001e all e e e so I'd like to follow me into order please and begin with a pledge of allegiance to the F Al to the flag of the United States of America and to the for it stands one nation God indivisible withy and justice for all I would ask everyone to note the Civility and deorum uh statement at the top I'm not going to read it uh school board meeting shall proceed according to board policy at this point we would like looll call Madam Secretary Mr Chrisman Mr pedor here miss France here m miss husack here Mr Kar here miss Co here miss Snider here Miss Williams here Mr Green here we have a quorum thank you okay uh you've already received copies of the uh previous meeting is there a motion to approve
002those minutes move motions there a second second any additions or Corrections hearing none all those in favor signify by saying I I oppos no and so order uh I didn't see any the people are all comment which one was that Mrs Frank okay there is okay I I apologize there is one person who wanted to come in on agenda item we know I don't know when to go though you want to do it still [Music] it's up to you whenever is under what hold on one second thear yeah it's andf on page six oh yeah so that's under so uh Mrs Frank you can wait until curriculum and instruction or you can go now thank you you said you wait I think okay thank you all right then we proceed with the board reports uh
003cliu Miss um I really have no report this evening uh our next meeting is March 17th we skip February so uh we're uh more to come next meeting but uh just a reminder our golf tournament is still slated for June 17th I believe it's a Tuesday out at Old Homestead that does um support the uh Children's Foundation so if you have some time on your calendar and availability hopefully for a nice day um there is a link on our website feel free to go out love the participation in that that's all I have today thank you just trying to get caught up here Mr FIA Le High Career and Technical Institute you have the minutes of our last meeting and the only have two items one is that we uh have a resignation from our
004business manager and we are now in the process of looking for a new business manager at LCT I also that uh six of the nine school districts have approved our budget that doesn't mean the other three have not they just have not done so yet so we're looking to have an unanimous decision on our budget thank you thank you CH any legislative items nothing to report this thank you uh regarding uh alric uh we had our meeting and likewise I think we have two districts that have not approved the budget and again it's because of time frames that the people indicated they were pretty positive on it uh we also had some conversation about scholarships and the uh Association is making SC there just all kind of scholarships available down there so anyone and I
005see a lot of high school age kids here you know if if you're looking for something you can you can go there like it's cheaper than going to McDonald's you know I me so uh just keep your eye on that if you're ever in that situation where you're looking to go somewhere and money's tight there's there's a lot of ways to work work around it so that's my report uh you have the committee meeting meeting reports uh highlight of the night [Music] Tada hello everyone it's nice to see you all again liia and I have some information regarding the school and athletic events occurring this month to begin the high school is throwing their annual spring play Big Fish from March 13th to the 16th tickets can be purched purchased online or at the door
006we hope to see you all there celebrating our the and all the hard work that they put in this season we' like to congratulate Slate's editor and chief Lacy Gro who won her first place for her story my scars don't defy me in the student Keystone media Awards Elric is visiting the high school on March 19th at 12:30 local scholarships to any seniors are available on March 17th applications for high schoolers interested in attending lcti are available course selections for current 8th 9th 10th and 11th graders are available student councils plan their annual spring pep rally for Friday April 4th spring and winter sports will be acknowledged as well as some fun games that the student body can participate in junior senior prom is on Saturday April 5th at Woodstone Country Club that is all
007I have for tonight and thank you all good evening everyone I will be giving our Sports rep for for tonight I don't have much but because it's just the beginning of the spring sports but on Monday March 3rd during winter sports award tonight student athletes Caitlyn barfold and tan Sims won outstanding basketball player for girls basketball and Conor s and Kellen Bower won the outstanding basketball players for boys basketball and Cody Moka was named outstanding wrestler congratulations to all who won an award that night we know that you worked hard to earn it spring Sports officially started on Monday March 3rd on Monday March 17th at 2:30 p.m. there will be a letter of intent press conference in the High School auditorium for senior athletes kin and Dakota barthold Logan burfield Michaela Gordon Addison Cyrus
008kinchin Gabriella Hannah and Marissa May who all plan to continue their Sports at the Collegiate level and that is all I have for tonight I can just say one did this young lady uh on Friday we had our and I hope I'm not taking something away from you Doctor steal my thunder we had a a chamber board meeting here and she did a presentation and I will say this you impressed everyone you did an excellent job and uh whatever you're going to do in your future I'm sure you're going to succeed thank you congratulations any other questions or comments thank you Mr Fedor thank you for your comments uh where are we Mr solicitor are you next I guess so you have anything Mr uh no I don't thank you all right thank you sir
009assistant superintendent drer thank you we have our monthly data report so if the attorne bring your attention to our screen we're going to present this evening on curriculum and professional development Mr Pine is going to start for us with curriculum so the slides I'm going to go over they'll look familiar um they're basically an update on slides that we presented at this time last year so the first goal that we had for the comprehensive plan was just articulating the curriculum so as you know coming into me coming to this position there was articulated curriculum it was very outdated it was not necessarily reflective of what we were doing um so you'll see up there I'll give you a second to read that our first three years within this comprehensive plan uh as well as that
010year zero so the year that we actually worked on this plan where we got math Ela foreign language and eldp in place um year one social studies Business and Technology year two FCS uh Health PE science and careers uh that last one we are still polishing up a little bit uh and then this year we're working with our art music and Library uh K through2 teachers so began all work in school year 2122 completed math Ela and foreign language as I said social studies Business and Technology um I will say and this comes at a bullet later we are currently in the process after um some schedule changes and um some alignment changes across the grade levels particular as middle school goes into High School currently conducting a a vision of Business and Technology within
011that span um and like I said we are we're wrapping revising FCS HP science Steels science and Steels is wrapped up um and careers and we are currently in progress with art music and our eldp um taking a closer look at that uh and we will as of next year be revising math hopefully by the end of the year with the new math adoption uh as we found with the ELA program this second phase for any of these where we're opting these sort of very cohesive programs is going to be much easier um because the newer programs really do have a lot of supports in order to be able to articulate the curriculum align it to the standards and things like that so the next thing that we committed to work on was assessments specifically
012common assessments so by the end of the 2425 school year to have common assessments Andor assessment practices uh for the following count areas and I'll explain that Endor as we sort of get to the second half of this grouping math Ela and foreign language which are now in place uh we'll say at the high school we're now revisiting those common assessments and the high school is working on that during TCT time but again these goals are achieved we're just continually going back and revising as we're finding areas to work on uh social studies business and technology and then year three and four there with uh FCS Health PE science careers and then art music and Library which is actually next year a lot of these courses actually we we tend to have a person who
013teaches it so it's pretty common uh across that one one person's practices but we are working within those areas to develop some common like rubrics and assessment practices so in that way when we're looking at art assignments we kind of have a system by which we're evaluating them and and things like that in order to make sure and not we didn't teachers had systems right but it just wasn't communicated uh I think between teachers and across grade levels I've been really really excited this year with our K through 12 departments specifically art music library PE and health um that we've been able to get them together a lot this year in order to work across those buildings because sometimes we have one teacher in a building and they're working in a silo until we create
014those opportunities so I keep forgetting I got this next slide on here that's supposed to guide me through this part uh but you take a look at that so again completed math Ela and forign language social studies Business and Technology the subsquent year in 2324 FCS uh Health PE science and careers and then in progress right now we're working through ART music and Library uh they're working on the curriculum but they have already been putting together some common rubrics and checklists and things like that they'd like to use in order to to evaluate some of those U content areas that don't necessarily fit into well I mean I'm going to say Scantron that's dating me a little bit but into a typical multiple choice true false like easily measurable format uh and then evaluation of
015the curriculum so we did pick up Ed Insight several years ago um and so one of the commitments was to begin inputting all of this curriculum into Ed insight I think initially the Hope here on my part was that Ed Insight would serve for the teachers as a hub where they'd be able to do that um we've created other avenues for them to do that since then I mean I think you've seen some of the things that we put together for the website and we have some extensions of those that actually are a little bit easier to work with in terms of them accessing materials associated with the curriculum but it certainly does still remain a really powerful tool for auditing our curriculum so basically the idea here was to have these entered and evaluated
016in each of the years as you see them up there this time I remembered I have the next slide oh no remember too quickly uh evaluation so all the curriculum that should be put in at Insight at this time is in the platform with the exception of social studies that's in progress um so right now I'm trying to work through how to put in some of the additional standards that are covered with amplify as well as putting um some units that have already been covered within our social studies programming uh careers curriculum inputed and evaluated ah had of schedule actually I see Mr Weber in the room he was very helpful with that because he had curriculum done well ahead of schedule for our for our program at the middle school um expected to have
017FCS Health PE and Science in prior to the 25 26 school year start uh science we have everything outlined as I said one of those sort of excel sheets that has all of those resources for the teachers uh this summer it's going to be one of my projects to get that into um at Insight I will say with science I anticipate standards coverage again because it's a newer program and the newer program seem to be very we're very conscientious about the national standards and the translation that crosswalk to the state standards uh in the process of evaluating and form of communication regarding standards alignment so what do I mean by that I was trying to figure out all the ways to write the sentence uh but as we move through the subsequent curriculum cycle uh
018conducting these audits conducting these evaluations and then finding ways to communicate those back out to the teachers and you know get them talking about how to make changes make additions if we have to make additions address redundancies if we have redundancies essentially get a more efficient curriculum that is effective underway and the last bullet there I mean the plan right now I mean thanks to the school board thanks to uh Dr Bali at the high school thanks to the entire Administration for our Act 80 Days right uh is to use those launch and learning data dayto days to consistently set up a schedule year after year to evaluate our curriculum our assessments and how well it's articulated and sort of connected to those standards I think that might be my last one do you want
019to pitch while everybody's here about curriculum on the website oh sure yeah absolutely so we do have and and again please uh understand um so I'm used to a Macbook so oh do you want to I mean I do have on the website it is a work in progress um a a curriculum I guess outward facing warehouse for our community um and for our parents and students to review uh bring that up I'll show you what it looks like I'm looking to use this consistent format and I guess I mean now's a good time to say if anyone has any feedback I mean this is all sort of internally designed based on what we thought would be helpful um in order to very quickly kind of get a handle let's on the so it basically
020breaks down up here you'll find K1 2 3 4 5 then it breaks down kindergarten El is broken into skills and knowledge units what the the overall objectiv is of the unit what the specific objectives are what the skills are as they're associated with the standards amount of time that each unit should take approximately uh and then it's not in this copy but in the teacher copies there's columns that include those resources assessments and things like that um let quickly show you another one because I like the math one too um so you can see exactly what skills are being taught throughout the entire career of a student here at Northern Lei so I like that this is a living document because we can continually make those revisions and changes as we need to I
021promise it won't be week to week it won't be like you looked on Friday and know something something's different on Monday um but this should give parents community and and you know our students a fairly good idea of you know the map of things some where things are thanks um I guess any questions oh okay next um I'll highlight the professional development efforts across our district from administrators to faculty to support staff we are committed to ongoing learning that strengthens our skills enhances student support and fosters a culture of growth and capacity building um obviously these will not be exhaustive lists this is uh to date Where We Are um it does not include you know books people are reading podcasts that they're listening to Independent courses they're taking or research in other things that
022people are doing individually um this slide highlights the professional development of our administrative team who continue to expand expertise through their pills courses ensuring we that we remain at the Forefront of educational leadership it's exciting to see more and more of our administrators showcasing uh their knowledge and highlighting the the great work that is happening in our schools by presenting at conferences these opportunities not only strengthen our District's reputation but also allow us to refine our practices and bring Innovative strategies back to Northern Lehigh so this is just a sample of some of the things that our administrative team is doing this slide highlights what's happening with our faculty we are enhancing our faculty's capacity to support students by training teams in deescalation techniques and CPI and collaborating with a partner organization to address challenging
023behaviors at the same time we're leveraging data driven insights and AI tools to improve instruction and decision making a key Focus this year has been amplify cka training in our elementary schools as we Implement our new Ela program uh these efforts ensure that our Educators have the strategy and resources to meet students where they are providing the support they need to thrive and Achieve success and lastly our staff uh by the end of this year all staff will have completed act 55 safety training which includes one hour of in-person instruction un recognizing concerning behaviors and emergency drill procedures we appreciate Chief Jones I don't know if he can hear us out in the hallway um our school safety and security coordinator for leading these important training sessions he does that multiple times throughout the year
024in addition staff will complete 2 hours of online pccd training focused on behavioral health awareness and suicide prevention and bullying awareness each department also participates in specialized training relevant to their roles which is the case across Administration and uh faculty as well uh such as school nutrition toolbox trainings for our food service staff this year we're also excited to introduce new networking groups for instance there's the head of the school heart of the school which will bring together administrative assistance from across the district for the first time at cliu21 with their counterparts from other districts these Collective efforts ensure that every staff member is well equipped to contribute to a safe supportive and well-connected learning environment and again these are just some of the samples of uh PD that our staff is doing any questions
025on curriculum or professional development thank you that's my report this evening thank both of you for the presentation also I want to take a minute looks like there's some people out the hall if if you want to take a minute and you want to come in there are some chairs in here you know you can you can sneak your way in if you want uh we're giving you a chance you know no we're okay I okay okay okay just we gave you a chance you know so uh where are we business manager Miss murus no report this evening thank you you Dr Link thank you Mr Green tonight I would like to recognize uh two retirements we are going to be pulling one retirement uh from the agenda uh one of our uh teachers has
026decided that they want to reconsider their actual retirement date so tonight we are going to recognize uh briefly long-term Educators in a Northerly High School District first on the agenda is Miss vond deloron who will be retiring at the end of this school year Miss luron has been a dedicated business education teacher at the high school since 2004 next after over 30 years of service in the district our athletic director Mr Brian Brian G will also be retiring at the end of the school year Mr G has served the district in multiple capacities including as athletic director mathematics teacher department chair and Coach we will provide a more in-depth recognition of both Miss lison and Mr G as they near the inclusion of their tenure at Northern Lehigh with a formal acknowledgement planned for the
027May board meeting so for now I see Mr G with us this evening I don't see Miss Lon uh Mr G thank you uh we truly appreciate everything you've done for the school district I would also like to take a moment uh earlier you heard Jayla uh mentioned that we're uh this week launches the production of big fish the school edition um as well I'd like to encourage everyone in the audience as well as those watching the live stream uh to be sure to hopefully attend one of those uh showings of fig fish uh they are March 13th to the 15th each evening at 700 p.m. in the High School auditorium and then the final showing is March 16th at 2 p.m. tickets can be purchased at the door or online simply by going to
028our school district website this evening I would also like to recognize several of our students for their outstanding recent achievements and these certainly are outstanding achievements the following Northerly High School school students who also attend lcti recently competed in a Deca state level competition conference in Hershey and I'm pleased to report their success first we have Savannah Hall in the marketing and Entrepreneurship program she won the gold medal in the membership campaign category Julia jackovich marketing and Entre entrepreneurship program as well she actually designed her her uh design was selected for the PA Deca ICDC pin design contest so she designed the pin and it was used for the entire conference for all the chapters that were there and she also took first place in the plan of action category and finally McKenna Kirk advertising
029design and Commercial Art program won first place in the chapter Banner contest that was a team competition she was on that team they won first place congratulations to Savannah Julia and McKenna who will now advance to the National Deca conference in Orlando Florida uh best of luck to them as they represent Northern Le High n lcti on the national stage so some significant accomplishments um in in uh earlier in February out in Hershey I would also like to compliment and she snuck out already uh but I just wanted to reinforce what Mr Fedor had said earlier I would also like to compliment our Junior student representative to the board Miss Olivia schaer who recently presented to the Greater Northern Lehigh Chamber of Commerce uh just as Jayla our senior representative has done in years past
030she was not able to join us this year Olivia came in early this past Friday morning when students have off she was here at 7:20 in the morning um to present to the chamber chamber meeting which was hosted here in our boardroom Olivia shared a bit about herself including the many activities and groups she is involved in in the school district and Community everything from a 9-year uh Girl Scout participant uh Varsity chair leader National Honor Society and many many other groups uh within the school district and Community she also provided the chamber with a full update on the high school just as she does for the school board each month she did an excellent job representing the district to the local business owners Community Service Groups and members of the local government so thank
031you uh Olivia and we hope to have her back next year as the senior representative to a chamber meeting next I'd like to seek direction from the School Board regarding mailing of paper surveys to the community as previously discussed during the February committee meeting this is in regards to potentially moving to a common campus model in northernly High School District administration has been working to fac facilitate this process through the United States Postal Service but has proven to be cumbersome and unclear over the past four weeks Mrs molor and I have navigated a lengthy n times somewhat frustrating series of steps including interacting with the U USPS website and making multiple calls to customer support coordinating with post offices in Slatington Le heighten and Kentucky uh to determine to determine the most effective operations and
032how to complete them being directed to Lee heighten only to be told that they could not process our request and we need to return to Slatington and then learning that applications must be processed online which we began and then approved by an office in New York requiring additional multi-day turnaround times and then returning to the Le heighten Branch for the next step in the multi-step approval process at one point after following all the instructions given to us we were ultimately informed that we had received inaccurate guidance leading to further internal USPS discussions amongst themselves uh so giving the ongoing delays an unexpectedly high cost I now recommend exploring alternative solutions to ensure that community members particularly those who are not parents guardians or employees still have an opportunity to provide input so as an alternative
033I propose that we still post I'm sorry we still send directly to all of our employees and parents and Guardians a direct link to respond to the survey questions um and instead of doing paper paper mailings of surveys to all the community members who are do not fall into one of those categories we place a link on the district website for community members to access and submit their input yes no advertising in local uh media when a Public Act 34 hearing is scheduled that's a hearing that school districts are compelled to have whenever they are looking to do an addition to an existing building that is greater than 20% of the existing square footage of the building where community members can come in and publicly provide input uh at the meeting and making paper surveys
034available at the district office for any individuals who prefer to complete them in person so at this point I'm looking direction from the school board um to be able to move forward with the proposed alternative uh methods for community members to provide input on potential um expansions at Norther Le High Middle School first and then sington elementary school so um that does conclude my report this evening Mr Green and I will turn it over to you for discussion on survey okay I just had a conversation with a solicitor and we do not need a motion of any type for him to move forward okay I just wanted to make clarify that so we're looking for input do you like the idea don't you like the idea where do you where do you want to go
035from here it's more of a discussion scenario so I'll open it up anyone I'm find with the options you listed that you're going to put something on the website you're talking about having paper surveys available here you're sending things out to parents employees and so forth for um I'm finding the suggestions that you have there as an alternative I'll look right if anyone wants to comment or I'm going with Al and really it looks most the most efficient way to do it uh looking about the runaround that we been going through yes unbelievable thoughts great okay the change yeah that's fine I I know we're going to be advertising in the times and morning call about the survey being online or they can come pick up paper copy if they want to yes we can
036run those advertisements in both uh local newspapers okay I think we have some direction I think you can proceed with your plan as you presented it and we'll go from there okay thank you to the school board I appreciate the direction okay anything else this evening sir uh that concludes my report thank you okay and ex session was held at 5:45 p.m. this evening in the administrative uh building conference room we discussed Personnel items and negotiations those were the two items discussed okay at this point let's move ahead with the agenda we have Personnel items and again as was stated earlier item A2 is being pulled so it's item a one and three BCD all the way down to uh where's the end of it okay and count I I move that sir motion to
037approve the item yeah it goes all way down to there Mr VOR is there a second I'll second thank you Bob any discussion or questions hearing none all is in favor signify by saying I I C no uh we then move into policy uh got a bunch of policy items there is there a motion to approve policy so mov thank you is there a second second any questions on the policy I think these were all reviewed at the uh committee meeting hearing none all those in favor signify by saying I I opposed no and so ordered we have uh four conferences is there a motion to approve the conferences so Mo second thank you questions on conferences anyone hearing none all those in favor signify by saying I I oppos no and so order curriculum
038instruction we have items a down to G there a motion to approve those items don't move but you want to just public com on letters e yeah we'll get that I'm just move it first and then open it up to public comment I do move it you still move it right thank you is there a second second thank you okay question or discussion public comment okay um so coming back from the committee meeting on last Monday um Dr Link and I did sit down and we had some discussions regarding the school calendar um we did work out U on these uh new pre-planned virtual days uh what those days would look like for teachers and how they would be receiving time for posting these asyn assignments um during these discussions I did advocate for educators
039to be in front of students um Educators know how important data is and our data is showing that despite having more in service days than neighboring districts we are building in pre-planned virtual days to the school calendar taking away direct instruction to fit more meeting days instead of just looking at the contractual inservice days and how to better support our student needs that's all thank you thank you at all it was a good conversation I believe any other questions for the board hearing none all those in favor signify by saying I I I oppos no and so ordered I have nothing this evening under old business uh under new business we have items a through e there are motion to approve the new business items so move so second second thank you any questions on
040new business discussion no I just wanted to say I think it's great that Northern Lei is offering extracurricular activities um for the Junior High programs and the High School varsity wrestling program which is uh really nice so I'm not sure how many other districts have that but I like the fact that we are giving our students more opportunities to participate in in things thank you it's my understanding and I I look toward Mr guy said we have more and more and more uh students signing up to participate in in various extracurricular activities and uh I know girls wrestling is on here and uh it appears that you may have enough to kind of fill every spot on the team that are signed up already I don't know if you want you're familiar with wrestling Mr
041Green that hopefully we can thr classes but we have 13 girls that have signed up we have four girls that that went and wrestled against boys during a regular season that that showed the grip determination then wrestled uh in districts against other girls to pave the way for for an entire team so i' like to thank the board for their support in and providing a girls wrestling program thank you Mr G uh okay we didn't vote on that yet any other discussion thank you Donna for your input any other discussion hearing none all those in favor signify by saying I I those no oppose no and so where do Mr Green com I just wanted to thank the schol board as well as um the collective bargaining team for the white collar support um had
042a really great collaborative meeting and a successful collaboration um really winning a win for both sides so thank you to the table team and thank you to the board for um making a a great contract thank you for bringing that up I understand that the meetings were were kind of friendly for the most part and and we didn't have some kind of the bitterness that occurred in the previous meetings so thanks to everyone who participated uh we didn't do Financial use did we no okay we're at Financial Move Motion is there a second did someone second okay I I was resting my paper thank you any discussion or questions on the financial items hearing none all those in favor signify by saying I I oppose no we have one legal item there a motion to
043approve that item still move second second thank you uh I'm not sure we could have questions on that so we're going to just go right to uh a vote all those in favor signify by saying I I oppos no and so ordered I have no correspondence anything this way no correspondence no correspondence thank you couple information items now the you'll all be waiting for the recognition of guests uh I hope I pronounce your names right on here uh is it FR Mesa Mesa you got it okay if we're commenting on Personnel we just want to say this up front we're probably not going to respond on advice of of councel you know so uh but we do want to hear what you have to say at the last meeting there were some people that comment
044and and we urged them to comment so we appreciate your comment but just you know we we probably can't can't respond so you got the floor you have five minutes so uh thank you thank you um my name is Francine mesy I am a volunteer of basketball and soccer coach been coaching since 2018 with Mr Mike Bower I am here in support of Mike Bower as last week's call on me meeting there were some statements that were made that I feel were false um I've been coaching like I said since 2018 I coached this year luckily enough Mike picked me as his assistant to coach the Middle School boys basketball team team a and then I was the head coach of the B Team some of those children are boys are in the room today
045in support of Mike um I was present with Mike uh through the whole season whether it was at practice which I would open every day at 2:00 and we would run till 4:30 I was in the locker room I was in the gym I was in the Huddle I even ran run ran the bus with the children children as well to the games and back uh we had a lot of fun practices were relaxed we had a lot of fun with the kids the youth five six youth would join High School would join the varsity boys would join practices were they were fun I didn't think that they were strict I didn't hear any yelling I didn't think Mike was aggressive uh in fact I think I was the one asking to run the boys
046a little bit more um Mike to me is what Northern Lei stands for I think he's a very heartfelt individual he cares about the organization every time I sat with Mike on the bench he would talk about the future of Northern Lehigh where we're going where the program's going what we're going to do this summer are we going to have a summer league and for that that's all we talked about nothing else just basketball and soccer which he got me to coach I don't have any children in this um I don't have any children at all um to me all of the kids are mine right um I have a full-time job that consumes me a lot I run 250 employees 8,000 hours I'm a very busy person if you ask these kids sometimes I
047had to take conference calls on the court but I did it because I love the kids I love having fun with them I got to learn a lot of them um never really heard Mike ever curse if anything asked the boys they were always the ones cursing and I was always the one yelling at their mom uh I told them the only f word I would ever want to hear is my name and they became a joke with the frame um if anything we were the ones getting being paraded whether it was on Facebook because we smiled too much or we weren't coaching correctly or the plays didn't work then there was a night I was alone Mike had left to go watch his amazing son over here play varsity basketball he's having a great
048season a great year uh a parent came across the court spoke to their son came over to me in front of all the kids okay it's one thing to talk to me in person privately right I don't want these kids to hear or see what's going on they don't need to do that it was was on the court in front of a away team asked me why we didn't play their kid explain you know it was a coaching decision they they just continued to scream at me the kids were behind me I tried to walk out long story short stated that his kid was the best and that they were going to take it to the appropriate channels and that they just simply didn't like Mike b i in fact did write an email it
049did go to Mr guys and Mr Hower with all that information and those details um to me Mike no is no way a monster as they portrayed him to be in fact Mike is a leader and a kind-hearted person like I said I wouldn't associate with anybody else if that's how he was cuz I'm quite The Quiet One I'm always the one of the Shadows but today I felt I had to speak up and do what was right if this was happening I would have reported it to the chain of command I would have Mr Fowler Mr G Mr Hower maybe even his wife even you find folks why did they keep coming to practice why wasn't it reported why didn't anybody speak to any of the people in the chain of command I'm here
050today again for Mike B thank you thank you for your comments thank you uh moving down I see Jill got yeah okay I'm sorry it's a hard one all right so like you said my name is Jill bot feler and um I'm also here on behalf of Mike Bower I'm hoping that Mr G had shared a email that I sent last week I'm not sure if he did but coincidentally I was already writing that email to praise the season and the Middle School coaching staff but after I heard that my son was questioned last week at school and pulled down to the office I knew I had to definitely write something and say how much like we actually appreciate Mike um unfortunately I was unaware at that time that there was accusations that remain at
051the committee meeting so after that I was appalled by hearing the lies straight up lies my son has played Middle School basketball for the last 2 years and not at all has he ever complained about how coach Mike treated any of the players my son is very open with me and he always has been we always talk you know in the car about what happened in the locker room what happened at practice what happened at the games um and I've always done that with any sport he plays multiple Sports through northernly high and we just talk about everything not once did he ever mention anything but good stuff in the locker room did Mike say Hey you know you guys are playing like crap maybe even saying the word sure but um that happens you're
052passionate about you know the game you're talking to people it's not a big deal um I'm not a parent that needs a coach to sh you C anything and the the accusers say he told them that they were playing like you can tell me that you can't that those kids never heard that from their own parent came from out of their own mouth a sibling a friend even teachers things slip things come out of your mouth as far as having kids feel threatened by coach Mike and him retaliating against uh players due to their parents absolutely not if you have ever come and watched any of these middle school games you will see that your earned your spot is earned it was always known that The A Team would would play to win and the
053B team would have equal playing time as long as you know so they can learn and throughout the season that might change a bit I was at most at least 99% of the games the a a and b um but I missed one game that was away and then after um my son played in the E the uh a game at the Northwestern game I did leave the reason I left and not watched the B team was because I was disgusted by the parents during the aame one of our players was injured and ironically it happened to be Michael Bower coach Mike's son when he got up and came over to our to sit and to get treated by the um the trainer not one of those parents clapped I was so disgusted found out
054that you know after that I had to leave and I have to ask you is this the northernly highway are we not supporting the kids and that is what Mike Bower coach Mike Bower is doing he supports all the kids regardless of what their parents think of him or anything he does um so I am asking you guys all to quiet all the noise and with Mr G and Mr Houser speaking to the team from what I've heard after you know talking to some of the other kids that have played for him all of Coach Mike's current players at Middle School the allegations are false please take a look later on someone's going to hand you the a petition that we have look at the current Middle School parents that have signed the one that
055we give you you will have more on there than you did last week um and there is one thing that I am kind of concerned about and I'm not quite sure what happened but luckily Fran came and spoke coach friend came today but nobody reached out to her she was the only other adult in that locker room where these accusations are being brought up I'm glad that she was here and if you have other people that you would like to talk to at the games you had teachers that were security guards Mr Olan was there Mr Reinhardt most of the time they were the ones that were there maybe speak to them if you're doing any more investigation so I'm hopeful that you guys will do the right thing and continue to have Coach Mike
056coach I urge you to clear his name that they have tarnished for the record I thank coach Mike and Coach Fran for an amazing record-breaking season which they had a record- breaking season at Middle School my son loves basketball because of them thank you thank you uh I assume you're Chad yeah I'm her husband Chad um Cooper is our our son um he started playing basketball in seventh grade um pretty much at the beest of his his friend Michael Bower uh coach Mike Sun they hang out together they play basketball together they played summer league together which coach bow coached as well um he coached high school kids the whole way down to the Youth Level uh this year he coached third and fourth graders the whole way up to Middle School um so basically
057taught him the game my youngest son who's not here right now started playing this year fifth grade pretty much because he's seen all of his friends coach Mike's other Sons Zach cam uh pretty much got them into the Love of the Game and I I pretty much put that on Michael Bower's shoulders that he's the one that that encouraged them to play basketball um he's director of NL nly soccer the youth soccer league um him and his wife pretty much run basketball um as well um they just currently did the sixth grade moving up ceremony even after these allegations were made he and his wife showed up there Brave faed ran the whole event Mike mced it Jackie handed out um you know gifts to the sixth graders so even though these parents are making
058these allegations they still showed up for the kids and I feel like that shows Mike Bower's character as a coach as a person um and like Fran and Joe said before like his name should be cleared um you know obviously you can't speak on Personnel matters but I feel like a thorough investigation should be done on both sides um of that as well um there were some seventh graders and my son spoke to this to my wife and I pretty much disrespectful this year whether it be on the bus um there was a disrespect of the middle school girls team they didn't have such a great season coach Bower sent out a message to players and parents on the band app basically encouraging them to fess up on who was the person who was was
059talking about these these kids from the middle school girls team and badmouthing them if that doesn't show his character as a coach as a person then I don't know what does someone who's not even on his team but still goes to school with these children on his team so um as far as that that's basically all I have to say thank you thank you CH uh going down the next one I see is Jackie is it Jackie Bower is that that the right name you're next I'm gonna read from my phone sorry I had it on paper but no that's okay good evening my name is Jackie Bower and I'm I have proudly been a member of Northern leh High Community for over a decade my children attend Peters Elementary sington sington Middle School and
060Northerly high high school throughout their academic careers none of my children have ever had a disciplinary issue my son Kellen who is with me today a sophmore currently ranks third in his class if you would ask any of their teachers about them I have no doubt you would hear nothing but positive feedback for the past four years my husband has been the coach of Middle School boys basketball over the past three years the boys varsity basketball team has a record of 11 wins and 93 losses living through Seasons where a team has won two games and lost 22 games is not easy unfortunately the JV Basketball team's record has been even worse just like any of the parents involved with basketball my husband and I have endured some really tough Seasons the one bright spot
061among northernly High boys basketball teams has been the middle school team two seasons ago the middle school team was 10 and six and this season the boys team was 11 and 5 as you may be aware recently there has been some disgruntled parents who have made some harsh accusations regarding the head coach of the Middle School boys basketball team if you listen to their testimony a few of the parents you may have picked up on the keyword statements this didn't happen to my child but unfortunately that phrase will likely be overlooked while the parents attempt to malign my husband's character these statements were permitted to be publicly aired even though there had been no investigation furthermore for the past two seasons my husband Mike has had an assistant coach who was present at all games
062and practices coach Fran who has already contacted Mr G in the school district to completely refute these allegations in fact during the last four seasons my husband has never been contacted by the athletic director varsity basketball coach or by any parent to suggest that his language has been inappropriate to players or bullying of the players I am aware that Mr G has received numerous emails regarding the unfairness of the situation if a parent had a complaint why would the parent not contact the head coach in Four Season no in Four Seasons no parent has once stopped my husband regarding harsh language no parent has approach my husband because there was no usage of this language listen to the parents themselves during their own testimony they say it never happened to my kid these are their
063own words I'd urge Mr guys to share all of the emails that flooded his email since Tuesday or whatever day it was to refute these allegations finally my husband and I understand that everyone has a bad moment surely you all can relate to a time when you've said something you've done something that you prefer was not publicly aired however since my husband's character has been imped I'm now forced to share my own story about the parents who have made the accusations on January 29th Ben Schaefer verbally accosted and abused coach Fran after the away game at Le heighten Mr Schaefer charged coach Fran screamed at her in front of the players and bus driver and demanded that his son be recognized as the best player on the team furthermore my husband has text messages where
064Andy hassold complains that his son should be playing over a specific player my husband has text messages where Mr Heyman complains that he doesn't want his son to be getting screamed at by Mr hassold one one parent complains about the other and then the parent complains about the next you see the cycle again these are all documented complaints that should have stay private with all the struggles of our boys basketball program what good does this do when we try to publicly humiliate one another we never asked for this we never wanted this it's time for this to stop I prefer not to explore the complaint histories associated with these people but I can talk at length about the abusive language and CS confrontation that is surrounding with the parents but an eye for an eye
065leaves everybody blind again the parents who are associated with Northern Le High boys basketball have suffered enough through the years after years of losing finally please keep in mind my husband and I are directors of youth basketball and soccer as volunteers we try to engage the community with as many positive outcomes as possible however when you deal with many families sometimes people get offended and they seek personal vetts the accusations are far more serious than kosi because the accusations stain the reputations of families and my children kids who never asked to be a part of these futs like you we've done our best like you we have made mistakes but we have never taken our grievances to public for litigation it's time for this nonsense to stop and we all move forward thank you thank
066you that wasn't an easy speech I don't think but thank you for your comments appreciate very much uh now we're on a page two and uh we have the Bowers that you guys okay okay yeah I see the same address figure that one out good good evening I'm Kell B I'm a 10th grade student at Northern Le my academic behavior in history will show that I do well in school and stay out of trouble I had the Good Fortune of being coached by Mike Bower my father when I played seventh and eighth grade basketball in basketball when things did not go my way my dad would say hey Kell grab a ball sometimes we shoot basketball long after the Sun and despite the freezing temperatures I've been a varsity starter for soccer and basketball for
067the past two seasons although we haven't had tremendous Varsity success I understand that my coaches are trying their best and may not always be perfect through my middle school and varsity experiences I faced adversity sometimes I missed a shot or made a bad play I can understand the response to blame the coach but in Middle School my dad was the coach so if I try to blame him he'd say hey Cal grab a ball we'd shoot basketball long into the nights the reason I'm sharing these stories is because my dad has really tried to make back this organization competitive within our community starting with my brothers and me he's coached youth basketball since 2014 and has run our Varsity summer league for the last two seasons truthfully I wish he would be considered to coach
068me at the Varity level I know many of my teammates feel the same the disagreements that the adults Shar could have been conducted in private as a community we would all be better it should not have taken the wisdom of a 15-year-old kid to point this out my father is a good and reasonable man if parents had issues why are those issues never addressed with him or with his assistant coach friend again a 15-year-old should not be pointing this out as we move forward please let's please end these public accusations ultimately is the kids the teammates and the friendships that suffered thank you thank you you're on um good good evening everyone my name is Michael Bower um like my brother Kellen I've played basketball at the middle school level for the past two years
069and my father has coached me for both years um my dad has coached Middle School uh basketball for four years now and for four years he's had a his son on the team tonight I wish to share with all you the past two seasons my father had an assisant coach last year Mr Zach Williams was nearly at every game in practice this year coach Fran has attended every practice in game the reason why this is important is because my dad had an assistant coach and his own children present at every game or practice if parents had issues why are the assistant coaches not allowed to share their experiences why didn't any parent say something to either of the coaches why wouldn't one of my teammates say something to me please ask yourselves these same questions
070I'm here tonight with many of my teammates we had a very uh different experience playing Middle School basketball than the experience that was described by a few unhappy parents unfortunately we will never know if every player or parent could have the same great experience that the majority of the middle school players had experienced because these parents choose to never say a word about their issues to now I look forward to playing ninth grade basketball thank you for your time thank you uh moving down I see Ashley is a no Eric King is a yes Ashley is a no so good evening members of the school board my name is Eric King I'm the parent of two children that had the privilege of being coached by Mike in both soccer and basketball over the last 10
071years I'm writing here I'm here this evening to address the recent claims that have been made against Mike and to express our unwavering support for him it is my firm belief that these claims are not only unsubstantiated but deeply damaging to Mike Mike's reputation and positive environment he cultivates for our student athletes after careful consideration and throughout conversations with other parents and students my family and I can confidently attests that these claims lack any credible credible evidence and it is important to remember that accusations without factual backing can have a devastating impact on a person's character and livelihood coach Mike and his family consistently demonstrate exceptional commitment to the development of student athletes both on the field and off they have generously donated countless hours of their time to volunteer through middle school program and
072the youth Athletics get going well above and beyond what is expected of a single coach I can recall a time when my own son was ready to give up on a soccer career and Coach Mike had actually called him after school one day and left the voicemail that was encouraging him to consider signing up for high school soccer that motivated him to persevere and continue playing at the high school level this is just one example of the many lives that M has positively impacted numerous students and parents and even grandparents have expressed their sincere appreciation for Coach Mike's dedication and positive influence that he's had on our children we've compiled a list of parents who can personally attest to coach Mike's character and positive impact he has had on their children's lives these accusations not
073only tarnish coach Mike's reputation but also create a disruptive and negative atmosphere for our students it is imperative that the school board take a stand against claims and publicly affirm their support for Coach Mike our children deserve a dedicated support dedicated and supportive coaches like Mike he is an invaluable asset to our school community and I urge you to stand behind him and ensure that our students can continue to benefit from his exceptional guidance and mentorship thank you we do have a list I believe there's over 50 family members now that have signed that throughout the community that have no complaints that actually voice their uh support for him if you guys would like to see some of that on one of beautiful lists thank you okay I think uh let's see she got her
074comments in uh we're down to Eric is it Dan Danel I'm sorry I I I had trouble reading it yes Eric been a member of this community for almost 28 years and as my children grew up from the beginning coach Mike I'm talking soccer little peeeeee soccer you know he he he he devoted all his time for for the kids and as time went on in right into basketball I mean he he I I feel like if anything he taught my son how to play basketball and and I I could reiterate the same things that everyone else has said so far about Coach Mike about all the things that have to taken place over the years but I I feel that we're blessed to have him as a coach and he opens you know he's
075always looking for for more things that he's he's giving his time he's very passionate about it and he um he's always looking to um for like summer programs and and to keep keep the kids involved so they don't get their minds getting into trouble I mean he he even opens you know he he has things at his home home which how many parents would you know open their home up to you know having basketball playing at their home I mean he he opens it to everybody he everyone it's not he doesn't single nobody out uh is he a tough coach sure he is but I feel my son's discipline both of my kids are students here in this district and they're both doing extremely well in school um but but as I said I I
076feel blessed to have him as our coach because he he he devotes so much I I don't know how many parents would do what he what he does yeah do I disagree with him sometimes absolutely but the long and short of it is he knows what's going on he's the coach let him do his job you know I I only stay for a few of the b games where you know as the parents were they playing from the the stands you know it's like let the coach do his job I mean I'm not here to bash nobody we're all a community here but that's it I mean really I mean from when my kids were real little to up to now I mean and hopefully going forward he he this is you know he he
077devotes everything to this place to this organization him and Jackie the whole family that that's what I have to say about it thank you thanks for your time okay that's the last person on the sign up sheet uh I would say however that some people came after the sheet was picked up if anybody came late and wants to comment we'll give you a couple minutes anybody want to say anything no last chance thank you for coming I have one question there's two roserios on her are where's the areos do you have like a an uncle or a grandfather or something who's a plumber in kataka no not not him Jose no okay he's my plumber when I saw the name I thought maybe maybe you were related to him something trying to get a discount
078thanks anyway okay uh I guess that's the in recognition of guests uh if there's no other business to be attended to is there a motion to adjourn don't move thank you sir is there a second second thank you all in favor of a journey please signify by saying I hi so go and we are done here thank you all for coming