001okay mr fusco meeting is live and the meeting is yours thank you mr gilmer good evening welcome everyone to the september policy committee meeting uh i call this meeting the order we're going to begin with 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 all right um mrs stohl is unable to join us this evening as she is abroad um so uh can i have a motion mr rash to approve the minutes from the august meeting uh so so stated all right i'll second it all in favor say aye aye motion carries all right mr summers we have 900 series policies on the docket this evening uh items a
002through e these are all regarding or relations with different entities can you please take a few minutes and just sort of do a quick summary of each of the policies before us tonight sure certainly um so as you indicated these policies are are coming to the committee together because they do all relate to the same theme which is the board and the district's relationship with other entities so the entities that these particular policies deal with are municipalities the news media other educational institutions our montgomery county intermediate unit and our north penn educational foundation so the policies overall talk about the the fact that the district it's in the interest of the district to maintain positive relationships with each of those entities um and the policies go into detail about how exactly we will do that
003so specifically with regard to policy 909 which is municipal government relations and the the district and the board's relationship with other municipalities it just recognizes that certainly our municipalities that are uh made up of you know within the north penn school district are separate legal entities that obviously have their own boards but that that the school district will generally try and work with those entities it's important to have good relationships with them as our schools are located within their communities and our students are residents of their communities so you know it's important that the school district is aware of what's going on in our municipalities and that our municipalities generally are informed of what's going on in the school district so um the the board delegates through this policy the responsibility um to the superintendent
004to meet periodically with municipal officials typically township or borough managers to be aware of what's going on within those municipalities and the impact that various things that are happening in our townships and boroughs have on the school district you know anything from communities uh housing developments that are coming up and could have an impact businesses that are coming into the the area any sort of thing that could impact the school district so the other thing that this policy just references is the fact that um in addition to the the municipalities themselves obviously to the extent that the municipalities have a police department we work cooperatively with those police departments we have a memorandum of understanding with those police departments that is is regularly reviewed and updated um that's really an issue itself that comes before
005the safe schools committee but this policy just references the fact that that's another piece of our relationship with our municipal entities is is our interaction with with their uh police departments so um that's generally the the the municipal policy policy 911 uh is the news media relations policy and um again it that policy recognizes that it's important for the district to have a good relationship and working relationship with news media whether that be our local media online media state or even national media in certain circumstances and it indicates that to the extent that um the district has rights to various media um that that the board reserves the right to negotiate for televising broadcasting certain events or activities that may occur probably most significantly this policy designates that the chief communications representative for the board
006shall be the director of school and community engagement so that particular position is really tasked with being the point person for all relations with news media um uh that uh this policy uh designates that individual to be responsible for interacting with the media keeping the media informed of things that are occurring within the school district as a way of communicating with the greater community about events that are occurring submitting and preparing stories about positive things that are occurring within the school district and making sure that our success stories go out to media who can share that again with the greater community and then assisting others within the district you know with media relations so if there's an issue going on at one of our school buildings certainly assisting our principals with any kind of communication
007with the news media handling interview requests um those sorts of issues and and it it indicates that you know it's it's certainly the district's desire for official communication with the media to occur through that office through the office of the director of school and community engagement certainly other individuals may speak with the media at times but the idea is that that office will oversee and coordinate all of those efforts policy 912 is probably the shortest policy that we'll look at tonight but it's relations with educational institutions which in general just says that the district wants to maintain positive relations with other school districts or other uh institutions so um the idea being that obviously different districts if we're talking about school districts have different resources and there may be things resources programs activities that other
008school entities have obviously as as a large school district north penn has many resources and and many things that we offer so this policy says that we'll also coordinate with other school districts that may be looking to us for assistance or coordination on activities or programs that they have um the other educational institution that certainly comes to mind is montgomery county community college this policy um you know would indicate that it's important for the district to have a positive relationship with that entity as well as any other local colleges and universities that that we may interact with um to provide opportunities for our staff and students um and this it just indicates that it's the superintendent or the superintendent designee who is primarily responsible for ensuring that that we have those positive relationships and that
009we maintain them with other educational institutions in the area policy 914 then is relations with the intermediate unit obviously we are a member of the montgomery county intermediate unit and we utilize the intermediate unit for certain resources that they are able to provide to a large part for students with disabilities but but certainly other services that they're able to offer as well the board the policy calls upon the board to review the district programs that involve intermediate unit services and make determinations as to whether to continue with those services you know to expand the services that we utilize from the intermediate unit to to reduce those services when appropriate just in general it talks about maintaining a good relationship probably the main way that the district maintains a relationship with the intermediate is unit is
010through our board member who is appointed to the intermediate units board um so the policy references that that individual who the board elects to serve on the intermediate unit is the is the official liaison between the district and the intermediate unit and certainly um anyone who's watched one of our regular board meetings sees that there is a report from the intermediate unit that is is presented at every board meeting um so that there's there's an understanding for all board members and the community of what's going on at the intermediate unit um and how that impacts uh what's occurring here in in the school district right and that liaison is uh ms ramich julian um and then the last policy so uh all of the the four other policies that we just reviewed are are policies
011that have been developed at the recommendation of the pennsylvania school boards association pspa as with all policies that pspa develops and provides the district we review them we tailor them to ensure that they fit with the policies and practices here in the district but they are developed and offered to school districts throughout the commonwealth this last policy policy is a north penn specific policy it is not a psba model policy um it's designed specifically with regard to north penn and our educational foundation um so many districts obviously have an educational foundation but this policy kind of signifies that the board is recognizing the the foundation as providing an important service to our students and our community one significant thing that the policy does is that it it allows um authorizes the district's director of school
012and community engagement to serve as the executive director of the foundation um and so that's obviously an important it's been an important piece of the foundation's success in having support from the district and having support from our director of school and community engagement to assist with their efforts it certainly recognizes that the foundation is a separate legal entity they have their own bylaws they have their own board but we certainly work cooperatively with them and benefit from their activities as with the intermediate unit policy this policy also references the fact that the board will have an appointed representative in this instance appointed by the board president who will serve as the official liaison between the board and the foundation as with the intermediate unit we commonly have a report at our board meetings from the
013representative of the board to the educational foundation to provide the board and the community uh with updates about activities that are going on with the foundation how they are benefiting the school district and how individuals on the board and on the community in the community um can become involved in those activities um so i think that captures uh the policies that we have for the committee uh tonight i'm certainly happy to answer any questions that we might have let me point out real quick that that liaison is also ms ramich this is kind of the ramage batch of policies uh mr esch what is your question sir what's interesting is uh miss ramich is so valued by that uh board that she was elected president a few weeks ago that's all yeah miss ramich has
014been a great ambassador for the work of the um of the foundation um and has really done a fantastic job certainly amongst our group of making sure that we are always aware of what's going on and uh making sure that we know exactly we can do to help support their efforts she has been very strong in her leadership with that group and we thank her for that all right are there any questions specific to the policies themselves and there were no substantive changes made to any of the policies that were um psba um specific policies is that correct mr summers that's correct and also i guess just to note is that these are all new policies so we are not um repealing any existing policies tonight it's it's simply recommending that these policies be moved
015for first adoption okay you know i have read the policies i believe they're straightforward and don't need any changes thank you okay uh a motion to uh move uh items a through e for a first reading at our action meeting so so approved all right second motion all in favor say aye aye aye all right that motion carries uh do we have any additional topics for the committee all right seeing none we'll move on to our audience of citizens mr costco i just want to just be here we do have our student rep here so i didn't know if uh oh we do you wanted to put him on the engine all right nathaniel is with us not to put you on the spot but i didn't want her to uh lose her opportunity if
016um if there was an opportunity to comment from you if not we can move along i just yeah i apologize for yours um i don't have any comment today but thank you all right thank you okay um so now we'll move on to the audience citizens uh tonight's meeting is our regularly scheduled committee meeting 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 ensure compliance with this requirement it is essential that those planning to address the committee state their name and address members of the audience are asked to limit their questions and comments to matters being discussed at tonight's meeting on matters that may come before the policy committee the committee chair may ask the
017individual to yield to the next speaker all right mr gilmer already folks i know i see some new names here um just a reminder in order to make a public comment you will raise your hand on the interface on the bottom of your window and then i'll call on you as the hands are raised okay mr phone no never mind there was a hand just came up just got under the wire there all right so up first is uh jason lanier jason i have enabled your microphone so you're ready to begin please state your name and address and begin your comments jason lance delbaro i had a sort of a broader question regarding policies and where to find the policies written regarding sort of teacher interactions with students uh namely um i'm kind of concerned
018about the the you know i've touched on this before but sort of the the the divisive uh i know you guys don't call it critical race theory but whatever you're calling it where you divide the kids up in groups and have one group of kids apologize together i don't know where that would follow or fall under the policies of the school but i'm assuming that that sort of thing is not allowed in making sure that it's not allowed what what is the what happens when when a teacher decides to do that either on their own or maybe directed by some other entity within the school also had a question regarding board members and their policies i saw some policies what they do in terms of communications but is there a policy for bidding board members
019to have either fiduciary interest or interest either maybe political interest in voting on something simply based upon the out you know they want a certain outcome as as requested by that fiduciary interest and not to beat around the bush too much but yeah like the american federation to teachers i know it gives a lot of support to at least a few board members they want certain things all those board members seem to vote in favor of what the american federation the teachers wants and i just wanted to make sure there's a policy which clearly outlines that that's not allowed and if there is not a policy that says you are to be looking at the best interests of the students and it's an argument i guess whether or not when i say the american federation
020of teachers is looking out for the interest of students my argument would be no and i just need to look at their what they they put out as their their speaking uh their talking points if you will um but if the school board is doing something sort of hypothetical to uh the interest of the school or the school district or students because they have a fiduciary interest in getting say campaign donations going forward what is the recourse on that board member or members and i'll leave it there if you want to direct me to the board docs i would appreciate it i couldn't seem to find that kind of information in the board docs but i might be putting the wrong search keywords in so that's what uh that's i'll leave it there thank you
021very much mr summers but could you please speak to uh the cop uh the uh fiduciary statement we sign every year telling telling every the whole community about any uh interest we have in any organization that does business with the school district sure i'm happy to do that mr fusco did you want to conclude public comment um see if there was any was there let's see if anybody else says anything else and then okay we have a little bit of time here we'll address mrs questions all right there are no other hands at this time so that will conclude public comment all right so um to respond to mr rush's comment um there is a statement of financial interest um which every board member uh completes on an annual basis um that provides any sort
022of uh financial interest that that the board members may have that's provided to the district um there's certainly um a the pennsylvania ethics act uh governs uh is the law that governs the actions of public officials and and whether there are ever any conflicts of interest that arise and i guess to the other uh question about staff issues the 300 section of our policy governs employee issues there's a policy about the conduct of employees and certainly if the district ever determines that an employee is acting in conflict with expectations um that that uh employee you know that the district may have for that employee there's certainly the ability to impose appropriate consequences okay thank you um all right i think that will just about do it we uh summary of the items to be moved
023to first reading at our action meeting next week uh our items a through e policy 909 911 912 914 and 920 no repeal policies for this batch our next mini meeting is going to be held october 12th at 5 p.m and as it's all our committee things are it will be virtual um so you know their business can have a motion to adjourn motion all right we'll be back here in 40 minutes for finance thanks everyone thank you everyone