001e e e to order uh would everyone please rise for moment pledge allegiance for the five pledge allegiance unit States Amer uh I'd like to thank everyone for coming tonight uh there's a log in the front if you haven't done so would you please sign in if you have anything in particular that you would like to bring to the board's attention please also write that down if at any time during the meeting you would like to mention something on an agenda item please raise your hand to be recognized after the normal business there's also time for a public comment where you can bring up additional issues uh when speaking publicly please speak directly into the microphone this me this meeting is being reported uh also uh there was an executive session conducted prior to the
002meeting to discuss Personnel matters with that roll call please Aaron angle here Michael H here re here Cecilia hle here Jason Jeremiah light here Dennis udicious here Daniel whisman here Laurel Z here uh first on the agenda we have approval of minutes from July 15 2024 that i' be looking for motion sorry Michael Hess yes Rea Hoffman yes Cecilia hle yes Jeremiah light yes denisy dishes yes Daniel whisper yes Laura Ziggler yes Aaron angle uh uh next we have communications and rep first the superintendent yes thanks M angle um as we continue to get ready for the school year again just want to thank all those who are working hard in our buildings in our community to prepare for an opening on August 27th with students I'd also like to thank Isaiah who's kept the
003man behind the screen for the last few months this is the last meeting with us and thank you for your time here with us helping us out on Monday night for the superintendent report um there's a li lied activities up until this week as you pulled on to campus and you see all the cars and students at practices it's it is time for the beginning of school which is exciting U but I wanted to take a few moments last meeting we had discussions about three models of Elementary configuration and put out a comment for for some feedback from the community and you know in the narrative form that it was obviously it's difficult to represent everyone's thoughts and opinions um in a very brief presentation but wanted to take the data to the extent hpal
004and really um share out from what we had um very simply the first question asked for preference of model um what we had was um three models one with a K1 building at GRE much Elementary School and two through five at which is currently Kutztown Elementary School um model two with K2 at G Elementary School and 3 through five at quiton elementary school and then model 3 which was a K5 building currently on the location of quiton elementary school from the 107 responses that we had and those who some chose not to select were because again it was a they could type into the field some chose not to choose a model um 50.9% chose model 3 as the one that they was their preference or made the most sense and then they would tie
005their comments typically to those um to that model or talk about the downsides that they saw towards any of the other models um again the most popular was model 3 model two was the pardon me status quo was the second most popular that was one saying we shouldn't do we shouldn't change anything we like the structure that we have right now at 20% with K5 and two separate buildings with somewhat regionalized assignment um the third most popular was model 2 133% um the there was an inconclusive category where people didn't really indicate exactly what model they referred and they just provided some comments and um there was some just model one or two which in a sense was not three I think right um you know which was 4.6% um and very for all those
006and really again it's difficult to characterize each of those with model one coming in as the kind of uh lowest percentage the second question was really just to provide opportunities they saw and they were aligned to models based off of the previous answer um you know so the opportunities number the most prevalent was that students can grow together or there would be a district Unity right from kindergarten um in in each of the models um there was a positive opportunity for collaboration among staff again in each of the models because looking at grade level collaboration operational costs model 3 was clearly has the lower operational costs because there's one less building and then sort of the idea of one campus and coordinated services in model 3 was also called out very specifically in each as
007a a very um prevalent response so there was a lot of positives and negatives to both that were shared you know but those were the most prominent from the opportunity standpoint from the challenges you know there this was not inherence but I think it's an assumption that is made and and one that is not really built into the model is that class siiz would inherently class sizes would inherently be larger if we were in one building K through five you know and what the numbers that were presented and for any body who was not here listening or not in individual conversation they wouldn't know this so it's very fair for that to be an NE an inaccurate assumption but we built the model I did off of the operational cost looking at class sizes of
00820 for K through three and up to 25 for four and five you know so that's what so that's but that was not indicated necessarily in the presentation so for people to not know that they would had been here to have that conversation um really in all Fast the biggest challenge was Transportation time and then the impact on sleep kind of led into that and that where you know and that cut in a bunch of different ways right like so if it was model one you had um folks that were living in the burrow talking about travel time up 7:37 to Green wi if that was a kindergarten um just one example the most prevalent was was the time for younger students in the northern part of the district to um travel to what is
009now stad of quit Elementary School for 5 years years you know so that that is something we will have to really get good details on in this conversation piece because that was definitely the most um most representative conversation in all of it um just the general cost as a challenge of you know even those who were in favor of model 3 to say that the operational cost savings were beneficial The Upfront costs I think there's a sticker shock to just about any large purchase whether it is a district Siz purchase or a personal size purchase um so that was a very prevalent challenge um concern about population growth in general and some of it specifically believing that future population growth is going to happen in the northern part of the district which isn't you know
010the current plan growth isn't necessarily um in a northern part of the district but certainly there's more land so the opportunity for growth certainly makes sense so that was just a you know something of a consideration you know the last thing anybody wants is to change the model and five years down the road say we need more space right you know if it's 25 years down the road you know that's really difficult to plan for population grow 25 years down the road but you know just looking for more moderate time frame there um models one and two you know the and I think this was stated even here um you know the biggest challenge presented for models one and two were families that would have students in anywhere from two to three to four buildings
011depending on the spread of children in the household you can have a kindergartener a fourth grader seventh grader and an 11th grader and all and you have four buildings four schedules maybe you probably would not be four different schedules which creates a different challenge but um you know so that was an obvious one that we expected to hear and that's that is a major downside of marage one two and then one that's more on the construction side that I think we I have confidence that you know the team hired to complete any project would manage it's just consideration of construction timing could could the necessary construction be done in the summer versus disrupting School me that's just that's part of project planning so a very very relevant concern but one that was brought up enough
012times that it made sense to we hear this presentation um there was many other comments kind of one-off comments that are important to consider as we go forward and there will be some followup with some individuals to better understand those comments or questions or to give them answers um you know but they they might have occurred once or twice over the course of 170 responses so I'm grateful to people who took the time because it did take time and that was intentional you know we we try not to make it a you know a yes no lyer scale type because I wanted some data that was going to be useful in planning and preparation going forward um you know versus just a an opinion poll so I really appreciate people taking time to give us
013107 responses um it is still open you know and and it will be monitoring periodically so um comment for there that's not exactly typically say that's our good news that's just our reporting from the superintendence report and excited to get back to student focused reporting in two weeks thank you so uh next we have student representative report student representative uh next on the agenda is public comment on agenda items um first uh going to read uh the board requires that public participants be residents or taxpayers of this District or anyone having a registered uh having registered a legitimate interest in contemplated action of the board participants must be recognized by the presiding officer and must preface their comments by an announcement of their name municipality and group affiliation if applicable each statement made by a
014participant participant shall be limited to 3 minutes duration on a single agenda or non-agenda item if a participant wishes to speak on more than one agenda item and time remains after all other participants have made their statements they may then speak on additional agenda or non-agenda items all statements shall be directed to the presiding officer with the understanding that individual board members are not required to respond to the participants comments or questions uh the presiding officer May interrupt or terminate a participant statement when the statement is too lengthy personally directed abusive OB seene or irrelevant uh request any individual to leave the meeting when that person does not observe reasonable to Forum uh and call a recess or adjourn adjourn to another time uh when the lack of public decorum interferes with the orderly conduct
015of the meeting uh with that um just one item before we get to the sign in I just want to point out that there was um if you're looking at the front sheet of the agenda versus the body of agenda there's um e District dentistes out of Border it's at e where it's actually C in the agenda following just want to point out that and also we do typically go through our list in the order that people sign up but I did ask if um Cheryl mine who signed up here could be the first speaker in the group just okay all right so our first our first speaker um Mr Johnson should I approach okay so it's we will probably hear you just fine here but it's better for the microphone yeah whatever works y
016okay um thanks for having me uh Eric Johnson Max and tnie um I'm a parent um I already had a chance to communicate with the board everything that I'm about to go over but I just want this to be a matter of public record um I also want to acknowledge that in the emails I was sending to the board um I did get a reply a person replying to me so um I don't want to make any accusations about stonewalling or anything like that uh but the question I was posing to the board um uh is was uh is there any data linking the concepts of diversity or inclusion to any harm in a teaching setting um or in any of context in which our social worker who was just dismissed uh was doing um
017is there any relationship and um what I got from The Exchange I had last week uh was that there's no data for that um you know we were able to establish that the answer is no um I'm going to bring up policy 11 um which was approved uh some of the people at the table here were part of the last review and approval of it but it does give the board a responsibility to base its decisions on data and also to be operate with transparency um that's not what is been happening here um the decision to dismiss the social worker was not only not done with any data to support that decision but was done um against all of the data that does show the benefits of having the services for our students especially those
018who are most in need um this issue it's it's gone beyond just being about barring access to books certain books and stuff like that now now um some of you may be inclined to dismiss my comments uh out of politics um this is not politics uh you can be Pro inclusion and at the same time um anti- unnecessary harm to children and that's why I'm here I have a stake in this um I have a child who needs some of the services that the support staff has been providing and anything that diminishes those available Services directs my child effect uh directly okay so it's not political um I am anti- unnecessary harm to children and the reasoning behind this decision that's been articulated um publicly on the record by members of the board um it's
019it's a political thing personal feelings personal opinions uh have taken the place uh over uh using data um over acting responsibly as people who've been entrusted uh with the public trust and this public institution um I did see that I did hear that there's a uh job description for some sort of replacement um I read the job description this morning I'm just going to point out that I mean what I read maybe I'm getting this wrong but the only requirement that person who's applying for the job does not have to have any kind of background experience or certification in counseling or social work I think it just said they need to have a college degree and preferably some experience working in a K12 environment I mean to me that seems that somebody with a degree
020in theater um who was a volleyball coach uh in college uh is qualified for this position um I don't think that that's going to an adequate replacement for uh what has been removed uh from the resources for this uh this District um it it it the appearance here is and if anyone wants to uh explain differently but we've gone from having somebody qualified with a minimal expense to the district to having somebody with questionable we don't even have that person yet but um I the job description I read it doesn't really sound like this is going to be a competitive place to draw people who are looking for that type of job there's no salary listed or anything like that and if the district's paying out of pocket for this um it's like uh We've
021increased uh a certain cost uh For No Good Reason um at a time when we are facing some uh very serious budgetary issues and um I would ask the board um you know to consider uh handling some of the real problems uh rather rather than some of the problems that are of your opinion or your imagination because I don't think diversity and inclusion um have really harmed anything I haven't seen it and nobody's shown me any evidence ever um that it has that's all I have to say thank you um you call how close I to I am Suk Coler and I thank you for this opportunity I am a resident of Kutztown I am here representing Kutztown strong as the current president of Kutztown strong and I'll be addressing item 6C on your agenda
022the K12 Behavioral Health coordinator to do this I'd like to give you a brief overview of who we are our mission and vision and the decade long positive relationship we have had with kutan Area School District some of you don't have the background and I think you need it in 2014 a call to action was extended to our community by then superintendent Kathy metrick due to significant losses our community experience directly related to opioid addiction substance abuse is not just the school district problem therefore at our initial meeting there were representatives from legislators law enforcement burough councel pastors service organizations Kutztown University local business owners Physicians Care and treatment center the Council on chemical abuse and members of our community we continue to have those connections during this initial meeting action groups were formed from
023the hard work of these groups over many months we developed our vision statement from the letters in the word strong strengthening the resolve of the Next Generation to make healthy informed decisions this is especially appropriate because we focus primarily on the prevention aspect of sams's Continuum of Care model within a few years we had been granted nonprofit status by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and received 501c3 status from the Internal Revenue Service grants from the PA Commission on crime and delinquency allowed us to secure training on the communities that Care Coalition building model from Penn State University's evidence-based prevention and intervention support center we rely on the skill set and knowledge acquired from this training to help in the process of identif ifying risk and protective factors that affect our youth as a CTC we have
024access to technical support training and information for the life of our organization receiving grant funding funding has been a huge blessing for kitam strong however the most beneficial part of these grants was the acquisition of a community coordinator this position has energized focused and sustained our group as we moved forward and I should note that our organization is completely volunteer-based we acknowledge the value of having social workers in our buildings knowing the restraints of the current School District budget puts Town strong willingly offered to donate the full amount of funds required to renew the Comm communities and schools contract for the 2024 2025 school year we ask for you to reconsider our offer this would allow the district to provide the necessary Social Work services to our most vulnerable population this coming school year on
025day one while together we investigate ways to provide high quality inhouse Social Work services in the future Fritz Town strong would be in favor of a behavioral health coordinator we look forward to a future where we continue to build Partnerships with all residents within our district and with neighboring school districts to strengthen the resolve of the Next Generation for as many young people as possible we believe we are stronger together thank you thank you uh Cheryl hello everyone um I'll be speaking on the same 6C and following up on Sue's comments my name is Cheryl mine I fulfilled the role of community coordinator for Kutztown strong since January of 2015 as Sue stated Kutztown strong has a 10-year history of working with our rural schools since its Inception the Coalition has had teachers school guidance
026counselors and administrators either leading or holding seats on our board and volunteering for Coalition activities like the district our focus is improving on the health and well-being of students we understand there are always several ways to achieve this goal we hold the ambiguous position of believing the continuation of CIS services is an undeniable asset for our students and families and should be reconsidered yet we also understand the district's need for growth in high quality Social Services through structure while tending to their financial difficulties Kutztown strong has demon demonstrated their capacity to produce viable Solutions and would like to continue in that role with the district if other options will be researched and alter planning unfolds a little history six years ago in the summer of 2018 it was our relationship with Kutztown University and friend
027Incorporated that brought us knowledge of community survey findings that 25% of the families in the Kutztown area were having difficulty finding and accessing Behavioral Health Services for their child or another family member when this data was presented to then superintendent George fiori he asked for the coalition's help to organize the community to find a solution that worked best to meet this family need because we both knew that when youth behavioral health concerns are not addressed the risk of substance abuse suicide bullying and violence in our schools increase in the 18 months that followed could Town strong organized 16 local organizations that specialized in serving youth or had expert knowledge in early intervention this group's solution was to offer services from The Hub of our Public Schools the group then called upon the United Way of
028Burks County to inquire who might be able to provide these Services they introduced us to their partner communities in school that was the spring of 2020 by the fall of that year CIS and kown strong had worked together to secure financing from Pennsylvania Department of Education and the DA's office in the amount of $65,000 to offset the cost of CIS Services the next year we secured $100,000 for those same Services Under Mr Tim catton's leadership uh CIS Services were further aug M mented through the development of a school Social Work internship program uh in which I supervis those interns that program delivered over 5,000 hours of services to local children youth and families we have never received anything but positive feedback regarding Kutztown Strong's partnership with the district or cis's outcomes which is why we
029believe and financially support the continuation of CIS as an alternative we ask that the district consider partnering partnering again with cstown strong to bring experts to the table to find comprehensive solutions that Encompass the visions of this board the school administrators the teachers the staff the youth their families and our prevention coalition thank you for your time hi everyone good evening my name is Hale Schumacher and I'm a resident of Max atani and I am also a member of Kutztown strong and going to speak to number six item C just as the two previous uh so thanks for the time I want to begin by sharing that our District's vision statement to maximize potential Embrace change and create the future lays the foundation to the critical discussion we are here supporting tonight the continued need
030for a school social worker a question that some of you may be asking is why is there a need for a social worker in our schools isn't that the job of a school counselor you are correct in assuming that both school counselors and social workers are student Advocates that assist students who are in need of emotional behavioral and academic support both professionals strive to help students maximize their potential and achievement although social workers and school counselors complement one another's mission to support our students they go about reaching that goal in distinctly different ways due to time constraints I will compare and contrast a couple big differences between a school counselor and a social worker a school counselor provides comprehensive services to all students in their school by delivering a schoolwide counseling program that supports and
031guides student growth in three main domains that include academic social emotional and career development school counselors Focus primarily on helping students succeed academically and they intervene in situations in which the student is struggling with challenges within the school setting in contrast a social worker works with our most vulnerable students who are facing barriers that impede their school Success a social worker looks beyond the confines of the classroom and the school to identify those serious impediments some of these include socioeconomic factors behavioral challenges childhood trauma drugs suicide bullying neglect and abuse we all know it's vital to catch all of these issues as early as possible to prevent them from becoming full-blown problems that hamper a child's chance is to be successful throughout the rest of their lives due to the comprehensive and ongoing Support Services
032the student and families receive from the social worker the number of students on a social workers case load is quite limited as it needs to be it's typically below 25 students at any given time throughout a school year thus ensuring that the students who they are servicing needs are met as the retired Kutztown arean middle school counselor for the last 30 years I can tell you from my personal experience that a school counselor's role and scope of responsibilities is expansive every day school counselors are dealing with student issues that arise throughout the day for the hundreds of students we serve I will admit that at times is very difficult I will admit that at times pardon me didn't notice my commas it's very difficult to provide the ongoing extensive supports to our atrisk students that
033a social worker can expertly provide and has expertly provided for the past three years I was so grateful to be a part of the community in schools creation three years ago I worked closely with them for their first two years of operation at Kutztown Area Middle School prior to my retirement I can tell you from my personal experience they were a huge a asset to our kids to our staff to our parents and to our entire School Community as a whole parents were grateful for the additional uh help and supports they received the additional resources that they received and and our students responded so incredibly positively I hope that all of you have had the opportunity to review the annual outcomes report from communities and schools from the last three years they've helped kids in
034substantial and measurable datadriven ways but just as importantly they've helped kids in so many immeasurable ways to help ensure that they find the success they so deserve I hope we can continue to partner with you to give students in our district the support they need and deserve so that they can fulfill that vision statement to fully maximize their potential to embrace change and to create the future thank you timan good evening and thanks for the opportunity to be here tonight I'm Tim ullan president CEO of communities and schools uh my municipality is brinville close um let let me Begin by saying that I've been uh leading communities and schools for 14 years and it's it's really been one of the one of the highlights of of my career uh prior to that my career was
035in uh Ministry and I was actually an associate pastor in a very rural Church in Upstate New York outside of Syracuse after that I led a nonprofit a Catholic Charities agency in a another very rural community uh kobal Skill New York if you know where that is um and um and I share these experiences with you because rural communities number one there's an amazing Community around they have a get iton attitude I find there's generous people who are willing to come together and the power of Partnerships that comes about because there's not enough resources to do some of the the big things you have to come together in Creative Partnerships so tonight one of the first things I want to say is thank you to our partners uh superintendent Tim ChatOn his team have been
036incredible partners for us over these three years um always felt that we had we had great communication and um always ask for feedback and you know it's it's been a wonderful um experience working with you uh cound strong another wonderful partner um Cheryl who just spoke and her team um they just amazed me and what I said before about you know rural communities and incredibly generous people what an amazing nonprofit you have here what a gift you have here in Kutztown strong and uh we're gonna We value that partnership and we look forward to continuing to work um so over these past three years that we've worked um very grateful for k down strong for the for the funds that they raised um I did also want to share that we also um brought uh
037some funding to the table you know we we thought that this was a really worthwhile investment uh was some grants that we we applied for ourselves so while kown did an amazing job raising money we we also did some a lot of raising money so that we could be here and put a full-time person in in two year schools this year I did want to tell you that this past week our communities and Schools board uh did vote to revise our Dei statement uh this was a long process um beginning beginning last year when we heard that uh uh Brandy Wine Heights area school district um we were not invited to continue there because of that uh that process began then um it was a long process working with our board we made these changes
038after listening uh listening to yourselves as well and we knew that we needed to communicate better and More transparently in who we are and what we do I am disappointed in the board's decision I'd hope that our student centered approach our responsiveness to feedback and our focus on every child and unlocking their potential would have spoken to the value of our work um we will continue to to do this to support students and I do want to say that as a person of Hope as a person who doesn't give up on relationships whether it's with kids or with school districts um I'm hopeful that maybe the door isn't open today but maybe the door will be open where we can we can find a way to partner together and um and support uh the wonderful
039kids here in the toown area school district so um lastly I just want to say a thank you not only to our partners but most importantly to the students and families who we shared their lives with um we we walked with them and um and I hope that the work that we did um helps some of these cown Area School District students um to open up new possibilities and uh take their potential to the next level thank you thank you Al for my name is Alison Fuller I'm speaking you tonight at parent um I'm also addressing item 6C on your agenda I'm going to do this in the form of sharing a testimony um my daughter is a KHS graduate of a class of 2024 I honestly did not know until beginning of May of
04024 if that was going to be something I would ever say before I go any further I do want to say I have her full permission to say everything that I'm going to tell you tonight as a parent we know there's no manual when your child has a crisis of any kind you're going to do everything in your power and if needed you're going to find resources um over the last three years I have done that um and I have zero complaints the teachers in our district guidance counselors have always been receptive every time i' every time I've needed to reach out to them while not free um I'm grateful I had the opportunity I could schedule um her an appointment with concern and it could be done here I didn't have to leave work
041it was not free but but it was definitely a convenience um but sometimes a child has a crisis and these resources are not enough or not the right type um thankfully my daughter was able to have access to um through communities and schools to a social worker on a consistent basis her senior year and I want to personally thank everyone who allowed that service to be available to students it was my daughter's guidance counselor who recommended she pop in um and meet the social worker here in the building I was desperate but cautious so I did look into what is communities and schools um and I made sure that I spoke with this social worker before I signed anything and and my daughter um honestly I can't say anything negative about her experience or our
042experience we didn't talk about anything other than um her care High School seniors who receive Services through communities and schools um and succeed to graduation they receive a certificate of recognition and a white soul that they get to wear on graduation day they also get the opportunity um to apply for a scholarship um and it's in the form of an essay uh here's a part of my daughter's essay um my senior year I did have support from my mom but I am here today and graduated um because of the social worker I was able to work with I am now in a brighter Place working as a pharmacy technician for a local hospital and know what tools to use and when I need you to know a difference was made and I asked that you
043work together to find a way to keep social work in our schools the need for these Services is not going to lessen and it's our responsibility as a community to make more stories like mine happen thank you thank you Rob got I'm good thanks Robin Underwood um Robin Underwood I have one graduate and one child still in the district um I want to speak in favor of reinstating CIS um and also in favor of the position I think it's very important to have a social worker in our schools because the teachers are already to Max Capacity um some of your decisions have made that even more difficult for them by cutting teachers and now you have not accepted a free position for our schools that would be a benefit to the students and are suggesting
044that we pay for a social worker when you've cut teachers it doesn't really make Financial sense um of course I'm up here saying I want everything but we could have had a social worker without having to impact our budget um I have been watching mental illness rise for many years um I have been in the University setting and my husband is also a professor and it doesn't end when they graduate from high school they go on and struggle and struggle when they get to college and it would be so much better if we can nip it in the bud at the elementary especially middle school high school have them leaving this place strong and ready resilient um I don't see that happening with all the kids um the guidance counselors are are critical the teachers
045are critical but they can't do everything they can't see every kid all the time you know they're overwhelmed so having this social worker with a different skill set would be a major asset understanding what resources are available outside of schools because as a parent it's absolutely exhausting to always have be having to advocate for your kid you talk to the school then you have to find the resources and in medicine you're advocating and in social work you're advocating and having the school help with that is Major because you're actually with our the teachers are with our kids more than we are right my kids go to their room when they get home you know they don't hang out with me for eight hours a day I don't have class where they have to sit with
046me for 45 minutes like a teacher does um so what I'm saying is you know school is our is the family for these kids a lot of the time you know it's a lot of their time spent with them and so we need to do them proud and do the best we can for them social work is critical these days it's more critical now than ever Mental Health health problems are real um I know of many families who have had to seek mental health treatments outside outside of the school and um I think a social worker helping to guide the family to the proper resources as quickly as possible is really key so I really wish that we could move forward with a social worker I'm very sad for those kids who lost Sarah they
047had a relationship with her and that's been cut from them so these kids that are struggling now had harm done to them I feel um so I hope that you're listening to all these statements and taking them to heart and that you're all here to have conversations in good faith with transparency and that your minds are still open and thinking thank you thank you Robin for Becker good evening uh I'm W Becker I'm from Max Aton Township my children graduated from the high school here and my grandchildren around in the school system as I already have communicated to all the board members and to Mr Tim Tim chatton my reasons for disagreeing with the decision to terminate the communities and schools contract I will not D on those points now at various stages in decisionmaking
048process answering the questions what is what matters and what now can provide a useful framework for a review what is the communities and schools contract was terminated for ideological concerns two the communities and schools contract was terminated before any plans were made to find alternative methods to provide similar Services three the Kutztown area school district has vulnerable students and families who were served by the communities and schools program for at present a gap exists in having a program to meet ear what matters helping those vulnerable students and families who are served by the communities in schools program and those who may need services in the future we What Now find methods to provide support for these students and Families Two everyone needs to acknowledge that in collaborative decision making differing ideologies will always arise two
049ideologies are never to represent unsalable dogma and should be modified if they lead to logical inconsistencies or contradict imper iCal data three in the future ideological issues should be placed in the proper context with the decisions that are at hand lastly I use the following lines from AAS Elliot poem as a touchstone in the decision making process we shall not cease from exploration and the end of all of our exploring will be to arrive where we first started and know the place for the first time thank you Mary schel no princi um I really don't have much to add I agree with everything that was said um by other people I just wanted to be here and wanted to at least put down that I was willing to speak because there are community members that
050are really um disturbed by the decisions um that's been going on with this issue the same issue everyone's been speaking to um I really especially agree with the lack of transparency and the fact that certain board members are allowing their personal political beliefs to outweigh um the benefits to our students and the care for our students which is completely against what you've been entrusted to do um it's also really disappointing that you would remove these services without any option for a replacement um like the old adage you don't quit a job without having another um opportunity lined up but now you're messing with like students and fam's lives like the one you heard from tonight um and you also disrupted the life of a fellow Community member who uh served the school and fulfilled her
051duties um because of a commitment to diversity and inclusion by a parent company I mean there was no evidence of any harm being done to the students um it just goes against what you believe and that's not right um I'm also really disappointed to see that the um job description would have psychology or social work degree preferred but not required um and the certification preferred but not required uh we have to jump through hoops to even be able to sit in a classroom and read to our students so I mean somebody dealing with the significant issues um that you heard from this other family I would think that we would want to hire the most capable person um for our students so and even some of the people who voted for the board members who
052are making this happen are disappointed in you and your decision making they've said so on social media um and I just hope that you would considerer and as Robin said kind of keep an open mind Kayla sorry I am a parent of two kids one is in her final year of Middle School one is about to enter Middle School um both of my kids have received help from the social workers and there is a point in time where the last two years that we've been here um we weren't sure if my daughter was going to make it to the next year she struggled a lot and um she struggles a lot with different things you know the social stuff with being bullies and fitting in and just the normal middle school social pressures um and
053while the ground guidance counselors are great sometimes she just needs a little more you know and the social worker was able to provide that for her which made a huge difference in her entire outlook on school she there was a point in time before she had spoken with a social worker that she was completely turned against School wanted nothing to do with it was ready to just give up and then she was talking to the social worker and found an outlet where she could bond with this person and she formed a relationship that she trusted this person and next thing you know she was getting her work done and she was having somebody that she felt comfortable to talk to and you know she was making more friends and she finally found her little click
054and uh it's more than just having somebody for the kids to talk to like I said I have two kids I'm very nervous on how my son is going to handle Middle School um being that we are on a weight list for Behavioral Health for both of my kids and having my daughter have that outlet going into middle school and now my son is not going to have that outlet that worries me incredibly um she was a gap for us between me trying to work full-time and working the same hours as the school and teachers so it was very hard to communicate other than via email which doesn't always construe things that you want it to construe so there was little time to be able to have face-to-face conversations sometimes and trying to find Community
055Resources to help us whether it be that we were struggling when I had lost my job or trying to find an outlet to get my kids into therapy or to get the behavioral health that they needed um she was able to help us Gap that bridge between home life and school life it's been definitely anxiety inducing in my house knowing that they're not going to have that going in my daughter has been very affected knowing that her last year in Middle School her Outlet is not there um I'm really hoping that the board reconsiders or comes to some sort of solution that'll help the kids because unfortunately the world we live in is a world where it's just different from what it used to be any opinion somebody is going to debate against whether it
056be that you're Pro something or against something anybody is going to have an Outlook that's different than yours and at the end of the today it's not about the Outlook it's about what we're taking away from our kids that's all I want to say um I'm a student at citown Area Middle School and Mrs hottenstein also known as Sarah as somebody El have called her was helpful and she was like a friend that you knew that you could talk to no matter what um many kids in my school will be affected by her leaving because they also talk to her and used her as an outlet for social stuff or anything at all par counselor already has a very full case load with the students that she already talks to plus the students that AR
057in her Cas that come to her with problems so having that extra help Not only was beneficial to students but also to staff thank you that was our last speaker and just I mean I know i' taken the the sheet before two or three people walk in just want to make sure they miss anybody anyone online um just to a few points there you know um because they're just questions to ask as far as you know there's not salary postage because we would do that in the job posting and then work with um in this case ESS um to evaluate candidates you know and look at salaries that are appropriate to their qualifications the qualifications thes they were listed as fairly broad because you know in this job environment you know sometimes you need to
058cast a little bit of wider net and find people with the right skill set um the licensure or licensed social workers um or Master Level and social workers the salary is much higher than what is typically being offered in these types of positions in schools right now um including those with you know simar contract services including you know communities and schools um so we just needed a we we're targeting a the ability to cast a little bit of a wider net for potential candidates um the one part of the financial piece that is important just to share and um you know when the Pennsylvania budget was passed on July 11th there is a component to it that included $125,000 for physical and or mental behavioral health safety there was a bucket that was in there
059um that we did not include in our revenues when we passed our budget in June um so there is the potential to and that is the recomend part of this recommendation the board notes that is that that is where we would apply those funds these expenditures to is to that um school safety grant funding through the Pennsylvania Department that and it's it's one of the grants where we are entitled to that money we just have to justify using it for one of the allowable expenses you know so that was not the case when we passed our budget um and just there was someone who mentioned about case loads um you know related to case loads and just when we talk about social work Behavioral Health and then the communities and schools say coordinator model there's
060there are some differences I mean where it encompasses the Community School site coordinator model um is intended to be uh dedicated to one school and then do the work of a traditional social worker but because they're in one school and the case load case Lo tends to be a lot higher because they do some what I would consider mentoring type um Services as well that would not be possible under the scope of the K12 recommendation that we have you know because of just the vast covering four buildings and nearly 1,400 students instead of one building at 300 students there is just a difference but that's built into the CIS model and what they use for their research base for their funding as well so just some points as um some facts or answers to questions
061that came up through various um public thank you Mr um with that we will be moving on to new business uh first on the agenda is Personnel if nobody has any OB objections uh can we take items 1 through five all together uh it is the recommendation of the administration that the board of school directors approve the following personal items and they're listed number one through five in the agenda uh do we have a motion a motion M Mercedes okay motion and a second uh any questions or comments hearing none call re H yes Cecilia H yes Jeremiah light yes Dennis dishes yes Daniel whis yes Laurel Ziggler yes Michael H yes Arin Angel yes uh next on the agenda is construction project financing oh all Personnel are approved pending receipt of all mandated itions
062uh next on the agenda is construction project financing uh resolved that the board of school directors of the cown area school district hereby approves the adoption of the attached resolution authorizing a the issuance of one or more series of General obligation Bonds in the maximum aggregate principal amount of not to exceed $34 million uh to finance various projects of the school district and B the execution and delivery of a bond purchase proposal from Raymond jeans and Associates Incorporated for the purchase of the bonds or the terms and conditions established in the resolution an addendum to such Bond purchase proposal which will be delivered by Rond James and Associates Incorporated upon the final pricing of each series of bonds and such other agreements certificates instruments and documents necessary in connection with the issuance of bond subject
063to the review and approval of such agreements certificates instruments and documents by Bond Council to the school district for the attached uh do we have a motion so Mo test second second motion and a second uh any questions or comments I just want to point out we do have guests here this evening related to Peter Edelman from Stevens and Lee and we both have Scott allly both from Raymond James as well that can answer any questions there was a note it's not on this physical agenda that you have in front of you today because this was printed fror Mar noi but on the public one that was posted just that this is not a commitment to financing it is not a commitment to any project it is the vote be to commit to give the
064authority to the folks involved to prepare for financing um so there is you know a cost associated with the work to prepare financing that gives you the flexibility that when the board decides to make a decision if there's going to be a project even if they the determination of which one to take advantage of the current Financial Mar thank you so in Lan's terms it's giving them the authority to sort of look into getting us to do the ground workor to get a free approval basically I think that's fair thank you and establish the terms you anybody else have any questions or comments uh hearing none Cecilia hul yes Jeremiah light yes fasy dishes yes Daniel whis yes Laurel Ziggler yes Michael Hess yes Reba Hoffman yes Aaron angle yes uh motion carries next is
065actually yes all right uh next on the agenda is district denst is the recommendation of the administration that the board of school directors in White Oak dentistry in glandon Pennsylvania as the school district for the 2024 2025 school year a cost of $5 per student exam and mileage reimbursements for capable between Cent School District buildings for the IRS rate examinations will be performed by either Dr Brent Dr Michael Daniel R we have a motion so move second Wimer seconds motion a second uh do we have any questions or comments just a reminder School of Dentistry you know this occurs when at with the approval of a parent when they choose not to or unable to use their own personal dentist for examinations that can be consider School help any other questions comments hearing none have
066a jeremi light yes vness dishes yes Daniel whis yes Laurel Ziggler yes Michael Hess yes Reba Hoffman yes Cecilia Hulk yes Aon angle yes cares I'd like to thank white out dentistry and the dentist involved I mean as you can tell by the agenda item this is more of a service to the community than it is to their economic Advantage so it's seriously thank you uh next on the agenda we have K through2 Health service coordinator it is the recommendation of the administration that the board of school directors approve the creation of a k32 behavioral health service coordinator position to be hired through ESS for the attached before a motion is made on this could I would it be possible to move item D after new new introduction by board members item J in case
067any board members who voted to remove the CIS program last meeting or a board member who wasn't present um might be reconsidering um that vote and the additional money so could we move it after new business to give one of our board members a potential to make a motion that might end up supplanting itd so based on the Sunshine Law you wouldn't be able to have a new motion a board member could ask for another motion to be placed on the following agenda okay I I mean assuming you're asking us to the board to reconsider the CIS agreement I don't know that D would really preclude you from that it would just set the board up to have either option available at the next meeting is that correct Dr Tom Chad yeah if it was
068tabled yes I mean we could you could we can approve d we could approve d and a new proposal and they can work work concurrently or one could be in L of the other of course um you know so any of that any of those options work from what we have so my recommendation in light of the Sunshine Law and your inability to add agenda items would be to vote on D and if another board member would want to reconsider the CIS uh add that new business to be presented at the next meeting and that way you have both options yes that's and there's nothing from in the comments around item D after it is a motion is made in second there's nothing preventing somebody from indicating their intent to propose propose it under new
069business corre so that could just be part of convers conversation cor that's uh do we have a motion for health servicein makes a motion yeah judicious second motion any second uh any questions or comments yeah I have a question regarding um this position as it's described and the ability of someone being hired for that position to be able to supervise Social Work interns from the University yeah they would I mean the person under this job description again it's very broad so theoretically could we hire somebody that Master's level had had the Master's Degree the certification and two years experience that could super directly supervise um Inns sure we could that's probably not likely under this job description to do so but to be fair that wasn't what we had previously so the way that would
070have to work if we did not find that person is we would need a partner at the University who was willing to be that supervisor you know just which is the case with other interns that work through a university so we did have social work interns we did but um this mine was supervising then as part of her work in collaboration with University as a just benefit to the district we are our communities and schools workers will be to B collaborated for sure they never super in those did we have the socials for these past three years the interns yeah sorry um it's been sporadic based off the bability last year we had one for the majority of the year um but the previous year we had to one in each Elementary School um so
071it's it's like it's challenging to depend on that as a part of the program because it's based on availability but we are we appreciate the support it was a great value add to the elementary school specifically need will that partnership still be in place we intend to have it in place yes it's just we need you know if we do not hire someone who can directly supervise and then someone of University depend and in terms we're working about how many hours a week when they I'm sorry Cheryl yeah Cheryl do you mind you were working much more closely um so interns the pr of not having an employee in the district that can supervise them is that um falls upon the guidance counselor with then extra heavy lift for them um so I supervise them
072we need one hour of supervision week week they provide 20 hours of service um but they need somebody to supervise them when they're on campus and that was the guidance kind coun Ro and they found it overwhelming to do those two which is why we're recommending that whoever the hire is has the appropriate credentials so that you can place that on person at with a hierarchy and do in schools um we did Tuesday Thursday there's nothing stopping you from taking an inter Tuesday Thursday and Monday Wednesday um if you have the interest and the intence comes from the relationship that they developed with sorry Dr Johnson yeah um I was just going to add uh from the University's point of view uh we've been facing some of the same cutbacks with the faculty and staff
073um that the district has um I I believe I heard uh it said that one of the faculty at the University would potentially be supervising interns if the person in this position was not qualified to do so and I just wanted to put out there that um The Faculty at the university is having a hard time supervising um you know that that's not going to be a guaranteed option there um having interns that have a a supervisor that is available to supervise them thank you I make a comment I I just want to thank everybody for coming out because I there is so much said that um I think again I mean personally at least I entirely agree with in my line of work I I the value of a relationship with some kids who
074do not have a relationship like that um is it's I mean it's important um and I've seen that I've actually seen it so um I agree with the the need for um this sort of support for kids particularly now more than ever um and there were a lot of concerns that are totally valid um that I heard um you know some some things like uh trying to tackle some of these issues earlier the better like in the elementary school you know nipping the stuff in the butt early um absolutely I think uh I'm excited about the ability to have a k through 12 where we have an expanded option instead of something that is just serving a quarter of our population now it's it's opening up more success stories to the entire School population and
075at earlier levels as well um so I definitely feel really good about that um I I want to thank Kutztown strong for always being a great partner and and coming alongside and bringing in and supporting the needs that that arise here at Kutztown um the author of of 125 is is you know so generous and um I think that would be amazing if we could if possibly we would be able to see that directly move towards our students um if we were to move in the direction of the vote that work is coming up right now to help um you know be a sustainable number that's continuing so that we have that um or if it's just a onetime thing but um since the offer was on the table there and this would be directly
076helping students uh specifically instead of going through an outside organization um I thought that was a great opportunity there to partner again um the the concerns about the cost to the district that were already brought up absolutely get it you know and it's and that's something that we were able to take care of U with the funding that Mr Tim chaten explained um so I I really I'm excited about the idea and the ability to have something that's inh house and when there's things that are in house and things that are out of house there's always going to be pros and cons to everything um in this case from my experience I think the ability to have a program that's inhouse and to have control and to be able to to build it out in
077a way that is very specifically um you know satisfying the needs instead of uh operating in in constraints and U maybe CIS and you know other groups are able to have some leeway but there's always limiting factors involved in that in my experience um so this is a great opportunity to to to actually like tailor the program more to something that is is what Kutztown actually needs um I think that's most of my points I wanted to make than you I have a question about the grant funding that you mentioned the 125,000 um if I didn't catch it I apologize is that something that we would be eligible for or guaranteed in future years yeah there's no guarantees in state funding um in some fashion it has existed now for this is the third consecutive
078year this year they changed it a little bit um to to make it physical safety or it was mental health for two years now it's mental health or physical safety um you know and with that there is some gray understanding at this point around there's a new requirement to have a full-time security Personnel that's in PA code we believe that waivers would be available for this year so will that funding get mixed in with Will those two FS get mixed together in subsequent years you never know what will happen so um I'm optimistic that over the next few years there will be a pot of money that is dedicated to mental or Behavioral Health um just we can never guarantee that until July 11th was a wonderful day to have state b p typically much
079later than that so um there lot is there there the potential to hire somebody and anticipate using those funds to pay their salary and for those funds to change or go away next year leaving us without the I mean it's absolutely possible we're I'm optimistic that won't be the case but optimism is we haven't really taken care of the final concern is what I'm saying we provos an option that we hope will be in place for years moving forward I think that's that's 100% true but I will also say and folks from quickstand strong know this the folks from and schools know this we have been each year kind of stream together what the funding sources have been you know and that's that's a huge credit to the Community Partnerships that we have that in
080terms of this that particular part of the conversation that makes it no different than any of the previous we've always been peac mealing how do we find that funding and that's that's been uh it's a success story of collaboration and community support but it hasn't been we we didn't know now shouldn't say any given year in July we weren't certain where that funding was for this particular program going to be next year so can I just offer to theism of specialist that person would be responsible for the 11 100 students across all 12 grades and you heard stories um about the overwhelm in one building and then you're asking that person to share themselves amongst three different locations it's um a beautiful start to a structure where you have one person at the top and
081then you have one person in each building or you have one person at the top serving a building and also supervising the other two buildings but um once a child has an I are no longer considered a general education student and the case load of a social worker is then about so we CIS would see 50 Children each building that's how then you're going to be spreading one K through 12 there there's no doubt that in covering K12 versus one building that you're you're going to be um spending more time with the students who have the greatest need versus the um number of students that were able to be served only in the Middle School through the common school's model um but again it would be a bit of a different model there would be
082some transition to that we would not be able to communicate the families that that the services will look identical to what they did um you know and that's that's really a complicated part of this conversation right as we've had more and more discussions as a community you know individual conversations within within the district and outside and talk about the importance of position well then it's hard how do we say it's so important but it's only so important at the middle level from the beginning when we when we started this conversation we targeted the middle level because we felt like that was the most critical IAL piece not because it was the only piece um just because of the nature of adolescence and their needs um the realities of being able to ever have someone in
083every building it's probably just not financially realistic for us in comparison to all of our other District needs that we're constantly tugging and Ping On to make this piece make the educational system work within our budget so um that's why ultimately coming out of last meeting by my recommend is that we can cover the greatest need and develop those relationships at those at the points of greatest need K12 I think we're doing our job as a district you know where in a perfect world of unlimited resources we would have social work plus mentoring at every building at every level and that's that's maybe someday I just I don't think that's realistic to see anytime in the immediate future with the extra money highing um the right professional takes away the need to ask somebody from
084the University to protect to supervise those students and the teach Services if the availability of intern of the quality interns is there yeah then then right then we can make it work in oh one more thing I just wanted to point out um because with this vote coming up if this position would be created then Sarah would be asked to correct yeah absolutely he's taken a new job yeah I and we don't want to talk about the Personnel you know Personnel situation of any individual but um anyone I believe who has worked with us in this position which has been several of the years would be encouraged to one quick question the the real the reality of not being able to have everyone in every building or a person in every building would have been
085um more achievable if we would have kept the CIS person and or reinstate them and then use the $125,000 grant to fund the people for the other buildings correct sure and there really was no evidence of any harm or wrongdoing on the part of Sarah hottenstein again yeah I mean we don't like talking about names and situations but I think that would address that there was no specific concerns to the individual so I'm really optimistic about the situation that we're in right now because um from the way I see it we have an opportunity to have two full-time resources back in our schools next year so we we know that this past year we had a high school CIS social worker and a middle school social worker um I would like to see this K
086through 12 position um that the job description you could well we can vote on on it and approve it tonight through the the funding that we're getting from the public Grant I would like to see this position rework to be focused on our elementary school and high school levels to focus on the students with the most need um and I would like to I will be proposing a new business that a motion be brought to us in our next board meeting to vote on the generous $12,500 donation from Kutztown strong for this dedicated P purpose this next year um in addition to the United Way funding that CIS has has received in support of this position um thank you to everyone who came out to speak I mean it's very again eloquent and and touching
087um you know advocacy for this role um as we all know I posted some concerns that I had um on my elected official Facebook page after the last meeting and the public outrage on this really has been very strong and Swift and clear so over 12,000 people um have viewed that post 797 of them took the time to react to it 392 to comment and 75 people to share the post on their own Pages expressing concern again overwhelmingly the sentiment was of strong concern anger and dismay at the reasoning that was given in the last board meeting to vote down and vote against this position um we heard you know both tonight um firsters accounts from individuals and parents who were directly impacted by this role again we can see that throughout all of the
088commentary that we saw on social media as well um this individual was beloved you know I went home and I asked my own Middle School daughter hey do you know who this person is and she said yeah Mom she's great everybody knows her she's wonderful all my friends like her and trust her and while my daughter was not one of the 59 students who were on the case load of that social worker the the fact that those 59 students received care and support with with assigned permission from their parents right so again every parent needs to opt in to these exact services all 59 of those those parents had secured and agreed for their students to continue under that care this upcoming year so again it is it is heartbreaking to me that that CIS
089last after the last meeting had to go out and reach out to all of those families and say Hey you know that person who was trusted by your child by your family who has worked with you and showed that consistency year over year for three years now they're not going to be here in another 30 days when you're child's start school so I am still extremely um concerned about the ideological Expressions that were given in the last meeting there is no place for that in our school district and in our roles as elected officials if you'd like to express ideological positions go and run for state representative office this is a non-political role and we are here wholly and completely to serve our students and our local community and I am extremely extremely Disturbed seeing
090that ideology became and and stood in the way of of caring for and looking out for those students who are are here directly within our community so I will be bringing this forward as a motion we will get to vote on it in the next meeting and again I I'm happy to hear from all of the positive uh feedback from from the community today I'd love to have the CIS updated Dei statement that we can send around ahead of time so that folks can read that and see that again we had we had no evidence no reports of concern so to sit there and and say that some Dei policy that's sitting out on a website is somehow standing in the way of us helping 59 of the most vulnerable students in our schools is
091completely unacceptable for me so um I will vote in support of this position um again I I expect fully that if we vote on it with the current job description we could continue to work and modify that job description outside of this meeting um I would personally Advocate that that become a high school and Elementary School position again it's it's clear that the guidance counselors in our schools will not be able to sur this step and when I look at at the positive I did review the the CIS um end of your report um you know we see positive impacts uh in to the attendance goals that were set to the behavioral goals to the academic goals so we're talking about um four students had attendance goals all of them improved in terms of their
092um attendance in school 12 students had behavioral ISS issues as goals with the CIS worker 10 of them met that goal or showed progress towards that goal academically 45 students had academic goals um working with a caseworker 33 of those were improved uh 41 of the students had um social emotional learning support identified 40 of those 41 students improved um the evidence as we look through this is is absolutely overwhelming of the positive datadriven impact that was made by this individual um I also see throughout this their participation in the steam fair in the community puts down strong free community meal um in you know parent teacher conferences the kams food drive the angel tree gift Drive the winter clothing clothing Drive um 26 students receive active support for the weekend or food program right
093these are all things directly impacted that this social worker had a hand and so again this the the data the data is clear and evident and I'd like to make sure that we also have the full report sent out to all the bo board members before we before we vote on this next month but again our our legal obligation and our ethical obligation is to the children of our district and there is absolutely no data that has been presented that we should not be in full support of accepting the community donation and accepting the work of CIS moving forward so I'll look forward to putting that motion on later in the intro of new business um and I'll look forward to supporting this and I'm excited that that we should have a strong opportunity to
094have two full-time folks working with us next year thank you um any other questions or comments uh hearing none please call Dennis udicious yes Daniel whisper yes Laurel Ziggler yes Michael H yes Reba Hof yes Cecilia hle yes Jeremiah L yes Ain yes motion carries uh next on the agenda is item e uh District administration building sales agreements it is the recommendation of the administration that the board of school directors approve the following resolution for the sale of the district property at 251 long Lane Pennsylvania 19530 uh for $ 1.75 million uh as specified and detailed in the resolution below um do we have a motion s second like seconds motion on a second any questions or comments just excited for the opportunity uh we to kind of move into that next phase for District
095administration we are almost completely moved into the middle school with just one or two offices still move um and uh a sales agreement still is a long way to finalizing an agreement there's a lot of steps with real estate but I appreciate this is something I brought to the board think about a year ago I that think of the timeline and uh you know appreciate the board's kind of support in moving forward with um looking to sell the District administration office to streamline operations so excited to uh conf a under letter e thank you uh any other questions or comments here none Daniel whis yes Laurel Zigler yes Michael H yes Rea hofman yes Cecilia H yes Jeremiah light yes Dennis udicious yes Aaron angle yes motion carries very exciting yeah thank uh next on
096the agenda is donation it is the recommendation of the administration that the board of school directors accept with gratitude a donation from Mr Peter clch in the amount of $50 for the purchase of library books do we have ation this a second Motion in a second any questions or comments there any particular book or any particular Library um I don't believe there was a I didn't receive this one but I don't believe there was any specific qualifications to books that were being purchased on that because I get that information any other questions comments uh hearing none may we please have a roll all Laurel Ziggler yes Michael H yes Reba Hoffman yes Cecilia Holk yes jeremi light yes Dennis udicious Daniel Wismer yes I'm sorry Aon yes uh motion carries and uh thank you to
097Mr C for the generous donation uh next on the agenda is csan Area School District Brandy Wine Heights Cooperative agreement it is the recommendation of the administration that the board of school directors approve the C Area School District Brandy lne Heights music cooperation agreement for marching band at football G for the attached uh do we have a motion so move second second a motion and a second do we uh have any questions or comments pretty much the same agreement we had with them last year same thing as last year it was um it was it's puts down in brandy wine students competing on the football field and just we are um Mr Sher appreciated having the Brandy Wine students along for Mar they had their first uh pial practice tonight any other questions or comments
098none pleas have a little Michael H yes Rea hofman yes Cecilia Hol yes Jeremiah light yes Dennis udicious just clarifying since step this is the Brandy Wine agreement yes yes thank you Dani yes Laurel Ziggler yes Aon yes motion carries next on the agenda is item H uh Kutztown Area School District mberg Cooperative agreement it is the recommendation of the administration that the board of school directors approve the C area school district mberg school district Cooperative agreement for bo boys and girls Water full for the attached uh motion so moved t second second a second any questions or comments so we had a small number of high school students interested expressed interest in whether they could play water polo in partnership with mberg and um you know uh just recently mberg said they they are
099open to that hence the agreement so anytime we can expand opportunities I mean cannot have water P here in our high school we don't cool so um just expanded opportunities for a few of our students to see do we have any Financial numbers on this at this time we're not expecting to be any cost of the district um you know as you know we do have swimmers but the swimmers are used to transport themselves because again we don't have a our team you know doesn't compete on behalf of the district that way so it'll be the same Arrangement limited to no cost any other questions or coms heing none may please have Rea Hoffman yes Cecilia H yes Jeremiah light yes Dennis udicious yes Daniel whis yes Laurel Ziggler yes Michael hes yes Aon yes
100motion carries next on the agenda is new story tuition agreements it is the recommendation of the administrations of for school directors the tuition agreements with new story LLC for three special education students to attend the 2024 extended school year uh program at a cost of $425 per day per student do we have a motion no move second hofman Motion in second any questions or comments theer s yes Jeremiah light yes Dennis dises yes Daniel whis yes Laurel zler yes Michael PES yes Reba Hoffman yes a yes motion carries uh next on the agenda is item J introduction of new business by board members so I would like to have a motion put on the next meetings agenda the motion would read as follows communities and schools it is the recommendation that the board of school
101directors approve the agreement with communities and schools to provide integrated student supports at kown Area Middle School for the 2024 25 school year per the attached after grants secured by communities and schools and a dedicated donation of $12,500 from kown strong there is no 2024 25 cost to the district motion do we have a second actually just asking for that to be a motion on the next agenda I so because of the sunshine act it cannot be voted on tonight so I'm asking that it be put on the next agenda so that we can vote I didn't get all of that but I'm assuming you I wrote 917 and just confirming that that motion is different enough so I think the different circumstances present the ability for a reconsideration vote at the next meeting because
102it's donations from the so I would also ask if there is any evidence from the community or from fellow board members in which any harm has been um you know given to any individual student through the the current agreement that has been in place that that evidence that data be surfaced um before the next board meeting because again it is our legal and ethical obligation to be voting based on facts and evidence as as part of our policy and there has been no evidence that that we should not be accepting a free donation um from a community Organization for a no cost uh addition to our school so um again I welcome any any further evidence that folks might have before that time but um you know and again we'll get the CIS um you
103know updated language and we'll get the uh evidence report on on cis's um annual report out to all the board members please before the vote next time thank you Laurel uh do we have any other new business just have a statement that I'd like to I had prepared for tonight in anticipation of all this so some of it has changed but please bear with me as as I do read through this um July 15th the board a majority vote decided not to continue with communities and schools eastern PA on July 16th Miss Laurel Ziggler put out a post on her campaign f Facebook page claiming false her incomplete information she stated this is pure politics two things first of all no you should not be mentioning me by name first of all second of all
104that is my elected official Facebook post so please if you'd like to direct more generalized comments but I will not tolerate you directing something by name to me m seagler he has the ability to make a statement and obviously you have the ability to respond to that statement okay I've we've always had a policy that we're not calling anyone out by name in this I I have not done that with anyone else so I expect that basic respect Mr Man do we have that such policy board members not calling any body else I'm not aware from the public it's one thing to rest the chairperson however I I don't know about again I'm not a post or or any of this for that matter but I'm not aware of from board member to board member
105it's a political action I would assume that you make comments related to this no what what I'm talking about our standard policies for boards right you do not you direct comments to the chair you do not direct comments by naming other members of the board I think it's making a comment on an action let's continue but I I just would like respect Shan go ahead I'm giving it respect I'm actually quoting right from your page just so you know firstly Miss Ziggler was correct about this being about politics however the politics are not coming from us communities and schools of eastern PA fully and completely supports Dei on their website now they did say they were changing that but we'll see because it's still there it is our goal to keep the school tools as
106politics free as possible if you visit the official CIS of eastern PA website and go click where it says about us there is a Dei tab that clearly states diversity equity and inclusion our core values this being one of their core values as they say makes it seem as though they wish to bring politics into the school I'm not saying that the person that was here did at all I'm saying the company that we were suppos having agreement with was bringing it in but as far as high-fiving in the parking lot that is far from the truth if for one minute anyone thinks we took any joy in removing any kind of help for students you were sadly mistaken I hope that Miss Zigler has the compassion in her heart to issue an apology to
107the board and to the public as well as to remove her post from her Facebook page as well as the coffee Facebook page this is not the first attempt by some of us to remove CIS from our School District over the last two years Jason Aaron and myself had reservations about CIS over their Dei core values I had also brought up about using Esser money at the time to pay for CIS and the eventual end of that money and the impact it would have on our budget had the administration and other board members at the time listen to our concerns perhaps we could already have a robust alternative system in place that would have benefited the entire District as stated by Miss for the past 3 years we have had a social worker in the
108Middle School while this is true there was also a social worker at the high school for the past two years so why the outrage about there not being a social worker in in the middle school but there is no concern for there being no social worker in the high school are we to say to those kids sorry but you're on your own now additionally we have not had any kind of social worker in the two elementary schools are those children not vulnerable as Miss zig say in the middle scho as the middle school students are she goes on to say about how CIS was to be funded through a combination of Grants and donations and says that at most our cost would be $7,500 while that statement is correct what about future Year's cost over
109the last three years CIS has been paid for by various grants or other sources some like the eser money has run out some grants are being used for other areas of operation within the district with the passing of this Year's PA state budget all school districts will now be required to hire a full-time security person when that happens we don't know yet the same grant that covers communities and schools can also be used for the security position as well last year the cost of CIS was $13,421.93 with only one part-time employee how are we expected to pay for future years seeing that the grant money was only for this year she makes a statement that we refuse to accept those grants and donations because the national website for the organization that issues the paycheck to
110the local social worker and our school references a Dei policy on their website that is a false statement and shows Miss Zigler does not pay attention to what was said or do her own research CIS CIS of eastern PA that employed the social worker here at the district is the organization that proudly shouts on their website that they fully support Dei if you look on the national page for the CIS of Pennsylvania or the CIS of Central PA you have to dig really deep into their pages to find any mention of Dei and at most on their public and at most on public Pages there is very mention of Dei other districts have other ways of handling their social work as we heard tonight from the director of CIS that Brandy Wine removed them because
111of the Dei concerns Brandy Wine Hamburg and scole Valley for example have one person that oversees the social work in their districts for all their students for these schools it seems as though this system has worked out very well and I have reached out to people in some of those school districts in her that yes it is working in fact Brandy Wine used to use CIS but opted not to go with them as we heard Miss Ziggler sent myself and I'm sure the other board members an email before she was sorn in about working together for improving the outcomes of our students how by posting what she did is that working together not one day since that vote has she reached out to myself or other board members to come up with a solution personally
112it doesn't feel like she has made much effort to work together and better the school district who would rather direct her attention to less collaborative activities attack such as posting false information about her fellow board members on social media to bring this to a conclusion here is something else to consider those who are in favor of Dei and saying we made this a political vote are forgetting something if we had accepted the contract with CIS they would only be helping students in grades 6 through 8 on tonight's agenda we approved the new behavioral uh Health service coordinator that will serve all students in kown Area School District that seems to be more inclusive to the district than the previous agreement that was sought okay I would like some time to respond first of all it
113is not appropriate to have personal attacks on specific fellow board members or members of the community thank you so of course as an elected official I will be communicating with my constituents and with members of the community okay this was a a a topic that is widely widely outraged by members of our community and the fact that that you just admitted that this was fully about politics is actually quite shocking to me so we don't need this to be a unanimous motion at the next board meet meeting we'll take a vote and we'll see F where folks lie but again there is no position for political viewpoints and political statements within the operations of our Public School the fact that Dei has become a political lightning rod has nothing to do with what was happening
114daytoday within the middle school and again I am excited about the opportunity to be able to extend Social Work help to students through all of our schools through the two full-time positions that we have the opportunity to fund through grant funding the good news is that none of these contracts that we signing um you know for CIS were ever more than a one-year contract so there were previous recommendations in the last meeting to work with uh communities that care to work with other organizations and we heard from Kutztown strong that those are the exact organizations that they reached out to to start building those bridges within the Community seven or eight years ago CIS has been in existence since I believe the the 1977 right this is a longstanding organization and beginning to apply these
115political hot topics and hot points when that are completely devoid from what is actually happening and the positive impact that's being made to our students is is completely unacceptable so I will of course continue advocating I will of course continue working with anyone across the board and I look forward to having folks come back having really opened up with A New Perspective the information what we've heard from the community tonight please continue to get feedback from all of all of your constituents as well but we have the opportunity to have a zero impact to our budget a one-year contract I'm not tied to CIS as I said last meeting bring in anyone but bring in someone who who is here on day one and we know that we had the full need for two full-time
116social workers last year and so let's not put any of our possible Children at Risk this next year so again thank you to everyone who came out tonight I appreciated hearing all the feedback all the personal stories about our children who were impacted our families who were supported this is why we are here this is why I am here each each Monday many Mondays of the month advocating for our students and for our community's rep reputation I look forward to the vote next meeting may I speak briefly um I just want to make a brief comment I don't want to dive back in anything but um I just want to say that personally I am from a governance stand point I utterly and totally condemn lying on any format lying on social media specifically about
117comments about High fiving um and I hope the entire board everybody on this board I hope everybody in this community I hope this is something that everybody can agree with that lying is made to break things it's doesn't work towards anything positive any of the things that were just stated it just works in the opposite direction and things devolve from there so um we can have different opinions uh we can we can differ on how those opinions are created um or or how they're uh how you get to those but lying I am I am I'm condemning it I am with every fiber of my being I'm pushing back against it and I'm going to continue to push back against it I don't think it should be accepted in any level anywhere at any time
118I fully support your comments as well I would not accept line either so I look forward to us all coming back making a vote next month based on the data and the evidence as were required by LW i' just like to add that of course we're going to have different opinions different opinions are constructive that's how people arrive at Creative Solutions to problems um I think it is important that as a board having meetings in public to address items on the agenda and new items brought by board members or the public we are here in front of people to debate those things which means that we present our ideas ideas excuse me we ask questions for clarification we assemble data to help us determine that that is the point of a board and the functioning
119that we're trying to do to support our students and run our schools so that is the kind of comment that we should be having I don't think addressing things that have happened outside of the board have a place at the team do we have any any more new business by board members uh next on the agenda is public comment on non-agenda items nobody would anyone like to make any further comments Johnson yeah I wasn't G to say anything else but uh we had that recent exchange there and um what I heard was kind of doubling down on the uh ideological functioning um and I was I found it particularly distressing to hear that after uh all of the stories and accounts of the positive good um that our social worker was doing for our children
120and um also to hear the the harm that it was doing um to take that away from them um this close to the beginning of the SCH year um I I just reaffirms my initial reactions to this that um it's putting personal ideology above the interests of our students uh and this was just very poorly done um it's one thing to replace it but I mean you know this isn't replaced it's been cancelled and now it sounds like everyone's scrambling to put something back in its place now and uh we've got a school year starting in a couple weeks and these people who from what I've been hearing have become like dependent on these services that have been pulled out from under them um they're going to be starting the school year uh behind and
121um I I I just it's appalling um and uh I I just and I think the worst part of it is just going back to that whole Dei thing um when it's already been established that there's no evidence that diversity is harming anyone or it has anything to do with the social services that were being provided to our students and um I just hope everyone takes the time that have until the next meeting to maybe cool off um think it over a bit and uh I guess I'm coming to the next meeting um uh but you know I I hope that we uh see some cooler heads and some good reflection on this topic uh before we meet again thank you thank you Johnson uh next on the agenda is item eight uh informational items
122as we in the agenda we have items a through G um then item nine coming public meetings and informational informative dates August 12th we have policy and curriculum committee meeting that's at 6m in high school7 and by zoom and we also have on August 12th facilities and extracurricular committee meeting at 7M that's in the High School uh room d17 and by Zoom August 19th we have our monthly schoolb meeting that's at 7:30 p.m. High School library here and by zoom and with that I'd be looking for a motion to adjourn moves second all in favor