001do to call this meeting to order would everyone please rise for a moment of silent meditation in the united states one nation under god indeed like to welcome everyone for coming this evening um appreciate everybody coming out and to the meeting it's been quite a while since we've had anyone from the public so it's nice to see nice to see a group um there is a log in the back of the room regarding public comment if you'd like to uh mention something during our public comments section you can sign up to do that in addition there is a feature on the zoom call that dr myers is managing around um being able to enter a question or speak during during the the public comment section of the meeting prior this this meeting there was an
002executive session to deal with both legal and personnel items so with that roll call please ricky michelle batts here randy burch here al darian here michael house here cecilia holt here demonstrator here eric johnson here carl nelson here joshua here our first story of business for the approval of minutes for the april 19 2021 school board meeting do i have a motion so moved it's promotion is there a second second motion a second any comments or questions regarding the uh the minutes from the april 19th meeting hearing none roll call please ricky michelle bats yeah randy burch yes darian yes michael hess yes cecilia holt yes eric johnson yes dennis redder yes joshua yes yes so approved next is section four communications and reports we will start with the superintendent's report mr timchat thank you
003mr nolte in the superintendents yes that turns on in the superintendent's good news report for may 3rd 2021 we have a variety of items as many of you know uh today kicks off teacher and school staff appreciation week we are very appreciative of the efforts of all of our school staff you know every year this year has a bit of a different feel to it you know as we walked in to schools in august in ensuring here in kutztown we had in-person learning opportunities in addition to a flexible model that allowed students from families who felt more comfortable with virtual options you know we asked teachers and all school staff to take on new roles that they had never imagined our staff here at kutztown you know as is always the case could not have
004risen higher to that occasion and we are just grateful and very proud of everyone who serves our students in our community here at kutztown so happy teacher and staff appreciation to all odyssey of the mind and our in our continuing participation in various events and different venues this year our odyssey the mind team the elementary earned a second place and advanced the state tournament that elementary school team of cash lau support winger leo johnson william hillman and coached by teacher lau and susan hillman is earned a second place in advance of that state tournament congratulations to all the middle school team of shannon light elliott johnson jocelyn diffenbaugh peyton diffenbaugh and haven fegley and jillian rager is coached by nate diffenbaugh performed well in addition to the elementary school team if you have never participated
005in odyssey the mind or was i had a competition or had a child who competed you really don't understand i think what odyssey the mind is it is students are given a problem to solve and they find a creative venue usually in some type of theatrical performance with limited budget supplies and they have to find a way to stretch themselves to really find an understanding of the problem that maybe maybe they never considered and do that in a collaborative environment it's really a special process to to watch and observe especially coming from students in elementary so congratulations to all students and thank you to the coaches who donate their time to assist our students in their development participating for the first time is an elementary team of evan roberts grant roberts zach cadley mccoy miller
006jacob winger and you're coached by amber hadley and michelle roberts and a primary team of elliot grievos avery lagston lord simonetti elizabeth lam coached by emily kreif and michelle card for certain there's a group amongst those first-time participants will fall in love with the odyssey the mind process and follow it through throughout their secondary experiences and really develop that creative mind that the obviously the mind competition is geared towards congratulations for participation and success scholarship received this national distinction of best communities in music education for fourth years in a row given by the namm foundation for outstanding commitment to music education for anyone within the district you you have a grasp and understanding of the commitment to music education it emanates from our homes from our schools and from our students in any major event
007within our curricular undertakings the music education component is always present my day started this morning by listening to the middle school jazz band rehearsed below my feet as i sat in the library uh with mr hufford and they sound as phenomenal as always it's just a dedication that is community-wide that extends well into the summer through lessons in the band of the park so we are very very deserving of the best communities in music education because it is a true community congratulations to all who are involved the burke's chamber of commerce commerce monthly now recognizes students in different grade levels initially it was a quarterly recognition uh there was a pause for part of the year so we've been recognizing monthly our recognition for april was kargen lang in eighth grade the northeast berks chamber
008chose this outstanding middle school student based on recommendation from mr brown corgan is a straight a student this year he returned to in-person learning from virtual learning for the first time that he attended in-person learning in a public school and is just thriving and you can see that smile on carmen's faces that he brings to him with every day as he demonstrates unbelievable effort and has fantastic results both in the classroom and with his peers congratulations cargan and thank you mr brown for the recommendation our last good news is the 30-day challenge if any of you are parents of a middle school student you may have heard of the 30-day challenge mr ashman put out a challenge to students and staff in the middle school extended to some other buildings uh to participate in the
00930-day challenge to do something that they could improve in or learn more about a topic in interest or just themselves over 30 days by committing to it some examples are a student making their committing to make their bed for 30 days learning sign language for 30 days walking steers learning japanese practicing art every day exercising every day for 30 days eating veggies every day for 30 days there's cargo he appears again a student ran for 30 days another student participated in or committed themselves to eat healthy for 30 days mrs schumacher committed to 500 000 steps for 30 days and we have one student knowing who did sit-ups for 30 days and down in the middle you might see mr ashman if you drop off students at the middle school you may have witnessed this
010some mornings where mr ashman committed to learn how to juggle in 30 days and he was quite successful based on the results that i saw so congratulations to all who challenge themselves to get find an interest or deepen an interest in a love of something in 30 days and thank you mr ashman for making commitment to the school community to do so that is my good news report thank you mr tim chattan the next item on the agenda is maximizing township letter at last month's meeting there was discussion regarding the proposed warehouse in maxiltoni township at that meeting board had asked for a letter that could be evaluated to be presented to max attorney township regarding the school district stance um not committing to making a stance but just considering a letter uh we have
011the letter here today we'll share with the board on behalf of the kutsoner school district formerly stating our concerns with the proposed value logistics park to be built in max of tunney township our concern is focused on the safety of our students and potential impact and surrounding community their two proposed one million square foot warehouses will increase tractor trailer traffic significantly in the immediate area the estimated tractor trailer traffic including peak hour truck traffic at an average of 800 daily poses a potential safety hazard and delays and transportation for our students traveling to and from school with over 1300 students in the district we are concerned for their safety and the amount of additional time on the bus the letter would then urge the township to evaluate the proposal and consider safety considerations knowing that
012without major renovations even in consideration of the currently planned uh traffic updates at long lane 222 uh that there would still be concerns to be taken care of to address our busing needs and transportation of our students again this is just a draft letter that gives the potential that if the board would like to move forward with it i'll need some direction and we did a similar uh letter with regard to the greenwich warehouse i think we did courtesy copies of the correspondence to the pent dot office also we probably should copy senator schwenk and representative day with the letter it would just be my suggestion that we do the courtesy copies depend on the senator and to the representative if the board wishes to make an official stance of the board we can add
013that to the list of people who let it go i i will move uh mr burch's suggestion i'll second so are we your motion is to add those comments those copies to the bottom of the letter i still believe we're looking for emotion and i would go forward to actually have the letter approved by the board yes and that i'm sorry i should have included that in that motion i would include that in that motion mr president so the motion would be that we send the letter to maxitoni township and provide copies to our state representative state senator and to um penndot so mr dr ritter has made a motion is there a second to the motion yeah i'll um second my second a second time what's your second comments questions debate regarding the letter
014dr darien i see you moving into the mic yeah uh in a past life i was on a municipal board and my concern although i agree completely with the sentiment of the letter uh is it's kind of implying that the supervisors haven't considered all this already or that they would not consider this had we not reminded them it's kind of like telling your kid to drive carefully uh and i'm not sure how it would be received whether there'd be some antagonism and actually be a counter against the purpose of the letter and for those reservations probably will not want to approve it darien other comments yes i would like to comment so at the last discussion i know i was on the fence do we do this do we not and i actually saw that
015crittenberg wrote a similar letter of position um to the impact that it would have on the borough and so i think that helped me understand it is acceptable for us to at least communicate our safety concerns we always have the best interest of our students at hand so um i would be remiss if i didn't vote for sending this over simply because i think it's it's just to speak to the safety of our students and what impact that could potentially have other comments i and again i understand dr darian's comment um but i would also say i think as a board of school directors for ours that has a responsibility that has a responsibility for our students as well as our staff and faculty that travel these roads um i think it is appropriate for
016us just to encourage and and i don't see this as being offensive i i compliment mr tim chattan's wording just to remind them that among all the many things they've had to consider and look at i hope that we're urging them to that they have paid attention to the safety of the students of our district as well so i i think again i thank you mr tim chat and for the wording i thought it was very well done well i would agree with dr ritter as well i think the letter was very well written and i personally agree with everything that's in that letter and maybe some more concerns as well but i i also agree with dr dary and i i just don't think it's appropriate for us to be sending a letter to
017them i think they've already taken those things into consideration um i think those i just don't think it's our place to be um i think with green which was a little different i think the close proximity to to that elementary school i think things a little different um i just see this as a different situation and i'm not in favor so my comments similar to when this the letter was proposed becoming some of mr sher's comments that this is a different situation in my opinion greenwich where that that warehouse is proposed in proximity to the school versus where this one is i think the townships do a very good job and the engineering groups and do a very good job to ensure that their safety associated with this and i again not not stating a
018for or against the warehouse just i don't believe that we should be sending this letter to the to them that i think they're doing it's a township issue and not a school board issue other comments other comments i'm just gonna add i think we as a board have a responsibility to advocate for uh this this project if it's put into place is going to have an impact on our students our staff everyone that uses the roads to get to and from our schools and it's going to have a heavy impact on us i i believe that we have a responsibility to uh speak out on it and at least go on the record saying that um uh we understand that this is gonna have a bad impact on us well i think i'm just going
019to make another comment i don't think this says it's going to and it may i mean my personal feeling is it probably is going to have a negative impact overall in the traffic patterns of our community but this letter simply says we urge you to be sure you've taken into consideration the safety of our students so i find this quite inoffensive um and i would like to believe if i were on that township uh any of the township boards uh especially the board of supervisors i would be respectful that an organization like the school board has a concern for its students and staff and faculty faculty so that's obviously my stance and be there any other other comments i may be changing my position from earlier i think what dr ritter just pointed out has
020some validity we aren't telling them not to approve it we're simply adding our voice anyone else all right we will vote on the motion now to send the letter with copies to i believe it was penndot senator schweink's office representative senator schweink's office and representative day so roll call please ricky randy birch yes darian yes michael house yes cecilia yes eric johnson yes dennis redder yes joshua no michelle back yes no so approved next we will move to the new bez the new business section of the agenda we will start with item a personnel and we will be looking to approve items one through nine with the exception of the first line item in number nine um mr deal soccer us head coach because he was previously approved so it will be um personnel one
021through nine with the exception of the first first person listed in number nine do we have a motion question [Music] motion a second any comments or questions regarding item a hearing none roll call please ricky yes michael has yes cecilia yes eric johnson yes dennis ritter yes cheryl sher yes michelle back yeah randy burke yes yes so approved next is item b policy maintenance and there are five policies listed here looking for some feedback from the board if any of these policies should be handled individually pull out policy 123 please mr president okay any other policies to be handled independently okay let's start but we'll start then with handling uh number excuse me letter a by itself it is a recommendation of the policy and curriculum committee that the board of school directors approved the
022second reading and adoption of the following and we'll start with item item a policy number one two three interscholastic athletics do we have a motion so moved promotion is our second ritter second motion a second comments questions debate around policy number one two three i just want to reiterate my objections that i expressed in our last meeting for first reading i i believe it holds at the the ability to participate in into scholastic athletes and holds athletes to a standard of behavior that's higher than all other students as far as what they do outside of school and that just doesn't seem quite right to simply say there's a nexus in school for that behavior is way too vague and can be misapplied if it instead said the nexus was the participation in the sport itself
023so that things like hazing things like a planned uh mischief honor for an opposing team to go to an opposing team's community uh all of that was kind of planned in the locker room that sort of nexus i think would justify suspending a kid's participation in the sport but other behavior that occurs outside of school should be the same as for all other students and for that reason i will oppose this policy thank you dr darin other comments i'll just add that um we already have policy 218 student discipline which governs all pupils and the wording regarding um [Music] the the off-campus activity is taken from that and perhaps that is a policy we'd like to revisit at another time but it holds athletes to a different standard but those are the standards the athletes
024should be held to not participation in their sport other comments from board members okay hearing none ricky we will vote um on just item b uh letter a the first policy please roll call mike yes cecilia holt yes eric johnson yes dennis yes joshua yes michelle bat yeah randy birch yes valdarian no pro yes so approved next we will take the rest of the policies so item b policy maintenance it is the recommendation of the policy curriculum committee that the board of school directors approved the second reading and adoption of the following policies policy letter b policy 123.2 sudden cardiac arrest policy c excuse me numbers letter c policy 332 working periods letter d policy 803 school calendar policy and e policy 907 school visitors do we have a motion so move the motion is
025there a second second motion a second any comments or questions regarding those four policies hearing none roll call please ricky cecilia yes eric johnson yes dennis ritter yes joshua yes michelle back yeah randy burch yes darian yes michael house yes yes so approved next is item c a conference request and there are two conference requests here pulling the board anyone have an issue with them being taken together hearing none will take them both together conference requests it is a recommendation of the administration that the board of school directors approve the following requests letter a for employees number one four five eight and number six one to attend the institute for multi-sensory education's orton gillingham comprehensive virtual training on june 21st 2021 through june 25th 2021 at a cost of 1 275 each and item b
026for employee number 1992 to attend the institute of multi-sensory education orton gilliam comprehensive virtual training on july 26 2021 through july 30th 2021 at a cost of 1 275 do you have a motion second johnson motion a second any comments or questions regarding item c hearing none roll call please ricky eric johnson yes dennis ritter yes joshua yes michelle batts yes randy birch yes darius yes so approved next is item d it's the berks county intermediate unit board representative so looking before i read the motion dr ritter has held this position for the past three years so i would ask um dr ritter his interest in the position and or if there are someone else interested in the position we can address the motion from there all right i am interested so i would nominate
027dr ritter for the position second in a second for dr ritter so let's let's um yeah so let's do uh any any any other board member with interest in that in that position and let's just do a i think we can we can suffice with a show of hands to put dr ritter's name in for the uh the blank space in the formal motion so board members approving dr ritter okay so we will add dr ritter in here when i read the full motion all right so item d berks county intermediate unit bciu board representative it is a recommendation that the board of school school directors appoint dr ritter at this berks county intermediate unit bciu board representative for a three-year term effective july 1st 2021 through june 30th 2024. the motion i'll make a
028mission is there a second second motion second any comments or questions regarding item d hearing none roll call please ricky dennis ritter i'm going to vote president on this one joshua yes michelle batts yes brandy birch yes aldarius yes yes cecilia yes eric johnson yes yes so approved congratulations dr bear thank you next is item e the new story tuition agreements it is the recommendation of the administration that the board of school directors approved the extended school year tuition agreements with new story schools and services for two special education students at a cost of 380 dollars each per day effective june 21st 2021 to july 29th 2021. do i have a motion motions are a second second motion seconds any comments or questions regarding item e hearing none roll call please ricky yes michelle back
029yeah randy birch yes yes michael hat yes cecilia holt yes eric johnson yes dennis redder yes nazi yes so approved next is item f the 2021 summer school program it is the recommendation administration that the board of school directors approve the staffing for the sump 2021 summer programs i am not going to read every name but there is staffing for the extended school year you'll see there's a staff substitute staff para educators as well as a speech and language pathologist the names are associated with those roles there's an elementary summer reading program staff against staff substitute staff para educators a librarian and a coordinator names associated with those roles additional personnel summer program nurse substitute nurse substitute summer clerical and then the middle school summer program staff and you'll see the names that are associated
030with those different roles so looking for a motion to approve item f for those four topics for those four categories under the summer school programs so moved the motion is there a second second motion a second any comments or questions regarding item f i assume the assumption with the placeholders is it will be filled by existing staff from the district or it's we're really the way we're proving that it's the approve the program with that many staff members we will bring every name as we find them back to the board we just need to start planning the program this way so some will be existing some maybe new staff if we need to but we'll bring each name to the board so michelle asked the same exact question i was going to you sir [Music]
031any other questions hearing on roll call please ricky michelle batts yes randy burke yes darian yes president cecilia holt yes eric johnson yes demonstrator yes yes yes so approved next is item g the employee vision insurance it is a recommendation administration that the board of school directors approved the agreement with capital blue cross to provide vision insurance for district employees for the 2021-22 school year for the attached rates will be the same as 2019-20 rates do i have a motion [Music] emotion is there a second second motion a second any comments or questions regarding item g hearing none roll call please ricky randy birch yes yes michael yes cecilia holt yes eric johnson yes dennis ritter yes john stark yes michelle back yes yes so approved next is item h the budget transfer it is
032a recommendation of the administration that the board of school directors approved the budget transfer per the attached this has no effect on the bottom line do we have a motion so moved emotions are a second second motion a second any comments or questions regarding item h hearing none roll call please ricky yes michael yes cecilia yes eric johnson yes dennis redder yes joshua yes michelle bats yes randy burch yes yes so approved next is item i imr digital it is the recommendation administration that the board of school directors approved the service of imr digital to scan special education student files per the attached fee schedule do i have a motion so moved is there a second second motion a second any comments or questions regarding item i hearing none roll call please ricky michael yes
033cecilia yes eric johnson yes dennis yes joshua yes michelle batts yeah randy burch yes darian yes yes so approved next is item j introduction of new business by board members [Music] uh maybe i can i can kick this off as we start uh some some maybe some discussion here my board members i think a topic that has been on most of our minds and and in uh we've received i know as board members many emails many opinions over the past uh period of time week or so regarding the the equity committee in the district and the uh some of the i'll say the articles publication announcements that have occurred in different uh different venues across the school although although these are not curriculum items i think it can become very confusing on a line of
034what is curriculum and what is not in in the school um so some of the thoughts at least one of the thoughts i'd like to the board to consider is putting a a temporary pause hold on equity equity committee [Music] communications until we until we get an opportunity to have a further review by the board as to what some of the the definitions and goals are around the equity around the equity committee i think we also need to provide an opportunity for a more balanced approach that i think was a desire um all along which to bring in maybe some community members and provide a a balanced approach so kind of kicking off this conversation i definitely would support uh a hold on equity committee communications i think the group can continue to meet but
035we need to really go back and establish what the mission is and i think provide a better clear understanding for for even the board members i think there's some some debate and some misunderstanding there so open that up for for other other thoughts mr president i'd like to make a motion that we pause any communications from the equity team until such a time that we can define the strategy and the implementation plan for for the activities that they would undertake as well as make sure that that group is inclusive of members from the community second motion from spatz a second second second from mr birch comments thoughts questions from other board members yeah i'll just say that this past year has been quite crazy and um everybody that's on the equity team in addition to
036everybody who's working for the district has had a lot on their plate and i think maybe with summer as close as it is right now we can take the break as an opportunity to reconsider a good pro approach and start this back up in the fall with a really good strong fresh start yeah i will agree with all that uh having written an awful lot of i know this is not curriculum but it is of that nature and having uh spent many years writing a curricula of one form or another every single one of those begins with goal of that and piece of instruction and i think we've kind of brushed into this without a clear articulation of its mission what we hope to accomplish uh why we're doing it and so uh i i
037think uh hold on uh what's going on until we can articulate those matters is well called i just want to clarify the motion is to pause the messaging and articles not the actual work of the equity team and to engage more community that accurate yes and i just would like to add to ms holt's comment that as far as engaging the rest of the community we also take advantage of some of the trained experts that are literally doing the original work on equity education and take advantage of some of the members we have in our community with the university other comments let me just say that i think the you know the resolution authorizing the formation of the equity team i think is i think was good i think it's a good positive step i
038think i i think the i think maybe some of the messaging and some of the communication sort of got maybe out ahead a little bit of what of sort of some maybe some nuts and bolts you know mission and goals and things that needed to get formulated first so i i agree i think it makes sense to for the work to continue i think we need to take a look at it in terms of a you know an inclusive kind of uh group you know involving you know as many um you know community you know partners families et cetera um i think the work continue i think the communications themselves should you know i think the work has to catch up before the communications yeah i would agree i think in the conversations that i've
039heard you know we all agree that there needs to be equity in the education that we provide to our students um whether that's focused on race gender whatever it may be however you want to classify it so i don't i don't think we agree on the basic principle of providing equity i think it is truly the messaging that that's occurred that has caused some of the the um concerns other board member comments ms bass could i have you read your motion one more time again before we vote i'm not sure i'd like to make the motion to pause any communications from the equity team until such a time that the mission and the strategy of that team can be defined and be inclusive of the members of the community any other comments before we vote
040hearing none roll call please ricky cecilia holt yes eric johnson yes dennis ritter yes joshua yes michelle bats yeah randy birch yes daria yes so approved any other new business by board members they would like to bring forward okay hearing none we will move to the to the public comment section and we have quite a few folks here in the public tonight assuming um comment we do need uh mr milton just for public comment we need to use the microphone up here so we'll be calling people one at a time simply so they can be heard on resume so we will move the mic here and i have a list um upon arrival people checked if they wanted to talk so i can call them up okay you can you have that okay so when
041we ask as mr tim chattan calls forward that we just please state your name um so ricky can can capture it for the record i apologize if i mispronounce any names i'm subject to reading them off of uh off the sheet here but i believe the first is gregor lee gregory gregory pardon me setlift from kutztown bro [Music] good evening and thank you for giving me a moment to speak uh my name is greg setliff i live here in kutztown i'm a father of two in the kutztown uh school system two uh one in high school and one heading up there next year and um i'm here in support of the equity initiative i think that it is um and i i don't have anything to comment on about you're pausing it uh but i
042do hope that you continue forward i commend the boards uh courage and stepping forward with this and i would encourage you to um when you make a motion like let's include the community i agree that that should be the case i just question the logic when that community itself is not diverse and so excluding diversity from a committee that is on and about diversity and inclusion is a bit of a head scratcher for me and the other thing i'd like to just bring up very quickly is that um our children my children are living in a more diverse world than my generation uh the the 2019 census uh was the first time in american history that uh white children didn't make up uh 50 or more of the people under the age of 16. and
043it is our job it is your job to prepare our children for the reality that we're going to have a more diverse school or we face another future which is we have to win the dwindling population of our core demographic along with it dwindling funding and closures of schools and this board will embrace diversity at some point to avoid that i believe and our children better be ready for that thank you thank you thank you next on the list is mr dan wismer from greenwich township hi i'm dan wismer i have three kids currently in kutztown school district one in each building um you guys are probably familiar right at communication one of those people i refer to earlier um and i guess to kind of summarize without drawing this out the previous comment i
044would kind of um counterbalance that directly um i would say that um i can't claim to be any sort of scholar on this content i will say that it doesn't take a lot of research and anybody can hand pick particular items to to look at but i would encourage the community the board members to do their own research on this and look at where this falls because the reality is it was kind of sneaking in and a lot of people are not aware of it including me up until recently it has become political and polarized recently because of particular people who were for or against it but the idea is boils down to something called critical race theory if you are not aware of what this is that's what i'm really hoping that we would
045uh look into in more depth um and i would uh i do think that if you look into that with um with an open mind that you would see that the critical race theory is something that is detrimental it's divisive and it is counter intuitive to what is um i would believe the overall goal of what we want to accomplish and so um i would want i hope that the message moving forward is equality not equity and the equity part is what is what started as a a law term and which has grown into something that has taken on forms with one particular party and that's where the polarization comes in but when you look at the history of where this has come and where it is and where it's sitting and falling at this
046current time there are very negative real world consequences that are directly counter-intuitive into what i think we really all are unified in the accomplishment of equality so um my question is and i don't know if this is an appropriate forum at this point in time because i'm not looking to corner anybody i'm but i am certainly because of what this is um this is an ideology and from what my current understanding is with what was being delivered with the equity which is now being tabled there is um parts concepts there are tenants key tenants of the critical race theory that are seen within at least in my interpretation of what was being delivered in the current equity program so um that's that's my overall goal i would like to see at some point in time
047i would like to encourage the board and i would like to know where board members stand on uh critical race theory but again i don't want to pin anybody down right now because we may not be in uh kind of a have a fully rounded understanding of what that is because i really had to dive into it particularly more recently now i think i had a um i think probably some other people are going to talk after me i'm sure have all felt and know what this is but the terminology that goes along with it is it runs deep and so there's a lot to it so thank you thank you thank you mr wismer next on the list is susan hillman kutztown bureau good evening thank you for allowing community members this opportunity to
048speak my name is susan hillman and i am recently relocated to kutztown my husband and i and our children who were in third grade and seventh grade moved up from florida which absolutely loved it but we came back because this is my hometown i am a 95 alumni and i am very happy to have my children begin in the school district um one of the things that i just wanted to say was i i really wanted to throw my wholehearted support behind the equity team it is very very important to work it is important to pause certainly but it is important to commit continue moving forward with a lot of voices with a lot of uh support from the community but i guess i i had some remarks that i previously prepared but in listening
049to some of the comments before about the pause i guess my big question is what community are we talking about are we talking about a representative from just kutztown are we talking about representation of berks county at large of pennsylvania at large or of our country at large because the fact that as i believe our first speaker said we live in an incredibly diverse world which is constantly changing and we need to prepare our children for that constant change because we never know what might be coming so i think as unified as we can be as open and honest as we can be and as much as we can keep having the hard conversations that we need to have and i just wanted to kind of conclude with a quote from the cougar prince from
050the equity team it's my favorite maya angelou quote and i just i think it sums it up beautifully do the best you can until you know better then when you know better do better thank you thank you very much miss hillman next on our list is word believe it's uh word becker maxweltani i think i probably read your last name incorrectly i apologize your last did you your last name was it becker oh okay i got it right they got it right i guess the first big thank you for having me i apologize for my writing but i'm an old doctor for many years and i've lived in kutztown for 44 years and my both my children went here since my daughter and i just wanted to voice my support for the program the equity
051program i think it's a good one uh the other is there has been a lot of studies and research you cannot have equality without equity it's impossible because if you don't have opportunity you can't have equality and so i don't know all the comments that had occurred to you with that and so certainly a pause might be necessary and a revamping might be necessary but i think that you're on the right track here and we do need to look about the entire community not just here but in general thank you thank you mr becker next on our list is cindy o'neil from greenwish thank you for letting me speak my name is cindy o'neil i've been a member of the community for well over 30 some years all three of my children went to kutztown
052and brad my last youngest just graduated last year and i've been a teacher for 34 years i've taught at elementary school high school middle school all the ages but right now i'm a third grade teacher i just want to thank the board for allowing the school to have this equity team i'm a big proponent of equity there's a big difference between equality and equity there's a famous picture many of you probably have seen where three children are looking over a fence and they all have the same box but one of the child one of the children is very tiny and can't see over the fence they're looking into the fence one of the children happens to be nice and tall and sees easily over the fence on the same box an equal size box but
053they're showing it's not there's no equity in that situation so i i commend the equity team for recognizing that there's not equity with our children in this country and maybe not even in kutztown i don't know i'm a white person so i don't see it from person of color's point of view but i hope in the future that you do allow members of the community although my children are graduated to be part of that committee i'd love to be on it and see that all of our children and after when i teach in my elementary school i'm amazed at how children are resilient and see differences and it's okay to be different it's okay to see that a person that i might be white and another person may not be and to recognize those differences
054so i hope in the future that we open up this dialogue again with our students and our teachers and our community and i commend i commend the equity team for continuing that and i hope that continues in our future thank you miss o'neill next on the list is mr george sorakas from chris dunbar good evening folks [Music] hope everyone's doing well thank you for the opportunity my name is dr george sorakos um i'm a parent of two wonderful daughters attending this school district i'm also an academic uh my research is in race and racism and education i use different frameworks to unbetter understand those issues critical race theory is one of those frameworks that i use and i'm here in support of question area school districts diversity and equity initiatives i'm proud of that work
055that i've seen thus far in that it attempts to define diversity and equity beyond the narrow view people often conflate diversity with simply race but there are things there acknowledging um indigenous people acknowledging second and third wave feminism uh and so commend the work that they're doing and expanding that view for many people initially as i was writing thoughts i was going to come and commend the school board for really um really so being in support and then as i was listening i became a little disheartened with this at this idea of a pause and the pause on equity communications right and and i heard some words saying well we need to come to a common ground well common ground is is not about kind of everyone feeling comfortable right we need to find we
056need to be comfortable in the discomfort we need to understand and and and recognize the basic humanity of those individuals who don't look like us who don't speak like us right and so then i heard you know that perhaps we need to put a pause well people who are oppressed in this country right people who are marginalized in this country they don't in this school district in this community larger they don't have the privilege of saying you know what i'm going to put a pause on the oppression that i face every day and so i found that that sort of scope problematic now the whole issue of equality and equity and i know we've all seen that graphic that was just described let me just put in kind of simpler terms equality have a hundred
057students in front of you they're all starving and you say you know what i'm gonna give everyone a peanut butter and jelly sandwich because they're all hungry and they need to eat well guess what 15 of those students are deathly allergic to peanut butter but in our passion to be equal and not give students what they actually need we end up killing 15 students where equity we're saying you know what you're definitely allergic to peanut butter that's fine i still recognize you're hungry i'm going to give you a banana instead that's equity right we're meeting our students where they are giving them what they need the work of the diversity and equity team here has been trying to do that has been trying to recognize what are the needs of our students and what can
058we as a community give to them not making everyone feel comfortable and and using comfortable words and all that it's about being okay with the discomfort it's about recognizing that we don't know everything there was a comment made about crt critical race theory and i i agree with we it is our purpose it is our job to put in the work we need to dig deeper to really find out because this word critical race theory has been bastardized it's been taken over and co-opted right when really at its core it's simply that understanding that not everyone experiences the world the way we do right people of color were initially property before they were granted citizenship and even then their citizenship is always under question so that's one of the frameworks of critical race theory but
059i do challenge everyone to take the time to learn a little bit more i want to um there's so much research out there right that diversity initiatives such as the one proposed and hopefully i know the motion passed the pause but hopefully that will start up again right that such initiatives actually help enhance our students understandings and our world and their world views so they can participate more wholly in a democratic society and i just want to finish off with this because i heard a buzzer and i'm assuming about five minutes i just finished with this last thought i want to just contextualize this just a little differently what if tomorrow morning we all got a message that said our curriculum or everything that we do in our school is going to be male-driven and
060male-dominated and that everything would only be taught to a male lens and that women would actively be marginalized and left to the side we would all be in an uproar right i mean you're talking about angry emails imagine those angry emails that you would get and yet we're in an uproar about an initiative that aims to be inclusive to all right so substitute women with people of color with indigenous people with lgbtq community right why are we actively fighting against being inclusive to all so again i thank you so much for the opportunity and have a great evening thank you next on our list is uh arabelle elliott cote sambro good evening everyone my name is arabella elliott i'm a resident of kutztown i have two children one who recently graduated and one who is
061a junior this year in high school and um first of all i did want to thank you for having me here and i would like to thank the school district for their initiative their equity initiative and the work that they've been doing in this area i can speak um from two perspectives as a professional as a child and family counselor and a social worker and as a parent i can speak from a personal perspective my own children have experienced anti-semitism as members of this community and our school district their teachers the staff the administrators were were so responsive they were supportive they had plans in place to deal with it they they spoke to the needs of our family of our children um and you know i i felt that we were supported in dealing
062with it but you know it it's never perfect it can always be better and i to to hear from people in my community saying oh you know that's not really a problem around here we don't really have a problem yeah we do and sort of not you know denying it and not talking about it doesn't mean there's not a problem about it and so the dialogues have to happen the issues have to be raised um they have to be addressed i know because from my own personal experience that the district has the ability to do that and so um i would strongly urge uh that that continued to happen um and i know it's on pause but i just i would just really strongly urge that that continue to happen and that we continue to
063face this as a professional um with over 15 years of experience with children and families i have seen firsthand firsthand the damage that um not addressing these issues can do that not addressing issues of equity not just equality um can do to to families to communities and i think it's long past due to to stand up and address them and as a school district i i would strongly urge you to do so and i commend you on the steps that you've taken so far so thank you thank you next on our list is stephen stephen schnell from max tony township thank you for the opportunity to speak um my name is steve schnell from macmillan township i'm a parent of two children in kutztown high school and i just want to applaud the equity initiative
064thus far as it's been carried out in the work that they've done so far the very purpose of an education is to learn about perspectives outside of your own lives outside of your own in places outside of your borders however you choose to define them it also requires learning about the full history of our country which has included marginalizations of many people if you're not learning about these times when our country has not lived up to its ideals then you don't have history you have propaganda learning about all of this and learning about the broad range of human experience is how we're going to prepare our kids to live in the 21st century and so i thank you for your work thus far and urge you to continue it thank you that was the last
065unless someone on the second page sent up i think that was the last person in person who had requested to speak dr meyers online you forward it to me i could look at it that way um [Music] mr nagle can you hear us i'm so sorry about that yes oh that's no my apologies um thank you for joining us this evening uh yes thank you uh for having uh me um so my name is seth naugle um i'm actually the director of youth and family ministry at trinity which is right in kutztown uh and i also just wanted to take some time and just applaud um the equity team and what they're attempting to do here in kutztown and how much i think this is needed and it is important in our community um as
066a christian it's something that is important to my faith i'm taught and i believe strongly that community is only stronger when there are more seats at our table and i think the equity team and equity is very much doing that um and just to share some experiences of students that i've encountered who have also encountered racism due to the color of their skin or due to their gender or sexual identity and the heartbreak that those students encounter and how important it is when there are people and leaders who care for them in those moments and so i would encourage uh that we keep pushing for this equity team uh and how important i think it is thank you thank you very much any we have um dr liver shared one comment uh that was posted
067and it's from kim justice i just wanted to express my support for diversity equity inclusion information that the ksd equity committee has included in the newsletters and on the website i find the information to be very well researched and thoughtful i think that in the school districts such as ours which does not have much diversity efforts efforts such as these are truly needed to help our students and families expand the lens to which we see the world that's the only that's the i think that's the only comment we have everyone has signed up to speak has an opportunity to come more final call anyone from public we have a few more minutes anyone else would like to speak can you just state your name uh my name is eric smith uh daughter goes to kutztown
068elementary um it's been a lot more smarter people more educated people that have spoken about equity um but i work in corporate i.t for fortune 500 companies goldman sachs dell hp on a practical level teaching equity and diversity will help children get jobs and keep jobs and not make mistakes when talking to different people so even if it's not something that you completely believe in it's something that our children need for their futures in the world thank you thank you mr smith thank you [Music] anyone else no one wants to leave in the rain okay with that we will move on to first let me start thanking everyone for coming out and expressing their expressing their uh their public comment uh it's been quite a while since we had anyone at a board meeting so
069it's actually nice to see some folks from the community come out and show an interest i think it's good for for everyone involved so appreciate that let's move to item six the informational items everyone received their bctc joc minutes as well as their bctc joc briefs um in their packet and then uh under section seven upcoming public meetings on may 10th there's a policy curriculum committee meeting at 6 p.m middle school commons as well as via zoom on that same night may 10th there's a facility extracurricular committee meeting it starts at 7 pm here in the commons as well as via zoom and on may 18th there is a monthly school board meeting that will occur at 7 30 p.m here in the middle school middle school commons as well as via zoom next is
070item 8 adjournment to a motion for adjourned ritter moves motion is there a second second all in favor say aye aye any opposed [Music] so be it meeting adjourned please be safe and stay healthy