001like to call this meeting to order would everyone please rise for a moment of silent meditation watch the flag like to welcome everyone this evening and thank them for coming there is a log in the back of the room that still exists for people that would like to sign up for public comment there will be time for public comment both before new business as well as after new business there was also an executive session prior to this meeting to review both personnel and legal items with that roll call please ricky michelle batts here randy burch here here michael house here cecilia holt dennis ritter here eric johnson here and if the record could show i'm on zoom because i have kobid carl nolte charles sher here our first order of business will be the approval
002of minutes from the first 2021 school board meeting do i have a motion so moved ritter second motion a second questions or corrections regarding those needs hearing on roll call backs yeah randy birch yes aldara michael hass yes cecilia yes eric johnson yes yes joshua yes carl nalty yes so approved next is item four the treasurer's report mr miller thank you mr nolte this is the treasurer's report for october 2021 the month began with a cash balance of 16 443 513 dollars and six cents we had receipts of two million three hundred fifty four thousand fourteen dollars and thirty two cents paid bills and paid two million eight thousand one hundred forty eight dollars and seventy nine cents leaving us with a cash balance at month end of sixteen million forty nine thousand three hundred
003seventy dollars and fifty nine cents thank you mister for a motion for the treasurer's report so moved emotions are a second second let's just second any comments or questions from mr miller hearing none roll call please ricky randy birch yes darian yes michael cecilia holt eric johnson yes dennis ritter yes joshua yes michelle batts yes carl nalty yes so approved this item five approvals for payment will start with a letter a ratif from the account including manual of one million seven hundred twenty six dollars 69 cents to have emotion ritter moves motions are second question most just second comments or questions around uh item a application of bills from hearing none roll call please aldarian yes michael house yes cecilia holt yes yes dennis ritter yes joshua yes michelle batts yeah birch yes carl nelty
004yes so approved next is item b approval of bills for payment from the general account the amount of 716 for questions regarding item b hearing none roll call please ricky michael house yes cecilia holt yeah eric johnson yes yes dennis yes joshua yes michelle bats yeah andy birch yes aldarian yes carl nelty yes so next is item c ratification that bills are payment from the construction count in the amount of 4 989. and 36 cents don't have a motion so moved motions are a second second just a second any comments or questions hearing no real call please ricky cecilia holt eric johnson yes dennis ritter yes joshua yes michelle batt yeah randy birch yes aldarian yes michael house yes carl nelty yes so approved next is item d approval from the commission account in the
005amount of 206 186 dollars and 78 cents is better motion motion is our second second motion a second any comments or questions item d approval bills for payment from the construction account so mr president before we vote on this i just want to thank mr miller i had several questions on different line items throughout the reports and he was super responsive in explaining them so just wanted to acknowledge mr miller in your office so thank you for that you're welcome anyone else hearing no roll call please ricky johnson yes dennis ritter yes joshua yes michelle batt randy burch yes aldarian yes michael house yes cecilia holt yes carl nalty yes so approved next is item 6 communications and reports we'll start with the superintendent's report mr timchat thank you a few items good news from
006the superintendent's report before we move to our presenters for the evening over the last week we had several events celebrating veterans day he in every school honoring the community members or relatives of students in each greenwich elementary school kutztown middle school or kutztown elementary school who served our country as our veterans states one of the branches of the united states military the three different events included at greenwich elementary school students honor local students with a special veterans day drive-through parade the parade was led by mayor and veteran mr jim schlegel students got to enjoy the beautiful weather while singing patriotic songs and celebrating and waving thanking the veterans there at greenwich elementary school in the middle school middle school students created a flip grid page which is a series of video stories about their veterans
007students interviewed veterans in their family their lives and shared those with their classmates with mr brown and with their teachers to honor those who have served our country and at cutscene elementary school on friday we welcome 33 veterans representative gary day addressed the crowd and announced each of the veterans and they were presented a gift from the student who was welcoming him then that day veterans were presented with an american flag notes tokens of appreciation and received congressional uh from representative day there were three different ways to honor the veterans on veterans day last week um everyone who attended each of the events whether it was virtually or in person seem to have a great time in the patriotic spirit of thanking those who have put their lives on the line for the freedoms that
008we have the benefit to have as a result of their service so all veterans and thank you to our students and staff for coordinating those events in other news i just want to personally say a thank you to our three board members this will be the last board meeting for those who have served for five years or like to thank each personally for their leadership of the district dr johnson mr nolte and mr scherr dr johnson and mr nolte serving eight years on the kutztown area school board and mr sure five years in that time we've seen great improvements both to the facilities and the grounds here at kutztown area school district we've seen phenomenal gains in achievement and opportunities for students and at each opportunity making decisions and recommendations that help us improve the
009programs that offer opportunities to students of the quit center area school district there's said often that this is this can be a thankless job but by keeping students at the forefront of all decisions the leadership is greatly appreciated for all those who have had the opportunity to witness and and many of those who are not that fortunate so i'd like to thank each and every one of you for your leadership for students and especially mr nolte as our board president this year it's uh never earliest job to to be the board president help keep things coordinated but um couldn't have asked for a better job to be done so thank you enjoy enjoy your monday evenings going forward thank you all for additional good news we have some representatives from the kutztown high school ffa
010chapter here to share some of their experience international uh trip that they took so let's position the video on microphone so this october we had the opportunity to go to indianapolis for the national ffa convention and we put together a live show just to show you a little bit about what we did there and all the opportunities we had as well as to thank you for all of your support as we went on this trip the first thing we did was national convention and opening ceremony this was where to sit down and listen to a keynote speaker and she gave an amazing an amazing message her name was courtney dehaw also known as the fancy lady cowgirl her message was pretty much that no matter this no matter what stereotype people put you in you
011can always prevail over that stereotype and do what you want to do and that was an amazing experience she had a very persuasive um message uh and the expo was a shopping as well as a college like a college fair um we went around it got some information about different colleges across the nation and kind of just supported themselves and gave us a little bit about what programs they had to offer we stopped at the flight 93 memorial in somerset county pa and we got to see the monument to where the plane crashed um very somber atmosphere and we were very honored to be there and see the honor for those that sacrificed for our nation on that day it is now 197 acre national park and it is preserved for people to come see
012the museum in itself sugar creek genetics is a farm that specializes in show pig genetics they collect samples for artificial insemination and they get packaged and shipped out all over the world different farms to breed their pigs that was super burning um very very touching experience definitely learned a lot we got to see the collection under a microscope and that was very interesting to see how that all worked dickinson cattle company is a thousand acre ranch in ohio they have a thousand head of cattle uh which are texas horns and uh water they all have a huge expanse of horn some of them are over six feet in diameter um again they have the largest domesticated population of texas long worlds we take it through the fields and see the catalog close it was a
013great experience they talked us through how they raised them how they market them and how they processed them beasley's orchard was an orchard in indianapolis um it's 165 acres and the owner of the business actually came in and gave us a presentation about the kinds of apples that he uses how he plants his trees about his labor and everything he's done to grow the business throughout the years to be accessible in the agriculture community and that was super enlightening he was very informative and a lot of information about how climate affects the seasons of the apples and the different types of apples that are profitable and grow well in the that he has trees is a fourth generation fishery in indianapolis there's 15 million ornamental koi and goldfish annually and they ship them around the
014globe they have facilities for the fry which are the baby fish that they raised them from eggs up until they're ready to be shipped out and marketed or released into one of their 40 grow out ponds whole process of breeding feeding and harvesting eggs and we also got to interact with the fish ourselves and see how they transport the stock throughout the tanks the indianapolis zoo is uh hundreds of different animals they had everything from reptiles to elephants and dolphins we got to pet stingrays in one of their enclosures it's similar to the philadelphia zoo in my opinion it's much more easy to get lost in the indianapolis zoo so we had a lot of fun experiences we got to see how the animals interact with their environment that they're given and how the zoo
015provides for the animals overall and they do a really excellent job about that the indianapolis motor speedway was the first official speedway in the united states they're famous for their indy 500 happens annually and the stadium itself was built in 1908. we got to take a tour bus around the track and they explained to us the entire history of the track the traditions of the race car drivers and all the past winners we got to kiss the bricks as race car drivers do and we learned about a special tradition in winner of the indy 500 will drink a glass of milk to show support for the dairy industry on live television and that was great to see support of the agriculture industry overall those experiences were very enlightening very educational experience and we valued every
016single one of them equally we just wanted to thank you all for your support and allowing us to go on this trip and have this amazing experience and we hope to keep going on this annually thank you very much thank you for sharing your experience and thank you mrs brown for your leadership and um always advocating for students to go on the trip um no matter what it takes to fill a van and drive part way across the country the amazing experiences you know in addition to the agricultural sciences that you get to experience um are just invaluable but i always hear talking with ffa students over the years though it's the leadership experience learned by interacting with the industry that could apply anything out inside the egg or outside the ag industry so thank
017you for choosing leadership within the organization and uh thank you for sharing with us today may i ask a question quickly maybe you have the answer maybe you don't i'm just kind of curious when you visited the orchard um did he mention if he's having issues with lanternflies like our apple or gear there wasn't much talk about lanternfly specifically we did touch on how they keep rodents away from the bottom of the trees and how they kind of work to do their best to prevent that from being a major problem in the orchard and he just talked about keeping the grass away so rodents don't burrow because in their environment i feel rodents are more of a threat than right now when eyes especially as the season gets colder thanks any other questions thank you
018for sharing thanks and just to before we move to committee reports i just want to call out that as we get to the agenda under be called the recommendation of the policy curriculum committee the director's first reading of policy 809 educational equity um as a first reading you know in pa law the first can occur with time between agendas from first reading to second reading but our policy requires that it seems continuous or becomes a first reading again so that is a change that the policy 809 recommendation is for first reading on agenda item b with with that we'll move to the board committee reports we will start with policy and curriculum mr nalty um we had three items on the agenda last week at the meeting the one being policy 809 that mr tim
019chattan just referenced and we put some additional finishing touches on that and sent it to this and then as part of our review process we reviewed policy 001 and policy 003 which both referred to the school board the name and classification our district and the other one being functions of the board and those were both marked reviewed with no changes and we did not have any curriculum issues on or items i should say on that agenda and dr darian wanted to contribute at the monday meeting i accused jerry sievert of lying at the last board meeting at that meeting she stated that she was holding in her hand had been checked out of the kutztown high school library i interpreted this to mean that the actual book the object she had in her hand had
020been checked out i knew this could not be true because having personally investigated i am certain that copies of the book had never been circulated however in parsing her statement carefully i can admit that it could be interpreted to mean that a copy of that book checked out of the library although this statement is still false and the phrasing of the comment may have been deliberately chosen to mislead and i can deceive it believed it to be accurate characterizing it as a lie would not be correct and i apologize for having done so mr darian well that will move to facilities in ecc mr birch yes for the extracurricular meeting uh mr yap suga had given a fall sports end of the season presentation running down the fall sport season also i would just want
021to point out that the football team and the cheerleaders recently had done a food drive where they took toiletries and coffee type products and dried foods and goods and did a drive and had a very successful uh donation to i believe it was friends inc so uh great job by uh everybody uh involved uh with that yeah part of mr birch just yeah in lieu of just some numbers around that i'm in attendance all guests brought donations of food a personal item and they're proud to donate 120 pounds in 61 toothbrushes 130 tubes of toothpaste 76 78 sticks of deodorant 118 bars of soap 30 hand soaps slash lotions and 127 bottles of shampoo conditioner and body wash to friends inc due to the generosity of those attending the football banquet so thank you to
022all who donated and also thank you to coach chester and their team for the idea and uh just a congratulation to all our uh specific leads who uh played it in the fall season this year i'm sure everyone's uh looking forward to the spring season to get started but just congratulations to all our student athletes with respect to these there was discussion regarding the thermography in switch gear cleaning and that actually does it on a new business item h board uh for a whole to consider tonight we also had this regarding uh fan cabinets the band cabinets at the high school are dated and worn and really are past their useful work life but we still need more information on getting quotes on trying to replace and upgrade the band cabinet so that discussion will
023continue with respect to our tennis ports we received an update with that the new tennis court construction is moving forward however there was a recent uh discovery with respect to the uh drainage port where it was only partial and that needs to be that the whole court area is uh properly drained so that uh the work that we do there uh holds up over the years so that is going to be addressed um also uh other connection with the tennis court is proceeding as expected and that is my report thank you mr burch with that we'll move to bctc mr sure i was not able to attend the last meeting because of other commitments i believe the update were included in you know the board thank you mr sure pciu pastor this will be uh
024later this week uh i can give a brief report again you have all of the things have come to you at the last um school board meeting in that email but there were a number of interesting things one of which unfortunately was the uh violin of exhibit that was down at the goggle works included yes there were also presentations in a number of school districts um but they are violins that uh come from the time of the holocaust uh and were used by um imprisoned jews during the nazi reign in germany so it was a interesting presentation at our meeting that evening also tweeted that it is an unusually active period in our alleged state legislature regarding educational uh that are presently being considered bills of various types for various purposes in addition we ratified
025a number of new agreements and contracts with difficulties and of course as we normally do a large list of personnel issues that uh were approved of various types from retirements to um dismissals and so forth one other thing is they they like many employers and school districts in our community and across the country have had problems trying to find enough people for their transportation and other entity types of programs that bciu operates so they've conducted a number of job events to identify new employees so it's a busy report thank you dr ritter burke's collector mr miller there was no meeting psba ms holt no report this evening any name for the board committee reports not mr dunn about from a student representative standpoint yes so um first of all last thursday the middle school and
026the high school got to listen to miss maggie malone two-time olympian uh javelin thrower come and talk to us about her experiences and things that she's learned in the different walks of life that she's experienced things like leadership and um coach ability to succeed in life and to achieve your goals so i know they're very excited by that and cool and we're extremely grateful for the opportunity to listen to her talking on something checking out the possibilities of installing suggestion boxes because as a student representative it's hard to and we don't have a lot of feedback so for myself and for student representatives in the future we're looking for you know different options to install boxes in the cafeteria at the high school and in the cap in the main lobby of the high school
027and possibly somewhere in the middle not sure about that yet so that we can gather more information from students and more suggestions or what they what they think about um what what they want because i haven't gotten much feedback as a representative up to this point so i think that that would help to stimulate looking into those options and continuing that project during myself hopefully i'll report more about that later thank you mr dunn any questions for mr dunn from anyone okay and we will move to the next section of the agenda we will start with public comment on agenda items i have a list folks that have signed up please uh when i call your name come forward state your name where you live and you will have five minutes to basically speak on
028an agenda item so we will start with jackie bridges good evening i'm here tonight uh speaking against policy aside from the esser funds being used to push equity disguise of a health and safety plan no one has simply and clearly articulated a driving need for the addition of this policy this policy is left-wing politically biased propaganda which will create further division when implementing in fact look at the last seven months it's already that that's how by the morning announcements that no one has still owned up to which created confusion and put thoughts and questions in kids heads that weren't there before but that's the goal right to absolutely see color as an advantage and not base a human being on their character but to make another feel less or more than another so why could
029equity be so toxic because bottom line is that equity means standards don't matter all results should be more equitable matter metrics and equity of outcomes which will which will result in reducing all students to the lowest common level of achievement which is scary if i'm flying in a pla i'm trusting they're hiring the best pilots if i'm going to have surgery trusting they hired the best surgeons as a chaplain assistant in the military i was lined up on a range to be inspected on how i could handle and shoot an m16 competing against other airmen not based on my color or my gender but based on skill because i would soon be a bodyguard to my non-combatant how scary for a chaplain to put there in the hands of me if i was only chosen
030because i was a minority to fill a quota instead of being based on scale i have four children two of them are active in the theater community my senior is actively looking colleges to include performing arts schools in new york city did you know performing schools and universities have begun to drop blind edition blind person goes to an addition performs without being seen and only heard no longer chose they no longer choose the best violinist oboist vocal they now choose strictly based on color of those auditioning and that's equity however it's not fair or just do you see what has happened trying to make up for serious inequities in the of the past while moving towards unity the government has created the vision we are literally moving backwards and it starts with the minds of
031children that you're helping feed america does have some dark secrets and they should be taught in school history is important to learn from but it can be done in a way where kids don't feel bad about the color of their skin or identity to the unjustifed unjustified and horrific past by even their own should i be mad at people because my ancestry tribe or my father disbanded or the irish on my mother's side couldn't find work and starve on the streets of new york because they were irish should i teach my kids to feel like someone owes them for for no longer living you're creating division and teaching hate which i believe is the complete of what you're trying to achieve before you choose to continue with this policy i ask again for it to
032be revoked look at all your other policies that are already in place and fix those that are broken you have yet to be provided an example where a student has felt unwelcomed in our district that this policy is actually needed thank you sophia arnold arabelle elliott connor o'neill [Music] thank you school board members for letting me speak today i'm connor o'neill from greenwich township today i'm here in support of national equity policy 809 my thanks for your willingness to listen to everyone on this matter and for the time and sacrifice you have put into this topic i strongly encourage you to vote on this policy for the benefit of the students that you serve in our ever-changing district our community is changing and we should reflect that in the school and through the policies the
033school vote on in the last couple years here at kutztown while i was a student i've met many newer students that have moved from reading philadelphia new york city new jersey and other places with different cultures and backgrounds i have the i've observed that there are more minority fans younger children in kutztown than ever before the policies of the school should reflect the positive changes that we see in town we should open our arms to diversity and backgrounds shut the door on them educational equity is the allocation of resources opportunities and treatment of students based on individual needs this policy is made to help students reach their highest potential regardless of any cultural factors that does not such that does not seem a hard thing to get behind and support i know i would want
034to see the school help students struggling because they have inequities obstructing their path to success with the passing of this policy the school does not just moral obligation but also a vocational responsibility to help kids with inequity within the this policy will ensure that the learning environment of the safe and respectful for all learners of different backgrounds not just some being able to learn no discrimination bias and stereotypes is a crucial step for kids to not be obstructed in their learning process i know that some parents try to tell their kids to treat each other equally but in a realistic world especially today it is just not the case people can be ignorant to it but the racist public transphobic and xenophobic ideas in kutztown kutztown school district should not should provide an environment where
035students can feel welcome and not fearful of these harmful ideologies my newborn nephew is half white and half mexican i would like him when he is old enough and attending school here at kutztown to not have to deal with the emotional pains of racism i would like him to one day walk into a classroom and feel included and respected by others rather than shamed for the color of his skin for my nephew and all future students of the kutztown school district and equity policy would help to ensure their academic success and their inclusiveness in the school i know kutztown's school district like an example of academic excellence and achievement this equity policy would further our schools towards this goal while also thoroughly benefiting the students we serve with our ever-changing community around us it is
036important that we do not build walls but tear them down and build bridges thank you for letting me speak today jerry seibert jennifer coffinger good evening um i just kind of want to piggyback off of what jackie said um we're not asking that history not be taught the good the bad the ugly it deserves to be but we are asking that the education that you give our children does not boil down to color their gender their sexual identity that is going to be the focus of what this policy does it will take away from critical teaching time that we need because we find in this global community of engine as a country behind like a lot and we need more time on reading writing mathematics history science we don't need that time being taken away
037by people to your color your your sexual identity those are the more most important things about you that's the only thing that matters that's not what our kids need in school they need an education that's all they need from you so anyone that's when we are more divided and less educated and less safe in our school district you own that hannah cause gazepi said it wrong good evening thank you all for having me here tonight and we'll speak mr tim chat and my name is kazuvi kazupi okay it's hard to say just like apologize oh i'm sorry i said i can't tell who's speaking because of the masks i don't know how to use one of these i i'm used to speaking to children and i don't need to speak to them on a microphone
038okay so my name is hannah kazupi i am a resident of kempton in the albany um you know township sorry um i am a third generation graduate my family is from this area for a long time generation of teacher kutztown graduate my grandfather went to the school my father went to the school both went to the school before it was kutztown university maybe some of you did as well some of you sitting up there that institution of education was built to teach our children how to read how to write how to be independent thinkers how to ask a question find the answer by doing science the actual science where you create an experiment and you run the experiment multiple times and then you find your results and when i was in college i was specifically
039taught when i was in graduate school to get my master's degree was taught how to collect data and how to write it in a paper to explain it to other people those of you who know how to write a scientific paper when you are recording all of your data you get to choose what information you include so i want to caution you all on whatever science you are looking at when you're following whatever somebody is in you they're telling you the facts for you to know i know none of you are dumb you're often people you didn't get to where you are sitting right now without having that kind of knowledge but i want to just remind you of that okay my son is five he's in his thing he's excited about school and he's
040a teacher and he wants to do all of these wonderful things at school and he's really enjoying it and i think that but i have to tell you i sat in the room with mr tim chat mr anderson this summer because of all division that you all are sowing in our community with this policy for those of you who voted on it without reading for it reading it first that's the reason you re-elected earlier this month i hope you realize that that one yes that was your moment and the conti lack of fighting for our children to be taught to treat respect to be taught to judge people on the content of their character instead of the color of their skin you are spitting on the memory of martin luther king jr you are the
041grave of my grandfather who fought in world war ii and was shot twice left for down the battlefield was found three days later taken to a hospital that was later bombed somehow by a miracle he survived that too was taken on christmas day in a train the french stole the engine left all of the wounded and dying soldiers in a train on christmas day do you know what a mess that to defend your right to and tell my kid that because he's white he's an oppressor he is five he doesn't know what that means he loves people he has friends we went camping this summer the little girl on the campsite next to us was some other race i don't even know because we didn't discuss it played together and they had fun and they
042enjoyed their time just being little kids and we read a story with her grandma and we enjoyed it together and we had dessert and they had popsicles he didn't notice anything was different about her than was about him other than the fact that she had long hair and it was curly and he liked that thank you slicker good evening y'all hear me okay all right so first of all for allowing us to speak on this i'm a newer member to the community i'm a young parent i have two girls entering the school system very soon a little bit about me i work at a university setting i've seen the impacts of when we have to come for the first time from communities where people look different from them for the first time right they have
043different identities and i've seen what happens when they're talking about these things i've seen the impact of the disagreements and the conflicts that arise and the hate that happens when these things are not being talked about um so i want you all for actually addressing this and speaking today in support of policy 809 um thank you for bringing this to the time you've spent on it as someone with a master's degree in conflict someone with a certification in diversity equity and inclusion i believe that you are on the right track i appreciate you listening to everyone's input i will say that sometimes you hear the argument right that kids are too young to think about these things that they don't see these things that these things matter but if you want to talk science tonight
044there is plenty of data out there that is of six months kids are already preferring faces of races that look like their own these things are happening whether we like it or not we need to speak about them and talk with our kids and create those and make sure that as other speakers said we're being mindful of who our students are and look the room at all the different identities is here and who's not and what students are in our districts and how there are differences they're going to be out there talking about them doesn't work by the age two and a half kids prefer playmates of their own race and gender it's psychology from the national commission on human behavioral health it is out there child psychologists it's natural and that's not something to
045shame anyone for it's just a matter of how you talk about these things right with your kids and making sure that our policies are in support of all of our students no one is saying there's anything wrong clearly you can see by my skin right now i'm a very white woman right there's no shame in that it's just acknowledging that all our kids are in different places and sometimes equity does not mean the same exact thing but giving every kid what they need to succeed and if we want them to learn and be in a space to learn to give them the condition all of our students to do so we're not reducing them to their identities that's not what this is about from my understanding of the policy it's simply saying that their identities
046are a part of who they are and you cannot erase that that is a part of the puzzle for that and it impacts their experience kids we know kids bully kids right bullying happens and policies like this that can recognize differences and support students that's the kind of place where i want my girls to go one day and looking out for them i don't know how they're going to identify in the future but i do want kutztown to be a safe place for them and a supportive space thank you dr meyers is there anyone online that would like to make a comment it's the public that would like to speak on agenda items hearing none we will move to new business then we will start with personnel we will start m a we have one
047through three looking for a motion for personnel a numbers one through three a motion a second any comments or questions regarding item a personnel hearing none we'll call please ricky dennis ritter yes brochure yes michelle yeah randy birch yeah darian yes michael house yes cecilia holt yes eric johnson yes carl nalty yes so next is item b policy maintenance it is the recommendation of the policy curriculum committee that the board of school directors approved the first reading of policy eight zero educational equity we have a motion second motion comments questions discussion on item b cohesive thoughts this moment but i certainly hear the division in the room that exists and well and i think publicly i've already had a lot of conversation with people that you know august 2020 i didn't know what crt was
048i didn't understand what was going on in this in the world right and so you make mistakes in life and you learn from mistakes and then you course correct what i understand is that as a society we are at a crossroads and trying to understand what the best path is for our children and we can't be blind to the things that they're going to experience students that identify differently than maybe we understood growing up and that's not for me to decide if that's right or wrong we have to figure out what the best way is to support our students and so it really pains me that we have this division in this in this school district because i grew up here like there's no reason that we cannot give our children an excellent education i
049feel very privileged that my kids go to kutztown and i think most parents do and i there are issues you have in the school district that that need to be addressed in terms of some of the situation our children are experiencing in the classroom on both sides right whether it's a cop's child or it's somebody of color or it's somebody like there's there's all of these issues that that happen that need to be addressed and i i still come back to the fact that i have policies in place that do and should address those does that mean right does that mean that we have to ignore entirely what one half of our of our district ain't no that's not my job as a school director i still have to i have to be open to
050lose with an understanding and i there needs to be a way for us to come together and this for me personally this is just not it because of the division that it's still causing do we need to address concerns yes we do we absolutely do these are real things in our society and we want our kids to be able to understand it or if there's students who are identifying differently have resources to be able to feel welcome like we cannot ignore that whether you use it or not we have to address it and so [Music] there's still a lot of questions that i have on the policy but i just i felt like i needed to speak that piece because you know a vote of no on this policy does not mean that i don't
051stand for what art means about the right way forward as a school district united not divided spats other comments yeah just want to address this idea of division to end the vision doesn't mean one side needs to completely give in to the other uh she has divided people i believe this board has listened to the complaints for the concern as to the impact this policy would have on the kids in kutztown the national debate is a nasty the place for that is in the next campaign as far as educating our kids i believe this board has looked especially dr ritter and and uh cecilia holt have looked at that policy and removed all of the legitimate objections the the the specific items that people can said hey what this is what this policy says this
052is what this policy says to do those are mostly gone there's been an attempt on the part of this board to use the division by looking at what other people have said said made moderations to change it but apparently there are some people for whom that is not enough it is completely every single thing they want or nothing and they will maintain that division until they get what they want for that reason i don't think that's the issue we need to deal with we need to deal with what is best for the kids in our own and of course we're going to dis 32 years in the classroom a lot of disagreements within the faculty within the faculty and administration but always the intent was to do best for our kids and i believe that's
053what this policy is to do dr dain other comments sure yeah um i mean i guess i one of two votes against the first first reading of policy 809 i believe i believe it was mr nolte and my self who first everyone else had voted in favor of it my opposition um was really based on i thought you know there was really a better way forward um you know my thought was to really scrap the policy and start from scratch community place of the community and write a whole new policy um but that was not the will of the board um the board voted seven to two to um for the first policy 809 uh and but along with that uh came the public which i thought and a number of others really thought was
054important to the process um again and that and that was what really was the basis of my opposition to the first reading um i think the the the district has uh solicited attained substantial public input on the policy i think people have been given a great opportunity to [Music] make suggestions and recommendations for changes i a lot of those changes have been incorporated to this policy um i am i've read and re-read the revised policy now several times i i'm struggling to see objections to it i'm not huge specific objections when i guess what i'm hearing is um you know conceptual concerns about you know an equity policy in general which i quite frankly think are um you know a bit misplaced so um while i was opposed to the the the first first reading
055um i think um i am more i am supportive the um second which is now sized 809 um having truly benefited from substantial public input and the process that the district undertook with regard to this policy and board members like to comment yes i would just like to say that i as well appreciate all of the public participation and tailoring this more precise to our school district and especially the other members of the board who have really put in a ton of time compiling the feedback and and massaging the language of the policy and i also just kind of want to address the um the idea that we do have policies in which protects our children which of course we do and we are legally required not to discriminate against children but that's really a
056bare minimum and i think a lot of what this policy does is sets a standard for our school community to prioritize the needs of individual students so then succeed and that's why i support this policy anyone else from the board mr president if i may sure um i think characterization tonight in favor of 809 if um being the community is not what any of us intend um certainly many of you know i have spent time listening to people on boasts over the last weeks and months and i will own that i have a big hand in the rewriting that has become 809 and my sense is that there were problems with the earlier version but we have done a lot of work as a community this our own and you would be hard-pressed to find
057any wording in here that will encourage to dumb down we make it very clear in multiple places that high expectations will continue to be a part of our school as they have been invest as to a clear statement of the purpose of this and and read this policy i think the purpose statement does exactly that it is a policy that pulls together and it's in the forefront equity to be sure that we provide an education that will enable every one of our states in this district to succeed of their abilities we have heard from previous students a number of them over the time that this conversation has been going on that have indicated to us that there have been at times issues and problems district and so i think plussy pulls together all of the
058other policies regarding equity that we have and gives us an opportunity to really focus in and make sure that our community continues to work towards equitable education resources are provided to every student and opportunities are provided to every student to accomplish becoming the best citizen and learner it will be to our community fit and it will be to our nation's benefit to individuals who are ready to work in a diverse workforce so i you know i will have this conversation and have had it uh with anyone who's willing to have a conversation thank you dr ritter anyone else from the board hearing none we will be voting on item b policy maintenance the approval of the first reading of policy 809 educational equity is that roll call please ricky yes michelle batts no randy birch
059brian yes michael house yes cecilia holt yes eric johnson yes dennis twitter yes no motion approved next we'll move to item c travel accident insurance is the recommendation administration that the board of school directors purchase of 24-hour r d travel insurance effective january 1st 2020 through 2022 excuse me through december 31st 2022 from the pennsylvania school board association association and first insurance trust for the following employees at an annual cost of 30 per employees are listed there you have a motion second motion a second any comments or questions regarding item c hearing none roll call please michelle bats yeah randy birch yes aldarian yes michael hess yes cecilia holt yes eric johnson yes dennis ritter yes joshua yes carl yes so approved next is the title one services for non-public students it is the recommendation
060administration at the board of school directors the intergovernmental agreement with the carbon lehigh intermediate unit number 21 liu tier one services to non-students produced to have a motion i moved motion is there a second critter motion a second comments or questions regarding item d just uh it says provide title one services i believe you would said tier one services just so that sorry title one services for non-public students i'm not sure if that really makes sense or not but i just wanted to make that point of clarification thank you any other comments hearing none roll call please ricky randy birch [Music] yes michael house yes cecilia yes eric johnson yes dennis ritter yes joshua yes michelle backs yes all nalty yes so approved next is item e the 2012 2022 ksd strategic goals the recommendation
061administration of the possible directors approved the ksd strategic goals for 1021-22 school year for the attachment to have a motion some moves the motions are second second motion secondly comments or questions regarding item e none roll call please ricky aldarian yes michael house yes cecilia yes johnson yes demonstrator yes joshua yes michelle batts yes randy birch yes carl nalty yeah so approved item f the 2022-2025 ksd comprehensive plan recommendation administration that the directors approved the ksd plan for the years 2022 to 2025 for the attached to have a motion move their seconds motion a second any comments regarding item f hearing none roll call please ricky michael cecilia holt yes eric johnson yes dennis redder yes joshua yes michelle batts yeah randy birch yes aldaria yes yes so approved if i can i'd just like
062to thank dr lever for kind of shepherding us through that process that started before um you know march 2020 so engaging the community you know those early stages and then throughout our school district community kind of kept us on target to have our comprehensive plan approved for the next three years so thanks dr thank you next is item g of donation acceptance is the recommendation administration the board of school directors accept the grant of 300 from geo for use in the ap human geography classroom in geographic society to have a motion some motions are a second second osha second comments or questions regarding item g just uh thank you for the generous uh donation to the district mrs lausch who teaches the ap human geography course for seeking and applying for the grant any other
063comments hearing no please ricky cecilia holt yes eric johnson yes dennis joshua yes michelle bats randy birch yes valdarian michael hess yes carl nalty so approved next is item h cm high thermography it is the recommendation of facilities committee that the board of school directors approved the agreement with cm high electric to complete thermography and switch gear cleaning on all buildings that are called 23 100 to have a move questions are a second second osha second comments your questions regarding item h i just thank mr lovenstein for bringing this to our attention as being an item of safety that we needed to take care of in our schools so thank you mr all the time any other comments hearing the roll call please johnson yes shark yes michelle batt yes randy birch yes aldarian yes
064yes yes it's approved next is item i introduction of new business by board members anyone from the board will bring something forward yeah if i may sure and that is again to express what our superintendent expressed but from my personal perspective uh thank you carl very much for your leadership these past two years as our president i'm most sorry to see you leave this board and mr sure as well eric also dr johnson um and i encourage you all to continue to be engaged citizens of our school district thank you i do have just something i wanted to bring up uh i think the pandemic has left us in a very reactive uh state over the last year and a half and i would just ur administration to begin to move forward with some items
065of more of an educational nature um i would like to see us reinvigorate our stem initiative and i would be interested in maybe hearing from the administration in future meetings about how we could do that and really begin to keep our stem initiative uh moving in the right direction and also just challenge the administration to come up with some other areas where we can increase the rigor and increase the availability of advanced classes to the students in our district anyone else um if i could just speak really quickly um when i decided last year that i wasn't going to run for another term uh i kind of had in my mind a uh goodbye speech that i would use a year later and um just being in quarantine kind of it's a kind of a
066weird way to end eight years on the school board but uh i do want to say i am incredibly proud of what our district has been able to accomplish and um i don't claim a whole lot of credit for it there's a lot of great teachers and administrators and my colleagues on the board uh we all did this together uh i leave this board uh with the [Music] the bar of expectations is quite high for what our district can do and i i really hope that uh we'll be able to maintain that and to take it to new heights in the years ahead and i just want to say it's been a privilege for eight years and uh i've i've learned more in those eight years than uh the time i spent in grad school
067and uh it's been an honor thank you thank you dr thompson anyone else i i would just like to say thank you to all bruce for the support for the past um i appreciate confidence you had me i'd also always to thank my wife and my son in the back of the room um when you're on the board for eight years i gave up monday nights for eight years and uh sacrificed a lot for the family for a volunteer position so thank you for letting me do that so um luck to everyone yes it's been an honor and a privilege to serve with you all i've definitely learned a lot as well and uh thank you for the opportunity and certainly wish the district well as it moves forward anyone else okay hearing none we
068will move to public comment we have one person that would like to make a comment on non-agenda items laura miller good evening my name is laura miller i live in albany township i'm actually here rep a mom in our district that really doesn't like to public speak so um i'm going to be reading her um her notes her thoughts verbatim from what that she wrote for me she's a son who's 14 she's in ninth grade has adhd odd anxieties he does have an iep he has to wear his mask under his nose or under his chin thus far five level two detentions and he doesn't want to cool he feels like he's being harassed he misses school because of being so upset he has trouble breathing in his mask high grains his anxiety is very
069bad he pulls his mask down because of his condition because he is fidgety there this the i guess leadership is still blaming him and didn't hasn't come to any conclusions so what she would like to know is what should she do very she's very upset about this i mean if she you talk to the building principal and if she's not happy with the resolution from speaking the building principle to reach out to me okay thank you sorry i also missed uh jerry sever even mark to speak [Music] good evening and uh al well he left okay so much for that um questions i wanted to ask again about the books that we were that i had been talking about the last two meetings where are you in the review process yeah we i mean we
070have a committee together that be meeting this week and information was shared with the entire committee and once the committee has reviewed uh for the regulations then we there will be a review of the report shared back with the board and then with the complaint okay and um when i when i spoke to the bciu she was asking me to ask you to have some kind of review process in place maybe a better review process in place it's not a review but if the librarian for these books through a recommended book list i mean is there an a where this we could do this so this does not happen again yeah and we're going to process through the review and then from there next steps will will be determined based on on that review so
071we want to take it procedurally the process and can can you tell me what book lists that you usually get that are recommended book lists like where where is this book list there's a variety of them where does it come from yeah i can't speak to that right now there's a variety of them but there is the ala has a variety of organizations that they work with ala is american library is the primarily primary group als ala the american libraries association but there are lists that they recommend their various groups so yeah because i really think we need to have another way of having books ordered that this would not happen again and i think that's something that the board would probably have to talk about because uh people are not happy with what was
072in the books we have copies of what's in on the books in the back if anybody would like to see and also um i mean off i have screenshots back there also of off of destiny that show you that the book has catalog number and books and it says that it is available so i don't know how it was on the destiny account and it said it was available to the students as i shared it was a book was purchased was there had not in circulation at that time the bar code was not in circulation the the book was not circulation neither of those books were in circulation even though it had a code that's correct a call code a call number that's correct that's why it showed up on destiny but it was not
073in circulation okay but you have the books you have the books now on you have them i have them yet okay jerry i'll have for a moment al um i accept your apology i'm kind of concerned about the one thing where you said that to cause people to get upset but i thought i made it clear that that wasn't the book that was taken out of the library when i said the student had said it was removed from the it was checked out from the library i don't recall that fortunately it's been recorded we can always go back and check okay but i accept apology thank you is there anyone else who would like to make public anyone online dr meyers thank you for that item 10 informational items everyone received the condensed board summary
074report and a cafeteria fund report upcoming public meetings item on december 6th there will be a board reorganization meeting 10 pm in the middle school commons as well as via zoom followed by a school board meeting at 7 30 pm on december 6th here in the middle school column middle school commons as well as via zoom on december 13th there will be a policy and curriculum community meeting at 6 pm middle school columns as well as views and on december 13th there will be a facilities and extracurricular committee meeting at 7 pm in the middle school commons as well as via zoom with that removed item 12 look for a motion to adjourn and thank you it's been a big privilege favor say aye aye any opposed meeting adjourned