001Okay, Mr. Rash, the webinar is live. YouTube is live. The meeting is yours. Meeting is now in session. Please stand for the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Could I have a motion to approve the minutes from the last policy meeting? So moved. Second. Any comments or discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor say I. I. I. Uh I items recommended for work session action meeting are items 317-.1 educ educated misconduct 339 uncompensated leave and 701.1 naming of facilities. Uh would Dr. Kim or Dr. Waters like to take over? Sure. Um I don't see uh Dr. Waters is here. I'll let her be. Sorry about that. Yeah,
002she is here. I know she was having some connectivity issues today. So, I'll be happy to take take the wheel here. See if I still have it. You can't hear me? I can hear you. Yeah. Okay. Um All right. So, in there's Dr. Waters. Dr. Waters, do we have you? I I think so. Do you hear me? Yes. Yes. Yeah. Okay. Do you want to do it for old times sake or? Yeah, sure. I got it. All right. Have at it. Thank you, Dr. Bower. Yes. I'm having some difficulties over here. No problem. So, good evening everyone. Thanks for having us for our May uh policy committee meeting. I hope everyone had a lovely Memorial Day weekend uh with friends and family. Um and with that, we're going to continue our uh review of policies.
003As you are likely aware, if you've been tuning into these meetings, we've done the whole whole loop of our policies and we're now circling back and taking a look at policies while infusing some new ones um that have come through via PSBA over time. Uh so with that, I'll turn it over to Mr. Summers, our district council, for uh some a few words about each of these policies. Mr. Summers, good evening. Good evening, Dr. Bower. Thank you uh everyone. Um so tonight we have um three policies that are being reviewed. Two of these are revisions. Two policies based upon uh PSBA's recommended uh updates. And then another one we have a a a new policy coming before the board that actually is not a PSBA model policy. It is um unique to the district or
004at least unique to a number of districts. It sort of combines some policies that different districts have have um put in place called naming of facilities. So, and we'll talk a little bit about what the purpose of that policy is and uh you know why it's being presented. So, first to the two policies that are being revised based upon PSBA recommended revisions. The first of those is policy 317.1 educator misconduct. This particular policy um is in place uh because of requirements uh pursuant to a law called the Educator Discipline Act. That's a state law that says that um whenever there is an educator who is suspected or accused of engaging in certain types of misconduct um there's a requirement that the school entity or even individual educators in certain instances make reports to the Pennsylvania
005Department of Education about the misconduct that has been accused. So um anytime there's any sort of suspected sexual misconduct involving an educator uh meaning which means basically a certificated employee of the district. There's a requirement in addition to any sort of child abuse reporting reporting to police um obligations that the district might have. There's also an obligation to report to the Pennsylvania Department of Education so that they can investigate and consider whether any action needs to be taken to suspend the certificate or revoke the certificate of the um educator in question. So, we've had this policy on the books. It's certainly a practice that the district follows. The update to the policy is really just one of terminology. um it revises a heading that was called title nine harassment and changes that to just um
006discrimination/harassment. So it's a similar change that we've looked at over probably the past two or three policy committee meetings um any policy that references discrimination and harassment just the terminology PSBA recommended to be consistent throughout all of all of our policies. So, it's really just an adjustment mostly to the heading of the section that talk in that policy that talks about discrimination and harassment. And the the section itself um basically says that anytime that there is a report of educator misconduct that is made, if the report in question potentially involves some sort of discrimination or harassment, that in addition to reporting to the Pennsylvania Department of Education, the district would also we'd also notify our Title 9 coordinator um in the district to look into the issue from a Title 9 perspective and see if
007there's any or or other form of discrimination. um perspective to see if there's any issues there. So, that's really uh kind of a minor um terminology language update. Um the next policy that's being revised is policy 339, uncompensated leave. Um and that policy again is it's one that we've had in place. Um the update is primarily to add language that discusses uncompensated leave being provided to employees as a reasonable accommodation. So, um, under the Americans with Disabilities Act, when the district has, uh, employees who have a disability, there's generally an obligation to provide those employees with a disability with reasonable accommodations that allow them to um, do their job while uh, performing the essential functions of that job. So, um, you know, those accommodations can include things like, uh, enlarged, uh, print or larger screens
008or or greater, um, ability to use the restroom or there's a whole variety of of accommodations that are provided. Um, one form of reasonable accommodation that does need to be considered um, by the district when there's an employee who needs it is uncompensated leave. So if an employee without any form of accommodation is able to they're if they're not able to perform their job even with any sort of reasonable accommodation, the district has to consider whether um uncompensated leave some time off um is warranted or appropriate in order to allow them to recover. It doesn't need to be an indefinite period of time. There actually needs to be some sense as to when the person would come back. um and it depends on the type of job that they have if if um the uncompensated
009leave is reasonable for that employee. But essentially what this policy revision says is that whenever there is an uncompensated leave provided to an employee as a reasonable accommodation that the board would be notified of that leave being given to the employee. Um and that that would happen essentially through the personnel report um that you vote on you know monthly. it has already leaves that are provided to employees. Um, this is just adding in our policy language making sure that it's recognized that reasonable accommodation uncompensated leaves are are to be considered in appropriate circumstances. The district has been doing that. It just hasn't necessarily been listed in this policy. Um, and then says that the board will be made it notified uh made aware any time that an uncompensated leave is given to an employee. Um,
010and we're really talking about employees who have exhausted all of their other forms of leave, um, and and just need a, you know, short period of unpaid leave to potentially recover um, from a, you know, a dis a disabling condition. So, before we move on to naming of facilities, any questions about the educator misconduct or uncompensated leave um, policy revisions? Mr. Mr. Summers it's it's uh can be redneck here um it's not a question it's actually a statement you know I just wanted to make sure that for instance when you um mentioned the discrimination policy and the verbiage change. I just wanted to make sure that the com the community knows that even though what was required this change was to change that particular verbiage from title N to discrimination um you know we as
011committee members still review the entire policy uh to make sure that it is still um as upto-date as it needs to be and if we found that there were any additional changes that needed to be made that we do not restrict ourselves to just the one line item that needed to be updated. I myself for one found this one a very good and informative and thoughtful read. So want to make sure the community knows that we do do our due diligence to review in its entirety. Thank you. Yes. Um so the the next policy um is naming of facilities and this policy um is one that PSBA does not necessarily have a model that they recommend um that that districts uh you know all districts adopt but there are a number of districts that have
012adopted um policies as it relates to naming of facilities. So the purpose of the policy is to provide some framework for how decisions about naming um districtowned and operated facilities would occur. Um and it applies to entire facilities or portions of a facility. Um so for example a sports stadium or uh even a an auditorium or a classroom or you know any any portion of a facility. um that there might be uh an idea of naming it after either a person or an entity. So um the policy talks about that um in the event that there is an individual or an entity um that either they're requesting that a facility be named after them or someone else in the community or uh or within the schools is requesting that a facility be named after someone.
013It talks about kind of some of the criteria that would be considered um uh when those when those requests are made. So is it someone um you know is there a request for a former employee for a facility to be named after them? Um have they made has that person made significant contributions to the school district community? Um have they um you know were they a model of citizenship of leadership? um what um sort of links to the community has the person or the entity contributed? So, is this a local business that has um supported the school district in a number of ways, financial or otherwise? Um you know, so there's there's different considerations to be looked at. Um if the request for naming a facility would have um certain signage that would come along
014with it, what's the cost of that signage? um who's going to pay for that? Um you know, how how um how much signage is there or who's going to design it? Questions like that. Um so essentially what the policy says is that anytime that there is a request for naming a facility, um that would be the superintendent or designate would field those requests um and then bring them to the facilities and operations committee of the board. Um that tends to make the most sense because it's, you know, kind of a facilities issue. what is a certain building or or portion of a building going to be called? The signage component of it obviously has implications for facilities and operations. Um and then that committee, you know, would hear the request and if there's a desire
015to support a particular request, it would be forwarded on to the full board to uh consider whether to approve that particular request. So I think there's kind of two categories of of naming of facilities. One is um honoring individuals or entities. So um you know our our football stadium uh our niatorum have names after um individuals who made contributions to the district in terms of their you know working for the district um providing significant contributions. So there's sort of honorary naming of facilities and then there's also the possibility of naming rights which would be more of there's an entity that wants to make a financial contribution to the district um in exchange for having a facility or a portion of a facility named after them. And um what this policy says is that those sorts
016of arrangements where an entity typically a business wants to have uh an individual or um a port a facility or a portion of facility named after them. Um that those arrangements would need to be in writing. It would need to be in the form of a contract. That contract would certainly undergo review by the district. typically legal review as well to make sure um that there's nothing that the district can't agree to as part of it. Um, one of the things that this policy also says is that the board would reserve the right um to remove or discontinue the recognition of an individual or an entity um at its sole discretion. So, that's something that would have to be addressed as part of any naming rights agreement. um what if there's any sort of notice
017um if the district um you know wish was just to rename a facility or remove the naming of a facility. Um one of the the factors to be considered is the naming of the dis of the facility and any impact on the district's ability to carry out its mission or the reputation of the district. So certainly um if there's an individual or an entity that has gotten into some sort of public relations issue or trouble, you know, the district wants to reserve the right to potentially rename that facility. So um obviously heading into a significant construction project with the high school, there may be opportunities for um facil existing facilities or new facilities to be named. And so particularly in light of that, I think it was important um to have a policy in place
018to kind of address these issues. Every once in a while there are requests made about naming facilities and um it's helpful to have a policy to at least point to to to kind of guide the district's response if those requests are made. Um and so with that uh if there's any questions, I or I'm sure the administration is happy to take any uh on this particular policy. Kyle, what did you since we didn't have couldn't use the uh usual standards that we use, where did you come up with this policy from? Sure. Um, so there were some districts um probably about four or five other districts that had policies in place. Um, so the administration, um, I know Dr. Kim had found a number of policies, Dr. McKenna had found some, uh, and provided them.
019you know, I looked through those policies and took components of them that seemed like they would um fit what the district is looking to do. Um and and then I I added some additional recommended language um myself. Um so some policies some districts had policies that were primarily focused just on naming facilities in honor of former employees, former students, you know, sort of more of an honorary naming. Um and and so a lot of those components were put into this draft. Um but then other districts had more of a you know financial contribution, naming rights, businesses that wanted to sponsor buildings and so um I you know added some of that language in there as well in terms of if we have that kind of request and then you know added that it would be
020the facilities and operations committee that where those requests would initially go for consideration. That's a district, you know, specific process. So, do we have any questions from the board or the student reps? I don't have a question, but I just want to thank Kyle and Moren and Dr. Bower and Dr. Waters and Dr. Kim for going through all the um policies. I know it was one of our goals when we first came into office was to have all the policies reviewed in a timely manner. And it's nice to know that they're, you know, we're coming around again and not just letting it sit, you know, um that we're actively and um on a regular basis reviewing policies as needed. So, thank you for that. It's not the most exciting job, but it has to be
021done. Thank you. Uh I recommend the following policies for first reads. Policy 317.1, policy 339, and policy 701.1. Do I have a motion to approve the policies? So moved. I have a second. Second. Any comments or discussion? Seeing none, can I have a vote to approve the policies? I I Are there anyformational items for discussion? There are not. Uh does anyone from the community wish to speak? Uh yes, we have a couple people in the audience tonight and I have one hand raised. For those that are joining us tonight on policy virtually, if you'd like to make a comment, you just raise your hand in the bottom of the interface. So, Mr. Rush, when you're ready, you can read your statement and then we can get into our comments. Individuals attending the meeting virtually and
022intending to speak to the committee should be aware that they are being recorded. In order to meet the requirements of Pennsylvania Sunshine Law, it is necessary to record the names of all citizens who speak to the committee during the meeting. To assure compliance with this requirement, it is essential that those planning to address the committee raise their hand electronically and state their name and municipality. As a reminder, the public comment portion of the meeting is designed for te residents and taxpayers of the district to provide comment and feedback on matters being discussed at tonight's meeting or matters that may come before the policy committee. It is not designed for debate or discussion with members of the committee. When appropriate, committee members may choose to respond to public comments that have been made or request that
023a member of the administration follow up with the speakers after the meeting. To allow time for all those who wish to speak to the committee, the chairperson may ask an individual to yield the microphone to the next speaker. Thank you. All righty. Up first is Jason Laneir. Jason, I have enabled your microphone. So when you're ready to begin, please state your name and municipality for the record and begin your comments, please. Jason Laneir Lansdale. Uh I was calling uh calling wanted to comment regarding the the naming policy uh the 701 point whatever it was. Um, is is this in under under the idea that we're going to get sponsorships for buildings or getting getting sponsorship sort of so a way of sort soliciting money outside of the standard tax uh and you know federal and
024uh state local income tax. Uh so so for instance, you could you could have like the the McDonald's cafeteria or something along those lines where you're going that the district would be paid to name their building simply for a monetary gain. I if if that's what's going on. I mean it it sort of sounded like that. Um, is this something that we're going to be advertising out to try to to to to sort of uh solicit donations from from private industry to name things and and is the idea then to offset taxes or reduce tax? I just wanted to get a bigger idea of of where this is because they mentioned there there was there's been a numerous occasion. Sure, maybe. I don't know. I I sort of understand where Crawford got its name and
025and maybe one of the niatoriums. Uh but I this seems like we're trying to to find another source of income to pay for things in school. So I'm not necessarily railing against it. I'm just wondering what the limitations would be. And you know, McDonald's sponsoring cafeteria would be one thing, but you know, where does the line draw with with with doing this sorts of uh solicitation of of naming rights? You know, uh is it is it going to be just what is the criteria? Because it sounds like that's what you're doing. If I'm wrong, I guess then then then uh then this this question's for not. But assuming that that is correct, where what are the what are the boundaries? What wouldn't the the district be accept money from or what industry wouldn't accept it
026in money from and what would they would? You know, so McDonald's for food and would you would you have the Smith and Wesson cafeteria? In other words, that sort of thing. Where is the limitation? And I'll leave it there. Uh and any any real feedback on that an uh that question would appreciate. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Millioner. Is there any more hands raised? There is not. So, that'll conclude public comment for tonight. Uh, Dr. Bower, would you wish to speak, please? Yeah, I'd be happy to, Mr. Rash. Mr. Laneir, good questions. Um, I can tell you that the motivation behind such a policy is not explicitly to raise money or to fund raise for naming rights. more it's to restrict and to codify the fact that people can't just name things. Um that there
027needs to be an actual act by the a committee of the board then the board in order for something to be named. Now, don't get me wrong. If a community member wanted to donate a I'll use a round figure, $10 million towards a a new stadium, towards a new um planetarium, whatever it was, science, STEM wing of a building. Would we consider that? Absolutely. Uh we would consider that. But that's not the motivation. It's really across our 18 buildings. There are people who name this room or name that room and we're like we need to have a policy that kind of um guides the process for naming things. So that's really the motivation behind it. Um there are spaces that are named. One of them just because we're in a schoolboard meeting, the William Jacobs
028um boardroom at the ESC that's named. He mentioned an auditorium. He mentioned Crawford Stadium. So there are spaces in the district, but there has never been a policy on how to go about naming a place. We have certainly had people reach out and say they want things named after certain people or have asked if they could sponsor, but we've never had a policy to point to to guide that conversation. Uh Mr. Summers, if you want to add anything from your legal expertise, please feel free. But really, it's just to put some guard rails on a process. Um and I I assume this policy will be refined over the years. Uh but really good question, Mr. Ler. Mr. Summers, anything to add? The only thing I would add is just that the policy does um call
029for the board to be the the entity that approves those naming um uh naming of facilities. And so by it being the board that approves it, that also ensures that the public would have the opportunity to comment and provide feedback um whenever or prior to a facility being named um as part of, you know, the public uh board meeting process. Great. Thank you, Mr. R. Thank you very much. Is there any other business? Seeing none, summary of items for work session are policy 317.1 educ mixed conduct 339 uncompensated leave and 701.1 naming of facilities. Uh can I please have a motion to adjurnn? So moved. Have a good night everybody. Thank you. Have a good night. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you everyone.