June 7, 2021 KASD School Board Meeting

001upstairs like to call the meeting to order with everyone please rise for a moment of silent meditation of the united states like to welcome everyone and thank them for coming this evening there was a log in the back of the room when you came in sign and log and also had a spot on there to mention for public comment i know there is quite a bit of interest tonight in public comments speaking before some of the new business that's occurred that's on the agenda in particular around policy maintenance there will be time for public comment before any actions are taken on new business and policy maintenance so i will be watching for folks that would like to speak on the different items before that and we will take a pause to do that in particular

002before item b on new business in addition there was an executive session held tonight tonight before this meeting to discuss legal and personnel items so with that roll call please ricky michelle batts here randy burch here aldarian here michael hess here cecilia holt here dennis ritter here eric johnson our first order of business tonight will be item three approval of minutes from the may 17 2021 school board meeting do i have a motion so moved greater seconds motion a second any comments questions or corrections regarding those meeting minutes hearing none roll call please ricky michelle batts yes randy birch yes al darian yes michael hess yes cecilia holt yes eric johnson yes dennis redder yes joshua yes carl nazi yes so approved uh next is item b budget and finance committee meetings and if anyone

003uh doesn't have an issue i would take all three meeting minutes together is anyone on the board that has a problem with doing that seeing none we will take approval of minutes from the budget and finance committee meetings the first one is march 22nd of 2021 the second one is april 26th of 2021 and the third is may 24th of 2021. do you have a motion i'm i have emotions or a second second motion a second any comments questions or corrections regarding those minutes from those budget and finance committee meetings hearing none roll call please ricky randy birch yes darian yes michael house yes cecilia holt yes eric johnson yes dennis ritter yes charles sure yes michelle bats yes probably yes so approved next is item four communications and reports we will start with the

004superintendent's report mr tim chat thank you mr nolte as that warms up we have lots of good news to share uh this week as as you know this week was past week was the last week for students here at kutztonery school district which brings with it many events uh very exciting including the commencement and graduation for the class of 2021. can are you into the microphone it might be better if i just hold it right up to my mouth so these many positive events occurring throughout that better the school district here with the close of the 2020 2021 school year including the class of 2021 commencement and parade that occurred on friday evening friday june 4th 2021 was the first outside commencement ceremony in the stadium here at kutztown area school district this the event

005of celebrating the graduation of the class of 2021 became a complete community event you know what we've been able to do over the course of the past two years is take really challenging situations and how you can recognize students in their accomplishment and created two new traditions that give us not only flexibility but the opportunity to recognize students in a different way the second annual uh commencement parade started at kutztown university and and moved its way down main street um we are grateful to have so many community partners whether from the university for using their property to put down community partnership obviously the mayor schlegel support and borough police to lead along with fire companies from all the neighboring fire departments able to guide us down main street as students and families were able to

006wave to their friends neighbors and community members heading into commencement ceremony the commencement ceremony outside we were fortunate with the weather it was a sunny and beautiful evening displaying all that the fantastic work of the stadium that opened three years ago you can see this picture just with the students center at center field with faculty in addition to the band flanking them to the right we had a community the commencement speaker eric goldberger who was the recognized distinguished alumni uh for the class of 21 class of 2021 just a great evening i would like to congratulate mr flicker mr brett and the entire high school team it was a district-wide event but the high school really takes on all of the planning and preparation it took a little bit of faith in the weather to

007move from thursday to friday but our students in our community benefited from from that decision and we're able to celebrate with the parade and also the commencement so congratulations mr flicker and congratulations to the entire class of 2021. another community event last evening sunday june 6 from 6 to 8 pm at the kutztown borough pool kutztown strong coordinated a after school swimming party we saw 364 guests that arrived at 6 pm or later as a part of the event there were over 400 people total in the pool because there was a sizable collection with the heat at the bro pull at six o'clock uh mr sean cramer owner of atlantic volunteered to dj it was just a really nice community event to see people come out and enjoy the resource of the borough pool uh

008on that on was the hottest day of the year yet thank you to kutztown strong the volunteers and the kutztown borough for coordinating the event and allowing our students to cool down in the heat this past week there was tractor day at putceneria high school a tradition for many years that students who showing pride in the agricultural heritage of the kutztown area it's facilitated by the students themselves obviously they communicate they communicate with the school but it's facilitated by them to drive their tractors down to the school the last week of school these stipulations are simply that they're safe and there's parent permission and as you can see from the pictures students were very proud to don their tractors outside the school in the last week kelly levy was chosen to represent chris henry school

009district in the 2021 berks county outstanding young women's scholarship program the berks county outstanding young woman annually recognizes outstanding high school senior young women who represent at high level of excellence among their peers kelly has served as the junior representative to the board for the past school year congratulations to kelly and throughout the county all of the young women who are recognized on friday evening isaiah nygaard graduated he was notified a few weeks prior to his national merit scholarship award winner the award was created in 1955 to recognize and honor scholarly talented students rigorous competitions the winners are selected based on abilities accomplishment skills and potential for success we received the university of north texas meritorious scholars award which covers the cost of tuition room and board fees books transportations and a 5 000 stipend

010for the next four years we'll be attending the university of north north texas to double major in jazz studies and mechanical energy engineering uh isaiah nigar just a phenomenally talented young man who is on his way to north texas to do great things proudly displayed a rubber ducky on top of the vehicle for the parade on friday it was just fun to see that side with someone with such a distinguished honor to his name it's a national merit scholarship and the pct ela proposal proposal submitted by kristin herring for the pct ela 21 reverberation through the pennsylvania council of teachers of english and language arts the accepted proposal is titled book clubs book chats and read alouds experience to inspire community it's in in-person format in october the mrs herring is just such an advocate

011for reading the eighth grade and as a department leader they were excited for her to have her proposal accepted to pc tela one thing we'll just mention that will be an update for a future good news report is that sophia arnold is having an essay published for the national high school philosophy club it's a club that sophia advocated for and was created for the 2021 school year dr johnson school board member is the advisor for that club so congratulations to sophia and we will share additional information to the future report and mr milton that is my report thank you mr tim chattan just would like to say that friday night was a very nice evening uh very proud of how the students did and how kutztown put really their best foot forward with an outdoor

012outdoor ceremony um under the superintendent's report too just have a mention there the 2021 board meetings update um as you all noticed as you walked in as we progress into the remainder of the year we are currently scheduled to only hold meetings in person beginning in august but also just as a heads up that we will be notifying the uh um the website we have construction projects going on throughout the district throughout the summer so there is the possibility of the event we may need to move a meeting later than we typically would simply if the air conditioning is down if there's complications we have paving that will be going on throughout the district and in the case that we get off schedule there is the opportunity we may need to move a location um

013at some point throughout the summer as that calendar progresses but we'll communicate those as they occur things happen just like they did today and that's why it's a little bit too humid here just want to give a heads up to the community that we may need to move some meetings throughout the summer any ques on the board for mr tim chat regarding the reports or comments no questions but just uh congratulations to the class of 2021 and uh just wanted to extend thanks to mr flicker and his team in the administration for being able to put the graduation together the parade and the outdoor ceremony was very nicely done and just again congratulations to our graduating class uh the kids uh did a great job this year thank you and it's been obviously the most

014unique year but having the opportunity to have students in school since august 31st leading up to the commencement is a credit to the entire community leadership from the board and faith that we could do it we had a very successful year in terms of offering in-person learning while having some virtual options for students that were uncomfortable with that mr tim chattan can you hear me yes mr hufford hi sorry to jump in like this but i have a piece of good news i'd like to add as well today was the eighth grade class trip to shady maple and hershey park and even though it was a little bit warm 67 students went and had a fantastic time when we started talking about this in february i thought there was no way we were going to

015pull this off but there were no masks as either shady maple or at hershey park and it was a great day for the students so thank you all for your support of the trip yeah thank you mr hufford um for one proposing the idea as an advocate for students i know that that's such a valuable experience for those eighth graders to have that opportunity at the end of the school year so it was your thought and advocacy that started planning so early and as things became more feasible just you taking care of all the details i'm grateful for that and happy the students had a good time i'm sure they enjoyed the heat a little bit today mrs batz's daughter talked to me for the entire ride home i'm still tired we tell her she's

016going to run out of words one day but i'm not sure it's ever going to happen not likely thank you sorry to interrupt thank you mr hufford for sharing that immediate update as i know you just returned for a long day any other comments okay with that we will move to the new business section we will start with item a personnel everyone has on their agendas items 1 through 16 as well as there's an attached list of coaches advisors for the 2021-22 school year so again looking at item a personnel 1 through 16 do i have a motion so moved some motions there a second second motion second any comments or questions regarding item a numbers one through sixteen hearing none roll call please ricky aldarian yes michael hass cecilia holt yes eric johnson dennis

017ritter yes joshua yes michelle batts yes randy birch yes carl nelty yes so approved next is item b policy maintenance so we will take these in two different steps so let's start with uh item b policy maintenance the first policy so it is the recommendation of the policy and curriculum committee that the board of school directors approve um the first one first first reading of policy 113.2 behavioral support to have a motion moves the motion is our second any comments for questions regarding item b the first one the first reading of policy 113.2 behavioral support hearing none roll call please ricky michael hass yes cecilia holt yes dennis schroeder yes charles sure yes michelle batts yes randy birch yes aldarian yes yes so approved next would be itis item b policy maintenance number two the

018continued suspension of policy 832 educational equity before we address that issue i know there is considerable interest uh in particular for this item from the public with respect to public comments i think it's best that we take some time and we have a list of folks that would like to speak public comment and we will address the list some very basic rules again we have quite a few people that want to speak it's five minutes is a time limit and please everyone everyone has an opinion everyone has the right to be heard so we ask everyone to be respectful and the next part is the person making public comment is to address the board not individuals of the board dress the board as a whole um that is the that is the intent of public

019comment so with that we will start with robin underwood when you come up please state your name and where you live hi my name is robin underwood and i'm from kutztown borough i have two girls that as of you know friday are in the high school i would like to ask you to reinstate the policy 832 because i think it's a very important policy i have read through very critically on my own which i encourage everyone in this room to do and i do not see the issues that have been brought up actually mentioned in the policy i do not think that the parents are actually opposed to the policy itself um and i think there's many things in there that absolutely need we need to work on and now not in september but before

020september in particular um i gave a letter to everyone but it's way too long to read please read it when you can but on a personal note i was very happy to see in the policy that the university is looking inward and using data as a measure for how we're doing um in taking everybody's different cultural beliefs and things into account and ethnicities and representation and things like that um one thing that i think we really need to work on is the environment in the schools i have heard from my children and many many of their friends far too many instances where the kids are being unkind to each other calling each other out using work on inappropriate words making fun of people for their gender identity sexual orientation ethnicity body size anything whatever makes

021them individuals and i know that there were faculty and employees present and did nothing about it i also know that there were many students that chose the virtual option this year nothing to do with the coveted safety issues but because it provided a shield for them so they could feel safe at home because they feel unwelcome in the schools i fear that they do not want to return in the fall we need to address this we need to assure our children that they're going to have a place where they can learn and feel safe and that is in this policy i also see that you thought this out very well when you adopted this you were thinking you're going to provide the teachers with an education themselves give them the training that they need to

022be very sensitive to the kids they're not going to be calling kids names or telling them that they should be ashamed or anything because they're going to be trained in how to do age-appropriate teaching in a very sensitive manner and that's in this policy we need this policy i want it to go forward and i hope that you will not vote to keep the policy stopped because it's summertime it's time to regroup now not later thank you next is lisa diffenbach hi my name is lisa differma i'm a christian borough resident i have two children and two daughters that are going to eighth grade and a son going to first grade i've been asked by erin crawl to present her letter that she has emailed to all members of the board the letters ksd school

023directors i am writing to you in support of policy 832 educational equity and the anti-racist school climate resolution both adopted nine months ago on september 8th and last meeting was suspended along with the equity task force it is unethical to overlook that our district does currently have racial bias this has proven easily accessible public data ksd district is 88 white however whites make up 97 of the ap course completions no black or hispanic students completing an ap course in the 95 of the gifted and talented program and in our district black students are 15 times and hispanic students are four times more likely to be suspended than white students this is not equality nor is it equity unaddressed statistics like this could be used to establish a pattern of district-wide discrimination and violation of not

024just board policies but federal anti-discrimination laws this is especially true since the board adopted an equity and anti-racist policy in late summer 2020 using established board procedures and meetings and now contemplating removing these policies if that is done it must be in full knowledge that basic data for our district provides evidence of unequal racial treatment of enrolled students in multiple areas and across grade levels the district be taking willful action against addressing discrimination which you initiated addressing through policy 832 the anti-racist school climate resolution and the equity task force if you choose to remove permanently suspend or strike down policy 832 then i will take you at your word and expect to remove all education equity from our district faculty programs that are designed to meet individual student needs or treat groups of student differently

025in our district that are include district include but are not limited to day care busing to different the summer reading programs any course differentiation including bctc ap and college enrollment programs sports programs since there's unequal funding for sports area specific booster clubs special counseling outreach programs things like stem science girls girls on their own drug intervention counseling et cetera and all extracurricular curriculars need to be completed equally with regard to staffing and funding and no con special considerations for students that would be studying abroad or have severe illnesses and would need time off for school i expect you to rapidly remove any and all programs such as these that treat our students and their needs differently there's been much discussion about equity not having a place in our school district rather equality which you agreed

026with when you suspended this policy there'd be much work to undo the decades of equity equity that have allowed ksd to thrive but if that is what the vote is then it must be not be a name only you remove all equity obviously it's be painful to many students in our community as a whole and will likely result in lawsuits and or legal actions since special adding gifted and talented and equity are equity-based programs we must be prepared to move ieps because those are equity-based we also must evaluate re-evaluate and resubmit a new budget because in the 2021-22 budget presented many equity items in the program there will certainly be legal ramifications if district moves away from equity in all areas as removal of the policy would require alter alternatively if removal of equity only

027applies to racial or discrimination then the application of selective removal equality equity will expose the district to legal actions for discrimination and i just want to go off she does go on a little more but i just want to go off on a personal note i think that i as a parent of a black child in the school district i think it's really important that we listen to parents and take into account all of the families in our district not just the 88 that but the 12 percent that aren't represented in this room today you can't make a policy change or or revoke a policy that affects the 12 percent that aren't here to be represented tonight we have to make sure that those voices are heard thank you with that we'll move to donna

028fire tag i'm going to speak slow um hello my name is donna firetag i am a parent of a 2020 graduate of kutztown area high school the wife of a kutztown area high school alumni a taxpayer and an educator of children with speech and language impairments in special education for almost 25 years i thank the board for allowing me to speak today i am asking to revoke policy 832 i am here to help in the fight to protect our children from our schools that are trying to implement crt curriculum as we all know crt critical race theory has taken over our educational institutions at lightning speed we all know the definition of crt but do we really understand what it truly is and all the ramifications it will have on our future as a nation

029colleges are very well rehearsed on this kind of indoctrination it has been happening there for a very long time now it has made it's our way and now it's made its way into the heads of our very young children who do not even have an understanding of what they are being told they do not even see race but by making it an issue you are creating a separation early on this is causing confusion and it is appalling and sad to me that this school district was beginning to implement crt without families even knowing what's the big secret if it is something so beneficial actually fellow teachers of mine and many friends have no idea what crt is it's amazing how uninformed people are while these concepts are being implemented right under our noses this kind

030of so-called teaching is all about control in my opinion and making everyone think and believe the same way telling children that they are inherently racist is racist telling children that police officers are bad is absolutely disgusting to me encouraging children to support an organization like blm wouldn't wouldn't educators want to encourage the teaching of all lives matter there is one race if let miss firetech finish please we have a long list there is one race here recess if we have to please there is one race here and it's the human race education is creating more racism stop making children feel bad and apologizing for who they are the more emphasis you put on these concepts ideas and theories the more people don't like one another it has the opposite effect it amazes me how education

031is constantly trying to recreate ways of doing things i have seen in time and time again but guess what you can't recreate history and teachers should not be teaching about their opinions and their beliefs for example when discussing current events and writing a paper on a controversial topic a student should be able to voice their views and their thoughts without being condemned and or their grade suffering because they do not agree with the teacher's agenda telling children what they should think and believe is communism this teacher this teaching is very dangerous from my understanding the national education association feels it is their duty to indoctrinate our children and further strip parents of their rights to teach their children values and morals education wants to teach a revisionist american history victimhood entitlement and loathing of our

032country what is happening here we do not want this for our children please keep this out of our schools as for equity and equality i think to myself of course every child is entitled to an equal education that is the goal for everyone involved when educating a child i believe that public education already provides that there are opportunities there are some things that are out of our control some students will take those opportunities to give in and some will not some students will excel and others will not race socioeconomic status and gender should not define how you think a child will succeed we all have the same opportunities in this country but it is ultimately what you do with those opportunities it takes hard work to be successful i think we seem to forget in

033our weak sensitive society today that we are not all winners life is not fair on a video that i watched recently about fairness the following example was given how many of us hear from teenagers that's not fair well today adults continue to use that catch-all complaint as an assertion of wounded entitlement we live in a world today with a fairness obsession how true that is education should be focusing on the basics and facts not theories and opinions education should teach the value of hard work work ethic in place of entitlement thinking education to should teach kids what they need to know to be successful guide kids allow them to find out what they are good at teach kids functional skills and all else teach children to be critical thinkers and learn how to think not

034what to think we also need to find things to unite us focus on good character focus on shared values encourage children to respect one another even if they do not always agree with one another focus on them being an upstanding individual who has big dreams and goals you're well over okay i'm almost done spend time teaching common values like honesty trustworthiness and respect stop creating more of a divide among our children please please revoke policy 832 and the anti-racist climate resolution and dissolve the equity team thank you with that we'll move to aaron engel hi uh my name is erin engel my family and i have lived in the district for the past 17 years my husband and i have two children in the school district one going into eighth grade the other going into

035tents recently we sold our home on main street and when deciding where to where we were going to move didn't even consider moving out of the district because we value the connections we've made in the community both in and out of the school like majority of the other parents and community members present tonight i was alerted to the presence of critical race theory in the kutztown area school district back in mid-april monday april 19th to be precise that was the day a parent at greenwich elementary school had his fourth grade student come home from school telling him the morning announcements were talking about a hypothetical scenario where only white children were allowed to play on the playground equipment regardless of whether or not this was verbatim what was taught to the children that day that

036was the lesson that was taken home i'm not okay with any child being made to feel bad because of his or her skin color gender hair color eye color sexual preference or orientation vaccination status or whatever else is the divisive flavor of the day and i'm definitely not okay with any child going to school to learn he or she is better than anyone else based on any of these qualities either as my 13 year old daughter pointed out while we were talking about this also made to feel awkward because you're supposed to feel a certain way about something i think that's the white guilt take away of the teachings so apparently the lessons are not falling on deaf ears through crt children are being taught that they fall into one of two categories oppressor or

037oppressed i don't want any person identified by these labels my husband and i have plenty of life lessons to continue to teach our children how to have a solid work ethic to always be people of integrity to stay away from drugs to be conscientious and compassionate towards others we shouldn't have to also undo these racist discriminatory taxpayer-funded mindview teachings along the way revoke policy 832 and the anti-racist climate resolution and dissolve the equity equity team thank you jackie bridges footstone jackie bridges good evening my name is jackie birches and i have four children in the school district and we live in kutztown i am aware that being against crt labels me as uneducated small-minded a bigot and a racist of course i would tell you i'm none of those things and my white children are

038also none of those labels in which supporters would reply that's because you are white privileged this may be where some of you tune me out because you're unopen to hear another side but i did something different i have spent the last few weeks speaking with friends families and fellow veterans whom i served with all of different races some who even support crt i've read articles supporting websites and books to try to understand and it all circles back to a political agenda politics and their agendas whether left or right do not belong in our school district history and structure of our government and america good and bad yes as a 2000 graduate of this district i never knew where my teachers stood politically or their personal opinions in current events today my children know where most

039of their teachers stand in terms of politics and current events so why do we keep referring to the term crt alongside the equity team because when you look at many of the members serving on the equity team you know their agendas and their political views you see how the equity team is being used to push a certain agenda onto our small children crt again is a neo-marxist theory suggesting race will always tame every decision and as a result racial minorities will constantly lose out to whites because of structured racism it claims if you're unfortunate to be born with black or brown skin you're a second class citizen who pays a race penalty it says every dysfunction in minority communities will be traced to slavery in the aftermath there is no place for individual choice according

040to the narrative all white americans are guilty oppressors who benefit from their white skin it teaches that all white americans are inherently racist and there's nothing that we can do about it this message such as the morning announcement on behalf of the equity team where whites are tossed are taught guilt and minorities are assigned permanent debilitating victimhood it judges everyone on the skin of their color this is the classic definition of racism but let's talk about equity by definition equity means fair so at what point did this board decide that an equity team was needed in our district when you talk about equity are you talking about equity of opportunities or equity of outcomes we already have laws that prevent and not tolerate discrimination so was our school breaking a law was the school not

041following special education laws was the district discriminating against students do you have proof of this given the makeup of our administration is primarily white are each of you willing to give up your job to make the workers more diverse we want you as a board to revoke the policies and dismantle equity team and focus on all the needs of the students equally so what is your plan of action for this equity team moving forward [Music] kenneth hefner good evening i don't live in the kutztown school district i live over the hill in brandywine school district then sir i appreciate no i appreciate your comments you can't speak at this meeting you'll live in the borough you want to make one no sorry sir sorry sir taxpayer resident is our policy taxpayer resident of the borough

042we'll move to mike erdman please mike erdmann my name is mike urban i've been a resident in the sun borough for last 13 years i have two children currently in the school district i don't pretend to know what the school district and area was like prior to having come here but i did come here regularly for events with my grandparents and family so i can say with a fair amount of certainty it was likely similar in its limited cultural and racial diversity to where i came from i won't say that it didn't give me an underlying sense of comfort when i felt about what i thought about raising my children here i think that strikes at the heart of this current situation i went through graduate school and beyond with the diverse cohort and now

043treat patients who work with other health care providers coming from an increasingly diverse array of backgrounds my limited prior experience of people who didn't look talk or act like me has only made encounters with these people more difficult come to these last school board meetings the last several weeks i'd go home bewildered by the thought processes of people trying to say that exposing children to the kind of things the equity team proposes would harm and impair rather than benefit them i've come here and sat by well i heard people tell the board the values i try to hold in myself and extol to my children are not real american values i watched a man perform a nazi salute and compare try to compare that to the sign of a civil rights movement these are the

044types of things that are exactly the reason we need this equity and press forward with the training and programs we're talking about a lack of diversity equity and understanding aren't virtues that should be held up as badges of honor my wife and i have thoroughly discussed these issues with our children have you watched this on the video the last few weeks while some opposing these equity policies would like to consider these open discussions i've had with my children indoctrination this kind of discourse with children should instead be viewed as enhancing their view of the world as it is and will be in the future making them better citizens of this country we became sidetracked the importance of talking about these issues because of words that some felt were personal attacks having difficult conversations about topics

045like the whitewashing of american history the existence of non-binary people or non-traditional families isn't easy now apparently we're being told we shouldn't we should let a vocal minority of people who's overriding fear of such things should prevent anyone or any children from hearing about them interestingly enough as i wrote this i overheard my wife listening to our most recent hospital mandated training regarding how to better facilitate and care for our community members who are different than regular patients so i reiterate preventing exposure of our children to these equity concepts whether out of fear anger or misguided ideas you're only impeding their future success not protecting them from a future that's already going to move on without those who want to tether themselves to the past thank you move to julie pal kendo good evening hi

046good evening my name is julie palcando i live in greenwich township i am a parent of rising fourth and first graders in the kutztown elementary school building i'm here tonight to support policy 832 and the anti-racist school climate resolution that was adopted on september 8 2020 and disappointingly most recently suspended at the may 24th meeting along with the operation of the equity team i am very curious as to why many on this board voted in favor of these suspensions on may 24th especially after unanimous unanimously adopting it just nine short months ago was it because you no longer wish to foster an equitable inclusive anti-racist environment for every student staff member parent and community member does this then imply that your considerations revoking this policy mean that you wish to foster an inequitable exclusive and

047racist environment i certainly hope not if not then what was it because you no longer wish to recognize respond and speak out against injustice and racial inequity or maybe it's because you no longer wish to ensure that our students staff administration deserve to feel safe to feel seen and to feel affirmed no matter their race ethnicity religion gender sexual orientation socioeconomic status language ability disability and other identities again i certainly hope not it is my understanding that the equity policy and the equity team's work is geared to actively encourage and provide opportunities for all students again no matter race ethnicity religion gender sexual orientation socio-economic status language ability disability or other identities the equity team's work is to ensure all of our students can pursue their goals and interests without regard to biases and other

048barriers enroll in challenging programs and participate in school activities and interscholastic athletics why does the majority of the board of directors now suddenly not support these efforts that will positively impact all of our students i'm even more confused just why everyone in this small supposed tight-knit community is not in support of these opportunities for all of our students perhaps you the board are voting in favor of these suspensions and even considering revoking this work because you no longer wish to hear and include a diversity of staff students families and community members specifically those that have been ignored oppressed discriminated against and marginalized on substantive school and district issues this is certainly not an appropriate for appropriate or fair for to be hearing from all students families and community members did you know that over 70

049percent of the population has a fear of public speaking to be honest this meeting is terrifying and i speak in front of people for a living i am also a white middle-aged non-denominational female heterosexual middle-class english-speaking native pennsylvanian i cannot even imagine standing up here tonight if i was in a marginalized category or experienced racism or bias firsthand i say this to remind you that the slate of comments that you are receiving this evening and in the recent past certainly do not represent the entire school district and it would be wise to not react or respond to appease those that are the loudest in closing it is clear that there is much listening and discussing to be done in this community on the topics of equity and anti-racist policy policies which is why i ask

050that you vote to reinstate policy 832 and the anti-racist school climate resolution and the operation of the equity team immediately i also encourage you to set up a way to hear all voices and create a dialogue this is not a situation where we can agree to disagree every small medium and large corporation and organization in america has implemented implemented some form of diversity equity and inclusion policies statements and trainings in the last year why should our district be any different it's not necessarily about having a problem it's about preventing problems as our elected board of directors it is your responsibility to help meet the needs of all of our students i ask that you think of our students first in your decision making after all isn't our district vision statement to maximize potential embrace change

051and create the future thank you for your time we'll move to aaron fenstermacher good evening my name is aaron fenstermacher i live in lions maxitani i am the mother of a rising fourth grader in kutztown elementary school you will notice i don't have a paper in my hands i didn't prepare a long speech or remarks if i'm being completely honest when i heard about what was going on at the recent meetings i felt i had to come here with my own ears and see with my own eyes what was going on because i couldn't really believe it um i i was saddened and disgusted to hear some of the comments and some of the rhetoric that was being discussed and i've now witnessed it firsthand so um sometimes you have to believe what you hear

052but i am in support and i i really respect all of my um you know fellow community members who have spoken before me and done it so eloquently so i don't need to add a lot to that but i wanted to just add my voice of support for the policy 832 i work at cedar crest college in the president's office we have done immense work on the diversity inclusion and equity front i have heard from alumnae who are still traumatized and scarred to this day by racism and and bias and hatred that they experience at our institution a place that i you know respect and love um there's a ton of tough work going on but it's absolutely worthwhile uh in fact i just think that basic compassion and intelligence and open-mindedness makes you know

053it all that more important um i don't know what happened with these announcements that i heard about at greenwich elementary school and i think that um discussing diversity inclusion equity is difficult at any age especially with the the young children in the elementary school so i think it's very delicate work i think they're amazing resources out there you know trainers um consultants people who you know work very hard and can show the right way to go about it and i think you know i would urge the equity team to reach out and try and find those resources but it needs to be in operation to be able to do that um so i don't know the right way but i think just you know dismantling it and taking everything away is not the way to

054do it so i would urge you to reinstate the equity team like julian said before me i think every single corporation you know profit nonprofit business is exploring this kind of thing because it is so important i would be embarrassed and horrified to live in a district where we just throw it away so thank you for your time next we'll move to ronald zimmerman good evening you might notice i'm wearing hearing aids i cannot hear these speakers i don't know can the people in the back hear me you can barely okay if there's anything we can do to turn this up that would be great put the mic closer to your mouth my name is ron zimmerman i live in maxitoni township i've been a member of this community for 40 years i have two

055sons that went through the kutztown school system and they did just well they did really good and i want to thank all you did a great job with my boys thank you i now have three grandchildren that are part of this school and i don't want my grandchildren to think that granddad is evil because he's a white male i do not support teaching critical race theory in this school this country was founded on the beliefs of god and country the god i serve loves all people he wants them all to be saved he wants him to live together and work together in harmony that does not happen when you're pointing a finger at each other we should live by the golden rule right matthew 7 12 says we should treat others as we want to

056be treated i teach my kids you reap what you sow do not judge or you will be judged let's be honest critical race theory has its roots in marxism this is evil and un-american it pits one group against another it has failed miserably in many countries throughout history supporters of critical race theory have proposed suspending private property rights seizing land and wealth distribution along racial lines their end game is to end capitalism it starts with dividing people and ends with socialism do not let this happen in kutztown thank you jerry sievert hi i'm uh jerry stevens move closer i'm here to represent closer to the mic please okay i'm jerry ceter i'm here to represent the stakeholders in the kutztown area school district who are not here many are afraid to speak out because of

057backlash from teachers and community members one question they wanted me to ask you was what evidence do you have that shows how critical race theory has had a positive impact on students and community somewhere else i guess there's really i don't think there's an answer there um here's a list of african-american uh leaders that are against critical race theory supreme court justice clarence thomas ben carson senator tim scott thomas sowell alvada king ken blackwell vernon jones errol webber earl weber candace owen and burgess owens our families did not ask for this divisive nonsense and voters did not vote for this we know this is a political marxist ideology that is being pushed by the federal government the national educators association the american federation of teachers the pennsylvania school board association and the bciu we want

058the equity team disbanded we want the racist climate regime we do not want this equity policy 832 rewritten changed at all we want this toxic racist political propaganda revoked and this is what the school the stakeholders that i represent want done with this policy stephen marsh hi my name is steve morris i live in the borough kutztown i have two children in the school district uh before i get started i want to give you all a copy of the house bill 1532 that was just introduced in pennsylvania in regards to this and some of the things that other states have done i can i take and make sure there's a copy for every board member i'll make sure they get them okay thank you appreciate that closer to the mic for people i just want

059to read a little article that i came across and uh just for you all to hear a psychiatrist based in new york city reportedly told a group at yale school of medicine she fantasized about unlimiting a revolver into the head of any black person that got in her way dr aruna kalani spewed the race hating virtual remarks in which she also said she'd walk away from the shooting with a bounce in my step and that black people make my blood boil and are out of their minds and have been for a long time at the ivy league institutions child study center april 6th kalani reported reportedly opened her talk to tell the listeners i'm going to say a lot of things and it will probably provoke a lot of responses and i want you to

060just maybe observe them in yourself nothing makes me angrier than a black person who tells me not to be angry because they have not seen real anger yet she said before noting how she systematically cut off many of her black friends about five years ago i stopped watching the news once i started i couldn't stop it was also public service i had fantasies of unloading a revolver into the head of any black person that got in my way burying their body and wiping my bloody hands as i walked away relatively gutless with a bounce in my step like i did to the world in effing favor she stated the psychiatrist claimed yale said footage of her talk would be released to the public on monday however it was reportedly released internally and not available to

061those without an id the school stated the racism expressed by dr kalani in a grand rounds at yale just released is deeply worrisome and counterproductive said the sterling professor of social sciences at yale's at yale university so we can all agree that was pretty racist statements that was made that she wanted to kill black people but i changed every single word where she said it was for white people and changed it to black so you could see how racism goes on in our society no matter what crt equity team will not solve this problem it will only exacerbate the problem thank you diana brazzewski hi there i'm diana rodzewski i live in greenwich township closer to the mic please better i can hear what people out there can here i moved here about 16 years

062ago and one of the first things that and this doesn't sound a little crazy but one of the first things that i encountered i had a daughter in sixth grade and a son as a freshman and one of the first things i remember thinking is i was sitting in the football stands and all these parents around me are saying oh you know what we need in in in kutztown is more diversity and i remember rolling my eyes and thinking this is the first time in 10 years i've seen a middle-class white person and i'm loving it and you know why i'm loving it because i finally see some people it was not because they're white but because they had so this is a farm community i was an ag major i worked in agribusiness during

063my days and it was finally i came to be with people had the opportunity to live among people they had the same interests that i did you see i'm a little different than you guys i was raised in lexington kentucky i spent time on a cattle ranch much time on camel ranch in wyoming i've been to europe i've been to israel i've been around i've lived in an urban environment and i tell you the most foreign country i lived in was new jersey for 20 years my friend my neighbors were mainly south philly catholics there were muslims there were you know there are blacks but this isn't what how i see it so when i came here and i heard all this guilt look at all the white people because this farm community and because

064you don't see a lot of black people maybe because they just don't have the the opportunity the job opportunities or whatever my daughter went to main campus and one of her um best friends happened to be black now i don't know why this young woman decided to hang out with a bunch of white gals but they did and they were pretty good friends probably her best friend now there's no way in hell that woman would move here young woman would move here she's in san antonio she loves the urban environment kutztown offers nothing for her but my daughter yeah you know she had a position she moved into the area because she's a country person so when you look out here and you see all these white people it's not necessarily an indication that this

065community is racist it's just that this is how it evolved and you know over the years i guess we don't buy into that because it's just that we've been around people of color from the time i was a little girl my husband took two degrees from temple i mean you're gonna see people of color he was raised in delaware county and worked in a black area with as a skinny little kid in a in a cinema you know we we don't see things that way and the one thing that we saw is and one thing that i've learned people are people they are not victims they are not villainous in within each of us human beings as a christian you learn this that we all have good we all have bad the same bad things

066that if you if you're a white person and you decide that you want to do drugs and alcohol and not work and have if you're a woman and you have a bunch of bunch of babies and no husband you're going to be in poverty i don't care what color you are and that's where it's all getting confused people are quoting a lot of statistics but they're not realizing that people are people where all the you you elite king is one of my favorite people right now she's her philosophy in case you haven't listened is that there is no such thing as race for creation for creationist christians we believe we have common ancestors and the people just have different characteristics they've evolved they moved to different areas they married within them and these characteristics got

067concentrated we are not a people as human beings we have our evil side we have our good side and the same things that that promote success in white people promote success in black people this theory creates shame and victims and the people that are most victimized by it are these little kids in the inner cities the little kids that are taught it's whitey that that's keeping you down and you can't get ahead and i guarantee you they can they i guess because i've been around so many black people with with that are so much more talented than i am i mean you know that you just heard a list of black politicians that are exceptional in their abilities and success so to look at people and think that because you have a black that you

068have black skin you don't have the opportunity and you can't succeed and that's what this does this not only creates shame in our kids but it creates a permanent victimhood of permanent underclass in these little kids and it's wrong and you know they're so susceptible for what you teach what what you've already said to these kids is going to have so much of a negative impact on them there are a few other members that sign here that don't live in the community that i'm going to skip so we're going to move to jason cook i'm jason cook from greenwich township uh as most of us know there was a recent municipal primary a couple weeks back may 18th at that primary there were multiple board members that were at the polling place during uh the

069primary during the voting they were informing residents that this uh these policies and the equity team were suspended and we're going to be revoked it's time to move forward with that promise and revoke these policies and that equity team i think this community is spoken at large and very voicefully address the board that that's that's our expectation at this point thank you joan baldwin good evening i'm joan baldwin i've been a resident of kutztown for since 1973 when i moved here to become a teacher i taught in the district for 27 years i left kutztown worked for a brain research company international brain research company then i worked for the state department of education and then i worked for eastern school district so i have quite a resume i am first want to talk about

070i requested a um freedom of information from the school district asked for quite a few things and i got this back 15 pages so i will be you know appealing this and asking for what i really wanted which was everything you've given the parents teachers the administrators and the school board um i got board minutes which i they're on your website i got very little information back so probably many of you know that yesterday was d-day right 77 years ago and that was the invasion of europe to stop the nazis now my dad was a glider pilot instructor to help aid in the invasion and i feel that this group of parents sitting here is fighting a very similar battle and we want policy number 832 not only suspended but revoked we are prepared and

071we have landed you know what today is well that was yesterday do you know what today is d-day no today is the anniversary of the battle of midway which was a turning point for the pacific war where my dad was flying supplies to our brave soldiers and flying wounded back this courageous group of parents who fear retaliation and bullying from teachers and administrators and community members are just like that but we're winning we're stepping up and telling you what we want i always look at the sign as i'm coming into kutztown about the blue rhythm in high school and you know when you're a blue ribbon in high school that's that's quite an accomplishment it starts in kindergarten right it's not just something the high school did they're the ones that filled out all the

072paperwork but it starts in kindergarten you start with your kindergarten students you work through elementary middle school and everyone's prepared but you know if you don't have a strong educational system children students are not going to be successful so if you employ equity and you're talking about equal outcomes for everyone you're not going to have a blue ribbon high school you're not going to have sports teams you're not going to have valedictorians you're not going to have the best of anything because everybody's supposed to be the same and i think that's really sad because we need our kids to excel we need to have ap courses we need to have more kids sign up for ap courses we need all of those things to happen now i know a lot about diversity even though i've

073lived here in kutztown for a long time i went to china to teach one summer i wanted to be illiterate i wanted to know what it was like to be illiterate i wanted to be able to know how they teach in china and guess what they teach everybody the same and i ask where are your special ed kids we don't have any not allowed to go to school so it's very different there i've been involved in special education in this district for a long long time i was very active at the state level and getting things moving along with special education and ieps children who need them get them i know that's very true i also do a lot of work in guatemala that's where our vice president is today there's a group of us

074i'm on the board that we go to guatemala every year we raise lots and lots of money and we support 10 schools there and i can tell you that it's teaching in guatemala is very different than teaching in the united states but i think when i look to the policy because i'm i've been memorizing it there are parts of this policy that make absolutely no sense it's embarrassing to think they were actually signed on to it and i do believe that you did not get all the information you needed when you voted yes for it for one thing that's a very confusing portion when it talks about gender and it says and i'll quote right from the policy so i don't think i'm making it up this ball when you're at five minutes please so

075can you finish shortly very quickly i just need someone to explain to me gender for the purpose of this policy shall mean the range of characteristics pertaining to and differentiating between masculinity and femininity including a person's gender identity and gender expression which includes a person's internal sense of being male female some combination of male and female or neither male nor female i don't know what that means this ball when that's five minutes do you have any more i have many more so i'll be back at many times reading all of them thank you good evening um thank you for the opportunity to speak prior to taking any action today my name is trisha leibe um my family and i moved here four years ago my husband is a native from here graduated from kutztown prior

076to moving here four years ago i worked for almost 20 years for lockheed martin traveled lived in california so i've seen my share of diversity i have two elementary age children right now tonight i urge the board to revoke the educational equity and the so-called anti-racist school climate policies and resolutions as well as to dissolve the equity team at the last meeting a board member referred to policy 003 during discussions on these policies and i applaud and appreciate the need for proper following proper procedures yet i want to note that this same policy states that individuals or groups that might be affected by policy addition deletion or change be contacted clearly this was not done when the psba propaganda was quickly pushed through in august and september of last year while parents were trying to

077understand how the school was handling covet furthermore policy 119 specifies that you will not indoctrinate or persuade students to a particular point of view the policy also quote encourages balanced presentations and open-mindedness the equity initiatives violate your existing long-standing policies training students to say everything is either the result of their privileged or their oppressed state as dictated by their skin color is not a balance representation and is straight up indoctrination this approach removes personal accountability and the impact of personal choices made and subsequent consequences people are a product of choices made by themselves and by others obviously others choices may affect us negatively but the school needs to focus on equipping students with how to move forward in life i'm not naive enough to realize that there aren't disparities in the world but blaming problems

078on someone else never gets people anywhere except angry and divided even more disturbing is how this policy creates labels and groups people into categories our children need to be seen as the unique individuals male and females as they were created broad brushing an entire people group any group for sins committed by some whether in the past present or the future is ignorance not only are you harming our children by labeling them based on skin color you are not teaching them to think critically for themselves we need to teach unity by sharing the good with the bad of our country we can value diversity in our differences while also embracing what we have in common we are humans and americans certainly atrocities have been committed against black people and many other races throughout history that's across

079the entire world not just in america i could go into how america led the way into ending slavery but i'll save that for another time assigning the sins of america to one group of people by race is racist educators must balance the good with the bad with balance the good with the bad independent of skin color are there people who are racist today yes but it's from all colors and it is wrong however attributing every difference in outcome to race removes personal responsibility it also dilutes real true acts of racism one of the criticism i hear especially tonight back against this policy is that we don't want diversity like we want our kids to live in a bubble that is absolutely not true if we aren't studying great black people or other races in america

080then we should be i applaud using tax dollars to expose our children to books that show other races or ethnicities while still honoring the foundation of our country noted from historical texts not new ideas of how our country was created educators should be showing students examples of people of all races races and ethnicities that have been able to overcome barriers of poverty home situations and et cetera to move forward and how america is the best place to be able to do those things this is not to minimize the hardships of people in america but these are complicated issues that cannot simply be defined by race there are resources that strike the delicate balance of the good and the bad of our country there's new laws across the nation that are being looked at to ban

081this type of teaching there's another group called the foundation against intolerance and racism there's another group 1776 unites which is a cohort of black um people who spoke focus on voices in the black community they reject victimhood culture and they showcase the millions of black american americans who have prospered by embracing the founding ideals of america so i urge you to revoke these policies and let's get back to educating instead of indoctrinating anything less demands a burden of proof to explain what problem is trying to be solved that is not already covered by existing policies thank you for your time [Applause] george ciracas good evening folks my name is george sorakos and i am a parent to two wonderful little girls i live in kutztown borough so typically as a scholar who has utilized critical

082race theory as a guiding framework in my research and in my life i would normally address this to the board but the more conversations i have regarding critical race there with people i realize that people just simply do not understand crt nor are they willing to put in the work to truly understand crt so i'll just stop there so this evening i said i'll take another approach to address the board i'm here asking you folks to reinstate the policy under consideration in 1954 the supreme court decided in brown versus board of educational topeka kansas that separate but equal was not equal and began the process of desegregating u.s public schools that piece of legislation was a cornerstone of the civil rights movement in 1960 ruby bridges was the first african-american child to attend a desegregated

083school in new orleans there are several photographs pertaining to that event several of those depict angry mobs of white men and women holding derogatory signs which i will not share with you folks you can look it up and those signs demonstrating against this child's right to attend this school and receive an education further during that time there was mass resistance in the south several politicians even saying that they would that racial integration would simply not be accepted in the south and that they will purposely and intentionally defy what the supreme court had said i bring this up because we think of this event as being from some long time ago although it was only 61 years ago many people in this room were alive during that time in retrospect we look at those photos of

084ruby bridges and we might think how could that have happened and nowadays folks who lived through that know they truly know whether they were on the right or wrong side of justice so i asked the board this evening which is tasked with deciding whether to continue to suspend the policy revoke the policy amend the policy reinstate the policy which side of justice do you want to be on i argue that creating an educational environment that is inclusive that acknowledges and celebrates our differences that's intentional in creating equitable opportunities for all students i said it not equal equitable opportunities for all students is the side of justice that i want to find myself on the policy aims to do that so once again five years 10 years 20 years from now when people look back at

085this meeting when people look back at kutztown area school district ask yourself which side of justice do you want to be on so by revoking or continuing to suspend this policy i then ask the board to consider the intentional message that it is sending essentially that if you identify with being a member of a traditionally marginalized group whether a person of color a person of uh with a disability a person of a non-dominant religious group a person in the lgbt community community you are essentially saying you are not welcome here so be very aware that everyone else had the opportunity to speak let him finish he deserves that right and so i asked the board again to consider the implications of that decision and what it might mean to find yourself on the wrong side

086of justice thank you for your time steven schnell thank you um my name is steve schnell uh resident of mac's joint township a parent of a high school student and a recently graduated uh high school student this past week i had the pleasure of attending kutztown high's graduation ceremony and hearing the commencement speaker kutztown grad eric oberhaltzer when asked by someone about kids falling through the cracks here mr obelhoel just said that in kutztown there are no cracks i want to believe this is true and i think we have the ability to make sure it's true back in september this board voted unanimously to implement an equity policy that commits the school district to work towards ensuring an educational system that works for all of our students this equity policy was the right thing to

087do in september and it remains the right thing to do now much of the public discussion of this policy however has been driven by misunderstandings of what the policy is and what it does the waters have been muddied by irrelevant discussions of critical race theory and have absurd conspiracy claims of marxist indoctrination quite frankly quite frankly dragging in national culture war issues driven by the outrage machines of social media into our local decision making is harmful to our kids and it's harmful to our community some of the concerns raised by opponents of this policy are genuine and worthy of attention i agreed with the board's decision to reconfigure the equity committee to include a broader range of community voices i agree that the morning announcements are not a particularly appropriate or effective way to bring

088about discussions of equity inequality discussions of such issues need to be age appropriate and properly contextualized some of the other complaints i hear from some opponents of this policy however are more troubling there's a move among some to eliminate any discussion of racism inequity inequality or any mention of discrimination in our schools martin luther king gave a speech rosa parks sat on a bus everything's been fine since then that's a dangerous path to go down plenty of countries have attempted to wipe unsavory aspects from the past and present and to ban the teaching of particular concepts that's the standard playbook of totalitarian regimes from left and right the world over we're better than that i know what it's like to be taught a sanitized version of history and to be taught that everything is just

089fine we just passed the centennial of the tulsa greenwood massacre where a white mob rampaged through a prosperous black neighborhood killing upwards of 300 people and burned the neighborhood to the ground i grew up in oklahoma and in school i had a year and a half of dedicated oklahoma history classes i never heard passing mention of this until years after i left the state we also learned about the symbolic crossing of the native american peace pipe and the white olive branch depicted on oklahoma's flag but we largely ignored the sometimes violent theft of native lands that continued to occur well after statehood we learned the ideals which are important but we failed to learn about how we didn't always live up to them we learned that in short everything is just fine but of course

090everything is not just fine and plugging your ears and loudly proclaiming that we don't have problems while never listening to the voices of affected groups does not change this i believe in this country and i believe in its ideals and it's our responsibility to make sure that we live up to them it's our responsibility as a school district and you're yours is school directors to ensure that none of our kids fall through the cracks that we provide all of our students what they need regardless of their academic level their cultural ethnic racial background their economic status their gender identity equity is not just a racial issue as it seems to have been made into here it means that each of our students are helped in ways that enable them to reach their potential and that

091each of them have a welcoming educational environment we can only achieve this by careful systematic examination of our educational system and its results of our policies and our programs and our curriculum this equity policy provides the framework for doing this it commits the district to eliminating barriers to student achievement and ensuring that the school community is not whether intentionally or not perpetuating discrimination or bias now as we move forward as a district let's sit down and interact with each other as people and not as demonized stereotypes maybe it would be useful to have an outside facilitator help with these discussions to keep them productive and on track but let's do the hard work together equity is a route not to blame but to self-examination and most importantly towards giving all of our kids what they

092need in order to be successful and to feel that this is their community also opponents of this policy are fond of dr king's quote dreaming of a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character this is a moment that is testing the character of our community do we want an inclusive community an educational system that works for our kids or are we willing to let some of our kids fall through the cracks keep this policy keep doing the work keep having the difficult discussions you did the right thing in september and i encourage you to keep doing the right thing now thank you that is the end of the list of people that signed up for people that live in the school district

093there is one person at least one comment online online just right can the board hear me yes aboard my name is seth naugle uh i'm a youth pastor uh here in town i also live in town uh and very much love kutztown um i would just like to say that i hope this board does reinstate the equity team and equity education at kutztown because i truly believe that it is good work is it hard work clearly going against the status quo is never easy it makes people uncomfortable it causes us to think about things differently to have hard conversations we get angry and heated but good change good justice rarely comes from being quiet some scholars are saying that we're currently in the middle of another civil rights movement that trying to continue making change

094for a society where all can be treated with fairness and given justice now this will never be the easy path the reverend dr martin luther king jr at his death in 1968 had a disapproval disapproval rating of 75 percent according to a harris poll that was taken that year people said that he they thought he had done more harm than good for the country it wasn't until around two decades later that he would later be venerated with a holiday and seen as a force for positive change he is still often misunderstood as a safe historical figure instead of a divisive and prophetic voice for change now if you look at his history you will find many examples of people and institutions rallying against him with similar charges that have been thrown at this board and

095the equity education that it was unfair toward white people that he was lying and a common one was that he was a marxist and a communist it became a common insult thrown his way too quickly to decry him as an un-american and un-christian change will never come without hardship and push back conflict is a natural part of making good change now i know this isn't an easy decision and i know it is a scary one especially when it feels like people are telling you that the sky is green or that anti-racism is a bad thing but you have the facts this curriculum and these truths are not taken out of thin air to destroy myself and other white people or as some boogeyman of a marxist manifesto they're facts and data compiled by sociologists historians

096and other reliable resources now ultimately i hope it's right to finish please ultimately ultimately i hope you want our youth to have all the facts because this is not indoctrination the true sin is to make it that they don't hear it at all to keep them from hearing the stories the history and the facts in order to process it for themselves school at its best is when we create critical thinkers hearing the facts and coming to their own conclusions and so i hope you all can continue this good work i hope you all can be brave thank you we've come to the end of everyone that has signed up is there anyone else in the community that has something they'd like to share that's different i just we have two comments that were posted via

097online that i just wanted to read um eric mart from 19539 when are you gonna well it's not really the specifics would come at the end of me my apologies it would come at the non-related to agenda items okay please come forward if it's something different than we've heard come forward state your name and where you live please hello good evening folks my name is jasper ho i live in christ since 1987 so i've been here for 34 years and i had the privilege of uh serving the school board from 1992 to 1996. so i'm delighted to see all of you here all new faces which is awesome because the school district always has to move forward as you know our key job here is to educate our children provide them with the skills to

098cope with the real world and it's always been a challenge to get the school district focused on test scores attendance you know the well-being of the students and also making sure that everybody worked together as a team so we had to make tough decisions so i don't envy you folks tonight but i'm just trying to say to all of you that i'm an immigrant of this country i was very fortunate that america gave me an opportunity to come here i came from thailand ethnically and chinese and i've always you know appreciated the opportunities i never saw a skin color as a problem i had friends of all different colors all different nationalities and also uh i have friends who are lgbtq i have friends who are straight friends with christians and non-christians i was a

099buddhist at one time i'm a born-again christian now because i've had a lot of medical miracles from the from the lord jesus christ so what i'm trying to tell you here tonight is that um you know america has always been in one country it's always all most of us have been either left of center or right or center there's always been compromises unfortunately in the last 10 years what you've seen is a deliberate policy to polarize the community okay it's all for political gain and it's very unfortunate and i think this is this is an issue that is going to focus on race which really should not uh be divisive issue children uh they play together they don't see each other as a black or white or yellow or christian or non-christian or whether they're

100straight or not straight because the adults that's making this an issue so what i'm trying to tell all of you is that how much i always say do common sense here just focus on the abcs okay just drop this issue um you know uh the the diversity uh issue on in the workplace i'll tell you what works for diversity what works for diversity is if you compensate people to work as a team if a company compensates people to be in individuals it's a cut-throat environment and so companies have learned to make people work as a team and the same kind of thing can be done in terms of the school district you can uh you know give incentives for children to to cooperate you can have team sports you can have all kinds of activities

101that can uh allow the children to uh to to mix all right and and if the address is still making an issue it's not gonna be an issue so so let us not waste any time on this i think it's one of those issues where i just divide the community just focus on the abcs okay folks and uh you know i just commend you for having done a great job so thank you for this opportunity to talk to you tonight so i'll ask you to vote against this policy thank you mr ziegler i'm sorry i turned you away before carl ziegler border of kutztown uh thank you again for a successful end to the school year i know you're all kind of decompressing so uh enjoy that part of it i also appreciate the opportunity

102for everyone to speak this evening and so it's not to be redundant i will say one thing with regard to dr king i believe he asked that he'd be judged based on the content of his character and not on the color of his skin so i think it's important to remember that in addition uh with regard to the policy and again i don't necessarily expect do not expect answers to this but i think it would be appropriate to let the community at large know perhaps some key dates at which the board and administration might consider or reconsider the the policy in question a question i have is whether or not any work continues in with regard to curriculum policy at this point in time and again i don't i realize you don't need to answer

103that this evening but perhaps you could share that with us at a future meeting thank you anyone else mark sackett i'm from mexico township i have just a couple of questions and i know you don't answer questions so they'll be rhetoric first one is this when was the last time that they took the whole school district and made its state over for detention when there was a couple of students that were being fallen through the cracks or whatever it may be or acting up you don't change policy because of certain individuals the dimension was falling through the cracks it is the teacher's job to take that individual student aside you don't take the whole class and say okay class you're racist if a student makes a racist comment you pull that student aside you work

104with that student he's probably heard it at home okay so it's not the school district that's doing this education in these classrooms is equal for every student that's in that class caller does not enter into it no matter what anybody says the teacher is up there teaching a class so again don't change policy don't introduce something that is absolutely racist the people that are for this i have one other question for them who did they oppress they're white who did they oppress because that's what this teaches if you're white you're an oppressor who did you oppress who are you prejudiced against what ethnic group ask yourself that question thank you yeah anyone with different different different views any different views we've really anyone have anything different to add come on i'm gary westner and i'm

105my living good sound sorry i can't understand you carrie westner i live in good sound sorry okay i mean it looks like everybody's trying oh you mean just hold it all right okay so um i have listened to a lot of people talking and they you know make really good points and on both sides because yes we all want no one to be discriminated against um but um a lot of people and you know maybe even some board members but i think a lot of community members don't really understand the difference between equity and equality and um like we all you know i'm just gonna read this and we all want every child in our district to have equal opportunity equality is allowing any child to be in any activity or sport or academic program

106every child has the opportunity if they put in the work but the equity is aiming for equal outcome that means that someone in the school or on the equity team will decide who will get more opportunity based on race they will be able to pick a person based on a predetermined victim status to get extra help or money so that they succeed so for example if you have a white kid and a black kid in a class trying going for honors or something the equity team was could spend more extra money on tutors or time for the black kids so that they could get into the honors program but the white kid will have to get on their own merit because they assume white people are privileged and black people are victims but maybe that

107black kid is way more well off financially than the white kid and could afford their own tutors and the white kid is on welfare but the with the equity team they look at the black hit as being a vacant victim and not being privileged yes we should not discriminate but we also should not separate based on race mr chairman i'm just looking for the sign-in sheet do you know what happened to it it was it was up front is it hard if i take it and circulate it for folks who didn't sign in i thought there was a sign-in sheet just for attendance purposes unless there is people sign that that's fine they can that one's actually full do you have more sheets oh here's more sheets is there if i circulated for those shirts

108that's fun yeah thank you very much mr chair that's fun we do have the one that was signed many many folks signed the first one and said we went through the list anyone else that has any comments like to address the board hello my name is marina schnell i'm a recent graduate of kutztown high school um so i have been a student in the district for the past 12 years and frankly i find the implication that we should just focus on the abcs to be insulting because we're people just because we're minors or not anymore but most people are doesn't mean that we're not ready to talk about these things and we are ready to talk about these things okay let's go closer we're ready to talk about these things and we need to because

109part of the point of school is to prepare us for the real world and these are issues in the real world and just because you don't like something or don't agree with something or wish it wasn't true doesn't mean you get to call it marxism or anything else you don't just get to throw labels at things you don't like and i think school would be a really great place to talk about these things in a place where you can get away from those labels and look at the nuance because you can have discussions with people who disagree with you in school and teachers can facilitate that that's a great place for it to happen and i would just urge the board to keep the equity policy in place because if you're only focusing on the

110needs of white students we're not even talking about equity that's just inequality and just please think about that thank you one final call with that we will move on to item b policy maintenance number two is the recommendation of the policy curriculum committee that the board of school directors approve the following item two is a continued suspension of policy eight three two educational equity do i have a motion i make a motion to suspend second motion a second any comments or questions regarding the motion mr president i'd also like to is this appropriate time to make an amendment to that motion as well [Music] i'd like to make an amendment to that motion that we would revoke policy 832 educational equity with the understanding that there's a lot of work that this board is going

111to do to understand the issues in our district and address the problems as they are identified in an appropriate way i have a motion and an amendment is there a second to the amendment second the amendment i i think it's time to get a fresh start on things um and take a completely fresh look at this and as a board take a look at whether this sort of policy is necessary the practical benefit of it um you know as i think we've you know seen on further reflection we have you know a lot of policies and other things in place already that provide a lot of protections and provide equity opportunities for our students so i i second that much just as a point of order for your your motion miss bats the the the

112board policy would need to be suspended with a motion to revoke at the next board meeting because that was a trip that was what you're correct yes okay i'm sorry i didn't hear that if you said that i'm sorry so it's to revoke it the next suspend pending revoke at the next board meeting comments and questions regarding the amended motion so with the purpose of be of revoking it um b um as it was said to fix it um i i i'm not clear on how revoking and suspending are different from one another if the objective is still to fix what the problems are with this policy so as as a matter of the procedures that we discussed last meeting the suspension is something that we have to do each time so revoking it would

113give us that opportunity to basically wipe the slate clean we clearly have very polarized views in the community and it's our job as the school board to hear both sides and ultimately to do what's best for our children and so if we allow if we continue just to suspend each time that still hangs there and what we really need to do is evaluate what we need for our students and by starting from scratch and understanding where the problems lie within our district then we can build a policy if we need it if existing policies don't already cover the issues that are uncovered and move on from there but we need to find a way as a community to come together for the benefit of our children okay so maybe we should put another amendment on

114that also to um start from scratch as it was said and make an amendment to pledge to come up with something that the community as a whole can go along with let us please discuss the sport this is the board to discuss this moment time mr daring i i've tried to listen very carefully which i realize is something somewhat odd for me to do and i really and please let me finish all of my thoughts before you comment i don't see a need to revoke the policy the problem is not the policy if we subtract all the national rhetoric and all of the concerns over buzz words as to are we teaching critical race theory what is critical race theory we're not doing any of that the policy i believe if i've listened carefully enough

115we all agree in this room i have not heard a single bigoted statement the the the objections to the way the policies been implemented have revolved around uh a sense that the way they're implemented kids are getting a message many different messages and it really doesn't matter what the intention of the message was all that matters is what's actually been received and heard by various people and some kids and that's all i'm concerned about i don't care about the national debate some kids are hearing that somehow they are responsible for the oppression of black people and that they need to be treat them differently and it is a divisive message that's being delivered and certainly i think we all agree that's a bad message and my concern is that it's not the policy but by

116implementing it by sound bites on a morning announcement i mean i realize this was something that just let's do it right away given covet let's just do something and this was the urge let's let's let's get this information out on morning announcements i got to tell you after 32 years in the classroom kids hear about half of what you say and they understand even less without question and answer without discussion without i don't know test if you want to call them that or some sort of evaluation everyone's going to hear something different many kids are going to get the wrong message some may get the right message i think we all agree if the intent of that policy is to eliminate bigotry i'm not going to use the word racist i think everyone has a

117different understanding what the word racist means but i think everyone knows what a bigot is and i don't think there's a single person here who's a bigot the policy is to combat bigotry both within the school if it exists but more importantly as the one gentleman said when kids leave kutztown and have to deal with a diverse population they need to be able to do that and that's part of what we must educate so i would like to keep the policy i think suspending it not suspending it is not the issue i think we need to come up with a better way of implementing the policy we don't need to suspend the equity team we need to expand it we need all of these points we you know i no longer wonder why kids in

118the classroom don't always behave now i understand it dr darian dr darren we need to expand the equity team to include the point of views that are being expressed they need to be there if they're let's change it from equity to diversity if their point of view needs to be expressed in the team their point of view needs to be part and incorporated within the program we provide our kids it goes way beyond morning announcements i don't want to see the policy taken away i think we agree on the purpose of the policy what we need well then maybe i was wrong and some people here are bigots the i would think that most people agree on the purpose of the policy it is the way we implement it so i would be very reluctant

119to vote to cancel the policy to revoke the policy uh continuing to mention if we then work at implementing it in the proper way would be something i could support any other board members comments any other board members with comments please yes i'd like to speak we're going to take a 15-minute recess to allow everyone to calm down and we can have some order again for this business so we will be back in 15 minutes dr meyer call the meeting back to order uh currently in board discussion regarding the amendment to the motion um to the amendment is to to revoke policy 832 at the next the intent to put it on the agenda at the next meeting to revoke policy 832 any other comments from board members yes i'd like to talk about why

120i think that we should not be planning to revoke this policy um i think that if we do we're saying that we as a district don't believe in the goals of the policy and the goals are stated at the beginning to prioritize 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 i think that's pretty important so i think we have a great opportunity to bring more voices to the table we were talking about that long before this policy came under a kind of uh cause some disagreement so uh i think that there are so many good things about this policy that are really great for our students i think that if people can't agree to come to the table to

121make possible adjustments to the policy but to move forward in a way that is best for the school district that's what we should be doing we don't need to get rid of a policy that's about good things to have the opportunity to hear everybody and to adjust any other board members with comments yeah i just have uh two comments um one is is just the fact that um as a as a school board the pa school code does allow us the freedom to be able to make rules and regulations that fit this school district so um you know i believe that as the school board of directors and administrators that we own both the successes and the failures of the policies that we put forth and while i fully believe in the equity policy and

122i've read it and i've reread it many times and i fully believe in what its goals are meant to be um you know i was lucky enough to be invited into multiple different people's homes who have different views on these things and what i found kind of remarkable and this is anecdotal but i found that we agree on 95 of what we're talking about um i think we get caught up in trying to thread certain ideas that do or don't fit with what the policy is actually stating but 95 we we're in agreement i i think everybody's here because we we either have our children in the school district and we care deeply about our children and we care about our children's friends and we care about our friends children and if we don't have

123students in this district we just love this community so i i see the passion here to do what's best for the students and i fully believe that everybody's here because they're trying to give the students everything that they need to succeed and they want our students to excel what i don't like is the polarization that some of this policy has brought out and what's happening is the issue is now becoming the issue we're not really discussing the policy we're more worried about the issues around the policy and that does us no good as a school district it doesn't serve the students that doesn't serve the community and while i fully believe in this policy i think that the best step forward would be to revoke the policy with the amendment that we need to do

124everything that we can to bring the community back together and build this up to be something that we can all agree on and something that we can move forward with we have to do the hard work that it takes to do those things and i don't think that's something that you can set a timeline to we can't say that it's got to be done in six months or nine months or by next school year we're talking about generational issues here and we're trying to solve these things as quickly as possible which is not the right way forward so just in my opinion i think that's the best way to move forward as a district and to work together to give the students everything that they need to excel mr hess are you proposing an amendment

125with that i was just speaking i i think the motion that was made and the amendment to the motion that that michelle made kind of clearly speaks for itself i think she was kind of well i was kind of echoing what she was saying but maybe i didn't state it as clearly as i could have but i'm not proposing anything different than what's already been put forward in the motion okay i i thought i heard you mention an amendment to continue the work of the intent of this policy i think that's already in michelle's motion um no i i i brought up making an amendment to that i i thought her motion was to cancel and and that was it her amendment is to revoke to revoke the policy to have it to have it

126on the agenda to be revoked at the next meeting and to continue the suspension and to continue well yeah that's you're amending the initial suspension any other comments mr chairman mr president dennis ritter yeah yes okay um i i cannot in good conscience vote to um rescind this policy i read that first sentence and it is exactly what i believe um this board and each of us have been elected to do adopts this policy to prioritize 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 i seconded a motion at the last full board meeting to uh suspend it in the hopes that we have time to talk together as a community and uh make a decision about um how we

127would implement it better than it has been implemented i will acknowledge from the get-go and have that the implementation of this policy was not what um we had anticipated and at least not what i had anticipated happening and it's happened that's for sure but i think there's a way forward by keeping this policy in place to me to rescind it at this point as a board would say that we made a mistake last fall and i believe firmly that we made that decision appropriately and um in the best interest of our students and our community um it is not about many of the things that i heard talked about tonight or two um two nights uh the previous board meeting um the third week of last month um it just isn't and it isn't in

128my vocabulary many of those things i'm a proud american and a proud citizen of this country so i will not be able to support the motion to amend i just had a thought uh i don't know how to do this through parliamentary procedure is there a way we could revoke the policy all of the policy except those sentences that both of you have read miss old pastor if we keep that as our policy then we need to of course keep implementing it we need to flesh out what that policy means but the intent would be very clear i i if you read thoroughly through that policy yes i accept there are places that could be interpreted from one point of view or the other point of view and get involved in the whole national media

129and national uh social media debate which as i was telling some people up there i'll be happy to engage in that outside and on the stump but not here i spent 50 years of my life in education teaching kids or sitting on this side of the table and that's all we really need to concentrate on here and if that policy starts bringing that stuff in okay let's rewrite that part of the policy but i'd like to keep the beginning that ms holt and pastor have just both read so so dr darren i think we have we have a motion to revoke well um a person who has made the motion to revoke would amend her motion to accept the beginning of the policy and the seconder would do so so at this time i firmly

130believe that when you have two very divided populations in our community it serves us no no purpose to go forward thinking that we're going to take the history of what this policy has now brought to the community and suddenly make it right so i i firmly believe that we we have polarization in our community how do we fix that right and i i cannot support just keeping those two sentences i'm not saying that we can't have the tough conversations if there's conversations to be had and we identify problems let's fix them if our existing policies don't already address them absolutely i know there's issues in the schools i'm starting to hear it from parents what's going on in some of the classrooms that has to be fixed but i think that we cannot as human

131beings disassociate ourselves enough from what has happened in the community to rightfully move forward and say what's best for our kids and that's what i want for my kids and it's what i want for everybody's kids so i can't in good conscience do that so so i would agree with miss bats on ms bats on that we have come to a time where this has become so polarizing um i do believe we made a mistake when it was approved um i believe it should be i i i believe the the rollout was inappropriate um i believe we can't move forward to ever had to have a discussion about this in the future with this policy on um being part of the school district i just don't think it's possible i think we have to go

132back to to ground zero i think this board is committed through individual conversations i've had with folks um to to to look at this differently and possibly find a solution that can work um so that we can make all of kutztown proud um not not have these these uh polarizing arguing meetings um make our kids proud our kids wouldn't have been proud of most of the behavior that occurred this evening from many people and we can't do that with this policy on as part of the school district the moment in time so i fully support revoking the policy and at the policy quickly committee policy sir if the policy and curriculum committee would like to start to reintroduce under a different lens a different view a different starting point that has more involvement from the

133community has more involvement from the board the administration i would support that but i can't support policy 832 being on being a part of the school district at this time i have a couple of things to add to my prior comments um i disagree that there is a problem with the implementation of the policy i think there are concerns with a very small part by some people of one thing that the one activity that the uh equity team was working on um besides that i think revoking this policy without something to replace it sets a really bad precedent i've been the chair of policy and curriculum committee for something like eight years and we do alter policies we do sometimes rescind them we rescind them because they've been replaced by something new or superseded by

134law so again can't support this for those reasons as well this policy was on the agenda it was discussed it was then on two more agendas to be voted for it wasn't a secret um i completely understand working within the community to come to a resolution any other comments from board members yeah i just think it would be nice to get more open feedback i agree with a lot of what we've been hearing but i'm reluctant to vote to rest in this without having a clear vision uh moving forward of where we're going to go with this important issue uh dr darian said it very well the the first few lines of this policy uh are i don't think anyone can argue with that and i think you know i i would like to hear

135a little more about what um square one if we go back to square one would look like uh because it seems like we're on the verge of rescinding this and we're just never going to come back to it and um i'd like to see a way forward a path forward um before i would agree to resend this this policy comments for other board members so in conversation we've discussed the idea of a board retreat right to understand and better define what some of these terms mean what's happening in society what what's out there right because i would have changed my vote too in the policy had i known some of the implications that some of the terminology had back in september and i didn't know that back then i think that we owe it to

136ourselves as a board to understand what the problems of our district are whether it's influence from our community the broader society whatever it may be and and figure out where we have problems and then address those and they may have some implications with regards to equity for our students we it's been mentioned we do ieps we have all these programs we really support our students in the best way possible so if there are things that our students are missing we need to identify that and i firmly believe that that we do have the obligation as a board to start there and understand what are we truly solving that we aren't already providing for our students i would be more comfortable if i could see a commitment to that this evening before i make my final

137vote so dr johnson we we've discussed um as a board having a you want to call it a retreat with an independent voice of another school district who is a superintendent um of a very large school district that's retiring that it has very great um equity programs but never adopted this policy so um i think there is a commitment from i think there's a commitment from the board there's a commitment from the administration to uh to continue to do that work so i would just leave it at that at this moment in time that i think there is that commitment to do that other comments from board members before we vote we will be voting on the amendment miss batts made that was to put on the agenda for the next meeting the revoke of

138policy 832 that is the correct carl can you can michelle clarify she said that about that we will continue to to work on this no timeline is just we know this is something that we are going to continue to work on as a as a school board and as an administration yeah we haven't discussed any timelines it's just the conversation the point is we've got to come together as a board first and decide you know what what our intentions are with regard to this policy and trying to figure out whether it's something that's even necessary you know sort of in light of all this discussion any other comments free vote i i i will agree with dr johnson until i would have a clear path forward and and just having a board retreat is not

139a clear path forward for me um i cannot vote to rescind this policy anyone else okay we'll vote on the right now on the amendment to rescind the policy with it being on the agenda at the next board meeting so that your a vote of yes would be for it to be on the agenda at the next board meeting roll call please ricky cecilia holt no eric johnson no dennis ritter no joshua yes michelle bats yes randy birch no aldarian no call nalty yes sorry my pass yes motion does not carry okay we need to go back now and vote on the continued suspension of policy 832 educational equity any comments regarding that i would just oh go ahead eric dr okay uh i would just say you know this i think if we could

140communicate a very clear path forward both for the board and for the public um of what we intend to do with this the goals of the policy i don't think anyone could question but i i think we just need to have a very clearly communicated path forward on this before we can make any final decisions on what to do so i think it's a good idea to suspend it again until any other comments um i'm going to speak for the continuing suspension of the policy pending aboard a tree board retreat and our chance to do some further work as a board and have some additional discussion i can go along with that and we'll will vote to continue the suspension at this point if that's the will of the board that will at least keep

141this before us any other comments roll call please ricky eric johnson yes dennis ritter and and this is on the emotional just to suspend right yes yes correct that's the yes draw sure michelle batts yes randy birch no aldarian no my cass yes cecilia holt no carl nalty yes so approved that we will move to item c 2021-2022 student school board representative the recommendation of the board of school directors that cooper dunn that with the school directors approved cooper done as a student representative to the kutztown area board of school directors for the 2021-2022 school year and abigail wood as the student representative alternate do i have a motion to have a motion emotions are a second second question a second any comments or questions regarding item c cooper is right with us and did

142ask if he could make a statement on behalf of the students uh in his position once approved well let's let's get you approved first congratulate him on his patients today if anything else but i guess we stopped to formally vote so roll call please ricky dennis redder yes charles sure yes michelle batts yes randy birch yes aldarian yes michael hess yes cecilia holt yes eric johnson yes carl nalty yes so approved congratulations cooper do you want to use this one hello everybody my name is cooper don um is way past my bedtime [Laughter] i am a resident of greenwich township i've lived there all my life in the same place um i'm also involved at the high school i'm the vice president of the nhs chapter i'm on the cross country track and rifle shooting

143teams outside of school i'm a big member of scouting and multiple organizations within scouting i am the newsletter editor at my church new bethel church in kempton um and i just wanted to uh make a quick note that um although i was elected by high school students i hope to and have been charged to represent all students of the district including elementary and middle school students if your children would like to contact me it is best for them to email me at 2-2-d-u-n-n-c-o-o-p-e-r at student.k i would really really appreciate their input on any issues that the board will be discussing please note that while i respect the opinions and desires of parents and taxpayers in the kutztown area my duty is to represent my fellow students for this reason in my reports and statements i

144will only take into account the opinions and desires of kutztown area school district students i look forward to a productive and engaged year with the board and with my alternate um abigail wood who's very capable so thank you very much and have a nice evening you're you're welcome to come forward too you want to yeah dr johnson's there so you can sit here please take my seats he is next is item d homestead at farmstead resolution is the recommendation administration that the board of school directors approved the 2021 to 22 homestead and farmstead resolution per the attached i have a motion so moved emotion is there a second ritter seconds motion a second any comments or questions regarding item d hearing none roll call please ricky joshua yes michelle batts yes randy birch yes al

145darius yes mike yes cecilia holt yes eric johnson yes dennis redder yes yes so approved next is item e v e a m dell hardware drive backup system it is the recommendation of the administrator at the board of school directors approved the backup system for data storage via the veeam and dell hard drive system at a cost of five thousand nine hundred five thousand seven hundred ninety three dollars and eighty four cents per the attached do i have a motion so moved for a second second i'll just second any comments or questions regarding item e hearing none roll call please ricky michelle bats yes randy birch yes aldarius yes michael hess yes cecilia holt yes eric johnson eric johnson yeah mute i can continue on i can't hear him dennis ritter yes so approved next

146is item f asbestos abatement it is the recommendation administration that the board of school directors approved the agreement with mcclure company to complete the asbestos abatement at kutztown area high school at a cost of seventy five thousand four hundred ninety five dollars do we have a motion motion is there a second second oh second any comments or questions regarding item f i know it's like but just where exactly is they are they're removing it from why are they removing it this is uh relation to the flooring in the auditorium there's i know we have no choice but non-friable asbestos we don't have a choice yes any other comments or questions we did we did a motion a second right and this this was an area that was not touched in the renovation correct that was

147a question someone asked out in the public while i was well we had the break it's a part of the new the latest project right not touched in the previous right because they saw you know this price tag and they saw that we had taken asbestos out so they were saying what happened and i just wanted to make sure that that was clear to folks that is correct this was not touched in a previous renovation any other comments or questions roll call please ricky randy birch yes aldarian yes michael hass yes cecilia holt yes eric johnson yes dennis ritter yes yes michelle batts yes carl nalty yes so approved next is item g asbestos air monitoring it is a recommendation administrates that the board of school directors agreement with element environmental to complete the asbestos

148air monitoring at kutz center area high school at an estimated cost of seven thousand three hundred dollars per the attached we have a motion so moved for a second second motion second any comments or questions regarding item g hearing none roll call please ricky aldarian yes michael hass yes cecilia holt yes eric johnson yes dennis ritter yes joshua yes michelle batts yes randy birch yes carl nalty yes so approved next is item h the fmx annual subscription and training it is the recommendation administration that the board of school directors have approved the agreement with fmx for facility management software at a cost of and 7253.44 cents per the attached do i have a motion so moved motions are second bitter seconds just a second any comments or questions regarding item h hearing none roll call

149please ricky michael house yes cecilia yes eric johnson yes dennis ritter yes charles sher yes michelle bats yes randy birch yes aldarian yes carl nelty yes so approved next is item i a donation acceptance it is the recommendation administration that the board of school directors accept the donation with gratitude of a trumpet from jen o'neill with an approximate value of three hundred dollars to have a motion so moved is there a second second any comments or questions regarding item i uh just i'm i'm thankful for the donation where um it's been checked and we know it's playable or usable yes okay mr shirt exactly okay great and again very appreciative of her thoughtfulness knowing what trumpets cost hearing on roll call please ricky cecilia holt yes eric johnson yes dennis ritter yes joshua yes michelle

150batts yes randy birch yes aldarian yes michael hass yes yes so approved next is item j introduction of new business by board members anyone like to bring something forward i've got a quick one and some of you might know what it's going to be we've had a successful year and it's been unprecedented what our teachers and administration has had to go through to make this year happen um my kids were learning virtual for most of the year bridget went back to the middle school uh about a month and a half ago and the teachers just did a very incredible job in unprecedented circumstances uh keeping things together and providing perhaps not a perfect year but a good and productive year for our students so i would like to make a motion that we give a

151vote of confidence in our teachers and administration motion a second any comments or questions regarding the motion by dr johnson yes i'd like to point out that the students particularly at the high school and i know at the middle school as well are just extremely pleased and happy and very um very uh thankful for all the work that the teachers have done this year it's been really amazing what they've had to go through you know we we get to see that as high school students that are getting closer to um graduating becoming adults we see that and we really appreciate all the hard work that they've done thank you cooper any other comments hearing on roll call please ricky eric johnson i'm gonna vote yes on this one dennis ritter yes joshua yes michelle bats

152yes randy birch yes aldari michael hess yes cecilia holt yes carl nalty yes so approved i do have uh one thing i like to bring up i did prepare realize it's late but prepared a few comments i think they're very much um the right time based on what happened this evening and at the end i will make a motion a little different probably for the president to do but we'll see where it goes and i think for all board members i think i whether you believe the intent of policy 832 was to teach critical race theory at ksd or not there does appear to be the some tenets of that of the critical race theory that were shared in particular in the announcements made at the elementary school level regardless of your feeling as a

153board member regarding policy 832 i believe we all can agree upon that we would like to do what we can to ensure we do what is best for the students of kutzler school district concurring them an inclusive environment of learning and providing the best education for students to be successful in the future critical race theory seeks to portray the united states as a united nation of people families and communities striving for a common purpose but one not striving for conquerors one of many victimized groups based on sex race ethnicity and national origin critical race theory is a prejudicial ideological tool rather than an educational tool and should not be taught at cocenteria school district as a way to teach students to judge individuals based on sex race ethnicity and national origin we need to teach

154students what critical race theory is but not teach them through a lens of critical race theory thus i would like to make the following motion the school board of directors is requiring the administration to develop a policy banning teaching the concept of critical race theory including but not limited to the concepts of white privilege and white guilt and the separation of citizens into classes of oppressors and oppressed i'll second that motion motion a second any comments or questions regarding the motion i fully appreciate the sentiment carl and i agree with it wholeheartedly my problem is i still don't know what critical race theory is and until we can put a definition then i don't know what we're not teaching what we are teaching and just giving it a name doesn't tell me what it is

155what it's supposed to do i'd like to avoid the jargon and speak of specifics we do not want to teach our children that because they are white they are guilty of oppression fine but to say that's all critical race theory i i i don't know what it is i don't know what to be voting on so i'd have to vote no i have an issue with banning anything from a curriculum i believe that we adopt a curriculum of what we do teach we don't ban things we have a history of not banning books for instance in this school district which i'm very proud of although sometimes there are movements toward that so i in no way can support anything that says we're banning teaching anything and let me make sure clear what the motion is

156the motion is not to ban to teach students what critical race theory is same way you teach you could teach students what nazism is you know i can to teach them through the lens of critical race theory which is dr darren as we have all had many articles on white privilege there's many tenets to it um white privilege white guilt suppressing classes certainly one interpretation i've heard others right here i've heard it so that's why i so we delineate exactly what it is and i can't i do understand that but i believe we adopt curriculum that we do teach yeah i will vote no on the motion again i'm concerned about the word banning and developing a bottle policy to ban a particular thing it is a theory we have many theories we have theories

157in science we have theories in social sciences part of the process in in working with theories is to identify what is appropriate and what works and what doesn't work as a social scientist political scientist in particular i've done that for all my adult life so i have a great concern when we talk about banning things as i'm hearing the motion though it's not banning the concept of crt in terms of teaching our students what it is because it is a part of our society but it's putting that lens on how things are taught in the classroom and how it makes the students feel versus providing them the facts just like a scientific theory just like any type of theory that's out there like that present the facts of what it is and then don't teach

158with that lens necessarily so i i interpret it as as you say that was the intent yes i additionally feel like we've been talking about this board retreat where we're going to all come to a better understanding of what all this terminology means to us and i don't think all of it means the same thing to everyone so for that reason also don't feel ready to support anything of this nature i again i i will just say i have read things um of critical race theory and about critical race theory as with many theories people use it in various ways as a whole i don't see a problem with its effort to help us understand our racist history as a nation that's pretty much not arguable um and so i'm i'm not sure what the

159issue is other than people have outside uh been making issues about things that don't necessarily need to be the the other objection i might have to this is is i'll let go what we said about the other policy we have other policies in place to deal with uh expressing a political point of view within a classroom if that's going on that should be correct dealt with by the administration there's also if what i've heard correct just plain bad teaching going on but we have policies and methods of dealing with that i don't think we need a special emotion that bans a word it's more than a word dr darren i would argue that it's it's it's a it's a teaching it's a political point of view the way you expressed it and we already have

160policies preventing that it's an idea and as a history professor uh and i teach classes uh with history going back over a thousand years i i'm very reluctant to do anything that would go towards banning an idea again we we teach a lot of subjects that are objectionable a few weeks ago my daughter was learning about smoking um it's there it's a thing it's an idea but um she wasn't being encouraged to smoke or anything like that she actually came to her own conclusions um and and the other thing i would add is that uh on on social media our students are already being exposed to the fact that critical race theory exists and is a thing and it's being bantered about out there and i think that as educators we have a responsibility to

161[Music] at least you know and again it's not endorsing it just like learning about heroin is not endorsing heroin use but uh i i think that um giving them a good sense of what the term literally actually means by people who use this as a methodology for their professional academic research uh i i think that we i i i don't think that we should be banning that how you explain it is the exact intent of my motion okay i'm i i i'm not really reading that i i just heard the word and teach the concepts so students understand what it is exactly as you explained but do not teach the teach the the facts of what it is but do not teach to the lens of it do not teach children to be that to

162feel white privileged to be depressed explain to them that there is a critical race theory out there because i i'm not convinced that that is what the lens of crt does but then again i'm speaking as an academic um i i never thought that that's what crt does or was meant or designed to do so i i see the disconnect and maybe that's a good reason to have a retreat i just prior to about um speaking from administration where you know our job is to implement policies and the emotions of the board i do have some of the similar fears that kind of dr darian's brought up just about um getting into arguments about when we are teaching something personal or not i do not believe we are teaching exterior in our schools right now

163you know and that's so the intent of mr nolte's motion i understand and completely understand but i think that we the potential is there and very real for there to be um suggestions that teachers are teaching through that lens and us never agreeing on whether that's true or not i think that that's possible that's just the difficulty of administering emotion the so i think the ability to administer such motion will be difficult but we will do our best to administer any policy or motion in this proved by the board mr tim chattan any other board members with comments could you read your motion again please the school i i said we need to teach students what critical race theory is but not teach them through a lens of critical race theory thus the motion would

164be to require the board of school directors requiring the administration to develop a policy banning teaching the concepts of critical race theory including but but not limited to the concepts of white privilege and white guilt and the separation of citizens in the classes of oppressors and oppressed directing the administration to develop a policy the banning those teachings asking the board i'm asking the administration the the the the motion is asking the administration not to teach the concepts of white privilege white guilt and the separation of citizens into classes of oppressors and oppressed other comments but fine [Music] as a former teacher i don't know what that means as far as what i do in the classroom it's just too ill-defined uh i can see complaints being made that are unfounded i can see complaints for

165me that are are founded right now but you're using words and terms that need a more complex definition in my mind that's the policy part of it dr darren mr hess i just have um just one comment regardless of what the what the motion is or what any particular theory it might be talking about i think we would quickly find ourselves constantly chasing our tail if we get into the habit of talking about not doing something um it's kind of in line with trying to prove a negative um i think we would then constantly be trying to come up with policies of things that we don't do um as opposed to making policies for things that we are going to do so regardless of what it is um i don't think we should get into

166the habit of making policies for something we won't do we should make policies for things we are going to do and also the comment i happen to agree with the last comment if we could maybe come up with a policy or a proposal or something to uh put it like a positive what we're going to do um you know i i i still don't think that any of what's going on is uh about indoctrinating people to feel white guilt or anything like that and so i i you know i i think we should focus on what we want to do and um just not set up precedence for what is banned because that can just be built on after uh several several years um with uh you know just just trying to use the negative

167to um uh enforce the kind of discipline i would counter that though to say when have we seen an issue polarize our community the way this has and i think that it's our responsibility to make sure that we are under what the root of that is and and take that forth to bring to our students information and not opinions yeah i would i would i would i would say that this issue it's not anything that we did to polarize our community um all of the opposition the rhetoric and all of this is coming from outside organizations that are actually quite specifically designed to create political and cultural outrage over certain issues and i don't think that the rhetoric that's coming from the outside applies to our community unfortunately though we had the actions that were

168taken by the equity team that have initiated all this discussion and so i think we're talking about one morning announcement that was clumsily worded and if i'm not mistaken it was it was actually uh written by a a high school student and i'm all for the uh you know i'm all for a a good vetted process to carry this forward but um you know i i i really don't think that the division in this community started with anything that the school board did other other board members with comments hearing on roll call please ricky dennis ritter no charles sure yes michelle batts yes randy birch no aldarian no michael hess no cecilia holt no eric johnson no carl naughty yes ocean doesn't carry with that we will move to section six sorry the informational items

169folks have in their their packet they have the pciu what happened the bciu news link legislative report bctc joc briefs the bctc joc minutes student enrollment and the student activity report for the high school section seven is upcoming public meetings and informative dates and a reminder to everyone that although i will read these as being middle school commons and zoom there also could be the possibility that these board meetings be moved based on construction activities that would be advertised prior to the to the meeting time on june 14th there's a policy and curriculum committee meeting at 6 00 p.m uh middle school commons as well as we assume at june 14 there's also a facility's extracurricular committee meeting at 7 pm in the middle school commons as well as via zoom june 21st to the

170middle school board excuse me monthly school board meeting 7 30 p.m the middle school commons as well as via zoom with that i will move to item eight adjournment looking for a motion to adjourn some move second oh motion is second all in favor say aye aye any oppose say no meeting adjourned stay