May 16, 2022 KASD School Board Meeting

001you hear us Mr Hess can you hear us I can yeah can you hear me yes we can thank you [Music] I'd like to call this uh beating order would everyone please rise for a moment of silence [Music] America history [Music] thank you I'd like to thank everyone for coming tonight there is a log in the back if you haven't done so would you please sign in if there's anything in particular that you would like to bring to the board's attention please 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 is also time for public comment where you can bring up additional issues this meeting is being recorded and I would like

002to announce that there was an executive session conducted prior to the meeting to discuss Personnel matters with that roll Paul please Michelle Batts here Randy Burch here out there Aaron Engel here Michael Hess here Cecilia Holt here Jason cook here Jeremiah light here Dennis Ritter here [Music] uh first item for us tonight is approval of minutes for the May 2nd 2022 school board meeting do we have a motion uh second Ritter's second Motion in a second does anyone have any uh questions comments or for the minutes uh hearing none roll call Michelle batz yeah uh Darian yes Aaron Engel yes Michael Hess Michael Hass yes Cecilia Holt yes Jason cook yes Jeremiah light yes Dennis Ritter yes Randy Burch yes so approved next item is our treasurer's report Mr Miller thank you Mr Birch this

003is the treasurer's report for April 2022 the month began or the balance of one million 600 292.57 cents we had receipts of one million 103 553.53 or 50 cents uh transferred five hundred thousand dollars from our investment account paid bills and payroll of 2 million and 859.67 leaving us with a cash balance at month end of 995 186.40 uh thank you Mr Miller do we have a motion to approve the treasury second I'll second Motion in a second any uh questions or comments uh regarding the treasurer's report uh hearing none now roll call please call Darian yes Aaron Engel yes Michael Hess yes Cecilia Holt yes Jason cook yes Jeremiah light yes Dennis Ritter Michelle Batts yeah Randy Birch yes motion carries next item is uh approval of bills for payment first up is 5A

004ratification for general account including manual checks in the amount of one 167.66 do we have a motion Ritter moves motion do we have a second second uh motion second any questions regarding the ratification of the bills for the general account foreign call please [Music] yes Cecilia yes Jason Cox yes Jeremiah light yes Dennis Ritter yes Michelle Batts yeah yeah aldarian yes Randy Burch yes motion carries next item is approval for the general account and the amount of 1 million two hundred forty thousand seven hundred ninety eight dollars and 53 cents do we have a motion uh motion second any questions or comments uh regarding the approval of uh payment of bills for the general account uh hearing none roll call please Ricky Michael has yes Cecilia hope yes Jeremiah light yes Dennis Ritter yes Michelle

005back aldarian yes Aaron Engel yes ready yes motion carries next item is 5c approval of bills for payment approval for the construction account an amount of twelve thousand four hundred sixty two dollars and fifty three cents do we have a motion a second uh Motion in a second any question for the approval of bills for the account uh hearing none now roll call please Cecilia hope yes Jason cook yes Jeremiah light yes Dennis Ritter yes Michelle Batts yes aldarium yes Aaron Engel yes Michael has yes Randy Birch yes motion carries next up item six is communication and reports first is the superintendent's report Mr temptation thank you Mr Birch um we have lots of good news to share within the school Community this time of the year but first it would just like um some

006not so good news and just provide a statement from from the district last week we experienced the unfortunate impact of spreading misinformation a few high school students created and posted allegations about other students the posting alleged quotations from teachers related to the situation and in one iteration included the name of a teacher with the name students every instance related to the teachers was admittably fabricated we need to a school environment where students can come forward in a safe manner we also need a community where people are not passing on rumors innuendo is fact on both sides of every situation are a child an adult and a community false allegations against anyone are damaging and threaten the ability of students to seek help every instance of alleged misconduct is Thoroughly investigated to the extent possible within

007the scope of a school district and we share information with local police when appropriate sharing misinformation these topics in public forums is damaging to individual reputations and often based on untruths or missing contextual Alters the meaning we ask and hope that all members of the school Community students and adults consider information tensions and the ramifications of sharing them in absence of [Music] and now to share good news one item of good news the Middle School Encore went to the reading fighting fields on May at all requirements in program created through the student performance measure by Encore team of teachers received the opportunity to attend the reading fight and Phil's game some of the results of students 98 eighth grade students 91 7th grade students and 87 6th grade students participated in the reading fighting Phil's

008Encore event for the middle school on May 10th the national anthem was was sung by the middle school jazz choir on the direction of Mrs Shannon Sunday I see Mr Hufford Sunday uh very much involved in the coordination of the event and thank you for and just what turned out to be a beautiful day um the staff who were on the trip were approached randomly by another visitor of the game to say just how being there to Reading Phillies game on the student days our students were some of the best behaved that they had ever witnessed um they spent a lot of money on concessions I believe it was a good day for all the History Day state competition at on May 7th the University of Scranton Dominic and Lilia pizzolante competed with their document

009documentary stranded 60 years of Hardball debate in baseball diplomacy and their impact on the game in Cuba and the United States they received first place in their category of 18 entries and are moving to the virtual national competition on June 12th through the 16th congratulations to Dominic and Lilia they are veterans of the National History Day and just stars in that competition so congratulations to that that will help guide them along the way my slide is probably freezing a little bit there we go the Kia cuts down into our association dance team the senior dance team placed first step preliminaries and first at finals to become the regional a Champions the senior twirling group finished third the tournament of the Bands Atlantic Coast championship and wild Wildwood New Jersey team scored a 74.03 their highest

010score of the season the tournament of bands Atlantic Coast Champions were named Tournament of bands Atlanta coach champions for the 2012 school year congratulations to all involved with the Kia indoor dance team accounts it was a wonderful trip I enjoyed two weeks ago on Friday evening the Coach Henry High School hosted the junior senior prom 225 individuals attended the event at the newly renovated Delta Marriott in Fogelsville the class of 2023 coordinated the prom under the guidance of class advisors Mrs Angela desello and Mr Andrew Brett the buffet dinner with the surprise Dessert Room and in the neon theme and after dinner they enjoyed dancing to the music provided by DJ Steele Mr flicker reports it was a great prom so thank you to all the 2020 members and their advisors Mrs acello Mr setting

011up a great prom for our class of 22 seniors end of year activities the calendar gets very busy this time of year just a few of those end of the year activities include May 24th the athletic end of the year ceremony May 26th Graduation May 30th um well may 26th with a rain date of May 27th reminders no school on May 30th there are early dismissals on May 31st June 1st and June 2nd for all students in grades k-11 and some Middle School awards on June 2nd the last day of school school the Middle School Commons last Wednesday just a great night Awards night senior Awards night over at the high school preceded by the chasma senior banquet it's a beautiful time of the year to be around the school Community where you get to

012celebrate the accomplishments as we move to the end end of the year here just one more time to call this one out Thursday May 26 2022 with a rain date of May 27th is the graduation date as is the tradition parade now we'll start around 5 30 we'll start up at the University and parade down through Main Street and up Constitution to the high school and the commencement ceremony is scheduled to begin approximately at 6 30 p.m congratulations to all those who will be celebrating get out on the street of Main Street and please join us for the parade celebration even if not to join graduation just a clarification on the May 26th and 27th we're hoping for beautiful weather on May 26th if we anticipate rain and then poor and rain and better weather

013on the 27th we'll move it to the 27th if it's a two-day washout we would stick with the 26th but communication has the become more solid with weather predictions in advance of Thursday May 26th that is good news for today thank you Mr Tipton uh just uh exciting time as we hit the the prom and graduation around the corner for our seniors in the class of 22. uh congratulations to our history day students and to our Kia dance team students great job by everyone uh next uh item is a board committee reports in the first uh would be uh extracurricular and Facilities and Mrs Batts thank you Mr Burch yeah we had quite an agenda last week so I'm going to write a summary of the items that we've discussed several of which you see

014on the um consideration evening one of those items is the um uh k h F4 so in the cafeteria at the high school there are trials down the middle of the cafeteria um the floor is heating um and they've had folks come in to look at this and the tiles are actually popping and so there's some remediation there for safety concerns of kids tripping on broken tiles Etc um so this is going to be something that is going to be repaired over the summer as approved by the full board this evening another item we discussed was the lawn mowing so after considering several options for um taking care of the Lawns on all of the district property this summer a quote was received but Landscaping other quotes were obtained however there was no availability by

015suppliers to actually get on their schedule for this summer so we're in a situation where we're down staff members and we just don't have the staff to be able to um promote the all the graft from the district so on the agenda you see the vid for colder landscaping for providing that service this summer you may have also noticed in the cougar Prince and in text messaging that there was an effort by the administration to get the word out that it's a great summer kids 16 years and older to be hired by the district to help with the lawn mowing so that is an opportunity that's out there for students they don't have to be within the district they can be no and that's it's sort of dawned on us here last Monday sitting discussing

016the staffing needs for um lawn care this summer and you know we've been making announcements in the high school each morning Mr Brett has seeking students who are interested in that summer job and it's on us that possibly that's a better message to go to parents sometimes than students at 7 30 in the morning um so we did receive uh quite a few more hopeful will be able to find some 16 year olds who are ready to work this summer and then we would rely on the potential contract much less great um we also discussed the gym floors there's yearly maintenance that's performed on both the high school middle school gym floors that is not on the agenda for this evening but will be considered in the future that's just regular maintenance that we do

017on make sure that our gym is in great shape we also discussed the HVAC um preventative maintenance contract so there's some ongoing work there to secure a contract and make sure that we're having a company that not only understands our systems but also is giving us the most fiscally responsible pricing capital projects that were considered and some of which you do see on the board agenda this evening one is a basketball winch system so if you've ever attended the for games you notice at the end um one of the staff members comes out with um a drill and has to hold it and manually move the basketball nets up and down it's a very Antiquated system and it turns with that there's been reports not in our district but other places where um people have

018actually broken their arms because the drill slips and it takes their arm and so it's just it's not a safe system to to be using so one project that you see on the agenda tonight is to replace that with a wireless system so that um there would just be a remote that needs to be pressed in order to have the basketball and that's go up and down as needed we also discussed band cabinets um there it's been an ongoing topic of discussion at the committee level but there were some changes requested to Dimensions after the initial quote was received and so we are still waiting on some final details so that's not on the agenda for this evening another Capital item is the high school locks um and so this item you do see on

019as item G on the agenda um currently we've discussed this before but currently there are blocks at the high school and in a panic situation it's not an ideal number of keys to be fumbling through to find the right one to open a door and so Mr lavenstein worked with A.G Morrow and they did a full sweep of the high school to identify that there are 97 doors um in the kitchen the CD and e-wing that need to be re-keyed in order for there to be one master lock for the high school and so that is one of the items that you see on the agenda because we felt from a safety perspective um you know that it's just something that that we can't Overlook and so it is a significant cost but but we

020really need to make sure that this is finally done it's an it's not clear why that has happened over the years with various projects where one door has changed one's not like so it's just time to to make that adjustment um all right and then the other item we talked about that is not on the agenda is um some of the doors that there's still some door closers that were in place um that there they were cut off and skin coated and there's some deterioration of those doors at the high school and so um they'll likely be at some point some work that needs to be done on those doors as well that was what we had for the facilities the extracurricular was a little more brief Suga provided at end of the season update

021um for all of the various activities and so we had tennis we had the um counties and districts for coming up for track um the contest of the softball team as well as the baseball team and then he had also mentioned the physiological success for the national and that is all that I have thank you Michelle next is uh policy and curriculum this whole thank you Mr Burch um for policy we talked about policy 218 and 220 that our student discipline and student expression and dissemination of materials respectively and they were both um sent back to six months and work on some language clarification and then with curriculum it's two programs that were presented the truth initiative partnership and that is um some positive programming to students to help them learn about and resist vaping

022and such and so that is on the um on the agenda for approval this evening and then the other was the Middle School summer Learning Adventure and that is a program that each grade of the middle school will have the opportunity to go to Blue Mountain and do some relationship building and be outside together and get to know each other a little bit as a grade level before they're getting together in school and so they'll and problem solving exercises in that and it will be at no cost to the students funded by Extended Learning and that's that's the end of my report thank you Cecilia academic achievement Dr terrion yeah we'll be meeting next Monday at six o'clock are we getting an update on kind of where we stand the impact of covid uh kind

023of a school report card I guess you could call thank you uh Berks TCC or Berks TCC uh Mr Miller the committee meets once a quarter and we did not need this last month uh BC Mr yes thank you Mr Burch I would uh like the pcbc has announced the students of the quarter for their third quarter so I wanted to congratulate the following students for their hard work and their recognition Matthew O'Neill was named student of the quarter for auto collision repair technology Caleb Brubaker was named student of the quarter for heavy equipment operations Landon Kunkel was named student of the quarter for Heavy Equipment Technology Miranda Ridenour was named student of the quarter in cosmetology Remick was named student in sports medicine and rehabilitative therapy and Joseph Rice was named student of the

024quarter in metronic wanted to extend my congratulations to those students and keep up the good work yes absolutely congratulations to our BCTC students thank you Mr cook a bciu pastor Ritter um celebrated the 50th anniversary of Burke County Intermediate Unit they had a special event prior to the board meeting got to see some former board members that I had served with when I was on the school board um a number of years before and so it was was a good evening that way in addition in our major activity aside from the typical kinds of things was we finalized the review that was done for Dr Hackman and uh she received flying colors for her work with the agency and and in the community so that's my report thank you Dr Ritter uh and last is

025a psba and Ms Holt I have nothing to report for psba this month and so that uh wraps up the board committee reports uh next item is our student uh representative report Mr Dunn thank you Mr Birch I just like to start by um saying that this is my last meeting is there a student School Board representative so I'd like to thank the board for um giving I'd like to thank students for electing and giving me the opportunity to work with the board and the board with me so hospitable and kind in for all the good advice they've given me I'd also like to thank my alternate the wood or the times that I wasn't able to be here that she was so other than that it's going to be a good end of the

026year for the seniors in the class of 2022 and hopefully a good end of the year for all the rest of the students in the school district and then hopefully a fun summer thank you Mr Dunn and congratulations to you and uh the class of 2022. it's like thank you Cooper for being you know an exemplary exemplary example of an advocate for the student body they chose a representative as well and um congratulations very much uh next item is uh public comment on agenda items and it looks like we have one uh person that signed up to speak uh in the audience uh Mr Dan Wismer thank you [Music] oh yeah thanks for letting me speak again here um I just wanted to address one thing that was coming up with um the book genderqueer

027which I had formed out filled out form 109 for um so I'm just going to read something I wrote up here so it's approximately a year ago I stood here on a couple occasions and warned the the content being delivered in the form of announcements to the students of Greenwich Elementary was a clear teaching of the repackaged Marxist Ideology Now Loosely termed CRT the majority of the board rejected any problem with this form of cultural Marxism and its precepts and codified its ideals in the whitewashed equity policy even directly using the same namesake Equity that has been responsible for training and teaching in various educational institutions and one example more recently Disney Banning the use of the terms boy and girl Force complete a white privilege checklist encourage support for defund the police to divide

028employees into racially segregated Affinity groups um there's a lot more you can go on this in education um I feel like personally this is a little bit worse because now we're talking um so in Portland last summer in the name of diversity inclusion the tiggered tulatin school district started to conduct and overhaul of the curriculum adopting the educational theories a Brazilian Marxist Paulo fierre whose pedagogy of the oppressed so 768 book with that title was originally designed to instill critical Consciousness among impoverished South Americans and afford the conditions for overthrowing the dictated dictatorial governments of the era these stories are now seemingly endless across the country but I want to focus on the Marxism part here this past December I filed an objection to the book genderqueer we all know the book was supported by

029the Review Committee after this ruling was challenged the board majority supported this book I may be incorrect In terminology and anybody can correct me on I just Loosely use the word supported when it came to involving parents for permission one board member went as far as to say that parental permission was contrary to the reason this book was in the library to begin with meaning parents have no place in decisions like this which is I think certainly how I interpreted that part of the written response I received after completing form 109 was a statement showing book lists record queer included one called great graphic novels for teaching um quote unquote all fall under the Ala uh the American Library Association ala is a thing that started over 100 years ago with the goal to enable

030Library people Librarians to do their present work more easily and at less expense fast forward 2017 they approved the fourth diversity and inclusion 2018 voted to affirm that will apply a social justice framework to the Ala strategic directions on April 13th Emily drabinski was elected as the 2023-2024 president of the Ala and she tweeted quote I just cannot believe that a Marxist lesbian who believes that Collective power is possible to build and can be wielded for a better world as the president-elect of the Ala um I'll save my personal comment because I think all this speaks for itself um I my main goal is uh hopefully that we can now instead of uh running from or denying any connection to Marxism I think this is really clear and the fact that when the first uh

031review came into play uh genderqueer and other books as well not just genderqueer but um there's a lot of books that are going to go ahead and assume that they're um also going to be roundly supported in the same way that these were because the Ala and the Affiliated groups of the AOA are supporting them so I'm concerned that if the Ala with all this is being used support and decide curriculum for the schools what that means and particularly because it seems we're still holding to you know politics is supposed to stay out but I guess I'm just not sure I mean Marxism seems pretty clear is an economic and a political thing and now we're making decisions based on what I just read so I think thank you thank you Mr wisman um no

032one else had signed up but do we have anyone online at Dr Myers okay foreign hi I'm Robin Underwood from Kutztown Borough um I would also like to speak about the item T and parental consent form required for the book genderqueer I would encourage you to rather than requiring consent for a student to look at a book I would think that if a parent would like to ban their child from a book that that would be more acceptable I don't think that um Banning the book in general and requiring permission is a good idea rather if parents would like to manage their own children and leave my children out of it they're welcome to do so so I encourage you to turn that idea around if you're considering having paperwork at all thank you um

033that is everyone that has signed up for comment anyone else online foreign would be moving to new business uh personnel we have item uh a uh one through uh six for personnel it is the recommendation of the administration at the board of school directors approve the following Personnel items and then we have uh A1 through A6 do we have a motion second Motion in a second any questions or comments regarding any of the Personnel items uh hearing none uh roll call uh sorry about that okay [Music] okay uh Paul please Jason cook Jeremiah light yes Dennis Ritter yes Michelle Batts yes aldarian yes Aaron Engel yes Michael has yes Cecilia Holt yes Randy Birch yes motion carries all Personnel are approved pending a receipt of credentials next item is a proposed final budget it is

034the recommendation of the administration that the board of school directors approve of proposed final budget for the 22 2023 school year with revenues of 35 million 361 dollars and expenditures of 35 supported by a real estate tax of 29.9543 Mills per capita tax section 679 five dollars per capita Tax Act five five dollars local Services tax five dollars earned income tax 0.5 percent real estate transfer tax point five percent and five percent do we have a motion so moved uh motion do we have a second second a motion in a second Mr Miller can you maybe just uh explain again what this is as far as a proposed final budget okay uh this is a proposed final budget as it says we are required to pass a proposed final budget at least 30 days before

035we pass the final budget another thing I can say about our budget is that it is not binding in any way so we're going to do whatever we're going to do with these numbers tonight and it could very well be the last time you hear these specific numbers we'll probably be in a different place by the time we get or we could be the same and like I said it's just not binding at all uh but the bottom line is this is a uh zero tax increase uh budget with a uh deficit of approximately six hundred and sixty thousand dollars correct um any uh other questions or comments regarding the proposed final budget I I have a concern I know it's a proposed final budget it's not final but uh my biggest concern is included

036in that deficit for this year is 420 000 shortfall sorry for next year this is a 420 000 shortfall from this year and I'm very concerned that we would be folding from one year into the deficit for the next year we've managed to go what is it six seven years without a tax increase even though many of those years had a had a deficit budget but either we had unexpected less expenses and we've walked out this last year we did not luck out we are shortfall by 420 000. if we keep doing that that's going to take away the fund balance very quickly and at that point I don't know what happens um so my proposal in fact a motion to amend this motion would be that the proposed final budget would include a 0.6

037mil increase in the uh property tax that would cover pretty close to 420 000 shortfall it would increase the taxes by two percentage about and uh uh for an average taxpayer which I happen to have the house that falls right in that category it would mean a sixty dollar increase over the year I realize that things are tough and everything's going up but you know what else went up I I'm gonna make eighteen hundred dollars more in my Social Security this year I think I can take sixty dollars out of that and give it to the schools without a great deal of financial hardship so I'm starting to amend this motion to include that tax increase okay so we addition to is anyone willing to second that is so we have a motion amend any

038uh further uh questions or comments regarding budget uh one of my comments is uh Dr dying brought up about the 400 000 deficit we're facing this year but what about the uh our access money that was put into the budget that was not taken out yet for this year's finances did we apply for that 100 000 that was uh budgeted as part of this current Year's budget or are we not going for that we have not applied yet if the board for it or wants me to apply for it you have to approve it thank you for that reminder if we do that I I my intent is that whatever tax increase we would pass this year would simply cover this year's deficit so that if we reduce that either because Dave discovers uh some

039money that he hasn't seen before or if we approve the access funds and certainly I would suggest that the final budget would reflect the the actual deficit that the the tax increase come very close meeting the shortfall from this year and this year alone if there's you know we can roll the dice for next year no one knows what's going to be happening but for this year we know what happened we fell short I think we need to make that up and whatever it is if it changes then for the final budget certainly I'd suggest we change it to that would the motion to move for the access funds be appropriate to put in with this piece or at a later point in the evening I think that's a separate motion there yeah yeah and

040we do have a budget and finance meeting that's coming up on uh May 23rd and May 23rd so um any other questions or comments uh regarding the proposed final budget um I would just say that between access monies Esser monies and increased funding from the state it's uh my opinion that we would be able to we have now and not have a tax increase for uh this next year so I would not support a a budget that would increase this year but any other questions or comments uh hearing none we will do a roll call this would motion to amend first so again this is for the motion to amend to include the was it a 0.6 uh increase uh at this point to be 0.6 again that could be adjusted later so again this

041is on the motion two of men first we'll call please Jeremiah light no Dennis Ritter yes Michelle Batts no aldarian yes Aaron no Michael Hess yes Cecilia hope no Jason cook no no Randy Burch no motion to amend uh fails so now we're going back to the original motion for the proposed final budget so a roll call for the proposed final budget Dennis Ritter yes Michelle Batts yes uh Darian yes Aaron Engel yes Michael Hess no Cecilia hope yes Jason cook yes Jeremiah light yes Randy Burch yes motion carries uh next item item C is uh Kutztown a high school cafeteria floor repair it is the recommendation of the facilities committee that the board School directors approved the agreement with division nine Contract Flooring to repair flooring in the Kutztown area high school cafeteria at

042a cost of 605 dollars per the attached we have a motion motion do we have a second Ritter seconds a motion in a second any questions regarding the high school bacteria floor repair yeah I have a question about this so thank you uh Mr zimchatton for sending those pictures but I'd still would feel better authorizing this kind of plan of attack to prevent this from happening because my understanding is this happens every five seven years published to keep keep doing the same thing over and over again um you know I understand that the flooring contractor said that it could cost upwards of hundreds of thousands of dollars to do extensive excavation I so those little areas I don't see that without even just doing a small area of excavation to see exactly what really is

043going on in that area I think we need to formulate a plan before we replace and then five years down the road oh we gotta replace it again and here we are again talking about the same issue you know I mean I think the challenge is to to formulate a plan we would need to find out what the origin of the issue is and the the belief is that it's down at the water table and being that it's sort of right in the middle of the um High School cafeteria who's going to have significant for the deviation to it is um it's it's nobody's favorite five years we're gonna have to spend some money to uh fix it again but it does seem well we did not get a direct quote on what it would

044cost to kind of excavate it you know that it's going to be extremely costly to even find out what the real source is to develop a plan to fix it it's nothing to take say a two foot by two foot area bust that concrete out uh remove that concrete and see exactly what's going on underneath that floor and then infill that concrete and if you got to do temporary patch with the flooring or permanent patch with the flooring it's and it's not that cost extensive as what division nine saying that it's going to be I mean like I said you're talking about a two foot by two foot area of concrete that yeah you can do with Roto Hammers and some other really non-invasive means of doing that you know it's foolish to sit here

045and keep throwing money at something that's good continue to rear its head without finding out exactly what's going on any other questions or comments regarding the floor repair for the high school cafeteria floor I'll just mention that at committee meeting we certainly didn't have that conversation pretty extensively um what the options would be and hearing that the water table was like the culprit um there did seem to be some value in taking the five thousand dollars to fix the floor for tripping Hazard and then potentially investigate what else could be done but from a cost and safety perspective we felt like this is the best step forward but we're at the end of the school year so why not take the opportunity to cut a section of the floor out to find out exactly because

046if it's happening in the cafeteria and you're saying it's the water table why doesn't it happen in anywhere else in the school building or or is it it's not happening like this anywhere else it's visible for sure so why just specifically in this one area you know it seemed like I said it's foolish to go at this without having a plan formulated like I said we're going in the summertime here it's really nothing for even the maintenance guys to go in with Roto Hammers and bust that you know two foot by two foot area out at the worst spot and just see what's going on underneath that slab it's not but it's also not I mean in the pictures I sent were just a sample of it so it's it's not two foot by two

047foot it runs the full length of the cafe I'm just saying a two foot by two foot testing I'm not saying rip the whole thing up I'm saying you know if you pick the worst spot of it cut that section of the floor out and see what's going on underneath that you could probably get a pretty good idea of what's causing the rest of the issue I just have a hard time approving something like this and plan in place of how to permanently fix it any other questions or comments regarding the uh before repair have we ever contacted a contractor to actually at least get an estimate on that we did not bring in a country the explanation to us as we talked about in committee was it made sense that bringing someone in to

048dig it up was going to be costly enough that we are yeah you know like you said come up with a plan to fix it it's just we can't even identify the plan without getting in there um you know that's if if the floor isn't approved this evening you know the next step pull from someone on what it would be to dig it up we do believe based on the information you know we share with us and just sort of our assessment of the situation it'll be very possible to do so I mean hearing that I mean I think I would lean to tabling this Motion in at least getting an idea of what it would cost us to excavate a two by two foot and deciding then if it's a worthwhile Avenue to proceed

049with instead of I mean then it's not yeah I mean just one other factor to it is just you know we do over time you know there are some challenges of bringing in contractors to give quotes on things that were not can end up doing you know it happens time and again the next time you want to get somebody in you might factor and it's that's that's been a challenge to school districts and years um but again I think if flooring if this repair is an improved tonight that would be the next step to get this morning and has anybody seen Burr coming out of the floors that leads somebody anybody to believe that it's a water table issue and I mean if the water's I mean if the floor is badly damaged is what

050the picture shows in one of the spots there and it's a water table issue and water should be coming up out of that floor I've seen that plenty of times versus that's happened and you know if nobody's seen water then I I don't know I can't say that it's a water table issue I said that was a hypothesis that was provided um we have not seen water come up through before I'd like to make the motion to table this uh so until we determine if we can uh get someone to at least provide us an estimate to uh investigate the issue so we have a motion to tables or a second a second Motion in a sec questions or comments regarding either the floor repair or the motion table I'm curious who was it who

051speculated that it was the water table or that it was going across upwards it is it is division nine that you know that is the company that we looked into contract for um and they don't do that type of work so it wasn't a way of not that's not a separate but they do the flooring work so they they do the flooring work yeah any other questions I guess I'm just asking and let's put the committee meeting I'm not a member of the committee has have we ever looked at this to see if indeed there is a water table issue in the past if this has happened every five years I I don't recall it happening at the board previously but I haven't been on now five years either okay foreign didn't cost enough that

052it needed to come before the board of repair either I mean there's there's a possibility that wouldn't even come before the board it was long enough ago that the cost established less I I didn't know if there was if we've had that investigated or had and I and I know we did not have the the greatest uh uh director of grounds and buildings and stuff for a while so some of these things went by the board I suspect there are times when we are just left there's no paper trail to go back too many years so we're stuck just hearing people's recollection of what happened and yeah any other questions uh well then one other question and Mr globalistein can answer this as well um if we put this if we put it to hold

053it tonight um do you feel there'll still be time to take care of getting the tiling what do you think is going to be happening as far as our company to take care of getting at least tiled and and protected for students return in the fall foreign to support that either way we have to replace the tiles I heard they're not so I I'll amend my motion to lead with the the flooring repair as it's itemized in the prior to the repair occurring um exploring or at least obtaining an estimate to the what the cost would be to investigate the caulks foreign why don't we do this would you be willing to withdraw the motion and then we could direct the administration to do that investigation yes I'll withdraw the motion yeah that's fine with

054me as long as we you know do the investigation before putting the flooring down okay great point at this point we're back to the original motion with the addition though that we're directing the administration investigation as discussed by Mr light all right so with that understanding uh can we do a roll call please Ricky Michelle Batts aldarian yes Aaron Engel yes Michael has yes Cecilia hope yes Jason Cox yes Jeremiah light yes Dennis Ritter yes Randy Birch yes motion carries next item is item d uh Kohler Landscaping point it is the recommendation of the facilities committee that the board of school directors approve the agreement with Kohler landscape to mow and trim District properties as needed per the attached we have a motion second Motion in a second any questions or comments regarding the cohort

055Landscaping and Lawn mowing but can I just give a quick update to to that which you know as we're doing this sort of a la carte we do have you know four summer to prove this evening to be to cut grass and we also have a plan to cut maxitani on a weekly basis into this contract so it's already we're finding ways to piecemeal some of the properties throughout the summer this would be for those in the instance the question is and I'm assuming this is so um from the information I read the the costs are for each time they come is that correct for those particular properties that's correct okay are many other questions or comments are we letting it up to them uh so say this goes into August and you know it

056dries up are we letting it up to them as to decide whether or not it gets cut or are we going to be calling them this is at our request [Music] s um any other questions at the moment do we Bill we have enough staff to at least handle the main campus I mean yeah Richard's saying yes I think so I mean it's um maybe that's a big no that's a big number on there it is I I'd be you know I'd be very less hesitant with this if that was maybe not part of this initial approval and um it's we tackle this I mean I'm interpreting his yes to be yes if every you know if all the employees stay through through the summer you know all those things that go into it are

057um we hire employees and sometimes they find something else to do afterwards so at this time what we we believe of the staff We Believe will be hired the answer is yes this is pretty much that's a question and honestly we're grateful to Colorado landscaping for for providing us with this flexible oven agreement that just is not typical so so they will come as needed they are on an on-call basis that is correct yes okay I would like to see us put prioritize Kutztown campus as our number one responsibility since that is the biggest number on this quote here you know if we can't handle some of the other outlying like Greenwich or Maxi Colony or the ball fields then yeah let Kohler handle it but I think you know we need to prioritize and

058try to handle the Chris on campus ourselves every you know it comes to those whether it's we typically do prioritize that because that's where the activity occurs in the summer as well that's where students are um foreign call please Ricky yes Aaron Engel yes Michael Hess yes Celia Holt yes Jason cook yes Jeremiah light yes Dennis Ritter yes Michelle Batts yeah Randy Burch action carries next item I to me is uh Kutztown high school basketball backboard winches in is the recommendation of the facilities committee that the board of school directors approved the agreement with CM bike and Lab company to install Wireless operation backboard winches at a cost of twenty three thousand eight hundred eight dollars per the attached we have a motion a second Ritter seconds a motion in a second any uh questions

059or comments regarding the uh Wireless backboard winches I have a question for Dave and in fact about this and EF and G how is this going to be budget is it next year's budget is it this year's budget uh is it are these budgeted items does it come out of construction money they come out of construction many capital projects fun okay thank you any other questions uh hearing none uh roll call please Aaron angle yes Michael has um yes Cecilia hope yes Jason cook highlight yes Dennis Ritter yes Michelle Batts yes aldarian yes Randy Burke motion carries next item item f is Kutztown High School tennis court light pole padding it is the recommendation of the facilities committee that the board of school directors approved the purchase of padding for the tennis court light post

060at a cost of two thousand four hundred fifty five dollars from cm eichenloud we have a motion so move second Motion in a second any questions regarding the tennis court uh light pole padding um it's my understanding that this is due to a student or somebody running into one of the light poles um due to poor visibility yet the ones that are proposed are black somebody explained to me how black padding is going to be better visibility I understand that there's now padding on these poles but the visibility factor is completely gone especially when it starts getting you know towards dusk um I just feel that we're putting a bubble wrap solution around an isolated incident here with something that could actually cause more issues down the road due to the color I understand that

061they're saying they only get it in Black there's got to be other Solutions out there I mean I've seen wrestling mats and other other mats that are blue red yellow you know it I I just I don't know I looked it up on their website they said only available in Black no the first link that was provided was for indoor ones and then that was for last week's meeting but the one that I saw it said only in Black I thought we had discussed putting some type of emblem or something like the cougar emblem or a k or something on the face of them can you see if the logo would be like reflective light reflective at all I think you can get anything it's just a matter of the cost increase it's causing peace

062with reflective yeah yeah I mean I understand that but to put black padding on I don't know what color these holes are um see now we're making them even darker than what they currently are some of the alleged kind of you know visible issue there was more about the way it blended into the background um you know and and we we talked about a variety of different options the intentness wasn't um padding but that's the way quote came through there we can explore if they have other colors for sure or get a logo and get and get reflective well then I I'd like to make a motion to table this until either more colors can be investigated you know reflectivity you know we need a little bit more information before voting on something like this

063I understand it's not that big of a price tag but you know we put these up and then two months down the road you know it becomes an issue black yeah I think we need to table this until there's further investigation so we have a motion to table to look into whether there's other is there a second to that I'll second so we have a motion in a second to the to the tabling any other questions regarding the light pole padding with a tennis court or questions regarding the motion the table I have a comment uh I guess backing up what Mr light and saying correct me if I'm wrong but I feel like the fence is black it probably blend in with events the fence is flat correct any other questions or comments so

064at this point we'll be doing a roll call on the motion to table first or the tennis the High School tennis court okay Paul please Michael has no Cecilia Holt yes Jason Cox yes Jeremiah light yes Michelle Batts yeah Darian Aaron Engel yes Dennis Ritter no Randy Burch yes so the motion the table carries okay so why don't we get a little more information on the padding and whether there's other colors available and then we can bring it back next available board meeting next item you want to have do you want to have some checking on Logo costs as well if they want to do a logo yeah this I mean at this point we'll get the uh we'll do a check on logos we'll do a check on colors okay everything else along with

065costs item G is uh Kutztown high school door locks it is the recommendation of the facilities committee with the board of school directors to prove the agreement with a G Morrow company locks on owners at Kutztown area high school at a cost of 64 460. per the attached do we have a motion so move second second Motion in a second any questions regarding the uh door locks uh the change so that we have one universal uh Key and Lock I understand the need to for this because of you know the multi-number of keys just to get in like for the police department the fire department those types of people um but I did hear that this AEG Morrow did the walk through were there any other quotes because I do know of a bender in

066the Allentown area who supplies these are all Schlage Locks here they Supply equal or better locks than what's proposed here and they do install them as well too contractors that you know they can get to install as well uh just I mean you can't put a price on safety but this company also offers that you know they can supply master keys you know to department heads for certain areas and then you further break it down as well too to your individual keys for each each door you know for the teachers um but I just kind of find that having the same company that did the walk through and that's the only quote that we see or that I've heard of I haven't heard of anybody else but submitted a quote or if anybody else was

067sought out to submit a quote um is falling under prevailing wage that it's so high [Music] from um are there any other companies that are co-stars that can perform the same work that we can contact I mean sixty four thousand dollars is a lot of money to not investigate with some other companies yeah we I mean we think it's my co-stars you're usually going to find that they're all pretty much the same price well we can also look as well too like I said there is a vendor up in the Allentown area that supplies commercial industrial doors and lock do they participate in a state contract co-stars and that I I couldn't tell you but does it really matter we can't use them for a job why can't we use them for a job at

068this price because there's so did we reach out to any other co-star companies besides this one I think as I think Mr Robertson just said was that we've used AG for all of our locks and you know over the for several years and that's this is the company that we had evaluated um it's we've been working on different variations of what trying to online with everything else and her lock is the best price we've been able to get yeah from AJ Martin and this is coming out of the capital funds it's a capital expense or comments regarding the door locks hearing um yeah it is 64 000 for 90 yes it includes the labor I mean it includes all of the mechanics I think we get a lot of quotes you know anymore that everybody

069feels are excessive but that's in our personal lives and our you know in our professional lives it seems cost of getting work done is increasing every day there's a lot of work that goes into identifying the areas of need within the district and a lot of work that goes into finding quality vendors when we when when money is wasted it's when bad work is done you know and by using vendors that we know we do know the quality of work that will come from it I mean that and it's typically is of using those co-star vendors that we've had previously to work to bring these online with the whole District system they all would need to be done yeah I mean that's it's this is a the high school has a variety of different keys

070while the other schools have a standard system so they all need to be done to bring online with that system yeah this is only portions of the high school there are portions that already have this lot so they went and evaluated in the process every single door and what needed to be done like they're not just blanketing every door they're with a brand new one key like they're they the doors actually needed to be replaced to match a majority of the doors the locks that are already in place they did a whole scan of the entire building to understand that okay so with that we're looking to do the roll call at this point Ricky Cecilia Hulk yes Jason cook oh Jeremiah light no Dennis Ritter yes there I am yes Aaron angle no Michael

071has yes Randy Birch yes motion carries next item item H is the 2022 summer programs it is the recommendation of the administration that the board of school directors approve the Staffing for the 2022 summer programs per the attached do we have a motion oh second Motion in a second any uh questions or comments regarding the summer programs uh hearing none roll call please Jason Cox yes Jeremiah light yes Dennis Ritter yes that's yeah our Darian yes Aaron Engel yes Michael hat yes sincerely I hope yes Randy Birch yes motion carries next item item I science research institute summer scholarships it is the recommendation of the administration that the board of school directors approve scholarships for middle school students to the science research institute summer program at a cost of up to six hundred dollars per

072student from Esser funding for Extended Learning do we have a motion Ritter moves second Motion in a second any uh questions uh regarding the science research institute summer scholarships uh hearing none roll call please Jeremiah light yes Dennis Ritter yes Michelle Batts yes aldarian yes Aaron Engel yes Michael Hass yes yes Jason Cox yes Randy Birch yes motion carries next item item J access case reviews it is the recommendation of the administration that the board School directors approve under the direction of the school physician Lois Hall crnp to perform medical access case reviews at a dollars per review effective July 1st 2022 through June 30th 2023 we have a motion still moved second Motion in a second any questions or concerns regarding the access case reviews uh hearing none now roll call please Dennis Ritter

073yes Darian yes Aaron Engel yeah Michael has yes Cecilia Holt yes Jason cup yes Jeremiah white yes Randy Burch yes motion carries next items item k Act 80 days it is the recommendation of the administration that the board of school directors approve additional four full Act 80 Days on May 27th May 31st first in June 2nd of 2022 for the 12th grade teachers do we have a motion second Motion in a second any questions or comments regarding uh Act 80 Days hearing none now roll call Ricky Michelle Batts yes alderian yes Aaron Engel yes Michael has yes Cecilia hope yes Jason cup yes Jeremiah light yes Dennis Ritter yes Randy Birch yes motion carries next item item L appointment of school board treasurer it is the recommendation of the administration that the board of school

074directors appoint Elizabeth Ann Siteman as Treasurer to the Kutztown area Board of school directors for the 2022-2023 school year at a stipend of one same rate as previous years do we have a motion second uh Motion in a second uh any uh starting the appointment of school board treasurer by hearing none now roll call please aldarian yes yes Aaron Engel yes Michael Hess yes Billy hope yes Jason cook yes Jeremiah light yes Dennis Roder yes Michelle Batts yeah Randy Burch yes motion carries next item item sensation of school board secretary it is the recommendation Administration that the board of school directors approve a two thousand five hundred dollar stipend for Ricky L Devoe as secretary to the Kutztown area Board of school directors for the 2022-2023 school year same rate as previous years Mrs Devoe

075was appointed June 30th 2025. do we have a motion so move second Motion in a second any uh questions regarding the uh compensation for school board secretary uh hearing none now roll call please Aaron Engel yes yes Jeremiah yes Dennis Ritter yes Michelle Batts yeah altharian yes Randy Birch yes motion carries next item item n uh Kutztown Area Middle School summer Learning Adventure is the recommendation of the curriculum committee that the board of school directors approved the quote from Blue Marsh or excuse me from Blue Mountain Resort for students to attend the summer Adventure park with their grade level at a cost of 47 dollars per person during the summer of 2022. do we do we have a motion yeah I just want to I mean it's in some of the other emotions it's not

076that one this is also an Esser expense directly related to the Esser seven percent um set-aside Grant just wanted to make sure that was known thank you for that clarification uh any uh or first do we have a motion second second emotions questions regarding the Middle School summer Learning Adventure uh hearing none roll call please Michael Hess yes Cecilia hope yes Jason cook yes Jeremiah light yes Dennis Ritter yes Michelle Batts yeah aldarian yes Aaron ankle yes Randy Burch yes motion carries next item item o truth initiative partnership it is the recommendation of the curriculum committee that the board of school directors approved the proposed partnership with truth Initiative for curriculum and programs to support vaping awareness and do we have a motion Ritter moves second Motion in a second any questions regarding uh truth

077initiative partnership by hearing people please Cecilia Holt yes Jason cook yes Jeremiah light yes Dennis Ritter yes Michelle Batts yeah aldarian yes Aaron Engel yes Michael has yes Randy Burch yes motion carries I could just take a moment thank um publicly thank Kutztown strong uh for partnering with us and actually uh connecting us with the truth initiative some programming into the middle school and also to our ministers have been meeting with the Kutztown strong folks on this particular topic uh good around including Kutztown Borough Police and mayor Schlegel trying to attack the raping issue as a community so thank you specifically to cook sound strong for making the connection with the truth initiative well thank you and uh thanks to uh could sound strong also for that next item is item P IMR digital it

078is the recommendation of the administration that the board of school directors approve the service of IMR digital to scan special educations student files per the attached fee schedule do we have a motion so moved second a motion in a second uh any questions or comments regarding the IMR digital uh service agreement I have two questions about this one what is what do they do after they're done scanning it and putting on you know obviously goes on to their computer system what do they do with that information they do yeah the only information is ours yeah and IMR ick on their end and we are the only ones left with that information okay and would it make more sense to get two hard drives and keep them in separate locations just in case of something happening

079to one I mean you know if the hard drive's lost now we got to go through this whole process again whereas if we have two of them it's easy to make a copy of one and have a second one on hand again you know it's only you're only talking I think they said 150 for a hard drive yeah I mean we haven't had any issue with obviously any destruction of them but we certainly I'll look into that I mean something we haven't talked about because it's not the standard but that doesn't mean it's not a good idea it's something that we can look at um and it could report back on whether that's why that would or would not be an option um it's like I can't think of any reason why not but I'm

080just looking at redundancy issues you know like I said in case if something happens to that one hard drive now you know what do we do again right and we yet and we don't have information we must have legally for a length of time so I'll look into it so any other questions or comments regarding the uh motion we have the second one uh hearing none roll call please Jason cook yes Jeremiah light yes Dennis Ritter yes Michelle Batts yes alderian yes Aaron Engel yes Michael Hess yes Cecilia Holt yes Randy Burch yes motion carries next item is item Q Ed Insight instructional management system is the recommendation of the administration that the board of school directors approved the agreement with Harris education Solutions on hand schools Inc for the Ed Insight instructional management system

081effective May 17 2022 through June 30th 2027 per the attached schedule do we have a motion Ritter moves second Motion in a second any uh questions or comments uh regarding the Ed Insight instructional management system hearing none now roll call please Jeremiah light yes Dennis Ritter yes Michelle Batts yes aldarian yes Aaron Engel yes Michael Hess yes Cecilia hope Jason cup yes Randy Birch uh yes motion carries next item is item r recommendation of the administration that the board of school directors approve the conference requests for employee number 2053 to attend the virtual LaSalle University apsi biology workshop on July 11th through 14 2022 at a cost of one thousand three hundred dollars do we have a motion moved second uh Motion in a second any uh questions or comments regarding the conference request hearing

082none now roll call please Dennis Ritter yes Michelle baps Darian yes Aaron Engel yes Michael has yes Cecilia hope yes Jason cook yes Jeremiah light yes Randy Birch yes motion carries next item item s uh donation acceptance it is the recommendation of the board of School director is the recommendation that the board of school directors accept the donation of the book series The Tuttle twin Elementary School library from moms for Liberty [Music] Motion in a second any uh questions regarding the donation uh hearing none uh roll call please Michelle Batts yeah yes Aaron Engel yes Michael Hess yes Cecilia Holt yes Jason cook yes Jeremiah light yes Dennis yes Randy Birch yes motion carries next item is item t parental consent form the board of school directors will consider a motion to approve a provision

083requiring parental consent for students to access the book genderqueer to be accessed in the high school library so the way this reads we would be looking for emotion I think we had actually had a vote on this before so technically we would want the motion to come from someone that had voted no some of the parental consent Dr Ritter okay so we have the motion uh is there a second to that motion so we have a motion in the second and uh do we have any uh questions or comments now that we have a motion in a second Dr Ritter I'm gonna make a I want to make a substitute motion that I think gets at the intent without singling out a particular volume or resource and if it's second I will speak to it

084the motion is that the administration created administrative regulations regarding the availability of Library resources and will create a form that allows parents to identify Library resources that their child or children 18 years of age should not access so that would uh be your motion to amend Dr Ritter yeah to substitute or amend yes however you want to use that okay so uh at this point procedurally I would be uh looking to see if there is any second to that motion to amend oh second so we have a motion in a second on the amendment um given the motion to amend uh Mr would you be willing to withdraw your original motion is that is the emotion to amend satisfactory that would however I would not okay so uh with that being the case we have

085the the motion and the emotion to amend do we have any uh questions or comments uh regarding uh the parental consent issue Mr President may I speak to my motion okay um I I make this motion because um if we take the other approach we're going to be doing that for all kinds of resources perhaps within along the way for one reason or another the motion that I am recommending that we accept instead as a replacement covers all of those resources parents will have an opportunity uh as they should have a right to control their children's uh access to materials certainly up through the age of up until the age of 18. um as they do with um phones they can do parental lockouts on phones TVs computers it seems only fair that we should

086do that with other resources as well the other is that it will bring this our the way Library resources are treated into kind of the same way we treat classroom resources so that's why I looked at going in this route where parents in with classroom resources have a right to come in and and identify with the faculty some other alternative this would also give parents right that they have to do that with with Library resources those resources available to other families and children who want to have the up to read them and I think we'll be less problematic as far as our staff having to deal with all kinds of separate permission forms are we regularly providing lewd and obscene images to our students I'm sorry what's that I said are we regularly providing lewd

087and obscene images to our students I've read the book I'm sorry I characterize it very differently than you do I won't be voting for the amendment and not just for this reason but one word stands out at the end was should not access can you hear that sentence yes it's a continued sentence from the beginning it reads that the administration created administrative regulations regarding the availability of Library resources and will create a form that allows parents to identify Library resources that their child or children under 18 years of age should not access in other words the form would be a form where parents would be able to identify various resources books videos whatever might be the kind of thing that parents would say we don't want our child to read that or see that are

088we going to print out the full Library collection for every parent in the high school give that to them so they can go through it and pick which books they don't want their kids to look at and then send that back to the school and we're only talking about currently one book here you can always come back and revisit this policy some other time well other books have been identified at times so I have no idea how many books we're looking at I just think mule approach and this will and this will allow parents to exercise their parents so we're going to give every parent in this school district and for kids in the high school list on paper so that they can every single book that's in the high school library so they can

089fill out a form and say I don't want this book this book and this book accessed by my child and then how are we going to make sure that the or the substitute librarian when regular one's out follows the parental wishes versus if they don't have a consent form to take the paper out I mean the book out there's that's you know that there's first that's the miserator please let me finish okay I mean the consent form to access that book seems to be an easier solution rather than having some database somewhere in the library that states Johnny can act wow Missy over here can't get these books I mean you're talking you know how many students in the high school that now you got to create a database for and expect you know the

090librarian to keep checking that every time they bring a book up all the time I mean the consent form in my opinion seems to be the easiest solution the problem that we have the administrative regulations would identify how that's all going to happen and it would provide a more Universe in this case just as we talk about processes for building instruction items this would provide an appropriate process for this action as far as creating a form and would broaden it to any other resources Beyond just a single book and we already have similar uh procedures for families to exempt their children from instructional materials which has not created a problem to provide those children materials or other activities so I feel that it's manageable for that reason I also feel that there are a lot

091of families who are comfortable trusting the professionals who elections and don't feel a need to exempt their from any of the materials are happy to have their children experience the positive themes that they can glean of books and not singling out any particular book this book or any other one that might be a bad fit for a certain family um takes this takes care of the whole issue at once and then every family has mental choice and what's a good fit for their family works and they can say they can not choose to opt their children out of any of the resources that have been professionally selected or they can either physically enter the library discover that or look at the already existing online catalog and identify things that are not at that time a

092good fit for their family any other questions or comments from the board mishold which policy referring to that uh from instruction um 19 Maybe I believe it's 105.2 and I mine from that policy so this is after the rights well let me read a couple the rights branded by this policy are granted to parents are guardians of students enrolled in this district and the student is under the age of 18 and to the students themselves when the student is 18 or over the district shall excuse any student from specific instruction subject to the following conditions I want to skip down to line number three it shall not be the responsibility of the district or any of its employees to ensure that the student exercises his or her right to be excused in accordance with a

093parental request I also want to just point out that you continually stay definitely selected and established already this evening by Mr wisdom myself and my uh new business in our last meeting where the professionally uh selected was by the American Library Association who has recently outed themselves as a Marxist organization um neither the recently elected president nor the American Library Association is employed by this school district but you're using their recommendation to approve this book or any other book for that matter so you know I think that the trained Librarians have been doing this for a long time and resources and their professional experience and judgment to develop collections that fit a wide variety of students in our district so back at the January 18th meeting when I made the original motion that asked to

094create the consent form for this book um I I reflected after that meeting on on the conversations and things and I think one thing that stood out to me is the comments that Mr Dunn actually provided as a student perspective where there are limitations in terms of the content that's visible on their computers and the content particular book is as a graphic novel it's it's an illustration it's not just words and so we had that conversation as well and so um for those reasons I would support the emotionize it stands to to create the consent form for this particular as as a practical matter uh there's lots of different problems one of the biggest problems that I see is that a high school has kids in it from the age of 13 and a half

095to 19. uh you know I find it kind of ironic that in Pennsylvania the age of 16 is the age of consent so a 16 year old can consent to have sex but needs parental permission to read about it that sounds a little inconsistent to me on a practical basis on the other hand I spent a lot of time with 14 year olds Mr Wismer can tell me whether they've changed in the last 16 years or not but somehow I I doubt it except for the fact that no one's checked out this book uh so maybe the kids have got complicated but but from a practical matter requiring parental permission to get the book teenagers even with very good you know open families are willing to go and say hey Mom can I get permission

096to get this book out I certainly think the parent should have the right to refuse to allow that to happen but I don't see if a parent that a family that has that kind of open communication that kid's not going to need it some kids struggling with their gender identity that wants to look at other uh histories of people's experiences they are exactly the ones that may have the most difficulty voicing this to their parents and for that reason I I am against requiring permission but because of the great diversity and maturity level you get at the high school I can easily support the right of a parent to refuse to allow to prohibit the uh use the prohibit the ability of the child to check out the book but I don't think we need

097prior permission ahead of time before they can do so okay thank you Dr Darian any other questions or comments [Music] I feel like in reading the school's policies I heard the word ciao at least two times I feel like Xiao would be more fitting again I don't I will bow to Shell that's fine I'll agree no yeah so if there's no other question or comment before we uh would do any type of roll calls on this uh Dr Ritter read your Amendment one more time and include the uh the wording with the the word child right then we can do our roll call all right that the administration created administrative regulations regarding the availability of Library resources and we'll create a form that'll to identify Library resources that they're children under 18 years of age

098shall not access so with that the first vocal would be on the motion to amend just so that everyone understands what we're voting on to start I have one more question so I was in 105.2 where it says that your parent can request the student to be excused but then it absolves the District of all responsibility um right so looking at that the students can do something outside the purview of that direct teacher um and then this is trying to say that the teacher is not responsible if the student tries to access that information process of the instruction which their parent was objecting to um in the event that whether it was a permission slip or an AR that parents were able to identify books they would the student would not be able to take

099the book check out the book is essentially what it is that's what we're telling them could a student choose to access the information Another Place Another way through another mechanism not following that process you know that we can't be responsible for that so no the answer is no the district will not be responsible the student still is able to check out the book no we wouldn't be responsible if they were still able to access the information outside of the process of checking out a book is what I was saying now I mean for either process I think that would be true and with that can we do the roll call on the motion to amend yes Michael Hess sorry I'm just uh thinking yes yes Jason cook no Jeremiah light no Dennis Ritter yes Michelle

100Batts no Randy Burke Ricky I'm sorry I thought we were voting on just about understanding that we were going through with accepting understanding that he was making me amendment I did not intend to vote for the amendment I thought we were just acknowledging that he made the amendment I'm sorry okay uh just just completely do a new role I'm sorry okay um so uh Ms angle you you are indicating that you uh made a mistake you didn't understand what that's great voted on I voting yes that I was acknowledging that Dr generator was making it so with with that uh we're gonna I apologize we're going to do roll call one more time again this is on the motion to amend as a Ritter so with that Ricky uh roll call please yes Cecilia hope

101yes Jason cook oh Jeremiah light no Dennis Ritter yes no Randy Birch no motion to amend uh does not carry so that would take us back original motion [Music] approve a provision requiring parental consent for students to access the book genderqueer to be accessed in the high school library roll call please wait can we have more discussion on this because we were discussing the other motion before we can certainly continue to discuss sure so now that we're talking about singling out a particular title that is clearly about a traditionally marginalized group who are underrepresented in literature signifying to those students and their families that their experience matter to us really exclusionary to people in our school district I do not believe that that serves our students at all I got this book I have read

102has positive themes regarding consensual intimate relationships which is something that high school students struggle with supportive family Dynamics medical self-advocacy advocacy thank you and I would be very pleased children who are recent high school graduates and would have loved to have them read it during High School I absolutely cannot support Banning a particular title for those reasons it's not a fan it's a parental consent it's singling out look to not allow people to access it that makes it a ban as a practical matter it's going to do that the only reason it's probably not going to be very effective is that this availability for that book in lots of places so uh I find it uh disturbing that as a educational Institution we have singled this out um and that's why I will be opposable

103in our resources though we restrict what students have access too and so as you say this book is available many other places [Music] on the Libby app and get it from the public library system there are other avenues for students to obtain it it's just within the school district if we have certain standards with regards to digital content Would we not carry that over to others the reason one of the reasons that we have that is because it's tied to the Federal e-rate or um the computers so we could choose not to utilize e-rate and we wouldn't have to agree to that so it's not really an inconsistency of approach it's so that we can take advantage of the e-rate we have to have that wording in there any other questions or comments uh I'm

104just going to conclude my comments by saying I think in fact by accepting this motion that was put forward um regarding this particular book we are going to create exactly what Mr cup was concerned about with my motion and that is paperwork Galore for our Librarians um whether it's at the high school elementary or middle school so just sand doctor very in all parents I do believe it'd be easier to maintain one list of names for one book than many lists of names for all of the books in our library and I mean for that reason I I do believe that this is the easier solution but I think it's a solution to a problem with the board as has created but why are we singling out this particular book that's just the reason that

105I just just said the re the the problem that has risen is because so many parents and some students in this school district have objections to the content not just on a political level but in terms of like January the fact that it is after school setting in my opinion and opinion of many others so I I think the reason that the particular book is chosen is because it's one of the only books thankfully that has that problem so we're effectively agreeing to ban a book that's what you're saying it also brings the opportunity time that one family or a group of families doesn't think a book is appropriate for their family they can come to the board and say that and then we have to start having a permission slip for that book as

106well there are plenty of books that I wasn't necessarily thrilled for my children to read but because they were curated by professionals and they were reading then they could read we could discuss and we could grow that way as a family well it sounds like we're reevaluating our book selection process so I wouldn't think that a lot of this would hope and we wouldn't be in this position moving forward no book is right for every single family I'm not saying that's the case and it won't be regardless of how our selection process is but every family can determine which books they don't think work for their family individually and that without infringing on the rights of other families first of all I would like to say we're not Banning any books so stop saying we're

107Banning books we are not Banning any books what we are doing is asking for parental consent to take this book out that's no different than asking parental consent for a child to go on a field trip we had to give parental does it go up to Kutztown University which is only a couple blocks up the road here so there's no difference between getting parental consent to go on a field trip a couple blocks up the road versus somebody taking a book out of a library so please stop saying we're Banning books we're not Banning a book The book's not being thrown out of this Library it's just getting parental consent for a child to take it out of the book out of the library and this is what I I agree that your assessment of

108the book of being very useful to many people um in our school there's too many students is very accurate and I do believe it's an issue that should be examined but at the same time um I think if is a mistake possibly in the office part to include content that I believe excludes it from being part of a under 18 educational environment um because the themes in it are themes that should be examined but some of the content in the book is simply not appropriate for audiences that are under the age of 18. in my in my opinion but I agree that especially for example um at the public library in Kutztown or other resources or sources to find the literature that it's something that our society and our community should care about um embracing

109any other questions or comments hearing none now roll call please Ricky angle just to be clear we're voting on parental consent original motion okay yeah yeah that was a yes then yes I go ask no Cecilia hope oh Jason Cox yes Jeremiah light yes Dennis Ritter no no Michelle Batts yes aldarian no Randy Birch yes motion carries [Applause] [Music] next item is interesting this by board members does anyone have new business to be brought by the board I'd like to make a motion to direct the administration to apply for the hundred thousand dollar access fund that were previously budgeted in this past Year's budget allocation foreign we could do that now but I thought we had discussed that that might be more appropriate at the May 23rd budget and finance meeting why not just do

110it now and get it over with all right so we have a second for the uh [Music] application of the 100 000 in Access funds due to act 65 we first need a motion to add a new item and then we can have a motion to item on the agenda so with that explanation uh Mr light to amend your motion to be to be motion to add the approval of the application of one hundred thousand dollars of access funds to the budget yes a second uh Motion in a second any uh questions or comments uh regarding uh the motion to add I I just checked with Mr Miller and he said that we did this next week as we had discussed previously that we he would have enough time to do it so to put

111in the application so I'm comfortable letting it go till next week okay um and again this would just be a motion to add that for there to be a vote later on for purposes of act six any other questions or comments a hearing nun roll call please Michael Hess yes Cecilia hope yes Jason cut yes Jeremiah light yes Dennis Ritter no Michelle Batts yeah out there Aaron angle yes Randy Birch yes motion carries okay okay so does anyone in the public have any comment on the uh motion to add the 100 000 in Access funds so just so just some context questions are there are um federal dollars that we have called access um as an acronym for the purpose of spending on special education and it's a pool a reserve account that we have

112to actually apply for the money and we have to dedicate why we are using it for special education funds this pool builds up over time the purpose of it is it's really like your rainy day fund for special education purposes um and we in the budget last year there was um revenue of a hundred thousand dollars pulled from that account and there's times annually we would budget some revenue from that account then at the end of the year make a decision on whether or not we are going to actually apply for that funding from that account for that year so this is a motion to apply for a hundred thousand dollars of access money that's in our school district specific special education account controlled apply for that to apply to the 2122 budget which in

113theory of all things continue the way they are projected would reduce that expected 400 some thousand dollar deficit to be a three hundred thousand dollar deficit is that decision well with that you got it with that context does anyone in the public have any comment anyone online Dr Myers so at this point I'm told we could just put this to a motion this time so uh we have the motion then to direct the administration to make the application of the one hundred thousand dollars of access funds to be applied towards the budget yes I make the motion I'll second any questions or comments regarding the motion in the second I do have a question um so what's our current access fund balance um and what do we expect um like what's the maximum that balance

114is going to be I know access funds are only divvied out over a certain period of time and then they essentially are no more so we do have a limited amount of access funds um it's not like that money is going to come in in perpetuity it's it's once it's used it's done correct yeah I well first of all I think we have about five hundred thousand dollars in our access fund that money is kept by pee uh we can spend it whenever we want to if there's a limit on when that I have never heard of pde taking access money back so I'm not sure no there there is no limit but Asus pde will remind us that at any point that could that funding can stop increasing in that account it's a program

115that is continually maintained and there is once in a while there's some movement within the government to stop funding that account so that's that's one of the concerns is that um at some point it may not May longer be funded but for now we expect it to be funded annually what's our rough annual um amount that we pull in for Access then was it like 90 no I don't think it's that much at all I don't know I don't know on a yearly basis what we have it's not always the same amount okay all right we'll get a statement at the end of the year of how much money is in that access account and then we know what we can access for the following year if need be okay any other questions or comments

116hearing none know we'll call please Ricky Cecilia Holt oh yeah Jason Cox yes Jeremiah light yes Dennis Ritter yes Michelle Batts yes aldarian yes Michael has yes Andy roach yes motion carries any other new business to bring before the board Mr Butch I have one item um I just uh you know watch sitting through a nice board meeting I think would be appropriate um to ask Mr light to join the facilities uh committee I'm moving forward um it raises a lot of uh valid concerns and uh challenging questions that I think would be better suited in during committee time um so I just like ask Mr light if he would consider that and if he would I would like to ask that uh Mr Burton might find a way to accommodate that Mr light along

117with any board member is more than welcome to attend any committee meeting that committee meeting and any board member so Mr light can attend those anytime he wishes you really have a vote remember that shows up to a committee has a vote Yes um if they choose to join the committee yet when they're here and this level questions that you're asking are more appropriate in that committee at that committee level makes sense but we took somebody we've had five people on the policing curriculum before and reduced it to four because of the concerns about meeting the Quorum right so if I show up to a facilities and extracurriculars committee meeting invoke so that means we're at five votes now and that means the Forum but we're not taking forward action that's just that would be

118just for the committee to make a recommendation where it would go to the whole board for consideration so why did we reduce the policy and curriculum to four out of fear of meeting a quorum it's just some questions I I have you know they're more than welcome to attend any of the committee meetings and you are always welcome to attend the uh but it's just okay I mean at the time of developing committees Mr Mancuso you know does advise we don't have five on a committee because it's it is a quorum um which comes with response of that committee so we just there are times when we also have more than you know four committee members at a committee meeting as well from a business uh hearing none moving on to public comment on non-agenda

119items uh no one from the public signed up for anything for any non-agenda comment anyone online uh Dr Myers next item is informational items we have the condensed in the audience okay uh please come forward and state your name is that on okay uh Jennifer koffinger from Kutztown um I just want you to consider um as you're making your final budget proposal because we heard what you approved tonight could look nothing like the final budget and one of the board members um kind of made it the impression that a tax hike on the residents of Kutztown wouldn't be a problem because he's gotten a raise the majority the overwhelming majority of people in this District right now are struggling beyond belief having trouble deciding whether to buy food or gas how they're going to get

120their kids this place that it's a real struggle right now and it's only getting worse we cannot hand any tax hike so my suggestion would be figure out how to responsibly spend that the taxes and whatever else funds Esther funds that you have coming in do it responsibly and act like every member of the community has to you make this much money you spend this much money when you don't you stop so figure out how to spend it wisely do not raise our taxes because we cannot handle it thank you thank you ma'am and and with that uh we're moving on to our first we have the condensed board summer report cafeteria fund report upcoming meetings and informative dates May 23rd is the student achievement committee meeting 6 p.m middle school and by Zoom May

12123rd the budget and finance committee meeting 7 PM middle school and by Zoom June 6 workshops school board meeting 7 30 p.m at the middle school and by Zoom June 13 is the policy and curriculum committee meeting 6 p.m middle school and by Zoom June 13th is the facilities and committee meeting and that is at 7 pm at the middle school by zoom and with that I would be looking for a motion to adjourn [Music] all in favor say aye aye aye that concludes tonight's meeting