School Board Meeting - 9/19/24

001e e e of Education please stand for the pledge app flag I pledge of lead to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liy and justice for all we have roll call Elizabeth Doberman here Mary Lee Hall here Samantha Hall William Hall here Jeremy here Jennifer here here James here here all right and then uh I need to announce uh we had personnel and policy meeting on Tuesday uh we had an executive session on Personnel matters immediately and special ed immediately prior to this meeting and then on October 8th we have an executive session to interview Architects all right moving on to item 2.01 approval of the September 19th 2024 board agenda I'll entertain a motion to approve the agenda

002as presented so move second is there any discussion any n or exensions hearing none that motion carries moving on to item three 01 uh and I'll go ahead and throw that together 3.02 I'll entertain a motion to approve the minutes for the August 15th board meeting as well as the September 17th uh personnel and policy meeting minutes so moved second Motion in a second any discussion on the minutes any Nas or extensions hearing n that motion carries and we'll move on to 4.01 our student representative report Caleb thank you so next week is homecoming Spirit Week there's some very good spirit days picked out there's going to be the Powderpuff game on the 25th at 6 PM the financial aid night for the high school at 5:30 on the 26th then the pep rally and

003homecoming game on the 27th and the dance will actually be on the 28th at 700 p.m. to 10 p.m. and then tickets are on sale on my school buxs for $10 and available at the door for 15 on October 2nd there's the night of Broadway choir concert and that'll be at 7M also in October on the 5th there's sat testing and the 9th 10th and 11th there's parent teacher conferences October 14th will also be an inservice day and then just some other information we started off the school year strong with lots of assemblies about safety and and all the other class meetings that are just typical at the beginning of the year and fall Sports have been off to a very good start I know soccer is having a very big game against kardale I'm

004sad I'm sitting here not not in the stand supporting and uh there's been positive changes at football games in student Behavior I've been reached out to by teachers saying that they were very impressed so that's a very good feedback to hear from from community members and from teachers and there will also be a ribbon cutting ceremony on November 10th with student groups planning activities there will be musical groups performing a Showcase of Student Art excuse me student artwork and even gourmet food from Mrs delus classes thank you thank you um would you like to go to the stands to okay step out feel free to slip out in any moment get boring you want to do that instead all right option does that go for all of us the day wants to go a privilege

005of the student R um all right uh moving on to 5.01 we have the sasquan high school uh building project video with the 20242 school year underway students at cesan high school are enjoying the newly constructed and renovated spaces in August the renovated auxiliary gym weight room engineering room woodwor shop midle shop and classrooms open to students so we're here in the new renovated engineering lab you can see a a renovated computer lab here in front of you and our our prototyping lab behind uh right next door to the new open air uh Metals lab where they took a wall down between two rooms and now have one giant space Mar is in next door to me in the Wood Lab is Mr barart and he is a renovated space as well some new machines

006new HC system uh ventilation system and a nice uh Stairway to his second floor uh storage area as well uh so doing a lot of great things in our Technology and Engineering Department uh with new Renovations High School this work is a lot more open than what we have and because of that we spread out collaborate with one another Prett New Way room is very interesting I've ever think about it has to be the open design the two-story design you can see the basketball court and all that's going on up with the ellipticals and treadmills which is a very nice design feature also just like the open layout it's not a whole lot of space but it FS with a lot of space throughout the high school our staff and students are creating exciting learning

007experiences and opportunities in their spaces with the new band I love how there are like dozens of cbies for all the in we have for all the percussion instruments and there are like three practice rooms so that when we're in Like Home Room you can come down and get in a room and practice instrum without having to worry about bothering other people in the B one thing I love about our classroom is how we're able to work and advice on what you think you should do cre it all and computer work my favorite part about this is that it's more like an industrial instead of one it's like big there's lot of and no one runs into each and forside we love our new space we have a fully functioning commercial kitchen we have comi

008Ovens that are in use in lots of commercial restaurant kitchens um everything here is top of the line and when our kids are in our culinary classes here at school they're getting gr skills that they can then put use in the workplace as well lots of our students are working right now in part-time jobs in restaurants in kitchens and we have others who are interested in purchasing culinary school and some of these passs become their ire renovation and construction project is expected to be completed by late fall to celebrate this important and historic mstone southern New York County School District Cally invites the community to a ribbon cutting ceremony and open house from 2: to 400 p.m. on November 10th at cesco hanik high school where we look forward to sharing more about the exciting

009things happening in our school for more information about the renovations and construction at cesan high school please visit w www.s ycsd.org construction moving on to uh 5.02 we have our first day of school video [Music] yes [Music] 1 2 3 that was really awesome thank you um and then uh we have 5.03 educational updates by uh Dr Lenard reord thank you president Hegel School Board community members uh just want to say and kind of pigy back on what Caleb was saying we're off to an awesome start to the school year very refreshing and exciting to get back into the classrooms but more importantly getting throughout the district and seeing all the great things that are occurring uh so just to continue with my uh monthly theme uh with safe supportive and collaborative uh regards safety

010you know our schools as Caleb already noted are already conducting safety drills uh throughout the building students have received their training of run hiide fight Etc through their handbook talks with their administrators and I wanted to thank the administrators teachers and staff for everything they doing to make safety a top priority within our district um as far as our required safety training for ACT 55 um all of our staff as I mentioned last month were getting ready to uh but did complete the 1-hour in-person training regarding situation awareness safety drill procedures identifying and Reporting all forms of harassment through our district um our staff are in the process of completing an online suicide and bullying training for their second hour uh that'll be they'll be completed by that in October and next Friday we'll be

011facilitating two sessions one will be an inperson session with all the staff officer Hansen and I will be facilitating that facilitating that based based on um identifying concerning behaviors of students and adults and then we'll have sessions Pro before and after uh there's a menu that our staff had the opportunity to choose from which is basic CPR stop the bleed classroom first aid how to use a fire extinguisher and how to barricade a classroom uh so we really amped it up and provided our teachers with a lot of choice of safety opportunities um also wanted to thank all the parents and Guardians with the implementation of new guidelines at are extracurricular events I shared those last month uh just as a reminder students K8 must be accompanied by an adult 21 years or older book

012bags equipment balls should not be brought into the facilities uh pets are prohibited unless it's a service pet and tobacco products vaping illegal substances alcohol weapons are strictly prohibited on District grounds so just wanted to have a reminder uh to the community as I presented that last week under supportive wanted to thank all the teachers administrators for a great start to the school year um all the students have transitioned very well back to school um by attending the open houses back school nights there's been a lot of positive energy so let's keep that rolling and another huge thank you to the maintenance and custodial staff their time and effort getting our schools ready but not only the upkeep keep of not only what's going on within the buildings now that they're filled and in our

013Sports and athletic fields are just doing an outstanding job and lastly under supportive I want to take the first opportunity because I'm going to steal Dr Bryon Thunder I want to personally congratulate uh Mrs Lewis kindergarten teacher at friendship Elementary and Mr Lewis the engineering teacher at cisano high school have been nominated and selected as a 2024 uh recipients of the Shippensburg University study council's teacher of the year they will both be uh honored with other teacher year nominees uh throughout York and Adams count and Franklin County in November um under the collaborative we're continue to maintain that team approach which is evident in the uh the video we did have Colonel Athens opened up the school year uh with his personal professional experiences about the team approach not only did he shed his message

014with all of our District staff but he did meet with the meet the team night and his message was powerful it was outstanding and students and staff are still talking about that uh Dr Bry and I really pumped up that we've been getting into classrooms uh that really happens to be like the bright part of our day uh getting in the classrooms visiting the students uh tomorrow I get to visit the high school tech ed so I'll get to see Mr Lewis's area Mr Martin as well as the business department so so it's going to be real exciting to get into there uh Caleb stole everything under reminders with the exception of early dismissal on next Friday um the middle school and high school have an orchestra concert on Wednesday October 16th uh I know

015she's not here right now but want to wish Mrs Samantha Hall an early birthday so let's make this a great fall or not choice is yours all right uh moving on on to 6.01 uh public comment um I'll just remind everyone of uh some of the rules for public comment uh please state your name uh Municipality of residents and any group affiliation um each speaker will have five minutes uh direct all your comments the presiding officer me um courteous and proper decorum during a presentation will be required a speaker will be ruled out of order and denied the privilege of speaking for failure to by this requirement speakers will not be permitted to make slanderous remarks about a board member employee or student profane language will be not will will not be tolerated and again

016uh you can be ruled out of order and denied the privilege of continuing to speak uh and no placards of rannard in the meeting room uh also uh please uh keep any um uh auxiliary noise to a minimum so that we can hear the speakers um all right uh Val Dennis good evening my name is Val Dennis and I live in Glenrock um as a teacher with over 35 years experience in public education it's always wonderful to see the new start to the school year and to see all the things that are happening it's important to celebrate that it's important to communicate that and it's also important um to realize that we never reach Perfection so we are constantly looking at things that are under the radar and how we can move forward together um

017last year at a York Southern County School District Dei meeting a gentleman asked why do we even need a diversity committee how do we respond to this question students have shared the following with me here in this school district or in school districts that share a border with our district can I get a pass as in an n-word pass why don't you go into Landscaping because that's what your people do we'll miss you now you can go back across the border where you came from Mr this is Dennis I hear the n-word every day a teacher once said if those black students just acted like the white students things would go better the coach said he didn't hear anything on the field we're called the model minority as Asian people our family was kicked out

018of church Mrs Dennis because the poet Poetry Club photo and the GSA photos were reversed in the yearbook I was sent to conversion camp and therapy last year I hear the r word a lot since my father came out since I came out my father won't speak to me I've tried suicide several times Mrs Dennis and I'll succeed by 18 I don't raise my hand anymore no one calls on me I guess it's because I'm Spanish what are the reasons we need a solid diversity committee when I think of diversity it is simply that each of us have different experiences in life beyond personality and family race religion sexuality our physical and cognitive abilities and gender each affect our experiences in life we are absolutely similar in many ways and we are absolutely different in

019many ways both ideas can exist and we are blessed to live in the United States which is one of the most diverse human places on our planet created to welcome the tired the poor as the Statue of Liberty says we are a nation primarily of the descendants of immigrants indigenous people live here we are a nation of religious freedom where all religions have been welcomed for four centuries each of us in this room are descendants of people from other countries we carry the history and impact and the experiences that our ancestors had human migration has happened since the beginning of time and will continue Forever by sea Land Air we live here in a community with women men poor Rich white indigenous black brown Asian intellectual and physical challenges and abilities our neighbors who are

020part of the lgbtq plus Community it is time for fear of loss or safety to end and for listening and conversation to begin on all signs there have been LGB btq plus people since the beginning of time this group within humanity is not new the F-word is sadly common that is used against our children and teenagers far too often and it came originated from the name of a bundle of sticks that was used to burn people at the stake it's important that we understand and know and think and move forward in today's world the United States is second only to Brazil in the murders of transgender people and what is it that each of us know about individuals or people who are transgender or Jewish Or Hispanic IC or gay unless we ask about their

021experiences here what do people need from this school Community how do we listen how do we respond it is easy to say differences don't matter it's easy to reject someone for being different from a perceived normal we don't have much normal happening at the moment in society and if we look back was there ever an ideal normal there was abuse and addiction in the classic 1950s households there were water hoses breaking bones in the streets of York Pennsylvania marriage and families have serious challenges then and now do we have the courage to listen to others experience and respond to what they need or do we assume we know what other people need Equity simply means that each child or teenager gets what they need to learn we already have this at some level in public

022education with special education and the leveling of classes if we have short students tall students student a wheelchair they each would receive a different bicycle or different physical education equipment that's the meaning of equity yeah teachers use IEPs to expand learning as for conclus inclusion who in our community will be asked to leave directly or by repeated harassment so we don't have to look at inclusion and what that truly means in our community there's a lot of good a lot of good and we are capable of compassion and empathy and because none of us ever reach Perfection as individuals couples families or communities there's always work to do I hope we're willing to start listening better on all sides this is the primary reason that we need a fully functioning courageous and productive and honest

023diversity Equity inclusion committee for our school system thank you Ashley Morrison Ashley Morrison Shrewsberry um I'd like to speak about transparency tonight depending on the context the definition of transparency can vary but in the sense of business governance transparency typically refers to being open and honest and disclosing relevant information to employees Community or the public it's also relevant to note that one of the pillars that the school board Coalition ran on during their campaign was transparency to give credit where credit is due I was glad to see that there was transparency provided in regards to the visitation policy even if I didn't agree with everything outlined in the policy that is why I was deeply concerned to see the lack of honesty and transparency in in regards to retention of the ilc despite being directly

024asked by me other community members fellow school school board members and the previous student representative on why on specifically why the ls ilc was being retained the question was either dodged or when pushed a vague answer was provided forward to about a month ago when the syc conservative pack that supported the Coalition during their campaign s sent out a newsletter stating the f quote many of you might be aware that on May 16th our conservative School Board directors voted 7 to2 to retain the independence Law Center ilc the legal extension of the nonprofit Pennsylvania Family Institute this was done a ably to receive guidance on drafting policies that prevent biological males from competing in girl Sports there's another line in the paragraph that I'm not going to read because it's a disparaging remark towards the

025two um or numbers that voted against the [Music] measure so end quote let me repeat that to receive guidance on drafting policies to prevent biological males from competing in girl Sports this seems like a confident and clear statement if this is true why wasn't this answer provided to the specific and clear questions asked during the previous board meetings giving the benefit of the doubt that the answer was not fully realized in the May or June meetings but later after talking to the ilc why wasn't this information provided to the public in the August board meeting which was just one week before the newsletter was issued was this information relayed from sitting board members to the pack and if so why would a select population of constituents who subscrib to the newsletter be provided information versus

026the community as a whole as a reminder the newsletter was sent about a month before the policy and Personnel policy agenda was published from this past Tuesday while we have not been provided the details of the policies mentioned during the personnel and policy meeting it took place on Tuesday it appears that two policies were drafted by the LLC That Couldn't impact our lgbtq students one is entitled sex based distinction and Athletics and the second one is entitled Student Records name sex and gender identity during the personnel and policy meeting it was indicated that both of these policies have drafts from our solicitor and the ilc while I understand that only one can be passed in the name of transparency will the board share with the public the differences between these versions based on the discussion

027during the Tuesday meeting it seems that the board is just moving forward with reading and voting on the ilc versions of these policies so what is the reason that the solicitor version can't be used also is the board planning on using the ilc for additional policies besides the two um that have been revealed I'm looking forward to the first readings of these policies so I can better understand the details and possible impacts to our students uh Catherine RPO Steph muser sorry um it's not anything incendiary vulgar or inappropriate it's to illustrate a no placards or Banners are allowed it's not a placard or a banner it's a picture from Facebook to illustrate a point um not here to argue to show it then it would be a sure I'm it's going to be talking about

028a meeting that the board president attended didn't share with the public ma'am i' respectfully ask you abide by the announced rules the president shared ear meeting no thank you I'm Steph muser I live in candoris Township I'd like to begin my public comment tonight by addressing um some comments I heard from the June school board meeting I listen to emotional and heartfelt public comment comment from other community members imploring the school board to protect our girls I don't doubt that those individuals truly feel that what is right that is what is right to do but I would assert that facts don't care about the feelings they have on these policy decisions and here are some facts that the community needs to hear about the policies drafted by the independence Law Center as it relates to

029school records and athletic policy unfortunately I can't speak to the specifics of the text of the policy because the board won't support uh won't Supply that until Monday so I'll speak more broadly based on the policy that has been drafted by ilc for other York and Adams County school districts first the board is not approaching this objectively your minds were made up before hearing all the legal Arguments for and against this sort of policy I have here and was not allowed to show a photo of the board president speaking at a PA economic growth pack event in August of 2023 before he was ever elected to the school board speaking with him at this event was Jeremy SEK of the ilc at a prior school board meeting when our student representative asked why the board

030wanted to retain ilc the board president responded that he wanted to hear their thoughts on athletic policy but what was more telling is what you did not disclose to the public your prior connections to ilc second again these policies VI violate state law the Pennsylvania human relations act prohibits discrimination in our schools on the basis of gender identity or sexual orientation now I know that the first argument will be that the preliminary decision in the Kansas versus Department of Education case should factor in decision making this case relates to the expansion of Title 9 protections for students but the fact remains that regardless of the out come in the Kansas case Pennsylvania law stands and the schools that pass the sort of policies ilc proposes will be held liable for discrimination under the law and

031furthermore it is not the role of a school board to rewrite PA state law it's to make policies in accordance with law regardless of how you feel about transgender rights PA Law is clear and you have no basis for making policy changes because there have been no changes to state law finally I'd like to talk about the case law in Pennsylvania that supports PA human relations act you won't find mention of Boyertown versus do case on the isc's website and it was also absent from the recent email the syc pack shared with its supporters here's what the ilc and the school board don't want you to know Randall Wanger and Jeremy Seck of the ilc lost this case alongside their buddies at Alliance defending Freedom keep that name in your mind they're yet another nationally

032designated hate group group that our board is align with through the ilc but the Crux of the decision in the Boyertown versus do case is this the ilc helped a group of parents to the Boyertown School District for accommodating a transgender students use of school locker rooms it cost the school hundreds of thousands of dollars to fight but they ultimately won the case going all the way to the third Circuit Court of Appeals when the decision was appealed to the US Supreme Court they refused to take up the case in the decision the third circuit f found that there was no privacy violation in having transgender students share facilities with cisgender students in essence the parents of the cisgender students couldn't demonstrate harm under the law again I realize a likely strategy here is to

033bring a similar case before what is considered a more sympathetic US Supreme Court however I'd like to say this in a decision for this just this June the ic's Buddies Alliance defending Freedom lost FDA versus Alliance for ocratic medicine the sympathetic US Supreme Court interpreted the law to state that the alliance for hypocracy to bring a case sounds similar to the boyerstown versus doe decision doesn't it are we really supposed to offer our school district up as a guinea pig for retrying a case the ilc already lost I ask the community and our board should we really be passing policy that is in a legal gray area at best and at worse could subject us to C costly litigation does this policy truly protect our girls if all school districts in the state don't in

034turn adopt the same policy this seems like a lot of risk for practically no benefit I urge the board to take on additional advice before enacting this policy I asked for a thorough independent review of this policy by our board solicitor with findings made public I'd also like to hear presentations from both sides of this policy argument your and educ your time is expired thank you all right I have Mike and uh I okay Chris okay hey I'm Mike uh Glenrock I am actually here uh on the recommendation of a number of police and others to kind of reach out to you guys without I complained uh I've been trying to get a thir of you guys for a while and been blocked by Robert Bryson and if he's here there was a guy Lenn

035uh uh so I've been having a heck of time my daughter uh lyanna she goes when she was going to Friendship she started two years ago and it has been a nightmare with them uh we're in the middle of a really nasty custy battle over her and it turns out uh Dr wein Miller the princi um sir I'm gonna ask if you could not name staff so the principal of friendship had been sending emails to my ex uh that Aid her in a custody in like in the custody dispute uh I mean they've been entered into evidence like it's a whole thing uh they've been feeding her a lot of just information um when I brought it up to so I'm not supposed to mention names of okay so when I brought it up to

036your superintendent then um the first year he seemed to take care of stuff uh there was an ongoing thing where they wouldn't answer any questions directly to me um and it seemed like he had shut that down it took four months roughly from like November to it was like March or something like that so um just to get an answer then the next year the superintendent stopped really responding to anything and it was just it's just been a nightmare so I've been trying to email all of them for many months now to get a complaint going to you guys and just been blocked left and right um so I wanted to kind of reach out to you see if we can resolve this thing um oh and the other thing I mean uh I was

037originally told when we started in uh Southern that the school didn't get involved with custody stuff why the principle of friendship has she's even on their witness list and she's been I mean it's just been a nightmare um and even I mean uh I guess the last thing was uh I know I'm jumping around but I think a lot of trouble started with the principal when and she had made an offer to me to I was having trouble CU I'm stay-at home dad so I had to get all the girls off the bus and everything and when she started going when lyanna started going to Southern we were in Red Line uh there was like a five minute 10-minute discrepancy where I couldn't make it from one place to the other to get our oldest

038off the bus and when we Miller had offered okay well I'll let you pick up 15 minutes ahead of time and then I'll just foro whatever you know like kind of write off the attendance issues and everything and when I asked her to send me an email about it she refused and that's when the shading in this really started uh when I emailed like I believe in teamwork I believe in working together so when you know I emailed everyone together say hey this is what uh the principal said she you know didn't want to put us in the email and all of a sudden it blows up to this whole big meeting the principal start shutting down communication teachers don't respond anymore it's just been a mess and then leading all the way up to

039now so I want to see if I can get this thing stopped before as to go further I was hoping a complaint to you guys might be able to resolve this if not I mean the way that I'm being instructed with Department of Ed lawsuit stuff like that not anything I want to really focus back on my projects I'm a big part of various Community groups over back in Redline I would really like to get back to that kind of work we want to be continu with our fundraisers or Library domestic violence you don't want to be dealing with this it shouldn't happen so I was kind of hoping you guys might be able to help me so I don't know what the whole thing from here is or whatever we we we'll take your

040comment under advisement and then we can we can follow up later um we can't we probably can't resolve anything right now probably not but um yeah is there like a formal process or anything like that that um get going respond there is a formal process I believe that formal process was shared with you and Dr Robert's going to meet with you right now to set up a time to sit down and discuss it okay it wasn't by the way I've been scanning through the emails but and requesting the emails that were supposedly sent that never arrived so we'll set up a meeting to to to discuss sounds like we're getting through something that's awesome okay well thank you guys I appreciate it is len here or yes sir yeah thank you appreciate it all right

041Gracie putam hi uh my name is Gracie Pam I'm an alumnus of sycsd I graduated class 2015 I now live in New York City when I was a student at you do have to be a resident of the district uh in order to make public comment that's not stated anywhere on the policy you have online it is um so let me find it so you so it's implied in number four um in that you're your to preface your comments with an announcement of your name and municipality but Mr litz the sunshine act allows rep public comma by taxpayers and residents so they policy historically unec has been that we allow taxpayers and residents to make public thank you very much um Andy par good evening Andy par I reside in Shrewsberry Washington once said I

042hope I shall possess firmness and virtue enough to maintain what I consider the most enviable of all titles the character of an honest man honesty as we well know is much more than simply not telling lies but depicted through a multitude of actions and decisions which ultimately prove foundational to the threads of our society in the form of trust considering both recent and not so recent proceedings I'd like to share a story one evening following a knock at my door I had a brief but positive conversation with our current board president who was vying for his support and votes to obtain his current position his platform was built on full transparency for the constituents and placing focus on issues immediately affecting students both of which I was reassured would occur if his election bid were

043successful on Tuesday I had the opportunity to attend a policy committee meeting where the proposed policies were not only unavailable to the public for review but the discussion was often so cryptic and specific the only way you could understand their context was to have the policy in front of you one board member did remark that the specific policies authored by the ilc could be found in other districts as the precedent for their adoption was being set it's nice to see you've traded rubber stamping for printing presses and don't worry no one sees unified action across school districts as advancing a bigger agenda at one point the board president remarked that he anticipated the majority of the group would opt for the ic's policies over our own solicitors which was met with great Curiosity on how

044he had the Insight on the position of other board members without a prior meeting eventually we were all reassured that that had not been discussed outside of the present Gathering and I must say it is kind of far-fetched to think you would talk to your wife at home the district policy on guest speakers was also up for discussion and our board board president was calling for the removal of the word any from a single statement identifying which ideologies were eligible for topics for guest speakers I truly believe it is significantly less open-ended now while you all were busy playing editor reverting a graphic and giving yourselves access to these school buildings fifth and sixth grades at our elementary schools have become the new freshman year it is essentially a roast that you would find on

045comedy Central children that I know have been called autistic as an insult they've been called they've been throwing every word in the book at them and yet here we are arguing over whether boys get to play with girls on the field hockey field if you can go to sleep at night knowing that a child came home crying and you left something on the table you should recuse yourself from your position right now thank you you all right moving on to item 6.02 uh board discussion of public comment uh anyone have any discussion with any of the public comment I do um I just wanted to clarify that no one sitting here at the table writes the newsletter for the syc Act and the one that you were talking about specifically though it does apply to

046every other one often times I don't even know who writes it and what it's going to contain and I know that that's probably something that you might not want to believe or believe and and that's fine we can all have our differences of opinion but I'm telling you the truth no no um I would uh mention that the uh event that I was at that uh Jeremy sech spoke at I had never met him before and we did not speak together uh he simply spoke at the same event I did and that was the first time I met him in my life and I had no interaction with I don't remember having any inter interaction with him at that event it is possible I introduced myself um and then the next interaction I had with

047him was when we were considering retaining them um so I would like to make the comment possible so um we've talked a lot about uh transparency this evening and I would like to make it abundantly clear that prior to this board M no policies would have been presented to the public until after they had been approved and this board in the name of transparency has changed that so that after the first first reading before it is voted on it will be released to the public for the public to see it and then have comment on it I would also like to say that that process has already been played out in policy 012 which was mentioned this evening and many accommodations and changes were made to policy 012 through the process from public comment from

048working with administrators and others to bring that policy to its fruition so I would say that the task of this board having the desire and I would say on myself the pledge to be more transparent is happening and will continue to happen as we go forward thank you Mr yes thank you any other response to public comment all right moving on to item seven the uh consent agenda I will entertain a motion to approve the consent agenda as presented so moved I I heard a motion second okay um any discussion any n or exensions hearing none that motion carries which brings us to item 8 committee report uh education and I will turn it over to Mrs hle all righty so under education it is gloriously sparse this month um but that doesn't mean that

049amazing things aren't happening and so we're only going to actually have one action item and that's towards the end but 8.01 quick data for high reliability schools HRS level one um we traditionally would give that back to Dr rert but he is indisposed at the time so I say that we should probably go ahead and move eight all of them are literally Dr rer except for one uh that's a good point um you want to maybe come back to let's go to item nine and come back to sounds great to eight um yeah I notic it didn't come back yet um all right uh finance and budget uh Mr Treasurer thank you president hle so 9.01 Financial reports this is the rolled up version of our treasurers report tax collection report budget status report and

050the cafeteria report for the month of August um just a few numbers to touch on as I normally do and I'll try to read these without skipping any numbers um for the general fund concentration account beginning of the month we were at 5,832 35442 we ended the month with a balance of 9,169 8681 the investment accounts likewise uh started the month at 30, 364,000 44352 and ended the month with a balance of 25471 uh the rest of the reports are there for your perusal next up 9.02 review of bills for payment uh they are listed there for your review I would entertain a motion to approve the bills for payment as presented second second too all right thank you uh any questions on this any Nays or abstentions hearing none motion passes 9.03 exonerations and

051refunds we do have a few of these this month um they are like to make a motion to approve the exonerations and refunds as presented so moved second you're ahead of me uh any questions is there anything we want to say about these Mrs Green no they're they're PR um tax man man okay okay um there no other questions any names or abstentions hearing none motion passes 9.04 back to you Mrs Green this is a uh the state budget and District budget update when it didn't Escape we're coming back to education you just keep going good evening everyone um as you know last month we started with a our first state budget update I'm going to continue that this evening as we learn more information um in this year's budget um so this is a

052recap of uh the major subsidy areas for the district um as we talked about last month um we get an additional 748 $8,000 above what was budgeted um and we're going to Zone in on two areas this evening um special education funding and ready to learn block grant uh so there have been several webinars that gives us more information on these areas we're going to start with the ready tolearn block grant and the adequacy supplement um it's based on our share of $494 million um so it looks at um the adequate amount of money um that a district should spend based on the the adequacy um supplement is $1,120 um and that's based upon your expenditure data from 2122 um as we talked last month about student weighted counts um for each of these different

053subsidies um they're using um different metric uh different calculations uh so this particular one adds special education student counts into it so the count for southern is 3,991 students I wanted to point that out because want you to think like last month I told you it was this number of students um and so they're each going to be different um so this calculation drives an ad adequacy gap for our district of about $4.8 million um about 4.7 billion for the state so the one thing I don't want to get into too many numbers but the one thing it requires when they look at the adequacy in add in addition to um being under that $1 4,120 um also has to be a level of local effort so we are above the required uh level of

054local effort at a 1.59% so this chart just quickly shows what the average um in York County is about 12764 we're right in the average at 12,932 so very close to the average for York County so we talked about last month we weren't getting a lot of basic education funding because of our um high medium household income um and some of the other factors um in this case because we are not spending um to the level that um is in the adequacy grant or the adequacy calculation um we are eligible for quite a bit of funding so this ready to learn block grant use um is to establish maintain or expand programs so each of these subsidies are going to have different requirements on how you can use them um this one does allow you

055to maintain current programs um so that's very important you can see on the slide there's many options available um so what we're looking towards is maybe going with Career and Technical education programs that we already have and maintaining class size or class size reduction this grant is not open yet so we don't have um the Grant application or anything for it um but this is what we're learning through some of the webinars also wanted to point out with ready to learn block grant um we like to see money going into basic education subsidy because it tends to um be more stable um so ready to learn block grant um was previously accountability block grant but you can see on the slide um years ago we got about 405 to 438,000 it dropped dramatically to 159,000

056and now we're about 390,000 so as we put more money into this it does make me a little more nervous uh about the continuity of this particular funding source um so if you take our base of about 386,000 add our adequacy supplement of 520,000 we're over a little over $900,000 um and so this is about one nth of our adequacy Gap so you say well how'd they come up with n one nth that's how much funding they had they did a calculation and so there's no magic to the one nth so we are hearing that it should continue um but of course it would have to be voted on each year so as I said it is not open yet another thing that's important to point out this funding is for the 2425 school year

057so um some each of these different um subsidies may be for different different um time period so want to point out it is to be used in this year uh the other thing that's important is that to accept this fundings districts must approve the accelerated budget optout resolution for the 2526 school year um and stay within the tax rate of the PVE index we don't know what the index is yet and for most years and probably I think everyone that I've been here um we've stayed within the index but I did want to point that out that is a requirement to accept the funding I'm going to move on to special education funding um there's a funding formula that was put in place in 1415 with a base year of 201314 if you remember back

058to last month they changed the base for um basic education funding um they have not changed the base for special education funding it is staying the same 13 14 school year um and we did get about a 7.7% um increase in this area so we have our base um which is unchanged of about 1.6 million and money that's running through the formula for us from 1415 is about $836,000 why that's important is because um the base is is stable and then all of the money running through the formula is based upon the number of students and your needs so that can change it can go up it can go down um but the base does stay the same so we do have quite a bit of money running through the actual formula at this time

059um special education is based upon um student weighted counts so there's different categories of students based upon their different levels of need um from category 1 to Category 3 um as we talk about subsidies that have um weights in them um the first one being the adequacy supplement it does use the special education weights is listed here so one of the other things to point out um Statewide uh state and federal funding for special education is about 26 and a half percent we are fortunate um in the district that we are between 35 and 37% of what we need for special education comes from state and federal funding um there there was probably a 10year period where um special education funding did not change at all so it is good to see that we are

060getting increases in that area so now I'll move on to the safety grant funding um we're getting about 155,000 and that is combined for physical and mental health safety um for this year uh so if you remember um these were separate grants and they were equal two years ago last year they were separate grants with a very small amount for physical safety and a larger amount for mental health this year now we've combined them together into one Grant um to be used uh the application is due September 26th uh for the 24mon period ending June 30th 2026 so that's why I'm putting these dates in here this one we can use for our 2526 budget we are currently using the Grant from last year for the 2425 budget because they're 24mon grants um so it's

061very helpful that we have this because um we don't have to react right now and spend it by the end of this year we can use it for Budget planning for the next year this one does have a n you cannot supplant which means you have to have use it either for a new program or a program already funded with this grant U funding amount so um it does limit what we can use it for so our recommendation um for this and it's on the agenda for approval this evening is that we use it for our current um current like use it like we're using for our current mental health Grant funds for this year um for a social worker position and half of a psychologist position so again I want to be clear these

062two positions um are in place and what we're using the grant for this year um so if we would choose not to use the grant for it next year we would have to find that money elsewhere or not have the positions um so we are recommending that that would be uh the most streamlined approach especially since the timing is very quick to turn this around so I don't know Dr rert if you want to speak um about those two positions a little bit yes at this time uh as Mrs Green shared uh the one position is uh funded by funding one of our social workers we do currently have three within our district uh that are providing uh support to our students uh we do have five buildings but we have three social workers just

063so you know how they're split up we have one dedicated to the high school um we have one that is uh sharing time splitting time between the Middle School and Shrewsbury Elementary and then the third is splitting uh time between U friendship Elementary and Southern Elementary uh so we're really excited that we'll continue to be able to provide Mental Health Services that our students need and then regarding the psychologist uh just like social workers uh we do have three within our district and same thing they are split and shared between the buildings uh based on uh the uh the case load the evaluations that are being utilized um and just so you're aware you know our our school psychologists they're also part of our threat assessment teams so they have multi- roles because you know

064looking at you know the specific needs as our students are presenting day in and day out and then also with our social workers there's a lot of involvement that they're involved with you know in supporting not only students that you're working with but the health and safety of our students within the district thank you and then finally next month update we're going to take a look at what the Act One index is and budget timeline because we'll be starting um that whole process again and then we'll also look at the 2324 results as the audit will almost be completed that time thank you Mrs Green okay next item up 9.05 uh we're taking a look at GaGa ball pits for Shrewsberry Elementary I'd like to make a motion to approve a quote from coach Cliff's

065gaga gaga ball pits LLC for the purchase of a Gaga pit for Shrewsberry Elementary at a cost of $688 to be reimbursed by Shrewsberry Elementary PTO I have a second second any discussion on this I'd like you to say that sentence all over again Gaga pits LC got it all right my children are super fond of this and I'm really happy for the kids to be able to have this opportunity um which than to the PTO yes yes thanks to the PTO um do all of our buildings like the elementaries do all three have GaGa ball at this point Point um the Friendship Elementary PTO has um did a separate a similar donation a couple years ago um so it' be that point we only have friendship until this one all right so that's a

066challenge to Southern's uh Southern elentary PTO um my question on this real quick is the installation of the GaGa ball pit is not part of the estimate here there's really I mean it really my understanding from when we had it at friendship is it really sits on top of the pavement so the one thing that when we have any of these kind of donations and we'll have operations look at work with the principal to decide where the most appropriate place for it to be okay and when it's put together a lot of times the PTO helps put it together but our folks make sure it's safe and put together correctly and all those things okay great all right thank you um any other questions on this okay uh any Nays or abstentions to a GaGa

067ball pit hearing none motion passes um Dr reer when it's set up challenge yes all right um 9.06 I'm going to make a motion to approve submitting the fiscal year 2024 25 school safety Grant application totaling $4,725 9.07 I'd like to make a motion to approve the participation agreement with phaa and the PA student teacher support program for the 2024 2025 award Year may I have a second second um any discussion on this is there anything we wanted to highlight on this Mrs Green so basically um with the new program to get money to uh student teachers we need to have an agreement with theia um because the money comes to the school district where the um student teacher is working um and then we distribute it that way so really we're a pass through

068for the money so in order for that to happen we would need to have this agreement okay thank you any other questions on this any Nays or abstentions hearing none motion passes 9.08 this will be a long one I'm going to make a motion to approve a donation of a a German cnc1 router from Mr Edward McCarthy and the cost associated with pickup of the machine and installing electric to the machine the donation will be used by the susano high school for the time it deems appropriate and will then be disposed of by the district as it sees fit may I have a second second any questions on this any NS or exensions hearing none motion passes uh 9.09 other items at business I have none U return it to you Dr H or Mr

069hle all right we will uh now revert to item eight now that we have Dr refer with us uh so 8.01 uh Mrs senle if I could just quickly interject in in the middle there I was informed Mr key that the Warriors are up two Z at halftime so for those of you who are Here Wanting you know nervous anticipation I thought I might put that out there so sorry thank you thank you for allowing me to embellish and no Warriors before we before we continue with education to to to add to what uh director Bill Hall said um in the interest of transparency and I do understand that right now tensions are are high I I just wanted to point out that when board director Hall over there wrote to him it was the

070score that's everything is public you're allowed to know that we're not passing notes so I just wanted everybody to know everything's on the up and UPS all right so for 8.01 we have Dr refer here to tell us about the quick data for high reliability schools HRS level one thank you Mrs heel uh board directors uh what was provided to you uh regarding uh level one uh HRS is 1.4 uh so specifically it's looking at how teacher teams and collab collaborative groups work together toward common issues regarding curriculum assessment instruction and student achievement so you'll take a look there'll be specific um items specific schedules uh specific procedures and protocols that each of the schools have accomplished since the beginning of the school year until now um so in light of our goal of providing

071a specific aspect of level one uh this is our second piece with that focusing in on the teacher teams and collaborative groups um for your review all right and so then we go to 8.02 which is accessing curriculum on the district website back to you Dr rert so uh we spoke about this previously uh to the school board about how to access our curriculum uh so we wanted to show the public how to access our current curriculum that is um on our website now please keep in mind we are going to be in transition from one website to another um so as we continue to approve our curriculum apps these will continue to be updated so on the uh at at the very top as we go across there's a a drop- down curriculum and

072then this first one down there is sycsd curriculum so we wanted to make it very easy uh for the community to really take a look at where this new curriculum and what it's going to look like and then over on the right there there is a blue hyperlink that says sycsd curriculum so once that gets clicked on that is what our new new page will be looking like and what's currently in there are all approved updated Maps so Kad if you can go to the English uh language arts please in upper left so someone from the community may look and say well Dr rer we only have 3rd 9th 10th 11th and 12th grade up there we do have those are ones that have been approved by the board and updated and revised so we

073put those Curriculum maps up uh Mrs hankle um myself and Dr Hughes will be going through a lot of curriculum apps through the remainder of the year so that we will have all of our updated Curriculum maps in uh this in this format so as we go through the year those Curriculum maps will be updated um and available for the public and as you take a look through there's uh mathematics you know family consumer Science World languages businesses Etc uh we just wanted to show the community that if you want to see uh currently what our approved curricular maps are this was the quickest way to get to see them thank you for that explanation all right that brings us to 8.03 which is the agreement with York Adams Academy this is the only actionable

074item we have in education and uh do you want to explain this one Dr rert yes thank you Mrs hankle the York Adams Academy is an opportunity for our students that are 17 to 18 years old have a minimum of 10 completed credits and maybe on the verge of dropping out from school and this is an opportunity for us to provide our high school to provide students the opportunity currently we're looking at one you know uh we have one seat that we're proposing at this time for that one student to go to this program and be able to develop the education be able to complete courses um it's thre hour inperson uh three three hours of in-person sessions uh that they would go to and would give them opportunity for credit recovery so that they

075can earn a diploma um so when we take a look at our graduation rates um I I would have to put Dr sterer on the spot but I believe we're in the high n we're in the high 90s this would give us another opportunity for those students that may decide well school is not right for me uh we're working with uh the school counselors the administrators uh at the high school to determine uh the student or students at some point that would be eligible for this program because it gives us another safety net that could provide those students an opportunity to earn that diploma and then go out into the workforce trade school or whatever they may be so this is a great opportunity as yet like I said another safety net an opportunity for

076our students that might decide well I may not want to continue high school but here's an opportunity that we can provide them an opportunity to get that diploma thank you for that right I move to approve an agreement with York Adams Academy to purchase one seat with the approval to add four additional seats throughout the year as determined by student means may I have a second please second uh open up to discussion does anybody have anything to add or questions I do have something if nobody else does I just wanted to reiterate and actually Dr re reard if you can handle uh this question for me this is something that would be required we are responsible for students and something that pte is telling us we have to do is that correct it really I

077I think Dr rard uh when he indicated the safety net it really is a safety net meaning right now um a student that would find them in this in this situation I've got 12 credits to go there's no way I can do this under the current system um and we have students that potentially look at an online cyber school or something of that where they can accelerate their learning this is another option that's not online it's in person um so really it's just more flexibility that they can pull this off uh if they set their mind to it so not every student fits this mold uh that has that number of credits but I think uh in talking with uh Dr sterer we feel like we might have a handful um and another component to

078it is there's actually a night component they can choose a three hours at night so they could do a full-time job and then uh do the three-hour night school and work their way towards graduation and vice versa they could or do morning and they could do morning and then work a second shift to CH but would they if they're short those 10 to 12 however many credits do they still have to earn those credits yes so it's not just okay well your's three hours whatever no there's course there's the curriculum that they would go through to complete those courses earn those credits like an intensive it's it's in yeah it's accelerated and they also have the ability to test out so if they take the final assessment and they can test out of it they

079earn the credit for it um so it's really not seat time um it's what you know and can do and I saw in the comments that they can then come back and graduate with their peers M great this a wonderful opportunity I I think the last piece just a thank you to York Adams account we're one of the few school districts that have not participated um and so in the negotiation I said I typically a program like this or an all dead setting you have to buy seats so that they can maintain the programming whether you have the CH you have the children to fill it or not now you've got to upfront by the seats and so part of it was for us to get involved I'd like one seat with the ability to

080to move forward if we have that ability and that's and there they're they're able to do that to get us on board and try the programming out to highlight again oh sorry guys are we paying for the seed un if we don't send anybody there we would pay the we would pay the one seat um on the flip side if we were to have a student that needs six credits and prefers to do this and we're able to accommodate they might be done in four months we can then fill that same seat with potentially another student so the seats the amount of time not necessarily per student it's not yeah that's cool okay and it's it's 5,650 per seat per spot that's incredible right any more discussion all righty any ma or OBS that motion

081carries that brings us to 8.04 which is going to be a discussion of the revision to the agreement for participation in extracurricular activities this is just a discussion it's not actionable Dr rer can you explain yes I'm actually going to call one two colleagues up to the uh Podium I'll just seeing who they if they're going to point at each other uh Mr Keeny our athletic director and Dr Stern our high school principal uh we have worked together on taking a look at the the agreement for participation extracurricular activities and determining you know what it currently is as of today um but taking a look at the modifications and recommendations of making changes regarding uh we as I mentioned at in a previous board meeting uh we had looked at a a diversionary program for

082students using tobacco and uh utilizing that as a way uh to hopefully cease the use of tobacco tobacco use uh and as we took a look at the extracurricular activities we wanted to take specific look at that component also because the way it's currently written is any violations of tobacco drugs alcohol weapon all have the same consequence whereas if we look at our student handbook tobacco would have one consequence but then drugs alcohol weapons would have uh something greater so uh I'm going to thank them now and then I'll thank them later but with Mr Keeny and Dr sterer really put their heads together uh spoke with you know other athletic directors and administrators throughout our County uh to see what they're utilizing for their uh their contract so tonight would be having them share

083what the uh Rec proposed changes would be for discussion and then uh potentially have this you know as an action item voted on in October that we would put this into action um in November for the winter sports okay thank you Dr rert good evening members of the board um our extracurricular agreement has been part of our program for uh over 20 years um the proposed revisions represent uh updates to reflect not only Trends across the yaiaa schools but also to recognize the value of Athletics and encouraging academic performance and the powerful opportunities for mentorship from our coaches uh the two key areas of recommended changes are with regard to our 247 policy that's existing in there it's a policy that's honestly difficult to enforce equitably for all students uh and and our goal is

084to shift that Focus onto behaviors in school and at school sponsored events the second area as Dr rer had referenced is in uh our response previously uh tobacco nicotine Controlled Substances alcohol were all lumped into one category and came with a 60-day suspension the enforcement of that really limited the ability for some of those supportive resources that Athletics can provide uh to get a student I'm sorry extracurricular activities because it does extend beyond Athletics uh really limited the ability of the reinforcing power of those to help support a student who's who made a poor choice uh so our proposal would be to remove would be to modify the 60-day suspension for nicotine tobacco and nicotine delivery products to a two-tiered approach first fence would be 14 calendar days two weeks of suspension from the sport

085uh providing an opportunity for the student to uh learn from their behaviors and work through some of those educational programs the second and subsequent offenses for nicotine tobacco and nicotine delivery products would be a a stronger 30-day 30 calendar day suspension from participation in extracurriculars Controlled Substances drugs and alcohol would maintain that same existing 60 calendar day suspension uh due to the nature the the elevated nature of those substances Mr ke you want to sh well I one thing I wanted to share because um in kind of reinforcing definitely with the tobacco and U nicotine delivery products you know there needs to be we there needs to be a learning component to what they did right and and when we look at Athletics I mean look back at your own high school careers whether you're

086in Music Theater um or in sports uh the power that some of these advisers and coaches have to have a positive impact on your life the more you're around them the better right and so when kids do make poor decisions it's exponentially important for them to have a learning component tied with it and keeping them involved with with that mentor and that support system we felt was very powerful um so that's that's another reason for the tiered approach um because at the end of the day you know the goal of of what they're doing out there is to supplement what what's happening in the classroom so we want to try to keep them in a path that's going to lead them to success any questions for Dr sterer or Mr Keeny well I I have

087one um how does this change in in in application work with the first offense policy that that we have for tobacco how would work uh Mr Hall is with the first offense you know it'll be two- tiered if you recall from our last meeting they could they would be they could either receive a suspension First Defense or Saturday school and complete that diversionary program what would then include with this would be for the First Defense a 14-day calendar day suspension from the sport under our current as we're looking at today September 19th it could it's that diversionary program or suspension and a 60-day so this is giving our students that opportunity and I I agree with Mr Keeny you know we need to be able to provide our students the opportunity educate them Etc and

088even with the other scenario if you're looking at students with controlled substance that's still going to occur that's still going to occur but there's going to be that consequence I mean that the extension of the 60-day restriction for participation so there wouldn't be a change there but more so with the tobacco nicotine and nicotine delivery products so if I'm understanding it the first offense the student has the option to either a go through the educational process which is really ultimately Our Hope or then they have the option of taking the 10day suspension is that correct I forget what was the offense 14 for we talking out of school suspension what what you you just named it the suspension process if they choose not to do the education if they choose not to remember that uh

089the student will receive an out of school suspension from school right okay for for for how many days maybe three days three days for the First Defense but in each of those cases whether it's a diversion area or out of school suspension First Defense would be a 14 Cal suspension from extracurricular activities so my question then is if the student chooses to go the education route and to avoid the suspension um would then the 14 days be concurrent or after the 3-day suspension is served it would be from the moment of the incident okay when the when the consequences are given so they would would be concurrent they would be concurrent yes good question thank you anybody else have any other questions I assume I I think I probably know the answer to this but

090is the logic for making the separation between tobacco nicotine tobacco delivering products and then having drugs drug paraphernalia prescriptions medications uh inhalant that aren't doctor prescribed and alcohol is the idea the philosophy behind that the mind all Al ing column and then tobacco is that what the the difference yeah out you know right there's a difference in in law enforcement how they're going to handle that so yeah it really just MIM mimicking kind of what they're going to get outside of the school as well all righty I do have one thing now um I was at the uh principal's advisory committee where where this was being discussed and there was a little bit of mixed opinion in that group as far as the scope that we expect our athletes and extracurricular participants um you know

091this is changing it from these are the rules you need to follow period to well just when you're on school grounds and on school activities and there was a little bit of a mixed um feeling in the group about that right and I think it's sorry go ahead I I think it's important to recognize that it takes a community it takes all of us um parents as well as school staff uh to make sure that our students are growing and developing appropriately and making good healthy choices for themselves our jurisdiction in school is limited um and and to equitably be able to enforce our policies it's important that we do that within the purview of our activities our campuses um and our school sponsored events um so while that was historically in the policy it

092is difficult to enforce equitably um based on reporting and and receiving that information from the community I can I can see that it would be a logistical nightmare to be everywhere all the time 24 hours and and that is also with tobacco alcohol and drugs is that correct it is currently worded that way a 247 on all all products but we are proposing that all products are only on school grounds is or is it only tobacco The Proposal is to remove the 247 component of it and and bring it back to school during school sponsored events school and and activities associated with school so if I'm understanding that correctly if you had a student who you know was arrested ared for drug distribution that would be outside of our purview correct if unless it happened

093on school campus or at a school event did did you consider since I understand the difficulty of enforcement and especially the difficulty of consistent enforcement and having to look at how strong is the evidence in this case versus this case uh did you consider at least uh administering when if there's any kind of of conviction um by you know law law enforcement brings charges and there's that actual conviction because that would take the matter of weighing evidence out of your hands yeah I think the one I I don't disagree I like like the concept I I think for it to be known too publicly I think we like the concept of a 247 it's just very difficult to enforce um and I also I think the feedback from the parents um as Mr Wilson indicated

094it's mixed I don't think anybody disagrees with the 247 is nice in theory but to be able to implement is is terribly difficult right and then a couple of the parents because I want to support the parents too that a couple of them said well my kid won't be playing you know if if they're that kid that like and I think that ties into what Dr sterer said like this takes a community it can't be just administrators dealing out discipline and correcting behaviors it it's it's Society it's all of us um I think back to president H your comment about what if it's a conviction could we hone in on that the answer is I think we can a lot easier than a 247 for anything if we get that information so it's not often

095public knowledge to us we'd almost somehow have to monitor or be prepared to have some type of documentation that that took place or not and that's not always available to us if I could just historically the 247 policy predicts me being solicitor but it did go to court and it was upheld back in the late '90s early 2000s um Steve Russell was here um Mr Wilson's question and yours uh can't speak for the high school administration when you talk that but but some of the challenge I had another district with a similar policy they departed from it because they said they were getting sporadic information so court if you have a juvenile who goes to court for drug drug distribution that's confidential they don't necessarily know that and and they can't get it and I

096can't get it conversely if a kid gets caught smoking and they get a summary offense that gets filed you can find that on a public docket and you can find that and so sometimes parents say well you know why is my child being in charged when I know this kid did something bad and the administration often says I wasn't aware of that or back in the day where kids might go to a party doing stuff they shouldn't do everyone runs and 10 kids get caught and 20 kids get away and uh so that's some of the challenges that I know in another District triggered the same type of discussion but they're all good points I yeah I'm I'm not trying to question what's in here versus changing things but I I mean I think it's

097this is part of the you know there's a lot of different perspectives on this and we should definitely have a conversation about it it seems like we're kind of loosening the restrictions correct I think nicotine delivery products right and to 247 247 because it is what other districts are doing and what you know it's status quo or I think what's the what's the reasoning take nicotine delivery products you know as we said like even within the code of conduct have handing in the school it's certainly not as intense as if you're bringing illegal substances the other piece is like we say the learning component the other side of this you know like if you know say we a kid gets administered a 60-day athletic suspension or extracurricular suspension um one thing that is concerning is

098a lot of times that that is a pretty big blow to a kid and sometimes after the fact the kids do go even more downhill and make more bad decisions by putting this tiered approach in it gives you an opportunity to make a mistake and please name one teenage kid that doesn't make a mistake okay it allows them an opportunity uh to get back into you know something they're passionate about something that is bigger than themselves that they're putting a lot of time and effort into and getting value from um but we do have a tiered approach so if they do it again now it's a bigger suspension um whereas something illegal with like a zero tolerance we still have our 60-day available so that's kind of the reason we want to move towards the

099tiered approach like I I like the tiered approach that makes sense to me but the 247 247 does not to be honest with understand I don't I don't think loosening restrictions is what it looks like to me if I was a kid playing a sport I'm like hey so outside school fair game that's as long as my parents don't find out doesn't matter yeah I think our we we do hold our athletes and our you know musicians and artists and you know all these kids that represent us outside in the community we hold them to a to a higher standard because you know we're investing in them and we're want to see what they can do how how many of these do we have that are um say in the past few years how many

100how many have we had annually that were driven by something that took place outside of school outside of school MH in my 10 years I think we've had two okay three maybe so so the the Practical difference in 247 versus not is very small it's very small yes the majority of the situations we deal with at least well 247 is in place so there's a question about did it deter sure it happened more than well but you know there yeah there is still the question of did having it create any level of deterrence and we don't know that but but if I think there's a certain level of deterrence with that yeah do but if if if the if the level of deterrence was low then the the actual practical impact is has been minimal

101the the followup question to that though because it doesn't consider the due diligence that our staff to what degree I'm putting you on the spot I know you can't actually barely but um how how often are you having to investigate under the 247 policy things that don't come to fruition like is that bogging you guys down in your time typically if we get it then law enforcement's already been involved or yeah so like I said in my 10 years I think we've had two to three we we did some investigating uh but as as Mr litz brought up we don't get all the information so some get some kids can in those particular situations and has happened in the past get handed consequences and some don't when you know as well as I do the

102the knowing that it doesn't matter where I do this what happens if I get I'm going to not be able to play my sport for 60 days that that just knowing that could happen would deter some from doing whether whether it happens or not I mean I'm still with the tiered approach I just I don't love to I think it could deter it I think one of the challenges that can come up with that is not disclosing it we we often talk with students that are using substances like this that there's typically a reason that they're using them there's something that's going on that's causing them to reach out to that substance while the while the heart and I the intent of that 247 policy is is to create that I I need to hold

103up to this level it also has the possibility of creating well then we don't want to report it we don't want to share it and we want to work together with families as a team if there's something that a student an athlete an artist a musician is going through we want to have that ability to have have that open communication provide supports and resources that are available in school to help that student so that they don't turn to substances uh to cope with what challenges they might be going through so I think there's a level of yes I want to hold up to that policy but there's also a concern that that policy could take me out of my season so I don't want to share that more more stuff well just to clarify the

104students still have a contract that they sign for their extracurricular activities so they know know what the consequences are as they're getting enrolled in this sport so it's something that they know in their mind that is coming if they decide that they're going to choose these things to but if I'm understanding this correctly um a portion of that consequence potential consequences is being removed 247 p i i mean i i this was in place when I was here and I played Sports here right but that's where like for you and I Drop The Gauntlet yeah I mean I was our job then as parents to follow up on that end when it was Sports season I was very careful where I went and where I didn't go what's the implication the it was sport season

105I was very careful because uh it it meant a lot to me I mean it meant a lot to me to be on that team so um I'm a little hesit I I love the tearing I really do because think because I feel like honestly I feel like 60 days is so harsh you might push them just push them towards it right where whereas you know 2 weeks is going to be painful enough that it may deter the behavior Tim what we want right and I I think your point about it it causes you to want to avoid even being at a place where these things are happening that's a good point it did yeah it definitely had that effect on me when I was take push to push back a bit and I don't

106know what I think yet I don't like the idea of the onus being on our staff to be detectives I don't like the additional P I mean how much how much time would you say is actually spent on this I mean it's it would depend on the circumstances if it was a straightforward charge or something like that that's Case by case that could be easy but if it's a report or a picture on Facebook or whatever it could be very time consuming when say two or three incidents in 10 years is that two or three that actually came to a some some kind of discipline yes I mean how how how many is it where you investigate yeah there's nothing is it uh well beyond counting or is it uh um no um we certainly

107get information um but there's no evidence to back it up right and the situations where we did handle out you know hand out discipline law enforcement was involved um all started from somebody anonymously tipping us that this happened um but we're not getting we're not getting a ton of them not okay okay that's good to know that's good yeah we have good kids we do have good kids that's a good corre thing any other questions comments I didn't want to cut anybody off no I absolutely love all the work that went into this and thank you so much for considering the students and how that discipline is going to affect them and bringing them back out of a potentially worse situation it's wonderful thank you all right much thank you guys all right that brings

108us to 8.05 and this again is information it's the speakers that have been approved through the vetting process there are seven of them that's public on the agenda Dr Robert do you have anything that you'd like to add and share to this no just excited that we uh have you know a nice array of presenters from the elementary middle school and I I believe we have one one for the high school but just giving the opportunities for these speakers to come in um and you know provide that opportunity of an extension to what's going on within those curriculum U but I did want to share something else uh this evening at the Personnel policy meeting there was a question uh that I was asked if I could provide numbers and I knew I couldn't provide

109them on the spot but I have them today just about the the number of speakers that we' had that have gone through the the vetting process uh since we made the modification to the or the revision and the approval of policy 10 n.1 um in November of 2023 so for the 2023 20 from the 2022 2023 school year year uh we had 12 speakers that went through the vetting process um last school year to 23 24 we had 28 and as of right now uh for 2425 we have eight with seven being approved today so uh since it's Inception we're looking at 48 uh speakers that we have brought to the school board uh for awareness but through the the vetting process being approved to share their expertise with our children thank you for that

110update and then 8.06 other items of business I have none does anybody else back to you all right now we will uh we've already done finan and budget so we'll move on to uh personnel and policy uh in the absence of our personnel and policy chair who was sadly unable to be with us tonight uh I will I will take this committee report uh we'll start with 10.01 uh selection of Statewide psba officers um they are there uh listed in in public content um and um uh I note that for every position there's only one there's only one person sorry um this is an action so I'll put it on the table sorry I'll entertain a motion to approve the selection of the Statewide psba officers uh for the positions of president-elect Sabrina backer uh

111vice president president Matt Venoy uh and then psba Insurance trustees n Nathan G Mains uh Richard frenches and William S Lov do I have uh do I have a motion so moved second Motion in a second all right uh any discussion other than what I was about to get into I I do but go ahead first okay um so um for each of these positions there's only one person running there are three available Insurance trustee positions there's one vice president opening there's one president-elect opening um and I I would really like to see um more people run for these uh so that we have a a real Choice um so for myself um I I believe Mrs Green you told me when we were putting this on the agenda that uh we can vote we

112can vote yes or no on this and that a no would effectively be an exension of our board from the Voting is that right so in order like after the election I'm trying to think how it works after you would vote um if it's approved by five or more members of the board then I would put the vote in PSP's website um if not then I I would not um but you can also abstain if there's like a conflict of interest or right we can abstain personally and then we if if the board as a whole votes no then that res represents an exstension of board from the voting uh effectively that's that was my question and then other other counties are voting for other school districts school districts are voting as well any any

113psba members okay so if we if as a board we vote Yes if we just join them if we vote no we just don't but these people are moving on regardless yeah the number of votes they receive would be would be reduced and and given that I for myself I I would like to see more people run I think maybe a lower vote tally would indicate that there there is interest in in seeing that um at least that's how I would perceive it it's it's the first so far I've never had this kind of actionable item before it's odd to me I you can't find out anything about any of these people we don't know anything about them which that's another thing where it would be nice to have more people running is that would

114that would require them to personally as policy I don't vote for anybody that I don't know so anyone else have a discussion on this anything to add all right um given that it sounds like we might have a couple of of NOS um should we do a roll call roll call vote on this everybody good with that all right please Elizabeth oh what am I doing oh sorry yeah sorry we are on 10.01 selection Statewide psba officers uh and to summarize some of the discussion uh Jen couldn't uh find any information on any of these uh and as a matter of personal policy uh she doesn't vote for people that she can't find any information on uh my position was I'd like to see more people running for these offices partly to support getting more

115information I think if multiple people were running then they would need to provide more information about themselves and so obviously if they were the only ones running they're probably going to win but I feel like by voting voting no which would basically pull our our board's vote if if if the majority votes know then our board would not be voting for these and that a low vote tally might send a message that hey we'd like to see we'd like to see more people run so that is a summary of the discussion um and now we are to a roll call vote and would go to you first right and you're first uh I'll say yes yes Mary Lee Hall yes Samantha Hall sorry Jeremy hash abstain Jen hle no Nathan hle no James Holly yes

116Joe Wilson no we do not have five votes so it does not pass all right moving on to item 10.02 first reading of or you need a moment okay um no you're good uh first reading of board policies uh the policy numbers and uh descriptions are uh there for your review um the as has been mentioned but I'll I'll it'll bear repeating uh these policies will be released to the public um probably early next week um and uh that is a change to what was done before um it used to be that policies were passed before they were released to the public um but that has changed um at the request of of I think several board members expressed uh individually support for a change to that and that practice um so the the reason

117uh to allow um to to allow these meetings to happen before the release is so that board members have a chance to on Tuesday we workshopped several the policies uh and so that workshopping can work can get into the drafts we must we have to do that in public so um that's why that meeting needs to occur before the release um in order to have a a release of what what is actually being proposed at that point um and then this this uh meeting is also an opportunity to uh do any further uh further um workshopping at this point it's it we the changes would generally need to be minimal uh or else we'd trigger another read which would be fine if if the changes are needed um and uh so and and also to

118just uh for the board members to express opinions um I think for most of these you can look at the um that the Tuesday meeting which is still available uh for for a lot of this uh did anyone have any uh discussion of any specific policy items I did want to touch on 903 if possible okay that's see um public participation in board meetings um I noticed we are revising this we're adopting the psba recommended policy on this um the one thing that I noticed that was struck through on this is that we are we have removed what psba had put in here as far as it being an opportunity for district residents taxpayers employees and students we have removed employees from the psba draft um now I know that in the past we've we've

119had um employees come before the board the I think the most recent one was bus driver who brought serious safety concerns with our district with transportation and that has um had substantial benefit to safety of our students even though he's not a direct District employee um but the one I I'd like us to at least consider maybe not striking employees from participating in um public comment was there a specific reason why that's not there that you might know of or just a copy coming in from psba it's it's just been a practice because um with the idea with employees it's that they work through Administration and often the board would talk to them one onone versus because a lot of what potentially they would bring the be confidential information of course board could correct me

120if I'm wrong Mr L it's not required to allow not require well pros and cons with everything you add employees you're not putting restrictions what employee so if an employee wants to come to talk about something other than maybe directly related to the job like the bus driver what they've observed and they have the right to do it as long as it's related to something to the district that they can um the other discretionary thing is you have as the board has done you have the opportunity if you wish to hear as part of your agenda presentations from from staff so you always have the discretion that a you'd like to hear from these employees you can hear from them as part of your meeting agenda outside of public comment um but as I said

121earlier to the young lady that asked to speak public comments a limited public for them the only thing mandated by law is residents and taxpayers you know if the board wants to expand that somewhat further and you know students would be residents by by virtue of most living in the district many of your employees probably reside in the district but not all but if you open the door that's your choice and then you have to live with it so if you have 200 teachers coming out we're upset about an unsettled teachers contract and they want to address that you might have to sit through a lot of public comment from employees so that's what I mean by pros and cons if you want to go there well let to use your example um I am

122not really comfortable with putting putting them in a position where we say Oh no you're not allowed to come and speak to the board um I I don't I don't know how advisable it would be in a situation like that but at the same time I'm not sure that I'm comfortable with saying you cannot I mean I think I think there's definitely obviously we maybe there's a way to recommend that they you know obviously go through the normal channels to make sure that their concerns are addressed um so Joe you hit on I mean that's exactly the process as an organizational chart is there's a chain in command that you would go through right sure and I think we've had requests at times s uh particularly maybe from a Teachers Association standpoint where officers don't

123speak on behalf of the entire teacher population but they've spoken in regards to topics um and we've worked with them to be able to do that I do think here's where I might miss be so if this is wrong I'll own it but the the bus driver piece they're not truly our employee so if they're a resident they could speak with their experience as a which in that case they were so so that's the tweak there where um and again we would want to go through that same similar although a slightly different because it's a contract Service uh process for hearing out what the concerns are or what the celebrations are I mean at times it's we want to come and celebrate this and share and we welcome sure welcome that as well and and

124structure a presentation or something like that where they can be I I don't I mean I don't view this as just like a negative I think this is you know this is again there's pros and cons to this so I just want to make sure we're talking through it because I mean it came with it in here and we're taking it out but it does feel like there's some you know psva has it in there for a reason it is marked optional um sure yeah but yeah sure um it just doesn't necessarily set well with me to tell them you cannot come speak um I do understand what you're saying that there's proper chain of command you know I do I I I understand that I I live in that world too I I I

125totally get that um and I in all of my time here I don't think I've ever seen a a a School employee come and and speak speak so I think that probably says something to it as well um well under policy unless so that actually raises an interesting question you said the bus driver could do it because he's not really a direct employee and he's a resident was was was why he would be able to speak um it's unclear to me that a teacher who was a resident would not be allowed to speak I was going to say that absolutely I don't think we could deny them yeah well then I think that lends even more to if a teacher who's a resident can can and that's how the rules are structured right then we're

126sort of I don't know what percentage of teachers it is but if it's to say 50/50 you know 50% of the teachers can come and speak because they're residents and 50% of the teachers can't because they're not that also maybe makes me feel like the 50% who are not should have the same opportunity I mean it's it's a question because when they're a resident a taxpayer they have a a right when you say our DEC affect them more than some of the taxpayers but the people who who vote for us are residents and taxpayers um so we are representing them and that doesn't mean it's not useful to hear from a teacher but that's a good point um we we are not necessarily representing them because they're not yeah um now students also don't vote

127uh but they are residents and so if you say residents that that would be taken I think to includes we students anyway um we've heard students we we have yeah and they and and they are by definition residents of the district so even though I think the previous policy didn't specify students the understanding is well they are residents in the district um and if there were if there's occasionally a student who's not because of some special situation um we're not going to we're not going to really look into that and and and deny them uh because that's that's an unusual situation but it's much more common for a teacher to not be or an employee to not be a me a resident of the district than for a student um yeah that's interesting so um

128I think we have a few options and procedurally if we were to amend this tonight uh would that still be the first reading you have nothing on the agenda so we can't AB information would I think this has been good discussion that the board can consider when it gets to Second read whether wish to amend and then if it's a if it's that's a DI Minimus change then we can just move forward with it yeah you you're not voting on anything right make changes you can make changes okay all right so it's something to think about until until next time you can still read it definitely not pushing forward I'm not necessarily A proponent for it because I do want want to respect the chain of command um definitely uh because that's that's necessary um

129it just doesn't necessarily sit well to to tell them you with me that you you can't speak maybe can't I I'm not saying that it's not it's not appropriate but it just doesn't necessarily s with me so and I know I I know it's in the policy and I know it's the way it's written I'm I'm not super comfortable not having alumni speak to be honest with you I I I feel that should you mean out of the district alumni the only wasn't able to speak I mean I know it's in the policy now I know that's how it's written but as an alumni of this district and couple other of the board members I feel that that should be a kind of like a okay go ahead you know even if I do move

130out of the district at one point in time and you I still want to come back and give kudos to a graduating class whatever the case may be I think that should be just my personal opinion I and email also so I mean what's the difference so let them talk I mean we the point was made that we you know if if there was a particular reason that we wanted we could always as a board decide um okay because we have people that aren't you know people come and make presentations for all sorts of reasons uh who are not who are not uh residents District so we can you can always approve it um on a case-by casee basis um again that's just personal opinion that's just the way I felt about that any further

131discussion on 903 all right uh are there any other policies that anyone has any comments about yes I'd like to comment on uh 26.2 and 123.3mi we discussed this in the committee meeting but we had two different policies of each and I feel that under transparency that the public should be able to see both of those and I would ask that uh we actually take a vote at the next meeting on uh after we hear comments from the public uh which I'd like to hear here and U of course I'm in the minority of people that felt are are solicitors draft was uh much better than the ilc drafts of those two policies and I don't see any reason why we can't have both of them looked at in public so that would open the

132door to a general um release of policy drafts um potentially these are all after tonight they're all open to the public right after following workshopping and deliberation um or uh and comment of this meeting which we did not have with those others however we did we asked multiple times that if there were portions in that that you prefer that you would bring those out and talk to us about them that the portions of the other um policy that are maybe contradictory to this policy or in addition to or maybe in De detraction to to to we are open to discuss that Those portions that you're you're more interested in yeah I mean you're welcome right now to uh to mention anything that from those policies that you that you found uh preferable I I just

133like to see them out to the public and let the public help us make this decision I mean I was told at the at the committee meeting that the uh Nathan pulled the board but which one they preferred no I didn't pull the board I so board members will speak to me about what the things they'd like to see on the agenda as president that's that's everything that happens no it doesn't mean in the board um and and additionally three of us actually sit in the agenda meetings so there is uh there is an you know at that point you know which policy the three that are you know because our we have our president our vice president and our Treasurer who work together with the administration to create the agenda so I did have

134a sense of uh which policies had uh more support and because we can only pass one version of each um I decided to go with one that I thought had more I agree you can only pass one of each but there's no reason why you can't look at two certainly we did you did have to look at to that's what I don't understand these people out here haven't been able to look at both of them for the public to see like we' just paid the solicitor to do to do this I think we should let the public see hey it looks almost the same or it doesn't look similar or this is what we like this is what we don't like why can't they have a say because we don't release drafts of everything that's

135proposed um to to the board and we were all in these in this meeting together with all the attorneys and and all of the we all flushed this out together we didn't have Mr litz's policy at that point but we did we were there not weeks but we had an extended amount of time where we had both policies available you guys had and I don't maybe you've failed yourself of it I I don't know maybe it was Private emails and that's fine but you had ample time to ask your questions you were invited as all of us were to have conversations with the ilc after our executive session we're not asking to change it right now we're just asking to make what is the compelling reason what is it that you would like to incorporate

136give me one thing you'd like to change I would like to have it public that everybody what from because we have both of them I why can we why with all due respect with all due respect and I I do mean this respectfully it just seems like interference for the sake of interference we've repeatedly I've repeatedly asked what is it that you like about that policy and Mrs Doberman you even said you don't necessarily like one over the other so what is the compelling reason I guess you could look at it as there's a lot of our community that is against ilc and why not let them see what Mr litz has written and let them see that hey it is almost the same or it is different and this is what we are opening

137up to everybody and they can sit there and say I really like Jeffs because of this I like ilc because of this and hey they you're not hiding anything if you're showing it out there to the public you're not hiding that Nathan just said let's take it off the list so I I reject I reject that wholesale hiding there's no hiding you have every opportunity right now to present anything that you may be considering as hiding you can do it right at this moment for all of us to hear and deliberate for the public to hear there's no hiding if there's something that you want that you feel is being hidden please bring it forward and talk to us about it I would love to hear it and deliberate through it there's no hiding there's

138just really no winning with this so it's just you are welcome to bring it up right now yeah I did no you can you can you can read from the policies you can you can read from the drafts I'm I'm just bring forward anything you want from them if we need to table this so you have more time I hear what you're saying it's fine totally hear what you're saying I get it it's it's really it's really that we already are releasing draft policies when the board used to not do so but to release multiple versions of policies that are not actually under consideration uh I think will will so confusion and so I think it's best to release the policies that the board is actually going to consider people can look at those policies

139and evaluate the text of the policies that are under consideration and if those policies are uh rejected then new policies can be brought can be brought forward but I don't think releasing I think already we've massively increased transparency by releasing policies before we pass and it's astonishing to me that the board until we were on it did not do that and you never objected to that neither of you ever objected to the fact that the board would pass policy without ever showing any of it to the public but now we want transparency I simply want to show the policies that under consideration that are actually under consideration for a vote rather than everything that everything that may have gone into uh the selection of which policies are actually uh selected to go on the agenda

140I've been on the board for 19 years and this is the first time we had policies drafted by two different legal firms it's also the first time it's ever been released to the public prior to it being voted right so neither would have been released under the that PRI in your 19 years that was something that never happened yes during your tenure neither one would have been released to the public prior to passage and that was okay for we're releasing the one that is under consideration I I'd just like to say I I just want to take a little bit of the tension out of the room and just share with everyone that there is nothing Within These two policies that is absolutely dissimilar they are very close it is all following Title 9 law

141as it is in place currently there is nothing illegal or discriminatory or unsafe for any students within the district this is making a policy where we don't have one that is becoming necessary for the function of fair and safe Athletics for all students and um parents understanding exactly what's going on with their students as far as how they want to be addressed and you know transitional things that happen within a family's purview of giving the school permission to be able to do what the children are asking them to do within the district so these squabbles that the board is having over the bits and pieces of whose policy it is there really is not a this is so different from this one are all very similar and it's a matter of you the board deciding

142which one would be best for our district with our solicitor being on board so all of that to say I I don't necessarily mind that as a board we are tasked and elected to make these decisions based on two policies that are very similar we have our solicitor Mr litz and we have ilc to come in and help with two perspectives as someone that is involved in sports myself just kind of taking it from a 10,000 feet view when you have two umpires that are deliberating on one call I think that makes a coach feel a little bit better because they're making a decision together based on what they think together it's not one or the other and I feel like that's kind of the same case here with Mr litz and the solicitors from

143ilc two coming two professionals that understand the law 100% when it comes to Title 9 giving us advice so we have two perspectives that are very similar I'm following the one that the board collectively feels is the best for southern York count School dist district and these very contentious things that can come up and what is best for the students is absolutely 100% where we are coming from so that's all I have to say I'd like to add something and I promise they won't be the Dead horce with us but we're all allowed to have our own opinions and I do respect difference of opinion and for the criticism that nefarious things are happening behind closed doors it really is as simple as and it's fine let's just be honest two of us sitting at

144this table voted to not retain the ilc there's no wonder that you don't like their policy better and that's fine seven of us voted to hear them out and I ass I like the policy better I already went on record on that on Tuesday so so when it comes to predicting what the temperature of the board is we already have that vote for retention that's that's a lot to go on that yeah and I would say um when I looking at these policies I I I'm truly impressed at how common sense they are um how they balance different concerns um they really respect they they really promote um the the values of safety fairness um and uh and and really put put parents in the driver's seat uh which is one it's something I think

145is very important uh parents have a right to direct the upbringing of their children um and these policies uh help to ensure that um so I I really think it's common sense and it really it really does I I believe they really do a good job of navigating uh and balancing uh interests any further discussion on any other policies all right item 10.03 other items of business I have none so we'll move on to item uh 11 our committee report and Mr Hall thank you president hankle so Mr Buffington we have uh our water test report and if you would like you can also move forward into your buildings and grounds report and the high school project progress report it's 11.01 water test report for August has been provided the board um all those tests

146are marked safe uh both here on the campus and the friendship Elementary also on that report um as we've been talking over the last couple months um kind of outlines uh the process that we've been going through for the posos testing obviously we're um being Guided by our professional water consultant and D throughout this process um and just a reminder to the board the posos also known for ever chemicals we're not the only ones in this um testing but um we'll continue to update the board um as we go go along with go through the the testing process buildings and grounds report um in that report there's a um Field Report is uh attached in there um you'll note that some of the fields are closed but as we had talked or um will be

147closed as this fall into the spring um as we have talked with the board uh that's to aate top dress and Seed some of those fields um so that's why you'll you'll see that also in the report uh we talked about the seller Elementary boiler um we're obviously working with insurance and um contractors to um get that corrected and um back online uh at the um Southern Elementary so for the high school project uh 11.03 high school project progress report financial report and timeline in a little summary we're on time and we're within budget um C put up the budget there you can see our original budget um $70 million remaining budget um just under 700,000 and then Kat if you can move to the second slide uh you can see our contingency there that

148we track um as well as total allowances uh which we've talked to the board we've talked before you know about that that if we don't spend those allowances they'll start to come back as credits that process has started um and the board can anticipate um next month uh we'll start to see some of those credits coming coming back um because we we have not used all the allowances uh just as we kind of look at I should have counted before we're around 30 work days uh is where we're at um you know we're we're focused on the end of October finishing up obviously we have a open house that hope you all can attend um it's exciting we're getting we're getting very very close uh couple things yet to complete we have a few classes

149rooms uh the team rooms the main entrance and the main parking lot are some of the those areas to yet to be completed um but look to be done here in the next uh 30 work days or so just a thing you know as we talk about construction as most of us are probably familiar you know um the bulk of the work will be done punch list and other items tend to you know go on past that completion date so um things won't be 100% done but they will be substantially complete um any questions to that point I know kind of moving through but um no questions but I would like to just comment to what you said about the the boiler um we're not we have heat we do have want to make sure

150everybody knows that we have heat yes we do have a Bo we're we're working on but we have heat and and uh we are we are prepared for the winter sell sell Elementary has three boilers two of those boilers are operational um we're focused on getting that third one operational right just wanted to make sure everybody understood that um so change orders approved on site would you uh like to speak a little bit into those yes so we have um three change orders that approved on site um the PCO 17 has to do with um isolation valves that we needed for the fire sprinkler system so that we could test the system which was required by the building inspector um and then the um e41 uh Power to uh the water fountain at the girls's

151locker room room um and then Eco 42 um was for some light switches and just to point out it's not a typo there are um to both of those change orders are for $858 um so not a not a typo there but uh but overall you can see um with the credit and things uh about $6,500 um for change orders uh this month thank you any questions there moving on to 11.05 the board will recall we have been working to try to get some quotes we thought we'd only get one quote we ended up with two um for the repair of the Friendship Elementary retaining wall that is in front of the gymnasium uh we would recommend or the board to to consider awarding the base quote plus the alternate one in the amount of

152$15,512.71 [Music] or out of Plum um alternate one would be to um install on the uphill side a speed bump or a diversion to to help Channel some of the water from uh going over the wall um the board may recall that we did work with an engineer on this design uh to to put it together um the the good thing is with the design and with the um cost that we're asking for approval from the contractor we um are under budget right with that excellent explanation I would like to make a motion to award the base quote plus alternate one in the amount of $15,512.71 friendship Elementary School I have a second thank you any discussion so we're not we're just replacing or we're just fixing it we're not replacing it correct correct cuz

153I just know there's some Artisan residence thing on the front of it or something or some design no that's over at the um kindergarten playground I believe you're referring to okay I'm not familiar with friendship but I also so if if you're at the front drive of friendship it's on the it's on the right on the right okay it's way on the right in in front of the the I say new gymnasium but that was built in 2012 so um it's already 10 years old but yeah well the good part is it's about a little better than 20% under budget so good job that that's that's a good one good job we like that any other discussion just when it comes to the alternate two and three are we going to have to review go

154back and review those things when it comes down I mean would it be easier to have them look at that or we did and it's not needed I believe we've just chosen not to do them okay correct yeah and in consultation with the engineer right um yes so it's it's really was we just removed them from the the process got it thank you any other discussion any needs or iions hearing none motion passes we also have a proposal um I have a motion to approve the proposal in the amount of $ 5,390 from Eastern Time incorporate of Harrisburg PA to replace the expiring carbon monoxide carbon monoxide detectors at the Friendship Elementary School of a second second any discussion so as Randy and I had discussed earlier this is uh not something that is required

155but it is something that we have in our buildings and in the light that we had a carbon monoxide incident in the past I certainly think this is money well spent to keep up with the that system yeah I always like to also remind that the school is not just going on Amazon and buying carbon oxide detectors those would be cheaper these have to be wired into our our uh our Network so the notification goes into the office and into all the Building Systems so that that certainly uh increases the cost but massively increases the effectiveness it's not not just a beeping hurt by someone over there it's right certain the information gets the people that need it right correct well and it's certainly absolutely a safety issue 100% any other discussion any Nays or

156extensions hearing none the motion passes moving on to 11.01 use of facilities as you can see that information is presented there in front of you and then 11.08 other items of business which I have not really an item but uh just wanted to let the public know that um we have been continuing discussions about the scoreboard for the baseball field um and hopefully soon we will have some options for the board to look into and and maybe we can move forward on that so any other no but that's much appreciated definitely president all right moving on to item 12 uh committee report Transportation health and safety Mr hash everybody comes um during the first few weeks of school um there were four reported stop arm violations from uh three were by driver observation one was

157on camera uh they have also filled one of the open routes we're still looking for employment for one over first student uh August 28th we completed Miss green how many bus of you evacs was that in one day how many what how many busy backs was that in one day well we have about 2700 children yeah run them toce and um thank you to all the staff that not only did it this building they also then scattered to other buildings and um I was with Dr rert and we went over to uh Shrewsberry for that one for the second one um they uh are working through all the September field trips they partner with Athletics to cover all the athletic events uh first student is doing a fantastic job there and they are also working

158with Liu to take care of all the district's Transportation needs with 12.02 for information only uh York County Department of Emergency Services reviewed the 2024 2025 Emergency Operations plan for southern York County School District and found all aspects of the plan were in order and based all the a all hazards approach the plan is in compliance with local and County emergency preparedness plans Dr rer is there anything you'd like to add to that no I just want to well yes I shouldn't say no um yeah I just want to thank uh you know everyone that was uh part of uh the review and uh development and revision some of the components of that plan um it t takes a village to really take a look at you know all the safety components that we want

159to make make sure are instilled within our our district and glad to see that you know they accepted our Emergency Operations thank Dr Robert uh moving on to 1203 first student extension the current contract with first student is for five years ending June 30th 2025 with two optional extension years the district is currently discussing the two extension years the first student and and we'll provide additional information at a later date M green is there anything else we'd like to add to that at this current time I think we're getting closer but I don't have anything to add at this time excellent 1204 um action item uh this is we've been in talks with uh Dr rert and our current uh SRO and Dr Bryson and a lot of people involved um I would like make

160a motion to authorize the administration to begin the search for additional armed officer or security to be paid for using contingency funds approval of such employee or contract will be brought back to the board at a subse subsequent meeting once that individual is found and how they are found what channel they are found through um do I have a second second thank you any questions or comments on that just that I think it'll be so so good to have an officer per campus that that to me is is um that that puts me at ease compared to how I felt about uh our officers having to move between campuses what if something's happening at one just the idea now they may still move between campuses but there generally should be one at each I I

161think once once we've uh once we have this so um I really really appreciate that Dr rer or Dr Bryson or anything else you'd like to add to that no I I think um the way this is worded accommodates for administration's recommend P recommendation to pursue alternative options um we have great people and certainly want to continue our relationship with Southern Regional who has been fantastic over the years one of the challenges administrative that we face is the requirement for a safety and security coordinator districtwide has to be um under the realm of a School District administration employee uh and so this avails us potentially to have that opportunity to have a safety security coordinator title but would also be potentially an armed officer so um opening it up I think allows us to do

162that and and also continue the great relationship that we have so with Southern Regional very good and uh also just let the rest of the board know and you know talking with Dr reer and the and um officer Hansen these people are very very hard to find and they are in very very high demand um every school district wants another one or more a single one and these people can't just be a cop that's just not what they can do they have to be so much more and doctor or um officer Hansen goes do so much more training than just a normal police officer does because not not only are they doing that they're also doing everything related to school um a lot of training that he shared with Dr rer and I that he

163goes to so the these people are very very hard to find and I want to make sure that we're not going to miss an opportunity to get the best of the best for our district yeah I mean it's a combination of the training the right kind of attitude and the interest how did you describe a unicorn he's a un he's a unicorn he's a kid magnet yeah um any other questions or comments on on that motion any Nays or extensions hearing none that motion passes moving on 1205 any other item of business it's not an item of business but I just wanted to I I went ahead and looked back um and I think they they were already coming down at this point but last year uh last year in August there were eight reported

164stop arm violations so we've we've cut that in half um and and any or too many but I if I understand I believe eight was already a a decline for the month of August from maybe what what it was in Pre priv prior I can't I'm the unfortunate I mean it's good but we had we had more school days last year we had more scho twice as many um we had we have more school days all right I would also like to say excellent job on distribution of all the signs that was incred I did forget to mention that I apologize that was very very they're they're everywhere they're in great uh spots for they are you know grabbing people's attention so good good job very good job yeah and let thank you um so

165will extend that to our transportation folks and our bus drivers who helped with that but just let everyone know as we talked about we're not leaving them up they'll be coming down soon um with the idea that we'll put them up later in the year just because if they if they stay up all the time then you just get used to them we want them to to grab your attention absolutely yeah I also I applaud the community for that too because I saw you know uh the bus drivers advertising on social media and then like that I can put one in my yard I can put one in my yard and it was just it was a lovely thing to see our community come together for the safety of our kids that's I mean that's

166number one priority right and so that it was fun to see that and encouraging to see that in real time it really was I do have other items of business in um keeping with the safety of our students um we all know the incident that happened last week with the bus and stuff um this green inform me she's been working for a while on this um working with pendot throughout the renovation project to get signage on ftles Church Road that there is a school zone and buses entering and exiting good news as of last Friday we are being told that signage has been approved by pendot and we will be moving forward and getting it into place wonderful will that include flashing lights so probably not um but um we also um so so we'll

167be keeping informed but they're they're going to tell us exactly what it has to say so is very prescribed so we are are excited that we at least are moving in the right direction with that um the other thing I was talking to Mr hash about we did um years ago ask to have them look at reducing the speed limit um on the along that stretch um we were denied but it's something um we may discuss and possibly bring back to to the board to to ask again to see if we maybe can get the speed limit reduced um we also are going to working on a communication to go out um kind of like the signs for the buses that we talked about um we believe signs are important but we also think that

168we want to get communication that people just need to slow down between 7 and 9:00 a.m. and 3: 5:00 pm because we have a lot of people coming on and off campus so more we can get that word out I think it'll be helpful signs will help but we need people to slow down between 7 and 9:00 a.m. and and 3 and 5 because we have so many people coming on and off campus so that would be helpful so working on a working on a communication out that way but the more we can get that out there too to try to get that in people's head they they need to slow it down even if it's a 40 m per hour they need to slow it down because we have so many people coming on

169and off campus on the matter of of the flashing lights are the are we just not allowed to put them on a sign there or Ser the cows across the street huh disturbs the cows acoss well um is that what we've not we've not been successful you signs I mean we've Pro we've asked so many times so we're very happy that we very positive that we've gotten that far um I don't think we're going to get flashing so it's a matter of of being approved to do it okay so it's it's not that we're deciding not to it's that they're telling us no you oh yeah no no we would love to have that but um no I just wanted to make sure that was that was clear because so I think our next in

170my opinion our next stab is to to maybe talk again about that speed limit um just getting it down to a lower lower speed limit in front of CA but I'm not sure we're going to get anywhere there um interestingly the letter I pulled said we should look at changing our our what did it say it said we're look at changing umri our driveway location we did and that was back in 2014 so we've done that and we still are kind of experiencing the same so take a look at it again also put put that on the list of things that are easy to do well that's I'm saying we did it and I'm not sure that it you know yielded what they're saying it's going to do so it's better than the other driveway

171but yeah well it's it's kind of amazing that we were able to do it because most of the time the answer would be um no not me the drive I mean causes so many other problems if you do that um all right uh thank you uh Miss Miss green for keeping on pendot about that and getting that worked out any other items of business for from anyone all right that's all I got president eal all right moving on to uh whoops I lost Putt in place uh item 13 Athletics and extracurricular Miss Doberman all right item number 1301 I have a report from Mr Keeny from September 12th so it is a little outdated um but we'll talk about that in a second but the Warriors are off to a struggled start in the 2024b

172season here is the current highlights girls 10 Warrior girl tennis is currently sitting at first place in the Y A IA division 2 with a record of 8 to one they are currently ranked seventh in the PIAA District 3 field hockey Warrior field hockey is currently sitting first place in the Y AI daa division 2 with a record of 7 to one and are currently ranked eighth in the PIAA District 3 cross country both the warrior girls and boys cross country team are off to a strong start the warrior boys team is currently sitting in second place in their division while the warrior girls are ranked third girls volleyball Warrior girls volleyball is currently sitting at 4 to one and ranked second in the Y AI daa division 2 they are also ranked seventh in

173PIAA div District 3 boys soccer the warrior boy soccer is currently in first place in the Y A IA division 2 with a record of four 4 Z and two is it five now I'm not sure okay um they are ranked seventh in PIAA District 3 girls soccer Warrior girls soccer is currently in first place in the ya AI able a division 2 with a record of six to1 the Warriors are currently ranked third in PIAA District 3 football Warrior football is currently sitting at 2 and one on the SE on the season and ranked ninth in the PIAA District 3 division play begins on September 20th tomorrow tomorrow yes almost today and yes that too um Goff Warrior Goff is currently ranked fourth in the ya AI division double a division 2 and item

174number 1332 other items of business so we used to get these reports the Tuesday before the meeting and I guess Mr peny was told that he needed to give them prior because we weren't getting them ahead of time so I was wondering if we could tell Mr Keeny that we could have them Tuesday before the board meeting because I feel like it's outdated like I feel like I mean I can go to Twitter and update it but that's a lot of work yeah I think that's okay if he would turn it in I don't have I don't know if that's a new item of business but I'm we need to vote discuss it for a while and you want to roll call vote for that just let me know what you want us to do

175we we'll do it yeah please um yeah I mean yeah I think that was that part of the the broader change of uh making making more of the any attachments that we could get CU we were we kind of were under impression you wanted any attachments we could get ahead of time and that's one that we could do ahead of time I don't feel like we're ever voting on this so I feel like no I agree but we were just trying to get I understand Tuesday you want those as a Tuesday posting we'll make Tuesday if you don't mind please great and that can now that's again that's going to depend on Mr no depending on his schedule yes absolutely but yeah and that concludes my report all right uh item 14 uh Comm and

176do report other business that isn't new business but it's just other does anyone have any other business that isn't new I just have one other comment okay that I would uh like to allow Susan the opportunity to talk about the asbest grant that we got um so we you can shoot your do that it's late and I'm tired um so um huge shout out to Mr Buffington and Mr Carrington um for their work on um green applying for the um environmental grants um that we were eligible for a lot of times we don't get these grants but it was a first year for it so um we did get I think it was 190,000 don't quote me on that I think it was $190,000 um so um we're pretty excited about that and we will

177be able to use that to offset um the cost from the project remember we were only allowed to apply there some of it was restricted to the timing of when happen so um we got that Grant uh the second Grant which is the facility Improvement Grants were supposed to be announced this Tuesday um they did push that back by a month um so we're not sure where we are with those yet but huge shout out to both of them for all their work on it great job sure that's wonderful well done all right uh moving on to item 15 first item is 15.01 legislative Council um Mrs Hall all right thank you yes so the Pennsylvania Senate just returned Monday this week and the house returns next Monday so nothing to report from Harrisburg just

178yet um but certainly federally as we all know the Supreme Court decided in August regarding the Title Nine changes and specifically within the definition of sex no longer meaning biological male and female but to include gend their identity as well so the court agreed that the new ruling is just too vague and students will be forced to share private spaces on campuses that should be kept biologically separate uh such as bathrooms and locker rooms so five justices agreed that several of the new regulations would be unconstitutional and currently an injunction is in place halting any of those new amendments and defaulting back to the current law as it stands um in other news uh is another state Grant opportunity for Education available it's the PA Department of Environmental Protection now accepting applications for its 2025

179environmental education grant program through November 15 eligible applicants include schools nonprofit Community County Conservation districts and businesses so the project with local Focus can get up to $5,000 and Regional or Statewide initiatives can get up to 30,000 so the there's free webinars happening now the program will be held on October 10th and the need to register for that will be September 30th is the deadline and that concludes my report thank you did you have anything dad all right uh moving on to York uh County School of Technology uh Mr Auber I don't have a lot to report but I do have to report that the tickets are now on sale to go see and I don't have a date so I apologize for that part um but they are going to be putting on the

180play or the show or I don't have the right terminology but anyway it's Harry Potter and the cursed child which I haven't heard put on out of school yet so I think that's pretty cool um I will get you dates um but I know that the tickets are on sale now if you want get ones that's all I got just to jump on that yeah my they're they're one of six schools I think in the entire us that have they got the rights to do that play to in Pennsylvania they were very excited yes and my son is working on the set crew for that and he's very excited bet he is all right um 15.03 liu2 anything all right uh 15. we had a board meeting that was it huh we had a board

181meeting last night uh 15.04 York Adam STX buau do you have anything all right 15.05 the New York County School District Foundation hi back to me thank you so the foundation met last Tuesday September 10th to begin planning for the class of 2025 and the scholarships that will be available to them it's a very exciting time we reach out to donors and discuss fundraising uh extend a warm welcome to them for activities that are going excuse me that are happening in the district we also include them certainly a very warm welcome to the November 10th High SCH ribbon cutting ceremony as we reach out to them um so excited about that also the seventh annual thank you card contest is underway for student of all ages I have the nice paper that was shared with

182me on that day um so if you have a passion any students out there for art and they'd like to wow the foundation with their artistic ability uh we'd love to to have their help to design the thank you card to relay our gratitude to all of our donors uh that help bless the class of 2025 um so sharpen those crowns and colored pencils grab a piece of paper and off you go I said uh the final Masterpiece will be due to their main building office on Monday October 7th prizes will be given and the winners will also be featured on the foundation thank you cards that we will send out the end of November and the foundation looks forward to every entry no artistic talent is too small want to see them all love

183each one of them and that concludes my report thank you item 15.06 other items of business does anyone have other items business hearing none I'll move on to item 16.01 Student Activities report for August 20124 is attached for your information uh 16.02 resignations and retirements we have two which are listed there in the agenda item and item 16.03 other it of business I have none um item 17.01 uh Dr rer thank you president hankle those are just our current enrollment um for home education outside Cyber Charter our sou York County digital education as well as our uh enrollment with the Liu Lincoln Edge and just for the uh Community just wanted to point out the we currently have two students that are enrolled in our own Southern County digital academy uh but as we move

184forward uh with any additional enrollments of students in our own program we'll be having them utilize the Lincoln Edge so that we'll have our students in one specific online program uh and just keep in mind that you know with the ones that are currently in the such New York County Digital Academy they have been in that program you know through Elementary school and they're currently in sixth grade uh so they'll remain in that but then if they choose to uh continue on next year uh they would be enrolled in the Lincoln Edge cyber program as a way for u a cyber online learning and they still would count toward our enrollment here within the district thank you thank you item 7.02 announcements by board president and superintend um a buildings and grounds committee meeting will

185be held on Thursday October 17th 2024 in the district offices multi-purpose room beginning at 6 p.m. the next regularly scheduled meeting of the Board of Education will be held Thursday October 17th 2024 in the district offices multi-purpose room beginning at 7 p.m. Dr Bryson thank you president uh thanks to the middle school for hosting a special presentation from the Attorney General's office of the topic social media oneone aimed at parents and teachers providing the most up-to-date information regarding social media sites which uh children commonly use an emphasis on ways of keeping children and students safe while using these sites uh we can look forward to additional opportunities throughout the district with the ongoing focus on Safety and Security as it pertains to electronics um just a shout out to our administrative team over the past

186week across not only our district the county the nation uh many threats that are General in nature are being cut pasted posted on social media um and that results in a lot of human resources on our part to double check that they're not credible versus credible uh please know southern region is involved in those and more recently safe to say is also uh much more involved in it as they get uh contextual evidence from around the nation that we might not have access to as quickly as they do so big thank you to everybody and U we just uh want to put out there to parents do not hesitate to che check and uh review where your child is on their phones and without or throughout social media um it's okay to do that and

187in fact we're encouraging you to do that we're encouraging you to be on top of that it certainly takes Village um to be on top of the social media usage and what they're doing so appreciate that thank you again this year to the Rotary Club of Southern York County for sponsoring the fall mum sale with proceeds directed on behalf of the reading is fundamental program resulting in free reading materials made available to students in the primary grades further enhancing our understanding districtwide of uh and enhancing our reading programs continue to Value the generosity of the Rotary Club and appreciate all those who supported this worthwhile fundraiser I know Dr reer already covered this and Mr Ross covered a bunch of my things you guys are awesome um but I did want to make note uh

188specifically to Mr and Mrs Lewis who are both recognized as uh Shippensburg student cut study Council teachers of the year um that was not done knowingly between the two different principles in two different buildings so it was really really cool recognition that we put out via email to staff and it couldn't have gone to two uh greater people and greater teachers and I think that concludes my report thank you item 18 new business anyone have any all right hearing none I'll move on to item