001e e e that's done under personal [Music] can't amend the agenda at this point it's too late for that would just ask her to remove that name from her [Music] motion like to call the September 17th meeting to order could we all rise for a PR Allegiance and the United States America and to the it stands Nation God indivisible withy andice for all thank you can we have a roll call please Mrs cruss here M Jalal excused Mrs Halo here Mr lustic here Mrs plank here Mr Walmer excused Mr Wile here Miss Young cover here Mr lady here thank you could I have a approval to or could I have a motion to approve the agenda for tonight please so moved is there a second second have a roll call please Mrs Krauss yes Mrs
002Halal yes Mr lustic yes Mrs plank yes Mr W yes missan coov yes Mr lady I thank you C have a motion to approve the minutes from our last board meeting on August 20th 2024 the minutes from our curriculum and extracurricular meeting on September 3rd and our minutes from our business business and operations meeting on September 3rd minutes from our policy committee meeting September 5th and our minutes from our special board meeting 911 so move second Mrs H were you first yes thank you have a roll call please Mrs cross yes Mrs Halal yes Mr ltic yes Mrs plank yes Mr wiel yes M Johan C yes Mr lady all thank you next we'll have a recognition of Delegation which uh looks like we have a fair amount of new teachers sitting in front of
003us so that's all I'll turn it over to Mr Alin he will introduc the new teachers that were just most of them were just at the teacher induction so uh good evening everyone uh this is one of my favorite nights of the year I get to bring to you the uh current class of new teachers each year um to present to you and welcome them and introduce you to them uh for the current school year so this year we have 15 uh new teachers in front of you and I'm going to go through and introduce them uh we started out uh the week of August 5th with new teacher induction we had Adam ads County new teacher induction which we had all of the new teachers in Adams County here we actually hosted this year
004uh in this room on August 5th and that was a great event and then on uh Tuesday we had local orientation where we brought them in just the Upper Adams crew and we gave them a full day of orientation and some of the elementary folks uh and some other folks either had high impact uh strategies training or math and focus calend their Math training as well as meetings and so forth back in their building so they've been very busy and and uh they've been through back to school night they all survived that first day of school uh getting kids on buses uh meeting kids F helping kids get to their classes so this is a very very talented group of folks uh very we're very fortunate to have this scrub with us as you know
005it is tough to find good teachers these days and they want to be here at Upper Adams and we want them to be here at Upper Adams uh before this meeting we held a meet and greet over in the learning Commons uh was a reception for the board members and our new teachers and thank you to uh Mr lady Mrs Krauss Mrs Hall and Mr wle for attending that I know the teachers really appreciated you uh coming out and chatting with them and getting to know them on a personal level uh a little bit better so thank you all right now for the introductions first off for science at big real high school we have Maryann bass for uh the middle school English langu Arts we have Henry B hello first grade at Big Elementary
006School Amber clauser hello all right mathematics at Upper Adams Middle School Dan Koy another first grade at Big Elementary School McKenzie Crawford and another first grade at b elementary school Delila Garcia that's half the first grade [Laughter] teachers all right an El teacher at the Upper Adams Intermediate School Alejandra G special education teacher at uh Upper Adams Middle School Chelsea hle vocational agriculture teacher uh replacing B Scott how from last year at Big Lial high school Daniel moner special education teacher at Big liberal High School Tammy rentel Spanish teacher at Big Lio High School Irving Rodriguez teaching fifth grade at Upper Adams Intermediate School Heather Stein teaching math at the high school Nicole STS we have a new school counselor this year at the high school Heather [Music] Swope and last but certainly not least
007in any respect is our new speech and language pathologist we were thrilled to have here at the elementary school Stephanie Wy again we welcome uh all of you to Upper Adams officially and formally uh I'll turn it over to Mr lady if he would like to say any any words uh before we close this out but thank you so much for choosing uper Adams we're truly glad that you are here thank you all for being here I think I did meet most of you there's a couple I didn't maybe shake hands with but thank you all for being here welcome hope everything's going well I think we kind of did talk a little bit that a couple of us board members thought maybe we should have another meet and greet in April see how it's
008we'll see so but congratulations and welcome to the staff thank you thank you Mr lady I'm going to let these folks leave for the evening that's okay that's fine enjoy the rest of your evening thank you for coming pleasure meeting everyone you're very welcome good night I'll be better h okay we'll move into a public comment uh so before we have public comment I'll read I'll read our rules about public comment all individuals wishing to participate in an open board meeting shall register their intent with the board secretary at least one business day in advance of the meeting and shall include their name and address and of the participant and the topic to be address addressed to the group affiliation if applicable participants must be recognized by the presid officer and must pref preference their
009comments by an announcement of their name and group affiliation if applicable each statement made by a participant shall be limited to 5 minutes of duration no participant may speak more than once on the same topic unless the others who wish to speak on the same topic have already been heard all statements shall be directed to the presiding officer no participant May address or question School directors individually the presiding officer May interrupt or terminate the participant St statement when the statement is too lengthy or exceeds 5 minute duration if the comment reveals confidential information about a minor child or if the statement physically threatens harm participants are strongly encouraged to avoid comments that are personally directed abusive obscene or irrelevant the presiding officer May request an individual to leave the meeting when that person does not
010observe reasonable decorum request the assistance of Law Enforcement Officers to remove a disorderly person when the person's conduct interferes with the orderly progress of the meeting call for a recess or adjourn to another time when the lack of public decorum so interferes with the orderly conduct of the meeting or wave wave these rules with the approval of the board so that all being and said our first person is Matthew lustic good evening ladies and gentlemen of the board and thank you for the opportunity to address you here this evening my name is Matt lustig I'm a graduate of VHS a longtime resident of the district father to two children over the past several months the board has considered setting up guidelines including potentially age appropriate guidelines for the books that teachers and Librarians use with
011students to many members of the public I'm sure that this seems entirely reasonable and indeed common sense to have some guidelines not in order to filter the the cultural or political ideas which students learn about but rather to keep things like explicit sexual content out of school libraries where students can easily access the material without their parents' knowledge as the board has consider this matter an apparently small but extremely vocal group has opposed these measures their concern may have been precipitated in part by Administration which early on in this process put out an email to teachers requesting that they catalog their classroom books something that and I stress this no board member had suggested this unfortunate communication from ad Administration resulted in much confusion and frankly misled the teachers and the public whether intentionally or
012not one of the concerns and here I used the word very Loosely that has repeatedly come up in board meetings is the supposed concern that if board members provide guidance for books in schools it will supposedly harm the academic preparedness and or college career Readiness of our students there can be a reasonable public debate on the details of any policy but any suggestion that guidance from the board will automatically harm College career Readiness would be so silly as to be laughable nevertheless given how repeatedly this or similar concerns has come up I decided to address it here this evening one of my own precious children is named Grace a graduate of BHS during her years at BHS Grace although an extremely prolific reader consistently avoided reading books with explicit sexual content did this on life
013daughter's College incur Readiness of course it didn't in spite of not reading sexually explicit books Grace was a straight A student year after year in high school she maintained those grades as she took numerous honors level classes AP classes and dual enrollment classes she was active in sports and band she had over 104 GPA by the end of her junior year on on a 100 point scale she was named to National Honor Society received Stiller SAT scores and numerous Awards and graduated third in her class Dr do and some of the current principles knew my daughter well I'd like them to consider whether they can seriously believe that read that not reading sexually explicit content harmed my daughter's college andov readiness given her academic record Grace was of course pursued by many colleges she was
014offered but declined as College to a private liberal arts university a scholar a scholarship that would have totaled more than $100,000 over the course of four years instead she accepted a separate also quite generous academic scholarship to a prominent University in South Carolina she's done extremely well at that University both socially and academically and she is an elementary education major she should or willing graduate next May certified to teach elementary school and middle school math she is considering the potential of rolling straight into a graduate program at the same University upon graduation to any board member who may oppose their colleagues efforts or to any member of the public do you seriously believe that not reading sexually explicit cont content harmed my daughter's college and gr Readiness the truth is that having trash in school
015libraries where students can check these books out or at the very least freely read them without their parents' knowledge during visits to the school library is shameful over the past few weeks I've read portions of some of these books and the content is shocking perhaps some of you believe that students should in a school setting have access to sexually explicit material that has absolutely no redeeming literary value you can believe that if you want but please don't try to make that case over some supposed concern over college andri that is ludicrous ladies and gentlemen board I will stand for protecting my children the parents of the district and trust you with our children for 6 and 1 half hours a day 180 days of the school year and I respectfully request that you protect those
016children's well thank you for Chad since I have 30 minut 30 seconds remaining I was not planning to do this when I saw the teachers here I thought that I would add now they're gone but perhaps there are teachers watching remotely I know very well the trials and joys of being a teacher okay we really appreciate okay I do not believe the board is against you I don't think the members of the public are against you okay respect parental rights teach the children well care for the students and you will earn our respect and gratitude thank you thank you Mr [Music] Leti Ellie H good evening thanks for the opportunity to speak to you this evening my name is Ellie branic and I'm a parent of two children enrolled in the upper Adam school district
017have you ever been to a zoo who hasn't you might say well for this year's sixth grade class the answer is no for more than just a handful and that class just happened to be the class that missed their field trip to the zoo that normally occurs in the second grade thanks to covid-19 but thanks to a can of friends Grant this year over 120 happy adolescent will have their chance many for the first time ever have you ever gotten to ask a surgeon questions about the robots he's using to perform a laproscopic hysterctomy while he was actively performing said surgery all while watching it happen on an IMAX theater screen a class of seniors got to visit the Wier Center and do just that thanks to a can of funds Grant have you ever
018been to Ghana and immersed yourself in the Arts and cultures found therein the entire student bodies at the elementary and intermediate buildings are coming about as close as you can get to visiting right now thanks to the Fine Arts teams at their buildings and thanks to another caner funds Grant I had the distinct honor of serving on the caner funds board for six years during that time and for the last several years after I've been fortunate enough to serve on the distribution committee that reviews teacher Grant applications each year and helps to select how to award the funds available and believe me when I tell you you get pretty creative in stretching pennies as far as you can when you have requests to cheer for over $25,000 and only 14,000 to give the thought of
019reaching a day when the board's distribution committee could potentially award 100% of the creative and purposeful grants teachers are requesting because there's enough money to do so sounds like heaven to me doesn't it to you I've also volunteered countless hours as a member of the caner fund board's marketing committee we're strategizing how to spread the word about caner funds and ultimately get more donors to support is the main focus the end of the story it always comes back to finding big donors donors who fit the very specific criteria that they a have some connection to our school district B have a philanthropic Viewpoint and possibly the most critical component of the equation see they have money to give in our small rural School District I don't have to spell it out for you those people
020are far and few between and when you don't even know who they are you're up against a pretty big challenge so to learn at the last board meeting that our kids just L out lost out on an endowment that could serve our district students in perpetuity thanks to your decision to enlist the services of the ilc felt like a literal slap in the face one of you made the comment about what harm could it do to hire this pro bono firm well here's your first repercussion and I'm sadden to learn that it sounds like tonight we're going to hear that we've lost the fund that pays for two School field trips each year for our children as well thanks to that decision how how many more are you willing to succumb our district to before
021you decide enough is enough let it cost a million dooll endowment is that enough cost for you I implore you to take this new information to heart please put it on your agenda and reconsider your vote sit around the table and have a civil conversation about that decision it's not too late to take action for some of you at that table your children never attended school at the upper Adam School District for others your children will have benefited and graduated from this building and these people long before the decisions you're making right now will have the ability to negatively affect their educations I graduated in the same class as one of your children long before the days of caner funds those were the days we had to sell wrapping paper over and over and over
022again just to try to go on a field trip but there are at least 1,540 reasons right now why you need to reconsider this decision some of them are your children and one day even if that number of that number are not your children they might be your grandchildren I asked my kids ages 12 and N how they would spend a million dollars to benefit their schools if someone walked up to them out of the blue and offered it to them I also asked them in separate rooms so that one can hear the other's responses sibling rivalry you know without any context or prompting my 12-year-old said he would update the athletic facilities around the schools take all kids in every grade on an age of per field trip and provide money so that every
023child could buy a book at the book fair my 9-year-old said she would buy more books for the libraries plant more trees around all of the school grounds and buy school supplies and classroom decorations to make learning more fun out of the mouths of babes you might argue that this one person should not cause you to force your hand on a decision like this but this isn't just one person this is one more person adding to the hundreds from whom you've already heard it's just that this one person has the unique and remarkable ability to give a gift that can touch the lives of the children in this district for decades to come please reconsider thank you for your [Applause] time thank you we did have one Cor respondence that's on the agenda tonight from
024ananya Richmond that will take us to reports uh anything for legislative okay nothing that far in so L report Dr do I have a few things to update um I can talk about those in my administrative report um but I'll focus on a few of the items here with the IU um there is a new director that was sworn in for a three-year term to represent the tusco RAR School District that's Brandon Boer there were a number of policies that were recently passed on for first read at the Lincoln Intermediate Unit and the next meeting will be held at the Lincoln Intermediate Unit on Tuesday October the 1st 2024 at p.m that's the report any questions for Dr do thank you sir Federal programs Mr Alin yes good evening once again uh just two items
025this evening uh the first uh item the report is we are just about uh completed initial screenings at Big Elementary for title one so we're able to give uh our young uh students literacy assessments uh giving us input to help us determine whether they need criteria or not for Title One services so that is just about finished we do s survey and assess the entire building the second update is I've been working with our pims coordinator uh Doug Ferrero um to help complete the title one pims report that was due uh by to the state by August 31st that's u a lot of demographic uh roster information from last year's Title One list thank you any questions for Mr Alman thank you uh anything for cumber and Perry Mr um just a short summary um
026our last meeting at cumland Perry was at the end of August so usually we're trailing behind till we get to this board meeting um it was announced by our interim director that enrollment was just under, 1300 students at the end of August there were 20 offers on the table to students who who uh may have not received an opportunity to take their course in the first round and so some spots have opened up and at the time they made this announcement there were 20 offers to students to enroll in those classes in addition um that Cumberland Perry had 32 students who had found Co-op positions most of those up in um the Cumberland Perry area and they also shared that there were 30 other students in the queue waiting to have um co-ops approved so
027that's all I have any questions for Mr CR thank you anything for fund ADV by um caner funds meets tomorrow morning at 8 marketing next week um we will definitely be discussing the um loss of um this money um that we just learned of through Dr doll's report and I'll also have a couple comments when Dr do makes his report any questions from Miss Sol thank you ma'am uh administrative reports does anyone have any questions for any of our administrators that are sitting here comments I know I said to a couple administrators your reports weren't real big this month but you're just getting started so sounds like everything's going well uh Mrs Graham's not here I was going to say about the career uh Day that's coming up soon see if she want to say
028anything about that but that's fine yeah you guys have anything you want to add nope okay uh Dr super thank you just a few things that were outlined in the administrative report that I share with the board um through attending the most recent Adams County Council of governments meeting there is uh a lot of excitement around 250th anniversary of United States of America and Adams county is looking to um do a number of activities countywide to try to help with that celebration so I provide some of that information in my report uh prek counts we did have um two we do have two openings right now we had one we have two openings and we're currently looking to fill those positions if anyone knows of anyone that may fit that criteria of looking um to
029attend a pre preschool or prek counts program our applic the application is actually on our district website or web page so you can uh direct people there and um have them submit an application and it's always good to have weight list too so if there are more people than two that apply that's a good thing because you never know what could happen if families move in or move out during the school year there is there was some discussion about the district donor uh redirecting some funding we did learn about that on February the 6th through uh Ralph serpy who is uh the CEO at the um Community Foundation Adams County community Foundation um this one is an anonymous donor that provides Monday money for what they consider the trip fund so this could be money
030to help support field trips um if if we're coming up short in some of those areas it was a fund that was helped to cover some of those costs it's my understanding from the conversations is that that money will be redirected to um someone else within the community that could utilize that the pims people um I think Mr Alin shared a little bit about this we had some meetings this week just to fine-tune um some items so that they're able to pull and extract data for the pims reports that are due to the state um their overarching goal is to never have to contact us for anything and they keep telling us that which is why we're spending so much time making sure that we have um reports and information put into our system so
031that that individual can pull that data and then complete the reports that are required for the uh for the state psba um I want to thank each of the board members that submitted their uh survey for the psba um we're looking to do a we did a self assessment so each one of us had an opportunity to provide some feed feedback on how things are working as a board and we have set up a conference session which will be held on Tuesday October the 15th uh with the board and myself to hear a little bit of feedback from psba to share the results and try to get a better understanding of how we might be able to grow together moving forward as a collective team the last item as I mentioned earlier during the IU
032report there was some excitement with the executive director search coming to a conclusion there was a an individual that was approved by the IU his name is Dr Mark Mark hay and um I haven't had an opportunity to meet him they're still trying to identify when the start date will be but I outlined some information about his background in my report if you would like to take a look at that information so I look forward to meeting him in the very near future that's the my report any questions for Dr do yes if I might please um the um the donation that was um withdrawn the if I if I'm getting this correct the money would have gone for field trips for 2425 that is my understanding do we know if that donor has withdrawn
033that money or do we have that money to use do we know that I believe that money is is no longer it is not available be redirected okay well as I said we'll have caner funds first thing in the morning and that will certainly be something we'll need to discuss I I brought this up after we lost the seven figure um amount a month or so ago and now here we go again um it would certainly be my request that this Board address um the decision to go with the ilc again my question is how much is too much when are we finally going to say we're not willing to lose any more money because of the decision we made to move to the ilc I'd like to see that discussed again do we know
034the amount of the donation that was redirected I believe it was several thousand it it's usually 2,000 a year for that particular uh fund so I think I just have a couple comments so after the last meeting when we had we found out about the other donor um it kind of saddened me a little bit that that that that came up um and it took me a while to gather my thoughts I think because we I think we all found out the same time that the public did so I didn't make any comments then um I think I have a couple questions I think um that might be actually open-ended questions um when it comes to the donor's request to remain anonymous I can certainly respect that um I make donations to other organizations I
035would expect that they would remain anonymous um my question is why is there no concern for their anonymity yet there's questions when it comes to the donors to ilc I don't understand I guess kind of the difference you know they want remain anonymous but um so are the donors to ilc my other question is if the intent of these gifts are to support the success of Upp students why is the board's decision to work with IC a matter of concern there yet to be any action taken with the law firm in question and the gifts of my understanding are for Student Success I don't understand how these items are related what happens if there is a donor who has a gift planed but will only give if Upper Adams works with ilc will it depend
036on the size of the gift um or that donor or does that not matter and I guess my last question open in the question at what point do we start seeing this as manipulation or an attempt to buy vots if we revisit the contract with IC revote and votes change I think that should be alarming to every member every member of our community whether you're on the side of LLC or against LC I think every member should be concerned because then the message is simply this our votes up here our first sale is it seven figures is my vote worth eight figures I don't know what that vote number is at what cost in the end the cost is only felt by the students the very people making these donations want to benefit from their
037planned guesss I also I also have a couple comments and maybe some clarification if possible um and I would like Neil the last time it was brought up I was saddened as well and didn't quite know how to process my thoughts but this time um I just have some questions like Neil does as well as some comments then the first I'd like to start off by stating that the board of directors position is a political position we are voted on by members of the upper Adam School District Community um we hold the only elected or political positions that I know of in the school district that gives us the distinct responsibility of representing the values of the people who elected us the fact that five members that were recently elected uh or voted in campaigned
038on conservative values means in my mind that they we were elected to do the job in a way that fits our conservative values the number one question I was asked at the pooling place was if I was a republican just because this is a school doesn't mean that I I check in my Republican at the door or my conservative values at the door in fact I was elected not to I understand that this does not fit into everyone's agenda I really do but I am here to do the job that I was elected to do and so as far as clarification um a couple things that I would like clarified number one um is this a normal procedure to have a few wealthy individuals determined through the power of donation school policy and school function
039because if it is then that means that everyone who doesn't have money even though they vote a certain way does not have a voice and I find that very troubling to say the least um I also find it troubling that both of these donors wish to remain anonymous and we've only heard through like the public um through Dr doll's report and I personally would have no problem sitting down with anyone and having a discussion on a specific concern about anything and I'm sure most of the board members here would be open to that very thing as well um and the last thing that I would like clarification on and this is something I really hope that I'm wrong about and if I am I want to apologize in advance and I mean that from the
040bottom of my heart but I do get the feeling that this has been done in such a way to deliberately inite anger in a partic particular group of individuals and I find this troubling and in today's climate even somewhat dangerous and I implore if this is the case that that would stop and again I am if I'm misreading this situation I want to apologize but I'm just stating what's on my mind um I'm a huge proponent of people spending their money any way they see fit and donations are wonderful and greatly appreciated gift but in no way should the donations of a few wealthy individuals be used as a means of influencing school policy or functions and in my opinion this is a very slippery slope to go down and those are just my thoughts
041on it and I would love clarification on any of that if at all possible have any comments um I respect Heather and Neil what you both had to say and I um I agree with some of what you're saying saying for sure um I do believe however that it is a donor's right in a situation like this to be anonymous um I view it differently for the ilc they are a far leaning right group that I still maintain I would like to know who is funding them that's to me that is a completely different scenario maybe not to you but to me it is um I guess um I guess I just am looking at it from the eyes of the children who are ultimately going to miss out on things that this these donors
042monies um would have provided for our students um I don't need to beat a dead horse I've said before many students have so few opportunities and donors like this who come forward who give opportunities um I'm respectful of them and and in all of them that they are willing to give money to a public school district um I I I hear what you're saying Heather I really do and Neil um that I don't want to be in the position that we're bought that our votes are bought but ultimately our roles are to look out for our students and to provide for them the very best education we possibly can and these donors are allowing that to happen and to pull that money away I just I have a problem with that I think I would
043just you know agree with one of the things that Heather said I mean if they're legitimately doing it to help the children you would expect that there would not be strings attached to it because again it is a slippery slope so then you have someone who comes in and says just the opposite so where does it end I mean you would really like to think if the purpose is to benefit the kids then that's the purpose that's there's no strengths attached to it I wasn't sure if that was normal for large donations to have I mean I can see having like a name on a building or like a football field named after you or a library or something like that but to when it starts getting into school policy and the function of the
044school itself to me I just I wasn't sure if that was normal for large donors to have that kind of ability um I can speak to that I sat on the Adams County Community Foundation board for a number of years and it's very common it is very common for wealthy people well for wealthy people to donate very large sums of money to schools that's very common with no strings no no name attached they want to remain anonymous Littlestown is a classic examp example right now um there Thunderbolts they are they are just Rising um they're rising and growing from Anonymous donors but do those donors determine the policy of the school I'm sorry do those uh do those donors determine like the policies that are passed in the school or how the school would function
045I I can't imagine that they that's where I have a problem because we have donors who are obviously very generous like I agree I think people who have the ability to donate especially large sums of money that's an amazing thing that they do with that and that is their right to do that and whether they want to do it Anonymous or not but I feel like when they start putting strings on like well you can't pass this policy or I'm not going to give you that money or you can't hire this uh attorney because I'm not or I'm not going to give you this money then it starts to get a little bit murky for me with that and um like I said you know I think I think donations are amazing you know but
046what about the people who don't have a lot of money their kids still have to come to school here you know is it right for someone that doesn't have a lot of money and is sending their kids to have what's being taught or how policies are being formed to be determined by a few individuals I I feel like that's a really dangerous place to be I just I just view it very differently I view this the seven figure donor as being someone who does care about our students and you you said what about children who don't have any money that's where a donor like this steps in and offers opportunities for those children who wouldn't otherwise have that opportunity but would you feel differently if it was the opposite so if we had a seven
047fig donor who said we want you to retain ilc I I would at least consider it I absolutely would I just think that's a really dangerous game to play I just it's really not a game it happens all the time I mean not dictating policy I don't think it happens like that they're not dictating policy they are saying what they believe and they clearly do not believe in the road that the ilc is going down it's their money it's not ours sadly we have lost it based on a decision our board made the majority made it so it goes my point is just that how much money are we going to lose you know because of of this decision I understand what you're saying I still i i as you know I disagree with the
048decision to retain the ilc and I very saddened by the loss of this money I had the uh great joy and honor to uh be able to attend the dedication of the learning Commons and uh met a a number of people who from the community uh that was an example of how uh a community can come together and honor some some of their distinguished graduates who had done wonderful things in life uh and uh you know I I would like to see this board come together rather than being torn apart this community to come together and that's the example that I would offer was what happened at that wonderful day at the learning comments you have something no I was just going to say I did get a phone call this sass from a friend
049of mine on the report and he was offering $3,000 to cover the field trip so is that okay because we accepted IC like I don't again it's a slippery slope where do we go so I guess we had the field trips funded or the trip fund funded um I don't know you're right it's a slippy slope that they walk down anyone else move on to the treasures report I'm going to just I'm going to condense this I'll cover it with Mr Walmer tonight I'm just going to ask for one motion uh recommend approval of financial report ending on 8 3124 and the condensed board summary report for uh 824 as the attached documents and then also the Food Service report recommend approval of the Food Service fund statement of operations ending 831-2488 3124 as per
050the attached document second okay motion of a second any questions I have a roll call please Mrs cruss yes Mrs Halal yes Mr lustic yes Mrs plank yes Mr W yes Miss youngan cover yes Mr lady I thank you I'll take us to the consent agenda is there anything in the consent agenda anyone would like to pull out and vote on separately is there a motion to approve the consent agenda so moved second a motion a second any discussion I have a roll call please Mrs cruss yes Mrs Halal yes Mr lustic yes Mrs plank yes Mr W yes M young C yes Mr lady hi thank you go to committee reports and we'll start with finance and uh again I'll cover for Mr Walmer here uh we have one donation uh $500 Grant from
051The National Society of of the Daughters of the American Revolution for supplies to run an school art Club at the good so would like to thank them for their donation and um assume that we'd be sending them letter of gratitude uh could we get an update on act I'm sorry could I have a motion to accept that a donation of $500 so moved so moved second second have a roll call please Mrs cross yes Mrs Halal yes Mr letic uh yes Mrs plank yes Mr W yes M cover yes Mr Le I thank you uh now we'll get an update on act 55 for 2024 thank you um at a previous board meeting I talked a little bit about act 55 of 2024 uh since then I did do a little bit more research and
052had a number of conversations related to this new mandate that's coming down from the state so I want to break up what I'm going to share into a background initial research what the options are and a recommendation I'm not looking for approval tonight but I am looking for some direction on um moving forward so just to give you a little bit of background about this the Senate Bill 700 was signed into law as act 55 of 2024 this act amended the PA School Code by adding section 1316 d-c and that's relating to school security Personnel section 131 16-c of the Pennsylvania public school code requires all school districts to have at least one full-time school security Personnel who has completed their requisite training on duty during the school day beginning in the 2425 school year
053unless the district has been granted a waiver form from the schools Safety and Security committee this sssc at the Pennsylvania Commission of crime and delinquency the pccd the waiver process is available for a school district who's who does not meet the Personnel requirement the district would request a waiver from the the sssc and the waiver would expire one year after the waivers approval so we have to continue to try to find someone the waiver is in place if the district is unable to find someone to fill the position the waiver carries you until you're able to fill the position but the waiver is only good for a year if it's approved the money is being provided by the state with the pccd grant we are obtaining $13,995 over two years so that's a little bit
054of the background information some of the initial research uh we discussed an Sr versus an SSG topic publicly back during the Spring of 2022 and we elected to proactively utilize a social worker to address many of the concerns before they became larger issues in the district the use of our social worker has been a tremendous asset to the upper adom school district families over the last two years the upper Adam School District district is the final Adams County District to implement an option for a full to fully fulfill the new requirements of act 55 2024 so all the other Adams County Schools have something in place that would satisfy this requirement we at the upper Adam School District are the only ones that do not have that at this point so what did I do
055as a resolve we had some conversations with Chief Harley who is our burough Biglerville Chief of Police and he was part of some of the conversations that we had back in the spring of 2022 also had some conversations with Bob Gano from GeForce Security Solutions and we currently use GeForce security for our district Sports and activity security and we've had we've have utilized them for a number of other services in the past as well and each of those cases we've been very happy with the services that they have been able to provide our district so what are the options that come out of this act there are three different options the first option is a school police officer or an SPO those are districts that set up their own Police Department so like Chambersburg Gettysburg
056some districts have their own Police Department that would be one option the second option would be a school resource officer or SRO and that would be a partnership with our local police department that would have been something similar to what we were investigating back in 2022 the final uh option is a school security guard or an SSG or a school security officer in SSO and this is a partnership with an entity that could provide this type of service through some of the discussions that I had with Chief Hartley um he had mentioned that it would um be more advantageous for us to move forward with an SS o um or an SSG so the third option with finding someone who would be able to provide that service and um seek out you know trying to
057find an individual that would match the needs for a district I have also consulted with Bob Yano and a number of individuals from GeForce um security and they have also provided um some some options for us that would meet um the SSO type of option that third option for us so right now I'm making a recommendation to pursue the the school security guard or the SSG or the SSO the school security officer which would meet the current mandate in potentially a faster timeline um through talking with Mr Gano it it appears that there may be um some some people that we could consider for the vacancy here for that position um I do also know that there are other districts just like us outside Adams County that are also seeking their services through gForce so
058we would need to act in a prudent manner to try to make sure we can secure somebody and not have to seek out a waiver the cost of going forward would be lower compared to a school police officer an o or an s a school resource officer so the options of moving forward with an SSG or an SSL would be uh more advantageous for the money that we would receive from the state at this point we know that we have some money to put towards this over a two-year period the big question is what does that look like in that third year would we continue to get that money through a pccb grant or would that be something that would need to be incorporated into our budget if it's something that gets incorporated into our
059budget when year three that turns into what we would consider an unfunded mandate something that we are required to do but there is no money to fulfill it after that third year so that's still a question that's in in play I would recommend continuing to fine-tune to discussions with gForce Security Solutions and we would utilize GeForce Security Solutions we do that currently with various School related activities and events and we could discuss the potential of any cost savings overall when we're adding an SSO to the current services that we receive from GeForce if we review the um we have received some duties and responsibilities listings uh for almost like job descriptions on what an SSO would do we could continue to work for work together and work on what that would look like and finalize
060it to see how this could assist the District administration in the areas of School Safety and Security duties we as a smaller District are trying to cover a number of our Safety and Security duties with the resources we have with our administrative team but obviously this isn't something that we are experts in so we would look at an outside entity like GeForce to provide the upto-date uh trainings recommendations to keep our schools as safe as possible so my recommendation would keep working with gfor Securities and and try to come forward uh with a possible agreement um to bring in front of the board for them to consider in the very near future hopefully that gives you a little background the options that exist and a potential recommendation right now Dr do can I just mention
061what some of the things we talked about a few years ago um at at one time the district was looking at partnership with the burrow some correct me if I'm wrong but at that time in addition to the salary we were supposed to come up with a vehicle for this individual along with other um pieces of equipment technology whatever um as far as GeForce what's what's included with their partnership everything would be included um and if they needed to utilize a district vehicle we could have them utilize a district uh van um when we were looking at partnering with the police department that's a totally different type of partnership where they were looking at something that would be equipped almost like a police cruiser um we would also been looking at firearm costs you know
062a number of different costs we don't have to um be concerned about that from my initial discussions with GeForce and from what I recall that option with burrow was far more expensive than what had been offered by other entities that's another very good point if we look at doing our own Police Department or a partnership with our local burough police the price tag would be higher so we would look at um being able to meet the mandates from the state and hopefully doing that at a more affordable cost to our local taxpayers by utilizing um an entity like gForce what's the timeline that we have to have this implemented it's it's already the school year the school year yes so and I think the longer we wait from the conversations I've had I know of
063other rural districts that are looking to fulfill this um type of mandate right now so everyone is most likely reaching out to anyone like they provide with GeForce to try to get someone to meet the requirement and even if we weren't able to meet the requirement we would only have a waiver for a year have to reapply for that if we weren't able to find someone we would have to keep looking to have someone in place so from us you would like a head shake to to direct does it sound like the administration is on the right track with moving forward and can we continue those conversations with with GeForce and come back with some more information and something for the board to consider approving yeah I think so don't think we have a lot
064of choices yeah I don't think we have a choice okay I'm seeing ahead so thank you appreciate it any other questions for Dr do would this uh individual if we hired uh uh SSO school security officer uh would that person be uh 40 hours a week and responsibility at all of our schools that that's a great question um we would need to discuss how we would share that individual across the district we would most likely have an office somewhere set up within our district for the individual um we would look at the way the the Mandate is written it's during the school day so we would still need to work through some of those details but the initial conversations the individual would definitely be here during the school day correct and then we would have
065but also all all the all the different schools there would be one person be shared by by correct correct yes so that's a really good example uh Mr lustig because some districts who may have already met the requirement by having one individual are currently looking at adding another some of them have them at every single School some of them have one it's a variety right now but for us we don't have anyone so we want to make sure we at least meet the Mandate I I will say previously to answer some of your question that was some of our dilemma I think that the board hit at that time versus hiring a security officer because we have three campuses a lot of our questions were how are they going to be at all three campuses
066at one time they can't be so it puts some a campus is always going to be at a disadvantage possibly so that was something I don't know how you Rectify that I don't we can afford three people have to cross that bridge we least got to cover what the state's mandating right now correct but but the money that you have access to is enough to cover this position for two years yes we have an estimated cost uh we may have a little bit to carry over into the following year but again we would need to work that agreement out what does it look like we were thinking initially it would be a contract similar to um the days that teachers are here like we most likely wouldn't need with someone during the summer so you
067know trying to identify do we do a school year and then add a little bit of time so there can be some training and um you know work with Administration during the summer uh we're still working on that anyone else thank you sir uh next item under Finance is Camp noaca Tower project I'm sorry okay so I'll recommend approval of an additional capital reserve funding in the amount of 20 , 35971 for a total of $5,299 regarding the electronic components for the camp noaca Tower project as per the attached documents the district has applied for a grant awaiting outcome project is to be completed spring of second discussion uh yes earlier this calendar year we had on the camp n Waffa Tower project for our capital Reserve list we're getting closer that we need to
068sign the agreement so we can get that scheduled for the spring of 2025 as you can see the cost has gone up um just under $2500 um Mr Alin has uh completed a grant and we're hoping to hear something by the end of September if we have received that Grant if not the plan was still to move forward with the capital funding um that was approved earlier this calendar year any other questions or discussion Motion in a second we have a roll call please Mrs cruss yes Mrs Halal yes Mr lustic yes Mrs plank yes Mr W yes Miss youngan cover yes Mr lady I thank you okay that wraps up Finance uh Personnel Mrs plank item 14.2.2 point1 recommend the approval of the following 2024 2025 professional staff retirements Sheldon Smith math teacher Upper
069Adams Middle School with 18 years of service effective second motion is second any discussion we have a roll call please Mrs cruss yes Mrs H yes Mr lustic yes Mrs plank yes Mr W yes Miss Young C yes Mr lady I thank you item 14.2.2 point2 recommend approval of the following 2024 2025 professional staff resignations Hannah rits learning support teacher Upper Adams Middle School effective 927 second motion a second any discussion have a roll call please Mrs cross yes Mrs Halal yes Mr lustic yes Mrs plank yes Mr W yes Miss youngan cover yes Mr lady I thank you item 14.2.2 point3 recommend approval of the following 2024 2025 professional new hires Daniel Koy math teacher Upper Adams Middle School instructional one step one $545 reping Sheldon Smith effect Ed date to be determined when
070all required paperwork has been received the Lila Garcia first grade teacher big Elementary instructional one step one $545 replacing Jennifer angle effective date to be determined when all required paperwork has been received second motion a second any discussion we have a roll call please Mrs cross yes Mrs H yes Mr lustic yes yes Mrs plank yes Mr W yes Miss Young yes Mr lady thank you item 14.2.2 point4 recommend approval of the reassignment of Chelsea Holt from life skill support teacher at Biglerville Elementary School to remain in her current position as learning support teacher at Upper Adams Middle School second motion and second any discussion roll call please Mrs cruss yes Mrs H yes Mr ltic yes Mrs plank yes Mr W yes M young yes Mr lady I thank you item 14.2.2 point5 recommend
071approval to post and advertise for the following professional staff positions life skills teacher bigo Elementary and learning support teacher Upper Adams Middle School second motion and second any discussion roll call please Mrs cross yes Mrs H yes Mr lustic yes Mrs plank yes Mr W yes Miss youngan C yes Mr lady hi thank you item 14. 2.3 recommend approval of the following support Deanna Zimmerman administrative assistant to the director of special education admin8 hours per day 261 days per year at an hourly rate of $18.67 replacing Kelly Shannon effective 930 2024 pending receipt of required paperwork Mrs plank uh administration's actually indicated that we're not moving forward with this candidate so we would ask that you uh actually skip this item there would not no longer be a recommendation to uh move forward with Miss
072uh Zimmerman so if you're agreeable to that we'll actually skip over this item and you can proceed with the rest of your uh report sorry to interrupt I just learned that at the beginning of the meeting all right okay we will skip that all right item 14. 2.4.1 recommend approval of the following 2024 2025 supplemental contract for athletics Samuel Lampert resend assistant varsity football contract also assistant varsity football volunteer second motion and second any discussion or questions roll call please Mrs cross yes Mrs H yes Mr altic yes Mrs plank yes Mr W yes m c yes Mr lady I thank you item 14. 2.4.2 recommend approval of the following 2024 2025 supplemental contracts educational Delila Garcia induction induct e $250 lindsy n induction mentor for Delila Garcia $450 Daniel Koy induction induct e $250
073Stephanie stab induction Mentor for Daniel Koy $450 second motion a second any discussion roll call please Mrs cross yes Mrs Hal yes Mr lustic yes Mrs plank yes Mr W yes Mich C yes Mr lady I thank you item 14. 2.4.3 recommend approval of the following 2024 2025 supplemental contracts other Student Activities Kathleen Brown marching band volunteer Landon Becker bville high school student council advisor Category 6 year 1 $1,486 second Motion in a second any discussion roll call please Mrs Krauss yes Mrs Halal yes Mr lustic yes Mrs plank yes Mr W yes M young C yes Mr item 14.2.1 recommend approval of the following volunteers Elizabeth Constable retroactive to 83024 Nicole stz retroactive to 9324 Carlos Perez retroactive to 9524 Katie Wagman retroactive to 9624 Matty wetel retroactive to 9924 Jennifer Cashman retroactive to
07491024 Tracy Peters retroactive to Regina fet retroactive to 91124 Megan harzel retroactive to 91324 elain Guadalupe Espinosa retroactive to Second motion second any discussion roll call please Mrs cruss yes Mrs Hal yes Mr ltic yes Mrs plank yes Mr W yes M cover yes Mr lady I thank you item 14.2 6.6.2 recommend approval of the following other contracted Services Kelly education support staff substitutes for the 2024 2025 school year Kendra reading second motion and second any discussion roll call please Mrs cruss yes Mrs H yes Mr ltic yes Mrs plank yes Mr W yes M John cob yes Mr lady I that should be it for personnel thank you Mr plank uh property Miss Young Cog yeah recommended approval to Surplus the following item uh smart technology Ceno clickers are outdated and no longer compatible
075with the current classroom setups model number 03- [Music] 98-2 fcci ID QC [Music] 103-98 D20 IC 432a d00 9820 the contents are 32 clickers case caring cable and instructions items are from the uis uis second thank you motion a second any questions on the Surplus roll call please Mrs cross yes Mrs Halal yes Mr lustic yes Mrs plank yes Mr wle yes m c yes Mr lady I thank you under transportation we'll go to policy uh first read Mrs K okay um before I address the first read I just wanted to give an update on where we are with 109.2 um in August I asked the committee for uh concerns with our existing policy and uh members of the committee were able to identify by some of the concerns they would like to see addressed
076in the revision um at the September meeting uh those qu those concerns had been turned into open-ended questions so that when I asked them of the committee in September the committee was able to give specific information about what they would like to see in the draft that was going to be written um so when we meet in October that's that's where we'll be focusing again um if you take a look at first read we did get through a few policies in September so I have three policies that need to be approved to move from first read to Second read policy number 824 operations maintaining professional adult student boundaries policy number 115 programs vocational education rename Career and Technical education and policy number 113.5 program surrogate parents and um we're voting to uh make the motion
077that this policy be retired and it will be addressed in another policy that deals with special education second second motion and second any discussion for street poliy we have a roll call please Mrs cross yes Mrs Hal yes Mr leik yes Mrs TW yes Mr R yes m c yes Mr lady I take us to bills payment of the bills I make a motion we pay the bills second any discussion bills [Music] have a roll call please Mrs CR yes Mrs H yes Mr lust yes Mrs P yes Mr W yes M John C yes Mr lady anyone have any old business uh yes if I could please uh under transportation it it was a little confusing but we did find one brief report on that and I think we we should uh make note
078of this uh from jacobe Transportation Mr Mark hubanks a van driver uh retroactive to 827 2024 recommend approval that was under the consent agenda we discussed that in consent okay yeah thank you Mr um got a motion a second to pay the bills any questions on the bills roll call please I'm sorry it's my train of thought anybody anybody have any new business I ask for old business anybody have any new business okay our next School Board committee meeting will be business and operations curriculum and extra curriculum will be October 1st 6:30 here in this here in the auditorium our policy meeting will be October 3rd at 9:00 a.m. probably here in the auditorium and our regular next school board meeting will be October 15th at 700 p.m. here in oor is there a motion
079to adjourn sir moved second we are adjourned thank you [Music] everyone e