School Board Meeting - 4/11/24

001e how are you e I'll uh call to order uh this April 11th uh 2024 regular meeting of the Board of Education please rise for the pledge to the flag I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all all right can we have roll call Elizabeth Doberman here Mary Lee Hall here Samantha Hall here William Hall here Jeremy H here here Nathan hle here James H here Jose Wilson here all right I have a couple of uh meetings to announce uh the board had an executive session on uh legal matters um on I believe it was the 8th um uh and uh another executive session immediately before this meeting on a uh matter

002of student discipline and uh some staff Staffing matters um all right moving on to item 2.01 uh approval of the April 11th 2024 board agenda I move to approve the agenda as presented do I have a second second I have a motion in a second any discussion any a or extensions that motion carries uh I'll move to uh item 3.01 I will move to approve the uh March 21st 2024 regular board meeting minutes do I have a second second any discussion any n or extensions that motion carries uh moving on to item 4. 01 uh let's done okay so it is April almost the end of the school year so there's usually a lot going on so this week the unified Track Club hosted an inclusion week um and the unified Track Club is comprised

003of skill of kids in the Life SK life skills program and then just kids um from any kids from in the school and they um hosted various activities at lunch during the week this week um to just kind of spread awareness about unified track um and the importance of inclusion the uh choir and Orchestra fund raised uh a bunch of money to be able to go on a trip to Nashville this week they left I believe on Tuesday night um they drove all through the night and they're there right now and I heard it's really they're having a really great time the uh powerlifting Club they had 18 students qualify for a na for Nationals competition in New Orleans and 11 students are going to compete the competition takes place um Friday April 29th through

004uh Sunday April 21st and they're hoping to send some kids to the World level competition the district arts and Tech fair is Thursday April 25th and I believe it's going to be hosted in the high school is that correct and then probably okay um and it features um arts and Tech projects from students all over the district so I think it'll be exciting to see it in the new space that we have on Friday May 3rd student council is hosting a mental health day for students at the high school this um event is hosted in preparation for upcoming testing season whether it be AP or standardized testing so um students will be able to participate in various activities of their choosing such as like playing outdoor games or making slime or just sitting and watching

005a movie as in an effort to hopefully give them a break and let them rest a little bit before the busy TI casting season um this is just a little bit exciting for me but uh there's 42 days until graduation and then uh prom is going to be Saturday May 4th so tickets are on sale until tomorrow April 12th um so if you have kids that are going to prom make sure that they buy their tickets by tomorrow and then I just wanted to uh talk about our new librarian Miss Daniel she was hired last month um something really cool she been doing is every week she has activities posted um just outside the class or just outside the library uh she opens like the glass doors and she has like things on the bulletin

006board every week so this week was blackout poetry where there was like various sheets of paper from books and you would like black out the words to like create your own poem last week I believe was um pin board poetry pin board poetry where she had a bunch of words printed out on paper and you just took them and you kind of pinned them up on the board to create some sort of poem and next week not to spoil it but uh there's going to be she's planning on doing something called poem in your pocket where you're going to be able to catch a butterfly from the rafters U that hang outside the library and you'll be able to like have a poem to carry around for the day so it's just been really cool

007to see what she's been doing with the new space so that's all I have thank you all right um item 5.01 National Merit scholar Awards uh presented by Dr M uh Dr Mullen take it away [Music] oh so good evening everyone um we have of the fortunate uh we're very fortunate to have three National Merit finalists in graduating class this year and before I give the the accomodations I just want to kind of give everybody a context of what this means and how wonderful an achievement this is for for our students uh this is a a lengthy process uh it began with 1.3 million uh Juniors who entered the contest uh by taking the 2022 preliminary sat and uh PSAT which served as the initial screener to the program ENT entrance the pool of semi-finalist

008repres presented less than 1% of us High School seniors who had some of the highest scoring entrances uh scores in each state to become a finalist the finalists had to work with their school counselor to submit a detailed scholarship application which they provided information about their semi-finalist academic record participation in school and community activities demonstrated leadership abilities employment honors and awards and the semi-finalist must have an outstanding academic record record throughout High School to be endorsed and recommended by the high school write an essay and earn an SAT or ACT score that confirms the students earlier performance uh on that qualifying PSAT test of the 1.3 million Juniors who started the process only 15,000 are named National Merit Scholarship Award winners and each of the three individuals have the ability to earn scholarships of several

009thousand doll and also join a very Elite group of high school graduates in the United States so with me this evening I have Aaron Walters along with his parents George and Jennifer and uh two of our other students Ian and Robert rasul are both on the orchestra trip in Nashville and they are enjoying themselves based on some of the texts I've seen uh but they I am uh we are all lucky tonight to have their grandparents Gerald and Sandra rasul so with that said Aaron uh accommodation from the school board for your efforts whereas Aaron Walters has maintained exemplary performance in the following areas academic proficiency class standing grade point average standardized testing scores as well as those in preparation for the pursuit of post high school education whereas Aaron has achieved the required selection

010index score and whereas Aaron has completed the ideal essay submission whereas Aaron has met or exceeded all requirements set forth by the National Merit Scholarship ship Awards program is resolved that the board of education on behalf of the southern New York County School District adds its recognition gratitude and admiration for the way in which Aaron Walters has represented susano High School his dedication leadership and success as a student will serve as a role model for others given this day in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania on the 11th of April [Applause] yes whereas Robert razul has maintained exemplary performance in the following areas academic proficiency class standing grade point average standardized testing scores as well as those in preparation for the pursuit of post school education whereas Robert has achieved the required selection index score and whereas

011Robert has completed an ideal essay submission whereas Robert has met or exceeded all requirements set forth by the National Merit Scholarship Awards program is resolved that the board of education on behalf of the southern New York County School District adds its recognition gratitude and admiration for the way in which Robert has represented Susan High School his dedication leadership and success as a student will serve as a role model for others given this day in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania on the 11th of April [Applause] 2024 whereas Ian rasul has maintained exemplary performance in the following areas academic proficiencies class standing grade point average standardized testing scores as well as those in preparation for the pursuit of post high school education whereas Ian has achieved the required selection index score and whereas Ian has completed an ideal

012essay submission whereas Ian has met or exceeded all requirements set forth by the National Merit Scholarship program Awards program it is resolved that the board of education on behalf of the Southern York County School District adds its recognition gratitude and admiration for the way in which Ian has represented Sanic High School his dedication leadership and success as a student will serve as a role model for others given this day in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania on the 11th of April [Applause] [Music] [Applause] 2024 would you like this Ian would like to thank everybody for the recognition and the time this evening and appreciates all that he's been given by southern New York County School District Dr mulling can we have you come back up sure we missed a picture I'm sorry with Aaron yes one up

013cool you want to get you a work you don't have to hurry thank you bless thank [Music] [Applause] you all right um moving on to 5.02 proposed budget presentation uh by our CFO Mr Green good evening everyone so at our March 19th uh finance and budget committee meeting um we gave a detailed presentation of the proposed budget for the 242 um school year we're just going to do a a quick summary this evening of the budget for next year or the proposed budget for next year um but we encourage um those watching to uh look at the whole presentation that is on our website um if they want more information on the budget for next year um so a summary of our budget um the entire budget there's an increase to revenues about 1.34% or

014$845,000 increase to expenditures of about $753,000 or 1.15% um so pretty low percentages um one of the reasons that is is the um Federal funding is ending um and as we know we use the federal funding for a lot of one-time um expenditures um because we knew knew it was going to go away and fall off um so that's why there is uh not quite a very big um increase in the budget next year um our recommended tax rate is to be unchanged so we do not have a tax increase in this budget so um we're very pleased to announce that um and there are no big changes um in the overall programming so we have stable enrollment um and stable programming for uh the 2425 budget so some of the challenges that we addressed

015in this budget um attracting and retaining staff um we all know that there is a staff and teacher shortage out there um we have that we have the same challenges here so um things that we are really focusing on is making sure that we do things um to attract and keep the staff that we have um so that has been a big focus of this budget um another um challenge for us is our health insurance we have had quite a few years of very good health insurance um changes uh this year we um have a very large increase of about 177% so that was a challenge for the budget um we always have the challenge of meeting the needs of all students in the appropriate environment uh this is the time in the budget year

016that I always remind people that um while we act like a business and we operate whever we can like a business business we are not a business we are a school um we take every student and we meet the needs of each and every student so um that is always a challenge for us to make sure um that we're meeting the needs of all of our students um and doing what they need each and every day uh the other challenge that we know but sometimes people forget um so we may be meeting their needs there in kindergarten um but when they go to first grade they have different needs and and they just keep moving up each year into another grade level so um those needs change each year and we have to make sure

017as we're walk working through things um that we're anticipating what they are for the upcoming years as we go along and then as I said we have the expiration of the federal funding so making sure um that we did with that Federal funding um we're able to continue or or transition off of those programs so our major cost drivers um as I said expenditures went up about $753,000 um but a lot of that um we have about a decline of about $1.2 million so we try to use that Federal funding for things that um were're one-time expenditures so overall our budget went up about 1.9 million on things that um are going to continue um so salaries uh we're a professional service organization so one of the largest pieces is salaries um retirement medical insurance

018um so our budget about 70% is salaries and benefits um so those are the large increase areas uh student transportation um we have a build-in increase of 5% as we know we're very fortunate to have our contract with first student and our wonderful bus drivers um we do very well in in keeping and retaining um our drivers um from year to year and then liability insurance um if you read any news articles or or even your own um Insurance bills are going up extensively um with the insurance crisis that's going on um so we have a a large increase there also so as I said composition of our budget we're a professional service organization so it's pretty much salary benefits um for our staff because that's the main uh portion of what we do so

019salaries are about 42% um and about a million dollars of the increase overall when you remove that um eer piece or that Federal funding piece um as far as Staffing we're about stable um I have about the same staff that we've had in the past um we have a reduction of a halftime hearing itinerate um we had trouble we had that in the budget for 23 24 um we had trouble finding a person um so we went with contracted services that is working very well for us um so um we're going to continue with those contracted Services um and then we also have one enrollment position um in the budget for next year because you never know um who's going to move in or move out um throughout the summer so we always make sure

020that we're we're covered there so as I said uh the federal funding piece um is a big piece so as we walk through that um you know we were very careful as we went into using that money over $4 million um back when it came out that when it ended um that we would have a stable budget so we're very very um pleased and proud to say um that our budget is very stable for next year um going to a conference at state level um I heard other districts where they they have to have layoffs or reduced Staffing um because that money is going away and we were just very cautious and very careful on how we use that so that we didn't have what's called like that fiscal cliff that you fall off when

021it goes away so class size and student needs um that's one of the biggest things that we do as we put the budget together um we re review the Staffing each year um classroom teachers and class sizes so we look across the board from elementary to secondary um what our class sizes look like um we look at where we need instructional Specialists um where our special education classrooms are and what supports are needed so as I said before um when you're looking through the process um our children move from grade to grade each year they move may move from building um to building so um as we're working through that that's one of the big things that we sit down um as a team of Administrators to look at making sure that we're moving the

022resources um to the appropriate places so when we say it's the same number of teachers and staff they may not be exactly at the same grade level or in the same building um because as our children move through we may need to move them to other areas so we also have a students in other programs um so they're able to go to York School of Technology um we have some programs that we do with other districts to meet student needs um we have our Digital Academy and then we have children that go to Cyber Charter programs so that is also another big piece of our bud budget as we're working through um what it looks like so another piece we look at um when we're making sure um that we understand our budget is our

023staffing compared to our peers so if you look at the average um in our area it's about 16.89 um students per teacher and if you go over to Southern we're like the darker red um we're we're pretty much almost right on that line um a little bit lower uh than average so that's that's something we look at very carefully to make sure um that we understand our St in and where we are um in relation um so then we'll go through so we have the expenditure side of the budget now we'll go through the revenue side of the budget um so overall local revenue is about 3.3% increase um we have increase in real estate assessment um so about 1% um and as I said the rate didn't change but with buildings and things um

024and this is the time where I always kind of remind people your assessment doesn't change um it's really um based not on market value but on assessment um it really only the only thing that changes assessment is if we have new properties come on or people at a pool or a fence or or things like that um other changes are earned income tax um so that went up about 11.7% and then interest earnings is the big piece um well our low is about $10,000 years ago we're up over a million dollars in interest earnings um and we do um we look at that very carefully uh to make sure we're getting as much money there as we can so that went up about $380,000 in this budget some decreases delinquent real estate um that goes

025up and down because um basically you're either getting it um for us you're either getting it in your current um real estate taxes or you're getting it in delinquent um we have very few properties that don't pay um some other districts have that where they don't ever pay we really don't have that they're either paying current or they're paying delinquent um state revenue this is one of the reasons that we're able not to have a tax increase um so we have been getting very robust um State funding in the last couple years um and it's actually coming um a little sooner than what we've seen it even though the budget's not passing um until July uh we are seeing it sooner than we had uh historically so we're able to to count on those numbers

026um and they're more realistic numbers than we had in the past so our basic educ education funding um is is going up um we have about 765,000 um same with special education about 158,000 so that is helping us um to be able to not have that tax increase and then some of the decreases um pccd safety grants um were higher in the state budget the year before so um they're that's down a little bit and then as I said the big piece with um federal revenue um that that Easter funding or covid funding is falling off and we're going back to our our two main program which programs which are Title One and title two um so we're back down to about um 1% for federal funding we were during the with the um eer

027funding or or covid funding we were about 3 to 4% um Federal funding we're back down to the 1% um so our basis for no tax increase in summary um is we were able to plan at use of the eer funding um and what was going to happen when it was ends um we do have that increased local funding and increased State funding and it's reasonably known um so that's a big difference in the state funding to is it being reasonably known um we also have a change in our budget methodology well I'll talk about briefly in a minute uh we have that stable enrollment and then um we do have negotiated and approved professional staff contract um because we were able to timely approve that in the fall um it's a lot easier to

028put the budget together when you know what 69% of your budget needs to be um for salaries and benefits so um that that's very helpful um and then we also had positive 23 24 results um so we've been having a good year so far um and we did not phase in additional um millage for long-term capital projects because we're we're going to do another feasibility study and take a look at what our greatest needs are in the district so um at this time we're going to we're going to pause and and take a look at that um so we're not adding an additional millage for that at this time so our history of our tax increase as you can see on the screen um in the last five years um previous to next year um

029we only had one tax increase um so again we're pleased to announce that we won't have one for next year and this chart just briefly shows um in our area um we have the lowest tax increase and and we're not going up again next year so again our goal is always to only tax to what we need um in order to to balance our budget and and run the operational program oops and then oops somehow going crazy okay there we go um so the one change that we made to our budget methodology um because of the um shortage of Staffing um we are running a surplus a little higher than what we have in the past um because we do have some vacancies in different areas that we've not had in the past um so

030we are took a look at using fund balance in a little bit a different way um so we're recommending use of fund balance to be set to not to exceed 1% of revenues and 3% of expenditures um so what I always like to say is we can never spend 100% of the budget because Pennsylvania you are not allowed to exceed your expenditures it's illegal Al um so we never want to get too close to that expenditure number so um we've um changed our methodology um to set it equal to this calculation not to exceed $2.6 million okay cat we got this clicker is not getting along okay so this is just the summary showing on what your revenues are what your expenditures are use of fund balance that I just explained and that we balance

031the budget which um is a requirement that it Balan es and then our next step this evening on the agenda um is approval uh of the proposed uh 2425 budget once that's approved um we will then um advertise and post it um for the public to review um with the idea that it would be approved at the May 16th um board meeting um so the board um will receive an update if we have any at that time um then it will be finally improved and at that time is when we'll know when the hes said Farmstead um amounts are determined and if for some reason something were to change and there would be a tax increase included the tax rate will be set at that time so what I always like to say is the

032budget can change between now and may um it does not have to stay the same um we don't predict that that will happen but I always like to point that out any questions thank you um moving on to item 5. 03 uh educational updates by Dr rert thank you president tle uh good evening School Board uh so thankful that the warmer weather is finally here spring is here hope everyone had a restful and enjoyable break uh now that we're heading down to home stretch of school and uh do apologize for not being here last month to give my uh uh update Dr Bryson you did okay uh so following the theme that uh we have utili or I've utilized over the the last two years years uh starting off with the safety our school continues

033to Pro prioritize the safety in relation to the rehearsal of drills while promoting situation awareness it's important you know for all of our students and parents to practice this even when you're out in public uh being uh aware of what your surroundings are to be safe and now that it's a lot warmer weather please be safe as your parents and students as you're out there driving students are out there playing outside uh just to make sure you keep a cautious eye of those balls coming out in the street or whatever may be so that we can make sure uh we maintain safety as our number one priority uh under supportive want to congratulate some students uh Jacob aitz Harrison maybon Ian and Robert rosul and Khloe Warner for the performance at the central region orchestra

034concert uh that was last month um as well as Harrison Mayon who qualified for the All State Orchestra Festival by playing fourth out of 16 in first violins Harrison will be attending the All State Festival in Erie Pennsylvania on April 17th through Saturday April 20th uh this is a great uh uh great accomplishment for Harrison so congratulation to him uh under collaboration uh wanted to take a moment thank all the staff members in our operations Department maintenance and custodial staff uh they have just an amazing job with our Fields getting them ready for the spring competition and our buildings continue to look immaculate and uh you know another plug I just want to say out a big thank you to them I know that we're going to be in a big process of another move

035uh from the administration administrative offices uh back over to the Thomas R Hensley administration building and I know they'll be very uh pivotal in making that so I want to thank them ahead of time as we're getting ready for that move um and under another collaboration a big thanks thank you out to Mrs whle uh at the high school uh teaches the EMT class on Friday our students as well as our high school principal Dr Mullen had the opportunity for some authentic opportunities of car extractions uh they had EMTs uh you know from the local municipalities out uh behind the old uh cafeteria and it was just an amazing opportunity to see that collaboration and the ability for our future EMTs to be trained with that uh just a couple reminders well there's a lot

036uh we have a coral concert for elementary that's coming up next Wednesday uh 8th grade formal dance at the middle school is Friday the 19th um as Carolyn mentioned we are going to be rolling in our testing season uh we got the ELA pssas uh from grades 3 through eight that'll be starting in April uh 22nd uh followed by the math and science the week after that uh bunch of concerts coming up High School spring band concert will be the 24th of April and Carolyn when you were talking about the district's annual architect Fair that's going be on Thursday April 25th um at 5:00 p.m. in the common so it's going to be a great opportunity for everybody to come in and see the great work of our students in the commas of the high

037school uh schools will be Clos on Friday the 26th uh if you like jazz music please come out to uh Shrewsberry Elementary on the 27th at 6:00 p.m. for an awesome competition where there'll be jazz bands from around the County um as well as one professional Jazz man that will be uh headlining the final show there we'll take a breath uh we have a couple primary grade music concerts first grade and second grade which will be on the 30th and the May 1st uh we have Coral concert for the high school middle school on May 2nd Teacher Appreciation Week okay uh it's called teacher appreciation week but Dr Bry I to call it staff appreciation uh because we have a lot of people that we don't want to be excluded so that is the week

038of May 6th so please take an opportunity to thank a teacher staff member for all they uh all they do uh and don't just limit it to that week um you know you can do it anytime throughout the school year uh but those uh those positive things do go a long way for uh for our staff uh we have a couple more concerts nights wind concert on May 6th um Elementary School Board recognition uh this is an opportunity that our elementary students will be recognized for their accomplishments that will be on Tuesday May 7th in the High School auditorium scholarship night uh will be coming up on May 9th and the spring uh sixth grade Warrior CET concert May 13th and middle school band concert will be on the 15th we have a lot and

039it's a little bit of time but it's the end of the school year we try to pack everything in so so you know have a great rainy uh month of April and await the flowers of May or not wish is yours thank you Dr rert all right uh moving on to 6.01 uh public comment uh I'll just remind you when you come up for public comment please uh state your name your Municipality of ref uh residence um and uh you'll you'll have five minutes um that'll be up on the board um and then um just a reminder to please observe proper deorum while speakers are speaking um both in your own in your own comment as well as while other people are speaking um and we'll go ahead and get started uh Val Dennis my

040name is Val Brown Dennis and I'm I'm a resident of Shrewsberry Township thank you for giving me time to share ideas I'm speaking today from a perspective that includes K to2 certification in music library and information science and education Administration April is school library month in the United States to each of us in this room and out there in YouTube land please make the time to thank our school librarians a short email will do school librarians training and work with books reading information literacy digital and Tech literacy media literacy research education technology curriculum create positive impacts on students School staff and communities I will continue to be at the Mason Dixon Diner at 7:00 on Tuesdays to listen and talk about education while social media has its place and isn't going away I believe we

041are far more likely to support our students with in-person conversation I could also show up at your workplaces and Home Offices next week in order to observe your work and that would be very awkward um there is talk about observing teachers and students during my first year of teaching I was observed 18 times by School administrators at the three schools where I taught music based on standard procedures for new teachers I knew these leaders and their guidance was useful my students and I would have been deeply anxious about having someone we didn't know show up in our classrooms to watch us teaching and learning does not occur at the same time as anxiety my assumption and I could be wrong is that the discussion around unannounced visits by school board members is to look for

042evidence of issues in public schools harassment marginalized peoples diversity clim climate change sex education Health classes books curriculum and more I would suggest that we choose instead to make the time to build respect and trust with our students teachers staff and families we do this primarily by listening and then asking about their experiences and ideas do we have the courage to ask marginalized families about their experiences here I hope so because public schools welcome everyone just like the all or welcome signs on many churches in our area there is also discussion about additional legal council we can use the law to change what we think needs to be changed and we can talk about the challenges of public education before we jump to law as the means to change I have experienced Perpetual change in

043public education professional development known as PD leading School Improvement teams on teams to build new schools on middle States accreditation teams in the Mid-Atlantic States taking University classes on teaching and learning until I was 50 years old and most of all the impact of Perpetual societal changes on education teaching requires constant learning I wish every adult would substitute teach at least one day in their lives after fingerprinting background checks and about two days of videos on school policy and law often assumptions and reality are very different things in public schools my assumption and I could be wrong is that the intent of additional legal counsel for the school system is to provide guidance on moving forward with book censorship curriculum changes and policy changes as for book censorship I was a high school librarian for

04420 years and I had the career Joy of building a library in a new High School from scratch what I will say now is that I am 100% convinced that the removal of a book will not prevent some teens from being sexually active will not prevent some teens from being part of the lgbtq plus Community removing a book will not not harm white male students to learn more about the experiences history and contributions of women and non-white people in the United States of America is it important to talk about and work together on all of these instead of removing books or curriculum yes it is and I have nothing against white males I like them very much my dad my husband our sons our brand new grandson it's just that there are other people here

045in our community and Country also each day let's continue to make opportunities to listen and to talk with each other thank you all right um Katie Weber po I'm Katie weberp Po and I'm from Glenrock H the arguments some board members presented at the last meeting in regard to the proposed unrestricted visitation policy were very disorganized and rather concerning when so many poorly organized logical fallacies are used it indicates to me that I am dealing with an intent to manipulate and misdirect further learning that you are going to engage a Ser the services of a right-wing legal firm the independence legal council as free legal council has increased my concern I am worried that this firm will use our district for their own political end it is known that this group has an interest in

046changing The Establishment Clause of the Constitution prohibiting the government from forming uh from establishing a state religion ilc has been developing book band anti-lgbtq plus policies and pushing abstence only education in schools in school districts across Pennsylvania they're doing this in order to drum up lawsuits most of which they know they will lose leaving taxpayers in these districts to foot the bill while they slink away this tactic is intended to test the legal system with the goal of eventually going before The Supreme Court to challenge the safeguards in our constitution I want to be clear the ilc will use our kids as fodder for their benefit they will so further disruption in our community and advocate for harmful policies this will lead to lawsuits against the district which will result in our taxpayers footing the

047bill members of this board are acting in bad faith their actions have already placed this District at risk since the resurrection of the racist mascot our district has been issued a warning from the NAACP theyve failed to take meaningful action to address their own racious action in the resurrection of the mascot and they haven't made any meaningful efforts to address systemic racism in our school instead the board chooses to further lean into offensive Behavior by abusing the trust of the district and using their positions for their own political agenda as I'm hearing reports come in um or reports surface of a fincial relationship between the national hate group family research coun Council and some members on the board I'm also hearing um where board members are reportedly uh disrupting educational time with with family research

048Council surveys during sexual education classes this behavior is highly suspect it Le it leaves the board and the district open to litigation and is irresponsible furthermore I must point out that the actions of this board do not MCH up with the words spoken from your mouths in my book that equates deception and as I'm putting all these pieces together is something I do as a therapist uh I look at all the moving parts to see how motivations are driving people to what actions and to what end and honestly I'm a little chilled to the Bone world we're going I've seen other districts go through this I've worked with kids who've gone to Central and their heartbreak and pain over book bands and LGBT and anti-lgbtq policies personally I'm a little I'm extremely concerned about uh

049absence only education uh previously I worked as a sexual assault advocacy actually ran an advocacy program for sexual assault survivors and the heartbreaking times in which I've had to explain to young women what sex was after a violent attack because they had absence only education and that they were educated in such a way that they weren't even told what their body parts were is horrifying and I will not stand by and let our children experience that same harm Ashley Morrison hi I'm Ashley Morrison Shrewsberry um I wrote all of you a few months back to discuss my concerns about the All Access that all times for pest made during the December meeting regarding School Board visits to the schools although I may not agree with all the responses I received I do want to acknowledge

050and thank those of you who were able to be honest in your answers without getting defensive or accusatory that being said after the first reading of the proposal last month I now have greater concerns regarding this request according to the first reading each School Board member is allowed two visits per week up to half a day for each visit while not all board members might take advantage of this policy with nine board members and five schools each school could end up with unplanned visits covering three to four days a week allowing for multiple unplanned visits each week does not provide a conducive learning environment for teachers students or staff no matter the intention of these visits it will be disruptive to classes at the last meeting the idea of a survey to teachers and staff

051was proposed I was glad to hear this as I believe it is imperative that a survey should be provided so that we can better understand whether teachers believe that unplanned visits by Schoolboard members are viewed as a supportive measure this survey should be anonymous and be comprised of unbiased and specific questions pertaining to the proposed new policy so there can be an accurate assessment of the teachers and staff input I would also recommend and comment section in which teachers can provide additional feedback on how they can be supported as addressed during the last meeting there's already a protocol in place in which board members may visit a school if they choose to do so I have not yet heard valid reasons why this protocol needs to be revised so that board members may show up

052unannounced and without contacting the school's principal and with such frequency a couple of reasons and examples were provided by the board last month one mentioned that an unannounced visit without contacting the princip would allow teachers to discuss issues they have with the school environment or Administration with a school school board member I immediately started wondering how likely this s situation was to rise after all for anyone who knows a teacher I'm married to one we know they rarely have spare time with their day or if they do they're often helping students or catching up on lesson plans or grading second I can't think of any profession in which someone would seek outside support because they have issues at work and then ask to meet at their place of employment ESP especially considering there are other

053outlets available email phone call even meeting outside the school another example provided for the necessity of the revised protocol is that if a board member randomly gets a half day off from work they can stop by the school once again my immediate thought was how often does this scenario occur that it justifies revamping the current protocol while I do not doubt that our teachers and staff would be able to professionally and skillfully handle these unannounced visits that doesn't mean that they would be welcomed or provide a productive and positive outcome if we truly want to support and retain our teachers as well as provide a conducive learning environment for our students then I think there needs to be additional input from teachers and staff before the revised policy is considered for approval and implemented I

054still have a little bit of time so um share a story why my son my 8-year-old son wanted to know why I'm going to miss bedtime tonight and I told him that I was here because school board members want to just be able to show up at school multiple times [Music] and did I hit it oh he said I mean I can I can be flexible if I have to but if they're there that long it it's going to be really hard for me to concentrate and it's going to be and I'm going to get distracted so I didn't I simply told him and that that's what he told me last night when he wanted to know why I wouldn't be at bedtime tonight thank you Megan Gilbert good evening I am Megan Gilbert I

055live in New Freedom I have three children at ssoh hanak high school two of them will graduate I learned from Caroline in 42 days and my third child is uh will be a senior next year I am incredibly proud of my children allow me to brag for a second um my seniors are College Bound they have received scholarships they've been accepted into honors colleges but most important to me they have chosen careers and Futures where they want to make the world a better place for everyone my husband and I joke that the reason our children are so successful is that we are amazing parents and we will definitely take some of the the credit for that uh but the truth is we did not do this alone they worked very hard and the school district

056the teachers here the administrators their fellow students like Caroline who has gone to school with them since kindergarten they deserve a lot of the credit too and to all of you who have played a role in the success that my children are experiencing right now please accept my sincere gratitude my husband and I moved here 17 years ago in large part because of the school district and as I said it is delivered on our expectations I know others have not had the same experiences that my children have had and it breaks my heart when I hear mothers speak about what their children have experienced the racism that their families have experienced I deeply regret not paying more attention to that issue and I stand here ready and willing to work with this community and the

057school district to make it better for all children here so that all children can have the experiences that my children had I have a responsibility as a member of this community who benefited so much from these school to make that happen for others so this is my offer to work with anyone here to make the school district a place where every child can succeed can feel safe can feel welcomed and get the support that they need to thrive so when I look at some of the actions of the school board and some members of the school board I have to say that I am alarmed one of your first actions was to bring back a divisive logo one that a Native American family in our district said was harmful to them then you introduced a

058policy about unannounced visits claiming you want teacher approval and input but that is not including Ed in the policy and now we have the independence Law Center on the agenda you haven't explained yet why you want to hire them but we all know what they do they write policies on book banss anti-lgbtq plus policies and imposing their own brand of Christian nationalism in public schools so when I say I want to work towards making the school a welcoming place for everyone this is the opposite of that I can only imagine what parents of children who identify with the lgbtq plus Community are thinking and wondering what this will mean for the safety and well-being of their children in the school district I can only imagine what teachers are thinking about their ability to prepare our

059students to be productive citizens when a school board wants to enter their classroom without notice and wants to hire a law firm that helps School boards ban books I also think about the families in the position that my husband and I were in 17 years ago and decid in where they wanted to live when they are looking at the actions of this board who are not don't seem to be focused on solving real issues such as the racism in this District retaining highquality teachers making sure our children are prepared for a rapidly changing world will they choose to live here we just saw a budget proposal and we depend on people wanting to live here I know some people want to live in their bubble and they only want to have people around them who

060think just like them I am tempted sometimes but that is not realistic and I don't think that should be our goal I encourage all of you I'm asking all of you to really start listening to the people who are living here who come here really consider what we are saying and a lot less on those outside sources who may be funding your campaigns before we lose everything in this school district that people worked so very hard to build thank you now Natalie [Applause] Bor Natalie bore you Freedom all right tonight I want to propose a couple different things um I can come up here and talk about racial bullying and discrimination so why I'm blue in the face um one of the books of mice of men we've discussed this a while back um I'm

061not for book Banning you can leave it in the library but I'm wondering if we can come up with an alternate book Something Like The Alchemist I don't know if anybody's ever read that um something that will actually open the minds teach kids to follow their dreams go through obstacles some life lessons per se um so then the second part of it is is so we have culture night and we do it on the different campuses right so teachers struggle they stress try and get this done for everybody to come out and enjoy it and I know when my kids were in elementary going to Art night it was kind of like a fly by my night like fly by my oh I can't talk sorry fly by minute moment CU you're shoulder-to-shoulder with everyone

062it's it's a lot right it's chaos um parents in the evening they're coming home they're getting dinner then we're going to the school so I'm wondering um what about doing a culture event in New Freedom um Shrewsberry Park wouldn't be adequate uh Glenn Rock but New Freedom Park's been redone there's ample parking maybe get with the mayor do a culture Fest um you know we're right between Baltimore and Harrisburg there's multiple food trucks for authentic food um I spoke with Katie and briefly Erica earlier um you know they would be up to doing a little powwow um maybe have come some traditional other dancers come in from other cultures um do like a dunk booth just I mean the idea is are you know obviously endless but to involve the community in general when people

063eat and they break bread with people dialect opens up and you tend to talk to more people than what you would sitting in a gym shoulder-to-shoulder listening to a speaker which speakers are great you know um but I'm thinking about something familyfriendly you know something on a Saturday where people aren't rushing around and they can enjoy it have the Culture Club set up little different booths um kidss can go through them and answer little questions maybe get a ticket for a free treat um again the ideas are endless but I think that rather than putting all the pressure on the teachers and the schools to try and make these nights happen for everyone why not bring it together as a community um I think the community would benefit from it uh we're growing as a

064community I just think it would be a really good idea um and then like you know do that say that we do that in the fall or the spring um and then to do another event where it's mental health suicide suicide awareness um drugs um anything along that line bullying discrimination uh have outside agencies come in True North uh PA Counseling Services set up Booth sometimes parents don't know where to reach out to um if their kiddo struggling I don't know how many parents have came up to me and like where did you get services for your son when he was so young I have a son that they used used to be known as Asbergers it's autism level one level two and I've educated a lot of parents in the area just on where

065to start with services and I think having a mental health like event and a familyfriendly event in the community would be extremely beneficial as well um and that's just a couple of ideas that I had uh and that's what I wanted to bring up as a proposal tonight just to make it more of a community involved event we have the Lions Club we have all these new business bus is um so yeah so that's pretty much what I have tonight um that and maybe trying to find a different alternative to that book um but I think that would be good idea uh sometimes we don't always have a means of transportation to get to A to B or to come to the school events out here on campus and it's a blessing our campus is

066always extremely busy but it would be hard to hold some type of an event for everyone to come to at the high school to accommodate everyone so thanks thank Lanna Feer man Feer shb Township last month a proposal for a new policy regarding director initiated School visits was announced note that Mr hankle did say in that meeting that quote the current policy doesn't prevent any ability to gather information on the school environment end quote nevertheless the board seeks to give itself permission to engage in multiple ways that come across as less than sound in their reasoning and as a general overreach of the board's power the policy states that board members should coordinate in advance before initiating a visit to minimize potential disruptions to the educational environment ensure the timing and structure of the visit

067allows for the best opportunity to obs OB erve the desired activity program or condition and confirm that the date and time is not prohibited under the policy but in the very same sentence you give yourselves permission to completely ignore all those reasons the policy states that a visit may not be used as opportunity for a director to conduct his or own investigation of allegations of misconduct or improper Behavior by staff members or students yet one reason given for needing these visits was to listen to interactions with students in light of test testimony given during public comment so that you can see for yourselves as if the students and parents who speak here cannot be believed and that students wouldn't change their behavior in front of you the policy states that a director may not interfere

068with or otherwise disrupt classroom routines perhaps the board isn't aware that unplanned deviations from normal expectations can be wildly disruptive to students with IEPs and 504s or how difficult it can be to recover from that kind of distraction the policy allows for a total of 18 visits by board members per week I guess that should cover all the planned secret lunch meetings with teachers the teachers this policy is supposedly meant to Aid who were not actually consulted in the formation of this policy the teachers who have no fear of being caught because woke and subsequently losing their jobs because you're definitely not there to investigate anything the teachers who have made it abundantly clear that they do not support this part of your policy and in this policy you give yourselves permission to speak with

069students unsupervised well let me be clear you do not have permission to speak to my children without a teacher or principal present honestly I don't want some of you speaking to my children even when their teacher is present and this isn't just me you push this line through and you will have many many many parents putting no contact rules in place a look that will be just great for our district I mean the reinstatement over the old logo and your intention to hire the independence Law Center tonight shows how little you care about how our district looks but sure let's keep adding to the bad press everybody loves when our property values take a dive am I right as Mr do as Mrs Doberman so plainly and bravely put it last month nothing I say

070matters you'll do whatever you want because you can as long as it benefits you and your political Ambitions quote one school board at a time one County at a time one state at a time we need to start at a lower level and work our way up we all know that it's Nationwide end quote Southern York County's needs be damned it's not about us or students or teachers it's all about you Mrs Gilbert you wondered howu how parents of lgbtq students feel about the ilc terrified that's how we feel uh I think it was um Mrs po you wonder what good reasons they have for things they have no good reasons for this policy in the absence of good reasons what kind of reasons do we have left I have here a petition signed by

07170 medical 70 mid middle school students in protest of your plan to have unannounced unsupervised visits that's 70 middle school students in one day Mrs cop has over 175 parent signatures that's a again in protest of your thing that's over the course of a couple days with very little effort we can put in a lot more effort and get a lot more signatures to show you how wildly unacceptable people find this idea we would like it to not go that far please reconsider the wording of your policy and your intentions with it thank you Lou [Applause] Vernard hi it's Lou berett Shrewsberry PA I here tonight to express my concerns about the proposed new policy that would allow board members to have unrestricted access to school buildings without first notifying the principal not only is

072this a waste of time and resources spent on having the solicitor draw up a new policy policy but you are neglecting the fact that there is already a policy in place to have any board member visit any school with approval and notifying the corresponding principal and I'm going to try to be as pragmatic as possible allowing the board members to show up unannounced would make our staff especially our cherished Educators feel like they are not trusted by this Administration this can lead to an unproductive and uncomfortable environment for teaching and learning as a regular volunteer at my child's school I understand that I cannot enter a classroom without permission board members should be held to the same standard the rationale of wanting to get a better feel for the environment as was stated last month

073in schools is misguided board members are not regular volunteers and their presence can be a distraction to both teachers and students not a single board member holds a degree in education so you would be completely unqualified to Give opinions or judgments on classroom matters if you want to gather information about the school and the environment then email the teachers set up a conference or a meeting but not door in classroom time you should not be interrupting their daily routines I eagerly await the results from the third-party survey that will be given to teachers instructional assistants and hopefully office staff to gather their opinions and feedback on what is best for the children I believe that the majority of our valued teachers would not approve of such an egregious overstep on the board's part I hope

074that the board listens to the concerns of the parents who have spoken last month and this month um and the signed petitions that are going uh against this new policy you say that you are voted by the people but if you knowingly ignore the voices of disapproval you are acting and voting solely on your behalf and any hidden agendas that may currently lie dormant and disregarding the best interests of the children in our district let me repeat it for everyone here and online we currently have a policy for any board member to visit any school upon approval and notification and that is all I have to say Brian cop good evening Dr Bryson Dr reper and uh let me thank the other uh teachers educational professionals staff support staff that are constantly working really hard

075uh for our kids thank you so much we really appreciate it um like another parent here tonight my kids have experienced just fantastic success in our school system um I've got two years left in the school system however um I'm a little concerned and make your comments from the podium why that because they can't be picked up on the uh microphone sir get go to the podium now excuse me go to the podium now that is the place for you to make your comments it's almost like you don't want somebody unqualified in your space Nathan it's almost like you don't want somebody looking over your shoulder to read your notes I don't understand then why you've put forward this idea that you should be able to come into the schools and oversee the teachers and

076oversee the students and the staff whenever you want that made you very uncomfortable it was really obvious how do you think that's going to make teachers feel Nathan how do you think that's going to make kids feel what are you tapping your Hammer For What are you tapping your hammer for I got 3 minutes you're going to listen for them to be quiet while you're speaking here's what I want to know why do you want access to our schools and our kids without supervision you know what I think I think it's freaking creepy I coming I'm going to tell you a story real quick coming out of the polls three years ago when Mary Lee was a candidate point of order I'm going to tell the truth and a true story no I'm sorry you're

077not allowed to slander board members I'm not the truth is slander we're not we're not the truth you address your comments to me excuse me you address your comments to me I will address my comments to the board and to the public and to anybody I choose to sirk board policy is that you address your comments to the chair great chair sir I'm going to tell you a story when I was at the polls 3 years ago something when Mary Lee uh was running something happened to me that made me not want some of you in the schools with our kids and our teachers do you want to know what it was I was threatened of threatened Violence by one of the current board members sit down this has already been established as false sit

078down you are no longer allowed to speak his time is over it was your time is over by Mary Lee sir please can I get I have to leave for what telling the truth Sierra what if I catch out if I catch you bathroom or a classroom with my kid thank you sarra y Mr President is it possible that we could give a minute or two Mrs wi are you are you okay yeah do you I don't want you to have to recalibrate I'm okay to speak now it's not yeah sorry it's fine it's fine I'm okay to speak now C shb all right please do not re please do not reference my children and other children facing traumatic experiences during a school day to use an as an excuse or example to gain access

079to enter schools unannounced and [Applause] unsupervised this can cause anxiety and distraction to students having unfamiliar adults in their presence we all know that the seven real conservative school board members are going to vote to move forward with this POS policy change to allow School Board directors and members to enter the school buildings and offices unannounced and unsupervised despite the majority of the school and Community who do not want this policy change I feel there's a hidden agenda for the policy change number one you already know what's occurring in the school board in school districts and in the school district and in the buildings number two I feel as and as new board members it would be a softer approach to continue with the presence of admin administrators or the superintendent to ensure students feel

080safe and comfort under the current policy School Board directors does do not have permission to speak with my children without my presence and I know other parents that have the same requests also after all students are minors and it is our parental rights also several parents have voiced their concerns regarding frequent frequently disturbing teachers students and principles with these unannounced visits you all have you all may have your clearences but your agenda does not sit well with me so I'm sorry just like you would not want people from other races religion and sexual orientation coming to observe your children unvetted when the for the former board was in place many of you challenged and disputed many agenda items and said the board didn't listen to you well I don't see a difference with this board

081despite the community I don't see a difference with this board you do what you want despite hearing from the community and from students in the last few months there hasn't been much or if any public comments in support of the actions you're taken and it's not because they are afraid to speak out there is there is an action item tonight to approve changes to the school handbooks and and the public does not know what the changes are this is the same criticism you you gave the former board with all the negative press you have the audacity to retain the controversial independent Law Center this is another hidden agenda driven action that has nothing to do with Student Success mental health of teachers or students teacher Recruitment and Retention for improving School climate I leave you

082with this anonymous quote power is not a means it is an end picky [Applause] cop py cop New Freedom burrow tonight the board is reading their proposed policy regarding scheduled and unscheduled School director visits to all buildings in our school district and I represent tonight not not only my own point of view but that of almost 200 community members that include Democrats Republicans Independents I who have signed and continue to sign a position as a show of discontent regarding the proposed policy 012 I said at the last meeting and I continued to maintain that this new policy is unnecessary as school directors as already mentioned already have the right to visit the schools when they wish under policy 9.07 which is the same policy that guides School director visits in all yourk County Schools the

083biggest change that this new policy proposal brings is allowing School directors to visit all buildings in our school district unannounced which is called in the policy School director initiated visits rather than unscheduled board visits which is what they are these visits specifically do not require a School director to schedule a visit in advance and in coordination with the building principal which means that a director can choose to stop drop by in anywhere at any time for any reason outlined in the policy which which includes to observe the educational program the language specifically does not bar a School director from dropping in on teachers unannounced as we've already heard this evening at any time during their lunch their planning or while they're teaching a class the proposed new policy also allows as we've heard already on

084announced on supervised visits up to two times per week per director for up to half a day which is about three hours with nine directors on our board the math has already been done that means our school staff could be subjected to to 18 visits per week or 54 hours of School director visitation time per week I've been teaching for 32 years that's unprecedented the proposed policy is without a doubt a breach of trust in our teachers our administrators and our staff on the part of the school directors proposing the policy it has absolutely every potential to lower morale across the school system and ultimately to cause good teachers and good administrators to seek employment in a system where they are trusted and valued not mistrusted and policed I'm going to again reiterate that while

085our Schoolboard directors have been legitimately elected to their position not one of them is a certified educator not one of them has a training to conduct skilled observations and evaluations of an educational program and in addition the board members supporting this policy have not made the case to a large portion of the sycsd community as to why such an unprecedented change in policy is needed other than the claim of wanting to help teachers and get a better feel for the environment believe me if you want to help teachers ensure that they have the planning time they need to do their jobs provide them with tuition reimbursement so they can stay up toate with current best practices in education purchase the materials they need to implement good quality in curriculum create policies that build an environment

086of respect and prior towards the safety and the individual rights of all students and staff parents s than children who are respectful and curious do not subject them to unneeded gotcha Moments by roaming the buildings at unexpected times up to 18 times per week and making them feel constantly watched and on edge at their place of work you suggested at the last meeting the use of the third party survey in addition to the end ofe climate survey to gauge the opinions of teachers and staff to this proposal yet there's no mention of that survey in tonight's agenda you owe it to the excellent teachers to ask for and to listen to their voices make the survey happen I would also add that the proposed policy does not include protocol for after a school board director

087visit which which is not something we've heard this evening in the Dallas town area school district director handbook it specifically states that school directors should provide the full board with a verbal report about the visit at the end of a subsequent board meeting there is no such stipulation for transparency in The Proposal being read this evening this is especially concerning giving that the board is seeking tonight to take action on retaining the legal council of the notorious independent Law Center which offers to help conservative School directors draft proposals that routinely tar the individual rights of lgbtq students books and school libraries and which was involved in helping the do area school district add intelligent design or creationism to their science curriculum some 20 years ago it's no secret that the ilc is the legal arm

088of the PA Family Institute which seeks to bring their own brand of Conservative Christian beliefs into the Pennsylvania public school system District by district will the observations made by our school directors during their up to three hour two-time per week visits be shared with the ilc legal team to draft future morally and legally controversial policies that leave our system open to anti-discrimination lawsuits will our district be left settling a lawsuit for millions of dollars like the do Area School District had to do to remove intelligent design from their science curriculum the IC may offer their policy drafting Services pro bono but they do not offer to defend the school system adopting their policies for free thank [Applause] you Rachel zelony Rachel zelony uh Shrewsberry Township I've seen a lot of people uh saying that you

089don't need a job or a degree in education to see what's happening in schools and maybe not but understanding why things are happening and what might actually help that degree sure does help let me explain I didn't have an education degree when I began teaching I was an emergency certified teacher it means that I was immediately grown into a classroom without having one class in education I had a master's degree in English which proved to be tissue paper and helping me manage a room of 35 students six times a day kids repeatedly threw oranges at my head my room was chaos I was collecting things but I wasn't raing them how does that okay um I didn't know how to use the copier by October I had gone to four funerals one boy was shot

090walking his younger brother to the bus stop a group of girls made a suicide Packa and all three hung themselves I cried in the parking lot every morning my husband and I had just started dating at this time every day I'd meet him for a walk and vent everything's out of control they're out of control I have no support I can't do this if I could just suspend this kid or that kid I need a tranquilizer dart he looked at me and said well your Ambitions of being scary probably aren't going to work you're 5ot tall second your entire way of thinking about discipline will never work I rolled my eyes in an ideal world he said instead of detention or suspension we'd make the parents come to school with their kid the next day

091the parent would be a responsible for watching their kids behavior and getting the the kid getting their work done it would be their responsibility and then it would hopefully translate into more accountability at home he's pretty sure this wouldn't get any Buy in but he still thinks it would be the best system so instead he said you need to understand that consequences like suspension never really work what happens when the kids comes back after missing material they're even more disruptive than before because they are behind and who do you think it falls on to provide them with the missed work and the missed instruction right you got it he said looking at me so instead he explained classroom management is student engagement discipline issues are easily managed or reduced when students feel like they have

092connection to the teacher when students understand the material and when students are engaged I said okay what does that look like he said I'm going to come and and watch you tomorrow okay well he sat in with me for the day and at that point I already loved him and it was still terrifying afterwards we debriefed well your first period kids are hungry he said your demographics indicate that most of the students who walk into your classroom don't get to eat breakfast put a box under your desk with granola bars or whatever they say they'll eat don't care about whether it's healthy take their word for whatever they will eat put a doorm at your front door their shoes to them are precious they don't care about any of the other clothes that they're wearing

093just their shoes they're spending half their time in back year room cleaning their shoes instead of paying attention to you use the doorm find a mentor who could help you design lesson plans that are going to engage everyone in the room and not just the kids who learn easily find your best pair of professional and see if you can have that person in your room to help make phone calls home to parents especially that one that one and that one and he pointed out the three and make good phone calls home tell their parents what you see in terms of their potential do this before you do any other kind of phone call attend their after school events he told me three TV shows I should be watching to relate to them and 10 books

094that I needed to be reading so I know what they were talking about I want to say that I went to an interview yesterday at York Country Day with a young black man who is considering working there I said did you look at susannah's position he said I did I said I'm really sorry did you think about teaching there and he said no I said oh because the newspaper press about the student he said no because I watched a school board meeting and I said ooh okay and he said specifically the member who said she did didn't have to teach her child about race that's a red flag to me and any other teacher who's going to think about teaching in your District having teachers of diversity is one of the best methods for maintaining

095discipline and creating a safety and inclusion for other communities how about we focus a little bit more on things like that and a little bit less about badge access pulling books off the shelf bathrooms and whatever else it is that we have coming thank you Zoe [Applause] Jones good evening my name is Zoe Jones I a junior SS school and high school I would like to share my thoughts about the school board directors having full access to entering our schools on the notes my experience in Souther y County district schools has not been pleasant as you all know I have experienced harassment and ratory incidents while at school the interruptions and incidents during school has been overwhelming sometimes causes me anxiety throughout the school day I feel allowing the board members to come into our

096school and announced is unnecessary and will be another Interruption even though I have a small group of friends overall I feel like I am in survivor mode and not welcome by many in my school many times during certain discussions and book readings I feel uncomfortable especially when I am the only black student in the classroom I I fail this way because I honestly don't feel supported by certain administrators school counselors teachers office staff and board members other students and myself feel as though our voices and feelings don't matter because we express our concerns however it seems like decisions have already been made for once please listen to the students when you are making decisions and policy changes for our school that will directly impact us that's all I wrote but I still have like more

097like to say um I just feel like a lot of like people on the board and people that's in the school say they're going to do certain stuff say they're going to do this do that about the what's going on in the schools that everyone know about it's not on hush everybody knows about what's going on in the schools I feel like you guys need to actually stand on what you say if you're want to expel kids suspend kids then do it because it's impacting black and brown kids that go through these walls that should have to go through this like it's 2024 it's not back in 1920s it's really not so I feel like if you guys want to make a change like you guys say you are please do it because it actually

098really is affecting us and this is coming from a student not coming from a teacher or someone in the community is coming from someone who actually goes to the school so I have witnessed it thank [Applause] you Amy Hall Amy Hall uh streb Township National volunteer appreciation lies in the month of April it allows us to recognize the impact of volunteers and their service in time I am a volunteer and have a passion for recognizing and thank you other volunteers who lend their time talent and voice to make a difference in our community some of our greatest challenges are bright hearing in front of us but we can all agree that we are here to make a difference for our kids I have witnessed volunteers provide unified approach and engage with a wide range of

099people to make a positive difference in our schools and Community I am currently the yearbook advisor at shuberry elementary shuberry is celebrating 25 more than 25 years since it opened its stores in 1997 we decided that we were going to create a rewind Edition yearbook and we had looked through the entire first yearbook the yearbook was created by students and it's include positive quotes by them one quote stated by a student students get by with the help of our volunteers that is what inspired me to speak this evening and give a public shout out to all of Southern York County School District community volunteers our schools and Community are blessed with volunteers who make a difference in our students teachers staff and administrators some way M volunteer in multiple organizations in our school and in

100our community many teachers are volunteers in our community there are PTO that include a board of volunteers who also depend on volunteers there are Booster clubs which is operated by volunteers who also rely on volunteers coaches who have coached all through their child's rec league whatever sport they play through tribal teams and some have even volunteered to coach in middle and high school teams the benefits of volunteer go far beyond the purpose of helping research shows that it provides many benefits and here are some making an impact on someone new and stronger relationships social connections usually with people who interact with and handle challeng they handle challenges with our district values volunteers your volunteering end time tells them that you are ambitious you care about our school district and are willing to put the work

101in that brings change today I reached out to some teachers um throughout our district and I asked them when you think of volunteers at Southern y County School District what words come to mind I have to say that they've responded very quickly um more quicker than they ever have to send me pictures for the yearbook um however I have someone doing that for me thank you they've responded with helpful amazing wonderful Lifesavers dedicated sincere caring creative energetic positive responsible the [Applause] best parent volunteers are amazing selfless incredible friendly and extremely helpful volunteers everywhere in this room watching at home or wherever you are those words are about you accept this appreciation and remember when you are overwhelmed exhausted searching endlessly for new ideas or you're struggling because you really want to please everyone but you

102know you can't volunteering matters I am suggesting that everyone volunteer encourage volunteering appreciate volunteers and help create a unified inclusive and impactful environment for our school district and Community by showing appreciation we ensure people feel empowered to act on their desire to stand up and say I can help if you are looking to find inspiration build relationships and give a positive energy to make a change there is always an opportunity to take action um last meeting Mary Lee mentioned if you want to get into the schools sign up to volunteer at a table host a table um Mary Lee I'm sorry I meant to email you to tell you that I appreciated that um that is one example um to get into our schools and the help is definitely needed uh so if anyone ever

103needs a opportunity to volunteer in our schools um there are many people that you can reach out to find different opportunities there's many ways to volunteer thank you thank you volunteers thank you Miss H Elizabeth Arpin Elizabeth Arin Shrewsberry Township Matthew 25 says when the son of man comes in his glory and all the angels with him he will sit on his glorious Throne all the nations will be gathered before him and he will separate the people one from another as a Shepherd separates the sheep from the goats he will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left then the king will say to those on his right come you who are blessed by my father take your inheritance the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world for

104I was hungry and you gave me something to eat I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink I was a stranger and you invited me in I needed clothes and you clothed me I was sick and you looked after me I was in prison and you came to visit me then the righteous will answer him Lord when did we see you hungry and feed you or thirsty and give you something to drink when did we see you a stranger and invite you in or needing clothes and clothe you when did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you the king will reply truly I tell you whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine you did for me then will he will

105say to those on his left depart from me you who are cursed into the Eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels for I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink I was a stranger and you did not invite me in I needed clothes and you did not clothe me I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me they also will answer Lord when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison and did not help you he will reply truly I tell you whatever you did not do for one of the least of these you did not do for me Titus 3 says but avoid stupid controversies dissensions

106and quarrels about the law for they are unprofitable and worthless after a first and second admonition have nothing more to do with anyone who causes division since you know that such a person is perverted and sinful being self-condemned if we are truly all one under God's eye why are you proposing to hire a law firm with a well-documented history of facilitating discriminatory policies policies that resulted in substantial lawsuits and deeper division within their Community I just cited two examples of how the Bible highlights the importance of SE accepting differences and being magnanimous and compassionate towards minority voices even going so far as to condemn those who are not if our Schoolboard continues to play divisive games we will never be able to truly put Education First I implore you to start talking to those within

107the community those directly affected by these policies and actually listen to them to start seeking solutions that are considered of both sides of any argument not just your supporters nobody whether gay straight trans Asian white black latino native American atheist Jewish Christian Muslim or otherwise is less deserving than the other in the Bible which you claim to No One rever conveys just that so will you actually live by those teaching as members of the school board or will you simply pay lip service to God in the community and behave like the Hypocrites Jesus so often condemned um Maran what's last name Winkleman is that right good evening thank you my name is marann winkelman I live in shrewbury Township I served on this board for eight years back in the early 2000s I speak from

108direct experience of sitting in your seat I've been watching your meetings from home and the agenda item of approving a policy that would permit individual board members to enter our schools without notice or escort is very disturbing to me and I just had to come and speak out thank you for allowing me here's the uh psba leader bulletin I'm sure you all have had psba training Pennsylvania Schoolboard associations your trade Association it's a very interesting Edition this is the winter Edition start here basics of board service is a very good article in here um that discusses the role of school board and let me qu from part of it to answer the question what do school boards do they say school boards do not run the school district they ensure that the district is run

109well the job of the school board is governance School directors do not have the authority to act individually and they only have authority as a collective body they list several categories of what boards do a few of those include establish board goals that support the work of the administration and staff of the district hiring and annually assessing the performance of the superintendent and the assistant superintendent adopt District budget that reflects the community's educational values and student needs balanced with the financial ability and of the local taxpayers those are all governance items very clear a few things the board does not include they do not evaluate teachers coaches or other staff members except the superintendent and assistant superintendent they do not direct or get involved on how in how planned instruction is taught they do not

110influence the administration's Personnel recommendations they do not conduct investigations interviews or question students students or staff about any incident or anything that went on in the school they do not get involved with the student or staff discipline issues except in board settings they do not allow student Community or staff concerns to be brought directly to the board rather than through the chain of command with the board as the last step this seems very appropriate guidance to me and guidance that has been followed by school boards for decades I serve decades the board and administration and staff work together together to ensure the finest education of our students that's all you guys are volunteers thank you for your volunteer time well-meaning community members where would we be without you but you're only volunteers you do not

111have the training our administrators are deeply educated experienced you need to trust them be the governor and Trust the administration you have a policy I took advantage of it when I was on the board it was great I simply called over and said I'd like to come and see the high school they planned a um a schedule for me I got to see all the Excellence in my case I wanted to see the Excellence which I knew it was here but hadn't seen it so I got to see the science and and the language labs and things like that very adequate perfectly suited for what any board director should need to see and do and know please do not approve this policy it is too heavy-handed it is not required and it's going to cause

112these people tremendous tremendous statements from these people please listen thank you Bob [Applause] bets well good evening guys the emotion is high in here tonight so let's take a moment I would like logic to Prevail tonight over emotion and I understand emotion is strong um I'm going to start us off with prayer father I just ask you tonight to be here in this room with us to put your hand on everyone's heart father we know that emotionally we are attached to our children we love our children we want the best for them I pray that you would help us to see that everything we do is with the intention of the best for our children and help guide us in that direction father we are always careful to praise you and everything we do and

113we ask all this in your name amen um so few items on tonight's agenda the policy that everybody uh there's a lot of contention around with po uh board members visiting the buildings I don't see what the big deal is um there's I assuming that the district is going to follow all the processes it already does for background checks and procedures for any volunteer to enter the building we've established you guys are all volunteers um my assumption is I'm not going to have a board of nine walking into my students classroom taking up the time and distracting everybody to my knowledge almost all if not all board members have full-time jobs probably aren't going to have time to be in the buildings all day so I understand from the position of being an elected board

114member who is held responsible every month in this room for actions that are usually beyond your control uh it would make sense to me that you should be able to somewhat see what's going on in the buildings and if you have the idea that you need to be in the building unannounced that tells me that there's reason for concern I'm hoping that when the time comes the board will share that concern with the community if there is such um you know I remember our old board used to talk about running this District like a business uh so much like a business surprise inspections would happen all the time and at the end of a surprise inspection if did your job well the inspection reinforced that and if you didn't do your job well the inspection

115highlighted it and at that point you might have to reevaluate some things so as long as the intent is good and I believe that it is I don't have an issue with you guys it is in the buildings um I think maybe it would be best to clarify to everybody who is concerned that you're not going to be uh locked in a room with their child by themselves we know that goes against policy even though that's already happening in the buildings without being monitored maybe you guys can assure that you won't do that um item two real quick the handbook changes I would also ask that perhaps you guys would share the information on what's changing in the handbooks prior to it going through um you know I've been in these board meetings for years

116fighting for parental rights uh you know they're they're all of our children but the handbook affects us just as much as it affects them disciplinary matters affect us uh procedural matters affect us so it would be nice if you guys would share it with us and allow us the opportunity to give input when it comes down to uh revisiting those policies um and finally comment is not really based on the independent Law Firm but the idea behind what's going around it um I'm wondering why in in a world and in a district that focuses so heavily on diversity in equity and inclusion the mere mention of Christianity does not get Ane Equitable piece of respect nor does it again included in positive conversation I haven't heard a positive thing said tonight about the independence Law

117Group now I don't know a lot about them but from a quick Google search I learned a little bit uh so I'll ask what is Christian nationalism CU I don't see it listed anywhere on their website but I've heard it referenced here tonight uh it's a buzzword it doesn't exist it's woke ideology it is a idea that's been put into place to create a scare tactic to create this idea that Christians inherently are evil and they are trying to force a belief on you and that is not what but it really is uh it doesn't really exist other than the idea of there being a few bad apples that always take things too far uh but it's on the internet so it's probably true um the proper term that probably should be used uh would

118be a Christian past a Christian Patriot much what I would call myself a person who loves God the Father first and foremost alongside with family and then country second that would be a very proper term to use the term nationalist is used to create fear and it you can see it working um Isaiah 520 States what do those who call evil good and good evil who put Darkness for light and light for Darkness who put bitter for sweet and Sweet for bitter that's what we do when we use the Bible incorrectly and we try to make things bad that are good and good that are bad from my quick review online the independence Law Center States in their own uh page that they are a legal firm that is focused on fighting for First Amendment

119rights and those rights include not only we we have to end religious but uh you know all First Amendment right all right let's see um I think a number of the items address in public comment we have agenda items for so I'll suggest that we defer any conversation on those until that time um I do want to make a comment um I want anybody who applauded a larger man belligerently walking toward a smaller woman because that's what he was doing he his his walk in his his positioning he was facing vice president Hall anyone who is applauding that I want you to think about where you are right now what you're doing that was why I gabbled him it was completely inappropriate and I do want you to think about what's what's what's driving that

120um does anyone else have any other comments on public comment no all right moving on to the consent agenda um I'll entertain a motion to approve the consent agenda as presented so moved we have a motion do I have a second second any discussion on the consent agenda any Naser abstentions that motion carries and with that we move on to our education committee Mrs hle all right for 8.01 and 8.02 those are both in regard to our handbooks both in the digital world and then in our um SM building uh in their District I'm going to pass that off to Dr rert and you can give us an update on those thank you Mrs hle uh in my absence last uh month when the uh handbooks were initially presented to the school board uh a

121couple notes of things I did want to share with the board and the public uh when we do look when you do see in the executive content the uh specific changes uh that were made in the handbook you will see that they are extensive but please keep in mind mind the extensive changes were as a result of the requirement for our school district as well as many school districts be sure that we're ADA Compliant with the American Disabilities Act for individuals that have disabilities so any of the documents that were in the previous handbooks that would have been charts tables PDFs those do not translate into the uh when you're looking at ADA compliance if you're looking at for vision or hearing impair for the visual impairment so the changes that were noted in there

122specifically reflect those so any of the changes which there were a lot uh that were tables discipline being the largest one uh that in the previous one were all tables those had to be converted into bulleted items uh that could easily be translated if necessary uh so there are changes that have been made that was the major change when you look at the elementary middle school and the secondary uh one note I did want to make uh regarding something specifically that was changed within the discipline policy and how it looks now as a result of feedback that the board has received regarding Title 9 sexual harassment discrimination and harassment uh uh in collaboration and please understand when we look at these School handbooks this is months and months of work in working not only with

123the administration uh but any other information that we might have come from either Mr litz or from psba regarding policy changes that have to be incorporated into the student handbook so what was presented last month and it's in front of you right now is the work with our Administration and teachers that have collaborated on putting this information together as well as some of our other individuals uh Mrs uh Christina wowit who does a phenomenal job our secretaries that are doing a phenomenal job and have done a phenominal job in creating this very very lengthy document for each of the three buildings to be compliant you know so our school district does not incur any future litigation because we're not compliance uh regarding the regulations that we have to have set forth but the one point

124that I do want to Mark note is in the previous handbook for the harassment hazing bullying uh title n sexual harassment prior that was included in a long list of class three violations and was grouped together with the consequences that a student could earn what we did in collaboration with the administration is is that's still under class three violations but that's a standalone uh so one thing I just want to include it says the violation harassment hazing bullying including verbal physical racial ethnic intimidation cyber bullying stalking or title n sexual harassment the recommendation actions for harassment of all those items uh could be a Saturday school out of school suspension 3 5 10 days depending on the violation and possible expulsion we wanted to make sure that it is clear not only to our students

125but to our parents and the families that yes this is something that we do take serious things based on the comments that our parents have shared but more importantly what our students are experiencing uh so when you do take a look specifically through there I wanted to note that was an item we wanted to pull out and make as a single item under uh under the uh class three violations so that it's something that does not get lost within the long length of the uh the other items uh there are a list of other handbook changes that uh were made uh several of them adding updates to safe to say about Warrior expectations within the buildings um physical education attire uh so there were some minor changes that were in there but I did want

126to note that the majority of the changes that you see of the striketh through were as a result of our district getting in compliance uh for what Ada is requiring uh as we transition everything over to the new Final site website which I believe April 29th will should be the first day that we could start to transfer all that information over thank you for that clarification and I'm going to put you on the spot for a super easy question just for transparency purposes uh to date has any board director made any of the changes currently on that first draft for the student handbooks I did receive regarding the uh the handbook I did receive information regarding making some grammatical uh so Mr Wilson thank you so much for identifying some of those because as you

127look at a 60-page middle Elementary a 75 page uh middle school and then maybe page uh high school there are some things that have uh some similarities that that should be reflect the same uh but Mr Wilson was actually to get down even to the point where an equal sign was missing so uh you really went through it with a fine tooth scope but I think that that's that's the important piece U that we have a lot of eyes on it but as we go to our final publication and approval uh we will make sure of those uh recommendations or those uh suggestions are being noted in the final version um Mr litz I have a question for you I know we haven't put a motion on the table yet um I would like to

128recommend to table the handbooks do I have to go ahead and put the motion on the table and then table it or can I just table it or recommend to the board to table it if there's no objection to proceeding to the next agenda I I think we're fine I for transparency purposes my recommendation would be that we table this is an actionable item I would recommend that we table the handbooks and it's a conversation that I had uh previously with Dr rer in light of what this new board has been trying to do for transparency along with uh what we have done for the first time ever making some of our policies when they're in draft form um available to the general public prior boards never made draft policies available we've done that with

129you know part of the reason why speakers were able to read line by line that policy that's because you you know it's it's public now we gave that draft policy for their um for their viewing I do think something as important as student handbooks and all the changes should be made public before we take a vote I mean we don't we're not even required in the first reading to read line by line the student handbook we don't do that but to have them available I it just makes sense to me and so I would ask that this would be something that would be brought back after a Time time frame of having it be released to the general public and then take it up for a vote in May does that meet everyone's approval I'm

130I'm definitely open to that I mean I I I was a little bit I I've seen it before but still um when we discussed the practice of not releasing policies until they were passed um that didn't make sense to me and and so we we had a conversation and decided no we're going to release those after the first reading um and I think this same same thing is makes sense with the handbooks um obviously we already had the first reading but we can still we can still do it now um and make sure it's available point he was saying in our previous conversation that the first draft obviously the board gets that first you know but after that that is the the appropriate time frame to release it to the public and so that that

131translated properly for me as well um does anybody else have any thoughts on that I just have a question does it impact anything with any of your timing that you need and that was a question that Jim just had it it does not um you know I I'll go back I'll go back two months you know we took we're looking at the comprehensive plan you know we do have deadline you know that we need to make sure that we have the ability to make sure that we have the items approved as Jim said you know in the past we did printed calendars I mean printed uh handbooks we don't go that way but we of having them printed for every student because they're online but we do have some that we do print but we

132also have to get them ready because in putting them on the website they have to go through translation um so that's another piece that uh individuals are able to view our student handbook in their native language you know their primary language so um it would not uh the one in in speaking with Mrs Hank earlier if we continue with a March having them available first read April available to the public and then vote on them in May would not put us in any time constraint or any concerns if if that's what the board decides um is there any concern with we with being able to publish them to the site as drafts currently now uh I have to thank my secretary and and all the other secretaries throughout the uh the district they've just did

133an amazing job of updating the handbooks and doing revisions to them our administrators uh for the collaboration now that we have it in Google form in in Google format let me put it that way uh we're able to go in and make revisions a lot quicker than what it was in Microsoft uh but but they've done a a phenomenal job in getting this to where we are now and then once we are ADA Compliant it should be smoother sailing in the future when it comes to the revisions of handbooks move forward Mr Wilson to follow up on your question so we can attach them as public content so that they'll be accessible for to this meeting's agenda yes okay we can we'll double check we'll have somebody go in make sure as public not Administration

134you can see it but I'm pretty sure we can do that yeah cuz I was like the next month's agenda is not out yet cantion to that I think we can do it to this month but I'll double check that and if not we'll just put it on another section on our website okay okay and and when do you think they might be available after this meeting just so the public knows not tonight don't yeah I was looking Dr reer I think we could probably pull it off no you Dr we could probably say safely by Monday by Monday by Monday and and we can send out a communication if uh just that it is ailable okay excellent with a link to where they can find it um just for people who aren't used to

135looking at the meeting agendas include a link to the board docs I could make one comment really a question Dr rer before we would move forward um and I I didn't pose this to you guys in an email question format because I really didn't get the the answer to you understand until today um so I was concerned just a little bit about the um changes that we made in the safe toay section um about false reports um so I just reached out to safe to say and said okay hey guys how does this how does this work on on their end um and she explained to me I spoke with one of their managers and she explained to me that the um I don't think unmasking is quite the the right term but the saving

136of of an press or or the saving of a of cellular content um would be generated by the school having concern that there may be something nefarious or maybe there's someone is abusing the system or whatever the case may be uh and that then they work with local authorities uh judges and so forth on their process my concern in the in the policy was that it's not really clear to a student I'm I'm afraid that a student might read it and and think that the possibility of it not being anonymous is might might not exist even though it's not it's not true um but I just the way it's written I feel like there's just the possibility that a student might be fearful of that so if we could address that just slightly so that

137a student would have a good understanding that look if you if you abuse the system which none of us want if you abuse the system the the school district's not the The Authority that's coming to talk to about that it's really law enforcement that's coming to talk to about that just so that a student one has a proper proper fear and understanding that abusing the system is not going to be to tolerated and two that they have a proper understanding that if they're not abusing the system but maybe putting something out there they feel um would be really difficult for them that they wouldn't have any fear associated with using the law do that make sense do you have recommended language or do are you just I don't I don't have a recommended language other

138than to to change the language a little bit so that a student has a clear understanding that the the they are Anonymous and the only way they won't be anonymous is to uh state and local authorities so I mean I I we don't want students abusing the system and you can see clearly see that that it would be easy to do um but then at the same time we wouldn't want to make them fearful if they're dealing with something that is is difficult for them we don't have a chilling effect on on report on on on genuine reports and this this this does not everything it said here is true and it does not um it doesn't say that they're going to have a chilling effect but it also doesn't say that right this is

139still an anonymous yeah if students are not confident that it's Anonymous and you said it's it's Anonymous basically unless police and judges get involved basically is is what is what you just said right um according to saf to say and if if they know that then that's they're going to feel better that their anonymity going to be preserved I think they know it it's going to have I think it's a double it's a double edge and both edges are good it's going to let them know their anonymi is going to be preserved because there are police officers and judges standing for that an anonymity but also on the other side if they're abusing it that's who's coming after them Mr Hall I appreciate your feedback uh that item information that is in green I pulled

140up the Middle School uh handbook that specifically came from the represent this some safe to say U as well as the Attorney General when we met with them about the concern related to noncredible pranks and deliberate abuse of the system so I'm not saying so on your recommendation what I will do is I will go back to them share what you just said specifically because where it said States Anonymous but then it also States about that piece let me get some additional verbiage from them because we wanted their verbiage specific when it came to that so let me work on that within the ne you know within the next few days and I'll reach out to you just to see if it coincides with you know what you what you're specifically thinking there yeah I

141just only thing I'm trying to do is is um think about it from you know uh a 13-year-old reading it and not not necessarily having a clear understanding of what it's saying to them M I agree thank you does anybody else have any other ideas or things right now we have a month now so and everyone's fine with tbling it I think we have to motion table is that also apply to 802 81 and 82 yes yes so why don't you make a motion to table both I would I move to motion to table both 8.01 and 8.02 may I have a second second any discussion any Nays or abstentions that motion carries 8.03 the additional field trip that has been added to our schedule Dr refer can you explain that one absolutely I had

142a opportunity to share about our awesome EMT program uh during my educational update this additional field trip to the school board uh what this includes is our students taking the assessment uh Harrisburg area Community College was scheduled to come to souer County School District to administer the assessment unfortunately our students need to go to hack in order to do that so the field trip approval or the addition of the field trip is to approve that our students have the ability to go there and we will keep this on for future uh field trip approvals just in case we run into a situation where they may come here or we may have to go there so we don't to do a additional approval throughout the school year thank you for that clarification I move to approve

143the additional field trip to Harrisburg Area Community College for Sanic High School EMT class for testing purposes for the 2023 2024 school year may I have a second please second do we have any discussion items anybody has with this one any Nays or abstentions that motion carries 8.04 approved graduation date for the class of 2024 um this is an information item only see below it is May 23rd 2024 I know somebody's very excited about that we're right there with you we're we're an excited family too um we have 8.05 the Keystone exams testing schedule Spring 2024 also again informational it's there for you to look at 8.06 the speakers approved through the vetting process Dr reer would you like to explain that one thank you Mrs hankle uh we do have uh four speakers uh

144that we're looking to have scheduled between tomorrow and the end of the school year but more may more so going into next week through the end of the school year uh and I know Carolyn said 42 days earlier so we have a career day for the fifth and sixth graders at Shrewsberry uh Amy Warwick uh does have a a book that she had published for the little uh little patients uh that would be for southern Elementary uh Southern Elementary School uh with Johnson Taylor Katie eiso Eric and eiso um to do a presentation on the Trail of Tears and then Janette Orlando from Columbia Gas conduct the energy Safe Kids presentation um I do know in speaking with Mrs hankle uh these are uh presentations that uh we're looking to to you know move forward

145with uh we are considering uh getting more information regarding uh at least one if not two of these uh speakers here just have some additional information uh the one thing that uh to the school board that uh Mrs hankle and I will do between now and sometime early summer we're going to take a look from her perspective my perspective being in here the current vetting of speakers uh policy is it um 109.2 and really take a look at if there's anything we want to revise or modify because we created this policy last year and we want to make sure that it clearly coincides with you know where we're going moving forward I move to um sorry I move to um it's actually just an information item it is it yep yeah oh actually oh my

146goodness that's how much easier than I thought it was all right well there you happens um did we change that or was that always information if I recall it's it's action when we're when there's a cost Associated otherwise it's yeah well then the only thing that I would add to that is currently it says speakers approved through and it it it's tenative approval and that's the only thing I would change with that they're missing paperwork right now and so we're just waiting for more paperwork but yeah that's the only thing that I change but I guess we don't because it's informational so and Mr anle if I can just jump in from March until the April board meeting it's like a week less don't forget we had Easter in there um so our coordination was

147really cut back by two weeks um so we want to make sure that you know we have uh all the current information that's required to approve that vetting so that's where Mr ankle's recommending uh tentatively and once that is completed then the schools will have the ability to then schedule the speakers so you're saying it's Sue's fault for running have the tax bills out on time no it would be the uh the assistant superintendent who's in charge of the calendar committee who created this one a few years back all righty that takes us to 8.07 Stage 1 Curriculum maps as districtwide Master maps that is an action Dr rert could you explain that one for us yes I will do my best Dr Hughes right now uh so we do have several maps to uh

148be approved and as I was viewing last board meeting from my home U I did hear you know Mr Wilson did ask if we can kind of walk through and kind of give like an overview so you can kind of see what is included within the maps uh so what I chose to do is selected components of one of the physical education and one of the science Maps just to kind of walk you through what not only you will see as a board but the community to see uh what will be available on the uh on the district website so this one is a u a lesson dealing with locomotive and non-locomotive movements um all of our maps are set up the same in the format uh all of them have a unit Focus um

149looking at the learning goals and the the specific thing you want to take a look at Under The Learning goals your our standards our Pennsylvania state standards those are specific to different content so the one that's specifically up here is identify engage in moderate to rigorous physical activities uh to contribute to physical fitness and health which is something I have to do more of so that is something that you will see in all the maps that there's a specific standard that is related to it and then as you look to the right where it's looks at the long-term transferred goal that is what the students going to do what they're going to demonstrate what they're going to identify um related to you know safe and physical social behaviors at home and in school patterns uh

150for fit healthy and optimal uh okay that's another one I have to work on um I'm just going to move on the science um so K if you can scroll down if you look at the meanings then another specific component is the understandings what do we specifically want the students to understand what type of inferences they need to make based on the information that they receive and then there's the essential question you know the essential question is what do we want our students to learn and we start with that question at the beginning what do we want them to learn and then we plan our lesson uh we call it back mapping we plan our lesson to get to that question and then the uh next slide down there cat thank you uh when you're

151looking at the acquisition of skills so you know you have your knowledge of what you know but then the skills of what you're doing so there's some things there you know pumping your arms high knees good luck with that L um and then you look over skills you have like run and skipping Galloping you know just some specific yeah gallab uh just some specific skills that students would learn in order to master that specific component related to loc uh locomotive and non U locomotive skills and movement so I just wanted to kind of share that specific one you'll see the same kind of format as you go through the remainder of grade four five and six for the physical education and then we'll take a jump over to science really the same format but one

152thing I want to point out under standards there's the steel standards there and Dr Hughes uh really you know she spoke to that at our community leaders dinner you know we're looking at the science Technology and Engineering environmental literacy and sustainability standards so these are the real specific areas that we want our students to walk away from understanding what are their requirements of understanding that content based on these new standards uh for science uh I won't walk through the science but I do if you do take a look at what CAD has up there it's still the same format but now it's directly related to science and in this case uh the content focus is light and matter a quick question um if you scroll back up to the top at the the very top

153here it says the weeks that is intended to um indicate the amount of time they're going to be spending on this component yes that is the general amount of time you know to span because when you when you map out for a year you're looking at 33 weeks um sometimes you might get 34 but usually 33 weeks so when we take a look at what are the standards we need to cover throughout the year then identify the standards how they're going to be broken down throughout the year and then develop the skills and the activities when I look specifically at the you look at fette or even with uh the light and matter about how long they estimate it would take to come you might be able to finish it sooner you might be able

154to go a little longer it just depends on you know the uh the ability of the students the interest of the students but also maybe the prior knowledge they have coming in good point John great thank you all righty I move to approve the following stage one Curriculum maps as districtwide Master Maps one physical education Health grades 4- six two science grade 6 three science grade 7 and four science grade8 may I have a second please second uh do we have any comments or questions from anyone Dr reer will answer them I will not all right any Nays or abstentions right that motion carries that takes us to 8.08 novel adoption I had two weeks fewer to read this one but I was able to do it and Rit cover to cover and I will

155tell our students in grade 8 who are going to read this next year stick with it the ending is so very worth it and so uh would you like to add anything to this Dr refer or absolutely not I do not want to give away the ending okay all righty so I move to approve the following novel adoption The Outsiders by s e Hinton Viking books for young readers copyright 2006 and this is appropriate for grade 8 um may I have a second second does anyone have any discussion items um I was reliably informed that we're we're Banning books but you keep bringing more books just this one we are not get books no this was a wonderful book and I must say for my comments it was so refreshing to see I won't give

156the ending away so refreshing to see an author be able to uh create a climate and a culture it's it's it's a gritty gangster book without having inappropriate language with that I mean I'm I don't know what the rating on this would be but I would say like a PG-13 something like that to to have a huge dialogue where you're trying to show that these are rough and tumble people and it's you know the east side and the west side and they're trying to reconcile the differences They Don't Really Ever but you know and and away too much with that but um you know to have a soliloquy of rough speak where the narrator will just say and he cussed up a storm without ever using a single curse word it's just it was such

157a treat to read that the author was just such a gifted in talented writer to be able to do that and just the emotion and it's a roller coaster I loved this book so um that was mine any NZ or abstentions that motion carries that brings me to 8.09 other items of business I do have one I had already spoken with Dr rert about this for transparency I would like to say that I and I wouldn't even ask for the next agenda just sometime in the future maybe some of you could help craft my words for me but I would like to do kind of an overview with Dr repert of the vetting process there were things we we don't want to have our current vetting process be something that gets in the way of

158gifted and talented speakers I don't want it to just be this unnecessary red tape but then we also so I don't want a hindrance on that side but then I also don't want it to just be a series of forms that sign dot your te dot your eyes cross your tees and done and have not not have it be a real vetting process and so we're having future conversations about that I don't no I mean there's the normal adoption policy Miss Su that is for policies I I'm okay with it following a normal I I just don't know I mean we can we can move policies through at any at any time so I think if if I mean if we want to go through the normal process but the if you're wanting this to

159to have effect for next year uh we probably need to move it through sooner because half more than most of next year is transpired before we actually adopt policies so if there's a policy if you want to change the policy you may need to do it out of cycle um or or or you can work out a a practice in the meantime I mean we we had we we had the temporary measures of of retaining the videos before we ever passed a policy on it so they're options okay all right well and I was going to say the next actual policy cycle is August September October okay so we if you wanted to do it before you could or that is the actual okay that's not too far off anyway all right good to know

160thank you so that's Mrs anle I know we spoke earlier for the board a lot of the speakers that will come back in August September October were speakers that we have already previously about through U you know there are some isolated ones that come in just based on you know maybe High interest or something coming up but the ones that we would come back to the board in the early fall will be ones that have already U been utilized but I do think that us taking a look at it and coming back to the board will give maybe further clarification uh regarding the policy that concludes my education report back to you Mr President all right moving on to uh item nine finance and budget uh Mr Treasurer okay thank you uh 9.01 Treasures report

161that is attached there uh we our concentration account started the month with 8,913 418 and ended the month at 13,415 4559 okay Investments started the month at 3,131 49327 and ended the month with a balance in our investments of 30,2 45,000 $11.25 and thank you to Sue and Trevor for getting all the treasurous stuff done I know it was you know early and you didn't have anything else to do like a budget this month thank you for that um 9.02 review review of bills for payment they are attached there I'd like to make a motion to approve the bills for payment as presented you have a second any conversation any nayes or abstentions motion passes 9.03 exonerations of refunds there are none keep over that 9.04 the tax collection collection report from March um that

162is attached here for your perusal 9.05 the budget status report as of March um both the cafeteria fund and the general fund reports are attached there for your perusal 9.06 budget transfers um these are there's an attachment here executive content um Sue is there anything we need to say about these if there are any questions or if you'd like me to go over them no I don't think there's any questions just okay okay so like to make a motion to approve the budget transfers second right uh any conversation any Nays or extensions okay motion passes 9.0 9.07 the cafeteria report from March that is attached wrong side for your they're combined for meeting sorry says they're combined for May's meeting we'll get March and oh yeah sorry none sorry I was flipping Pages all right

1639.08 um early payment of debt service and use of funds um this is something that came out of our conversation during our last meeting budget uh related to some of the budget um what we can do with some of the Surplus Sue do you want us take over yes so um just very briefly um based upon our conversation at the finance and budget meeting just want to take the opportunity to follow up on some questions that we have there um concerning our debt and and possible um repayment of debt um using using Surplus or early financing so on the screen um cat has put up our our bond issues um and where we are so coupon rates are basically the rates that um the bonds are are being paid out at um each time they

164mature um in each year um yield is what we actually paid so we we've done very well as I said at that meeting um with bonds are a little different than like uh your mortgage your mortgage you can pay at any time um bonds have call dates um so our our next call date would be September 1st 24 um You can call about 30 day or 90 days ahead of of that um so working with our financial advisors um we always look at at call dates um that would be a good opportunity if we wanted to use additional cash um the market is not right for it now um it's not a good like we're not it's not conducive but um a slight change um so if the Federal Reserve um would lower interest rates

165by 25 basis points or 50 basis point we will probably be um in an area where we could do a refunding um and if we wanted to use additional cash for prepayment we could do that um at this point they're recommending that um we continue to take a look at those capital projects because I know we're we're putting that feasibility study out there see what those needs are um and then move forward so um we're in constant contact with them um we'll continue to talk to them about um the refunding opportunities but we'll probably have one in the next year because we have that um call B so any questions on also the um L latest inflation print is the no nobody's thinking the Federal Reserve is going to cut even as early as they

166were thinking so holding steady Y and the these yields are very low so it's it's I you I really can't see paying any of these I mean some of them we can't pay now anyway because they have call dates in 2030 but um we can make more money by having the money invested right now than we're paying so it's just to me I don't I don't see any sense in paying them off with current the current rate environment right the only thing we may want to consider and and not necessarily paying them off early but um so our yields are extremely low but our coupon rate so which is what we're actually paying now um for that 2019 issues about 4% so if we can borrow less than that they're thinking if if things lower

167just a little bit in the market um we may H have an opportunity usually what we do is we look at a 2% return as long as we can lower and get a savings of 2% then we would recommend moving forward so I'll keep you posted great thank you thank you sue 9.09 resolution authorizing the 2024 2025 proposed fin general fund budget um we did get the presentation earlier from Sue on this so I'm going to start off by saying make I'm going to make a motion to approve resolution authorizing the 2024 2025 proposed final general fund fund budget PD 2028 totaling 66,329 34 and direct the administration to advertise as required by law second second any conversation any questions I'll just rate rate one more time this is a proposed budget this is when

168it's going public so uh if the if if anyone has any comments on it um you have a you have about a month to get them in and and we can adjust the budget in May if necessary but uh this is this kind of kind of like what we're doing with policiy is with first reading we're making it public right now uh but we can still we can still make modifications if if needed and I don't think we're going to aim to make any changes during the May meeting no okay highly recommending we not do that any other questions um any Nays or abstentions hearing none motion passes okay 9.10 Food Service management company contract uh big thank you to everybody who worked on this Sue Trevor Bill Jeremy um I'm going to make a

169motion to approve awarding the Food Service management company contract to Compass Group USA Inc buying through its Chartwells division for the year July 1st 2024 to June 30th 2025 as required by the Pennsylania a Department of Education this is a first year of a potential 5 years do you have a second second okay obviously this is a change from witson to Chartwells um any questions any discussion on this I'd like to just ask uh the committee members what they're experiencing what can the students look forward to in the next year um dud it was it was great uh it really was great working with Susan and Trevor their um experience was invaluable in the whole process um it was also great to have agreement between the four of us you know in our evaluation process

170um separate from one another and then come together and all all be on the same page uh that was great um we visited um other schools so and went and you know kind of saw it live and uh they they were um they were an impressive company and um they really put themselves forward uh really wanting to to couple with us and uh do an excellent job for us so um I know that transition is difficult but I hope it is as smooth as possible for for the employees um and that you we can slide into this new uh agreement uh next year and it'll be it'll be great for our our students and it'll also be great for our staff um that um they would find uh Chartwells a good company to work with

171so I certainly I certainly hope so we did put a lot of a lot of time and effort into it and and uh and you guys way way more so so really um it it was great to work through the process and and hopefully it its fruits will show I think uh I'd like to Echo also with Bill said it was interesting to see um the other school and what they did um the things that the kids will get to experience is um an ability to communicate with uh the new company of what they would like to see in the future uh they have a text line I think it is and an ability to just you know share their thoughts and Views uh that was pretty cool to hear and uh sitting in with

172the the new company coming in their proposal I was impressed with their chef he was he brought little treats and stuff and uh the the whole team was very nice to hear their perspective and their ideas and they they seem excited so I I I enjoyed hearing that and and thanks for mentioning that Jeremy because I really hope that that the text line um which is not something that they do in the school that we visited um but it is something that they included in with their proposal to us I I'm really hopeful that that as much as uh I'm not necessarily a fan of as much as our children are on their phones they are they are on their phones so I'm hoping this gives them good opportunity to be able to communicate uh

173when things are great when things are not so great and uh it was it was refreshing to see that they're really trying to take they had the most aggressive approach in trying to have realtime communication with the students so I I really hope that that you know Don wasn't using it so we we didn't really have a good barometer but I hope that um it it really is good for our students you can pass the word on you'll have to come back the other thing I'd like to add um as we went through the process so a huge thank you to the other committee members Trevor for doing a lot of the work um and then Jeremy and Bill for sitting on the committee um as we went through the process um Chartwells did have

174a very tailored to Southern proposal so it was really trying to make sure that um they looked at our district and what we needed here um so I think for for most of us that was really what what sold us um but also when we interviewed multiple times um we had a very positive experience with that would like to recognize um Megan um sne I think I'm saying your name right um from Chartwells that's here this evening just just came because it's on the agenda and just to to um you know in case there was any questions or anything that need to be answered but I think that's another indication of the dedication um they're going to extend to our district um and making sure that our needs are met cuz she doesn't live next

175door [Laughter] so okay um so we have a motion a second any other questions comments on this um any Nays or extensions hearing none motion passes congratulations to lunch next year okay moving along 9.11 student Chromebook bid to traera like to make a motion to award the student Chromebook bid to traera for the purchase of 600 Chromebooks for a cost at a cost of $195,000 to be paid for using Esser funding and general fund balance budget as planned uh do I have a second second second right any questions no uh any Nays or abstentions hearing none motion passes 9.12 school picture request for proposal this is another big change I'd like to make a motion to award the school picture request for proposal to the following providers one Legacy Studios for all services except for

176Sports Photography beginning July 1st 2024 for three years with an optional two-year extension and two Mike inro photography for Sports Photography beginning July 1st 2024 for a period of one year with an additional extension of up to 5 years have to second second any questions um anything you'd like to say to this uh Mrs Green just that um with this bid we um far exceeded our expectations for for costs it was much lower than we had very robust competition in this so you really helped to B this and and to over the price that's good okay any questions no um okay we have a motion second uh any Nays or exensions hearing none motion passes 9.13 purchase letter of intent for cloud storage like to make a motion to approve a purchase letter of intent

177for a cloud storage solution at a price of $88,000 per year which will be purchased through the Chester County Intermediate Unit and will be part of a three-year contract do I have a second second second any questions [Music] comments okay um any Nays or abstentions hearing none motion passes 9.14 consent consent agreement to participate in state and local cyber security grant program a long acronym all right I'd like to make a motion to approve a consent agreement to participate in the state and local cyber security grant program and utilize several cyber Security Solutions and products free of cost to the district through November 30th 2027 and I have a second second any questions comments I'd just like to if I may uh thank Mr Hunt for his work in in working through this and um

178determining that these were good solutions for our district um since it is free of charge so it's just a another added piece to be able to get this with Grant funded great thank you any other questions hearing none any Nays or extensions hear none motion passes 9.15 transfer from Debt Service to the general fund like to make a motion to approve transferring $6,200 from our The Debt Service fund to the general fund to be assigned fund balance for use in future capital projects as discussed at the March finance and budget meeting may have a second second okay any questions comments anything we want to say to this Sue is there anything we want to say I don't have any any questions I mean we did Cover the at the finance and budget meeting in March

179so any questions no okay any NS or exensions hearing none motion passes 9.16 Independence Law Center for legal counsel like to make a motion to approve and to retain the independence Law Center for legal counsel do I have a second second now I assume we're going to have some conversation um I would just mention that um we uh we did meet with uh Jeff uh our solicitor um that uh earlier this month um uh the recommendation was if we're going to hear from them it would make sense to retain them um uh also I've asked if he can be present for any of those meetings um think we have to work out schedules but I would like for uh Mr litz to be present for any meetings that we do have with them um but

180I do want to hear from I want to hear from them what their perspective is on a on a few different issues so and I have a question do we have an agreement a draft agreement that they've sent one over in the last few days um yeah we it it there wasn't time to put it on the agenda but we can we can we can vote to retain them and then enter into the agreement afterwards um well suppose we're not satisfied with the agreement so I've had Jee look at it and and he's satisfied but if you're not satisfied with haven't seen it is you so I I did make some revisions to the agreement which they accepted let me ask you this what's it say in the agreement if the work they do causes

181us to get into a lawsuit and I assume they're going to defend us what are we going going to pay I don't are we going to pay do we have to pay it's a hypothetical it would be depending on a lot of things uh if you get sued what you get sued for how the who's defending it your insurance whether you cooperate with your insurance company there's a allative issues that you need to consider but the general agreement is it would be retaining them for legal matters related to policies at no charge you have the ability to communicate you know email stuff like that if there were incidental cost of the district occurred you know beyond just ordinary stuff you you would have to pay for that you can uh end the relationship at any

182time um there was some language about um uh communicating with them um which is what I revise to ensure that individual employees and board members you know would have the right to speak a matters of public concern as they see fit um but it's relatively short agreement that's what I remember off the top my head what I'm more concerned about is they cost Dover School District a million dollars just what I could say to this is you know what I'd say to any school board uh lawyers give advice um uh boards are free to accept that advice or reject that V advice uh if they're making any advice on course of action that would have to come before the board put on the agenda and discussed and voted on so at the end of the

183day um you know any recommendation whether it be me a solicitor any special counsel you know buck stops with with you collectively as a board um and I would encourage the board just as you've done with me in the past and some things to to ask questions to make sure you fully understand uh you know whatever legal questions you may have or issues or or what recommendations uh are being made so you're you're fully satisfied so you can cast a vote that you can stand by I got another question is there a specific policy we're hiring them for or is it for any policy uh I don't have the agreement in front of me it did not specifically refer to a finite set of policy can anybody answer that why we are hiring them what

184policies are you looking for what what are you looking for why do you want them so we're we're looking for their uh their policies on a number of a number of issues uh and we just actually we want to hear from them uh and we can't do that as a board um you know and and we we we can't do that in an executive session as a board without retaining them first right I just want to be transparent with the community that's questioning it so I think that we should be able to say why we want them or why we're thinking about them or what our thoughts are for it so I I want to hear from them about their their policy uh recommendations on a number of on a number of diverse policies um

185which ones I want to hear from them about um I just want to be Open Athletics is one is one in particular that we discussed with Jeff that that that's probably the first one that I want to hear from them about is Athletics um but there there are probably others and they'll they'll come to us and make make presentations and make recommendations I have a question does retaining this Law Firm necessitate that we have to go forward with any policy they produce no as I said earlier uh obtain counsel answer questions uh consider anything but the board has to put something on the agenda to vote on to approve it whether it be a a policy or a purchase or things like that um so I mean so it's fair to say that this us

186retaining them so that we can discuss policies you know policies of Interest or matters of Interest with them um does not commit us to running any policy any policy that we would either adopt or revise based on our you know Mr litz's recommendations would obviously come before this board for first and second reading is approved if I may is there any because I haven't seen the draft letter either um is there any possibility of I mean are we going to rush for this by any means well we I'd like to hear from them um okay uh myself um so I I think it's retaining them doesn't commit us to anything um is it other than being other than it it enables us to hear from them in in executive session okay is there any possibility

187of pushing this a little bit till we all get to see the draft letter is that possible or no we can I mean I'm just asking yeah I mean i' I'd like to get eyes on too preferably I'd propose we table this till we all have a chance to see the agreement and see what it says second a motion to table second to table second or I'll make a motion so we have a motion to table second discussion I don't I I I understand the the fear of the road that it could go down I personally don't see a problem with retaining them to find out what they would like to propose and what their policies are I don't I just don't see a downside to retaining we can we can always amend the agreement

188before we actually act on any policy so all this does at the moment is gives us the ability to hear from them in executive session um how would the other board members this may be a question for you Jeff how would the other board members is be able to have an opportunity to see this agreement like before voting for it or against it have to get it to them MH okay so that would probably be to move this to the next meeting if that's what you'd like there's there's a motion to table with the second but we're in conversation now second motion if um the idea is we want to get the agreement to everyone um and I think that's I think that's appropriate to definitely have everybody I mean I know the timing was

189a little tight and there's no the agreement is you already got that established be presenting it it's an agreement they've shared with other districts um my colleague reviewed it and made suggested changes uh for another school district that was considering it uh that's the version I got I made suggested changes to that agreement which were Incorporated so uh and then they accepted your your changes yes okay so they so that that that agreement's already established we just need it would just need to be brought forth yes I in that regard I'm F tbling this for the month that's my perspective anyway so we have a motion and a second to table is there any further discussion on the motion to table the only thing I would like to clarify is and maybe you can do

190this for me Jeff um mrz no no basically what what we are going to be um hearing from in in them in executive session would be similar to what we heard from you basically giving you know your legal advice on various lots of issues uh that we talked we talked about is that is that correct well that's that you guys want to do I I don't want to be presumptuous yeah I'm assuming that's what would take [Music] place I assume that but yeah well is you haven't been retained so has been discussed is a at a board at this point is that Our intention I have no problem tabling it let let the community see the agreement that's fine also think I don't know the community would see we get to see it okay well

191all right let the rest of the board see the agreement you know have it attached to the to the next agenda um but I also think it would be helpful to the community that that is that Our intention to have uh a session with them for legal advice a legal understanding of yeah presentation of their understanding of multiple issues yeah yeah just as we have done with Mr L well just like we do with um sweet Stevens katson Williams which is our special education law right correct which is which is why it's hard to answer like what is it that we want to hear about what they haven't presented to us I don't know yet I can say full disclosure there are policies that they've done for other districts that I am not and I

192repeat not interested in in the slightest book Banning not my thing not interested in that and uh Mr Holly you had mentioned that you know this District supposedly not supposedly in quotation marks but cost over you know money and I do I can hardly hear what you're saying same you could ask me nicely to speak up and I will um so okay it was a slight though um but no I I I see your point but I mean and and this is not an unfair question that I'm trying to put you in Mr litz but you know I mean lawyers cost districts all the time solicitors cost districts all the time so to put on this Law Firm that Dover lost well raise your hand if you intend on putting intelligent design in a public

193school anyone anyone okay I think we're fine so it's it's it's not it's disingenuous to say that law firm cost and then attribute malice when yes lawyers cost many districts many things it's it's it's a poor argument I try not to you do sometimes though don't you so just for my own Clarity um we are seeking co- counil to discuss some advice based on policies that are up and cominging regarding Athletics yeah and parental rights yeah things that we don't have current policies for okay which there are certain corporations that do just announced this week right um so that could be helpful and I would say policy regarding that for for my purpose anyone that would want to sit down and give me free legal advice sign me up I'll listen yeah and this is

194not costing the district any money to retain them no and that's what the agreement says Mr L I'll the you said some yeah calls like I said I don't have the short agreement is two pages I mean if you guys went off and authorized I'm not saying you would do this you know but someone says to file a lawsuit even if I were to write it for free there's filing fees you have to pay to the court those types of things sure I mean if if for my part if Mr litz is comfortable with this agreement uh provides us with the ability to hear counsel from them in executive session and that that's as far as we're going at the moment um then you know we can always amend if there are other parts of

195the agreement that we are not comfortable with we can always amend the agreement um because it's as you said you can you can you can exit it at any time you I assume you can amend the agreement at any time by exiting it and and re-entering if if nothing else so I'm I'm I'm comfortable because the my only intention at the moment is to hear from them so I I don't think I need to see the agreement um more than I have um and I'm comfortable if Jeff says that it allows us to hear from them um that's that's enough for me Mr litz does it um articulate any other scopes of service other than just um Council nothing Bey the term legal matter um I would it's purposely flexible say it that way um

196like I said it doesn't say a policy of X or Y so I mean I would say for the purpose of um navigating very complex legal environment in education it would be um help us fulfill our governance role to be able to at least hear what they have to say we're not committing to anything beyond that I think it would be irresponsible for us not to hear that um and it doesn't commit us to anything beyond being able to get that perspective and I do want to thank Mr litz he did do a wonderful job of uh helping us navigate some of the the legal challenges that are prevailing in uh K through2 all education so mhm yeah I have a question why did why is this sorry why is this the law firm that

197you guys are choosing to have this conversation with like is it something that you guys approached them did they approach us like how did we find ourselves in this situation where we're discussing with this particular Law Firm have we done things with it in the past excuse me I'm not aware if we've done anything with them in the past um I'm I'm aware of them um and and some of the work they've done um I think some of it is interesting um from my understanding of of the law and so I just want to I would like to hear from them um because I I think that they bring a a a valuable perspective on on at least some issues it it occurred to me and I'm sorry I'm not not cutting you off if

198there's anybody else that would like to respond it just occurred to me um Mr litz another rumor that we had heard uh we're not firing You by retaining this Law Firm Roa or is am I giving you advanced notice now I I guess you know no one's told me okay but but for clarity sake it is it is in in participation with or supplemental to not firing you you have the prerogative to hire special counsel in addition to your solicitor you want to issue that issue that's your right and and we do as a a record in the past we we already do have supplemental and special counsel for other things correct yes okay like uh special education correct yes okay so that's already precedent we do have supplemental Council yes there was a time

199before I was solicitor I was special counsel two house [Music] any further discussion on the motion to table I I think I I would agree that it would be good to see the Pol the having that policy or the uh the agreement in hand before moving ahead with it I would agree with [Music] that vote okay shall we have a vote do we roll call it roll call the table set Wilson yes Elizabeth we're saying yes to table yes home yes Le yes no yes no no yes that is tabled um clean up the no just check all right uh 9.17 other items of business I have none back to you um president hle uh on to item 10 uh Personnel in policy uh vice president Hall thank you president hle um item 10.01 the

200job description for speech and language pathologist um it is um um for action for us to be able to vote on it um I just wanted to bring out just a couple things in this it is a pretty standard job description the way that it's set up but things I thought would be interesting when I was sitting on the other side to know um that the terms of the employment the salary and the work year is established in conjunction with the southern York education Association bargaining agreement and the board of education's policies governing employment of professional employees um this particular position will report into the director of special education and the building principles and the goal of the speech and language pathologist is to diagnose speech and language disorders and provide direct and indirect services

201to students through assessment planning goal development and the provision of appropriate therapeutic intervention designed to support speech and language development um so I would like to make a motion to approve the job description for the speech and language pathologist do I have a second second can I do that [Music] right any discussion okay hearing none any Nays or abstentions all right hearing none this motion passes okay moving on to item 10.02 adjudication for student a um the Board of Education to consider approval of adjudication for student a the board hereby permanently expels the student from the southern New York County School District effective immediately provided however that the student may apply for readmission to the school district after one calendar year which is March 20th 2025 if the student agrees to complies with and has

202met and meets with the following conditions number one while expelled the student must participate in the alternative education for disruptive youth program chosen for the student by the school district while attending this program the student must maintain regular School attendance and have no disciplinary referrals while enrolled in the program item number two the student may seek an alternative education other than what the School District offers but it shall be at the parents expense item number three while enrolled in the alternative education for disruptive youth program the student must participate in any and all counseling programs requested by the school district and or the AY program including but not limited to drug and alcohol counseling student the student assistant program and mental health counseling the student must follow all recommendations as part of that process number

203four prior to applying for re admission to the school district the student must successfully complete two random drug tests at the parent Guardian expense which demonstrates the student is not using illegal and or non-prescribed drugs drug test dates will be selected by the school district and must be completed within 24 hours of notification parents Guardians must present results of the drug test to the school district within 48 Hours of the ini initial notification item number five failure of the student to complete a test within 24 hours or if any test result indicating the presence of an illegal and or non-prescribed drug may result in either a delay of readmission Eligibility an additional drug tests or denial of reinstatement entirely continued infractions will result in additional delays of readmission Eligibility item number six while expelled the

204student is prohibited from entering upon any school district property and attending any school activities unless authorized by a school administrator I make a motion to approve adjudication for student a do we have a second second I have a motion and a second any discussion or questions any Nays or abstentions hearing none that motion carries moving on to item 10.03 policy 0 one2 School director visits to the schools as per our board policy uh 19 policies were approved via a second reading at the last board meeting in one policy 012 was introduced for a first reading over the past two months I've shared an overview of the purpose of policies which is to guide the board Administration staff students parents and the public and also um on the process for policy development tonight I wanted to

205share an over rview on the policy adoption process as we follow policy 1 012 through the process a policy is drafted usually from psba or in consultation with our school solicitor and then the board conducts a first reading of the draft policy with opportunity for input from stakeholders and public comment last month I presented to the full board a first reading of draft policy 012 which defines and outlines School director visits to schools the draft policy was not up for a vote because this part of the process is to open it up for stakeholder input after this meeting today the draft policy will be posted to board dos to provide time for public review of the specific policy not just my read of it and comment you may email me and or the entire board

206with any feedback specific to this particular draft I would also like to add that posting a policy after the first reading is a change to how the previous board adopted a policy where it would be posted for the public after it was approved the only change to the policy um that will be posted this evening from my last month's reading was based on a request to the solicitor to Define non-educational facilities Mr litz added the wording to Define non-educational facilities as athletic fields school grounds the fisal schoolhouse um any mechanical rooms um technical or service rooms rooms or storage rooms or roof um roof access off of the buildings so with that for tonight again this is for public information only it will be posted um I did want to open up there was a

207fair amount of public comment on it I wanted to um just see if there was any discussion that anybody had on anything I did want to kind of start with one um one of the comments made was that we already have a policy in place for this and I did make this point last time but it is really important at bear is repeating um public public education is the only Public Service mandated by the Constitution so it is something that is you know my kids are always like do I have to go to school yes you have to go to school it's mandated a school board has the legisl they are a legislative body of citizens so we are an agent of the state legislature we are different than volunteers we have a different role

208than what we have and putting a policy together is a protection for for our school district it's a protection for us and it's a protection for any board that comes in after because what it does is it sets the expectations for what our role is which is different we're not Volunteers in the school in in terms of being helpers or doing any of that we have the ability the the responsibility to fulfill a governance role um we have um we talked a little bit about psba um and we really have three functions one is planning one is policymaking and the other part of it is evaluating results and so much of the planning that we do has to do with being able to evaluate those results and being able to um get into the schools

209to be able to see you know what is going on with the educational programs um property conditions um you know Building Maintenance all all of the things not just being in the classroom um so I did want to stipulate to me in my mind that's why I think it needs to be a different policy um I know that there's been discussion on the number of times that we're able to be in I mean those are all great discussions and again I encourage you to read it in its entirety and if you have specific things um to be able to email me or the board so that's everything that I had for my comment thank you anything else um yeah I would just say I'm I'm very glad that we we are making this policy available

210in full I mean I think you did a good job summarizing it at the last meeting but it was necessarily a summary uh policies of that sort are generally too long to read in their entirety um and it was a discussion that we had with the administrators um that the practice of this district has always been to release policies after they've been passed and I did not see the benefit to that um and so I I requested that that that we begin releasing policies after the first reading so this is the first policy where that's being done um uh where the policy is being released before it's passed um but that's that's I expect that to be the ongoing practice to release policies I think we decided about a week after the first reading will

211be will be the expectation going forward um and I think that's going to help because I I did hear a a fair amount of of of I misunderstandings or misinformation about the policy um which I'm hoping if people sit down and read the policy in full now that said also um we only had our first reading last month of this policy um I did not see it myself until about a week before that board meeting um and so I do not think it's reasonable suggest that this policy in its current form reflects the view of the board at this time we are getting input from the public from stakeholders um and so I already have in my mind some things that uh based on feedback that I've received that I think uh could change about

212the policy um and so um some some some of the some of the outrage I think is is possibly because of a be- because you're applying to what to what you've heard about the policy a different way of approaching policies than this board is taking can I interrupt you for one quick second wasn't it public comment or content like everybody could read it right like if they looked at the agenda not read it no it was not public they could read it well now it is now it is no it was as of so after our meeting on Friday when you we had our discussion and and you all agreed that's what you wanted to do we did make we did put it in public I it it wasn't it wasn't last it is now

213because but I mean before they talked before public comment happened they could read it that's what that's all I was asking no go back to what you were doing I just was yeah I just want yes people have had the opportunity for a few days now to read it in full if they wanted to uh some of the public comments suggested to me that people hadn't um at least some of the com people commenting hadn't read it in full um but I just wanted to point out that we're handling this differently from prior boards we are making it available to the public so that we can get meaningful feedback no I understand that yeah I just was asking if it was public because it said public on it this meeting it wasn't in the it

214wasn't in the first right no I understand that so just to clarify and reference to public comment about the survey that we're thinking about doing because I'm hearing you know the many comments about that one sentence that says a School director is strongly encouraged but not required to coordinate in advance with the school principal before initiating a visit so that would be the Crux of a lot of the issues you know just coming in and announced um of course there's some concern about you know our intentions with students and things like that which is certainly nothing that is negative um however how are we doing with this survey that we're intending to do that is third party so I've I've had a conversation with a uh a uh third party uh a potential third party

215provider um I'm actually uh I've I've been working on with talking with him about uh about possibly some additional uh services that he could provide but um but uh that's that's one of them um so I'm not sure how quickly that that can happen it's so we actually played phone tag for a couple of weeks before I actually got got in touch but um but uh so we're potentially looking at the entire summer work through these things um and at the same time we're still just in discussion stages we definitely have intentions of reaching out to staff members and not only to discuss this question but other questions that would naturally come up at the end of the school year you know to see you know how we can point our goals better towards assisting

216yeah I'm I I'm also aware of another survey that was conducted um I I haven't seen it um uh I don't know what what the questions were or what the results were or any of that so um to me I I'd like to understand something about that um and then the third party survey is an idea I I don't know that we're necessarily absolutely 100% like I think think the board was generally open to the idea I think the timetable does matter um so I don't think we we were agreeing if it takes 3 years uh that that we'll wait for for a survey um but um and and there's also the possibility of doing an internal survey uh rather than a third party um so I think those are those are options we can

217consider um if there are any that we'd like to pursue other than the third party that I've been pursuing but I don't know how long that's going to take um Now's the Time to I would say Now's the Time to speak up because we're here we can talk about it and we can ask the administration do any things we think are necessary on this front so when you're saying you don't have the previous surveys to look at is that the Lancaster lebit and iu3 survey and the we did when we were no that that because those surveys were more General I mean specific to this issue I see yeah so on the issue of the um third party survey um I'd like to say that I'm very much in favor of a third party survey

218um I do not want it to just Encompass this policy I believe that would be a wasted opportunity um that if we're going to engage with a third party to have a a a survey of our of our teachers I I'd like it to really address the heart of why myself I I desire to um have a better understanding of our district and I'd like that it's been presented as this being a negative to our teachers I would like to dispel that this is not about being wording over our teachers this is about seeing the climate that our school is we have a we have ju supposed views you know we we hear things from the from the community that aren't supported by our data you mean regarding discipline and support for teachers when discipline

219is happening it is in discipline but it's also in other things it's in climate it's in it's in culture uh it's in um I I I wish I had written down how many times uh it was said tonight that our our school is uh systemically racist um is that an environment that our teachers are working in um data the data would say no it's not an environment that our teachers are working in people standing at the podium making comment would say yes it is the environment that our teachers are working in and I think that the survey gives us a unique opportunity to let the teachers talk to us about the environment that they're working in let the teachers talk to us about what they need do they have everything they need in their classroom

220do they have the materials they need in their classroom do do are they are they um seeing the the advancement through the curriculum that we want to see what what do the teachers see and just give them the opportunity to speak to us through a third party survey uh with total ammity you know that they can feel free to say um whatever it is that they desire to say I I think having a a section in there for them to have just write down an open comment is is a good idea there there's lots of ways that that third party survey could um take shape um I don't I'm sorry I'm not I don't want it to I don't want it I don't want to delay it because I would really love to see that

221before the school Year's out you know to be able to um to to hear from our teachers you know and let them let them speak um I it was done uh during the the superintendent search there was a survey that was done um not that that would necessarily apply now things have changed but it has been done in the past independently and I would love to see it done again before our school year is over however I don't know that that needs to circumvent or Trump the board have a better understanding of the climate in our school and it it does move me to have a student stand at at the podium and say the things that that she she said and I I want to I want to have a better understanding of that

222because that's not what is presented is not the environment that we want for our students none of us want that environment for our students um so in my mind the spirit behind this policy is having a better understanding of the climate that our students and our teachers are working in and a better understanding of the disparagement between the data and and what we're hearing and I think through that we will be able to get to a place where we do understand and have a clear understanding of the climate of our school and how better to be board members to support them you know and to give them the tools and the pieces that they need to be successful in their job and for our students to then ultimately be be successful in our school and

223then be successful uccessful in life so I I feel like the spirit behind this has really gotten disfigured you know its purpose is not to go into that classroom and be that teachers oversight that is our superintendent job not our job my desire is to have a better understanding of the climate of our school and how the climate of our school that you're seeing feeling understanding Compares with what we're hearing from the podium what we're hearing what we're seeing in the data what we're hearing from our Administration and we can we can come to a educated conclusion with those things and I think the culmination of the two of having an understanding of the climate of our school and a an opportunity to hear from our teachers can only help us as a board to

224have a better to work better to give our students and our teachers what they need I have a few things to say um sorry problem trying to interrupt um I think when I whenever I first heard about this and it was all the board wanted to be able to come in whenever they wanted to come in kind of reminded me at my job I work at a fast food restaurant to a health inspector coming in unannounced as like you can't like not to speak ill of the board but just kind of and it's been this way for many many years but just kind of like the students The View around the board is just kind of like oh like we oh the board like you get what I'm do you understand what I'm saying like

225students see the board as a place of tension I guess you could say a place of like where a lot of there's a lot of I I don't know how else to voice it other than tension like the idea of wanting to be able to come into the school unannounced just for lack of a better term just gives bad vibes I know sounds ridiculous but I don't see why like I don't see why coming in with an administrator versus coming in by yourself would make a difference as to what you're observing like throughout the school but to your point I mean wouldn't that still be a bad Vibe whether we're announced or unannounced I mean to a certain degree yes but for teacher would a student even know if it was on yeah the student

226wouldn't know I mean I've I've been in the building and they I don't think there was an announcement before beforehand I come over for agenda meetings and I see students in the hall and and I I haven't I haven't seen any that seemed particularly um you know a struck or or or afraid or anything but but that was before you kind of set this notion that like we can come in when we want like before it wasn't a big deal because you guys were just showing up for the things you're doing but now it's kind of setting this notion that we're showing up when we want to because we can like even the state legislators like we make come to visit the schools like we know ahead of time like the students know I remember

227last year knowing that I think Kate Punk was coming into our classroom and like she's kind of in a similar position as you guys are as you're elected and whatnot but Caroline you're kind of making the point though like when they have legislators come in it's because they want to be able to present a certain way right I I understand the point you're making I think I think you are having examples that don't make your point I think really what your point is is is it really necessary to be unannounced I really think that that's kind of what you're going for not necessarily like when you talk about legislators coming in I mean the whole point of why they're invited in is because they are invited in to see a specific set of circumstances the

228the district showing its best self on that day because they're legislators so I mean that's the exact opposite of what we want to do we don't want anything to be planned for us we don't want anything to have to be a special production for us it's just like what does business look like on any given day but and that go ahead no that and what you Bill said what Bill said to me is not our job we hire these two gentlemen to run this operation so I take it in that the disparagement and the data versus what we're hearing that doesn't doesn't matter to you could you ever ask him about that yes yes do during board meetings we've talked about it great detail at these tables we've talked out it in great detail and

229in and oneon-one um I mean I if you're going to do do the job so you're delegating but in delegating you have to follow up and observe is is it working is are is is is what we delegated are they are they performing on that how how are we supposed to evaluate um you know this is from psba and I'm going to read exactly what it says it is also helpful to define the boundaries of what school boards should not do it is not the board's individual or Collective role to evaluate teachers coaches or other staff members nobody's EV for the superintend excuse me I didn't interrupt you so please do not interrupt me she won't if I wasn't interrupted I wouldn't beet go ahead Mr R direct or get involved in how planned instruction

230parentheses curriculum is taught influence the administration's Personnel recommendations or engage in nepotism conduct investigations interviews or questions students or staff about an incident that is not our job no no one here has proposed agre we should do any of those yeah I agre what the policy says we're not doing right we're not doing that in this policy General observation let me continue get involved with student or staff discipline issues except in board hearings allow student Community or staff concerns to be brought directly to the board rather than through the chain of command with the board as the last step agreed what I'm hearing what you want to do does not comply with that um you're hearing something different from what we're saying you're not listening I just don't understand like if you don't want to

231do any of those things then why do you need to be there unannounced right so I I would say okay wait I I actually have a perfect answer for that this is an email that was sent to the board including Mr Holly including everyone else at this table from a parent um on Tuesday actually Tuesday Wednesday Wednesday um and this is I'm going to read just a little snippet of this the susak high school guidance counselor said it best at Rising senior night yesterday they advised us to visit colleges of Interest not only on scheduled visit openhouse days but other random times as well they indicated that the scheduled visits is their commercial not the real daily ongoing activity of that campus the dining hall serves up the best food students are encouraged to be

232on their best behavior be out and about and having fun so that's just I won't read the whole thing but that's from you know that's the guidance that our high school counselors are giving our seniors I mean it's not exactly scheduled visits it's not in a public School uh some of the colleges are public schools yeah I mean but they're colleges can can I say a couple things first off bill I think some of what you're looking for data we have available we do the climate survey on a yearly basis we're working towards conducting again this spring we will share with you multiple years of data relative to climate and culture and in saying that will it answer all of your your questions related to how students feel about the level of racism or the

233existence thereof I don't know that it's going to answer all those questions for you um there's also a year and a half back a superintendent survey which did a similar um thing with staff you'd have to pull the staff part of that and I'm not sure that wasn't privy to me personally so we'd have to look into whether it's still out there from uh Liu 13 uh I also believe we have data information which is not too old from our own Lincoln Intermediate Unit and as a result of that that data we Dr Mullen ran um small safe groups conducted groups with some of the same individuals that are have been speaking over the course of the last 6 months to get input to get feedback as to what their experiences were and what could

234be done to improve them um and and with all that being said I want to come fall back to we can compile compile all that that being said to conduct our own survey which is generated more specifically to certain areas that's going to take time um so what I would recommend is we follow through with our pte survey if there may be add-on questions related to policy 02 you guys got to trust us to put the couple questions out there with the PD survey because you can't manipulate the P survey um we put it out there if you agree upon the couple questions or you give me a couple questions we can put out a Google survey I don't think it needs to be a bigger deal if Dr reper myself um Mrs Green can

235agree upon a couple questions of the staff we can get it out and get it back if you go third party which I don't disagree with that's how we did some of these previously uh I know uh Mr litz has done some research for us through another District um and if you go to the point of creating your own per se you're probably looking at the 10,000 range for a simple staff survey for them for a third party to conduct analyze data and kick it back to you um so I would just suggest uh you give us some time and we can show you the data we have to determine whether you need more or different data than than what's presented in those surveys I would I would say I'm sorry is that and maybe

236we don't need to event reinvent the wheel um maybe we can use some of the framework that is in the PBE um and still use a third party I personally feel that the $110,000 is well spent to to I mirror that too for our teachers but I mean the framework we don't have to build this this thing from scratch yeah you know and and I would also expect expect that if we hired a company that you know works in in this field Works in superintendent searches and all of those things they probably also have an extensive well of of surveys that used and I would definitely say that I I don't want to slow down the process of this policy but I also and I know that there's that tension right I also do want

237to pursue a third party survey not just honestly I don't I'm not even concerned so much about this policy with it but just more broadly I do want to get teacher feedback with numerous you know issues not just this at all and so I I really just don't want to be tunnel vision about this policy and have that be what we're we trying to glean from them for the survey I would like it to be more open and I mean I would extend to Mr Holly and Mrs doin and it's it's obvious that we don't see eye to eye on everything you know the spirit and the Heart of what at least I'm trying to do you know when we were elected part of the process was constantly being asked the question what are you

238going to do for Teacher retention what are you going to do for Teacher retention I don't really understand why during the election that was even a question given to candidates that were running for Schoolboard if the the answer should have always been I will do nothing I will just trust the administration and so I welcome cooperation with the two of you whatever you would like to bring to the table to collaborate and to try solve some of these problems it's easy to be critical of everything that comes up and I understand your heart and your spirit and that you're trying to help as well but introduce a policy maybe come up with something I I would love to collaborate with you and to be alongside with you to help solve some of the issues and

239some of the tensions that we were seeing I I would love to hear a policy from you Mrs Doberman I would I'd be your number one fan and help you with it and the same thing for you Mr need poliy though I don't need to change anything at this point ever in life for I don't know about ever in life but as of right now there's nothing that needs to change okay nothing needs to change thank you at this point at this point I mean who knows but I'm not going to just create one because I want to I don't think you guys I I don't think you guys are doing this in bad light like I don't disregard the fact that you want to help I just really think whether you're with an administrator

240or not you're going to see the same environment and that it would ease the minds of the students and the staff to just be able to prepare mentally for the fact that okay these big guys are coming in they're going to see me like like as soon as they see you no matter what the same thing's going to happen whether you're I do I do I do sympathize with that I do see your point with that and and I do I do respect that aspect of it and I don't know that that's going to be anything that we really can control students aren't going to know when it's announced versus when it's unannounced and just for transparency purposes for the general public I know some people do realize this I'm going to both scare you

241and ease your conscience all at the same time we're in the school a lot a lot I mean who among you has been in the school just this week how many times and it's going to be next week too we're in the school a lot and the difference for student perspective announced and unannounced you wouldn't know the difference anyway and are are we having student reports that that they're terrified of when the school board comes in now we're we're in the school board we're in the schools all the time you're not walking around you're going to a meeting walking around from a meeting I mean like but you're not like in Terror not once never once okay so my question I guess is we're not going in and doing an investigation no but yet the

242reason you're going is because there's racism in our school and we're going to catch it like we're going to see what the environment is and we're going to go oh I saw ra you know like that is kind of like an investigation in your own way in your own mind if you're going in there for a reason so you would it's like it's an you can call it an observation but it's an investigation no an investigation is into a specific incid but it's but it's in and it even says incidents it even says do not investigate incidents it does not say don't observe why are you going in then to observe the environment because there's been complaints so you're doing an En honestly I would want to do whether there were complaints or not because

243I'd rather I'd rather know if the environment is is good or bad or if it's moving in the right direction moving you're now huh you're doing it now without a policy I'm not I'm I am there for a lot of meetings and I do pass through the halls in the on the way to those meetings and I did have a building tour but I I am not a I mean and I I'll say I am okay with the idea of um notifying the principle beforehand I mean I you know I know the policy says you know that uh you were encouraged to but but needn't but I I do see some some practical reasons why that might need to be the case and I I'm okay with that I think uh a same day notification

244let let let the let the principal know hey I want to come in today I'd like to just come in and and and walk around the house for for half an hour um you know and just see see what it looks like when classes are changing I I'd be fine with letting them know that that that I plan to come by um what about limiting it instead of two times a week for half a day or like maybe like and we could discuss that yeah we can discuss that that's what I'm doing doing right now there's a lot of things that I think that we can compromise on but I think Mrs Miss Sam me at the hall I think that what she was saying bringing back to to Miss Caroline that the detention is

245the announced versus the unannounced right and so Mrs Doberman I mean I commend you last board meeting you you were asking the question you know couldn't people with an agenda there's already a policy right there's already a policy on the books that would never been denied access to the schools whenever we were asked that's true it's the unannounced nature if I had an agenda that I wanted to go and do couldn't I already do that under the current policy of course I could so that doesn't hold muster to the accusation that I have an agenda coming in under this version why does unannounced versus announced mean I must have an agenda I could already do that with the current policy because clarify I meant you should be a company if you're coming in to look

246at a particular thing or do some observations and you're not coming here for a meeting or going up to a classroom to help give some instruction uh I came in Tuesday and Thursday for one of the classes but I was accompanied to and from the classroom oh well in classrooms this policy would require us if if we were going to enter a classroom because it it specifically says um pull it up here um a School director shall not shall not interfere with or otherwise disrupt classroom routines educational programs or the daily school schedule during a visit so to me that says I can't just walk into a classroom with class and session agreed and and I will say that for public comment and it is a der elction of our duties to not do this

247we did hear it that is something that we need to make sure is in that policy so people are not scared we are not talking about going in and monitoring teachers in their classrooms while they're terrified about how to perform with a strange person that's in their classroom to me not what this is so we need to have language that that more clearly states because I I can see where public commenters are coming from that it it looks like ill advised and not recommended but not a bold cannot no no no questions asked kind of thing that needs to be elaborated it does in my opinion the language could be stronger yeah to me the language was clear but I if if we want to further clarify that um I am absolutely open to that

248um you said something that I I agree with um but I'd also like to say that in my profession I am under the USDA and I have frequent visits to my facility by the USDA and I find out that the USDA is coming my to my facility when they knock on my office door that has happened more times than I could count did you feel comfortable when that I definitely do not feel comfortable when the USDA knocks on my door but it happens it it happens however I would say that I agree with you Nathan and I would acest to the to notifying uh the the the building principal um I I think that's fine because I also hear what you're saying car line and I don't know that that notifying that that building principle

249negates um it doesn't seeing a an actual climate I don't I don't think intention would be how much advanced notice not enough advanced notice that you can prepare something but enough advanced notice for decency respect and security right yes so I'm sure as a board we could figure a sweet spot out for that so then why don't we remove the part that says um a School director is strongly encouraged but not required to coordinate in advance I we we would have to we would have to modify that yeah that that yeah we we that that could happen uh the board member would have to propose an amendment and that can happen and and and part again I think part of the the uh uproar here is because we did a good thing because we released

250this to the public before passing it which the prior board did not do with policies you had a chance to look at it and there's there's this attitude that oh they're going to pass this exact thing no the whole point in in in releasing it and reading actually reading the policy in the last meeting and when we found it it's not being released we'll release it to the public the whole point in doing that was to allow people to sound off on it so that we could take that feedback and incorporate it and you I think you've heard there are a number of issues that were raised the classrooms we can clarify the language on on that I mean to me the policy already did not allow us to enter classrooms during during class um

251and uh and the Pol you know but we can clarify you know if the board votes we can clarify that language um the uh is encouraged to but but is not required to give notice that could change uh all everything in here is subject to change and can change and I think many on this board have expressed openness to possibly changing those things I know personally I responded to five or six people this week alone people who were not happy with this policy at at all and I I was vulnerable and let them know what my comfort level was with adopting some additional language and seeing their point I mean this is a work in progress and it wasn't perfect I wasn't satisfied with the draft policy I hope nobody else was um but there

252it is room to grow and I think that collaboration was fantastic and I mean I had some back and forth with community members that you know I had never spoken to before and had some really productive conversations that I just it was it was an amazing I did as well mhm so this is just a reading yes this is just a reading um so it's for information is there any more discussion on anything because if there isn't then I have no other items of business for my report all right uh on to well uh it is 10:44 does anyone need a a short recess anybody no let's through let's do have a better understanding um of that amendment process um if if we make an amendment to this policy we made no motion to we've

253made no motion to amend if nor nor could we because it's not an action item yeah we'll do it if there were a consensus on some comments I was taking some notes you guys said Jeff take a crack at it I could do a red line and get it to you I mean if you want you don't need a motion for that and then if you don't like it because it's a working draft and yes that would be that would be great Mr L I would thank you so much was that yeah I'm I'm certainly open to Mr litz coming up with a with a number of changes the notification to building principal and not entering classrooms during instru that's certainly easier than trying to do it line by line in a meeting are we

254using this time to talk about the the adoptions that we want or is that something we can do later I mean I I he's taking notes do we take advantage of him taking notes I think I got it and I can share something would there be an option to email you if there's that yeah just that would be fine I do have one one one question um just about this and president hankle you you mentioned something I wrote down and Mr litz you just mentioned it about not visiting or disrupting the classrooms during session okay so my my I gu a question that's you know spinning around in my head if we're going to be there up to a half day MH and not going into classrooms so then am I interpret that you'll be

255Milling the hallways common areas during the day CU you wouldn't be going in the classroom I mean the fact that the policy allows a half day doesn't mean I'm necessarily going to use it I'm I'm just in general sense because if you're not visiting classrooms then it looks like from my perspective of what I'm seeing is you're looking like you're going to be in always ways the commons interacting with students Etc but not going in the classrooms is that my yeah observing maybe a lunch period okay yeah okay CL that skip the rest of the be to have very limited interaction with started not my purpose at all want to see the interactions of the students with each other the interactions of the teachers with the students the the the the climate of of of

256the of the school um to be as much as a fly on the wall as as possible to be uh I mean I I think I had a unique opportunity when we were doing the food service and yes we were accompanied by um some individuals from the district but I just kind of went around and walked through the cafeteria table and just the students did not know who I was Nor care who I was uh and that that was perfect because it gave me a a real view of uh what I was seeing with the kids to to uh this is a little funny in it's anecdotal but it happened you know so they were they were serving chicken parmesan to the to the little guys and uh the one fella ate all of the

257top off of the chicken and didn't eat the chick at all which I found humorous but that's what I'm trying to say to understand the climate of what's going on and and to be a fly on the wall as much as possible I I do understand that you know um having you know walking around with the administrator I'm suddenly no longer a fly on the wall for sure but that I I do I do appreciate what you're saying Caroline and that students probably probably aren't going to to care that I'm standing there or or even know who I am you wear a hoodie I would know if you're standing there bill I hear what you're saying but you were with somebody and you still got to observe and you had no issues with it no

258kids cared nothing why do you have to go in without someone like I'm just asking because you just sat there and said you observed the kids didn't care the kids didn't know who you were you went in in with like supervision like I don't understand why the policy needs changed if you can doing didn't know correct and it's just a matter of time you weren they know who you are you weren't walking with an administrator at all times that were not in fact the administrator was I'll be honest I'm not I'm not sure where they were at the time right so that's I mean they were there but I'm not I'm not sure where they were I wasn't really paying that's their choice I mean that's their choice if you want to go in the

259cafeteria but you at least went through the proper steps of hey I went to this you know I told admin that I wanted to go in they escorted me in they might have left me in the cafeteria because they trusted me and I had my clearances that's fine their call and a policy would formalize that I'm I'm sorry respectfully I think you're missing the point the people he was observing were not given advanced notice if he was there to look at and we are not a Val Val so don't don't mistake what I'm saying here but the people that you were looking at if they were told that you were if they were told that you were going to be there in order to look at what would they have performed differently do you suppose

260what were you there to look at though wouldn't that be an investigation very quickly I mean I'm confused but what were you there to look at wouldn't that have been the environment service I'm I don't know that's what I'm asking that's like that would be an investig St interact with students how the students interacted with staff how the students felt about the food so I I don't think she the the meeting clarified that he was there in order to evaluate the Food Services that's what he it wasn't it to conduct an in investigation of the district he he was there because he's a part of he surprised them I'm sorry what's that he surprised them because he didn't tell them they were he was coming right right but that's the point of the unannounced visit

261that's yes he had the districts cooperation with that but they didn't have cooperation with it not the district but the Food Service Company because you get a different feel in an environment when it's announced versus unannounced I mean we do all know this you could disagree saying if you're going in there you're going for an investigate like you're going you're not just going to Ser I was going to investigate I could do that under the current policy correct you're not supposed to but yeah corre I mean like if so what does an unannounced visit Aid in an investigation if hypothetically that's what I wanted why you I just don't understand I'm so conf well in reality this policy specifically prohibits investigation mhm it does So currently we don't have any protection for a rogue board

262member going in to try and conduct their own investigation do we I just want you to listen to the public like that came the 12 out of 16 people that were not in favor only one spoke in favor of it sure but 12 out of 16 and you're like oh we got to do this what does it matter well they don't want you talking to their kids they don't even want you there with their we're taking into account the comments they made okay that's fine that's great you just said I think a key thing they didn't even want us there with the kids we're already there with the kids under this first policy under the current so unless you're telling me that it's something personal about me ever being in the building I have no

263idea I don't know why they don't and as far as the accusation that we're not listening I mean I again I could show you if you would like I do respond to emails there are 14 adoptions that I would like to change in cooperation with what I've heard from public comment and the emails that I've received I don't know how else to listen wait and what look I'm going to side shift a little bit not to take us Rogue cuz we we may need to table this one too I'm just saying but there's something I think I don't know that others are I'm picking up on I feel like I want to speak to it that the unannounced versus the announcing things are different yep they are and how do the other people react to

264[Music] that what is their the cafeteria staff at Dallas we don't know until you have that discussion we won't know until we have further discussion with this the association but in addition to that there's and I don't think this is what was meant but recognize we're not notifying the Caroline's not going to know when you're coming or not coming mhm that environment you seek to observe I don't have the ability to change that in the high school of 900 climate and culture are what they are so if that's what we're observing we'll go in tomorrow we'll go in Monday we'll go in as often you want we'll sit in the Commons together and have a coffee and you can and have discussion with the kids Carol how often are we over there like us too

265all the time I mean a lot of times it's around lunch but I'm just saying go back to that that's the best time because it's like packed we get a flavor you know if I haven't been over there a hundred times this school year in that common area at some point or another I haven't been over there once I haven't personally observed racism doesn't mean it's not happening and so that's the other piece that if we're going over there just to see if we like just because I don't see it or hear it doesn't mean that story is not true and just because that story is true doesn't mean it it isn't at a greater level than I know what what it to be I know personally that there are racist incidents what do we

266do about that that's what we're worried about that's what we're concerned about that's what we're working on um but not one of you has ever called us and said hey I want to go in and take a look at and we said oh yeah we we're not doing that um and I get it I don't want to make you feel like I'm babysitting you or something ridiculous like that no but there's a lot of things you might see and hear that I can bring Clarity to and most of the kids don't look twice at they do look twice at him um sometimes they know you from you know Middle School princip better than so but that's how you get to know the climate and the culture and and that type of thing and that is

267what you hire us for I hope once I lose that I'm not sure there's this job is worth just meeting after meeting after meeting you hire me to determine to measure the climate of culture and address it where needed in my opinion you need to see more of the data what it says um and then maybe we'll have some recommendations for improvement based upon the yearly data that we get but again I think going back I my own personal opinion you can get what you need from either either policy and I'm not hung up on the policy one way or the other it's it's it's the board's policy to decide um but that that I felt like I had to speak on this because at times I felt like even from the one email Joe

268you shared that it was uh like we set up the the an event for you guys to come in and see what we want you to see that's awful no no no no no but that's how I took it though no that's how I but it's more that there's a there's subconscious and there's there's going there going to be changes without any without even having any planning now I agree I agree I agree and and I don't want staff or kids to feel tension based upon whatever it's done or not done and and that's why the wording is important because I do I do see why there is fear I mean some of these lines in the policy reading in to them the way that some of the public commenters did I think that we

269kind of need to steal man some of the things to assuage some of the fear I do that's that's my personal opinion and and it it it it costs nothing to do that to extend that kind of graciousness and to show good faith that no that that's not what we are trying to say and no that sort of thing would not be allowed additionally we can always pass a a a more you know what what I'll call it more restrictive version restrictive on us um and revisit it if we're not getting what we need true um there were a lot of reasonable suggestions both during public comment and the emails read and the emails and we are listening and I would like to I was in this middle school for um teaching the kids about

270interviews um and I went through an entire pod or portion I'm not sure how the Middle School's broken up the kids were awesome they were awesome they were respectful I I found it to be a very very pleasant uh experience I I really really truly enjoyed it I got to be honest I hope that's what I go in there I I I let's not say that's what I expect to go in and find but I also feel like as a as a a one of nine in the in this board of oversight at least have a responsibility to listen and then gather an understanding and then you're able to to make better decisions and maybe maybe you're right Dr Bryson maybe there are some we come up with some things some tweaks some things that

271that can help that can you know make things better and the data fills in the gaps make students who aren't currently feeling comfortable feel comfortable I mean frankly the the the grounds uh visit we did for the baseball fields was a great example of why now again you know it's it's the sort of thing where yes we could be accompanied uh you know but you know it was there were some really good ideas that came out of that that that created some efficiencies and so just sometimes you know just being able to see to look around and and and see what the environment is see what's going on uh and and be able to observe that maybe maybe an improvement here here or there is needed um I I just think observing the environment is

272not is not in any way the same as investigating um it's it's just observing and understanding how how what with the data we receive what does that look like in terms of the actual environment what does that look like in terms of what the launch room is like um because we we we hear about the disciplinary incidents and it can sound like it's completely chaotic um a lot that's all we hear about a lot of times it's sad I mean I I I I don't I don't EnV you uh Dr Grayson and Dr rer when have to deal with those really difficult you know discipline issues you know there there's a there's a life on the other side and I know you respect that and you know the adjudication we had to go through today

273it it is to be honest is the part that I hate mhm do I hate it because um you know there's a there's a life on the other side of that and and I know you guys respect that I know you do and I'm not saying that we don't have to do it I I understand that we have to but it's it's still the part I like the least so if I could just say one more thing and Caroline I know in the interested time it is 11:00 please feel free if you have to go you don't have to sit um but can we move forward in the interest of time yeah say one last thing I think if you guys really want to like know like what's going on I think you guys should

274volunteer in the classrooms like teachers love like when parents like reach out and say like hey I do this for my job I know you teach the subject I want to come in and help like my mom works in geriatric Healthcare so whenever the EMT class covers like the geriatric unit she's in there with the kids like giving them like The Real World experience that the textbook doesn't do so that like I don't Mr Holly goes in and I have friends that are in that class and they love when he comes in and I think that would be a good way for you guys to build a connection and like really see what the kids think and how like they perceive I like I really I can't stress that enough like get in the classroom

275with the kids in volunteer buildings and grounds uh do want to take a break or you want to just keep do we I think desire to push through get home we in the home stretch okay so we have our water test report uh this month and we had to do the state is requiring some different testing uh and Mr Buffington if you want to elaborate into that a little bit just so we have an understanding of the potential that there could be issues in the future even though we have none currently yeah the uh monthly test reports uh shown here for March um there's a new test on there for the last one posos and um that's uh been required by Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection um that's a quarterly test so this is our

276first test um with uh passing results um but uh we will be taking additional tests as we move forward so um these tests you know go in in various um intervals you know some annual some quarterly and some monthly uh so we'll continue to to update as we go along thank you Mr Buffington moving on to 11.02 we have buildings and grounds report for March so the building of grounds report is for information I'll point out just a few things there uh you can see the southern Elementary playground and sun shades uh have been completed um also would would note um Mr Keeny Mr Man and Mr margish as well as myself uh did a athletic inspection uh of all our athletic fields and did the report you'll notice that um all Fields scored three

277or above um only one scored to three uh the rest four and five um the group was satisfied with that knowing that uh maintaining athletic fields is an ongo process um currently we have one field um out of service that's the uh field three old baseball as we had discussed in previous meetings have any questions for with that okay thank you um moving on to 11.0 3 uh the high school project progress report financial report and the timeline yeah so with those for for information um the progress report uh financial report uh as well as Cat's Cat's right with us there um she has the slide up for the for the financials uh so let me kind look at that review that a little bit um see our original budgets as well as uh the

278remaining budget down there um on the bottom of $840,000 as well as cat if you can flip to the second one um here in just a bit we'll talk about change orders but you can see on this slide uh we began with beginning of March with contingency of after um the uh change orders in March um we're at 377,000 reoccupy the uh top floor uh of District administration uh we're planning on that for next week um and you know obviously looking looking for the upcoming work but everything's everything's on track as we're moving forward any questions with financials or anything with the progress report all right thank you Mr Buffington um so we do have uh 11.04 we have uh some change orders listed there uh and Mr Buffington if you could give us a

279little bit of background on those sure let's listed there uh there are five change orders there um totaling you know a little over $5,700 you'll note that uh GC 52 uh it's actually a credit uh work with the contractors they proposed um actually eliminating uh some painting in the lower level of District administration um we thought it um contractor proposed and we accepted you know as as we reviewed it um the other uh change orders we had two that um existing walls that needed some repair um also uh there's a electric panel that um we felt was best to abandon uh EC 27 and also uh the last ec28 is hold opens for the doors so some of our doors uh particularly in hallways uh are held open um most of the time except if

280there's a um fire alarm that the magnets on there allowed to to release and close um we needed to change the location of um some existing hold opens there to allow the doors to swing in the opposite direction and uh as we discussed uh in regards to uh um you you could make argument that it was a Miss but the difference is so negligible uh it's less than $200 that we just moved for forward and you know try to have good faith and good relationship you know as we continue forward in the project so the questions were asked but it was decided to to foro you know $180 uh so just wanted to let you know that it was it was discussed okay so moving on to 11.05 I would like to make a motion

281to award The Proposal from Neiman Refrigeration of York PA in the amount of $7,500 for the new booster heater equipment for the Southern Middle School existing dishwasher to be paid for by the Food Service fund do I have a second second um so I would like to say that I I did a little research into it and that's an amazing price it really is um uh as Mr Buffington said they're they're sort of our of a jewel that you'd like to try to keep secret but uh it's it is uh that that's a a very uh a good price for the district so any questions or comments any needs or abstentions hearing none motion passed 11.06 asbest abatement at susano high school a motion to approve the following for susano high school project one a

282contract with EHC Associates of Lancaster for aestus abatement Consulting service for phase three bulk demolition area during during the demolition for the fee of $690 and two to Sol lit and advertise for asbest abatement bids for phase three bulk demolition area during demolition so I have a second second okay so what what we're doing here um is preparing for the possibility of finding asbest during the demolition um and we are preparing by having um EHC and if I missp speake correct me EHC Associates prepare us a plan that will go out to bid so that we have those bids in hand and ready in the event we find some types of asbest uh with the hopes that this would prevent delays or at least minimize delays uh as much as possible um there is a

283possibility that we may um spend a little bit of money and even if we find nothing uh we may spend a small amount of money so you said what 3 to 5,000 potentially they would need bonds right yeah part of the bidding process yeah so um it's this is not without some expense but it is a insurance policy to ensure as we're going through the summer that if we come across more asbest we're prepared yeah certainly delaying delaying that process cost if we delay the demolition which ultimately delays the project there can be significant cost to that so right or superseding you know three or $5,000 so this is that that's what we're voting on here is uh an insurance policy I mean we sure hope that we we find no more Asus but it

284doesn't feel super probable that we're going to find no more Spees but well we'll see time will tell so any questions comments thate certainly any n or extensions hearing none motion passes okay moving on to 11.07 motion to approve the change order in the amount of blank dollars subject to Insurance approval for repair of the auxiliary gymnasium floor of the susco hanok high school as part of the restoration process um so Mr Buffington if you could go through the process that caused the damage in the first place sure um so back in January I believe it was uh there were some holes placed there were some holes in the roof Ro um caused by uh contractors there was a storm much like uh we're having right now um and some storm water came down through

285uh and uh went on and underneath the auxiliary gym floor um we certainly got a Remediation in company in quickly uh however water and wood don't do real well together and there is some cupping there um so that the image needs replaced obviously we had the insurance company in uh to look at that it was their recommendation that um the entire floor should be sanded um so before us tonight are some options with the uh logo uh that would go on that floor um and you can see the the cost differences there um with it yeah so um as you can see uh so the the floor currently has an S uh in the middle of it um and to put the warrior head logo which is our really only option as far as logos

286go uh with our board policy change uh the cost to put the warrior head logo in the floor is $474 7.92 cense that would not be covered um by the insurance if if the in if the insurance approves this in the first place so there's a question as to whether or not the insurance is going to approve it um basically what we are voting on tonight is whether we are going to put the warrior head logo in the floor or not um so the auxiliary gym had all of the bleachers removed um so it's not going to be used in the future for um you know any types of public events you know games I there's no guarantee that that never happens but there's a very strong likelihood that it will not be used for

287um sports sporting events uh very unlikely it would be used for um rallies for the students or you know all of those things would happen in the main gym uh and not in the auxiliary gym um you know there may be times that there's mats on the floor but it would not be permanent you know Mats on the floor um but in light of the fact that it's not used for public space um it would at least be my recommendation that we don't put anything back in the floor um you know save the the $4,800 uh you know for for other things to be used in the district um and let the insurance companies play out how how this is going to transpire I would agree with that yeah it's a bigger than $4,800 savings

288if they don't cover it um because because they're different amounts the quotes are different amounts and the the the cheapest option is the no logo option which this is just an auxiliary gym like you said no rallies no sporting events a question for clap what um what did the this gym have on the floor prior to the S logo you know the answer to that I re collection is no logo no logo so they put the S logo on a floor that didn't have a logo on it prior to that yes back in that's the block s 2018 and we as a board would be following current policy if we put the Native American logo on that FL because the only the only logo that can go there is that one correct the only logo

289that be used as purple word policy is the warrior head logo that is our our only logo in the school currently um I I acquest to that so so really the the S option would would break for policy so the S option is not is not possible so it's nothing or the old correct it's nothing or the warrior head logo or the old logo depending upon how you view it um but I I mean with the with the bleachers being removed um the the likelihood of it being used for a public event is pretty small now I I don't want to say that you know the students certainly matter I mean absolutely the students matter but you know when when you're having a a school spirit assembly or or something like that you know that's

290going to be held in in the main gym it's not going to be held in this gym you know this gym is going to be used for um fad gym class for you know practice you know um I I can say that for my part I don't feel comfortable using taxpayer dollars to put the warrior head logo in a place where it hadn't been prior that's I I don't feel comfortable doing I'm inclined to agree so what do we need to do for you to have your amount do we need to have a motion for it or we just well we're already in a motion but the amount does not exist in that motion so just a majority of how we feel about what we want to do which is nothing in the floor so

291I can I can re read the motion with the dollar value connected to it there no no there's no when a motion to approve the change order in the amount of like what his active $60,000 $458 subject to Insurance approval for repair of the auxiliary gymnasium floor of the susano high school as part of the restoration process do I have a second second a little Punchy I don't know if we need any clarification so basically the word subject to Insurance approval um so we have an estimate when they came in to check out the um gym they did an estimate this is higher than their estimate so we're working with them um but we have a Tim issue um if we're going to if we get that approval um the contractor would like general contractor

292would like to do it um towards the end of April so we just needed to get this approval we also needed if we don't get this approval we then need to go out for quotes and or bids um and now we know the direction that we want to go is to not put it on so we'll a able to work forward from there so it's kind of multiac thank you for that so is this um this is the is is this the maximum amount for the option we've chosen based upon the the contractor that we currently have as long as the insurance company approves that okay yes with contingent on that right all right and then just for clarification it will be up to the insurance company to determine whether or not the contractor's Insurance

293should be paying part or all of this bill that that will be left up to them yes that will not be for the school to to determine to determine all right so we do we have a motion in a second we do so um any n or abstentions hearing none motion passes 11.08 we have use of facilities which is there for our information 11.09 other items of business which I have one so um in response to public comment from our last session uh with the land that the school owns um in Shrewsbury Township on the edge of New Freedom burrow um Susan I had a short discussion about it uh and contextually just to give us some some facts about the land um uh what year did we purchase it between 2002 and 2004 okay

294so 2 so and uh we currently do not owe anything on the land correct right that the bonds are paid off not okay um we paid $2 million for the land um it has 99 tillable Acres um so it has 999 usable Acres uh not taking into account the woods or the swampy area down in the lower side or so the total usable land is uh 99 acres and for a to give you a sense um this campus all three buildings uh sits on a total of 99 Acres so sort of gives you an equivalence um my perspective on on it is that um the land development in our district um there's I'm sure will still be some in in New Freedom burough um however the the large tracks of land that are not developed

295are in the townships whether it be shury Township or kandor Township um townships are not our townships are not as friendly to building um you know that's their their perspective and prerogative um and but in Shrewsbury Township typically their Planning Commission when they do approve uh land for development they like it to be in close proximity to current development which it would be in this case you know that that's that's uh typically how the township used those things shbg Township used those things um this land is adjacent to uh colar Point um which is a a larger development in New Freedom burough it's basically rated right straight across the street from Coler point and then also from some older um homes and development that happened in New Freedom many many years ago in you know

296uh third and fourth Street and Front Street um so I think there's two things to weigh and and certainly we could we could put this on the agenda and really flush it all out there's two things to weigh one um at the size of the land um it would be at least acreage of the land um it would be conducive to basically where we are now you know in in multiplication of where we are now um how long it would be till the district required such things additional High School additional Middle School additional Elementary School additional Fields I that does not feel like any time in the in the near future I I I think that's that's one side of the equation I do think the other side of the equation is that from a

297community standpoint this probably is developable land um that that the township would allow to be developed there's no guarantee to that but it at least adheres to their desire to see development closely adjacent to other development um where we want to go with that as a board I just wanted it up I wanted to respond to his um comments put a couple of facts together and and just present it to the board it's also worth noting that um certainly if the land was developed that would increase the tax base um you know if it was developed and people moved in increase the tax um development then also creates well you would think typically development would would create you know more students but no you know the whole thing on Franklin Street just kind of just

298it surprises me that it did not do that you know because that is a enormous complex of homes on Frank Street I apologize and I might have missed it when I was in the bathroom sorry but are we paying on this land or I thought the I thought the farmers were like renting it and using it so we're not losing money on it we're just owning the land correct not losing money so we're leasing the farmers currently so so you you had gone into this a little bit Susan um we do have to pay County tax is that correct yes so we we pay County Municipal because we're not using it as a school right now it's pretty low bill I can find the amount um and then we get about 35,000 $35,000 a year

299um for rental income so it basically pays for itself and we have no pressing financial needs to sell it so we're just going to kind of let it go I would let it go I don't I don't disagree with that statement I just think that that there's it's a double-edged sword in that because the township is very um selective about where it allows uh you know development expansion um I think this Falls inside of of their parameters uh that doesn't mean that that we have to uh that doesn't mean we have to sell the land it just does mean that um there's a potential of growth in the community that us holding the land suppresses that's that's what I'm trying to say it's it's also worth noting yes we we receive a little bit of

300income from the land I mean that's 35,000 is not a lot um and real estate as as an investment uh it's not a great investment if you just buy it and hold it it it on over the long term It generally appreciates with inflation um and so the fact that we're earning a small amount of income off of it and then we're getting basically out of it over the long term that's the projection uh you know that could be going for capital projects that the school actually needs uh without without increasing taxes so it's and we're also keeping Farmers you can't happy answer I mean how much would it cost yeah why take Farmland away yeah just to answer your question so couple things um there is something in the documents that I pulled um

301when I knew the gentleman was going to speak that that I've been speaking with Mr Lots about there is something about building rights on this land that we have to um are pretty long right now so we've not gotten the answer to that yet but we do need to look into um this isn't without restriction so there is a building right piece on here that we have to find out what that means um because it might not be able to be sold to be developed depending on whether we own part of the building right so we have to look at at that um the the other thing as far as is what would it cost I don't have the answer so we would want to do appraisals and everything before we would go to sell

302it just to make sure that you know we be getting a fair price and there are there are laws and rules on how School District can sell things and Jeff's not again yes um so we can't do what other people do so we need to follow all those those laws and rules which I personally have not sold property before so I would we've it's zoned agriculture it's in an agriculture District uh there's a sale on development rights and before we turn that into a huge research project yeah we wanted to talk so there's there's restrictions you can't build homes on that thing right now my suspicion was and as predates us being solicitor I think the board at the time purchased it thinking much much much longer term that if development were to continue and

303you need to build a school you need land and so I think there was an opportunity to exist and they bought it that again that's my sheer speculation um but if you guys want us to look into it we can and I I think it's it's heavily restricted right now what you could do would probably require a change in zoning ordinances um but I think the time Horizon for the school using it wouldn't be uh wouldn't be my career and I don't think it would be anyone on this board's thing it would be a long longterm thing but I think the thought was as Mr Hall said it's right next to Freedom burough uh and so yeah if you're going to expand things you're you're not putting it you know mild down into pristine agricultural

304land or something it's but we can look into that if you want and get a memo for the file the board can do as they as they choose I just wanted to collect some information yeah and and respond to uh public comment okay any other uh items of business hearing none Mr President all right uh Mr hash uh item 121 student transportation report for March 2024 um real quick they had 18 red light um Red Lake violations one was called on camera 17 were called by driver observations um the cameras are being rotated as needs arise um thank you to um our transportation first student for working together and over the month of March they put together over 50 additional events that we drove students to from field trips to smaller trips and events and

305athletic events they uh stepped up and really did a lot there that is it for that report uh uh 122 um Board of Education to consider approval of an updated memorandum of agreement with st Jacob's Lutheran Church do I have a second second wait did you make a motion make a motion I want to make a motion to approve an update a memorandum of agreement with st St Jacob's Lutheran Church do have a second second any questions or comments Nays or abstentions motion carries 123 other items of business I do have one if anybody else has anything first no um on the next um agenda I would like to see an item to start the process of putting together putting together a committee for um the hiring finding hiring of a additional RSO for one

306of other other campuses probably Shrewsberry is where that need would be just because of location um takes a while to get one of our guys over there so if we could have another in the rotation primarily based out there that' probably be good um the committee I would like to see you know obviously Dr rert the current rso's chief Childs like those people I'd like to be involved in that so start we currently have two now is that correct two yeah we have two resource officers on this campus M okay so to your point coming from TR bar so one's classified as SRO the other one's not SRO quite um they rotate among all five buildings um sometimes seen here cuz their offices are at middle and high uh but they have a rotating schedule

307that varies so they're not always here on campus they do split time uh the other piece is uh in the case of emergency we would utilize obviously 911 which Shrewsberry is actually located closest to uh srrs SRO or yeah SRO Southern Regional as well as state State Police have quick access down in 83 as well um so it's why you might see them over here more secondary campus but they are over there as well that's an interesting point was that I assume that that was the the nature of fact that shry Elementary is so close to Southern Regional I mean it's still it's still not the same as having an SRO on campus but um yeah I mean so would we be able to see um percentages of of H what what it would look

308like if we had another officer um and would what how would that affect our coverage I mean obviously that's a sensitive subject because that's not something you NE necess one you know in the public eye but um if if we it would be I think time well spent to have an understanding of how that would affect um you know our security for our kids Lord forbid anything would happen but um in the event that it did having more coverage gives us a higher probability of someone being present to stop it so I guess my question uh is with the idea that it's in the budget for next year or with the idea that we're looking into it for a future year I I think you know what I'm saying I'm just trying to figure out

309because of more seeing where the feasibility would be yeah where if we can get it done how we would get it done and that's why obviously Susan would have to be integral to that committee is it even possible so then go from there because clearly if we're passing a budget right we're going to have to wait for the next yeah um yeah I think if I'm reading if I'm reading it correctly on this and by establishing a committee and would that be an administrative committee most likely um yeah that can be an administrative committee and and in that case do we need to do we need to pass that at the board meeting we can just ask you to do it just ask us to do it so it's done um that was the EAS

310thing we've done tonight y'all um so so yeah let's do an administrative committee and and with the with the target being the budget that we're passing next May because that way that way you're allowed to work it into the budget that you're creating for that year rather than um trying to jam it into this budget when I mean one of the things when I've discussed this issue with you is is there's not even a person that is waiting in the wings to do this to be the SRO so right correct that is the yeah that that's probably the bigger Challenge from the I think you said that or you said somebody spoke with Chief child said there is there's nobody that's jumping at it and it takes um in speaking with our current SRS it

311does take a very specific person MH to be able to do this and it's not some something that somebody right off the street can get walk right into it's a very specific person mhm that we would be searching for and one of the things we talk about was if we could put the committee together and then have a recommendation um for our first presentation in November of the budget then if if the board's in favor of moving forward with it maybe we can start to advertise and look for that person um that we'd be ready then to yeah it's not a process that I would like to see Rush by any means can't be we we even talked about real quick talked about how to package at as a safety uh school safety coordinator who

312happens to also be certified SRO um because the role is a bear and we're splitting it amongst many people so it just makes sense if we're going to put a team together that we're going to talk big picture how that could be utilized and we can get as much bang for your buck as possible any other items of business from anybody else all right president turning back to you all right M Doberman Athletics and extra thank you item number 1301 the athletic report um this is as of April 4th so a few things have happened but I don't know what they were um The Warriors are off to a strong start to the spring season track and Tennis are just entering their regular season competition due to challenges brought on by the spring weather below

313you will find the current highlights as well as the allstar selection from winter season congratulations to the following winter athletic athletes um for earning yai daa Allstar honors for swimming it's Tyler Burgess for the 200 medal relay Jack Hammond for the 200 medy relay Jackson Hollinger for the 500 freestyle Isaiah Voss for the 200 medal relay Tyler Wright for the 100 brushstroke 100 fly and the 200 medy relay and Kate I knew I had it covic for the hund fly um the boys basketball Joe Fuller Silas Leonard and Brooks mcut mcnight for the girls basketball Annie lobok and Elena Snider and congratulations to all of them for spring Sports the girls lacrosse team is off to a strong start they are currently 4 and zero and sitting in first place in the Y A IAA

314boy lacrosse is currently sitting 4- one on the season and tied for second place in the yaaa for softball they are currently sitting in second place in the Y AI AA division 2 and baseball is currently in a three-way tie for the first place in the ya AI daa division too and that that concludes my report may I make a comment sure so uh this week um York Daily Record uh athlete of the week one of our students uh Ben Lippy from the LR team is up uh on that so if anyone should feel so inclined to go on to the York Daily Record website and vote for the athlete of the week we have one of our own there so thank you you have not exceeded your three views yeah right what's that I

315said if you have not exceeded your three views and you can open it well I full disclosure he's he's my nephew so anybody else that concludes my report thank you um 14 committee report other business I don't have any anybody else have any I think we covered it all in the other other businesses um 1501 legislative councel uh Miss marily Lee Hall yeah thank you so in the interest of time I'm going to severely abbreviate my report I'm sure everyone will appreciate that U but I did want to make mention of the uh April 1st psba work for Comm oop sorry I start over I think you're good okay so psba works for you send a communication out to all board members on April 1st and it was an invitation to submit proposals for pba's

3162025 legislative platform so please access the 2024 platform um there's a link provided that you can read all the principles and prepare any kind of additions modifications um anything that you'd like to bring to the board for consideration if we do have sub proposals to submit we have until June 28th to do that but of course we have to make it on an agenda item if anyone wants to talk about anything so um all you have to do is pick up that link on the psba site and take a look at all those principles and see if you wanted to update any of that um there are a couple of things that were passed by the House of Representative but they are still in Senate committee consideration and both the H the Senate and the

317house return to session just Monday this week so I'll have more on my report next month and that concludes my legislation report thank you thank you uh Miss County School of Technology um they just wrapped up their musical SpongeBob SquarePants unfortunately I did not get to see it I which it didn't work in my schedule um but they also set their graduation date for May 23rd at the York Expo Center um and then they also um have new student orientation on May 2nd and that concludes my report 15.03 the liu2 uh report is attached for your information and then uh 15.04 uh York Adams tax Bureau screen do you have anything no and then 15.05 uh the southern York County School District Foundation Merle Hall okay yes now this one I will not abbreviate because

318there are so much exciting news coming from the foundation all wonderful things so our last meeting was held on Tuesday this week April 9th at 700 in the new high school library thank you to those who arranged the space for us to meet and the sycsd foundation is looking forward to the silent auction in celebration of G local York so you have some paperwork here it's a flyer you'll see it on the school website as well with all the information coming up so the silent auction begins April 22nd at 9:00 in the morning and until Monday April 29th at 900 PM so all proceeds will be used to help fund scholarships and alumni programs so save the date you don't want to miss the bidding process it's a lot of fun to see if you

319can sort of slip in there before somebody else out bids you and then all of it all of the money goes to Great cost uh the next event coming up for the foundation is the distinguished leadership recognition dinner on Thursday April 25th at 6: p.m. and I hope all of my Board Mates have RSVP to attend it's a wonderful evening of Celebration and gratitude and finally the most anticipation the most anticipated Foundation event of the year is the scholarship Awards program so that will be held on Thursday May 9th at 6:30 p.m. in the High School auditorium the foundation approved scholarships with a value of approximately $152,000 for 88 students so very exciting can't wait for the evening it's a huge thank you though to all of the generous donors who made that possible and

320the foundation greatly appreciates the support of the community and all of our wonderful donors and the next official Foundation meeting will be on Tuesday September 10th so I can't believe I'm saying it but happy summer everybody on the foundation right and then very much looking forward to another year of service with the foundation team it's been wonderful and that concludes my report thank you Mrs Hull um other items of business not surprising um all right the secretary's report uh item 16.01 the uh Student Activities report for March 2024 is attached for your information did anyone have any comments on that all right then uh the donation from the giant company uh there's a donation of $846 3.66 from the giant company through the feeding school kids Initiative for your information huh it's all him oh

321okay sorry um uh resignations and retirement 1603 uh we have one um other items of business I have none anyone else all right moving on to item 17 uh Dr rer I think you usually take 17.01 did a great job there Mr President uh no just those just are enrollments for home education at 210 and then uh Cyber Charter uh numbers for our digital academy uh we still have a digital academy we have seven students in there uh but we also have uh indicating there are 15 students that are enrolled in Lincoln Intermediate units their version of uh cyber program so uh good numbers numbers are lower than what they were you know two years ago but still being able to provide the option provides that flexibility for our parents and students all right uh

32217.0 um announcements by the board president and superintendent uh I'll mention that the next regularly scheduled meeting of the Board of Education will be held on Thursday May 16th 2024 in the district's offices multi-purpose room beginning at p.m. um and um are we doing an no we're not going to meet after this okay yeah it's pretty late um all right uh so then I have no additional announcements to you Dr Bryon real quick uh encourage you to come out next Wednesday starting at 3:30 uh for unified track if you've never seen a unified track meet it is awesome all of us will be out helping judging and uh my usual task is raking long jump but come on out it's a real cool then if you have a chance um since uh Mr buffington's still

323here in the in what's left of our crowd just want to give him a big uh twoos um if you don't know Mr Buffington he's our operations director and has been presenting almost on a monthly basis for us because of the building project uh but more importantly tonight I'm just giving them recommen recognition for presenting an 8 Hour session with with a couple of his colleagues uh at the Pennsylvania Association of school business officials and the topic was uh planning prep bidding for building projects we which we all know he knows a little bit about and apparently his professional association thinks so as well because they invite him to teach uh a bunch of the new guys from around the state from different school districts so thank you uh Randy for not only presenting but

324helping out uh your colleagues from across the state also wanted to give my appreciation to the giant uh just in general they've been giving us donations for years now uh and usually a fair Fairly big check as it was this year uh lastly we've received a thank you letter from New York literacy Institute for our continued support for bucka book reading program this year in York County about 1,400 students read over 8,800 books which rais $72,500 for literacy programs due to those who sponsored the student readers as always our participating Elementary buildings outdid themselves in support of this essential opportunity to promote enthusiasm and appreciation for reading so big thank you to all the kids and sponsors that participated keep living your dream it's late have a good evening all right uh 18 new business

325anyone no I'll entertain a motion to adjourn second I make a motion there we go Motion are you still seconding all right we are adjourned okay e