001e yes oh God bless you order the scen school board meeting for March 4th 2024 uh joining us this morning will be members from the Girl Scout Troop 1016 Hickory Street pedestrian church we have Megan gly Liz Tori Grace ladies will be joining us to help us lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance ladies SC uniform or veterans the flag all others over your heart a pledge of alance to the flag the United States of America the stands Nation IND and justice for all thank you ladies roll call Mr borwick here Mr Casey present Mrs chess present M fox pres thank you m g Martin present Miss Merkel present Mr mcandrew present Mrs Yanni present Mr Holmes present thank present um before the motion to approve the agenda we need to acknowledge that we removing
002item G8 from the non-consent to the cons from the consent to the non-consent can I have a motion to approve the agenda so moved second question roll call Mr Casey yes Mrs chz yes Miss Fox yes Mr Martin yes Miss Markle yes Mr mcandrew yes Mrs Johnny yes Mr borwick yes Mr Holmes yes n affirmative need to just note that the guidelines for board governance are not under the consent agenda as they were during our our work session um I don't think we do because it wasn't posted the 24 hours it was posted correctly okay Communications to the board executive on the board executive sessions uh yes executive sessions were held on February 26 2024 and this evening to discuss Personnel litigation real estate and negotiations and safety solicitor's report no report Acting Superintendent report
003uh good evening and thank you president Holmes um I just like to give a few updates from around the district uh we first would like to congratulate Scranton School District alumni Lorenzo plugy on his performance as Sony Bono in the share show this past weekend at the Scranton Cultural Center um Lorenzo was a student at Robert Morris Northeast intermediate in Scranton high school and he graduated from the district in 2015 we'd also like to extend our congratulations to two of our teachers uh Miss Laura Suk and Mrs Keli Van Gordon Miss Van Gordon was named Rocky and Lisa's uh Rockstar teacher after she was nominated by one of her students and Mrs sosc who was nominated for and was semi-finalist for Pennsylvania's teacher of the year for 2025 so we want to say congrats to
004both Miss Van Gordon and Miss Sosa great job um heading into Student Activities or student Athletics uh even though the winter sports are over uh both the boys and girls basketball teams at Scranton high school as well as the West Scranton wrestling team are keeping their Seasons alive and well Thursday this past Thursday both the girls and boys Granton high school basketball teams were named the 6A Champions and 5A Champions uh this year the state tournament bracket will begin on March 19th here at Scranton high school and we wish both teams uh good luck as for wrestling at westr high school Tyson Co cook Jason Williams Michael tur and Connor leir were all named district 2 Champions these four student athletes are also state qualifiers who have a chance to compete starting March 7th uh
005these four student athletes were also chosen as Northeast Regional qualifiers along with restaurant wrestlers Angel olivari Colby celic Mark hubman Mason Bennett and Santino and Nisa and from Scranton High School uh Javon James also um we will be competing um moving on to swimming uh West Granton swimmer Roy aala won a gold medal at the district uh swim championships in the 200 meter individual medley and we also will have for Scranton and westg Grant High School they will be participate participating in Unified sports program with the track and field team this season Sarah H will serve as the coach from West Granton high school and Andrew Martin will serve as the coach from Scranton High School school um also this weekend the 63rd annual Pennsylvania Junior Academy of Science meeting for Region 2 was on
006Saturday March 2nd scran high school was represented by 35 students in grade 7 through 12 with 30 amazing with 30 of these students earning a first award Scranton high school was one of the highest number of students now eligible to attend the state level meeting held at Penn State main campus in May among the first award of recipients were ZR Thompson Lily wearing Sophia lafy who earn all all who earned a perfect score Sophia was also went on to receive the junior Excellence award in microbiology and Christian chesk received the junior Excellence award for engineering additionally West Granton was represented by seven students with four of these students earning first award and qualifying for the state tournament at Penn State Brit bannel from westr high school was also the recipient of a king's college scholarship
007so congratulations to everyone who participated uh we also have roughly 70 special education students who are partaking in a transition program this year thanks to our transition coordinator Dave genvis and the SATs and finally the SATs will be held digitally at March 9th at Scranton high school and we good luck we wish good luck to all the Juniors and seniors who'll be taking the test thank you thank you I just want to add I think sorry I think March 1st or maybe it was today is National maintenance workers day so I want to thank all of our maintenance workers for all the hard work in all of our buildings yes we do Danielle was that a relative no we did hear a relative of Pat lafy so congratulations to your daughter thank you you smiling
008very proud nice uh do we have Dr sailor with us um she I don't believe she is a attending this this okay no report no no report this time okay so we will now have a report from the student Representatives I believe Mr Dean is going to be doing double duty tonight you're the man Declan good evening thank you good evening February was a greatly successful month at scant and I the SAG Club held the table at lunches to inform students about teen dating violence and gave out merch from the Women's Resource Center the nights basketball teams also saw great success school history was made when both the boys basketball team and the lady nights became District Two Champions students had a dressed down last Friday to celebrate their success as well as the success
009of our first edition show choir the show choir is headed to Midlothian Virginia to compete in the Titan Tournament of choirs this weekend good luck to them a meeting for the National Honor Society will be held tomorrow after school junior members were notified of their status in this meeting last week there will be another meeting for juniors regarding senior class office on March 15th students wishing to run can pick up an informational packet from Miss male in room 231 this week laana College will be at shs on March 14th to collect dual enrollment forms also on March 14th there will be an industry fair with 33 vendors and Trade union Representatives the week of March 18th 99th graders Will Shadow at CTC Scranton counselors recently partnered with Mickey Davis from maternal and family health services
010to create a four-week healthy relationship Workshop where students will be trained to Mentor their peers on the characteristics of healthy relationships on March 9th Scranton high will host their very first online SAT test best of luck to all taking it the smart program members are in their third week of meeting with College age mentors from the University of Scranton they have been greatly enriched by The Experience so far Scranton high would also like to Express gratitude to John Troy who recently donated school supplies Hy dream products and uniforms for students through the student Resource Center recently Scranton High faculty competed against West High's faculty in Mr Wolf's Step It Up Challenge shs won the competition with over 1 million steps altogether Scranton Spanish teachers are headed to the University of Scranton tomorrow to celebrate the
011world languages day they will be exposed to the campus as well as exotic languages such as Arabic Spanish and French EOC the Educational Opportunity Center will conducted two successful field trips with Scranton High Miss Kia's class visited a CareerLink office to hear a speaker and all students listened intently their behavior was so remarkable that Kathy Gerard the site administrator asked if Scranton High could bring another group on March 27th for their manufacturing career event several students in the district competed in the PJs regional meeting over the weekend and performed highly finally spring Sports began today good Lu to all in the new season overall February was a greatly successful month in the district and March has lined up to be another thank you for your time thank you Dean thank you great job thank you
012psba report yes I'm going to keep it brief since I'm over the phone um I would just like for all of us to please put it on our calendar if we can um the spring advocacy day will be on April 8th um um last last time um I don't think any of us besides um director Martin were able to participate and hopefully this year some of us could go um down at the state capital in Harrisburg so again this is advocacy day um spring advoc advocacy day is April 8th um if we could put that on our calendars um if anyone's able to to uh step down there to represent the Scranton School District um once you sign up they will schedule meetings with legislators um and or their staff and provide us with resources
013so again that's April 8th if any's available the only other thing I have right now is um there's a board leadership workshops for maybe our president vice president if you're interested um there's two more left um this Saturday March 9th and then next uh Saturday March 16th um they're virtual so I'll send you the information in case you're interested that's all I have for today thank you thank you at this time the board will welcome public comment each speaker will be allowed three minutes to speak Union me Union presidents will be allowed four minutes first one up is Amanda van berski Burke sorry what's your your name hi Amanda that's okay good evening school board members I would like to thank you guys for acknowledging Lorenzo and alumni to our high school here at Scranton
014High I was once in alumni here and I was in theater with him I went to see his show it was amazing he did an awesome job as Sunny Bono and he had four soldout shows at the theater everyone enjoyed it people commented on him he is amazing on tour so I would like to thank you guys for acknowledging one of our Scranton high alumon on social media and throughout the day thank you thank you Rick cus good evening everyone um my name is Rick cus I'm the president of the NAACP lacana County Branch um I want to take the opportunity to um say this is my first official um presence as president of this Branch before the school board um and what I would like to do is offer our assistance in any way
015we can to move uh and assist our youth in all of our schools um one way that the NAACP challenges our youth is through what's called an axo Pro um program act-so which stands for afro academic cultural technological and scientific Olympics and it's a year-long program that encourages youth of color and high school students to achieve academic and culturally the program offers a forum for students of African descent to demonstrate their expertise and academics artistic and scientific areas students work and Sport with volunteer mentors and instructors to create projects and participate in enrichment opportunities these opportunities include workshops tutorials and field trips that are specific to their competitions the students then can demonstrate their talents and up the three comp um three competition areas that include stem Visual Arts Performing Arts Humanities architecture drawing dance
016ballet and music composition now in a normal regular year um our local unit would host a competition in well we would start in August March we would start the competitions April would be the local competition where all the students that are participating compete against each other those winners would then be afforded an opportunity to compete against other students nationwide at the NAACP convention which is um held in July um just to kind of give you a visualization if we had an axo program with students that won from this area this year they would be getting a trip a free trip to Las Vegas so that's where our um next um National Convention will be this would be a year round program and I'm hoping that um the NAACP and the Scranton School District along with
017other districts in the county we can all start working together and make this program a reality thank you thank you Susie Connors I saw that you didn't put your middle your thank you don't worry I'm not going to read to you again but I do have a book here um I want to just also congratulate all the students that U Mr lafy mentioned and I really wish that all these great things could be the headlines in the Scranton Times in the paper because we only read when bad things happen around here and it's not just grh High all the schools in the district you know do wonderful things and it's very frustrating that we don't hear about these except for sports um throughout uh the city anyway uh last week on Friday along with many
018of the board members I had the opportunity to read at Kennedy School for read Across America and I have to uh compliment the principal Nora Phillips the reading specialist uh Kim tesl and all the staff and everyone who works there for the outstanding job that they did uh that day it was it's a wonderful program and of course many of us are reading at other schools this week um as well any I chose to read Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak and as I was doing some uh research about the book it's interesting to note that he was well he was born in 1928 in Brooklyn to Jewish immigrant immigrant parents from uh Poland and when he first wrote the book he it's semi-autobiographical actually he based his monsters on his relatives who
019he thought were very unkempt and had bad teeth and uh so and he didn't name any of these Monsters of course but when the book was first this is what's interesting when the book was first released in 1963 many psychologists thought the content would be very traumatic for young children and cause fear of desertion and in fact it was banned in the South so um in spite of that the book went on to win the 1964 called the cop medal that annually recognizes is the preceding year's most distinguished American picture books for children uh I can remember vividly when I was teaching and of course I'm retired 18 years so we're gone back 20 25 years ago there was a story in our reader a basil reader about jaie Robinson and in that story The
020nword was used and it was spelled out and I explained to my students that this is not acceptable language but this is what was said back in the 1940s and I also told them don't go home and tell your parents that Mrs Connor used that word because I'm not but it was in the story and um we listened to it and I'm thinking now I wonder if that story was somewhere else in this country would it also be banned so I just want to uh point out that I'm really glad this board and previous boards have chosen not to ban any books in our classrooms and libraries because it's it's so important that I think you have to use certain content as teachable moments and you know we can't judge history by today's standards so
021um anyway and I also very quickly the Holocaust Symposium is coming up if you need any information anybody wants to go talk to president Holmes or uh director Merkel because they have all the information thank you thank you Rosemary Bolan good evening directors I will follow uh what Susie cers just uh spoke to uh it was a wonderful event at Kennedy and tomorrow morning I'll be reading at uh John Adams school I encourage all of the you and all of the politicians in Scranton I think everybody should partake in this kind of an event so that children understand that reading is something really really fun and exciting and I think we adults are the ones who can make that happen with the children so I applaud Susie for what you just said sus uh I
022for one want to uh say the same thing she did it it disgusts me to find out that certain books that I have in my own home in my own Library are being banned in certain parts of the United States of America I find find Banning books disgusting um and as long as I can breathe we're going to fight that sort of thing in Pennsylvania if it ever arrives here we're not going to allow it uh I want to also uh thank Mr borwick and his committee for our meeting last week uh I found it very enlightening and I also found it very discouraging um two sides of a coin I'm not thrilled to see the building in the shape it is right now and I was say sad to listen to some of the
023stories that were being told about the debris and the particulate matter that's in the air and I know that you know there is a grievance pending and we should be sitting down to solve that grievance shortly or I'm going to have to move it also I would like to um extend our praise to the students uh who were just named a bit ago by Mr lafy uh for their work in the Sciences especially in mathematics and coming up I know we're going to have some poet laureates around here I hope and also um I know the test and the new exams are going to be starting any minute and I also uh went to Broadway Theater on uh Saturday and I I would hope everybody would take time and join Broadway Theater uh because it
024was wonderful to find one of our own Scranton high school students there and uh when he first walked out on the stage I thought I was seeing Sony come out uh he he had he had his walk down and uh of course he had a better voice than Sunny Bono did but it was a wonderful show and we had this was a wonderful season I encourage everybody to try and get a ticket a season ticket and join Broadway Theater League we need more of the humanities around here uh and I think that's uh a wonderful place to start uh Mr lafie's favorite topic I'm going to bring up we still still don't have Chromebooks Mr laffy we have carts with Chromebooks on them and they don't charge and they're not being put in the classrooms
025where they belong and we're having a very difficult time understanding that because we've been dealing with this uh maybe a year and a half to six a year and six months so there's something wrong uh in the district when we can't get this stuff to work and we can't get it into the hands of the students because it is supposed to be one to one correspondence with this Chromebook to student I for one think there's a better way of going about it Mr laughy and I've had discussion on that um and I for one don't uh agree with all the gurus around the world with the Chromebooks anyway but we have to get this figured out and we have to get it figured out soon as I have said more than one time this is
026the way we test certain students we're buying uh programs for the Chromebooks spending a great deal of money on these products and we're not getting any use out of them because they're sitting someplace either in a box in the basement of South Granton or on a cart not charged and not being used in a classroom what a waste of money it would have been better if we bought brand new dictionaries for the kids and taught them how to read a dictionary so this is another matter we have to sit down and talk about teachers in this District by contract are supposed to have all the supplies they need at the beginning of an academic year that's a contractual article that's been around a long long time and obviously somebody's not paying attention to what's going
027on and this has to stop and I I am not talking about Mr lafy here folks I've had many discussions with him about it and I think he and I are on the same page with this and I know many of you are on the same page but if we bought them for the kids if we Ed eser Money something's wrong and it has to to be corrected ASAP because this isn't right it is not right either we've got them to use or we don't have them to use why they're sitting in boxes I don't understand why they're not able to be charged I do not understand that because when they came here they should have been charged they should have been coded and sent out to the kids also I want to know do
028all of our special need autistic children do all of those kids have the iPads that they're supposed to have with the protective covers on them I need to know that all of those kids in those classes have those materials in front of them so I'd appreciate any kind of help you could give and another thing I was thinking about after I left West intermediate the other night and I was listening to Insurance questions being posed what about ER what about errors and omissions insurance has anybody looked into that I know they are still looking if not we should be looking at the errors and omission and some of these charges that we're reading about tonight would disappear because it's wrong thank you for your kind attention Mr lafy can we um get a breakdown of
029the the Chromebooks I I mean I'm not saying like an audit but maybe eventually that but kind of a breakdown I know we have an asset manager now what we have out what we have in repair um what we have not handed out overall and then also like a kind of like since we I know we got them during Co but since we've bought the laptops how many have we bought originally how many replacement have we bought just like like an overall recation certainly yeah and same with the iPads too you know how many you know kids still need iPads and I break down for that as well Mr can we find out about the iPads because if they're in the IEPs that's they're legal documents I did request for Wednesday's uh educ education committee
030meeting I sent an email to director m earlier asking for um a discussion about the the iPads getting board members to have an update and also about the all the Chromebook so I think um we could discuss it then certainly could I speak I feel like I'm over here in the Lost World um when I first got on the board I went around to different schools the and one of the questions that I asked especially of the special need uh teachers do you have everything you need well I started at trip and I found out that they needed 25 iPads well I found out that last week they were finally delivered these 25 iPads should have been in the classrooms in September our iPads for these kids are like textbooks when we went to school
031it's a shame they didn't have them I then found out that um Kennedy School didn't have 25 at first I thought trip was an isolated instance I was told that last week the 25 iPads for Kennedy School has arrived and they've been in from what I understand the only school now that also needs uh iPads is Robert Morris okay they do not have any iPads as of today can you please send an email so they can address us at the committee level I will but we need to know as that's what they're going to do reconciliation but what we need to know is what Danielle just mentioned first of all it's a tragedy these kids who are already years behind the normal um the I don't know how to call it so you know what
032I'm saying yes um but from a financial point on the district we're going off track right now with un public comment you can actually no I understand but I feel this is very important but this is public comment time right now if we need to address this we can do it under new business shant Mo I'm sorry Shante Armstrong I think she's starting it hello um I was here a few months ago and I don't know if some of you were here some of you are not but I had a couple issues um that I wanted to address and the first one was about the cheerleaders only being chosen if their hair was straight and I feel like the situation was handled very poorly um my daugh I spoke with um JN Coyle and that
033next morning and he told me that she was very upset that um like Point like pointing out my daughter that that she didn't know my daughter and she didn't try out for a cheerleading like I felt like everything was just excuses when I came here last time I said I was standing here for my daughter and her peers because she's not the only one with curly hair she's not the only girl that wears braids in SC high school so I felt like like I said the situation was handled very poorly and um I feel like none of that energy was like towards the students that felt some type of way and that's not fair because the issue was never addressed my daughter was intimidated and made to seem like if she was lying about the
034situation and and I never got any response from him after I talked to them that day I never heard anything from anybody after that and I just want to give a friendly reminder about the crown act and if it was that serious I like receipts could have been pulled you could have looked at the passers of the cheerleaders while this lady has been the coach to see if it's true or not but in instead of questioning students making them feel like they're Liars or if their feelings weren't valid and the second um was about the students that identify differently to use whatever bathroom they feel and I just feel like uh it's happening in the high schools and Junior High and it's like what's next Elementary School like are we going to confuse the kids
035cuz I feel like that's like corruption like yeah not addressing the issues and if and I feel like parents have a right to know so if that's the decision that y'all stand behind when y send out those papers in the beginning of the school year to sign for emergency contacts put slide that paper in there too we stand with this community to allow the kids to do that so that parents are aware that their child may be in situations as opposed to the answers that I got to talk to a lawyer or to get lawyers involved like I don't feel like that's necessary I feel like the issues could be addressed here and like I said I call several times to follow up and I just think like I said parents have a right to
036know and they should be aware of the decisions of yall allowing students to Co at in bathrooms with no regulations that's it thank you Susan Gallow good evening everyone my name is Suzanne Gallow I a first grade teacher at Neil Armstrong Elementary and a member of the sft first I would like to thank Mr lafy for his respect dedication and and Leadership and we deeply appreciate your help through this time uh it is about the time of year in our our elementary schools that we begin to hear our fourth grade families begin to explore talk about exploring options about where to send their children to Middle School some of our families are reluctant to send their children to the middle schools due to safety concerns as well as their children's age some of our families
037do not believe that their children will be safe with all that has been cut and taken away from our middle schools over the past years please prioritize stabilizing and strengthening our middle schools so that the teachers can teach and the students can learn in a calm safe environment that is not filled with fear please choose the best possible Hands-On administrators who will provide strong confident leadership this is vitally important we want our students and families to remain in our district until the children graduate and that is not going to happen if we do not provide Assurance to our parents and families that their children will be safe in our middle schools please do not give our families a reason to leave lastly I ask you to consider the fifth grade students uh returning to elementary
038schools they are very young thank you for listening thank you Holly meat before my time starts there's some wonderful portraits um for Black History Month and there's a QR code on each portrait that shows you the artists bio who are from Scranton high so it'd be pretty cool if they had like the picture and the bio on our social media if we could do that it' be awesome and they're super impressive just go as you're leaving take a right they're right there they're unbelievable uh my name is Holly me and I teach at Scranton High School I also work with every new teacher hired in the district including long-term substitutes they're under your personnel report under e um recently my daughter began subbing in the district as a part-time job before starting her career in
039the Army she's in the Army now um it was a really great part-time job flexible um for anybody that has a college degree our subs in our district currently get paid $125 a day a monthly social media post would be awesome to attract new substitutes to our district anyone with a college degree can be a sub in this Granton School District um one of the most important things I took note of is where my daughter chose to sub she was willing to sub in any middle or high school until she realized the middle school is dismissed at 3:45 her only reason for not choosing Middle School is because of the late dismissal it made it more difficult for her to do things after school if she substituted at the high school she'd be out at
040305 I bring this all up to tell you that because I know attracting Subs to the middle schools has been an ongoing issue since 2019 so I asked my daughter if they paid you five or maybe $10 more a day would you sub in the middle school she immediately said yes my suggestion would be to raise the substitute rate to 135 only for our middle schools it may help to reduce some of the substitute vacancies in our intermediate schools another group of personnel that needs some attention is our are long-term substitutes if a teacher is hired after October 1st with an emergency certificate they do not qualify for any sick days or receive any health care they are not union members due to their temporary status this board could vote to give these temporary employees
041five sick days and maybe our lowest tier of health insurance retaining these employees is critical to the function of the school district currently you have about 50 people in these positions districtwide many of of these people are looking to be permanent employees next year offering these temporary employees some sort sort of benefits would encourage them to stay in the district our goal is to keep every employee that starts with us in Scranton pde has a Statewide initiative called APR attract prepare and retain new teachers I think this would be a great first step and welcome these employees and it would really help to retain the awesome long-term substitutes that we have So currently if someone gets hired on October 3rd they don't get anything and I think we're missing the boat um I've met many
042people who are Ultra qualified but they don't want to work because there's no benefits and you could offer the lowest tier of benefits to those people and I think that would be incentive just a suggestion thank you thank you motion to approve the minutes of February 5th 2024 I'll make the motion second on the question roll call Mrs chesik yes Miss Fox yes Miss G Martin yes Miss Merkel yes Mr mcandrew yes Mrs Yanni yes Mr borwick yes Mr Casey yes Mr Holmes yes n affirmative motion motion to approve principal guidance of leadership second or so second one question would you like to read that director chz read a please go down and list and read them um or you don't have I don't have them d y sure okay director Yan is gonna did
043you want to read them it's okay no no that's okay I thought we talked before that okay um the principles for governance and Leadership um principal our Pennsylvania School boards are committed to providing every student the opportunity to grow and Achieve our actions as elected and appointed board members ultimately have both short and long-term impact in the classroom therefore we pledge that we will lead responsibly will'll prepare for attend and actively participate in board meetings work together with Civility and cooperation respecting the individuals hold differing opinions and ideas participate in professional development training and board Retreats collaborate with the superintendent acknowledging their role as the 10th member of the board and commissioned office officer of the Commonwealth we'll act ethically will'll never use position for improper benefit to sell for others avoid actual or perceived
044conflicts of interest recognize School directors do not possess any Authority outside of the collective board except that when a board has made a decision it is time to move forward collectively and constructively will plan thoughtfully we'll Implement a collaborative strategic planning process set annual goals that are aligned with Comprehensive plans recognizing the need to adapt as situations change we'll develop a comprehensive financial plan and master facilities plan that anticipates short and long-term needs and will allocate resources to effectively impact student successes we'll evaluate continuously make data informed decisions evaluate the superintendent annually conduct a board self assessment on a reoccurring basis focus on student growth and achievement review effectiveness of all comprehensive and strategic plans we'll communicate clearly we'll promote open honest and respectful dialogue among the board staff and Community acknowledge and listen to
045varied input from all stakeholders will protect transparency while protecting necessary confidential matters we'll set expectations and guidelines for individual board member communication we will Advocate earnestly we will promote public education as a keystone of our Commonwealth and engage the community by seeking input building support networks and generating action Will Champion public education by engaging local state and federal officials and finally will govern effectively will establish and adhere to rules and procedures for board operations will develop adopt revise and review policy routinely will'll align board decisions to policy ensuring compliance with the PA school code and other local state and federal laws while remaining focused on the role of governance effectively delegating management tasks to the administration want a question anyone on the question this is my third year on the Scranton School Board third time
046I'm here in the principles of governance and Leadership and I think it's great that we adopt these and we read them but I hope that this year maybe we can follow them as well so I think it's it's time we put the focus back on the district back on the students leave all that petty stuff behind work together be professional and actually abide by what we're approving tonight so roll call I absolutely yeah and you know I I couldn't agree with you more director chesk I I think that's one of the reasons why I reached out to president Holmes to ask that we read these out loud um I think that was important and this is this just came I don't know if you guys checked your mail today but in our psba school leader
047bulletin there's a great note here about a book review of mastering Civility and if you'll indulge me for just a moment it it recommends adding civility to your board's mission statement not just towards students and citizens of your District but to your fellow board members as well and hold one another to those standards in a respectful way research shows it is more beneficial to choose respectfulness over rudeness so something you guys might want to think about I'm GNA pick up a copy roll call Miss Fox yes Miss good Martin yes Miss Merkel yes Mr mcandrew yes Mrs Yanni yes Mr Mr borwick yes Mr Casey yes Mrs chesk yes Mr Holmes yes n affirmative motion to approve it I'm sorry Mr I have a nice little poster here for everyone to sign I have a
048Sharpie we can put it in the frame I have back at my office so if you want to do that before we leave okay that's all thank you than motion to approve the consent agenda second a question roll call Miss G Martin yes M Miss Merkel yes Mr mcandrew yes Mrs Johnny yes Mr borwick yes Mr Casey yes M Mrs chz yes Miss Fox yes Mr Holmes yes night affirmative non-consent agenda items budget nothing for Community skip all the way down to policy Danielle so under policy um we have a a motion to approve first read policy 903 public comment in board meetings second on the question I did have some questions questions about this policy as policy chair now that I had a chance to read it um I'm kind of hoping that since
049this is a first read that maybe some of the suggested edits that I have we could kind of take that into consideration when when we do the second read um look here uh one of the things that I wanted to mention under public comment in the policy where it states um let's see no individual may speak more than once on the same topic um it also mentions that um if there is time remaining in the public comment period do we have any limitations on like as far as like the entire public comment period or is that just like referring to the individual like the time that they have then maybe maybe that's something that um that we could remove with that policy then because we we don't in my time on the board I I
050I was not aware of anything that would limit the the entirety of public Comon so just so that could be clear we could perhaps remove that um the other item it's it's also under public comment in that policy where it states the presiding officer um and the district solicitor the district solicitor part has been added um they both have the authority to like terminate um a speaker like that um terminate their time warn them remove them from the meeting um I understand that I think this was from the the psba policy but perhaps my suggestion is that we remove the district solicitor part and have it remain the presiding officer so that Authority remains with the board um I don't know how my my fellow colleagues feel about that but that's that would be my
051suggestion there with that um the third thing that I have with that policy is to um this is more of a question where it states that District records shall not be uh or excuse me District recordings shall not be the official record of an open board meeting but may be available for Public Access upon request in accordance with the law um and whatnot recordings of board meetings including the public comment portions of the meeting shall be retained and disposed of in accordance with the district's records retention schedule my question with that um several months ago when the board when we discussed about changing the meeting minutes um Jenny you probably remember previously you were doing them verbatim and then after a vote it was changed to be more of like General um points with that
052when when we had that discussion I remember several board members saying that we could go you know any any person could go back and watch the meetings if they had any questions about the the meeting minutes going forward what concerned me about that like this part that's added to the policy is that the the retained and disposed of so does that mean that the the recordings of the board meetings are going to be unavailable after a certain point or am I just totally misunderstanding that meaning because it says uh retained and disposed of in accordance with the district's records retention schedule I I just want to say I I it pro I want to say it means recording if I was to have a tape recorder here but I'm not sure that it would um
053if it would have anything to do with the YouTube Correct so I think it's I think it's clear by the language that it it says that any recording would not be the official copy of the of the minutes of the meeting right so uh Virginia or would prepare those they'd be in written form and they would be approved at an upcoming board meeting correct so director schz yeah just reading this I think you are cor your your assumption would be correct is that any electronic version of it could be if the district so chose to dispose of them um after the required retention schedule period what that is I don't know at this point I'd have to research that further but right if if there's a retention a record retention policy all this is saying
054is that they would be that those recordings would be um handled according to to that that policy that's all it's saying okay maybe well I don't really know what that that policy is um but that if I remember correctly and pardon me I believe the record retention policy is seven years and I believe there is a stipulation that it requires board approval to destroy anything if that's helpful I would like to totally remove that um just because it goes against what we said several months ago um that an individual they would be able to go back and and watch these meetings and not really have any sort of timeline on the amount of time that they could watch them so I mean that that's my personal um opinion on the matter I I don't know
055how everyone else feels but those are the three things that really stuck out to me regarding this policy anyone else Mr you asking yeah the um yes the the number one thing was that under public comment the third statement down where it says no part no individual may speak more so take that line out I think just the the last part part of that sentence where it says and there is time remaining in the public comment period so I think I mean every everything else we pretty much had in the policy already just that that last part that that is and there is time remaining in public comment take that part outre and then a couple paragraphs down where the presiding officer and the district solicitor um so we want the presiding officer yep just
056um just that have has the authority so we'll just go right to that and then that way the presiding officer if they had a question they can defer that to the solicitor and have that option and uh psba does do a lot of brackets where we could check them if we want so I could just uncheck where we have for recording release a public comment okay you want that unchecked unchecked please okay thank you than you Mr jza Mr Holmes yes I believe in order to do this on this resolution I'd like to make a motion that we delete the concerns of director chisik to amend the resolution to take these concerns out the other option the other option would be to uh director Casey I hear what you're saying and um this is first
057read so we could adopt it as is and then make the modified changes for the second read That's believe that's something we have done in the past but it's something for consideration yeah uh director Casey um my my plan with this was to to make those edits on the floor so Mr jza can go back and when they bring the second read to us that'll be in there so then we could approve it right this is not the final it's just the first read so the changes will be reflective in the second read correct okay I just wanted to make sure we're doing everything properly absolutely to accommodate director chisik absolutely thank you question roll call Miss Merkel yes Mr mandra yes Mrs johanni yes Mr borwick yes Mr Casey yes Mrs chesik yes Miss
058Fox yes m g Martin yes Mr Holmes yes n affirmative operations we have a motion to award bids for project number 033 034 West Granton High School Tech and Renovations thanks on the question I would just like to note that we did write the um the motion uh that the award would be pending final approval from the uh division of federal programs from pte related to the allowability of Esser funding I was informed today that our budget revision and our prior approval Capital form were approved so we are we have the green light to use aser funding as we had hoped roll call Mr Mander yes Mrs Yanni yes Mr borwick yes Mr Casey yes Mrs chz yes M fox yes Miss G Martin yes Miss Merkel yes Mr Holmes yes nine affirmative all right
059next up we've got a motion to approve exterior door replacement project uh project number 03300 second on the question just uh as noted in a memo to the Board of Education uh this be allows us to begin the design phase a final budget will be um streamlined modified uh and be brought to you at at the next meeting and as well as with hopefully um some grant funding and some uh identifiable funding sources for the project roll call Mrs Yanni yes Mr borwick yes Mr Casey yes Mrs chesk yes Miss Fox yes Miss G Martin yes Miss Merkel yes Mr mcandrew yes Mr Holmes yes n affirmative right we have a motion to approve the West Grant intermediate weight room floor contract um information regarding the floor was submitted in the weekly packet and administration's
060recommendation is to approve uh the project for an amount not to exceed $55,000 respectfully submitted thank you on the question roll call you want me to yeah all right so previously we had discussed a change order for this uh for this project um but during those conversations we've mentioned that I believe uh Mr Rucker was working with the building level staff as well um through a Cooperative purchasing program called gordian um so it's it's been bid at the state level for us and so we we checks all those boxes in terms of of compliance um this project again uh cooperatively bid by uh by keyone purchasing Network through through gordian um uh it it provides a few different facets to the the area rather than just a standard rubber floor uh again Mr Rucker and
061working conjunction with the staff in the building um we've enhanced some some features uh that I think uh can be used in the physical education process who's doing the installation P Ali enough it's a company called lowbar but it is not the same lowbar who is the GC on the west inter immediate I believe it's um I don't know Mr Rucker maybe is it low bar construction or low bar incorporated or vice versa but it is low barge is not the same general contract that's on the larger renovation project it's the same name the best way I can differentiate them is one has the white trucks one has the brown trucks uh same same company one's Incorporated one might be limited um that who that is who is the approved GC for our area through
062the gordian uh program again this this organization competitively bid through the kpn Keystone purchasing Network gordian Cooperative purchasing and was awarded this contract for this type of service and I do have the final amount for that option too okay uh the final amount would be 63 and you work directly with staff in the building who would be utilizing the space and that was their recommendation yeah whenever whenever we realized that you know we need to put the floor in after the summer abatement plan uh I worked with Mr Dine from Weston intermediate uh he was a great input and we customized and and designed this to fit the curriculum and the needs of the students in the building okay roll call Mr borwick yes Mr Casey yes Mrs chesik yes Mrs Fox yes m g
063Martin yes Miss Merkel yes Mr mcandrew yes Mrs Yanni yes Mr Holmes yes n affirmative okay we have a motion to approve a change order for Robert Morris Elementary School in the amount of $1,633 for the wall covering project respectfully submitted second on the question uh so we discussed this at the work session last week and this amount um is significantly lower than the previous amount uh Pat would you or Mr rck be able to just explain certainly um it's it's a it's significantly lower because it's a significant change so the um uh the previous change order uh would be the installation of porcelain tile throughout all the I believe it porcelain porcelain tile throughout all the Walls Within the first and second floor this would uh this change order would be um removing some
064existing vinyl um wall coverings and the old vinyl wall wall coverings to match the new drywall area it' be finished spackled painted Etc to to make one cohesive uh hallway finish throughout the building okay thank you y what was it what was that original cost it was around 83 or 80 it was it was in the 80s mid 80 so basic we're saving 7,000 he spent about 10 more on the west one correct so overall 60 savings that's good I like it roll call Mr Casey no Mrs chz no Miss Fox yes Miss G Martin yes Miss mer yes Mr mcandrew yes Mrs Johnny yes Mr borwick yes Mr Holmes yes seven affirmative two negative motion passes and motion to approve a change order uh ec003 in the amount of $ 62,3 62 for project
0650 33028 West intermediate intermediate Renovations for costs associated with the installation of one data Jack per classroom to support the PA system system um respectfully submitted second on the question so we we don't have a specific PA contract yet um so this is a preemptive move rather than something that is specific to whatever we might be doing yeah it's as we mentioned in the prior meeting um this would be to run these wires in these data ports um prior to the Finish walls going up uh so that you know there's no disruption or disturbance to any finished product once those sections of the building are complete um you are correct that we do not have a recommended uh PA system contract at the moment but Mr Rucker can confirm that whatever technology is selected this
066type of wiring will be what is necessary to connect them so there but but there are already data Jacks in the classroom it's just the preference to not run wires to whatever system that we have uh negative in the in the spaces that we're looking to run this would be an area between the for example if you look at a classroom between the Whiteboard and a ceiling uh there's no data Jack installed in that and it wasn't captured in initial scope of the project where are the data Jacks if you don't mind uh data Jacks would be spread throughout the room more lower level for easy access there this would be a dedicated for a future PA system upgrade you can't run an Ethernet up the wall you could but with the new construction the
067Aesthetics wouldn't we could but it would just it wouldn't be the best practice it would be easy for somebody to cut that cord and remove access to the PA system and reduce functionality it's best to hide it behind the walls Mr Rucker shouldn't this have been in the original uh design uh this was not captured in original design I can't speak to why um so in other words you don't know why it wasn't right say again I'm sorry sir was a replacement of the PA system initially in the original design of West intermediate uh no because one of the things they were looking to use was the fire reporting system could act as a PA system thank I didn't know um I think since I've been on this board I've been hearing from our faculty
068and even students that um a public communication system within our schools is a number one priority um so to me this is an opportunity for this board to be proactive and as Mr ruer just said this is best practice we're we're just putting up these walls now so it would make sense that we put in these Jacks as long as you're assuring us they're going to work with whatever PA system is deemed best for the district to me this is this is good this is positive we're being proactive we're doing what we need to do so that we can put in that um that that system for everybody we communication has been my top priority since I joined this board um I hear too often from faculty and as I said from students that they
069can't always hear announcements I think this Board needs to make that our priority and I think this is part of that so I'm happy to see that we're being proactive with this if we do this now how like how much installation time would it save once we do get the PA systems uh time whenever we do get the PA system I mean at that point the Jacks will already be in place with the wires ran back to the IDF for closest IDF MDF it it would just be plugging in and and it would get power and start plug in go almost plug and go with some you know configuration on the back end but pretty much plug and go at that point because when I mean when we get these I would like to really
070get them in and turn them on because oh yeah yeah director mcer I'm not sure we can quantify exactly how much time it would saved but it would certainly save time because they'll be they'll be there and ready to go and I did uh just for clarification I did reach out to other vendors and ask you know what would be your average per Jack installation rate and those numbers range from about $900 to $1,200 per installed Jack at 328 ft of wire uh not inclusive of conduit whatever and we're over 60 Jacks so it's in alignment with you know market rate all right so my question is when we do select the system down the line and it needs to be troubleshoot for whatever reason we try to plug and go and it does not
071work who's going to be um qcing the work with the wire in the wall whose responsibility is that going to be on and who's going to financially be responsible if that wall has to be taken up I'd like there to be some checks and balances to make sure go forbid if we do get a system it doesn't work before we start carrying the walls there's some checks and balances there so in a construction project uh typically correct me from wrong they have a warranty on it for one year correct Ethan yes so for the first year if an issue were to occur with that wire it would be on the contractor that installed it beyond that one year mark it would fall into our IT staff to troubleshoot or we'd have to go out to
072a third party uh but for that first year it would be on the contractor to troubleshoot and repair okay thank you thank you you okay let me ask you this this would also be for our emergency notific the PA system uh as I've always said is I am not a tech wizard I have a hard enough time sending emails but some people that I do talk to who are familiar with tech world have told me that for the PA systems you do not want a plugin system and the reason reason why is because a teacher a kid or someone else could come and uh disconnect it um I don't know what to say uh I don't think that we want to look at a uh A system that you need to plug into a jack
073I think it needs to stand on its own it's for that reason I'll be voting no if I guess my question if it doesn't plug into a jack what would be the other option so what this is is all the all of them are powered of Poe which is an Ethernet Jack which would be as as explaining director borwick would be hidden behind the wall and installed directly into the unit and all the power required for that would come through that Ethernet cable so Poe plus p++ it would come from the switch uh so there's no external power source required it comes right from the data Jack would that be that that would then drag that that would slow our ethernet times like if be a drag on the system wouldn't it no no no
074it's got to use dat I'm assuming it uses data uh very minimal it would be like a heartbeat uh very small amount during active use I mean of course that would come up but it would go across the multicast it's just one signal sent out to multiple so what would happen is the signal would go across the network it's set up for multicast so that one signal pushes out with the data it pushes out one time all of the devices see it that are in that group and they fire off simultaneously you're not sending for example if you have a CL build building with 100 speakers you're sending that one one push out so you're sending the 30 megabyte file out each one of those are going to see that 30 and play it they're
075not send in 30 times 100 it's 30 one time I got you um what about like prioritizing I guess the information highway so if there's a PA like if the down goes out but every one is using computers and there's a lot of bandwidth that's taken up can we ensure that the safety side is the priority qos yes okay awesome good to know so I overall I guess we got these Jacks that we have to put in either way they got to go in right correct just do them now and get it over with or do them later correct I guess my concern is that like what I'm hearing tonight like there's no way like it's preemptive but there's no way that we can really test it on the actual system right now since it's
076not in place is that correct we don't have I'm confused with your question are you talking about for the installation of the jacks or the overall system if I can hop in I think I understand your question director chesik um I think what prior to us selecting a PA system vendor we will do the testing of that product prior to bring like the actual Hardware to like to the board for consideration but I think the wiring is is going to be um it's necessary regardless of what vendor we okay so it's going to be compatible with whatever there's not going to be any testing that we would have to do with after we install these with anything until we get to that point yeah I don't think we can test the wiring I mean I'm
077just like dor Casey I'm no wizard either with technology but um yeah yeah so we'll tone the wiring to make sure that it is complete between end to end so it's ready to go okay okay that was just my concern that whatever we're approving that it's that it's going to work with whatever we we choose down the line I made a statement at a uh at the work session and it's sort of part part of what we're talking about now but I could see where we're going down the road with our bandwidth and I I'm starting to get a little nervous that everything is Internet connected and I just in the back of my mind I'm saying you know what there's only so much bandwidth and I asked when last time we had a system
078uh analysis uh of where we stand down with our bandwidth uh to be perfectly honest with you on this I I'm scared that we're overloading the system I don't uh mean to uh say that you guys don't know what you're talking about it's a gut feeling and I'm saying maybe we should wait until uh superintendent uh uh keing comes on board let her analyze the situation because we're it looks like we're going to be spending Millions and millions of dollars on speakers on cameras and I'm just afraid everything is going to be hooked up on the internet people are already telling me now that the um the internet when they go on it when during the day it's slow to me that's a sign that maybe we're overloading the system I I have to disagree
079with the people speaking to you uh we did a quick review internally this was probably last month I said with with my two Network technicians and we looked and on average uh from our pipe being fed through the IU a lot of times that we're experiencing any delays or any outages is not an internal issue it ends up being an issue from our ISP provider uh I will present a flowchart for you guys to understand how how the internet works in the school district uh starting from ISP down to nuser uh and I'll try to make that as as simple and easy to understand as possible but most of the time when whenever you're running into a slow or latency or whatever else it is it's more than likely coming from our ISP we have
080a 10 gig back hall here in the district so we have 10 gigabits running between building to building we have a 10 gig pipe coming from our ISP which is iu8 uh looking at it we average about 3.5 gigabits per second excuse me on average throughout the district that does EV and flow we can Spike up to five or six we can go down as slow as one but on average at leaves us about 6.5 gbits per second going back and reviewing because a comment was made for the cameras how many cameras are we going to run out of bandwidth through this of that the each camera its heartbeat as I was explaining to you Mr Bor is about 50 kilobits per second 50 kilobits spread out into 6.5 gigabits means we can run 136,000
081cameras 130,000 cameras concurrently on our network with just a heartbeat so I don't believe that bandwidth with that would be an issue Mr Rucker can you put the rest of this in a briefing for Friday make sure something's in a packet that explains all this everything you just said so that we all have it in front of us yes sir thank you and there w we you said we're we're putting jacks on the floor already so is are they in there now in the spaces like the balcony yes uh there are Jacks in there uh what we're looking at is putting these into the non constructed areas preemptively and then going back and putting them into the balcony area so this number does not include going back into the balcony yes it does oh it
082does okay yes and um How many Jacks per classroom space that's under construction will there be the ones that are going in the floor currently we're about four Jack we're at about four jacks per classroom except for computer rooms or spaces that require more data Jacks um and there's no way to take the ones that haven't been installed and U utilize one of the four for this system that's not those ones were dedicated for Teacher station and other things in the room um and our our pre-planning phases of the project can you specify what those other things are I I don't know off the top of my head uh teacher laptop uh phone prometheum panel why does a laptop need a an Ethernet C could they could be able to hook into it if needed
083teacher desktop if they so have that we have Wi-Fi correct correct yes sir okay so why would we be hard wiring laptops hard wiring is always best but the option is there and typically when whenever you're running uh a data line down so you'd have a jack on one side of the classroom or a Jack on the other side of the classroom when you run one wire it's just as easy to run to roll call Mrs chz no Miss Fox no Miss G Martin yes Miss Merkel yes Mr mcandrew yes Mrs Yanni yes Mr borwick no Mr Casey no Mr Holmes yes five affirmative four negative motion passes Personnel all right so we are going to have F1 uh a motion to approve the Personnel report as attached all hires are contingent upon all background
084checks and clearances second second sorry sorry on the question I just just had a quick question I just never seen this on a Personnel report um we do uncompensated leave of absences for for sports is that something we do I just want to make sure that's in the right place under L Mr can you assist with this maybe we do although it is rare um we have made that adjustment I say two years ago we did not but we felt it was more appropriate with the uncompensated leaf to put it on the Personnel report so we have it documented sure okay okay thank you sure Mr Wolf sorry about that Tim it's okay is there any way that we could actually go over the appointments and resignations at our work session so that uh in
085between the time of our work session and our board meeting uh we could actually uh do our due diligence uh and correct me if I'm wrong Mr uh John well the only thing is we can't discuss individual situations B well we could do it in executive session can we if it's necessary yeah well all I'm saying is that we have the names because For What It's Worth uh according to school code the school board hires and the school board fires I'm just saying that it gives the members of the board an opportunity to do their due diligence on the people that were appointing that that's um I've never been a rubber stamp and I'm not going to be a rubber stamp and I'd like to know before I walk into a meeting who I'm voting
086for or before the weekend three days I'm just asking as a courtesy that you could send it to us home we know who it is we don't even have to discuss it if there's a problem we could always go in the back room and we could discuss it I'm just saying the courtesy to give us some time to do due diligence because it is our responsibility unders School cold that we hire and we fire I'm not a rubber stamp I never will be and I think this is information that we need May response to that if Mr laugh you're attorney for if you had any objection or we do our best to make uh to add everybody to the work session Personnel reports which is sent the the week prior to that uh so really
087anything that happens I don't want to say anything we do our best to get all of the hires on the work session uh Personnel report if there's any additional within that week we do present it to the um to the board on that Friday prior to that I would s in my opinion if there's a question about a certain candidate that could be maybe something we could bring up on Executive I understand that maybe I'm missing something with my packets and all that but the only time that I ever see the names of the people we're appointing is the Friday before the meeting I'm just saying that if you could even send it with the packet it gives us a little bit more more time to review it yeah we we send it out the
088week before for the it prior to the work session so we send it prior to the work session and then prior to the board meeting it's it's a draft version correct correct yeah I'm sorry draft version right we get a draft personel report but if you see anything or if there's a position or you know if there's something that we can address we'll we'll make every effort to to address that in a timely manner okay I just to make sure that I have proper time to do my due diligence thank you sure roll call Miss Fox yes Miss G Martin yes Miss Merkel yes Mr Mander yes Mrs Yanni yes Mr borwick yes Mr Casey yes Mrs chesk yes Mr Holmes yes n affirmative special education you'd prefer that I read these Mr Casey uh
089yes but before you read them I'd like to continue my thing on the iPads only because it'll only take maybe two minutes what I was going to get at before and this is what we never seem to realize is that if these children have IEPs it could eventually end up in the district uh financially by paying a lawsuit uh matter of fact uh I would like to request the amount of money that we spent last year in lawsuits other than that that's all I have to say and I'd appreciate if you take over actually Jenny has an announcement pardon me Jenny has an announcement before you read there's an addition to the special ed uh settlements there's one more that was sent an additional settlement on this motion yeah there there should be four it
090was inadvertently left off do we have I only see three on what I have here so do you have another number you I do have another number okay it's aw m 3 947 okay thank you agenda item H2 we will have a motion to approve special education settlement agreements following legal review and negotiation settlement Su summaries have previously been provided to the board for review tp250 710 Dr 27953 MR2 42270 and the addition of a w3011 947 second one a question roll call M Martin yes Miss Merkel yes Mr mandra yes Mrs Johnny no Mr borwick yes Mr Casey yes Mrs chesik yes M fox yes Mr Holmes yes eight affirmative one negative motion passes item H3 we will have a motion to approve the Stepping Stones group agreement for autism Behavioral Services through July
09131st 2024 second on a question roll call Miss Merkel yes Mr mcandrew yes Mrs Yanni yes Mr borwick yes Mr Casey yes Mrs chesik yes Miss Fox yes Miss garton yes Mr Holmes yes nine affirmative Pender relations agenda I2 motion to approve settlement of outstanding Alma litigation for the terms provided to the board of education and pending any final amendments by the solicitor second one the question roll call Mr Mander yes Mrs Johnny no Mr borwick yes Mr Casey yes Mrs chesik yes M fox yes m g Martin yes Miss Merkel yes Mr Holmes yes eight affirmative one negative motion passes new business I have two things two questions um my first question um with the district website I was just wondering when it would be updated under the board of directors where um I
092know I sent an email a couple weeks ago about this where the Committees are previously it had the the 2023 committees with former board members um I don't see that it's been updated um the second thing I wanted to ask I know I I had requested that um that Sydney post a Schoolboard meeting notice on on uh social media and um I was hoping that I know like a lot of people had been reaching out to me asking like you know when our meetings what time you know all that stuff I was kind of hoping that maybe we could give a little bit more notice like perhaps post like the Friday before the meeting um the the morning of the meeting and then post a video link the the day after so that way you
093know I I want to see like I want to see this Auditorium packed but like you know for good reason that people want to be here and and and speak to us and and really um participate in what's going on in the district so I I I think you know we kind of have to put it out there really advertise the meetings and it seems like our our social media page is doing really well with everything that's being posted on there so I think this would be a good addition to it certainly we can I'll we will certainly look at the up the website update I apologize for that and I'll work with uh Miss toy to you know get the message out there more frequently as soon as possible okay great thank you thanks
094else okay president's report Mr lafy Mr Deluca and I attended a meeting with the US attorney in Scranton and received a presentation from the town of York on a program that they are using to combat some of the growing um gang issues uh we will be waiting for some leadership and guidance from City Hall but we will keep everyone a breast once additional information becomes available on this Mr do you want to say anything no just to Echo what president Holm said it it was a it was a great meeting with um uh a large group of individuals who have an invested stake in you know the city of Scranton um so again we look forward to having further conversations related to this initiative and again um we'll keep the board informed um for those
095of you who uh saw your packet we did uh share a a handout that the York uh group violence initiative um did uh uh print out for their 2023 results so again we'll continue to keep the lines of communication open regard this matter thank you thank you uh it was an honor for Pat and I to both be able to speak at the Wittier unveiling of the um the playground in wer Elementary um again I know I'm joining a group of people from Scranton for April 16th and 17th at DC uh for a day of lobbying on the hill where we will be advocating for additional resources and funds for the Scranton School District um this is a group being led by numerous people and people who have worked on the Whittier and on the
096John F Kennedy playground so I'm looking forward to participating in that we have created a new committee and we're still working on getting everything circled around it but the fair funding committee per per the point and purpose of this committee is to educate and Advocate to Advocate and educate first and foremost a lot of people always come up to me and they will say things such as well how does fair funding affect me my children are grown this is an opportunity for us to tell people that your taxes have been increased um there's a lot of ways that this affects you so what this group will do is unite educate the community work with uh politicians locally to be a louder voice in Harrisburg um right now it's not our local officials that we have
097to convince they do advocating for us they fight for us constantly maybe I think we need to collectively as a sitting um get behind them and push because they are fighting for us and bringing back as much as they possibly can but again speaking to numerous people in numerous school districts um doesn't seem like anyone else does this we will from what I was told be the first uh probably won't be the last but I think this is extremely important because we need to continue to Advocate even though there's a possibility we will see an increase in our funding it's still not what we should be getting and again I can't stand hear that wait three to five years I spoke with one of the people running for attorney general and asked the question once
098the Supreme Court has made a decision should an action be taken by our legislators their answer was absolutely well there's still delay the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania made this decision last year this time that was unconstitutional and again we're still sitting here waiting for Harrisburg to figure it out uh while we're trying to let them figure it out we are still stripping our programs we're losing programs we're not being able to return certain things things that are required in our school district and apply certain security measures that we need to to our school Fair funding is not something we need to wait on we need to take action we need to push because it is detrimental to our city to our students to the educational to the safety of the people and we need to
099speak loud and clearly it's great when ones and twos these contact local government but again collectively as a group I believe we will be much more effective and once we have started after speaking to several other school districts more will join us um thanks to the invitation from the mayor I was able to participate in a round table with Mr Tony Perez uh he is a senior advisor to the president of the United States and he's also the director of the office of uh integrated government Affairs he is speaking to us about um um arpa funds and how it benefited the community uh and again what they're trying to do as far as possibly you know in the future maybe for more funds to the city to the school district um he was extremely impressed
100with what Scranton school district has been able to do with the limited amount of funds that we have had again it was great to sit down and be able to voice that I appreciate the mayor inviting us uh the mayor is an advocate she is speaking out for us and it was made clear to us that the White House is paying attention to what's going on in Scranton and the Scranton School District so it's good to know that we still have an ally that is paying attention hopefully we'll join in Advocate with us and that's it anybody else all right before we leave make sure everybody stops so we can also sign the poster thank you motion to adjourn