GASD Board Meeting 8/2/2021

001health and safety plan as it's an action item on the 7 pm agenda the the draft is a copy at your place along with um on the on the district website under board agendas for anybody that wants to follow along so up until this point the draft that you see in front of you was created this summer and it was using uh taking into consideration some of the guidance we received at that point taking into consideration the board resolution from june 7th and and then uh basically i sent a uh communication out to the district community on i believe it was july 6th if i'm not mistaken and uh shared some information so the draft is consistent with that information as well and it's just a matter of taking a look at the at the

002document itself if there are recommended edits then we would we could make those edits and then that would all be a part of what's approved at the regular meeting that begins at uh at seven o'clock and uh once the esser required health and safety plan has been approved it will be posted to the district website and also to uh egrants so so for for the board members and if you see me talking down uh elle moyer is on vacation but wanted to call in so until we get our technology system up and running he's going to be listening in and answering my phone i'll have the mic down for any of his comments or votes throughout the meeting but to get the workshop going i believe at this point everybody on the board has had

003a copy of the draft everybody on the board was aware of a unanimous vote in june that was a resolution outlining our reopening plan but since that date and time mike has taken a look at the document for our health and safety plan and is proposing some edits or language changing changes to it so mike if you want to outline the changes for the board and that would be a part of our agenda tonight and on a vote up or down right so excuse me so absolutely so i gave a handout to um our board members dr perrin and mr mcquaid our solicitor and on the handout it's five pages long and it's essentially the draft the draft or the draft health and safety plan that dr perrin made available on friday on the left

004hand side of the document is the plan as proposed and on the the right hand side is the second suggested or recommended new language now each paragraph is going to have a change to the right of it if there was a change and that would be a strike and replace if there was no language change recommendations you're going to see an okay next to it and that means there'll be no no not necessary to make any changes to the current language as sets so the first one here is just um and i don't know if i need to read through these word for word or if the board you know since we have a half an hour if you guys would like to read through um and see what the changes are but essentially what

005it is in a nutshell my intention on this was is to provide more flexibility in more localized control for the administration and for the district i didn't really find anything too anything wrong with the original language i think it was in in the spirit of our proposal that we passed in june but the language changes just kind of give more um more control and oversight on the district itself versus individual agencies and i think that's important because we have over 500 school districts in 67 counties and each district is very very different i know that even in our our county our districts like to cohort and kind of do things i'm very similar but i'm very concerned with how we do things in the gettysburg area school district so i'll leave it up to the

006board since this is a workshop if you guys want to take a few minutes to read through and have any questions or if you'd like me to to go through and outline them i'm fine either way and something else that's worth sharing um and just full transparency these changes were um were reviewed and and basically authored by a law firm and palisade school district penn red school district bristol township school district aliquippa school district and ambridge area school district have all adopted very similar language so it's already been we have districts that have already had board meetings and approved their health and safety plans with very very similar language so the the edit the the edited mic are uh still consistent with the draft and with the resolution from the board correct absolutely and i

007i did i did sure um share my recommendations with dr perrin um a little earlier and um and i don't believe there was any objections it's still um in spirit there's no major changes that basically states um a number of the things in the draft just a different um in a different way absolutely yeah mike i want to thank you for all the effort that you went through i really appreciate that but i'll say that i would have liked more time to digest the suggestions so we basically have this 30 minutes absolutely yeah so i would absolutely like more time okay that's fine with me mr president do you before we address you first or just uh write to the fellow board member i'm sorry do we address you first to ask a question of

008a fellow board member or go right to the phone no okay thank you um mr dickinson uh thank you for um the research you've done on this and pulling this together and the layout of comparing side by side i appreciate that i do have a question um when i look to uh in the first paragraph revision the third sentence the revisions will be recommended to the board for approval and changes will be communicated to student staff and the greater school community was there any discussion um in the research that you were doing does that tie the hands of the superintendent to um to cha make a change if the board meetings if board meetings only happen every two weeks no absolutely not i think it does the contrary i think it's going to give the

009administration to take all of the federal state and local guidance into consideration and if there were any edits or recommendations to change the plan um he would communicate that to the board for approval and then once once approved it would be communicated out to the the greater student staff and school community as those changes take place thank you and with this uh with this plan just to be clear for everybody it has to be reviewed and updated every six months but it can happen more often if needed but mike mike let me hop in here the changes here if i'm not mistaken or language changes only and it benefits the district in the sense of what we did last year when we saw numbers increase dr parent had the ability to shut down a classroom

010opposed to shutting down a school where he had to shut down a school opposed to a classroom and all we're doing here with the language change is is basically saying the same thing with the health and safety plan it just we're changing a couple words absolutely it's actually given the administration more flexibility it did if like i think initially when we first submitted our health and safety plan dr perrin had the ability to specifically shut down a classroom versus a whole grade or whole building and then when the when we had to sign that letter of attestation that kind of gave the the bureaucratic agencies a little more control and oversight and if you remember we were we started shutting down entire schools or buildings versus localizing um and managing outbreaks at a local level

011thank you you may ask a question um when did you get a chance um dr parent to look at the revisions that we have in front of us is this something that you also are seeing for the first time like us um mike shared some comments over the phone with me about possible uh changes do you feel in line with the changes yeah i think that um if you you know if you do a just a side by side check it doesn't change the intent of any of the uh of any of the language on the draft plan um i think it simply makes the language a little bit stronger um in term in terms of the local the local control can you give me an example of that i know that mike was talking

012about more flexibility for yourself can you give me examples like in the changes that you see so i think for instance um if you uh if you take a look at some of mike's language you see things like consideration of guidance from agencies versus versus following the guidance from the agencies because at times when there are so many agencies which agency is that like which one are you you know which one are you following so it's it really just says that that we're constantly keeping an eye on it taking a look at various recommendations from all agencies and then making a decision locally and may ask mike um dickerson this law firm that you mentioned um was that something that you needed to pay for or was that something that was done pro bono because

013i couldn't hear you could you repeat that i'm just trying to figure out at what point you decided to go to a law firm and if there was some type of payment for that work that was done i have a personal attorney on retainer and this wouldn't be the first time that i used them for for questions that i personally had as a school board member or a parent of students in this district okay thank you dr perrin could you explain to us the process of communications that goes on between superintendents in adams county many times we get emails directed to us that indicate that other districts are doing something totally different than us and i want to know exactly what that process is and how it works yeah certainly i mean the context is

014important there's a difference between health and safety plans and snow days but but certainly to a degree we keep in we keep in very very close contact and i would say not just within adams county but within the greater intermediate unit between franklin adams and york counties so so for instance when the communication was sent out uh in july for instance that shared that uh face coverings would be optional for for students um that was consistent uh with what was going on the county and a great majority of the iu at that at that time and how are they dealing with it as of today any different than back in june and july well number of them passed past those plans with that kind of content in july but it's it's been fluid for two

015years so you know something could come you know a mandate could come from um from you know from somewhere in three weeks that could change uh people's you know people's plans but if i had to answer are we are we outside of or consistent with those districts if that's the the gist of your question it's pretty consistent with um with what other districts and even some of the other districts that um have been kind of in the in the papers in pa um you've probably seen articles about bucks county and a couple of other uh districts as well so it's uh it's been pretty consistent but like we've been doing for two years we we always kind of keep abreast of what's going on because you know things have been things have been pretty fluid

016but i think in terms of where we are where we've been um the fact that we think that you know kids or kids are better off in classrooms with our teachers um and uh you know all of those things i think that you know basically the plan needed to start off as a good one um and then we would have to if necessary uh adjust and i think that the language that mike shared still gives us the ability to do that but gives us the ability to make those decisions um you know and our communication system dealing with getting it out into the public as soon as we can we're still using the same process has it been updated to include new parents to the community and kindergarten parents and so forth it catches anybody

017that that enrolls in the district and uh utilizes any information that they've that they've some you know submitted um you know for that and uh so anything that we would send out for instance say tomorrow would catch everybody that had updated their information yeah up until that up until that point um and uh so that's that's generally uh the way that we've been been communicating i think you know the last the last communication that i sent out to the district community was that july communication because um that's that's kind of where we where we were and where we planned to go and uh and this health and safety plan for esser basically just supports that um so we're not here tonight changing the plans that i communicated in july we're basically supporting them and kind

018of reinforcing them and i guess this is a rather crude way of putting it but all parents can trust the board that we are communicating to them the most up-to-date process and plan that we have as a board absolutely um i mean we haven't done that more intensely than we've done that in the past probably 18 months i would say in my 27 years in public education i think it's been a unique couple of years and uh you know certainly i along with everybody else will be will be glad someday and some month whenever we can look back and tell stories about this but um but for me the important things are getting all the kids in school i think um you know the idea of starting off um with uh with the um you

019know mass being optional for for students is a place that we can start and then we can adjust from there and have you got just made me think of something else sorry take up all this time uh have you heard from parents since we advertised or communicated how we're going to do it their concern over children not wearing masks and the options that are still available to them if they choose to not send their children to school because of that sure um so when you have a large district population of you know x number of thousand of students they're going to be um folks on both sides of that that fence so um a few people have reached out um you know asking asking the board to you know to reconsider um you know masking

020all students you know those kinds of things um but we have uh whenever we've responded some of the folks have asked just what what's the other option if i don't want to come back you know every day and we've uh we've told them about the um the ghazi cyber and uh so we have a number of students that have signed up for uh ferguson cyber but a great majority of students um have indicated a desire to to come back to school full-time okay great thank you yeah question just so i'm clear as i go through these pages page one the two paragraphs that are suggested new language is that to replace all of the language that goes along with number one that's correct so something that i see as i look through in a short

021period of time as i look through the suggestions i mean the intent seems very different it seems rather non-committal so when i look for instance in number one and i'd like to talk about some other ones as well but number one we've got some really specific information in the original plan which is replaced with two brief paragraphs that again are non-committal that's correct sometimes less is more and this gives our individual school district and our administration more flexibility to make decisions based on what is best for our school district yeah i mean except we're talking about a pandemic which again is really different and i'd like to remind all of us about our mission statement the gettysburg area school district mission statement clearly says that our purpose is to provide a safe and healthy environment

022in which all students can learn my concern with the non-committal language is that we're not doing that ms pratt i have full faith and confidence that dr perrin and our administration will make the appropriate decisions for what's best for our students and school district community well i have full faith and confidence as well in the people who are employed in the district dr parent his team are teachers building staff absolutely but the point of this plan is to give specific guidance you know dr parham we hope that you're with us for a very long time but would you get some great opportunity in like bermuda at their school district and decide to leave us next week i mean i just feel like this plan really needs to supersede any individual or individuals who are in

023their position that's the purpose of the plan and if a plan is frankly again as non-committal as this one is i i don't call it a plan mrs pratt are you asking if the pandemic response team will be removed if that paragraph is removed and will it still be will the pandemic response team still be in existence they are referenced further in the plan could you note what page or paragraph yep absolutely so if you would go to i think it's my page three um one second dr parent and i just talked about it give me one second i'll tell you where it's at perhaps page five the last one the last bullet on page five i numbered them when they were handed to me the packet so there's a border that says page six

024of eight and then um item i and to the left then i'm sorry i'm sorry i'm on dr it's the last page last sentence okay and coordinating with all state and local health officials in regards to the the health and safety plan the pandemic team director of student services school nurses will collaborate with and coordinate to confirm updated guidance from federal state and health officials but the intent of that again seems really different to me unless i'm misunderstanding it the original language says that that group of individuals will coordinate with state and local health officials but the new language says that they will coordinate with each other to confirm updated guidance correct so they're not coordinating directly with state and local health officials they're just talking to each other to confirm the guidance perhaps this

025next question may help close the gap dr parent it's my understanding from communications coming out that we'll see less guidance is usually the word that's used for the department of education less guidance coming from the department of education regarding covert response we would more likely see um and now i think we could use the word mandate when it becomes a public health concern when a contagious virus is moving through a classroom or a building like we would with mrsa or sars or something like that is that your understanding also right they have basically all but promised that there wouldn't be any guidance from the pennsylvania department of education as we begin uh this uh this school year and uh pennsylvania department of health will be reaching out um sometime in august to uh share any

026changes to the procedures that we have to comply with with return with regards to reporting cases and contact tracing um but uh but a lot of things that were in place last year will disappear like the charts that were used to do short-term closures and all of those things will be gone because those were from the the pa department of education uh working uh in conjunction with uh with department of health so any directives that we get um really from this point on what as you stated would be more likely to come from the pennsylvania department of health uh i would be surprised really to receive anything um from the department of education at this point and uh and they also said the department of health also mentioned that there wouldn't be too many too

027many significant changes in those processes either really it's just a matter of the forms they might be using but trying to make trying to expedite some of the stuff that districts labored with last year which was utilizing different forms emailing different people but trying to streamline the reporting system and those kinds of things so so yeah things that were in place last year will not be in place in in districts this year you won't see things like covet dashboards and those kind of things because we're not keeping track of um for short-term closures anymore again that reflects more of that local decision-making um on a case-by-case basis right okay and just as a further note to complete to be completely transparent part of the reason i took the initiative to research this and make these

028language changes is because last year about the same time i watched dr perrin and several folks in the administration probably spend 50 hours a week trying to plan and jump through all these these hoops in terms of you know formulating plans and and coming up with things to open our schools and literally dr perrin will tell you within a day or so or hours of you know things trying to get the ball rolling the pde or or some government agency would change the the rules or move the goal post i think this board and this district has gone to great lengths to to follow recommendations um to take this pandemic very seriously and and we need to give our administrators in this district the the tools that they need to be able to to come

029up with the plan and put that plan into action without having to change it at the last minute and that was the spirit behind this thanks mike i have a uh first i want to say thank you on page two i really like the additional language that is more specific that all admin building school buildings athletic facilities will be open for full-time use and instruction thanks for adding that i really like that if we look at page three i'm a little bit confused with something that could be interpreted as a contradiction so page three i'm looking at lowercase a the current language is that the requirement to where masks will consider the most recent guidance etc etc so okay so the decision will consider the most recent guidance but i interpret the original language as

030as really meaning it's still dr perrin and the board that make a decision the new language i'm worried about a contradiction if i look at bullet number three that says that the district will continue to monitor and evaluate the most recent guidance etc does that contradict bullet number two that says that masks will be optional can we have both of those together i don't i don't see why not having a policy where you know things are optional which is with the resolution that we passed in june the district also has to do his due diligence and take into consideration all recommendations and there could be something lurking you know weeks or months down the road that might really change change the way we're going to look at things and i think it would be responsible

031to leave that language in there it's because we may need to we may need to consider new guidance and make some changes or or the administration may make recommendations on updating this plan and we need to have the ability to leverage that so it looks like um kathleen to me it looks like a uh like a when question kind of it's uh it's you know mass will be optional it's kind of like how we're starting the year and then kind of the ongoing uh part of it is continuing to you know monitor you know different guidance and things as they as they come down so that's this is the plan as submitted now um and having the ability to take into account to change this plan might change so that that's how i interpret it

032gary mr dickinson just two typos i think one will go away with the changes i'm not sure so on your page three the second set of bullets which would be parallel to the item b um outdoor learning spaces needs an r in it and i this is where i'm not sure it'll go away on page five item f there was a typo in the in the the draft plan there's an ampersand and then a semicolon the semicolon wouldn't belong there and that may very well go away with the proposed changes in the bullets to the right i made note of those now you see what you're talking about and just kind of a friendly addition to that on page four and carrie i'm sorry maybe you said this on page four uh bullet number one

033influenza and other infectious diseases we'll need an ant in there i'm sorry kathleen can you say that again please yeah so uh page four the first bullet reads the district etc influenza currently there's a comma i think influenza comma other infectious diseases we'll have to replace that comma with an and you get that did you get that one might yep okay i'll get are there any additional questions related to the health and safety plan and the change of language that mike has introduced here this evening i mean we'll have an opportunity when it comes up for vote but during the workshop here we want to direct the question to any of us or mike please feel free uh mr president i just have a question probably for you on the agenda tonight are we voting

034specifically on yes it's on the agenda as an action item for this evening mike could have made a motion at the time that it came to the floor adopting or changing some of the language but i believe and i don't know this is as a fact that his conversations on i guess with jason they they believed that bringing it before the board in a workshop setting was more proper than doing it through an amendment to the motion or to the action item during the regular meeting so i i have to say again i didn't have enough time 30 minutes before i'm being asked to vote on something isn't really enough time to digest it ask questions get the answers that i need i'm actually really comfortable with the plan that says draft on it which

035is the plan before these new changes so that makes me unhappy because when i vote no tonight on the plan with the new changes it certainly isn't that i don't want our students our teachers our staff to be safe so i would have preferred this head kind of come down a little differently tonight and i and i and again i'll weigh in reluctantly here because i was on the outside but i think what you're hearing no matter what plan we adopt this evening the unknown is out there and i recall last year hours on hours with dr perrin back and forth related to different changes coming so whatever's adopted here this evening i suspect that we're probably going to be back at this drawing board again looking at recommendations or mandates potentially but i don't

036know that so the health and safety plan tonight is on the agenda with mike's changes and i mean i certainly respect where you have to vote for whatever reason you would have to vote which way so would i make a motion to adopt the proposed language changes set forth in this workshop or is the changes automatically yeah this is not an action no you would have to yeah when that action item comes up for vote or comes on the table at that point you would make the motion for the language changes the language changes i believe would be the first thing to vote on and then the the actual health and safety plan a second thing or they have where can they be combined well if somebody makes makes a motion to adopt the health

037and safety plan that person can say i make the motion to adopt it in form a or form b so in in the draft plan or in mike's plan and and then you can go from there right we have not we've not done we've not we've never voted on this right yet and forgive me if i'm stating the obvious but one of one of the changes um had to do with the prior language being the district will follow any state mandates concerning masking and that was dropped and i would say that regardless of what you put in the health and safety plan you must follow the law and certain mandates are in fact the law so whether that's in there or not that's an implied part of the plan may i ask you mr quade

038how long have you had to look over this is it the same amount of time as we have or were you able to actually sit with this and make sure that it was sound regarding you associated towards me no solicitor directly i wanted to know if you had time to look this over and you felt confident that it was something that was sound for us to go forward with oh me personally yes sir yeah i've seen it as long as as the rest of the body has i mean it was it was presented to me this evening i can say from a legal perspective the board does have a good deal of discretion and there are many things that you could do or not do that would be legal uh the question is um you

039know what what's the wise uh thing to do and that's up to your discretion um in terms of vetting the language uh of these documents no i have not had that opportunity i think that's where i have a problem is that we really didn't have enough time i have to agree with you miss pratt and it would have been wonderful even if we had you know a few hours to review this i know one body in our school district that i feel hasn't had as much of a voice as they should as our school nurses they actually are the ones who have to implement a lot of this um day-to-day in our schools and those those are people that i would have gone to to see how they felt about the language it was something

040that actually worked in their day-to-day but as of right now i just don't have the opportunity to do that and one more i'll stick my nose in one more place i do have some concern about moving away from the language on page four um for e that refers to the district following guidance from the pennsylvania department of health concerning contact tracing isolation etc i think that i would be very wary to do anything in the medical field whether it be with the flu or with pertussis or anything without listening to and adhering to recommendations from the medical professionals department of health so if i hear you correct you are referring to it's e to the right of the blocked portion and that is what you would recommend keeping in an addition to what we have

041to the right we're keeping something similar to it um yes yes i mean if i could just interject here this plan number one could be debated if it's even legally required to submit this this plan is is basically so you can qualify for for government for federal funds historically it could be debated on whether or not this plan is is legal or not and if you you can you can have all the questions you want that's fine but there's like i said there's not any language in the my proposed changes that has not already been adopted by the school districts that i outlined at the beginning of my statement here and all it is doing like mr mcquay pointed out it is it is basically not telling the district what it has to do it's

042telling that it's basically giving the district more leeway so the district is they can follow any protocols that they want in terms of contact tracing and doing anything with communicable disease communicable diseases it's just giving them more flexibility and more leeway to run this district autonomously and not be driven based on mandates out of harrisburg or political decisions so i mean that that was particularly that was my intent and i'll say again i think that some of the original language does give that flexibility so we're on page three a i mean the requirements where masks will consider the most recent guidance i mean i feel like that does give flexibility already it's saying we'll consider and there are a couple other places that i really felt the same that i wasn't i wasn't sure why

043the change was needed except accepted dilute intent again i i'm i'm happy with the original proposal i mean we could go line by line um because now we have you know about 10 revisions or changes or additions or what have you we may need to because this plan is going to be voted on and the reading's coming up so if we we want to start on page one we can go down these lines and see who wants to change things and then we i'm if i'm under the the assumption that we'll go in we will vote on the original plan that we were coming in here to either agree to or not agree to or then we would agree to the changes in two separate things but i want to make sure that i know

044exactly what the changes would be so that i can vote appropriately and these guys don't even know what we're looking at well i guess i just need to add the comment that this document this plan is indeed a dynamic fluid document one that can easily be adjusted as we're told it needs to be or we discover it needs to be so i'm comfortable voting on it tonight knowing that that process is in place and will be utilized rather than look for commas or for capital letters or whatever the case might be i think we need to make sure that our district and our staff and kids are protected and i think this plan does it as it demonstrated when it was in its original form through june that it worked quite well it's just a

045reminder to everybody too that a lot of the changes that come down the pike whether it's the first three weeks of school the first month of school those types of things we generally have to shift practice well ahead of being able to get a document back to the board like those types of things so my team and i obviously would communicate when things would need to shift based on based on some of the changes we talked about tonight so so if the language is general it still gives us the opportunity to act within within the language i would agree and and if anything my the success the suggested language changes have generalized i think to kind of kathleen's point it's it's left some vagueness and and given this the school administration the ability to be

046able to make decisions that make sense for gettysburg area school district what happens in in allegheny county or in harrisburg might be drastically different on what's going on in adams county um it could we could be seeing different scenarios in gettysburg versus bermudian springs in i i think that the the draft changes just kind of give our district and our administration more flexibility without being told you know what to do on a one-size-fits-all basis which which we clearly experienced last year and as dr perrin can attest you know they had plans and worked hard to get things in place and had to literally change things on a three o'clock on a friday afternoon so i mean that's just was my take on it is there anything additional i'm not sure structurally or how you want

047to proceed i mean it is an action item for this evening there are several changes whether they be grammar that have been noted that dr parents said he'll uh correct but i guess i would have to ask is there a structural problem with anything that is vastly different from the resolution that was voted on in june and the health and safety plan that's sitting here before us that we looked at over the last week or two and that's where it really comes down to me and i'm seeing it too i'm reading it here and i'm seeing some language changing but we're almost arguing the definition of and versus is in terms of whether it's a generality the board voted a resolution nine to zero to go a certain path with the understanding that the health

048and safety plan just like last year was going to be turned upside down at some point based upon mandates or based upon recommendations that obviously the administration and this board won't ignore and i suspect prior to the start of school we're going to we'll have something else that's going to change on this document or it's going to have to be revised and we went through so i'm at the point where you know having to run this meeting i want to put the motion on the floor but i also want to be cognizant if anybody wants any significant structural changes maybe we should air them now and incorporate them into motion once it hits the floor so i'd like to just repeat myself and say that i do see substantive changes in the recommendations i believe

049that this plan which i think is what we're supposed to vote on tonight right with the red letters this plan i believe does give the superintendent and this board flexibility i think it's already here i think there are again substantive changes in the new language that i am really uncomfortable with in part our own solicitor has pointed something out so i am more than comfortable voting on what i thought we were voting on tonight i am uncomfortable voting on this new suggested language thank you are there any other matters or questions for the workshop here if they're not we'll take a five minute recess and we will start our regular school board meeting how are you still there [Music] how do you do that okay um [Music] good evening for those who just arrived and

050anybody who's tuned in on live stream the board of directors held a workshop prior to the start of this meeting for the purpose of discussing a health and safety plan the purpose of this meeting is to conduct the business of the gettysburg area school district public comment is welcome and issues will be 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 please take a moment and silence your cell phones or any other devices ms collins all board members are present with the exception of uh timmon who is uh excused this evening al moyer joins us on my cell phone he'll be available for all votes and he's also watching on live stream please stand for the pledge of

051allegiance notices and communications is the couple i asked mr lust just to uh to share just a brief update on the work that's being done at the uh high school hello oh jeremy lusk high school principal uh a lot of fast and furious work going on uh at the high school um on front stage and and behind the scenes as well um does it make me all very anxious absolutely yes we knew that this phase phase 1 1b i guess we'd call it because we started in april with our library and a few other areas in the school just by the nature of the process of things and the construction crews multiple have been working to get our main classroom section which would be the b section of the high school ready for august 23rd

052and they have said that they will be ready to release classrooms to us by that point giving our team probably i'll say barely enough time to you know clean get furniture back in reintroduce things for the learning environment will it all be finished in finality no and i tried to communicate that to parents and my most recent message to them the construction process will continue through the year once they're done with b section or almost done they're actually already itching to get into the next phase which would include our auditorium and music wing area and a few other spots and move on from there but uh to the point like i said we'll be ready to start school it will still be a building under construction will it be safe for kids absolutely yes otherwise

053we won't move in so uh you know i know a few folks were asking will the will the fire suppression systems be good to go um again we probably wouldn't be moving into the building if it wasn't um so it'll it'll be cleaned and ready enough for us to get in there won't be perfect as a few folks have shared with me and i've shared with a few folks i imagine renovating your kitchen i think anybody who's done that would admit that it's not necessarily a fun process but when it's all said and done you kind of forget that time period of construction and look at that newly finished kitchen and think like oh i love this kitchen this is an investment for our students for for the community in the end it's going to

054be fabulous again will it cause me a few extra gray hairs and a lot of stress until then yes but i and my team will make sure that kids are ready to learn in a good environment no matter what is still going on throughout the school year so i'll try and update my parents and everybody else involved in high school community as as much as we can um but uh we're looking forward to school and uh we'll make the the most of each space um when it's available we'll have to shift some kids around again uh considering that i just said when we're done with the b section then work will be beginning in in the auditorium and music wing so then where are you doing music well we'll be doing music in the library

055we'll be doing music in the cafeteria we'll be doing music in the auxiliary gym and we'll be doing music outside that's the answer and so we'll we'll have to shift some some folks around here and there and we'll come up with the best plan we can come up with to do that and get the project done and i guess we're kind of looking forward to that we're looking forward to school i can tell you that we'll look forward to seeing kids come back and look forward to learning with them throughout the year so as questions come up you know i'll try within reason to answer questions to parents who email me i'll try to keep them updated before they have to ask me but i know that we can all read only so many emails

056so um we'll try and try and keep that on point any questions from you specifically jeremy if i can just summarize real quick because i know with conversations with you we get inundated with emails so the summary of this is our students are returning to in-person learning at the high school the starting date that was originally said is going to be with is going to be held firm there'll be some minor inconveniences related to the construction the air flow and the fire suppression system and all the stuff that would make a school unsafe for our students has been addressed and will be addressed would that be pretty much summing it up that sums it up you know there will be a few bathrooms that aren't ready to to go but we have plenty of bathrooms

057to use yes you know will we direct kids as we need to yes will it be uh perfect no but it'll be worth it look forward to to next year and beyond at this time but it's an investment like i said thank you anything else from anybody else thank you thanks for the uh update and uh also uh thanks to uh tom and jim hoffman and all of the facility staff to say that uh this summer has been uh really busy for them would be an understatement so i really appreciate the work that they've done with regards to the district end of things but also in helping kind of keep the contractors towards towards that date to get students back in so thank you all very very much the other communication i have is one

058specific to curriculum as a couple of questions had come up so i wrote the statement out because i want it to be as clear and concise as it can possibly be that way it can quell any questions that there might be hanging out there there have been no changes to the district curriculum our teachers are responsible for and committed to teaching the district curriculum along with building positive relationships with students fidelity is maintained through the supervision and evaluation process in short our focus is on getting ready for the 21-22 school year and no curriculum changes have been made or on our agenda for board consideration thanks thank you citizens participation in no particular order jeremy jeremiah light good evening sir hello everybody uh thanks for giving me the opportunity here uh so originally i was

059just gonna speak just to thank you guys for taking the vote last time to have mask optional vaccine optional having that language and uh really appreciate that as a parent i know obviously you have the the changes and things that you're talking through right now so you know who knows what's going to happen with the future in terms of ongoing guidance and things like that but just as a parent i just want to voice my my opinion have those because i know i'm not the only one that thinks this way so i just like to think share my views around it um one thing around uh just the the whole spiel with masks and you know shutting down and social distancing all those things i just want to say that you know the cdc and

060the things that they put out you know we don't like the cdc there's a lot of bureaucrats that are involved in the cdc and even organizations like the fda that we don't elect and it's a it's a revolving door with you know pharmaceutical companies other places that really don't have the best interest of children especially and the rest of us at hand so i think we need to keep that in mind with any decisions that are made [Music] i'm not a lawyer but i also know that terms and words matter in terms of mandates and walls mandates aren't walls so if there is a mandate that's made that doesn't mean it's a law they're not the same thing uh just a few points that i want to make contact tracing and the data that's taken

061from that i've already seen that with one of my children from their daycare there was identity theft uh issue privacy issue so i'd like to say that you know i guess you have to follow what got into you're given in some respects to that but i'd like to see a minimization of that as much as possible uh also you know that there's negative impacts with masks social distancing in terms of psychological mental impacts to children and that doesn't seem to be talked about too much uh but it should be uh talked about a lot more uh it you know kids that are learning how to how to speak how to form words how to read they can't see words being formed on on the faces of their classmates or their teachers it's very important that

062uh you know that's that's affecting their development and there's you know there's been studies that show that children really aren't aren't disease vectors that are bringing the uh you know contagion around and spreading that much that it's very limited to to what children are actually uh contributing to outbreaks in terms of covid and spreading it so something else that seems to get you know there's all this focus on on on kids even down to two years old wearing masks but the data isn't there that supports that it even makes sense at all to mask kids europe doesn't do it for kids under 12 and i think you know a lot of the reason is there's just no data for it the data shows that the there's no reason to do that so that's really all

063i had to say i just want to thank you again for the vote last time and i hope it uh kind of stays that way and we don't make any you know rash decisions to change things up and require masks on you know on a whim with a few extra cases or you know a scary variant that comes out of nowhere or whatever so thank you guys thank you sir carol riebert so good evening ma'am sorry i'm a little slow it's okay good evening my name is carol rebert i'm a resident of adams county and reside within the boundaries of gettysburg area school district i graduated from gettysburg high school in 1971 my mother in 1947 and my son in 2008. i am co-chair of the adams county moms for liberty chapter the adams county

064chapter is a part of moms for liberty national which started in brevard county florida we are 501 c 4 nonprofit organization to date we are part of 82 chapters in 26 states and we have over 30 thousand members and growing the mission of moms for liberty in regards to our schools is to hold board members administrators and teachers accountable for their decisions or we will work to replace them over the years we believe the line between parents and education has become increasingly blurred our mission is to make those lines clear again moms for liberty believe parents have the responsibility and constitution to instill and guide moral and character building values in the home the responsibility of school districts is to provide a quality education for our children to each child's ability and prepare them to

065become contributing members of society in the past it seems that we as parents have become too trustful of the education system maintaining those boundaries between parent and child schools are not the place to promote one's political idiot one political ideology over another forced world views encourage political activism or drive life-altering decisions on its students moms for liberty is in the process of require requesting through right to know requests all curriculum to review and research not only in gettysburg area school districts but all districts in adams county if we find anything we believe to be in conflict with parental authority we will address it we will approach these conflicts with respect to those representing the district and hope for the same respect and return to address and understands our concerns we look forward to working with

066you thank you for your time thank you ma'am please citizens participation if you if you want to speak feel free to go out sign up for the form and the board will recognize you but we're not going to do is we're not going to break into a show in the middle of a boardroom and disrespect anyone ma'am i'm i am being very polite here thank you next karen martin please good evening board members and concerned citizens my name is karen butz martin tonight i'll speak a true safety in regards to our children within a classroom are we able to tell the difference between math students well of course we can due to many differences in appearance including skin color hair color length body build body mannerisms personality and of course their seat assignments in a

067classroom environment it is important to understand and read a student's learning face are they comprehending the teachings are they confused are they sad happy or struggling to breathe fresh air what about their emotions is that not concerning to you allow me to ask you deciding board members this question could you pick a masked child out in a crowd of 10 people 100 people a thousand people by requiring our children to wear a face mask whether in schools or any public place you are robbing them of their one hope of being found in the unfortunate event that they are kidnapped their faces did you know that more than 2 000 missing child reports are filed each day and that many of them can be easily found when parents provide specific details of their physical appearance including

068a photo of their face did you know that a child in america is over 66 000 times more likely to be human trafficked than to get covered 19. your decision to mask our children is allowing child abduction and trafficking so much easier on the offenders who i may add or also mask you don't believe me how about elizabeth smart she was abducted for nine months and her abductor took her out in the public all the time her face was plastered everywhere you're probably picturing her face right now years later everyone was looking for her she was even questioned by police prior to her rescue but because her kidnapper made her wear a mask not one person recognized her face you can cut a child's hair change the color put a hat on and put a

069mask on and the abducted child looks completely different but yet somehow the same as the two of 2 other children around them wearing masks masking a child immediately renders them unable to show emotions and unable to verbally communicate for help how many children do you think are walking through our streets and in our stores with their abductors yet go unnoticed because wearing a mask or face covering isn't even considered abnormal to way too many folks these days it is very abnormal to me i stand before you this moment begging all of you listening to please fight for our children's physical safety is masking our children worth this risk will you who vote to mask our children's appearances and emotions take responsibility if and when they go missing how much are you willing to risk it's

070time for our communities together to rally on behalf of what is really important which is our students thank you for this opportunity to address you all thank you charles wise good evening good evening thanks i'm here to speak in support of a teacher alicia sanders who was unfairly maligned i think in a gettysburg times article on saturday she was portrayed in this article which was an article about this group moms for liberty she was portrayed as somebody who is sort of planning to go rogue and teach critical race theory in the schools and i think that is entirely false i think the truth is that um she she signed an online pledge promising to tell the truth to teach the truth about race and about history and about other issues and i think that's that

071is exactly what we want our teachers to do teach the truth i've i had three kids who went through the gettysburg public schools and all three of them had ms sanders for eighth grade civics i've you know spoken to her on many occasions i think she's phenomenal she is a great teacher my my uh my children tell me that she's one of their favorite teachers and so i hate to see her name sort of uh maligned in the newspaper like that um in in in reading the the article and thinking about how i was going to respond uh you know it sort of occurred to me again i knew this before that that she is and you can correct me if i'm wrong i think i'm right but you i i may be mistaken she

072is the only black teacher in the gettysburg area school district um and i think that that is a real problem and you know i think so my daughter who's black uh tells me that in addition to just being a phenomenal teacher um ms sanders she appreciated that ms sanders looked like her that she had a teacher finally in the schools that looked like her and i think that that's really important for black students uh to to see students and their teachers in the school that look like them that they can relate to in that way i think it's even more important maybe or at least as important for white students to see teachers from a variety of different ethnic backgrounds uh and and to hear their perspectives when they have a different perspective whether they

073have a different ethnic background or come from a different location i think that diversity in our student in our in our in our teacher in our teachers is incredibly important i imagine that you are aware that we do not have a diverse uh body of teachers and i i just encourage you to redouble your efforts to do so um i mean it's it it's it was poignant to me that in this article the only black teacher in gettysburg gettysburg area school district was singled out i think that is a problem it's a sign of a problem i think we have to address that problem um and i and uh and that and that and just to say that uh alicia sanders is an awesome teacher um in my experience and from everything i've heard i

074just want to get that make sure you understand that and make sure you know how much support and friendship she has in this community thank you thank you sir vanessa shearer good evening ma'am good evening uh good evening everyone uh my name is vanessa shearer uh you may recognize my name i recently sent a letter to the school board members um introducing myself and my children's experiences with the hybrid scheduling that was implemented in school last year i did want to take a moment to thank the few of you who took the time to acknowledge me and my concerns i appreciate it very much we seem to live in a time where it's very easy to get lost behind a screen whether we're trying to educate ourselves on a subject or whether we're trying to

075communicate with other people about different matters in some cases it has replaced human in-person interaction entirely and at times it is difficult to read how others either interpret you or judge you based on written words i'm just going to get to the point straight away and just let you know that i wanted to attend this board meeting so you can put a face to a name so that it isn't just an email you received but an actual person who took the time to write a letter expressing her thoughts whether there were concerns or whether she just wanted to let you know she existed i also wanted to attend this meeting to reiterate what i had said in my email which is that i fully support the board's unanimous decision to have the students return to

076school full-time with optional masking and vaccination masking and vaccines has obviously been the big talk of the year and like anything else regarding children i am thankful that the board has acknowledged the parents and that ultimately it is the final decision of the parents to decide how to approach masking and vaccinations when it comes to their children and their family please stand firm and resolute in this decision of optional masking and vaccination as there are many parents out here who fully support this stance and stand behind you 100 on many levels last year has been difficult for all of us i'm thankful my children will have an opportunity to return to school once again to be with their teachers and with their friends to learn and to grow both individually and as a community i

077support your decision and i thank you for your time and commitment to the students of gettysburg area school district thank you thank you michelle thomas good evening everybody hello um i just wanted to follow up on the email that i sent before about the special funding of what how the special needs type children were going to be you know helped over the summer with the funding that was received by the state i remember in the last meeting i was at i think there was talk about updating equipment i get that but equipment if it went through one year of covid it can go another year these kids get this funding it's allocated for specific things i still want to know how that's going to be addressed because it has not been answered oh and then

078the other thing is this month of liberty stuff um as you can see i'm the only black person in the room um i graduated from here it was not easy for me and to know that alicia is the only black person or black teacher and she's biracial like that the only teacher of color i've never seen one teacher of color besides list and then you all want to attack her let me tell you don't make this an upper adam school district issue because it can it can quickly become one it can't i'm not going to stand by and let this kind of rhetoric happen when i went through hell here being called shake your hand karen you weren't calling i was my brother being chased home on his bicycle through the alley a bunch of

079kids in a pickup truck trying to run him over that was my brother marvin everybody knows marvin thomas and gettysburg my dad wanted to hurt somebody that day and all he was trying to do was ride his bike home think about that y'all don't think about that you don't live it you don't experience it i moved back here in 2013 from italy i'm a retired military wife and this community has not changed as much as i had hoped i didn't even want to come back here i didn't want my son to even come back here and experience the crap that i did growing up but he did and he hated it just like i did he couldn't wait to graduate just like i did i was atd in school i learned out his add as

080an adult i can remember going to the guidance counselor in seventh and eighth grade asking for help you know what they told me try harder michelle you're not doing enough wow and they're supposed to help me this my on through high school miss thomas mrs thomas bless her heart she was a nice lady but she didn't give a about me either michelle your test scores are phenomenal what's going on i don't know miss thomas you tell me i'm trying to get help they don't want to help me who's they you and every single teacher in this district that i've had since second grade do you know what it's like to be called a in second grade and go home and ask their mom what it is i've never heard that word until second grade and

081that was franklin township think about that i am 51 years old i came from union bridge maryland it was a mixed community i had white neighbors and black neighbors everybody looked out for one another i never heard that word until i got here they called me a migrant i said mom what's a migrant i didn't even know what the hell that was i'm sorry i came to school looking like a well-dressed little black girl with hair you know my dad had his own business until the day he left here me and my brothers had to fight i remember my brothers telling me how they had to fight ever almost every day in school because they were called hell i was in in school suspension i don't know how many times because i didn't take anybody's

082crap you called me something i punched you in the mouth because that's exactly what you deserve for your ignorance it starts at home women like you how many of you say i'm gonna keep it to the real ma'am listen my point is and my point is i'm getting to my point but y'all need to hear it from a black person because you don't so i'm telling the school board y'all need to get on board with some diversity make it your forefront like charr said because you're not and until you do you're going to still have issues take it more seriously for real you need diversity you need to teach the truth not hide behind some moms of liberty teach the truth that's all we're asking is the truth and then i'd also like a follow-up

083on what's going on with the essers funds i'm out thank you thank you ma'am routine approvals i know al had sent out the agenda and at that point i don't believe anybody asked for anything to be removed from the group so it's 5.1 through 5.13 513. i have a motion so mood mike dickerson second time question yes thank you mr president um i have a couple of questions 5.8 athletic admission prices first i want to say i'm so happy that we are live streaming our games i think that is absolutely awesome it really opens up access to our community which is great gives our athletes more of an audience i just love it a couple quick questions though uh as far as the fee structure goes how was that fee structure set was it the

084district working in collaboration with the nfhs network or was it one party or the other who set the prices good evening thank you kathleen for your question i i'm just going to give a quick short response because i've definitely followed casey thurston on this and so your particular question on the fee structure is a gas de or nfhs network and it is developed by an fhs network all right thank you and you may not have the answer then to this question but i'm curious to know why the big jump from a six month pass at a roundup sixty dollars to a twelve month pass at a roundup again two hundred dollars sure a lot of that has a lot of to do with the um streaming we wanna continue the streaming so that results in

085order to keep that process going so all right thank you okay thank you i have another question 5.9 athletic game help rates is there an increase in the 2122 wage rates and if so what is it yes it is an increase in the wage rates it follows the classified employee wage schedule as well as a small adjustment to that to cover additional overtime and or weekend hours needed do you happen to know that percent is that a percentage it's about an average of 2.925 percent so it's kind of like a cola more or less correct okay and really the same question then for 5.10 facility use hourly labor rates yes the hourly rates did increase for maintenance security and custodial uh food service and student workers did not and at this time it was really

086the reason why i did not adjust is due to rounding because our rates are rounded up rather than bill percent but the rates from 2021 to 21 22 as you see here um increased by a dollar oh thank you all right thanks any additional questions yeah just a question doesn't have anything to do with finances sylvan hershey in light of our society and in light of the angry feelings that are out there are we doing any training of our game managers our game help just in case we get ourselves into a situation where they need to take action that they may have never had to take in the past i am not the person to technically answer that question i'd have to defer that to thurston as well as mr fordham if he knows we

087are currently looking at um increasing some security in our games we are having a like other organizations and businesses and industries having a hard time filling positions so we are looking at an organization to come in and provide additional support for game security um but i will refer to casey thurston and she can respond to the next board meeting for the pacific circle thank you kathleen i believe you had another question i do but uh dr soliday did you have questions as well i do before you down if you wouldn't mind thank you um but the facility used hourly labor rates are those rates different than a regular daytime rate of pay for the the same staff maintenance security custodial for example do we pay our custodial staff 36 an hour or is that just

088a special rate for facilities used that's a special rate for facility use the base is based upon the base level is based upon our classified wage schedule and then there's some qualifiers in nut as well such as for overtime and for um weekend services thanks sorry clarifying sure all right thank you uh is connor peterman with us this evening our eagle scout connor would you come to the microphone please you we're voting on your eagle scout project this evening and i want to thank you for the initiative that you're taking this improvement to our outdoor learning space will be lasting legacy that you will leave behind so kudos on that yeah thank you i'd like i appreciate the time i do have a question for you for sure yeah it's an easy one trust me

089it's going to be okay so um i just want to know the benches that you're proposing to build are you building them yourself yourself or do you have a team of people that you're working with so the team we have a team of people um i think the tech guy is pulling up a uh presentation i made but anyway um the benches are going to be made by made by my boy scout troop it's about seven of us and then my grandfather and my dad who is the scout master of the troop we are all going to get involved and build them i love to hear that it's a collaborative effort and that that it's not just you i mean just you would be very cool of course but the fact that you have this

090leadership skill to pull together a team to make all of this happen is really impressive of course yes thank you [Music] so yeah this is the appropriate time if you're comfortable with your presentation yep i'm ready to go thank you so just like we said this is my eagle scout uh project proposal if you want to go to the next slide so here's a little information about me this was made a little a couple like a year back but i'm an 11th grader now at gettysburg area high school i've been involved with scouting since i've been in first grade went through cub scouts i did a lot with scouting and it's a major part of my life um i'm going to lead this off with kind of a story so when i went to the

091middle school in seventh grade i had mr jones and he was my kind of my first biology teacher and we would go out once or twice like for half a class period out behind to the south woods and we would do water studies and nature studies and all these different kind of like fun things and i mean you get to do it with your friends put hip waiters on a lot of hands-on work and the only reason we would go out once or twice is there's not a whole lot of space out there to work with like you can't sit down you can't write on with books or anything the other thing is is there's no area to teach i mean the teachers don't have a place to teach out there so that's what my

092hope for my project would be next slide so i would like to create a learning environment in that area directly behind the south woods it would be eight benches each bench would seat three students and then a teacher's podium um for the teacher to teach from so i think it's on the next slide there's a mock drawing if you're looking along the trail you have your benches along with your teacher's podium and there if you look up in the left hand corner it says current bench that is the bench that is there now so the students would actually look out towards the water where the teacher would be teaching and if you look in the bottom left hand corner um that's what it the i guess the amount of work that would go into the

093bottom of the ground so you'd have about 15 inches between the seat of the bench and the ground this is a rough draft from before i do have a revised copy at the very end of this presentation so the estimated uh cost of the project is between 400 and 600 um how i plan to fund that is i've already reached out to schmuck's lumber company in gettysburg and i plan on reaching out to home depot lowe's and fastenal to gain other materials for this project next slide so once again each bench would sit again this is older but it would sit about three students comfortably it would be about eight feet long and one foot wide and that's what the current bench would look like next slide and then again more photos on the trail

094this is what it would look like it with the students where the classroom will be next slide is that it okay there might be another copy but let me uh i'll be right back if that's okay if i can go check something real quick this that's actually the uh right copy so do you guys any questions for me that i could answer go ahead carrie i do have one yeah for sure can you talk a little bit about your research for the materials that you intend to use yep for sure so i plan on using pressure treated wood um for the benches themselves in the podium um that's so it can last a long time and with withstand the elements with rain and snow i mean we live in pennsylvania it gets pretty cold during

095the winter so we want something that'll withstand as well we're going to put stain on the benches to help it maintain a color i mean for upkeep purposes that would maybe take once every two years just a little spray stain [Music] and to keep the benches secure in the ground we're going to use quikrete to solidify the ground underneath it um in the original drawing there were um drainage stones we were going to put underneath but then we mixed that it was just one of the changes we had to make but that's how that's current materials and i know the rising prices of lumber right now are increasing but the project isn't that big that it would not exceed x we think about 650 is probably what it will not exceed thank you i want

096to thank you you are obviously an exceptional young man and i've been out here and mucked around where exactly where you're talking about and it's just going to help so many children be able to focus a little bit more and get outside which we all want our kids to be outside and exploring i just want to thank you personally it'll benefit all three of my children and i really appreciate it i wish you the best yeah thank you i appreciate that thank you connor i do appreciate you doing your research and that you're gathering a team of people and um it sounds like you're even thinking about the longevity of your project which is really important too all good leadership skills and i appreciate that you want to use those to improve the educational space

097at gettysburg so thank you thank you any more questions thank you guys thank you again if there are no questions if there's a motion go ahead kathleen oh i know i have another one uh it's my last so her offer that 5.13 hr recommendations i'd like to know what our plan is to replace our communications coordinator and maybe it's in process i just don't know but our community has really come to expect uh consistent communication from the district and i i certainly hope that we're not um we're not putting a pause on filling that position so where are we on that the position is currently posted we're currently screening applicants as they come in once we have a quality pool of candidates we'll have uh interviews all right thank you dr perrin and that's it

098mr president i have more a comment more than a question there is a new hire for the law enforcement teacher at adams county technical institute there was great concern about finding someone who had experience in the field who would be willing to pick up a teaching certificate which means go back to school so um it just makes a fantastic statement about the adams county technical institute and gettysburg school district that they did find a qualified individual again who's willing to commit the time to go back to school to get their teaching certificate while working full-time so thank you for those efforts thank you roll call 5.1 through 5.13 carrie yes sylvan yes mike yes al thank you kathleen yes tim yes amy beth yes and i vote yes and i wanted to uh just point

099out and introduce our new director of facilities we just want to stand up and and wave officially today was his first day welcome welcome to the uh welcome to the district and uh and uh we'll uh we'll certainly benefit from your expertise with facilities and certainly we've got lots going on so we're really happy that you're joining us and with your solid background and construction management i think over the next 10 years there are a number of a number of projects that we're going to embark on as part of the long year the long range plan so we're happy to have you aboard and uh and we hope you enjoy your time here name is job welcome mr reynolds i want you to know that with high expectations comes results okay we know what we

100got and we are very happy with who we have yeah well welcome we'll show your office soon all right moving forward for items for board action 6.1 non-resident student may i have a motion please this is kerry i move to accept item 6.1 kathleen pratt second questions hearing no questions roll call amy beth yes modern technology kathleen yes sylvan yes tim yes mike yes carrie yes and i vote yes 6.2 mr president the health and safety plan may have a motion mr president yes mike i would like to put forth a motion to adopt to adopt the health and safety plan in its revised form as outlined in my handout which was discussed in tonight's public work session including the discussed grammar and spelling changes i second that question uh mr president since i did

101comment on on mr dickerson's plan in the work session i just want to make it clear i have no legal reservations about it there there's no nothing disqualifying uh legally about that that plan thank you so the motion on the floor is the health and safety plan with the revised uh language that was discussed uh earlier this evening by mike and handed to all the board members it's been first and second do i have a question mr president i don't have a question but may i make a comment yes well as i hope i made clear in our workshop session i believe that the health and safety plan prior to the suggested revision does use language that gives our superintendent and this board the flexibility that it seeks in making decisions that are best for

102our school district i feel that the revised language includes substantive changes that in places are non-committal and other places are contradictory the revised language i believe no longer creates a plan and it's to be a plan a plan has to have some kind of specific language and again the language that we have in the initial plan uh does allow for flexibility i want to remind us as i said in our workshop statement that the gettysburg area school district mission statement is brief three sentences long the second sentence is our purpose is to provide a safe and healthy environment in which all students can learn i believe that we need a health and safety plan that provides for that while giving us the flexibility and adaptability that we want to have thank you kathleen i i

103respect your opinion um and we we start we talk for almost an hour at the end of the day the board met in june and mike put forth a resolution that was voted nine nothing that indicated on how we were going to open up and it basically outlined our health and safety plan and i like you read the changes here this evening was i aware that mike was working on something yes but he went through directly through uh jason and i don't see anywhere in the language that's deviating or changing the spirit of a health and safety plan at this given night and that's pretty critical because i suspect that we'll be revisiting this at some point i hope not so for therefore i support i support that change the language is basically and and

104is so to speak but the spirit puts back local first control on how we're going to operate our districts and we didn't talk about it earlier but overwhelmingly the emails that are coming in actually want that and that i mean that's just where i'm at this evening yeah and i'll just repeat i i i believe that the initial plan does provide for that flexibility and the option to to adapt as we see fit thank you thank you kathleen any additional comments hearing none roll call mike yes hang tight al yes amy beth yes tim yes carrie yes sylvan a confident yes kathleen no and i vote yes 6.3 emergency instructional time template may have a motion please so moved in second this is carrie soliday question hearing no questions roll call carrie yes sylvan yes

105mike yes al i'm sorry they call him al al kathleen yes tim yes amy beth yes and i vote yes informational items as you'll see on your agenda there include an overnight trip number one and overnight trip number two are there any questions on the informational items this evening not hearing any board committee reports it's my understanding that uh amy beth you would ever report on your committee correct yes um i am your legislative liaison and it's very nice i want to welcome you guys thank you very much for coming out and participating in what we're doing as a board it's appreciated very much by me our legislators along with pbsa have been very busy over the last two months and i have a robust report i do want to say that if anyone has

106any questions i'm going to skim through some of the major topics that have been happening in harrisburg and that will will be affecting our district so we have a district email and please reach out to me and i would love to go in depth about a lot of these things they're very interesting the general assembly has completed its work and sent state budget to governor wolf which he did sign the adoptive budget was implemented on july 1st the forty point eight billion dollar budget is a spending increase of about one billion dollars for our state among the budget highlights for education are about 300 million dollar increase in basic education subsidies representing one of the largest increases in history that should offset some of the increases in mandate costs such as pensions and charter school

107tuition a 50 million dollar increase in special education funding from two years ago will ensure that state picks up a large share of special education expenses we have bills that have been signed by our governor that will impact us senate bill 554 public meeting agendas which is now act 65 that requires public agencies including school boards to post meeting agendas in at least 24 hours before voting in a meeting like this and prohibits the agency from taking official action on items that are not on the agenda the bill allows agencies to make changes upon the agenda for the majority vote of the board members who are present requirements for posting agenda and changes to the agenda would not apply to the conference a work session or an executive session senate bill 664 operation year of

108instruction due to covid19 this is now act 66 it prohibits the extent of special education enrollment as well as an optional year of education for students due to the pandemic parents would have needed to enroll their students by july 15th i have the house bill 101 it's agritourism it's now called act 27. it's budget created in agricultural activity protection act which provides limited civil liability protection for persons who offer agritourism activities on a farm that meets the conditions that are outlined in the bill pbsa supports this bill and has created additional opportunities for students to participate in student agritourism activities and programs house bill 125 is the william shotfield memorial bridge this is now act 28 designated the bridge in shaler township in allegheny county as the william j shot filled the third bridge sheffield

109was the president of pbsa in the 1990s he was a former shaler area school board president and the house bill 125 also recognizes his service in the navy in world war ii and korea we have two bills that are still sitting on the governor's desk the first bill is house bill 336 this is a repeal of overtime regulations amendments for administrative code to repeal regulations created last october pertaining to overtime compensation would be beyond the minimum requirement of the federal law the regulations which are slated to become in effect in october would have required time and a half pay for salaries and personnel who worked over the 40 hours the last is senate bill 618 proof of vaccination and prohibited this was introduced by senator phillips hill she's from york it prohibits a state and

110local government school districts and colleges and universities from requiring proof of vaccination the bill also prohibits the state and any local government from including vaccination status and identification cards or electronic tracking systems in addition this bill bans the state department of health from acquiring face masks imposing travel restrictions implementing social distancing guidelines and mandate shelter in place with the close and closing of private businesses institutions are higher education and subsidies from the pa higher education agency that may not be required from students that they would not have to show their covid19 vaccination again please reach out to me if you have any questions on these i get informed not only from our local legislators but by email and i work with pbsa and i've been proud to do so so hopefully if you have any

111questions you'll reach out thank you thank you building and program reports nope share everything on the front end that brings us to the calendar board of events our next meeting will be august 16th currently right now until further notice we're here in the middle school but i believe we are auntie we are anticipating moving back to our board room once school starts to allow the facility here at the middle school to go back to normal and put us back where where we belong so to speak on a business note we have executive session immediately following this meeting related to a personnel matter i want to thank everybody for coming out from a personal perspective and not representing any of the my colleagues here it's important to me that we recognize that we're going to have

112some some some differences but playing the differences out on social media or whatever format is generally not a very successful venture to do if you have an issue and i'm relating to the the article with a particular teacher or an administrator or somebody within the district i would think we'd find the courtesy to go directly to the administration first before we're going into the school board um that matter had never reached our level and it's my understanding it it was never going to because there has not been to date a complaint within our entire district related to any improper improper teaching i'm not weighing in right or wrong i'm just saying that i would hope that when we go back to our meetings if we disagree we have at least a respect from each other

113to hear everybody out whether we agree or don't agree and move forward thank you mr president yes before you breathe a gavel i believe your name was miss shara is that right i don't know if i'm looking at the right person maybe not someone who spoke to us tonight mentioned emails that she had sent and yes i want to assure you when you send the board emails yes thank you when you send the board emails we all read your emails but we have an unwritten unwritten uncodified agreement among the board that our president and or our vice president replied so if you don't hear from me or any other board member that's not the president or vice president please know that is why but rest assured we read them thank you and i'm one lucky

114guy to have to be able to answer all those emails i do appreciate it thank you and good evening you