CBSD School Board Meeting June 2025 with audio errors

001I can repeat it in the live stream, we'll give it a few more minutes I think. I want to suggest. Testing on the closed captioning to see if it's working. It should be repeating my voice at the bottom. It looks like everything is working. So just reminding the cabinet and the board as well, you have to speak closely to the microphone. We set the system up today. We're doing our best, but you have to speak close to the microphone, share the microphones. We're reading the meeting. I understand that the closed captioning as well as our live stream was not functioning properly for those who are attending the meeting or streaming into the meeting. So I will reread our statement as it relates to an update regarding Jamison. I'll try to get through it this time

002as best I can. Tonight, the investigation process of our response to the allegations of abuse at Jamison Elementary ends. Tonight, we are taking action and that our first action to be to admit to the public and more importantly to Mr. Pepper, his family and the other families of the children in that classroom at this district has let these students, your children down. On our agenda, you'll see several personnel items that we will be voting on. These are significant actions that impact the operations of this district at nearly every level because these actions trigger due process rates and protections for the employees involved. We treat respect and we'll update. We will have no further comment on those actions. Nor can we release any documents laying out the people advice that led us to here. But make

003no mistake, the district let you down and we are committed to re-earning the trust of our community as we move forward. We applaud and appreciate the advocacy of these students' parents and their commitment to their children. Please know that we will do everything in our power to ensure this never happens again. Not to your children and not to any other central ex-student. Let us also be clear, the failures that we are addressing tonight are not reflective of the vast majority of our staff. Across this district, we are incredibly fortunate to have educated, caring professionals, teachers, support staff, administrators and others who show up every day to educate, nurture and protect our children. They are the reason our schools continue to be places of learning and safety even in challenging times. We see their commitment, we

004value their work and we will support them with the training tools and leadership they deserve. Aside from the personnel actions we are taking tonight, we will also use this on the break to develop meaningful policy with SHAMS and a comprehensive training plan for our staff all to be in place for the 2025-2026 school year. This board and this administration under Dr. Williams' leadership are not taking a vacation. We will work with urgency and focus to restore trust and ensure student safety at every level. We will not let you down again. Ms. Randall-Tass, a statement to share from Mr. Herring who was unable to be here this evening. Yes, Mr. Herring wasn't able to attend and he asked that we read a statement on his behalf. He said, I am unable to attend tonight's meeting because

005of an unexpected family medical issue that requires me to travel out of state today. Last month at a work event, I was responsible for planning, hosting and running. Please know that I have been attending committee meetings and executive sessions and I have committed to this position and this community. But supporting my family, let's come first. I appreciate your understanding. Thank you. And now Dr. Lohan, on time for your superintendents' report, please. Mrs. Gibson, good evening everyone. As always, I begin by celebrating excellence across our district. Tonight, you recognize the final winner of this year's Sports Overdrive with Block Screen Contest and highlight an outstanding fundraising achievement by Cold Spring Album Edgers. I'll now turn it over to Mr. Chappie for a last screen. Say thanks, Dr. Malone. Sorry. Thanks, Dr. Malone. Today, we're going to

006honor Adeline Fulvio and practice that. Thank you for attending this week. Let's see you for a second. We worked on the Portrait of a Graduate for most of the year, but for the months of June and July, we allowed free choice. This relates to the summer and the month of June. The contest in general brought awareness to the attributes of the Portrait of a Graduate. And we think all students and artists who shared their designs with us throughout the year did an amazing job. I'll read the scripts. I'll go off my heart here. So she did an amazing job on the Philly Stadium. I'm going to flip over to the video so you can learn from her voice just about this. And then we're going to bring her up and honor her with a certificate

007as well as a gift certificate. The idea for my artwork, because it was June, free choice, and when I think of June, I think of summer. When I think of summer, I think of all the fun things that I do, like the beach, you know, the baseball games. I'm also a huge baseball fan, and I love going to games in the summer. So I actually took that picture, and then I've been wanting to recreate a picture I took for a while, and I thought this would be a perfect time to do that. I hope that people feel like it's set for the summer and are looking forward to all the fun things they have planned when they see Citizen's Bank Park on their last day. It took a long time to take this picture from

008mom and dad. We're going to have Dr. Ballone give her her certificate, and she chose her restaurant of choice in Dulles Town Hookah for her certificate. Congratulations. A little back. There you go. Perfect. Ready? Am I screaming? Yeah. One, two, three. One more. One, two, three. Thank you. Congratulations. Big Phillies fan, too. Thanks, Maddie. Okay, so now, I'll give them a second. It's all good. We're happy to recognize Cold Spring Elementary School for raising $10,000 for the Eagles Autism Foundation as part of the new SWOOPS School Program. For a variety of student-led and community-driven initiatives over the course of four months, Cold Spring became just the second school to raise this level of funds as part of the program. For its effort, the school was visited by the Eagles mascot himself, SWOOP, for a celebratory

009assembly on May 28th. Tonight, we welcome the Cold Spring Education teachers who co-led the initiative, Amanda Lawn and Liz Rafferty. We're also joined by Cold Spring Principal Kevin Cochran. I'm not sure where everybody is. If you're here, please come to the front to be recognized. One more. One, two, three. Congrats. Thank you. I'm a Philadelphia Eagles fan, too. This is a great night for me. Maybe sixers and flyers next, Mr. Petiti. Okay. So just a few items for what you may see on the agenda tonight, what you will see, just to highlight a few of those. First is the real estate tax rebate program for approval tonight. The board and district sought a way to provide property tax relief for senior citizens, low-income homeowners and renters, and residents with disabilities. CB's rebate program is based

010upon the state's existing property tax and rent rebate program and modeled after programs in neighboring districts. CB's program will be of modest cost to the district, but will be very meaningful for the citizens who qualify. The rebate will be 50% of the rebate provided by the state, up to $750, and available to residents who meet certain criteria. Just like the state's program, these residents will need to apply for the rebate through CB's program. We will be publicizing the program and application process on our website, through local media, and elsewhere, far and wide. As a district, we are happy to be able to offer this rebate and encourage all individuals who qualify to take advantage and apply. Further on the agenda? We will have agreements and operations approvals, typical at this time of the year, and

011other resolutions to highlight the agenda to keep the district running during the summer months and position us well for the start of the 25-26 school year. For our budget process, the final 25-26 budget is on tonight's agenda for approval. This is the last step in a process that began in January, with the most recent discussions and reviews taking place at the May 15th board meeting and June 5th finance and operations committee meeting. The final budget is $432.7 million, with a 5.95% tax increase. This year's Act 1 index is 4%. The district qualified for a special education exception to go above the index. Following board approval tonight, a memo of understanding on the agenda would establish an agreement with the Bucks County Drug and Alcohol Commission for the expansion of the Second Step Program in Central

012Bucks for grades K to 8. Second Step is a research-based social-emotional learning program designed to help children build skills in areas like emotional regulation, empathy and compassion, problem-solving, and reasonable decision-making. The agreement includes $50,000 from the commission for a three-year license at up to 20 of our K to 8 sites and up to $45,000 for the Devereux Center for Effective Schools to support implementation, fidelity, and evaluation of the program. Before ending my remarks, I wanted to share one last congratulations and good luck to the more than 1,500 members of the Class of 2025. A week ago today, we celebrated these graduates and their families at commencements at each of our three high schools. Thankfully, the rain took a day off. That was touch and go for a little bit. And we enjoyed sunny weather, even

013if it was a little warm, especially for those of us who are wearing those robes. We had cooler temperatures at East Stadium by closing ceremony. That was our last one. We'd do three all in one day. And it was a picture-perfect sunset for a great grand finale. Overall, it was a successful and joyous day. I thank everyone involved in planning, organizing, and speaking at the ceremonies and all who attended to support and cheer on our graduates, some of whom are up here. Across the three high schools, 748 members of the class graduated with a cum laude distinction. For those of you who don't know, that's a GPA of 3.7 or higher. 373 graduates received Presidential Educational Excellence Awards. 1,348 graduates are going on to higher education in over more than 120 states. 19 graduates are

014actively or will soon be actively serving in the U.S. military. And one graduate was named National Young Marine of the Year. Congratulations to that recipient, Susan Suber. I wish all our graduates the very best and welcome them back to visit, of course, with permission and the proper protocols, anytime. Sometimes they come in and we don't know. We need to know. Lastly, this is our final board meeting of the fiscal year until we meet again in August. I wish everyone a safe and enjoyable summer. In the district, we've wasted no time making it a productive summer, too. Yesterday, we held professional development for our Pioneer full-day program, kindergarten program. Teachers, that professional development included four teachers with a focus on purposeful play. Various instructional or constructional projects are also already underway, including what you see out

015here, and work at Mill Creek and CB South. We look forward to continuing to make progress on these and many other initiatives over the summer. And that is my report. Mrs. Gibson. Thank you, Dr. Malone. That brings us to our- Mrs. Gibson, just real quick. I just wanted to add, I regretfully was not able to attend graduation this year. I had a family member unexpectedly in the hospital, but I just wanted to say I do always make it a priority each year, and I very much regretted not being able to attend this year. But congratulations to our graduates and their families. Thank you, Mrs. Smith. That brings us to our agenda items public comment portion of our meeting. Persons wishing to make public comment were required to register prior to the start of tonight's meeting.

016If any current CB students registered to speak, they will be permitted to do so first. Please note that the first period of public comment is for agenda items only, except for our students who may speak about any topic. Public comment is not intended to be a question and answer session. When you begin your comment, please indicate which items you're speaking about. Regarding the minutes that appear on the agenda, comment is limited to approval of the minutes, not their content. If your comments are not about agenda items, you will be asked to stop speaking, and you will be permitted to speak during the second period of public comment. If a question is posed, the individual may be referred to the superintendent for follow-up. When your name is called, please approach the podium and begin by stating

017your name and municipality. Each speaker is allotted three minutes. You'll be asked to cease your comments at three minutes. We kindly ask that all comments be directed to the board as a whole rather than to individual members. We appreciate your cooperation in maintaining a respectful environment. Please be considerate of all speakers and their opinions, including those that differ from your own. Thank you for your understanding. First is Mary Bucci. Hi, my name is Mary Bucci. I am from Philadelphia, and I am a behavior analyst in the district. During my time here, I've been blessed to work in incredible buildings with amazing teachers, principals, special education supervisors, and paraprofessionals. I'm beyond proud to play a small part in these amazing programs that embody, in my opinion, the very best of education. However, I'm here tonight because,

018like many, I watched with disappointment and sadness as the newspaper began to publish articles about the problems at Jamison and as the DRP report was eventually released. I was disappointed by this board's initial deafening silence amidst the torrent of allegations and delayed action. The removal of Katie Weiss and Alyssa Wright, the most vocal advocates for the students, despite the Pepper family's public disagreement about the decision, was and continues to be confounding. Instead of learning from the pain expressed by families and doing better, the choice is once again being made to take away the voice of those most deeply affected. The only exhaustive and independent investigation made available to the community shows that Alyssa called on leadership to stop concealing abuse and neglect, identified the culture of fear against speaking up, and believed a pretext was

019being created to terminate her employment by the district. Your message, intentional or not, that those who speak up can expect retaliation has been well understood. While I have spoken privately to many who feel the same as I do, I can't fault them for not speaking up today for fear or retaliation. I am really afraid to. With that said, I ask you to reconsider your position on terminating Alyssa Wright, who I've only known to place children at the forefront of her decisions, and who has consistently used her voice to advocate for families despite a profound impact to her position and reputation. Tonight, you're able to choose between beginning to help this community and, more important, the families most impacted begin to heal or to elevate a climate of trauma, political divide, and retribution. Thank you. Thank

020you. Edward Mackhouse. I'm Edward Mackhouse from Buckingham, a former teacher, engineer, and scientist, talking about budget issues, the tax increase above the minimum, and explanation. We have many dedicated teachers, but the teachers union isn't serving political purposes, not America and the school district. The teachers union defends idiocracy, anti-Jewish, anti-Semitism, and the actions of it. We have an anti-Semitic Mr. Ray, Muslim teacher. He's never denounced the killing of Jews. I know Jewish students who have been threatened that they should be dead. I don't think effective actions could be subject to more litigation and more costs. I think we have 3,000 less students because students don't feel safe moving to the South, moving to private schools. So there should be cutbacks not building more buildings in schools because you have 3,000 less students. She cut down and

021teachers retire. They get $100,000 a year. My wife worked at Havington and medical professionals. They don't get pensions guaranteed by the state. There should be cutbacks in teachers. The teachers shouldn't control the school board. The school board should represent the parents and people who are hurting and don't able to retire with $100,000 or more retirement guaranteed by the state. So there is a lot that can be done to make the school board more effective. The test scores have been dropping since the Republicans were taken off the school board. Test scores in the district has been dropping. For example, the persecution of girls by the supporting of transgender men has resulted in no girl becoming a National Merits finalist. All the 12 finalists were bullies. The persecution of girls by the support of this school board

022has resulted in not mostly in mental because they can't be succeeding the same levels as boys mentally. And that is in addition to the physical harm of girls not being able to have a fair chance in sports because of the prejudice and the harassment they get for not using the proper pronouns that the transgender persons and the billion-dollar transgender medical industry is pushed for those harmful hormones and surgeries. The teachers should not be grooming the students and they should be dismissed to save the taxpayers this money. Thank you. Lisa Ciccio. Lisa Ciccio, Warrington Township. Items 13K to O on the agenda tonight. In the Acquired Today, there is an article entitled Central Bucks Moves to Fire Special Education Teacher Accused of Abusing Students. In this article, teacher Gabby McDaniels says she's taking the necessary actions

023to fight her termination. She also claims that all the allegations against her were proven false by the district's own investigation, the Warwick Police and the D.A. Jen Sharn. By that she means, I'm assuming, Dr. Yanni's false report to Childline, to the police and to the D.A. Dr. Yanni, I'm hoping is one of those people on your termination list tonight. All those people stand by that false reporting even though the P.A. Department of Education and Disability Rights projects and extensive investigations prove otherwise. By the actions being taken tonight, shall we assume Lee Dalton's investigation concluded the same? I hope you do the right thing and share the report like you said you would. At a minimum, the Jamison families deserve that information. I'd like to thank Ms. McDaniel for her comments in the article. Now everyone

024knows who committed the atrocities against the nonverbal autistic children at Jamison. We also now know that she has chosen Cozen O'Connor to represent her. As you all are well aware or should be aware, Cozen O'Connor represented the district for over two decades related to all matters of employment. That is before you fired them. Do you know how much the district paid to Cozen O'Connor last year for unemployment matter? Do you know if it's north or south of 300K? More importantly, do you know Cozen O'Connor helped negotiate the current teacher contract? The contract Ms. McDaniel will be using Cozen O'Connor to challenge your actions tonight. Did the district execute a conflict waiver to allow Cozen O'Connor to represent Ms. McDaniel? If the crack legal team that you have assembled here has not addressed this with you,

025then you have a real problem on your hands. So does every family, child, and taxpayer in this district. Perhaps hiring the firms of politicians like Steve Santa Sierra wasn't such a good idea. How many of your newly hired attorneys have gotten you in hot water to now? Quite a few. Thirty seconds remaining. Pay attention and do better. Get rid of that guy too. Deborah Cannon. I called you Deborah. Deborah Cannon, Warrington Township. I can recall countless times that I had addressed the business administration department and the finance department to find alternative means for revenue streams, passive revenue streams, to alleviate having to increase taxes at such high percentages. And I had given them numerous ideas, numerous suggestions to no avail. I'm going to just give you some of those. We do have a large population

026of fixed income residents in our community. I just feel that this should be something that should be entertained and researched and looked into. I've already done it. It doesn't take a lot of time. But with the new board, I would suggest maybe you guys looking into it. So one is naming rights. It would be very easy to recruit or go out and get sponsorships from our large corporations and community businesses to name our auditoriums, gymnasiums, our fields, soccer fields, stadiums, libraries. And that could be done in a 10-year contract, five-year contract, monthly installment, or a one-time large million-dollar fee. They name the auditorium for perpetual, for endless. It's just, I cannot see how we would not entertain something like that. Pennsylvania in the state has an opportunity to offer, everyone knows about specialized license plates.

027Well, they have alumni license plates. We all see them for Penn State University. They also offer them for school districts as well. So it would be for CB alumni. So we would have a CB alumni fund, and every time a student or a teacher or a graduate purchases that alumni specialized license plate for a fee, a portion of that fee would come directly to the district. So that's passive income. You don't have to think about it. The only thing we would think about or the district would think about was maybe sending a notice out to our past graduates and alumni for their five, 10, 15, 20, 25-year reunions to remind them, hey, would you be interested in doing that? There's 30 seconds remaining. And here's the site to go to go do that. Obviously, corporate

028sponsorships. We have our huddle live streaming for all of our sports. You know, are we even entertaining that option? So if there is a play that they want to do a replay on for football or for any of the sports, you know, this play is sponsored by Exodus Corporation, and it could be a local company in our community. And they would pay for that 30-second blip. As far as facility rentals, I know we want to stay competitive with other facilities. But there are so many different groups that you could entertain actually renting to. We have large corporations in our community like pharmaceutical companies that we could have them do their retreats here, their conferences here. Then we could also rent a small conference room to small businesses who are home businesses but maybe need a

029large conference room to have an event. We can rent the conference room by the hour. Obviously vetting them appropriately. We could also be using our facilities to run out to local art galleries. Maybe a local artist needs to maybe get their name out. We could do silent auctions. We could offer so many different ways by also being staying competitive with the price of our facilities rental fee. We can monetize our website by putting all of the names of the types of curriculum and materials that we use here in this district and charge them a fee to put their logo onto our website. That's easy. That is simple. It doesn't take a lot of thought in that. One of the things that I really felt was strange that I saw was when we were renting- Four

030minutes has expired. Please conclude your remarks. Well, Deb, I was actually going to say, can you email me some of these? I just have one more thing to mention. No, I didn't mean to because I want you to stop necessarily. I'm just very intrigued by a number of them. So would you mind emailing them? Absolutely. Yeah. Sorry. I wasn't trying to tell you because I want you to stop necessarily. I know we're at a time limit, but I just wanted to ask to make sure you- Yeah. Okay. I'll email. Okay. Thank you. Shannon Harris. Shannon Harris. Shannon Harris. I'm a parent of a CB student. In terms of the budget and what the tax raise that you're going to be instilling today because it doesn't matter what I say here, but I just want to

031understand why do you believe CBSD deserves a raise? There are 17,000 students, 3,000 less after COVID. There's a significant decrease, yet you raised the budget to $437 million. If you divide by 17,000, that's $25,000 per child spent. Now, obviously, we have several people who are several children who are in need, but personally, my child in CB East, I do not feel like he got a $25,000 education. Our academic scores are lower and continue to fall. The mental health is lower because of the indoctrination tactics and the lack of focus on education. I personally this year had to pull my child from contact with the BCIU with his 504 because I did not like the counselor, and she obviously did not want me to be involved in his sessions, which was very disappointing and disgusting. Parents

032are always excluded, and they have been for years, and it just continues to get worse from knowledge and interaction between the teachers and administration and what's going on in their classroom. And then crux here is children are now being abused in our classrooms. So my question is to you again, why did you believe that CBSD deserves a raise? I didn't see any attempt to cut staff because if in a corporation you have a budget problem, you try and cut staff, you try and cut teachers, you try and do layoffs, try and figure out a different way than just raising taxes. And we have 3,000 less children, so that's another huge question. I don't even understand why you would even do that. This was already known when we had the Crabtree and Rural presentation back in

0332022 when Dr. Lukobot presented, and that was three years ago, and you guys came in and completely ignored it. I'm just very sick of the Education Administration and the unions thinking that they just have a blank check for taxpayer dollars. In terms of what's going on with Mr. Pepper, I'm glad that there is some resolution, although I'm very disappointed that it still took six months. I mean, all of us parents here that have been coming new from day one, something should have been done immediately. And I understand, yeah, you want to do a report, but you didn't need to. You could have done something. You need to release the report to the taxpayers. It's taxpayer funded. We understand there probably needs to be redaction, but either way, we're going to get it through RTK either

034way. And I'm just very disappointed that Rick Herring has missed another meeting. I think it is very important, especially with all the stuff that's going on in our district, that he should be here. Thank you, Ivana de Armand. I do not need a 30-second reminder. I'm a big girl and I can see this clock right in front of me. Thank you. Thank you for finally taking action board. You have stated that you are unable to release the documents due to due process. Do you anticipate any potential lawsuits from the release of the staff or administrators? How much money did this investigation cost us? When will we see the vote on that? And what are other ways to create revenue so that we don't have another tax increase? This has become a hardship on many families

035in Central Bucks. Some have moved out. How many have also perhaps put their children into charter school because they have lost trust that now we are paying for? And the charter schools usually cost more than if their child remained in the district. One way that you can earn our trust back is to do better with financial matters and litigation matters. I hope you will consider Mrs. Cannon's remarks as she has good ideas. She had them when she was on the board. It's sad you had to lose her because of your actions. Thank you, Mrs. Reynolds, for recognizing Mrs. Cannon's ideas and for asking for her input. I would also ask you to reconsider Mrs. Wright's employment termination. She should not be losing her position, and I hope that those of you with a conscience will

036vote appropriately. One way to save money is, and this has to do with the tax increase, perhaps you should not do a full superintendent search because that costs a lot of money. We've had Dr. Malone fill in before. We're having him fill in now. And I have confidence that he'll do a good job as he has been doing, so why not just give him the position? And that's it. Thank you so much. Andrew McCauley. Good evening. Andrew McCauley, Warrington Township. I'm a proud parent of a rising junior at CB South. I would like to thank the board for their entertaining and update of the memorandum of understanding for the road traffic guard system at Barclay and Tidus Elementary School. Road traffic is a greater concern as time goes on, and I appreciate the board's consideration

037of this. Thank you. Thank you. Tim Froman. Tim Froman, Warrington Township. I spelled resources wrong. I'm about to say we take people off here, but I support Gabby and the aid. I don't believe the crap that was said about them, too. I know the aid for three years, teacher for one year, love their kids, both love those kids. And I read a report, and some of the witnesses, or hearsay witnesses like Herve and somebody else, what took place. I support Gabby and the aid, and I think she's being real rude. I'm happy that she's a great attorney to support her. I think she has a great attorney. Thank you. That concludes public comment. Brings us to the approval of the school board minute meetings from May 15th, 2025. Do I have a motion to approve

038those minutes? So moved. Do I have a second? Second. Moved by Ms. Smith, seconded by Ms. Reynolds. Any comments on these minutes? All in favor? Aye. Aye. Any opposed? Any abstentions? Motion carries. How many voting members do we have here tonight? Seven. Motion carries seven zero. That brings us to our school board reports education committee, and that would be Ms. Foley. Good evening. Our MTSS federal programs and data assessment supervisor Cassandra Oshinsky presented to the committee this past month regarding grant funds that were utilized for Title 1, 2, 3, and 4 during the 2024 and 2025 school year, as well as budget planning for the following school year. Next steps will include soliciting stakeholder input and submitting the 25-26 grant application. I did ask for clarification. The district does use a grant formula to determine

039which schools receive funding, and funds were issued as expected. We were notified early last week. At CB South High School, the targeted school improvement action plan was discussed. Stacey Gray, principal Jason Booker, and CBS student Farzona Kashinova presented to the committee regarding the CB South TSI plan. Potential reasons for performance, strengths, and identified challenges were also discussed. Next steps for that will include submission and implementation, and we are certainly grateful for the opportunity to have our students provide us feedback on how to continue to strengthen our schools. Realignment coordinator Anne Hendershot presented to the committee regarding kindergarten PEs, social and emotional wellness, HIV AIDS, and alcohol, tobacco, and other drugs revisions. Next steps include purchasing the digital second step program, providing professional development to teachers, and implementing the revised curriculum during the 25-26 school year.

040Did somebody say something? I'm sorry. Oh, you're good. Sorry. CB East music teacher and K-12 music curriculum coordinator Michael Gruver presented to the committee regarding high school technical theater, high school rock band, and high school rock band curricular structure and units of study were reviewed, and he shared some lovely videos with the committee to see our students in action. He also presented a new course of study called high school collaborative music. Curricular structure again was discussed as well as the units of study. They include building a community of music, fundamentals of music, musical exploration, ensemble, music expression and exploration, music performance development, and music performance development. The committee agrees to move this item to tonight's agenda for a full board vote. Our next meeting is August 7th of this coming year. Thank you. Our policy

041committee did not meet since our last meeting, but Ms. Zindana, once I know you're online, do you have anything you want to share from the policy committee even though we didn't have a meeting? Yeah, just a few things. Our last meeting was the 8th of May. Our next meeting is August 14th. I just want to point out that I misspoke in our last meeting. Apparently the mandated reporter requirements from Pennsylvania, disappointingly, do not require six months. There's no timeline. And that's not okay with our board and that's not okay with our committee. So we are working with Dr. Malone and the administration to implement a process where mandated reporter training happens at time of hire or before so that we can ensure that all people who are in classrooms with our students are aware of

042their mandated reporting responsibilities and that they act accordingly. I also want to say that although our next meeting is scheduled for August 14th, as Ms. Gibson said, we are not taking the summer off and we are working to implement policies and procedures to help make sure that we never have any other incidents like we had at Jamison. So if our policy committee needs to have a meeting during the summer, we will announce that and we will have that out for the public. We will work based on the leadership of our legal committees and our administration to drive that process to assist us in developing the policies and clarifying any policies necessary to make sure that we address issues at hand. And that's it for me. Thank you. Thank you. And that brings us to Mr.

043Kimikata. Give us an update from the Finance and Operations Committee. Thank you, Mrs. Gibson. Finance and Operations met on June 5th in addition to bringing forward the final budget for next school year and the new school tax rebate program to the board for a vote. There were several other items that we discussed, such as replacing the east high school swimming pool heater, as well as updating building automation controls at many of our buildings. Also a dust collection system is being replaced at CB South. There are two memorandums of understanding for crossing guards that impact Titus, Barclay, Warwick, Jamison, and Bridge Valley elementary schools. We also discussed a new plan for renting our school iPads to own them instead of renting them. This allows us to spread the payments out over more years and then at

044the end of that we own them and we get that value for any trade-ins in the future. We had approvals for school doctors and dentists. We also picked a firm to do our audit for this year. And we also had approval for the Act 93 agreement for the next five years and re-renewed our food services contract with Aramark that lasts for the next year through June 30th, 2026. And our next meeting will be in August also, August 15th. Thank you. Ms. Foley, an update from the Bucks County Intermediate Unit. Yeah, I just want to correct myself when I was reading out the next meeting for the Education Committee. It's August 7th of this year. I apologize just for the minutes. I have to report out May and June from the IU because our meeting last

045month for this board was held ahead of the May meeting. In June we honored many wonderful retirees and also celebrated the accomplishments of 55 students graduating from their educational programs this school year. Many of the graduates participated in the June 9th celebration held in the life sciences building over at DelVal. On June 5th the IU was awarded a $135,000 grant to support its certified teacher registered apprenticeship program that will help to expand their Grow Your Own Teacher program for current staff who wish to pursue pre-K through 12 special education teacher certification while continuing to work within the IU. They were also the proud recipients of a $450,000 grant, the PA Smart and Innovation grant to expand the incredibly successful Mobile Fab Lab program. At the annual Bucks County Health Improvement Partnership, also called BCHIP, celebration

046this month, the Bucks IU was honored as a Distinguished Partner of the Year. BCHIP is an organization that brings together leaders from healthcare, public health, education, and community organizations throughout Bucks County. And the award was presented on June 5th at their annual celebration. In May, dozens of students enjoyed a magical trip into a tropical twilight themed prom on May 2nd. There were many end of year celebrations across the many districts the IU serves, too many to name. On May 21st, the Project Search Banquet was held to honor both our students completion of the program and all of those who have supported their efforts, including the many Bucks County's offices and personnel providing the internship positions, families, teachers, coaches, and mentors. For those who do not know, Project Search of Bucks County is a nine month

047internship program for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities who have a goal of achieving competitive employment. The next meeting is July 15th. Thank you. And Ms. Smith, update from Middle Bucks Institute of Technology. Sure. Briefly, Middle Bucks had our graduation a couple weeks ago. We graduated the largest class in Middle Bucks history, and this fall we are looking forward to the largest enrollment at Middle Bucks. So both of those data points suggest everything is really moving along well at Middle Bucks and really kind of growing the vocational program for all our students. We do have some significant staff turnover at this point from some retirements. So Dr. Covell and Ms. Doherty have that well in hand and are taking steps this summer to prepare the new teachers and get some mentors in place for that.

048Thank you. And that brings us to our finance section of the meeting. Mr. Skiraki, as part of that, if you wouldn't mind explaining sort of the background of how we arrived at the proposed tax increase, that would be helpful as we vote on these items. Certainly, Mrs. Gibbons. Good evening, everyone. So the proposed tax increase tonight is 5.95 percent. So one question you might ask, well, the Act I index is 4 percent. How is this possible? So the Pennsylvania Department of Education allows what are called exceptions to the Act I index. There's four reasons you can go above the Act I index. One is for special education. One is for retirement expenses. One is for what's called grandfather debt. And another one is for something called electoral debt. So Central Buck School District does not

049qualify for three of the four, but it did qualify for the special education exception. So back in January, the chief operating officer at the time did submit a referendum exception request to the Pennsylvania Department of Education for special education. That was approved by the Pennsylvania Department of Education, which means that Central Bucks could exceed the Act I index. The exception was approved for a total of $6.479 million, $6.479 million. So applying that amount to the budget, that means that the district, theoretically, the board could approve a tax increase as high as about 6.42 percent. The tax increase that's being proposed tonight is 5.95 percent. There are very few districts that qualify for anything other than the special education exception. And basically the way that exception works is it compares the expenses from one year to

050the next year. And if those expenses increase by more than the Act I index, that dollar amount then is the essence of the exception. That's the amount that you're allowed to exceed the Act I exception by. So the years that were compared for the purposes of this budget were the 22-23 fiscal year versus the 23-24 fiscal year. So again, everything that is in front of the board tonight with the tax increase is within their authority based on the letter that was received back in March from the Department of Education approving that Act I exception. Thank you. And so with that, I'll turn it over to you then obviously to seek approval of those items. The administration is seeking approval under the finance sections for items B through Q. Do I have a motion to approve

051items 6B through Q? So moved. Do I have a second? Second. Moved by Ms. Reynolds. Second by Ms. Smith. All in favor? Aye. Aye. Aye. We want to chat about... Does anybody want... I'm sorry. You're right, Heather. I apologize, Ms. Reynolds. Does anybody want to make any comments or have any questions about the motions? I will make a comment. Thank you, Mr. Pepper. And I'm sure people are disappointed that I voted for this, and there's one reason and one reason only, and that's related to special education. We have very, very, very, very significant costs associated with educating children like my boy, and we have to meet those obligations from an ethical standpoint as well as a legal standpoint, and we need the money. And I'm not going to say no. Thank you, Mr. Pepper, and

052sorry that I didn't open the floor to the board after the motion. Does anybody else have any other comments about any of these items before we vote on the motion? I just wanted to talk about it a little bit, because talking about the tax increase, I think, for many months now, there's been a comparison to when, as a district, we were able to have no increase for multiple years in a row, and it's fair to talk about it that way, but I think what we're seeing with our district and neighboring districts is that unfortunately those economic conditions that we had eight to ten years ago just don't exist anymore, and when we look at what we're facing and our neighboring districts are facing, are these rising costs, rising uncertainty, and the districts around us are

053also raising taxes, and many of them are raising it to the Act I Index Max as well. For example, North Penn, Southerton, New Hope, Centennial, Nishamini, they're all going to the full limit. Also, like North Penn, Southerton, Hattboro, and Council Rock, like us, will still be operating with a deficit even though, despite of those increases. In addition, in Montgomery County, four of the districts also applied for the same special ed exemption, and it just seems that the challenges that we face here in Central Bucks are really regional, and it's not just unique to us, but also despite that increase, the tax increase that we just approved, our district would still have the fourth lowest millage rate in the county, and if you look at it from a cost per student standpoint, we still have the

054lowest cost that we spend per student on education, around $25,500 per student, and with neighboring districts, that amount can go up to as much as $44,000, so we are at least fortunate by the size of our district that we're able to have the lowest cost per student. Thank you, Mr. Kimikata. Any other board members? Yeah, I just wanted to touch on the property tax and rental rebate that we're able to introduce while we are raising taxes. We are trying to keep in mind those that might be impacted the most by that tax increase, and while I have something prepared to say, Mr. Scrockie comes from North Penn, where this program has been implemented for many years, and he can really speak to the impact it not only had on the community, but the district itself

055and the people who work for the district, so if you don't mind, Mr. Scrockie, I'm going to turn it over to you. Absolutely, thank you. Dr. Malone gave a nice summary at the beginning of the meeting tonight, but just to let you know how this program works, and hopefully everyone in the audience will go tell a friend about this program, because there are nearly 2,000 individuals, households, in Central Bucks School District that already receive a rebate from the state. Those same households would be eligible for a rebate through Central Bucks. So the way it works at the state level to get this rebate, there are certain age and income guidelines, and if you meet those guidelines, you get a rebate from the state, you complete a one-page application with Central Bucks, you show proof that

056you received a rebate from the state, and Central Bucks then will rebate, provide another rebate to those same households for 50% of the amount that they received from the state. So the maximum rebate from the state this year is $1,500. Therefore, $750 would be the max that Central Bucks would be able to rebate to those individuals. So this is not meant to be a windfall, so the maximum you can receive is $750 or the total amount of your property taxes. We had households in North Penn School District that actually received 100% of their property taxes back between the state rebate and the district rebate. So it's really a program that's designed to provide some level of property tax relief to those that are most needy in the community. I've heard the Pennsylvania legislature talk about

057property tax reform in Pennsylvania. For the 32 years I've been involved in school business, and it's not happened. This is a small way the board can drive some level of property tax relief to those in the community that need it the most. The nice thing about it from an administrative standpoint is ease of administration because it simply piggybacks off an existing program. So if you're eligible at the state level, you're eligible at the district level. So you may know someone. It could be a neighbor. It could be a relative. So one way that's very effective is to have you spread the word and say, hey, I heard about this rebate program at the board meeting. Do you know anyone that might be eligible for the state rebate or might be receiving a state rebate already?

058So those individuals would be the ones to apply. One thing I found in my experience, too, that even though there's a certain number of individuals receive a rebate from the state for whatever reason, maybe they don't know about it or they don't want to be bothered with it, only a small percentage of those that are eligible at the state ever apply for the school district. So we're going to do the best job we can here at the school district to promote it so we can get as many people as possible to submit an application through central bugs. Now, if we can get 25 or 30% of those eligible at the state the first year, I would consider that a success. But I'm sure the board will talk about this at monthly meetings. I'm sure you'll

059hear about this at every finance committee meeting. But you as a community here tonight, those listening online, you can help in this process also. So applications are ready. Pending board approval tonight. They'll be posted on the website. Our communications department is going to be heavily involved with this, and the district is going to be ready to receive applications already on July 1st. Thank you. Thank you. That was very helpful. Any other board members have any comments about the finance items? I just have one quick comment in response to our public comment. The district is, we already have policies that are structured for advertising and sponsorships in schools. 913.1 is advertising in schools, and 913.2 does allow us to have sponsorships and partnerships. So we are eligible to do those steps already. So definitely something worth

060looking into then as we move into the next fiscal year. So it can be considered as what you're saying, Karen. Yeah. Deb, again, please. I look to see if I have your email in here, and I don't. So if you could, email me. Us. And then just one other thing. I know it's tempting to look at us like a corporation, but we're a school district and we're not a corporation. So it's really unfair to, well, it's just inaccurate to use that as an analogy because we're not a corporation. There are things that just don't apply to a school district that would apply to a corporation. With less students, even if you go from like 22 students to 18, you still have to heat the buildings, cool the buildings, keep the lights on, and pay the

061staff as well. So it's just an inaccurate comparison when you're looking at us like a corporation. Thank you. All right. I'm in favor of the motion to approve finance items 6B through 6Q. Aye. Aye. Aye. Any opposed? Any abstentions? Motion carries 7-0. And Dr. Malone, the item number 7, other board action items, is that for you? Yes. Thank you. Excuse me. I'm not always certain which administrator manages that part of the meeting. Thank you. The administration is seeking approval for items 7B through 7F. Can I have a motion to approve item 7B through 7F? So moved. Second. Moved by Ms. Foley. Can I get a second? Second. Oh, sorry, moved by Ms. Reynolds, seconded by Ms. Smith. Do we have any comments or discussion on any of these items? No? Okay. All in favor? Aye.

062Aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries 7-0. Mr. Spencer. Thank you, Mrs. Gibson. Yeah, the operations section. Yeah, administration is seeking approval of operations items 8B through 8F. Do I have a motion to approve items 8B through 8F? So moved. Moved by Mr. Kimikata. Do I have a second? Second. Second by Ms. Danowitz. Does anyone have any comments or questions or discussion points about these items? Okay. All in favor? Aye. Aye. Any opposed? Any abstentions? Motion carries 7-0. Thank you. Thank you. And Ms. Craig, is that, will you, or you'll take, okay, Dr. Malone, special education items please. Administration is seeking approvals for special education items 9B through 9M. Do I have a motion to approve items 9B through 9M? So moved. Moved by Mr. Pepper. Any, a second? Second. Second by Ms. Reynolds. Any discussion

063items on this before we vote? Okay. All in favor? Aye. Aye. Aye. Any opposed? Any abstentions? Okay. Motion carries 7-0. And Dr. Malone, student services items. Administration is seeking approval for student services items 10B through 10K. Please take out K. Can I get a motion to approve items 10B through 10J? So moved. Moved by Ms. Reynolds. Second. Second by Ms. Smith. Any questions or comments about these action items? All in favor? Aye. Aye. Aye. Any opposed? Any abstentions? Motion carries 7-0. Can I get a motion to approve item 10K? So moved. Moved by Ms. Reynolds. Can I get a second? Second. Second by Ms. Foley. All in favor? Or any discussion on this item I should say first? No? Okay. All in favor? Aye. Aye. Any opposed? Abstain. Motion carries 6-0-1 with one abstention. Section

06411, education. Dr. Zaleski is here. Okay. Couldn't see you in the corner. Dr. Zaleski. I'm over here. Yes. There you go. Thank you. Good evening. How are you? I'm good. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. Can I get a motion to approve item 11A? So moved. Moved by Ms. Foley and a second? Second. Second by Ms. Sandinowitz. Did I hear that right? Okay. Any discussion on 11A? All right. All in favor? Aye. Aye. Aye. Any opposed? Any abstentions? Okay. Motion carries. Thank you. The administration is seeking approval for item 12B through C. Can I get a motion to approve 12B through C? So moved. Moved by Ms. Foley and a second? Second. Second by Mr. Kimikata. Any comments or questions on these items? All in favor? Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Any opposed? Any abstentions? Motion carries

0657-0. Thank you. And Ms. Rossi, human resources. So before I turn it over to you, we have a lengthy list of retirements because it's June. We have a lot of people going on to their next step in life. So I'm going to read out our retirements. We have Cynthia Barron, who is a Title I instructional assistant from Barclay, 25 years of service. Karen Bennett, office clerk at Groveland, 25 years of service. Harry Bauer, music teacher at Jamison, 33 years of service. Paul Carmen, technology ed, industrial arts at Lenape, 28 years of service. Sorry, I just need to be able to follow along with myself here. Charles Allen, sea mechanic warehouse and operations, 36 years of service. Bernadette Connison, office clerk at Titus, 5 years of service. Elizabeth DeFranchesco, math teacher at Lenape, 21 years of

066service. Michael Daughtery, custodian floater in operations, 23 years of service. Kathleen Egan, grade five elementary teacher from Warwick, 24 years of service. Amy Fry-Dailey, English teacher at Toheken, 32 years of service. Rhonda Gold, staff nurse at Buckingham, 9 years of service. Mylene Greenwood, special education teaching assistant at CB East, 22 years of service. James Grew, a mechanic boiler in operations with 26 years of service. Lisa Hager, special education teaching assistant at Warwick, 25 years of service. William Haug, school bus driver, transportation ops center, 10 years of service. Deborah Cant, special education teaching assistant at CB West, 23 years of service. Brian Kirk, a mechanic communications and operations, 10 years of service. Barbara Copperman, administrative assistant in the administration building with 18 years of service. Elizabeth DeFranchesco, school bus driver with 6 years of service. Roberta

067Lichter, swim program at CB East with 20 years of service. Kevin Martin, supervisor of emergency procedure and protocol in operations, 20 years of service. Barbara Mattis, math teacher at CB West with 30 years of service. Susan Mattis, director of transportation with 17 years of service. Carol Miller, diagnostic pre-screening reading from elementary at Doyle, 35 years of service. Sharon Payne, chemistry teacher at CB East, 10 years of service. Randolph Radcliffe, facility specialist at Mill Creek, 22 years of service. Diane Shute, secondary school counselor at Toheken, 28 years of service. Tina Shull, school bus driver, 26 years of service. Joseph Stryker, secondary school counselor at Toheken, 25 years of service. Teresa Travasano-Heath, school bus driver, 7 years of service. Christine Trowinski, human resource manager, 20 years of service. Gregory Trimvar, social studies teacher at Toheken, 32 years

068of service. Anna Vernacci, basic skills assistant at Bridge Valley, 21 years of service. And Bree Walsh, kindergarten teacher at Jamison, 29 years of service. That is total years of service from these retirees of 743 years of service to the CB district. Thank you. Ms. Rossi? Thank you, Mrs. Gibson. The board, the administration is seeking approval of items 13A through 13J. Can I get a motion to approve items 13A through 13J? Wait, don't wait, not A, because it's all... B, I'm sorry, 13B through 13J. Yeah, 13B through 13J. Thank you, Heather. So moved. And a second? Second. Moved by Ms. Reynolds, seconded by Ms. Smith. Any comments? All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Any abstentions? Motion carries, 7-0. Administration is also seeking approval of items 13K through 13O. I'd like to call for individual votes on

069all these. Can I get a motion to approve item 13K? So moved. Can I get a second? Second. Moved by Ms. Reynolds, seconded by Ms. Smith. Ms. Smith, any comment? All in favor? Aye. Abstain. Motion carries, 6-0 with one abstention. Can I get a motion to approve item 13L? So moved. So moved. Moved by Mr. Kimikata, seconded by Ms. Zindaniewicz. Any comment on 13L? All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Abstain. Motion carries, 6-0 with one abstention. Can I get a motion to approve item 13M? So moved. Moved by Ms. Smith. Can I get a second? Second. Second by Mr. Kimikata. Any comment? I've got a couple things I'd like to say about this. First of all, the two women that were put out from the special education department, Katie Veiss and Alyssa Wright, I was

070very much opposed to that. I made that public. I made the board very much aware of that. Katie Veiss was my boy's special ed supervisor at Jamison. And I would like, my wife and I, would like her back as my son's special ed supervisor. If that's not a vote of confidence in what type of person I think she is and what role she played here, I don't know what is. As for Alyssa Wright, we have now seen, as board members, the chat line report that was filed on November 20th, 2024. It is as outrageous and materially false, and I believe criminal, as you would imagine. There were three signatories to that, yet there were four people in the room. The three signatories, Dr. Steven Yanni, Dr. Nadine Garvin, Mr. Robert Freiling, they signed it. Dr.

071Yanni wrote specifically, despite the fact that Alyssa Wright was in the room, that he filed it on behalf of himself, Nadine Garvin, and Rob Freiling. Alyssa Wright did not sign that chat line report because she did not know what was going on in that classroom. Dr. Garvin did, Rob Freiling did, and Steve Yanni did. Alyssa Wright did not. Yet, she is now thrown out, despite doing a very good job in her position here at CB. The politics of this place are grotesque. It is unbelievable to sit here, and I look back, why did I run for school board? Well, I'll tell you, I could tell you a lot of reasons, but I'll tell you one story. It was during COVID, and the schools were shut. Now, I had sued the Pennsylvania Department of Education on

072behalf of my boy to get the schools open for ESY for my son and other kids like him, because I knew it was useless, completely and utterly useless, to instruct him with his challenges online. And we were forced to sit at the kitchen table and try and teach him via Zoom. And the teacher was a lovely woman, very, very nice, equally frustrated as I was, but not nearly as frustrated as my son was. And at one of the, during one of the sessions, it would last about 10, 15 minutes, as long as he could stand it, the teacher said to me, Mr. Papel, would you mind if I videotape this? And I said, sure, sure. And it turned out to be a particularly difficult session, and I was incredibly frustrated for my son. And I

073said at the end, I said, can I have a copy of that? And the teacher, very nice woman, I don't remember her name, I'm sorry, but she was very nice. She said, sure. I said, well, I'd like it today. You know, you're recording it, if you could send it to me today. I got a call. Will you get on a Zoom call with me? It was someone who worked in special education, not Alyssa Wright. And I get on the phone with this woman, and she introduces herself, and immediately I knew what the deal was. I was being shined on. And I said, listen, I just want the video. Just send me the tape. This is about an hour and a half later. I think it was a 1230 Zoom. Remember those, all the Zoom calls

074during COVID? And she said to me, and I will never forget it, we've already erased it. I cannot tell you the number of times I have been lied to by people in this district about my sons. I don't care if people lie to me. That's what I do for a living. People lie to me. I am a lawyer. I unpack it. That's fine. But when you lie to me about my children, it puts me in a different gear. Back to the politics. I decided, at that point, I would consider running for school board. I'd already been asked to run for school board. I said no. My wife said, you've got to be kidding me. That's crazy. I said, well, okay. And I listened to my boss. And she is my boss. But as things progressed

075in that particular situation, it got incredibly nasty. The single nastiest litigation I've ever been involved with, and I've dealt with very nasty things. My brilliant lawyer, my son's brilliant lawyer, beat the district quite decisively. We won. And I decided to run for school board. Not for me. I mean, I had the money to hire the best. Many people do not. So when I ran for school board, I decided, well, for me, as God is my witness, I did not do it for myself. I did it for other people. And the dozens and dozens and dozens and dozens of parents, hundreds, who have contacted me over these last three and a half years will testify. I always call them. Someone emails me with a problem with special education. I always call them. That said, I decided

076to run for school board and I get into it. And I have someone videotaping me putting my sons on and off a special needs bus. I'm not kidding. Day after day after day, I had a lunatic woman videotaping me and taking pictures of me while I put my sons on and off a special needs bus. Now you'd say, I don't believe that. I don't care if you do. It happened. And there's a police report about it. I've had my wife and daughter cursed at. I've had my tires played with. I've had threatening packages, plural, sent to my home. And the most outrageous thing, at least from my perspective, is that strictly confidential information about my boy was sent out in a political mailing in an attack ad against me by Diana Liegerman, who is running

077the Neighbors United campaign again this year. That woman tweeted about where my children, my special needs children went to school. Now she's going to say that's not true. It is true. I have the receipts. So I give you that some background on the putrid politics of being a school board member. What does it really mean? Well, it means that not everybody up at this board on this board cares about the children in our schools. That's always been the case. And I suspect it always will be. And I know Dr. Mahmood and Dr. Delangelo and Mrs. Smith didn't like that I kicked repeatedly and forcibly about the use of strictly confidential information about my children and kick I did and will continue to kick until my dying breath because this is my children. But there is

078a the only word that comes to mind is putrid putrid politics here. And Alyssa Wright was I read the charges. I read the charges just so everybody knows she was targeted. And now I assume she will be gone and we will lose a wonderful educator and a woman who I picked up the phone and called every single time. All those parents called me with problems. I did not have that parents when I was on the board until November will have and will. So as we face down the question of terminating Alyssa Wright, I'm asking my fellow board members to consider why Dr. Yanni, Dr. Garvin and Mr. Freiling excluded her from that child line report. I'm going to have a lot more to say about child line reports at the end of this meeting. But

079I'm going to focus on the one that was willfully and criminally filed in this case because it affects Mrs. Wright, Ms. Wright. It is not right what is being done to her. It was not right. What was done to Mrs. Wiese and this should not stand. And I'll say one more thing. And I had a great teacher at Temple Law. He taught me. He's just retired. He taught me federal courts jurisdiction. I'd say, geez, that sounds like a snoozer of a class. He's a great teacher. Ask me what I learned in there. I don't know. I remember one thing that he said and I think about it literally every single day I practice law. He said, you know, the Bill of Rights is great. The Constitution is great. The rule of law is great. But

080you know what makes our country great? Great access to the courts, access to the courts where the most defenseless person on the planet can take on the biggest corporation in the world. So the district is inviting litigation and we will see where it goes. But I cannot tell you how heartbroken I am as someone who had a front row seat to see Alyssa Wright separated from this district. Thank you, Mr. Pepper. Does anybody else need to make a comment before we take a vote on this? All in favor of we are discussing item 13M. All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? No. Any abstentions? Motion carries 6-1. Can I get a motion to approve item 13N? So moved. Moved by Ms. Reynolds. Second. Second by Ms. Andaniewicz. Any comment on this? I have a question for

081our solicitor or if our labor lawyer is here. Have we received, Mr. Musso, have we received an executed conflict waiver request from Cozen O'Connor? We have not. Well, I know you may not be aware of this. Well, I think you may be. Cozen O'Connor represented this district last year in a labor matter and represented this district in labor matters for 20 years. This is a direct conflict, at least from my perspective, and this is, at least it appears to be a violation of Pennsylvania rule of professional conduct 1.9 duties to former clients. A lawyer who has formally represented a client in a matter shall not thereafter represent another person in the same or substantially related matter in which that person's interests are materially adverse to the interests of the former client unless the former client

082gives informed consent. And you're telling me that we have not provided informed consent to Cozen O'Connor? That's correct. Okay. Well, this is at least on the appearance, from my perspective, it's a violation of Pennsylvania rules of professional conduct here. I would tend to agree. I've only dealt with the PSA attorneys on this matter, but I'll certainly follow up on that. Okay. Thank you. And I would join Mr. Pepper in making sure we get clarification on that very issue and should we need to file any sort of motion to have them removed as counsel? I would obviously trust our district to follow up with that. Thank you, Mr. Pepper and Ms. Sissio for alerting or, you know, mentioning that during comment because I personally wasn't aware of everything else going on. So thank you. All right.

083Do we, ready for a vote? We have a motion. All right. All in favor of 13N? Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Any opposed? Abstain. Motion carries then 6-0 with one abstention. Can I get a motion to approve item 13-0? So moved. Moved by Ms. Reynolds. Second. Second by Ms. Zdanovitz. Any comment or questions on this item? All in favor of approving 13-0? Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Any opposed? Abstain. Motion carries 6-0 with one abstention. That brings us to our leaves of absence report. Yes. The report is attached and with a list of our employees who have requested leaves of absence. And this is just an informational item. Thank you. Thank you. And that will now bring us to our second period of public comment. Persons wishing to make public comment were required to register prior to

084the start of tonight's meeting. If students registered to speak, they were permitted to do so first. Please note that public comment is not intended to be a question and answer session. If a question is posed, the individual may be referred to the superintendent for a follow-up. When your name is called, please approach the podium and begin by stating your name and municipality. Each speaker is allotted three minutes. You'll be asked to cease your comments at three minutes. We kindly ask that all comments be directed to the board as a whole rather than to individual members. We appreciate your cooperation in maintaining a respectful environment. Please be considered of all speakers and their opinions, including those that differ from your own. Thank you for your understanding. And the first person on our list is Michael Henry.

085Hello. I do see the clock, so respectfully, I won't need a 30-second countdown. Thank you. And just to even things out, there's a lot of great teachers here and we find ways to support them. And we're not here to blame budgets on transgender people. Pronouns aren't the problem. Now, we finally have action. After months of waiting and waiting, it took almost as long as it took for a certain board member to finally speak out about it last month. By reading a bunch of nonsense off of a phone and offering her sympathy. But that was more than some other board members have done. This is another meeting without full attendance and emergencies aside. There's people in the crowd who show up to more of these than the entire board does. But they are sending a long

086statement saying why they're never here, yet they're still not saying anything about what's happened this year. People who are in the same industry as me, but I make sure to show up to these meetings because I need to be here for the sake of kids like mine. Because my child's classroom was the one that had all this happen. We all read the DRP report about the abuse and neglect that took place. The woman who saw it happen in front of her shared her story and spoke here last month. That's why I used to support the teacher. I had no idea what was going on and I didn't know what was happening to my kid. People were lying to me for a long time. So to anyone in this room or anyone who left the room

087earlier, if you want to chat about it, I'm happy to. And while I'm at it, I'll teach you how to spell resources. Tonight's decision finally reflects the acknowledgement of what happened. If there's still questions, and since my kid can't speak, I have to ask them. When is the Dalton report coming out? What's the downside to someone like me finding out as much as I can if the people like Dave Heineman lied to me for months? Are there going to be cameras in the classrooms? Are the kids from that classroom going to get extra schooling to make up for the teaching that wasn't happening? What are the steps that are going to happen to make sure this doesn't happen again to any child? Now, the board did start the meeting saying there's a plan coming. They

088said how they let my kid down, how they let me down, and I appreciated hearing it. So, Susan, please, everyone, don't be like all the others who have lied to my face. Please let those statements be true. Please make the safety of these children a priority. Please don't let me down again. And lastly, happy belated Father's Day to Jim, and thank you for all that you've done and all you continue to do. Thank you for being a voice for our kids. Thank you. Thank you. Edward Mackhouse. Hello. Ed Mackhouse, Buckingham, former teacher, engineer scientist, rocket scientist. You don't have to be a rocket scientist to understand what's going on here. It's all about the money, honey. When I was a teacher during the 70s, I had a teacher's union, Albert Shanker, American Federation teacher. He

089was an honest, good person. He had one line for the people that were for him and one line for the people that were against him. So he had democracy. Everyone had a chance to speak. The teacher's union today is very corrupt. It's all about the money, honey. Many great teachers, all my children had great teachers here, but there are some teachers that are sold out. It's about the money, honey. It's not rocket scientists. You don't have to be a rocket scientist to understand this. When I was a teacher in the 70s, I had difficult students, students that may throw chairs or whatever. I had special guidance. Some of my classes were. But I never saw an autistic child. None of my friends had autistic children. You don't have to be a rocket scientist. Bill Gates

090spread, oh, we're going to prevent things. He sent vaccines to Vietnam. Before that, there wasn't one child that had autism. It isn't rocket scientists. Robert Kennedy Jr. had problems at one time, but he's healthy now. He went away from drugs and stuff. He identified the relationship between autism and vaccines. It isn't simple. Every teacher could understand this. The teacher's union is in bed with a transgender, billion-dollar medical industry which mutilates children and gives them these puberty blockers, billions of dollars. In the billion-dollar industry, the parents want to believe that you can solve all your problems with drugs or vaccines. It's not that simple. Most of the advances are by watching God and things. So it's very simple. If you keep following the same stuff, one in every two children will have autism. In New Jersey,

091where they require autism, and you can now require parents have no rights to deny, protect their children, they have one in three have some parts of autism. So in California, they have high rates of autism. In American Canada, we have the highest rates of autism in the world. They're spending money on autism not to help prevent autism, but to profit from autism. We have to look at the truth. Trump and Robert Kennedy Jr. are fighting to help people, and the union is against them because of that, because it's all about the money for the union. Thank you. Kathleen Kramer. Speaking as a resident of Doylestown Township, but more importantly, the mom of state senator. Thank you. After the horrific murders of this past weekend, followed shortly by the insensitive, cruel tweets from Senator Mike Lee,

092I reread a commencement address given by J.B. Pritzker at Northwestern. Here's a small portion that speaks to the moment we're in. Whenever I'm about to do something, I think, would an idiot do that? And if they would, I do not do that thing. A quote from the office. The entire efficacy of this incredibly useful piece of information hinges upon your ability to pick the right idiot. I wish there was a foolproof way to spot idiots, but counterintuitively, some idiots are very smart. They can dazzle you with words and misdirection. If you want to be successful in this world, you have to develop your own idiot detection system, the best way to spot an idiot. Look for the person who is cruel. When we see someone who doesn't look like us or sound like us or

093act like us or love like us or live like us, the first thought that crosses almost everyone's brain is rooted in either fear or judgment or both. That's evolution. We survived as a species by being suspicious of things that we aren't familiar with. In order to be kind, we have to shut down that animal instinct and force our brain to travel a different pathway. Empathy and compassion are evolved states of being. They require the mental capacity to step past our most primal urges. This may be a surprising assessment because somewhere along the way in the last few years, our society has come to believe that weaponized cruelty is part of some well-thought-out master plan. Cruelty is seen by some as an adroit cudgel to gain power. Empathy and kindness are considered weak. Many important people

094look at the vulnerable only as rungs on a ladder to the top. I'm here to tell you when someone's path through this world is marked with acts of cruelty, they have failed the first test of an advanced society. They never forced their animal brain to evolve past its first instinct. They never forged new mental pathways to overcome their own instinctual fears. And so their thinking and problem-solving would lack the imagination and creativity that the kindest people have in spades. Over my many years in politics and business, I have found one thing to be universally true. The kindest person in the room is often the smartest. Let us all leave the cruelty and vitriol in the past. We can have issues and we can disagree. But we should all strive to be kind in the process.

095Ed Sheppard? Hi. I don't know why I'm in the second group. As you can clearly see, my topic was the tax increases, which was on the agenda. Yes. I just realized that now. If I had seen it earlier, I would have called you up sooner, Mr. Sheppard. Which has already been done. You still have your three minutes. Go ahead. I'm kind of glad because it allowed me to see some of the absurdity at this meeting. We had a speaker during the first public comment. I don't know your name. But she pointed out that there's ways to raise revenue, which could have avoided some of the tax increases. We had a school board member actually then point out, oh my God, it's on the books. We could have done this. It clearly was not done. We

096have a staff that was supposed to be going through our budget. I can imagine just the cumulative of that table over there has to be in the seven figures. No one even considered it. Everyone went right to tax increases. Didn't look at reducing spending. Didn't look at all the administrators that have been added over the past two years. Including the man who broke into his ex-wife's place. And you guys decided, let's give them $177,000 a year to consult on security. Don't worry, guys. Don't worry, please. I just said not me. I didn't vote for that. I didn't vote for that. My apologies. And then even more absurd. Mr. Pepper, when I heard your speech about that one individual with the sole no vote, and I heard your opening remarks and then the second take of

097them, what's the point of doing anything over the summer? There is literally a parent of one of the victims right there telling you, all of you, exactly what was going on, exactly who they felt was wrong, and all of you in real time, in real time, ignored that. If you can't listen to a parent who is literally at the same table as you, how can the other parents out there, one who just spoke earlier, be expected that this summer session is going to make any difference? That report made it very clear. The biggest problem was the culture of fear and retaliation created in our district. It's district-wide. This starts with the people at this table. You don't have to spend a dime of money over the summer in order to create new programs to do

098this. What you all have to do is look in the mirror and just look at yourselves. What did you do to create that? That doesn't cost a dime to do. Not a dime. It doesn't cost a dime to give a damn. 30 seconds remaining. No one's mentioned that. No one has mentioned that at all. And again, in real time, we saw you fail again. We saw you fail to listen to the parents who were hurt by these actions. And I've also noticed there were eight people on leave. Only five names were up there. And my guess is based on the assumptions, the three people who actually signed that report were not voted on tonight, since you won't tell us who. Christina Bucci. Hello. My name's Christina Bucci. I'm from Chalfont, Borough, and I'm a central

099box mom of four. Tonight, I'd like to discuss advanced placement AP courses at the high school level, specifically with the goal of implementing the AP capstone diploma. The following is from College Board's website. AP capstone is an innovative diploma program from College Board that equips students with the independent research, collaborative teamwork, and communication skills that are increasingly valued by colleges. AP capstone is built on the foundation of two AP courses, AP seminar and AP research, and is designed to complement and enhance the in-depth, discipline-specific study experienced in other AP courses. In AP seminar, students investigate real-world issues from multiple perspectives, gathering and analyzing information from various sources in order to develop credible and valid evidence-based arguments. AP seminar is a prerequisite for AP research. In AP research, students cultivate the skills and discipline necessary to

100conduct independent research and inquiry in order to produce and defend their scholarly work. The AP capstone program aims to empower students by engaging them with rigorous college-level curricula focused on the skills necessary for successful college completion, extending their abilities to synthesize information from multiple perspectives and apply skills in new situations and cross-curricular contexts, enables them to collect and analyze information with accuracy and precision, and cultivate their abilities to craft, communicate, and defend evidence-based arguments, and provide opportunities for them to practice disciplined and scholarly research while exploring relevant topics that appeal to their interest and curiosity. Any school can participate in the AP capstone diploma program. As of 2024-2025 school year, no application or sign-up form is required. Schools that offer AP seminar or AP research must ensure that their teachers complete the required summer professional

101learning prior to teaching either course. The required summer PD mentioned on College Board's website is a one-time, four-day seminar offered virtually throughout the summer. It is with that deadline in mind that I bring this to the board before summer begins so that any interested teachers could use this time to prepare for implementation of a new program. On completion of the four-day AP Summer Institute, students receive three continuing education credits from IACET, International Accrediters for Continuing Education and Training. Many schools decide that the best way to schedule this class is to offer it in place of 10th grade English, though there are no requirements that govern the specific subject certification of a teacher for this class. After the required PD has been completed, schools are permitted to register with College Board to teach the class. The

102registration of the class is offered through July through August. So I hope this clarifies the nature of these courses and how essential they are as a foundation for AP studies. Thank you. Vonna DeArmond. Vonna DeArmond, Plumstead. It's incredibly disruptive to us listening to the speakers when the solicitor is saying, 30 seconds left, it's ridiculous. Please stop doing that. We've had issues with people respecting us. We understand that. And that's why we have asked him to remind people to give them the heads up that their time is wrapping up. Ms. Armond's time may begin now. I don't want to take away from your time. Thank you. Okay. So in the past, you've been warned that your actions opened the district up to costly litigation. I had hoped that with new leadership, that smarter decisions and votes

103would be made. Thank you, Mr. Pepper, for your comments and for helping the public to understand what's happening and that politics are in play. It confirms what many of us have suspected. It's incredible to me that Diana Legerman is running the campaign for Neighbors United, and this whole issue with the abuse should not be political. I'm disappointed. I'm disgusted. I like the word putrid. It really is. Absolutely. So I think you know how I feel about that vote. I really think that you got rid of two good people, and it's terrible for the district. Terrible. Now, policy updates are critical, and you said you're going to work on these, but you must also have an accountability program to ensure that training is complete. Policies are just words on paper, unless they are acted upon and

104that there's accountability to these policies. We need to know, we, the taxpayers, need to know how you're going to do that. Also, how do you plan to create a culture in CBSD where employees are not feeling unsafe to report? You're going to need to hire a good HR director and work in conjunction with Dr. Malone to create a culture of trust, mentorship, and collaboration. Every teacher should feel that they have a more experienced teacher as a mentor, not as a competition. Aids should feel that they can speak without fear of retribution. Principles need to be part of this culture. As we know that leadership from the top down sets the tone in culture, and clearly there is a problem in CBSD that needs to be rectified. And I wonder how you plan to do that,

105because words on paper, great, but what are you going to do to make changes? And again, I kind of go back to, you've got Dr. Malone here. Why not just hire him, get a start? Mr. Shepard came up here and made some good comments. He pointed out that Mrs. Cannon, so Mr. Shepard, Mrs. Cannon was on the board. She was one of the Republicans on the board. She made good comments and suggestions. And unfortunately, because of politics, she felt she had to resign, along with Lisa Sizzio. So I'm just reminding the taxpayers that the mess that's been happening in CBSD is unfortunately because of politics. And we taxpayers have to hold them accountable. And you can't just be this side or this side. You have to look at what things are being done. And conservatives,

106Republicans, we tend to be really good with money and saving money and proper spending. So make your vote count. Thank you. We are now at our board comment period of the evening. Are there any board members who would like to make a comment tonight? I would. Mr. Pepper? I would be remiss if I did not address, at least as it relates to me, the elephant in the room about the lack of criminal charges in this case. My boy and three other children were criminally abused in that classroom. Now, I had a guy eyeballing me here earlier. I don't know if you saw it. I don't think it was caught on video, but he was eyeballing me. I assume he doesn't like me, and he doesn't like the fact that I'm standing up for my son.

107And I invited him to do something, and he demurred, which was smart. I look at this issue, and people say to me, how can you bear it? I bear it for my boy. And I look at how he was failed. There was a conspiracy in this district to conceal child abuse. It is as plain as day. And you see it in that child line report that was submitted by Dr. Yanni, Dr. Garvin, and Mr. Freling. So I thought to myself, why haven't charges been brought here? And I decided to do a little look back in time. I got cross ways with Matt Weintraub a couple years ago when I had the audacity to question him. You don't do that, apparently. That's okay. He said something at the Joe Wirt press conference where he said, he

108was asked, were there any other allegations about Joe Wirt? And he said, not that I could speak to. Now, I bring that up because I have that child line report right now. I have it. And I'm going to read a part of it. Now, I may be arrested by the end of the night. The police may come and arrest me. They like to threaten to arrest me, but more on that in a minute. And I won't read the sensitive parts. The music teacher has a history of befriending troubled male high school students. The referral source feels the teacher grooms these children and could potentially be abusing them. The referral source feels that there could possibly be incriminating information in the teacher's school email account. Now, what did the DA's statement say about this? This is

109what they said. During an investigation, the victim was questioned but denied being victimized. Due to insufficient evidence, no charges were filed and the case was determined to be unfounded. Now, they're not going to like that I just read that because part of the game is I know things you don't know. Listen, as it relates to, you know, Jamison, I know things you don't know. No, they do not. They turned a blind eye to Joe Wirt. In my job as a plaintiff's trial lawyer, this is what I do. I see the results of this. I lost a client in the fall due to another county's failure to properly investigate his first child line report. So I take this very seriously. And then we fast forward to what happened at CB South. The district went and said,

110hey, we got a problem here. We got a problem here. No, you don't. DA's office, no, you don't. And then to the great credit of this district, they went and did their own investigation and said, hey, you got a problem here. Well, I guess we got to charge them now. And then you fast forward to what happened to my boy and those three other defenseless children. I'm going to tell you what happened. A very brave, wonderful woman told us that there was a complaint submitted by the whistleblower to Mr. Freiling and Dr. Yanni. I reached out to a St. Hubert Bambi I taught back in 1998, and I said, you know her, I know her. Could you have her call me? And the rest, as they say, is history. I got the complaint, my wife

111and I read it, and we talked to her. On Christmas Eve, I emailed Warwick police, and I said, you got to do something. Look at this. And I have the emails. I should read them, but, you know, it's getting late. But bottom line is, nah, this isn't an emergency. Wait a second here. Nudity, mocking, corporal punishment, restraints. And I love that. One of the things that I get through the back channels from the DA's office is that Mr. Pepper's trying to make his case with new allegations. I submitted that on Christmas Eve. Believe me, I'll never forget this Christmas. So I shamed them, shamed them into conducting an investigation. Now, Lee Dalton took February, March, April, May, and I don't even know when the report was issued. DRP took three months. The Pennsylvania Department of

112Education start to finish was three weeks, showing that my son was illegally restrained 2,933 times and was in a restrained position over four hours a day. Anybody want to guess how long it took the district attorney's office to close this case? Now, I said, hey, if you're not going to look at the video, I will. We're not looking at the video. And I submit to you that there is a pattern of willful blindness by this district attorney's office about allegations of child abuse in this district. They turn a blind eye. Now, wait for it. They're going to say, well, we're very dedicated. It's our life's work. Really? Really. Now, you would think, right, that they would have been open to at least considering the federal monitor's report, right, that, you know, they spent, there were

113three, four, five lawyers at a time doing investigations, coming out, talking to everybody, and they would take a look at it, right? Well, I got a little piece of news for you. I received the Disabilities Rights Project's 75-page complaint at 1.36 p.m. It took them less than a day to say nothing to see here. So when people say I'm about politics, they're a very fine, Mrs. Gibson's a fine woman. She's a fine woman. I don't think we've ever talked politics. She's a fine woman. I don't care that she's a Democrat. I don't think she cares that I'm a Republican. She might. I don't know. But I don't care about politics. I never have. I never will. I want to be home right now with my wife and children. But here I am. It gives me

114no pleasure to call out Jen Shoren's incompetence here. But incompetence it is, if not willful blindness. And I will thank Diane Marsaglia, who I wouldn't know if I fell over candidly, for opening up a CPS investigation. They've taken this very seriously, way more seriously than the district attorneys. Way more. Now, you'll hear, we brought Dave Sunday in. Well, let's talk about that. I saw Dave Sunday speak at an event, and it was he was going for the nomination, and I saw him speak, and he's an impressive background, Navy guy, worked at UPS. I like that stuff. That's my background. I'm not in the Navy, but I grew up poor. And it was a question, well, you know, who's going to do what in terms of endorsing? And Matt Weintraub walks in and goes over and

115gives Dave Sunday a big hug. I wanted to throw up. Because at that time, I was in yet another contratemple with Matt. And one of the issues that you'll hear is they say, well, listen, Jim, we have limited resources. We can't sit there and go through hundreds of hours of videotape. We don't have the money. Well, Matt Weintraub spent close to $100,000 defending a plainly unconstitutional law. I sued Matt Weintraub and the attorney general to speak. All Matt Weintraub had to do was say, yeah, I'll pass on prosecuting. You can speak. Nope. When he found out it was me, nope. We took it to summary judgment, and we won. My attorney's fees, a great lawyer by the name of Aaron Martin out of Harrisburg, were $36,000, and I don't know how much the county paid

116to defend that case. So I don't want to hear about resources when it comes to investigating child line cases. When you've got a child line from 2016 saying, hey, this guy's grooming people, no evidence. And I don't want to hear about resources when four defenseless, nonverbal children are being abused. I don't want to hear it. I did not come on this board to make friends, if you haven't noticed. And I also don't care what most anybody thinks of me. There's a very limited number of people. I'm very self-contained. And as my time here comes to a close, I will not miss it. And I hope that over the course of time, this isn't lost. A lot of what happened here will be with me till my dying breath. I will deal with this for the

117rest of my life. My son is very badly damaged, as are the other children in that classroom. Some people think it's okay. Some people think it's funny. We had a guy a couple months ago. We all know him. Thought it was therapeutic. So may all of us never forget the horror that these children suffered. I won't. And may it never happen again. Thank you, Jim. Mr. Pepper, apologies. Anybody else have any other comments this evening? Okay. Can I get a motion to adjourn? So moved. Second. And we are adjourned. Our next meeting is August 21st.