation Grant so that was wonderful and Dr halp graciously gave us a few more so we could all have a copy because the kids like to have the books in their hands probably the biggest highlight which I think Ben or Natalia one of them are going to mention is that we were able to connect with a class in Norway so that was very cool we did a postcard exchange we received a lot of those I know one of my students sent a postcard over to a classroom in Vietnam they did menu projects again the students will show you it just
038was a really really cool successful experience and as Mrs border said the kids wanted to keep reading they liked doing the project so this is just shows you a screenshot of what our flip grid looked like some of the students from Norway are mixed in with some of our students here from Dover and I think are you talking about Natalia will tell you more about the flip grid and then this is just a screenshot of what our class discussions look like so Mrs stopper and I would provide critical analysis questions for the students to answer and support with you know textual evidence from the book and then they had to comment on each other's foreign so the students we have with us Ashland lady is in sixth grade she read with thirst with Mrs border
039and then Mrs stopper student Natalia Stein and my student Ben Ziegler we read the 8th grade version I'm Ashlyn lady I'm in sixth grade and tonight I'm here to talk to you about my classrooms experience with the global read aloud this program opened up so many opportunities for myself and my peers we had the privilege to communicate with those classes from different states and even countries through postcards and other things that Mrs Porter mentioned um each week my class was given weekly activities related to the book thirst this really helped us understand the story more and its characters and on the back two pages we had um on this on these activities were um based on the book and gave us a lot of creative freedom and a better understanding of the characters and the
040message the story conveys I believe that we should make this a part of our education because the gra was such a fun interesting learning experience in my class thank you hi my name is Natalia Stein I'm Miss doper's student and I think the global read aloud is extremely beneficial because it allowed us to have many experiences and opportunities to connect with the things around us we got to learn about other cultures through the menu projects and the flip grid we got to talk to a class from Norway and that was a very very intriguing experience for me personally because I like being able to connect with different people and see them and interact with them and learn about the things that they know I think it's very nice to be able to share that the
041menu project allowed us to create our own dishes and that overall that related to the text because we were able to incorporate the characters into the dishes themselves hello my name is Benjamin Ziegler and I am Miss tice's student um we did postcards which we um we sent to multiple classes uh I think one student sent to Vietnam and multiple sent to other states like New York Michigan Etc um I have one from Michigan two from New York and five from California which we got sent um and then we had um the discussion posts between um Miss tice's class and Miss stillper's class and basically uh they gave us prompts every week I think it was and oh we did um we talked about it and it helped us understand the text more and what
042we were reading um and it just helped us understand the text more thank you students you did a great job as well we appreciate you coming in here and sharing your excitement about these programs with us and teachers thank you for giving them these opportunities too we appreciate it thank you thank you for supporting us okay this brings us to our first public comment period tonight this is a 30 minute period for items off or on or off of the agenda uh three minutes per speaker if you have anything that you'd like to comment on please come to the podium and state your name and address for the record foreign David Conley and I signed in so my address is on record the business presentations from the last meeting very good much better than the
043presentations from last year I appreciate that it helps the public become much more aware of what's going on and also thank you for posting those on YouTube as I was not able to be here in person the proposals are for 2.5 percent tax increase and 5.6 percent or a 5.6 percent increase all the way up to the index as I understand it and here we are again and yet another sequential multi-year effort to raise taxes for Dover um the CBA is the largest driver of cost which makes the negotiating committee the most powerful driver driver of higher taxes in Dover and the rest of the board members need to be aware of that so one of the most poignant things that was brought out the last meeting there's nothing you can do about this cost
044there's nothing you can do about that cost there's nothing you can do about that which sends the strong message that there's no purpose for the board other than to come and raise taxes there's got to be something we can do to lower our cost and we've got to be aggressive about that because what's going to happen to this community is we're going to enter into a vicious cycle of higher and higher taxations higher and higher taxation which is going to kill this area that is a historical fact that has happened in other places in the world and if you continue to see it in Pennsylvania and in particular in this community it's it's going to have a terrible impact uh if you look at the lower birth rate projections that were talked about we already
045see a stagnant Community we're not growing we do have people that are going to be moving in for some jobs and hopefully that will help our tax base but we've got a real problem here the Cyber schools um I don't know what to think about the Cyber schools but it seems like a fashionable alternative but it has lower Effectiveness I've seen that myself it has uncontrollable truancy issues and it's too costly so I I say that we get rid of that keep the other options for the public to educate their kids as they would like but that I just don't see it as a win for us the minutes they're not published yet um five meeting minutes will be approved tonight without public view of the minutes the minutes of the official record of what
046you talk about here it doesn't matter what was spoken it matters what's are in those minutes elsewise you would not be voting to approve them so those minutes need to be available so that we know and can comment on those um review of Library material I know it was discussed at the last meeting that one of the board members requested to review the material but the Dover School Board absolutely has the right to review the curriculum and the library material and it should be provided to them without delay uh the I'd like to make a proposal as well so I'm the only one seeking public comment I hope that I won't be uh criticized too much I'm not I'm not sure if you are the only one Mr Conley okay so if you could maybe
047come back for the second one I will come back all right thank you anybody else at this time public comment we'll just bring you back now if you can finish up them all right thank you for that the public comment periods uh something I'd like to make a proposal in the planning meeting it makes a lot of sense to hold all the public comments after all the material has been presented otherwise what are we commenting on so I would I propose that we do that and I'd like to see that you know moved by a board member perhaps tonight so that in our next planning meeting we can do that I'd also like to see the school board meeting move all the five-minute comments to before the consent agenda because with such a three-minute compressed
048window you can hardly cover the amount of material that's going to be voted on that night and so our comments at the end the two-minute window are nothing more than a post commentary period that will have no impact whatsoever on the outcome of the meeting making our our comments forgotten irrelevant and easily you know easily discarded so I asked for a board member if they would to please move that we do that so that it gives a public opportunity to interact thank you thank you Mr Conley okay board president's communication we did not have an executive session prior to tonight's meeting I did want to remind everyone in the room though that under our new meeting structure every item listed on tonight's consent agenda was open for discussion at last week's planning session so unlike
049in the past I will not be asking Dr Cartwright to walk down through these items individually again the board of course will have the opportunity to ask any additional questions they may have thought of since these items were discussed last week but we will do that through our normal motion and voting process so with that we will move into the consent agenda and I will entertain a motion to approve all items under the consent agenda second we have a motion and a second questions or discussion on any of the items in the consent um it's not on a particular item but it's just the con questioning why we haven't separated out like the money topics such as bills paid Treasures report are we not planning to do that they're typically listed in the consent agenda
050only if a board member specifically requests to have them removed for separate votes didn't we have didn't we uh am I confused did we not talk about this before like maybe the opportunity to just kind of keep it separated out of the consent agenda at one point and then I don't know maybe we didn't talk extensively about it I think we talked about it but then we moved to a different format that kind of allowed us to address maybe I think with all the conversation like the planning meeting everything's there for them but I see what you're saying I mean everything's discussed in that agenda so I'm not sure I understand the need to pull it separately when it's already been discussed as part of that discussion process okay anybody else okay hearing none Mrs
051almond motion carry 7-0 okay next we'll move into our action category item seven uh because they are Personnel items they were discussed in the executive session prior to last week's meeting uh Personnel matters are discussed and executive uh session for confidentiality so first we'll have a motion to approve the Liu General operating budget for 22 23 and 24. we have a motion and a second questions or discussion on this item thank you hearing none Mrs almond ask a question about Liu before we go into the next item then sure machine Carrie 7-0 okay go ahead it's just for informed um purposes so in the event say our board wouldn't agree to the Liu's General operating I mean does that affect them or I mean I know it's a collective right of so many school districts
052I'm not sure how exactly that would affect them because I've never seen that happen so I'd have to ask I didn't know if there was like a percentage of schools that would have to like not agree with their budget for that to even like I'd have to ask I don't know okay thanks thank you okay next on entertain a motion to approve the Dae Spa contract for 2022-2025. second any discussion hearing none Mrs almond motion carries six one no vote Mr rawhauser okay next I'll enter the animation to improve the confidential staff agreement any discussion okay Mrs almond Bush and carry 7-0 okay and finally I'll entertain a motion to approve the ACT 93 agreement it's very good discussion okay Mrs almond motion carry 7-0 okay thank you next we'll move on to discussion items
053do any board members have anything they would like to bring up right now for discussion I think it'd be good for us to just state that the deck you know situation is ongoing but um I don't know if this is time to discuss it or not is this when you want to talk about it I really what I need I think to help clarify where to head from here um because I'm leaning more towards maybe we need to reevaluate the policy but what what was the circumstances the situation around adopting the policy like I need some back information maybe some of you guys could help in the spring of 2021 we were revising many of the district policies and 707 was one of them and we needed AR's administrative regulations for almost all of our
054policies and that was a project that the facilities committee at that time took on that summer summer of 2021 so the facilities committee including three board members worked on the policy and the ARs for about four months so the policy was there but needed re-viewed and redone or the policy wasn't there prior to that I believe we revised both at that time that was at the very beginning of my tenure here so I I don't want you to quote me I know that we spent a lot of time on it on both documents all right so then the policy was adopted with ARs so we have ARS for that one we do the ARs give you the categories of groups and the pricing structure that's where all the details are so how does the board
055feel about the policy now that it's been in place and I mean just such issues as dark and whatnot have come up is this what you thought it would look like or I just want to have some thought like discussion open discussion like comments like you know do you think we should keep it do we review it do we up until up until now I don't recall it policy until Jack this Dax situation up until then I don't recall ever having a problem and I've been on the board for seven years and it's never been brought up until now well what was the big difference prior to the school and the building being demolished I believe Mr Nelson it doesn't work here anymore he led the project and I know vaguely remember that I believe
056the reason was most of our prices were up needed to be updated because of all of the new facilities so they were in the process of updating the prices and things like that and I know there was a lot of community members in those meetings who were suggesting prices and things like that so we have a big group in there which I would say at the one meeting I think we had 10 and I believe one of them was a coach so was Mr Nelson then a part of implementing the new policy I thought he had left he retired in September of 2021 so he was here the whole spring and summer as we worked for every part of it um so prior to the building demolishing time frame and covid there was old policy
057lower fees lower costs and then we get a new building and then everything jumps right so that's what we're what's on the table now isn't that I mean is that a clear I don't know what the old prices were I don't I don't remember I think there was a complete review of the policy and there was a review of what other school districts charged as well and how they handled their facility usage so there were some comparisons with other districts as to how they actually set up their structure to use the facilities what types of groups could use the facilities the types of rates they would be charged you know are they charging for custodians are they charging for utilities because those are all expenses that the district has when it comes to opening up
058these buildings for people to use so when we talk about fiscal responsibility we have to be fiscally responsible to make sure we're covering our costs of doing that when groups want to come in and use the facilities so that's why a lot of that was reviewed as part of that process back then and it's a constant review I mean there's nothing to say that the board can't revisit the policy again and look at the policy again and look at the structures and how it is I fully support a facility usage policy that provides equal access to everyone and treats everyone equally rather than and separate agreements with multiple different organizations I just don't think that's fair and I don't think that's going to bode well for us in the end when it comes to then
059one group says well you did this for them but not this for me and it just it becomes too crazy and gray there so I say if if we have a big concern here we look at the policy again you know review the policy again have conversations about it and not rush into anything you know when it comes to an agreement at this point so when we establish the policy and set fees was there any research or questions from the sports teams the community about what was currently being paid say by the members or the people involved in the sports from the coaches where I mean was there any discussion on okay this is where they're at now how's this going to affect them going forward like were there any discussions about are there going
060to be unintended consequences that kind of thing I don't recall any of those conversations I recall doing the research among many different districts as Mr eifert said based on what the schools were charging correct but to Mr deshow's point there were members of the community and other organizations involved in those conversations so they certainly could have raised some questions and concerns at that time as part of those conversations I personally think that what I'm hearing from I mean many of the youth League organizations is that costs in this policy towards them have changed so drastically that they don't see an affordable way to continue the program and I just I I guess I just want to hear more discussion from you guys who are part of it do you do you feel like this is
061a worthwhile policy to fight for I mean revisit yes you know where are we headed with that revisit like what are we gonna change what is it going to do to the community if we you know don't lower the costs and that kind of thing I mean all those questions I feel like we need to revisit personally I would love to hear the people you the activities who are saying this to you to come in I invite them yes we should invite them yeah we should have a big community representation of all the youth sports that are using the facilities maybe some of them have opted to not use facilities because they can't afford it anymore um you know how they're faring under the policy so we know how to move forward and adjust it
062I think that's fair maybe the next month do we do that during a work session we do it a summer meeting then how would you recommend I think that the best way for it to be is that you do have the uh committee the policy committee well and then you have the planning meetings now where they could come it's public meeting they can come and comment to the board as they deem necessary there's also avenues that they can use such as emailing board members emailing the administration what their concerns are have those forward to the board for review so there are other avenues for them there there are avenues for them to come here they can come to the regular board meeting and discuss it I know that that issue has been tabled and that
063we'll discuss it'll be looked at it other at another time so they do have those opportunities to come here and discuss it as Mr to show us and mention for the for the ability for them to let the board know what they want to do um so that that is available to them to come here and do that I have another question unrelated um with the figures for um Dak and the youth basketball I'll just say DAC I kind of ran some numbers and it looks like they would have to spend they would have to pay the school district like 60 000. for the year to use the facility so they have about 119 swimmer 119 members so that's a cost increase of about 500 they're already paying 200 so then the members would have
064to pay about seven hundred dollars no they wouldn't have to pay that much during the school year they don't have to pay any rent when the building is open so they don't have to pay any rent like at night during the week when the building is open and there's a custodian custodian on duty they don't have to pay so okay so yeah I'm misunderstanding that so is the building open so when they have practice like five at night there are custodians on duty Monday through Friday what in the evenings okay what time are they on duty until I think it's 11. so um Noah the type C or the category C organizations don't have to pay anything as long as the building as long as there's custodians already on duty they don't have to pay
065the the custodial custodian fee right right it's the summer hours when the custodians weren't on duty that became and then the 45 dollars an hour if they're using the facility Monday through Friday so if they're using it for like two hours they pay ninety dollars correct but not the other fees I don't want to tell you the wrong thing I don't have the AR memorized and I don't have it in front of me so I don't I know it's a want to tell you the wrong thing but the numbers that I gave you in the report on Friday right with a sample summer schedule um those were fees that any group would pay when the building is not open summer evenings and weekends and weekends throughout the school year also and the fees for basketball
066are higher as you will notice they have a lot of games on Saturdays okay so that's a reason for that okay Kelly in your email when you say 207 events in 2022 events meaning practices event like weekend anytime they use the that's called event an event yes okay and I think maybe I don't know because I wasn't on the committee obviously but um when we compare when we used policies from other districts I don't know what other districts we we compared to but was it a district like Dover where we don't have other facilities that are similar you know they might have more um like Township facilities available that the that the youth organizations don't need like our youth organizations in Dover kind of need our districts facilities because we don't really have we don't
067have a pool we don't have a you know a pool I don't know that we have a like a Rec Center per se for basketball you know so the only like facilities that these youth programs have available to them so I I just don't know if we were comparing Apples to Apples when another District was like this is a policy that works well for us but really those youth organizations don't have to use the facilities that much you know like I can't tell you what that my facilities every Township or district has in their in their area that we looked at yeah I there's no way I could tell you that right yeah I think I'm just saying like maybe that wasn't really taken into account I mean we don't know what we don't know
068and you know Mister to show you haven't had a you haven't had an issue being on the board in the last seven years until now when this new policy after covid now the sports organizations are trying to use the facilities and now it's all coming up I mean I've heard from our youth football I've heard from our youth basketball baseball and the swim program so I would rather tackle this as a as a youth sports program why because I don't think solving the DAC problem is going to solve the overall problem for our youth sports and I don't know what that looks like I don't know if we have to do a category F or something for our youth sports programs um I don't know I know and I don't know if we want to
069um if the goal of this policy is to make money or is the goal of this policy to keep our facilities clean um is the goal you know security I'm not sure because it seems to me like the goal of this policy is to make money and add an income line item to our budget and if that's the case then we need to know that you know because that's part of our decision making process and Part of Me Maybe me as a board member saying that's not how I want to make money in our lineup I know we have to be fiscally responsible um that's just my opinion I don't kind of have to think that through but um what's the goal of the policy it's probably got a lot of goals is what's the
070main goal is it to make money the goal is never to make money it was to cover our own costs and to maintain our facilities if I'm not mistaken well forty five dollars an hour for a custodian seems a little High well that is the salary for the average custodian Plus benefits because if you think about an hourly wage we pay a lot more than that when you look at all the better public information what we pay our custodians is that public I doubt it okay um Christina wants to say something sorry our salary scale is public so when the contract that you just voted on tonight will go public on our website okay um now that it is voted on but the salary is not only their wage but it's that time and a
071half because when we're charging it it means a custodian is not here which means it's above their 40 hours okay so if I have to bring a custodian on a Saturday that is beyond their 40 hours Monday through Friday so it is that time and a half plus um you are correct that is the Pieces cost and the benefit costs that goes in like that's what the 45 is what it costs the district to employ that custodian for those hours on a Saturday it's not to make any more money or any less money it is truly what like to have a custodian here that's what it costs us per hour okay that yeah that's just so if we're pricing if our pricing is just to cover our costs um I'd be interested in seeing that
072like that broken down and how you know and making sure that those rates that are in that um AR are true you know I I don't know or are they just rates I don't know or any kind of costs related to the district for maintenance or cleaning it should make sense it should be um you know comparable to the amount of effort and time swapped with the the group in there so for instance Dover diamonds maintains the field they do most the maintenance they do a lot of the work so why are we going to charge them for somebody who doesn't have to do it and but I don't know the ins and outs with Dover diamonds but I know with Dak you know they're in there on a meet Saturday Sunday whatever um very
073early six something in the morning and there's no messes at that point there's no reason for custodian to be there except for when the meats are finished around noonish or 1ish and then the custodians so the custodians have been there from opening to even hours after dark is done well I I just don't see how that's a cost that they should be paying for every single time they have a meat for that whole extended time frame the custodians work while we're they're there they don't just sit around waiting for Dak to leave and it's a district employee opening and closing the building so it's a district employee being in the building what I'm saying is while I'm there there's no custodian that needs to do a whole lot I've seen a custodian one time at
074the end of the meet change the trash bags that they weren't even like completely full so you know we clean up concessions we clean up everything and if there's something else that occurs you know people get on and I'm not saying they don't have to check you know clean bathrooms locker rooms bleachers upstairs and you know if we are able to use the concession area they have to you know clean up that area but that in itself might be I don't have two hours they don't need to be there at six in the morning till two three in the afternoon that's a charge that Dax shouldn't have to occur this is the stuff that I'm saying we should have more discussion about what's fair to the you know the organizations that are using it for
075the the costs of the things that they need if they need somebody to run tech for an event you know what are the hours that they need them to be there Mr fluke did you want to add anything to the conversation absolutely please please sir on the uh on what we charge each group I know Dover diamonds uh we don't charge them anything uh for especially back here for color Park they take and maintained the field we don't charge them anything they take care of the diamond tax uh if the Field's too wet they rake it they do a lot of stuff so we do not charge them as for the pool and the numbers that I saw for the pool they are really actually underwhelming when it comes to it there's a lot of
076behind the scenes stuff that happens to run a pool I've been involved with pools for going on probably 16 years now I then I originally worked for pool pack International which made the dehumidification unit that sits on top of our pool it's a desert air unit pools are very expensive to run so that that fee that they're charging that are they're proposing for DAC is very low we've run a 30 horsepower pool pump that pushes about 1370 gallons of water per minute so the electric just to run that alone is very costly along with the chemicals and everything else so when that bather load comes in and we have like a meat there you're going to use a lot more chemicals to keep the levels within the state the state levels for you know to
077keep the pool clean so as the bather load increases you use more chemicals so to run a pool is is very expensive and I think uh Dr cartrakens also say that what we were proposed was in that was actually lower so the cost to run that pool is very it's a lot higher so it's really kind of discounted in a way so so how come so are not charging one of our youth sportly sports leagues and charging another one so we're not following the policy in some circumstances but we are following it to the T and others or not no I just think that there's there's a difference in what I was trying to show like the difference between running a pool and a baseball field that's kind of what I was trying to show
078the difference of like the baseball field you know it's a lot cheaper to run that compared to what the swimming pool would be around so do these ARS have different pricing for the facility that's being used or is it straight okay okay yeah I believe the one that that I saw it does break it down poor what they're using so it's it's fair to each organization okay it's not we wouldn't charge it over diamonds what it would cost to use the pool or we went and charged over youth basketball what it would charge to to use the the baseball field so yeah before what I saw um and Dr Carney feel free to correct me if I'm wrong um they were very fair and when it broke down to each individual sport because you wouldn't
079want to charge one and you know across because they're using different facilities Mr fluke actually said that we're charging too little for the pool I did at 100 and 125 for the gym and they're not the same yeah if we wanted to be fiscally responsible uh like president said uh we should be charging more of the bowl because just the the amount that cost to run that and just pure electricity uh just for that water pump so how would you solve this problem with that I mean I mean are we going to have to charge our DAC members five six seven hundred dollars I think it's a it's a problem that that's that has a really good start uh to fixing uh but I've only been here this is my week plus two days so
080I'm very new to the district answer yes I don't have an answer yet um not no I don't I like the way they're tending because being fiscally responsible um is what is what the district wants yeah and it's going to be what everybody wants um you know but I think it's a really good start on where we're going with the having that policy in place the only thing I was going to bring up was Heidi you mentioned that we've been hearing from Dak or whoever I haven't heard from Deb the only person I hear about deck is Carmen Dak is the president of Dak do you sit on the board for that or anything well there's I I was just wondering because there was that no I mean it wasn't too we've had a couple
081Youth Sports organizations asked to hand out flyers like they've been here I mean it's been like 10 months ago Dak was one of them like um football was one of them so like this Youth Sports I just don't think I think they're just kind of problem solving in their own you know team um and it really you know it's kind of just a new problem so you know our relation the district's relationship with our youth sports program and I just want to somehow like can we have a liaison or something you know I don't know but like just somehow work on this relationship um with our district and our youth sports program oh and I agree and that's why I said I invite them to come here because as of now we we haven't had
082they've done the last couple of months no it hasn't been the last I think the holidays and you know I mean yeah it's been a couple of months but I think they've tried Jack never stopped communication with the district even the whole time the school was being built they waited and waited to get in because they needed to start their season and start up everything that could yeah they kept emailing them when are we going to have the pool open for swim lessons when are we going to have you know the wrecks when they wanted they were emailing Dak about those questions so they would sit down with Almer and Zach and they would get nowhere and they would get nowhere and and they were told that they weren't from the athletic department that they
083weren't willing at a certain time to even discuss outside organizations coming in because of covid so they got pushed back and then so there was a lot of just you just wait you just wait and we're going to do things our way and so you just have to and so there's been communication behind the scenes not with the board yeah yeah how many Youth Sports organizations do we have in Dover is there like five do we know no okay I think the next step would be to invite them invite some of their leadership to a board meeting and say come tell us how the policy has affected yeah I sat down with um somebody from the football this was a while back and we went through this AR and it was it was confusing um
084I I need to look at it again with the information that I have now but yeah just get their opinion on it and how financially it'll impact them and and the kids that want to play the sports can we make the youth sports program part of our district Maybe no we don't want to do that has that been successful in Mechanicsburg no depends upon who you talk to I just want to know is there a way to like formally invite them and have an actual like meeting attentive to them like yeah like so those they we had all these presentations which were all awesome but can we have presentations from our youth sports organizations is that possible how do how does it get on the agenda that we have presentations um organizations can request to
085be part of the agenda there's a policy okay for that oh okay all right Dr Cartwright if I could ask have you been meeting with deck you know have our administrators been meeting with Dak and if so how many meetings have we had with Doc at this point Mr Almer and Mr Gump had several meetings with them okay I I quite frankly like everyone to take a deep breath and step back a little bit because we also have a brand new facilities director here and we have a brand new CFO this is day what one two it'll be okay day one I I'd really like to give them the opportunity to sit with Dr Cartwright and Dr Howe to talk about this too and talk about the policy that's in place you know what they
086think from a financial standpoint from a facility standpoint you know I mean you mentioned that you think our price is actually low compared to where it should be to operate a pool I think it's important that we give our new folks some opportunity to also discuss from a district standpoint the impact that this could have you know we we have to think from a district standpoint too here I certainly want to support every organization that we can in any way to help them operate help in the function but as board members we're also responsible for the district and making sure that this district is fiscally sound it's operating efficiently it's operating effectively our staff is involved and engaged um so we've a lot to weigh here and a lot to balance so I really think
087we need to take a step back give them some time to talk give these Sports programs times to talk look at the policy again you know after we've heard from all sides of this and maybe we revisit that policy and revise it at that time before we just rush into anything that's just my thought regarding that I'm certainly open to other thoughts but I just think we need time for our administrators to regroup on this we need time for the sports organizations to regroup we need time for them to all chat and come together and discuss and then for us to weigh you know at that point you know our thoughts as to what we think with this so that's where my mind is on this at this point so since we went to the
088time and effort to do the lease with Dak would it be possible to vote on that for because that'll be a temporary solution at least because I agree with what you're saying but that's going to take time and I don't know that we'll be able to resolve anything and I don't see them being able to afford these fees so I don't I mean how I think if if we could ask Dak to look at the lease and see if they would even if that would even like work for them then we can talk about it and go back just a reminder that lease was it's a draft that has not been shared discussed sat down with deck yet that was based on uh the meetings that Mr Almer Mr Gump had with them and what
089they desired to have in a lease okay so they haven't seen that document yet the process and I believe that Dr Cartwright sent out um correspondence to you all about the fact that the motion is just for us to move forward with that lease your permission to move forward with that lease to talk with deck and any final agreement would come back to you all for a vote so that that's what ultimately they have not and and the current comment they have not seen nor have we heard any feedback from them on at least because we have not received permission from you all to even move forward with that lease yet to even talk to them about the contents of that lease that was just our draft to see if you as a board are
090willing to move forward with such a document then we would share it with Dak we'd have the administration would have discussion with them and then any final agreement would come back to you all for a vote do you know if Zach was comfortable with that pricing as far as I know there's some other things like Kathy alluded to that she was concerned about but if we can just look at the financial impact does that lease cover the financial impact the numbers that you see on that draft yes that everyone meaning administratively was comfortable with those okay okay okay so I think that we should bring that back to the table at least and we can at least solve that temporary I mean put you guys put all that work into it can we at least
091vote on that a while until we can look at these ARS so I know that they had a chance to review it but they were told back in October by Omar that the board wasn't willing to work with them so they were completely blindsided by the lease at all like completely they were in the dark and so at this point I think they need some more time to discuss it too understood so I mean obviously if they want to bring it up as a as an option because it's going to take us a wild review policy and maybe look at that those costs versus the least cost like I think that's you know maybe on them I don't know the the least the motion to direct us to pursue the lease with deck was on
092the agenda tonight for a vote a board member requested that it be removed otherwise you would have been voting on it tonight okay because it was on the agenda last night I mean last week to discuss okay because it was on this so we could bring that back in February okay yes did we bring it back to say we want to present it and so we have to vote on it to even present it correct that's the way we've put that together as to present it to them for discussion and then any input that they would have and then any based on the discussions that we've had over the last couple of months about this issue being bring uh design it to address the board's concerns their concerns and then have you have a final
093vote on it after all those discussions correct do we do that only if they're interested in it still or if they're not interested just Nix it if they're not interested then you won't have an agreement yeah one more one more thing about the pool if I could not about Dak but the pool itself I was actually told tonight that the paint on the bottom pool is completely peeling off and like really nasty so I think that's something that needs to be addressed and the bulkhead is apparently really disgustingly dirty too um other than that I have no further comments about policy that policy but I do have another question and I don't know who to direct this to it's in regards to comment and um brought up by Darcy and Kim during the budget review
094about tuition costs and the thought of lowering them so I I kind of like confused me and I just wanted to know is that something school districts do they like increase in lower tuition costs based on ideas of needing to get more students or I don't know my my comments about the tuition is just that based on the numbers of students phasing out that Revenue line items going down but we're using there is a tuition rate an elementary rate and a secondary rate for tuition set by pde each year so that's what's being used for billing so sorry if that if that was misleading but I think that might be what you're referring to when we were showing that total revenue line item going down but it wasn't a function of the rate going down
095um I'd have to pull up my notes it was the number of Washington Township students graduating and right not being here anymore right it was um your recommendations and you had a whole list of things to look at facility and operations cost savings um use money from fund balance investment income subsidy lawsuit increased tax increase tax the Gesa guarantee Energy savings medical plans designed during negotiation these are ways that you and then you put lower tuition costs monitor Revenue Trends from the government budget and and that was just in general try look at some it's one of the projects that Dr Hauck is working on when she talked about meeting with all of the external Cyber Charter students to try to get them back to Dover dover's program it's looking at lowering your the tuition
096expenses you're paying no we don't and again um the the Cyber Charter rate that is also set by a formula by the state that we're paying for students that are enrolled in outside cyber charters so does that I gotcha um and I think we were also say look um some of the other things that Dover has has been doing are taking back uh IU classes so you it that's an excellent way to save money is you know you look at the number of students you have enrolled um in an uh in an IU program and if it reaches a certain Benchmark that you're going to save money by hiring a teacher and bringing a class back so that's what we meant by all of your collectively looking at all your different tuition expense line items
097to try to save money there thank you for that anything else I I just want to clarify is the CFO and the facilities director going to meet with that before our next meeting in February so we have more information if we're not then what's the use of even voting on a lease if then we're not going to have the information by next month because personally I'm not comfortable but until I have all the facts right well I guess what would they meet with them about like what would the facilities director and well whatever I guess whatever Mr Elmer had talked to them about I don't know what facts are you looking for in order to be able to vote as far as let them see what the lease is about and see what their opinion
098I think we have to vote on being able to allow them to see the lease like we have to vote to say they can see the lease they see they've seen it it was attached to the agenda yeah oh they can see it they've been reviewing yeah it was attached for years okay so okay yeah so why do we have to that's okay thank you but Claire thank you for that clarification so can't we get so okay so if you and the facilities director I'm sorry I forgot what's your last name fluke Mr fluke um can we get their opinion first on the lease the way that we've the way that this has been structured is that you need to give them permission to meet with Dak to talk about the lease that's the way
099we need to give them yes okay how about this how about I reach out tomorrow and find out through the board for DAC if they have reviewed it enough to the point where they want to continue to talk about the lease and then I can inform the board can we do that I would appreciate if you had them form the administration because the administration is the one that's been discussing this Kelly um okay yep I'll do that you're off the hook for now okay anybody else okay hearing none we'll move on to our reports on York Adams Academy Mr Amic yeah we had the winter graduation on December 13th and we did have one student that had graduated at that time and since 1990 we had there was 4 364 graduates that went through York
100Adams Academy since 1990 so and our next meeting will take place on January the 31st okay any questions from astronomic okay Mrs Meese York County School of Technology our meeting is Thursday so I don't have anything to report tonight but I will in February all right thank you York Learning Center any report I think that was Mr ulmer's committee okay so that will be Mrs Weaver's committee now would you like to report on anything this is weird on day one okay Dr Cartwright Liu and special ed no report this evening thank you Mr rawhauser legislative well we have a new Administration sworn in today and we'll see how they're ideas work out on the two parties working together to try and prove things throughout the schools and some other projects they're talking positive about we'll
101know more about the end of the year thank you questions for Mr rohauser okay Mrs Herman Dover Industrial Development Committee did not have a meeting last month a psba Mrs Brent is not here so we'll get straight to the superintendent's report Dr Cartwright thank you Mr Mr a number number of celebrations to announce since the last regular meeting on November 15th some of these have been mentioned by others I'm still going to stick with my script though because I don't want to leave anybody out and if I butcher names I apologize Miley Bach is the young lady who graduated from York Academy York Adams Academy on December 13th she is planning to attend yti's vet tech program starting this month congratulations to Landon day and Isaiah McGee for committing the next four years to the
102Marines congratulations to Gemma galagani who signed her letter of intent to continue her track and field competition and academic career at the University of Buffalo and to Dalton Richter who signed his letter of intent to continue his Lacrosse competition in an academic career at Delaware Valley University the middle school held its annual National Junior Honor Society induction ceremony in December this was the seventh group of eighth grade students to be inducted since the njhs was formed at the middle school Dover Area Middle School was proud to announce 39 inductees on Sunday January 15th as you heard Renaissance and Renaissance alumni from 21 and 22 were invited to sing in a concert at Carnegie Hall in New York City they performed at Carnegie Hall for the Performing Arts Educators concert way over in Beulah Land featuring
103the music of composer Stacy Gibbs the group had a workshop with Mr Gibbs as well as a tech rehearsal with Miss excuse me Dr Peggy Detweiler director of choirs at Mansfield University this was the third time Dover has performed at Carnegie Hall based on a direct invitation from the artistic director Peggy Detweiler the group had a great time and our students represented Dover very very well and we are very proud of them we have some beautiful photos to share this week in my Friday Focus email Baker was asked to perform the national anthem at the PIAA State Football Championship held at Cumberland Valley for the double a game between Southern Colombia and Westinghouse congratulations to Bobby repp for making the nafme all Eastern choir students in this Ensemble are selected from a pool of auditions
104submitted from students in Connecticut Delaware Maine Massachusetts New Hampshire New Jersey Pennsylvania New York Rhode Island Vermont and Washington D.C this year the festival is in Rochester New York in April as Camden Buell mentioned earlier Kylie Bobby and Jensen gladfelter performed in the district choir at solanko high school last weekend the Dover drama Department presented The Outsiders on November 18th and 19th congratulations to the cast crew and directors and staff for an outstanding production the FFA chapter recently held its green hand and chapter degree reception during which 14 FFA members earned their green hand degree and five FFA members earned their chapter degrees last Monday January 9th at the Pennsylvania FFA midwinter convention at the PA Farm Show Brianna Grimm class of 2022 John Croft Samantha Perkins and Lee Schweitzer received their Keystone FFA degree
105this is the highest degree that can be given by Pennsylvania FFA Levi B Shore Clayton Grimm and Lucas Halterman received their FFA jackets earned through the Pennsylvania FFA alumni jacket scholarship campaign one more page I'm almost done Dover Area High School Deca earned a chapter honor and was recognized for Thrive level chapter campaigns we shared the press release in December the Dover unified Bocce team opened their season with a home match against Dallas town and the high school gym on Thursday afternoon the theme was fans in the stands and team members and Spectators who are tie-dye in support of the team congratulations to the varsity competitive cheer team for their performance at the PIAA District 3 competitive Spirit Championships held at Central Dauphin East High School on Saturday December 17th their successful finish advances the
106team to the PIAA State competitive Spirit Championships held at the Giant Center in Hershey on January 27th and 28th congratulations to Mary Alice Craig Mackenzie gamber and Hannah Hayes for being nominated for the game time p-a-y-a-i-a female athletes of the week and to John bub Mason Hockenberry and Jacob smizer for being nominated for the game time p-a-y-a-i-a male athlete of the week in their respective Sports on December 19th Gavin Mullins was named as a recipient of the 2022 mini Maxwell award as you heard from coach Snell Baker game time PA selected their y a I double A League All-Stars these selections are made by the writers and reporters for Game Time PA Coach Wayne snellbaker was selected as the Y A I double a coach of the year Thomas smizer was named first team cornerback
107Eric Campbell Gavin Mullins Zach Townsend and Braden zirkle were named honorable mention congratulations to coach snellbaker and to our Dover football student athletes in addition Thomas smizer was named 2022 Class 5A all eastern PA football.com team Eric Campbell and Gavin Mullins were honorable mention the 2022 edition of the easternpa football.com Class 5A postseason team consists of players from schools of districts one two three four eleven twelve and independent teams there is a first and second team an honorable mention for this post-season team the counseling department LED once again the spirit of giving program over the holidays the district and Community were able to brighten Christmas for just over 4 300 of our students that ends my report Mr President there's a lot of stuff there a lot happens in two months right any questions from
108our board members okay this brings us to our miscellaneous period for any other comments or observations from our board members I have several things I've been really proud okay um there's some things that are said sometimes in our meetings that I think we need to be more cautious with I know we're getting comments from the community but I think before we go and and condemn people in our district or buildings in our district we need to find out what's really happening and the first thing though I'd like to say is there was a comment made last week by someone about the incredible years program and how it's being taught how excuse me um critical race theories being taught in first grade so I made it my business to be there and I visited and I
109watched today and it was extraordinary there is no there's no CRT being done in first grade this is a wonderful wonderful program that evaluates it's a curriculum that evaluates the best Solutions or choices to problem situations as well as strengthening friendship skills I saw children being taught how to listen and wait for others to respond and that's one of the first units that they teach way back in September and I saw that today it was wonderful um they're taught how to follow directions they're taught how to deal with their emotions how to understand when their feelings are hurt and what to do about it how to feel happy how to figure out solutions to their problems to learn how to stop and apologize to people to learn how to ignore some of those hurtful things
110that are said to them and sometimes they just need to get a parent or a teacher involved in this um they're taught a little bit about controlling their well a lot about controlling their anger they had a thermometer there and it showed like okay when you're really angry what's the first thing you should do and I have to tell you this so I walk in and I taught first grade once so I love this image and um Mrs Smith the teacher introduced me to the children and the one and she explained why I was there to learn about the program and this little girl came out and she took my hand and she took me up to the front and she showed me the card that was a little turtle where he got his foot
111stepped on and what he was going to do about it and then she showed me the next card so what you do is you stop sign with it you stop and then it went on she wanted to explain each step of the program how then you sometimes you have to walk away sometimes you have to get somebody else involved she explained the whole thing and how and then on the thermometer how you slowly cool down and sometimes there's breathing brought into it we're all taught that my husband has high blood pressure and his doctor told him to do that you know we're all taught to calm down to think about what's happening and to slowly breathe okay they're taught positive play skills teamwork asking permission to borrow property being polite and giving compliment and you
112know the one thing I walked out of there with was you know maybe if more of our children across our country had this program we wouldn't have guns brought to school to settle problems they'd know how to settle their problems and they also parents are all asked if they want their children to be a part of this program so it's not just a fly-by-night thing and the parents have to agree to it and they do at the end of each lesson they're given a homework sheet that they can do it's up to them and the parents but there's a there's a double side the one problem there's a problem that's on the sheet and then the child figures out how to respond to this and either they can write a solution or their parent can
113and they can return it if they choose to Wally's classmate big red has been using the computer for a long time and doesn't want to share oh my golly if that's not a first grade thing Wally wants a turn what can he do how do you solve problems without causing bigger problems so anyway I think we need to be careful about throwing things out there in our community that are being taught in the schools of their lacking time and the other thing was I had a wonderful visit to the middle school last week and I wanted to do this because I've heard the Middle School condemned where the principals and well not just the middle school but a law school the principals are sitting in their offices all day and I haven't heard the Middle
114School the discipline the children are running among so I was really eager to meet with Dr halp and take a tour like she we were always being invited by Dr Cartwright or Dr Howe to go along on their their visits to the uh any of the buildings in the district so the first thing that happened was when I walked in the secretary took me back to the office suite to meet up with Dr help and I made sure I checked each office as I went back there and you know what they were all dark there weren't any principals or assistant principals or dean of students sitting in their offices doing nothing and I saw them as we toured the building I saw them out working on maybe they were monitoring the cafeteria I saw Mrs
115huffnagel on her phone talking to a parent I saw all kinds of things with administrators and we visited Mrs Brown's autistic support class and we observed lessons in there being taught by her and two AIDS we went to miss Weaver's family and consumer science and I talked to her about her curriculum and I was thrilled to find out that in her seventh grade curriculum she teaches financial literacy and then we went to Mr Australia's stem class which was exciting they were working either in groups or by themselves and they were figuring how to build a successful catapult now it's just a little thing I wasn't you know anything big but I saw them they were on their computers they were talking to each other it was fabulous and then he had um an engineer the
116um the steps that an engineer takes to solve a problem and he explained the whole the whole cycle to me and then he told me that's what the children are using those steps to try to figure out the development of what they're working on and how to build it um we went into Mrs Barr's class she was working on compounds in her chemistry class and she gave the children a compound and I was horrible in chemistry so this is really exciting to me okay so they had and then she she took that compound and she put it in a scenario of what that compound does to our uh environment how it causes erosion how it deteriorates metal it was awful and I thought oh my dude I'm thinking oh my golly why don't we get
117rid of this thing it was water which I I knew but the kids didn't know and they had to try to figure this out unfortunately we didn't have enough time for me to stay there and watch them do this I would have loved to have been there um Mrs Evie had her students working in groups to determine the purpose importance and fairness of several laws in ancient Mesopotamia she was teaching social studies I questioned her on curriculum too I asked her what the whole all the different curriculum excuse me all the different aspects of her freaking War for the whole year I learned so much about curriculum and the structure of the middle school was impressed by the Learning taking place I was in that building for two hours and never saw any signs of
118children running them up they were very organized we went by playhouses as they were being changing classes and the children would line up against the wall waiting for the other children to come out of that room so they could file in in an early fashion but yet I hear these awful things that are happening so we need to stop that and before we come here and make it make it public or make it out there or condemning I don't want to be condemned for something that I'm not guilty of come and talk to me find out that's what we need to do you need to get in there and you need to build visit the buildings and if you're invited to go in then go and if you hear something go in and see for
119your own eyes and then you can come back here and spread the truth instead of these false things that are being said that's all I have for tonight I have something so this is in regards to the heavy topic of transgender policy and I feel like due to the lawsuit that we should continue discussions about it and I know that another York County School District has taken steps to put a directive in place to make sure that they don't have a lawsuit so I just thought that we could do better I think more discussion about this idea of not having black and white this is how we operate and I just want to open I just want to open that discussion back up I feel like our girls need to have more protection you know
120they're young and they're they're the gender that gets assaulted and they're the gender who is usually most conscientious about the way they look they have a hard enough time just undressing you know in front of each other and then they have to worry about now opposite sex being in that environment or participating in sports that you know it's just really unfair so I think as a district we can do something just like what Redline did and put a directive in place to just go by biological whatever's stated on paperwork that comes in from the parents well I have two kids in the high school and they never talk about this they they're fine they've never had an issue I think parents are making more of a big deal of this than the actual students are
121uh I've never there's the kids have friends over Instagram all the time I disagree with that you can have public commentaries I'm just stating but don't you think that as parents we should protect the children like if our parents are upset we should listen to them they're those are these are their kids and well thank goodness I don't have to worry about it but there's parents out there who probably wonder is my child going to be in the locker room with somebody who's calling themselves you know the opposite now and wasn't my child going to come home like not wanting to go back to gym class or do this that or the other or you know angry because this person's participating in that this event with her and now she doesn't have a chance like
122she used to I I feel like we're making room for the one and forgetting the mass I know that Title IX says that as a district we can provide facilities for those children they're not telling us that we have to include them in the established facilities already like locker rooms and bathrooms do not have to be open they should be provided a separate place to go I think that's fair I think it's fair to all the kids even the ones who feel that way and I'm not doing this to single out those kids I'm thinking more okay let's what can we do to make sure everybody's feeling comfortable and in their place where they need to be especially when you're talking undressing what is our current policy on that do we have a policy I
123will state this the the Supreme Court has indicated and has decided that you cannot deny locker room or restroom facility usage in the public schools the red line policy that you're reflecting but when did the Supreme Court when are you talking about I'm sorry I don't have the date I mean is that within months is that just since last summer when the the new transgender you know all that stuff was coming out that the the transgender the Title IX that you're referring to deals with the sexual discrimination has there been a case decided since then uh no not specifically on that but it's the Boyertown case that has come out which indicates that we cannot exclude restroom and lock room facilities I have provided that information and I'd be happy to provide it to you
124as well that the Supreme Court has indicated that you cannot exclude in those situations so um I have recently I just read something in regards to Title IX and purple it has nothing to do with the Supreme Court decision and FERPA that had to do with facilities for keeping all those children separated in the school system that we can do that it is there's no wording that I know that I offered that you can't require it so do we have a policy on how we handle students like that do we have a written do we have a written policy we don't we've been advised not to have a policy on that and to manage each situation individually as it comes up work with families but we already are in a lawsuit which means we didn't
125handle it properly I I don't think we're involved in a lawsuit lawsuit are you referring to the mother that came here his child there's no lawsuit it's been dropped nothing has been filed there was never a lawsuit there was never a lawsuit I don't know I do so he's communicated to you recently no the once there was due once that situation happened there has been no communication from their attorney nor from that parent in regard to that matter do we have a current situation right now not that I'm aware of no no lawsuits so we're just gonna leave it open transgender student using no all I'm stating is I think that if we make it clear then we won't have the problem if we leave it open we're inviting the problem Mr Pratt you are
126alluding to the Red Lion what did you have to say about that remember that that policy is still being discussed and they have canceled numerous meetings related to it and they have already been threatened lawsuits by the ACLU and others regarding that policy should it be implemented okay other school districts over in Lancaster County have looked at the same issue and they've decided to table those issues waiting for further direction from the state the federal government so they've tabled that situation and waiting further waiting further guidance from those governments agencies spoke and the board acted based on what the community wanted and I still feel like that's our place to listen to what the community wants maybe we need to do a survey you know and I'm not saying let's do something wrong based on
127what the community wants so we open ourselves up to lawsuits I'm saying there is many young little girls and teenagers in this District who you know probably wander one day what's it going to look like for them to go into a bathroom or locker room and they're the gender that is assaulted time and time again when you mix genders in these environments we've seen it we've seen it all over the place so why we why why take the chance why not just say this is where we stand and we're doing it in protection of our students I don't think that's wrong it's not discriminatory okay anybody else okay I just want to add one comment um on a much lighter note than what's been taking place here and that is I wanted to touch on
128Dr Cartwright's mention of the Renaissance performance at Carnegie Hall I had the privilege of attending that performance it was amazing to see our students there Mr kendig's granddaughter was part of that performance to see your children up on a stage that's world renowned like that is just an incredible experience but there's more to this story than that and I think this is important for everybody to know this was actually supposed to happen back in 2021 which was the year of my daughter's graduation and we all know what happened in 2020 world shut down covet hit and this was one of those things that got canceled the students then felt devastated by this this they felt was one more thing that they lost you know they lost normal homecomings they lost normal proms they lost normal
129Friday Night Football games they lost all the normalcy of their Junior and senior years but out of the goodness of her heart and her generosity I think the person that needs to be recognized here is Miss Roberts our choral director she um actually had the foresight and the forethought to invite those students back Wendover was invited back to Carnegie Hall so that they didn't lose that opportunity that once in a lifetime experience so I really want to publicly thank Miss Roberts for that my daughter you know had a thrilling experience we had a thrilling experience watching her so I just wanted to publicly recognize a teachers like Miss Roberts that we have in this District we have amazing teachers throughout this entire district teachers unfortunately take too many bashings in public on social media things
130like that but this needs to be publicly noted she she did something incredible here she didn't forget those kids and she didn't forget what they lost and she took care of them so I just want to give kudos to her for doing that so any other comments or observations from our board members okay that brings us to our final public comment period again a 30-minute period for items on or off the agenda two minutes per speaker if you have anything you'd like to State please come to the microphone state your name and address for the record so my name's Alan Hogan 2500 admire Springs Drive so I didn't come to speak I was just here to watch but I just have one simple thing to say don't assume that kids aren't impacted by mixed gender
131in the locker room that's all I'm saying I have six through the high school some of them don't want to stand up because they get you know you know push down but I have three girls that's all I'm saying that's I know I'm just saying don't assume ask the kids ask them privately don't ask them in front of their peers thank you thank you Mr Hogan okay Mr Conley all right thank you um my first comments are going to be somewhat controversial I'm sure I do not want to say anything that that shows any lack of appreciation for the accomplishment of the of the children in the school however the the construct of front loading our meetings with the presentations it discourages attendance this facility won't handle the crowd there was such an overflow crowd
132here tonight that it was outside the door if you have a member of the public that's trying to attend this meeting for the first time they're going to show up and say there's no way I'm going to get in and they're gonna not attend I know there's some availability uh you know through electronic means to watch the meeting after the fact um but uh it seems that those types of things will be better done in a school assembly you can bring all the parents in to a larger meeting room give them an audience and an opportunity to present rather than taking board time because it reduces our time for deliberation and uh parking lot slam full so it's it puts a stress on the meeting I'll say again the consent agenda needs to be restructured
133we're mixing non-germaine items here field trips policy bills payments appointments leave requests proms contracts Finance reports which should be always be separate the minutes approvals should always be separate business contracts the ones that are in there this time should have absolutely been separate job descriptions Law Firm contracts I I would say that most certainly needs to be out there so the public can see that and have access to it when it gets buried we have a seven to nothing silent vote on a boatload of public business and it's concealed the last thing is that negotiations committee um no offense to anyone here we have a diverse board but the people in the the uh negotiation committee uh one's wife is a teacher the other one's a former teacher I'm not sure about the other member
134there but uh those three members I think have conflicts and um it's driving a potential 5.6 percent tax increase again this year that's a lot of cost and we just gave a bunch of raises I'd like to clarify Mr Conley that nobody on that negotiating committee has a spouse that is employed in the district I understand yeah but there's a there's Affinity relationships teachers teachers wives teachers former teachers um thank you for your time okay anybody else [Music] Craig can dig Willapa Drive we can agree to disagree on critical race Theory there's not a district in the United States that will admit they're teaching critical race Theory I know what I saw I saw first graders come in here social emotional grooming is what's going on it's associated secondly we had a parent come here
135and say that their child was looking at transgender moving sex whatever and they were never notified I spoke after that parent spoke and I said to this board and administration what is the Dover School District policy as far as notifying parents whether you want to talk about the use of bathrooms or other things that's another subject but I think the parents of this school district ought to know that if their child comes to school and starts talking about change in sex that that parent will be notified I don't think that's asking too much as a parent one last comment since we have a new Financial person a new facility person we spent an awful lot of time talking about how much are we going to charge the taxpayers to use this school building I brought
136up last year we have a business operating in the school building doesn't pay one penny of taxes to this school district doesn't pay anything for the use of the school and we allow that to go on and yet we spend a half an hour 45 minutes figuring out what we're going to charge the taxpayers to use this building something's wrong folks thank you Mr Kennedy anybody else okay Mr Conley I just also wanted to address one thing from your first public comment when it comes to the Cyber Charter Schools I would highly encourage you to talk to representative Grove we can't do anything about them he can you know he's at the state level so I'd suggest trying to reach out to him and connect with him and share your conversations you know and concerns
137with him on that okay thank you also we have two Representatives oh yes Don Kiefer yeah donkey for also depending on where you live within the district Don Kiefer might be your representative so okay okay uh future meeting announcements uh we have February 14th Happy Valentine's Day our board planning meeting and work session at 6 pm and February 21st 2023 our board meeting at 7 pm so if there is no further business I will entertain a mission to adjourn second all in favor say aye aye aye we're adjourned thank you foreign