May 17, 2021 KASD School Board Meeting

001up i'd like to call this meeting to order everyone please rise for a moment of silent meditation pledge to the flag i'd like to welcome and thank everyone for coming this evening uh what one first order of business like to just bring up to the to the general audiences we are still under a mask mandate for school guidelines please you all saw the sign as you came in um i ask you to please um put your mask on or be courteous of the person that you don't again that is school guidelines not necessarily um may not made a degree with it but please your visitor and your guest here we ask that you please put your mask on thank you uh welcome again glad to see got to see so many people here there there

002was a log in the back of the room that captured um people that would like to speak regarding public comment um there will be a public comment section at the end of the meeting um so you'll have a chance to make any comments that they would like to have uh there was an executive session prior to this meeting to review both legal and personnel items with that roll call please ricky mr here randy birch here aldarian here michael hess here cecilia here dennis redder here eric johnson here carl nolte here josh here our first order of business will be the approval of minutes from the may 3rd 2020 21 school board meeting to have a motion so moved ritter second motion a second are there any comments questions or corrections regarding those meeting minutes hearing

003none roll call please ricky michelle batt yes randy birch yes darian yes michael hess yes cecilia yes eric johnson yes demonstrator yes joshua yes carl nelty yes so approved next is item for the treasurer's report i'll start with the general fund mr miller thank you mr nolte this is the treasurer's report for april 2021 the month began with a cash balance of seven million four hundred sixteen thousand six hundred fifteen dollars and thirty eight cents we had receipts of one million one hundred thirty seven thousand seventeen dollars and seventy eight cents transferred funds from investment of seven hundred twenty seven thousand seven hundred thirty one dollars in one cent and we paid bills and payroll of two million six hundred eight thousand and 68 144.68 leaving a cash balance at the end of the month

004of six million six hundred seventy three thousand two hundred nineteen dollars and forty nine cents thank you mr miller i have a motion to approve the the treasury support general fund some moved motion is there a second second motion a second any comments or questions regarding the report we just heard hearing none roll call please ricky randy birch yes aldarian yes michael hess yes cecilia yes eric johnson yes dennis ritter yes joshua yes michelle batt yes carl nelton yes so approved next is item 5 approval of bills for payment we will start with item a ratification of approval for bills from payment from the general account including manual checks in the amount of two million five hundred seventy six thousand two hundred sixty dollars and ninety cents to have a motion second of a motion

005a second any any comments or questions regarding the uh the bill approval bills for payment from the general account hearing none roll call please ricky aldarian yes michael hess yes cecilia holt yes eric johnson yes dennis ritter yes joshua yes michelle batts yeah randy birch yes carl nelty yes so approved next is item b approval of bills for payment from the general account in the amount of nine hundred thirty thousand forty one dollars and thirty seven cents is there a motion so moved your emotions are second motion a second any comments or questions regarding item b approval from the general account hearing none roll call please ricky michael hess yes cecilia holt yes eric johnson yes demonstrator yes joshua yes michelle batts yes randy birch yes darian yes yes so approved next is item c

006approval bills for payment from the construction account in the amount of seven hundred ninety three thousand thirty seven dollars and forty cents they have a motion so moved motions are a second second motion a second any comments or questions regarding item c approval of bills for payment from the construction account hearing none roll call please ricky cecilia holt yes eric johnson yes dennis ritter yes joshua yes michelle batts yes randy birch yes aldarian michael hess yes carl nalty yes so approved next is item six communications and reports we will start with the superintendent's report mr tim chapman guilty as always very spent throughout the school community of good news events for our students participating by various venues apologize for that heats up first is our secondary arts exhibit the secondary arts exhibit hosted by the

007bciu is hosted in person at the schmidt gallery at the goggle work center for arts and we'll be on display through friday may 21st there's over 500 artists represented thank you on the secondary arts exhibit will be on display at the goggle works center for the arts in reading through may 21st there's over 500 artists represented in nearly eleven hundred pieces of artwork you can also find artwork on the bcuiu bciu website and those and at christian area high school uh just for the example of our award winner winners from that secondary showcase um you can see anastasia kelsey sydney ott maggie schaefer marina schnell olivia wagner and abigail eide won in a variety of categories and just you can get a little sampling of the talent on display in terms of our high school

008art students that you can find some of those works in various places including bciu website and the goggle works through may 21st congratulations to all students i was amazed that the artwork that is produced through our program uh congratulations to our teachers as well as they help cultivate those skills throughout students school experience in another event related to the arts the bagel bar mural in kutztown and sander alley behind the bagel bar kutztown high school students with ku art students and local artists um completed the mural that you can find on display it was conceived and coordinated by bagel bars shop owner christine cup chrysler mike miller from y missing school district art teacher and also dr uh heifer wonder uh welcome well-known local muralist and ku art education professor there was a beautiful video

009that kind of showed the production of it and just happy to have our students as a part of that process beautifying downtown kutztown one other event the tri-m induction included 12 prospective members that participated in a live concert students from our music program that are part of this prestigious program they range from freshmen to seniors that were inducted into triumph congratulations to all those inductees in addition we had the senior chasma banquet in advance on wednesday night of our senior awards recognizing our senior students for their participation and excellence in the music program as always the music program in kutztown area is a highlight of our year the highlight of our programs congratulations to all who participate that is our good news report thank you mr tim chattan any questions from minister tim chattan on

010the report just i guess just to comment there was also senior awards what's all the senior awards we'll have a full list of that at the next sport next board meeting yes that's great senior awards is just an amazing event oh in total 138 000 of scholarships where were delivered but we'll have a greater list uh representing next quarter anyone else for comments with that we'll move to the board committee reports we will start with policy and curriculum ms holt thank you mr nolte uh we had a presentation from dr quinn regarding the flexible instructional days program application which is on the agenda for approval this evening and we discussed the behavioral support policy which is on the agenda for first reading this evening and reviewed several policies with no change and that concludes my

011report thank you miss holt facilities and ecc mr birch yes facilities ecc met on may 10th uh during the facilities uh portion of the meeting we had discussion regarding uh district sidewalks uh we reviewed a proposal for walkway maintenance which is not ready to present to the board as a whole additional research into that is needed as to what the true cost would be if we were to proceed with some type of maintenance program for the walkways of all schools we also had discussion regarding making a certain part of the high school sidewalk ada compliant and that actually is item j on our agenda tonight for uh consideration for approval we also had discussion regarding uh a sidewalk extension at the kutztown elementary school and that appears on our agenda as uh item k for

012consideration and approval on the extracurricular side of the meeting uh mr yapsuka presented and gave us a post-season update for the year needless to say our student athletes did a wonderful job competing uh in the sports in the spring and uh through all the you know the tough circumstances with the pandemic our hatch go off to our student athletes for doing such a good job mr yapzuga also reviewed uh coaching openings with us and there was also a discussion about a huddle or h-u-d-l stadium camera which would be to uh use at uh games this fall and to enhance the uh uh the uh the watching of the game and just uh some neat effects with the camera similar to the camera that is already being used at the basketball games and that is my

013report thank you mr burch [Music] next we will move to bciu dr ritter we don't meet until this thursday okay thank you you're welcome mr uh multi i apologize i don't mean to interrupt but i actually did miss an item uh on the facilities we also had discussion regarding the asbestos abatement uh we're moving forward uh yeah this summer with the renovations at the uh auditorium uh in doing that it's been discovered that uh some uh asbestos abatement uh activities will be needed uh in order for that project to go forward so that was discussed as well and excuse me yeah just obviously to clarify it's non-friable on the flooring mastic is what we're remembering thank you mr burch good that's everything that's it sorry perfect that's fine um bctc mr sure our last meeting

014was on april 28th uh we met at the west campus of bctc the biggest item on the agenda was approving uh dr michael stauffer as the new executive director and his contract he was the former principal at the east campus i think he's going to do a great job for bctc moving forward so the board the joint operating committee took some time and we were meeting with him about about um you know his plans moving forward as well as uh some administrative and organizational issues for him and then we also approved some routine equipment purchases including some new equip some new equipment for the heavy equipment operator program and some other programs and we also reviewed the quarterly student awards which included several awards for kutztown area school district students so that is my report

015great thank you mr sure uh tax collector brooks county texas mr miller uh the committee did not meet it did not mean not me thank you and last but not least pspa ms holt i have no meeting and no report thank you any other any other comments or questions for anyone with the board committee reports it's not a board committee report but um uh mr miller will present sort of some of the information related to the proposed final budget that is on the agenda which again well we're obviously having a couple technical difficulties here uh while we're getting it together uh i will say that our goal tonight is to pass the proposed final budget um and then on june 21st our goal is to pass the final budget a little bit about the proposed

016final budget tonight we have to pass a proposed final budget 30 days prior to passing a final budget and also another thing i'll say about the proposed final budget is that it is not binding in any way uh we can raise expenses we can raise revenue we can lower things we can do whatever we want this uh you know this this just happens tonight so if you'll go to the if you go to the changes tab down there mr tim chat these are the changes we made and we'll enlarge it here in a second the changes we made since the last presentation if you look at the expenses you'll see we added the positions that mr tim chattan presented at his last presentation uh behavior specialist contracted resilience support paris for the achieve program second

017grade teacher third grade teacher and sixth grade teacher uh if you look up at the revenue you'll see that all of those are going to be uh paid for by esser money you'll also see that we brought in 122 000 of their server funds to pay for the summer programs and we're putting a hundred thousand investor money toward the capital generals just for a brief explanation for those who have not been in previous meetings the esser grant funding is grant funding that has been approved through the federal government to all school districts any school entity in the united states really receives some escrow grant funding that can be used over the course of the next three years uh there is this percentage of s or three there's esther one two and three s or one

018you know occurred back in march of between esser two and three are still the funds which we are talking about the 20 of us are three must be used for extended learning opportunities that is summer before school after school the remaining sr 3 funding and sr2 funding can be used for anything you know within that is a budgetary expense that is approved what we are proposing and did last budget meeting are each of these items over the course of one two or potentially three years depending on the items this is only addressing next year's budget 2122 that these are items that will allow us to help better support students as we return to normalcy in schooling in 2122 and beyond so any of those expenses that are added as a revenue were extremely added as

019an expense would be also added as a revenue we then charge it to the grant and from that point um you know it's the challenges of that or the cliff at the end if there are if there are positions or items that are one-time purchases obviously that's you know that is not a challenge the challenge is if there are things that we would need then it's the future it's how do you fund those or you have to make some opportunity cost decisions two and three years out when the funding dries up from the s or grant funding that was approved okay thank you if you'll go to the revenue and expense summary tab uh on this tab you'll see over in the right in the gray area those are the presentations we gave month by

020month previous to this over in the white area where it says may those are the new numbers for tonight they reflect the changes i explained previously you'll see the total revenue at the top uh total revenue or total expenses in the middle leaving us with a bottom line of negative 429 602 normally that would not be a good place to have your bottom line however if you recall we had a great a good surplus last year which we're kind of netting into this to uh still think we have a favorable outcome and also we have a lot of esser money that is still to come to us over the next two years um so we don't have to be quite as concerned about that negative number as we would uh in another circumstance and so

021these are the numbers that are going to appear in the motion later to approve the proposed final budget i guess again for those who are joining us for the first time for a budget meeting these numbers are inclusive of zero percent tax increase no tax increase um that uh and that negative balance number something that you know while we went into this year with the negative balance number now this year's budget was so unknown because you know we essentially had to run an additional school um but we will be able to finish this year at a zero budget because any expenses that were incurred over the over the budget number we can apply to esser as a part of that full of money over the course of these three years and that's the end of

022my presentation any questions for mr sure um without the application of the esser funds do we have an idea of about where we would end up this year this year meaning uh 2021 yes yeah because when we see a budget right was budgeted at a negative 700 what give any idea where we i believe uh according to the projection i did it it would be somewhere in the negative of negative 250 thousand dollars okay okay so we're about half a million better better than what we expected okay right okay and that and the application of the esser funds is consistent with our discussion at the last time where we were looking at you know the targeted expenses so we're you know you know that whole cliff issue that we that you talked about these are

023all you know it is all reflective of that conversation at the previous budget meeting you know the ones that are going to be um you know concerns going forward when we look at those so sixth grade ela due to a small class size for sixth grade coming up this coming year 2122 um it's likely that sixth grade ela would be required to be continued but what we see as the competing at the same time is growing numbers of ell students and needing additional support there so you know we will have to in future years figure out how to handle that within the budget um and those second and third grade numbers you know what we see as large class sizes at queenstown elementary school for next year you know large class size for second and

024third grade is different than large class size for maybe fourth and fifth so as those numbers smooth out a little bit over those years the potential is to have to figure out whether we need those position one of those positions or two but you know that's a yearly decision based on enrollment that that occurs every year thank you any other questions for mr miller again this will be this is item b on the new business section you can also can ask now or also hold questions till then until we till we go through the motion well as i understand the proposed final budget this would be a no tax increase for the next school year that is correct it's no this is a budget it includes no tax increase and we're still able to deliver

025the same uh quality of education without any reduction to the programs absolutely and i believe that with the application investor funding there's some areas new areas that we can address better you know specifically that behavioral support is one um the looking at resilience social emotional that contracting services looking to build capacity there as well um and you know being able to if it were not for esther funding nor tax increase we'd be making tough decisions about that third grade at going into the class going into the school year with class sizes of 25 you know which in the third grade class in which we typically have an additional few enrollments over the summer um the grant funding allows us to go in comfortably with that offer probably a better level of service even next year

026other questions okay hearing none we will move to we will move to the new business section of the agenda we will start with item a personnel we have items one through five under item a personnel which we would take as a group do i have a motion on item a ritter move we have a motion is there a second second motion a second any comments or questions regarding item a personnel numbers one through five hearing none roll call please ricky eric johnson yes dennis ritter yes charles sure yes michelle batts yes randy birch yes aldarian yes michael hess yes cecilia holt yes carl nelsey yes so approved next is item b the proposed final budget it is the recommendation of the administration that the board of school directors approve a proposed final budget for the

027school year with revenues of 34 million 242.302 excuse me 34 million 242 389 and expenditures of 34 million six hundred seventy one thousand nine hundred ninety one dollars supported by real estate tax of 29.9543 mills per capita tax section 679 of five dollars per capita tax act 511 of five dollars local service tax of five dollars and earn income tax 0.5 percent real estate transfer tax 0.5 and amusement tax of 5 you have a motion so moved emotions are a second second motion a second comments or questions regarding item b i just would like to uh compliment mr miller and mr tim chad and the rest of the administration uh this is going to be my eighth budget that i've worked on um as a member of the board and uh the only time we've

028ever raised taxes was my first year so this will be seven years in a row that we've been able to uh have a balanced budget that did not require any tax increase and that's a result of a lot of hard work from mr miller and also the administration always on the lookout for opportunities to uh to save or to use our funding more effectively so um thanks for another good budget you're welcome other comments yeah uh i will probably i am going to vote in favor of this as a proposed final budget but before i would vote in favor on the final budget i really would like to hear a little more explanation about that deficit uh three years from now there's a cliff when the esser runs out we i will not be on

029the board then i suppose but uh i would hate to leave a uh time bomb for people in the next uh ward so i i really would like to hear more explanation on that thank you dr darian i'd also like to echo my my thanks to mr miller mr tim chat and the rest of the board members for their hard work to to get to a place again where we will now be if assuming a final budget is passed later in june of seven seven years without a tax increase is pretty uh pretty unusual in this in these times and pretty unusual probably across uh both municipalities so very very nice nicely done anyone else hearing none roll call please ricky dennis ritter yes joshua yes michelle batts yes randy birch yes aldarian yes michael

030hess yes cecilia holt yes eric johnson yes carl nolte yes so approved next is item c communities in schools reports supports it is the recommendation administration that the board of school directors approved the integrated student supports contract with communities and schools of eastern pennsylvania effective july 1st 2021 through june 30th 2022. for the attached to have a motion critter moves the motion is our second second motion a second any comments or questions regarding item c i just think it's worth uh recognizing that the communities in school support is available as a direct result of the work and collaboration of kutztown strong senator schweins office district attorney adams office that we are sharing with brandywine and fleetwood as a trial program so it's just a lot of hard work with community members who made this possible

031great any other comments hearing on roll call please ricky charles sure yes michelle batts yes randy birch yes aldarian yes michael hess yes cecilia holt yes eric johnson yes dennis ritter yes yes so approved next is item d access case reviews it is the recommendation of the administration that the board of school directors approve under the direction of the school physician lois lois hall crnp to perform medical access case reviews at a cost of ten dollars per review effective july 1st 2021 through june 30th 2022 have a motion so moved is there a second second motion a second any comments or questions regarding item d hearing none roll call please ricky michelle bats yes randy birch yes darian yes michael hess yes cecilia holt yes eric johnson yes demonstrator yes joshua yes carl nolte yes

032so approved next is item e a conference request it is a recommendation administration at the board of school directors approved the request for employee number 1595 to attend the blue ribbon schools of excellence national convention on november 29th to december 3rd of 2021 in lake buena vista florida at an approximate cost of 2 365 dollars do i have a motion darion move motions are a second second motion a second any comments or questions regarding item e just going to say i'm kind of proud that we get to send somebody to this conference this year it's a very nice recognition for how well the school did and the recognition to be in a blue ribbon school any other comments sure i'm sure also that there'll be good networking opportunities and ability to continue to improve our

033performance from from being able to be part of that convention just congratulations to mr flicker and the teachers and everybody at the high school i mean this is a very uh prestigious award not in many schools across the nation ever get anything like this so just um great great job by mr flicker and everyone at the high school any other comments hearing the roll call please ricky randy birch yes al darian yes michael hess yes cecilia holt yes eric johnson yes demonstrator yes joshua yes michelle batts yeah carl nolte yes so approved next is item f the appointment of school board treasurer is the recommendation administration at the board of school directors approved appoint david j miller as treasurer of the kutztown area board of school directors for the 2021-2022 school year at a stipend

034of 1050 which is the same rate as previous years have a motion motion is there a second second motion a second any comments or questions regarding item f hearing on roll call please ricky yes michael hess yes cecilia holt yes eric johnson yes dennis ritter yes joshua yes michelle batts yeah randy birch yes carl nelty yes so approved next is item g the appointment of the school board secretary it is the recommendation of the administration that the board of school directors appoint ricky l devoe as secretary of the kutztown area board of school directors for a four-year term commencing in july of 2021 through june 30th of 2025 at a stipend of 2500 for the 2021-2022 school year again this is at the same rate as previous years do we have a motion emotions are

035a second second motion a second any comments or questions regarding item g hearing none roll call please ricky mike yes cecilia holt yes eric johnson yes demonstrator yes joshua yes michelle batts yeah randy birch yes aldarian yes yes so approved next is item h flexible instruction days program application it is a recommendation administration that the board of school directors approve the application to the pennsylvania department of education to participate in the flexible instructional days program starting in the school year 2021-2022 have a motion motions are a second reader seconds motion a second any comments or questions regarding item h the flexible instruction base hearing on roll call please ricky cecilia holt yes eric johnson yes demonstrator yes joshua yes michelle batts yeah randy birch yes aldarian yes michael house yes carl nelty yes so approved

036next is the renaissance data integration quote it is the recommendation administration that the board of school directors approve the quote with renaissance for custom data integration for the period of august 1st 2021 through july 31st 2022 at a cost of five thousand dollars per the attached do we have a motion motion is there a second second motion a second any comments or questions regarding item i the renaissance data integration quote can you remind me what this is specific to had a couple different programs from drew renaissance renaissance data is the star testing that we do which is our primary uh benchmarking assessment so this is part of the data management any other questions hearing on roll call please ricky eric johnson yes dennis ritter yes joshua yes michelle batts yeah randy birch yes aldarian yes

037michael hess yes cecilia holt yes carl nelty yes so approved next is item j the sidewalk by the kutztown high school it is the recommendation of the facilities committee that the board of school directors approved clayton's concrete service to install a handicapped ramp on the sidewalk at kutztown high school at a cost of five thousand five hundred dollars do we have a motion so moved for a second second motion a second any comments or questions regarding item j this is right um this is something that was found on an audit i believe this was actually found by a student the this was found by a student who um requires those sidewalks uh to diverse and okay was identified as one the one on the campus there that was not truly aviation any other questions hearing

038none roll call please ricky dennis ritter yes yes michelle backs yes randy birch yes ardarian yes michael hess yes cecilia holt yes eric johnson yes yes so approved next is item k the sidewalk by the kutztown elementary school it is the recommendation of the facilities committee that the board of school directors approved sanders masonry to install a sidewalk at kutztown elementary school at a cost of four thousand dollars do we have a motion the motion is our second second motion a second any comments or questions regarding item k yeah so i i i don't know if mr burch mentioned it but the sidewalk extension that's being talked about here is to provide as i understood it additional safety for our children that is correct it allows the students to not have to cross the the

039parking lot entrance drive area yeah quite busy that time of day so it allows students a safer walking path to school very good any other questions hearing on roll call please ricky joshua yes michelle batts yes randy birch yes audarian yes michael hess yes cecilia holt yes eric johnson yes administrator yes yes so approved next we'll move to introduction of new business by board members um is there anyone that would like to bring something forward to share with the rest of the board yes i would like to bring something to the attention of the board mr nolte at this point i just want to open a discussion and just indicate that i would be supportive of a resolution that would uh require the administration to better evaluate and define edu educational equity for the kutztown

040uh area school district and rescind policy 832 but in saying that that is not the end of the discussion that would be just the beginning of the discussion for us because principles of equality and equity should have a role to play in delivering education here at kutztown but we would need to do that with greater community involvement and looking at everyone here today i think we can't lose sight of that we have common ground and that is we all have the same desire to give our children the etiquet the education they're going to need to be successful in life we all have the same desire to make sure every student is given the tools necessary to reach this objective some students for a variety of different reasons may need some different levels of assistance or

041enrichment depending on the circumstances and that's in order to make sure that they have that opportunity of obtaining a quality education as we struggle with terms like equality and equity we need to ask ourselves what is the purpose of education and at the last meeting people brought up the teachings of dr martin luther king so i thought it was fitting that we would look to dr king for hopefully as a guide and inspiration dr king wrote a paper in 1947 when he was in college it was titled the purpose of education he wrote education must also train one for quick resolute and effective thinking dr king added education must enable one to sift and weigh evidence to discern the true from the false to decide what the re the you know the real from the

042unreal and the facts question and according to dr king the function of education therefore is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically and he cautioned us we must remember that intelligence is not enough intelligence plus character that is the goal of true education very famous quote by dr king often repeated that intelligence plus character that is the goal of true education now the challenges of today may be different from the challenges that dr king faced in 1947 but his words on the purpose of education remove remain very true to this very day equity and equality are are not a hashtag they're not buzzwords they're not an election result they're not a political ideology but they're terms that we can't take lightly and they have an education to make sure we fulfill our

043obligation to educate our children and there's no reason why we can't come together as a community to ensure that all our students are prepared to be successful in life and just i just wanted to share those comments to the board thank you mr perch other board members that like to make comments yes i would mr nolte so um as part of the next steps that i feel the board really needs to take i would like to make a motion that inclusive of the following actions where we revoke the policy 3-2 for educational equity we dissolve the equity team as it exists today and revoke the anti-racist school climate resolution in the interest that we will convene and understand what our next steps are for the betterment of our children type of point of order regarding

044that motion in our policy 003 under our legislative responsibilities it says that we are to adopt policies adopted amended or repealed that can be done at a meeting of the board provided the proposed adoption amendment or repeal has been proposed at a previous board meeting and has remained on the agenda of each succeeding board meeting until approved or rejected could you clarify ms holt um how long that would take how many meetings well i suppose that this could be considered the meaning where it was proposed we also state in that policy that it is our common board procedure when we have a policy and curriculum committee that requests for policy addition deletion or change shall be referred to the committee that's the policy and curriculum committee for study and recommendation um would that have any

045advantage over what we're already planning on doing um which is reevaluating i mean is there any advantage in dissolving and then or because we're going to be fixing it i i just wonder what the additional effort of going through that process of dissolving it when we are going to be fixing it so um [Music] is there an advantage well i feel that it's rather rash to just eliminate a policy that we have voted eight months ago even uh unanimously to pass just because some people have an issue with it we have people who come to meetings with issues and it is not commonly our response to just eliminate a policy in fact i've been on the board now for 10 years and we've never done that despite numerous issues raised by various members of the

046community um when we passed it it was after discussion at the committee on the board of agendas also before i get into this anymore i have plenty of other points to make but a point of order is generally not open for debate i'll yield to mr nolte mr mr tim chad and i don't have the policy uh sure paragraph one under legislative second half of that paragraph and then one two three four five regards the committee like to suggest it is a board we take in a executive session to discuss this issue we'll be back um very very shortly and make a motion that board board members approve that taking i'm suggesting we take a recess as a board to review this in legal session we will we will be back uh hopefully momentarily i

047will make that motion make the motion is there a second i'll second that all in favor you can raise your hands do you agree all right yes take a short recess all the meeting back back to order um with the respect to the point that ms holt brought up as a point of order policy number zero zero zero zero three and the first paragraph very clearly states that procedures and policies which are not dictated by the statutes or regulations of the state board or ordered by a court of competent authority may be adopted or amended or repealed at any meeting of the board provided the proposed adoption amendment or repeal has been proposed at a previous board meeting and has remained on the agenda of each success succeeding board meeting until approved or rejected thus

048the motion that ms batts made is will not be able to occur tonight based on this point of order i will open it up back to the board members for additional comments or additional items they'd like to bring forward yes mr nolte what i would like to say that i would like to propose the suspension of policy 832 per procedure zero zero three um which enables us to request the suspension of that policy there's an emotion is there a second second motion a second any comments or questions regarding that motion and and i just wish to clarify that it is the suspension of that policy its operation at this point ms bass was that your motion in other words the operation of that policy it won't be in force during the time of this suspension

049could you repeat the motion again so ricky could record it yes i'd like to make a motion to suspend policy 832 educational equity suspend the operation yes we have a motion a second any other comments or questions regarding that motion should i make a motion to amend that motion i'd like to add i'd like to move that we suspend the operation enforcement of the anti-racist resolution as well as well as the operation of the equity team pending and similar reasoning pending further review of that of those um and we can talk a little bit more if that gets a second but that's my proposal so mr sure you you've amended the motion to include motion to amend justice include the suspension of the operation of the anti-racist resolution as well as the suspension of the

050ritter will second that motion a second and my reasoning is that i think we i think we need to hit a restart on this i think we need to suspend the operation of everything um i think those things all work together um i think we need to re-examine it and i think that re-examination starts with us as the board um i think uh there had been some discussion before about um you know us coming to a common understanding of what we mean when we're talking about equity and what our intention is in that regard um and that as well as the resolution and what sort of uh goals and intentions the we have for the equity team and i think that direction needs to start with with us and i think the best way you

051know perhaps the only way to do that is if we have you know a clean start on all of those um and and we take a look at um take a look at a period of time here and re-examine it and look at moving forward then mr sure other comments um yeah go ahead whoever sorry yeah thank you doctor sorry miss holt you i think you were first i saw okay yeah um i understand um the desire to re-examine some of the clarify understanding i think there has long been a desire to bring more voices to the table and that's clearer than ever and um i think that is a healthy thing to do have some good conversations um i however feel that it's number one highly unusual for us to just suspend especially when

052we all had the opportunity to discuss spent the normal even maybe a little bit longer than normal amount of time and i understand that people have new thoughts more information [Music] and i certainly certainly support the board coming to better focus and hearing all of the community members regardless of their thoughts on the matter but i feel it's a major step backward on all of the work that people have put in already at the direction of the board so i do not support suspending other comments by board members i think dr ritter yes for me i continue to be very supportive of both uh policy number 832 and the anti-racism resolution i think they are valuable in helping us to have some difficult conversations i realize this kind of discussion is not easy but it

053is a valuable discussion for us to have and i see i i am in favor of the suspension so that we can do that better than it has been done to this point and time i think there are a lot of concepts in both items especially around equity that have been long-standing concepts in many aspects of public education and have served us well in helping our students not only in this district but throughout the country um who are differently abled uh and a variety of other situations poverty and so forth to excel and do as well as they are capable of doing and i think that to me is the understanding of equity it was the understanding of it when i voted for those measures and it continues to be my hope and understanding as

054we move forward so while i support the move to suspend the operation of both of those items i do so only as an un with the understanding that we will prov that it will provide a cooling off time and a time for us as a community to engage in the kind of discussion i hope we can have mr hess uh thank you so i just want to say that i i do respectfully disagree um with the motion that that was um seconded we haven't given this policy a chance to to fully uh form out yet so there is um an equity action plan under this policy that hasn't even been designed or presented to the school board yet so we aren't really fully able to see what this policy is going to do without that

055action plan please let mr hess speak please um the other piece too that we didn't get to fully see was under the guidelines section and the sub uh section of partnerships and inclusion this policy was poorly administered and rolled out in this district and we have we have a clear subheading about involving the public organizations businesses institutions of higher learning the greater community in this policy that we haven't done yet and i think for us to suspend this policy or potentially revoke this policy without fully seeing it through is is a mistake thank you mr hess for board members yeah so i'll just reiterate that the the intent of the suspension is really to enable us to follow board policy follow zero zero three and make sure that as we move forward we do have

056that engagement with the community up front and that we are hearing perspectives from people of all walks of life throughout the district right so everybody's got different perspectives and if we all stay here we can't come here for the better good of our students right and so we have to figure out to make sure that we have the the support services and the things we need for our kids that we're doing this the right way and i think we all agree that the implementation just wasn't executed in a way that was healthy for all of our children and so um that's really the intent of the suspension i think that we can engage in all of those activities without suspending a policy and that we've already suspended the communication from the equity team in order

057to provide for that time and opportunity to restructure and reevaluate so i'm in favor of the suspension i honestly don't believe we can do the work we need to do as a board and understand that with the policy still in effect uh we need to go back to a clean slate and and start again so i i will vote in favor of the the amendment made by by mr sure and ultimately the the um the motion made by ms batts is there any any other comments or questions i'd just like to point out real quick we're at the end of what's already been a very epically difficult and challenging year um i think that um what's been brought up with uh the way that this policy and the uh plans behind it have been rolled

058out i i think there's a link between that and the difficult year that we've uh all been facing and um you know if if this this this conversation might be different if it was like november or something like that but we're at the end of the year we have the advantage of the upcoming summer months to make the improvements that we want to [Music] make uh the anti-racism and equity plans that we've put in move forward other other comments yeah if i can be heard yes uh i have some reservations about mr sher's uh amendment only because it would imply that we are unhappy with what the equity team has done and i think they have followed our instructions to the best of their ability i fought the instructions the the purpose of our equity

059initiatives was painted in very broad strokes without any clear articulation of an end point in their activities i think they've done an admirable job to date and i hate to suspend that team uh given all the work they have already done i think they need to be expanded the team needs to be expanded their mission more clearly defined and so i think i will i will probably vote in favor of suspending the operation of the policy but i don't think i can vote in favor of mr sheriff's amendment i think the intent just if i could explain i think the certainly it was not intended to um you know disparage or um you know anybody on the equity team or any of their you know their well-intentioned efforts um i think that you know maybe

060there's a disconnect between the instruction or the understanding or the communications or whatever it is i'm not you know saying that i'm not taking any shots at the equity team but my concern is that we suspend the operation of of every of the policy the resolution as well as the suspending operation of the team while we take a look at um you know re-examine everything and i think that's kind of the only way we can really do it and it's not directed at anyone personally on that team um you know i'm like i said i'm sure they're you know they work very hard on what they did um but i i think we we we need to do a better job as a board and an administration um in in giving them direction and goals

061um yeah this is an important issue i mean and part of it is more of my concern is this is such an important issue that you know we need to make sure we're handling it appropriately you know is is the way to deliver messages regarding equity for these kinds of things appropriate for morning announcements for example i don't i don't know about that um so again i think this just i think we just need to take an opportunity to to re-examine everything there's nothing you know intended you know in any way disparaging about the team i just we just need to take a fresh look at this um i i would like to add to that that for me my vote to support the suspension of the operations of both of the items the amendment

062and then eventually the amendment and the uh the item being amended and the uh policy 832 is not as uh swipe at the equity team but if it is to say that my concern often is boards pass a lot of things and sometimes we don't always do the homework we need to do to make sure that what we pass is being carried forth in in a way that because we we have many other responsibilities as well not only this board and i think that's really what um mr sure uh has been getting at that we just need to start in essence with a clean slate begin with the kind of community conversation that really should have been happening and hasn't to this point so that's why i can move forward and and i do not

063want anyone that has put effort in in the equity team to feel that my vote at least is a slight to them it is not intended that way yeah i would agree i think you know we've had a lot of conversation and i think it's just where we were in september and the information we had and now some of the connections that um we've made to some of these more um sensitive subjects and and the key terms and some of the things that are evolving and the way that we see this evolving nationally i think is just highlighting for us that we have more work to do and so it's appropriate for us to step back start fresh and say okay what what is going to be our approach for kutztown like what is our

064need and how are we going to progress so yeah i agree i'm not trying to um you know slap anybody's wrist it's just we need to do this the right way and and i feel like this is the best path forward i i can agree with everything that's been said uh particularly the need to hit a reset button i i'm only questioning why we are suspending the team suspending the resolution suspends the operation of that team i would be very concerned that no one on the present team would volunteer for the next iteration of that body i know i would not if i was suspended at this point for the work that i had done i would have no interest in continuing and i would if we could remove that part from mr sure's uh

065uh motion to amend uh just to amend the just re we suspend the uh resolution as well as the policy that i could be in favor of what i mean i guess the point is to the extent the team was formulated at least in large part you know to effectuate the policy i mean what would the team be doing if we've suspended the policy and suspended suspended the operation of the policy suspended the operation of the resolution it would not be doing anything except the board would still be welcoming their eventual participation in the next iteration that's what we're doing saying we don't want you on the team anymore we're suspending the whole team well we're not no no no no what i would see how and what i assume we're having to do here

066is they would be invited in in our board discussions along with members of the community to continue to work forward in this whole process we're just saying we're not continuing to operate as we have at this point in time i i that's what the suspension means i i understand that i just hope uh current members of the team are uh bigger persons than i am because i would react in a different way had i been a member of the team it's a more suspending operation of the team not suspending the t okay well okay that that that's better that that is i don't think that was part of the original motion that that one yes the word operation was in there the operation is the resolution but there was suspending the team and the opportunity

067said the operation of the operation of the team and of the resolution okay is that does that address that that makes it better yes any other any other comments yeah mr nolte uh a couple weeks ago um we actually saw a rather large segment of the public uh come to one of our board meetings uh that was actually in support of uh equity and um some of the concepts and goals uh behind this policy and i think it's important that we also as a board assure them uh that the work and uh the plans uh will be moving forward uh we're just going to be fixing uh some of the problematic parts that um came to the board's attention uh over the last month thank you dr johnson other comments yeah i can read the

068amendment we'll be voting on the amendment um this is this is an amendment in addition to amending mrs batts original motion which is to also amend i'm sorry to suspend the operation of the equity team and the anti-racist issue and the anti-racist resolution capture that correctly mr sure spend the operation spend the operation of the equity team and actually and enforcement of the anti-racist resolution any other questions or comments before we vote on that amendment hearing none roll call please ricky michelle batts yes randy birch yes aldarian yes michael house no cecilia holt no eric johnson yes demonstrator yes joshua yes carl nalty yes so approved next we will refer back to the original motion by miss bats you could refresh again what you're what your motion was for the border ricky what what that

069is exactly my motion is to suspend policy 832 educational equity it was the operation of based on based on our uh board policy zero zero three okay so are you open to including the word operation in there of policy policies operation i i would just like that for clarity point if you suspend the policy or spend the operation i think it's the same it's the same yeah so as it reads cost to suspend at any time the operation of a board procedure or policy so the by stating suspension you are implying it's the operation of a procedure i'd feel much better if that was explicitly in the motion yeah i would too is there any reason to not include it in the motion no i mean that is the language of our policy so i

070think that's fine okay i would appreciate it is uh i believe the second of that was sure you agree with the change to that yes well i think if the mover agrees to it it doesn't have to be second mystery well the seconders should know doesn't matter any other comments or questions regarding that motion appearing on roll call please ricky randy birch yes aldarian yes michael house no cecilia no yes motion approved any other business or items board members would like to bring forward if i may mr president yes first i'd like to apologize for not being there in person but a rather vital family function has pulled me away and that also makes it fairly difficult to engage in debate given the time delay of the statements but what we have just done is

071suggest that we need a new direction for our implementation of the thought behind these policies and i would like to make uh some suggestions and since i am remote i just have the indulgence of the board to just read a short statement regarding where i hope we would go uh to give us some focus so if i may read into the record i would like to suggest that any discussion we have over our school's treatment of race and equality be separated from the increasingly partisan national debate over racial injustice and divorced from catchphrases such as critical race theory white privilege equality equity marxism etcetera though there is a need to define what these words mean and a place in our public discourse with such a debate to take place let us remember that we are

072a board of school directors it is not our role to change society except indirectly through our primary purpose the education of our children of our district to that end the education we provide our children must prepare them to function and hopefully thrive in a world far more diverse than rural berks county to that end our kids need to be made aware of the world as it actually is not as we would like it to be they need to be made aware that everyone's life experience is not the same and that in broad strokes the life experience of people of color is different from that of white people the murder of george floyd made it painfully obvious for example that the interactions with law enforcement experienced by people let mr mr darren finish his comments is

073far different than that of the rest of us our kids need to be made aware of the historical experiences of black people from slavery through the black codes of post reconstruction in the jim crow era to the civil rights fight of the 60s the 1971 supreme court decision that produced forced busing the 90s crime bill to the present for those who would say that the past does not matter i would relate my once being told by a local resident in a thick pennsylvania dutch accident may i add that he would never vote for a catholic because when they had their chance they burned us referring to events 300 years ago in germany we bring to the present what our culture has experienced in the past there are two essential pieces to education the first is

074the presentation of information the description in this case of historical and current reality the second is to provoke thinking and the ability to articulate those thoughts in both cases we need to be very careful we need to avoid dogmatic assertions of truth on any side i recognize that unlike my field signs in which there is a clear distinction between reality and conjecture historical reality is open to interpretation for example i can state with certainty that gone with the wind should not be presented as a documentary the systematic demonization devoid of context of historical figures is equally unreasonable information presented as fact needs to be supported by documentation interpretation of historical events needs to be clearly presented as such an opportunity given to evaluate different interpretations i would hope that the university and the history department

075would help us in ensuring the accuracy of the information we present to our students a final thought on equity i believe that the basic premise of that philosophy behind this word is that differences in a person's needs should at least in part determine the services they are provided when applied to economics i guess this could be reduced to the marxist ideal to each according to their needs but when applied to an education this is nothing more than what good teachers have always been doing an individual education plan an iep for example is what we provide for students with special needs ensuring that they receive an equitable education and so i would hope from now on we would focus not on the debate about equality but on the education of our students and i just suggest

076that for people to ponder i don't think it needs to be debated comments dr darin anyone else from the board mr hess yeah i just want to make a comment that i was lucky enough to have dr darian as a teacher when i was a student here and um i do appreciate uh his insight on this and and grateful that he's part of this board so thank you dr derry thank you other board members comments or new business hearing none we will close that section of the agenda and we will move to public comment i have currently two lists in front of me that were filled out at concurrent time as folks entered we will go down the list i will go left to right and continue to repeat that that process i ask that

077the folks that come forward to speak for public comment come forward to the microphone they state their name they state where they live and then some just some ground rules since we do have quite a few folks that want to speak according to our policy each person is allowed five minutes i ask that everyone in the community give that person a chance to address the board their voice has a right to be heard we will go through this in a very orderly orderly fashion and do that again the the direction here is that the purpose forward and addresses the board um and uh i think we can do that uh and let everyone get there get uh what they want to say out tonight so with that we'll start with and if i get anyone's

078name wrong i extremely apologize i believe it is john baldwin is it is an h or an a i joan i'm sorry looks joan baldwin thank you um and you have your again your name and where you live joan baldwin main street kutztown [Music] my son watching in california tells me there's a very poor quality on your on your zoom just you know [Music] he's not watching doesn't know i'm talking but yeah my name is joan baldwin i've been a taxpayer in the kitchentown area school district since 1973 when i was hired to be a teacher in this district i always like to review the history of events before i make a judgment so it's my college teaching days i have to do both so i'm old and i can tell you a lot about

079the history in this district as a classroom teacher reading specialist reading coordinator summer school coordinator and of course a parent when you talk about equity and equality for students let's go back to 1975 when the education for all handicapped children otherwise known as public law 9414 required all public schools accepting federal funds must provide equal access to education for children with physical and or mental disabilities those were kids who are learning disabled good teachers have always done what's right for kids we don't need a new law to tell us to do something different right so when we're working with kids we have a question we can go to the guidance counselor the school nurse the principal other teachers and we can do a great job i mean i was so happy to see that the

080high school was honored as a blue ribbon school now years ago the blue ribbon school was a was chosen by a private company it now is under the the department of education and i have a feeling betsy devos would be very upset knowing that her high school is teaching equality equality and equity and gender fluency and all kinds of things that i'm sure she wouldn't want in a blue ribbon school so i was honored as the berks county ld teacher of the year because i'm a big advocate for doing what's right for kids then i was honored as the pennsylvania lld teacher of the year and then the national teacher of the year for helping all kids that needed help right i still donate my time to work as a student advocate for teachers and

081school districts that i shall shall say maybe are a little confused about what ieps say teachers at a middle school and high school are hired to teach very specific subjects teachers in elementary schools are hired to teach lots of different subjects lots of different ways of teaching and i can tell you that the state of pennsylvania was the first state to require esl teachers and training do you know why because the parents of adopted children foreign adopted children in pennsylvania demanded it so parents have a lot to say when school reform is school policy getting back to the history of critical race theory this is an academic discipline where does it come from well it was formulated in the 1990s out of harvard university and it built on the intellectual framework of identity based marxism

082do your research it's pretty easy to see that it was relegated for many years to universities and obscure little journals written in universities but has become the default ideology of our public institutions over the past decade so michael when you talk about using higher education they're all going to be in favor of this is it injected into our government agencies school systems teacher training programs i'm sure he knows that and these diversity trainings have taken a lot of different areas so mr hess i'm just curious no please press the board as a whole please okay school board did you know that your sophomore your girls softball team honored veterans at the park a week and a half ago i did i was there so some people on the board maybe have relatives that were there

083my husband served in the special forces green berets in vietnam and i can't tell you how upset he is with other veterans in this community but not only are you shoving communism and marxism and those tactics into our high schools and elementary schools but you're opening the door and you're saying here come on in very upsetting to a lot of us who had relatives fight against communism world war ii my father was a pilot how many of us have happened is paul when i need you to finish up your five minutes okay i talk fast i can talk really fast so when we're using critical race theories words like equity social justice diversity inclusion and culturally responsive teaching i think we have to really think what that means what it's doing to our kids i'm

084not going to talk about all the horror stories i've heard about what's going on in schools we've read some of the announcements we've heard what kids come home and say but it's a big detriment to our community i'm kind of ashamed that this is going on is a 176-76 project and i gave you each a copy of that as well as the declaration as well as the constitution i think you need to review that a little bit next we will move to curtis treptow my name is curtis trepto and i have lived in kutztown for five years and i think it's a wonderful place to live i'm not apparent but many of my friends have put kids in the kutztown area school district and they are an example of martin luther king's dream come true

085these kids all of them have been through a different difficult year with a lot of new challenges and many have fallen behind academically and socially so it's hard to explain the level of disgust and anger i felt when i learned that instead of focusing on doing everything possible to mitigate the negative impacts of this year a racist and divisive ideology like crt has been flipped into our schools under the cover of covet crt is almost always hidden behind the facade of diversity equity and inclusion and if you question the details or the legitimacy of this teaching you're quickly branded a racist we've seen that recently from a lot of you i'm not a racist we're not racists and we're not going to be silenced by false accusations of racism crt teaches you that if you

086have white skin you're an oppressor if you have black or brown skin you're a victim of white supremacy in need of liberation if you're white you're automatically privileged despite any hardship you might have experienced personally you have directly benefited from racism you're subconsciously racist and you should strive to be white traders or white abolitionists okay it rejects the nuclear family as a white supremacist institution entry-level work is a tool of capitalist oppression it rejects achievement-based academics and focusing on getting the right answer as racist do you believe an individual can succeed in the united states as they work hard sorry you might be a racist this push to frame the institutions and morals of the united states as a part of systemic racism is to undermine the founding of this country and the principles of

087individual freedom and liberty if the whole system is racist and inequitable it must be torn down and replaced ibrahim kennedy who is one of the leading critical race theorists and author of how to be racist says the defining question is whether discrimination is creating equity or inequity if discrimination is creating equity it is anti-racist if it's just creating inequity it's racist the only remedy to racist discrimination is anti-racist discrimination the only remedy to pass discrimination is present discrimination this man makes twenty to thirty thousand dollars an hour to spew this venom and corporations are falling over themselves to pay him disney had anti-racism training modules one of which is titled what can i get do about racism they're told they should reject equality with a focus on equal treatment and access to opportunities and instead

088strive for equity with a focus on equality of outcome this is offensive and it's racist but at least it was pushed on adults not children we've also seen black lives matter being pushed on students in this school district can you explain to me how it's appropriate for a political organization founded by self-described trained marxists to be promoted to students and even suggested they join them in protesting the leaders of these organizations enrich themselves through fear and hatred while sending their activists thugs to burn and loot the cities of the very people that they're claiming to stand up for the people living in violent neighborhoods who need the protection of the police are drowned out and ignored in order to drive a narrative while the heroes who risk their lives to protect them are vilified we

089can all agree that racism exists in this country and that is absolutely unacceptable in this society but it is dangerous and ignorant to try and pretend that it is everywhere at all times and that only white people are racist unfortunately humanity is capable of or fortunately humanity is capable of great love and compassion but it's also flawed and capable of hatred and evil we should be teaching our children to treat each other equally and focus on valuing people and how they conduct themselves and not on their race or their sexuality these are serious topics that are not easily understood by kids and it's not okay to be pushing a simplified dumb narrative of race on them especially while trying to exclude the parents from the conversation you do not denigrate one group to raise up

090another and racism is never a solution to racism history has proven this time and time again please understand this fight is far from over and i'm not sure if the suspension is going to be enough the roots are rotten many of us have been apathetic about what is happening in our schools and in society in general and i truly hope that this can be a catalyst for more involvement especially when it comes to education because there are a few things as important as ensuring that they're as important to ensuring that this remains a free country where people are allowed to think for themselves we will not allow kids to be taught to hate their country or to see color above all else thank you for your time and get used to seeing my face we'll

091move to dan whistler dan whistler dan whisper please hi thanks for giving me a chance to speak um i'm going to be reading a statement from my friend and named ed wood uh he lives in uh greenwich and uh he and his wife stacy have four kids throughout the three buildings and he asked me to share um he said he couldn't be here tonight he had a prior obligation he didn't want to be here i understand the objectives of the equity team are well intentioned but while trying to accomplish an anti-racism all-inclusive agenda it in fact alienates the majority of the students that reside in the kutztown school district there are many christ followers in the kutztown area what the board may not be aware of is that the biblical principles reinforced reinforced by our

092local churches in fact promote inclusion and like the university most religious institutions in our area embrace the cultural diversity that continues to grow throughout the district conservative institutions such as churches and pro-life centers in our area historically have needed to go through stringent policies and approvals to be allowed to promote their agenda that they support many would say that it can be a cumbersome process to promote their positive messages in our school and the process has been acceptable as long it has been implemented on a level playing field recently through the equity teams elementary school announcements it has become obvious that our administration has deemed it more appropriate to promote a liberal left-wing ideology than it would be to promote a right-wing conservative ideology the view of the concerned citizens group in our area are

093obviously opposed to radical change policies including ones that would guilt anyone who has a different skin color race or nationality into thinking that they are less than or greater than any other individual based on these metrics our community would proudly stand behind programs that are based on individual responsibility equal treatment for everyone and putting others needs ahead of their own these types of behaviors should be celebrated as well as as those behaviors that are contrary to the culture that we are trying to create should be disciplined accordingly we are kutztown school district a school that is small enough to create a culture of love and inclusion without divisive blanket programs that alienate a majority of the constituency that vote this board into existence as a voter with strong conviction of individual responsibility i ask that

094you respectfully strike this recent policy from existence she thanks that i'm sure that uh what occurred did um disband the equity team and create an allegiance with teachers student leaders and parents that embody the same vision of inclusion love and compassion for each student in our community i believe that together we can make a better future for kutztown school district i believe that through the process of our close-knit community will become a beacon of hope with many committees communities in our surround too many of the surrounding communities in our area i believe kutztown a blue ribbon school can set the bar not only for academics but for inclusion as well we can do this by how others we treat each other individually treat each and every individual student voter an elected official we achieve greatness

095through transparency and integrity and we can do it together by the response of the citizens that have turned out to have their voices heard you better believe that whether your views are on the left or on the right the kutztown school district voters will hold our leadership accountable to doing the right thing we aren't looking for what's best for the country or for the state but the right thing custom tailored to our community thank you for your time mr whisper we'll move now to jackie bridges good evening can you hear me yes that's better thank you for the opportunity um my name is jackie bridges i live in kutztown i have children in 11th grade eighth grade seventh grade and third grade uh graduate of kutztown area school class of 2000 and united states air

096force veteran i am speaking on behalf of most of the group in the room and in the community as parents community members and taxpayers and americans concerned for the common good of the nation we reject the following tenets of critical race theory as directly opposed to the fundamental principles of american government and political order we reject that any human being simply by virtue of being born in a given racial category example their whiteness is inherently evil or should bear guilt for actions committed by others in the past or the present that those who oppose replacing the equality of all citizens under the law with a system of equity that treats people unequally based on racial categories are complicit in racism or white supremacy and that establishing a legal regime of racial hierarchies is equatable or

097just what we do hold instead is that human beings are fundamentally equal insofar as they are human and citizens and must be treated as such as by law we also hold that blaming groups of citizens for evils that did not commit based on their race or color is morally wrong we hold that a system based on equity in which equity means rejecting equality under the law and distributing goods and services on the basis of race alone is neither equitable nor just and then we we hold that the government and public institutions must not discriminate or grant special treatment to persons just based on the color or race thank you thank you next we'll move to dave sabatca i'm not sure if we got that right thank you evening um my name is david zabotka i

098live at 311 sheridan road max tony township i'm a relative newcomer to the area i've only been here 20-some years i recently found out about the board's adoption of the educational equity uh policy so i read it uh when i read it it caused me some concerns for example in the first line of the purpose of the policy it says the board adopts his policy to prioritize the principle of educational equity one of the board members that spoke earlier this evening talked about the board's priority being education that sounds right to me i'm not sure why when you passed this policy the board had to make an emphasis on equity wasn't the board acting equally and fairly before this policy passed i would assume that you were so i'm not sure why you had to

099pass this policy there's another section of the policy that talks about delegation of responsibility and it says the superintendent shall use an equity lens to view decisions is it really necessary to have a lens of equity when the board's making decisions or getting recommendations from the staff i don't think it is there's another section talks about guidelines educational equity shall shall serve as the foundational structure upon which all aspects of the district's education system are built once again i think the focus is off when you keep using this term equity your focus is education i assume everybody is treating everybody equal i don't think anybody in this room would say that they don't want people treated equal they'd all agree with that this is an unnecessary policy it's divisive take a look at your last

100few meetings it's divisive it's not necessary and i don't know what money the board spent on this policy but i'm assuming that there were some expenditures either in terms of staff or time or resources and i think those expenditures are wasted money and i would like the board if i understood what you did earlier today you suspended the policy i'd like to board at the next meeting to consider a resolution to rescind the policy thank you for your [Applause] time otis angle uh hi my name is otis engel i'm a freshman in high school and i live in murchtown just off of bowers road uh so my concern tonight is regard regarding equity-based learning recently the state of california has proposed legislative framework to do away with high-level math instruction and this was done in

101the name of equity for all students i'm concerned with the recent proposal of policy 800 832 i will see something similar happen happening in kutztown uh it is no benefit to society to expend the comp the extend the competent to the rights of the less able as a student this particularly worries me because i'm interested in higher levels of education including more difficult courses to quote mr burch higher levels of learning would greatly increa increase the critical thinking of many students that are willing to challenge themselves this would also create a strong character for students that are willing to challenge themselves my worry is that i and other students like me will be denied the opportunity to do both of these things which would build my character and create create important skills for life for

102multiple other clients tonight it was stated that there will be national national repercussions of the outcome of policy 832. does this mean that the decision is being influenced by other parties such as the current motion in california to prevent students from accelerating into higher level classes overall will this prevent students from challenging their character and their critical thinking skills thank you nate diffenbaugh thank you board um i think many of you actually do know me i live in the borough of kutztown and i have three children that attend school two in middle school and one in the elementary school i think my concern would be that we are getting so angry and so uh aggravated about this issue that we lose sight that equity means that we take our students that are achieving and scoring

103high and we challenge them to do better we ask our athletes to do better on the field we ask our musicians to do better in the classroom and at the same time those kids that struggle we make sure we have the iep set for them we don't tell hey johnny i'm sorry you can't hear because you have a hearing deficit but everyone else can we don't do that that's equity equality would be saying to that child i'm sorry you can't hear suck get up and do what you need to do that is not how we work and i think we owe it to our children to make sure we provide the best quality education that we can for all of them unfortunately i do know that this has gone down the racial rabbit hole and

104i think this is where we can learn from our children i'm sorry um my son is in elementary school he likes the color i open up the books about superheroes i open up the books about athletes and i see superman with brown skin brown hair and brown eyes i see batman with brown skin brown hair and brown eyes it's not because i'm a liberal marxist or all those words you want to use i was raised in a conservative christian household i was raised by a white family my son is black okay my son is black and when he looks in the mirror he sees a little brown-skinned boy and that's what he's proud of when he sees a black man he goes down gets his haircut he's proud he goes daddy they look like me

105and i'm like yeah man they do and that's okay we need to promote multiculturalism we need to look at what is good in people when my son was four years old and not thankfully not here but in an educational setting he was racially discriminated against he was told he couldn't play superheroes and run around the playground because he might scare the little white girls because he could be a violent predator he's black he's not a violent creditor he's a four-year-old okay i was told that maybe your son should transfer to one of our other locations where he would be more like the other kids and i'm like more boys you know they look more like him i'm like high level of energy you're like no no no no no they look like him i didn't

106know how to handle it and you know why because i'm white like most of you are okay and i'm not prepared to handle it as a parent because i have not been exposed to racism until i was 36 years old when someone directed it to my son i had two daughters never had that experience and i'm sorry i know what i'm saying is not popular and i and i apologize if i have please please address the board okay i'm sorry sir i apologize if i offended anyone here tonight but i want to live in a community that i can raise my son in and that he's not afraid or he's not embarrassed and i want to raise my daughters in that community where they're not afraid and they're not embarrassed and everything that's going on

107as a parent makes me scared and they're feelings i've never had with my daughters and i know it's a racial thing and i understand that i'm not asking for you to take pity on me i'm just asking that you look at our community as it's changing and as it becomes more diverse and that we make sure that every kid has that opportunity to exceed and make this community a better place to live i moved here because i want a small community to raise my family in and i've gotten a quality education for all my kids and have had amazing experiences with them that i know they would have not gotten in a larger school i'm just asking you to please make sure we do what's best for our kids that we also listen to our

108kids and we learn from because they teach us amazing things thank you thank you next we'll move to chilton shaffer thank you to the board for taking my question uh chilton shaver albany township lifelong resident uh something i haven't heard too much about and actually by mr hess's earlier statements the whole equity and inclusion program wasn't really ready for prime time is that what i'm understanding like you you were saying it was kind of in the early rollout stages of being implemented i think the the board took action tonight to suspend the policy right right but what my original question for the evening was and it plays into this who greenlighted the early morning announcements to the elementary school i mean that was ridiculous i mean to to blind sign blindside parents like that i

109think that's why you're seeing the board has taken the action okay i realize that but i mean i hope anything that you guys do further on is going to include parents being uh advised of what's gonna what they're gonna their kids are gonna be coming home to understand all right i think that's why the the action was taken right next we'll move to greg setlist hi everybody i'm greg setlift thank you for the time and you all know why i'm here so uh i have three points i'd like to bring up and the first is about the process um i again you know my opinion i've spoken here before i applaud the committee for their work on this it is a difficult subject um and i hope that you do address the issues with the

110process i hope that you do address our community's concerns i hope that you come back with a stronger program i look forward to seeing what you come up with because that leads into my next point um i'd like to address this this idea that equity does not belong in our schools and i respectfully disagree uh equity programs have been a part of our school for a very long time they show up in our gifted programs in our women in stem programs they show up in a number of different ways uh free lunches busing our sports programs our music programs and so on and so forth these programs are designed to lift up our students who may perform differently than other students and as a community they improve the outcomes for our students overall which is

111exactly what everybody in this room wants now we're faced with the issue of equity that is not benefiting my child my kid's not in the gifted program that's okay i recognize that the gifted program does something for our community it makes our students that are successful and as an equity program i get it i'm not upset that you're working towards that and i did not come back to object to any such thing but we do have an objection for us here and i i hope that the committee takes on the difficult task and returns this very difficult test i believe you will to understand a very complicated relationship and time in our history and teach our children and this brings me to my third and final point um you're going to hear a famous three

112letter a three word uh phrase that's going to be uttered many times tonight i would imagine uh critical race theory that would be the only time that i bring it up but the critical race did it i'm going to try to stop that this reminds me of something from my own history i i don't come from kutztown i live in kutztown now i have two kids in the school district um but the place that i come from is is a very different one and the time that i grew up i was taught that the american civil war was called the war of northern regression and that was a neat little catchphrase and i internalized it as a team i also internalized another phrase heritage not hate and as a result i personally owned many dozen

113confederate battle flags and some days i'd go to school with no fewer than three on my person i am not ashamed of my race i'm not ashamed of my history i understand today as an adult when i left that school when the grown-ups were telling me one thing that when i left that school the thing i was ashamed of was not that my color of my skin it was my ignorance and that ignorance was pervaded it was passed on to me by the adults around me and so you have an enormous task ahead of you as a board i i absolutely appreciate your work because i believe that the programs that you've implemented over the years that i've lived here for over a decade my kids have come up in the school these programs improve

114the quality of education the outcomes are are pretty impressive you're getting national recognition and blue ribbon status you have not raised my tax i just did my taxes over the weekend by the way thank you very much for not raising my taxes um and you're doing this in a fiscally responsible way um i know it's not a popular opinion but i appreciate your work i look forward to getting back to it thank you next we'll move to rebecca lance my name is rebecca lance but it used to be beeler so some of you might know my mom but i live in kutztown now and um i just kind of became aware of this issue because i saw the morning announcements from the elementary school and um i was like just blown away look if i

115give one of my cats a treat and i don't give the other one a treat they know that that's not fair okay you don't have to like make a big political thing out of teaching kids when things are fair and not fair and you don't need to tell them that they're going to inherently suffer and be victimized based on anything you should be teaching kids how to treat each other fairly how to treat each other equally and see everybody else's equals that's like number one and you shouldn't be telling them the world's going to be sucked against you or that when you go out into the world you're going to suffer because society has it in for you which is essentially what critical race theory is is that the system is stacking against certain people

116for certain reasons and i don't really want to get into that i'm just saying i don't think it's the goal of an education to tell kids what they can't achieve or to underestimate them like that that's disgusting to me i was underestimated when i was a student i didn't appreciate it i don't think you should do it bradley gammons hello my name is bradley gammons i reside in kempton pa i am a not quite lifelong resident i moved here around six months but uh my generations go back about five generations in this area uh i've been asked by several parents to read aloud the equity announcements that were delivered to the students at the greenwich elementary school this was uh the week of april 12th through the 16th april 13th this monday the diversity equity

117and inclusion committee is examining white privilege author and activist peggy mcintosh defines white privilege as the set of advantages entitlements benefits and choices bestowed on people solely because they are white generally white people who benefit from white privilege do so without being conscious of it on april 14th the equity announcement for the day psychologist and former um i believe it's the spelman college president beverly daniel tatum tells us a story about privilege and racism in her book titled why we all why are all the black kids sitting together in the cafeteria listen to the story listen to part of that story what if every afternoon i give your brother two cookies for a snack and i only give you one and i did that day after day would that be fair no it wouldn't or

118what if you did something wrong and i took away your favorite toy as a punishment but when your brother did exactly the same thing i did not take away any of his toys would that seem fair no it wouldn't racist racism is like that racism means some people are given extra benefits privileges just because they are white and other people are given less just because they are black or brown and black is capitalized brown is not i don't know if that's typo or or some other meaning it means some people are trained harshly when they make a mistake just because they are black or brown again black is capitalized brown is not but when white people make the same mistake they do not get the same kind of punishment sometimes they don't get any punishment

119at all that is very unfair in the end question mark of the question how can you encourage yourself and others to be fair april 15th our equity announcement for the day here is an excerpt from the author daniel abigail um gweitz i think it is called when the world it when the world feels like a scary place when people are in charge they plant the type of flowers that they like the best and they might not want to plant want to plant flowers in their garden that they do not like as much that is the way people show privilege and prejudice they choose the flowers that they prefer and don't give the other flowers a chance to grow in their gardens people sometimes do that with other people and then ask the question here to

120the students how does this story make you feel how do you think that that makes people feel how can you change that so those were the announcements that were read to elementary school students and um i'd like to um go on and uh have a comment about that going through the kutztown school district i thought i got a very good education i was an average student there was many more people that were much smarter than i was that didn't make it at the college level and i struggled through and i graduated university of pittsburgh in economics and business and i went on to millersville university to degree get a degree in safety and occupational safety and management i do not believe that some of these stories uh that were referenced that my son who's in

121second grade would be able to comprehend i don't think that my daughter who's in honors in eighth grade would be able to understand that i believe that that's material that should be taught not at the primary or the secondary level but at a college level i i ref i i kind of see the uh a story that i was told once about racism there's two kids playing in a sandbox and one might be one color and white might be the other and what are they doing in the sandbox they are playing it's not until an adult comes along and says to one child that they're not a plow to play with the other child and gives them a reason why i think the other other parents had mentioned it that let the kids go to

122school and be taught and learn um i ate mr gammons and he's been he's been in five minutes okay um i just wanted to end there then that's fine thank you next we'll move to amber bungo hello my name is amber bungo i'm from greenwich i have three students in the district um i'm here tonight because like many of the folks here i'm concerned about the equity committee their goals and their transparency to the board and the community i think we can all agree that there are students within our district who are suffering some being bullied living without heat power or water suffering from mental physical or sexual abuse or apathy who are exposed to the abuse of drugs or alcohol however these issues affect all ethnicities and income levels and i believe are caused

123by the lack of a support system currently teachers and staff are helping and stepping in when they can but i believe that we as a community have the resources and the responsibility to step forward and get involved we want to see all of our students succeed we are asking the board to create committees that support our students and programs that bring the community together rather than cause further division last summer there were signs all over town that read no community without unity and that is what i would like to see again in our district to give some examples of programs that could benefit our students that other districts throughout the country have implemented a cougar closet for kids who aren't coming to school because they don't have a pair of shoes that happen in this

124district laundry facilities because kids would rather stay home than come to school and dirty clothes that's happening in this district paw pantry for kids who are going home to no dinner or family members who haven't eaten that day that is happening in this district big brother big sister programs for kids who need a role model and for someone to be in their corner mentors from the community ride services kids can't always take advantage of after school programs or extracurricular activities because they simply can't get their back home life skills resumes job applications taxes how to manage a checkbook or even apply for a loan we currently have students going home each night to a circumstance that many here may not be able to imagine we have students who are being pressured over one issue or

125another and don't know how to handle it i myself was one of these students i tried to imagine how i would have felt being told that my skin color was defined the defining factor of my character in closing i ask that the board works to identify the real issues in our school and offer solutions that will not help that will not only help our students but bring us as a community together rather than creating more division thank you [Applause] next next we'll move to dawn vasco thank you for listening to me i'm a former school teacher at fleetwood school district and i have two children graduated from kutztown my time one of those students is now an electrical mechanical engineer with his mba the other one my daughter graduated from kutztown university with honors i

126thank kutztown school district for that but what you've done with this equity business you have shown that you are a fiscally responsible school board which is a taxpayer i live in kutztown i value the only problem with that is if you continue with this equity program just like during covid you are going to find many families sending their children [Music] to cyber schools private schools or home school and your business manager is well aware that your enrollment and how many days those students are in school determines what you get from the federal government so keep that in the back of your mind that is not as important as the well-being of our students what you have done with the equity committee i don't know who your sources were in coming up with your plan but

127you need to talk to elementary teachers i was an art teacher for 35 years i taught high school for two and a half years and the rest of the time in elementary i watched children grow from kindergarten to sixth grade fifth grade and they change and they develop and a kindergartner isn't ready for what a third grader is ready for and a third grader isn't ready for what a fifth grader is ready for so you have to be careful what you put over the loudspeaker to all the students you can't do that now my husband was also an elementary school teacher and i think some of the other teachers kind of practiced what he did in some form when his students were fourth grade and fifth grade mainly he did teach second grade for three

128years and it almost drove me crazy because he was so determined because he knew the value of that kindergarten first second grade that's your foundation for the rest of your life and he was determined that every one of those children that left his classroom was well prepared for their future the fourth and fifth graders they walk in the classroom the first day he introduces himself they probably heard of them from his reputation over the years teaching over there but he's there welcome to our classroom just like you with family this is your classroom family we have to get along together for 183 days now that's going to take cooperation it's going to take kindness with each other it's going to take being helpful you may have your bffs your best friend forever in this classroom

129but even if you don't know some of the students in this room this is your classmate you need to respect them you need to care about them you don't have to go up and hug them and be all chummy chummy that's not necessary but you have to be polite i think you need to start with your elementary teachers to work on what should be done with elementary i worked with many people from the college with their phds but you need the people in the trenches to help you figure out what you're going to do okay thank you very much move to trisha libey uh good evening my name is trisha leiby and i'm from max autonomy i'm a mother of a first grader and a soon to be kindergartener i would first like to thank

130you for the opportunity to speak and to thank the board for suspending the equity policies and resolutions at last week's policy and curriculum meeting mr tim tatten noted that educational equity policy came from the pennsylvania school board association tonight i want to touch on the psba's influence on the school board and administration i did my own research and was troubled at what i found out of a number of resources the psba has a document called equity communication guidance where they describe how to roll out equity to your community specifically the final section of this document provides guidance on phrases to use and wants to avoid including to use equity avoid equality use black lives matter avoid all lives matter use protests avoid riots that is just a small snapshot this is nothing but disgraceful propaganda

131and is at the core of the policies and resolutions previously passed given the elementary school announcements we've read it's clear the administration is promoting this propaganda how dare you teach our children that their life matters only by the color of their skin this has no place in our school and to think that you allow this propaganda to infect the minds of any child then yet elementary children is appalling how on earth would this possibly help people work together promoting that one group is more important than another is racist this administration and board need to remember they report to the taxpayers and parents of this district and not the non-profits not the non-profit psba organization and their radical agenda our children deserve better than this why are we making this so hard as my son's kindergarten

132teacher taught be kind and treat others the way you want to be treated kindness is not based on skin color socioeconomic status religion gender gender identity etc why are tax dollars being used to do anything more than this basic concept of kindness part of the problem today is that people think everyone needs to agree or affirm and unless you affirm their decision then you are hateful all school districts have the unique position to utilize that time you have with the future generation to show them this doesn't have to be the case teach them how to handle differing opinions respectfully without canceling and leaving labeling everyone who disagrees with them as a racist or a bigot i also want to touch on the difference between equality and equity they are not the same thing it's unclear

133the need for this equity policy there already are programs and policies in place to address issues that inhibit learning that's why we have ieps meal programs help for english language learners etc those things were already existing and were driven by existing equality laws like the 14th amendment equity sounds good but equity is defined as equal outcomes what's an equal outcome what's the objective standard that is being used as a metric who decides what's fair or just and reallocates resources as necessary what's the actual end goal where success can be claimed equality and equity cannot coexist equity requires you to discriminate against someone to obtain a nebulous equal outcome equity is a step towards socialism the mechanism in this case is tearing one group down by race to build another up these are never strategies to

134solve problems but only destroy people and communities as history has proven please hear me i am pro-human and i seek to find common ground in that and in being americans being born in this country is a privilege unto itself yes there are disparities in our small community and everywhere but attributing attributing its surveys alone is incorrect this indoctrination of students is not providing any tangible resource to help anyone succeed this ideology only produces one of two outcomes it either shames someone or creates a victimhood mentality solely based on the immutable trait of their skin color it also does nothing to explain the host of americans who have overcome our supposed systemically racist system in america how do you explain former president barack obama bp kamala harris and what is now the highest number of minorities

135in congress how did we get there not through this privileged and victim ideology i urge you as you move forward in these next step steps re-looking at the equity policy that you remove this divisive religion of equity let's get back to equality under the law which reflects our shared humanity and our common desire to see the next generation succeed thank you for your time we'll now move to steve marsh hi i'm steve morris i'm from the borough of kutztown i just wanted to uh thank all of you tonight clearly for your vote on the equity program and um now we know where you truly stand and make a better i wanted to give you a little story about my daughter i gave it yesterday my daughter's seven years old one time she was going to

136play with some black children and she said well mommy i can't play with that and my wife goes why can't you play with them honey she said well because i'm right aren't i racist no i haven't explained to her no honey you're not racist because you're white i'm not saying she learned it at school that she slowly learned it at school this is the stuff we are teaching our children this is not right it needs to stop we need to work together we are all human and we all believe red thank you i i have a i'm sorry that the handwriting stephen it then i believe is f-o-r and then i don't it's hard to read after that it's from albany i'm sorry not not not speaking my mistake mark sackett mark sackett my fault

137just started reading this resolution paper and i did want to say a couple things about it one it talks talks about oh systemic racism and i do want to correct that i've heard a lot about systemic racism over the past couple of months this country is systemic racism this is wrong there are racists in this country there are racist black racist white racist it's not systemic and i want this struck out of all of your literature from now on because it is false that's the first thing second thing is this reads pretty much right out of the uh critical race theory word for word almost except for a few things critical race theory is an intellectual movement based on the premise that race is not natural if you people have read the critical race theory

138it's based that the race is not natural but a socially constructed to oppress and exploit people of color that is right out of their writings critical race theory says that law and legal institutes are inherently racist and functions to maintain social economic and political inequities between whites and minorities now i want any of you to tell me what law and what institution in this country does that okay no it's actually this whole crap is goes right against martin luther king it promotes it's just a theory it promotes the idea that this country was founded on slavery again wrong it promotes hatred between whites and blacks now just think about it a five-year-old six-year-old seven-year-old you go into school and all of a sudden your teacher who in lots of times lots of uh instances is

139the is the person that is teaching that children lots of parents don't even teach your children anymore so this is what they look up to so they go into school and all of a sudden the teacher is saying to this minority child that that white person over there suppresses you their laws suppress you and then they turn to the white person and say you're suppressing him that's what the way these kids read this this is what they see so what this does it doesn't do anything for race relations it separates them they're immediately mad at all who's supposed to be their friends so again cut it out if if you talk about racism and you want this critical race theory you have very very good company biggest racists in this country is louis farrakhan he's

140a hate american hate jews hate whites kill jews this is his own words he supports this so maybe you should look into that too black lives matter black lives matter is a great slogan it's it means something as a slogan look into the organization they're behind this black lives matter is a marxist by their own words organization that's who you're in bed with when you do this crap now i am told maybe i'm wrong five minutes sir maybe i'm wrong i'm finishing up right now perfect maybe i'm wrong but this this whole thing was put through where the board did not really look into things first that's what i'm told and that's why we're here suspending it should be thrown out but we're suspending it and i would recommend to the board after this do

141your homework connor o'neill hello conor o'neil recent graduate here at kutztown currently go to kutztown university as a political science student hoping to be accepted into the law program at u-pen between semesters i'm working at target and right off the bat day one first hour we're learning about diversity and inclusion i've been learning about drugs since first grade i think if i've been learning about drugs since first grade i can learn about race and ethnicity and diversity and inclusion education yes i believe that the approach to younger children should be different than middle schoolers and high schoolers but i think it should still be taught in younger levels because if it's not and you go from elementary middle school high school not learning it and you get out into the real world out of the

142small bubble of kutztown and kempton you're going to have challenges ahead of you the opposition to the initiative put forth has made it seem like teachers want to teach white children that they should be ashamed of being white and that everything in front of them put in front of them is because they are white this is a false narrative unfortunately the opposition to the equity initiative is pushing forth a hidden political agenda to keep talks about race out of school these people are living in a bubble of isolation and the ideals being pushed forward by them are from a bygone era the world is changing at a fast rate and eventually kutztown will catch up to that and if people are not able to cope with progress they themselves and their ideas about getting rid

143of talks about race diversity inclusion will become relics of the past education is a weapon to some people and from what i can hear yeah anyways um diversity is here to stay and progress is coming and it will catch up with us and we're gonna have to deal with that and by telling us by telling you to do your homework that's not really a good way for people back there to get their way so i'm entrusting you to make the right decision i'm not going to tell you what decision to make but what's in the best interest of diversity and inclusiveness in the student community and the school community thank you next move to jonathan work my name is jonathan work i've been a kutztown resident for 45 years five of my children went through

144the school district i have a grandson that's in the elementary school district of kutztown i'm a past educator and i'm a past kutztown school board member i want to tell you the feelings that i feel now i am disgusted of the agenda that you push down on our elementary students to imply that my 11 year old grandson to imply that he is a racist is disgusting where do you people come from that's disgusting you don't know my grandson you never saw my grandson you would fall over my grandson and you not know him you never heard a word come out of his mouth but he is getting the message of the agenda that you're pushing that he is a racist by the mere fact of the color of his skin he's a racist that's the

145message you're sending here my grandson is not a racist to think or imply when my 11 year old grandson gets on the school bus that he's a racist that is the epitome of racism because of the color of his skin he's categorized as a racist if my grandson gets off the school bus and walks into greenwich elementary there's an implication that from your policy that he is a racist merely because of the color of his skin now i'm not the sharpest tool in the shed but i will tell you this that is intellectual violence position to a person's race and that i understand is a cra a crime a hate crime if my grandson sits at the table at the little cafeteria greenwich school the implication is that he's a racist from your policy merely

146because of the color of his skin now when that direction comes from a position of of like a teacher a position of power or a principal or a superintendent or a school board member that is abuse and in this case it's child abu abuse you don't know my grandson where do you get off to imply that he's a racist i'd like to remind you all at this school board that you work for us this little agenda that you have with this little experiment at kutztown this school district does not belong to you it belongs to all of us here so when you push this stuff in the cloakness of the darkness without the transparency of talking to the community members who you are supposed to respond to that is racism that is a violation of

147your job as a school board member you work for us and mr superintendent we pay for your salary now like i say i don't know where you people come from or why you who you think you are that you can accuse my grandson of being a racist mr work here five minutes sir my grandson is not a racist and i will tell you from my family myself and i would say the overwhelming majority of people at this meeting that i say no to the 1619 project i say no to the slanderous portrayal of white privilege i say no to this screwing around of the definition of equality and equal and equity and i say no to the critical race theory i say yes to banned your policy dr meyers is there anyone online that like

148to comment we've gone through the list we're looking online but uh mr ziegler if you'd like to say a few words what evening thank you for the opportunity to address the board my name is carl ziegler from the borough kutztown many of you are aware that i spent a good number of years in the school district the student and the 27 years since school board so first of all i thank you for your service to the kutztown school district and i also commend you for the decisions that you made in terms of keeping the schools open to the extent that it was possible uh it was certainly a very trying year and i think from that perspective you've done an excellent job so thank you as regards to discussion i'll try to keep this short

149the uh concern with the policy at hand is that it appears to me to be a solution that's looking for a problem so my remarks here applied to the kutztown school district in the years that i've been exposed to are part of the school district i think our faculty and administration have done everything that they can to help every student that they can they have not singled out anyone pushed anyone aside and i haven't seen that in the years that i was on school board i've never talked to a teacher who [Music] did anything or said anything to the contrary and that's why i say i think the policy that we're looking at for kutztown can't it's looking for a problem and it's not there so i think the moving forward i think the best

150thing that you can do with policy is to vacate it or suspend it and treat the students the way we have the way all of our teachers and administrators have for the last 50 or 60 years at least that i've been exposed to the district uh i'll do say one or two other things i do and this is a way going forward i think any discussion i i do believe that with regard to the critical race theory i think the board should entertain a motion to disavow any acceptance or moving in that direction because i don't think it's again what the school district the people in the school district are looking for i think it serves no purpose for our citizens and our students and so again i appreciate the time thank you dr dr

151meyers there's no one else online all right oh he hadn't signed the list certainly good evening my name is warren schaub i live here in town um believe it or not i'm not here to talk about the critical race theory or the 832 anyway um kind of a change of pace i guess i'm sort of known for i'm not talking about plastic silverware tonight i would like us all to take a step back and look at a broader picture now as of last year i had three students here in the kutztown school district third ninth and twelfth grade each one of them received a different education and i don't mean this in any sort of stark contrast and their sex or age i'm talking about common core those of you who have been up here

152long enough know that seven years ago i stood up here and expressed grave concerns about ideas that seemed to be formulated in a vacuum and that were so hastily pushed through that a new method of teaching was instituted 90 days after it passed the house was put into place with no textbook and no curriculum and i voiced then grave concerns about teaching to a test and what exact advantage does it have to bring my son here for education with the loss of the arts the industrial arts and exposure to anything other than a college prep curriculum the previous freebie superintendent hustled me aside at that moment and said everything was gonna be fine it became overwhelmingly clear that i was no longer able to do third grade math in a shocking revelation and a word

153problem that utilized sixth grade vocabulary that asked them to assess the reasonableness of an answer there was no correlation there that say that this was not a third grade level word but more importantly we started getting to things like grouping where all of a sudden things like a multiplication table were no longer applicable i looked like a fool unable to do math this this method of teaching proved to be so efficient that you dropped it and now you're back to using things like multiplication tables i mean these are basics math itself something so fundamental that it transcends language and culture has now been distorted and left me in a position unable to assist my son this went on for years seven in fact every year of discussion every year talks and every year we wound

154up in a position of tanking one quarter now this is just again three under one roof and just one is doing this grouping doesn't work this idea of picturing things in your mind that's something we all develop as individuals how we solve issues in our minds the palpable way here on paper is something that's got to be universal and we lost that how so what is taught how to pass a test soft deadlines partial credit we've heard a lot of talk tonight about the real world so i want to offer you a brief parable we agree that i'm going to paint your house and you hire me to paint your house and we agree upon a date that is going to be done and completed and are ready to pay for doing so all said

155and done that date comes and goes over the next two weeks i sporadically show up i throw some ladders in your yard perhaps that the brush around here or there paint a little bit of this a little bit of that and close to three weeks later is when i decide i'm done about 65 of your house has been painted and i decided i'm going to move on to the next job what would you do do i deserve 100 of that pay i think in your opinion you'd say i deserve nothing and you would say such but maybe i bring out my wife and children and parade them out in front of you and cajole you until you give me that 65 of the job and i move on you have an uncompleted house there's another

156person waiting down the line who's going to wind up dealing with my same malarkey so there's two people harmed but that's not the biggest loser in this game the biggest loser is me because that extra 35 was the profit from the job that's supposed to be the incentive the reward is lost and now i'm stuck going perpetually through learning the same lesson over and over again and ruining other people's experience along the way how is it that 65 percent is a pass here you've taught nothing of hard deadlines of real completion levels when you perpetuate the idea of soft deadlines and partial credit that's not the way the world works if you're talking about a commitment to education and you're talking about a real world experience there is something gravely wrong with common core teaching

157and the idea of teaching to a test and now after this past year after i refrain from bringing my son in and screen after screen i see on his laptop is black kids not turning on their cameras i have a atrocious participation and i knew nothing about it not one email came my way this year because every step of the way every boot on the ground has told me that this isn't working kicking them upstairs does not work they're not learning a real world experience of what a hard deadline is and now you see college papers saying that the university level is going to mimic that same thing it's not real you got to show up you've got to do the work why are these kids not making it why are they not getting out

158of their parents your basements this is why constant cajoling i ask you to focus and realize that you have made hasty mistakes in the past that has really messed up some education specifically my sons and now i'm at a position that i am hard-pressed to bring him back in here in the fall why not i'm already going to have to hawk him over completion and be the only voice in his life telling him that yes you will fail because nobody fails it's like everyone's a winner but this ain't hot chocolate this is our kids education and putting them out into a world where there's a constant understanding there's a constant excuse and a constantly pushed back deadline does not work thank you is there anyone else that would like to address the board my name

159is michael black i have a great respect for all the educators in this district a great group of teachers who deeply care about the students with all the racial situations that have occurred recently why would we want to open a can of worms with bringing the word race up that can cause so many issues in a town that really hasn't had any trouble for the most part why would we want to subject our teachers into uncomfortable situations with students and parents involving a very touchy subject students can get ideas in their head and lash out at the situations that are presented during the classes leading all of our district in a dramatic turn for the worse especially our reputation for education i think a lot of it is very opinionated and opinions turn into ideas

160that can cause problems in school situations and beyond children of ethnic differences special needs are physically challenged that are not treated equal will never try as hard to make a difference in the world because they think why bother everyone's against me school education should be about fact and history not trying to divide and cause hate maybe crt should actually be called chd critical humanity theory race should have nothing to do with it and will always cause problems when mentioned anywhere especially school humanity is a key not teaching that one side is the cause for all the issues or bad feelings that ever happen and i can't help but wonder if it's all for the possibility of a government check thanks anyone else that hasn't spoken that would like to address the board okay we will

161now move to item eight informational items the board sorry there are two comments so i i can i can i can read them dr meyers there's a comment from florian's species how how do you plan to address pushback from community and create understanding on all levels this work is essential how do you plan to emphasize that to everyone and there's also a comment from kathy meath that would said i would like to understand each school board member's view on continuing the important equity work the district has begun the two comments that we have no other comments dr meyers okay with that then we will move to section 8 the informational items uh folks the board members have in their packet the condensed three board summary report as well as the cafeteria fund report item nine

162is upcoming public meetings and in in informative dates on may 24th there's the budget and finance committee meeting at seven p.m middle school commons as well as via zoom on june 7th there's the workshop school board meeting at 7 30 p.m in the middle school commons as well as via zoom on june 14th there's policy and curriculum comedian meeting at 6 p.m here in the middle school collins as well as zoom and on june 14th there's the facilities and ecc committee meeting at 7 pm here in the middle school commons as well as via zoom with that i'll move to item 10 adjournment look for a motion to adjourn some of the emotions are second second all in favor say aye any opposed really thank you to the community for coming out tonight it was

163great to have a turnout at a board meeting so i appreciate everybody's point of view so please be please drive carefully going home thank you