I'd like to call the June 27,
2022 meeting of the Derry Township School District Board of Directors to order
and announce that this meeting is being live streamed and audio recorded.
This meeting is being conducted both in-person and virtually,
and I would like to ask for board members to please state your name when speaking.
Mrs. Agee. Roll call, please.
Mr. Bennett. President.
Dr. KERNAN.
Here is true here. Dr. Cox.
Here.
Mrs. Mamie Here, Mr. Rizzo.
Here, Mrs. Schmidt. Here, Mrs. Decker.
Here, Mr. Singer. Here.
Nine present, zero Absent.
Thank you.
Please rise if you're able, and join me for the Pledge of Allegiance
to pledge allegiance.
To the flag of the United States of America,
which says My patient under God,
this liberty and justice for all.
May I please have
a motion to approve the June 27, 2022
Board of Directors meeting agenda so moved Maria me second.
Mike Rizzo. Is there any discussion?
This is a standard voice vote.
All those in favor, please say I say no
agenda is approved.
I would like to announce that the board met in executive session
prior to this meeting to discuss information and safe schools.
Presentation
recognition of citizen for agenda items.
This is an opportunity for residents and taxpayers to address
the board on matters related to the agenda.
Citizens wishing to speak should come to the microphone
or raise their virtual hand
if attending virtually, you must have registered
individually with your first and last name to be recognized.
Once recognized are unmuted.
Please state your full name and address For the record,
this is a reminder that public comment is not a forum
for personal attacks, antagonistic behavior or harassment.
Please be advised that you are accountable for any legal ramifications
and liability which may result from statements
misrepresenting the truth, defaming individuals
or disclosing personal information, not of public concern.
To provide other residents with an opportunity to speak.
Each speaker during the public comment portion
is limited to 5 minutes of speaking time once recognized and limited
to one opportunity to address the board during each of the public comment periods.
If necessary, the board may set a maximum time
for the public comment portion of any meeting.
I will ask Board Treasurer Mr.
Secured to please keep time.
Are there any residents or taxpayers who would like to comment
at this time will begin with those present in the audience?
Mr. Miller.
Hello.
John Miller 329 Cocoa Avenue.
I wanted to touch on
a book review that was conducted
on the books seeing gender.
Now I want to first mention that
as somebody who has
in my family, someone in this community, I believe it's important
that we most definitely we don't have room for
for any kind of of mistreatment of that community.
As I mentioned, it's unacceptable.
And my my critique of this book
is, is aside from the issue,
I'm sensitive to the issue.
I just wanted to clarify that before I say anything here.
The book review, the school district
justified the book pretty much on for
items as I see it.
And for those of you who aren't familiar, seeing gender is a
it's a book that investigates
basically the concept of gender,
different theories on gender, which there are not.
I'm not saying that's not true,
but this is for middle school kids.
I have an eight year old and she's going to be in middle school in two years.
And some of the items that were discussed in this book are pretty concerning.
Number one, I would say
the school district's first justification was that
it's pretty much there was a concept of kindness throughout the book,
which kindness is wonderful.
We have to be kind.
There was no mention of, however, in the book believe it says.
However, sometimes anger is necessary.
Sometimes being disengaging is necessary.
Okay.
Number two,
and this is pretty much the biggest one here,
would be the mental health aspect of making sure people in their community
have have access to literature that describes their lived condition,
that that that is a far cry from
some of the things
mentioned here about the sex work industry.
The term sex work is not a bad term.
The book says
sex work is a broad term
used to describe the exchange of sex or sexual activity.
Sex work is use.
It's they say it's stigmatizing. Okay.
They say some people have sex sexual activity for things
they want or need, such as food, housing or hormones.
And they quote a book called
Meaningful Work Transgender Experiences in the Sex Trade.
And they reference the sex trade as a job
like a store clerk or an architect or a freelance writer.
We are all,
unfortunately, have to do things that we don't want to do to make a living.
Some of us hate our jobs and some of us love them.
And the same goes for those who do sex work.
Sadly,
I think we can do better for
our kids.
I think we can give them
a more inspiring outlook on the future.
This is this is unfortunate.
The committee felt
that the author is not endorsing or promoting becoming a sex worker.
If an eight year old is going to be exposed potentially to this material.
And again, we have someone in this community, in our family.
That's not the issue.
The issue is that she's exposed to Iris Gotlib, who this self-described
30 year old
boy, I believe.
And last lastly would be.
I have heard some people have talked
that this is almost as if
a form of psychiatry or psychology.
There's tests and questions about like some serious stuff here.
This is this is deep level
coursework intersectionality, describing
I would love if somebody could describe intersectionality to me.
And as for us, where did it come from?
What theory, What schools of thought?
And tell me how that aligns with what we say
we're trying to do and uphold
constitutional principles and pledge allegiance?
We just said it's unfortunate.
I would ask that people would reconsider
having this in our library.
I think it's dangerous. It's dangerous.
Thank you very much.
Thank you.
Is there anyone else in the audience
who would like to participate in public comment
casing?
None.
I'll open it up to virtual participants.
If you would like to participate, please raise your hand at this time.
Kevin Ferguson, you've been given permission to speak.
Please state your name and address for the record.
Kevin Ferguson 1338 Hall Road.
I want to thank you for the Zoom option.
Monday night is the only night I can address the board in person,
so I'm grateful for this option.
Last meeting would be the better time to bring this topic up.
Considering you discussed the budget and I had made some comments
about the recent school shooting, so I didn't want to use any more of your time.
So I will make this brief.
But what I would like to discuss the issue of the 42 and a half cents
amusement tax receipt
that the school district gets
per ticket.
And what I'm going to ask
is two things I would like that
the board, the administration would consider,
if they're not already auditing this tax, that they do that on a regular basis.
And the second ask I'm going to have here this evening would be
that they consider that you strongly consider
challenging the agreement itself.
This this agreement was put in place back in 1998.
The bill was introduced in October of 97,
and within five months, around March of 98,
this agreement was signed.
And in that time period, both the township and the district were led to believe
that it was eminent, that
that the amusement tax was going to be eliminated.
And in my belief, I think that they were misled
because this bill didn't even make it out of the first committee.
It wasn't voted on.
There's no record that it was even brought up in this first committee.
There was little interest in eliminating the amusement tax.
And in fact, two years afterwards, there was another challenge
to the amusement tax.
Just decrease it.
And that in that failed as well.
So I really think in that short period of time, from where
I was introduced until when we signed the signed the agreement that we were led
to believe that something was happening with that bill, that it really was
about three or four years ago.
I looked at the the the receipts from the township
that Hercog submits,
and they're pretty simple to read.
It wasn't a tax form that you and I know
just three columns of numbers, but I couldn't figure out the one column.
It did make sense to me.
So I had asked the township
if they could explain it to me and they couldn't explain it to me.
So I asked them when the last audit had had been done on this tax,
and there was never an audit done on that tax.
And this was 2019.
I don't know if the township that the school district has ever audit
that taxed, but 20 years in the township has never audited that tax.
Now, the township
has recently given what they've been going through, all of us with this pandemic in
the economy has decreased their reliance on the amusement tax in their budget.
I have not read the school district's budget.
I don't know if the school district has done the same.
But if
and this is important because now would be the time
to challenge this agreement, because there's a clause in that contract
that says if any of the three parties would challenge the agreement,
the money goes into escrow so you wouldn't have access to it.
Now is the time to do that with the receipts as low as they are.
And now we find out the community center building on Chalk Avenue
would be converted over to nonprofit.
So we will lose that tax receipts as well.
But now would be the time to consider a challenge to this agreement.
But with the goal to have it voided.
I mean, if you just simply do the math on
what we're missing out on 42 and a half cents per ticket
on a $75 ticket, and let's just say you take a 3% of that $75,
it's $2.25 compared to 42 and a half cents.
If if this agreement
would be eliminated and we could increase our tax,
they think the programs that the school district could do, think of the
the amount of money you could have with the programs that you could do it.
It'd be the envy of the nation.
And this would be a huge step for some board to take.
And I really don't understand why somebody has not gone after the agreement itself.
What do we have to lose?
Just go.
Ferguson, you have 10 seconds.
I encourage you to take some money
and go for a consultation with an excellent contract law firm
and just get an opinion
of what you might be able to do by challenging this agreement.
Thank you for the time.
Thank you, Mr.
Ferguson.
DNA, you have been given permission to speak.
Please state your name and address.
For the record.
Hi, my name is Deanna Lemons.
I live at 1051 Woodridge Drive and Hummelstown, P.A..
I'm just going to take just a minute or so just to reiterate
what was mentioned earlier in regards to seeing gender.
I did read the entire book.
I took
lots of screenshots and I prepared to write
a letter
of my thoughts, but it became a very.
Long essay.
So I figured maybe I could sum it up in just a couple of minutes.
The part that I struggled with the most was the surgery.
I was I was surprised to see pictures
of the surgery of the
young person. Who.
Had received surgery to remove her breasts.
I read the diary pages at 49 years old.
The diary pages.
I'm still trying to process.
I am grateful for the diary pages at 49 years old.
It helps me as a parent learn what a young person is going through
in this stage and age we are at here in our country and our world.
But at 19 or nine,
this would be very disturbing
for me to consider other children reading.
And the reason is this I'm feeling a bit strange in my body.
This is what the person who has divulged
this information, like there are now two sides of misunderstanding in me.
One side doesn't quite understand what I want to be, how to read myself,
and the other side doesn't quite understand what others believe me to be
or how to read me.
Maybe part of this process is not knowing where I'm going,
but knowing I couldn't be where I was before I get married.
Girl and lady by strangers and familiar people are like, And I'm truly
not sure what the contextual clues are to inform these readings.
I have short hair, no boobs and wear masculine clothing.
There's something
that we subconsciously read
about gender, and it's difficult to tell whether people say ma'am
so as not to offend me by calling me sir, or because there is
only that subconscious reading.
I think of myself as a boy, but not a man and not woman.
I use she, but not ma'am or lady.
I'm aware this is confusing for others to navigate,
but I think it's important to self-critique how we address people
respectfully and in a non overtly gendered way
until we know their gender pronouns aren't necessarily permanent.
And it's important
to be aware that certain gender changes happen at different places.
So that was the one part that made me just really sad, just the,
just the entire wrestling of what
this young person wants to be called,
as well as the sense of loss
that is written in here.
Experiencing a lot of firsts for the first time,
talking about the nipple graphs and are they too far apart
and they look like they're under my armpits, but I suppose
people who are male, that's where where they are supposed to go.
I mean, it is a really emotional book.
This is a I mean, I'm not trying to be emotional speaking in this
and I'll I'll land my plane, but it's an extremely emotional book.
Now, as a school district or as a parent group,
what I want to see and dialog this book with other parents.
Sure, I am open to all kinds of dialog
and discussion about what our young people are facing as adults.
We need to process these things to put it in a library for a child and
that is it is very disturbing to me,
not because I'm against this lifestyle at all.
I understand that it exists, but it is disturbing because of how graphic
in nature this young person described their surgery of having their
chest removed.
And I feel extreme empathy for this young person.
I think we're asking a lot for our children to reach deep inside
of who they don't know who they are, to find empathy for this person to
it may cause more damage or more harm to those children seeking
this type of understanding than it does good.
If our young people can't manage such heavy content.
Thank you so.
Much.
Thank you.
Is there anyone else who would like to raise their hand
or participate in virtual public comment at this time?
Okay.
CNN will end the first public comment period.
Moving on to standing committee meeting, reports today, the Finance
Committee met today.
Mrs. Dicker, do you have a finance report, please?
I do. Thank you. We had a few items on our agenda today.
We had a presentation from Luber Deli called Bond Finance
Review and Future Financing Projections.
He went over the fact that our last bond rating was done in 2019,
and we are a triple A bond rated from the S&P, Standard Poor's.
We are only out of 500 schools in Pennsylvania.
There are only ten that have received that highest rating for bonds.
And what that does, it's a direct correlation to borrowing.
So because we have such a high rating, we get a lower interest rate
when we go to bond to borrow,
we can expect to have a bond rating call soon.
It has been since 2019.
And some of the things the Finance Committee should be
considering is maintaining our good capital fund in our fund balance
right now.
We did a review of the debt that we currently have.
We have $21 million in debt, but we have a rapid repayment schedule.
So we pay about $4 million a year
on our debt service.
We could borrow right now up to 50 million
and stay at that annual $4 million
rate to pay.
What we when we run the numbers,
we do have the capacity right now to borrow up
to 116 million.
That would change our annual
$4 million payment, though, for our debt service.
The reason why we're reviewing this is because we do have a potential large,
large project looming in the future as a district.
It's been quite a while since we've taken out a significant amount
of money in bonds.
Probably the last one could
be the SCC building, which could have been 17, 18 years ago.
At this point, maybe some money for the middle school roof.
And recently in 2019, we took out a small bond for this
Granada building, but nothing significant as significant as
what could be come in to either renovate or build a brand new elementary school.
So it's something the Finance Committee will be looking at
and watching for any extra money that comes out of our budget.
We should be considering putting it into the CAP fund to either offset future
borrowing or to offset a future increase in debt service payment each year.
Many times when school districts are looking to the future to take out
a significant amount of money,
they start four or five years
ahead of time, making sure they're increasing their annual operating budget
in accordance to what the debt service might look at in the future.
So that was a very good presentation that we had.
We also reviewed the Finance Committee goals for next year starting in July.
We we will meet again in August, not July, but starting for the next school year.
The goals are very similar to last year, but we did add a few things.
We will do a monthly monitor of our current
and future revenue and expenses on our current budget
and work on our timeline for the next budget with special emphasis
and attention on the capital plan and the fund balance,
we will continue to do a quarterly review of the Milton Hershey Trust
Fund performance and the food Services budget, as we've always done.
But we will also add in a quarterly review of the cyber charter school enrollment
and health care expenses, as those were some hot button and issues
in the last few months that we've talked about that have impacted our budget
and as needed, the Finance Committee will review our capital, long term
capital planning and future financing needs in
directly related to the presentation that we had about
debt service payment and bonds
bond financing for the future.
We don't need to do that quarterly like we used we did
because we do have an ad hoc committee reviewing
the facilities needs right now.
We also did a quick review of our monthly expenses
of the current budget that is closing on June 30th.
A lot of things are coming in at the last minute, so we'll get a better
look at that
in August and July and especially when we go through the audit process.
We did a quick review of the contracts as well that are on the
on the agenda for tonight's approval and that concludes my report.
Thank you, Mrs. Thacher.
Recognition of club name change documents it.
Thank you
for the board members that were in our meeting and the fire company is here.
They were just making sure they could access the roof with the ladder truck.
They just forgot to mention to us that they were doing that exercise.
So I'll as well.
And again,
I've been getting updates over here, so let you all know.
What's going on.
So back to the club, change
the following high school student club name change is recognized.
No limited service contract is associated with this club.
The club currently has a student activity account that we hope that will be updated
to reflect the name change and special education fund changes to Trojan Buddies.
Thank you.
The list of items are on the anticipated
July 18th, 2022 Board of Directors Meeting Agenda
Next item There are no unfinished business items this evening.
The consent agenda is next, which contains routinely adopted items and items
which normally do not require public deliberation on the part of the board.
A board member may pull items which will then be discussed and voted on separately.
May I please have a motion to approve the consent agenda items as listed?
So move to Mimi.
So Donna Cronan, is there any discussion?
This is a standard voice vote.
All those in favor, please say I, I the oppose say no
consent agenda is approved.
Moving on to new business items,
the first item is the approval of food services meal cost increase.
Dr. Windsor.
The administration recommends
the meal prices as listed for the 2022 2023 school year.
Thank you.
May I please have a motion to approve the food services meal Cost increase.
So moved to Miami.
Second, Mike Rizzo.
Is there any discussion documents?
I just had a question I was reading about the
there's a current bill that is going through Washington, D.C.
for I think it's called there like no red tape or something to increase
the reimbursement rate before and extent waivers before June 30th of this year.
You know, if that reimbursement rate increases, will that have any court
impact on students costs?
We did not see anything in it that would impact what we're doing.
And it appears as though what they're doing is making it easier
for students who currently receive reduced lunches to receive free lunches.
So it would have very minimal impact for us.
Thank you. Thank you for asking.
Is there any other discussion?
This is a standard voice vote.
All those in favor, please say I any opposed say no.
The next item is approval of continuing legal representation.
Dr. Winslow.
The administration recommends the board approve the agreement
to continue legal representation by Apple used in the LLP Attorneys at Law
as district solicitor for the period of July 1st, 2022 through June 30th, 2025,
and the fee schedule for the 2022 23 school year.
Thank you.
May I please have a motion to approve continuing legal representation
with Apple Used and Z and the 2020 to 2023 fee schedule.
So move to Miami Second Happy sticker.
Is there any discussion?
This is standard voice vote.
All those in favor say I say no.
The revised health and safety plan items next documents.
The administration recommends the approval,
the revised Health and Safety plan guidance and template.
Thank you.
May I please have
a motion to approve the revised Health and Safety Plan Guidance and template?
So moved on to CRONAN Second Miami.
Is there any discussion?
This is a standard voice vote.
All those in favor say I oppose, say no.
The health and safety plan is approved.
Retroactive approval of giant center venue agreement
for the 2021 2022 high school commencement documents.
Of the administration recommends the retroactive
approval of the giant center venue use agreement
for the 2021 2022 Hershey High School Commencement Ceremony.
Thank you.
May I please have a motion
to retroactively approve the giant center venue agreement for the 2021 2022
high school commencement.
So moved Maria. Mumy
second make resume.
Is there any. Discussion.
This is a standard voice vote.
All those in favor, please say I say no classes.
Our next item is to appoint voting delegates
to the 2022 delegate Assembly.
I will now accept nominations for two board members
to serve as Derry Township School District voting delegates for the 2022
PSB Delegate Assembly, which will be held on November 5th, 2022.
Are you are you there for delegate still?
I couldn't liaison You okay?
This is for the platform committee I've done.
I've participated the last couple of years while it was virtual.
I'm Mrs.
Seger and I had done a longer ago in the past when it was in person
as part of the annual PSP conference.
I believe it is virtual again this year.
Actually, the first hundred and 20 get to go live
and everyone else will be virtual.
So I'm fine going as the liaison, but they can
they can do actually up to four, but I think Tuesday's
Oh, I'm sorry, this is not for the conference.
This is for the platform assembly voting, delegate assembly.
It's for the approval of the platform,
the legislative platform for PSP and for the year credit.
How many people do you need?
It's two. Two.
There's two votes from each school district permitted.
Do you want to.
Do you want to Are. You.
Nominated?
Happy to do it again?
We did it by Zoom last year.
I nominate Lyndsey Drew and Donna Cronin
as second.
Is there any discussion?
Okay.
Nominations for the delegates are then enclosed.
This is a standard voice vote.
All those in favor, please say I personally know
approval of the affiliation agreement.
Dr. Winslow.
The administration recommends the board approve the affiliation Agreement
with Derry Township School District and University of Phenix.
Effective June 28, 2022.
Thank you.
May I please have a motion
to approve the affiliation agreement with the University of Phenix?
So move to Maria. Miami.
Second, Donna Cronan, is there any discussion?
This is standard voice vote.
All those in favor say I'm all right. I say no
approval of the Hesburgh memorandum of Understanding. Dr.
Winslow Administration recommends
the approval of the Hershey Education Support Professionals Association
Memorandum of Understanding for Base Wage increases.
Thank you.
May I please have a motion to approve the Haspel
Memorandum of Understanding for pay rate adjustments?
So moved Maria me second.
Mike Rizzo.
Is there any discussion
is a standard voice vote all those in favor say
I, I any oppose say no
approval
of the 2022 2023 standing committee date meeting dates.
Dr. Windsor.
The administration recommends the approval of
the 2022 23 standing committee meeting dates.
Thank you.
May I please have a motion to approve the listed meeting dates?
So move. Donna Cronan.
Second. Mike Rizzo.
Is there any discussion?
The standard voice vote?
All those in favor say I say no.
Book challenge.
Dr. Windsor.
Upon due consideration of a citizen challenge addressed
by the Materials Review Committee and through a subsequent written appeal,
the administration recommends that the board
approve the retention of the book, seeing gender in the Middle School library
as proposed in the report Findings from the Committee.
Thank you.
May I please have a motion to approve the retention of the book?
Seeing Gender in the Middle School Library so moved Cathy Zika Second worry.
Amy, Is there any discussion.
I guess that
that's not
all right.
So I actually took the opportunity, read the entire book.
Like some other people said.
I think there's a lot of,
you know, advanced topics.
I think the book is written well, we're actually pretty engaged.
Like I didn't have an issue with the book was written
of the sex work section.
I think it's over the top.
It doesn't really ever want my issue with that.
It never once is prostitution.
Really someone should be doing cause it's illegal to talk about de-stigmatizing it,
but it doesn't really give a seem to be a give a good clear picture of
what kind of what the life of a prostitute looks like on a day to day basis.
And they hit every other like pretty much high end topic
and didn't really go into that.
We find this here to part I actually had the biggest issue with was
if I think I think what we should do is probably remove this book and find it
looks like there's plenty of books out there
that would cover the topic of gender
that maybe would be a little bit more appropriate for,
you know, middle school.
So the staff
I chose, the issue I had, which I think is kind of dangerous
to have in the school here, is dealing with black men, dealing with the police.
All right.
So explains all the issue that there are that.
And so that leads us down to three options that black men have to do
and deal with the police.
The three options they have is one run because you don't want to be shot.
The second option, you have to stay and accidentally move and an action.
Maybe imagine that you are reaching for a weapon or three.
You stay calm
trying to ask questions and be pushed to the ground.
So that is saying that is the only three options
a black man has when dealing with police.
And I can tell you from
doing that for a long time, there are way more options than that.
And to put that in here to have a middle school think that that is the only option
that you would have to deal with the police is absurd.
So between the sex work and that
and just generally I wish the author would have stayed on topic
and just dealt to gender issues
and not plugged it with some of this more agenda items that they put in the book.
I think it would have been fine, but I think we scrapped this book
and find one that's appropriate for a middle school.
I only read excerpts of it that I, I skimmed through it
and found areas that I that I wasn't thrilled with and I,
I am not into book banning in general, but I think it's really a matter
of what's appropriate for the audience.
And I think I believe it's 14 and up that it's that it's that said it's geared
towards I think sixth and seventh graders definitely do not qualify.
I do agree with Bob, although I wish I didn't miss that part of it.
And I agree 100% with the with the removal now.
But my my suggestion was going to be that a book like this would be something
that is important as a reference material that should be
in a location where if a student
could be referred either by
the support
groups or guidance or teacher or themselves or a parent,
and it would be utilized in a way that there was also an adult
part of it.
So it's more like an educational, almost like a health reference,
but you're not not a student
doing it on their own and not having the emotional and possible
intellectual capacity to evaluate it critically like we can as adults.
So in a in a either a reserved section for eighth graders that are referred to it.
So it's available.
I understand that's also in the public library if if if parents
wanted to get it out and teach, you know, discuss it with their children
in terms of the
the identity issues, which I think are an important piece.
But I given given what would Bob has
revealed, which I wasn't aware of,
I know there are a lot of books on the market
that are available that are important in terms of development.
And I think finding one that's appropriate for age 12 to 14 or even 11 to 15,
depending on the expanse of middle school, that that would be much
better than sticking with something that has too many red flags.
You know, there might be some good things.
You know, kindness is great, but that definitely is over,
overshadowed by by the the negative aspects that aren't really necessary.
In the book.
You're getting extra baggage that you don't need.
So I'm not banning or
canning the intent of the book and.
And a. Big portion of what's taught.
But I think there's significant aspects that need to be
find a book that doesn't have those negative aspects in it
because there are so many out there on the market.
So but I appreciate the time that was given to to assess it.
But I do think that there is there's enough in there to warrant
reconsideration.
Thank you.
I agree.
And I want to thank the time the committee spent reviewing this book.
When I reviewed it, I really focused on determining whether or not it was.
Appropriate for the. Population that it's available to.
So are six to eighth graders, roughly 11 to 14.
From what I found, the overwhelming majority of companies and organizations
that sell the text do recommend it for children ages 14 and up.
So while I do agree that it explores relevant and important topics
and it's definitely an important topic, I also believe that in a public school
we need to. Ensure. That the.
Materials and resources.
We are providing to our children are age appropriate and in my opinion,
some of the topics in this text are outside the scope of middle school,
especially our younger middle school students.
With that being said, my recommendation would be to move the book
potentially to the high school library, where it does more
closely aligned with the students that it was written for.
I would never recommend you remove a text without replacing it
because in my line of work especially, I've spent a lot of time
researching and teaching and presenting on representation and text.
So it is something I very much believe in.
So but there are plenty that I'm aware of.
I would be happy to recommend some that are age appropriate and informative
and offer representation to children, but that also do align with
the entire population of middle school, which I just don't think this does.
Mr. Brennan, I just want to this is Lindsey Juror.
I just wanted to clarify because I had read the book and didn't
recall what you were sharing and where it speaks about those options.
It's referring to those as few to know it.
It's referring to those as unsafe response is
not that they should be, that
those are their only options.
Can you read it?
Sure. It says these, Ms..
It's speaking about police violence against black men.
And it says research finds that when police look at an image of two boys, one
black and one white, doing the same thing, they perceive the black youth
as being older than they are and perceive the white youth as being younger.
It then quotes
a book from the Essence of Innocence,
saying black boys can be misperceived as older than they actually are.
Then it says These misconceptions create a Catch 22 for black youth.
The approach by the police leaving them with few to no safe option
or few to no safe responses.
Option one Run because you don't want to be shot to stay
and accidentally move an action that is imagined to be
you reaching for a weapon or option three Stay and try to calmly ask questions.
Get pushed to the ground.
The fear of police violence that begins in one's
youth is a self-fulfilling prophecy as an adult.
And then it lists some unarmed black men killed by police in the past ten years
and then says The Washington Post found that 234 of the 963 people, 24% of police
shot and killed in 2016 were black, only 13.4% of the United States is black.
So I interpret that to be as they're saying,
those are unsafe
responses that they're left with.
Right is saying there are so few, you know,
with few to no safe risk options right
here.
They're saying those are the options you kind of have
is leave me with few safe options.
I would agree all those options are not safe.
So we're adults and we're debating it.
Imagine a 12 year old kid reading that.
I don't see that as being age appropriate nor well, in the context of what the book
is supposed to be with this book challenge first can do it.
This is Cathy Zwicker.
I feel like a lot of these
things are being taken out of context as one liners to be sensationalized.
I did read the book, too, and I think it's a great book and I teach gender.
I think you're pulling these things out of context and then blowing them up.
But when you read the whole page, it comes across differently.
I think the book's done very creatively and it's checked out by kids who need it,
is not checked out by the majority white heterosexual kids.
It's checked out by kids who are maybe need to read more about gender.
So I feel like it's a it's a big disservice for this school board
to vote tonight to remove a book that could be helpful
to that one or two or three kids in our district who really need it.
And it's it's a slippery slope to sit here and pull one off
sentences out of a book and not take it into a full context.
And that's how this book challenge started with one sentence.
And now you're doing the same thing, picking things out of context
and not looking at the whole book.
If you could guarantee that a 12 or 13 year old would read it in its entirety
and have someone to guide them to understand it, I 100% agree.
I am a not an older individual,
as are you, and hopefully we have the mental capacity to it
to be able to discern what's appropriate and inappropriate in the book.
But as Lindsay
said, I'm not for getting rid of the book and removing it as a reference.
I'm in favor of replacing it with one of many books
that would would serve our students better and not allow for a student to take out
one sentence and sensationalize it and tweet it and etc..
At the last Curriculum Council meeting, Ula objected to two textbooks,
and you took a couple things out of context.
The main character talked about he what was kind of nonchalantly
talk about his dad's death from gun violence.
But when you read the whole book, he transforms his character
from one as being an aloof person from the beginning to growing as a person.
If you take the first paragraph of that book out of context, it looks like
this kid doesn't care about gun violence.
But when you read the whole book, it's different.
So we're going to sit here and take sentences out of books
and to start banning books left
and right in our library because of that, that's what's going to happen.
That's what's happened.
I don't agree with that.
I don't think we're going to pull books out because it has one bad sentence.
But this particular book, I would not be happy
if my 11 year old came home with that book and I was reading it.
Sex work and. And.
Would you want.
Your.
11 year old to.
Read that sex work is.
Okay when it's prostitution is illegal in Pennsylvania.
If you're reading it like an adult, you're not reading it
the way a 11, 12, 13 year old would read it.
That I mean, this book, I agree.
I mean, it's you know, for an older person, this is a good book.
But for a middle school student,
I strongly disagree with this book being in there.
I really don't.
And in fact, I mean, if you want to go to the next level,
the the books that we put in our libraries,
whether it's middle school and high school,
they should be able to have something in there that can refer
these students to our guidance counselors or somebody to talk to.
I mean, if these kids are struggling, they need someone to talk to.
They just don't need to pull a book out, you know, and have no one
to talk to about it, especially something as in-depth as this one.
Not I mean, not everybody is comfortable.
I'm not arguing with you.
I'm just trying to look at it from a different perspective.
Not every child is comfortable talking to people
and think as a school
board, because we've been through this with other situations.
Sometimes our decisions
that we make here
are because of kids that are in the minority
who would never come and speak and defend themselves against this topic.
Their parents aren't going to come here tonight and say,
Please keep the book because my child is struggling.
Nobody's going to step forward and say this book to help my child
stay alive does help to explain those people won't come forward.
They are definitely out there.
They have very few people have checked out the book because they needed the book.
So I don't I mean, I want to ask Doctor,
like why she feels it's appropriate to be in the middle school.
But I would like to try to keep in mind that the people that need the book
will not come here tonight and try to defend why they need that book
because they would not be comfortable doing it.
It's easier to come here and say why we shouldn't have it, as opposed
to coming here and saying, I'm a 12 year old kid and I'm struggling
with my sexual identity and I would like to keep the book.
So I'm just trying to be compassionate to the people. Who
don't.
Feel comfortable speaking in public as to why that book should be where it is.
And really, I believe I think that's an
incredibly important point.
But I once again, I don't think and I don't speak for anybody,
but I'm sick and I'm interpreting it, at least those who said
that they're not comfortable with this book is that they want a book
that would approach
that still address these important topics where no one's saying that we don't want
to have this topic, we want these topics, but are they better as a better resource?
I think we owe it to our students to find a better resource.
And if you're volunteering to provide us with some options, I say that's a win win.
Doctor, I'm just curious. Like.
What do we call a better
resource, something that makes everyone comfortable, age appropriate?
This let the Library of Congress rates this book aged 12 through young adult.
There are numerous other sites the school library journal that all rate it as that.
I know pay access rates at age 14 to 17, but there are varying
recommendations for ages, beginning with 12.
I will say as the parent of a 12 year old, as a parent of a current middle
schooler, things that are being talked about by kids
in middle school today create a lot of questions.
And fortunately
we have a good relationship that my son asked me those things, but some of them
not merit intimacy, trying to figure out what's the best way to do that.
Having been on this book committee and read this book, I bought this book
and it has served as a way to be able to explain things.
The point of the book challenge and where it started was, yes, about the sex work.
In short, none.
I think all of us can agree here that it's not something that should be glorified.
But the book itself,
on a page
and a half, says sex work is a very divisive issue.
You know, it talks about that.
And at the end
it says whether you agree with it or not, sex work exists everywhere.
That's true.
And so going back to Mrs.
Mamet's point, we don't know what part of this book may need to be important.
And so I think to. To.
Pull out one section here or one section there, there are numerous,
you know, books that have lines or chapters
that can be controversial or make people uncomfortable or,
you know, maybe raise a flag or an eyebrow at that.
But at the end of the day, I think that this book serves as a resource.
The being on the book committee.
But the librarian and English teachers who.
Talk about.
Books and read books with their students day in and day out, with,
you know, with the professionals that that we have here at the district,
that they all felt comfortable with, that being here.
You know, when you think about the fact that LGBTQ
youth are four times more likely to attempt suicide,
this is it could be something that answers a question.
This could spark a conversation for the kids who are not able
to have those conversations or go find someone that this book could be.
They're, oh, this book isn't on display.
You know, it's not like in the library window.
It's here for the students who need to find it.
And I think that that's an important thing.
And I think that we are on a very slippery slope
and going down a dangerous path to start
critiquing certain snippets of books
because we're not comfortable with them, you know, or
we feel opinion based that that it's not appropriate.
So for me, I also look at it.
The fact is that the administration is recommending this and
I vote
I'll be voting tonight to support the.
So obviously, there are many, many books in this world
and our library cannot hold them all.
It's a matter of choosing what we think is best for a given topic
because we can't carry them all.
So would there be any harm in putting off this vote and giving
any volunteer the opportunity to provide us with options?
Because there's no downside because school we we don't know.
School doesn't start till September.
We won't. We don't have to.
We're not we're.
We don't have to pull until it's replaced potentially,
but at least to see if there's another option that's possibly better.
And that's what book reviewers do.
We look at all the different books, find one.
We don't have ten chemistry books.
We chose one.
Why do we get rid of nine?
Well, this one, we thought, matched our curriculum better.
So is there any downside?
And I don't know if I could make a motion to to
appoint somebody or Lindsay or somebody.
Right.
We have our superintendent sitting here like I'd like to know from her
as the professional
that is at the head of this district at the moment, why she thinks this book
is appropriate, age appropriate, and should remain in the middle school.
Because like Lindsay,
Lindsay said,
we're all coming at it from a completely different perspective and opinion.
But I'd like to actually hear from Dr.
Winslow.
So thank you.
I appreciate that.
There's several different reasons.
I also read the book, of course,
and while there are some pieces that are,
I can see where people are really not ready for my child to read that.
I don't know if it's that the parent isn't ready
for the child to read that or if they're not ready
to answer the question that the child's going to have afterwards.
And I think it's
really important to read things with your kids
and to be ready to answer difficult questions
and to share your own family values with them.
I think it's a really important piece of it.
I also can say from the students who check this out, which of course I'm
not going to reveal, we've had this book for a little over three years.
Only seven children has checked it out.
Their children who needed this book.
And there are kids who come to us
when you're when you're talking about
the students in the middle school,
there are all different maturity levels in all three of the grades.
Some of the kids are very, very young, and some of them come to us
as sixth graders with a lot of street experience.
And there are kids who who need more advanced materials because that's their
life.
And I think it's really important that we are providing
texts and literature for students across the spectrum and that we are not
limiting their access to
answers and their ability to get questions
answered by what we are offering.
And as I read this book, there are two things
that resonated with me over and over again through it, and I appreciate that
the committee thought that there was a theme of being kind to everyone.
I do think that that's in there.
But the other two pieces that I heard over and over and over again in it
was that health care is a universal human right.
And there there are people who are not receiving health care
because of their profession, because of the world
that they are locked into,
because they don't feel comfortable asking for the health care
and the medical attention that they need to have their questions answered.
The other thing that I heard over and over again in the book is that
this is not
a light topic and should not be
like there's a whole section
on the downside of coming out
that coming out of the closet, coming out and and revealing gender
identity can be dangerous, it can have consequences.
And in the surgery part that someone mentioned,
it talks about the it is the author whose pictures are in here.
It's the author who wrote those diary entries.
And it's not to be done lightly.
And I saw that over and over again.
So in my mind, if a young person
who is feeling a lot of social pressure
and I do think that there's a lot of social media pressure,
I think there's a lot of media pressure in general to pick an identity.
I see it with my my own children, my youngest one in particular,
and I don't know why
that we feel the pressure that to pressure kids that way.
And what I saw in this was that you don't have to do that.
You don't have to succumb to that pressure
and that if you do succumb to the pressure, you have to be aware
that there might be consequences that you're not prepared for
and that these are not to be done lightly, that these are not like decisions.
And while I would love to think that kids don't start wrestling with this
until they're 17, 18, 19 years old, that's just not the case.
Kids start wrestling with this.
We see a lot of fifth graders wrestling with this kind of stuff this year.
So in my opinion, high school is too late.
I will say if you make the decision
to move it to the high school, middle schoolers can still borrow it.
So why some say, thank you for that.
I appreciate that.
Do you know how many books of the same gender topic were reviewed
to have this one as the one being chosen?
This book was recommended several years ago to the librarian
at the time by a student and their parent
who thought
that it was an excellent resource
and thought it would be good to have in the library.
So they recommended it to the librarian through their counselor.
So so in essence, that we really haven't looked at other topics
because when I think of seeing gender, I was like.
There's other books there too. Right?
But I'm just saying, I'm saying seeing gender, I would have
if I was worried about representation in health care
industry, I would have known to pick this book.
It's almost an off handed
and I would have expected to see the stuff on the on the police officer
either seeing gender. I think this book is
encasing encompassing a lot more things
than that, a seeing gender that a person would choose that book for.
And I'm wondering if we could.
That's why I think it's important to find an option that is. More to
I know if you can explore a complex topic like this
without running into some of the other pieces.
So if you think a fifth grader might need this, would.
I'm not saying potential injury school, but I'm not saying this should be
in the elementary school.
I'm not recommending that at all.
What I'm saying is that we have
fifth graders who are already struggling with some of these topics and a book like
this might be good for their parents. Right?
So I'm I'm just once again, the age appropriateness is is my.
Biggest is my biggest challenge.
I wish we had a.
Book in the middle school that was more age appropriate to so.
And so. Dr. Wenzel could I
Yes, there are other books in the library
regarding gender that cover some of these same topics.
This isn't
if somebody was looking for a book on this topic, this wouldn't be the only one.
You don't have to pick this book. Right.
And how many books are there in the library?
You know, in our whole library, Yeah, I, I don't know.
I would have to look at the list.
There have to be over 10,000.
Okay.
To your point, Donna, what do we have to lose
in terms of, you know,
tabling this and reconsidering?
I think one thing we may have to lose is
I think it's already been noted,
if we start looking at sentences
or paragraphs in the 10,000 books in the library,
these are library books that are taken out at will.
Nobody has composed, you know, to read them.
We could
be in for a number of book challenges.
It could go on just on the library.
Then you start talking about textbooks, the same thing now.
And you know, my concern that is a concern too.
I note some of the things that that that are being mentioned here. Yes.
But again,
snippets, you a couple sentences, a paragraph.
I don't think in a an environment
where you're voluntarily taking out a book where there's other options,
I think what we have to lose is to open the door
to one challenge after another.
That's what I think we have to lose.
How many challenges have we had in the last 20 years?
There have been two since I've been here.
So I don't I don't think that's a cause for concern.
I think it's all appropriate. Is you.
We're not saying we want to ban books.
Like I said, it's just what's appropriate.
Can we do can we provide the best?
Because there's tons of books out there, why we have them all.
I think to Mr.
Singer's point, it's becoming something that is much more common.
I mean,
I don't think anybody in this room
wants to say we don't you know, nobody in here is transphobic.
Nobody is against,
you know, any of these kids, you know, who are struggling with their identity.
We all want to provide materials for them.
That is not what we're talking about.
We're not talking about banning this book because it's got one bad sentence.
It's it is it is a very.
It is a.
Subject that truly for a middle schooler,
I think it needs to be shared with an adult when they read it.
This when you take the.
Book out of a library.
You think kids.
Will be reading this by themselves. There will be some that won't.
There will be some that will.
And it's very hard material.
When does it become a parent's responsibility to say,
What book did you check out of the library?
Let's look at that together.
Is it the school's responsibility to not have the books in the library
so that there's not access to things?
Or is it the parent's responsibility to say
what are what did you check out of the library?
Let's look at that together.
That's your point.
What you're making stated
the kids who need the most aren't going to have the parent involved.
So they're the they're the more vulnerable kids.
I didn't say that. No.
You said the students who need it
the most aren't going to have the parents involved.
No, I said they're not going to have the the I'm going to use
they're not going to come here to advocate for themselves
because of the climate that we've got going on in
this room is exactly why people don't come forward and say,
I need this for my child because they're struggling with their sexuality.
This book was a lifesaver.
This I'm going to I'm going to make a blanket statement.
It's it's interesting to me that we're focused on this book
When our kids have full access to everything on the Internet.
This book is nothing
compared to what probably all of our kids are looking at on the Internet school.
We do have different responsibilities. I get that.
But we're nit picking.
We're not Nick picking the
you an entire group of parents who are upset about this book.
I wonder if they have any children that are transgender and struggling
if this book would be a lifesaver for them.
Unfortunately The woman who wanted it in the library with her child
would never come here and say we needed this book when we got it.
That's unfortunate and that's what we're here to do is award.
We're not here to talk about the handful of people that are upset
because we're talking about you want to talk about
the handful of people that want the book, but there's.
Another whole.
Population that does not want the book.
And they also have to be considered right
to. For what reason are they saying
they do not think it is age appropriate?
That's all they're saying.
They're not saying they don't want this material in the library.
They want an age appropriate book.
Okay.
So then they're experts on what is age appropriate for their children.
They are.
And they can control what their children are doing.
You just said that that some kids will not talk to their parents about it.
So that's not what I said.
Am I speaking French?
I said they will not come here and say what I heard you say.
Or was that. Yes, I heard you that.
But you also said there are some kids that cannot talk to their
their parents about it.
So they will check some of these books out without adult supervision
to read the book.
So if that library sits in and if that book sits in that library
for 100 years and there's one kid that needs it to go look at it privately
because they don't have an open
relationship with their parents and that book should stay where it's at.
So basically now you are making exception for one person
as opposed to the parents that are upset about this book.
Once again, I think we're losing sight of the fact that we're really, really happy.
Maybe, yeah. Is it really a hybrid or not?
I heard one person speak tone on it tonight.
One person did a book challenge.
Let's take looking for an appropriate book turn talking
to make sure that everyone's identifying themselves to for a virtual.
This is Lindsay Cook.
I hear everybody I think that I very much understand
how people are upset about maybe the way that this came to us
and how it does feel like nit picking and that it's a slippery slope.
But I do think the fact of the matter is this was brought to our attention
all did our due diligence of reading it, looking over it.
I mean, I've researched so many web.
Any place you can buy this book that gave an age recommendation,
I wrote it down and I saw 14 plus 14 to 18 seventh
grade and up 14 to 17, 14 to 99.
And so my the pattern I saw was 14.
And I do think that
in a public school system, we need to make sure that the resources
we're providing, whether we like how they got to us or not,
or whether we think it's nit picking, I think this was a misplaced book.
I think it doesn't align with the age recommendations
that it serves currently in the middle school. And
I mean, I, I would never,
ever recommend removing a book that could be life saving or could be.
An incredible resource without.
Providing others.
For example, there's a book, a very popular book called the Everybody Book.
It's an LGBTQ plus inclusive guide for kids about gender, bodies and families.
It's written out a fifth for fifth graders and up.
So the age group is as young as eight.
I've seen.
I think most resources kind of say nine and up,
but it covers a lot of the same topics.
It doesn't have
some of the things I think that probably pushed this book to a 14 up.
And I just I think that
whether we like how it got here or not, it is in front of us and we all like
we looked through it just like we would expect everybody else to.
And we have very differing opinions about
our conclusions.
But the fact of the matter is it's pretty consistent
that it's not age appropriate for the population that it serves.
So, I mean, as I already said, that that I recommend get moving.
But I just wanted to acknowledge that I understand it's a slippery slope.
But Ben and I hate to even say book banning.
I think we're slightly censoring because that's what we do.
We censor things for our kids
and it's popular.
I think regardless of how this vote goes tonight,
we're going to keep getting book challenges.
It's just happening now more.
So I just wanted to say that.
So I just wanted to comment on what as well.
When I read the book, you know, I really didn't relate to it very well,
so it was kind of hard for me to read.
However, what I did find is that it was just a short snippet
of different definitions for individuals to understand, especially those
that are at the very beginning trying to understand and
and relate to where they are, how they feel and who they are.
The age appropriateness
really is kind of for me, it's kind of in between.
I think for the the young individuals coming
in, it may be a little bit over the top.
I think, you know, for the back here, for the middle school,
I don't think that it is related because I know my children
were much more advanced as they went through.
So we're looking at a full gamut of individuals that may have different
emotional levels when they go to read this book.
One thing I did look at is that it wasn't a required reading, right?
So there is, you have that option of reading it or not
reading it, whether you're with, you know, through your parents or by yourself.
So and again, there were some topics that I didn't agree with, you know, that
Barb had mentioned
and also some of the topics about the actual surgery itself.
Is there a way, since we have some time in the summer
to table this, look for an appropriate option
to replace the book without pulling it off the the shelves itself?
If that's the case, I think we should do that
in due diligence before we make it make a decision,
and then we can make a decision whether we keep it or not at a later date.
It's just how I would propose it.
Mr. Z, can you weigh in on this?
Because there was a challenge brought forward the
it went through the book challenge process.
There's not really a process outlined
in policy for an appeal to the board.
And so the motion on the floor tonight is the administration's recommendation
to keep that.
My understanding is that this would require a two thirds majority
vote to override the decision of the administration for this.
So How would it work.
From. Tabling?
Because that's only a one. Yeah.
I mean, we had a little bit of a discussion about the policy and maybe some
some work that needs to do with respect to the appeal process there.
But I would agree with you.
I think the proper course for this would be to take a vote on this tonight.
You could always bring a motion at a subsequent meeting
to replace this book with another book, if that's the direction
that people want to think about.
But I think to bring closure to your appellate process,
the way it's structured right now,
I don't know that tabling
this motion gets you where you need to be.
So we have we vote
because this is the end of the process for the appeal.
And then if the board would want to do other action,
it could happen at a different meeting. You could.
I mean, someone could make a motion to do that any time or you could have
I know you have a committee already. You could have that committee
look at the issue of replacing a particular book.
But I think where you are
procedurally with this now is you've had a challenge to the board
and the the closure to that process is having the board
vote on the on that that review.
On what the. Recommendation. Correct.
I'd like to make one final note before we vote.
Is that
I mean, obviously I'm not an expert and in this particular situation
with the committee that was formed,
the people that made up that committee looked at the book,
I would just have a I would just default to Dr.
Winslow's recommendation on this.
Based on the book coming to us from I would I would hope that
the administration has made the decision to keep it there for for good reason.
So I guess the situation that I would have to default to the administration
because everything else from there is just an opinion
that's just procedurally then so so I understand the closure of this
to vote on it, but then we can motion at any point to introduce other options,
right?
Other options of.
Other books to be included.
Yeah.
I think you can work through the committee that you have.
I think you could work an agenda planning.
The policy that you have mean the committee that reviewed the book already,
but could also anybody could propose a book.
I think any board member can make a motion from the floor on things.
I mean that's typically not the way or you could work through that
but I think that would be
would it be better to work through a committee
rather than making motions from the floor on curriculum items?
I don't know that that's a that you necessarily want to go I mean.
Curriculum committee could. You can.
Okay.
I think you just want to make. Sure right bucket
you. Said that you need a two
thirds majority to override per our policy.
That's not the norm. That's different.
Correct. Okay.
And why is that just one part of our policy on vote
requirements to override a decision that has been made
by the administration requires a two thirds majority vote of the board.
So there would need to be six no votes to the motion on the floor in order for
the motion to fail.
But isn't everything brought up by the administration much?
I'm confused on that.
There's do you know there's reference?
I know we had looked at this up and
so anything brought up by the administration always needs to sound.
And I guess for the book challenge.
Okay, that's what I meant.
It's just it's it sounds anything it's for I think any removal
of removal of any approved resource material or curriculum.
I know
I'm trying to pull it up right now.
There's
this is terrorism.
While you're looking at that, the
that we take is is to
either support the administration's recommendation or not, period.
There's no no connective tissue
to doing anything subsequent doesn't mean something subsequent can't happen.
But we're not committing to anything tonight.
Right.
Okay.
Adopting or changing books or textbook materials
without the recommendation of the superintend.
And requires an affirmative vote of two thirds
of those voting in the presence of a quorum.
Is there any additional discussion?
Just as a reminder, the motion on the floor
is the
administration has said upon due consideration of a citizen challenge
addressed by the Materials Review Committee
and through a subsequent written appeal, the administration recommends the board
approve the retention of the book, seeing gender in the Middle School library
as proposed in the report findings from the committee.
So for this vote, a
yes vote concurs with the administration.
A no vote is against that.
As I mentioned, we will need six
six votes
to the negative two
to override the administration's recommendation
is ever understand now.
Thank you, Mrs.
Agee, could you please Roca Mr.
Bennett? No
surname? No.
Mr.. Yes,
Dr. Cup? No.
This is Manny.
Yes, Mr. Rizzo? Yes.
Mrs. Schmitt. No,
this is thicker Yes,
Mr. Singer? Yes.
Five.
Yes or no?
The motion
to retain the book in the middle school library.
Is approved.
Grant acceptance for the adoption
Acceptance of grant for the Dauphin County Local Share Municipal Grant Agreement.
Dr. Windsor.
The Administration recommends the acceptance of the Dauphin County
Local Share Municipal Grant Agreement 2022 Unrestricted
$250,000 Gaming grant award to be used for safety improvements
and recreational infrastructure enhancements across the district.
Thank you.
May I please have a motion to accept this grant?
So move to Maria Mimi Second, Cathy Zika, is there any discussion?
This is standard voice vote.
All those in favor, please say I say no
exceptions of an additional grant. Dr.
Winslow The administration recommends acceptance of the Dauphin County
Local Share Municipal Grant Number 2022 Dash 19 a $75,000 gaming
grant award to be used for safety and security improvements
related to redesign of vehicle traffic flow at the high school.
Thank you.
May I please have a motion to accept this grant?
So moved.
Maria Miami second.
Donna Cronan is there any discussion?
This is standard voice vote.
All those in favor say I.
I need Pacino.
Personal resignations.
Dr. Winslow
administration recommends the approval of the personnel resignations.
May I please have a motion to approve personnel resignations?
So moved. Maria Mimi Second, Microsoft.
Is there any discussion?
This is a standard voice vote.
All those in favor, please say I.
I mean, Pacino
Personnel General.
Dr. Winslow, The.
Administration recommends
the approval of the list of personnel and recognition of any list of transfers.
Thank you.
May please have a motion to approve the listed
and recognition of any listed transfers.
So moved. Maria May 2nd Cathy Sticker.
Is there any discussion?
I just wanted to. This is Cathy Seger.
Draw the board's attention that there's two attachments here.
So all the athletic coaches are on here
and I'll eliminate service contracts on here.
If you weren't able to open the attachments
and you'll see the coaches, they're listed as some of them
that are still vacant as well.
So we typically vote on that in June for the whole year.
And that's
even if the coaches would be for the spring of 2023, correct?
Correct. Okay.
Thank you.
I'm also excited to see the hiring.
I'm an assistant principal, so I want to welcome Mr.
Gregory Miller upon the affirmative vote of the board tonight
to fill the vacant assistant principal position at the high school.
I think that what Ms..
Schmidt is doing as the new high school principal is just incredible.
And having had the opportunity to watch her in action,
I'm really excited about it.
So look forward to seeing Mr.
Miller in this role on the team.
I just make a comment.
I know
thanks to bring that to our attention and there's still red lines for fall sports,
so hopefully we're still looking for folks to fill those positions.
I know some seasons we go without telling them, which is just an overload.
For for the. Coaches that are there.
So having that second assistant coach is is certainly desirable.
So I hope we can get those filled. Thank you. Thank you.
Okay.
This is a standard voice vote.
All those in favor, please say I.
I see No,
That concludes new business delegate reports.
The SBA report is attached. Your.
Do you have anything you'd like to add? Nothing. Dan, thank you.
Thank you.
Are there any board members who would like to give a report?
Yeah, I just want to
just say that I voted tonight yes for the book because I don't believe
it should be removed from the library until we have an appropriate replacement.
But would like to see a replacement considered
to see if we can find something a little bit more age appropriate.
And it may not.
There may not be one out there, but just like to go through that review.
Thank you. Thank you.
Dr. Windsor, do you have a superintendents report?
I do not have one this evening. Thank you. Thank you.
I do not have a board presence report
other than to remind the board that we only have one meeting in July.
That is on the third Monday in July.
So we will not be meeting on the second and fourth Mondays
as we normally do and post exac.
Yeah, that's down there.
But yes, thank you.
Recognition of citizens.
This is an opportunity for residents and taxpayers to address the board on
matters related to the agenda or matters of district governance, not on the agenda.
Those who speak are asked to follow the same guidelines
outlined at the initial public comment portion of our meeting, and I will ask
Mrs. Seger, board Treasurer, to once again please keep time.
Are there any residents or taxpayers who would like to comment at this time?
I'll once again begin with those present in the audience.
Mr. Miller.
John Miller 329 Cocoa Avenue
I think it's really unfortunate the way the whole conversation just went down.
This is I think you were really out of line,
very rude, to be completely honest with you.
It's one dimension of a human
being is is is the discourse.
There's there's a lot that goes into it.
But I would urge all you to look up something called a point cloud.
It's something that we use in Photo
Gram history where you combine pictures and what it does
is it pretty much creates this moving
object of individual points
dimensional,
and you can get a really good idea
what something looks like based off of individual points.
So the comment about sense is being taken out of context,
I think is a little
disingenuous because we have to keep things in context.
Sure.
And I think you could cherry pick things out of that book.
And nobody was saying that we need to get rid of the subject matter completely.
It was an age appropriateness.
And of course, it does change with kids.
Every kid has different experiences.
But if all of us sitting in this room are hanging our hat, that Iris
Gottlieb's book, who's the individual, even says,
I'm not an expert on
gender, I'm not the expert.
I'm just someone who is experiencing this gender thing, which is cool.
That's great.
But would we put a physics book
in this in science, someone who's not a physicist,
so who's just into it and wants to share their experience.
There's a time and a place for it, but we have to be careful what we looking at
is absolute fact and where we can put another book right next to it that has
a different perspective
for the young individual or the family or whoever age appropriate.
But we have to see all the different sides.
So I don't think anybody was saying we we need to get rid of this stuff
in its entirety,
but how do we have
police violence and generalizations about law enforcement,
generalizations about everything?
And I personally believe every child is sentient.
They're there are such a gift.
They have unlimited potential.
And I think, Dr.
Winslow, to your point about how gender is it's on the front of their minds,
then we to be careful
how we
as adults weigh that information and answer them.
And I want kids to think of themselves as a point cloud,
not this single thing that has to fit into a certain mold.
Your point cloud of all different interests and abilities
and certain preferences and tendencies.
Some people like to go to the mountains and some people like to go to the beach,
but everything else behind you is beautiful.
And that's what we should be focusing on, not just the single dimension thing.
That's very limiting. Thank you.
Thank you.
So anyone else in the audience who would like to speak?
Okay, I'll open up to virtual participants.
If you would like to participate in public comment, please raise your virtual
hands.
Gather in English.
You have been given permission to speak.
Please state your name and address for the record.
Good Afternoon. Can everybody hear me?
Yes. Thank you. Okay, great.
Catherine English five, four, five.
Held Church Road.
I just wanted to clear up some things because that conversation did
really not offer any clarity or honesty about how that book came forward.
And I had a yes or no question.
I'd like to ask the board members how many of you read the entirety.
Of that appeal?
Was that provided to all the board members?
It's a simple yes or no. Yes, it was.
So they read everything? Yes.
Okay, great.
I just wanted to make sure that I understood that.
I also wanted to offer that the book was brought to my attention
by multiple parents, and I submitted it in the context
of age, appropriateness and risk.
Pennsylvania is a high have is the highest sex trafficking state
and if you read the entirety of that book, there are so many age conflicting
topics and issues coming up to talk about sex and the flagrant way it does.
Any reference to the age of consent.
Is just.
A risk for all kids without regard to gender.
If you read the portion on police,
it also said that Trayvon Martin was killed by a police officer.
I mean, it's not even factually accurate.
So it's not one sentence.
It's the entire age appropriateness of the book,
which I appreciate those that were able to stay on task with that.
If I went up to an 1112, 13 year
old and asked them, as that book asks, how do you like your sex
behind closed doors out in the open,
I mean, I would be arrested.
That is not a conversation I want anyone to have with an 11 or 12 year old.
These are safety issues, not gender issues.
And while we're at it, I'm talking about kids of that age.
They're at a risk of up to 35% of being sexually abused.
If they had framed anything out about the age of consent
or safety or any of those issues,
I don't think most of the parents would have been quite as upset.
But There's a lot of troubling content jumbled
in that book that have nothing to do with gender, and it's a safety issue
for myself and for many others that were upset about that book.
So I just wanted to offer that clarity.
Thanks so much.
Thank you.
Is there anyone else who would like to
participate in public comment?
Is there anything else
for the good of the order,
the board will meet in post executive session following this meeting
and the next public Board of Directors meeting will be held on Monday, July 18th,
22, beginning at 7:00 PM.
Please refer to the District website to register for a virtual attendance
as the meeting draws closer and please have a motion to adjourn this.
So moved. Maria Miami. Second. Mike Rizzo.
All in favor say I oppose say now
the meeting is adjourned at 8:27 p.m..