NPSD School Board Action Meeting 8-19-21

001- Good evening everyone. Welcome to tonight's action meeting. We are going to start with the Pledge of Allegiance, please, - A nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice all. - So thank you everyone for coming this evening. We are going to start off tonight's meeting with the recognition of the North Monko Technical Career Center Students achievements at the Skills USA. - Let's see, Steven Manasra. - Mr. Manasra, can you come to the podium please? Oh, there he is. Sorry. Yeah, - Good evening. - My name is Steven Manasra and I'm the principal at North Monko Career and Technical Center. Career and Technical Education is the backbone of our community. While attending North Monko, students have the opportunity to learn highly sought after career skills that prepares them for the workforce and post-secondary education. All

002of our students are members of Skills, USA Skills. USA is a career and technical student organization that empowers members to become world class workers, leaders, and responsible American citizens. Through conferences, competitions, and community service skills. USA improves the quality of our nation's future skilled workforce through development of skills that include personal workplace and technical skills grounded in academics. I wanna thank the North Penn community for celebrating the achievements of our North Monko Technical, technical Career Center students. We are extremely proud of our students and what they have accomplished while representing North Monko. At this time, I would like to recognize the following students who competed at our district skills USA competition. Alexander Carpenter, Brian Bel, I'm sorry. Braden Bel, Brianna Arroyo, Carlos Gonzalez, John Moor, John O'Hara, Kaylee Boyle, Kyle Stump, Logan Veeck, McKayla, Zeki,

003all Yub Bono, Ani Petty, Peyton Brown, Reese, Grainer, Soniya, Georgia Chow, Andrew Gibson, Kenneth Roberts, Jayla Collins, Julia Fredericks and Morgan McClain. The following students placed first at the state PA Skills USA Competition. Jayla Collins. First place for team event, career Pathways, culinary Arts, Julia Fredericks, first Place Team Event, career Pathways Culinary Arts, Andrew Gibson, first Place Power Equipment Technology. Kenneth Roberts, first place Industrial Motor Control. Morgan McLean, first place restaurant service. Morgan McClain. Also placed third at the National Competition for Restaurant Service. Congratulations to everyone and thank you again and have a good night. - Thank you Mr. Minera, and congratulations to all your students. Okay, next up will be the audience of citizens. So what we're gonna do tonight, we had about 50 people pre-register that would like to make public comment this

004evening. So in an effort to allow everyone the opportunity to speak, we will be combining the audience of citizens from the beginning of the meeting and the audience of citizens Time from the end of the meeting to one extended audience of citizens time period. Now additionally, each speaker will be allotted two minutes of time. There are two podiums up here. Podium one and podium two speakers will be lined up at the appropriate podium. Once your two minutes are over, the microphone will cut out and go over to the next podium so the next speaker will have time to speak When all the preregistered speakers have had their opportunity to speak, we will allow up to another 30 minutes for anyone else who's present tonight to offer comment that did not preregister. Please note, each community

005member will only have one opportunity to speak and as always, if you do not get the opportunity to speak tonight, please feel free to email [email protected] and someone will get back to you. And I respectfully ask once again that we remain civil and courteous while others are speaking that we offer the same consideration to the current speaker that we would want for ourselves. Please do not yell out or boo or you may be asked to leave the meeting entirely. I thank you in advance for your cooperation and I'm just gonna kick it over to superintendent Dr. Bauer and he can explain the podium system a little better. Thank you Dr. Bauer. - Thank you Mrs. Stoll. So as Mrs. Stoll mentioned, we have two podiums here. Podium one is on my right or your left

006podium two is on my left or your right. We have two monitors and the monitors will say who the next speaker is. I do believe you received an email if you pre-registered to speak from Mr. Croy telling you which podium you will you will be assigned to. So once we begin, when there is a speaker at the podium, I just ask that you keep your eye on the monitor and quietly or respectfully make your way down and wait for your turn. So we will be start with podium two and the first speaker's name should be on that screen and then the first speaker on podium one should be on this screen. Okay, so the name of the next speaker will be up, and once Mrs or ZA starts speaking, we will switch the name on

007that podium and you'll be able to see if you're the next speaker. Okay, - Thank you Dr. Bauer. Okay, so first up then I believe is Mrs. Joanne Oropeza. - Joanne Ora. I live in Hatfield Township. I'm here to support keeping mass optional. I don't think anyone is enjoying that. We are still stuck in this position. I don't believe parents on either side of this issue are bad or selfish. We are all trying to do what we believe is best for our children. I'm not here asking to take anyone else's rights away for wearing masks. In fact, I support their right to do so. But I'm also supportive of parents being able as we always have to choose what is best for each of our children. No parent wants harm to come to their child.

008They're the ones who have their children's best interests at heart, not a school board. COVID-19 Delta and more variants to come will carry a risk just as many illnesses before this happen and so do masks and vaccines. Each family should be able to decide which risks they feel outweigh the benefits. Dr. Lorraine of the Montgomery County Board of Health in June stated, masks were anywhere from zero to 15% effective, not very effective. My kids were master to school every day last year, however, it didn't come without consequences. My son with autism struggled with focus to an even greater extent than normal, which by all means affects how much he will learn in a year. It delayed him further his anxiety and OCD sword. We had to adjust his anxiety medication several times. He had a

009bloody nose almost daily. Make no mistake putting a mask on him all day will cause more damage. This year he's heading to the high school, a huge transition for him, one that has already caused so much stress due to other separate bad decisions made by the administration of this school district. The thought of him now struggling further with wearing a mask all day has kept me up for countless hours. My other son also had consequences from wearing a mask. Last year, on average I was giving him ibuprofen for headaches two to three times a week after school. This was never a problem for him before. Mask a kid who could not wait to be back in person and he at virtual was begging me to stay home to take his test because he felt he

010just couldn't focus with his mask on. So when people say kids are fine to just wear a mask that is false. We are all in different boots and this is why I'm pleading to this a parental decision on what works best for each individual family. Thank you. Thank you, Mrs. Or Pza. - Good evening, Mrs. Hirsh. Good evening. Katie Hirsh from North Wales. In the spirit of transparency, I am a fully vaccinated North Penn parent volunteer taxpayer Democrat who voted for you. I am here to urge you to follow the Montgomery County Office of Public Health's guidance on masking and recommend that masks be worn indoor, but not require them as Mr. SCOs district's spring forward is doing. Just last week, Mr. Fusco made the excellent point that no one sitting at that table is

011a medical doctor. So leave the medical decisions to the health departments when there is a mask mandate from the county or state. Enforce that they haven't shied away from mandating masks or virtual school in the past. When discussing mask policies, you must consider the risk. Risk that Monko O-P-H-C-D-C, who UNICEF all acknowledge it's not just a piece of cloth, it's a learning impediment. I know teachers have emailed you asking for flexibility in masking protocols. Seeing mouths, lips, facial expressions is crucial in early learning of reading, writing, speaking and listening. Our ELA curricular requires segmenting sounds and dependent upon correct sounds being said and heard. Wearing masks makes these seated structured times lessons very difficult. Our own teachers are already seeing that students' letter sounds are suffering as evidence in their writing samples. Our incoming second

012graders have not had a normal year of school yet. This year is crucial for them. This is their transition from learning to read to reading to learn. Studies show that kids who struggle with reading in third grade fall exponentially farther and farther behind their peers. UNICEF recently stated that these learning losses, academic, social, and emotional will never be recruited. You are elected school board directors elected by people like me to represent our community. Your job is to listen to the community not dictate your personal politics on thousands of families. It is obvious that the majority of this community wants flexibility with masking. So the solution is simple. Listen to the health departments that clearly state masks are recommended but not required. Thank you. - Thank you Mrs. Hirsch. Mr. Flannery, - How you doing, Mike

013Flannery? When I look on this stage, I see people that fall into three categories, ignorant, greedy, and evil. The time for figuring out what group you fall into has come and gone as far as I'm concerned. If you're still sitting on this stage pushing mass CRT and fast track vaccines on these kids for a virus with the kill rate of a lightning strike, you are evil. I'm not gonna sit up here and debate whether poison is poison with you. Mass and CRT are poison period, and you know it for a long time, folks like you have been operating in the shadows, skimming and scamming behind our backs with our tax money. Well, I'm here to tell you, you should have kept it with robbing tax money. But like all political parasites, Robin wasn't good enough

014and you had dreams of higher office. So you took their money and you're now you're pushing their poison into our society. Mass, CRT and insane lockdowns of small businesses, all while labeling big corporations essential. Understand this folks, if your job or business was shut down during this time, these people see you as non-essential for the new world. They're building back better. Of all the poison that these parasites are pushing on us, none can compete with this experimental gene altering technology that they've labeled a vaccine. The only good that come outta this COVID crime is that we got a good look into the poison being pushed into our kids' schools and more importantly, a look at the agents of chaos pushing the poison into our schools. Your handlers lied to you. They promised you we wouldn't

015notice. They promised you we would just accept and comply. They lied to you. So because of this poison you folks have awoken asleep. Giant. Giant. You people have helped form an immovable object known as freedom loving Americans, patriots, and we are everywhere. - Thank you Mr. Flannery. Mrs. Flannery, - I haven't had a chance to start yet. If you could turn that back to two - Minutes. No, that was kind of the point of the - No, no, no, no, no. Yes. Turn it back. Everyone was clapping. I wasn't able to get my time. Nope. I would like it to go back to two minutes starting now, then I will continue until I'm done. My husband, whom you just met, I'm Vicki Flannery from North North Wales borough whom you just met. We chose North

016Penn for two reasons, academics and athletics. I'm a graduate of a Catholic college prep school in Wisconsin, my husband and graduate of Chestnut Hill Academy. Our educations were important to our parents based on their choice of schools just like ours was when we chose North Penn. Sadly, after moving here, we discovered how truly flawed our district is. Our school board sees our children as nothing more than political pawns for U for you or for use, for raising our taxes. Implementing dis divisive DEI curriculums meant to divide, not unite our community, and now they want to potentially force our young children to wear a mask because their concern is the whole community. If their concern was truly for the community, would they be hosting the Crawford Stadium community Pep rally days before schools open back up.

017Crawford Stadium holds approximately 6,000 people in the stands alone. There are zero caps on attendance, no mask requirements, and zero vaccine mandates to attend. Sounds like while they're up here preaching that our young children the least affected by COVID are the community villains. Tiny little super spreaders. The true super spreaders will be this board and their unregulated event Last year. You regulated our prom attendees to provide negative COVID tests 24 hours before the event. Will you be doing the same for this one? If you can sit up here to vote masks for our children this year, then I expect you to do the right thing and cancel your event. Stop using our children as part of some sinister political agenda in one hand and then completely ignore the data you spew up here for your

018clear intent to campaign in the other. Thank you Mrs. - Flanary. Next up - I got it. Mrs. Hey, I'm Kelly Lance l pa. I'm a registered nurse with master's degrees in both nursing and business administration and the mom of three young children. The basis for the CDC recommendation you presented at the last meeting comes from the study of 469 COVID cases occurring over the July 4th weekend in Barnes stable Massachusetts. 74% of these cases were among vaccinated in individuals. The viral load in shed was the same in both meaning that regardless of whether you're vaccinated or not, you're equally able to spread and transmit COVID to someone in the community. The CDC didn't give an exemption for vaccinated North Penn School board members. Every one of you read that statement and still sat shoulder

019to shoulder without masks exercising your freedom of choice to make an educated decision that was right for you. The families in this district deserve the same consideration. There's not one study from the NIH or CDC supporting universal masking and K through 12 schools, but I can present to you 44 studies with statistically significant results documenting adverse effect, including increased carbon dioxide after just five minutes, and bacteria growth on masks after two hours. And do you, do they even work? No. Fabric masks were shown to have a 97% particle penetration rate. The WHO classifies children as a special group and caution government agencies against universal mask mandates for them. So where does this leave us? There's clearly no right answer for everyone's situation, so why not try for a compromise during low risk activities like sitting

020at a single spaced out desk mask Optional. During higher risk activities like walking through crowded hallways between class mass required last summer, this board ignored the wishes of over 70% of the parents in this district who voted to have their children return to some method of in-person learning. Tonight you have the chance to do better. On a personal note, my husband and I were in our garage last week when we were approached by a member of this board. My husband heard that he was a democrat in the school board and loudly told this man to leave our property. Two days later, an officer showed up to investigate a complaint lodged by this man stating that my husband had threatened to shoot him with a gun. An outrageous lie. Being an elected official implies that you

021will act with integrity lying to police officers, allowing your husband to stare down a man at a board meeting during his time to speak, rolling your eyes and sighing looking at the ceiling when you don't agree with someone you agree to be for all the community, not just those like-minded individuals. Don't - Deserve Mr. Your Time's up. - Go ahead, Mrs. Hoffman. Hello, I'm Lauren Riley and I'm here in favor of a mask mandate for our schools. I would like to support the board in instituting that mandate, particularly the elementary level, if not at all levels. First, all expert guidance strongly recommends a mask requirement in K through 12 schools, including the guidance issued by the CDC and the Department of Health. The board is not tasked with medical expertise, but as your purpose statement

022says, to set the policies to that define the nature of public education in our district. In accordance with that purpose, the board need only follow the published guidance. This brings me to my second point, which is your purpose of defining objectives for education. The primary objective, bringing us all here tonight is consistent and sustainable in-person education for our children at this time. The best way to achieve that is through a mask requirement. Such a requirement will decrease the need for quarantine, school closures, and funding of additional resources for expanded virtual education, something none of us want. Last, I do wanna emphasize that you as the board have offered virtual education as an option for all families. Implementing a mask requirement supports the needs of the greatest number of students, but I do empathize that even

023with masks there will still be risks. Those risks may be too great for certain students and they would want to use the virtual education option. In addition, there will be students who cannot or will not wear masks and they also have the option of taking advantage of your virtual offering. Thank you for the time that you've given to all of us to speak and for consideration of our differing views. - Thank you, Mrs. Riley. - Mrs. Hoffman. Good evening. I'm speaking to you as a parent of a rising first grader in our school district and as a borough resident For almost seven years, I have been a registered nurse for almost fif over 15 years. In my current position, I work for Penn Medicine. My specialty is palliative and hospice nursing, and as a bedside

024nurse, I continue to witness firsthand the extent to which COD can transform lives as a healthcare worker. I was eligible and received the COVID vaccine the day after Christmas. My husband, Randy, here with me tonight, is an educator of over 15 years and is also fully vaccinated. Our two young sons, however, ages four and six are of course not yet eligible. When they are eligible, they will get their CO vaccinations. Last year we opted for virtual education all year for our kindergartner. I give my highest commendations to the school district and specifically the faculty and staff at York Avenue Elementary for an excellent experience. However, this year we are opting for in-person instruction. I think we can all agree that most children thrive with the opportunity to socialize and interact in person on a campus.

025Like so many parents, we did not come to this decision easily. So here's what I'm driving at. At all levels of vetted healthcare and scientific guidance, vaccination, masking, handwashing, environmental hygiene and social distancing are among the gold standard tools for ending this pandemic until all children have the OP had the opportunity to be vaccinated. And until transmission and positivity rates in our community are stable as parents and professionals and good neighbors, I fully support district mandated masking and social distancing in our schools for the health and protection of us all, especially our children. Thank you and thank you for listening. Thank you Mrs. Hoffman. - Ms. Pinto. Hi, my name is Sarah Hoffman. I am grateful for the opportunity to speak tonight, but I'm disappointed that we are still here having a debate about masks.

026We all had a very optimistic moment in the spring and summer when COVID cases were going down and vaccination rates were going up and things seemed a bit more normal. However, that is not the current reality. As we are all aware cases are continuing to rise all over Montgomery County. Delta is 200% more transmissible and results in up to a thousand times higher viral load compared with previous variants. We're seeing more breakthrough cases with the Delta variant and even vaccinated individuals who become infected can spread COVID to others. However, even with those numbers, I think we can all agree maybe if nothing else that we want schools open and our kids in the school building, but we haven't yet created a safe enough environment for that to happen. Masks are the single best provi, protective

027measure against COVID-19. For our young students who do not yet have the opportunity to get vaccinated, they not only provide protection to the wearer, but crucially, they serve as source control if someone does get infected. So the greatest benefits occur if everyone wears them, and it is not one person or one expert or one study or one organization saying this. It is the overwhelming scientific consensus recommending universal masking to keep our schools open and our kids safe. And regardless of what risk category we fall into with the community transmission or positivity rate, we cannot take away masks and have less physical distancing with a rapidly spreading virus and not expect that virus to proliferate. We either want to end this pandemic or we don't. We can't have it both ways. I urge you to follow

028suit with the other school districts in Montgomery County who have already mandated universal masking. Thank you for your time and I appreciate your careful consideration of the overwhelming evidence in support of masks. Thank you. - Good evening. My name is Debbie Zit and I live in Montgomery Township. I'm here basically on behalf of children. I have a great niece who months ago got violently ill. She ended up at CHOP when they did an antibody test. It turns out she had had COVID, no, no symptoms, nothing, but ended up with MISC, which is multi-system inflammatory syndrome in children. CHOP at this point has a whole floor full of these children. They end up hooked up to tubes and constant different testing and medication to bring all their systems under control. The problem is they get, well,

029thankfully many, many died early on in this disease, but now they're finding ways to combat everything that happens. But many will have heart damage, kidney damage that they will be tested now for the rest of their lives for definitely a very long time. My point being that none of you, as much as you love your children, I don't care if it's 10%, get MISC. Do any of you really, really want, - Ma'am, can you just just address your comments to the board? - Oh, do they really want their children to be one of those 10%, 20%, whatever the number is. So I'm asking you to go with the mask mandate. If we really wanna keep our young children safe, this definitely is a big step and it is true. Kids do not show or get

030very sick for the most part with COVID, but if it goes on to MISC, then they do get very, very sick. Thank you for your time. Thank you Mrs. Ton. - Mrs. Stoll, can I interrupt please? We've had a couple speakers go to the wrong podium, so I just wanna remind the audience that when you look at the television, if your name is on this television to my right, that's the podium you should go to. And if it's on the television to my left, that's the podium you should go to. Okay, so we're, we're getting a little mixed up here, so, okay. Thank you Mrs. Still. - Thank you Dr. Bauer. Okay, so I think next up then I have Mrs. Heath. Is that correct? - I'm Jennifer Fick. - Oh, okay. Gotcha. All right.

031Thank you Mrs. - Sure. I live in Landsdale borough. I'm a parent of a student at York Avenue Elementary, and this is the first board meeting I'm attending in person because I feel like it is important to speak in support of the revised intelligence safety plan that includes masks, requiring masks and doors at the elementary level as the delta variant in causes increased COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations among children across the country and locally, as others have said, presenting a significant to the wellbeing of our children. I am grateful for the school board's plan that seeks to protect those who cannot be vaccinated against COVID-19 and follows the recommendation of the CBC, the American Academy of Pediatrics in Montgomery County. This pandemic has revealed how interconnected we are and my kids wearing a mask protects others

032around them and I, they depend on others around them wearing a mask to protect them as well. We need to work together to protect one another and especially those who are most vulnerable in our community right now. This means masking a proven public health tool so that our kids can stay safe from COVID-19 and stay in school in person, getting the benefits of in-person education without learning, being interrupted. I also wish to express my gratitude to school leadership for your hard work and thoughtful decision making during this challenging and volatile time. - Thank you. Thank you, Mrs. Clark. - Mrs. Heath. Kathy Heath of land sale. All right. You haven't voted yet, but I know that you've already made your decision based off of your version of the science. Just so you know, I have

033seen an uptick in articulation errors amongst my children, those who do and don't receive speech. I can't imagine how children are learning to speak foreign languages as it's hard to understand native languages speaking through a mask, let alone a foreign one. Get back to the job you're elected for. The education of my children, not public health policy. Families and teachers alike are tired of being treated like rubber beds as you keep changing technology, instructional settings and so on. Thanks to your early dismissal Fridays and for the middle school block, scheduling instructional time has been lost and less has been learned. I've taught in block scheduling, so I know firsthand that major modifications and ongoing training is essential to ensure a quality education. There was an attempt for the summer enrichment programs to make up for

034the lost time, but the platform left much to be desired and the district placed my child in the wrong course. This wasn't discovered until after the halfway mark and was followed up with the incoming 10th grader glitch that locked my child out for over a week. Nice job there. Catching up in-service day training needs to be prioritized. Emphasis needs to be on technology and special education, not your political agendas. Since the launch of Infinite Campus, I've had to contact teachers every marking period as the program likes to change weighted percentages to 0%, meaning entire sections of coursework such as tests do not count towards the grade. Also, canvas and Infinite campus do not like to communicate as proven by some classes, never showing grades. As for special education, many teachers have worked well with my

035children. However, there are some who need a refreshers. Since some regular ed teachers have rarely if ever encountered students with IEPs or 5 0 4 plans, and there are some special ed teachers who fail to address goals that have not been met or try to change the delivery of services in violation of the IEP, even the tech department would benefit. Since they need to understand how these students use and are supported in using the technology. The district cannot afford to be out of compliance. It's evidenced by your constant need to increase our taxes. I get that you're afraid of making mistakes with our kids' health. Welcome to the world of the parent of the Premature Cancer Stricken and other health issues. We parents have navigated this German pest world for years without your health guidance

036or mask mandate. Thank you, Mr. And we'll continue to. Mr. Soki, - Go ahead. Good evening school board members. My name is Marianne Soki. I live in Lansdale. I'm here this evening to ask you to continue to use common sense backed by peer reviewed science in deciding how best to begin the school year, be it in person, virtual or a hybrid model. I ask you to exercise care and consideration for children, staff, and the community who are all impacted by your decisions. It seems you already follow this approach, which I fully support. Yours is a challenging role indeed faced with this very extreme and unusual pandemic. At the same time, you're being relentlessly barrage by misinformation. Delta cases are rising. We must be responsive to the changing nature of this pandemic so that we can

037eventually return to normal. While it is not easy for anyone, children will follow the lead of adult examples in showing them concern, in showing their concern and caring for the health and safety of others. We are in this together and I know we have the strength to overcome this difficult and temporary situation. Thank you for your time this evening. - Thank you, Mr. Sarky. - Ms. Ferry, Samantha Ferry from Hatfield. The first thing taught in nursing school is proper PPE. The mask is no good. After 20 minutes, you have to change the mask in order to prevent particles exhaled from being reen inhaled into your lungs and causing bacterial pneumonia. Fauci co-authored a paper on the Spanish flu. Majority of the deaths were due to a secondary infection, bacterial pneumonia from the mass. When individuals

038wear masks, they end up touching their faces more frequently, which can lead to infection. Frequent masking wearing is a breeding ground for bacteria. These are children, they have no idea how to not touch their mask. You wanna put a mask over their airways that will impede oxygen flow and aren't porous enough to allow carbon dioxide to fully dissipate, which affects every vital organ in their body and increases risk of CO2 poisoning. You say you are following the CDC guidelines, yet The CDC D'S own published study on masks released in March of 2021 confirmed that masks never made any more than a maximum of a 1% difference. Another study involving over 25,000 school aged children shows that masks are harming kids physically, psychologically, and behaviorally. Reveal revealing 24 distinct health issues associated with wearing masks. A

039January 20th, 2021 study involving a hundred thousand students and staff says 99.968% of children do not get COVID from school. There were only 32 reported cases of infection and there were zero instances reported of a child infecting an adult. Forcing a person to use an intervention that is potentially harmful for the sake of others is unethical. Forcing individuals to abide by measures that restrict their ability to move freely throughout society without discrimination is unconstitutional. Prohibiting people from entering or participating in society because they don't wear a mask, also violates their constitutional rights. The masks and the vaccines are under emergency youth authorization and are experimental. Thank you Mrs. Ferry. Mr. Naba. - Go ahead. Mr. Naba. Eric Knob Block Montgomery Township. I have a daughter in first grade. I have another daughter that's going in

040the ninth grade. And it's pretty clear that everyone here has a very strong opinion of what you should do. We all care about the community, we care about our children. We want to be heard. And more importantly, we want to know that you, our school board, our neighbors, are gonna consider our point of view when making this decision. Now, there are people in our community who, who are concerned about COVID and cases are going up. There are people in our community who are wor, who are more worried about mass and more worried about how it's gonna impact their kids. And cases are still going up. If the last 18 months taught me anything, it's that if cases go up, restrictions follow. In Georgia, 19 school districts are virtual or hybrid right now. When they were

041in person to start the year, three districts in Indiana just moved virtual because cases are rising. This time last year, Montgomery County averaged 42 cases per day. Today we're averaging 130 and cases are still going up. Now I, I support the plan that was proposed last week and if cases rise and remote learning is required, many of us here are gonna wish that we did more. If we're gonna keep our children in school this year for the entire year, we are gonna need to do more, more than what's required. And I hope we can at some point come together as a community and do that and keep cases low so we can stay in school. Thank you. - Thank you Mr. Nalu. - Mrs. Stop. Yes, I'm here speaking. My son was initially going to

042be speaking and I'm not speaking for him. Well, for him and for myself. He's at soccer practice Now I'm here to speak about the Delta variant because even since last week's meeting, things have gotten worse. Things are different. The viral load has been shown to be thousands of times more. It's, it's transmitting faster. The infections are more serious, the exposures are more serious and kids are being affected more. A study of North Carolina found that 90% of over unmasked students will be affected by infected by the end of the semester if if unmasked. And when you do the numbers on that 1.9% of kids that get COVID will be hospitalized. That seems like a small number, but one third of those kids will end up in the pediatric ICU for an average of four days.

043So that means in the United States, we'll need 6,800 beds in pediatric ICUs, the problem is we only have 4,500. So that means that when our kids, any of our kids here may have an a car accident or an asthma attack. If they get RSV have have complications from cancer or drowning or any other emergency, there may not be a bend for them. 'cause that was just for the COVID. We have no capacity to make the same mistakes that they're making in other states like Florida, Texas, and others. This is why the American Academy of Pediatrics and the CDC is recommending masks for everyone indoors, vaccinated, and unvaccinated, please vote for masks. Thank you. Thank you Mrs. Staub. - Mrs. Brad, Jesse, Brad, upper Gwen Township. I'd like to address the board tonight in some

044decisions that have been made in relation to equity and student safety. For three years, the board has invested in equity to shrink learning gaps through staff hirings, professional development and resources. Yet the board shut down schools and forced virtual learning in the lowest period of COVID transmission then reopened schools when COVID spread began, surging stayed open through the peak of transmission and now will force only unvaccinated to quarantine. Every one of those decisions only widens the learning gaps of those who need equity. The most. Recently developing an ever-changing health and safety plan has taken valuable resources to ensure that the board is making the best decisions to keep children safe. Yet this board has an outstanding lawsuit from a child who was not protected from years of classroom abuse. Parents have been begging this board

045for appropriate action to be taken. When an employee received A DUI and was arrested while being paid to chaperone and out of state event last summer, the board upheld equity when they fired an employee for questioning the BLM movement and a repost on her private Facebook page, which has now cost this district an undisclosed amount of money in a lawsuit settlement. I'd like to remind you that despite the division in Rhetoric tonight, we are united in the fact that we all love our children and this community no wants harm. We want our right to make the safest and healthiest choice for our children. And remember, we are voters and you are elected officials. Voters spoke loudly in May to end mandates and on November 2nd they will speak loudly again. Thank you Mrs. Pr. Mr.

046- Lambrose, you're up. Got it. Okay. Yani, Lambrose and Zel. What is hypocrisy? The practice of claiming to have moral standards and belief to which one's own behavior does not conform. Hi. A lot. A lot of that's been going on with elected officials lately. Even last night at the Lanzo borough, I was there. Everyone went back to the political theater mask up last month. They weren't last week. You weren't by the end, they were very excited for Founders' Day. They wanted to bring in large crowds of people, families, children, families attend these events without mask and social distancing. Founders' Day is just around when school starts, I guess Delta only spreads outside on school playgrounds or in track practice, but not in public events that by political brownie points, the majority disagree with you. That

047was proven on May 18th when the people stripped Wolf of his power. He lost that vote. You try to force mask and vaccine with false science and narratives. A friend of mine took the vaccine now has blood clots and kidney problems. Her life at age 55 will never be the same. Another family with a North Penn student told me that their friend passed out during track practice running in the heat in the mask. I'm here to call you out and everyone else who is pushing an agenda. Mrs. OL's husband at the last meeting was the one who called the police and harassed my friend Zach at the podium. And in the seats there was another woman with two masks who yelled at a 6-year-old girl. I hope you end up on a ventilator. That's the

048side they're pushing. You don't scare me and you don't scare the parents behind me. People are rising up more and more every day. You will be voted out. We are united. Both parties, all backgrounds. That's you. - You're done. Your time. No, your time's up. Mr. Snyder, you're up. - My name is Harry Snyder with Hatfield. I'm here tonight as a parent of a fifth grader. I used to often start my critique of the board's, mismanagement of our schools by stating I had the benefit of hindsight. As we enter into this new school year with the community even more divided, confused, and frustrated than it was this time last year, I will no longer offer this board the benefit of not having enough data in hindsight to effectively approach the challenges we're facing tonight in

049getting us back on course and making our children's education our first priority. I stand before this school board to express my disappointment and frustration and how this board is repeatedly failed my son and this community. Madam President, you personally insulted this community when you said answering right to no request was a waste of time and money. If this board were more transparent and supportive of actual dialogue, there would be less. R TKs. This school board has chosen to inject a non-tested social experiment that flies in the face of everything Dr. Martin Luther King preached and sacrificed for. Your covert implementation of the DEI curriculum has resulted in a much divided community. You continue to spend money this district does not have you answer to this. Fiscal irresponsibility has been to vote through maximum tax increases

050year after year, spending eight and a half million dollars to build a beautiful new stadium. And I'll give that to you. It's beautiful. We still have schools in this district that don't have air conditioning. That's unconscionable. As a proud North pre parent, I respectfully ask that this board reconsider continuing to manage the business of this school district using the same standards exhibited over the last four years. Thank you. - Thank you. Mr. Snyder. It's Mrs. Stein here this evening. It's Mrs. Dur here this evening, Carolyn. If not, then I think we'll move on to Jonathan Neil. - Good evening. It's kind of wanted, just tell the board I feel sorry for you guys. 'cause it's not we in the audience. We don't have people come to our place of business, place of work and harass

051us for just trying to do our job. No matter which way you go, people are gonna be upset if you vote for mass. If you don't vote for mass, people will get upset. But there are consequences. In Florida, there was three, three teachers who passed away in the first week of school. Now we all have choices. If people don't want their kids to wear a mask, they can go to another school, they can go to private school. They can, they can pay to go someplace else that would give them that. So it's not that they, people have a right to harass you to make a decision that benefits them. Everyone has a choice. Everyone has free will and they can go wherever they want to go. And I just wanna say, just make the best

052decision that you guys are gonna make and that no one should harass you for the decision that's being forced upon you. The governor can make a decision. The county can make a decision on how to help schools but know it's everything's coming down to local school boards. And it's your decision and however you make it, the community should support you and not try to harass you. Thank you. - Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Mrs. Rudnick. Good evening. - Good evening. Couldn Rudnick, Montgomery Township. I start like I saw one of my community members say that I am a mother in the district. I am a Democrat. I voted for you all and I will vote for you all again. Simply said, I do think that you've done a fabulous job over the last four years. I

053know that we don't, not all the buildings within the district have air conditioning, as my learned friend said over there, but at last, at least you guys are moving towards that versus the board we had before that did nothing. So as we sit here today, there are approximately 30 kids in chop as one of, again, my learned friends has said, who have some form of co COVID virus treatment or the other. I don't think any parent here wants that to be their kid in the future. Essentially having kids not having a mask mandate in the elementary school in particular is to, is as if to say we should have a super spreader event every day. At this point, I understand that my kid could wear a mask and your kid could not wear a mask.

054But the bottom line is that we know scientifically it takes both parties to have on masks for us to be successful in curbing this pandemic. I will also say that my 11-year-old who is unvaccinated also has a speech impediment and IEP. So those parents that come up here and use that as the ultimate weapon, you know what? I would rather have her alive. And if you are talking about fear, fear is instinct, fight or flight. We are choosing to fight with the masks. So yes, we all have our individual situations, but the bottom line is as a community, we have to come together. I support it. - Thank you Mrs. Redner. - Mr. Furry. - Thank you. Go ahead Outta all 15. Use up here. Do we have anybody that's willing to make this optional?

055Tell us. All right now. I didn't think so. You guys already made up your mind and these are all cowards for it. Okay. Bizarre. We don't co-parent with you guys. We don't cowards. Okay. And I'm gonna finish what my wife was talking about earlier. 'cause I, I, I'm gonna lose my mind with you guys. The mass and the vaccines are under again, EU A and O and are only experimental. Therefore, according to the Numan bird code, we have the right to accept or refuse the experiment. You are infringing on our rights and actively participating in crimes against humanity. It's illegal to experiment on any American citizen, let alone our children. We the parents, make the health choices for our children. Not any one of you guys, none of us remember this as Thomas Jefferson penned

056in 1776, the Decla decoration of independence. That whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it. And to institute new government laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form as to them shall seem most likely to affect their safety and happiness. It is their right. It is their duty to throw off such government and to provide new guards for their future security. And I'll finish it off with this. Another fellow marine of mine quoted this. Should you choose to make the mass mandate, you will be named in a lawsuit and you will lose. You're dealing with me and you're dealing with all of us, at least for the next 10 years. That is, we are not

057going anywhere. We will win and we will embrace you as allies if you choose to side with us. If not, you'll be remembered as ones. Thank you, Mr. Sorry. Your over freedom - Mrs. Tyson. - Go ahead. Mrs. Heis. Hello. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak. I came here tonight to show my support for the revised health and safety plan that was introduced last week. I asked the board to continue to follow the a a P and CDC guidelines for our K through 12 schools. The recommendation is for all students and staff to wear a mask in school buildings. I just ask you tonight to please continue to follow the experts. We appreciate your service. Some of us appreciate your service. You know, where distancing in classrooms is impossible in order to

058maintain continuity of in-person learning. I think, well, for my family, the goal is to have the kids be able to attend school as long as possible. And just my personal feeling is we're willing to, you know, do what we need to do in order to have our kids attend school. So thank you for your service to the community, and please just consider passing the revised health and safety plan. Thank you. Thank you, Mrs. Hyen. - Mr. Korra, I ain't gonna start speaking yet. - Go ahead. - My name is Zach Korra, the Zoro. I come to you as a concerned parent and citizen. The First Amendment raised is one of the most important a as American. And while I was up here last week, my time was rudely in, interrupted by the North Penn School

059president husband. At that moment, nothing was said by the board. And the intimidation from this situation left me wondering if they let this happen to me. How are you guys handling my kids behind closed doors? Now, more than ever, we need to have the trust in our community. That being said, I don't trust any one of you in front of me right now. I'm in the process process of pulling my kids and enrolling them in cyber school. In the near future schools, begin hosting vaccination sites, turning a place where kids are supposed to feel safe into a scene of a dystopian novel, turning our schools into science s labs, injecting our injecting experimental shots into our children. Children as young as 12 will need no, excuse me, will need no parental consent to follow up

060there with these simply because sending your kids to school is consent. My question to you is, will you be morally okay when something goes wrong? Well, who will be held responsible will for the long term side effects of this experimental drug? Will it come outta my money? Will it come outta the rest of the taxpayer's money? There are plenty of doctors, nurses, experts in the field speaking up against these mandates and the vaccine, but they're all being silenced. I will not sit back. I will not be silent for my kids' sake. And I'll keep on fighting for the future generations. And I'll never stop instilling these values onto my children. And when the truth comes out, we'll make sure every single one of you is held responsible for damaging our children. Thank you. Bye. -

061Thank you, Mr. Korra. Good evening, Mr. Wang. - Thank you. First of all, I just want to take the time right now to thank all of you guys for doing this, volunteering and making the difficult decisions that you need to do to keep our students safe. Now I wanna address some specific statements that were made tonight and at the last school board meeting. Someone tonight cited 44 studies without a source regarding the harm of masks. The scientific consensus, however, is that masks do not have adverse effects on the breathing of people with healthy respiratory systems. Biomedical Central, for example, concludes that masks increase CO2 load, but not to an injurious level. Yani Lambros said this at the last meeting. I'm here to tell you that we, the people do not have to take it. This

062is a free country. Students don't have the freedom to use racial slurs on fellow students or teachers. Even though the Constitution grants citizens that freedom in this country, we accept that freedoms can be limited to create a safe learning environment. Why is everyone so mad about this restriction of freedom and not every other restriction of freedom that schools always apply? Erin Blanc said this, the death rates from COVID for children are lower than the other major causes of death in children. She's correct. However, this is not an argument against masking in schools. Students who contract the virus in school may give the virus to their relatives and friends. Just because students don't die from COVID doesn't mean they can't cause the deaths of others by transmitting the virus. Diana Blystone spoke about her autistic son

063and the detriments of mask has to her son's learning. There are of course exceptions to every policy, which is why the school administration made dozens of masking exceptions for students last year. I feel for Ms. Blystone and other parents with legitimate claims against masking their children. And I hope that the board and administration will accommodate them at the same time. However, the health of students and the community at large are the most important considerations. Do not listen to the words of liars masks work. They're not causing significant issues for student learning, and they are necessary to keep our, our schools and our community safe. You may speak louder tonight, but truth speaks louder than lies. Thank you. Thank you Mr. - Mr. E. - I just wanted to come up. - I will remind everyone

064to please be civil, otherwise we will be asked to leave. - So I just wanted to come up and thank the school board for their time. The state unfortunately passed this down to you guys and now you're forced to make a difficult decision you shouldn't be making. So I'm a high school senior, not a doctor. You guys are volunteer school board members, not doctors. And from what I know, no one in this audience is a medical doctor. So as average citizens, all we can do is consult the experts. And the experts tell us that in order to stop the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, we should wear masks in our schools. The CDC recommends universal masking in K through 12 schools. The Montgomery County Office of Public Health concurs with the CDC masking guidelines for

065vaccinated individuals. NIH director says that wearing masks in schools is a sacrifice worth making. Our collective reluctance to get vaccinated has contributed to the development of variant COVID strains. To fight these strains, we must mask our school children. So I want to clarify that this is not an issue of personal liberty. The school has the right to mandate that children wear masks just like they can mandate that children wear pants. It is an issue of public health. And for that, we must adhere to the guidance of the scientific literature. No one's freedom is under attack. The real threat here is to the freedom of immunocompromised students in elderly teachers. As a North Penn community, it is our obligation to protect these students and teachers. If wearing masks can help keep them safe and facilitate their

066education, I am all in. After all, isn't the goal of a school to educate? Thank you. Thank you, Ms. - Ms. Sharifi. I just wanted to thank the school board for serving and for having to make this difficult decision. So I'm Nadia. I'm from Lansdale, and I'm a rising senior at North Penn. And believe me, no one wants to have a more normal, a normal school year, more than the class of 2022 who haven't had a single one yet. And this is exactly why we need to follow recommendations from health officials. Like the ones refi described. Masks are proven to prevent the spread of aerosol droplets by the proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. The school board has already stated that exceptions were made for those with disabilities

067and medical reasons and discussed having exceptions for teachers teaching early language skills with masks being made for glasses. Users, no one should have a huge issue wearing one. In addition, I attended in-school five person day learning, five day person in-person learning last year. I know that in the last school school board meeting, there were conversations about anxiety and depression caused by isolation. But I don't see how that's relevant to the discussion of masks. A piece of material does not silence you. And I found that in person, even with masks, students were still able to make connections with each other. And I would, I would know I was there if anything, masks would give us a better chance at studying in school longer. If students are required to wear masks, at least we know we did

068everything we could while also getting our kids in school. If not, the worst case scenario is that the more deadly delta variant spreads, children get sick with lifelong issues or God forbid, die. Now, I'm not a mother, but if my child was put in a position with even the slightest possibility of getting hurt, I would do absolutely everything I could to keep my child safe. And as the child right now, I don't think it's selfish of me to want to keep myself safe too. Thank you. Thank you Mrs. - Ms. Younger, Jamie Younger Lansdale. I'm here to talk about the recent denial of a proposal for an a a c speech devices for special needs students with speech impairments. A little different from the topics tonight. - Can you imagine what your life would be

069like if you could not talk? This is how my autistic son communicates and learns. This is a a c. - My son is autistic and is one of 15 students at Montgomery Elementary that requires an a a c speech device for basic functional communication. In order for a, a c to be effective, everyone within these children's support system needs proper training to be able to use it, including their team of teachers, therapists, and family members. Montgomery Elementary speech therapist wrote a proposal identifying the need for five additional iPads with a a c programs for training purposes to support these 15 plus students. This proposal was initially overlooked by the North Penn Educational Foundation. So Montgomery Elementary's Home and School Association stepped in to help and gifted the funds needed for these crucial devices only to

070have it denied by Dr. Santoro and Ms. McGee Heim via right to no request. The reason for the denial was equity among the district buildings. First, the math is simple. Montgomery Elementary, to my knowledge, has the largest population of special needs students. The greatest need should have received the greatest support. Second, this gift is to be fully funded by our home and school's fundraising efforts, something every home and school association's completely capable of. Third, there was to be a dialogue between Dr. Santoro, Ms. McGee, Heim, and Montgomery's, principal and speech therapist regarding this request. And there's zero documentation that occurred prior to disapproval. Fourth, it was identified that the need would have to be assessed among all the elementary schools. A need that was already clearly outlined in the original proposal for the students of

071Montgomery Elementary. And last, I'm offended at the fact that band equipment and musical instruments gifted at the same time by our home and school were approved without hesitation. While these a a c devices that provide a basic human need for my son and others like him were denied. What do these actions say about North Penn's commitment to inclusive education for their special needs students? I implore you to take action. Thank you. You, Mr. Thank you. - Go ahead Mrs. Zimmerman. Hi. First, I wanna say that I fully support and commend the board on their efforts in making these difficult decisions. Unfortunately, we had all hoped to be out from under this virus by this school year, but the Delta variant and the unvaccinated have changed everything. I could continue on and state all the obvious

072reasons that we wanna keep our students safe. But so many have already spoken and will speak to those points. I've sat here and I've listened to stories and pleased for your children. And now I wanna use my time to speak about my child, my grown child who received an excellent education here at North Penn and is now an emergency room doctor. I worried constantly about him all last year as he was from the frontline battling this virus. I worried he would catch it. I worried if he had enough PPE. I worried and I still worry about his mental wellbeing as he's had to stay isolated from family and friends for fear of infecting someone. He and his colleagues were exhausted, both physically and mentally. They work around the clock to save lives and we're thankful

073for vaccines and at some point we're finally able to enjoy a few months of normal life. But now, because not everyone's followed the guidelines, he's back to treating COVID patients again and like before, the majority of his patients are not following basic protocols like masking or getting a vaccine. His patients include children as young as two. He tells me he's treating adults and children in the waiting room. As the hospital is so overwhelmed it does not have enough beds, this situation is not good for anyone to coming, needing to come to the ER for something other than COVID. Currently, his hospital, his hospital loses between five to 10 patients a day. Medical professionals cannot go on like this indefinitely. It wears on them mentally and physically. As a mother, I continue to worry these professionals

074on the front lines are the true heroes, but they get vilified and abused. Case in point, what happened in Tennessee a week or so ago? But they're still expected to treat people who could have avoided getting the sick by just doing simple things that the experts recommend, including wearing mask or getting a vaccine. So please don't let your child be someone that my child has to treat. - Thank you, Mr. Mr. Thank you, - Ms. Montgomery. Hi, my name is Ann Montgomery. I'm from Upper Guad. I think we've become so polarized that I think we need to get to know each other as human beings. Democracy means all of us to participate, and I wanna thank every single person who came here today to share their views. I wanna ask you to please raise your

075hand if these apply to you. It's been a really hard year. How many of you have suffered economically? We have How many have a child who's struggled with distance learning? I have How many have lost friends or family to COVID. I have two people dead. How many have family or friends fighting cancer, heart disease, or other high risk conditions? But you know, this week has really been hard on our military families. So I wanna just take a minute and say how many of friends or family who are on active duty or our veterans who have worked for the military directly like I have, I wanna thank all of our active duty service members, veterans, and especially our gold star families. We stand with you during this very difficult week, but I want us to consider

076what sacrifice means. And I wanna see what it means to you. How many people drove here tonight without a valid driver's license or insurance? How many people drove drunk higher impaired in the last month or ever? In the civil society, we accept some limits on our personal freedom to protect others. How many of you have taken the COVID vaccine? How many of you wore a mask tonight? Because you know that's what it takes to protect others. How many people understand that science is a process where new data leads to new understanding and new recommendations? Now let's find out who our experts are. If you are a PhD in epidemiology, raise your hand. If you have over 20 years experience in vaccine development or a medical degree where you treat patients fighting COVID, raise your hand.

077I wear a mask and so does my child In order to protect you. And those who are unable to vaccinate faculty, staff, and students need to follow a competent medical guidance and wear masks to protect those who cannot be vaccinated and those who cannot wear masks due to disability. We're in this together. Let's act like it. - Thank you Mrs. Montgomery. Mr. Lanier, - Jason Lanier, Lansdale. I heard a lot of talk about experts and who's an expert. What's an expert? Lots of data points. There are of data points out there. There's lots of medical journals that will tell you the efficacy of masks. Now, people said some things that weren't quite right in terms of how well masks work and all of the literature is pretty much unanimous on. They work well to stop

078droplets. They work well to stop spittle, but they do not stop aerosols. Save one, which is an N95 mask. And we could say, well, let's get everybody to wear N95 Masks not so much. You can only wear those for an hour per the manufacturer's recommendation. Wearing 'em beyond that causes additional problems. So keep this in mind. There is so much data available. There are so many experts. There's a lot, many, many more experts than Dr. Fauci or, or Lewinsky or, or what's her name? Val. Val. These people are taking talking points. They aren't necessarily looking at the data. They have an interest. You need to look at the data, please. It's simple. It will guide you in what you should think. Quick, quick point. There's a lot of talk about fatality rates. Fatality rates in

079kids are, are, are so small, it's 376 kids. I'm not saying that's a fine thing, but 376 kids in the United States have died from COVID. That is, that is terribly small. That's not worth inflicting upon the kids. The rationale to stop the spread of this disease, they will not. The efficacy mask is zero. Kids cannot wear a mask properly. It will not stop anything. You will only being, you're only going to functionally slow their development and growth. You could possibly cause them harm last week. Well, I'll drop it for now, but listen, just look at the data. Look at the data. We'll tell you what is available, what is right, what is our and guy for, for, for for Christ sake. Look at the other experts. Thank you, - Mitchell Lanier. - Good evening.

080Mr. Patrick Beth. Patrick from Upper Gwen Township. July 19th, 2021. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends all students older than two years, and all school staff should wear face masks at school unless medical or developmental conditions prohibit. Use August 5th, 2021. CDC recommends universal indoor masking by all students age two and older staff teachers and visitors to K through 12 schools regardless of vaccination status due to the circulating and highly contagious delta variant. August 11th, 2021, the Mayo Clinic reported on the benefits of kids wearing masks. Benefits include protecting the users and those around them and protecting against other respiratory viruses such as RSV and croup. The same article addresses if there are negative effects of children wearing face masks. Their answer. These studies have unequivocally shown that there are no negative health effects on

081children from wearing a mask in alignment with the CDC. Montgomery County Office of Public Health recommends universal indoor masking for all teachers, staff, students, and visitors to school regardless of vaccination status or school district level of community transition. Sally Goza for president of the American Academy of Pediatric stated, this is not last year's COVID. This one is worse and our children are the ones that are going to be affected by it most. Before you tell me, it should be your choice to wear a mask. I would like to ask you if you have ever sat in a doctor's office or hospital holding your child while waiting for care? While they struggle to breathe. Mask wearing is for the common good. It's about protecting the wear and those around the wear. They save lives and they

082help protect our children. I ask the board to vote with science and the experts. Thank you for your time. - Thank you Mrs. Patrick. - Mr. Kennedy, Michael Kennedy, Hatfield Township. Although our COVID response is obviously very important as somebody who's had COVID himself and all six of my children have COVID, I like to change gears to talk about political activism creeping into our classrooms. It is a lot of work. It's rooted in awful lot of bad tradition, bad practices, bad policies. And I don't just mean here at North Penn, I just mean here as a nation, we really have a lot of reckoning that we have to do. Well, we put a big focus on the people at the very, very top in our government. The biggest impact we can have is at the

083local level. We committed when we got in to make this a focus and we're going to continue to make this a focus. Christian Fusco equitable form. March 23rd, 2021. Now, Mr. Fusco, I'm not sure how long you've lived in this community, but I've lived here nearly 30 years. In fact, my older boys went through North Pan K through 12 and graduated with Ms. OL's kids. I actually had the privilege of teaching in this school district dozens and dozens of time at the high school and all three middle schools before becoming a Philadelphia school teacher. I'm not really sure what bad traditions you're referring to, but I can assure you North Penn is not, nor has it ever been Birmingham, Alabama 1963. Connor does not run these streets, nor will we ever tolerate something like that.

084I'm deeply offended that you're alluding that the great teachers in this district and the community members don't provide the natural resources and the resources and the unconditional love to make sure all of our students are able to go into the world. Frankly, the only bad tradition I actually see is happening is one where school board members who have become political, political opportunists trying to use their position to advance their own personal political career. I'm not sure why you think we should spend our resources to push your political agenda. And I don't know why we should subject any of our students to any political activism, let alone the one you're choosing. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Kennedy. - Ms. Greenfield. Hi, Alana Greenfield from North Wales. I have only come to school board meeting once and

085it was to show support for full day kindergarten. And I have two children in this district, a first grader and a third grader. My son, the third grader, didn't have an opportunity for full day, my daughter did. And so we have seen positive impact from this board. And I just wanna acknowledge that when you were making that decision, you never had to think about public health in the way that you do. And so thank you for showing up and doing the hard job. Most of us here are our parents except the awesome rising seniors who showed up to help protect themselves. And I think that's an amazing model. I hope my children are as active when they get here. But what I'm asking is for us as a community to to give our children the

086gift of time. And one thing we've seen is this board has gone back and revisited policies and made decisions as information is available. And right now, particularly for our elementary students, I'm asking for the time that we can get vaccinated, those who want to and and have people wearing masks to keep them safe. So the same way that our community is a village, and if I was having a GoFundMe because of a disaster, you'd show up and you'd support me. I'm asking you to support me now. Thank you. - Thank you, Mrs. Greenfield. Ms. McClendon? Yes. - Yes. I'm I'm Joy McClendon Tower Minson Township. I'm a former teacher, elementary school principal and district administrator. I'm the grandparent of a third and fourth grader at Winnet Square Elementary. I offer comments and support of a

087requirement for masks at the elementary level for as long as necessary. In response to this unprecedented circumstance we find ourselves in with the COVID virus and Delta variant, I've heard compa comparisons of this virus to the common flu. The flu as we know it today, never spread this rapidly nor killed as many people. COVID is on the rise this time impacting children at a higher rate. You have a responsibility to ensure the safety and welfare of the children of this school district while providing an educational experience that allows all to reach their full potential. Please do not be swayed by a political agenda, bullying behavior of some nor the intimidation tactics being employed. Please lead with facts and a sound mind and make a decision that will not please every family, but will do what

088is right for children at this time. Last school year, I provided transportation to and from school for my grands. The first thing they did when the car in the getting in the car at the end of the day was take off their mask. Did they like wearing a mask? No. Are they uncomfortable in the mask? Of course they are, but they'd rather be in school than out. They'd rather be healthy than sick. They'd rather be in the company of their teachers and friends. Rather than be on virtual children adapt, adjust, and they conform. Please vote in favor of mass. At the elementary level, do it for the children and the teachers and staff. We entrust our most precious gifts to each school day. Thank you. - Thank you, Mrs. McClendon. - Ms. Petski anime Petski

089Hatfield. There has only been one retrospective study on masking children to reduce COVID transmission and its results were inconclusive. Surgical masks were designed to keep medical personnel from inadvertently infecting patients' wounds, not to prevent the spread of viruses. Public health officials advice. In the early days of COVID-19 was consistent with that understanding. But in April, 2020, the CD ch, the CDC changed its guidance. The science behind the masking never changed. Only the guidance did. If the only argument for masking our young children is that it's better safe than sorry. We can only say that if there are no disadvantages to mask wearing. But we know that mask can be vectors for pathogens, especially in our youngest children who are constantly touching them and wearing them incorrectly. Masks can lead to increased levels of carbon dioxide

090in the blood. They present a barrier to learning, especially in our youngest students. We cannot even measure the psychological harm of widespread masking. We can mask our children to make adults feel better. We know based on the CDC D's own assertions that COVID-19 is not much of a threat to school children and that they are not primary vectors of transmission. Even with the more transmissible delta variant, the CDC has not determined this strain to be more severe in children. Our children's natural immune system is far more effective at fighting COVID than any other age group with the vaccine. 4.2 million children have tested positive for COVID and a total of 334 of them have died. That is 0.008%. Every child that died with CO had a preexisting condition. By comparison, 480 kids died of the

091flu in the 20 18 20 19 season. That's more than have died from COVID in a year and a half. The flu is more dangerous, but I have never heard one or argument from masking during flu season. Every single adult now has had the opportunity to be vaccinated. The vaccines are effective. We don't need to mask our children to make adults feel better. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. - Sle. Hi, I am Crystal Sle. I'm on South Broad Street in Lansdale. I wanna start by giving a quote by the, that says, this isn't living. This is just not dying. Life comes with risks every single day that we wake up. COVID-19 is not more dangerous than the Taliban taking over Afghanistan. Those people are unmasked and running for their lives and their living conditions are

092terrible. The CDC director Rochelle Walinski says, I think we fall into the flawed category of saying only 400 of the 600,000 deaths from COVID-19 have been in. Children are not SPO and children are not supposed to die. Time magazine states that just over a hundred children under age 15 died from COVID-19 in 2020. That's 0.0. 3% more children have died from accidents, cancer, and suicide. I'm not stating that the children who have died from COVID don't count. They absolutely count. I'm just saying that every single day we take risks. Jennifer Nzo and and senior scholar at Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security stated recently, I mostly care about hospitalizations. I don't care about infections because this is not what we're using vaccines for. We're not trying to stop infections and there is no evidence that

093a third booster will stop infections. If this county is basing masks and schools staying open on infections, that's insane because we're never going to be infection free. There is a child named Maddie DeRay. Please look her up. She is 12 years old. She volunteered for the Pfizer vaccine and she's now in a wheelchair. Her mother is not anti-vax. Her mother is not anti-science. Do you want this to happen to your children? We already know what COVID can do to the kids that can make them very sick and that is absolutely horrible. But it is not killing these kids. We have no idea what the vaccine will do. We do not know the long-term side effects of this vaccine. Please think about this because it is extremely costly and who is going to be responsible for

094the cost if something happens to your children? Masks do not work. There's plenty of evidence stating that. Thank you. Thank you Ms. Staff. Mr. Curtis. - Hello. Alright, good evening. My name is Dawn Maurice Curtis. I actually am a Lansdale borough resident of about 25 years. I graduated North Bend High School 2006. I pretty much just want to say, you know, I'm freestyling this right now. When does it stop? When does this stop? It's getting to the point where they told you at first that if you wear the mask it protects you. People still got COVID and then, then they had all these rules that shut down all these businesses and everything like that. And then for what? For what? We all, we all lost everything. I, I had a DJ business of about 10

095years and I lost a lot of my DJ business just because of all these unnecessary, unproven scientific tests and all this stuff like that. The funny thing is we listened to the CDC and the head runner of that is Dr. Fauci. Now, have you ever looked up Dr. Fauci on the CDC and all the stuff that happened with his? He's the same guy that had the AZ A ZT treatment for, for AIDS back in the day. And all the people that took the AZT treatment all had problems and a lot of 'em died. And these are the same people that we're actually listening to the same people. They literally said to us that you could sit at a bar. Like how much sense does this make? You could sit at a bar and as long

096as you're eating, as long as you're eating, you won't get COVID. Like it's just a bunch of nonsense. It's just a bunch. It's just a bunch of nonsense. I mean, it's just getting ridiculous. Like I don't, you know, respectfully board. I literally just watch about eight of y'all get a drink of water in between everybody speaking. Guess what? Oh, I guess it's a quick ling of delta, huh? Right now, right now this is becoming a joke. People aren't really dying from this kind of stuff. Like you have some people that have underlining health issues. Yes, that is true. People do have, and once in a while, but COVID has a 99.7% survival rate. You can look up the facts. The facts is out there. Thank you. Board. - Thank you Mr. Curtis. Hi, my name

097is Tiffany Prompt from North Wales and I'd like to thank you for the opportunity to speak. You don't have an easy, easy task ahead of you. I'm just here to not give a lot of statistics and facts because that's been shared tonight, but just out of concern for our young children who are vulnerable and will not have the opportunity to be vaccinated before the school opens. So I am in support of the mass mandate, you know, with the rise of the Delta variant and the increased spread, I follow the science as I see it, peer reviewed science. And from what I see, masks do help and along with other precautions. So I'm someone who is immunocompromised, so I am in full supportive mask and I'm sure I'm not the only parent or I'm sure there

098are children who are immunocompromised. So it has to work with everyone coming together as a village wearing masks to help prevent the spread. My children stayed home last year and I was very excited for them to return this year. I'm getting a little anxious about things, but I would hope that, you know, the correct decision is made. We have a lot of things that we, rules and regulations in place that we follow and we would never question because they've proven to be safe. So the, the data I read suggests that masks prove to help prevent the spread. And I would like to move forward with that so that the schools can remain open and our children can have some consistency and not have to go back and forth between virtual and school. Thank you. Thank

099you Mrs. Crum. - Mrs. Smith. Good evening. My name is Jessica. I'm from Montgomery Township. I have four children in the district. I wanna just state my position. I am against children and also teachers being forced to wear masks during the 20 21, 22 school year and beyond. I'm a strong proponent of parents being allowed to choose what is best for their own children. If parents feel they need to send their children to school wearing masks, that is their prerogative. But no child should have to wear a mask in order to get a five day a week in person in school education. Just as an aside, how many of you have to wear a mask seven hours a day, five days a week for your job without the option to take a walk outside or

100a break or leave the room? Elementary children do not have this same freedom. If you require masks in our school, they don't have the opportunity to take a break or leave the room when they need to take their masks off. They don't have the chance to work without it on. And they look to us, their parents, their teachers who are, who they trust to keep their best interest and their safety at the forefront. So I'm here to speak for the children and you have no scientific data backing the enforcement of children wearing mask day in and day out. Children have to spend seven hours a day learning and engaging in school. They need oxygen to freely flow into their body so their brains can concentrate and focus on the tasks at hand. Why would you

101deny them of this? Why do you not let the parents make this choice? And my fear is what a mask mandate this year could lead to down the road. What precedent are we allowing the school board to set? So I am not pro mask or anti mask. I am pro-choice for letting parents select what is best for their own children and their own children's health. And in conclusion, I am asking you board members to please allow the mask decision to be left up to each individual family. Thank you. Thank you Mr. Smith. Mr. Lapso, - Gary Lap, Preciosa, borough of Lansdale. 10 things that we all used to know, but as of 2020, many of us don't know them anymore. Number one, if you take good care of your health, your immune system will successfully

102defend you against illness the vast majority of the time. Number two, your immune system gets stronger by exposure. Two and successfully defending against injection infection. Excuse me. Three, healthy people don't need to be quarantined and to force them to do so is simply house arrest. I'm gonna skip number four, five deliberately restricting a child's breathing is child abuse. Again, these are things we all used to know. Six, deliberately isolating healthy children from their friends and peers is child abuse. Number seven, children with special needs, including speech therapy and children learning. A second language need to see the face and mouth of their teacher. Number eight, damp warm surfaces like a cloth or paper mask. Worn all day breed bacteria and inhaling bacteria is bad. I'm gonna skip right to 10. Number 10, the former slave

103Frederick Douglass said quote, find out just what any people will quietly submit to. And you have found the exact measure of injustice and wrong, which will be imposed on them. In other words, if we let them, there's no limit to what they will mandate next. But there is the power of no, no two injections on school grounds, no two forced muzzling with masks and no invasive testing. The school is not my child's medical provider and has no authority to act in that capacity. And finally, it really blows my mind that there are people here who actually have convinced themselves that if we all, if it will end, if we all just submit harder, just submit more. Folks, it never ends. Except with no - Ms. Simpson. My name is Trish Simpson. My husband and I

104are longtime residents of Upper Gwynne. Our three children are North Penn graduates and we have an upcoming first grader in the school district. We fully support the requirement of masks for students, teachers, and staff for as long as masks are recommended by the CDC until all children can be vaccinated. This is one of the few things that can protect them from COVID-19 and its variants which are so contagious and allow them to safely be back in school buildings. None of us wants the heartbreak of seeing our children and grandchildren ill With COVID. My seven grandchildren all wear their masks with no complaints. They're in different school districts, the North Penn, some of them, and they're looking forward to being back in person with their friends in school this fall. Masks are not an issue of

105personal choice and freedom, but a public health and safety measure like seat belts, car seats, traffic laws, childhood immunizations, and many other requirements that protect us, our families and our communities. Thank you for this opportunity to speak. Thank you Mrs. Simpson. - Mr. Stoff, - Jim Stoff, Montgomery Township. I'm obviously not concerned about my children now, but my grandchildren. But I do recall, and maybe that's one advantage of being older than almost everybody else here. My son caught the measles just before the measles vaccine came out. My daughter had whooping cough before the whooping cough vaccine was allowed. Now we're in a situation where there's a new monster stalking and our children. So why are we objecting to wearing a mask? What I hear is because you're telling us to, and we don't take that.

106Well, I used to think that way about 70 years ago when I was a teenager. But more to the point, I also served as an orderly in a hospital back in the days when polio was rampant. And if you've ever seen somebody in an iron lung, probably going to be there for the rest of their life. And yet I hope you don't object to your kids getting the polio vaccine and on and on. I think I've made my point. I hope you'll take the wealth. Oh yes. One other point. How many of your children object to wearing a mask when they're playing cops and robbers? If they still do, If you make it fun, they won't object. Thank you. - Thank you Mr. Mr. Shipman. - Hi, I'm, I'm Bill Shipman. I'm not, I'm not

107gonna read my speech. I'm just gonna give you guys back, back your time to, to make your decision. But before I do that, I just wanna say I, I feel like I've sat here tonight, I've listened to both sides. I think it's been a pretty civil conversation, you know, given how other things are going on in the country. So I think that's, you know, says something about our community. But I have listened to everyone speak and you know, what I do know is four and a half million people have died from COVID globally. And that's a fact, an undisputable fact. And I think we all want this thing to end. And I'm only here one side come up with a solution when these kids can't be vaccinated and that solution is masks. And I don't,

108I haven't heard one solution on the other side. So, you know, I hate, I hate that the fact that I got put my kids in a mask every day. I've got three kids all in elementary school, all will be affected by whatever you guys decide. I hate not being able to see their smile. I hate not being able to see their sadness, their fear, their excitement when they have a mask on. But you know, we're willing to do the right thing for the community. And no matter what you guys decide, I'm still sending my kids to school in masks because I think it's the right thing to do. I don't want my kids to have to fight for a hospital bed because they're sick or something else happened because somebody else got COVID. And I

109think that's the right thing to do. And I think the last thing I wanna say is, I know it's a hard decision for you guys and appreciate you guys sitting here and listening to all of us. I know some of you're teachers, some of you're parents and it's a tough decision for you to make. But you know, sometimes the sometimes the right decisions are, are the hardest ones to make. And I'd ask you to follow the the science, follow the facts and thank you very much. - Thank you Mr. Shipman. Okay, I think that's it then, right? For the pre-registration. Okay. Is there anyone at this time that would like to make public comment that has not made public comment yet? Go ahead. You can come up to the podium. - How are you? -

110Good, - How are you? I am a resident of Hatfield. I have three grown grand, three grown children. - Pardon? Can you just state your name? I'm sorry. - Jeanette McGinley. - Thank you. - I have three grown children, 13 grandchildren, one great-grandchild. We had COVID. You have the documentation. It was before anyone knew about it. We survived. We didn't panic. My father had it on a respiratory rate. 84 got off it. 99.6 correctable. I grew up with faith. We were told as a child, hide under the desk. It's the cold war. Get in the hallway, cover your head. Now we know that bomb hit, you know, we're dead. It was a fake thing to make us comfortable when we got COVID. I asked the doctor, she said the masks aren't covering. Check out your

111glasses fogging. Okay, COVID is on there. All right, so I look up the best mask and 95 not recommended for children, people with facial hair only recommended for doctors in healthcare. However, not recommended for long periods of time and will not prevent radical particles. There is no protection. Look at CDC itself and that F and headline look like you're buying for yourself. Rubber gloves. Six hours holds germs. CDC did not approve any disinfectant. We are running around exposed, but we're acting like children. Someone's talking about flight and fight. You know, I have foster children. Abuse. When you have a child that only learns fight and flight, they do not learn compassion. They do not learn how to make judgment calls. I would not have had a bunker and hidden it and come out and be

112the only survivor during the World War. And let me tell you, CDC Amids, this will never be over. Just like the flu will never be over. And the influenza, we're gonna live with it. And what we did during the Cold War was one wonderful thing. We added one nation under God to the Pledge of Allegiance. It was not there. And we stand by that. And the ability to teach, not to judge and the ability to be kind to each other and have compassion and not hide. We're not saving lives by abusing them. It's equality. Thank you Mrs. McKinley. Appreciate it. - Butch cans from the neighbor of Woodbrook in Montgomeryville. - I'm sorry what? Butch - Butch cans can Okay Neighbor in Montgomery in Montgomeryville. I just want everybody to know I may not be

113wearing a mask, but I am wearing pants tonight by the way. So I appreciate the opportunity to speak at this dog and pony show. I know your minds are already made up. I could tell by disconnect right now while you're typing away at your computer Mr. Bauer, how do we get to the point where parents need to speak up at a school board and provide the facts in real life situations so that you can make a decision about what goes on our children's faces? The truth is it's not your decision, it's our choice as parents to decide what is best. You may have the power to set the rules, but you don't have the power to mask my children. If my children are told by the moral police up here that is North Penn School

114Board that they need to wear a mask and they don't comply, will they be severely punished and humiliated in public? How long till we get to that point? You may think I'm also a little over the top with that, but it actually happens here. My kids were humiliated last year and harassed by school lunch ladies telling them to hurry up and finish their lunch. They only got 10 minutes left to eat their cheerios so that they could go ahead and pull their masks off. My son had his mask tied behind his head by a bridal pass school teacher. It was tied so tight that his my sister, her his sister had to go ahead and untie it for him on the bus when he got on after school last year was difficult. And it wasn't

115because of the Dr. Dietrich emails of as many insulting emails that said, because we all made sacrifices around the holidays to Nazi family. That statement couldn't be further from the truth. Dr. Dietrich, in my family, we partied throughout the summer. We celebrated holidays, we shook hands, we hugged, we kissed. We even had gatherings of more than 10 people. It also wasn't difficult because of COVID, it was because you used the power of fear to ignite the minds of many fear. I mean, and childrens across the district. You might as well be telling children that there are monsters under their beds and in their closets waiting to take them at night when they fall asleep. You think by making these decisions to mandate masks that you're doing something very noble for the community. You wear masks

116up there and you mentioned you were vaccin. Mr. Vaccinated, thank Mr. Cast. - Your time is up. Go ahead. Sorry. What's your name? - Drew. Dr. Doda. I would like to say, you know, I'm, I'm freestyling this too. I think that we have seen that during lockdown and when people started wearing masks, we were heading toward a better, you know, we were heading toward a better future. Right? When masks became people, masks became optional and people didn't have to wear it. People started abusing that privilege and now we are back in this place. I think masks should be mandatory. I think especially kids who can't even get vaccinated should get masks. Kids are the future of America. We need to protect them, mass protect kids. We want to make sure that they don't get sick,

117they don't get COVID and we want them to live a good and healthy life COVID. And I hear people saying COVID is only affecting a small amount of people. I would rather have COVID not affect anybody at all than to affect a small amount of people. I wanna push for better. I wanna push for the people saying, oh, it's only 0.8% people are dying. I think it should be lower. I don't think anyone should be dying. And I think with masks that can stop that I think masks can help us progress to a better future in America and the world. Again, 4 million people have died not wearing masks being ignorant and it's 'cause for their freedom. I would rather stay alive than have, what do you say, to take privilege of my freedom and

118just walk around and be exposed to a deadly virus that has again killed many, many, many people. I think that the M man mandatory, especially toward kids and kids are, I mean I don't have a kid, but my mom is someone who is immune immunecompromised and I've seen her and she, she got the vaccine but before she almost had COVID and it affected her a lot. So again, I want people to understand that COVID can affect everyone, including your kids. And your freedom isn't more pointed than saving lives. Thank you. Thank you. - Go ahead sir. - Good evening everyone. My name is Paul Andrews. I have two children who are eager to return to Gwen Square Elementary. First, I wanna thank the board and especially the teachers and staff for all their great efforts

119over the past year and a half. Despite all the challenges in virtual school, my kids learned all the things they needed to last year and the teachers kept kids safe in their classrooms. Now my message to the board is simple. Please follow the science. We know now that the Delta variant has changed the game. It's twice as contagious as the original strain and is affecting younger unvaccinated kids more than earlier strains. We know that vaccines are safe and effective at preventing hospitalization and death and multi-layered mass are safe and effective at greatly reducing transmission as they worked well to keep cases down in classrooms this past school year. Importantly, we now know that with Delta, even vaccinated people can transmit the virus. So everyone should mask with of course, legitimate exceptions already provided by your

120policy. Now is not the time to abandon any preventative measures. Since more unvaccinated kids will be in the classrooms this fall, it is the responsibility of the school district to provide a safe learning environment for all the students and staff in the district in this situation, until COVID is well and truly over the science is clear, universal masking is needed to keep people safe indoors, especially unvaccinated kids. To not implement this civil, safe precaution would be negligent without a mandate. Other people's decisions about their kids can and will affect my kids. And all the kids in their classroom districts that do not mandate are virtually guaranteed to have more sick children, staff and families. Please continue to keep our kids safe and follow the science. Thank you. - Thank you Mr. Andrews. - Good evening.

121Good evening. My name is Sarah Heath. I live in Lansdale Tonight I am here not to speak about the masks but something more important in my opinion and that's inclusion. When the high school yearbook came this week to my house, we found that my brother, who is a post 12 student, was only included in clubs - And sports, but not as an actual part of the student body. So I ask this, when will you include my brother? You claim to be inclusive to all, but it's obvious by this simple act that you're not. So I ask when will you include him? Thank you. - Thank you. - Hello, good evening. My name's Aha Davenport and I am a resident of Landsdale. I am a mom of four with two kids in the North Penn school

122district. And I just have a simple message. Last year it was really grueling when our kids were virtual. I know for my household it was really an adjustment that had to be made right to ensure that my kids could thrive and bring their full selves when they could not interact with their kid, their friends, teachers in the school environment. And my one ask I have today is to follow the guidelines by the CD, C, what is provided by our department of health and make the right choice for my household. As I've told my kids, regardless of what decision you've made, my kids will be coming to school masked up. And that is for two things. One, I want 'em to be healthy. I want 'em to be able to come home and be around my

123husband and I for us to go see family or have them come over 'cause we're fully vaccinated except for my youngest and not feel like we're giving the virus to someone else. And number two, I really want 'em to thrive and be able to interact with your friends however best possible. And so whatever decision you make, make one that is based off of science and by C, D, C. And make the choice that works for you. And lastly, you cannot please everyone, but as long as your conscience at the end of the day you went with what is aligned with your core values and what you do to represent the school board, make that choice. So thank you. Thank you Mr. Davenport. - Good evening. Hi, my name's Elizabeth Lutz and I live in North

124Wales. Borough. I'd first like to say thank you to the entire board. Every difficult decision you all have made from last year to now has kept the very best interest of the students, educators, staff, administrators, and families within the district. At the forefront, we as parents have the luxury of only having to worry and think about our kids, not the thousands of people that make up the North Penn community. And in that you'll have done an amazing job when it comes to masking. I believe that required indoor masking at the elementary level maintains the viewpoint of keeping the health and safety of our kids and community members the top priority and at the forefront of the of this device. Debate. Debate. According to the updated CDC information dated today, August 19th, the Delta variant is

125a more transmissible strain of COVID and unvaccinated people including children are the highest concerns surrounding this variant. As stated in the article, layered prevention strategies such as masking indoors are needed to reduce transmission. Keeping this in mind, it makes absolute sense to continue requiring mass indoors given that the majority of the population within a school are children who do not yet have access to the vaccine. I have personally watched how all of this affects my own children. Both of my school age children have IEPs, one for sensory processing disorder and the other for social emotional issues. Their mental health deteriorated last year mostly due to isolation of virtual learning when we as their parents felt comfortable with them returning to in-person learning. After vaccines became available, we watched two kids go from extreme daily meltdowns

126to happiness and relief. We felt comfortable sending them back because of all the layered prevention policies in place, especially masking and if masking keeps my children in school so we don't have to repeat last year. We'll do it. Thank you. Thank - Good evening. Good evening. My name is Carolyn Cans. I'm from Montgomeryville. - Thank you. - I'll leave off where my husband got cut off. If you're scared of COVID, COVID, delta, delta plus delta, Delta delta, whatever else comes next. Then wear a mask. If you're scared, get vaccinated. If you're scared, get a dog, get a gun. Fear is a powerful weapon that you've equipped yourselves with. My children are not scared. My children will not get vaccinated. My children will not wear a diaper on their face. My children understand what's going on

127and they want more than anything to be in a school like it used to be. Like they ask me every day like it used to be, they wanna be able to go onto Target and have a friend say hi. And they look at me and say, mom, who is that? I don't know who that is. I'm sorry that you don't know who that is because they had a mask on. It's clear cut and obvious that in order to make everyone feel safe, then wear a mask. And if you feel safe and you're not scared, then we don't have to wear a mask. And we have the choice. Parents have the choice and North Penn isn't our only option. And that's how parents are gonna be heard by pulling the kids. - Thank you. Good evening.

128Hi, my name is YY and I'm from Montgomeryville. Everyone's talking about following the science. Well I have the science. The Irish Health information and Quality Authority published a study in March about masking of children and the effects that it has. Significant physiological, physical, emotional and social issues with masks. And they also found that masks children did not transmit the virus. And then the other, another one was the university O widow. He NDI in Germany it increased the children reluctance to go to school, unhappiness, impaired learning, drowsiness, fatigue, headache difficulties, concentrating. And they found that the masks are breeding grounds for infection from bacteria, mold and and fungi. And in Sweden they didn't mask the children and not one children died of COVID and it had little effect on the adults. And some teachers at the

129junior and high school level were hospitalized, but they were only 0.09%. Obviously anyone getting the virus and having adverse effects is bad. But this the science, if you wanna look at the science shows that masks do not work first of all and it's has such adverse effects to the for the children. If we are here for the children, we need to think of their health in mind. So with the science that's not, not some one person's guideline, another person's thank you's. Guideline. - Good evening. Hi, my name is Lily Jessica and I'm an incoming freshman here. And I wanna know why are we asking the parents what they think? Because me as a ninth grader, I feel I can make my own decision. I know when I was in seventh grade, eighth grade, I can

130make my own decision. People up here can make their own decision. So why aren't we asking the kids what they want to do? Because that's who it's gonna directly affect. I know personally through interaction with myself, interaction with other people, mental health health has declined over the last year and a half. Depression, anxiety to social anxiety, just talking with other people. And that is because we haven't been able to see people. So now this year we want some kind of normalcy to be able to go in and talk to people. And if we want to choose masks, we want to choose masks. But that should be an option for the students who are being directly impacted. Thank you Board. Thank you Governor. - My name's Nick Flanagan from Lansdale. I wasn't sure if I was

131gonna speak tonight. I've been thinking and listening to what everyone has to say. I know you guys got a tough choice up there, but the point is it shouldn't even be your choice. I just listened to a young woman speak that made more sense than half. The people here masks, they don't make a difference. If you are scared, stay home. If people were required to do something that they didn't want to do, they would fight back. That's naturally what everybody's doing with this. People don't want to wear a mask. We follow these mandates that aren't even law. These laws that are put in place by people that were voted in. When these laws get passed, these mandates get passed and we try to work with them and they don't work. There needs to be change.

132If we keep sitting by and listening to rhetoric of things coming from one person or another, I'm pretty sure that's called tyranny. I'm tired of it. I'm pretty sure a lot of other people are tired of it. I mean, you know your guys' names are up there, your guys, you guys will be remembered for the decisions that you make. So think about it. You know? And that's pretty much it. Thank - You - Mr. Good - Evening. Good evening. My name's Joanne Cunningham. I live in North Wales. Did you notice almost all speakers took their masks off to read their notes and to speak? I support a parent's right to make their own decision on whether or not to mask their child. Masking is not natural and it impedes a child's development and ability to

133learn to read a fundamental skill needed to sus succeed in all other core subjects. I am a certified reading specialist and a Wilson dyslexia practitioner. I have seen personally the adverse effects masking has on children trying to learn how to read, especially within the population of students that have learning profiles. Receive title one services or speech services. For a child who is already struggling to read, masking the teacher and the student makes it even more difficult. A student needs to clearly hear the sounds you say and see the formation of your mouth. A mask muffles the sound and a student can't see your mouth through a mask. And as a teacher, I need to see the student's mouth as they form sounds to help them with correct mouth positioning. And additionally, if the student has

134speech issues, you are also trying to help them correctly say the sounds that they already struggle to pronounce. Another problem with masking is when you are assessing a child's oral reading a mask can impede the process and can invalidate the data. Oral reading includes fluency, accuracy, rate of reading and posity. Posity is the defining feature of oral reading. It comprises all of the variables of timing, phrasing, emphasis, intonation that speakers use to help convey aspects of meaning to make their speech lively. Masking a child makes learning this skill even harder. Thank you Mr. Can you Cunningham? - Good evening. Hi Matthew French County Line Road. Lansdale. I just wanna start off by saying we back the statistical data to back up the tyranny to mask our children. Why are we accepting this? The superintendent stated

135clearly last week that the masks we are putting on our children and us do not work. And in fact, the NN 95 mask is probably the only one in which is remotely any good. What they fail to also state that even the N95 mask worn by our medical professionals should be replaced every 20 to 30 minutes. So will the school board be supplying our children with around 16 of these masks a day? Of course they won't. Instead they'll tell you to put a dangerous cloth mask on our children all day soaking wet with hot moisture, bringing viruses, bacterial and fungal germs that the lovely lady said before me, which will be rebred back into their little lungs causing more harm to them than the actual COVID virus would. Not to mention the harm elevated levels

136of CO2 can cause and the emotional and mental stress. These masks do cause many children in scores do not sorry, masking children in schools in England. I know by talking to my family and friends are not worn. And as the lady also mentioned, these are not worn in Ireland. In fact, they did a survey and they have said this is child abuse to children and they will not be bullied into making this decision. Many states in this country have also made mask optional like Florida, where there is no evidence to suggest those wearing masks or not wearing a mask make a difference. The excuse to protect others has long gone with it. Proven kids do not suffer from COVID-19. And any of those in community, not yet fax, sorry. And any of those in the

137community not yet vaccinated have had ample time to do so. I believe 77% of this community has been vaccinated. Companies around the area cannot get these jobs into you quick enough. And many offering incentives to do so, which is highly unorthodox to say the least. And has the stench of a rat. If this is not bad enough. My heart sank last week when I heard the board talk about jabbing these children with experimental drugs. Drugs they do not need. That's it, - Sir. Sorry. Thank you. Good evening. - Good evening. My name's Jojo Awadi and I'm from Hatfield. I wasn't planning on speaking but after hearing some of the sentences spewed out today about how some of our decisions, some of the board members' decisions have been fueled by political ideology. I just wanted to

138further express my gratefulness for being able to trust my school board to being open to have the tough conversations, not the easy ones. And I'd also like to question this claim that our board is playing politics. A political decision to me would put reelection goals over the health of the children. You are all entrusted to protect a political decision to me would be not making sure our buildings are safe. So the board doesn't have to worry about the backlash of the taxes you increase to be able to fund those projects of infrastructure. A political decision to me would be one that dodges this very conversation. So you don't even have to worry about the backlash from either side. But time and time again, the volunteers that sit in front of me have been shameless in

139making the decisions and having the tough conversations. And when it, and when it comes to this debate, there is an issue of understanding the reasons for it. There's a disagreement in motive. One thinks that the masking is to make it so your child cannot breathe or see failing. To see the fact that it is to make it so there's a less chance, less likely chance they can get the new variant that is more infectious than the last. And sure data itself might say that the virus that the virus makes the, the children's fatality rate is lower than adults. But they can still transmit the virus just as easily as adults. So I'd like to reiterate my gratefulness to the board for constantly being open to have the tough conversations with the community, not the easy

140ones. And for having the dignity of making the right decisions, not the political ones. And to the board. I trust every one of you not to succumb to the individuals here who treat these civic school board meetings as some campaign rally. Thank you Mr. Dw. - Okay. And you'll be the last speaker of the night 'cause this will be a half an hour. That okay. So you can, you can email us. My name's Alyssa. No, I'm sorry. She's next. She's, she's gonna be the last one. This will be a half an hour. We were gonna allow 30 extra minutes after the others. I can't hear you. Well you can go first. Go ahead. - My name's Alyssa McKee. I've been a member of the landfill community my whole life. And you guys sitting here trying

141to mandate masks and make us wear the masks is bogus. To be honest. Why don't you guys do something more about the people that get bullied? Because I was bullied my whole middle school experience and y'all didn't do crap for me. I ended up getting hospitalized 'cause my mental health deteriorate. Why don't you put air conditioning in our middle schools? Because being in that middle school pen dale all day and no air conditioning is like child abuse because we're not getting, we're have to leave school early. Like, that's ridiculous. Put some air conditioning in. Do something about the bullying. Protect the female students that are getting sexually harassed by boys every day. But, and when we go to the school, they don't do anything about it. Do something for that. Protect your female student. Protect

142the people that are being bullied and put some air conditioning in schools. Thank you. - Thank you. Okay. That'll be it for public comment this evening. If anyone wants to, didn't have a chance to make public comment, you can email us at underscore np school board.com. Waiting. Leave. We, we already get allowed an extra half an hour. No, we're going on to the board. I'm sorry. You are out of order. It is time for the board to deliberate and do their think. So if you would like, if you cannot maintain order, you will be escorted out. No, we are already allowed. Extra time. Thank you. Have a seat please Have a seat please. Mr. - Myself up. - Okay, next up are the committee reports. - Approval of minutes. Madam President. - I'm sorry. -

143Approval of minutes. Okay. Sorry. Yes. No. May I have a motion? Excuse me. Please sit down or you'll be escorted out. No, we're having approval of the minutes. That's what we heard. May I have a motion to approve the minutes from the July 15th, 2021, meeting Second. - So moved. - Motion by Ms. Dr. Lewis Campbell, seconded by Dr. G. Any questions or comments? All in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries. Okay. In the interest of time, we are going to skip over the committee reports. They're all online if anyone would like to read them, they're, they're available on board docs for anybody to see. Solicitor's Report. Master Summers do you - A new report this evening? Thank you. - Thank you. All right then we'll move on to the superintendent's report. Dr.

144Dietrich, please. - Thank you. I recommend the items under the consent agenda letters A through. I - Can, I have a motion. - So moved. - Second. Motion by Mr. Fusco, seconded by Dr. G. Any comments or questions? Seeing none. All in favor A. Aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries. - Recommend approval of the personnel items as per the attached. - Can I have a motion? - So moved. - Second. Motion by Mr. Fusco, seconded by Mrs. Ramage - Ramish. - Any comments or questions? Seeing none. All in favor say aye. A. Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries. - Recommend approval of the community education program fee schedule for fall 2021. Winter 2022 courses. - May I have a motion? - So - Moved. - Motion by Mr. Sco. Seconded by by Mr. Casa. Are there

145any comments or questions? Seeing none. All in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion - Carries. Recommend approval of change order GC nine to low bar incorporated in the amount of $9,416 29 cents for various changes encountered during construction. Recommend approval of change order PC three to micro mechanical a plumbing contract in the amount of $15,013 for various changes encountered during construction and recommend approval of change order AC three to New Bar Environmental in the amount of $42,704 for removal of existing ceiling. - May I have a motion please? So second. Motion by Mr. Casa, seconded by Dr. Lewis Campbell. Any comments or questions? - Yes, Madam President, I would just like to note for board members and those in the audience that we do cover these work orders in detail and that's anyone can

146go back and watch a facilities and operations committee if they wanna learn more. - Thank you Mr. Casa. Are there any other comments or questions? Seeing none. All in favor say aye a. - Aye. - Any opposed? Motion carries. - Recommend awarding of the student assistance programming RFP and then turning into a contract with Mary Kay in the amount of $205,462 as per the attached - Can I have a motion? - So moved. - Second - Motion by Mr. Casa and seconded by Dr. G. Are there any comments or questions? - Dr. Dietrich, can you just for the community give a quick, brief explanation about the student assistance program? - Yeah, so the school district has a student assistance program to assist students who might be experiencing various sorts of needs. They could range from

147mental health to drug and alcohol, whatever those needs might be. We do have a process where students can get engaged in that and get the help to help them through those issues. - Are there any other comments or questions? Seeing none. All in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries. - Recommended approval I an education and technology pool council Legal services consultation agreement with Sweet Stevens Council Williams LLP in the amount of $7,500 for the period of July 1st, 2021 through June 30th, 2022 As per the attached - Can I have a motion please? So - Moved. - Motion by Mr. Fusco, seconded by Mr. Casa. Are there any comments or questions? Seeing none. All in favor say aye. Aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion - Carries. Recommend that the attached stipulation to settle the

148real estate tax assessment appeal between North Penn School District and Inglewood Realty LLC concerning the properties located at 1199 and 1201 Columbia Avenue. Parcels as listed be approved as presented, that board president be authorized to execute the stipulation. The current assess value for the parcels shall be increased from $1,072,770 to $1,623,210. - Do I have a motion? So moved. Do I have a second? - Second. - Motion by Mrs. Ramage and seconded by Mr. Fusco. Any comments or questions? Seeing none. All in favor say aye. Aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries. - Recommend the attached stipulation to settle the real estate tax assessment appeal between North Penn School District and r and F Montgomeryville LP concerning the property located at 9 8 5 Bethlehem Pike Parcel as listed. Be approved as presented. The board president

149be authorized to execute the stipulation. The assessed value for the parcel shall be decreased from $2,453,600 to $1,765,650. - Do a motion. - So moved. Second - Motion by Mr. Fusco, seconded by Mr. Casa. Any comments or questions? Seeing none. All in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries. - Recommend that the attached stipulation to settle the real estate tax assessment appeal between the North Penn School District and Columbia Wegman Toson, LLC concerning the property located at 912 Menon Avenue. Parcel as listed, be approved as presented and that the board president be authorized to execute the stipulation, the assessed value for the parcel shall be increased from 6 million to hundred $87,440 to $8,502,970. - Do I have a motion? - So moved. - Second Motion by Mr. Fusco, seconded by Mr. Casa. Any

150comments or questions? - No question of Mr. Raki. - Go ahead - Mr. Raki, is this part of the process, the, these appeals that are coming through with Rudolph Clark? Yes. Is this, how many months on average is this taking? So how, how long ago did these appeals begin - This appeal? From two years ago. Okay, thank you. But this is part of the, the school district's process of identifying properties within the school district that may be under assessed and our objective is to get a correct assessment on those properties. - Thank you. - Are there any other comments or questions? Seeing none. All in favor say aye. Aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries. Thank you Dr. Dietrich. Okay, moving on then to the finance report. Mr. Croy, please - Thank. Thank you Madam President.

151Just a couple quick updates. First off, if you're a property owner in North Penn School District, a reminder that August 31st is the end of the discount period for real estate taxes is a 2% discount. So please keep that date as a reminder for payment. Also, just a reminder for those in the audience, if you have any family or friends that might be eligible for the Pennsylvania property tax and rent rebate program. North Penn is in the fourth year of its own program that piggybacks off of the state program. So if you know anyone that is eligible for that state program, they may also be eligible for the North Penn program. And we matched that state rebate by 60%. We've had over 150 applications so far since July 1st and we've had several individuals between

152the state rebate and the North Penn rebate that they've had a hundred percent of all of their property taxes refunded to them. So we think it's an an excellent program and it's an opportunity to help those that are in the greatest need in the North Penn community. For the financial report, this is for the month of July, 2021. We had cash receipts for the month of $23.4 million. We had disbursements in July of $20.9 million. Our available cash balance at the end of the month was $71.7 million and that's a $4 million increase over the same period last year. President STA had asked for a motion for approval of the treasurer's report. - Can I have a motion please? - So - Moved. - Second Motion by Mr. Fusco, seconded by Mrs. Ramish. Any comments

153or questions? Seeing none. All in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries. - Next we have the sanction and approval of invoices for the month of July and I'm recommending ratification of those disbursements for the month, which total $23,827,896 and 38 cents. - May I have a motion please? - So moved - Second. I think motion by Mrs. Wesley. Seconded by Mr. Fusco. - Actually the other way around. - Oh, I'm sorry. - Other way around. - Oh, okay. Motion by Mr. Fusco. Seconded by Mrs. Wesley. Any comments or questions? Seeing none. All in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries. Thank you. - And finally, just for information, all the monthly financial reports are posted in board docs and we do review these in detail at the monthly finance committee meetings. Thank

154you President Stoll. - Thank you Mr. Croi. Okay, now we'll move on to other business and we have the 20 21 22 Health and Safety plan. So Dr. Dietrich - Recommend approval of the revised 2020 1 22 Health and Safety Plan as per the attached. - Can I have a motion please? Motion by Mrs. Wesley. Second. Seconded by by Mr. Fusco. Are there any comments or questions? - Well, I don't know. Is the community I, I can't tell. Are they able to see the plan in front of them? The, I mean we came out to talk about the masking so I like we should probably review it, - Right? Let's not talking. - Yeah, so just to be clear, since I brought it up in regards to the mask, which is the clear, you know,

155issue of the night, the plan is to mandate for the elementary schools and to continue to peg the option to mask to community transmission rates - For secondary the table. And the plan is on page eight in four docs? - Correct. So it's required for elementary school at all levels of transmission, low, moderate, substantial, and high indoors, - Indoors, - Outdoors it's optional for secondary it is recommended for low and moderate indoors and required for substantial and high. And again, outdoors would be optional. - Do I just to just wanna make sure that I'm reading it correctly. Outdoors is optional. Excuse me. Except for if we're in high, is that correct? - I'm sorry, I couldn't hear you repeat. - Outdoors is optional except for if we are in high. Except in high, - Yes.

156Okay. Yes. So sir, you're out of order. Is there any other comments or questions? - I also wanna clarify too that masks are mandated for all students on public buses or school buses. And that is a mandate federal Dr. Dietrich, correct me this is a federal mandate that one where we are, we do not have the choice correct or we are not making that decision. That's correct. - I'm just gonna actually reiterate that question. Do we know what the community transmission looks like as of today, - As of Wednesday of this week? North Penn school districts municipalities. As you look at those data and aggregate them then in apportion them, we are at 61 cases per 100,000 and that would put us into the substantial category. The health and safety plan does call for the

157category to change after there are two weeks in the same category, then it would officially change. So beyond notice that we're presently insubstantial and if we're in substantial again next week, we would move over to that column then at the secondary masks would be required. - So are there any other questions or comments? I just have one quick question just for people who may be watching. I know there's been some questions about lunches. Could you just talk about how you're gonna mitigate during lunches and Dr. Bauer or Dr. Dietrich can just talk generally what the plan is for elementary and middle and high school lunches and how you're gonna mitigate - Currently the plan reads, hold on one second. Dr. G on gentleman in the booth, if you could go to page, so page five,

158item B. It currently reads at cafeteria school cafeterias return will return to normal operation, but seating charts will still be maintained for contact tracing purposes. When masking is required, students will mar wear masks to the cafeteria and will continue doing so unless actively eating or drinking. That's what the plan currently states. - Thank you. Dr. Bauer. What? Go ahead Mr. Casa. - Dr. Dietrich, could you just clarify, because this is what we discussed last week. We had a brief description of the administration exploring, especially at the elementary levels, but possibly the secondary. Should there, should there be masking the opportunity for teachers to instruct without a mask? Is that moving forward? - Yes. So I will state again that if the teacher is fully vaccinated and in the teacher's professional opinion and if they are

159six foot or more away from children doing a lesson, that they would have that latitude to be able to drop their mask during that time period. We talk specifically about some lessons in the phonemic area where if the teacher is fully vaccinated is in the front of the class away from the students to be able to effectively deliver that lesson. We would permit that to happen during that time period. - Thank you. And as a follow up, could I just have a brief description of, of mask breaks or is it seven hours straight of masking? - No, so we still encourage mask breaks. We also do permit doctor's notes for any students who the doctor in their estimation would say that the student should not be masked. Those will also be accepted. I will also

160note that in the health and safety plan, it does call for North Penn to engage in a assurance testing program and that would be required. However, if there is a staff member who is fully vaccinated and can provide proof of vaccination, they would not be required to participate in that. Last year's program was well received by our staff, so I'm pleased that we're able to offer that again to our staff members. - Thank you Dr. Dietrich. Dr. Dietrich, could you explain how the school district will help students that forget to bring their masks to school? - So we have a supply of masks in the school. If a student does forget to bring the mask, they'll pro provided with a mask by school now. - Thank you. Are there any other comments or questions? -

161One final question and, and Dr. Bauer, this is, I'll ask you because you've had a lot of experience with the events and the planning. So should this move forward, is this matrix applicable to any outdoor events we're going to have? Such as that which is already planned in this, you know, changing variant environment? - Yes. Mr. Casa, the, the plan currently reads that the masking guidance as outlined in Appendix A would apply to all events and visitors to the campus. So if it's an outdoor event and outdoor and masks are optional outdoors given the level of transmission in the community, then that's what would be the expectation of the visitors to the campus. Same thing with indoors. Thank you. - Thank you Dr. Bauer. Are there any other questions? So, - Alright, sorry, when will

162this go into effect? - So with the board's approval, it would go into effect immediately. We would communicate tomorrow that the board has taken action this evening. As I did mention, the communication would indicate that we are presently in the substantial range and that the health and safety plan does call for two weeks within that same range for a change in status. So we're concerned that it appears right now with the modeling that we're looking at, that we will stay in substantial for at least a while, which would mean, and by the start of school we would be insubstantial for two weeks and students would be expected, well would be required to be masked. - Dr. Dr. Dietrich, if we drop out a substantial to the lower level, how, how quickly will the mask mandate

163change? - Okay, so again, at the secondary level, according to this, if we've dropped down to moderate, it does require two weeks to be at that level, then we would officially be in the moderate status and we would then notify the affected individuals the next day that we are now officially in moderate. So my advice would be to continue to monitor, be on notice at week one that it's headed in a particular direction. But you do need two weeks at that same status to change the status. - Any other direction? - Any other direction? That is correct. - Thank you. Dr. Dietrich. Dr. - Dietrich. I'm sorry, go ahead Ms. I'm sorry. President, do, could I ask a question? Yeah, go ahead. So the, the plan is detailed but is there a way to pull

164out table one, which is the matrix that identifies when levels change so that communities, students, teachers are aware of that rather than have to read through nine pages? - Yes, we can do that. - Thank you Mrs. Wesley, - Are there any other comments or questions? - Dr. Dietrich, just because others might not know this, it's my understanding this chart or the concept of it is somewhat aligned with what was released on July 26th. Can you just describe where, I mean we didn't just come up with the chart from anywhere it is with guidance. Yes. Can you talk about that a little bit? - Yes, that is accurate. The Montgomery County Office of Public Health that established the transmission level metrics defining low is being zero to nine cases per a hundred thousand and a

165positivity of less than 5% and then the moderate at 10 to 49 per a hundred thousand or a positivity of five to 7.9% substantial being 50 to 99 cases per a hundred thousand or eight to 9.9% positivity and then high at greater than a hundred cases per a hundred thousand or greater than 10% positivity. So that did those metric levels were defined by the Montgomery County Office of Public Health. - Thank you. Any further comments or seeing none? We have a motion on the floor and we have a second. So all in favor say aye. - Aye. Aye. - Any opposed? Motion carries. Is there any other, other business - President sto? I just want to note that I know that tonight a lot of our attention was really revolving the debate and discussion about

166the health and safety plan and hearing from our community. But I also wanna highlight that really amazing things have happened this week in preparation for the school year. And I wanna give a shout out to all involved. So we had new teacher induction, we had a successful build a bag campaign that resulted in backpacks being assembled and distributed to our school counselors today, I think was our final K day where our kindergarten students had the chance to ride the bus and it was really incredible to see. And our propane buses featured with that. Within that teacher assignments, schedules were distributed, we had an equity forum. There was just so much going on and I just wanna thank all teachers and staff and the administration for their involvement in that. - Thank you Mrs. Ram much

167for pointing all that out. It was indeed a very productive week. So thank you. Is there anybody else that has any other business? - I just wanted to note and and reflect on and appreciated all of the public comment tonight and really appreciated the seniors that came this evening. I think there's no more important voice than hearing from our students and we certainly appreciate you coming out on this night when you're not in school yet to participate in, in the process, in the democratic process, and in the process of being part of your community. So regardless of your opinion, we appreciate all of the comments and really appreciate the students that came out as an educator that makes me really proud of our North Penn community, that we are raising young people who care about

168their community as a whole. - Thank you, Dr. G. - Can we also thank the people who wrote to us via email? We had an overwhelming response from the community. People who could not show up in person, but they wanted to have their voices heard. Thank you for taking time to write us as well. - Indeed. Thank you Dr. Lewis Campbell for pointing that out. It was an overwhelming amount of emails. Any other new business or other business? - Just a moment to wish everybody a healthy start to the new school year. Student, staff, teachers in the community. - Thank you Mr. Sco. Can I have a motion to adjourn? So moved. Second. Thank you everyone.