001good evening everyone the purpose of this meeting is to conduct the business of the Gettysburg area school district public common is welcome in issues we referred to the appropriate board committee or administrator comments will be summarized in the official board minutes which will be available by contacting the business office we take a moment and silence any electronic devices I'd be appreciated Miss Collins Mike Carey and Tim have been excused for this evening everyone else is accounted for please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance what did you want to do we're gonna jump right in this evening to our citizens participation but before I get started um for people coming to me I sound like a broken record I'm going to ask again this evening that um is divided as we are uh it's just it's
002disappointing to see it as a community but we can control one thing and it's my responsibility to control the board meeting so I'm going to ask everybody to be civil there's no need for standing ovations everybody has an opinion that wants and wants to be speak before the board and should be recognized in a peaceful civil matter we've been great so far when you look around at the other districts I'm pretty proud that we can come in here and have disagreements and and work through them without tracking each other down in a parking lot or having an issue in here so I'm asking you again for that favor we have 13 speakers tonight I'm going to add an additional minute we're going to go four minutes for 30 minutes so we can get into the
003board business a lot of the speaking is repetitiveness but I understand I want to give everybody an opportunity for their voice to be heard so we're trying to limit the uh and by the way we are consistent with other districts so I'm not making this rule from nowhere so with that I'll turn it over to Mr Al and when you get the four minutes we'll give you a notification if you're close I'm not going to stop you from talking just be considerate that other people want to get up and give their opinion also thank you good evening everyone and thanks for coming as uh our president said we have 13 that have asked to address the board if you would come up to the microphone and speak clearly we appreciate that I apologize in advance
004if I mispronounce anybody's name uh and then again we will give you a one minute warning when we're at three minutes if it happens to go a little bit longer than that all right thank you so our first uh speaker is the only thing I would say is if you're comfortable if you could remove your mask if you're not going to remove it you're going to have to really talk loud from where we're sitting the mass makes it difficult for me even here my colleagues let alone people at the podium thank you one of my friends from AYSO soccer Jared Don Moyer foreign was willing to mask children in order to keep them in the schools this year is no different nothing has changed the data is still clear that masking will help prevent the
005spread of covid the Mandate is in effect because we need it for the safety of all children so that they can continue in-person learning and receive a free public and safe education we do not get to choose which laws or mandates that we follow this is a state-run institution and the state has mandated everyone needs to wear a mask in the school and must have medical documentation in order to receive exempt status for those that argue this is a power play by our state government we are not the only state that has started the school year with districts having the option of mass but now have switched to a mandate issued by the state for example the Republican governor of Maryland Larry Hogan started the school year allowing Maryland districts the option of masking their
006children as of last week the that is no longer in effect the Board of Education in Maryland mandated all people in K-12 schools must wear a mask it is not about politics it's not about a power play it is not about constitutional rights it is about the safety and well-being of the children in the school districts as a last point there will be consequences for districts that are not following the guidance there is a preschool in this County that is closed due to cases without a reopening date because the Department of Health came aware became aware of that they were not enforced in the masking mandate per Administration the Gettysburg area school district is not currently requiring documentation to justify a masking exemption it is not requiring proof of vaccination in response to students declining
007to quarantine due to vaccination status both these actions are in direct Defiance of the Mandate please don't let our schools be shut down by the Department of Health for not following the Mandate as written thank you for your time thank you Jared next we have Lynn Oren I practice for two minutes so I'm hoping I can stay under that we're not going to cut your Michael dear school board members and administrators thank you for the important work that you do to make Gettysburg area school district a great place to learn as a concerned Community member I have a few requests as you discuss the state's mask mandate I'm concerned for the health of all Gettysburg area school district students their families my granddaughter and the staff I want you to protect them as a retired
008educator of Gettysburg I can only begin to imagine how much teachers want to get back to working with students in person so students want to be learning in person with teachers and classmates and parents want their children in school but I am worried about the safety of all of them as you move forward please consider how much taxpayer money you need to protect and teach our children not how much you need to sue the state please inform us of the costs already spent on this possible lawsuit then consider could you have spent this lawsuit money to update to Gettysburg area school district's 23 year old social studies resources the requests are please require all students faculty and staff to wear appropriate Health masks and face Shields have properly covered the mouth and the nose in
009classrooms large instructional group rooms hallways and school buses please have them practice social distancing in classrooms please have the administrators be responsible for enforcing students to wear masks do not burden our teachers with enforcement allow your teachers to spend their time teaching our children precious learning time has already been lost during this pandemic I understand these minimal requests will be challenging to enforce however as board members and administrators you are tasked with the tremendous responsibility of educating our students and keeping them safe and healthy in the midst of a global pandemic please follow the state mask mandate and keep our students in school while prioritizing the health and the safety of every student parent teacher administrator and staff member who walks into our school building the evidence in the science are very clear about the
010benefits of face coverings to stop the spread of cover 19. if you and we can save the life of just one student or staff member by following the state mask mandate wouldn't it be worth it thank you next we have Susan Seibel Willard good evening I know you guys are tired of hearing from me however I stand here with a little bit of a different approach um I let the last meaning feeling speechless I was speechless about the way people talk to you guys and the way they treated you I'm an administrator on a much smaller scale and if people had talked to me that way I probably wouldn't be in my current position any longer I appreciate everything that you're doing and trying to do and I want you to hear those words from
011me however I want to go over a couple statistics well no wait a minute first I wanted to personally think Sylvan his comments at the end of the last meeting regarding the safety of his grandchildren and worrying about other people's children personalize that for me you're personally invested in the children in our community I appreciate you Kenny the way you ran that last meeting Kudos thank you you did more than I ever could have done I appreciate you Al thank you you're supporting an initiative that's close to my heart and now you're sitting here and taking a lot of lack from a lot of people you don't even know thank you um I wanted to share an email that I received on Friday from a parent who was keeping her child home and she said
012that she would let me know whether the child had coven so my response to her was his own child being informed that they were close contact this is the parents reply to me we've not been informed of any close contacts to be honest I I don't have trust in the school's level of contact tracing or how seriously they're taking this the nurse called me yesterday saying that my child had a sore Theory but no other symptoms so she sent her back to class I work in a school district where if this had happened I would have had to pick my child up immediately parents aren't trusting our schools that's heartbreaking um I'd like to make a simple suggestion the dashboard is really confusing um it's giving us a two-week window could we just have one
013week's total and then accumulative if you want a really good example of what a dashboard should look like that's easy for her independent general population to read Waynesboro Area School District has a very good one where they put current student cases current adult cases and then total since the start of the school year another statistic a man stood up here two weeks ago and said that the mortality rate in children was really low um however children are still dying from this and I beg any one of you to ask a parent who lost a child to covid if that mortality rate mattered to them currently we've had 483 cases of covet in children age zero to nine since the pandemic began that's an average of 52 children in Adams County a week currently there's been
0148 824 cases of children age 10 to 19. that's an average of 114 children a week Adams County has a statistic that I don't think we should be proud of 65 children in Adams County have been hospitalized that's the third highest in the state of Pennsylvania [Music] that's pretty sad so I also wanted to reflect on our mission and our vision and then I'll be done in the mission of the Gettysburg area school district the one sentence claims our purpose is to provide a safe and healthy environment in which all students can learn in our vision it states the district will provide a safe and caring learning environment where students can learn under these current conditions I don't know how that's going to happen or continue to happen all we have to do is take
015some simple steps very rude we aren't inappropriate get a vaccine thank you Suzanne next we have Dawson Smith uh I'm not a public speaker so I don't know how well this is going to go but um yeah I'm Dawson and I do support the guidance of the Pennsylvania Department of Health towards masking I know that was kind of a last week thing I was here last week and I wanted to say something but I chose not to but I figured I'd come here this week to share it um so 18 years ago when I was just two years old I was diagnosed with leukemia for and for the next two and a half years I uh I received a daily regimen of chemotherapy and a slurry of other drugs that I don't even know the
016names of this compromised my immune system for those two and a half years and many people may not be aware of the precautions that people specifically my parents had to take to keep me safe for example when driving we could not have the vents open in the car because there is a risk that an Airborne particle could enter through the car system so we had to recirculate the air inside when I got home from the hospital my dad and my grandfather had to sanitize our house clean the carpets clean all the appliances to make sure that there was no risk of infection and even up until kindergarten my mom would come in and sanitize toys to make sure that there was no risk of infection let me see where I'm at now in addition to
017this one of the largest preventative actions that was taken was making sure that I wore a mask and making sure that those around me wore masks they wore masks not because of a mandate not because and I do hate this term of you know sheep or any other sort of term towards people who wear masks but because something as simple as a cough could kill me I wear my mask for that two-year-old I wear my mask for all of the parents and Educators who may have a child or may have a parent or may be themselves have the same situation that I was going through because for the for two and a half years I was that family member this is why I support the guidance from the Department of Health and I know that
018last week I forget who it was I believe it was a couple of you said that this is a lose-lose situation or that you can't please everyone I totally agree that this is a tough decision and going forward and enforcement and everything like that It's Tricky and I respect the entire board no matter who you are for having the endurance to uh take on this listen to the public take criticism and just anything else so I totally respect that and I hope that more productive discussion can continue and regardless of the form thank you Dawson thank you next uh Jenna Oren good evening board thank you very much for the opportunity to speak I truly feel like I have nothing to say after Dawson spoke of his experiences um I have been here talking about
019other issues but this evening I would like to talk about covid and I'd like to talk about it from the perspective of thinking about others and thinking about the collective good for our community I'm really concerned about what this means for our most vulnerable students we know that all students learn best when they're in person and when they're with their teachers and their peers so I think doing anything we can to keep our students in school with their peers and with their teachers are essential and it's clear whether we like it or not that masks are one of those factors that are helpful I don't like wearing a mask but I do it because it's helpful for others it's helpful for myself and it keeps our community safe when I think about the number of
020vulnerable students and underserved students that we have in this District I recognize the important significance truly of following everything we can do to keep our students safe meaning wearing masks spacing students and air ventilation all three important factors when I think of the number of el students we have in this District El students really need to be in person that's one of the best ways to raise outcomes for our El students this is also true for our students with special needs I really think we need to think about what is the collective good for our district what is the collective good for our community and then I also think about our Health Care Systems and the tax taxing experiences that our physicians are facing right now in the emergency rooms in Gettysburg and throughout our
021County I have turned down multiple requests to travel for work because I'm afraid to go to communities where I know that the emergency rooms are overtaxed if anybody is in a car accident if anybody has a heart attack if anybody needs to get to an emergency room and our physicians are essentially bombarded with people as a result of covid and we as a school district can help prevent some of this taxing I mean it's just it's exhausting for our physicians I have a friend who is an ER physician in a pediatric unit the number of kids on ventilators right now in his ER is astounding and he sends his kindergartner to school every day saying please honey do not take your mask off wanting to show her the pictures of the kids he sees on
022ventilators the Delta variant is different last year we were not faced with it I think we need to really come together as a community and understand that this is a choice that's challenging it's not fun but we need to get through this together thank you Jenna next we have Derek Scott all right um thank you board members for uh Listen to Everybody speak today I know it's been a lot of repetitive stuff um but I guess I just want to um start out by talking a little bit I mean at first I'd like to say I would much rather be talking about stuff that's actually going to improve the education of the students in the district and not have to really harp on covid or hopefully it doesn't last that much longer and we can
023all get past it I know nobody likes to wear a mask myself included but it does seem like the mass have proven to at least reduce the spread somewhat and um I think it's not really a super invasive thing to just wear a mask for the hours that you're in school just to keep the spread down so that everybody can continue to send their children to school and not have to have quarantining events where the kids have to be at home and parents who work from home and even some parents who can't work from home if you can't work from them I guess you have to take off work or if you're like myself and you can work from home it's just a distraction to have especially of the small children at home I just
024tell an anecdotal story um have a three and a half year old and we had to keep her out of daycare last week because she just had a little scratchy throat I mean we knew it wasn't covet or anything like that she didn't have any fever she didn't have really any symptoms she just complained about her throat being a little scratchy so we kept her home from school and we had to work from home around her and it's hard to do meetings with a three-year-old running in or trying to write something when every five minutes they're asking you for something and so in order to keep like the workflow for parents going I feel like it's important to have children wearing masks in school like I said just to come to spread and keep the
025keep the classrooms open um it's just and like I said I couldn't imagine if I was a person that had to actually take off work to uh and and some people don't even have vacation time you have to take off work and then you're not getting a check because your child has to stay home from school um it's just really difficult for parents and I think that it's important that we um keep the schools open we keep the spread down I mean with my daughter like I said we knew she didn't have covid but we had to bring her to get a test it wasn't the invasive you know it wasn't the one where they scraped your brain it was just a nostril you know a little nostril swipe she was all nervous about it
026but after they did it she had you know she was actually relieved I think for some reason she thought it was gonna be way worse than it was and obviously she was negative so we were able to send her back to school this week but I mean if everybody would just take the time to wear them and wear a mask and hopefully that more people won't have to go through that type of stuff um and like I said hopefully that we can we can get past all this and get back to trying to do more substantive things that'll actually improve the outcomes for children and the educational process and the educational experiences of children but for right now I guess we got to focus on safety issues and so I think the easiest most or
027least invasive version of this is sending kids to school with masks on because there's a lot of evidence that shows that kids learn much better in a classroom I think I think most people can agree I don't want to speak for everyone so I say most people can agree that um last year when children were learning or two years ago and last year I guess in some instances when children were learning from home uh it was just I mean there wasn't really a lot of Education going on it was just half days of them staring at a computer screen and not really doing anything I guess I'm just speaking from my own children's perspective but um I guess in closing I just want to say that um it's important to keep the children in school
028because they learn better that way it's also important for the economy to keep the economy moving because parents don't have to take off time from work to stay at home with their kids and I think it's just in the common interest of everyone to wear a mask so that you know God forbid it doesn't get worse and then there's more invasive mandates that I don't think any of us want to see so you know if we got to put up with a little bit of stuff we don't want to deal with in order to avoid putting up with worse stuff that we have to deal with I think you know it's a little bit of a give and take where you're dealing with big institutions that I mean I think we all know like to
029impose things on people we don't want to give them more reason to impose things on people so I think if we can all just come to a common agreement that we need to just you know wear the mask for the time being until this blows over and then we can get back to normal life I think um we can uh we can then move forward from there and that's all I'm going to say thank you thank you Derek next we have Aaron Weichert hi my name is actually Aaron nykirk so thank you I want to thank the school board and administrators for everything that you do and all the teachers just to give them credit for what they've had to endure um I uh I hope that you will refuse the unwarranted mask mandate and
030allow the children to learn and thrive in an unrestricted manner with confidence that they and our community are healthy and well knowledge is power and an ancient sage has once said You shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free people aged 0 to 25 have a 99 recovery rate from coven 19. there is no need for a vaccine among this age demographic their own immune system has taken care of them and will continue today to will continue today September 20th uh 2021 as of 12 p.m from the health.pa.gov website they are reporting a 91 percent recovery rate for covid-19 in the state of Pennsylvania a 91 recovery rate that is good news that is tremendous news that is an epidemic of recovery in our state against covid-19 I wish that were the
031front page news the district has the right to refuse this unwarranted mask mandate as does each family in the state of Pennsylvania a simple Declaration of refusing to comply with the Mandate is sufficient no legal action is needed because the state and the governor know that this massive overreach of power against our individual rights will cause discrimination lawsuits children have a right to be educated mask free and not be discriminated against the Mandate states that page five section 5. parents I want to encourage you to know your rights to go to libertyfirstsociety.com and watch the non-compliant movie constitutional lawyer Chris Anne Hall will give you quite an education for those that may be afraid of you or your loved ones Contracting covid early treatment and medication are available I can share two websites with you
032f l c c alliance.com and the website frontlinemds.com both of these websites provide prevention protocols with supplements they have early treatment medications and recommendations available and doctors available for Telehealth communication they also have hospitalization protocols available on their website I urge the school board to represent the people of this County and refuse the mask mandate in return to mask free education for all students I didn't know I would be limited I mean I would have more than two minutes so I would like to add a few more comments I know that the school system has updated their ventilation system so we've already taken measures to improve the environment that the students are in so thank you for that um uh just also wanted to demonstrate something that I think we've all been taught germs go
033in the elbow elbow goes down away from the face not held in a warm wet environment to Foster continued sickness um we can also take a step back and maybe look at other countries that have done different things the country of Sweden has nearly 2 million students in their education system they did not mask and they did not have um vaccines mail available and in the attire 2 million students 15 students got sick so I do also have an email filled with evidence about the lack of efficacy for the masks really providing a lack of spread if people would like I can forward that email to the school board and the administrators or if anyone would like to have that information forwarded to you from me my email is e n e i k i
034r k gmail.com and I would be happy to share that information with you again I urge the school board not to continue with the mask mandate thank you thank you Aaron and we do have your email on the slip that you provided for us thank you next we have Michelle smyers good evening um I'm not going to talk about coven I'm not going to talk about masks I'm going to switch it up for you and I am going to talk about 10th grade accelerated English my son is a student in the class about 10 days ago his teacher sent me a syllabus for the class the syllabus was missing the book list and by definition a syllabus should also contain the list of books that they are planning on using with the exception of the
035year of 2011 I have had kids in this District since 1994. I've received a whole lot of communication from a whole lot of teachers and every time I received a syllabus it's had a book list on it so I sent the teacher an email and said hey could you just please send me the book list her response was the following my instructional choices are fluid in response to students needs as they return from virtual learning since I am a first year teacher I'm in collaboration with my department to determine which text will be taught that being said every 10th grade English teacher does teach Greek mythology and Oedipus as mentioned in my syllabus this course involves the study of world literature I will be a reading a variety of literature a literary genres such as
036novel short stories poetry drama and a variety of non-fiction each test each text will be taught to the PA standards which will prepare students for the Keystone exam at the end of the course I hope this helps still didn't get an answer on books so I sent another email and said could you give me a list of books you're planning on reading if you have a list of genres I would think there's probably a list after three days I didn't hear from her I emailed her again I know you're busy I'm busy too could you please send me the list of books didn't hear from her instead I called Mr Lusk Mr Lusk has informed me that yes there is a list she doesn't know what book she's going to use yet but if I
037want that list of books I need to follow right to know I think it's a little crazy that I have to follow right to know find out what books you're going to be using to educate my child and I'm pretty sure Mrs Wallen has other things to do then answer my right to now thank you the last thing I want to bring to your attention is that I happen to know for a fact that as of 7 A.M this morning there were no less than 50 substitute positions available at Gettysburg School District I also know for a fact that there are substitutes that are willing to come and work at your school however some of the subs would like to wear a face shield instead of a mask and according to the Mandate of which
038I have a copy right here it clearly states that face masks are acceptable I would like to ask this District to please consider allowing your substitutes to wear a face shield in place of a face mask so that you can get those 50 substitute positions filled thank you Michelle and just a quick remark regarding the uh the book list issue I do appreciate you starting with the teacher and then going to the principal and following the chain of command when we have specific questions like that that come to the board we will turn those over to Dr Perrin or Dr lay and have them follow up with you but I appreciate you following the chain of command thank you next we have Sharon Birch all right sorry for the long walk I was trying to
039promote not sitting on top of a bunch of people my name is Sharon I have a child in high school where as of Friday's dashboard 17 reported positive cases I just wanted to say that I'm in full support of masking I appreciate the effort that the district administrators staff and especially teachers are making to enforce the Mandate regardless of whatever level of support they may or may not be getting from the school board thank you Sharon next we have Zach Davis [Music] foreign good evening school board and community members my name is Zach Davis I'm the father of two young children who are five and six years old attending Franklin Elementary tonight I'd like to give you my take on CRT or critical race Theory and why I should stay out of our schools we
040live in a great country and it's an amazing place with amazing opportunities and an incredible history critical race Theory does not focus on these things instead it emphasizes the negatives can you imagine what it's like for our children growing up in today's society due to the mass mandate our kids don't get to see other people's Expressions which is an important part of socialization but and then you're told you may be spreading deadly diseases and killing people if you're white you're told that your ancestors are responsible for all the evils of the world if you're black you're now all of a sudden a victim and told you can't make it in society then on top of all that forget about biology forget about science you may not be a boy or a girl anymore and we're
041expecting our kids to grow up and be normal are you kidding me as our children are trying to to develop their own self-concept this crap gets thrown into the mix what effect is that going to have on them long term this isn't even about politics anymore this is about people who appreciate America for the ideal of Liberty freedom and justice versus people who want something completely different a utopian society or the government takes care of you from Cradle to grave where you give them all the power that doesn't work our nation will not survive a generation of leadership even more poorly educated than what we have right now and we won't survive a generation of students taught to hate its own country and despise its history we should be looking at ways to create unity
042and Common Ground instead of institutionalizing our differences and fighting with each other that's all I really have to say for tonight thank you thank you Zach next we have Frederica mitzen and Frederica please correct me if I mispronounced your name thank you and you have to have German in your blood you got it right both names thank you sometimes I'd rather be lucky than good that was brilliant thank you for this opportunity to to the board I come not as a parent but as a pastor as a pastor that goes to different churches working with churches that have in my denomination that have conflict and so I know conflict when I see it um it's important that we figure out how we're going to deal with conflict and beginning this meeting today was brilliant thank
043you for your words the last meeting that I attended last two weeks ago was Rocky I think we can all agree it was Rocky and I don't think any of us were too happy for that so I appreciate your stipulations early on and offering us how we do this um how we learn to disagree in a healthy way is what I would like us to be attentive to um this is a controversial issue obviously the whole idea of masking how we are going to talk about that is important I think um I wanted to say as a pastor I deal with senior citizens and families with young kids and they come together and so we're not just talking about the kids in school and then coming home they do come home to their grandparents or
044aunts and uncles or neighbors and so how are we going to to deal with this our science says masking is the thing I think we're all eager to move beyond that but until we do that perhaps we need to follow science here um I met with a young mother who was very concerned with how to deal with her kindergartner and second grader how to mask because they were masking in their school so she set her children down kindergarten second grade many of you know that and she said I talked with them and explained to them that the masks kept them safe but also kept their grandparents safe and other people so she explained to them what the issue was and said you can help us if we all do this together we'll get ahead faster
045and get out of this time and she showed them how to wear masks Etc this is a kindergartner and second grader so I was rather impressed myself with how she did that and um the little kindergartner came home that after the first day of school I just have to share this with you it's this beautiful put me into tears and she said Mommy Mommy I wear my mask all day yes it was hard but I'm keeping Grandma safe I just thought that was beautiful a little kindergartner who had figured this out so thank you for being here together and for talking in a pleasant way we will figure this out but if we are going to survive as a country we need to do it together thank you very much thank you Pastor Frederica next
046we have Smitha Nair good evening everyone um I want to thank you all for this opportunity to address the board I would like to address the growing debate around Governor wool's mask mandate and the Gettysburg School District board's decision to challenge that I am a board-certified family medicine physician who has proudly served Gettysburg and the surrounding Community for over 15 years my desk my decision to dedicate myself to this career and sacrifice over a decade of my life to medical training was based on a passion for ensuring the health of families throughout their lives enabling them to live their lives to the fullest in good health nothing more nothing less since the Advent of social media misinformation about medicine and health care has proliferated universities like Google Facebook or WebMD have succeeded in letting people
047earn their medical degree in a day while it took me nearly a decade to become a fully trained physician while I advocate for patient empowerment and education the science and rigor behind our practice guidelines and treatment recommendations takes years to fully appreciate through mandatory continuing medical education every physician stays up to date on developments in their respective fields in an effort to provide patients with the best possible care I am saddened and disappointed to see how the politicization of a global pandemic has deviated us from Common Sense policies that protect our children and our communities and let us down a path to hundreds of thousands of preventable deaths I'm also angry angry that the public that turns to us physicians in the deepest moments of vulnerability and need turns around to mistrust and blatantly disrespect
048the bond of the patient doctor relationship has been violated I am also angry that my physician colleagues and other hospital employees have to work in these conditions tired beyond words dealing with preventable deaths on a daily basis we Physicians are trained to preserve life as students we looked up to our principals and teachers to set an example for us to follow and by doing so it taught us to be disciplined follow the laws and respect authority in other words be good citizens what I see today baffles me how can our school administrators and board members who are children who are our Children's role models defy these principles what example are we setting for our children what future are we creating by doing this and what about the warrior Pride camps Warrior Pride includes teaching lessons
049on the importance of having a positive attitude being respectful demonstrating Integrity good decision making and showing empathy by voting at the last board meeting to challenge the governor will mask mandate many members of the board have shown lack of concern for their fellow community members and the warrior Pride statement as a physician and speaking on behalf of my colleagues including nurses physician assistants medical assistants technicians and many more who dedicate their lives to saving yours I kindly request that you consider the safety of our children and community and not challenge this mandate it is not a battle to be fought a show of bravado but a common sense decision to be made for the health and safety of our children as a physician I have taken the Hippocratic oath to do no harm to serve
050my patients and treat them to the best of my ability I know if Case is rise and we Face another outbreak I would step up to treat the sick in a heartbeat having said that would you consider this what if all the healthcare professionals decided it was their freedom of choice to treat only those who complied with the rules and turn away those who didn't how unfair and cruel would that be that is exactly what is happening if you choose to ignore the very guidelines designed to protect us 30 seconds please thank you for the time for listening to me but I kindly kindly request all of you to come together as a community and work together on this just for all our sake for the kids sake if you all if I had to
051meet with each and every one of you to make this humble request I would but I'm doing it right here hopefully everyone is listening so thank you thank you next we have Carol Robert go a little slow I apologize good evening first I would like to express my appreciation for your continued commitment to parental Choice when it comes to the decision to mask our students I realized this quote mandate is putting the board in a difficult position I hope that this will be resolved in time I also appreciate that you're giving us a voice and willingness to have a conversation I also wanted to update you and the moms for Liberty Movement since January our chapters have grown to 120 chapters in 29 states with many more chapters waiting in the pipeline to be approved
052Pennsylvania alone has 14 chapters our local group has close to 300 members and is growing daily Nationwide there are over 45 000 members the last thing I want to focus on is the importance of Parental and Community involvement in the education of our children I've been criticized because I no longer have a child in the district however I do have relatives and children of friends in this District I am also a taxpayer in a district when my son was in school I took advantage of many opportunities to stay involved I helped in the classroom I was very involved in the PTO I went in field trips and I marched in Halloween parades I had conversations with my son's teachers routinely one of the most memorable was my involvement in the steering committee for the four
053or five School plan Gettysburg School District I was asked by Ed Ruggles to participate as a parent in the district I was kind of surprised as I was very outspoken against the project but I agreed not saying that none of my concerns were realized but overall I thought it was a great experience for my son and I was sorry when the district stopped it in closing I would like to encourage parents to get involved in their schools wherever they can every elementary school has a PTO get to know your child's teachers and don't be afraid to ask questions ask about volunteering in the classroom volunteer to help chaperone field trips Gettysburg School District district also has advisory boards for title one in each Elementary building there are parent parent advisors on each of those boards
054asked to be put on these advisory boards if you can afford the time commitment consider running for school board be committed to help give your child the best chance to be successful at life thank you for letting me speak thank you Carol and our our last uh speaker this evening Karen Martin good evening board thank you for um taking the time to listen to all of us this evening I wasn't planning on speaking um until I witnessed grown adults standing here begging you to mask children I have a huge problem with that I'm strictly against the mandate you know the statistics you've heard it all I'm not going to stand here and repeat it I'm simply going to ask why is no one Speaking of the psychological damage to children does anyone care or is
055it just about you feeling good about yourself and your safety as an adult are we really thinking about the children somebody yield the rest of my time to a two-year-old named Mason you know they masked two and three and four-year-olds at daycare right it's amazing how many people don't know that it's not just the K through 12. it's the two and three-year-olds and I know because I have two and three-year-old granddaughters so I'd like to just play something for you you can't see it but you'll be able to hear it and if you have a heart I'm sure that you'll feel it thank you [Music] no you gotta keep it on can you guys hear it get your mask on there you go keep it right there yay Mason yay we're gonna keep it right
056here [Music] amazing [Music] in that minute in 19 second clip That Daycare worker applied that mask over his face nine times nine times he removed it I think y'all need to think about the children thank you for your time thank you Karen and that wraps up public comment well before we move on um I do on behalf of the board especially for my own sake thank everybody for being civil here this evening after watching some other meetings I know there are some differences and I respect the fact that you take the time and come up here and give us your opinion your perspective on stuff the board obviously volunteers administrative and the staff have their hands full and we're trying to keep our focus and I believe Mr Scott said it the best our Focus
057back to the educational process of our kids so thank you having said that we will move on to routine approvals for the board members that are present here this evening I did not get any notification that anybody wanted something separated does that remain true may I have a motion for 5.1 through five point ten [Music] question on the floor Mr President Kerry I apologize I did not know that you were on here I would have I'll add you on to that go ahead yep I've been um been on the whole time um I do have a question sure the financial report um on the general fund I'm pausing because it seems like a little bit of a delay um there's an item if this is 95 Groups Incorporated and the description so it's l e
058or phonics program my question is is that me for Lincoln Elementary and we'll be there additional purchases for James Gettys and Franklin Township in similar amounts Belinda Linda are you equipped for that Carrie I'm speaking with Belinda she would like to have an opportunity to look into that and get back to you okay thank you are there any additional questions hearing none uh roll call Amy Beth yeah jimin yes Sylvan yes Al yes Kathleen yes Carrie yes and I vote Yes sir we're gonna pause real quickly here um I'm going to allow um seeing there's no items for board action under the information items I'm going to turn this over to Jason for a minute okay just uh back to the human resources report I just wanted to introduce Rebecca leathery is she still here
059in the back waving her arm and way in the back all right so after a long exhaustive search Rebecca will be joining the district as the new Communications coordinator um she'll start be starting in a couple of weeks we're very very glad to have Rebecca joining our team and I hope that uh she gets around to meet everybody uh everybody soon we're very fortunate and Rebecca joins us from industry so welcome Rebecca thank you starting okay under informational items a curriculum cycle I believe Dr lay were you going to address that [Music] thank you Christine lay assistance superintendent my purpose tonight is to share the Gettysburg area school district curriculum cycle in an attempt to explain the timely process of curricular revisions the five-phase process includes studying research Gap analysis curriculum alignment curriculum writing pilot
060and implementation evaluation and revise in the 1920-29 excuse me 2019 2020 school year we adopted the understanding by Design ubd curriculum writing model and began implementing this with our math science and English departments our work was abruptly interrupted in 2020 due to the impact of the pandemic our efforts were redirected toward designing a hybrid and Blended learning environment while managing temporary school closures work typically conducted by teachers in the summer was delayed and our inability to secure substitutes prohibit us from continuing our efforts during the 20 21 school year some were continued during the summer of 2021 and we look forward to gaining momentum during the planned professional development days this school year completed ubd Curriculum maps will be presented to the board of school directors for approval learning Maps curricular resources National and state
061standard aligned documents guide the teachers lesson plans and instruction these documents retained in digital files by the department of grade level these files were not posted on the district website in our attempt to be more homogeneous in our process using the ubd model but this information will be shared by the end of September 2021 this decision lies with me after numerous requests for transparency of the district curriculum if questions arise I encourage parents and community members to direct them to my attention at clay at gasd-pa.org currently teachers are bombarded with the demands of instructing their students while ensuring absent students are receiving an instruction and assignments for prolonged periods of time they remain cognizant of their students mental health needs while ensuring students practice health and safety measures to mitigate the spread of the Covent
062variants are your due to have Grace with them when you have questions or concerns regarding their instructional material selections the teachers are doing the best they can to keep their focus on teaching and learning while navigating the matters named above now more than ever teachers need to feel supported by our parents and community so please be patient and kind when interacting with them and their building administrators thank you and do you have any questions Dr Lee before you sit down uh thanks for providing this and for the five steps in our curriculum review process there's been some questions from the community recently regarding uh closing the achievement Gap in Step number two of our process am I assuming that that that's what we're talking about there and in your feeling do we have some data
063to support that we are are we making some progress in that area with our historically low achieving students the subgroups that historically are in deficits and so on well phase two really would be a gap analysis of the current curriculum and alignment with newer standards and resources but certainly throughout the process adjustments are made based on local and state benchmarks that we're conducting so it is an ongoing process and we have a lot of data that we are collecting to make our decisions when we make revisions to our curriculum and instruction in our classrooms so yes that data is available if that was your question and Dr lay would it be fair given the circumstances that we had to deal with last year and a lack of the state testing and stuff that it's going
064to take us a little bit to look at this together this day out of and make sure that we're accurate I mean we have local data that we've conducted throughout so it you know there isn't one single data point that we use to guide our instruction but yeah it's ongoing when kids come back from remote learning environments temporary school closures and just a typical summer Gap we start every year with new benchmarks I appreciate you addressing that because as Al said that we have a seen an uptick in communication to the board reference to our curriculum and and to our achievement gaps and and I appreciate your words tonight because being in this district and having three kids through it I don't I can't tell you one teacher here it wants to see a child
065fail or get left behind in any subject so I appreciate it thank you Don William may ask a question sure yeah it has a box for a classroom I'm aware of the situation that was spoken about this evening if that's what do you feel like it's isolated or is that something that has happened in the past just from your knowledge from my knowledge it's this is the only situation that I'm aware of thank you I appreciate it you're welcome I think um Jason Perrin superintendent a thing can also to kind of a broader answer to your question earlier not just curriculum processes kind of were interrupted by covid-19 months ago there are several initiatives going on in the district where doing school I took absolute priority over some of the work uh being done and
066I wouldn't say not just last year but this year as we continue to be responsive to students being in school every day which is certainly the model that we prefer there are some things that uh some things that we're working on that we just didn't even start just because we want everybody's efforts to be on not just the mechanics of how we're going to do school but then operating instructionally within those models to best meet the needs of the students not just educationally as Dr lay stated but there's also kind of the social emotional piece um you know just as we started this school year and teachers you know generally spend some time building classroom Community that's just what you do as a you know as a teacher you know we we gave we gave
067folks the opportunity and the ability to spend some extra time on that because we had you know the wide gamut of of students who hadn't been to school hadn't been to in-person school in quite a long time and there was some anxiety in terms of coming back to that so we want to make sure that we're being responsive to you know to all students so so yeah there are a lot of processes that got interrupted 19 months ago that still remain uh disrupted but the goal is always going to be instructions so he's got to keep keep our keep our eye on that ball Kathleen Kathleen Hurley thank you so much for helping to educate us up here on the district's curriculum development management and assessment and I would just say to you please continue
068to communicate with us and let us know how we as a board can support you and the administrators and teachers in that effort thank you just out again I got to come back to this this is something that because we get we get a vested interest in it that I'd like to see reoccur and actually I think the district's better off when we really become transparent and get the information out to on our website and give the presentations here which includes the good the bad the ugly because we know that we have gaps in achievement in certain areas so I I want to tell you again I just I look forward to hearing from you again as we get more detailed information does anybody else have any questions Carrie thank you no I don't think
069we're good thank you board committee reports Carrie do you have one yes I do thank you uh Mr President um the finance facilities committee met on September 16th on the agenda was an discussion about future facilities Improvement projects the high school is currently in an improvement project what was scheduled next is was Lincoln and after looking at invoices work orders uh facility departments hours man hours they notice that the roof units are aging more rapidly at same city and there will be a future informational item about moving the James Gettys and administrative campus Improvement project forward ahead of Lincoln people um it will eventually after this being informational item become an action item because there would be a need to approve expenditures for the design of the James Gettys and administrative campus Improvement projects the
070um other update would be the added to my Technical Institute their monthly meeting is on September 22nd at 5 pm and that's all I had to share Mr President thank you Carrie it's my understanding there are no other board committee reports this evening building and uh program reports sure I have a couple I'm I'm sorry Belinda I just wanted to follow up with Dr Holliday's question okay the 95 group has been ordered for each one of the buildings and the funds that are covering that is through the Esser to Grant Carrie did you get the answer I couldn't hear the question the question that you had asked Belinda early on um under the finance under routine approvals she just provided an answer I'm not sure foreign just to let you know that the 95 Group
071Incorporated uh resources and materials have been ordered for each one of the buildings allocations exist for each one of the facilities and the funds that are covering that are listed underneath our sr2 grant I think we'll be good and then we can follow up in an email if we need to thank you thanks Gary Jason just the follow-up on several other Communications uh September 3rd I sent a communication regarding information on the Mandate that was received on August 31st and then on September 8th did a follow-up communication with a reminder and information to be sure that uh the exceptions allow blunder Section 3 were processed um gave a deadline of February 10th uh we continued principles continued to work through those that they became aware of through last week brings us to September 20th so
072there are a couple of things going on um this week that exception period has ended so we need certainly need our administrators to get back to supporting instruction as we've wanted them to have a significant amount of those conversations because we want teachers focused on teaching and not having those conversations so now that we're in uh in in this week the the principles will continue to work uh with with students on compliance and as someone stated during public comment it's not a it's not a new process for us we did it last year um and uh we're actually in a much better spot this year because we're in school every day you know there's a time last year where probably we would have given almost anything to be in Daily every day especially at the
073secondary level where we weren't at the time so that's that's certainly Remains the goal so we're in a better spot we just need folks to to continue to do the job that they did last year and it will increase or improve our ability to stay this way and open um every day in person and then along with that um so we'll uh I'm gonna send the communication probably out tomorrow uh afternoon tomorrow evening just with a couple reminders one of the other things that we're going to shift is through some feedback we've gotten with the notifications that people get with regards to close contacts and quarantine we're going to try to simplify that that paragraph that's sent to parents so the goal would be to attach a copy of that to the communication so that
074folks have a heads up on what that would look like if you would continue to get those in the future as a close contact UM you know it's basically our nurses spend all of their time from the beginning of the year until now on that process we certainly need them to to focus um also on supporting the students in the educational environment with the given Health needs that that they would have done pre-covered but we still do the best job that we can given some of uh given some of those other items that we assist the Department of Health with as a reminder we're mandated to basically report our positive cases we assist with contact tracing as a partner of Doh and we'll continue to do the best job that we can for that and
075if we can make Communications a little bit clearer for parents then we'll always try to do that so we'll send out something probably tomorrow afternoon tomorrow evening just with a couple of updates and then we'll also attach a copy of what that communication will look like in the future if you should get that from the nurses for close contacts and those types of things and that's that's kind of where we are that's kind of where we are currently um it was you know Dr Lee talked some you know mentions about the the work the teachers are doing and um you know just by by chance I'd also kind of drafted something because I want people to understand that the the the teaching piece was challenging before covid um and the teaching piece has become more
076challenging over the past probably 10 to 15 years um I'll always be a science teacher at heart um you can't get you can't pull that out of me um so I think about the daily work that our teachers do with students every day because it's Central to our mission we've just hit a point um in the state and Country this isn't a Gettysburg thing but we've hit a point where the profession itself has become at its most challenging level at a time where less and less people are going into the profession so it's like a perfect storm with regards to um applicants folks that are available um and we have some really dedicated professional folks in this district and the ability to attract and retain those folks are near and dear to my heart at
077a time when we might see one or two applicants for a position uh in 2021 back when I started teaching I'll say it was back before email if that dates it for you back when I started teaching you might have 300 applicants for us for an elementary teaching position um we're not there in 2021 nobody is in Pennsylvania so though our folks are meeting those challenges right now to the best of the abilities so as Dr lays said um the support we can provide them as a community to unders to basically say the work that you're doing is important the work that you're doing every day in the classroom nothing's more important than that and more Central to our mission and that um that we certainly appreciate that work that's that's happening um everything else
078that we do is to remove hurdles for them and to put them in the best situation to succeed with their students so um that was longer than I wanted to be I was getting ready to cut you off actually thanks I had to do it to everyone treat you the same so uh the calendar of events and I'm going to give you a disclaimer October 4th is our next board meeting location is to be determined so if we have a crisis between now and October 4th and you hear that we are at the administration building back to our home it's not me avoiding the number of people that want to come speak I'm letting everybody know in advance our goal is to get back to the administration building but we are going to play it
079by the opportunity for people to attend here in these board meetings and as we in back here we get our state of the art system that we're able to live stream and have better visuals um you know if you don't like coming in with a crowd you can certainly watch real life instead of seeing dots sit here having said that any board Sylvan I put something on the agenda for you I would hope you'd have a comment thank you Mr President uh actually I have four the first one though is easy and that's to thank you for including number 11 but I would make a suggestion be because my mother used to call me a pita for those of you who know what Peta stands for but I think we should put the word member
080between board and comments because the board is collectively nine of us but this is our opportunity as individual members to make comments although I have already been told to realize that if each person talks a lot it's going to take a lot longer for this meeting to get over so I'm going to get to my third point and that is to thank the citizens out there who were brave enough to go before the microphone tonight and to share your thoughts and concerns and feelings with us I think I speak for myself on this one and some people were confused at the last meeting why I said one thing in one part of the discussion and then voted to have our school solicitor look into the possibility of joining that lawsuit against the governor but the
081Mandate by our governor and the Department of Health and the education secretary is what the board must adhere to at this point in time and the reason I say that is that until we have a judicial review democracy isn't working and the best way now is to find out what type of judicial review will have and what that may say and then this board will have to determine whether that causes us to look at our health and safety plan and take additional action or a different course but I believe until then we need to leave democracy work thank you now thank you Mr President just real quickly uh welcome Rebecca thank you to the public and for your engagement I've been around long enough to know that sometimes there are communities that are pretty apathetic
082with being engaged with their public schools and even though we may not all agree all the time the fact that you're here and willing to speak up I think is a real positive and that's that's you are to be commended for that I also want to thank Harry and Alex and the Gettysburg times for giving us a fair Shake most of the time and uh I appreciate your efforts and and your attendance as well thank you hearing nothing further on the for the board members and as that transparent as I like we were going to hold executive session this evening I am pushing executive session until the next board meeting the matter at hand is a Personnel matter that I believe Mr McQuade and the administration need a little additional time before they update us
083any board member individually wants to know can't do it collectively I'll fill you in where we're at having said that we have a motion to adjourn please adjourned