001We interviewed four candidates. We began our meeting at approximately 6:30 this evening and uh went through an interview with four different candidates to uh fill the vacancy in region two on our school board. Uh we're ready now to continue our meeting and uh we tonight's meeting is primarily fulfilling the schoolboard vacancy. So we have no announcements of additional agenda items, no consent agenda, no committee and ambassador reports and no other actions under consideration. We will move directly to item three if you're looking at your agenda and that is participation from district residents and district taxpayers regarding filling the schoolboard director vacancy. I would like to now take comment limited only to taking uh comments about the school board director vacancy. Each public comment period is reserved for residents and taxpayers. Additionally, the board will accept
002comments from sitting public officials for non- campaigning purposes and by agreement with the TEAA and Tennig from their respective union presidents. All comments should be directed to the board as a whole or to the presiding officer. No comments or questions should be directed to individual board members. All public comments and responses should be in the spirit of civil public discourse. All public comments this evening will be limited to three minutes. Please make your entire comment and then the board will determine an appropriate response. The school board values the opportunity to hear from the community in person and we appreciate your cooperation in advance. At this time comment is limited just to filling the school board director vacancy. Is there anyone who would like to make a comment? If so, would you please step up to
003the microphone and tell us your name and your township of residence? Okay. Um, Ray Clark, uh, resident in Traiffan Township, uh, on Overlook Place, which is in region two. So this vacancy would be from one of my neighbors and certainly uh um I would be a constituent. So therefore I'm kind of very interested in in the outcome here. Um and I'd like to thank you for conducting the open process. The interviews were were very enlightening and to thank the candidates who came you know clearly very committed and with many qualifications to join you. Um, but I'm disappointed that some of my neighbors, at least one I know, had excellent qualifications that match any of the people that were interviewed and that would bring diversity, experience of being a major contributor to the community, not necessarily
004the school board, certainly to the township. Um, and would bring critical thinking to this board. And I've seen that in action. And I don't know what the mysterious opaque process was that got us from 16 to five. Um, but I am very surprised that it didn't include this one particular candidate I know. And I wondered if you could elaborate a little bit on what you were looking for as you winnowed down the group and in particular what you think about the need for someone to apply some critical thinking to a $200 million budget. I couldn't believe that when I looked at it the other day. That is doubled over 15 years, twice the rate of price increases. And I think that's something that you need to consider very much as you select your the member
005who will join you as to their ability to uh contribute to a really critical analysis. Oh, and our solicitor still has his card. Good. um uh a really critical analysis of our financial strategy and whether current taxpayers should be paying so much to the benefit of future residents. Thanks. >> Thank you, Mr. Clark. So, I hear your concern. Um I think you've had basically two two concerns. One being uh what was our process and the other being uh will we be looking for someone with critical the critical thinking skills of which would be inherent in making good decisions for our community especially in terms of the budget. Um, I would tell you that uh, as you probably heard earlier this evening when I described how we'd gotten to this point, uh, we did not have,
006of course, the ability to deliberate together. We each had to look at the candidates separately. And so when we received those uh, all those applications, we each individually took a look at them. And after careful consideration, we all on a given day called in our top choices to the uh to to a third party in the administration building so that it was all very anonymous. But uh and then we took the top people from that proc from the cumulative uh count that was taken from all of our uh decisions. So, we made our decisions independently. We thought about uh what skills and um experiences those candidates seem to show us. And then uh we also knew that we wouldn't be able to have 16 people come and do an interview very easily. And so that's
007why we narrowed it down. The second part about the critical thinking, I would say uh we certainly do think I and I think we saw it tonight that our uh candidates have all had experiences that uh would involve critical thinking and that they've all taken this very seriously and uh have a commitment to uh being a very productive board member once they're here. But uh thank you for your question. Are there any others tonight? Okay. Uh seeing none or seeing no further uh comments, uh it is now time uh for our public for our priority discussion. Uh so this closes the uh public comment period. And we'll now move on to the item under priority discussion, which is the schoolboard vacancy. I'd like to now open nominations from board members to fill this vacancy. Once
008the nominations are complete, we will all vote and we will repeat this process until one candidate receives five or more votes. I'll now receive nominations to fill the open position. And I remind the board that for this particular uh action, we do not require a second. >> Mr. Hong, >> I nominate Henry Zinc. >> Thank you. That's Henry Zinc has been nominated. Do we have any other nominations? Go ahead, Mr. Contoorsk. >> Um, I nominate Pine Argaval. >> We have a nomination for Mr. Agraval. >> Do I see any others? Okay. Uh since I see no more nominations going forward, I'd like to entertain a motion to close nominations and ask uh board members to vote. This motion, I would remind you, requires six votes to pass. Do I have that motion to close nominations?
009>> So moved. >> Is there a second? >> Second. >> The motion has been moved and second. Seconded. All in favor, please signify by saying I. >> I. >> And those opposed by saying no. Nay. >> All right. The motion passes. The nominations are now closed. Is there any discussion or del deliberation from board members before we conduct a ballot vote? Miss Pition. Yes. Thank you. Um this was a tough choice. Uh and my uh priority was the answer to the question, what do you think is the single most important issue facing public education today and how that related to uh community activities. Thank you. Do we have any other comments, discussion, deliberation? Mr. Ktosk. >> Yes. I just I just want to say thank you to all the the folks who volunteered, put themselves
010out there, sent us their application materials, and then ultimately came here to talk to us today. I mean I was personally I was blown away by the not just the quality of the materials that we received uh but the the quality of the responses and the discussion that we have today. And I I just want to reiterate that it shows that we have um a strong commitment in this community for service and a strong commitment to this district and and really I mean this is a for me personally it's a it's a difficult decision uh because everybody did so well during this process and it does look we you know the people who are up here at this point we we ran we did the election thing and we knocked you know, doortodoor and all
011that sort of stuff. And that takes a certain amount of uh skill and commitment and fortitude and those sorts of things, but it takes a I think a different kind of skill, commitment, and fortitude to say, "Okay, I'm going to volunteer for this position and then I'm going to submit my materials and get uh evaluated by eight people who are sitting up here at the moment to make a make a decision. So, I really do want to sincerely say thank you to all of you who have come here tonight. Not not even just all the folks who have come here tonight, but the people who did, the 16 people who did submit their materials to us because it does take a bit of a leap of faith and to to do that. So, and I
012want to the committee, the community uh to understand that this is a at least from for me personally a very challenging decision. Uh but I am looking forward to whoever ends up uh on the board and I'm sure that whoever it is will do an excellent job and looking forward to working with that person uh at least for the next couple of years. So, thank you. Do we have any other uh members who would like to speak? Yes, Miss Chair. >> Um I also would like to thank everybody that applied and everybody that came to interview tonight. And I would ask that if you are not the person that is chosen this evening, please continue to come to meetings, come to committee meetings, come to board meetings, and participate in the process. Um, that's the
013best way to continue to make your voice heard and to carry on the conversations that were started this evening. Thank you. >> Anyone else? >> Really quickly, I would like to echo the thank I'm sorry you didn't. >> Go right ahead. >> Not that quickly. I'd like to echo everyone's thanks. Um, I Anyone who has ever met me knows that I'm a very bright line person. There's a right, there's a wrong, there's a good answer, there's a bad answer. And I came out of that room tonight believing that any of the people who spoke to us would have been a wonderful addition to the board. I am grateful for everyone's time. I am in awe of everyone's experience and articulateness, if that's a word, and I thank you along with my fellow board members for
014your contributions to us tonight. So, thank you. Do we have any other comments, Dr. Missos? Yes. Um I would also like to thank everybody who applied, not not only those who um were chosen to come to interview, but um you know, it's something that I appreciate. It's not an easy thing to put yourself out there. Um, and you know, going through an interview and receiving feedback publicly is not is not normal. It doesn't usually happen. Um, but I wanted to also talk about my process, my thinking, and then kind of uh come to a conclusion about um, you know, one particular person I'd like to uh, support. As President TD mentioned during the interview process, the Pennsylvania School Code doesn't prescribe the manner by which school boards appoint someone to fill a vacancy. We could
015have straight away appointed somebody without inviting applicants from the public, but we chose to carry out a thoughtful process of open applications, interviews, deliberation, and voting. So, the interviews, deliberation, and voting would be all here done publicly. I'd like to tell you my point of view and why I've approached this with seriousness and analytical rigor. This past year during my campaign for for a first term, I had to manage pressure and public scrutiny non-stop. I could get into the details of that, but I'll tell you um it's challenging, but I uh embraced it and really enjoyed it. Actually, I was questioned and put on the spot from every angle as I stood on voters's property. Um, and I was asked far more questions than we've asked all of each of the applicants here in this
016controlled environment. So, that's part of my reason for evaluating all applicants rigorously. I did this by carefully considering your resumes and responses, your written responses and uh before before today and by cross-checking information. For example, for applicants who claim to hold professional license lensure or certification through the state, I check the relevant public database to verify accuracy and good standing. However, the main reason I've approached our evaluation process this way is above all for the students. The school board is here to serve all students in our district. In that regard, I've been in tune to your written and oral responses to listen and get a sense for your motivation to serve our students and the faculty, staff, and administrators who work with them. That said, of all the applicants, I conclude that Henry Zinc is
017the most qualified and most genuinely motivated. I say this in terms of his direct practice in uh K12 public school teaching and school psychology and his other various uh backgrounds I don't need to dig into specifically. I felt that Mr. Zinc was during his interview was thorough, nuanced, his answers were germaine and thoughtful and he was reasonably confident and as he said maybe not just this way but he's he's steeped in in a career in education and I think he could bring uh some valuable perspectives to the board that we don't already have. Thank you. >> Thank you Dr. Miseros. Is there anyone else who has a a comment this evening? Seeing none, u I certainly would like to add my uh sincere thanks to all of you. Uh and I would agree with uh
018Miss Wild that it is a very hard decision and we uh are so fortunate to have four such qualified candidates. Uh I think community engagement is one of the biggest strengths of our district and tonight was a great uh illustration of that kind of engagement and the the thoroughess that our community uh has in terms of its knowledge and uh passion for the district. So, um, I'd like to just add my thanks to to the other comments. Uh, at this time then I I think we have, uh, we're ready to to do our ballots. And just so that you'll know, what will happen is Mr. McDonald is going to distribute the ballots. We'll all write our votes on there. We'll hand them back to him. And then what will happen is he will read the
019person's uh name who is the voter as well as the the candidate that they voted for. So we'll take a minute to do that. Uh, Miss Wild rem uh reminds me that I should mentioned that it would take five votes to uh be the uh winning uh applicant. Is she ready? >> Yes. >> Okay. Okay. To read. All right. >> I'm going to start. I don't know if these are in order. I'm going to start with Miss Shear. She voted for Henry Zinc. Miss Pichion voted for Henry Zinc. Dr. Meros voted for Henry Zinc. Mr. Canoursk voted for Mr. Agarwal. Miss While voted for Henry Zinc. Dr. Hatinsky voted for Henry Zinc. Vice President Hong voted for Henry Zinc. And President Titi voted for Mr. Agarwal. >> So, seems like Mr. I'd like to congratulate
020Mr. Zinc and uh I would also like to thank the other uh candidates sincerely for their participation. Congratulations Mr. Zinc. Uh, at this point in the meeting, we make any announcements required by the Pennsylvania Sunshine Act. Our solicitor this evening is Ken Roose, and he will make any required announcements. >> Thank you. There are no announcements to make. >> Thank you, Mr. Roose. Our future meetings are set for Monday, January 26th, the regular board meeting at 7:30 at Konesoga High School. We'll also have a regular board meeting on February 23rd. And March 9th is our first budget workshop which will be held at 7:30 at Konesoga High School following the finance meeting which will begin at 7 that evening. Uh I I just have one other announcement that's just uh happening that a community member
021was asked me to bring up as I walked in this evening. There is a robotics competition that's going to happen this Sunday at Konesoga. It starts at 9 in the morning. It ends at 5 in the afternoon. All of our students will be here along with many other robotics teams. So, if you have someone in your family that's interested in this, uh, please let them know. Uh, I'd like to call for a motion to adjurnn. >> So, move. >> Do I have a second? >> Second. >> It's, uh, I have a first and a second. All those in favor I >> and all those opposed. The mer the meeting is adjourned and we thank you all for attending