001to the flag, of the United States of America. And to the republic >> for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Okay, again, we have five of our six positive Panthers. Unfortunately, our sixth one couldn't make it tonight, but One of them? No. >> No. >> Okay. Charlie will be here with our fourth-grade positive Panthers in January. So, we are ready to begin. My name is Emma Pechona. My teacher is Mrs. Strop. Mrs. Strop says that I deserve to be celebrated as a positive panther because I consistently demonstrate behavior, effort, and character such as being a positive role model and showing leadership. She says I'm genuine and have a passion for learning and a positive attitude. Mrs. Strop says I also demonstrate traits like showing respect and responsibility.
002She says I'm just awesome. My name is Elliot Galati. My teacher is Profe Perlaza. Profe Perlaza said that I deserve to be celebrated for my outstanding effort and positive attitude. She said that I work hard every day and I stay organized in everything I do. Profe Perlaza said that I follow directions carefully and always complete my classwork responsibly. She said my initiative and creativity make me a wonderful example for others in my class. My name is Vivian. My teacher is Ms. LaMaster. Ms. LaMaster said that I use kind and caring words and actions, treat others with respect, and look for ways to help my classmates. She She said that I choose to be a friend in every situation and I make the classroom a welcoming place to be. Ms. LaMaster said that I exemplify what
003it means to be a positive panther. She said that I'm thoughtful, hard working, and a polite, kind friend to everyone in the room. She said I lift others up and I make our classroom brighter. My name is Beau Reed. My teach- My name is Beau Reed. My teacher is Ms. Conrad. Ms. Conrad said that I show kindness by volunteering to help my classmates. She said that I notice when others may feel left out and I invite them to join me. Ms. Conrad said I am quick to offer words of encouragement and practice empathy when my classmates are upset, offering comfort and demonstrating genuine care and concern for the feelings of others. She said I do the right thing just because it is the right thing. Ms. Conrad said I deserve to be celebrated as a
004positive panther because rewarding me with a full page of paw passes just isn't enough. She said my kindness, determination, and responsibility shows others what good characters good character looks like in action. My name is Dominic Burmaster and my teacher is Miss Hayman. I am a I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I I am kind. Thank you for letting us celebrate our second grade positive Panthers. We're so proud of them and in January you will meet our fourth grade positive Panthers. Thank you, positive Panthers. >> you. Awesome. And parents and our teachers, if you could join us outside for a picture. Oh, wait. Wait. Wait. Wait. They do something at Bethlehem Vo-Tech when they honor someone. They come around the back and we get to say congratulations to everyone. Would you please do
005that? Go ahead. Come on around. Start the line. So we can say congratulations to every one of you. Again, thank you very much. I was wondering cuz I was trying to talk to you. Feeling better. I didn't know you feel better. Thank you, parents. Mr. Rigal, despite your feelings about me, would you please take roll? Oh, my. Mr. William Bruen. Here. Mr. Donald Carpenter. Here. Mr. Cedric Detmar. Here. Dr. Laurel Erickson Parsons. Mrs. Megan Lomangino. Here. Mr. J. Santos. Here. Dr. Simin Pakzad. I'm present. Dr. J. Christian Tatem. Here. Board President, Mrs. Vivian Demko. >> Here. All present. Thank you. Can I get a motion to approve the agenda, please? Second. Any discussion? All right. All in favor? I. The ayes have it. Um announcement of executive session. We had executive session December 3rd and
006this evening as well um to discuss the superintendent goals. Can I get a motion to approve the minutes from December 2nd? Second. All in favor? I. I. Motion passes. We have no recognition, no presentations. Our high school representative, please. Hello. For student government, we have our club Christmas party tomorrow morning and um we are currently in the middle of spirit week that we have planned for the holidays. For those who who would like to know, tomorrow is Grinchmas green out, Thursday is winter whiteout, and Friday is holiday outfit and ugly sweater day. There are also holiday door decorating contest happening right now with all the homerooms in the high school. The doors are starting to look amazing and bringing holiday cheer to the hallways. Doors will be judged on Thursday and the winners will be
007announced on Friday, which the class that wins will get a breakfast when we come back from break. Um SGA is also helping students at our school who might be going through tougher times around this time of year. So we were able to purchase gift cards for all of the students um for some of the students that are struggling as gifts to give them. This is also going needs to leads into Leo Club as we made cards for all of the students as well um for a little Christmas cheer. Leo Club is also um holding a toy drive right now, which is for the Toys for Tots, which helps kids in hospitals. And donation bins are all around the school right now. The high school Scholastic scrimmage team won their competition against Emmaus last week, and
008now they're going to semi-finals against Northwestern. FBLA also competed in their leadership conference today. The girls lacrosse team will be signing up for winter winter league being held at Whitehall and the Saint Luke Center. And the league runs on Saturdays during January and February to prepare for their season. Some of the middle school IT team kids went to Crayola to tape for What's So Cool About Manufacturing Trip. Over the next few months, they'll go over footage, and they have hours of footage to turn into a 2 and 1/2 minute video, which they'll submit to compete with. On December 6th, competitive cheer took first place in the intermediate division at Southern Lehigh's cheer tournament. They are now working hard practicing for districts on January 3rd, where they and they are also hosting a youth cheer clinic.
009Well, they hosted the cheer clinic last week as a fundraiser for nationals. The youth cheerleaders joined them during the first half of the boys basketball basketball game on the 17th and performed during halftime. Or tomorrow, they'll perform during halftime. Indoor track has a solid team, and everyone is ready to compete in the first track meet or they competed on their first track meet December 7th. The girls basketball team had their first practice a few weeks ago, and talked about their goals for the season and what they expected from each other. They also then practiced their drills, and they've had some good games the past few weeks. For choir, they had their Christmas concert on December 4th, and three kids made it to districts, which districts are being held in January. They also performed at Chris
010Kringle Mart, where they the handbell choir also joined them for for the first time. They also performed at Light the Night event in Dimick Park and at Alumni Day. They also performed at Hellertown's Historical Society Annual Open House. 26 high school band students went to a field trip on Thursday, November 13th to Moravian University. They participated in an all-day jazz clinic with the faculty of Moravian and guest artist Jeremy Pault while they learned about professional jazz playing and techniques specified to their instruments. This past week was the band Christmas concerts, which was very successful as the fifth and sixth grade bands played. The seventh and eighth grade and the high school band joined them. Girls on the Run competed their fall season on Sunday, December 7th by completing a 5K at DeSales University. They also
011made teachers and staff members wish bracelets and pocket hugs as one of their community service project. Also in October, alumni of Girls on the Run painted a bridge near the Grist Mill that is now Hellertown's rainbow bridge. This is the place to go where people can honor their pets that have passed away. Also for our debate team, we're preparing for our debate rounds in January, which we'll be debating the death penalty, which is really exciting. And then well, for [laughter] me. And then because I like my stance. Thank for clarifying that. >> [laughter] >> And for Model UN, we're also preparing for our um our conference in I think it's March, where we have all of our students go, and they have a mock Model UN, which is really exciting. Yeah. So, thank you. Any
012questions? Questions? So So, do you Do you know where Kristen is going for college? I don't yet. Not yet. I'm just waiting for acceptances and stuff right now. Okay, good. Then, do you know if there are a lot of seniors who have decided? Yeah, actually there's a decent amount of people that are committed. We also have a commitments page on Instagram if you guys would like to follow. It's I think sockin26commits, and then you can see all the seniors that have committed so far. Some are going to good places, and everybody's going to the places that they wanted to go, right? >> Yeah, so far. There's a lot of good people committed. We had one of my friends committed to Princeton last week, so that was really exciting. Great. Yeah. This was Instagram, is that
013what you said? >> Yes. Thank you very much. Busy people >> [laughter] >> at our school. Thank you. All right, superintendent's report. Thank you, Ms. Debko. So, I mentioned last meeting about a new calendar. It is finally live, so the interactive Panther school calendar is designed to provide families with a comprehensive at-a-glance view of important district events. Families are encouraged to bookmark the calendar to stay up-to-date while the board-approved 2025-2026 calendar remains accessible in the PDF format. So, check that out. In partnership with the Giant Company, our district is also participating in the Feeding Feeding School Kids Initiative from January through March. Through customer roundups and Choice rewards donations, funds raised will directly support efforts to address food insecurity within our schools, and this includes weekend food programs, lunch debt assistance, and community pantries. And
014we've had a few conversations about technology and cell phone use and bans, which even included a district survey, and on a state level, a bill that would ban cell phones from bell to bell was advanced out of committee to a full vote before the state Senate. So, stay tuned because I think things will be changing soon. Uh we also had a discussion just recently at our board meeting regarding a concern about cash and online payments for school sponsored activities. Soon after the districts were notified that cash options must be accepted as a form of payment for admission per school code. So, on the agenda this evening, you'll find the approval of the Saucon Valley restructuring of ticket sales. It was brought to the finance committee. I just want to take a minute to acknowledge the
015incredible work of our staff, the custodial, maintenance, transportation, and operation teams, whose dedication ensures our buildings and grounds remain safe and welcoming, especially during winter weather, which we seem to have a bit of recently. And lastly, even though our entire room has cleared >> [laughter] >> No, not in the entire Before you actually we all but Before before you go to that last one, so can I ask a question about one of the uh more business-like >> mean, if you want to interrupt us before >> items? >> once you say what the last one is, then we go there's no questions. That was a no. So so uh No, what what? Uh I I I saw some videos of the uh snow clearing apparatus. So, how did it work? Is this the first time that
016we used it? And uh is that uh The man to be You want to say a few words, Mr. He of course wants to say a few words. He always would like to speak. That's why he's here to talk about the apparatus that we have used to clear snow. >> remember when we bought that. Yeah. >> [laughter] >> Agree with you. I was like I watched it several times. It was so Mr. Deegan, we knew that this question was going to come up. So, you are prepared and ready. >> wasn't prepared. >> [laughter] >> It worked very well. We This is the second year that we used it. We did use it last year. Was there any snow last year that needed to be removed? I thought that >> We had I think two events
017last year where we needed to remove the snow. Anything over We usually do anything over about 3 in will clear. And just how how how how does it help the operation in terms of the time, right? Is this is this I'm It looked like they just run through it and it's over, but I don't know what snow removal process was before. So, if you Sure. So, before we had probably about five staff members who would take They have long rakes, and then they would go out there and they would rake the snow off the buses. Um that process probably took us a good 3 to 4 hours to do that because we don't only do the buses, we do the vans as well. Uh this time around when we use the machine, it takes us
018about an hour, if that. Uh the nice thing about it is it's not so much a time-saving issue. It's an issue with our staff, making sure that, you know, we did have someone who fell last before we got the machine uh raking the bus. So, it's it's just keeps our staff safe and healthy and and entertained because I saw that the same five six people were there. They were just watching the thing going through it, and they were very happy. Where do you do it? I I was trying to figure out where you were cuz I know facilities that was a discussion on then we'd have to clean up afterward and things like that. Um it is actually the the machine is up near the stadium. It's movable, right? It's >> It is mobile. Yes.
019Um but we needed a a certain level of area for us to set it up to to remain safe. Uh the first intent was to actually put it next to the bus cage, next to the bus depot. Uh but that area is has too much of an incline. So, we had to put it up at the stadium. And it works well. We pull out of the the depot, we pull up to the stadium, go through, come down Polk Valley, and go back into the stadium into the depot. Awesome. Thank you. Sure. Any other questions? Thank you, Mr. Deegan. Waiting for any more questions before I say lastly. Okay. So, lastly, in our district, many of our facilities are used by parents and groups of community members and our athletes, our theater groups and musicians. Most
020of our parents and community are usually spending time running around for food to feed most of our more groups here. So, Mrs. Downer actually created a catering menu to help relieve some of the some of the stress that this may cause some people that our groups can use and anyone who's renting our facilities may use and we are showcasing that catering menu preview this evening. So, Ms. Downer, if you would like to come to the microphone. If you don't have anything to say, that's fine as well. You you were pretty good at it. >> usually always have something to say. That's why you're you're on camera all the time. >> Yeah, WFMZ, we're not shy. >> [laughter] >> Just saw opportunity to utilize our staff to be able to offer catering for events, after school
021events. Um so, we got a sample of each package that we offer. Um a deli bar, southern food, taco bar, and we also have the cold station for all the desserts that we'd be able to offer with drinks. So, please just help yourself. Thank you. Thank you. So, are you saying we have to eat this right away because otherwise the food is going to get cold? Yes. Yes. >> [laughter] >> And we're going to have another presentation next board meeting so that I can uh sample some of these You have time to get here. >> [laughter] >> Unfortunately, I wish I could, but I can't. Thank you. Um You want me to go? You can say Okay. So, this is this is >> [laughter] >> She already yelled at me, so go ahead. Okay. So,
022this is Judy's last board meeting. So, we wanted to give you special What? It's your last board meeting. So, yes, we would like to just provide special recognition to you and this is why really the food is here. Yes. It's not just the catering menu. Um I will I will speak first, hopefully, and others will follow, but um I know that you're Dave's secretary, but you have done a lot for me over the course of my tenure here and I know that you have provided above and beyond services for everyone here at Saucon Valley. Um you know, as Wendy knows cuz she's the last one to hear me probably during times of interviews before secretaries are hired, I usually pull them into my office and give them a little shindig about how my expectation is
023they the person that you're working for, you're supposed to make them look good. And any of us that know Dave knows that you've done an exceptional job here. So, I don't speak for Dave, but we we are going to miss you tremendously, but we hope that you have a wonderful time cuz you truly do deserve it. So, thank you. Yes, Judy, I've known you for a long time. We're not going to say how long. >> [laughter] >> Couple of years, yes. But I would say your guidance even in the elementary school as it for me as a teacher was instrumental in my success, what I consider my success, and I appreciate and I appreciate your candor and your straightforwardness. No, Viv. Poor Judy had to deal with somebody doing an agenda for the first time,
024so she woke me out of a dead nap. I was dead asleep and she goes >> [laughter] >> and she goes Viv you need to approve the agenda. I'm like, oh, yeah. I even knew when the phone rang and I saw Saucon Valley, oh my gosh. Jamie had told me I needed to do that. The nap seemed to take precedence. >> [laughter] >> And a few more emails following that. So, I'm sorry to [laughter] make one of your last agendas so difficult, but I appreciate you and I appreciate everything you've done for us as a board, uh the teachers here, the children here, everyone. Thank you very much. I'm I'm going to go next and I I said that before, I'm going to say it again and uh I know I'll say that many more
025times when I uh see Judy around town that uh it's uh I I usually I I used to say it's difficult to replace her. I'm just going to say it's impossible. Uh someone with the history that she's had here in this district serving every role that is possible and she reminds you of that. That >> [laughter] >> He is uh she's sometimes a taxpayer, sometimes a uh Sometimes. Sometimes a parent. Sometimes. I don't know. Dep- depending on the topic. Sometimes a parent, sometimes an employee, uh sometimes someone who has worked in one of the buildings, sometimes from the district office, and uh her uh I think most important job here has been to keep this one in check, which she's done a she's done a fantastic job. So I don't think there is there is
026any dispute over what's what kind of a valuable person you've been to to this district. I know you're not going to go away and I know that we'll see you. We won't see you here on this board at this table, but yeah, and that's what I'm worried about because once you are there you and It's free to say whatever. Yeah, not that she has had a hot but you know, I I I value your friendship. I I value all of the time that we've had Judy and I I wish you a fantastic retirement and and I hope that you do show up here also. We can see you here, but we'll we'll reach out to you. >> [laughter] >> Well, Mr. Carpenter wants to change the chairs here. Just ours. >> [laughter] >> But anyway,
027thank you very much and I I really appreciate you and everything you've done for us. Thank you, Judy. I'm sure that all of my absurd agenda and or procedural issues have probably had you throwing things in your office at some point, but you never said anything to me. So I appreciate that. What? Never said anything to you? >> [laughter] >> Thank you so much for everything that you've done and enjoy your retirement. Well, I guess I have to say something even though I said it the first time, but I mean, yes, I'm sure Judy has regretted ever since I asked her to come over to the business office and work with us. But she's been a great asset. She's brought in a lot of knowledge. She helped us a lot of times understand building levels,
028what was going on so we understood better cuz she had that perspective. Yes, she kept me in line. She kept everything that I needed. We may have lost things, but we always found them together and figured out what we were doing and she will be missed. She's like part of the family. We always felt it was a family oriented down in the business office and yes, she treated me like she was my mother and she did make sure that she kept the people out of my office that needed to be out of and did what she needed to do and kept me well organized. So you will be missed. I know you've been training Wendy and doing a good job for that. So hopefully, you know, you passed on a lot of knowledge to her
029and we'll move forward, but but you will be missed. But congratulations on retiring. And we know where to contact you, so you know. There you go. >> I wanted to say thank you. Um There's the board and then there's this area here which has been really fun here because of your presence. You've been incredibly welcoming when we were new to the board and um a kind of a a steady presence. You you didn't take sides in anything and made it very clear that you were very you know, nice to everybody and I really appreciate that. I'm um You know, it's you're witty, you know. And um you know, you're also somebody who who reads and gives book recommendations and and I just really I I appreciate the the grace with which that you've done the
030job and you know, I'll miss you. Thank you. I also wanted to say thank you, Judy. It's been a pleasure getting to know you over these past couple years and I agree with Bill. You have a very calming presence and no matter what happens, you're always calm, cool and collected and I think that's that's nice to see and you do so much to support the board and support the school. We'll be sad. I will say watching from home before I was board secretary, I was not calm. My husband would tell me many times to just turn it off. >> [laughter] [clears throat] >> Judy, this is Cedric. I just want to add my my sincere thanks for how helpful you are to everybody that needs your help. I really appreciate it and I know that
031Kathleen feels the same way. Um and I also wish you a great retirement. Thank you. Cedric, I need you to stop by the office before Friday. I have a lot of stuff for you to sign. >> [laughter] >> All right. Again, congratulations, Judy. Let's all take some time to enjoy what was prepared. >> we can't I don't I don't want to be here forever. Eat quickly. >> along. All right, move along. Eat and [laughter] do your job. Yes, ma'am. So, quickly, run up to the line. As I said to my husband, what's the word They can't make me stay longer. So, we can dismiss you at some point. Is that what you're asking? >> [laughter] >> That's okay. We got Wendy. She's ready to take over. All She's not approved yet. We're moving that to
032the end of the agenda. >> [laughter] >> Please, let's enjoy the food that was prepared. Thank you. The call was canceled. >> Mhm. >> from Judy. >> [laughter] >> Thank you. Delicious. Wonderful. I hope um people take advantage of this as well. And thank you to our district as well. Uh from our district to you. Um food was excellent. I could see why the students are enjoying it cuz we certainly are. Are we ready to move on, Judy? Okay. Delicious Superintendent's Report. Um courtesy of the floor to visitors. Uh Uh Laura, do you have anything you would like to say? >> [laughter] >> Okay. Um can I get a motion for the presentation of the bills? Second. All in favor? I. Opposed? Bills passed. All right. Treasurer's report. Um can I get a motion for
033the Treasurer's report? Second. All in favor? I. I. Opposed? Motion passes. Passes. Um agenda items, education. We have no items for um discussion. Um we have the second and final reading for policy 108. Do I have a motion? So moved. Second. Any discussion? Hearing none. All in favor? I. I. Opposed? Motion passes. Personnel. Um we have no items for discussion. Um we have several items. I didn't count them up. Let me see. We have seven different items on here. Would anybody like um one of these set aside? I think we do them one at a time so that they wouldn't run into a problem. Absolutely. I don't know whether I want to vote no for any of them yet. All right. Conversation. [laughter] Okay. So, personnel item number one is approving Wendy as our board
034secretary um starting in December 17th until June 30th, which then we would revote on it. So moved. Second. All in favor? I. >> I. Opposed? Congratulations, Wendy, and welcome. Um number two is dedicated building sub. Anyone need this one held aside? Pulled out. So moved. All in favor? I. I. Opposed? Motion passes. Number three is academic discovery program advisor. So moved. Second. All in favor? I. Number four is a part-time bus driver. All in favor I mean sorry. >> [laughter] >> Do I have a motion? >> So moved. You got that, Judy? She's shaking her head over there at me. She got it. Okay. Um all in favor, say I. >> I. I. Opposed? Motion passes. We have the 25-26 spring athletic coaches. So moved. All in favor? I. Before that, I have a Hang
035on a second. question. I just wanted to ask what unified is uh the uh Special Olympics? Yes. And there is We also have a bocce ball. There's only one coach for that or is it uh uh the the other coaches would come in installment? We only have one coach for both bocce and for unified track. And then how many how many students participate? I'm going to have Miss Brodhead come because she will give you all the details. You can make a motion but I'm just not allowed to vote tonight. Uh unified track typically has a team of no more than uh 10 students. And then track is uh you have to have at least 12 but it usually can go up to like 30 or so. And what is the how long is the season?
036Um so bocce started in November and runs to February. Track starts in March and goes to May. And bocce is the one where we have uh regular ed kids with the special ed kids. They both are. Yeah, they both. You have to have a 40% ratio of Special Olympics athletes, a 40% ratio of non-Special Olympics athletes, and then that extra 20% can be whatever determination you want. Thank you. I apologize. I lost where we were. I think we had a motion and a second and some discussion. Do we have a second? Uh any more discussion? All those in favor, say I. I. Opposed? Eyes have it. Now we have the 26-27 fall athletic coaches. Can I get a motion to approve the fall coaches? Second? All those in favor? Oops, sorry. Discussion? All those in
037favor say I. I. Opposed? Eyes have it. And finally, we have a resignation Christopher Fluke, who was dedicated substitute and is effective it was effective December 1st. Do you have a motion? Second? Um any discussion? I just like to thank Chris for his service to the district and best of luck in your next adventure. Um all those in favor say I. I. Opposed? Okay. Um next item facilities committee summary is listed there. I just um like to add um that in our facilities meeting, we had a discussion because I'm bringing this up because a community member brought this to my attention and I want to them to be sure they realize that we held a discussion on the um And do you want to make your way up? Just please. Um we held a discussion
038on the um stadium and the fact that um we're experiencing some leaks from the stadium into the facilities that are underneath um being uh locker rooms and electrical panels and those kind of things. Um and WTI, do you want to explain the history of WTI with our district and thing cuz I I was impressed by their presentation. >> Sure. Uh WTI Tremco is a company that uh the board approved to redo or uh the campus roof, the elementary middle school roof. Uh they went through and um part of their process is bringing in no more than no less than three contractors to come in, take a look at the job. Once they look at the job, those three contractors then go ahead and bid on the project. Uh the contractors use the Tremco product uh
039to do that work. And um they completed um the work on that roof uh in a matter of um less than a year. Um so with the uh satisfaction of their workability, uh their communication, uh we met weekly as a as a team to go over the progress of the project. Uh we asked them to come back and take a look at our stadium. Uh take a look at what Tremco could offer us um because they also another project that they uh I remiss to say this, the other project that they completed uh this past year was the auditorium wall and the exterior walls of the auditorium as well with uh with masonry uh contractors. And again, that work uh and the communication and and how they worked with the district to get that project
040completed before the students uh returned back to school um was um just an amazing job. So we had them come back and take a look at our stadium issue and um we met with them and they came to our last meeting to give us a um uh some information on the product that they would use to hopefully rectify our issue. Yes. I was I was impressed because in the prior attempts to seal this up, they anything was only guaranteed for 2 years and you were stating that almost immediately within months we were having trouble with it and this is a 10-year guarantee on this. So we're investigating this further. Yes, correct. Thank you very much. >> Thank you. Uh we have to do this. I got to do this. Okay. Um so um under facilities,
041we have some surplus and obsolete items that are listed. Can I have a motion? Second. Any discussion? All in favor say I. I. Opposed? Hearing none. Um onto the water infiltration project, this is exactly what we were just talking about. Um the we're we are um asking that the administration work with WTI and Tremco on pricing, getting bids out there, those kind of things. Can I have a motion to approve this? Second. All those discussion? All those in favor? I. I. Opposed? Motion passes. >> [clears throat] >> Okay, we have a finance committee summary. Um any discussion on the finance committee summary at all? Yeah, I can just give a quick update on what what went on at the meeting. I I was on Zoom, so apologies if I didn't catch it, but it all
042but um there was some discussion about a potential tax rebate um that but no action from the committee on advancing that. There was also a discussion about the revenue and expenditures. We reviewed sort of the audit and then sort of where we started with the budget and where we ended and um some of the um savings account I don't know what you want to call it uh fund account levels over the past 3 years. And uh there's also a discussion and settling on ticket sales and price structure changes to accommodate both our online platforms and uh and also cash uh prices. So, and that uh was uh moved to the board, so we'll be voting on that in few minutes. Okay, thank you. Um timeline for the budget. Mr. Bamberger. It's that time again. Yes,
043um what's in front of you is a timeline uh January 29th, which you have the resolution on this board agenda. Um if you adopt the resolution tonight, not to go over the index, that allows us then um to cut out the other timelines for February, March and gives us till the end of June. You have to back that up 30 days uh to adopt the final budget. Doesn't mean you can't adopt it sooner, but the end date is 30 days out prior to the end of June 30th. Um un- unlike the state where they could go till November. >> [laughter] >> It's very optimistic of you. Should be earlier. What's uh what is the index? Do we know? 3.5. So, uh if the deadline for the uh for the resolution is January 29th, why are
044we doing it now? If Well, you would have to go to voter referendum to go above the index and then the exceptions, we really don't qualify for any exceptions, so you're pretty much going to be at 3.5, which all you would be able to do anyway. Index. Not if not if there's a referendum. If there's a voter referendum. But this is >> But that would have to be earlier. You'd have to do a voter referendum before that. So, the index resolution, this is I'm always uncomfortable doing the index index resolution before we have even the first sort of like But you'd have to have a you would have to have a budget already out by November to go for a voter election to go over the index. So, we don't have that option now? No.
045We we we decide that we don't want to have that option? We decided by not taking any action. Is that correct? Yeah. So, it is already decided that we wouldn't. So, this is more of pro forma. Okay. All right. Do I have a motion for the index resolution? Second? Second. Thank you. All in favor say I. I. Opposed? Um passes. Resolution passes. Um new Mediscan staffing agreement. When I met with Jamie about this agenda, she assured me that um if we have special education teachers um available and willing to do education in the home, we would address them first. Um so, this is just with a company. Um I did also ask her about the name of the company. It has nothing to do with medical. That's what I was just asking. Do I have
046a motion to approve the staffing agreement? So moved. All in favor say I. I. I. Opposed? Motion passes. Empower Ed addendum. Um could you describe this a little bit so we have some understanding of that? All right. This is a a company that we already use. So, this is for an additional hours that we would be utilizing them for for instructional coaching. Okay. This instructional coaching for some of the teachers and students as well. >> Miss Broad, I can give you specifics since she's the one that's dealing directly with the company right now through her office. Uh it's specific for special education students with uh some more uh significant or diverse needs. Um so they work directly with both the special education and regular education teachers to assist with um uh what possible modifications could
047look like in the classroom. Uh for a lot of the kids it's looking at um those might that fall under the alternative standards. Uh for some it's regular standards but just different ways that we can present that material um outside of the box thinking, things that we don't always do day-to-day for every kiddo that yeah, some might need. Okay. Any other questions on this? We don't have a motion yet but uh do you does anyone have the No, I'm I'm happy to do it before the motion but I just what wasn't sure with this uh somebody here is going to Could you stay there for 1 second? Do we have a motion to approve this? So moved. >> Second? So my my question is that can you remind us uh what is it that they
048provide that we can't get through the IU in terms of uh the services that they provide for the um PD for the teachers who are Yeah, so um the IU does work with teams um a lot on uh universal design. Um this is specific to how we are working with the staff to uh provide modifications and accommodations within a regular education classroom. Um little similar but different in the sense of uh they will do uh an observation and make specific recommendations to a specific student. The IU typically will um make some general suggestions but they will never make a specific recommendation. And they don't do that because why? Uh their TAC team only gives suggestions on educational components because they are not the LEA, they are not the ones making educational decisions and that is
049a very clear line that uh they will not cross where uh this specific company will work directly with an IEP team, they will come observe the student, they will get to know more about the student and then make specific recommendations of things for the team to consider based on that specific student. So I'm I'm just trying to understand. So this is the are you uh saying that uh the IU doesn't have the uh know-how to sort of like do this or is it that uh they are uh they don't want to confuse the roles because they could be sort of like providing services at some point to these students. they are worried about like conflict of interest or or something like that. That Is that what it is? Because this company is also not LEA
050so IU could sort of like at that point, you know, become this and give you the advice that >> Yeah, they could the IU staff is completely capable of doing the same thing, they just make a very clear delineation of making general suggestions on things and not more specific to student IEP teams in the same way. Thank you. All in favor say I. I. I. Opposed? Motion passes. Um the next is the ticket sales that um Mr. Carpenter alluded to and why we needed to restructure our ticket sales once again. Um do I have a motion? So moved. Um any discussion? I I I just want to know I I missed that that part of the conversation at the committee so if somebody tells us what the structure is I appreciate that. Yes, my understanding
051is that um there has to be cash sales available at the door and um from my understanding of it, they are also doing cash sales in advance at the um oh, please. >> [laughter] >> I Yeah, so that's correct. So we had to um originally as we [clears throat] talked about this we were going you know, having a a um online pay but we are required now to have a cash option. Um excuse me. So now at this point what we're doing is making sure that our sales are um $6 and $4 as it stated out but you have the option to buy through you using your credit card through the online system through Hometown Ticketing or you pay cash at the door but you still have the option in both systems to if you
052came right to the gate, you could pay either cash or pay an online. Um but we're doing the same thing with the theater presentations as well. So those shows you can buy your tickets in advance. Little bit of a difference with that is in some situations with that software you can reserve your seating. Um so, that's one of the features it provided and we also have general admission. Um so, it was requiring for us to go back and make sure that it's clear that we are providing both the cash and the online option. So, uh the the prices have they changed compared to what you we had approved before? Well, the pricing has changed in the sense that it's now $6 and $4. Um but that's straight straight both sides are now $6 and $4.
053As opposed to what was it before? Prior prior to that it was originally a five and three system. I guess it was probably five years ago when this first came about. Um when Hometown Ticketing first came, I think it was 2020 for the first presentation of this. Um and it it was some at some level was incentivized to buy online. So, it was that if you bought it earlier it was reduced. Um but at this point now both are going to be $6 and $4 for the for a sporting events, but then the theater productions, the high school shows um are 14 and 12 and that's based on the contract we signed with um the theater production company. And does this have a financial impact on the district uh now that you have the two
054options in terms of the cost or the sort of like uh final uh uh final revenue? Well, I don't know the I don't know what the final number is necessarily, but there are fees that are associated with it. So, what the company does provide the Stripe fee and of course the services that it's provided too. Um >> [clears throat] >> some cases there's a 40-cent difference. Um in other cases there's a dollar difference. But um in order to make them both balanced out was the that's why we went with the six and four rather [clears throat] than um what the what the previous structure was because it was almost I was almost like three different Yeah. fees and it became complicated. So, to simplify it for the consumer it's a six and four. Um and
055I believe there's a 40-cent difference. Thank you. Sure. Any other discussion questions? All those in favor, say I. I. Any opposed? Yeah, ticket sales have been approved. Uh community updates, Hellertown Chamber of Commerce, Jay. No updates tonight. Okay. Um Saucon Valley Foundation? Northampton Community College? Cedric, did you get any updates? I think she said last time that uh the next meeting is in January and there is Thank you. All right. >> Oh, I I just I just want to add that um bids were uh have been received for the expansion project. Um and they I believe they were opened today. I haven't heard anything about them, but uh the joint committee will be meeting tomorrow to review the bids and decide which one to accept so that construction can get going as soon as possible.
056That was Cedric on Bethlehem Vo-Tech just so everybody's clear. Um Uh IU 20? So, uh two things I wanted to share. Uh one is that uh once the budget was passed uh the IU obviously is not uh uh getting the line of credit that they were planning to do uh to uh to manage the payroll. And um the second is that uh this this might be of interest to some of uh our board members that uh the last IU meeting we approved a policy manual um uh 817 which is for the use of artificial intelligence at the IU. I'm happy to share a copy of this with um any of the directors here who would like to review it. This is mirroring what uh PSBA has uh uh proposed as the as as a language
057and I think at some point uh it may be not a bad idea for us to do that also, but at the same time uh at this point these are sort of like very very generic and I don't know whether they have any real uh impact on anything that the school is is doing. That's my sort of like two cents. Thank you. Certainly would want a copy of that. We could use that in our meeting. Please. PSBA? Um yeah, so it's a light month at PSBA, but they're they did send a reminder for everyone to take their uh required board training at some point and at the same time announced that the website will be closed for the next few days. So, uh if you haven't already registered at um and the website is not
058working, that's because uh they said it will be offline for a portion of the week. So, uh whatever that means. Yes, and Dr. Tenore and I were did attend the AI Oh, yeah. symposium. Um online just the other day. All right. Um new business. Do I have a motion for the first reading of the policies 005 and 006? Second? No. No. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. We're leaving it on the table. Yeah. We're leaving it on the table. >> Despite Judy maybe saying no over there. Uh [laughter] So, yeah, um before we get in too far here, um I'm going to make a motion to uh adopt some of the language on these. I did send the language to every director by email this morning of the motion that I'm going to make so that you
059had it in advance. Uh and I'll explain the thought processes. So, the first change is in 005 on page four. Uh it is to change it so that it is clear that the board majority can uh change the direction that they're providing the committees at any time, not just at the reorg meeting. Uh Cedric asked me to make that change so that it was clear that the board majority can can change the mission statement or or direct the committees at any time. Um and then later on in that I re-added in a uh or I added back in what that original uh point was intended to do, which was that the board would reorganize the committees at the reorganization meeting. Um uh as as a stipulation so the members of the committee serve for a
060year until a reorganization or until the committee is discharged. So, that's so that there's a chance for people to maybe change what they're interested in doing rather than just filling only the empty spots. Ooh. That That was true. That intent was there on the original, but uh because of the language change that Cedric requested, I had to change where that occurred. The uh the next uh change is in policy 006 Well, yeah, you move I mean, could you also uh speak about the rest of the new things in I will after I make my motion for the changes. >> motion is still okay. >> [laughter] >> That's a long motion. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, cuz you're supposed to read the text of the motion. Uh the the next change No, you means he needs to
061>> Yeah, yeah, yeah. He wasn't talking about Yeah, not you. Yeah, me. Uh the next change is in policy 006. Um there are some changes on page four that change this to Actually, let's talk about the paint changes on page five. First, there are the changes on page five. This copies the language from the PA uh Scotus decision about the exception for a majority vote change to an an agenda. So, this is language copied from that that uh decision so put in there about the reasons and the process for using the majority vote exception to change an agenda. So, that's that's page five. Because of that change, um it was my intent to make it so that the requirement both in the meeting and out of the meeting to add something to the agenda was
062the same. And so, on page four, you'll see that if you want to put something on the agenda before the meeting, uh you also need a majority of the board. So, that means that adding an item to the agenda requires a majority of the board. So, that it is the same at all times. So, those are the proposed changes. The The intent of that would be to make uh the So, okay, those are the proposed That's the proposal. So, that's the motion. Do I have a second for that one? Or sorry, uh Chair, may I have a second for my motion to change that language? I need a second for that language change. But, you have to ask for it. A second on those >> Yeah, yeah, yeah. Christian's got it. And so moved. Okay.
063So, now we're debating just the changes that I that I proposed there. So, um to to to just add a final point on there cuz I think they're reasonably straightforward. Um the intent of making it a majority actually is so to encourage changes to the agenda to happen here in this meeting. Whether you're changing it for the current meeting or the future one, um we can do that now because we can discuss changes to the agenda at this meeting even if you're proposing something in the future. And uh that cuts out a lot of problems in terms of like people not getting emails and things like that. And so, the sort of intent is that the rules are consistent, no matter when, and also that the full board is kind of in the in the
064loop. So, I I have a I mean, before we talked about this, this is this is I I I find this process that we are following right now about this a little convoluted, right? So, we first are talking about minute things about the two policies, right? And then, once they are voted on, then we are going to talk about what the policies itself, right? And the reason for this is because one was published and one was not published, right? The changes that you are talking about now, the reason that you talk about them first is because you you want to amend the I want to amend the motion. >> motion, yeah. But, I'm just finding it to be convoluted and actually counterproductive. So, I don't know whether there is in your Robert's Rule handbook or
065something there is a way to sort of like straighten it because all of this is new, right? So, the the fact that it uh hasn't been in the in the copy that was shared on Friday to me is kind of like irrelevant, if I may say. So, so, is there is there a way to to do the whole thing without sort of like first talking about like a small part of it without >> can >> talking about the context. >> You can just vote and approve the motion. and then then talk about the whole thing, and then if you wanted to change it again, you could amend it to remove things. Yeah. Okay. So, uh good. So, so, with that, can we shorten this part of it so that we can just basically My My
066suggestion is that now that we are in the discussion, to vote yes for the amendment, and let the let the policies as Don has Mr. Carpenter has drafted to be uh properly motioned and discussed, and then at that point we can add or remove or or whatever. And we won't do it twice. So, my my plea to the board is to have a quick vote to amend this, and then we can discuss the the topic more details. Okay. So, let's move this to a vote. Does everyone Does anyone want to debate the minor changes, or would you just prefer to talk about the whole thing? Are you okay with debating everything at once after we approve the amendments to the thing? Um so, that's what we're asking. Everyone's okay with that? Yeah, okay. All right.
067All right. So, Don, I need a vote for >> You need a vote, yeah, yeah. Yes. The red essentially the red text. The the So, yes, because this the public has not seen, so we need to make that um known to the public. >> So, so, after this vote, the red text would be the same as the black text, all of it unapproved. Correct. So, just Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. This is just Correct. >> adding something to the to the policy. >> This is not approving the policies. This is just approving the red text. All those in favor I mean, do I have a motion to approve the red text? >> We We already did that. We did. A second and discussion? All in favor? I. >> I. Okay. So, now we're on to We
068already have entire. Yes. We're debating the thing now. Okay. So, now we're debating discuss. >> yeah, yeah. We're here for discussion. We're good. Discuss away. So, so, could could you could you discuss what the intent is in different parts of this uh Okay, yeah. I Yeah, I I >> may I stop you for 1 minute? Is it Can we discuss 05 without discussing 06, or are they combined? We can discuss 05 without discussing 06. Okay. All right. Thank you. Okay. Page four There was something I was missing in policy director's district email. If it's Are you talking about number policy five? Page four. On uh page No, no, we're only discussing Viv requested that we only discuss five. >> We're going to discuss five right now. All right. >> [laughter] >> Yeah, yeah. That's okay.
069So, would you Mr. Mr. Bruen, your your mic isn't working, Mr. Bruen. There's a typo on page six. Thank you. Or sorry, policy six and page 414. Okay, so, to go over the intent of the policies, I did I did do this once, I believe, but we'll go through it again. So, the bold text is then the changes that that from the policy as current. Um the first is that it's just >> in red. What's that? Bold and red, yeah. Bold and red. The first change is on page two that that talks about if you are elected to a board officer position and you're currently holding a board officer position that we need to address that. So it is just more of a it's just putting into policy a sort of reminder for all of
070us that that needs to be addressed because you can't hold two positions at the same time. And I think we had I think we messed that up in the past and so this is just a This is This is just a reminder for us to that we need to address that. And so if it's in the policy, we'll remember that it needs to be addressed. Um The section four is a a set of term limits. We've gone back and forth on this and I have had discussions with many members. Um and I have I settled upon uh that uh we because of the um you know, the recommendations in both our policy and in PSBA that we have uh shared leadership and and you we encourage people to serve in board leadership that the that
071the same two people the policy as it is currently being deliberated is that the same two people should not serve as the president and vice president uh in any combination for more than two consecutive years. So you could have the same president for eight years, but as long as the vice president changed every two years, that would be okay. And any combination of this. That's That's the policy as as currently being debated. Um again >> I ask a question now? Yeah. Because in '06 the treasurer is in as part of Do we want to put the treasurer in here as well then? Yeah, that's something we can discuss, right? I mean, it's I I took it out eventually because um it got complicated. But uh And the election of treasurer happens at a different time.
072>> The election of the treasurer happens at a different time. That is That is also true. Um the next change is on page four and this is the change to sort of how the committees are organized. So currently our committees are sort of standing kind of someone's described them as ad hoc, but they're essentially standing committees. And um when when a board director either resigns from a committee or or leaves their position as a director uh during that next reorg meeting, we we the practice of the board has just been to fill the holes that are available, but not to do any sort of switching around or or uh taking into consideration other people's interests or things that they might want to work on. And so this is just uh a chance to um be
073more thoughtful about who's on the committees what they want to do uh during those time periods. Um It also makes clear that the board should be directing This is in current policy. The board directs the committees in what they do. So it applies a sort of a mission statement or a or sort of a uh a guiding principle that the board gives each committee so that they know what committee should be working on. The We're a bit uh lax about stuff like this right now and we sort of like can use certain committees like A&P committee can is like the catch-all committee for everything sometimes, which is not I think uh really it's not good practice for the organization to like just sort of use like a catch-all thing. We should be more deliberate about
074what we're doing and what the assignments are and what the missions are. Um And so the the next page for there is to just basically say like, you know, the committees are going to have a goal or or or a parameter that they work under and they're going to work under that one. Um You know, if something is completely non-topical for any of the committees, there's always the option to form a a uh a limited time committee, not a standing committee, right? Like an ad hoc committee or or a a limited fixed duration committee, right? Um The other change on page four is just saying that the committees are created by the board. Uh if we give a fixed termination date, which we don't have to, but if we do, the president can extend that
075uh that fixed timeline. This is currently in the policy already. This is just some clarifying language about how um the president can't take a fixed term committee and make it an indefinite committee without a vote, which is what I the old policy sort of read. Nuanced, but but this essentially makes it so that the president can extend it, but not transform it from a fixed length committee to an indefinite committee. Um And that the extension the time extension will be announced. So. Anybody have any questions or comments on policy 005? Yeah, um So, um on the section three on page two, um the paragraph that's um the penultimate paragraph, so where it says the same school director may not hold one office of the board >> than one. Um I I think that that where
076the bold language is um I think it'd be good if that was just sort of tightened up a bit and made a little a little less ambiguous cuz I I that's a really long sentence. Um it doesn't need to be that long. Um but where it says like if a director accepts a second officer position, I would propose they just says they must resign one of the two positions. Um and then I'd put a period there and start a new sentence cuz um I I was a little confused by that long clause where it says and the board must accept the resignation or the appointment to the new position is void and the combinations from the Under parliamentary rules, the board has to approve a resignation to a committee. So, I I just think that
077that sentence is where it says it has that clause um that's that's really long, the one that ends it. Is there a way to you Yeah, I was going to say you can you can put a period after uh one of the two positions. >> Or a semicolon. Yeah, and then just and then then and then rather than the word and you could either capitalize the or if you're semi-colon, you could put the board must accept. Yeah, that's fine. That's a minor It's a small and then um a more a more um sort of substance related thing, I I guess I feel I do feel a little worried about the if if we're making the changes on on that are on page four with the sort of committee mission statements, um I just think that
078we have to be um in the spirit of of focus, but not I I I would hate if it becomes a kind of gatekeeper mentality, you know? So, this is more of a comment. It's not really um Sure. I just think that we have to do it in the spirit of trust, mutual trust, and not and and really to make things more efficient, but not to um be gatekeepers. That that's that's So, that you know, take it for what it's worth. It's It's just a comment. >> Yeah, I think I think the intent is not to gatekeep at all. It's to um acknowledge that um our committees have like topics, have have purpose, and we should think twice before we just send everything that we don't want to deal with at the board level to
079some committee that really may not fill that purpose. Ultimately though, no matter what the mission statement is, the mission statement is just allowing the committee to operate without our interference on the topics given, right? But at any point, a majority of the board can direct the committee to do something. So, it doesn't definitely doesn't gatekeep. If you you know, if we felt like a topic was not uh was you know, that maybe the mission statement didn't cover the topic, all it would take would be a vote of the board to direct the committee to do it. I just don't want to make it so that we we end up slowing down business because things are too rigidly con- control that um and and or we have to you know, have these extra votes in order
080to bring up stuff that might not I mean, the truth is that the business of the school district is incredibly complex and the reason why some of the committees don't perfectly match up with the topics is we would have 60 committees if we had a committee for every you know, um subject. Um And I wish we did have more committees, but I don't too because that would it would make it impossible for us to function. Yeah, but I think the I think the I think the kind of the standard sort of uh workings has been like the board here has a discussion where like, I don't know, we should look into this more. Then we send it to the committee, right? Actually allowing the mission statement to be made removes that step entirely on the
081things that are under that topic, right? Like cuz we've already essentially pre-approved everything. So, we don't even have to have that conversation here where we're all sitting at the board being like, "Well, maybe we should send this to the committee." We've already done that work on a on the topics that the committee is there for. So, it actually can remove a step. I don't mind giving it a go. I mean, it might work out really well, you know. I At least that's how I envision it. I'm open-minded about it. Thank you. Any other comments? So, I'm the with regard to the committees, the way that this has been done in the past 7 8 years has been very cordial, friendly, informal times. And uh everyone has had an opportunity to participate and uh uh that
082that has been sort of like something that is reassuring for uh for me that uh no matter what the changes are, sort of like structurally uh it doesn't sort of like uh hamper that. Uh if uh if if anything, you know, on that side of things change, then uh my opinion about sort of like the membership and, you know, how this is done and so forth would be very different potentially, right? So, uh I'll be uh more frank about it. Currently, I don't think and I've said that to uh board members who are sitting here and to uh others who have uh wanted to run for the board and others who've been on the board that it doesn't really matter whether you are a member of a committee or not, right? Uh And uh I
083truly think that that has been sort of like the the current practice. Everyone has been afforded uh the opportunity to participate in conversation, discussion, ask their questions, and and so on and so forth. Uh I I'm just I'm just worried that uh that may not uh uh continue. Uh and if that is the case, then committee membership may become actually important. Uh for uh for for board members' participation. So, is there a uh I don't think this changes how a committee is run in any way. It changes the terms and the appointment procedure and so forth, and that does uh right? So, uh So, by the way, um yeah, can I just like comment once Sorry, do you want to finish? Do you want to finish? Yeah, go ahead. Yeah, yeah. Um the board has
084this power already. They could just aggressively do it, whereas opposed to, you you know, sort of like setting it up in advance in the way of Like, you know, you can imagine a scenario where the board majority changes, their preferences change, and the will of that majority is able to be enacted onto the committees. But then and then it actually kind of probably becomes a pretty aggressive change then. Yeah, but but you are you This is like with with some of these changes that becomes uh it it's sort of like it is I agree with you that it's an aggressive uh move, right? It's an aggressive move that currently needs someone to appear aggressive, right? So, whereas uh by doing this, then the person may not need to appear aggressive, right? And I think that's
085a it's a it's a bar that I want to be high enough that would sort of like would not hamper participation and our dialogue and our our conversations uh both uh amongst uh the board members, but also with administration and the teachers and community members at the at the committees. I I want to make sure that the uh that that if such thing happens, it is perceived as an aggressive move, as opposed to sort of like doing a part of it here and then and then you know, 2 months later say, "Yeah, you know what? There is a policy, you know, you should have said it, you know, like 2 months ago and so forth." Like, just Yeah, but you know, you you also have to account for the the What the purpose of this
086is to provide some structure and some and some understanding of what the committees are working on. Like, it is also not People also don't enjoy the fact of like saying, "Yeah, I didn't attend the AMP committee." And then someone says like, "Oh, yeah, we discussed something that has like nothing to do with academics and personnel." And then like we we reached a recommendation. And now that person feels like they missed out on that that discussion. And so that that's totally capable of happening right now. And >> And in the future on And because of the the way that you you talked about it, this is like I mean, I I think if your point is that uh four people get together, they talk about things, and they can stray from the topic of the committee
087uh discussion or the agenda and so forth, that's a completely valid uh point. I would say uh people have uh uh made uh similar complaints about the things that we do here, right? Uh as you like we are talking and we are talking about something else sometimes, right? That's a uh I I I don't think that is something that is related to the to the nature of the committee. I'm just I'm just airing this that uh I I I want to make sure that uh our committees would remain places where uh people can feel comfortable talking about uh the questions that they want to ask and express their opinions and so forth without you know that aspect changing because I think that is a that's a valuable thing for for for our board and I'll
088I'll I'll tell you this and I'm not exaggerating I have learned a lot more from those conversations over the past eight years compared with what I've learned here with all due respect to people who are here right that's a it's a these type of conversation that you and I have right now are very very sparse here but we've had many of these conversations at committees right and I want to make sure that those committees will remain that way. Yeah I don't see this as a change to that in any way shape or form but thank you for noting that cuz now it's on film and we'd be held accountable. Um I'm going to ask if we could pause for just a second because our lovely people here are waiting for us. I'd like to say
089if anybody wants a to go package not you Judy. >> [laughter] >> You're not going anywhere yet but no if you want to pack up some food to go please do so at this time. So that they >> Let Mark Fitzgerald be the only person that's staying cuz I want Come on take some goodies we'll pause and be >> We have an AMP meeting tomorrow so There you go make dinner now yes. >> [laughter] >> Is there any other Well, well, go ahead. You're sure? Okay. >> [laughter] >> Any other changes? >> Yeah, I just just reviewing the language in in in in page two of of five. So, this would be in section three, and this is we had some discussion surrounding the the new language. Um what I'm suggesting, and this has nothing
090to do with the new language, but I'm actually proposing the removal of some old language, which reads no commissioned officer or professional employee of the board shall serve temporarily or permanently as an officer of the board. Um I I I suspect that's language that is more applicable to different classes of school districts that would not be applicable to to Saucon Valley. So, I'm going to propose that for this the second and potentially final reading of this that that language be removed. Any other discussion >> Who are the considered the commission? Is it in our district it would be superintendent assistant superintendent? Your your commissioned officers are superintendent, assistant superintendent, and our professional employees. Yeah, then it's everybody. That's everybody. So, uh does that This is just about the officers of the board. So, we have
091we been uh like uh violating this policy by having the secretary of the board being an employee? Yeah. No, because because of our class that is allowed. Um I think we're going to be okay that in that regard. Um I'm I'm not saying whether we are I mean, the language that you want to strike out has been there, right? And I think you may say that that is not required by PA school code, but my question was have we been violating our policy, not that we've been violating the school code. I do not believe we haven't, no. Doesn't it say that an employee cannot be No, it says a commissioned officer or professional employee. Okay. So, Dave was not He's not a commissioned officer. Is he a professional employee? >> No. Oh, he What is
092he? I thought he's professional. >> a business manager. Okay. He's just a business manager just a numbers guy. >> [laughter] >> Okay. Good. Yep. So, uh is there >> Yeah. Yeah, I just wanted to say that I want to This is there is a the red thing that we added in page four is uh uh is a little bit uh in contradiction with uh the paragraph above it. Uh in paragraph above it the the termination date of the committee does not have to be fixed. It may be fixed. Yeah, it doesn't have to be. Whereas um the paragraph after that implies that there is a one year uh limit that is uh now kind of like fixed. I guess the board reor- organization only happens every 2 years, right? No, every year. That's every year.
093Yeah, yeah. No, so the the committee itself is not um is not fixed. It's the thing membership is has a has an ex- expiration essentially. Has a term. It's adding term limits to committee memberships essentially. It's not really a term limit. It's the reorganization. Reor- Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. And it's a reorganization of the entire committee as opposed to any open slots. >> Yeah. Or in an election year. Yeah, I just I'm just saying that I don't I don't like it. It's uh uh you know, the uh officership of the board is one thing, and you know my opinions about that. I don't think that should I I I don't agree with the term limit for that, right? But then there is There are arguments that you can make about that that uh this uh
094kind of like puts a uh uh puts puts a puts a burden threshold that's um I don't think it's productive for uh having institutional memory to the extent that people would uh uh would would would continue on the same committee uh and bring kind of like the uh you know, what what has happened in the past uh and enrich the uh conversations. The the the implication here is that I mean, clearly the board can decide not to make any changes, right? And that is one option, but uh the default here is that there is a change. Uh And I just want to sort of like not go there. I think the language that existed there from my perspective is fine. Is there any other opinions on that? On that language? I I I would agree
095This is Cedric. I would agree with Dr. Pocsai. Um the it You know, not not everyone all the time uh devotes a huge amount of energy to their committee memberships, but for those that that want to um not knowing if you're going to be on the committee for you know, more than you know, you know, a year is kind of demotivating for for trying to be become an expert in the committee's area. So, you know, having some kind of default that you're going to stay on the committee for, you know, as long as you're on unless something significant changes, I think is helpful for people's motivation to be better committee members. I I appreciate the the work on on this one that I um And I feel like it has a kind of democratic principle
096that's that's important, you know, with [clears throat] the rotation of leadership and you know, but um in the I think for our school board and our district right now, I I I guess I I think I would agree with um with um Cedric and and uh Shamim on this um You know, it feels a little bit like a a solution in in search of a problem. It doesn't seem like there are people clamoring to be to switch committees or you know, um to to to get on the committees that they're not there's not room for them. Um So, that's you know, I I do I I do feel like there's a lot of credit deserved for the the work and thinking that went into this. I I I like that. It's but uh yeah, it's
097That's all. Would anybody like to speak in favor? Can I address I'd like to speak for >> I'm just talking about the stuff that they on on page four. That's all. I just remember coming in and um looking for a committee and um not having an option to maybe a committee I really wanted to serve on. And before I knew what the committees were like, I didn't have an option to serve on a committee that I wanted as a new board member. So, I would be in favor of it. Go ahead, Don. Yeah, I just to address um couple of the things that were said. Um there's a comment about like institutional memory that I think it's important to separate out the district's institutional memory and like our board's institutional memory. And at our core,
098we are a democratic body. Um and so, you know, some of the complaints that have aired and I have to respectfully disagree with the sentiment that like people weren't clamoring to get on committees they want. I think I think I've heard that complaint from multiple board members that they either didn't get a chance to get on the committee that they were really interested in or there wasn't a spot open for the committee. I mean, it happened in our reorganization in public, right? So, it is I don't I I'm not saying it's the biggest problem that this district this district has. Like it's definitely not. But this is an effort to bring that small D democratic process to ensure that our organization is operating by the will of the majority and that we have uh you
099know, we're making clear decisions and we're we're providing opportunities to everyone. If everyone is very happy, the great part about that is that we don't have to change anything. But if there are people who are unhappy, this process will give them a chance to say that they have a preference. And maybe that doesn't work out, but it gives them an opportunity. It puts a pin in the process and allows us to have a discussion. Right now, there is no discussion happening and this is this is the point of this was to create a discussion. But if everyone is happy and the majority of the board is is content with the operation, then it's it's a simple vote to to move forward with the default state. So, just I mean, the there is a contradiction here,
100right? So, the contradiction is that that the term limit, right? By definition, right? Is what you are saying that you know, you don't want to do here in a sense, right? The term limit for the opposite. I mean, you you could say the exactly the same thing, you know, which I maintain, right? That you know, the board wants to have the same president for 20 years, you know, small D, you know, as long as five people are there and are vote, but uh They can do that. I I realize that, but this is what I'm saying that we have that would be kind of like against the policy, right? I mean, as long as you you know, you there is a there's a loophole here, right? For you to say that you have changed the
101vice president, you all right? Which which I I I think kind of like goes uh against uh uh that other uh conversation that you had a minute ago that you You know, the the the the majority wants to do something they can do it, right? So, uh I I'm not sure if I can read it from here. The loophole is not change the vice president. The loophole is just a majority of the board Right. No, it's not. >> yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And and that's my my point is that this is a uh if if you want to say the the thing that you said a minute ago, then we should not have term limits, right? We should just basically leave it up to the board to do whatever the board wants to do.
102Say that every year there is a reorganization for everything, right? And uh the majority will appoint people for officers, for committees, for this, for that, for that, and you know, uh if it's the same people, it'll be the same people. If it's different people, different people. So, what what why why are we having term limits for uh uh for the for the officers uh in that case? That kind of like makes it makes it more difficult for the majority to impose their will. Because the default is that you should change there, right? >> Yeah, I would say the simple answer is is that uh those two things are treated differently by both our policies and by like PBS PSBA, right? They don't have a They don't have a guiding principle that you have shared leadership
103of committees, right? For instance. It's it's it's above a a line for them that they have made a stance on it that it is different. >> I I I understand that and this is like I mean there there is a in in both of these there is a there is an element of uh forcing change, right? In both of them, right? Both the term limit and uh uh the the committee membership, right? There is a the uh the the that's not the point. >> furthering change. >> Okay, yeah. That's not what I was uh was sort of bringing up to to your to your attention. It was that uh uh it was that uh you know, for uh for for the for the committee membership, you put a lot of value on the small d
104democratic uh uh will, right? But uh for why introducing term limits for the officership, it kind of like takes that away. Because it says that you can do it. You should You should violate your policies to do it. >> Well, no, because it's the policy. The exception is in the policy. Yeah. The uh the the the uh you know, it's it's about it's a higher threshold, right? It's a higher threshold uh than just uh saying that I mean Bethlehem Area School District doesn't have this, right? And uh they're not bothered by this. Nobody's sort of like going there and saying, "Hey, you know what? I voted uh to uh suspend the policy uh yeah, right? It's the And and that's that's what I'm saying is that that's the small d democratic, right? You know, theoretically
105they could do whatever they want, but anyway, that's a uh I I am uh I'm I'm opposed to both uh parts of it. I can kind of like swallow some if there is that consistency that I mentioned, but uh if uh if if not, I think it's uh I would rather sort of like go with the small d democratic uh rules across the board, right? And uh you know, not uh not be not be bothered with the changes. Okay, I I think we've heard everyone's opinion. Anyone else want to offer any opinions? I would agree. I get the sentiment of the loyalty and putting the time and devotion into those years of being on those committees, but as a new person this year, I happened to have like a default of which one I went
106on, and I think I will learn a lot about facilities, and I think that could be a great opportunity. But when it's your first meeting especially and you're coming in and you don't necessarily know if other people want to leave that committee meeting and that committee board, rather, um this could potentially open it up conversations ahead of time that this is something that I'm really looking to do or this is something that I'm willing to share for that goal of new leadership. So, I think when Mr. Carpenter put those things together and I read it, I interpreted it as a way of including more leadership rather than excluding loyalty or hard work for being on those committees a certain amount of time. I think something such as this policy when I read it initially showed
107to me that it would open up those opportunities for those things. So, I just wanted to say thank you for your time in putting that together. Any other comments? Yeah, I mean with respect, you are sitting at the vice president chair. I mean like it's not uh it's not like you haven't been uh you know, given by this board the the opportunity for leadership. So, I just uh I just think that uh you you know, that that is uh uh a little uh uh less persuasive to me than other things that uh that you said. I I understand the uh the participation, and I think uh the point I was making earlier is that uh everyone has the opportunity to participate in committees. uh that I wouldn't really consider the committee uh as leadership. I
108think that's say that's a place to go and learn more and and I think we all have that uh at at the start. Anyway. There's just one thing I'd like to add. Um In order for someone to be put onto a committee when there isn't space, then someone that's on the committee has to be removed from the committee. So, it's kind of a two-way thing there. It's not just that you know, new people could choose which committee they're going to be on it. It It's a pretty aggressive thing to say to someone, "Oh, the new person wants your seat, so you're out." Um I I wanted to There's to me there's a little bit of a I I I think that I if we vote on this whole Are we voting on the whole Yes,
109but you could motion. So, um I will have to support it because I don't think there's any chance of me I I don't think an amended policy that takes out the the stuff on page four has any chance. Um So, I am inclined to vote in favor of this as it is. Um but I do feel concerned about and about what Shamila and Cedric were saying and um you know, I I kind of agree on that in that area, but I still I'm going to have to vote for it. Once it goes to the vote, I mean this is like I I was about to make a motion to to amend this and then to strike that part. So, that's a Just hold your thoughts for a minute, but you may you may get the
110one that that you want or not. I I just wasn't sure whether there is any other discussions that Ms. Temko would like to have about the whole thing before we start. I I I would like to close the discussion. >> so yeah, I I'm I'm making a motion to amend this and on the paragraph before the last, go to the previous language as it was. Can I just ask a clarification point here? Did we Did we move to motion the grammar change and the removal of that language yet or no? No, we have not. Okay, that's separate. Okay, thank you. I just I just wanted to We would do that as kind of an omnibus approval of of the of the actual first read. Um just inclusive of those changes. Um Which Which language are
111you Uh just This is that the one before the last. I would like it to go back to uh one without bold and red. This is the members of the committee shall serve for one year That That language? Yes. Dr. Paxton. Okay. So, the amendment would read well, it it for simplicity purposes, the second to last paragraph um of of policy 005 shall revert back to its status quo state. Okay, that's the amendment. Is there a second for that? >> I would second it. >> Okay. All right. Um I don't know if we'll need other discussion. On the amendment? Yes. So, if the only thing that was added was until a board reorganization meeting, then the statement that people on the committee shall serve for one year was already in place. No. No. >> No.
112The the bold was also Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. The bold and >> both have been added. Yeah. It should say like members of the committee shall serve until the committee is discharged. >> Yeah. Right. And I'm just saying In particular, this is a the one-year term limit for this as the default is I think completely unnecessary. The reason that we do for the board officers every year is because it's the statute. So, I I think everybody here agrees that uh we don't want to have that turnover uh even for the board officers, if it was up to us, we wouldn't. Right? Your language for the board officers is actually 2 years. So, now for the committee membership, making it a one year and you know, every year at the reorg, you know, doing that, I think
113it's just uh uh I I agree with Mr. Brune. It's a solution in search of a problem. Okay. Um let's take the vote on the amendment, please. This is This is a vote just on the amendment. Yep. Just on removing that okay. All in favor say I. I. Opposed? I. >> No. Roll call Judy please. Mr. Donald Carpenter. No to the amendment. Dr. Shamim Pakzad. Yes. Mr. Cedric Detmer. Yes. Dr. Laurel Erickson Parsons. >> Yes. Mrs. Megan Luminello. No. Mr. Jay Santos. No to the amendment. Mr. William Bruhn. Uh yes to the amendment. Dr. J. Christian Tetteh. No. Mrs. Vivian Demko. No. That was Okay. So, we're going to take a vote on with the talked about grammatical changes. That actually Yeah, it it it will include the the grammatical revisions that were discussed in
114particular between Mr. Bruhn and Mr. Carpenter. The suggested removal of language that I had had proposed as well as the bold additions in in black and the red additions that were brought brought forward as part of the first amendment this evening. And I think that would encompass the first read approval. Okay. All in favor of the policy with those revisions that were discussed. We had no public comment because there is no public. All those in favor say I. I. >> I. Opposed? >> No. No. Roll call please. Mr. Cedric Detmer. No. Dr. Laurel Erickson Parsons. Dr. J. Christian Tetteh. Yes. Mr. Jay Santos. Yes. Mr. William Bruhn. Yes. Mr. Donald Carpenter. Yes. Dr. Shamim Pakzad. >> No. Mrs. Megan Luminello. Mrs. Vivian Demko. Yes. Yes, thanks. Okay. That policy is under the first reading and
115will appear on our next agenda. 006, Mr. Carpenter, would you like to address any um Okay. Um so the we'll go through the the purposes of the the changes here. Um The first question is was and it's been a point of discussion apparently on boards before this one. And also this one is that um when we have to come in here and make a fairly substantial decision to approve something and we don't have sort of like the presentation or the slides or the things in advance, it can be very difficult especially cuz I sometimes struggle to see what's on the screen and we don't even have a copy of it here. Um there went this went back and forth a few times where it was more of a kind of a strict requirement, but I
116have softened the language after on on feedback to just say that like basically the board president is going to use their judgment and let inform the administration if they believe that we need to have that data in advance in order to make a quality decision or an informed decision. So, I'm going to leave it up to the board president to to sort of use their judgment and to make that clear cuz they're going to be the ones reviewing the agenda and looking at these things. And if they feel like there's a big decision with like little information, they're going to make sure that they represent us to to get that information, but it's not going to require every single slide deck or anything like that. No hard requirements, just a just a like I said,
117I softened that. Um The at the I put in there that the treasurer for a while I was attending the agenda meetings and it wasn't a part of policy. And so the adjustment was to change the policy to make it clear that that was happening. Um This next part is about how you have uh agenda items added and as I said in my first amendment um because the law on this has changed, the goal of the of the new change was to make it consistent uh of how to add agenda items so that whether we're here in the meeting or outside of the meeting, it is consistent. Um Do do do do do do. Uh there's some cleanup language about the order of business. Um just to make clear that old business is unfinished business,
118uh, to add in committee reports. I think it's really important for our committees to to actually give reports. I think it's important for our chairs or there, you know, someone from that membership to give a report. Um, I just think that people watching the video are going to want to hear some words from the chairpersons about what happened. And I also think that the board members that feel like they may have been missing out conversation, they might be a lot more comfortable knowing that they don't have to attend every committee meeting if there is a little bit more of a report given. You know, it's only 30 30 seconds 45 seconds, uh, given about what was discussed. I I did it tonight. I hope that it was informative. People now know what was discussed, what
119was advanced, what wasn't advanced. And we can, you know, get feedback on that. So, it's just to explicitly add in a section about committee reports. Um, unfinished business. New business is the what we are doing. It's what we are doing like in all our meetings. We are doing new business. And so, this is all of our subcategories of education and things like that should happen under new business. It also this is also important to separate out, um, could be because the board can now add items to the agenda. We should be doing that under new business. That's where it is proper to do that. Uh, but if we want to make general comments, which is kind of how we've been using the new board business section to just sort of make board comments. If we
120want to do that, there is now a section specifically for board comments. To distinguish the fact that between we now have the ability to amend the agenda and we also have the ability sort of make comments that don't require action in the moment. Uh, so that's just some clean up just to make the the order of business clear. Uh, and then the other, uh, addition is the majority vote exception to additions to the agenda. And that is language that is pulled from the PA SCOTUS, uh, um, decision. So, that's that was from the PSBA, uh, email. That's the language that was given to them. It it talks about how you, uh, make a motion majority vote exception and what you have to do in order to make that that, uh, change. Which is basically announce
121your reason, um, post the amended agenda within one one business day. And ensure the meetings reflect the votes. If you do that, um, I'm just again, this isn't this is not my language. This is the language from the thing. But just a note that if we do add something to the agenda, you have to have a vote on adding the item and then you have to have a vote on the item. So. So, uh, I, uh, uh, I think that's it. Sorry. Um, it also adds a committee, uh, um, committee meetings order of business, which just mirrors basically, uh, like what we've been doing. It mirrors some of the changes basically, allowing committee member comments and and unfinished business. Uh, So, this is the I I I just wanted say that I I appreciate, uh,
122what you have done, uh, with the Pennsylvania Supreme Court's, uh, language. Uh, I I just want to note that, uh, that is a majority vote exception. So, uh, the preferred order of, uh, business for this still is for the matters to be on the agenda published ahead of time and so forth. So, uh, the fact that there is an additional way to add something to the agenda without violating the Sunshine Law, uh, uh, does not mean that, uh, uh, that should be encouraged. And, uh, in other words, we don't want to come here with a blank agenda and say, "Hey, you know what? We are going to use the exception, you know, for everything." Right? Okay. Now, uh, extending this principle of exception to the adding items to the agenda ahead of time with the
123same threshold is to me not good. Because what it encourages is that, uh, uh, if, uh, you know, if you are in that situation, you say that, "Hey, you know what? Why would I, uh, send anything out to the superintendent ahead of time?" Right? Why would I add it to the agenda that is published for the for the public ahead of time? I'll just go there and do it, you know, at the at the meeting. Right? And, uh, again, the SCOTUS opinion allows that, but we should discourage that. To the extent possible. Right? So, now, including this language in the policy is fine. Right? Because it is it is it is in effect regardless of whether we like it or not. Right? You know, in other words, if if this thing goes to the, uh,
124to the Court of Common Pleas here, they would hold us to the standard. That doesn't mean that we have to lower our threshold uh for transparency to that level. We could say that it is correct that uh PA uh Supreme Court has said that this could be done, but we are saying that in our policy, we are not going to allow that. So, uh our policy can be more stringent than what the Supreme Court says that we are able to do, right? The Supreme Court says that we can do it. We don't have to hold ourselves to that standard. Uh and at minimum, I want to say that we should not say that that should be sort of like something that we discourage, right? Uh for uh for transparency uh in in that regard. And
125uh sort of like remove all of our uh incentives for a uh for an agenda that is uh well publicized to the public. Uh we should My my my point is that we should go exactly the opposite direction. We should I mean, if you want to acknowledge the uh Scotus uh uh decision, I'm fine with that, even though I don't understand why we would need to do that. We cannot We can uh acknowledge it and say that even though the uh the there is there is nothing uh illegal about it, but we hold ourselves to the standard of 24 hours uh of public notice for transparency. And uh uh with that, I am going to ask that uh that the the other uh uh provision also uh goes back to what it was before. This
126was uh This is a This This provision of uh minority members, two members, three members being able to uh put something on the agenda is uh extremely important. People here have used that before. This These items are on the agenda because you used that, right? Uh So, uh uh it's uh it's important for uh for for people to be able to put things on the agenda, including the uh agenda and attachment that are coming with them, so that uh uh not just the board members, but also the public will also be able to uh see those, evaluate those, uh form an opinion about them, uh come here and talk about it uh in favor or opposed. Uh Uh and I think this kind of like loosens that process too much. And it's sort of like
127a move in the opposite direction that uh I I think we should we should go. All right. Any other comments? About the whole policy? Yes, any part of it. Yes. >> Yeah, um I mean, I wanted to say that um I appreciate the changes to the materials that that have to be presented in advance. And And I think it's it's well written in the sense that it I feel like it's it's it's judicious, like the way that the the language talks about having data and documents. And it ties that to the, you know, the way that the helping the board make a timely decision on an agenda item. And it's not just like show me everything that you're going to You know, it gives them freedom to some, you know, to um uh you know,
128in presentations where there might be some stuff that's just like flair or um information that's not it's not really a matter of a decision, it's just informational. So, I I really appreciate that a lot. I think that's a good change. Um I think that the committee reports is a excellent addition. That's To me, that's the norm. You know, that's like that's what I've seen everywhere, you know, in every um um even volunteer groups that, you know, that I I'm part of where they, you know, they have committee, you know, and you do the committee report. I think it's really helpful. Um And lastly, I wanted to suggest that maybe there was a little language put under public participation. Um And I mean, I don't know. I mean, I I think it would be good to
129if if there was something where it was like the presiding officer may adj- adjust the order of the agenda um when there is um to accommodate the public. I don't know how to put it, but when there's a big When there's tons of people here and there's a bunch of there's a bunch of you know people struggling to to um you know because they're so it's so crowded in here. Um and they're all waiting to have a chance to speak on something. Um I just wish there was a way maybe it's some it's another policy I I'm not aware of but a way to acknowledge the presiding officers right to make an adjustment to the agenda. Um to to to to allow them to uh speak first and and you know and not have to
130wait until the very end of the meeting. If it's a if it's a non-agenda item you know um so I don't know. Um it's just something that um it concerns me sometimes when we have a big crowd and they're having to wait and you know you see parents struggling with you know having to um you know accommodate families or you know you I I I know the desperation. You know. Yeah I understand that but I I believe this is our business meeting. So if it's not on our agenda it is typical that it's at the end and maybe Mark you could add anything to that. I mean I understand that the the concern. I I I would probably suggest that that that be addressed on a case-by-case basis as it presents itself on a given
131evening. I'd rather it not be codified in policy so much as if we have a whole bunch of people here on what I understand would be a non-agenda item that we do want to address up front then that that board at that time can permit that. I would rather not bind you know even even this group down the road to something they might not want to do. But but as as as Vivian indicated um if it's a non-agenda item that should ultimately wait till the end most instances because this is a a business meeting. There's there's work to be done and and if if the if the directive to the the members of the public are you you will have to wait until the the business side of the meeting's done that that is just
132typically how it's done in virtually all other districts. But I think that would be more of a case-by-case basis. Okay. Uh all right this is Cedric. Um I just want to um say something also about the um the bar that the level of the bar that we should have for making changes to the agenda um on the day of. Um I I also think that we should highly discourage that if not completely eliminate that via our policy. Uh and also >> [clears throat] >> as part of that um we I I I also don't agree that we should require a majority for something to be put on a new business. I think it's it's very reasonable to allow a minority to bring something for discussion. Um and I would be really disappointed that if that
133were to to uh be removed from one of our avenues of uh bringing attention to something that uh a minority of board members care about. Um on a on a um on a kind of a more minor note um the the text says that the uh the the email about adding something to the agenda needs to be delivered by 8:00 a.m. on Wednesday prior to the board meeting. Um that that just assumes that the board meeting is uh on going to be on Tuesday if we call a special meeting uh for whatever reason or if the board meeting isn't on Tuesday because it's not always. Um I think that this should just say a week before the board meeting. Uh so that it's clear um when it needs to happen. Is the is the thing
134that well maybe you're going to address this time but is the is the thing that Cedric's worried about with a minority that's only for last minute items right? That's not >> May Yeah maybe I could maybe I can ask if I may ask the sort of the the people who have a So just so just to provide some context the the majority of of a board being able to add an agenda item to the to the agenda is the default parliamentary procedure. Right? If we were following Robert's Rules that's actually what we would occur. Okay. So but there's an important distinction which I I'm I'm sort of unclear about where the hesitation is. Is the is the issue that a minority board member or even a singular board member does not have the ability to
135make a motion to have a topic considered? Or is it that a minority member or or a small minority cannot force debate on an issue? Because those are two actually different things and and the the policy does not stop the first one. It it actually restricts the second one, but those are two independent things. Yeah, so the Let me let me let me address both. So, the the first one is that I understand the Robert's Rule about uh the uh the agenda, right? The uh transparency laws in Pennsylvania were interpreted a certain way, which provided more transparency for the public when it comes to uh I think all boards, but in particular school boards, right? And uh uh SCOTUS decision said that uh that interpretation of the laws were uh not necessary, right? Now, uh
136at this point, we have two options. One option is to say, you know what? Uh strict Robert's Rules is what we wanted to do, right? We were doing all the things that were related to transparency because we were forced to do that, not because we wanted to do that. And uh now that uh the court has says has said that we can do it under the uh majority vote exception, then uh we are going to kind of like lower our bar to that level. I'm just saying that these are two different things. Again, the same way that you This is like we can desire to have more transparency for the public. And uh uh and and and that means that we can actually have a policy that says that even though that is not illegal,
137we can hold ourselves to a 24-hours uh uh timeline for uh uh for for the agenda items. I'll just share this with you. This is a actually not a the There is a There's a contractual obligation that we have with the association that uh by Friday before the board meeting with by certain time, they would receive a copy of the agenda, right? Uh it's not because anybody has forced us to do it, it's because of transparency. You want to have your uh uh staff uh the the associations that are uh interested in what's on the agenda to know about it, to be able to uh form an opinion about it, to uh be able to uh decide what they're going to do and react with, right? So, uh it's good governance regardless of whether it
138is you know, against the uh law or not, which is sort of like what it was before, right? I'm talking about in this case the the 24-hours. My point is that uh my suggestion to you is that uh we restrict ourselves and say that uh uh we want to have the 24-hour uh notification for for the public, right? Even though if we don't do that, it's not illegal, right? Now, if a if an urgent matter comes uh before the board, right? And uh there is uh I'm not even saying majority. Let's say the absolute majority consensus is that we need to add it, we will add it, right? But uh our policy, I hope, will remain uh on the side of more transparency as opposed to less. That's point number one. The second question that
139you asked about what's the the other provision. Uh whether you were allowed to make a motion to add something to the agenda on the day of is an ability that you always had, right? So, uh that was not a uh problem. This These documents that you had and they were part of the agenda that were that was shared on online and was public, right? That ability will go away if we restrict it to uh language that you have here. So, that is the thing that I think we should maintain. In other words, uh if there are two board members who want to uh bring up something for the purpose of uh you know, passing it and so forth. And in this case, just let's uh uh let's let's make a note that this is actually
140This is not against the majority. This is something that the superintendent does not want to put on the agenda. That's the sort of like the the the opposition there, right? The opposition is not the majority. The opposition is superintendent's uh uh desire to include that on the agenda. I think they should have the ability to uh uh to add it in this packet so that uh people in the public will be able to see this document, right? That you had here. They will uh look at it and if they see that there is something in there that is uh uh that is something that they uh have questions about or opposed to and so forth, they are able to come here, uh stand at the podium and say, "Hey, this thing, I don't know why
141this is the case or I'm opposed to it, or whatever, right? Whereas right now, if we say that it's five or or else you bring it to the board, you know, on the day of the thing, nobody would know that that is happening, right? So, it becomes a situation where our normal order of business will become the exception, and we shouldn't do that. We should really sort of like try to provide information for the purpose of the public's knowledge as much as possible with as much of an advanced notice as as possible. Can I just a point of information? Can I just ask Don um So, if this passes as it is, if there are two board members who um have an idea that they want to have on the agenda, let's say a week
142in advance, and they uh send it to the superintendent to ask that it be put on the agenda, um if this passes, that won't be allowed, right? Like that I don't believe two is allowed now. It has to be three. It has to be three. >> They can They can send it the Sorry. They can send it, but the superintendent does not need to include it on the agenda if the superintendent does not agree with you. Okay, so I'm sorry. Yeah, it's pretty So, it's limited to five, which, you know, So, if there are three, let's I'll change it to three, and those they and they send it in, um will that be prevented if this passes? Does it then have to be voted on? I'm just trying to make sure I understand. >> It
143wouldn't go onto the agenda without a majority. So, most of the I mean, I honestly I maybe Saugus Union School Board is is different, and and and maybe I I mean, I've never I've never seen any organization uh at this level um like sort of restrict uh items like that way. I I I don't know. That makes me nervous. Um I mean, I I I often see chair the you know, the chair of of of of a board going out and asking for inclusions in the agenda, um and they definitely don't vote on the whole um the they they vote for the agenda when they come to the meeting, you know? They And there's something that they don't like, then they can, you know, But that's because that agenda is made by a member of
144the board and not a separate not the not the superintendent, not the administration, right? So, that chair is making that agenda. And so, they are the ultimate decider, so to speak, of what goes on that agenda. So, for instance, if you were a union president, you set the agenda. So, you go out and you ask people if they want anything on the agenda, and you have the ultimate say of it. But in our meetings, the agenda is the superintendent's agenda, and we had this process, right? And the process was how we add things to the agenda that the administration is not supportive of. And that process was in part controlled by the Sunshine Law, right? And so, we could not follow standard parliamentary order and and to do that because the Sunshine Law restricted that.
145And so, you know, there's a bit of a to a to to address uh Shamim's point here, there's a there's a bit of clarification in terms of transparency in the sense of transparency to the public and transparency to each other. And like I am sure that the public I'm sure I'm going to get email about this when I say it, but the public received the proper level of transparency by law that we gave them on every item that we always give them on the contract that we voted on. So, the public received the same amount of transparency that they receive on every item on that item, and we followed the law to do that, which was great. I'm We have to do that. That is part of what we do. But I I know that
146you were one of these people, you did not feel that the transparency on the board was adequate. And the reason you didn't feel that is because three people were able to send an email that you were not attached to and add something to the agenda without your knowledge. That's that That is That is what occurred, right? Just in in all transparency. And so, this this part of the policy is actually is is being pulled in two directions because it is both considering transparency to the public and transparency to each other. And to address both of those is difficult. And and I'm not sure that I have the language exactly right. And I you know Yeah. May I say something? Yeah. If I may. Um I I don't want to rehash that. Yeah. Um Never Thank
147you very much. Um But what I wanted to say as I was listening carefully to Shamim what I don't want to do and what I am um adamant about not doing is minimizing anybody's voice because they you know, I want to work together as a board of 10. I don't want to have I think and and I talked to you about the five and I agreed with you, but listening to other people's input I don't want to minimize anybody's voice because it's three. Do you know what I mean? I would I would like to see it back to three, quite frankly, because I don't want to minimize anybody's voice on the board. Um requiring a majority. I don't want to minimize that. May May I say something? And this is This is the probably the
148only time I'm going to call you Don, okay? So uh the previous version of this policy that you had uh was shared before the Scotus opinion was published. And conversation that we had and that was reflected in the language that you had was that actually you wanted to bring the bar lower, right? Because Robert's Rules also allows one person with one person who will second the motion to motion to add something on the agenda on the day of or anytime, right? And you had shared with me that it shouldn't be three, it should be two. Right? So the reason that you changed this is to make it consistent with this, right? But what I'm submitting is that this is the regular order of business business. This is the exception, right? There is no reason that
149the regular order of business should be the same as the exception, right? It could be that for the regular order of business we have one set of rules and procedures and thresholds and for the exception we have something else. So I I think you know, I'm I'm just going to ask you to sort of like shake your desire for a sort of like beautiful consistency across the board for everything, right? Because this really does not need to have that. Uh the procedure that we have is that actually no board member can want something on the agenda and that thing could be on the agenda if the superintendent wants to put them on the agenda. So three is many more than zero, right? And the notification you had some language and I didn't see it here,
150but maybe I I missed that. Uh which is that you had some language that said that once something is added to the agenda by by by by board members, then that language has to be shared with the rest of the board members as soon as possible and that's that's fine. So that sort of like addresses the other issue that you raised about transparency to the other board members. But I I I say that this uh uh really that the the place that I see this uh harming is really really truly is the public's notice and knowledge about things that are on the agenda that are not sort of like uh emergency. And I I I want us to give that notice to the public as much as possible commit it commit ourselves to that even
151if it's not required by law necessarily. I I I would I mean the minority matters to me and and I personally I I like when there are sort of I ideas that are sort of um a little bit unusual that come up and that people have a chance to get items that may not be that very popular, but they have at least a few board members who are interested in them and and maybe they can get up at the board and they can they can make their case and maybe not, maybe they'll fail, you know? But I like to I enjoy hearing a diversity of ideas and having a a kind of pluralism in terms of the um the the culture of the board and I mean the there's many things I I have disagreed
152with with many people on on this board currently and past but um they have I feel like I've never been restricted from you know, being able to put items on the agenda. Um I mean, maybe that's a problem. I don't know, but for me it's it gives I feel like there's a sense of dignity and that that I've been afforded and and at times that can be problematic. I mean, I I know that it can be It can be uncomfortable when I mean, Don, I'll quote you, democracy is messy, you know? That's those are your words, you know, and I really believe in them and I and that's I like to that when we can have that kind of You know, that Okay, well, I've said what I needed to say. No, I think I
153think that if if I could at least I'm I'm not against changing it back to three. Just Let me just let me just put that aside. But in my mind, when I talked about this when I thought about this, the bar has already been lowered incredibly by by the law essentially. Like the the bar to like forcing a discussion on something is very low now, right? And so, you know, I understand where you're coming from. As people said though, we don't have to. >> We don't have to do it that way, right? But but the opportunity is there. And so, if you are saying, you know, for many reasons I do not wish to use that and so therefore I don't wish to change the thing we had. I'm I understand that. Yeah, no, I
154mean, this is a one thing that I'm just thinking about, you know, all of the things that have been added to our agenda by three people. And I think every time we've done it, the topic has passed. Just sort of like a point of reference for for Bill, right? And others. So, this is like every time we did add something, you know, to the agenda on the new business with the matter has succeeded, including this, I suspect, right? With with amendments. Uh so, so this is not really at least my experience here hasn't been that this is something where there is a kind of like something sneaky is sort of like coming through and so forth. The the point of doing it in advance is really the notice to public and the addition of the
155matters that the company is the topic, right? And and I think those are important. The second part I'm I'm going to say that again that that this this the exception thing is I think we should sort of like treat that as something exceptional for really exceptional things. We should not really we should not really try to make this as our uh uh regular order of business, right? As a result of that, I'm I'm going to I'm going to make a motion in a minute, right? If there is no other thing >> Please do. No other discussion. I think we've heard to do two things. One is to strike the red part, which is the Scotus thing, out of our policy. The reason for that is because there are a lot of Scotus decisions that are
156related to education. I suspect most of them are not showing up in school board policies. I don't know. Mark will correct me if I'm wrong, right? This Wait, if you actually do, but that's that's neither here Some of them do and many of them don't, right? This is like there are vast majority of them are not on the school board policies because Scotus has thousands of decisions that are related to education and we don't have those many policies uh total, right? So, that's that's one part of it. I think it's unnecessary in the in the sense that this is this is important for Judge Curry in the Court of Common Pleas in Northampton court. This is not necessarily something for for us. Even though we are abiding by it, it doesn't have to be in
157our policy. That part of it is our decision. It's not PA Supreme Court did not say that from tomorrow all the school boards have to include this in their policy, right? We can like not include that. Right? We can say that No, well, so hold on. Yeah, go ahead. Anything else you would want to add to your changes? Sure. I want to I want to strike that. That's one motion, right? I request that you keep these motions separate. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. But that's I I just don't know whether I should do that one at a time and then we uh debate that or is that how you prefer it? Um well, why don't we talk through the other changes first and then we'll figure out how >> Yeah, the the the other change is
158basically for the language there to revert back to what it was, which was saying that must have an additional two directors uh which was which was what what what what we had you know, uh before the red was was was added. And I think that's what uh Mr. Carpenter said that he is amenable to that, right? So, but but but this this one is I think I think is more important from from another perspective. The I think that the other red the SCOTUS part uh I I think we should not uh we should not lower our our standard to that level. I think we should say that we we commit that our uh uh agendas are published 24 hours before the meeting. We should say that. I think that And I think that's we can
159We should say that we commit that our agenda is published at least 24 hours before the meeting. In other words, we can say that we are not going to make any changes to our agenda in the last 24 hours, unless there is something uh that is emergency that happens, in which case we can always suspend the policy that we have. Uh that's our policy. Uh amend the agenda, pass the topic, and we can't be sued uh before the courts because what we've done is not uh illegal. That's what the SCOTUS said. Basically, they said that Parkland, when they did that, they didn't violate the law. So, that's my uh my motion. My my first motion is to uh get rid of the uh the the SCOTUS decision that is uh included here. Mark, did you
160want to add something to that? Sure. Um First, in in terms of the the language from SCOTUS, A, I want to clarify is it is really not SCOTUS language, it's just reinstating what the Sunshine Act currently says. Go there. Um I'm always of the view that if we're restating a statute, it doesn't need to be it does not need to be in policy. All right? That said, I do think it is detrimental from maybe not in a purely technical legal sense, but I do think it's detrimental to handcuff us to access to the full statute. And it sounds like Dr. Paxson, you're you're you're I said we can we can always uh we can always suspend our policy and add something to the agenda. You You Arguably what But arguably what you would be doing
161at that point is you'd have to do a motion to suspend the policy. Then you'd have to do a motion to amend the agenda. Then you'd have to do a motion on the actual I mean, that's that's a lot. So, how many How many times do you want to do that? That's what That's what I'm It's If this is once in a blue moon, which is the situation that we've had up until now, yeah, let's do the three motions and uh amend the agenda and add the thing to the thing, and everybody would know that this was an exceptional thing that we did. As opposed to saying that we're just going to do it willy-nilly because uh uh the Supreme Court is not going to uh uh slap us on the wrist. If If I
162may make a comment about that. I don't know if we have a second yet, sorry. Do we have a second for that motion to strike out the red language on the Sunshine Act? Right, this would be on page five of 14. >> Which virtually reinstates the Sunshine Act. Correct. It it the process to adding to an a an agenda or Uh can I What is Like, even if we do strike it out, you could still still law, right? It's still law. So, it doesn't matter if we strike it out or not, it's still Well, still will always be able to refer to the state law. Correct. Which would allow us then to amend the agenda. So, it's just whether or not we want to explicitly put it in there versus it's there anyway. Okay, second.
163Could I Could I respond? Yeah. So, um there's a couple of things here. First of all, this entire section of this policy is pulling from the rules that were that are part of the of the PSBA. You can see the little like 11 reference on every item, including the one that's stricken out. Like, that's the reference to the code that's being referenced here. And so, you what you're going to you it's really messy to make a policy where you're like, code, code, code, code, code, we're just going to ignore code here, and then code. I can tell you right now that PSBA has already said that their recommended policy change language is going to include this. So, that they like we are part of the PSBA policy thing, we are going to get a recommended
164policy that's going to include this language, cuz that's part of the recommendation, and it's how the policy here is structured. So, it's I part of the policy is in is that it is also making clear that we're following the law, and these are the rules. And I think it's important to have that in the policy. Uh the second thing is we've kind of uh you know, when I originally proposed many of these policies, there was a lot of pushback on the sense that I tried to do things that tied our hands above and beyond the law. Like, I had some things in here about 2/3 votes to do things like that, and I got a lot of pushback, basically saying like, the law is the majority of the board can do these things, and so
165we're not not going to make a policy that uh is is not following the law even though we can because the majority can just undo it and it just creates unnecessary restrictions. So, I did a lot of work to pull out all those things that were like commented on about how they went they put it they provided extra restrictions which I might have valued for reasons of transparency and other things but they were above the code and so I don't think we should just put a restriction on above the code. I think there was a lot of discussion about why we shouldn't do that and I think I tried to do a lot of work to minimize that in all of these things. And so, I don't think we should have a policy where we
166are literally referencing the code over and over and over again and then we just ignore the code. It is definitely every uh board members uh ability to vote no to add things to the agenda even if they support the thing just because they're like, "You know what? The public didn't have enough notice here. So, we're going to vote no." And every board member can absolutely uh use their uh you know, their power as one of nine votes to do that. W- Why not Why not we do it now without the pressure of uh those uh uh topics that are uh being added to the agenda. Here now, we can say that as a matter of principle without sort of like worrying about, you know, individual topics that uh we're not going to do that. I
167would support a resolution that says that we pledge to do our best to not do that. >> Yeah, yeah, but that's that is the policy that we have. But But just the other part of it that I wanted to say, I I I I I would like to invite everybody to read the part of this policy. This is page six that is stricken out. So, uh uh read that and tell me why you would not like that, you know? So, I understand that the scotus said you don't have to hold that standard but uh what I'm saying is that as a matter of again sort of like us expressing our principles, what's wrong with that uh uh that that language, right? This is like what it says is that if you're adding something, you have
168to explain why this is being added, you have to go through a couple of motions which are uh reasonable. We've done that when we have needed to do it and they have not been, you know, kind of like any more cumbersome that than this conversation that we have that has sort of like taken uh so long. And it just says that the agenda shall be amended to reflect a new item uh of business and the amended agenda. All of this it will be posted after and so forth. What I'm saying is that this No, no, I understand. We are not violating this. This is because when you were talking about this is code code code code, then we are ignoring the law. We're not ignoring the law. What we we are not we are not
169ignoring ignoring the law in the sense that we are not violating the law. We are just saying that the law said go you can go up to 70 miles an hour and we say that we are not going to go over 60. The law says that you can smoke and we say that we are not going to smoke. The law says uh you can drink and we are not going to drink, right? We are going to make a pledge that we are going to do good governance. And good governance is provide as much notice to the public about what you're about to do in your business. Look at here, right? Nobody sitting here. Part of it is you can say, you know, whatever but part of it is that you say that, you know, what?
170They looked at the agenda. They got they thought there's nothing that I really care about to go sit there and wait until uh uh 10:00, right? And we have had meetings where people have looked at the agenda and decided that hey, you know, what? There's something on this agenda that I care about and I'm going to go sit there until uh you know, midnight past midnight to express what I >> I I think we're devolving into place. Right now, the um on the table is a motion to strike the red on page five, the majority vote of the sunshine >> back just go to the and go back to the language that we had before which is uh reflected on page six which is the good governance. I'm just going to make one comment on
171very quick and very short. Um I think it is more transparent if this language is in the policy so that we're not enacting something that we know as law but um maybe the public doesn't. Um so, we had a motion and a second, yes? And so, all in favor? Oh, sorry. Can I one more thing before I go? >> Um so, I understand that the you know, the language being in there is transparent to the public. Um and I also understand the concerns that we don't want this to become commonplace, right? That we're just doing this at every meeting and then it's not transparent. Um so, you know, if we feel the board feels that it should be left in here, is there a way to add in the language of you know, this will
172be utilized during exceptional times or we as a board pledge to not, you know, make this commonplace? Is there any way to hold the board accountable that we won't do that frequently cuz it sounds like that's what the concern is. The The stricken down language is just that, what you just said. Yeah. >> says that it has to be something that is exogenous. And if that is the case, just do these two three things. You can You can still do exactly this. Yeah. I don't I don't think that the stricken language actually uh does anything like you're saying. I actually think that the stricken language just is talking about how you post the agenda items and things like that, which is already addressed in the new language. This is It says that the adding an
173item to the posted agenda, if you're adding something to the posted agenda on the day of the meeting, you must announce that. Yeah, we have to do that in the normal Yeah, yeah, I know. The board can do Once announced and approved by majority vote, the board may take official action and so forth and then post it uh the next day that uh this was something that was uh And And And And the other part of it is that this is uh this is the I don't think that it changes anything. It just maintains the old language. It actually If you read it, it's kind of the same thing. It's just the old version of it. Okay, we're just reviewing the language over here. Um it appears that the additions to the um agenda, those
174were the four that are listed. Um according to what we're looking at, you reinstated the crossed out language from the Sunshine Act, is that right in your additional four? Yeah, the the four in red. Yeah, the what was in red is like the new language that PSBA sent. Which one was the the red. But it it says very similar thing. Right, it's it's almost identical. >> Yeah. Yeah, yeah, but that's how they This is how they they sent it in the in the after the um after the decision. They sent it as this bulleted point that like you must do these things. Okay, instead of the verbage that's listed in your crossed out And it's possible that it might be slightly different, but that's what they sent out in their email. Um I would be
175inclined to um since we're going to keep, you know, we're going to list the emergency exception, we're going to list the businesses arising within the 24 hours and the businesses raised by residents with the majority vote option number four is back available to us. I'm inclined to stay my recommendation, the original language, because that's coming straight from statute and to me Original, you mean the red? >> Yeah. The The struck out struck out language. That's coming from statute and to me we would rely on that to to for those procedures accordingly to if we if we go that way. Now, to to the question posed, um can we have language in there if it's the board's desire that that we maybe note only under extraordinary or exceptional circumstances shall the majority vote provision be utilized?
176Absolutely. It will be aspirational, but at least it will be in there if that's a desire of the board. Could I Could I revise my my amendment or the the motion? May you revise it? I think that's probably something that would address everyone's You can only do it twice. You can only go down the rabbit hole twice. So, you only have one more available to you. >> One more time, so that's uh Let's do it. Now, wait. I'm just going to clarify, but other sections could then be addressed other than this one. I just want to clarify that. This is He's saying that I can't do it again. You can do it. >> No, you can't. You're Yeah, your motion. Yeah, yeah, but it's like layers down. You could do a separate one, so right.
177So So here's the thing. I I I just read them. This is a I I think I'm I'm fine with red. I'm fine with stricken out. I think the important thing is what Dr. Erickson Parson said, which is that we add a sentence which says uh uh this provision would be used only under uh extreme situations or something and then the rest, the the procedure. I think I'm I'm I'm okay with that because that kind of like limits us. We limit ourselves to do this only if there is something really emergent. >> Okay, so what I would do if we're So, it sounds like you're marrying a couple things. One, a heightened level of standard on going this route, but you're okay with the the red proposed language. >> I mean, I used it Do
178you like the stricken out uh Or I I I'm not I don't I trust >> can I can live with both, but I I I can live with both because ultimately it's getting Okay. So, why don't we do this? Um it sounds to me like we could do something like the red language. And if you look at the majority vote section, we could have during a meeting {comma} and only under extraordinary circumstances {comma} the board may Yeah, I'm good with that. Okay. That would be >> That is my that's my amendment. You amended your motion. You have to have a second. I got a question. So is the the language in red at the top of page four, is that Where is that now? Oh. We'll we'll get to We'll we'll get there. We'll get
179there. I'll make the motion for that in a minute. Okay, cuz I'm I don't Okay, so I'm not voting for that right now. No, no, that's not Yeah. Don asked them to sit Okay. So it would seem based on all of this, the actual amendment is simply that clause and only under extraordinary circumstances. Yes. That's the amendment. Yeah. Okay, fair enough. >> [laughter] >> Any other discussion? Good. All in favor say I. I. I. Opposed? I. So motion passes. Okay. So my next amendment is So we have a minute. that's uh uh we change at the top of uh board's page superintendent and board secretary and must have an additional two directors also support the agenda item. So strike out the a majority of and then there is an and there. I don't know what
180that is. So When you when you strike out it was an and Ah, yeah, you got it now. But the A is red, so that's why I was Ah, yeah, that was my mistake. So your amendment here is to revert back to the uh additional two members. >> whether an additional is needed or have additional two directors. Okay. I I I understand the amendment. Second. Okay, so Any other discussion on that one? All in favor? I. I. Opposed? Oh, now we're now we're silly me. >> [laughter] >> Okay. Back to um voting on this um on policy 006. I do have one clarifier. Thank you. Yes, thank you. Mrs. Velocity had noted something. I just want to clarify for the um for the understanding of the order of business provision. So under the new business
181number 15 >> makes complete sense to me. >> would the actual business of the day be carried under that subsection? So for >> under that subsection? So for instance instance >> personnel items, education items. So those will be subsections of the new business. That was the intent, yeah. That makes sense. It makes complete sense to me. Yeah, yeah. Now it does. That that is >> That that is >> that is what we are doing. We are doing the new business. It's weird to call it something else. >> And where is the old business? >> It's unfinished business. >> To make clear that it is unfinished business, not just >> any any old thing that you >> want to say is old. >> Okay. Like >> That you've said before. >> Okay. >> We're voting on
182everything including the two amendments that were >> voted upon. >> Um do I have a motion? >> We already did. >> Uh >> We did. >> All those in favor? >> I. >> Opposed? >> The eyes have it. >> With with the comma >> being fixed the one >> the one Yes. >> Yes. >> No, that was in the previous one the comma >> Page this one. >> Page six. >> No, there was an apostrophe or something. >> Apostrophe, yeah. >> With the grammar corrections. >> Apostrophe, I think it is. >> Yes. >> Oh, where are we? >> [laughter] >> Thank you all. Any other >> Any other >> for >> uh >> Yeah, thank you as well. >> working through that, seriously. >> Thank you, Don. >> Any other new business? >> Besides myself.
183>> I have mashed potatoes to fling at you. >> I'll let you >> say meeting [laughter] motion to >> say meeting motion to adjourn. adjourn. >> Um >> And >> you know, Don, I'm going to rely on you on how to go about this, but the one thing I'd like to propose is in the next board meeting. >> So I'm asking for >> I'm hopeful I can ask for a vote on >> moving something to the >> next meeting. >> Um >> something I'm going [clears throat] to >> something I'm going to propose under new propose under new business. Is that business. Is that accurate? Can I do accurate? Can I do that right now? that right now? >> Nope. >> No. >> Uh >> Okay. >> Why not? No, no, I'm not going to
184I'm not going down that rabbit hole. So, what I wanted to bring up in new business, um and then when I bring it up in a new business, I will, um, send it out to everyone and then if two people aren't supportive of it being on the next agenda, that would be fine. And it is, you know, 100 down a revision of our committees where we would have a faci- Of course, I'm not going to be able to pull it up right now. So, the um, the committees would change, um, to be facilities and gosh, finance. >> Mhm. F and F, facilities and finance together. Okay, because they typically follow each other. And we would have one on, imagine this, uh, policy. So, that this discussion, this entire discussion doesn't have to happen, um, with
185the entire board, those who want it. And the other one was, um, academic. And we save the personnel for executive session when it requires, or we could do academic and personnel. The other thing I'm going to ask in the email, which I will send out to everyone, would be that these are held on one Wednesday, one following each other. So, there's no 5:00, 6:00, 7:00. It is we start at 5:00 with what's on there and then move through them. For all four committees? There's only three committees. Or right, but the facilities and finance and then policy and then academic, all of them back-to-back. >> [laughter] >> Bring your coffee. Well, this is a this this is a topic for next time, right? So, this is a and not not all of them, uh, Ms. Temko,
186need to be having the same, uh, frequency of, uh, meeting. Uh, so, it's possible that, you know, you can have policy meeting at another time or something. Right. I think just as a point of strange information, uh, you totally could make a motion that we add something to the agenda next time. It's just it would take a majority in the meeting and it would only take three people after and not out in the meeting. I'm I'm not going down that. >> [laughter] >> In that case, you could you could you could include, uh, the the the suggestions, uh, in the agenda as as well as sharing with, uh, with everybody else. Not going down there. I lost my agenda. >> [laughter] >> Strange, but random facts. All right. Do we have any old business? I
187don't believe we do. All right. Citizens inquiries? Anybody want to be a citizen? No, I don't think so. Curry. We [laughter] said December 17th, though. I don't think Oh. Yeah, they were Oh, she's still on the clock. We have We have two more hours. >> [laughter] >> Okay. Um, announcements, future meetings, January 13th at 7:00 and January 27th at 7:00. Do I have a motion to adjourn? Judy, do you have the approval that we adjourn? >> [laughter] >> And again, thank you, Judy, and congratulations.