School Board Meeting - 5/21/24

001e e e order could we all rise for the Pledge of Allegiance a of silence please I pledge Ali to the flag of the United States of America and to the repblic for it stands one nation under God indivisible with liy and justice thank you we have a roll call please Mrs cruss here M Jalal here Mrs Halal here Mr lustic Mr lustic excused Mrs plank here Mr Walmer here Mr wiel here M joh cover here Mr Lee pres thank you I have a motion to approve the agenda for tonight please I have question before we get to the agenda so here the last couple of months we've had presentations from from English Department from career services and from uh the guidance office so I didn't see on he any discussions from the math department

002history Department languages um or the Sciences so are they going to be scheduled in the future is Joe here he went to the still looking for seat in the we have had uh presentations if the board would like us to continue to bring I mean we just we had a lot of presentations I just didn't know they were going to be planning the schedule I make a motion to approve the agenda Motion in a second we have a roll call please Mrs kuss yes m j yes Mrs Hal yes Mrs plank yes Mr Walmer yes Mr wle yes Miss Young cover yes Mr lady I thank you I have a motion to approve the minutes of our board meeting on 416 of 24 the minutes of our curriculum and extracurricular committee meeting on 57 of

00324 in the minutes of our business and operations meeting on 57 of 24 and also the minutes of our policy committee on 5224 second motion a second any questions have a roll call please Mrs Krauss yes M Jalal yes Mrs Halal yes Mrs plank yes Mr Walmer yes Mr wiel yes Miss Johan cover yes Mr lady I thank you okay that'll take us on to a delegation and we have a student representative for guess you're up Gabe thank you good evening everybody so at the time of this meeting us seniors we only have one day of school left which is pretty exciting and graduation is a week away um and then the last day of school for everyone else will be the 30th uh but things are starting to wind down for everybody as we

004approach the end AP testing has finished um and that is a huge weight off of student shoulders it was a long two weeks but they are finally behind us all of the hard work we put in throughout the year was finally brought to light and we anxiously await our scores to be returned to us in early July keystones are were taking place at the time I wrote this uh and those students put in lots of hard work we wish them all the best of luck and hope for positive results with regard to student council we aren't really doing much this month we did a few small things for faculty during teacher appreciation week but otherwise we are pretty much finished for the year promise happened since we last spoke uh which which had a good

005turnout and was overall a very enjoyable night Nolan Miller was crowned as prom King Amanda Kan prom queen JC schultes prom Prince and Mackenzie B's prom princess fifth grade environmental Camp happened last Wednesday through Friday and myself and many other students uh were there as Camp counselors uh it was it was a really fun week that's always a really fun time for us uh we get to hang out with the fifth graders and you know it's just really it's really cool because they they kind of idolize us and it's it's just cool to be around uh senior class officers are working on planning the specifics for graduation baloria and the senior prank all which will be occurring soon um graduation senior Franks tomorrow morning but we're not going to we're not going to reveal anything

006about that um graduation is 29th like I said baloria is the 28th and um that's about it from the student council and student body so if you have any questions let me know but I'll be out of here soon so thank you thanks Gabe y any have any questions for Gabe Mr President go ahead is that you Jim yes okay I'm I'm with you this is Lauren lustic okay thank you you can hear us all right yeah okay okay anybody have any questions for gab enjoy your last deck what's the senior prank I don't know anything about it I think it's going to be a good one hopefully is it all right if I stay here you can here absolutely thank you okay thanks g y that'll take us to uh recognition of Jim hail

007it's quite an honor to do this um I've worked with Jim for 11 years now it's hard to believe and I know that he's getting close to retirement but we wanted to recognize all the work that you have done for a district you've helped to get word out to the community communication um your articles have always had a nice balance um to them and they were extremely detailed um throughout time there were times when I would look back during long meetings I'd see you kind of like dozing off and I'd think okay I'm wondering how this article is going to turn out and I have no idea if you can train me on how you can do that like you can just those off I'm sure my wife would appreciate that at home where I

008can actually listen and just be you know close eyed and and relaxing but we do want to recognize you for your years of service over a decade here at the upper Adam School District you've worked very closely with many of us here in the district many people in the community you've covered so many different um events within our district to get the word out of the great things that do happen here at upper at School District so I want to present you with a certificate of recognition this is a resolution of the of the board of directors of the upper Adam School District to honor Jim hail whereas the board of school directors the upper Adam School District commend you for your achievement of 11 years of coverage of the uppam school district news whereas

009your diligence skill performance being exemplary have brought honor to you and the school district and the community and now therefore be it resolved that the board does hereby extend congratulations and accommodations to Jim hail correspondent Gettysburg times and it's signed by both Jim lady Air Board president and myself signed here the 21st day of May 2024 congratulations [Applause] yeah that's good we'll just do this it might show up in the times outside I'm more used to being on that side of things and and I would point out that closed eyes can mean concentration yeah I will't make a note of that yeah I just like to say it's been an honor to give to know the Upper Adams Community and it's been an inspiration to watch this District accomplish so much with so little and

010that's due to the uh dedication of the faculty and the staff and the administration and most of all board members who um volunteer without pay and spend countless hours on on this work not just here but in Reading information executive sessions talking with their constituents Etc they deserve a lot of credit um I don't know how you put a budget together year after year when the state never tells you how much money you're going to have before the deadline when you have to turn in your budget that's crazy but somehow you all make it work and uh it's going to be strange not being in this room a couple times a month for a few hours um but uh as I head off into retirement a couple months I hope you guys won't mind if

011I think of myself a little bit as a [Applause] if I could just say a few words about my friend and comrade Jim hail 25 years ago Jim hail was my boss he was the night editor and I was the editorial assistant and he taught me everything there is to know about journalism and he always would tell me play it straight just play it straight and the importance of you know not editorializing and that's really the best journalism and it's really come full circle because he and his wife played a pivotal role as I transitioned to becoming a teacher and then now he's covering the school board so it's been a a wonderful more than 25 plus year friendship and I cherish everything that I learned from you in that news room thank you very

012much thank you so much J well you guys don't mind I'm I'm going to leave leave the board's business uh in the hands of of my fellow journalists Ry Frankie and Mary Grace C thank [Applause] you that will take us uh to the 2023 2024 uner stock teacher of Excellence announcement it's it's an honor as we we meet every year um in may we look at selections and applications of people who have completed uh nominations and there's a committee that meets and there were there were um final results of that meeting and the group would like me to share um the recipients of the 2324 uner stock teacher of Excellence award at the elementary level is Kathy golden [Applause] and at the secondary level um will be Laura Fritz so our [Applause] family congratulations to

013both of them we will recognize them again but we wanted to get the word out yeah perhaps so congratulations to both and there were a number of people that had received nominations were in the process of getting letters so that everybody is recognized um with a letter to say that they had been nominated so we will get those out shortly thank you thank you Dr D congratulations thank you that will take us to the public comment section um before public comment starts I'd just like to remind of people speaking of policy 903 uh you're allowed five minutes to speak so will'll start us off with Margaret Elliot good evening board members I Rise to speak this evening to support the retention of stock and leader to represent the district if they are still interested in

014so doing their specialty is school law law and their practice is politically nonpartisan like all or most legal firms they are paid for their services by the people or groups they represent in this case that means the district and specifically me one of the district's taxpayers several years ago I was the district's Education Association president and during that time I sat across the table and in opposition to stock and leader in a couple of cases they were formidable adversaries but handled all of the issues before us with nuanced discretion qualities that all clients should appreciate why would you want to let go of them now one answer may be the tempting lure of the promise of pro Bono pro bono publico does not mean free it means for the public good the independence Law Center

015came to you with that sales pitch The Independent Learning Center has a reputation that precedes it they boldly announce themselves to be politically motivated they have been active in creating policies which will discriminate against students and staff and introduce regulations to create censorship the independent Law Center is paid by radical so-called Christian groups like the Pennsylvania Family Institute a 501c3 organization as well as other Christian religious institutions their tax records indicate funds from these groups are funneled to the independence Law Center in order to stop public school policy and Advance radical religious policies in secular institutions they regularly employ ambiguous language and glittering generalities to bend the wording of school policy in their favor to reject the separation of church and state which has been enshrined in the US Constitution as well as state governance

016this Law Firm true to its Mission will not represent all of the good people of this District because they are committed to representing the groups who actually pay them I implore you to dismiss the independence Law Center from becoming our next legal Representatives with a warning from the ancient past Caveat Emptor let the buyer beware can we afford to become entangled in their Grievances and culture wars does this school board really want to hire such specious legal representation last week we celebrated the 70th anniversary of board V Brown uh Brown V Board of Education of Topeka Kansas it was a landmark case that moved us toward a more perfect union will you now take this giant step backwards toward Jim Crow vote no to the hiring of the IND dependence Law Center thank you for

017your [Applause] time thank you Miss next would be uh Katie schroer hello good evening thank you everybody for being here and for caring um my name is Katie Schroeder and I have three children who attend the district I do hope that the board will answer the questions that were asked in the letter from Upper Adams Community cares a lot of thought had been given and a response would be greatly appreciated her responses to all the questions um so that would be that would be great uh I also wanted to voice my support for renewing the contract of our current solicitor again if he wants um Gareth Paha for 30 years the district has contracted in some capacity for advisory services with the firm of stock and leader and their Council has served us well while

018a client of stock and leader the district has avoided controversial policy changes and administrative pitfalls that may have resulted in costly litigation this is the purpose of the school board solicitor to advise board members in making policy and administrative decision decisions that are in accordance with laws and their current interpretation in the courts this established firm specializes in working with school districts they are a trusted firm who works to ensure the future of Education that the future of education is strong and not just our district but also many others that they serve I urge our community to visit their website and learn more about them um tonight on the agenda I see that Mr lustig plans to inform us about the independence Law Center from the from the information I've gathered I have concerns about

019this group but I am open to learning more from Mr lustig I understand that they work free of charge for school districts while this would save money on our District's current legal advisory fees policy changes which are controversial or challenge the current legal status quo can result in court battles and legal judgments that far outweigh the standard Council fees I also question the intentions of the independence Law Center we all know the saying there is no such thing as a free lunch if they are working for free they are not working for the district as a client but rather to further the personal agendas of the lawyers a political and cultural um agendas of the funding Partners I respectfully ask that any funding Partnerships with the independence Law Center be made public prior to the

020board's consideration of legal counsel also it's worth looking at how many legal battles this group has um this group and its clients have been involved in only then can the public be informed and the board able to carefully consider the impact and value of these Services Upper Adams does not want controversy and cannot afford costly policy mistakes thank you to the board for your time [Applause] thank you Mrs schroer Rachel Elliott hello and thank you for letting me speak I am here speaking for a group of community members and Upper Adams parents with current and former canners also known as the Upper Adams Community cares who have been following recent decisions and discussions by board members our goal is to be proactive in ensuring open communication between the families and the school district in the

021best interest of upholding the goals and integrity of public education we wrote this letter out of concern for the shift that seems to be happening in the overreach with some of the board members as well as the motivation behind some of the initiatives these members are taking moreover we are concerned that the needs of every student is being potentially lost in the pursuit of personal political agendas we are writing because we are not sure if the ENT high school board or the community at large is actually aware of the potential fiscal and emotional costs these initiatives may have on our community we think we need to promote transparency and engage in Brave honest communication so that Upper Adams meets our mission and comes together on behalf of all of our students first we think it's

022important to acknowledge that in the current political and social climate there seems to be a quick desire to put one another in boxes and in doing so we fail to see our human complexity because of this we want to be careful not to assume too much about any board members motivations or political agendas we want to assume good intent however there are certain realities that have come to surface with the new board that we believe need to be addressed openly rather than attacking any individual or the board as a whole Our intention is to seek answers in the hopes of better understanding why so much change is being proposed therefore we would like to pose questions to the board so that the community members can fully understand the potential ramifications of these policy changes it

023is our hope that these questions can be answered directly and addressed publicly at the last meeting you shared that you would no longer read emails on the live stream meetings I want to thank Mr lady for informing me that emails will be acknowledged during the meeting and then posted on the agenda for others to be able to read thank you very much for doing so our second issue is policies are seemingly being revised and Rewritten by a single board member Mr lustic what is motivating the proposed changes and why are we considering policy changes without any record of contention with a policy from community members will there be a vote to consider keeping the current policy 1091 as it stands since multiple community members have voiced opposition to its changes the second draft policy of

0241091 was supposed to be shared on April 18th but to our knowledge it has not been made public when will that draft be shared how will it be made public if the board does not vote to keep the current policy how will the community Andor School stakeholders have a voice in the revised draft while other board members have stated that they are not discussing book bands the initial policy proposals do allow for a shift in decision-making power which ultimately would make censorship possible the proposed language takes control away from those who are trained to make such decisions to give it to board members members through a committee designed to control the votes why change the policy when parents already have the right to have their child excused from content that they deem offensive at the

025end of the last meeting on 57 Mr lustic shared that he would like to discuss the independence Law Center at tonight's board meeting why wasn't the ilc invited to share their services publicly rather than privately in an executive session if no legal council was provided what is the motivation for new or additional representation when the district already has Council from stalk and leader why if the community has no record of asking for such representation is representation being sought while the firm Services may be advertised as pro bono is the district opening itself up to costly lawsuits regarding civil rights of students is the board and community at large aware of the negative responses to this law firm in various districts please see the attached articles in the letter post Ed on the agenda these questions

026come from a genuine place of concern and curiosity so that Upper Adams can remain United in serving our whole Community we respectfully request that the answers to our questions are provided in a public means thank you very [Applause] much thank you Mr Elliott that will take us to correspondence and I did receive a correspondence from the members of the Upper Adams Community cares uh with those questions as as was stated I did State at the last meeting that I wouldn't continue to read emails as you can probably imagine if I did that the stack would get pretty tall and we could be sitting here all night listening to me read emails uh the emails will be uh added to our agenda under correspondence and they and then they will be available for public review if

027you want to see any emails that are sending so thank you for your understanding in that Mr lady can I ask a question sure um are you referring to emails that would be sent to questions for board that would be listed I'm more referring to public comment emails right so if they're coming through questions for board rather than to individual board members corre we not okay corre because I for the whole board yes whatever you wanted to do like to do as well for policy okay understand may I ask a question Mr sure what if we send questions two questions for the board and a week goes by or two weeks goes by and you still get no response and then you have to CC the entire board to get a response can't answer that

028okay well I'm bringing it to your attention okay thank you that will move us into reports L you report Dr DOL only a few things to share um just as we are working through a number of things such as budgets and agreements so is the IU the IU is our local um Lincoln Intermediate Unit which provides services throughout the Tri County Area um some of the action items from their last meeting on May the 7th include the special education budget for the 2425 school year there are a number of affiliation agreements with um various universities and other entities um and the next meeting will be held on June the 4th 2024 at 7 pm so that's a quick highlight of the last meeting from the IU thank you Dr doll any questions okay Federal programs

029Mr Alin uh good evening everyone just two uh items for federal programs this evening the first uh as with everything this is a time for uh finish ending and time for beginning with the school year ending and it's the same with Federal programs I'm currently closing out this year's Federal programs Grant uh working with Mrs Hobbs to uh zero out all the reports and everything and within the next week or two the new Grant will be opening up due June 30th so busy time for federal programs Consolidated app as you know we have titles one two three and four uh and it's it's quite a hefty Grant so we'll be working on that the second item uh Federal programs uh networking meeting was held with the IU a theme of this one was non-public Consortium

030so we met with all the private schools that we serve and make sure they're happy with the services that we provide them um there was a request from the some folks in the hallway and they've asked if uh board members could speak a little louder so they could hear you in the hallway okay thank you thank any questions for Joe is there could could we just put a speaker out there is there a way no thank you Joe Cumberland Perry Mrs Krauss um okay I have a report tonight okay um obviously our our meetings are at the end of the month so always fall after we have our board meetings but tonight uh some of us are here who would normally be at cber and Perry's Awards night which is tonight and so I wanted

031to give a little information about that program um there are 433 senior students receiving certificates tonight um as of April 22nd 24 businesses have offered 59 full-time positions to new graduates Cumberland Perry um their nocy tests were administered in late April to seniors only and there were 385 nocy tests issued so I don't think they have the results back yet um some of you may be interested in uh comparing C and Perry to the itams tech program there have been some newspaper articles that have itemized numbers of students and students grad waiting and whatever so uh if you can look at those in the times you'll see Cumberland Perry had 1,200 applications in April for spots in next year's program so if you look at you know there's about 433 openings coming um they said

032that weight list could currently have 700 names but that usually drops to about 300 400 by the time the school year begins the proposed r ations that would start at CT Perry will give space for over 275 students so once their Renovations and additions are done uh we're going to be accommodating many many more students that the weight list will go down quite a bit they announced there's an adult n aid program starting in July 2024 uh cumland Perry is working with a carile business to introduce this program um I think there's a reduced cost for it I just didn't remember what the cost was um Dr do I think was had mentioned something about the Middle School Camp come Perry for the last few years has had a camp for eighth grade students sixth

033to eth grade students Rising sixth to eighth grade students and they are able to go up for two days to explore some of the camps and uh programs that are up there we do have a very general donor over the past few years who has donated the transportation cost for this so parents here who want their children to experience the Cumberland carry experience uh they can board a bus here and they don't have to transport their kids to mechanicburg and wait for them so we we thank the donor for for the generosity um the other final items um Cumberland Perry was awarded a PA competitive safety Grant 391,000 which will be used to uh construct their new entrance and make it more secure um this will correct several deficiencies including a secure visitor entrance and

034visitor visibility and then finally um they also received a mental health Pennsylvania mental health Grant in the amount of $70,000 and this will be used to continue contracted social worker services from capary Intermediate Unit for two days a week through December 2025 thank you Mrs Krauss any questions for Mrs KRA per yes I have a question I'm sorry um the donor who is underwriting the transportation is that in effect for the upcoming school year as well it's it's it's a summer camp so the donor the donor has a a big interest in Cumberland Perry and supported us in many times like this so yes it's it's to get our kids in eighth grade an idea of what could be possible thank you very generous yes thank you any other questions from Mrs k Mr President

035go ahead Sir Mr President this is Mr Lusk go ahead Lauren can you hear me yes uh I believe that was Mrs Krauss who was just speaking is that correct that is correct uh and it was something about either a a summer program or some kind of program that's going to be going on uh up at kland Perry is that correct that is correct uh would it be acceptable for uh an upper Adams School District Board member mainly me to accompany um either the students or the parents or whoever is actually driving up there would that be allowed Mrs cruss I'm gonna bounce that to you to ask Justin Dr doll we've never had that asked before right and we do have we have a bus taking the kids it depends on the number of

036students bus or van you know did did you hear that Mr lustig yes if I wanted to drive myself up there at my expense would that be allow I I think we have to I'll need to check with Justin Brun who's the director at Cumberland Perry I'll have to follow up with your request okay I just be advised I'd like to have that information as soon as possible please soon as possible we'll do the best we can this last week of school a lot going on thank you any other questions for Mrs Krauss okay does anyone have any comments or questions for any of our administrators and I think most of our administrators are oh I'm sorry I skip right every Miss we're having a rough time tonight we are we're having a rough time

037um the fund advisor caner funds uh marketing committee met late this afternoon and brainstormed a little bit continuing to get the word out on the significance of caner funds and what a role they play in our district and our full board meets tomorrow morning at which time we'll learn the names of the or I believe we will of those people who requested grants and continue along that along that line to get the money into those teachers who will receive grants okay thank you Mrs hobo anyone have any questions I have one question Mr Mr President go ahead this is Lauren Ling go ahead go ahead Lauren can you hear me yeah okay I believe there was uh just a comment I don't remember who made it but is it true that um there is some

038hope that uh we will be able to distribute caner funds uh to a wordy um recipients yes that's correct Mr lustic there were teachers who wrote for Grants and that information will be disclosed I believe tomorrow is that right Mrs you're bored might get it but usually it's close to the end of the year till the teachers find out when everything's finalized there there's a few grants that they still have some money to try to configure thank you can you hear me I hear you okay I would like to suggest I'm not making a motion but this is my personal suggestion that uh the caner funds should should be distributed as much as possible to Cumberland Perry I think they are great asset outstanding education is taking place there on a daily basis and it

039has my 101% full support thank you want me respond go ahead um Mr ltic it's k halah um the caner funds are set up to assist Educators in our district District who want to do extra things in their classroom or in their school that are not funded by the district it really doesn't have a tie in with Cumberland Perry I appreciate your respect for Cumberland Perry I have the same respect but this doesn't fit with that program U Mrs Halal uh thank you for your comments uh uh then you and I are in agreement at 101% is that correct I'm not going to respond to that okay okay thank you by any other questions for Mrs Halal okay thank you uh now we will move into administrative reports I think most of our administrators are

040oh I guess they did move out to the hallway yeah they're all out the hallway somewh I'm sorry I see you um does anyone have any comments questions for any of our administrators am I to say something not really well I'll just I'll just comment real quickly with the environmental camp and I saw Mrs Buckley on the Wednesday the first day of camp and riny and yucky very and I thought I thought I'm glad I'm not staying here I think I commented to or something to that effect but they all powered through it and then the next day was probably the most beautiful day we've had in eight months or 10 months or a year or something so I hope that day made up for it I know that that Ben had a great time

041and it's neat to see the teachers all contribute to this um I don't know what what would you call it a tradition something along those lines so I hope it went well it went very well it went very well I mean it was very smooth the kids were excellent high school the high school counselors were excellent the fifth graders were extremely well behaved it was a really great program good I would just like to piggyback on on Jerry's comments I helped serve a meal up there Thursday evening and I told Mrs Buckley I've I've done it for quite a few years I have never heard the students and the counselors be so terribly respectful please thank you how can I help what can I do it was I just came away Blown Away by it

042so kudos to everybody who pulls that off thank you thank may I make a comment also I was one of the Educators for both the fifth grade program and then the seventh grade program up at the Pine Grove having been a former educator at the another school district I um was absolutely amazed at the respect at the uh counselors at the Educators that were there to support that was really remarkable the number of teachers the principles that were actually at the site remarkable so kudos to those teachers that are um supporting these kids in everything that they do and to the administrators as well um wouldn't hesitate to go back to teaching if I had kids like all the time any other comments go ahead go ahead I I know this isn't in Mrs Grahams

043report and I apologize for that but um I was fortunate enough to attend the ceremonies to name the uner learning Commons last week and I just wanted to um give kudos to to everyone involved in that I know Dr do did a lot to get that organized and Mrs Graham had a part in getting everything ready the uh the uner family was there it was good to see them again I've uh been involved with them with caner funds and you know they've been strong donors to that as well but I just wanted to you know acknowledge all of you who took part in that ceremony and honored the youngers thank you very much Mr President go ahead Lauren okay I'd like would like to uh respond to two things uh and um the first one

044relates to uh NOA uhhuh uh some some people know that I have a very very long um fulltime uh service at an at within a what was basically camp nwaka in an adjoining County and uh it Thrills me to hear the report that it I'm I'm absolutely somebody said that she that he or she was blown away and I was shaking my head yes that that is truly outstanding I really want to thank thank those people okay the second one relates to what we just heard uh I'm not sure who it brought it up but regarding the younger thing uh at at comments you know what I'm talking about Jim yes that was Sue Krauss yes yeah okay uh I was there uh Louise was there and Sue was there that was absolutely fabulous and

045uh I was especially impressed with the speakers that black man for example and uh I think the lieutenant colonel who was a like a distant relative uh some of you know that I'm retired military 34 years of service and man was I proud that was that was absolutely fabulous I appreciated the uh singing of uh um uh by our quarrel group outstanding I appreciated the saluting of the flag which I attempted to do uh as if the president himself was watching in other words Snappy I also attempt also wanted to thank the band Mr philippy outstanding effort uh they played I believe uh the the Philip sua March Stars and Strikes for ever something like that absolutely fabulous uh I could all but sing along with that that was outstanding I want to thank um

046uh Mrs Hobs she was there we had a nice talk I want to thank uh the superintendent of schools we had an excellent talk it was um A++ in the military okay some of you know the military and if you are at the top of your performance it is four plus baby four 1 2 3 4 four zero in right there that that's it that's it and that's all I have to say thank you thank you sir any other questions or comments I just have a few uh Mr kter I just was wanted to see if you wanted to comment at all on your report uh Community Day transition day it all looks like Community day was a big hit so most years our kindergarten as Community Days we bite different members of the community

047and police officers some years um firefighters we've had people from the library we had a beekeeper this year um all kinds of different folks just for the kindergarteners to see what kind of things um they might you know or in the community as part of their social States curriculum um and so forth this year we also had some the students from the high school do a petting zoo with for the kids that was always a fun piece as well so that's a great um kind of activity beyond that um our third graders always do Transition day where they go up and visit um the intermediate school just to get them ready for next year so they know what to expect when they go up from Big of Elementary to the next school so it's just

048a nice time for them to meet the fourth grade teachers kind of learn a little bit about the school so next year is not the first time they see the school just make them more comfortable with that transition so that's really good day as well so it's been a one of many busy things we've been doing at Biglerville but things have been going well thank you thank you Mr K Y uh Mrs Buckley we already hit on on environmental Camp it looks like uh we had to postpone color Day by one day but it happed I was a little nervous about that um but the day was beautiful the day it went very well and um kids had a great time very competitive but that's very okay Mr President can you can you please up

049I can't hear we will We we'll try to Lauren thank you so color day was very successful there's people speaking from the back of the room so you may not be able to hear them oh yes I got that thank you sir uh also you had a lot of events I don't know if there's any you wanted to hit on I I don't have the whole list in front of me I mean I pull up but I just thought maybe I'd throw it out to see if there's anything you wanted to big day tomorrow is our um um water water party day U we are rewarding students for their um Behavior rewards and part of that is a slip and slide please drive by I love for you all to see everyone doing the slip

050and slide it is is a large slip and slide down the hill um and then we're also getting an inflatable obstacle course that has water as well in it so please drive by anytime you can see the kids on the on the all the fun that they're having it could be a Schoolboard activity I think that would be if you would like to do the slip and slide please think we think that should be a I might have to challenge the school board members to that tomorrow is is the nurse on duty for the adults we use the inner tubes because you know running and sliding on slip and slide is probably not really great for old people so we do use like uh inner tube type thing we can sit on and down a

051little safer thank you Mrs thank you um Mr Brewer wonder if you'd like to say anything about Environ and then also the seventh grade trip to for Lake um just kudos to the uh seventh grade eighth grade science teachers third year in a row for Grand champions in eighth grade um super excited for the kids miss Gates her predecessor Mr Taylor came home with many uh coveted plaques from Environ and this was her first perfect score year so she was really excited to get her first plaque as well seven grade um kids were excited uh the field trip to Fuller Lake kids came home a little wet uh film stories of uh people in the in the creek um you know things happen with middle schoor when it comes to walk in the creek so

052they had lots of stories but they were um excited and had a really good time so I think they really enjoy it I saw some pictures of kids in canoes that any canoes end up upside down no no canoes upside down rep appreciate the caner funds and all they do for us as well our trip was funded by the caner funds Mr Brewer the um the middle school and Marathon there's no charge for that right but if I'm correct a caner funds person underwrites the transportation so go caner absolutely and we can also add funds The Settle fund donates quite a bit of money to color day every year so it's dedicated for um physical education or music activities so for the past several years they've deflected completely to color day Mr President yes sir

053I do have a comment it might be a little ly do you want me to give it now or later uh what's a concern for enir go ahead Sir Mr Brewer is still in here okay okay that's good uh what's what perhaps very few of you know is that I have a lengthy history with the Pennsylvania fishing boat commission uh about 25 years uh I am the past president of the voting Advisory Board which gives all all legal recommendations almost like a solicitor to the Commissioners uh I also had a long uh period of service uh with this the Pennsylvania state Conservation Commission uh that relates to farming in Pennsylvania and some of you know I own a farm so it was a good fit I was appointed by the governor uh in that process

054I was nominated to be the in Von's um representative from the state Conservation Commission which I did for a number of years both in Pennsyvania by the way and in Maryland uh I can attest to the fact that the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission is a critical part of environs I was one of the people who tested the kids on everything that relates to water which is fabulous I really like that and the last thing I'll say is um some of you don't know this but the environs uh it was sort of hatched here in the Commonwealth if that was where it started and it quickly became an a a national uh event and then perhaps an International Event I think there are students from Canada who are now participating okay in other words a

055little bit like the United Nations uh it has been a great joy for me to be part of that organization uh I think they do outstanding work I know personally the uh the in fact I know him really good he's one of my best friends the past head of the Fisheries part of fish and boat in other words he's in charge of everything that twins in the water everything from crayfish on up and and uh uh I can assure you that um his dedication to to uh children in the Commonwealth and the Inon in particular is absolutely rock solid uh in my world Rock Solid means no strings attached and no questions allowed it is it is absolute uh so I wanted to get that uh uh that on the record and I would very

056happy if somebody from the press for example the gentleman who uh is our represent he can call me anytime day or night and I will meet with him at his availability and I will tell him the whole story that's it you got that yes sir thank you okay than thank you Mr Brewer the name of the teacher uh Mrs kler is our eighth grade science teacher and Mr Gates is our thank you thank you Mrs Graham is there anything you would like to highlight on your report for the community yes yes thank you for asking um we had we we have access to a scholarship called the lenfest scholarship and it is for Rural schools in um central Pennsylvania and I believe there there are 40 schools um and there are 23 there's 40 scholarships

057awarded to students across 23 schools and this year Biglerville high school students were awarded five of those scholarships and that is very remarkable um Gabe is a lenfest scholarship winner so the students that were just named are Juniors and with the lenfest scholarship there is money attached per year and they also get support starting at the end of their junior year through college um and the I am gonna read the names um I'm very proud of these students and the teachers and the counselors that worked with them to get them to this point Kimberly esz Maya Neer Gabriella Oriana Anna Walmer and Tyler wolf and in addition hope Chapman was a finalist and she will receive a one-time scholarship award so congratulations Jerry [Applause] i' also like to share that big lville high school um

058again earned the national um best high school ranking released by US news on April 23rd this recognition reflects the work and dedication of our students faculty and staff and highlights our commit our commitment to academic Excellence the ranking utilizes various factors including graduation rates college readiness State assessment performance um and our performance on other standardized tests showcasing bigal high school as a leading public high school in providing quality [Applause] education high school students in the Honor Society sure kayen l um headed up uh a pen pal connection with our fourth graders and we've had it for two years Hannah Riley also helped with that and this year we actually had the high schoolers come down to the fourth graders we did a little reception and it was amazing they they talked with each other even

059the shy students that you know don't really talk in class they were chitchatting away to their high school students and they made even connections like they exchanged phone numbers so they made uh some big connections like Big Brother Big Sister it was it was really neat to see him thank you for supporting that yes thank you Mrs gr uh the only other thing I was going to do is acknowledge our sports teams for the spring uh track uh we had a a list a pretty big list of state qualifiers um there's also a list of kids that went to field championships uh Varity baseball is the ya IAA division 4 Champs and Varsity Softball is the yaou a division champs and I think they play again on Thursday night so baseball baseball and baseball so

060congratulations to our sports team so far and still continuing that's all I have for administrative reports um that will take us to Dr do as you have heard and I'm not going to speak again about all the great things that are happening here in Upper Adams and hopefully it makes um everyone that's involved in some way proud including our community that um that helps to support a number of the initiatives that we have going on I just want to congratulate again Kathy golden and Laura Fritz for the younger stock recipients this year there are number of activities that are happening um this week and um through next week as was mentioned earlier we did dedicate the learning Commons in our high school it is dedicated to and is now named the Gwen e anger and

061Richard ler learning Commons and the conference room is actually dedicated in memory of Colonel Gwen younger so they have contributed signif ific anly to the renovation it was a circuit 2000 um area down there that has been updated with generous donations from the younger families and um in collaboration with some funding from our district so we are very proud and their names will forever remain on those areas in our high school and if you have a chance to visit you'll be able to see some written text and pictures of them uh when they graduated and um a little bit later in their lives so you'll be able to see that and hopefully the students over the years will be able to make the connections um between the people that donated and um them being graduates

062both 1943 and 1950 from the uh Biglerville High School it was um a a very important time at the beginning of may we recognized our um teach teachers for everything that they do in our district you've heard a number of the the activities that have uh been named here within the last 10 15 minutes those activities do not take place without excellent staff and we are so so lucky to have our teachers and support staff here at Upper Adams and as you've heard our administrators are there as well to help out wherever needed including making breakfast at environmental EG camp for uh the students we were there very early so but it's always it's always a a fun time um prek counts our grant has been completed and submitted it's in specialist review as of

063uh the middle of April so we're anxious to hear hopefully this Summer that um we've been approved for that money so we can continue our prek counts program at Biglerville Elementary that benefits a number of students within our school community and um it's really nice that that is housed in the hallway with the kindergarten so they get acclimated to the building and could likely just either go directly across the HTO classroom or or next to uh the prek counts classroom I did attend the Pennsylvania Rural and small schools conference I'm not going to go into all the presentations that took place there were a number and variety of of presentations that really zero in on um small rural schools throughout Pennsylvania so there were people that came from all over um different parts of Pennsylvania

064um we did recognize about 17 retiring superintendents from small enroll schools so when you think about that that's pretty large number of retiring superintendents and um we were able to recognize their efforts um for what they've done for Rural schools I will Echo um as Mrs Krauss mentioned cumland Perry technical school the the Middle School Camp is coming up we have secured that transportation we have two students enrolled so far so I would encourage people to get the word out if anyone is interested in participating if you're a current uh grades 6 through 8 student we would love to have you we would love to fill bus versus a van to send to cand Perry and I know you know there are 22 or 23 programs at cumland parot but there are only six offered

065correct and there are 13 sending school districts so it's first come first serve and when the squats in the clat are full it's done so if they people are interested they need to take care of the registration soon we really tried to make it easier for parents I know parents committing to driving to camland Perry and then coming back to pick up students that's why we sought a donor and why we would have you know a a transportation vehicle at the front of the building as long as parents can get them to the front of our school we will transport them up bring them back safely and hopefully that makes it easier for parents in our community the last thing um well next last thing I want to share I I know there's still an

066effort a combined effort to address the cyber charter school funding reform at the state level that's getting some um push from a number of organizations throughout the state and I know letters have been sent uh to our local legislators to try to make some changes to that it it really does impact our bottom line in our budget with how much we are required to um send to those those entities and it's not that we don't agree with school choice people have the options that Cho where they would like to go it's just how we are funded and how much money goes um to that those entities and how it's different depending on which district you live in there's different amounts of money for the same type of education that's provided so the last thing I

067want to mention and this is just to the board of nine and it's sometimes we're called the the team of 10 including myself the uh the superintendent but we've been up and operating since December um psba Pennsylvania School boards Association does provide a um evaluation just to see how we are doing as a group are there things that we're doing well are there things that we could improve on there would be a link that would be sent out from uh psba and they would collect it it would be through a third party it wouldn't be me collecting it it would be through a third party and then they would provide the data back to us I think it would be a good thing for us to do a self- evaluation just to see how we're

068doing um they they had come out with this in January but I thought it was too early to do it so I think now that we've been up and running we kind of know some of the routines that we've been in um if there are things that we could enhance as a group to make us stronger I'm definitely in and all in for that and I'm just putting that out there if it would be of interest to to the group to do I could initiate at least the emails coming out they would send the emails to you and then you can respond and the third party at psba would collect it and then provide us a report but I think it would be good for us to keep keep learning um I believe in professional

069development and and if there's anything that can help us to keep growing and working together for the community I'm in so to answer that question could we have a quick show of hands are we in favor of having that sent out to us okay thank you any questions for Dr do thank you sir Treasures report Mr Walmer okay I'm going to wrap up items uh 121 122 and 123 into one motion here and those three items are the financial report ending 2024 the condensed board summary report ending 4 2024 Food Service fund statement of operations ending 4:30 2024 and the Student Activity fund ending 4:30 2024 we have a motion a second or any questions could we have a roll call please Mrs Krauss yes M Jalal yes Mrs Halal yes Mr letic yes Mrs

070plank yes Mr Walmer yes Mr Wile yes Miss J cover yes Mr lady I thank you before I ask for a motion to approve the consent agenda is there anything in the consent agenda that anyone would like to pull out to vote on separately is there a motion to approve the consent agenda so move second any discussion we have a roll call please Mrs cruss yes M Jalal yes Mrs Halal yes Mr lustic yeah Mrs plank yes Mr Walmer yes Mr wiel yes Miss Jan cover yes Mr lady hi thank you that will take us to committee reports and we will start with Finance again with Mr Walmer okay we've got another long list tonight so we'll get through this um I'm going to start out with donations and uh this week we have two

071donations to Upper atam School District the first one's a back uh a basket of school supplies from Walmart and Gettysburg for bville elementary the second is a $250 donation from the hunterstown ruran club for Upper Adams Intermediate School fifth grade C second there a motion a second questions I received word that the RAR tan club uh they periodically have breakfasts in hunterstown and uh they set out their tip jar to raise money for the fifth grade Camp so that's the Genesis of this money so that's really nice they support the program highly uh we have a motion a second to accept the donations can we have a roll call please Mrs Krauss yes Miss Jalal yes Mrs Halal yes yes Mr lustic y Mrs PL y Mr Walmer yes Mr Wile yes Miss Shan cover

072yes Mr lady hi thank you okay item 14.1 point2 is the tentative adoption including the advertisement for the fiscal year 25 of Braden School District operating budget and that proposal is attached to your agenda second Mo a second any discussion we have a roll call please Mrs cross yes M Jalal yes Mrs Halal yes Mr lustic yes Mrs plank yes Mr Walmer yes Mr Wile yes Miss youngan cover yes Mr lady hi thank you okay on to item 14.1 uh point three and this is the uh I'll make a motion to approve the preliminary budget for fiscal year 25 and it's also attached to your agenda second a motion a second any discussion have roll call please Mrs cross yes Miss Jalal yes Mrs Halal yes Mr lustic yeah Mrs plank yes Mr Walmer yes

073Mr Mr wle yes Miss Jan cob yes Mr lady hi thank you okay item 14.1 point4 move to approve myself somebody else can make that motion as board treasure for next FIS schal year uh per policy 005 I'll make the motion okay and I'll second it as Treasurer okay thank you very much M thank you for that we have a a second a discussion we have a roll call please Mrs K oh yes m j yes Mrs Halo yes Mr lustic yep Mrs plank yes Mr Walmer yes Mr wio yes Miss Young cover yes Mr lady hi thank you okay item 14.1 point5 is a um a renewal of the marike Pennsylania agreement the document is attached there's a 3% increase from this current fiscal year this is um for uh classes for autistic and

074and challenged children second a second discussion we have a roll call please Mrs Krauss yes Miss Jalal yes Mrs Halal yes Mr lustic yep Mrs plank yes Mr Walmer yes Mr wiel yes Miss Jan cover yes Mr lady thank you okay 14.1 point6 this reference references uh Pim Services order form and agreement uh with pims people and this would be effective from uh June 1st 2024 to June 2025 $3,000 down payment essentially is due upon signing the contract with a $224,000 yearly fee paid in monthly installments uh beginning July 1st of this year and extending to June 30th of next year and that agreement is attached to the agenda second motion a second any discussion yeah I have a I have a question on this I had thought about it since you know our last

075week um Dr you had mentioned we had asked some people in the school if they wanted to do this or is this we couldn't find anybody to to take this position yeah we don't have anybody that wants to take this position that's in our administrator it it's it would be better for us to have one person just dedicated to only doing pins okay and right now the past several years we've tried to do it we're smaller District we tried to save taxpayer dollars tried to utilize people internally it it's just not do I think Mr M was doing it currently right are we paying him to do additional there is a stip in there is the s yes how much is that it's 7,000 okay so so if you subtract that from the 24 that

076would be the difference that would be the Delta that we need to make up so do you think maybe if we offered 10 or 12,000 to we' tried here you've tried okay can I ask a question please go ahead Mr Lake who was was that Mr Wag that was just speaking yes yes uh I I'll just offer this and uh and you can think about it okay I might be willing and the operative word is might I might be willing to do the you're talking about The Courier work aren't you no the pins is that what we're talking about no it's the pims position oh I'm sorry I'm sorry I couldn't hear so I'm I'm on the wrong one thank you very much sir so it wouldn't help to sweeten the pot a little bit

077you know because what we're looking at here and it looks like the Civil Rights data collection fee isn't included in this contract so it's 29,000 bucks um you know the difference between 7 and 29 is significant is there is there you know maybe it would be an option to table this we don't have time to table okay we we're in a transition period right now where we have someone that is not going to be doing that work in June we need to have an overlap so that we're able to transition this smoothly pims is directly related to all the funding that we receive from the state we need to have someone fully like on this like hired in our district to continue to replace this every so many years because people try it and then

078just say it's too much we can't continue to have this type of transition this is a solution that we've had without going out and hiring one person to do this work it it's a contracted service that's at a lesser value compared to hiring somebody to do it full time well it sounds pretty important so you know maybe it would make sense to do this and then sweeten the pot down the road you know if if it's not if it's not if it doesn't interrupt you know the data collection and Reporting too much it's it's a lot of work we I get emails daily about what is due when it's due there are meetings every Thursday at the state level that they're help helping to educate people that are doing this work it it it's a

079difficult job and I think we're seeing that with the turnover that we've had when Dennis cope started this it was not nearly the amount of work that we're seeing now every year we see them exponentially add things to it which I think is what is burning people out trying to juggle their full-time job on top of doing this they're doing it on evenings on weekends and then they're finding out it's just too tough to balance family life and then do this on top of it that's the feedback that I'm getting we have asked and offered more money or okay right just kind of be in the business side I kind of see how this is going right so we have $25,000 now in another two or three years it's going to be a full-time position

080I will vote for the 25,000 now but we're not going to approve a full-time position in the near future so just to go just to say and go on record but so we can votee would it be a full-time position is this something that is a 40h hour week job I mean it doesn't sound like it at this point but if State mandates keep trickling down trickling down it consumes a lot of work I I don't think people understand that one you have to understand the student information system we use power school so you have to find someone that is fluid with their knowledge of how to do Power School how to extract that data the data that gets extra raed you have multiple people within our district so our administrative assistants are being trained

081on how to input that data into our student information system so that whomever is in charge of that is able to extract it once it's extracted it has to be placed into templates that work well with the state reports and then those have to be created and they're sent up those then get kicked back to with errors so you have to go in and figure out where are the errors how do i f fix the error there are coding issues that take place this isn't just a simple let's find somebody to do it like this is someone's full-time job like having to know how to do it the company that we're looking at working with has someone who is familiar with the student information system that we utilize Power School we're not paying peers full-time

082benefits we're utilizing a contracted person to do this they're looking at error-free data that's up uploaded so that if they're seeing that are errors that are coming back they will come in and do professional development within our district to make sure that they have accurate data again if if we just want to throw it out and have anybody do it it's going to jeopardize the amount of money that we get from the state I don't feel comfortable doing that but if the boards tell me that's the direction you want to go I'll leave it up to you I think there's a lot to be said in the continuity if we can get in with pims and that if what I'm hearing you say is like every one or two years you're training a new person

083here they get burned out a year or two this seems I mean it's expensive but if we're not paying all the benefits that a full-time position would take and there's continuity this seems like a real answer to me I if we were to go internally we would be on our fifth person since I've been here that has done this in the last decade I think the only other Saving Grace now is it's a year contract maybe weit it I don't think it looks good that we only paid Mr M seven but we have $25,000 to pay right this person right so I don't think the amount of money really we even went back with a couple other people who have done it to increase like we will pay you no I don't want to do

084it I don't know how much more clear to make that this is a difficult job understand understand importance of it I think I brought the best solution the most cost effective for taxpayers but um just what I'm trying to do and the burden of locating a person leaves us and pims will find the person well let's train another person and then what if that person leaves we're back in the same vot that we're in if we're using a contracted person it's on them to find the replacement that is familiar that's why sorry no comments no okay sorry board discussion so there's a motion and a second on on the table we've had discussion can we have a roll call please Mrs CR yes Miss Jalal yes Mrs Halal yes Mr lustic y Mrs plank yes

085Mr Walmer yes Mr wle yes Miss Jung cover yes Mr lady hi thank you um even though everybody voted yes on that I think the discussion was was good and I think an explanation from you Dr do was good as well it sounds very important it's the second meeting it's extremely important and to have little turnover that that we've been having I'd hate to take time and spend retraining someone to have some something come up where someone says I don't want to do this any longer or they get a job in a different district and then we're back to the same place again and this is too critical to play around with it okay item 14.17 uh make a motion to approve the fiscal year 25 service contract with Biglerville police and the uh agreements

086attached to the agenda second motion a second any any discussion do we have any idea like what we typically pay any year to the um for Police Service I'm not sure that we really get an invoice for police um um I'd have to research to give you the correct answer but I don't recall so it's just more or less a floating AG yes it's an yeah okay Mr President go ahead sir yeah uh I'd be willing to volunteer to be the lia on the board for that matter cont for for what uh I think I you know I'm I'm you know I'm distracted by background noise but I thought you were talking about police e o l i c is that right uh no it's our Ser it's our service agreement with the big rille

087burough Police Department that we just yeah it's a it's just an operating agreement oh okay I'd still be willing to serve the point of contact I don't think we we need uh a board member to be point of contact that would be administrative that would be administrative okay that's okay I'm not arguing with you I just offering so it I'd be happy if you said no that would be fine okay no you go baby did we can we have a roll call please Mrs cross yes M Jalal yes Mrs Halal yes Mr lustic yep Mrs plank yes Mr Walmer yes Mr wiel yes Miss youngan cover yes Mr lady all thank you okay 14.1 point8 I make a motion to approve the fiscal year 25 Legacy agreement to provide school photography services and that agreements

088attached to the agenda second any discussion the roll call please Mrs CR yes M Jalal yes Mrs Halal yes Mr lustic yep Mr Mrs plank yes Mr Walmer yes Mr Wile yes Miss Young cover yes Mr Lady by thank you okay item 14.1 point9 make a motion to to approve the public school facility Improvement grant for the attached document and this resolution is for competitive Grant to complete roof restoration and window replacement at the Intermediate School second motion a second any discussion roll call please Mrs Krauss yes M Jalal yes Mrs Halal yes Mr luster y Mrs plank yes Mr Walmer yes Mr Wile yes m j cover yes Mr lady thank you okay 14.1 point10 make a motion to approve the fiscal year 25 breakfast and lunch prices uh and that's attached to the

089agenda and happy to announce there's going to be no price increases next year only for adults adults has gone up to what is it 4 475 475 second motion a second any discussion just a question did I see something that said that breakfast was still going to be at this point we are under the assumption we have not heard any changes but that could change at the state level okay you have a roll call please Mrs Krauss yes Mr Jal yes Mrs Halal yes Mr lustic yep Mrs plank yes Mr Walmer yes Mr wle yes M cob yes Mr lady thank you okay 14.1 point11 14.11 make a motion to approve the fiscal year 25 to fiscal year 28 Adams County Special Education Consortium and that document is attached in your agenda second we have

090a motion and a second any discussion we have a roll call please Mrs Krauss yes M Jalal yes Mrs Halal yes Mr lustic Mrs plank yes Mr Walmer yes Mr wiel yes m c yes Mr lady thank you okay item 14.12 is the educational consultant agreement for fiscal 25 with Maggie rowski speech and language Services her rate 78 per session and her yearly salaries not to exceed 995,000 uh per the attached document a second motion a second any discussion we have a roll call please Mrs Krauss yes M Jalal yes Mrs Hal yes Mr lustic Mrs plank yes Mr Walmer yes Mr Wile yes Miss cover yes Mr lady bye thank you okay item 14.13 make a motion to approve the fiscal year 25 psni renewal for SNAP subscription for a nurses and that the

091description of that software is attached in the agenda second motion a second any discussion a roll call please Mrs cross yes M Jalal yes Mrs Halal yes Mr lustic Mr letic Mr letic yes sorry did you did you ask for my vote Yes yes and and the answer was yes why yes thank you thank you Mrs flank yes Mr Walmer yes Mr wiel yes Miss C yes Mr lady thank you okay and the final item I have Mr President somehow landed under Finance uh but it's informational discussion discussion discussion regarding independ endent Law Center for the request of Mr Lauren lustic board member are you there Mr lustig uh we're at uh item 14.14 Independence law I know that you are I would PR to um speak last if that's okay uh this is where

092we're at in the agenda you're you're up in other words uh do I need to speak right now or could I wait until uh everyone else has spoken uh we're waiting to hear from you okay all right here we go ready can you hear me yep okay here we go thank you Mr President Independence Law Center it is abbreviated ilc Independence Law Center St have came to give a presentation to the Upper Adams School District board about their Legal Services they provide pro bono parth free of charge and of parentheses legal representation along with legal and policy advice regarding school policies there is no charge for their services they have provided to the board that's our board upper Adam School District board several examples of policies that they have helped other school districts right and

093if you allow me I think that might include um beritan Sprints they have also provided their ilc retention agreement which I think is one page but might be two um they theyve given that us I think okay our solicitor the the gentleman from stock and leader who usually attends our meeting our solicitor has had opportunity to review the ilc retention agreement and indicated that he did not have any questions or suggesting suggestions concerning that agreement uh by the way uh this was V email but of course he could not sign it but I think itm his work I believe that Independence lost excuse me just let me go back up in my contacts with Mr seac he's the guy that came to uh help us s m e k I think the first name is

094Jeremy j r m y and my contacts with Mr Jeremy sech and I in I Independence Law Center ilc I have been extremely impressed with their uh knowledge um and wise uh Council uh especially concerning issues related to the First Amendment rights of the United States Constitution um almost done just a second I believe that Independence Law Center would be a valuable asset to the Upper Adams School District board and I propose that we retain them for their legal services that is the end of my comments thank you thank you Mr L dig any other board members have any discussion yeah I'll say something I don't know if everyone knows but I'm the one who reached out to Independence Law Center to begin with way back in November and for reasons um I just had

095some concerns about how I would be able to move forward on the board I was looking at the policies I had gone through a battery of trainings on child abuse for different things as a teacher and I couldn't make sense of it I wasn't sure when I was supposed to pick up the phone and call because it's you know the policies just to me just seemed unclear I I wasn't sure if I was going to be able to continue to go on the board you know without some clarity and just I had a lot of misgiving so I'm the one who found out where they were and I figured that they were pretty much along the lines of The Homeschool legal defense fund I was a homeschool mom also um and there are services like

096this it's not um it's not a sin to be a Christian you know it's not a um they're a Christian organization many of our great institutions in the United States and many of our great universities started as seminaries it's okay to be a Christian anyway um so I reached out to them I had and I I had a consultation with them and I looked over some of the sample policies that they had given me and I thought they were so reasonable and built on mut building Mutual trust I feel like in order to have unity in our community the policies need to be clear and that's what I've been asking for for from day one is if it's the policies need to be clear across the board that's best practices and what I'm seeing is

097just kind of like a hodge podge of it's It's what's one way over here and another way over there and it's and I would feel better having just that extra keeping stock and leader for all of our other um needs that they do so well every I think everyone is in agreement with that but we let's just face it we are in a culture War this is what's happening got to this yeah we we are in a culture War and the war the the battlefield is called lawfare and I feel like we need an extra op on some of these issues that are coming up to prevent people I'll just say it from feeling bullied I feel bullied by some of the comments that been made you know and I'm glad for the participation it's

098great to have the community involved so happy about that but there is a tendency to bully conservatives and they're leaving they're leaving the district they're leaving leaving leaving leaving pulling out homeschooling I put a um I took a survey of like reasons why parents are taking their children out of the district we have to solve this problem we have to come together we have to have clear policies and I feel better moving forward having having people who understand conservative values and who are willing to work with us you know fair and square and I I invite you to read the policies read them don't just go by headlines talking points whatever is going on read it for yourself read it for yourself it's very logical fair and building a mutual trust which is what we

099need we C there is a way forward I work for um just as an aside I work for a university it's not a Christian University but the culture there is so positive because we have clear policies and a culture of mutual respect we can do this if we work together but the policies have to be clear that's where we need to start it's clear policies on what is obscenity if it's obscenity over here it's obscenity over there it's in the classroom the library in the hallway we need to be clear we need to be consistent and build up a culture of Unity on the things that we find Common Ground about so I would I am I'm going to I would like to retain them like in addition keep doing leader and they have a

100history of working together on other school boards and there's no problem no one is talking about letting go stock and leader but I would feel more comfortable having someone who really specializes in First Amendment issues and who understands conservative values that's just the truth of it I have a few things I put together than I feel like Ron Ebert tonight because he used to always talk about his experience in the district and I'm sitting here with seven years on the board and I have to be the senior member so I guess I've become the historian um when I when I joined in 2017 Bob McQuade was our solicitor and as was mentioned previously uh we did already have a relationship with stock and lader I didn't know it was 30 years but now we we

101had relationships with them to to deal with uh special ed law uh labor Title Nine um when Bob retired it was easy for us to just move with a a contract with stock and leader as our permanent solicitor because we had a relationship um there's a a gentleman who worked with u Bob at Barley Snider who is now working with stock and leader um he and G are both former teachers so they have education background along with their legal background to support us and the the gentleman who was here in Garrett's place at our last meeting is their Title Nine expert um we we have seen some emails from time to time stuck and leader is in the process of writing some of these policies aren't they Jake Gareth or they' written them and they're

102revising them yes okay so so you know I think knowing that the organization we're really with and we're paying if if they're writing policies and revising as the laws change I think we really need to look at what they have to offer before we go out seeking another firm you know I think we need to go with what we have um I will say I've read a lot about ilc in the headlines there is controversy and i' I'd like to see how our constituents and taxpayers feel about our making a decision to align with this group um I don't believe there's free advice I I don't believe that and you know there's the pay me now or pay me later idea and we may not pay it up front but we may be paying in

103the back end and we don't know it um the other things I I just think we have to ask our Administration what their feelings are you know we may we may start a relationship with this group but they are the people that have to work with them so you know where in this discussion you know where are we going to get opinions from the people that have to work with them and again if if we do anything we have to look at some time here we have a lot of people here tonight and they they need time to digest what we're saying and you know they're hearing things from us about this and we we can't rush to a decision tonight we have to listen to these people we have to listen to them and

104uh you know in closing I I just think I have all kinds of confidence in stock and leader the fact that they're writing title n and re ing title name policies I think it needs to be considered before we go outside of where we are and um look at the recommendations of our administrative team listen to our taxpayers and my last comment finally we need to slow down and just evaluate the impact that adding this firm would have on our district a couple comments please um I I paid attention excuse me to what you were saying Maria um I am a conservative and I am a Christian but we are in a public school district situation scenario and I feel like we have to stand in the middle of the road and take care of

105everybody it's not just the kids I want to take care of it's it's all kids and I guess I the philosophy if it ain't broke don't fix it I don't understand since stock and leader has been our attorney for quite a few years and they're they have um policy in the works or or ready I don't really understand why we would enlist someone else um wearing a business owner's hat if I have a general contractor doing my work I'm not to call somebody else and say hey will you just watch over this I don't I don't get that concept at all um I also when I order anything from any place for any reason I read the reviews if it's a pair of shoes if it's a vacation rental I read the reviews the reviews

106on ilc are not great they are not great um and it makes me nervous um and I also have such a fear of anything free especially sorry Gareth from the legal world sorry it's not usually free um I know just recently um the federal government released new criteria on Title Nine and if I have read correctly even our attorneys are poing through scores of pages of documents trying to wrap their heads around what the federal government is asking for now and I just I think the timing is wrong to enlist another Law Firm when we already have a law firm in place who has been doing I mean an incredible job for us I know Dr doll says he picks up the phone and they answer his question they take care of us um and

107one of my biggest concerns is who is funding the ilc and again we're a public school we're a public school who's funding the ilc that they can work pro bono and they're not willing to relinquish that information any other discussion G you said that you worked with them in the past right how has that worked with the schools who retain them working with with stock leader has that gone well what has been the interaction um yeah to put you on the spot but I'm very familiar with them I've known their Organization for five or seven years something like that um they're very different they they operate in a different Lane than we do we're General Council School solicitor firm as you know that's not what they do they admit that they are trying to specialize

108in certain areas certain policies and they they just operate in a different sphere Al together than that we do so it's apples and oranges really um obviously other boards in the region and others others that we work with are uh are considering engaging have engaged or at various steps in the process um I'm not personally involved in all those places it may be too early to tell um it seems that many others or several others like your board are considering going in that direction others are a few steps ahead of you and time will tell what that looks like I would say there's no animosity between the organizations they're in their Lane and we're in our lane and if you should decide to engage them um and if policies would would be brought forward through

109the policy committee I'll be happy to give you our feedback when that time comes but um it is very much in a state of flux right now because um Title 9 has changed again and new regulations will take effect in August and we have a training on Friday morning um still trying to understand what all that means as our they and as everybody else in the education sphere is trying to do so it's it is in a state of flux uh right now for sure so um time will tell what that looks like as far as the other boards that have engaged or are considering engaging ilc so if we vote to not retain them and there are some policies that are brought forward so do you ever a consultant with them outside of like

110here like on certain yeah like do you ever contact them for additional like Insight on some policies no that's not something that we've done in the past no when psba pushes out policy we have we have the option to accept that policy or not or we can you can pick up the phone and call Gareth and say hey what about this policy is that correct yes that's correct we we typically get um it's almost like quarterly that if there's new legislation if there's something that has changed at the state level legislatively federally they have a group of attorneys that are correct me if I'm wrong they have a group of attorneys that are looking at that from the Pennsylvania School boards Association and then they create a sample policy that can come out or if

111it's an existing policy they'll go through and mark up what types of suggestions they would recommend that connect with that particular change in legislation or law Etc that comes to us and then I'll just quote Ron Evert we want to take a look at the policy and not just adopt it as it is we want to make sure that we're looking through it how does it connect with what we are here at upper atams can we actually implement the policy that we have in place because if we're implementing something just taking it and approving it and not really looking at it we shouldn't even be like adopting policy we we need to make sure that we're tailoring it to us and then psba does have times where they'll have check boxes like which things like

112refer to your district and then we have those discussions at our policy meetings about okay I think this one should be part of what we do here or it could be a change in wording and if there's something that's really hey I'm not sure at that point we would pick up the phone and contact stock and leader and ask them for their advice would they also have attorneys that would be reading this new title 9 stuff and would finally be pushing things out that's my understanding that psba would be doing some of that work um as well is that your understanding yeah I can't I can't speak for psba but that's typically their process I don't know when they would be uh ready to roll that out still pretty new yeah so if we do

113retain them and we end up in court over something is that something that I guess I wasn't too clear like who represents in court is that stock and leader or is that you know ilc I think that's some of the questions you know who ends up representing us if we do end up in court over you know some of the policies I'm not going to speak for ilc on that I don't know what they shared with the board I'm not um as you know I won I'm not going to give legal advice in a public meeting sure but I'm not going to speak for how they would Envision that working and what the defense would look like again who would take lead defense how that interplace with your insurance those are you know respectfully I

114think those are questions for ilc and then I think my last question is regarding title n correct me if I'm I'm wrong on the business thing as well if we don't take federal funds we're not beholding the title 9 or any of those Federal mandates or or policy is that correct that's my understanding I agree so if we don't take federal funds then there's no need to entertain ISC which I think our federal funds are what 400,000 500,000 is that correct about yeah so when you're talking about federal funds you're looking anything regarding what Mr Alden mentioned earlier title one two three and four so that does um tie back and impact the students as well how would that work with meals it could impact meals so it could reduce cost for um those that

115would qualify for any reduction in um AP fees so there is it does triple down into a lot of other areas and Food Service being a very big one any other discussion I have a specific comment on on one of the policy 109 specifically um I think you know this started from when Mr lustic brought it to a policy meeting in April I believe March March March and it was up for discussion and it's been can's kind of been kicked down the road until August sometime a or so and you know I I've read the original policy numerous times I've read the revision of the pro of the policy numerous times I've made my own notes in the margin of the revision of the policy and to my way of thinking and and to what

116appears to be the solicitor's way of thinking is that this new policy doesn't change a whole lot um now the solicitor handed out a a two-page kind of report or synopsis on stock and leaders take on that new policy and there's there's a number of things in there some of the highlights are no significant changes adds Clarity clarifies and streamlines and I'll just read to the new policy introduces specific guidelines for handling sensitive topics such as religion ideology uh sexual content and profanity and to me I I think that's pretty important I don't uh think that we need books that are sexually explicit in our libraries just inappropriate it's absolutely inappropriate uh if parents or Guardians want their middle school or senior you know Senior High students to read those books it's their option to

117go out and purchase those books um I think they're inappropriate and I know there's specific books in the library that are of a sexual nature that I think everybody in this room would find absolutely inappropriate um so for those reasons I would support a revision to policy 109 any other discussion I was wondering if if there could be maybe presentation or discussions from ilc at a board meeting and stock and leader if they chose to just present to the public what is being offered I I think that's where we're headed I think my opinion I'm going to sit here and say that I agree with both Mrs Krauss and Mrs Hall in her comments I'm really not going to add to them um I think we're headed to for the Public's sake that we need

118to get stock and leader to come in to bring their Title Nine person their policy people we need to listen to what you have to offer on that side of it and then we also need to have ilc come in so the public can also hear them too I I I don't think a decision can be made until we offer that to to everyone in this room from both sides is there any other discussion are we in agreeance to set that up well I think I think one question is after hearing you know if there are comments right so if you do retain ilc we don't ever have to use them right it's just as an option and go through a talking leader like I think that's kind of I think that's kind of too

119what's that it' be a compliment it would be a compliment right I think that's kind of the question like right s leader I mean there are solicitor like this is just as as an option that that's being retained we're not necessarily we saying we're going to them for policies I think it's just kind of saying this is an option if we need a second opinion or another review of maybe some policies that work stock need but cons essentially right like you have them on retainer should you need them like a family doctor and then you have a specialist for I don't think anybody is saying that we're going around stock and lead I don't think that's that's kind of the thought on all this I think the thought is like it's just an option for

120another set of eyes to review maybe what we've been working on the stock leader but we don't I we don't interpret that way so that's fine we understand obviously this is not the first you know discussion sure you could engage them and adopt some all or none of the policies that's will be your decision um at the time and uh I you know I would agree with that tonight I think was just a discussion on whether there's a majority in the board that wishes to engage them if so then I would recommend the next step would be the U the uh agreement the retention agreement that they shared would go be on the agenda attached for public view for a vote um that would be the next step should majority of the board be interested

121in going in that direction I'd be really interested to hear from ilc if we are engaged in a legal battle because of advice from them where we turn for help I would like an answer to that I believe itly an answer to that but I you know I don't I'd like to just see it again I would too because ultimately that comes out of our taxpayer base if if they won't represent us and we have to pay for representation that's right I think it's my understanding as well just from what I'm hearing even if we utilized ilc as I think it was mentioned as a compliment we as a district still will need to contact stock and leader for advice and we will still be I know that we have an agreement and there is

122a cost to that so instead of getting you know a direct and quick answer now we have two entities that could potentially be going back and forth and that's running the clock on the buildt district taxpayers that as I'm looking fiscally as the person overseeing the district I just want you all to be aware that that is something that could add to the cost of um our tax base or taxpayers pro bono doesn't always mean free as we heard earlier and I think I'm just trying to to share if if we're using them as a compliment there is still going to be a cost associated in some way or another so well I'll give it I'll give an example I don't know if this is exactly Apples to Apples but it came to my attention

123that teachers have to go through a training for diversity equity and inclusion and I asked for the content of that and Mr Albin gave me not the content of the course but just the quiz at the end and the definition of bigotry that you're a bigot if you have like V if you vly are opposed to someone else's religion or opinions well what happens if you do like there are some things that I completely reject I re reject uh female genital mutilation I reject Human Sacrifice I reject um child marriage are th am I a bigot now am I going to get called into the court now because I you know made it clear that I reject certain portions of someone else's religion or you know when they throw the women on the funeral p

124in India that's part of their religion I reject that but apparently it that's okay with the um Pennsylvania Schoolboard Association you know it's been approved as a definition I don't see how that's constitutional so how you know maybe we you know we're in a fight and it's going to it will cost I'm I I'm not going to be intimidated by this laware well you better not stand up for your rights because it's going to cost well let it cost I I just I have a problem with that statement let it cost if it just cost you or just me or Tri you know whoever I don't have a problem with that but it's our taxpayer base and as a School director we are pledged with educating our children and I think we're getting I mean

125it's a crazy world we're living in there's no doubt about it and it's not a fun time to be a director for sure um or or an educator or an administrator well what are we going to do to stop the Hemorrhage that's at a way different level than than this little rural the hemorage of students leaving because they feel bullied and intimidated and their rights being trampled on in various ways and they're leaving the school district and going to Charter Schools doing home school that cost too we have um anytime a student leaves our district we meet with families and we have an exit interview process we do with them we do and also I think and am I missing part the first time you sent me the survey I couldn't read it and then

126you resent it and you sent it to all Adams County Schools was the survey all of Adams County the Adams County uh homeschool Association it was a small sample but okay there were 14 responses correct and two of them were upper adoms okay and neither of those responses were that kids were being bullied or that's why it was people chose based on their um beliefs that home H schooling and one parent had an education background and felt that they could provide their child with other okay I mean it's it's nothing unique to Apper Adams and I want to just build on the all the good things of there's a reason why I wanted to be on the board here because there are I I do think this is a really great place but it's not

127that the things that are going on in the culture aren't unique to hear there's a there's a teacher shortage what are we going to do to retain like how are we going to create how are we going to create an environment that truly is inclusive and I I you know and people feel like people instead of walking on eggshells all the time about you know not using this word I'm not using that word or you know people are afraid and so they're leaving that's true any other discussion so yeah I think I'll just kind of go on go on record agree I think I'll just kind of just go on record so um kind of like what Mr Walmer had said when when that Library policy was presented it was never presented as a um

128we're cataloging books it was never C sent out that we were Banning books right and so I just feel like from the administration to the to the school board like we've lost focus and it's the kids right and it's about the kids and what's what can we do for everybody right so it's not a book Banning but yeah we're going to look at content right so taxpayers should know what books are in the classrooms and in the libraries they pay for the books right so they should so um the S out in the email after that was Pres you know and then all the teachers are fired up over this you know it just it's not good right and so I think as adults we all need to step back from the administration to everybody

129and to say like take a deep breath and we have to work together you know so I missed one of the policy meetings um I think the comment was made well you know if we have to move to the auditorium we'll move the auditorium well was already set up and why was it set up because we have Administration collecting permission forms in the classroom right and so no no and they and hold on we were told that U had to be teacher permission and that was not true it had to be parent and teacher permission so the administration knew exactly what was happening that we had 30 kids coming right so I think some people in the Schoolboard feel I maybe the the the intelligence of some of the board members you know board is

130being undermined by some of the things that are happening so I think we all just have to keep the kids in mind so is that um I'll be completely honest when my daughter was a freshman there was a there was a boy that was allowed to be in the girls bathroom I'm going to protect girls in bathrooms and I'm going to protect girls in sports and I'm going to protect teachers teachers on their pronouns right they should not have to worry about which pronouns they have to worry about right there's teachers that are leaving if you look at there's teachers leaving all the time right and I think somebody said there's a teacher shorts and pens thing so that's protect the teachers let's protect the students all right and the parents and so that means

131we go with ilc as a backup but uh I guess a question for uh stock and leader is have you worked on bathroom policies pronoun policies and sports policies to date no other school board has asked us to uh draft or begin working on policies on those topics those that have expressed interest have opted for the most part to consider engaging ilc any other discussion okay going to move on to personnel all right item 14.2.2 do1 recommend approval to accept the following professional requirements Mrs CL can you speak up sorry sorry recommend approval to accept the following professional retirements Teresa Fritz math teacher bigo High School effective end of the year 2023 2024 school year with 34 years of service at aam school district second I'm sorry can we you want me to go one

132by one it's up to you I was just going to accept hers with Grant I understand sorry no it's okay no problem all right um item 14.2.2 point2 recommend approval of the following professional resignations David Toller learning support teacher uper Adams Middle School effective end of the 2023 2024 school year recommend approval to hire the following Prof professional staff Amber clauser first grade teacher big Elementary School instructional one step one 54514 effective the start of the 2024 2025 school year pending receipt of all paperwork replacing Tammy ster McKenzie Crawford first grade teacher bigab Elementary School instructional one step one 54514 effective the start of the 2024 2025 school year pending receipt of all paperwork replac in Lindy Miller Chelsea Holt learning support teacher Upper Adams Middle School Master step five 65,8 effective the start of

133the 2024 2025 school year pending receipt of all paperwork replacing SI B item 14.2.2 point4 recommend approval to post and advertise for the following professional positions math teacher Biglerville high school and anticipated opening for a Spanish teacher big lville high school an opening are we create I'm not sure if we're creating a are we creating anticipated opening at this point we would interview just in event that we need to hire someone we would be ready to go with a potential name item 14. 2.3.1 recommend approval of the support uncompensated leave as follows Barbara S instructional assistant big Lille Elementary School effective 510 2024 half day and 521 2024 quarter deck item 14.2.2 point2 recommend approval to hire the following support staff Courtney mccre central office assistant District 8 hours per day 261 days per year

134at an hourly rate of $22 replacing candy bretman effective 610 202 four pending receipt of required paperwork congratulations on that by the way glad you found some we're excited to have her item 14.2 point4 point2 recommend approval of the following 2024 2025 supplemental contracts educational Colleen Smith informal mentor to Alejandra gabag $200 Stacy cicia informal M for Tammy r $200 Amber clauser induction induct e $250 Mackenzie Crawford induction induct e $250 Lucy Barrera induction Mentor for Mackenzie Crawford $450 Kathy Fair induction Mentor for Amber CL $450 Lisa Coons and formal Mentor for Chelsea Holt $200 item [Music] approval to add the following individuals to the volunteer listing Carrie grunden retroactive to 514 2024 and Susan grundon retroactive to 514 2024 oh here we have another one item 14.2.2 point5 recommend approval to remove the following

135individuals from other contracted Services Kelly education permanent staff Teresa Collins and I believe that is all a second a motion in a second is there any discussion on Personnel we have a roll call please Mrs cruss yes M Jalal yes Mrs Halal yes Mr lustic yes Mrs plank yes Mr Walmer yes Mr Wile yes Miss Jan cover yes Mr lady I thank you and we did put in the record with regret for thank you Teresa Fritz she will be uh we have nothing under property uh Transportation uh I'll just read that quick here from Mr lustig uh retroactive 43024 to remove Cody Baker from the jobi Transportation list you want second that second yes okay motion a second have a roll call please Mrs Krauss yes M Jalal yes Mrs Halal yes Mr lustic Mrs

136PL yeah Mr Walmer yes Mr W yes m joh c yes Mr lady hi thank you moving on to committee reports of curricular and extracurricular curriculum Mrs Jalal yes The Graduate listing class of 2024 have a motion second second motion okay we what is the graduation listing we have it in the sealed envelope okay those are all the students graduation correct yes we can't talk about you made the motion was there a second yes okay all right we have a motion a second to accept the graduating class all in favor I I motion carries okay then we have 15.1.2 the 2024 2025 memorandum of understanding Adams County Head Start yes good evening this is an annual uh memorandum of understanding uh between Head Start and our our district it is a title one Compliance Document

137we do it every single year it's basically if if you look at it it's a document that outlines the expectations that headstar has for us and and expectations that we have for Head Start and I believe there is some uh uh funding in there as well what what they get for the space in se but it is a requirement for title l so that we do it every year you need a second yes okay got it we have a motion in a second and there is no cost attached to this so all in favor say I I post motion carries okay then we have an informational presentation on state assessments go guys have given me a challenge tonight it's 9:18 and I have I have to talk about pssas and how they're scored and uh

138we're going to practice taking a pssa we got a lot of work to do here uh this late at night but we're going to we're going to uh go through it all look more excited Mrs plank you know you're excited come on stay with me got five minutes may I sit beside Gabriel absolutely way of all right so we got a lot of information um from the new board members that they have a lot of questions and different questions have come our way uh through myself through Dr do uh through the administrators and we want to have two two objectives this evening I want to share with you how how the pssa and state Assessments in general are scored U because that was one of the questions well because we're constantly telling you well you

139can't really the way it's presented in the media and it's not their fault but the way it's presented in the media on websites and in the public is not really an accurate way to interpret the scores so I want to share with you how they score it and how to properly interpret it and then I just want to share with you some sample actual pssa questions that are no longer being used they have been released from the state though and just share with you what um what the kids have to do and then we'll talk about your Reflections from it so you get a sense of what's happening so first off there are four main Assessments in Pennsylvania we have the weda which is the world class instructional design and assessment sometimes called access for

140short so the weda provides um an assessment for English language Learners on how well they're learning English how well are they proficient in English it's a smaller test it's not uh it it's given Statewide but it is fairly small in nature uh as far when you compare them to some of the other ones the other smaller one is called the pay Passa that's the Pennsylvania alternative State assessment that is an assessment that is for for severe handicapped folks severe cognitive delayed folks that simply could not sit for these assessments or require a oneon-one uh session with a with a presenter or with an administrator a facilitator for that assessment the two we're going to focus on this evening are the big ones that you always hear about pssa and Keystone exams pssa is grades three

141through 8 we we uh um assess reading math and science keystones are those trigger exams at the high school level they have to pass these exams to graduate there are some other Alternatives but primarily their graduation exams for biology Algebra 1 and literature at the high school level and for a little bit of our Middle School uh folks so we're going to focus on those two this evening so there are three steps to scoring the pssa so if you want to if you have this sheet in front of you if you want to take a look at that you're welcome to follow with me or you can simply um listen or and watch and we'll walk you through so the first step are the points so questions get points so if you look on your

142sheet here you have the chart that's right below where it says total amount of point points so every multiple choice question there are various questions on the pssa so we're going to talk about the pssa particularly so there's multiple choice questions they're worth one point there are open-ended and short answer responses and they can be anywhere from zero points to two to three to four Mr Mr L is not interested Mr L yes I'm here are you able to mute your phone we're picking up a lot of conversation oh yes I'm sorry sir yes please continue there there's background noise all around thank you I pause that's right okay thank uh there are short answers evidence-based selected response and text dependent analysis and you can see the various points that they're given for each one

143of those questions so each test has different section the reading SE the reading test is taken over a period of 3 days and there are 25 to 30 questions on each one of those sections the math over two days two sections and the science over two days or two sections so when we calculate all the points let's say there's 30 questions for each day of reading 30 60 90 that's 90 questions and then the points add up depending on what questions the this the students have now some of those questions don't count because they're field tested that means the kids are taking them the state's trying to see did they get them right did they not get them right should we use these questions and some do but they're going to get what we call

144the raw Point score so you're going to up all those total points with all those and they're going to take all those points and they're going to create something that looks like this now if it's been a while for some of you folks this is the standard bell curve this is what we use for Norm testing standardized testing and this is how they start figuring out how our kids are doing on the pssa so if you imagine there's a a grid here and they're going to just put up the points on here or how all the students did in the state of Pennsylvania they're just going to put them up then they're going to get oh we'll go here go here first we're going to take those points and we're going to transfer them to

145what they call a scaled score and that's what's going to drive the bell curve here so if you think about the bell curve we have all these points and first thing we got to do we got to draw a line did they get it or did they pass did they not pass that's the first thing everybody wants to know did my kid do well did they do well or not well well they have all the points up here they draw the line straight down from here they're going to take the points and they're going to make them into what they called a scaled score so if you follow your sheet and look down at the bottom this is where I'm going to need anyone that's very very good with math in here because they're going

146to take look on here a slope intercept formula so if you remember your algebra remember yals MX plus b that rings a bell for anybody that's the slope intercept for formula I'm not a mathematician or a statistician but I can share with you that this formula SS is scaled score and the slope formula is this would be the MX plus b but they're finding this particular slope based on the number of points on here and you can read for yourself down below how they figure out the intercept again I'm not here to go over a math problem with you but if you're interested that is how they get the scaled score because they don't want to use raw points raw points are confusing for parents they're not a great way to report because each question's

147worth different points and this is not based on a0o to 100 framework and if you hear anything from me tonight take that home 0 to 100 there is no such thing with this test and how you interpret it you can't base it on 100 points so what they do they converted this into a scaled score and they determined that 600 is the lowest you can get on the pssa and the highest you can get changes depending on the grade level depending on the subject area so for uh tonight's purposes we'll just say 1,500 all right so between 600 the points have now been all converted between 600 and 1500 and try to make more sense of it so they had to get a middle ground so the middle ground we can say uh let's do

148we can say maybe 1050 is right in right in the middle here so anyone that would get 1050 one and higher would be on a passing side 1049 and and lower would be on what we parents would think as not passing um not necessarily correct terminology but that's the general thinking out there another way they looked at this they wanted to break it out even further so they broke it out into quadrants of scores so you got 600 to 1500 1050s in the middle and each one represents a batch of scores for that again to get this scaled scores took the points found the scaled scores and now we're going to go to the next piece with that and that is the performance descriptors and that's what you're used to hearing because the state said

149we can't report these numbers to parents it's too confusing they'll never understand what that means notice you don't see Z 100 anywhere so if I put up let's see here I put up 400 here and I put up 1,600 over here does anybody know what that means before we go any further okay that's the SAT everybody's familiar with the sat right lowest you can get on is 400 highest you can get we know all know perfect score on the SAT is600 they're using scaled scores as well not Z to 100 so when you look at that sat that's a scaled score Pennsylvania went one step further so this is what you're used to seeing so this is below basic basic they gave them names proficient and advanced and that is how they report out the

150parents they gave those descriptors these areas descript descriptors to try to share with parents where your student falls you can see up here that a student might be doing very well just maybe maybe they were 1048 and we get that information we know that as Educators 10 well they're two points away oh my goodness so we're going to work with this population a lot as well as getting the rest moving but these are right on the edge so we know we can get them over that line um with a little bit of work and and making that progress so any questions on this piece here so you could just say it's it's it's similar to the SAT except the range is 600 to 1500 closer you are to 1500 the better you are there you

151go about that now how do we interpret this so again the media and the the websites that are that are out there and even the score reports that go home confuse parents because everybody in this room every parent out there has been through school everyone has taken at least one test what do you do on a spelling test you take you have 10 words you write down the words you miss one out of 10 you're at 90% which isn't it right everyone's program 100% Zer to 100 I know what a test is so the media gets the information from the Pennsylvania Department of Education and let's say they say 45% let's change that 55% eler Adams had 55% of their uh kids proficient or advanced in math what does that mean the way you have

152to interpret this again the second thing I want you to remember tonight is State averages when I come to you in in November or December and share with you the data from this past spring I'm going to give you state averages this is your benchmark how did everyone in the state do they put everyone up on the up on all the data up here get the scaled scores how did they do what was their percentile as a state and then what's our percentile so 55% advertised in the newspaper we're seeing the chart we don't have any other information the normal person's going to say 55% I know what that is you know I know what 90% that's an a 80 80% is a b 55% you know schools are going terrible what in the world

153is going on okay there are no great scales these are St standardized tests these are scaled scores there's not a zero to a 100 we have to use the state averages as our Benchmark that's where we go and I would love to see in the newspaper or on TV or whatnot that state average at the top and then have every all of our scores listed because that's the Benchmark not 100% so the state came back and said 42% of our kids are proficient in advance in Pennsylvania in math and now we're standing up say where kids were 55% feel a little different don't we all right likewise if we were below that 42% we're feeling a little different we got we need to have conversations both directions but we need to look at the state

154averages can't compare them to a grade scale can't compare them to a zero to 100 got to look at those State averages second way to interpret these are trends so Trends you're looking at internally how do all our third graders do every year how does a certain cohor do when they went the third the fourth the fifth and sixth will follow that same group of kids some move in some move out but for the most part the same group of kids we're going to follow that group look at Trends how are they doing they getting better getting worse or having trouble in one area we're able to identify patterns make adjustments with our instruction and that's what we do constantly every single year looking at Trends we also look at it at the teacher level

155and that again this isn't Target teacher time this is you have a teacher a and a teacher B who might be teaching fifth grade math okay teacher a might have a higher score than teacher B well what does that mean I don't know is the U classes ability group the teacher a have the High group teacher B have the low group was teacher B out medical leave did uh you know teacher a a new teacher and teacher B is a teacher of 30 years yeah there are so many different variables that take place in in in our classrooms in our grade levels you have to look at the trends you have to look at the reasons and look at the variables and try to make sense out of all that data so recapping they start

156out with draw points which is what we get as administrators and we affectionately call this as administrators PD e magic so sometime we get that spreadsheet with all there's numbers and administrators can tell you it's just goes on and on and on and on and on PD performs or magic and we eventually get the performance descriptors and we're able to figure out where the students fall right none of this is to share with you any excuses or any trying to make any type of statements to uh as a defense we know we have areas to grow we know we have areas we do well in this is the reality of how they're scored and the correct way to interpret the data right not out of 100% so when I come to you next year you're

157going to see State averages and you're going to see our averages if you look back in agenda manager in November there's a presentation on there that I did for the board at that time which has all the state averages for every grade level and every content area from 2015 to present and then what upper atams has 2015 to President we look pretty good right Co obviously hurt us a lot hurt everyone a lot and you can see that reflected in the graphs but uh we're not uh destitute uh as some people would do that quick look at a newspaper and see that percentage and oh my gosh you know you saw the headlines I know you saw the headlin you know the mass scores in Adams County are horrible how did they do against the

158state average you can't just say 55 % well 100 is not the goal necessarily you want to keep achieving but that's not that's not a realistic interpretation that's not how it's scored you want to increase on your percentile but how many do we 1600 sat how many people get that how many people have a 1600 sat again how many people would have 100% on the pssa it's the same thing you have a little bit of here you have a little uh folks down here and then you have the majority that are in theid and that's that whole bell curve concept so just wanted to share this with you so you have some background information on when you see those scores you see those percentages of proficient Advantage you know how to appropriately interpret them and

159not just go back to your grade scale or out of 100% so we are going to move into uh the pssa and I'm doing pretty good on time here so you keep moving your presentation reminds me of that saying attributed to Mark Twain when he said there are three types of Lies three types of three types of lies lies damnable lies and statistics oh all right so we are going to look at this document here and use the one that has one on it and we're going to walk you through a sample pssa and I'll put this I took this sign down I don't want anyone to get offended until we did the presentation all right so if this was a if you were in a classroom you're taking a pssa I say every everything

160off your desk make sure everything's off your everything is in your bag make sure you have your pencils out nothing else on your desk and then I would take that basket there and I walk around you put your cell phone in the basket everyone has to turn in their cell phone you can't put it in your book bag it has to be in your locker outside of the room or I'm collecting it you're not having it until this test is over everything covered in this room or everything in this room that is helpful to you or could be helpful to you is covered we covered up the words we covered up the mission statement we covered up the profile of a caner graduate we covered up the some of the signs on this door over

161here you walk into a classroom room you're going to see tarps on walls you're going to see blankets sheets on walls you're going to see newspaper covering bulletin boards you have to have everything covered up these clocks are analog I'd be covering those up because there could be te uh questions in the class on the test that have analog clock you know they they want to test the students and see if they can read a clock they tell us digital clocks do not have to be covered up so that's a plus that's why they're not covered up you have to have signs in the room when when they come and audit you Mrs Buckley and I uh got audited a couple weeks ago at the Intermediate School PD paid us an an unannounced visit we

162passed with flying colors it was great thanks to the work for Mrs Buckley but every classroom has to have three signs do not disturb they have to have a sign that says go back and make sure that you have answered each question before closing your booklet or logging out if you're taking it online and no cell phone notice cell phones and electronic device is not permitted if those three signs if they can't find those three signs in every single room you get docked and you do not pass your audit so every room has to have those signs restroom procedures anyone have to use the restroom if you do I'll have to uh make sure I collect your book and we clear your space we'll take you out in the hallway and Mr Bo Dr Boer

163out there he's going to walk you down to the bathroom he's going to wait outside the bathroom wait till you're done and then he's going to escort you back in here and he's going then we'll sit you down and give you your test back you have to be watched at all times um because we don't know if you're looking up answers to the assessment if you have a question about the questions that you're um looking at I can help you with the directions but I can't help you outside of that so you're going to just have to do your best um you can um I can repeat the directions to you I can help uh if you have an accommodation in your IEP I can probably um facilitate that a little bit but um um

164there's no I can't explain a question to you and I can't encourage you to do to give me more for an answer or less or shake my head or stomp my foot I can't do any of that I I it's strictly on to up to you so we're going to try for two or three minutes here maybe five the packet which has the one on these are four questions uh these are St uh questions that are released they were actually used on the pssa so I want you to look at the questions and take a few minutes here and just see if you can answer one and you don't have to do number one you can do number two three or four pick one or just look at the questions and ask and think about

165what they're asking and then I'm just going to ask for reactions should brought my CH [Applause] music a good t I'll give you another 30 seconds and given the lateness of the hour I won't do my my plan I was going to read the instructions directly from the pssa book so you would hear exactly what the kids here I can do that if You' like if You' like I can I can do that that's not a what's going on with question four so I don't know what is going on with question explain it oh okay I could eat a candy bar right now no food during the test s go get your Blondie my snacks are in thee I could use a snack right me too I think some of you are feeling what some

166of our students are feeling the day that they take the task depending on how they slept the night before they're coming in feeling like you are right now at 9:45 so there are variables that that play part in how students do and this is a one-time shot so if this is a day that you're not feeling well and it's a day that you have to take the test you take it and however you do is however we have to uh work through looking at that data and trying to figure out was it just a day that a student wasn't feeling well or were there other variables that could have impacted um the way the student responded on the the test okay this session has now ended make sure you have completely erased wherever you have

167changed an answer or have made a stray Mark in your booklet if you need additional time to complete this section direction will be provided to you it's the ending statement for for uh a test for pssa and if you need more time we would collect everything and then we will take you to another room and you would have to finish the test there because you can't finish it at a later session it has to be finished in the same session that's a uh PS pte rule so what are reactions what are your thoughts looking at these sample questions now this is a math assessment I didn't tell you what grade level maybe you want to a guess at the grade level prob because of the algebra you think grade six because of the algebra six

168seven six or seven a fourth over here I think I heard all right this is fifth grade math fifth grade math test what are some other reactions anything well I'd like to think if I was a kid who studied it I would I would sit down here I feel a little bit more prepared you know what I mean I took the CPA exam I studied for you know a month you're trying to get the best score I would be more prepared as a fifth grader I would hope you have to pay attention to the instructions yes what they're asking you for whether it's an answer or a process or an explanation but how do you get to that point how do you know that well I'm talking 12 years ago we used to teach them

169to highlight what the questions asking for like there is Prep Prep there's a little bit of prep before you're still not getting to it though yeah literacy math literacy yeah literacy how much reading is involved here exactly yeah the math and the science tests are really reading tests and the and principles can share that as well they they if you are not a good reader that's going to impact your performance on math and science absolutely when when you take these and you could have the right answer but if you didn't read the instructions and put down your reasoning or Draw your picture or whatever it's asking you to do you lose the points which affects your scaled score which affects the performance descriptors so you might know the answer you can get the answer but

170you didn't do everything it said to do for whatever reason now you're now you're going to be docked for it anything else a lot of things we hear as Educators we don't our kids don't know basic math these tests just they assess basic math okay there is no math problem like there is 451 * 601 you know a basic multiplication there there it's not a not facts it's not computation these are the types of questions that are on here you might have fractions you might have decimals you might have measurement they we they give us rulers to give to students to measure and then you might have to take all those different parts put them together somehow and then create a scenario where you get an answer out of the fraction that you transfer to

171a decimal that you got a measurement from or or whatever the situation is M multiple step problems with this if you look at the packet that has a two on it if you were a special education student a learning disabled student that had problems reading you you you're you're maybe two years behind or three years behind in in on a reading level that's what that test might look like to you and I can't read it to you I can't like help you with this test I can't explain what the question once you know once you start the test there is no assistance we can reread the directions but there is no assistance and if you look at packet three that is what an English language learner might feel like when they're taking the pssa with

172the exception of Mrs shalal who knows French she might she might be able to decipher it but uh it is in French but I wanted you to what it feels like to look at a test in a completely different language and then be expected to to take it if I move to Biglerville from a different country and it's a month before the pssa and it's time to take the pssa what happens yep you take it y okay and those those aren't our rules they aren't St no but but when you're looking at the end result we own that there are rules where in a situation like that it may not count towards a school's accountability and there's all kinds of different rules with with that but the if the student is here they take the

173test and still have to go through the experience what if someone said that I don't want to take the test there I mean if it's a Flatout refusal we document that and then we get penalized for that if someone opts out for a religious reason re or any other reasons we get penalized for that our participation score goes down and then when Future Ready comes out our scores go down and we look we look like we're not doing our job and we have no control over folks saying I want to opt my student out as far as hours I had that a question one time for literacy now these are actual testing hours this doesn't include all the trainings the prep the directions the peper Ries all this everything that goes into trying to get

174these kids to do well this is just the testing hours uh for L literacy or reading it's six hours of testing math four hours of testing science four hours of testing so you're looking about 15 hours of testing that's in the seat taking the test that's outside of everything else again it's this evening is just to share an experience what do our students experience we've just finished giving the state Assessments in our district um you know you you see things you hear things about test scores and where kids are at we have a very dedicated staff that continues to try to work with all students that come to our door steps um we we tried to help them you know we talked about testing strategies Etc you know there's a multitude of things that all

175of our excellent teachers do and our staff members do with students to try to prep them but just as we're sitting here exhausted that's a true scenario for some kids that are coming to us they may have had to watch their siblings the night because their parents are working there are s there are situations that make um make this type of testing there's so many variables that come into play but we will continue to look at individual scores and our teachers do an excellent job of that we utilize data days that we have in our district to try try to drill down and look at how can we help students to get them over that that Mark can we get them to a point that they improve from the previous test and that's what we're

176trying to do so in essence the math and science teachers are also language teachers correct like one example that comes to mind is you know you have five fingers I take away two how many are left and people might think they left like how many left you know so yeah taking those teaching that vocab specific to math is so important especially for English language Learners vocabulary is huge for them yeah the last item you have in there and this is just for your reference I'm not going over it but these are the the scaled scores so this is the raw points that are converted into scaled scores and these are the ranges um currently it could change but currently uh grades 3 to 8 and you can see for um this the top page is

177Ela then second's math and third is science and you can see they differ uh depending on that slope intercept formula and if you can figure that out and explain it to me in a way that's simple let me know because I would love to explain it to folks uh MX plus b uh Mr Shriner from Southwest would be uh disappointed in me I'm sure so I don't know if uh Mrs Buckley or Mr Kad or Mr Brewer would want to share any final thoughts on pssa Administration or or anything you heard I share one thing it is a test of reading all the test it's also an endurance test for kids 32 questions the open-ended questions are the last ones they get to see if kids have been testing for an hour and a half

178two hours then they turn the page and then they had these big open-ended questions at the end and they worth three and four points they're exhausted that point you see them they just putting the time in try to figure those toughest problems out many times you see they just out and by the second day of testing for the math third day of the reading because just there's TI of testing so that's just something else to keep in mind um just because a child does not do well in PS to say does not mean they don't have math skills or reading skills It's just sometimes they just can't make it through that like of the test just something to think about I agree that it is is an endurance endurance we try to teach endurance um

179but some kids are in there through lunch and we bring them lunch because they still want to keep working at it um so they do work hard on them and um but it is an endurance L it's an endurance piece of it and the reading is another thing that we find it's as a hurdle it's a barrier if you are not a good reader the math is not going to turn out well for you you have to be able to comprehend what they're asking you to do that is a hurdle we spend a lot of time on just what is the question asking you because that in itself is a task not the not the multiplication of fractions or the division of fractions that's not the hurdle the hurdle is what are they asking you

180to do with those fractions to get your and that's where we're finding it's a reading comprehension issue in the academic vocabulary yes using words like algorithm instead of equation for third you know what third grade use word algorithm but they'll throw that in the P say this was certain you know stuff like that and just kids off who could solve that question gr you for key along um I I think to you had talked about like like the curve and how it's scored I would also caution that when you're comparing schools or grade levels to other schol schols that you have to consider the demographics for those reasons you have to consider the percent of special head students the percent of English language Learners um so you're not comparing Apples to Apples when you just

181put two schools next to each other and and start making those comparisons there's so much that goes into that great point the other thing that goes along just to Echo that is resources that has and Have Nots there are districts throughout Pennsylvania that have tons of resources that they can utilize at their disposal for things like this we're utilizing we're a small rural district with a limited budget we are using the resources that we have and trying to maximize those and going back to Mrs Graham's Point um when you're comparing District Apple apples it even goes by grade level because one third grade one year could be doing great the next third grade coming up maybe there's a large population of English language Learners or special needs or just kids that are struggling Ling that

182maybe don't have that higher percentile the following year does that mean we're doing something wrong that's why we look at the data we look at the what the kids profile we also look at how they performed and we that's why we keep track of the trends and see if we can get that progression thank you very much very comprehensive thank you thank you thank you thank you Mr thank you thanks for staying away and last but not least title free family night presentation the come on can you project for them while this is coming up we'll introduce ourselves I'm Megan toer and I teach ESL to second and third grade at Big I'm Lisa Coons I GSL Middle School 7 so we are here just to sh tonight about our ESL family night which was

183April 26th at oide Park we promise it'll be shorter than Joe's um so part of the title three funding that the district receives has a part in it that we have to include a family engagement section or activity every year so that family engagement what the what we have been doing the last couple years is a kind of end of the year picnic we did it a couple years ago at Hollow and then last year and this year we did at Oakside Park and we invite all of our title three served students to that event and their families so because it's supposed to be a family Outreach and then whenever the presentation comes up um we also invite different Community organizations for that agenda manager is not letting me open it at this time it's

184just spinning do you want to read off mine that help mine event it took a while for mine to okay thanks sorry scroll is your perfect sorry about that all right all right each year so every year as you can see the ight of school district applies for the title to get money and part of that money is um for I'm sorry that's specifically for ESL programming in the district and it can be used for translators it can be used for supplies and um supplemental resources as it like for as long as it goes to ESL students part of the title three funding is that family engagement requirement which is what we're going to be talking about tonight so this part is a requirement it is something that when we get audited for title three

185they are looking for whether we are doing some kind of Family Outreach so this is something that is uh required by the federal law and when they do the audit they do look for our information on it our signin sheets all of that is saved by the special ed Department all right so the planning every year starts in J June so starting June we'll start planning next year's event and it's the entire ESL department so it's Lisa small Megan Toller Melissa patrono Kathy golden Amy Walters um Colleen Smith myself and Lynn Hughes so we start planning every June and we decided to keep it at Oakside park because it's so big itow the families to have several different activities to do it's convenient for the families and we work throughout the year then so we

186start planning in June we work throughout the year to make sure that it's ready to go so on the actual night of the event our families come we have a big potluck dinner so everybody brings a dish um the title 3 funds also provides the main dish but everybody's asked to bring something to share um this year we had an amazing giant pot of P that was made by one of our families so we all enjoyed that very much um we have lots of different activities happening they really love parents versus kids soccer games so we do a little bit of that we have face painting this year we had balloon animals um and then we also invite community members to come in different organizations to share some things that are available to our families

187in the community um this year we had a representative from Gettysburg Community Theater come to share those opportunities Cass I K from the college was there we also had a representative for migrant Ed um we had information tables available with some just leaflets and pamplets they could take with them from the Harbaugh Thomas library and um there was one more oh the Adams County Arts Council and then Melissa Calderon our school social worker was there to get to know families and work with them and just make those connections all right so every year we do provide prizes so any of the ESL students that come once they sign in um for the event they're given a ticket and we have different silent auction or silent raffle bins they can put their ticket in whichever prize

188they want to win once the prizes are pulled all of the tickets go in for the grand prize which this year was an iPad so this is a second grader for Biglerville Elementary that won the grand prize and we do want to say too that every student gets to go home with a book that night as well so every student um gets to choose from a very large selection and everything is bought with the title 3 money because it's part of the family engagement event um this year we did have a lot of school organizations that partnered with us to help out we had National Art Honor Society there to do the face painting um the latinx club the girls Middle School soccer team um we had translators we had Mr class and Miss Yan's

189classes they bought the supplies for the chocolate chip cookies that we made Mrs Fritz culinary classes and Mrs Yan's class help make the cookies that we used for the event a really fun addition this year was a DJ so um one of our students Ricardo Perez perala was there with his music which was definitely a highlight I think everybody enjoyed having that in the background Daniela Weaver is our ESL instructional Aid at the high school and then Jackie Ortega was previously the middle school aid and they're both translators for the district so they were there for translation translating so like when Mr Dr was um there he could interact with the families or any I think Miss Buckley did you use the translators all well perfect um and then as Megan said oh Ann Wolf

190came back so she was a former principal here and she came to to do the balloon animals that's her in the picture and then Arona P Torres is a middle schooler she's an eighth grader and her family made the P that we passed out that day every year for title three we have to set goals and one of the goals that the um Brad showers last year set was that we would increase our attendance at this event each year it's usually a goal so we were able to increase the and then sit the event this year by 40 people a little bit more than 40 and then the last thing we wanted to share with you is um we really feel like this is a great opportunity for us to make connections with our students

191and their families um it's it's often difficult when they come to events because there aren't always translators available so this is one opportunity where we can connect with them we can talk with the families um in an informal setting um we would really encourage you all to attend we do have next year's date up here for you so if you want to work a year ahead um our family night next year will be Friday April 25th it's from 4: to 7: it will be at bside again and we really just encourage you to come um and just to get to know some of our families and help to make those connections and it strengthens um just that those ties within our community and if you're not crazy like us and plan things of year out

192we will send an invitation to the about a month thank you very much thank you very much I'm just want to say events like that don't just happen I can provide the money and the applications and get them the funding but it's the relationships that that particular department has with those families that make it just outstanding uh and without those relationships things like our events like this would not be successful so Kudos that whole team okay thank you Mrs jalo uh we have nothing under Athletics nothing under Student Activity so that will take us to policy Mrs cross thank you um I want to read what was shared with me today about the policies and then I wanted to address a couple of the questions that came through from uh Rachel Elliott um we do

193we do not have policy meetings in June and July so the first read policies on the agenda tonight will automatically move to Second read on next month's June agenda for the board meeting this is the case even though the policy committee does not me in J okay um as far as I can address some of these questions um I'll just read them quickly I know the hour is late um I want to point out again and that when um we we looked at the acceptable use policy for technology and there were questions about whether it affected the library um but psba sends out a list quarterly I believe Cy told me of policies that they suggest need to be reviewed and if if you read the newspapers 10 19.1 or a similar policy with a

194different number has appeared in several different School District reports so we're not the only group looking at that policy um back in March we did not discuss even though 109 was on the the agenda we did not discuss it because um Nicole had been called away and Gareth was not available so we weren't going to initiate policy discussion when we didn't have two of the main players there we moved it to April at which point Nicole was once again called away for military duty and she took the time before she left to put together an an outstanding video about her library and I totally appreciate that she did that we had numerous public opinions and we heard from Gareth about some of the um questions that were in that proposed draft and I want to

195emphasize again in March you know Mr lustic offered that and we said okay we'll take a look at it we never said we were doing anything with it we did not discuss it because as I said those two main players weren't there so excuse me I'm sorry so when April came we we had the library presentation um probably comments and and Gareth spoke that would have moved discussion of 109 to May and it's you know it's not kicking it down deliberately but Mr lustic who the one who offered the revisions and the draft and I repeat it's a draft it's not been discussed he was out of the state okay so that pushes it you think to June but traditionally policy never meets in June and July which is why 1091 will come up in

196August okay the question was uh will there be a vote to keeping the current policy August 1 will be the first opportunity that we have as a committee to talk about it and to State what our opinions are just like we did tonight about ilc so if if everybody's sitting here you know seems to be in an opinion that we call for a vote to keep 1091 it might happen to recommend it pass forward but if it doesn't then we'll have to discuss it and look at what needs to be revised in the policy so you know I can't say there will be a vote August 1 I don't know um there was a question about the second draft of 1091 and and I did meet with Mr leig and helped and and so did

197Mr Alin we we tried to explain some of the things in the policy that might be questionable but we didn't get through the whole thing so you know as as has been mentioned here there are changes in Title Nine and other legislation there's a Senate bill number seven which passed the Senate which deals with language and so you know we looked at it there's no point in trying to make revisions right now when by the time we meet in August there could be more revisions we would have done the work needlessly um if the board does not vote to keep the current policy how will Community have a voice public comment and that's what we have appreciated we' we've had thoughtful comments and that's how you need to air your your feelings um I'll point

198out again you know this that was a draft offered on the first time that we even discussed it it was not discussed so I hope that can answer most of the questions that were addressed and uh I just thought it would be easier to address them tonight rather than write it in an email thank you very much that's everything for me thank you Mrs cross move on to payment of the bills oh yeah there's other policies on there Sor well she said that was there second read I didn't think there was first read that was that announcement that I read they automatically move does that mean I we have to make a motion to do that yes okay she didn't tell me that so I make a motion to move first read policies to Second

199read thank you second second third we have a motion in a second any discussion we have a roll call please Mrs Krauss yes M Jalal yes Mrs Halal yes Mr lustic no Mrs plank yes yeah Mr Walmer yes Mr Wile yes Miss Young cover yes Mr lady thank you that will Mo on uh I don't think it's pay of the bills I make a motion to pay the bills I second motion to Second any discussion have a roll call please Mrs cross yes M Jalal yes Mrs Halal yes Mr lustic y Mrs plank yes Mr Walmer yes Mr Wile yes Miss Young cover yes Mr lady all thank you anyone have any old business can I just get a point of clarification on ilc did what did we did we decide did we discuss is

200it coming back up um I wasn't clear I'm unclear I mean we had discussions we really can't do a vote tonight because it wasn't on the agenda so we can't vote on anything uh so it need to be on the agenda for public review for I forget how long for a month yeah I was unclear as well I think the question to me was uh is is a majority of the board interested in in putting the uh agreement on for a vote at the next meeting that would be the next step yeah I mean do we want to we heard from stock and leader do we want to do have them come in and give a presentation the same as we heard from ilc do we need to have ilc come back in I thought

201that's what we I thought that's what we agreed to I thought we we agre to have both come back and then on the agenda that night would be to vote okay on that note I mean just to again they're working on different they're in different Lane doing different things so we're happy to present on what we think the current status is it's in flux all those sort sorts of things but it's not going to be Apples to Apples so I don't want to set up that expectation in your disappointed that it's not what you envisioned if that makes sense so I think I think present like what options we have or how would you deal with some of the some of the policies that might be coming up I think would would definitely help yeah

202some of that I would prefer be in executive session okay Happ happy to do whatever but um I don't know that it's just as simple as Public Presentation from both groups our former them and not sure that would be really helpful in that format but yeah next step I think would be do you want to place the agreement um actually on the agenda for a vote at the next meeting I felt like there were still questions that we had I'm sorry the hour is late I think it was you who said it uh oh um what happens if we engage ilc and we end up in a legal issue over text that they are recommending what happens then are they still pro bono do they still represent us or do you represent us or how

203does that work wasn't that the question so are we saying we have them present and put on the agenda to vote yeah is that possible to have them present and then the same night on the agenda to vote after the presentation they're willing or they're available okay if you want to reach back out to them is there an option to to have stock and leader write these specific policies and make a decision whether stock leer does these policies or if ilc does them instead is that not another option the short answer is at this point I don't know it depends what we're trying to accomplish what's the state of law at that point and is that something our firm feels we can support and defend I can't predict the future and what things will look

204like start of next school year everything so I'm not trying to evade your question I just don't know I understand so it could be the case that stock and leader wouldn't be willing to take that to take it on to on is what you're saying and and you know it it could change as well you know you're having an update meeting next week or tomorrow night and um you know it could be completely changed by January or February of next year you know the recent changes could be changed so it's like a it's a moving Target here is so what's the wishes of majority I think we see if we can get them to come do the presentation and put the put it on the agenda agenda we've had discussion tonight so I think put

205on the agenda and we can have the vote after they present to the public okay that's what we'll do any other discussion on that item well I guess I'll throw out I I I really would like to hear the presentation but if we vote that night I'm not really given the public an opportunity to provide input I agree I do too we had a few folks speak to it this even and that was without their having heard the presentation I'll throw it out there that we uh set up a presentation with ilc for our June board meeting not to vote on the retention and allow time for review and the public to comment and then that would be a vote at the July meeting I think that I'll make that in the form of a

206motion second all in favor okay who is V Mr President I did not vote okay go ahead then can you hear me yes you know who this is yes okay I okay okay I okay thank you can can I just ask who is contacting ilc to set up the presentation and can we just clarify the date is it during the um Regular voting session or are we hearing the presentation during the committee meeting I guess it depends if they can I think it depends on their availability yeah I mean I I don't know if preference I don't have a preference of either meeting so I guess it would just depend on their availability Mr luster you want continue to be their point of contact uh I'm willing to release that to any other person I'll

207do it okay Mrs Jalal will be that contact okay motion carries uh that was old business so any new business sorry I my calendar up here so I'm sorry was that for that's for the June meetings that is correct and and whatever the availability to have them on the agenda for either our committee meeting or our or our board meeting and as soon as you have that information if you could please let us know okay okay uh our next uh School Board committee meeting will be June 4th here in this room at 6:30 our next regular board meeting will be June 18th here in this room at 7 o'clock that's that's the meeting June 18th or the or E so either one either one yeah okay is there a motion to adjourn yes second sorry

208first Whatever Gets we areour thank you every