001you [Music] what do you want to do after do you know i'm not going to work like that what do you like to do or not how do you know these yes tests good evening like to call the penn trafford school board meeting of october the fourth the session at this time would you please stand we have the pledge of allegiance i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america and to the republic for [Music] i do want to just remind everybody that being a school building the mass policy is in effect hopefully you've talked to on the way in and mass was made available for you that we are observing a mass policy in the school building all right at this time uh we need a roll call yes sir mr
002president this is this thing here dr costco here mr bill leonard mr dallas leonard here mr matarazzo here mr niemic here mr petrucci here mr stovar here give a quorum mr president thank you mr lee you're welcome at this time mr dallas leonard you share with us about the wiu report good evening on uh september 28th we held our monthly meeting at the inter iu building on donut road prior to that meeting we held committee meetings that would start at 5 35 which were the following technology and infrastructure that's the committee i am on we had four main topics covered one was a proposal to renovate all three main meeting rooms with emphasis on making them all zoomable to discuss parking lot repairs and repaving possibly the review proposal to make repairs to the clearview
003building roof with with has extensive leaking noting that all buildings are leased and not owned high intermediate units cannot own their own buildings number four a quick brief cyber security review and updates plus some other security measures being implemented and enhanced uh when after that we went into our exec executive session at 6 17. we reviewed and discussed several personnel items several legal issues issues reviewed one level three grievance and we had discussion on some ongoing contract negotiations the executive session session was over at approximately 7 11. a regular meeting started at 7 13 with a roll call with 11 present six absent at that meeting we approved three financial reports treasurer's report paying the bills ratification of investments approved all committee reports which include the executive services committee curriculum services committee financial services committee
004student services committee technology and infrastructure services and then our executive director gave his report and i have a quick summary of that he uh he talked he discussed the 2021 outstanding pair educator years award which were postponed to october the 2021 annie sullivan award which is postponed to october the 2021 audit introduction uh from the luzio and company for the ongoing audit rk mellon project alert west virginia career grant work and the clairview boulder update which is uh very large bulls replaced around the building for safety to keep any impacts to the building i already mentioned we see the preliminary auto report from delusio that's not not complete yet and there are other miscellaneous items which included the following under human services we had human resources we had 10 10 motions we also accepted retirements
005hired some personnel and other miscellaneous changes to personnel status curriculum service we had two items approved financial services two more items approved and then dr conway the executive director gave us his proposed goals for the uh upcoming year his three main goals were building build an administrative regulations manual that develops procedures for carrying out board policies lead the revision of the wiu's comprehensive plan to identify goal actions for for academic achievement systems safe and supportive programs and facility systems and human and fiscal resource allocation stewardship systems and establish a county commission of community stakeholders to study how should special education operate in 20 by 2030 a complete in detail report is always on their website for anybody needs more detail on that but i try to keep my report brief thank you okay thank you
006mr leonard at this time we go to mr petrucci about the central westmoreland career center thank you mr president [Music] we met on september 2nd and um the uh what we did is the the following actions were taken we uh defended the final bid for the first phase of work with municipal and scrapping material that would have otherwise been thrown away we brought in the students bought in thirteen thousand one hundred eighty five dollars the next was uh we've received an additional fifty thousand dollars from squad electric for various lighting projects throughout the school it was their donation which i thought was very sweet there are five students in the cdl class effective september 13th and um machinist apprentice classes there are 63 machinists that are registered which is uh i mean we added on
007about two dozen machinists and they and they're still waiting list it's just still going that good uh 15 students are registered for state inspection that be held the beginning of september 14th um st vincent we merged again with saint vincent um college with their um their educational support intervention to the student body effective the cost is twenty five thousand two hundred dollars and is paid through the perkins grant i asked what what the services were provided they said youth counseling drug and alcohol houston um all the abuses that you want to go through that uh i don't think that's necessary to mention but some with the different especially some girls are getting some extra support through a couple of situations they've been in and that passed unanimously okay and our enrollment thanks to dr harris
008and is pushing the career tech because our employment rate is uh well into the 90 dollars uh here's the enrollment figures we used to be either eight or nine and there are um 10 school districts that go here the only one that belongs to fayette county is frazier but they pay additional tuition and go to uh career tech here's your roman figures handful is number one which have always been 255 kids number two was york 144 kids number three tied with norwin mom pleasant time no 139 kids and penn trafford 114 kids first time we ever been in triple digits we never were that high before and that's thank you to dr harris the co-op program is started now with the we 30 students and starting to roll real well where we place students on
009they find it's a five day project weekly one day is theory and four days they're out in job training and they get the the wage of all beginning personnel there's no reduced wage so that's um very beneficial right now you know the employing market is working i mean the jobs are just so abundant so fun and they pay real well then um okay and uh go up for 30 kids i mentioned that all right our next meeting is uh this thursday the seventh that's all i am mr president nick thanks for the compliment but that's the whole high school team the guidance office the principals we've really been pushing the career tech and we started the middle school with some tours and everything because it's an outstanding program so but thanks for identifying me as
010well but it's everybody all right thanks to both of you very good thank you this time dr harris you have some information for us sure i want to start off and i see our student representative from the high school nick berlino and i'm going to let him speak first thank you very much dr harris and members of the school board i'm here on behalf of student union to give you an update on homecoming planning ticket sales to date we've sold 592 homecoming tickets which is outstanding we still have two more days left of ticket sales so we hope to see some more people coming in to buy their tickets we have 900 total available so about 300 tickets still left to sell for the homecoming game itself we have a lot of plans for that
011as well that are unique to the 50th anniversary of the school we're planning on setting up an alumni tent so that alumni from penn traverse can come together and remember their experiences from high school together at the football game additionally the crowning of the homecoming king and queen has been moved to pregame to make room at halftime for the past kings and queens from the past 50 years of penn traverse history to be recognized again at halftime as an homage to our school's history the marching band will be performing post-game due to this and at the homecoming dance itself we are going forward with the outdoor areas as well so that when people are not in the gym enjoying the dance they can be somewhere other than the cafeteria they can have an outdoor area
012i believe mr equilio said that we will have about 10 tenths outside in seating areas for students so they can have some fresh air in some place where they don't have to be inside all crammed together and have some space to breathe does anybody have any questions about nick did you mention the parade i'm sorry oh i did not we are having the parade there floats from various student organizations student union has one for each class representative group and the marching band will be performing there as well and that starts at six o'clock on friday before the football game that's correct i had her on my list too but since you announced i want to i'm gonna cross off a lot of this stuff that you just talked about will each class have their own
013float uh yes each class uh their student union uh representatives will each have a float senior class uh junior sophomore freshman those representatives have been working on their floats for the past few weeks great now for those who bring kids are they going to be throwing candy out yes um yeah that's not just the uh class votes i believe a lot of the clubs organizations will have candy that they'll be uh throwing out so they'll be they'll be plenty for everybody now the student section always wears something special like this last game they did you know warrior gear what are they going to be wearing do you know i believe it's a white out for this weekend i'd have to double check that so white out so people are coming think about whiteout great anyone
014else have any comments questions just a quick quick call man if you're going to be throwing candy to the old folks make it sugar free all right i'll do my best uh speak for yourself please even with that you look sharp about three pieces yeah thank you very much thank you so much we appreciate you coming thank you i do need to mention that the board met for an executive session at 5 15 on october 4th and we discussed negotiations and litigation at our executive session this time back over to dr harris all right actually i want to turn it back to mr matarazzo because he's going to read the student of the month report this is one of our special events we just feel so sorry that because of circumstances we don't have these
015students and their parents here with us tonight but the penn trafford school board administration pleased to announce the october student of the month selections students were selected by their school principals for being exceptional in some way whether for earning top grades showing strong leadership exhibiting kindness or for some other notable reason our first is annabelle mason fifth grade student at harrison park elementary she's been selected as a school student of the month school staff agrees that annabelle is a very sweet young lady who greets her peers and teachers each morning with a smile and kind words annabelle is a friend to all and offers a helping hand to any student or teacher in need her teachers can always count on her to do the right thing whether they are watching or not annabelle actively participates
016in class and consistently puts forth her best efforts on her assignments she's fully engaged and excited about her learning uh principal jeff schwartz said she's selfless caring and hard working just a few words to describe annabelle we're proud to have her represent our school as our student of the month congratulations annabelle and her family the next student of the month comes from trafford middle school nathan lazeration he's an 8th grade student mr roger sullivan the school's principal selected nathan for this honor because of his hard work in the classroom and his deep kindness and concern for others the consensus of nathan's teachers is that he is a fantastic kid he deserves this great award and one of the classroom teachers actually commented nathan is respectful has a great workout that can ask great questions he's
017interested in learning and is an all-around wonderful young man another teacher added he's remarkably responsible and advocates in the most polite and considerate ways he always does his best and puts his whole effort into everything he's driven to learn everything sent before him and he doesn't rest until he has fully comprehended new concepts congratulations nathan i wish we'd have these kids in person uh our last one is 11th grader daniel tarabella 11th grader at penn trafford high school dr greg campaccione assistant principal chose daniel as the school student of the month because of his strong academics and his extraordinary character a poll of daniel's teachers garnered incredible praise for this young man english teacher mrs spade has stated dan treats every student with respect when asked to work with another student he's always kind and
018considerate mrs frank his math teacher added daniel has a positive attitude about everything he is involved in from school to football he wants to build good relationships with those around him because he's a genuine good-hearted person the spanish teacher senor flynn commented daniel's hard work intelligent charismatic personality brings so much to my class daniel aspires to attend penn state university and major in either law enforcement or education congratulations daniel my pleasure to be able to share those and this time turn it back to dr harris okay thank you mr matarazza a couple other announcements i know nick took a lot of mine on the homecoming game and the events um this weekend but this past weekend we had two fun events on saturday the trafford middle school course performed at the west morning arts and
019heritage festival at twin lakes park mrs rumballs sent me a slideshow of their performance and the kids were having a great time and this past weekend we had the first ever hall of fame induction ceremony which took place the following individuals were inducted to the first class it was gregor gregory agar deacon dan frascura jennifer casino haberberger regis holden john machneck hopefully pronounces correct ray badouzi john poulton david richards terry lee johnson roberts allen j rudick nancy wallace and paul zeiss so if you go right out by the guidance counselor's office you will see that the plaques are on display so hopefully we do this every year and the list keeps growing but a couple of those individuals are also coming back to the game on friday and i know nick was talking about how
020we had some past homecoming kings and queens coming there's actually about 155 that responded so it should be a nice night so it's nice to see some people coming back um tonight on the agenda there is a motion to approve in amicus brief amicus brief i'm sorry and i'll let our solicitor talk about that now for some people who might not know what that means thank you dr harris uh we have been following the commonwealth court litigation filed by jake corman and a number of individuals against the acting secretary of pennsylvania department of health a recent order um established that there is a the parties agreed to withdraw an application for special relief seeking emergency injunctive relief and so because of that they extended the briefing for the parties so the petitioners were to file
021a brief on september 29th and then thereafter there are responses due by october 7th because of this this allows the opportunity for amicus briefs or typically referred to as friends of the court briefs to be filed the issue still remains of a legal issue as to whether or not the acting secretary of health had the authority under the public health act to issue the masking mandate and the petitioners argue that that sort of rule should have gone through the regulatory review process which would be similar to what the federal government does which is notice of a proposed rulemaking allowing for comment on the proposed rules and then the rules then go into effect after a certain period of time so because the parties have that issue we have an opportunity as a board to file
022a friend of the court brief which would focus on that issue but also adding from a local school board's perspective the argument that this was presented to us in june that the local school district should utilize their local authority to make rules concerning return to school in particular their health and safety plans and so to add a position to the commonwealth court a brief filed in this matter would focus on arguments supporting local control we don't you know piggyback or just repeat the petitioner's argument we have to actually add something of value to the court and so in our analysis we believe that there is argument to present on the local control issue and this will not be an argument on the efficacy of masks in support or against masks it's really more speaking to
023such decisions should be made at the local level understanding your school districts your buildings the impact on your students and your community we at mbm know that other districts may be seeking to do the same so we have um offered uh the cost not to succeed exceed excuse me eighteen hundred dollars with the potential for cost sharing should the board entertain the filing of the amicus brief and those briefs are due this thursday thank you um next i wanted i'm telling you wanted to provide an update or statement regarding the sciu negotiations the district is responding to sorry the district is responding to a recent advertisement from the seiu which failed in our opinion to provide the full scope of the negotiations which have occurred between the parties the district values all our employees and
024has worked hard to come to an agreement that is fair to both our employees and our taxpayers our custodians and secretaries are among the highest paid in westmoreland county they are either the second or third highest paid dirt hot wage is 23.60 an hour that is over two dollars and fifty cents higher than the county average workers at the top of the scale make almost fifty thousand dollars a year and many of our custodians actually make more than some of our teachers our last offer had a 3.6 percent yearly increase over four years this is higher than any other bargaining unit in the district we feel that a 3.6 increase for a group that is already well paid is very generous and demonstrates how essential we believe this group is yet the union rejected this
025offer on october 2nd while our custodians and secretaries are among the highest paid in westmoreland county our paraprofessionals and pcas are among the lowest one of the district's goals for this new contract was to bring this group in line with their counterparts in the county the average paraprofessional in the county starts at 14.79 our pair of professionals start at 10.35 we propose raising their starting wage to 15 and 50 cents which is 71 cents over the county average in our proposal the average increase across all paraprofessionals and pcas was 19 in the first year again the offer was rejected the group talks about working through the pandemic this is true we are very appreciative of the pride they take in their work however at the beginning of the pandemic many members of the sciu were
026paid even though they did not report to work for two months we feel that we have negotiated in good faith and have responded in a timely manner to all of their requests and proposals we do not feel that they are doing the same at this point we are considering all our options as the parties have clearly reached an impasse in negotiations as committee chair i am requesting an agenda ivan item to be added for consideration of development of bid specifications for non-instructional services i'm requesting to be put on the agenda for next week thank you actually that is all i had under information mr matarazza okay thank you at this time is our recognition of visitors and uh our visitors have signed in and they've come in order of which they signed in not in
027order of anything else in recognition of visitors you must state your name address and group affiliation if any statement will be limited to five minutes in duration all statements shall be directed to the president and no participant may address or question a board member individually you may be interrupted if your statement is too lengthy personally direct abusive obscene irrelevant i have the list of residents who wish to address the board your name will be called in the order in which you signed up our first speaker would be amy collins law amy if you're here would you please come up thank you thank you good evening my name is amy collins law and i live at one penn hills drive in irwin i spoke at the last meeting a bit about the dangers of misinformation and
028at that meeting i had the opportunity to share a letter signed by over 80 of our community members after the meeting that number grew to 100 and i submitted that letter to you the day after the meeting many of those people were health care professionals as you might remember also at last month's meeting i couldn't help but notice that as the meeting progressed and as subsequent interactions with the various community community members have occurred since then in person and online there is an alarming amount of anger and a deficit of kindness and compassion so i'd like to ask one thing of everyone here in this room please i implore you to be kind just be kind our children are listening our kids are watching and long after these meetings are over long after the last
029school bell rings on the year our children remember how we engaged with one another how we acted how we held our conversations what we said about our neighbors they'll see how we behaved and they'll internalize that what we said about doctors and nurses how we spoke about school principles and teachers how we characterize people in our very own communities how we talk about elected representatives of you on the school board and those in the pennsylvania general assembly or in congress about governor wolf about president biden and they'll follow our lead are we giving them the right example to follow are we demonizing others in our community reducing the complexities of human beings to whether or not they agree with us on this issue are we really using child abuse to characterize wearing a simple face
030covering when there are unfortunately far more terrible things happening to children are we using violent rhetoric to characterize and malign public officials like those on this board or the governor of our state are we eroding our children's trust in their school officials emboldening them to step up and challenge authority while at the same time expecting them to listen and learn from those same individuals regardless of what becomes of the pennsylvania department of health mandate masking will eventually end and for me personally provided that that occurs after approval and widespread availability of a safe effective vaccine for school-age children whose parents want them to receive it or some miraculous halted community transmission we will have to find a way forward as a community i know many people are angry because there was a parent survey positioned
031as a vote of sorts a majority of people said they wanted something and then things didn't end up going their way but a popular vote on whether to observe nuanced public health measures was i'm very sorry to say flawed from the very start a popular vote on who has the best pizza in penn township or who to elect for homecoming court that's a great use of a popular vote on whether masking should remain as a public health measure in schools in the middle of a pandemic is a decision best left to the expertise of pediatricians infectious disease experts and public health officials just like i wouldn't go to a local florist for advice on how to fix my car i wouldn't ask parents without health care experience to make health care decisions in a pandemic
032based on their popular opinion i know that many on the other side of this debate like to pretend that those of us in favor of masking are cowering in fear over the past 18 to 19 months it's been a familiar retort because it's easier to dismiss and just dehumanize those who disagree with you in that way i've had my words twisted and misrepresented enough to know this i can't speak for everyone in favor of masking in schools but for my family you might be surprised to learn i've been on the sidelines of baseball and softball games at municipal fields our kids may even play on the same teams we've been to kennywood we've had parties we've traveled out of state we've evolved we've adapted to keep our family safe and our neighbors safe and turn
033we're all on the same team after all we all want to return to normalcy but a return to normalcy won't be achieved by division and erosion of civility in our community we can't call someone we disagree with evil one day and then in the next breath tell them they need to listen to their classroom rules except the one about masking let's do better our children are listening thank you very much for your comments thank you your time is up at this time danielle lange good evening once again my name is danielle lang mother of three in the district i have a few topics this evening that i would like to address i'm going to start with the contract of our janitors secretaries and paraeducators like your letter stated they have been working since day one
034of the pandemic they're the ones that have done the dirty work the actual dirty work from cleaning our schools keeping them coveted safe putting themselves at risk to taking care of special needs of children to handling thousands of calls emails and letters and keeping the schools running and organized why can't we approve their request plus we're going to lower their max pay by almost three dollars give or take a little change they have worked this whole time without a contract to keep our kids safe now is the time to thank them have you thought about what happens if we don't have them and the repercussions to our schools virtual learning can i say i urge you to do the right thing and take care of all of these employees and also our community members next
035i'm going to move on to crt were you the board aware that for the past year sunrise elementary has had a link on their website called embracing race learning for justice it was a project based out of southern poverty law a parent did reach out to the school today and this is what was shared the school said they shared that is not being taught in schools thank heavens but these resources were provided to parents last year in the wake of the racial and social injustice discussions that took place over the summer these resources were provided for parents of point of reflection to that i say if this was the truth why wasn't this information on every school in our district's website and not just one and if the parents requested this information on how to
036address the happenings in our country over the last year i am sure that there are many resources out there that it could have been posted showing both use and sides of the the issues and lastly if this was the true reason that it was up on the website why was it abruptly taken down today after the school was called because at 11 am it was still on the website and at 12 30 the link is no longer there but i do have the website saved if any of you would like to view them i do have a question so at the last meeting and fifty 1859 dollars has been allocated to building improvements i would like to see a breakdown at the next meeting if possible my last point is about vaccinations right here is
037the statement of exemption for immunizations of the commonwealth of pennsylvania this is the letter that parents feel out to have their child exempt from having vaccinations to attend our schools they fill out this letter and poof their kids get to attend schools without vaccines now the stipulation does state that the children can be removed for up to 14 days if there is an outbreak of any of the viruses seems fair is this going to be accepted in the same matter when the coveted vaccines become mandatory just some food for thought i want to end with that family values such as kindness integrity and mutual respect are important parts of our world today and they're lacking teaching our children all three of these help them get ready for their future and help them become good people
038in our world today so full of hate our constitutional rights need defended today which is something i never thought i would be living through we i'm sorry you as the board should step into classrooms and see what is being taught or not taught because i can tell you the freedom of speech and the right to peaceful protest are not allowed to be discussed in certain high school classrooms happening today and it's also happening that if a child is asked to share their opinion on topics and that opinion isn't the same as the teachers of the classroom they are no longer allowed to share as a board member you need to be transparent you need to bring accountability to the board and to our schools you need to be the voice of your district not your
039own opinions individual opinions have no room on the board but the community voice does with that i am running for school board in district run as a write-in vote i vow to bring family values i will defend our constitutional rights and i will be the voice of district one thank you and have a great evening [Applause] all right thank you very much this time anders selvig hi my name is andrew selvig i live at 1174 claire jelly road today i found out that on the sunrise estates elementary website there's a student and parent resource called embracing race which is the same as crt you open it up it shows teaching tolerance click on that bam part way down is why black lives matters matters a little further down is discussing whiteness well i understand the
040media is trying to make everyone divided on race at this time along with masks vaccines and vaccines i really don't understand why this would be on a school website it's labeled as a resource like i said not only for parents but students these are elementary students they do not absolutely do not need to be involved in any type of political movement simply understand there is only one race god created the human race skin tone and facial traits that are different are beautiful and define us we are created equal by god we need his teachings back in school moses's second wife was from modern day ethiopia chew on that next you know i am for choice mask that said thing that the sad thing is people seem to think that we optional parents are at war
041against those who want to keep mass mandatory that's not at all what we want we are not at war with you in many countries you're not even allowed to have the freedom to voice your own opinions which is why so many flock to the greatest nation ever the united states of america y'all want your kids to be masked that's fine it's your right many say let your children decide okay at the beginning of the school year 90 percent of kids or more showed up without a mask one and a half weeks and a mandate comes out by the way our acting secretary when questioned by senator mastrino had no idea how many students were in this state and how many students had passed away from it the answer is roughly 1.7 to 1.9 and sadly
04214 kids have died from it which is terrible um but anyway i'm gonna get back to this now there's an extreme amount of bullying in schools from both sides kids who want masks and kids who don't want masks honestly most of these kids wear them on their chins and that is from both my son who's no longer in this school and my stepson i ordered my son a face shield wrapped the arms with of them with medical tape plasti-dipped them for comfort doing everything i could to keep him in your school still they were extremely uncomfortable they fogged up and reverberated his voice next the cheap flimsy shield which i see one of your members wearing the problem is my son's head it's so big it's got its own gravitational field i'm telling you and
043and it fogs up he begged me to withdraw him i never intended to remove him ever but he deserves the right to breathe freely and have unfogged glasses he's in pa cyber i also do want to ask my daughter was terrified to go to school today she's in eighth she's eight years old she's in third grade at mccullough she heard talks friday that you that because there was an order stating that five-year-olds to 11 year olds will be getting vaccines in schools she was terrified she was going to come to your school and you guys were going to pull her into her nurse's office and give her vaccine is that what you guys intend to do are you going to have vaccine clinics well i can i can answer that we're not going to have
044vaccine clinics and i know the state talked about thursday also some schools signed up to administer a test we didn't sign up for i think they said 400 schools but they didn't mean 400 school districts they meant 400 school buildings from when they further clarified it so okay all right sign up for that and also i want to say we are all penn trafford we are not your enemies i don't hate any of you i could care less if you're from iraq and you're a muslim i don't hate you and i i've i've dealt with a lot of people from many different countries but we're from the same country anders thank you and i had talked to you before thank you for your service good i'm glad you made it thank you thank you at
045this time rachelle layman hello my name is rochelle hynus lehmann i live at 5951 cleric export road on the highness farm my family has been part of this township for over a hundred years my great grandfather frank highness this farm was located on mellon road at the site where the elliot is now located my grandfather joe hynes had a large farm where i currently reside a second farm at st barbara's was a successful realtor and property owner in the township my father richard hines is a retired farmer and schoolteacher with over 30 years in the penn trafford school district my mom's family is from trafford my grandmother was a pall check which ties in with the sebastics and if you're familiar with trafford history that you know their names my parents are both penn joy
046graduates i graduated from pt in 1993. after college i lived in nags head north carolina where i married and we had our first son after he was born for various reasons we sold our house with a view of the ocean and moved back to sunny western pennsylvania penn trafford specifically we currently have three sons all at different buildings in the district i share my family history with you to illustrate how interwoven we are how strongly how strongly we believe in penn township and penn trafford and to demonstrate the amount of blood sweat tears and taxes we have given i am a hospital pharmacist my husband is a registered nurse in an emergency room we are both employed by different health networks every year the gallup organization does a survey of honesty and ethics in professions
047america has ranked pharmacists physicians and nurses in the top four every year for the past four years when kovid started we were hailed as healthcare heroes there was a change when delta arrived i have been called a wide variety of things from sheeple to idiot to fear monger and some additional things i've had to google to understand the nature of the insult in spite of verbal assault and belittling we continue to do our jobs to the best of our ability with care and compassion according to the oaths we took regardless of your stance on covid no matter how abusive you are conveying your beliefs on vaccines and masking we will still care for you and give one hundred percent there are over 30 pharmacists in my department all are pro-masking except for one that one
048is the most outspoken and vocal and is so loud that if you came to our department you would she think she speaks for the majority of us however that is not the case and being the loudest does not make you right my department follows the trend of local physicians offices as they are unwilling to write blanket mask exemptions because they believe in masking in schools i keep hearing parents know what is best for their children i disagree part of being a good parent is being humble enough to admit you aren't an expert on everything actually most things that is why we have doctors teachers therapists driving instructors and many more when our oldest son was almost three he was teaching himself to read and knew his numbers into the thousands we really just thought he
049was a genius but the director at his daycare suggested we have him assessed he was diagnosed with autism spectrum dis disorder particularly asperger's we did not know what was best for our own child so we listened to those who did thanks to aides therapists of a wide variety and teachers today he is a thriving junior in high school with no iep no aid and unless we tell you you will not know he has a diagnosis and even once we tell you you might not believe us healthcare professionals are not promoting masks in schools because children are a high risk group we know they're not but we are in the middle of a public health crisis and hospitals are overwhelmed we are at our usual census plus an additional 20 to 50 covid cases we are
050promoting masking because it helps to reduce the spread which helps to reduce the cases which reduces hospitalizations which opens up the hospital so that patients can be transferred from the er right now the ers are overwhelmed if your child breaks their wrists tumbling your parent has a stroke or your teen is in an auto accident we want them to receive medical care as quickly as possible right now the ers are overwhelmed and we are unable to do so it has nothing to do with politics this has to do with public health thank you for supporting the mask me in dayton schools and thank you for your time thank you very much thank you for your comments and thank you for your service [Applause] okay at this time melissa cheflick good evening melissa ceplic caroline street
051in jeanette first i would like to start this evening with a little bit of an object lesson for you i have a few things in my bag that maybe i would kind of like you to see first are some soiled tissues i have some dirty masks i have some well some gross stuff that i really don't think you want to see but but the reason i brought these is because i want you to imagine imagine that these are the things that you have to touch every day um our pcas are changing diapers for little ones that have that need or older special needs kids that cannot wipe their faces they're getting their hair pulled or taking a deep breath as they feel the teeth of a little one sinking into their arm the pcas do
052this every day then our custodians the ones who clean up your offices while you skip town to work remotely during the shutdown are the ones who mitigated the threat of covid by deep cleaning while the rest of us were home safe i find it ironic that we are demanding masks out of concern of contracting covid but the human beings who are disinfecting and cleaning up the covid are without a contract yet still they're here because they love these kids have any of you ever cleaned up puke while putting a smile on your face to console the sick child who was mortified by making that ma that mess have you pulled i'm sorry to ask a turd out of a urinal before these custodians have done that um have you changed a soaked pad on a
053a teenage girl at the high school level who can't do it for herself we have a group of paraprofessionals and custodians who do this work they clean up nasty messes that you wouldn't imagine they are there to support staff that keep this district open and safe and why is it that they don't have a contract when did we turn into a people who claim that these cleaning people don't need more money because these jobs can be filled by any uneducated person as if they are less than or not educated enough to matter i'm really confused about this why do you realize that they are human beings who have bills and families to care for and they don't get the decency of a few pennies more pay and some dignity along the way who are we
054yet again i find that we're not re repres you're not representing us we are the constituents we appreciate that these pcas and the custodians that are willing to do this work of love because it is a work of love when did we fall asleep when did you switch to autopilot do you not realize that what looks good on paper might actually impact the support staff whom you need to keep these doors open i woke up last night when you muzzled our kids for no good reason and now i can't help but notice that the face diapers were merely the tip of an iceberg of dysfunction are you sleeping or do you know the critical race theory is on our doorstep or at least on the penn trafford website have you begun to discuss how you're
055going to provide parents a choice to vaccinate or not when the big bad bad wolf demands that peace we do as he says do you realize that you are the first line of defense of an overreaching government that we the people have the power and you are to represent our voices are you awake yet it is apparent that many of you have been have been here for way too long and really that is on us because we trusted that you were doing right by us and we yawned as we voted you back in time and time again but now i think it's time for new perspectives for people who who have children in the district to sit on the board to help you see the whole picture this is why there are three of us
056here who are running writing campaigns in the hopes of winning a seat of those uncontested members who are asleep at the wheel i'm melissa chepwick i'm a mom of seven i am running a write-in campaign for district two i can promise you that i am well awake and i am ready to do what it needs to be done to serve the people of this community to make sure that everyone working here gets the respect they deserve because they're human beings now i'm not afraid to clean up messes let me model that for you because i want to be a servant for this community i'm here how how we respect people who keep this district running who lovingly care for our most vulnerable vulnerable children is the most important thing thank you [Music] thank you very
057much [Applause] at this time linda bachmann good evening my name is linda bachman i live at 11 dover road in irwin i come here tonight to clear up some misconceptions the article that has gone on in the district website is all smoke and mirrors you have said that we make more money than a teacher new teachers start out anywhere from forty three to forty eight thousand dollars our custodial staff are hired at roughly thirty thousand per year the teachers work nine months for that money we work 12. you have our top rate at 23.60 an hour when in fact out of 41 custodians only seven are at top rate what you also failed to mention is that in order for us to reach the top rate it takes approximately 21 years the teachers after 22
058years make approximately ninety five thousand dollars the mid-year raise that was mentioned has been in effect for over twenty five years you stated that you offered us a three percent raise when in fact it is more like one and a half percent also what you failed to mention is that in july of 2020 our hospitalization rate was increased by three and a half percent and the district taxes went up by two meals in july of 2021 our hospital hospitalization rate was increased four and a half percent and the district raised its taxes by one mill by the time you factor in all the raises and increases in benefits and taxes we have already lost money you stated that the pairs and pca start at 10 35 an hour when in fact we have been asking
059the board for 12 years to raise that rate and you have rejected us every time we come and do our jobs on a daily basis not for you but for every kid that walks through those doors in the morning we are not asking you for millions of dollars we are asking for wages that help us stay in our homes and let our kids go to colleges of their choice to give them a future thank you very much okay this time is kathy benadio good evening my name is kathy bonadio i live at 858 state room 130 in levelgreen i have worked for penn trafford for the last 21 years part time at first and then for the last 14 years as sunrise elementary secretary myself and all the secretaries love our jobs we are dedicated
060hard-working women we do a variety of things on a daily basis but our number one priority is to make the buildings run smoothly so that our principals and our teachers can do what they do best educate our children this past year and a half has been quite challenging cove had changed the way we did our jobs in the beginning we were considered essential workers so we came to work daily when the schools were shut down for any length of time we worked from home and came in when things needed to be made ready for the students we did all of this without a contract the statement put out today by the board made me feel very sad most of what was said is true to to an extent and it's a stressed stretched version of
061the truth our top of the scale workers which there are seven do make a top rate but it took them close to 20 years of service to get there it is stated that many custodians and secretaries again there are seven make more than some of our teachers but what wasn't said is that those teachers are new just starting out and making between 43 and 45 000 a year they work 186 days we work 247 days so if you break that down we make 2360 an hour they make 30 dollars and 24 cents an hour so when you compare side by side we don't make more than them we just work more days than they do [Applause] in conclusion it is my hope that this board and the union can sit down and figure out their
062differences so that we can get on about the business of educating our students thank you [Applause] thank you very much this time christy speranza good evening my name is christy speranza i live at 129 fairview drive in irwin i'm an alumni of penn trafford school district i graduated in 2015 and attended the university of pittsburgh where i obtained a bachelor's degree in education the summer after graduating college i returned to penn trafford to substitute teach for the end of the school year and i worked at sunrise elementary school as a substitute custodian before starting my first job as a para educator the reason i wanted to do substitute work with the school district was to see how a school operates from multiple perspectives before eventually working toward a full-time teaching position i wanted to appreciate
063my position as an educator as well as appreciate the people who help support the school which is why i'm standing here today from my understanding the support staff that works for penn trafford school district which includes custodians para educators and secretaries have been under-appreciated and under-compensated since contract negotiations started two years ago from my understanding there was a fact finding completed that those fighting for a fair contract agreed to then a board member went back on their word to cut new workers hired before july 1st 2020 to their knees i'd like to tell everyone about my experience when i previously worked as a custodian every day my body hurt the hours were long and it was hard for me to keep up with the full-time custodians i was working with during the summer for deep
064cleaning we cleaned an entire hallway of 15 classrooms in a month which included wiping tops bottoms and sides of every piece of furniture in that room we wiped on walls doors windows and floors until we decided it was clean enough to move on and this was before a pandemic now when i previously worked as a paraeducator every day was physically and emotionally exhausting gaining a child's trust is incredibly difficult and it often doesn't happen within the first year it is a battle involving the para remaining calm while child may throw a tantrum involving uncooperation kicking or even spitting on you and this is what i personally had to deal with and this is what your parents go through every day i'm sure secretaries come with their own share of struggles but this remains the same
065these are difficult jobs when you work a difficult job you want to feel heard and appreciated the fact there's a contract negotiation for a school district employee blows me away i can't think of a worse way to disrespect your school staff you cannot operate without these essential positions and everyone on this school board needs to think about that before they make any permanent decisions thank you very much for your comments [Applause] at this time julia frye uh my name is julia frye i live at 113 cool springs lane in harrison city and i'm a seventh grader at penn middle last year when code started we needed to start wearing masks i did it because i thought it was important to help in any way i could it can be annoying but they only work when
066everyone is wearing them a surgeon doesn't wear a mask because they are worried they'll catch a broken hip they wear because it keeps their germs from going to their patient the main point is that i'm not bothered by masks because i know why they're being worn and they don't bother my friends either masks aren't as big of a deal as they've been made out to be it's what's needed covet isn't gone and kids are getting sick now with the delta variant way more than they have before the children's hospital in pittsburgh had to build a tent for overflow patients in their garage because of the wait time in the er was so high that's definitely not normal and it's it's not something they had to do before julia i'm sorry would you mind i can't
067quite understand you whether you pull your mask down or speak a little slower we want to make sure we hear what you say i'm sorry that's okay thank you should i start over wherever you like to start because your time's still going so go ahead okay the main point is that i'm not bothered by masks because i know why they're being worn and they don't bother my friends either masks aren't as big of a deal as they've been made out to be it's what's needed kovit isn't gone and kids are getting sick now with the delta variant way more than they have been before the children's hospital in pittsburgh had to build a tent for overflow patients in their garage because of the way time in the er was so high that's definitely not normal
068and it's not something that they had to do before what's really bothered me is how divided people are on this issue i feel like this shouldn't be a debate anymore masks are something we should have gotten used to by now north allegheny changed their code plan to make masks mandatory when the risk for coverage was severe or worse and optional and there's four coded was moderate or low why can't we do that here that's it oh julia thank you now joey i'm trying to say are you a seventh grader from what school um what school do you go to penn middle penn medal did you write that by yourself um i need some help for my mom well yeah i think you've made your teachers proud and your mom and dad thank you very much
069for your comments [Applause] all right at this time doreen gamble is doreen here doreen gamble oh there she is i probably should have sat closer i'm sorry thank you i would like to discuss my concerns for the students in penn trafford from the perspective of the paraprofessional i have been with the district for nine years and began at nine dollars and seventy five cents an hour i currently make only eleven dollars and ninety five cents when you asked us to take a pay freeze we took one i don't even receive holiday pay even though i have worked through them for four years paris secretaries and custodians have been working without a contract for over a year and a half we have worked in a school setting and we also worked remotely to ensure the continuing
070education of students we are tasked to care for throughout the pandemic realizing the in equities in our wage package the school district has offered increased entry-level wages while offering virtually nothing in wage compensation for the paraprofessionals who have been working for the school district for some 5 10 15 and 20 years of service not to mention without any medical benefits the paraprofessionals are just that para profes or professionals trained and certified who offer instructional and behavioral support the school district is currently using uncertified subs slas and tutors to perform the duties of the paraprofessionals because of short staffing i ask of you my school board what does my nine years of experience the things that i have learned from working with all types of people mean to you are you really capable of finding new
071people who fit into this program the way that i do people who show up every day for these kids people who do their jobs with all of their heart for only eleven dollars and ninety five cents an hour no complaining about pay and uh contract interpretations i've endured a lot and i do it because i love my community but i won't stay at a school that appreciates me as much as or less than someone coming off the street i know i am worth something more than the base pay you would like to start the new hires and at and bump our short-term staff up to i feel like i am being demoted through no fault of my own i am not the only one who feels disrespected i am not the only one who has
072made these sacrifices there are several paras who have been here for almost 10 years like myself will only see two dollars more in their paychecks while new hires are going to seem almost four dollars an hour more we need a contract that is clear fair and most importantly respectful and i may have forgot to say i am dorian gamble and i live at 106 summit street in penn pennsylvania thank you i'm so sorry [Applause] thank you this time emilio cano kano i'm sorry if i mispronounced that good evening and thank you for the time board my name is emilio cano i am the representative with seiu 32bj on behalf of our secretaries our power professionals our custodians and everybody else in our bargaining unit um i am brand new to western pennsylvania that is true
073but i have been a union representative for over six years now and i must say in my limited time working with these members i've been impressed by their commitment and dedication to the district i'm also impressed that members are so committed to fairness and equity in making sure we reach an agreement that treats all of our members fairly now i acknowledge and i can appreciate the movement the district has made particularly in proposing higher entry-level rates for paraprofessionals god knows they need but unfortunately we aren't quite there yet and on friday members voted overwhelmingly to authorize a strike if necessary now that being said we remain fully committed to making every attempt possible to negotiate a peaceful resolution to these negotiations and to that end we look forward to meeting with the district soon to
074continue our negotiations thank you for your time and have a great afternoon okay thank you very much this time nika kendall please come up nika hello is the solicitor going to explain further what she was talking about earlier because i know a few people in my row we weren't quite following are you guys yeah i don't take any of my time with it but is she going to explain that further at the end we don't understand we need more layman's terms yeah very cool okey-dokey nika kendall mount manor road it was september 29 1959 when nikita khrushchev delivered his prediction for america at the united nations your children's children will live under communism you americans are so gullible no you won't accept communism outright but we will keep feeding you small doses of socialism until
075you will finally wake up and find you already have communism we will not have to fight you we will so weaken your economy until you fall like overripe fruit into our hands the democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not i honestly don't know what's worse at this point those who pretend they don't know what's going on here or those that actually don't those that go along with it for personal gain or those that are still too afraid to do something about it imagine a world where people claim to be so deathly afraid of a virus but still send their children to school who state that they just want everyone to abide by the coven 19 safety measures while they
076go from doctor's office to doctor's office full of sick people to obtain signatures requesting others abide by the measures and then to make matters worse show up to a school auditorium to announce their allegiance to the branch covidien alliance asymptomatic spreader much what happened to stay home save lives oh they only want to follow some measures like masking everyone else's babies while theirs enjoy maskless play dates and seasonal outings we know who's been to the fall festival and we know who's been to kennywood imagine a world where the minority of people are deathly afraid of a virus but get to and do send their kids to school while those of us who trust god and unbiased research are denied access where those who are afraid of a virus are fine to roam freely in shops
077and travel and those who trust their immune systems must order online and vacation within driving distance imagine a world where hypocrites get the final say if you do not stand up now you will have lost the freedom to fight for your children do you think it will end when these demons are done taking your jobs for not getting an experimental gene therapy do you think it ends when all airlines require proof of vaccination and you can no longer travel they already won't let the kids who don't comply with anti-science baseless satanic rituals i mean mandates enter their public educational facility paid entirely by your tax dollars they're not going to stop they are coming for you they are coming for your children stand up now there's not much time left thank you very much thank
078you [Applause] [Music] [Applause] at this time sean reneer sean reiner sunrise estates i'm going to tell the board what i've witnessed especially over the past year with eseiu union workers i've witnessed the janitors bust their butts running around like maniacs at lunch cleaning continuously i've seen a pair of professionals who aren't even offered benefits work with the neediest students daily they barely get a lunch i've seen the secretaries do two three people's jobs at the same time i think you guys have the money i know you guys have the money the difference in what they're asking and what you're asking is minuscule as compared to the rest of the budget the students in this district in the last two years have either not had any in-person learning or have been pulled in and out of
079classrooms every other month for the district to go to remote learning if there's a strike it should be unacceptable for everybody i know it's going to be unacceptable for the teachers the students and especially the parents so i hope we can come to a some type of solution to this because the money between you guys is small thank you you're welcome okay [Applause] all right at this time we've had all of our visitors uh speaking um dr harris uh yes the item that she was requesting more information is on the budget for tonight so we can talk about that right when we go to the voting oh i'm sorry next week we're going to ask you to employ extracurricular personnel approve a high school ban and choir trip and i talked about this last month
080and then we improved the cheerleading trip and we talked about the band and choir jeff fox is back there you already had over a hundred students in choir sign up 102 oh it grew by two it's 102. so that's great to see under budget of finance we're going to ask you to authorize payments for credits earned by professional employees authorized representatives to the wiu joint purchasing consortium grant permission to advertise jointly for the purchase of supplies a pen list of vendors approved vendors for employee 403 b contributions under buildings and grounds and safety there won't be any issues under employees i'm sorry employee relations negotiations transportation there are no items under food service there are no items under a personnel and curriculum there is to approve parent volunteers approve personal agenda under policy public relations
081legislative title ii there's a grant permission for the amicus brief which is actually a vote tonight so i wanted to have christina kind of give more information regarding that as requested you know again it's a brief that will be filed if the board approves it we recommended that the cost would be for penn trafford not to exceed eighteen hundred dollars which would pay for the legal fees in um drafting the brief and submitting it to the court it's my understanding that there would not be a cost sharing as there is not another district at this time considering to file an amicus brief the amicus brief would focus on the argument as i went over that is before the court as to whether or not the department of health in particular the acting secretary had the
082legal authority to issue the masking mandate meaning that she did not do so under the regulatory review process which is a process that will require notice to the commonwealth the community an opportunity for the commonwealth to give a comment on the proposed rule and then action thereafter in order to file this brief we would have to ask permission from the court typically the court to usually see these types of briefs before the united states supreme court on issues of public policy and you'll see various interest groups sometimes teacher groups or advocacy groups that will file a brief so be similar to that the brief has to add information that would be of interest to the court in our review the litigation we will not be supporting or arguing as anything as to the efficacy of
083masks whether they work or not work that's not an issue before commonwealth court we would be arguing on behalf of pen trafford if you were to entertain such a brief as to the need for the decisions to be made at the local level so that's the local control argument is there any other questions on this issue tonight i mean i i just i i do have a statement about that i i think it's an opportunity um for the district in the community to make a statement that we uh we want to take back the give back the local officials the local elected officials the ability to make local decisions and it's it's masked with some other stuff in there but that's the the basis of this is to make a statement that we want to
084have control of our local decisions and that's what we're back [Applause] just to just to clarify what mr stovar said it goes beyond the masking issue whether it be curriculum masking or a number of other issues and mandates that are dictated to us by the state we are basically stating that we support legislation to give control to the local school boards to make those decisions at this time i'm gonna ask is this anyone going to make we need a motion to move to approve the solicitor to seek permission to file an amicus brief in the uh corpsman at all acting secretary of health commonwealth court matter so do we have anyone to make that motion uh i have it here uh i moved to approve the solicitor to seek permission to file an amicus brief
085in the corpsman at all versus acting secretary of health commonwealth court matter okay thank you very much we have a motion on the floor do we have a second second okay we have a motion second is there any question question being called any questions been called for uh this question call for this will be a roll call vote all in favor the motion say aye all opposed motion carried and then um finally for next week the only other item um there's no items listed under taxes insurance census and back to mr matarazzo for adjournment thank you at this time do we have a motion to adjourn motion got several motions to adjourn we have a second second and several all those in favor please say aye aye we're out of here good night