001e e good evening and welcome to the June 10th 2024 regular meeting of The Tradin East Town School Board we'll begin as always with a salute to the flag regular school board meetings are business meetings that are open to the public during which we provide several opportunities for public comment on items before the board the first comment period is reserved for announced additional agenda items and items on the consent agenda only additional public comment will be heard for the actions listed under priority discussion the final comment period near the end of the meeting is reserved for all other matters of concern official action or deliberation which are or may be before the TD board of directors and which are not covered by the other comment periods each public comment period is reserved for residents and
002taxpayers additionally the board will accept comments from sitting public officials for non campaigning purposes and by agreement with the tea and ten the board board will accept comments from the 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 also please be aware that intentionally disrupting a lawful meaning or the administration of a government function is a criminal offense in Pennsylvania the school board values the opportunity to hear from the community in person and appreciates your cooperation in advance so now we'll go to the next item on our agenda is usually reports from student representatives and other invited speakers we have no
003student Representatives here so then we will move on to a short recognition for our retirees um and um it reads here just for everybody the board would like to recognize the following employees of the Trad different Easttown school district for their years of faithful service to the district and the young people of the community for that we will sort of shift a little bit Dr gusk um vice president T and myself we going to go up to the front and our um administrator in charge of uh uh Human Resources Dr Anthony Stevenson will come to the mic and honor the retirees who are here joining us this evening good evening um the board U would like to recognize um the following employees from to different East Town School District for their years of faithful service
004to the district and to the young people in our community each of these were presented earlier uh this evening in retire reception with a golden apple engraved in their names and in service to the te school district and also um receive those who um served over 20 years citation from a state senator um I will first recognize those um individuals who are present here and ask that they come up and um greet the superintendent President and Vice President on behalf of the board in the school district um the first person that we would like to recognize is Maria Durante who um served um 35 years in the te School [Applause] District next is Miss Judith nestel um from um new Eagle Elementary who served 28 years at for our school district [Applause] and finally um
005Mr Anthony Thompson um who served at Conor stoga high school for six years [Applause] so I was while they're not in attendance this evening we still would like to recognize the other members of our community school Community who served um and retired this year um Ed Callaway maintenance 16 years William Clover Hillside Elementary 38 years Kathleen Curry Conor Stoger High School 22 years colum Kelly maintenance 15 years Patricia Lucy Hillside Elementary 22 years Kevin Murphy Conor stoga High School 2 years Kimberly panck Valley Forge Elementary 14 years Joanne cell Valley Forge Middle School 12 years Josephine ta Conor Stoger High School 19 years Anthony Thompson Koga High School six years Dolores Zeta te middle school 28 years for a total of 289 years serving our school districts thank you thank you very much Dr Stevenson
006and thank you to this for the service to uh all our retirees 289 years is a it's a lot of experience a lot of knowledge in this District um almost as old as some of our oldest buildings in the district at least it's my understanding uh but so that uh but really do appreciate the the service um and the dedication that you all have given to this district and this community the next item on the agenda is public participation from District residents and District taxpayers regarding any items on the consent agenda only if you would like to make a comment on the consent agenda please line up when you come to the microphone state your name and Township of residents we will end comment with the last person in line all public comments this evening
007will be limited to three minutes again this comment period is limited to the consent agenda only to help with the timing please make your entire comment and the board will determine an appropriate response so with that anyone who has any comments on the consent agenda please line up seeing none we will move on to the uh consent well to the consent agenda well I should say that there's um I missed a couple of agenda items just to clarify uh we have an announcement of agenda additional agenda items we didn't have any so we've gotten past that um board action regarding amendment of agenda to include additional items we don't have any so we can move on past that so now we we will actually move on to the consent agenda now although board action is
008required it is generally unnecessary to hold discussion on these items with the consent of all members they are therefore grouped and approval is given in one Motion in the event a board member wants to discuss any item the board president will move it to an appropriate place on the agenda a board member may vote nay or abstain with respect to a consent agenda item without the need for removing the item from the consent agenda the action under consider ation is that the board of school directors approves the following recommendations on the consent agenda as printed starting on page six of the agenda do I have a motion so moved do I have a second second I have a proper first and a second so I will call for a vote all those in favor signify
009by saying I I any opposed signify by saying nay we have none eyes have it motion passes 90 uh next we will ask I will ask vice president Titi to uh acknowledge and acel the gifts that the district has received uh as on page 123 of the agenda thank you president koric on behalf of the district uh we'd like to acknowledge with appreciation a rather uh I would say rare and historic gift uh from a Community member uh a person by the name of Punky brick has donated two te diplomas the first is a tradition Public Schools grammar Department certificate dated 1918 and the second is a tradition East Town high school diploma dated 1922 we appreciate having this little bit of history and we'll take good care of it we we thank uh our
010donor very much and our board's secretary will send along a thank you note soon thank you thank you vice president TD yes very much appreciate a little bit of History here in the in the district so with that we will turn to our priority discussion uh which is the adoption of the 2024 2025 final budget the action under consideration is that the board of school directors adopts the following resolution that pertains to the approval of the 2425 final budget submitted by The District's Administration the text of the res resolution can be found on page 232 of the agenda do I have a motion so moved do I have a second second okay we have a first and a second I will ask Dr GK and Mr McDonald to provide further information prior to the discussion
011of this priority action item Dr GK thank you president Kant torsi it's my pleasure tonight to present with Mr mcdonal the 2425 final budget for your consideration TD Prov provid services for approximately 6943 students that's the student enrollment as today and it is projected to grow into next year it it's important I believe as we're considering the uh cost of the budget for the next year to reflect on some of the positive outcomes it produces recent outcomes of our educational program include continued strength in the area of standardized testing in the fall of 2023 Koga High School Pennsylvania once again with 43 National Merit semi-finalists 51 National Merit commended students five National Hispanic Scholars additionally in the spring of 2023 1,72 Koga high school students completed 2511 AP tests and 84% of those students had
012a three or better Koga students scored well above the national average on the SATs with a mean score of 650 in reading and writing and 657 in math it goes beyond just academics our high school band choir and Orchestra qualified for district region and all state festivals a total of 98 times this year our middle school students excel in math competitions both te middle and Valley Forge Middle School students were top scorers in math counts and Pa Math League competitions with multiple first and second place individual and team finishes additionally our middle school students shined in the AMC 8 math competition where multiple students scored in the top 5% nationally all six of koga's Robotics teams qualified for the eastern PA state championship after which the students went on to compete at the world championships
013in Dallas Texas and our students finished 14th and 24th overall in the world four of our athletic teams won district one championships girls golf boys soccer field hockey and boys tennis doubles the boys soccer and boys tennis teams won PIAA state championships girls lacrosse team is currently in the varsity PIAA State semi-finals and they play tomorrow at exitor high school at 7 p.m. versus Manheim Township and we wish them the best of luck this year we had four conastoga students who received a perfect score they got a five on AP exams and were among a select group of students to earn every Point possible receiving the maximum score it's just a sampling of our student accomplishments as there are so many we couldn't possibly list them all here te school district and its eight individual
014schools continue to consistently rank high nationally among public schools in commercial Publications so tonight's final budget includes funds to support our High student enrollment that continues to be steady around 7,000 maintains the program that contributes to our ongoing Student Success some of the items impacting include Staffing additions of three special education teachers two speech the Pathologists one English language development teacher one school psychologist as well as the ongoing athletic fields and other infrastructure projects in addition as the community has been informed this past year the TSD acquired property to build a 6 K through 4 Elementary School projected to open in Fall 2027 there's much work to be done to prepare for full day kindergarten and the opening of the new school tonight's budget includes revenues that would be transferred to our Capital fund to
015support the construction of the new school delivering the educational program in 2425 will cost an anticipated m722 336 in expenditures and Mr McDonald will now provide a specific breakdown of the revenues and expenses thank you Dr gusk so tonight we're um considering and voting on the final budget for the 2425 school year we consistent and in line with the state deadline to do that by June 30th and after this meeting uh we will submit the report to the state the final budget report and also certify the tax rate to the state along with um what you're going to vote on after this uh consideration which is the Homestead Farmstead we'll also submit that to the state as well uh we've had uh several meetings to talk about the budget and uh I won't go through
016every single slide here tonight some repeats but I will touch on uh the ones that are different for this evening but you've been at all these meetings and you've uh had extensive discussions about this budget that you're considering this evening uh during the development of budget uh we've seen this slide quite a few times uh Dr gusk mentioned some of the things on here uh we also are issuing bonds we just did that a couple weeks ago so we do have some additional Debt Service that we're uh working on in this coming budget Year and that is going to help us fund uh the athletic fields project that we're going to be considering over the summer and then of course uh the the sixth elementary school so since our finance committee meeting the other night
017we got some direction from that committee and consensus from those folks that evening to uh consider the 5.9% tax rate that you see here u in these budget scenarios so the Act One index at 5.3 and the Act One index plus exceptions which the board has Authority uh up to 6.31 one uh the middle column that I have called out there is the 5.9% so the resolution uh that you're going to be considering tonight is based on that 5.9% tax rate so considering that tax rate it's going to bring in uh about $8 million of additional revenue and that leaves us with a budgeted deficit of a little over $1.6 million that budgeted deficit it will be filled with fund balance just like we do uh when we fund any deficit through the budget in
018addition to the contingency which I'll uh show you on the next Slide the summary shows you the anticipated revenue or budgeted revenue of little over 173 million the additional tax rate revenue of that 8 million that I just talked about at the 5.9% tax rate and line three is the total budget revenue of 181 anticipated spend ending is what we talk about uh pretty much every finance committee meeting and in summary it's not what gets submitted to the state and what you approve you prove the authorized spending so you're voting on what appears on line seven of this particular slide we think that we are going to spend around 183 million and that's what line four is the difference is the contingency amount that you see detailed on lines 89 10 that $3 million is
019the difference so that contingency amount is also funded through fund balance just like the deficit is funded through fund balance you must submit a balanced budget to the state they don't let you submit an unbalanced budget so the addition of that 1.6 million along with the 3 million is what you see in the resolution in your packet tonight uh as a fund balance allocation those two items together so that's why you see the uh 4 point a little over 4.6 million uh in your resolution and this is the resolution I won't read through this entire resolution but basically the red areas that you see on the slide are the detail of the $181 million in Revenue again the 4.6 of fund balance allocation and the authorized spending of 185. 7 million at 5.9% at the
020bottom of this resolution you see the millage rate at 28.33% year the year we in currently so this is the resolution that you'll be voting on this evening tax impact from the board resolution it uh that particular rate is uh detailed in line C I mentioned the number of Mills and column D is the increase to the average te homeowner and that's an average assessed value uh in the district we talked about that this at our finance committee meeting but the uh state property tax reduction allocation of 3.3 million million that you accepted is going to go towards reducing the taxes of all those folks in the district that are eligible for homestead exemption and that will um reduce their taxes by $33 and that's an increase over last year by of $60 uh you
021may recall that um that State Property uh tax reduction allocation was fairly consistent for quite a number of years and just recently it has increased so we're seeing that go up every year which is encouraging we're going to do that in the future um I put this in informational purposes so you can see the different rates and the impact of those rates the 2324 uh budget the current year that were in uh we talked about this at Finance the other night uh this has not been revised since then it was just a couple days ago but we are in the Black in a projection and we do have um $5 million that's budgeted as a capital funds transfer in this particular budget so that's included uh in this projection so we're not quite to the
022$6 million that we're um looking to establish kind of as a base to transfer into the capital fund that's what we have in the 24 25 budget that's $6 million this is only five so uh we're hoping that we get to a point where uh we have a little bit more than a million that we can move that some of some of that extra over to the C Capital fund we talked about it in finance but I'll remind you that um because we're doing Bond issues and we just did one we're going to do two more over the next two fiscal years that we're going to take uh probably a closer look at fund balance and what that looks like in the general fund uh so we can at least maintain or establish an appropriate
023percentage in the general fund that'll help us uh with our Moody's scorecard rating of the uh AAA that we currently enjoy fund balance commitments again informational for you to see where you are you can uh also see that we've committed more of the fund balance than the budget year that we're in currently that's that $6.4 million so we are committing less fund balance going forward what would happen is when we do a um when we do another commitment of fund balance we will uh you know change these numbers to match the budget that you're going to be voting on this evening we will do that as part of the uh year-end audit property tax rent Reb program we've had this in uh every time but we wanted to point out that the deadline has been
024extended till the end of the calendar year at December 31st um which is a good thing for folks that are applying for that and eligible so that ends the formal slides uh certainly welcome your questions thank thank you Dr gusk and thank you Mr McDonald I turn to the board and see if folks have any questions or comments at this time yes Dr hinski uh yeah I just wanted to comment on the process that we've gone through to get here um and it's a it's a higher rate than we've had in the past which I acknowledge um since I've been on the board we've tried to keep it things below 4% um but it's an unusual time that we have uh both the you know High inflation which is acknowledged by the Act One index
025which was established by the legislature to keep uh tax is low and so they um established a number that we could um to that we could have a tax Authority for raising taxes by um each year that's based on on um on historical expenses and so um it's you know it's sobering but we have a lot of things on our plate at the moment we have a lot of capital plans that the community has been very supportive of but um which will cost some some funds so I just wanted to point out that about 1 and a half% of the 5.9% is going to the new Debt Service um with the bonds that we just issued so um it's not uh as if this is our normal operating expenses that are are going up by
0265.9% um I'm encouraged that the amount for the the um Homestead allocation has has gone up by $60 this year so um for the average homeowner at $60 doesn't sound like a lot but in our terms of our percentage it's about um 6 counting for about 08 sorry percent of of a tax increase so it does help defay that a little bit and I'm very encouraged by the property tax rebate also um being increased in the income limits being raised so I hope that that will will help um I also want to point out you know in other years we might have been uh maybe a little more aggressive on a tax rate but the um given that we have Capital plans and this isn't our first bond issue that we have to do we
027were going to do multiple Bond issues moving forward and we've heard from Moody's that um if we're not careful about the amount of the funds that we have in our fund balance and if we try to cut too too close in fund um greater amounts out of fund balance that we may lose or may be on in danger of losing our AAA rating which is of course what allows to borrow at favorable rates and um overall helps uh the helps with our budgets and is best for the community so I just wanted to point out a few of those things um so that the community realizes that we are taking all of this seriously we try to keep the tax rate as low as possible but yet do the best for the district and our
028students thank you thank you Dr atinsky do I have any other comments or questions from the board at this time well I will at least for now I will just Echo um what Dr atinsky said is that this is uh a higher tax increase than we usually have here in the district but these are unusual times and we in the sense that we have uh committed to with Community Support these uh some significant capital projects um and you know yes 2 million of that uh that you know one about 1.5% of that tax increase is associated with The Debt Service um and if you do the math also you know the the rest of the tax increase arguably goes to the capital contribution that we're making um as well so really a lot of a
029large portion of the one could say that a large portion of this year's tax increase is actually going to be devoted to those capital projects now I appreciate that you know it's maybe not apples to apples on a year-to-year basis but I think that those figures illustrate the level of financial commitment that uh we need to make as a district in order to be able to see these important Capital uh projects come to fruition successfully so with that the board now invites members of the audience to comment on this item if you have comments or questions please step to the microphone and identify yourself going once going twice okay seeing no comments from the public are there any further comments from the board okay seeing none I will ask Mr McDonald now to conduct a
030roll call vote thank you I'm going to start with uh Miss poni yes Miss W yes Mr Hong yes Miss Ain yes Dr hoinsky yes Dr Singh no Dr Allen yes vice president TTI yes president kork yes motion motion passes 8 to one thank you thank you everyone he roll we will move to our next priority discussion uh which is a related discussion but is the tax bill Homestead Farmstead exclusion the action under consideration is that the board of school directors adopts the following resolution which pertains to the approval of the tax bill Homestead Farmstead exclusion for the 2425 fiscal year text of the resolution can be found on page 246 of the agenda do I have a motion so moved do I have a second second for proper first and a second I will
031now ask Mr McDonald to provide further information prior to the discussion of the priority action item Mr McDonald thank you president kork I mentioned this uh just a little bit ago in our budget presentation uh the homestead exclusion is funded through the gaming uh that happens at the state level it's gone up recently as Dr hoinsky mentioned and it is up to $33 which is um a direct reduction of the tax dollar in an assess so it's basically taking the assessed value which is fixed in this resolution um of that 10,707 it takes that assessed value the same assessed value for anybody that's eligible so of the 10,860 folks in the district that are eligible takes that assess value subtracts it off of the total assess value of the property which that that amount equals
032$33 so everybody sees a direct reduction there uh as a result of this money and um that's what you're going to be voting on this evening and basically it makes it official gets submitted to the state then they have a record of it U so everybody gets the same uh break on their tax bill thank you Mr McDonald do board members have any questions or comments on the materials presented at this time seeing none the board now invites members of the audience to comment on on this item if you have comments or questions please step to the microphone and identify yourself seeing none we'll go back to the board are there any further comments from the board okay with that uh seeing none I will turn to Mr McDonald who will now conduct a roll
033call vote thank you I'm going to start again with Miss Pichon yes Miss W yes Mr hung yes yes Miss oin yes Dr atinsky yes Dr Singh yes Dr Allen yes vice president heii yes president kork yes motion passes nine to zero thank you thank you all right so the next item on our agenda will be the committee and Ambassador reports first we'll turn to policy and Susan Ain thank you president Kent torsi uh the policy committee has not met since the last school board meeting uh the policy committee meetings for the 2024 2025 school year will be determined at a later date and posted on the district website that concludes my report thank you Miss Ain next is diversity and Dr Robert sing uh the diversity committee has not met since the last uh
034board meeting we will start and resume meetings and in the fall of 24 these will be posted on the website thank you Dr Zing next we'll turn to finance and Dr Roberto hinski thank you uh so we can keep this relatively short much of it was sort of superseded by the the budget presentation um but we did have um a few items of note at the at the finance meeting that were not pertaining to the budget um we had a student services update and um in may we had seen that there were um that some of our student services had been trending over budget and we'd um asked about whether there needed to be budget adjustments for next year's budget that we were considering um and M Roy uh our director of special education said
035that no additional budget amounts will be needed for fiscal year 2425 so that stayed constant and we were able to move forward with the budget we'd been looking at um next we had a food and nutrition services budget um and pricing update so um Mr Dave Preston who's our supervisor of food nutrition included a presentation that was revised after May in may we talked about the possibility of a 90 Cent increase to offset um increasing food costs and supplies and also the Lost of of supply chain assistance federal aid which we will not be receiving this year and decreases our food um a nutrition Revenue budget by about $163,000 so to fill that hole um as I said we talked in May about um possibly a 90 Cent increase but U Mr Preston said that
036um they decided it uh on a 75 C Lunch price increase along with a 6% allart increase um to balance pretty much balance the budget with a small surplus of 26,000 866 for fiscal year 2425 um so the committee recommended that um that 75 75 cent price increase model be placed on the board agenda and that um you can see the new prices on page 157 and those will be communicated to families um with the start of the new year uh and then uh the only other item was the um Mr McDonald summarized our bond sale um that occurred on Graduation Day on June 4th it went very well um and uh we received slightly more than $40 million as we were aiming for uh for our capital projects purchases were made by 26 different
037accounts which is about three times what is normally seen and the reason uh they believe for all that interest is that our AAA rating we're only one of or only one of 10 districts in the 500 in Pennsylvania that have a AAA rating um which really um is advantageous for the district and a sign of um our management and dedication to um fiscal responsibility uh so those funds um part of that $40 million will be used to reimburse the general fund for the 60 $1 million we had to pay for the new building um and the rest will go to the capital fund um so the debt service will be be will begin being paid starting in the next fiscal year that starts July 1st and those bonds will be Cable in seven and a
038half years so that all went very well and uh was good news for the district so that was um all that wasn't really budget related uh so that was our final meeting for the year and we will see everyone in the fall um future meetings are to to be determined and all will be welcomed and encouraged to attend thank you Dr hoinsky next we'll turn to the facilities committee and Dr Robert sing thank you the facilities committee did not meet since the last board meeting but we will be having a meeting in July and this will be posted um in due time uh for the community to be aware of thank you thank you Dr Sing next we'll turn to education and Miss suti thank you uh the education committee has not met since our
039last meeting but we will be meeting again once again in the fall and post those dates as soon as we have them on the district calendar and we look forward to a year where we'll be talking about many new things um the beginning of a new lunch and learn program we'll get an update on that we have uh the new steals curriculum and its impact on our uh middle school and elementary schools especially and of course the development at the beginning of the development of our new a full day kindergarten program so we hope uh many of you will attend thank you thank you Miss TTI next we'll turn to ad hoc legislative and Miss Maryanne Pichon a legislation uh of note as presented by the Pennsylvania School boards Association uh the house approves House
040Bill 2370 which provides for basic education funding and cyber Charter funding reforms it await it was passed uh Advanced by the house majority uh and uh passed on a bipartisan vote it awaits final consideration before moving to the Senate it uh calls for $200 million to be distributed through a revised Fair funding formula benefiting all 500 school districts to close the advocacy gaps an additional $728 million would be dedicated to in 20 2425 to districts identified as chronically underfunded the bill also includes extensive Provisions for Cyber Charter reforms it establishes an $8,000 Statewide Cyber Charter School tuition rate and adjusts the Statewide tuition rate for special education students based on the needs of the student the bill makes numerous reforms to Cyber Charter operations that are intended to increase accountability and transparency house uh this
041uh house bill has been presented to the governor House Bill 1097 observance of September 11th in schools this was passed uh these bills were passed by the senate senate Bill 112 uh Pennsylvania nurse aid training program and Senate Bill 1104 high school credit for employment at congregate care facilities um future ad hoc legislation uh committee presentations and considerations will include um a proposal that I'm developing for special education funding increase from the state and uh my thanks to uh Mr David Preston the supervisor of uh food and nutrition who um referred me to the school nutrition Association and their 2024 position paper uh they have three uh proposals that they would like to have forwarded to uh the state for a consideration on funding that would be impactful to us and that would be uh
042to permanently increase Federal reimbursement rates uh for the uh school lunch and School breakfast programs and um third uh item is to ensure the USDA maintains the current successful School nutrition standards uh rather than implementing additional rules and uh the third is to expand the No Charge healthy school meal programs that concludes my report thank you Miss Pichon next we'll turn to ad hoc public information and Dr Yolanda Allen yes the um ad hoc public information me meeting committee has not met this year um but should we need to have a meeting um proper notice will be um given thank you thank you Dr Allen and finally we'll get our report on the Intermediate Unit technical school from back again to miss Pion thank you uh the June cciu meeting will be held on Thursday
043June the 20th at the Education Service Center Downingtown this meeting date is a change from the regularly scheduled third Wednesday of the month date due to the juneth holiday Facebook post highlights include uh May 22nd the 37th annual Shakespeare Festival at Westchester University was presented by 300 talented students from across across the county performed 20 minute adaptations of The Bard's iconic works on May the 24th cciu cares program in Ashford Park a shared food and cciu uh Resources with those attendees on U May the 29th uh was the technical uh College High School graduation on May uh 31st the cciu Education Service Center uh hosted the E3 fair chance employment s Summit focusing on building a stronger Pennsylvania Workforce and overcoming employment barriers and lastly June 10th today the cciu special events recap 2023 24
044video it's quite impressive of all the events that cciu has done in this past school year that concludes my report thank you Miss Pichon and that includ concludes our committee and Ambassador reports next item on the agenda is other actions under other other actions under consideration of which we have none so then we now turn to public participation from res District residents and District taxpayers regarding non-agenda matters of concern official action or deliberation which are or may be before the board residents and taxpayers may address the board now is the time for residents and taxpayers that they may address the board on matters not included on the agenda if you've got a comment for the board please come up to the mic and remember it's residents and taxpayers comments are limited to 3 minutes well
045I start things up can you hear me no I'll start things off I guess um J Joyce from Trine um I sent to the board uh two videos um and I hope you watched them if you didn't detention um so uh these videos I feel fit very well into our diversity equity and inclusion because they encourage belonging they encourage inclusion and I think that's exactly what we need when we talk about this these issues one is about a man named Daryl Davis with a uh video called Clan as in clux Clan clan we talk and you may recall Mr Davis is a black rhythm and blues musician and over the years he has convinced 200 KKK members to give up their robes and he's done this with conversation all right he um uh had an
046experience at age 10 when he realized there was racism in this country and he never could not figure out how could people hate me when you don't even know me so as a result of getting conversation with these clux clan members which he was able to do because he's a musician and the guy really liked his music um he was able to convince 200 KK members to give up their robes so I'm amazed when I saw that video because this man's pulling a rabbit out of his hat if he can do that and I think that' be a great message for the district for our students and it would help overcome racism which is what we want to do in this country and in this district and it's a message of inclusion belonging and conversation
047the second video is from a man named Coleman Hughes Coleman Hughes is about 27 years old graduate of Columbia he has a book out and he's been making the rounds he was on The View and so on but the name of his video is the case for colored blindness and what he's talking about is yes we see color we see racism it exists um but it's not um impossible to overcome and he's suggests that what we do is um uh talk to get to know one another as you would if there were no color um it's a lot better than the video that we have been made aware of which was called confronting uh hard history which I found to be very offensive divisive insulting and I I know you had somebody here on May
04823rd who felt the same way and I stand by her thank you for your consideration if you haven't looked at the video I encourage you to watch it thank you thank you for your comment Mr Joyce I'll admit I haven't had an opportunity yet to watch the videos but I will it's a little busy weekend for myself um I will also add though that um it is my my understanding that at least one of the videos that you uh shared with us uh has been used in some teacher training that we have in the district and so um Dr Wendy tol may know a little bit more about that so I suggest that perhaps um if you want more information about that that you speak with her offline thank you hi Cindy veraldi TR from
049Township uh congratulation on your bond I know you have large projects um new elementary school and athletic complex I'm sure those buildings will be air conditioned what I'm asking for what about the two middle schools that are not totally air conditioned the last 12 months the United States have had the hottest temperatures on record could you use some of this money to air condition the middle schools I know they have univ events and heat exchangers or whatever but real air conditioning um I went to that school in 19 teal midd 1965 and it was hot I've had three kids go through and I have grandchildren going through I'd like to see it totally air conditioned like the rest of the elementary like this building and my last comment I want to thank thank Scott Allison
050for returning for from retiring to te te middle again I think he's had like four retirements he's a treasure he's a te treasure I saw out there today leading the kids out in the in the field and I wish him the best and I do hope he comes back as he's a thank you thank you for your comment Mr for Goldie do we have any other comments from the public okay seeing none the public comment periods for this evening are now closed this is the point in our meeting when we make any announcements required by the Pennsylvania sunsh act our solicitor this evening is Brian Elias and he will make any required announcements uh good evening uh the the board of school directors has not met an executive session since the last regular meeting thank
051you thank you Mr Elias future meetings of the school board uh as mentioned we will be having a meeting on Wednesday July 24th 2024 a little bit unusual but we have some timing issues is associated with the fields project where requires us to have a board meeting uh I know your agenda indicates that that meeting will be here at Koga High School it may be at the district offices on West Valley Road so please keep an eye out if you are interested in attending that meeting we will provide uh location time in sufficiently in advance of that meeting meeting after that Monday August 26 2024 regular board meeting yay for the start of the new school year 7:30 p.m. at Conestoga High School uh right here 200 Irish Road in Berwin with that I will
052turn to the board and see if we have any general announcements right seeing none correspondence at the board received is on page 247 of your agenda one last call for announcements from the board all right seeing none I will call for a motion to adjourn so moved do I have a second second right I have a first and a second all those in favor signify by saying I I I although opposed signify by saying nay and you can stay here motion passes 90 we are adjourned thank you everyone for