001[Music] call this meeting to order with everyone please rise for a moment of silent meditation pledge to the flag [Music] like to welcome everyone this evening the meeting appreciate appreciate the the large turnout there were two logs in the back of the room that uh have people that were interested in making public comments we will have time for public comments before the new business section of the meeting as well as if there's any public comment that would like to occur after the new businesses is through and we're on to any other items that are not on the agenda uh there was an executive session prior to this meeting to review legal and personnel items with that roll call please ricky michelle back here randy burch here darian michael house here cecilia holt here dennis trader
002here eric johnson here here here our first order of business this evening will be the approval of minutes from the june 21st 2020 board meeting do we have a motion so moved the motion is there a second or second motion a second any comments questions or corrections regarding those those meeting minutes hearing none roll call please ricky michelle yes randy birch yes yes yes michael hess yes cecilia holt eric johnson yes dennis ritter yes charles shark yes yes so approved next is item for the report we'll start with a the general fund mr miller thank you mr nolte this is the treasurer's report for june 2021 the month began with a cash balance of four million eight hundred seventy five thousand forty two dollars and fifty three cents we had receipts of two million five
003hundred twenty three thousand five hundred eighty thousand thirty cents uh transfer investment money of five dollars and thirty eight cents that was just to close out an account we don't generally do transfers for five dollars and 38 cents um we paid bills and payroll of three million seven hundred eighty five thousand four hundred dollars and fifty six cents leaving us with a cash balance on june 30th of three million six hundred thirteen thousand one hundred eighty one dollars and sixty five cents thank you mr miller we have a motion to accept the treasurer's report for the general fund so moved motions are second motion a second any comments questions or issues with mr miller's report hearing none roll call please ricky randy birch yes aldarian yes cecilia holt yes eric johnson yes dennis ritter yes
004charles sure yes michelle bats yes yes so approved next is item five approval of bills for payment we'll start with uh a ratification from the general account um from june 22nd to july 12 2021 in the amount of hundred thirty four thousand eleven dollars and twenty one cents do you have a motion i'll second motion a second any comments or questions regarding 5a the first bullet around the june 22 to july 12th hearing none roll call please ricky yes michael hass yes cecilia holt yes eric johnson yes dennis ritter yes joshua yes michelle back yeah randy birch yes yes so approved next is ratifications for the general account in manual checks in the amount of two million six hundred fifty seven thousand for ten dollars and forty three cents do i have a motion motions
005are second second motion a second any comments or questions regarding manual checks hearing on roll call please ricky mike yes cecilia yes eric johnson yes dennis ritter yes charles scherr yes michelle batts yes randy birch yes al darian yes carl nolte yes so approved next is item uh the approval from the general account in the approval bills for payment the amount of six hundred nine thousand two hundred dollars and eighteen cents do we have a motion motions are second checking most you a second any comments or questions regarding approval from the general account hearing none roll call please ricky cecilia holt yes eric johnson yes dennis ritter yes joshua yes michelle batts yes randy birch yes darian yes yes yes so approved next is item c approval filter payment ratification from the construction account in
006the amount of sixteen thousand six hundred fifteen dollars zero cents uh motion motions are second second motion second any comments regarding item c hearing none roll call please ricky cecilia yes eric johnson yes dennis shredder yes joshua yes michelle batts yes randy birch yes yes yes yes so approved next is item d uh approval from the construction account in the amount of one million five hundred eighty two thousand seven hundred five dollars and 55 cents do we have a motion so moved motions are a second second motion a second any comments or questions regarding item 5d hearing none roll call please ricky eric johnson yes dennis ritter yes charles scherr yes michelle backs yes randy birch yes darian yes michael hass yes cecilia yes yes so approved next we'll move to item six communications and
007reports we will start with a discussion on recommended educational equity policy um dr ritter it's your opportunity to present thank you mr president uh good evening everyone i'll put the mic closer to my face good evening everyone it's my privilege to make this presentation as you probably know i made a motion last meeting to begin the process of replacing the current equity educational equity policy 832 with a substitute policy that i think more effectively talks about equity in a way that we as a community can be comfortable um with you will you will be receiving a copy handed out i met with a group on monday evening of community members parents and taxpayers from both sides of this current issue i was invited to that meeting because i had worked on an alternative they wanted
008to look at it and and talk about it and and make suggestions and and that occurred we had a good conversation last monday evening and it was their recommendation at the end of the evening when we talked about how to go forward tonight that i should make the brief presentation at the beginning and then hand out copies of the policy some of you may have downloaded them from the website perhaps where the board packet materials were and that's fine but the feeling among some of the folks particularly those who were teachers it was uh good to not hand things out before i spoke so that practice i'm following so that you understand that it was probably back in early june um after the meeting of the first of the month our workshop meeting the realized
009we needed to find a path forward and my commitment to educational equity uh caused me to go back and look at the policy then number 832 and as i looked at it i saw some things that i you know going back a second time and looking at something you begin to look at some things differently and some of that developed from the conversation that we had as people came and addressed toward the previous three board meetings and this process has continued as i've continued to have some conversations with members of the community taxpayers and parents and culminated in that meeting i talked about a few moments ago last monday evening in kutztown borough park with nine other individuals myself so there were ten of us present as i said we had a conversation at times
010it was tense and to the point and but it was always cordial and at the end we were able to shake hands and wish each other well we did not come out saying oh we definitely now you know all of us did not agree that there was a definite need for this policy but i still believe that there is and i was tasked with making this brief presentation as you will when you receive the policy in a few minutes you will see at the very beginning the purpose has undergone a major revision it now reads as follows if it can be put up on the board and if you're having trouble seeing in the back please come forward there are plenty of seats up towards the front uh i guess that's about the largest we
011can make it dr meyer okay okay thank you the purpose the board adopts this policy to tie together the varied board policies that seek to ensure that the principle of educational equity through the fair and just allocation of resources opportunities and treatment of students based upon each individual student's needs remains a priority of the district the pursuit of educational equity requires the continuous and collaborative effort of identifying various aspects of district programs and operations in which consideration of educational equity shall be analyzed incorporated and prioritized the equitable treatment of students regardless of gender race ethnicity gender identity and expression socioeconomic status english learner status disability and other characteristics as well as the intersection of those characters is a legal and moral imperative to facilitate educational equity for all the districts shall be committed to and
012three things are listed there promptly identifying and addressing barriers that cultivate achievement and that cultivate achievement and or opportunity gaps for students ensuring that a student's educational achievement is neither predicted nor predetermined by explicit or implicit biases establishing and sustaining a school community that shares the collective responsibility to address eliminate and prevent actions decisions and outcomes that result from and perpetuate discrimination in any form implicit or accepted as i said this purpose statement is quite a bit different from the one that was in the original policy 832 particularly identified very beginning that this policy is an umbrella type policy which to account all of the various places and as you will see at the end of this policy there are roughly well not roughly 32 references to various policies scattered throughout our policy manual that
013deal with aspects of educational equity they all become now put into this package in 800 some sections a priority in a way that they maybe were not before as we think about how our school district sucks the education of its children that are put in into its trust at the the policy then goes on to identify several definitions i'm not going to read through all of these you'll you'll see them and and they're listed up on the board a particular interest is the equity one i think because we've had a lot of comments and mistaken ideas about equity as being an outcome that's not what this policy says equity is an input it is at the beginning that we provide kinds of resources opportunities and the overall treatment of students based upon each individual student's
014needs so that each student can achieve her or his full potential so it requires the student participating and doing all that he or she can do to be the best student they can be we're not going to do away with um salutatorian valedictory and that's not what this is about and you'll see that later on in the policy as well that there is a continuing call for excellence and challenging students to do their very best and to achieve at a very high level the rest of the items i think are fairly explanatory self-explanatory under definitions and then authority this is a board that puts us on record as being committed to the provision of an equitable education system that reflects the principles of fairness and justice for all students regardless of gender race ethnicity gender
015identity or expression geo-economic status english learner status disability and other characteristics as well as intersection of those characteristics delegation of responsibility simply states as they usually do in this section that the superintendent or a designee will be assigned to carry out this responsibility then a major change occurs in this policy from the previous one and that is in education in the education equity action plan portion there is the call to establish a committee of the school board composed of the following three teachers three staff para edu uh educators support staff custodial and coaches so probably those will also be individuals from the community three students two board members and four members of the community at so from folks like yourselves the board has the final say in the approval of the committee's membership and length
016of its members service on the committee other members of the administration and external export experts as from time to time may be needed will serve in an advisory capacity to the committee the committee shall regularly report to the board on its work and provide the board with copies of its minutes i would see in my understanding it would be my understand that this committee would replace the equity team and finally reach what i had hoped that equity team would be which is a full true representation of our community this also would be now a board committee so there would be accountability and lines of communication established around its existence then we move on to the education equity action plan shall provide for fair and just practices throughout the district's educational system include equity goals and
017practices from the district's education equity action plan in the district's comprehensive planning strategies and ensure performance observations encompass consideration of the expectations and goals of this policy the next portion goes into how data would be gathered to make decisions and provide information to this committee so that it could help in establishing the various portions of the equity plan students administrators teachers and staff and they'll you'll see all of the various aspects of that when you get the paperwork in a few minutes guidelines an educational structure that is fair and just for all individuals is essential to grow knowledge and skills provide necessary resources include diverse voices promote accountability implement effective practices produce partnerships and address barriers to learning and participation in the pursuit of educational equity for all students district programs operations and functions shall
018be structured to prioritize the following guiding principles and here's the piece i was talking about this is not a dumbing down of the educational system the district shall provide multiple pathways to success in order to meet the needs of diverse student body and shall actively encourage support and expect high academic achievement and excellence from each and every student um again i'm not going to read the three items that come after you can look at that talks again in the next section about access to equitable resources so it is a beginning that we're focused on not an end or an outcome equity here clearly through the whole of this policy deals with input welcoming an inclusive environment i know there were a number of converse comments over the weeks that it lead up to this that
019have led up to this week uh about the fact that we've become a you know it's been a very divisive time in our district and i agree i heard those comments and this passage talks about how we will work to strive to create a welcoming inclusive and bias-free culture and environment that values reflects and is responsive to the diversity of the students their families and the community and that begins of course with respectful and civil discourse whether it's here in public meetings or in classrooms or in conversations in our community we set the tone and model for our children a proper way forward again the next section talks about partnership and inclusion particularly focuses on the school community being not just the teachers staff administration but all of us in the community [Music] as well
020as government organizations and and other agencies and organizations nonprofit businesses and other institutions within our wider community all become possible resources for us to provide a quality education for each of our children it says a lot of that we will try to make art and we will make our decisions based on data fairness and then goes on to talk about some pieces cultural proficiency and finally um finishes up with a conversation around workforce diversity and professional development and then a list of all of the policies so that is the um new policy that's being recommended tonight and will be considered for a first reading the process is a first reading could be approved tonight it would then go back to our policy and curriculum committee for additional conversation on the second monday of august and
021then could come back to the board as early as the third monday in august for possible approval and second reading so there will be time for community additional community input and conversation around the policy so that's my presentation mr president um i want to thank all of you who were willing to engage in conversation i want you to know that you know your board has been listening to you and we have been in conversation not just myself but other members of the board with a variety of individuals in our community and we want we believe we've heard you and are trying to act in a and move forward in a way that will be beneficial for our students and for our community thank you dr ritter anyone from the board have a question and it'll
022be much more time for debate through policy and curriculum on this anyone from the board i'd just like to add something uh to dr his statements uh i was in conversation i guess with two former board members uh who i've often disagreed but but always respected and they helped me look at this policy from a different point of view the whole issue of equity of outcome or opportunity was never even a controversy for me i mean i never allowed the science curriculum in any way to be dumbed down to cover all those possibilities while i was chair of that department there's no way i would intentionally do that as a board member uh i can't speak for everyone else i'm one of nine so i can't guarantee what we would do i will guarantee that
023that will never happen in silence as long as i'm on the court uh the other issue that i think of concern one gentleman in their comments uh called it uh our job is to educate not indoctrinate and i can't agree with that i can't agree with that more uh what goes on in the classroom needs to be a presentation of facts it needs to be an open discussion i mean controversy is the best motivator i can think of for having a good conversation in a classroom but it has to be respectful it has to allow all opinions to exist and i've heard some complaints that perhaps that's not what's going on in our classrooms if we're going to teach racial history with total historical accuracy because i know that's not the education i got i
024just found out about tulsa months ago if we're going to teach it with complete historical accuracy now we run into other problems uh it's one person's historical fact is someone else's ideological construct these all need to be resolved these kind of controversies in some way so what i will intend to do but i will intend to do if this new policy is finally approved almost all of our policies many of our policies have attached to it in administrative regulation in other words the policy sets out the outline but the way in which it's going to be implemented is included in a regulation from the administration in this case i think we will definitely need an administrative regulation that will adjudicate differences as far as whether it's indoctrination or education that whole sort of thing and
025it also should very very clearly state the role of a teacher's opinion in a classroom and while that perhaps is okay to be expressed it has to be expressed in a way that would allow for disagreement and i again if i knew how to write that regulation i probably would have pursued a different career path but i will leave it to our administration to come up with some mechanisms for that so that would be my intention of trying to address some of the concerns that i've heard over this policy mr president i forgot when i finished my presentation to ask members of the board to pass the new resolution out may they do that now sure okay there is a copy there should be enough copies for one per family so simply let the folks
026know as they come out into your midst with the policy what's up well while dr johnson is handing out anyone else from the board have any comments for pastor ritter mr president how much do you want to have discussion on this at this point or at the point in the agenda where it's i think it's appropriate to point the agenda okay just wait so who still needs a copy would you raise your hand is there anyone who still needs a copy it yeah i think we can we can return now um mr sure you had a question uh yes there was only one question i had regarding the proposed policy as i see the formation of the committee which i think is a great idea the question is the committee's formed to in the proposed
027policy there is the proposal to form a committee as i understand the committee would be involved in the implementation and monitoring of the policy dr ritter is that is that your yes and the action plan that the district would put together each year as to what it would be focused on in terms of strengthening its the educational equity of our district is there any is there any reason why that committee couldn't be formed first to consider the actual development of the underlying policy that it's going to end up implementing and monitoring i guess that was i i applaud the formation of the community i'm just wondering if it wouldn't be if it makes sense to to look at that from sort of forming it first before the policy mr sure could you repeat your question
028i i wasn't able to hear it over the noise the question was the formation of the committee which i i think is a really good idea as i understand it would be you would the function would be to implement assisted implementation and monitoring of the policy of the action plan the question was whether why that committee couldn't be formed first to actually develop the policy that it's going to end up implementing and monitoring it it could i'm uncomfortable with that approach at this point in time um i've i've been in other places and experiences where something like that is done and nothing tends to come from it my intent in putting it embedding it into the policy is it will oversee this policy along with all of the other policies we have so that the
029committee could make changes to this policy or recommend changes if it wished i really took the idea from a suggestion you made um a chuck uh to uh consider having a committee like that it sounded good to me i would prefer it would be embedded into the policy as i did it so that that's where i'm at and again i speak for myself i would also suggest that this committee of that size might have great real difficulty writing a policy overseeing how it's implemented certainly that's when you want all that diverse viewpoint but i don't know of any other policy that's been developed that way uh it's a board policy i think that's our responsibility to do what we think is best so i i don't think a committee should develop a policy well i
030guess there's just times i think that you know we do reach beyond our nine members here for assistance in developing policies and procedures and it seems to me that maybe this is one of those times that it's important to draw in some additional input into the process and i think one of the things that's important is is not just the result here of what the policies but the process by which we go through to get to that result i mean i think process matters and as we talk about building trust with our community i mean i think the process by which we go through to develop that resulting policy is is critical um you know process matters in lots of things process matters in scientific experiments process matters in business decisions process matters in court
031decisions process matters in a lot of things and i think the process by which we go through to develop a new policy i think is very important and the idea you know having a committee assist in that process i think could be very helpful that's all i will agree that process matters i think we just disagree as to what the process should be sure sure any other board members we have we have uh we have a motion on this later saying other board members now with comments i just like to say that i definitely think that community input from i'm sorry i wanted to say that i believe that community input from a variety of sources is certainly important in a lot of the things that we do um i'm unsure about having an additional
032committee that that oversees the equity action plan makes sense to me but having another committee to develop policy when we have a policy and curriculum committee who works in that regard already that doesn't really make a lot of sense to me so i might add to that comment i think that the the meeting that was held last monday was a representation of what the community can do when they come together and the the divide that exists is one that i not sure in all of my years i've really experienced here in the school district and i've been a lifelong member of the district um so there is merit to what mr sure is saying in terms of bringing those voices together to make this what it needs to be for the for the students um
033so while this may not be the typical course where of how we would develop a policy i think that there can be merit to bringing individuals together that might have different viewpoints but are capable of having those difficult conversations together i mean i think that was demonstrated dr ritter based on the input that i've heard from the feedback from the meeting that was held so it's my understanding that that is what happened to come up with what dr ritter presented to us that people of differing viewpoints came together and came up with this so that we can have something in place so we can move forward with that for this evening i would recommend board members we have a motion that will be on the table to to move this policy to first reading maybe
034we have that more discussion depending what happens with that motion i'm sure we can solve amen i'm not sure we're gonna make amendments to the policy at this moment in time um right now the the agenda is the agenda item is for this this policy that's been proposed just one one last comment from me i promise uh two parts the public will certainly have an opportunity to express their opinions at the policy and curriculum meeting on the eighth the the other part is let's not give up our responsibility we've been elected to do a job it is our responsibility to do that job we certainly need assistance and input from the community in doing it but the final responsibility is ours policy hiring budget do we do we ask for public input on the budget
035we don't ask for a public committee to draft that budget and i guess i feel the same way about the policy that's our job and our responsibility other board members before we move on okay continuing with communications and reports let's move to the student board representative report ms wood do you have anything to add tonight not really no ones have been contacting me or cooper because obviously we're in the summer time just hoping that everyone's having a good time so far great thank you the next item on the agenda will be the board committee reports and there are only two board committee reports that we need to report on tonight because of the time of the year there have been no other meetings of board committee reports within the district or within the district itself
036or for the bciu or bctc so we will start with the berks county tax collector meeting mr miller okay the the committee met in june there was approval of the financial reports a review of the collect a review of the collections and distributions uh they are in the process of rolling out new tax software there was an update on that and there was also a solicitor's report on uh legal matters that are going on that was it thank you mr miller and psba ms holt i have a few things this friday is the deadline to submit items for consideration for the legislative platform which informs psba's advocacy efforts and um they will gather to come up with the platform in september for the meeting in october for the delegate assembly um also that the nominations
037are open for the pa education innovation awards and they're seeking nominations for innovative school board award innovative school leader award and innovative teacher award and the deadline for those nominations is august 16th and uh those both can be accomplished through the psba website thank you miss holt any other questions by board members for the committee reports we just we had our bctc meeting joint operating committee june 23rd at the west campus the biggest item was the retirement of dr james craft from as executive director for the bctc he's been being placed by dr michael stauffer who is going to do a great job other than that it was some routine purchases of equipment some personnel matters apologize that mr sure i thought that there wasn't a meeting okay with that we will move to the
038new business section of the agenda we will start with with some public comment i have a list of people that have signed in and would like to speak i ask that when i call your name you please come forward state where you live um state your name and where you live and then make your comment there are 25 people on the list so it's quite a long list this evening so i ask that you please um get uh be brief to the point and please do not exceed five minutes um to do that and if you're repeating what's already been said i ask you to encourage you to review your comments before you make additional comments so with that we will start with mark sackett good evening thanks for taking a real good look at
039this i'm gonna change the maybe my comments a little bit i have to read it study it and see what this is my main question would be at this time how is it going to be implemented that's the only question i have now on that but i do have something that i would like to advise the board going forward on this and any other policies in the 1970s i bought a property in foglesville my it had a home and a barn and how you'll get my point to the story a little closer to the mic if you could you'll get my point to this story when i'm finished and then i bought the property in november laws changed january 1st and i took over that property in january my intent was to put a retail
040outlet in the bar that went with the property and live in the home the laws back then and the big thing not not racist or anything like this was handicapped walls for the handicap the state of pennsylvania went a law out that stated all retail stores and get the word all retail stores had to have not one but two bathrooms for the handicap that they could get and turn around this would have cost me more than the budget that i had i didn't have a lot of money to redo that and put that in 20 000 at the time in the 70s my budget to just put the story in was just to give you an idea now i went to harrisburg i talked to harrisburg labor and industry was supposed to implement this i
041guess that is comparable to the school board okay when i started to talk to them they already had i was told a foot pile of papers on this new law that people just couldn't deal with it two bathrooms take up 200 square feet most retail stores aren't even 200 not most but some aren't even 200 square feet it took three years to change the law and take that out of this law and there was some other things in that they made adjustments to but three years and as you go forward in doing anything like this process is important but long-range consequences are even more important so please keep that in mind as you do this just think of the damage that you can do to first graders through 12th graders in three years of bad
042policy now i have a little bit of time here yet so i'm going to also recommend some things to the board reading wise and to anybody else here that is still for that old policy and that is you need to read about crt it's been out since the 30s read about it it is not good if you don't believe that it's marxist read karl marx if you don't think that this is part of that inflammation read rules for radicals saul alinsky and if you think socialism and communism and marxism is good then you need to read history that's it jackie bridges [Music] good evening i'm jackie bridges mom of four in the kutztown area school district and chapter chair for berks county moms for liberty i'm speaking to you tonight as a parent and community
043representative for the parents who are afraid to voice their opinion in public in fears that their children will face retaliation from certain teachers and peers i have attended many meetings and i have spoken privately to individual board members about why we are standing against critical race theory i keep hearing a common response that critical race theory is not being taught in the school so let's just say hypothetically the teachers in kutztown are not using their own agenda to indoctrine our children and crt is really not being taught in our school then why when a motion was made to ban crt from ever being taught in the school it was defeated by a six to three vote if you're so adamant about it not currently being taught and you see most of your community against it
044why are you afraid to make that policy to ban crt from our school it will never be beneficial to your students it does the opposite of what supporters claim crt is about and instead creates more racial division in fact instead of calling it critical race theory it might as well be called creating racial tension while i was waiting uh looking through the agenda i noticed that you have a dr scallon coming for your retreat to talk about equity my concern with this is in his biography it specifically says his focused efforts on developing the district's equity teams are to help close achievement gaps between white students and students of color the problem i have with that is that i keep hearing that everything isn't about race then why do you have somebody coming to speak
045who clearly that's what his teaching is about and then i could keep speaking against crt but now i'm going to shift the subject a bit i'm requesting accountability majority of people no matter where we stand agree that the morning announcement was a serious mistake and poorly executed but there's been no accountability at this point and that's led down to a path of distrust distrust in our administration and school board we need transparency and accountability to begin to heal the relationship between parents and the school administration the board and teachers we need accountability and transparency in the classroom between teachers and parents public education should be a partnership the only way this partnership thrives is if it's balanced and when the school and board begin to see itself as a majority partner parental rights inevitably suffer
046my parental rights do not end at the classroom door what happens behind the classroom doors is my business i am putting my trust for six hours a day five days a week in the hands of teachers whom my children look up to so what they say and what they teach clearly make an impact biased political views should not be coming out of the mouths and curriculum or hidden curriculum of teachers i'm expecting to educate my children on the basis and in the basics and income in a comfortable environment this year aside from kobit and mask it was not comfortable environment because the political nonsense in the war that was happening outside of the school was pouring in from certain teachers where is the accountability and how will you stop this from continuing those are my
047children and my everything i am trusting you with them i'm trusting that you have their best interest at heart but i'm having a difficult time with trust at this point i think a good start is to prove that you want to mention the community and you want to build that trust and hold those accountable whoever thought the announcement was appropriate or held accountable the teachers who could not keep their political views private and went against school policy we have yet to hear a sincere apology i'm also asking the school to make curriculum more accessible we should not have to jump through right to know hoops to be able to see it in the last few months i have said i have sat at the desk with other moms from other school districts where the curriculum
048was immediately available because they have nothing to hide other districts post or send out their morning announcements to parents i think it would be a good start moving forward please in closing i'm asking that you consider my suggestions again they were to make a policy to ban on and or eliminate crt from our school accountability from what damage has been done easier accessibility to curriculum and transparency between administration and parents thank you for your time rich d augusto [Music] hi my name is uh rich diagusto uh kutztown i have two boys that are uh soon to be eighth graders currently going to consent middle school um here's my biggest concern with the newly proposed policy um main concern is that there's a credibility problem that we have here with you guys um i applaud uh
049charles scherr and michelle bats for for recognizing that there is a credibility problem that that has taken place the last time the um policy a32 is built on a foundation of deceit distortion and misinformation and it was passed without involved in this community the parents of the children that this policy directly affects weren't even consideration support we all pass that nine to nothing now we're discussing a new policy reinstating or putting a new number on it and changing some some wording um again it go back it goes back to credibility i would think that there would be some desire by the members of this world to regain trust that was lost with this community because of this but it doesn't appear to be too much of that there's just as i just see arrogance and
050i see a little bit of condescend condescension you have alan darien trying to convince us in the last meeting and search he was never part of the policy and trying to assure us that the term equity isn't what we think it is meeting after meeting he sat looking directly into the camera telling us that what we were reading and witnessing with our very own eyes isn't so instead there's emails from mr tim chat and regurgitating the same mantra that crt isn't in the curriculum how do you reconcile saying that it is in the curriculum we we've been presenting information here in these meetings on numerous occasions here it's in the classrooms it's in the assignments it's in the morning announcements the term equity the term equity it's been so distorted the term equity is synonymous
051with crt not because we in the community misunderstand what the definition of equity is the term equity has been linked to crt because crt propaganda has been actively disseminated into the kutztown school classrooms quote as equity so when alan looks into the camera and tells us that equity is not what we think it is he is asking us to forget the equity announcements for elementary that were announced the week of april 12th through the 16th when they poisoned the youngest and most susceptible minds in our school district with crt propaganda telling stories of cookies that would only be given to them if they were white it is disgusting and it was bigoted we're also asked to forget that the equity team before it was suspended was using crt propaganda as a resource that espouse systemic
052racism privilege and oppression based on skin color and other bigoted philosophies i have cougar prints articles in my hand that the equity team they wrote and they put into play that are nothing less than a critical race three bullet points each article speaks to a crt tenant one on social inequality microaggressions one labeled what is white privilege once again the vehicle used to disseminate critical race theory propaganda is equity i want to rehash some of this in case my message is getting lost here the name of the announcements given to our elementary school students was the equity announcements for elementary the name of the team that regularly submitted crt propaganda and cougar prince articles is the equity team the name of the policy 832 that brought all this into our classrooms and established the equity
053team is called the educational equity policy policy 832 it's also the name of the new policy i think that name hasn't changed equity is linked to crt because it is the vehicle that this school has chosen to disseminate critical race theory not because the community is misinformed or ignorant i mean in essence equity has been totally corrupted because of the actions taken by the school board and school so we now know that equity is the vehicle chosen by the school disseminates crt precisely because that's what it's done it's frustrating to have members of this board continually try to tell us that it's just in our imagination we know the policy 832 was filled with crt terminology and specifically the term equity get meeting after beating you try to tell us that it's not we know
054the anti-racist school climate resolution of september 8 2020 prompted the adoption of the equity policy so zalin tries to distort the truth by saying he doesn't see reference to george floyd in the policy we all know that is precisely what the resolution was referring to so now after the deception that's all surrounded this policy we're talking about a new policy adding insult to injury some of the members of the board rewriting the policy are the very members who have tried to convince us that equity isn't at all what we think it is and it isn't part of crt the same member then in the last meeting on june 21st try to convince us that crt isn't in policy a32 saying he sees quote no reference to crt or george floyd he's asking us not to
055believe the words that we are reading with our very own eyes mr d augustine you have much more it's five minutes we have 20 people behind you i'm going to just say that it's concerning to me and i appreciate some of the the rewording of the policy but it's concerning to me that we're trying to reinstate or redo this policy it just it just smells um i think what we need to do is just realize that you need to regain the trust of the community your credibility is severely compromised um and i i my belief is in order to earn that trust back you know get put in the policies that would ban critical race theory hold count make accountability for those who have done the the announcements hold these people accountable and move on
056that's that's all i got to say paul zigler good evening carl ziegler for kutztown again i'd like to thank you for the opportunity to address more i'll start by repeating one of the comments i made earlier several weeks ago i still think this is a solution looking for a problem i thank mr sure for bringing up the question of process because process does matter the psva historically has provided border plate policies and suggest that school boards consider those for adoption and that's fine a lot of times many of those are based on law and you really have no choice but to adhere to that or adopt that policy however if uh psba sent a policy down that said here's a policy on creating a classical music program in your school i think the first thing
057that most board members would at least ask is is this something that kutztown school district should be considering is it something that there's a need for or a request is there interested in and i think we needed to do the same thing with regard to an equity policy you needed to investigate whether or not there was in fact an inequitable environment within the school district i mentioned that again several weeks ago that why not have the administration put together a list of people persons or situations where we've failed to deliver equitable support for students over the last 20 years 40 years 30 years why not at least look at that and say based on those results yeah it makes sense we we do have something to correct here but if there are no real findings
058of any significance if we can point to uh five situations in 50 years then maybe we don't need to go through a full-blown policy so again policy process does matter another concern which i know dr ritter addressed as he introduced the first reading for the alternate policy was the question about is this a question of equity of outcomes or is it an equity of opportunity and i understand that he said that his interpretation of it is that it is a policy that provides for equity of opportunity now as i go through the proposed policy and bear with me as i go through on the very first page under the very purpose item number three and i'll paraphrase a little bit but let's talk about establishing this sustaining school community that shares collective response responsibility to
059address eliminate and prevent actions decisions and outcomes that result from and perpetuate discrimination in any form implicit or explicit well i have a difficult time reading that as an outcome rather than an input it sounds like we're talking about this is what we expect to achieve further on page two under educational equity action plan shall mean the steps education stakeholders in the district engaged in to accomplish the goal of an equitable education for all students again that doesn't sound like an input to me it sounds like an outcome further down that same page under delegation of responsibility it's talking about achievement uh this a lot of this deal with outcomes but one of my concerns here is that with regard to uh analyzing aggregating or disaggregating data i think you'll find that many times this
060the size of the group will be statistically insignificant and that the sharing of information in any of those very small groups sometimes maybe one or two students will immediately be obvious to anyone who's say associated with school district or perhaps with certain people in the community that you're talking about that very same person it doesn't make sense to talk about statistically insignificant groups and we already have a small population compared to other districts and therefore many of our subgroups will be statistically small the only subgroup that i can think of that will be of significance within this school district will be that of poor families or economically challenged people and that will be very significant mr ziegler that's been five minutes you have much more sir on page three toward the top it speaks to
061the education equity action plan again this is something that would be very informed if the district would have taken time to look at our history do we have a history of being inequitable with regards to people in my association the school district and having attended the school district i have always found that the school district has gone out of their way to provide the opportunity to students who were either unable to uh perhaps participate for whatever reason mr ziegler i'm gonna i'm gonna i'm gonna have to stop you i'm sorry it's been over five minutes sir and i have 20 people behind you still to speak hey so my last comment then would go to page five when again there are two references to meeting equitable educational outcomes the first at the very top of
062the page it's kind of a carryover from the paragraph from the previous page and then under the uh fairness lens conversation uh it says district shall be aided in this process through the use of educational equity analysis and auditing tools and again these are things that you need to look at for input and stay with the best input so thank you jonathan ward jonathan work oh while we're looking for mr work i'll joan baldwin good evening and thank you for letting me talk tonight i'll keep it very brief one is when you establish this equity committee i'd like to be considered as a committee community person because the first question i'm going to ask is why we've asked that question many times and nobody's ever answered the second thing i'd like to talk about tonight
063is we're talking about having an open forum at the last meeting carl you kind of said yes you'd be agreeable to that so we're yes you did robin asked i asked so we're going to have an open forum and we're looking for dates that would be convenient for board members we have dates for people running for school board we're looking to have it at the park in the band shell so we're just looking for some dates that would be convenient for you if you want to come and you're running for school board or if you're not running you just want to come be great um the band shell is available available to us so we'll work on that i'm looking for august or early september the third thing is i'd like to request some more
064data i was told the other day that the data that i gave you last month was i believe the comment is misinformation and it was old and inaccurate well there is no new data because there hasn't been any testing being done so i'm requesting data from the years 2018 19 20 and 21 all the time one school data and all the pssa data my request is here um so that's all i have to say mrs baldwin just um as i see you there and want to just quick make her reference um we'll provide any data that you request but if you're looking uh to find any data from the school district as soon as possible the you know the most readily available is the data portfolio that's posted on the website each year annually where
065you would find that 18 and 19 data but i can send those along to you as well thank you mr work is we will move we will move beyond that christopher smith breathing two points on on um policy a32 first i have seen nothing that completely cuts its ties with crt and marxism so if it were to be passed and if i had children in the school right now i would withdraw them and resort to homeschooling second second i believe that parents have the primary responsibility for the education of their children not the government therefore i see you and the faculty of the school district to be hired by parents you're responsible to them whether you believe that or not i strongly urge you to provide a copy of whatever you're proposing to pass to
066have it surveyed by parents and if they should give you a green light i would be very surprised thank you robin underwood i'm robin underwood from kutztown borough i have two children in the school district and i'm just here to clarify a few things at the last meeting i did come up here and ask you if we could get community members together to speak and you did in fact say no um but that i could do that so i'm here to say that that is what i did that was the meeting that's been referred to tonight from last monday um i reached out across the aisle to the other side and we had a civil conversation i'd like to clarify though that we did not write that policy that night in fact we went over
067dennis's policy and we did not even finish there was a lot to talk about and you know it got dark i think it was a very good meeting i think that we were civil we were able to talk some things through and i encourage the board to consider doing this in a formal manner i think would be really a great idea to bring people together to speak more we need to heal the community and get more input from us other than us just coming here and talking at you it'd be much better if it was you know a back and forth so i would encourage that and i also want to thank dennis for his revised policy the one thing that i think um the best part of it was that it's no longer called
068the anti-racism policy because there are many more biases than that that we need to pay attention to so i like that the change at the beginning in particular so thank you connor o'neill hello my name is connor o'neill greenwich township in my hand right now i have a petition signed by 140 people we currently have just asked people to sign so in the coming meetings or what not we will see if there are more i'll pass them out what's the petition [Music] due to the growing interest we've begun to gather names in support of educational equity in kutztown area school district because of summer schedules we have not been able to document all this support but in the coming weeks though there will be a more coordinated effort to allow the public to express their
069support by adding their names to the petition currently we have over 140 names from across all the regions in the in the district in support of the following we the undersigned in the petition are tax paying voting residents of the kutztown area school district we support educational equity policy 832 and all related initiatives that respect and uplift students and that assist individual students to reach their full potential we understand the equity policy promotes tolerance acceptance and inclusion within our schools communities and the wider world thank you [Music] evan snyder good evening i'm kevin snyder i'm a father of three um uh thank you all for your attention um you guys said a lot tonight without actually saying anything about the actual policy um that you're going to implement um you also said that c or
070t is fact it is not fact it is theory there are no different facts for different people facts are facts and our children are not supposed to decipher the difference between opinion and fact um and are you saying that according to the need that we need to put new policy in are you saying that up until now you were intentionally holding people back due to their race etc if not there is no need to change the policy could you give me an example of a time that a child was not treated well due to their race and that their outcome in this school district was not the same as someone else due to their race under the constitution we are all given the same opportunity and freedom not a guarantee of outcome in the policy
071that i'm holding in my hand it says about um speaking on gender about um whether a person identifies as being male or female so um will will a a male who identifies as female be allowed to go into the bathroom with my daughter will they also be allowed to compete against female athletes how is this not discrimination against female students and how do you feel that it is okay for you to implement a policy i'm sorry um my other concern that i have is that on your committee your equity committee there are almost no representatives of parents you work for us it's not the other way around we should be on the committee not not um not just such such a small representative um in closing why are you afraid to show the policy you
072work for us it's not the other way around thank you so wanda snyder tina schmeck good evening fellow community members parents yes please address the support can you hear me yes please i'm sorry i'm sorry and uh fellow uh members of the board administration faculty and staff um i would like to make a statement my name is tina schmack and i am a tax paying citizen of kutztown greenwich township i am also a very proud faculty member of the kutztown area school district as a certified school nurse i've been employed by the district as a certified school nurse for the elementary school since 2012 and additionally employed by the district as a long-term substitute school nurse in 1999. i know that the kutztown area administration as well as other employees and parents can vouch for
073my efforts since march of 2020 and my unwavering and continuous contributions to the district's health and safety plan and return to in-person learning i just want to go on record to say that i fully support the district's adopted 2021-22 health and safety plan as to not having any masks as you can imagine i know that this is a very heated topic for people but with my background and my professional experience in the schools i thought it would be remiss of me not to stand up and speak my mind i've attended an un numbered amount of in-services related to covid19 since march 13th mr tim chattan and dr lieber can attest to my first email on march 13th telling them i want to be front and center of this because it is school health and community
074health i pride myself on being a professional that keeps up and with the upcoming information and i sort through it and i don't read just what's in the headlines i'm confident as a medical professional and an educational specialist that masking in our schools our children's and students is unnecessary and harmful period i'm aware that the kutztown school district's plan states that mass will not be required for 2021 but i want to go on record to say that this should not change there is no conclusive research that is unflawed that supports the masking of well individuals especially children and clinically effective or is clinically effective in preventing the transmission of respiratory disease including cova 19. in fact multiple times while i was reporting kutztown school district cases to the department of health they reminded me masks
075do not enter into the equation of contact tracing it is only time and space 15 minutes or more less than six feet so they're basically telling you masks don't even equate into the contact tracing this is conclusive evidence that the effectiveness of wearing masks is not significantly effective in preventing the transmission and as a registered nurse i am wholeheartedly for disease prevention vaccination and smart mitigation so why do i oppose a mask why do i oppose masking of faculty and staff when not needed and well individuals because we know that their masking creates disadvantages and early masking may have been a good thing before we had the information but now we have all the knowledge and the information a year later we found out that there are problems with having children mass and some of
076the problems of the dangers to children the pros do not outweigh the cons okay we know that children's for the reason not new media masks we know that children are less able to contract covid and the flu is more dangerous to children and then children are not vectors with the code of 19 meaning they can't transmit it to other people readily i can tell you from my contact tracing my long days and very long nights and all the spreadsheets the district has had less than five percent reported coveted cases in each of the schools i think we were at 5.7 percent in the high school at one time socialists doing mass hinder education they harm our children emotionally socially and physically and it is a false sense of security it's not all pain no gain
077it's hard for teachers when they're masked too and their lips and their muffled voices and for kids to understand the linguistics and also for older children facial cues and misinterpretations it causes anxiety it causes claustrophobia it causes headaches it causes stomach aches i know i have seen these children every day in the health room with anxiety and claustrophobia and they need mass breaks so to me yes cover your cough yes please don't share utensils don't share your drinks by all means stay home if you are ill but please no masks in our schools thank you if i could just take one second just um mrs schmeck i could not have more personal and professional respect for you and thank you for being a partner we took on the approach of how do we keep kids
078in school on year and uh you were such a partner now you know that we don't make any recommendations or decisions without consulting you so thank you for everything you've done and please just so everyone is aware that regardless children come first i'm a health professional and children come first to me the health of our school and our children our families and people know this i give out my personal self people call me they send me texts everything i will always be available to anyone in this community for the benefit of our children and our families thank you tina thank you for everything lauren schroeder hi um i'm a resident of albany township and i didn't prepare notes i just thought i'd kind of listen i came with an open mind and i'd like to
079address dr darian about 43 years ago i had you as a physics teacher and i can attest to the fact that i didn't know you had political opinions uh from our time in the classroom so our experience at kutztown has been relatively free of uh indoctrination but i think things change and i think that may not be entirely true still um i hope it is i think with every um every great religion starts with something a matter that has to be taken on faith and i think crt is starting with the concept that we are a racist society and that um because of the fact that there is uh implicit and explicit racism um that we are aware of and unaware of our children minority children can't succeed and so we're here trying to remove
080the barriers to their success and i would propose that the crt program itself and constantly convincing our kids that if they're a different skin color they can't succeed because everything stacked against them is probably the single largest impediment to their success uh in the first place i ran cross-country track uh when i was in high school and i had coach rydell and he never once told us that uh uh you know you can go run the run the race but uh the white mile is longer than the uh than the uh person of color miles so you can't possibly win we were all told that we were expected to win we were expected to succeed and we were given whatever um training was necessary individually some of us could run a long time but not
081very fast some could run fast but not very long the training was always based on what were our needs to make us successful as individuals and it wasn't for all of us to get the same time at the end of the at the end of the season it was for all of us to reach our personal best and i think part of the problem that we're seeing is the terminology with crt is using equity terminology that has different meanings to different people and i think the intention of the board is correct that all students should be treated equally well given equal opportunity the ones that need more help should be given more help my concern is that when we start breaking it out based on race and gender and all the things that divide us
082we continue to divide ourselves as a people instead of bringing ourselves together i think a better policy would be to give everybody what they need regardless of color gender who they are um and i don't think we need an equity policy to do that um we just had yesterday our vice president state that uh that equity um that the equity policies that they're promoting means everybody arrives at the same place uh in the end and that's really half of the communist manifesto to each uh according to his need um and so to fund that i'm sure that from each according to his ability is on is on the table so this is a very emotionally charged uh subject and it has emotionally charged language and i would encourage the board to maybe just drop the
083language and sit down and in common english write down what it is we're trying to accomplish because i think at the end of the day we're a lot closer as a group and as a as a community than what this policy is has shown thank you jim schroeder hello i live in uh greenwich township and uh before i attempt to persuade i would like to acknowledge that those who support this equity policy on the board do so with a deep conviction that more must be done to bring disadvantaged to marginalized groups into full participation in our communities and our larger society it may interest some of the audience to know that a young aldarian was present at martin luther king's i have a dream speech that we should be judged by the contact of our
084character is an important concept to each of the board members during my eight years on the board al and i were often on opposite sides we did sharon what we did share in common was the conviction that we should keep an open mind the opposing perspective after all how can we hope to persuade if we're not open to persuasion we each allowed that there is perhaps a 10 chance that the other might have a better perspective and if not better perhaps our own perspective might be refined by seeing an issue through the other's eyes al taught me repeatedly that correlation is not causation meaning that although we may find correlation in the data in the data finding the causation was many times more difficult and perhaps infinitely so so now again i speak before this
085board in an effort to persuade you to con reconsider an idea the idea that equity fairness defined in terms of equal outcomes and achievement should become the first priority of the kutztown area school district that the pursuit of equal outcomes and achievement should be embedded in every aspect of curriculum and that our teachers should be hired and promoted based upon their conviction and dedicated to this equal achievement philosophy one might make the case that the definition of equity in the revised policy does not mention equal achievement outcomes and that is true however the equity policy authorizes the collection and analysis of achievement data for the purposes of identifying the causes of achievement gaps between identity groups and then it uses these inevitable achievement gaps to justify the need for hiring quotas re-education to teaching staff
086and discrimination against staff who do not actively pledge themselves to the new mission of achieving equal achievement outcomes thus the body of the policy gives flesh to an equity definition that far exceeds that in the definition section it is safe to say that the great majority of the citizens and employees of the district believe that student students should not be discriminated against due to their group identity and that students should be given equal opportunity to learn i have also never met anyone in this district who thinks it's wrong to provide additional resources to help those with disadvantages those that start the race far back from the starting line the equal achievement outcomes philosophy tells us this is not enough we must consider handicapping the high achievers so that all can finish the race together at
087the same time hand in hand the idea that equal outcomes can be achieved seems to ignore the reality that no two people are alike and therefore no two people are equal in ability the same goes for groups different groups have different priorities in life these different priorities have an impact on time spent developing different talents it's also probable that different identity groups have differing levels of desire for academic achievement and it is absolutely a fact that there are reasons other than discrimination and depression for much of the achievement differences between groups this is increasingly true with every passing year it is a certainty that the collection of achievement data will show correlations between group identity and achievement it will not show causation causation will be ascribed based upon the political convictions and biases of those
088responsible to interpret the data although many believe that a more equitable distribution of achievement is a moral imperative the problem has and will always be in the execution those seeking outcomes equal outcomes must inevitably resort to authoritarianism to force their vision on society the equity folks are already burying us for that the pa department of education website has links to the equity literacy institute which lists their principles and finishes with principle 12 and i quote parts of this gem as follows there is no path to education equity that does not involve a redistribution of access and opportunity you have to take it from somebody to redistribute to redistribute it and they the claim is asserted that inequity results from an results from an unjust distribution of access and opportunity and then they provide a solution
089the redistribution of anything from access to classes with high academic expectations to access to validating school cultures equal achievement outcomes philosophy does not simply ask the unconvinced to be tolerant of this new religion the practitioners demand that all participate in the sanctifying of equal achievement outcomes and declare discrepancies between groups to be caused by some evil and often hidden systemicism the reverse side of sanctifying anything is that the opposition becomes evil equal achievement policies will bring greater divisiveness to kutztown these policies are being driven by political operatives from washington to harrisburg and on down to berks county and princeton area school district policies politics has become the art of dividing and we are already living in a much more divided community please reconsider the whole concept of bringing equal achievement outcomes and the resulting division
090to our schools let's put this conversation on hold and watch it play out in other places there's no good reason for kutztown to be on the bleeding edge shawnee wilson hi i'm uh from max tiny township um i just want to say i'm opposed to the crt or the equity policy that you guys are putting out and uh um i'm prepared to send my kid to christian school or homeschool her if i have to to avoid having her subjected to this kind of policy and that's all i'd say thank you ron zimmerman good evening i'm ron zimmerman i live in max tony township last week we got a nice email from the superintendent and he talked about many successes that we've had in our school district and i would agree that over the years we've
091done quite well in order to have success you must have a united effort by the parents the community the teachers and the administration the united effort does not come from dividing people it comes from building people on their strengths not by pointing out our differences i would like to point out how crt has divided this community the school we now have a rewritten policy i don't understand why we need change in the oil policy to start with if the policies we've had used in the past have been so successful so you can wordsmith this document all day my concern that it is still crt in disguise equity fairness whatever words you want to use i hope you are not playing a word semantics game with us crt is evil and is poison to our children
092we do not want this poison and we do not want a watered-down poison for our children my grandfather taught me if it looks like a duck walks like a duck quacks like a duck it's still a duck you can call the chicken all you want it's still a duck an ugly duck stop trying to disguise this ugly policy and get rid of it there seems to be a breakdown in the trust in this room we can all feel it are you listening to us or are you listening to the teachers union who do you represent the children and their parents or your own personal agendas stop trying to play politics with our kids as the pawns please put your focus back on creating a positive environment for our kids let's go back to our core
093christian values we know that they work this is our kids we're talking about not some political experiment i'm here to remind you that you are here to help unite us not divide us your job is to educate not indoctrinate please drop the whole idea of critical race theory or anything like it now i'm reminded of the berlin wall when ronald reagan told the soviet union take down this wall i say to you tonight school board take down this policy thank you hi can you hear me i'm lori zimmerman also from max itani and i have to say i changed my mind ron gave me the option to go first or second and darn i wish i would have picked first following him is going to be a difficult thing to do anyway i want to
094thank you as a school board for the service to our community it's not easy i do appreciate the fact that we did have in school sessions the whole year long that was a very positive thing having said that it's not going to be easy to continue to be a united school board when we have such an issue on the table as ron referenced there was a recent email sent out by mr tim chattan i believe which was i believe sent out due to the negative county-wide press that kutztown received in the reading eagle and i was called by people outside of our school district saying what are you guys doing well i say shame on us as a school district for creating an environment such as this through lack of transparency communication and accountability we
095will now be watched on this issue from everywhere and this is going to create a tense environment for all interested parties i believe this was initially a political policy implemented under the cover of coven we need to be very careful when becoming political things are not always as they appear in the political world two quick examples of companies becoming political was i'm sure you remember many years ago chick-fil-a was criticized for its christian ownership and they have become the fastest growing food fast food company in the country recently goya was called out because donald trump shook hands with the owner slash president and aoc called for a boycott of goya beans that didn't go well for her because goya's sales have just skyrocketed and the owner said he'd like to have her on his marketing
096label i must say i bought my first can of soya beans because i wanted to make a statement coke coke has been outed for segregated training sessions where whites were told quote be less white quote the sales for coke have plummeted terribly and there is now a group of shareholders of coca-cola that have threatened legal action against the company's board unless it ends what they are alleged as illegal policy that the company adopted in january to promote diversity among outside lawyers they're saying that the board breached its fiduciary duty to stockholders with the policy because it exposed investors to potentially to potential material legal liability another policy and impacted a lot of people sports is no exception and the backlash has been severe the nfl in june put out an ad stating and i want
097to read this so i make sure everyone gets what was said it is a black background with white words and it says football is and one by one the words changed in that ad football is gay lesbian exciting beautiful queer heart power tough bisexual strong freedom american accepting everything for everyone how many of you people in here want to sit down with your children and grandchildren and have to explain some of the terms that are being presented here to young people during a football game well my ad would now be very different such as football is not in my house over history out of here gone this sunday after sunday afternoons and fall are going to be very difficult for me because there won't be any football in my house and there are no coke
098products there and i love coke but these are political agendas that people will vote on with their wallets but that's only money you are addressing such something much more important our children i believe in the god that created all people with many different skin colors male and female why are we trying to make people feel badly for what they were born into especially children god protects his children and i don't feel it will go well for us if we belittle children for how they were born these children do not need to be taught that they are responsible for white privilege nor do they need to be taught that they have been oppressed and will always be oppressed stop creating an environment bringing attention to racism and sexism when many children just want to play and
099get along with others social values should be taught at home we have now put our school district in the spotlight and not in a positive way why would a teacher want to accept a new job whether there's such negative tension why would a teacher some who have been here a long time and some for a short season want to expose themselves to constant scrutiny over what they may may not or must say mr zimmerman that's been five minutes i need to finish up please okay i will i want to say that my children have gone through this school district as well and i want to know out of all the successful kids that you guys have put through this school district which ones of them do you want to bring back to teach this kind
100of policy which ones haven't been successful why would we want to do that i think that we're trying to shove through a policy and we should as other people said wait study it and not make people feel like you're jamming something else down their throat thank you brad damons hello my name is brad gammons i'm a resident of albany township and i am a father of three kids in the school district um i didn't know where i want to start with this but listen to some of the other people talk tonight i'm going to start off with my son owen who's going to third grade at greenwich um he is currently suffering from anxiety and he's he does not want to go back to kustown school district if masks are something that he has to
101wear his mother and i do not want him to go back to a school district that's going to implement a policy on equity or crt we currently have two interviews this week with other schools that we are looking to take our child to being proactive if this is a policy that's going to be passed by the board one of the things i'd like to ask of the school district is transparency i know that there's been other residents that have asked for information um there's also concern about what's being taught in the schools uh by the teachers and i would like to ask the school board to come up with something to allow the parents to know what the curriculum the lesson plan and what is being taught to us our students and that they are
102actually teaching that and if they're not that they need to be held accountable so if you're working on policies and there's not something like that in the uh the school district's uh policies maybe that's something you want to look into i've been coming to these meetings uh now for a couple months and we're still talking about the same thing equity and crt and there's a lot of people that have been coming here as well are you listening i don't think that you are this policy seems to me that it's being forced on the majority of the people that are residents constituents of the kutztown school district why is it so important for you to pass the equity policy is there some magic date ahead of us like the november election while you're still on the
103board to get this passed and even further on the the equity and the crt are you following in the news what is going on in our country are you watching the evening news i don't always watch the evening news but i have sources that i can get news and it's all over the news it doesn't matter if it's something that's being played on network cable or out on the internet crt is something that's being banned in many other states and it was banned by our president at the federal level but that was overturned by biden when he took office with the stroke of a pen on his first day why why did he do that why are why is pennsylvania pushing this agenda and who's pushing it the pennsylvania school board association and why we
104need to ask these questions why instead of just trying to push through a policy that the majority of the people don't want in this district they're they're behind me up on that the the stage in front of you and we voted you to do what we want our children to be exposed to why create a new policy when we have something that's working if you create this policy and pass it this will be your legacy so think about that thank you id westner hello my name's heidi i'm from the borough of londhartsville um i'd like to thank you for allowing me the time to talk here tonight with that i'm just here to say i'm very disappointed in the board's hesitation to fully rescind policy 832 and now pushing the new rewritten version called the
105equity policy because changing some words around that you think are going to make us okay with this doesn't change that the roots are still based on crt after last week's summer communication i was surprised to hear crt is not part of the poor curriculum i feel that between the morning announcements that were being broadcasted this past spring to our elementary kids and the opinions from some of the teachers show that it is still being talked about for our students to hear crt tells white people like myself and my child that we are bad that we're oppressors i have never taught my child to treat someone different because of the color of their skin crt would devalue the traditional family union and try to take away the christian values some of us believe in teaching our
106children and how we want to raise them how is this not racism or bullying someone needs to be held accountable a middle school teacher was allowed to encourage students to disrespect law enforcement and talk down police and share their marxist beliefs that is teaching crt why shouldn't that teacher not be addressed by school administrators that person needs to be held accountable to my understanding there were several students with differing opinions to wish this teacher had escalated some very emotional debates to the point some were crying arguments might be a better way to describe that and it was in front of the class at that i fear the equity policy will only open the door for more controversial subjects such as gender identification and sexual orientation and i can tell you that if i ever find
107out that there is a boy turned girl in the locker room when my kid gets to middle school my daughter gets to middle school or high school it won't be pretty if a student is having a problem with this personally i can understand that but they need a therapist either in school or out of school or a doctor and talking with the parent likewise if a student is responsible for bullying a child whether on this topic or anything else for that matter then please address that child and make them accountable blanketing the entire district especially at elementary and middle school levels is unacceptable and dangerous for our children a teacher's job is to teach reading writing math and american history and leave the ethical values to each family two more issues on a lot of
108parents minds are masks and the idea of weekly coveted testing there is no reason for this and if it is mandated or any form of equity and inclusion are not fully rescinded i will have no choice but to look into alternative schooling for my child i won't be alone if your enrollment falls so will your government funding you don't have to follow just to keep that funding there are other districts in berks that aren't saying that two wrongs don't make a right couldn't be better for the topic of crt you can't make what happened generations ago better by reversing it on white people now and that's exactly what this is america is the greatest country but if the if this continues it won't be anymore and we won't recognize it our government is about pushing
109sorry our current government is about power greed and control and pushing their wants on our districts basically is what it boils down to and i'm here to tell you stop interfering with our children's personal beliefs and keep political opinions out of the classroom there is no need for this equity policy from past experiences with my own children nothing was ever done to the person being a bully deal with the bully when things happen and no equity policy would be needed thank you for your time jason cook good evening my name is jason cox from greenwich township he's been playing on his phone for a while it's starting to become pretty disrespectful just noticing that i'd like to talk about results we had 832 implemented without our knowledge for about six months while 832 was implemented
110the only visual significant change to occur in our district was the creation and implementation of the equity team and their chosen communications while i appreciate the attempt to revise the language of the policy there's no evidence that the solution will result in a different outcome you're just asking us to trust you we've already had six months with policy in place also throughout the past few board members our board meetings we've been told by some of the members that the current equity policy which included the rollout of the equity team was done correctly and without error on more than one occasion we've also been told that a high school student was to blame for the announcements in the elementary school most frequently in the meeting we were told that we need to focus on the policy
111and not the issues surrounding the policy what needs to be recognized though is that the issues around policy are the result of the policy itself and results are what matters this fact is glaring to me in the recent q a provided to the community in the communication the need was felt to alter a question and admit a portion of the answer as compared to the answers previously provided in response to mr white's questions the question as listed in the recent document to the community was that policy 832 lead to the creation of the equity team the answer was no the actual question posed by mr light was at what point did this board decide an equity team was needed in our district with the change in the language of the question the newly shared answer
112conveniently admitted from the answer the original answer that the policy codified some work the admission administration had begun including but not limited to professional development on culturally responsive teaching evaluation of barriers to access representation of diverse people in authors and texts and the communication of equity team including the cougar prince articles monthly announcements and the development of a resource website so in other words the equity team wasn't created by 832 832 was created to justify and support what the equity team already planned to do the results of their work have included telling six-year-olds that the meaning the definition of racism is that white people have extra privilege because they are white and black and brown people have less when i went through kutztown that was not the definition of racism it included the cougar prince
113articles on white privilege and white dominant culture and the implementation of a politically charged website highlighting beliefs such as six months at old you can be you can be uh prejudiced by six months so after comparing the revised policy against the previous version there are still no controls in the new policy that lead me to believe the implementation will deliver different results in order for us to move forward there needs to be a way to ensure that the results do not include radical leftist indoctrination of our children as a parent i deserve that knowledge when i send my kids to school that they're going to not come home with views that are detrimental to their learning and to their growth and i also would like to point out that in the new policy where you
114create a new equity team and you highlight the uh six three teachers three students three staff members four members of the community still no parents members of the community could be four professors from the college for all i care but we know where all that was that lawson smith i'm lawson smith i live in albany township the grandfather of children in this district the last part of the purpose statement says it is a legal and moral imperative so if it's already a legal and moral imperative why do we need an equity team and a policy anyway it's already the law it's already morality to treat each other decently according to the ten commandments and the golden rule and we all know that so what do we need a policy for what are we going to
115do differently what are we going to spend a ton of money and time on we're already spending a ton of money and time on this and what are we getting from it i don't see the benefits and i see a lot of potential harm thank you kelsey odiner diana brzewski i'm diana rudzewski i'm in greenwich township and i want to thank you again for having us here and i know it's a long long evening for you i think i was trying to say figure out what i could add that's different it could help you with this difficult decision and one of the things that i want to share with you is some advice that was given to me many years ago about making decisions and i was told that if you have a big decision
116and you need to think of the worst possible outcome of that decision and if you can live with that go ahead with it but if you can't live with it then you need to rethink it now the worst possible outcome of 832 is not community division and it's not people pulling their kids out of school and reduced enrollment what it is is the damage you're doing to young kids i'm telling you you tell a little kid but what we know what you teach a little kid in the beginning sticks with them for the rest of their lives you tell them they can't achieve and you you reinforce that all the time with media and and all this other stuff that's what they're going to believe if you tell them they're bad because they're white that's
117what they're going to believe so now you've got to look at yourselves because you because dr darian was correct it is your decision when i leave here tonight i'm not going to be held responsible i was responsible for coming to talk with you i was i'm not responsible for repealing this you are and what if that outcome isn't the outcome that you'd hoped what if this route of shame that you breathe into these children causes depression and a sense of unworthiness what if that as the years go by that grows into increased drug and alcohol use and addiction and then i want to bring the last one every parent's ultimate nightmare what if a child hates themselves so much to commit suicide are you ready to take responsibility for that you've got a bill here
118that doesn't do what it says it's going to do in trying to force it onto a community that has shown no need for it and doesn't want it it does no good and you've heard the testimony that's done funny bad so when you make this decision tonight remember you're not you're never going to be held responsible for ending racism in the world you're never going to be responsible for ending you know creating world peace but you will be responsible for the decisions that you make tonight and what you're charged to do your charge to teach our children reading writing arithmetic as parents we're supposed to help the moral development and their social development and we're supposed to oversee that you do your job well we'll do our job well but tonight i really want you
119to ask yourself and some other people have said this why am i supporting this am i using most precious and vulnerable assets of this community to further my own political view and what if that political view doesn't turn out to be a utopia but turns out to be a hell so these are all very big questions and i don't see how you can do anything but vote against this 832 there can be no compromise you know you would there's some things you compromise which movie you go to what color you want the drapes but you don't compromise on big things like school bus safety or um i don't know food safety and you don't compromise on this you need to get rid of 8 32. thank you tammy miller i'm going to actually go completely
120off the subject that everybody's been on um i reside in greenwich township and my children have been going to kutztown elementary because i recently bought a home in greenwich township after living in the borough for most of um the last five years um my children do not get bust because my daughter goes to st john's daycare and the reason i'm here is i'm actually trying to fight to keep my daughter in kutztown elementary rather than send her to greenwich because i live there so busing would not be an issue i'd take her to daycare she goes on the bus from daycare to kutztown i've spoken to mr tim chattan about it he says it's a conflict of interest because he doesn't want to favor me the reason i want her here in kutztown is i'm
121a business owner in town if anything would happen the business is run only by myself and my husband so one of us would have to leave and then leave the business run by the other person solely it's closer for us to come to kutztown rather than run to greenwich even though we do live there um she has a lot of anxiety about leaving kutztown because that's where she knows i mean that's the only thing she's known um mrs barnes told her you have to go to greenwich we don't have room here for you she is an elementary student at kutztown if i would not have moved there is room there for her that is not something you tell a child first off and if i would have not moved of course she would still be
122there so i'm asking the board to consider maybe over ruling what mr tim chattan has told me that my daughter cannot stay at kutztown that she has to move to greenwich um and i might add it took a month and a half for him to get back to me after calling him numerous times me and my husband and leaving messages because he would not return our phone calls um that's all i have thank you miss miller we'll take another advisor [Applause] dr myers is there anyone online anyone else in the room that would like to address the board just as to the parent that just spoke uh you know as a board we're gonna look into that yes and then we can uh reach out to her and uh by response right because i think
123procedurally depending on where they're at they might need to come before the board for a hearing on that ruling so we need to make sure that is addressed we will follow up anyone else would like to address the board hearing on we will move to new business seven we will start with a which is personnel item one through twelve promotion regarding personnel item one through twelve second motion a second dr meyers could you bring the mic back to ricky prince parks motion a second any comments or questions regarding item a personnel hearing none roll call please ricky dennis ritter yes charles scherr president michelle batts yes randy birch yes darian yes michael house yes cecilia holt yes eric johnson yes yes so approved next is item b policy maintenance obviously we'll take these as three
124different individual items anyone have a an issue want the policy zero zero four point one and policy one one three point one separated the different motions hearing now we'll take item one is recommendation the policy and curriculum pay that the board of school directors approved the second reading and adoption of policies uh that being policy zero zero four point one student representative and policy 113.1 discipline of students with disabilities so i have a motion so moved the motion is there a second second motion a second any comments regarding item b number one now you know i would just note that i think the changes were made that were discussed at the previous meeting yes [Music] other comments hearing on roll call please ricky yes michelle batts yes randy birch yes aldarian yes michael hass yes
125cecilia holt yes eric johnston yes demonstrator yes yes so approved next is item two it is recommendation of the board of school directors that the board of school directors discuss and consider approval for first reading the proposed policy educational equity do we have a motion second comments questions regarding number two yeah i'll just try to uh look at this policy uh from a different point of view i think that dr ritter has removed the the catch phrases i have to admit that some of some of the words in the original policy would certainly signal some sort of hidden agenda those have been taken out the fact that we would look at outcomes to determine if there was perhaps some inequity going on as jim pointed out it certainly is just a correlation but it indicates
126something of further study to immediately jump that this board and this administration is going to conclude from that something nefarious about race or gender i don't think is particularly true i know that some people think they can read my mind and tell me what i really intended to say glad to hear that that hasn't happened since my wife passed away the policy that dr ritter has come out i think makes it very clear that we strive for equity in achievement but we reach that by providing equity and opportunity and uh i think i'm i'm not going to speak to the board but i think i know the people here i know my mind our education will not be diluted uh children of ability will not be handicapped so that everyone reaches the same level that's
127just not going to happen here yes if we were doing what some of you think we're doing absolutely it's horrendous we're not going to do that we just aren't this is not what this board is and uh to imply otherwise listen to our words read the words of the policy take them literally there's no hidden agenda okay in any case i will agree one more time that we need a control over how opinions are expressed and disseminated within the school both by the faculty and by the students but that's the job of the administration to set up some uh regulations and should this policy pass second reading i will be suggesting or making a motion then that the administration be charged with doing that dr darian ms batts i think you were speak yes i
128also wanted to speak so i think when you know as we're suggesting here with this agenda item right this is this is continuing the discussion um and i think there's a lot that has to still be worked through on 809 and i think that the process by which we do that is something that through additional discussions through the policy curriculum committee committee that that is how we need to come to a common ground um so the the intent would be that we discuss further right this is not the end of the conversation tonight and we have to continue to have the dialogue just as they did last monday successfully between parents that believe both things we do represent our regions right that is exactly what we are we are called to do in these offices
129but we also need to to listen to both perspectives and i honestly believe that the only way we're going to achieve what we need what's best for our kids is if we come together and figure out what that is so i think we have a ton of work to still do this is not as written i think what what we necessarily need to put in place but we it's a starting point and i think that that dialogue absolutely must continue and be inclusive of the community voices that we're hearing other board members yeah i'd like to second what mrs batz uh just brought up um uh so i've i've been out of uh the state for uh most of the last two months and but i have managed to have some correspondences with with some
130people i've begun answering uh emails more frequently that were that have been coming in lately as this conversation has been evolving over the past several months i have kept myself aware of the meeting that reverend ritter had last week with some of the members of the community and i think i think the format of smaller meetings has has worked where these large public meetings cannot this is uh really been a kind of adversarial process here but when i do when i've been writing and talking and listening i think it was uh jim that did say that we we have a lot of common ground here and um you know i i think we've got a lot that we can we can build with on that um i just i'm still trying to figure out the
131point where we're all talking past each other and and i still have to put this in the context of this past year that we've had with the pandemic and the isolation most of us our communications with the outside world have been dependent on social media and i think we all know how you can fall into a bubble um with that and i just you know i think the context of what's going on around us might be influencing how this conversation has been going and i do hope that as we move ahead on this that we can actually have some really meaningful discussions um rather than just um all the yelling and screaming that we've had over the past few months other board members oh nice yeah sorry uh just to kind of bounce off of
132what what michelle and eric said um i think one thing that i do like about number two here that we'll vote on in a minute is just to understand that we're not beholden to any arbitrary timeline on this i think it gives us a an opportunity to do some better reflection and conversating with the board members and the community about how we're going to approach this new policy what would go into it um and then how we're going to vote on that down the line but i think it's it would be good to point out that we don't need to hold ourselves to any particular timeline um we give ourselves the amount of time that we need to to get through it and you know that could be any amount of time there's no there's
133no driving force behind getting this done by by the next school board meeting or anything like that so i just wanted to point that out mr sure first i just wanted to i guess thank dr ritter for his efforts and working on um you know rewriting the policy um i i think he i think really took out you know many of the things that i had concerns about and on rereading the policy um you know at the risk of sounding you know being a broken record here though i i will just restate i think there's a an even better way forward um by utilizing the committee that's suggested in the policy that's proposed to actually develop the policy i think what we need to do i think it will recognize is to you know rebuild
134that trust and confidence between the community and the board and here i think to do that i think the best way is if you're going to have trust and confidence in the results you got to have trust and confidence in the process and i i think that the best way of doing that is having as inclusive and open a process as possible i agree that you know the proposed policy is not the the final policy perhaps but i and it can be you know changed and altered through the policy and committee curriculum committee you know meetings and process but i just think it would be better to use the committee that's been suggested to actually develop the policy other comments yeah miss miss holt i also want to really express my appreciation to dr ritter
135uh for putting in the work up front and i look forward to having some productive conversations to get to a good result other members i think it's just important to point out right this is a this is a motion to move this policy to this proposed policy back to policy curriculum for a first reading so there'll be certainly be much more time for we'll move it back to policy and curriculum though for a second prior to secondary but there'll be much more time for debate and input and possible adjustments to the policy it is not it is not an adoption of a final policy this evening i think it's just important to point out when the public understands that too it is not an adoption of a final policy this evening is only a first
136reading other board members [Music] hearing none roll call please ricky michelle batts yes randy birch yes aldarian yes michael hass yes cecilia holt yes eric johnson yes dennis ritter yes joshua no next is item three the is a recommendation administration of the board of school directors repeal policy 832 educational equity ritter moves a second um just before the vote i'd like to make a comment because it is um on the agenda as a recommendation of the administration that the recommendation from the administration is intended to help support a path forward that includes the collaborative process including various stakeholders uh to operationalize a board definition of equity of opportunity um in hinds right you know we regret the announcements at the elementary level you can be assured that announcements will not be used in this manner
137in the future i'd like to also echo many of the thoughts and thank dr ritter and those who engage in dialogue to better understand each other i've had quite a few of those conversations myself and in every conversation i have i grow and i learn something to thank all those who have helped me um along that process um we believe in equity opportunity when would never take opportunities away from students to create that i believe and i believe so as a result of the conversations that we've had i believe 100 that will be a stronger community as a result of the dialogue that has occurred and will continue to occur over the course of the coming months thank you mr tim chattan comments by board members yeah i i'm uncomfortable repealing 832 and leaving a
138vacuum i think i would be much more comfortable if we left 832 in place but fully intended that we would both adopt the revision and repeal a32 at a later date in the same motion we'll discuss the items go ahead any more comments dr darin other board members [Music] ms holt i'm feeling the same way as dr darian that i don't want to support revoking the policy until we have a replacement ready doesn't it have to be done at two meet doesn't don't you need two meetings isn't that the was it was the rule that you had to do twice or that you had it you had to be advertised first refresh my memory when we talked about re revoking it before [Music] wasn't the requirement that we have to do it at two meetings
139so wouldn't this be the first meeting and it's not going to be repealed until the second one so wouldn't this then match what we're doing with 809 according to the policy 003 i believe it is repeal uh i happen to just look at it policies shall be adopted a minute or repealed by a majority vote of the board it doesn't say it has to be that is correct policy shall be adopted amended or repealed by a majority vote of the board i think it's just that it has to be advertised and it was on the agenda yeah but we do when we adopt them that has to be done by two readings that is correct yes adoptions has to be first and second reading okay second or is that school code the adoption of policy
140is not school code the adoption policy is policy first and second reading part yeah that's a that's a policy procedure of the school district that is not a part of school code and what what policy might that be if it's not no o3 it is an 03. but it's ksd policy not correct not pennsylvania code so the only issue had been that i know of that was a problem last time was the motion has to be made by someone that uh had not voted correct to do that in the past and i made the motion yes so that overcomes that issue so it it we can act on this motion this evening i i read that it's properly before us yes other comments hearing none roll call please ricky randy birch no al darian no
141michael house yes cecilia no eric johnson yes dennis ritter yes joshua yes michelle batts yes yes so approved next is item c the district dentist is the recommendation of the administration that the that the board of school directors approved schuman and schwab dmd pc and blandon pa as a school district dentist for the 2021-2022 school year at a cost of five dollars per student exam and mileage reimbursement for travel between ksd buildings per the irs rate examinations will be formed by either dr brian schwab dr dr brent vallison and dr nicholas siegel do i have a motion so moved scissors motion a second any comments or questions regarding item c hearing on roll call please ricky yes michael house yes cecilia yes eric johnson yes dennis ritter yes joshua yes michelle bats yes randy birch
142yes yes so approved next is item d berks county school district's health trust representative it is the recommendation administration that the board of school directors approved christian tim chad as a district's management representative on the berks county school district health trust board of trustees for a two-year period beginning july 1st 2021 and ending on june 30th 2022. do i have a motion second motion a second any comments or questions regarding item d hearing none roll call please ricky yes cecilia yes eric johnson yes demonstrator yes charles sure yes michelle bats yes randy burch yes yes yes so approved next is item b liability insurance it is the recommendation administrates that the board of school directors approved the renewal of the liability insurance package from brown and brown insurance for one year period beginning july 1st
1432021 at a cost of one hundred fourteen thousand three hundred sixty seven dollars to have a motion promotions are a second second ritter motion a second any comments or questions regarding item e hearing no roll call please ricky cecilia holt yes eric johnson yes dennis yes joshua yes michelle batts yes randy birch yes aldarian yes michael hess yes yes so approved next is item f student accident insurance it is the recommendation administration that the board of school directors approve the renewal of the student access insurance for bollinger specialty group for a one year period beginning july 1st at a cost of twelve thousand seven hundred and twenty two dollars to have a motion so moved emotions are second second motion a second any comments or questions regarding item f i should have asked this question
144in the fir in the previous um action prior to that um and it's just informational question do we go out for bidding of these contracts occasionally like every so many years or what do we how do we do with these david [Music] you're talking about insurance now right right there's only a few companies in pennsylvania that insure school districts so if you have a an agent who represents you they're going to go to those companies if you have another agent that represents you they're only going to be able to go to those companies also so you're pretty much going to get the same bid no matter what you do so we pretty much just stay with the agency we're with and just i didn't know if we had a periodic bidding process or not i
145didn't remember there's a bidding process every year but you know there's only a few companies that will get okay all right thank you it was just information sure any other questions board members hearing a no roll call please ricky eric johnson yes dennis ritter yes charles scherr yes michelle batts yes randy birch yes aldarian yes michael hass yes cecilia yes yes so approved student lunch price is the recommendation administration of the board of school directors approved meal prices for the 2021-2022 school year prices prices will be breakfast at lunch elementary 2.80 cents middle school and high school 3.5 cents these are the same prices as the 2020 2021 school year we have a motion greater move motion a second any comments or questions regarding item g i just maybe sorry go ahead mike i heard
146you start oh thank you yeah i was how does that work it is the free lunch program extended into the next school year it is this is just a formality okay thank you well it's a formality unless you know students were to purchase a second lunch or and that's that's really that's really where it's not a formality but yes for a first launch there's a formality okay any other questions hearing you know we'll call please ricky dennis yes joshua yes michelle batts yes randy birch yes aldarian yes michael house yes cecilia holt yes eric johnson yes yes so approved next is item h board retreat facilitation is the recommendation administration that the board of school directors approved to work with dr james scanlon for facilitation of a school board retreat on the topic of equity
147at a cost of nine hundred dollars do we have a motion so move motion is there a second second motion is second comments or questions regarding item h we defined what the output of this retreat is going to be um the you know the output is really to lead the board to a um definition of equity for the quinceanera school district it's a you know unique to us um the facilitation is just from the educators lens of dr scanlon and that is this later this week correct that is correct and and the time frame on that night i will share i mean those details on for thursday evening uh we'll share with the board as a final document um tomorrow okay thank you other board board members comments i try for one i would look
148forward to just hearing um dr scanlon's perspective not necessarily that i'd be agreeing with everything but just like to hear an outside perspective so i will support having this this retreat this thursday roll call please ricky yes michelle bats yes randy birch yes aldarian yes michael hess yes cecilia holt yes eric johnson yes dennis ritter yes yes so approved next is item i have donation it is a recommendation administration that the board of school directors accept the donation from saint luke's in the amount of 6282.90 to cover the cost of barbells and bumper plates for the weight room have a motion so move the motion is our second second motion a second comments or questions regarding item eye just thanks to saint luke's for the generous uh donation yeah very very much so other comments
149hearing on roll call please ricky michelle batts yes randy birch yes yes michael house yes cecilia yes eric johnson yes demonstrator yes charles sure yes yes so approved next is item j school-based access program it is the recommendation administration of the board of school directors apprentice approve the pennsylvania school-based access program sbap local education agreement to participate for the to 2022 school year for the attached do we have a motion motion is there a second spitter seconds in a second any comments or questions regarding item j hearing none roll call please ricky randy birch yes yes michael hess yes cecilia yes eric johnson yes demonstrator yes charles sure yes michelle batts yes carl nelson yes so approved next is item k the dbq online subscription it is the recommendation of the administration that the board
150of school directors have approved the agreement with the dbq project to obtain a license to access dbq online educational materials effective july 1 2021 to july 1 2022 at an annual cost of 1 125 per the attached to have a motion so moved motion is there a second second let me show you a second any comments or questions regarding item k can you refresh my memory on what is dbq uh document based questions project uh these will be used primarily in social studies classes u.s history 9 ap history to enhance analysis and synthesis skills okay is this a tool we've had in the past or this is new this is a new tool that was requested from members of the social studies department through to the curriculum department other questions hearing none roll call please
151ricky yes michael house yes cecilia yes eric johnson yes dennis ritter yes joshua yes michelle batts yes randy burch yes carl nalty yes so approved next is item l the new story agreements it is the recommendation administration at the board of school directors approved the tuition agreements with new story llc for three special education students at a cost of 385 dollars each per day for the 2021-2022 school year do i have a motion so moved motions are second second motion a second any uh comments or questions regarding item l hearing none roll call please ricky michael house yes cecilia yes eric johnson yes dennis ritter yes charles sure yes michelle batts yes randy birch yes aldarian yes yes so approved next is item n m introduction of new business by board members anyone from the
152board would like to bring something forward i have just a couple things um first of all in item a when we were going through the personnel i know that came up after a very very lengthy public comment section but uh one of the items on it was the resignation of ms o'neil from secondary social studies and i know usually when we vote on accepting a resignation we often pause for a moment to acknowledge the service of that retiree uh to the district and i just wanted to make sure uh we didn't go through the evening without recognizing that second thing i just wanted to bring up and just read into the record last week i learned of a national survey that um i found a little bit uh concerning now this comes from the thomas
153b fordham institute and um this is actually a more of a right leaning think tank uh involved in education policy its board members uh have uh are people who have served in uh gop departments of education going back to the reagan years and they raided the 50 states plus dc in their history and civic standards basically where the bar is set with what the state standards have with what uh the state expects k-12 students to be familiar with at the end of a k-12 education and our state pennsylvania um rated an f um i think uh i think wyoming did a little worse than us and so did vermont but um we're we're at the bottom and it's kind of ironic because uh the declaration of independence and our constitution were written in this state
154um and uh you know i just want to point out uh this seems to fit into the discussion that we've been having about um about race and how race is taught in social studies and in history classes and i just want to point out that we're already at the bottom nationally and again this is a right-wing analysis of how our state is doing i do not want to say this in a way that disparages our teachers at our district i'm just saying this is a statewide rating um we have very good teachers and of course we've got the blue ribbon certification recently uh to back that up but i just wanted to put that little tidbit out there as we continue our discussions thank you dr johnson anyone else from the board have something to
155bring forward i just like to echo the thanks about the board members to dr ritter for his efforts at trying to find a better way to achieve the same goals you can reach out and perhaps hopefully reach some more people you're not going to have everyone agree with you but hopefully a few more so thank you very much doctor other board members appearing on i think we have moved to item eight informational items everyone had the condensed three board summary report the cafeteria fund report student activity reports for the middle school and the high school upcoming public meetings in the formative dates on august 7th we will have the workshop school board meeting at 7 30 pm uh scheduled in the library probably have to evaluate that christian where we go next mr tim chattan
156um on august 9th the policy quick start go ahead yeah that follows along with something we had mentioned um last meeting just there is the possibility we could be moving a location a little later in the game than we normally would as we evaluate where we are in our building projects so that's just something to keep in mind and the public's here august 9th will be a policy curriculum commuting committee meeting at 6 00 pm scheduled for the high school library but if the if the location changes it will be advertised august 9th there's already also facilities and ecc committee meeting at 7 00 pm in the high school library august 16th the school board meeting at 7 30 p.m in the high school library again all those locations please check the website to confirm
157where they will be as we get closer to the dates finally item 10 adjournment looking for motion to adjourn so moved motion is there a second second all in favor say aye any opposed so be it meeting adjourned be safe