And I believe four of us and three or four.
And I think Ms.
Maydwell, usually because of work, will get here a little late.
Okay.
Good afternoon.
Evening, everyone.
I'd like to call the Communications and Community Engagement Committee meeting
for January 13th, 2020, to order at 5:00 PM
and announce that this meeting is being recorded,
that we just do a brief go around the room
for purposes of roll call, Lindsay Drew,
School Board member
Tricia Steiner School Board member.
Judy Haverstock School Board member
Actually Commission Committee Minutes Committee member.
Rick Kelly Committee member.
Query Committee.
Dan Frank representing the administration.
John Abell School Board Member Thank you.
Our first item of business since we are now in a brand new year
and it's January, is to elect a committee chairperson.
So I would like to welcome
any nominations for committee chairperson.
I would like to nominate Ms..
Lindsey Drew for chairperson second.
Thank you.
Are there any.
I'm sorry I didn't interrupt you.
That's okay.
Did you steal Judy's thunder already?
Are there any other nominations hearing?
None. We will close nominations and
vote on me as committee chair.
So all those in favor say I.
I am your post.
Thank you
for the nomination.
Second and third.
And thank you for serving Lindsay McHugh.
It is my pleasure. All right.
Moving on, approval summary minutes from our October 7th, 2019 meeting.
They were attached to the agenda.
Were citizen advisers able to access everything
and be able to review?
Okay.
Does anyone have any questions?
Could I have a motion to approve those minutes, please?
So most second,
all those in favor say I i any post
minutes from October seven, 2019 are approved.
Moving on to unfinished business,
the first item on unfinished business tonight is the just updates
on the school board community engagement for the general public.
At the last meeting in October, we had reviewed the feedback and process
that we did for the building community engagement and back to school nights.
Next step is general public.
I have talked to the Children Foundation
and they are open and welcoming to have folks
come to our board members
have a table at the Taste of Hershey.
So details on that will be coming.
We will put a sign up out for it, but we'll use that as one of our
general public opportunities.
And then I've emailed Melissa Wagle from the Mueller Center.
I think things are
a little crazy for them right now because they may be moving locations with
their lease coming up, but I've put in the request
for the opportunity to either attend an event or to
have like a coffee slash lunch and learn type style and invite
the membership population of
the senior center to make sure that we're touching all demographics.
Does anyone have any questions about that?
So as as we get more information,
one on the Times and information for Taste of Hershey,
and then once I hear back from the Mueller Center,
I'll make sure that we communicate that out and we'll be able to sign up
and follow kind of the same
program that we did for Back to School Nights.
Great
Citizen Advisor Program orientation Review.
Oh, I hate when I smell wrong.
This spot review wrong on their.
So we were
in the process of rolling out the citizen advisor orientation at our last meeting
and recommended approval of all of the program
documents to the full board which were approved that evening.
Following that, I sent out a
Times survey
poll and we conducted the orientation.
So we did it through an online
webinar format style in early November.
The links inside of the agenda
have all been shared with the board, but first Citizen advisors.
Obviously, if you were not New Citizen
Advisors this year, you were not part of that.
So that is there for your review if you'd like.
But I was able to record the webinar
and audio and then also prepared, provided the slide presentation
and the documents that accompany that.
I've also attached to the agenda.
I created a survey feedback form.
Unfortunately, only two citizen advisors filled that out
to to provide us
some feedback on on that process and experience.
But it was positive that we did receive.
So I just wanted to open this up to any questions.
I know Mr. Kelley participated
in the process, so maybe if you could provide some feedback
and if you found it useful as we look
to continue this in the future.
Yes, I felt the material was useful.
It gave a good overview.
I think it's important to sort of calibrate everybody
and I think it did its job
great.
Thank you.
Does anyone else have any questions
reviewing the feedback or information?
I just want to say kudos for putting all that together.
He did a really great job with the presentation and the way I went back.
I missed the live one, but I went back and listened to your program that you had
with all of the citizen advisors and it was impressive.
So it's really cool to have a program like that in place.
So thank you for making that happen and do all the work that you did.
Thanks. It's funny, I went back and listened to it.
I realize how much I say.
This is true.
I have a question.
Did all the new citizen advisors,
at least a bulk of them, have the opportunity to attend?
Yeah, we had a number of them attend live
during the webinar and then it was sent out to everyone else.
There are a few folks
that had a hard time accessing it, but we were able to work that out.
And the one thing that I think really identified is
getting folks signed into Agenda Manager has always been
one of the, you know, harder pieces of it and the communication around that.
So I think that that really helped.
I think if we were to do this again
without just updating the slide deck and information
Missy Kunder has offered to participate
in as well to maybe provide some more insight on the technical part
because she's been able to assist us when any of the other or citizen
advisors have had a difficult time accessing or needing something reset.
I didn't know there was any any value or need
to hang this link somewhere on the board section of the website.
But if if it's that link
sort of being communicate directly with our current citizen advisors, then
my initial reaction is no, but it has also no harm in it either.
No, there's not.
I think the program resource guide is definitely something
that we could put online and you know, that was a board approved document.
The slide deck
and the recorded version will change each year
because it has the, you know, terms and listings and committee chairs.
And obviously those change on an annual basis.
So we'll update that.
Now that we have these in place, I think it'll be a lot easier
because we're still developing it
as we were going through the process of bringing on citizen advisors this year.
So I'm anticipating that next year when we're able to send out the Citizen
Advisor appointment letters that will have the orientation date
already scheduled and be able to roll right into it
to make it a little bit more consistent and have it updated, you know,
right from the go.
But certainly the Citizen Advisor program resource
is something and I think even when we had talked
about the school board pages of the website
at the end of last school year, in the meeting,
that was one of the things we identified is really framing out some more
information about Citizen Advisor process and and having it all listed there.
So that would be great. Thank you. Not a problem.
And anyone else have any feedback or comment on the Citizen Advisor
program orientation as a whole or on any of the other committees.
Do you feel too have you heard any feedback or anything?
So we're good.
So thank you
for that.
Moving on to new business, this will be the bulk of our meeting today,
but as I mentioned in the email
that I sent on Friday,
we're going to be taking a look at the policy 913
which is the non-school organizations, groups and individuals
related to distribution of of materials from there's
those three different groups
that the document that we have for review that's attached to the agenda
you'll be able to see has red lined and the green addition
to policy that has been a recommendation by PSB.
Mr. Janke will be able to share a bit more in background on that.
But what we'll be doing today is talking through these changes, seeing if there's
anything that stands out, looking at the associated administrative guidelines
that that are used internally for executing that policy.
And then we'll take a vote at the end and make a recommendation
with any suggestions or comments to move that to the policy committee
for their February meeting.
And I turn it over to Dan.
Yeah, and I apologize because I know from it myself a little ill prepared
in the sense that I was operating under the misunderstanding
that policy Committee had already taken a look at this.
And the the green that you see here, which is the proposed new language,
was in part a result of their review.
I've now just come to find out that this is specifically the SBA
recommendations.
So unfortunately, not having realized
that I'm not well-versed to address
the rationale behind some of these changes.
Fortunately, I think the benefit one of the benefits is having Mr.
Steiner on this committee as his chair in the policy committee.
Absolutely.
So I think it actually probably works out best that it went this way
because we're now able to make a recommendation or provide
some guidance to the policy committee before it goes to the full board,
because otherwise it would have already moved on to the full board.
So right.
And it's nice to have the specific devotion
that it's going to access, kind of like a, you know,
an ad hoc committee looking at the specific issue
because the policy committee meetings are always jam packed.
So it's nice that we're able to have this time
to sort of dive into this a little bit more.
So I think just the premise around
this policy in general is something that we've struggled as a district
and I think probably most school districts do is drawing that line
between what is distributed by non-school organizations.
And Dan could probably speak to the fact that we're inundated with requests
for distribution of of materials
and making sure that we have policies around that not only
to ensure that it's being done in an equitable way,
but also in a way that, you know, is not conflicting with
any other policies or, you know, visions of the school district.
Yeah, my my thought in bringing this forward was really kind of specific
to a lot of what the policy refers to, is
that there needs to be the development of administrative guidelines.
And so I was trying to get a sense from this group and in particular
the direction we wanted to go with this because we could go in
any number of directions.
We could continue down the path that we sort of have found ourselves in
over the years.
And there is a copy on its end demand of guidelines
that sort of evolved informally over the years.
I threw them all together so we'd have a working document
and this is kind of what I referred to over the past decade or so
in fielding requests from outside working organizations.
But having said that, I also saw the review
of this policy as an opportunity to sort of do a litmus test.
Is this the direction that we want to go in,
or do we want to do something completely different?
I believe this policy probably predates
a lot of the communication tools that we have at our access now.
And really the original, if you look at it, really deals with
fliers and paper type handouts.
And although there is no language that's proposed in these changes
that talk about posting a web in social media,
we really haven't officially addressed those in administrative guidelines.
So my
want to.
Bring forth. Yes, please.
Apologize, interrupt just for one second, please, because I'm realizing that
for the purpose of our citizen advisors, just making sure that you're
clearly understanding the
the what administrative guidelines are,
I think I take for granted that we are kind of speaking the language.
So all policy that is approved and implemented by the board,
the interpretation of that policy and the way that it's carried out on the
on a very detailed level is what the falls inside of our administrative guidelines.
Those are typically, unless the policy specifies
that it must be board
approved, the administrative guidelines are not board approved documents.
They're living documents.
They are not subject to go through the same policy process.
Any policy that is done for school board is presented by the
to the policy committee.
The policy committee reviews and makes any recommendations or changes
and then approves it to go to the full board.
Once it goes to the full board, it's done on a 30 day review policy,
so the board will approve it at first time or send it back to the committee
with any changes or, you know, concerns or questions.
It'll sit on public read for 30 days to make sure that the public
has opportunity to see any of the changes
or new policies that are being brought forward.
Once that 30 day policy is up, it comes back to the board for review.
If there aren't changes, then it would go back through the process again.
If there are no changes in the board has a majority vote to approve it,
then it's fully passed and is moved into the process.
Anything that changes in that policy afterwards.
So if there's anything that was overlooked or,
you know, maybe didn't hit the target we were looking for and I'll use facility
use policy is probably one that we've continuously had to go back.
It has to go back through that.
So administrative guidelines really provides opportunity
for the fluidity of that and making sure that the
the specific, you know, the specifics of the way things are done
are inside of those things,
because these may be changed without full board process.
You know, approval versus actual policy.
That was actually a very good clarification.
I appreciate you stepping in and in outlining that,
because what I was hoping to gather as we brought this forward, again,
thinking this was already in the pipeline with policy
was some feedback on those administrative guidelines
in the sense of of how we wanted as a as a district, as a collective,
would like to see
some of these things go in terms of how we process these requests.
Let me give you a little bit of context currently,
because we've had to deal with circumstances
and unusual requests and things out of the norm over the years,
we've kind of come up with a set of guidelines that right now
we're what I would consider to be a fairly manageable level of these requests.
We probably get around two dozen, the 30 or so per per school year.
So that's not a ton.
But I can tell you in the past
some of the guidelines we
have in place now were derived in an attempt
to get a handle on the numerous requests that we got.
And there was a time here where this was frankly a real problem.
And we actually had
some pushback from our teachers, particularly at the elementary level,
with a number of pieces of paper they had to distribute in their classroom.
So it's not
I think we're beyond that point now.
Like I said, it's a few dozen.
I'm sure it still is is another burden on teachers
to pass these materials out on top of the materials they have.
But it's not quite as as onerous
as it has been in the past.
But having said that, I wanted to have the dialog about
are we where we want to be and including some of these new
electronic tools as a substitute for what we're doing now
or because we have some of these electronic communication tools, should we
desire to go in a completely different direction?
I know for me, just looking at it, Dan,
one thing that I want to be mindful of and make sure is that there are
organizations that would be considered
non school or non school organizations because they're governed separately
and are not directly related, but that the district has a longstanding
history and common stakeholders are common interests
that we want to make sure that we're not precluding and, you know, prohibiting
the distribution of materials for
and also in the administrative guidelines that
and I did not look at them to tie them back specifically to policy language,
but looking at in the guidelines where it talks about same materials
for fundraising events will be denied, whereas we have a long term longstanding
practice of things such
as Mini Thon or, you know, those types of events
that are fundraising in nature have historically been correct.
Some of those are considered to be district programs versus
non school related programs. And I say.
So because that's just a student lawn club.
Correct.
I just want to confirm.
And frankly, that's the reason we taken the as a little bit on aside side
some things that students have have come up with and wanted to do.
The way we've been able to comply with policy is
have them be sponsored by an existing school club.
And I'll use the LOC for clean water as the most recent example that
that comes to mind.
That was something that some students have come up with independently
and wanted to promote through the school, but frankly didn't meet
the criteria that we had in guidelines.
However, the Key Club then stepped in
and said, We'll take this project on under our umbrella is Key Club,
which then opened the door for them to be able to to distribute materials.
Since then it became a school function rather than just
some random student with a great idea.
Some middle school or high school student led clubs that are recognized
and approved by the board would fall underneath those.
Whereas any any club that that is
has approval for use of facilities would be different.
Correct.
That would be, you know,
led by outside groups just using the space post educational hours.
Correct.
So having sort of laid out the spectrum of my hope and again, not
you're not fully appreciating that this had not been the policy
and I'm not sure which direction you want to go, whether we want.
To think that we can just go, Yeah.
So I think let's why don't we go down through the policy
and just look at that and then we can move into
the administrative guidelines based on whether or not there are any changes
that we want to see in the policy, because that would.
That policy should drive the guidelines.
So. Right.
So the first section that is being changed,
you'll see any requests from non school organizations, groups or individuals
seeking to distribute materials on district property
and or have students participate in or be informed of the opportunity
to participate in non school sponsored activities, awards, scholarships
or other events shall be governed by this policy is being recommended for
to be struck from the policy and replaced with.
The Board recognizes that non school organizations, groups and individuals
may wish to utilize the district as a means to engage the school community
and activities and or to distribute or post non school materials.
The board directs that requests for such utilization from non school
organizations, groups or individuals shall be governed by this policy
activities or school related information and materials
from non school organizations, groups and individuals that are integrated
with or presented as a part of the district's curriculum
or an approved school event or student organization are approved
and governed by board policies related to curriculum
and student activities and are not governed by this policy.
I would say
that that basically sums up what we just spoke about.
It's a lot of words.
I always like seeing policy B less words, but
oh well, let's open up that section for purpose, for conversation.
If anyone has any feedback before we move on.
Tricia did you didn't have any comments until we get down to authority, right?
Right.
Yeah.
I'm just still processing all the words.
Yeah, Yeah, it's a lot of words that spirit comments.
So basically what this is saying is that we're acknowledging that groups maybe
may want to use the school community to distribute these,
and we're acknowledging the activities that are school related
or student club led or integrated,
you know, into the curriculum or approved school events
are governed under separate policies and the distribution of those materials.
So if a student club wants to do something or
something related to an event that is run and managed by the district,
because there's a separate policy for that,
there's a lot of like, I feel like it could be very easily
misinterpreted the way that they presented it, but
that's basically what it's covering.
Okay.
Authority is a new section entirely.
So this is
one says just basically recognize that
the school community may benefit from receiving information
from more non school organizations, groups and individuals
provided the distribution and the posting of such information
does not interfere with the educational program of the schools.
The district's primary responsibility shall be to maintain a safe
and orderly school environment
and to protect the rights of all members of the school community.
The board prohibits advertisement or promotion by non school organizations,
groups or individuals during instructional time
or at school sponsored locations or activities
not otherwise open to non school organizations, groups or individuals.
The board directs that the review and consideration of any activity
or non-school materials requested under this
policy shall not discriminate on the basis of content or viewpoint.
And as a stoner, I believe this is where you had some comments.
You know, I just wanted to clarify.
So I mean, this is basically saying and
I can't help but refer to you later
in the policy where it's completely
deleting the posting of notices to discrimination literature materials.
It eliminates all of that.
The commercial advertising in schools and basically this
I feel like it's eliminating all of that big section
and replacing it with the board prohibits advertisement or promotion
by non school organizations, groups or individuals during instructional time
or at school sponsored locations or activity.
So it's essentially saying
unless you are affiliated with the school
in some way, you can't advertise to any of our students
during the school day or at any location,
whether it's a school sponsored event or activity at any time.
Right.
And I guess that that's where I wonder, what can we add in
at the discretion of the board as permitted by law.
And I think that one of the things that's coming up on this is
there is some Supreme Court case law around the the
the, you know,
clubs being allowed in and free speech and those types of things.
And so I think that maybe this is what this is trying to address is just
to eliminate it across the board so that it's not open to interpretation.
I mean, my only question would be, you know, so
does that eliminate like right now we have like Boy Scouts back to school night.
They have a table, right?
And you know, or like Joy of Sports sometimes comes in
and advertises for their programs at lunchtime or somewhere.
Derry Township like Kids Club. Right.
Like Parks and Rec. Yeah.
Because I'm confused by reading that.
When would they be able to.
Right. Like what?
What is and are there any examples of what they would be available?
Is that can you think of any.
Mr. Tredinnick that would allow No.
And again, my apologies because I didn't study the policy
intent of this so much as is in thinking that that had been discussed ad nauseum.
I'm sorry, I apologize, but I believe that
it may be the intent here to
avoid any ambiguity by simply just doing away with that.
But that's under guidelines for non school materials.
It says that the board requires that non school
organizations, groups or individuals who wish to distribute or post
shall submit them to the director of School and Community Information,
The director of school and Community Information
shall inform the superintendent or designee of request received
if approval is granted by the Director of School and Key Information.
The Non School Organization Group or individual shall
comply with board policy and administrative regulations
and the District's time, manner and place restrictions.
So feel like a topic saying non and then down below it saying
still giving the freedom for us to use the administrative regulations
as we essentially have them in place already at the discretion of the
communications director and superintendent.
That's kind of what I'm reading from their
Yeah, I'm
not following the flow of the changes.
Tom do from a legal perspective. Yeah, Yeah.
I'm just kind of trying to figure out so. Mr.
So is your concern more with the second paragraph under authority in the green?
Yeah.
Okay. Yes. Yeah, just that second.
The second part, the.
Second paragraph, because that seems.
To suggest that
you can't do any advertising promotion
by a non school organization during instructional time.
Right.
Or at a school sponsored event.
So you could not have a table.
You could not, you could not
you could not.
You can't do that. You can't do that.
Yeah. No.
Back to school night.
No, back to school.
Night athletic events.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
And that does seem to be a little.
Which is concerning for me, especially at the secondary level,
because back to school night is used as a, you know, an opportunity
for some of those groups. And at the
school there is.
And also say from experience and based on our current
administrative guidelines, you know right now so you know these are
we can try for the notion of paper copies going home.
So these are mainly the ones we get now are mainly aimed at elementary
because we say we won't pass out secondary because an experience
we know that they don't make it home.
But in the past, in lieu of doing that,
they've had opportunities such as back to school nights
or they have tables and other school events.
I mean, at the same time, I don't want everybody to be at back to school night.
I don't want to see church groups at back to school night or,
you know, other like political groups or back to school night,
which is why I'm concerned about deleting all of the language that says, you know,
that we prohibit things that are political in nature
or that promote or denigrate a particular religion or religious practice,
like some of those things
that I felt like sort of protected and helped to guide some of the decisions.
And the administrative regulations are now being done away
with, with more general language to just eliminate all of it.
So it's just a decision.
We have to decide where where we want to, if we want to have that in policy, to
just make it easier for our administration to make those type of decisions,
or if we want to still allow that leeway and not put it in there.
You know, I'm confused by the or at school sponsored locations,
because to me, that does not just affect the afterschool programs
that you guys have talked about, you know, the locations of that debugging.
Well, and it could even be at lunch, like if a club breaks a table at lunch
because that's a school sponsored location.
So unless that would be I think maybe that's
why students are typically so I know a lot of times they'll have nonpartisan
student voter registration, but it like there has to be student led.
Okay.
Which would just apply to the other policy. Right.
So this is the have it
groups from solely coming in without any student involvement.
Right.
But what about like what if, you know, to have sports comes around to sit
at the table and advertise for a program that they have these kids.
Right. So
I don't
know, maybe the policy committee could come up with something
different in there or at the discretion of instead of just because.
The other thing one of the other scenarios that was coming up
to me is when we approve
like trips abroad, there we
the board, will approve the solicitation to
two students of non district sponsored trips
that are typically done by one of our staff members,
but they're doing it outside of district use and funds.
And the way that this is written, it would be still in here though.
Actually there's
there's a separate section for travel services, foreign trips.
So that's still allowed under the policy because specifically,
where do you see that? Because it's at the bottom at the very end.
So I guess it's like with if it's explicitly stated.
Yeah. And teacher and that's and that's
typically what when they are doing a trip
to solicit to our students so it has to be board approved
but then receiving that
kind of approval would be granted by a director school
and committee information for everything else.
Yeah.
So I'm not really following the flow of
what is and what is not.
And if we can do that,
I would think it would certainly be a lot more challenging for
the administration to determine what is or is not,
you know, the role of the board.
So what I'm hearing is, is a desire
for for clarification of the policy committee level as to whether
to what degree we want to place limits on non
school organizations having
not just materials but appearances.
And maybe perhaps some
clarification from Mr.
Refsnyder about what precipitated these changes,
because I think that for the most part,
that policy, as it stood, covered all of our needs
and we wanted to maybe just
better clarify administrative regulations.
Yeah, because. Guidance.
For you know, clearly this language from the SBA didn't come out of nowhere.
Right.
Usually when they're making recommendations, it's
because they've there's been an experience at district Central.
So there are no references to statute
or school code really at the bottom that I can see.
It's mostly our policy
and nothing that looks new added in.
Yeah, because one of the
the notations is for another board policy.
So perhaps
this is just something they were looking to streamline, in which case
it's always been our practice to decide whether or not we want to accept or reject
those SBA regulations if they're not mandated by law.
Right. I mean, what I mean, it does reference
three and four.
I do reference school code
and five, six,
six references a school code. So
and I do, but I don't think it's
I don't think there's a new new code new.
Right.
I don't think those are updates to the school code.
Yeah.
I think this makes sense to have perhaps the policy
take a closer look at it along with.
Yeah.
You know because
doing some consulting
um find out you know, sort of where this came from
and then at a later time we obviously probably
want to have our counsel take a look at it.
My understanding
and I'll defer to our counsel, but you, once you create like a forum,
then you have to treat everybody's in that form equally.
So you can't kind of pick and choose based on
certainly the content or the viewpoint.
And I think what we've done here, we've created another forum.
We create a public forum or a limited public forum with respect
to this instructional time or school sponsored location.
And my gut on this tells me to get rid of.
That right.
And have it got governed by our general guidelines.
Because we've been governed
or we've been counseled previously to avoid creating a public forum, right?
Yeah, Yeah. So that's sort of my gut.
And I, this was very helpful
just in the beginning because coming into this, I, you know,
I can remember back in the day when, you know, my kids were now a magistrate
even up the bookbag and you know, there are all these
there were there were multiple fliers there and and I, and I and I
did I don't want to burden our teachers to be, you know, putting these fliers
in there, particularly if you know, there were fliers that were
actually school related, like a you know, something about
the students that education like, you know, next week
we're going to a field trip.
Make sure you get your, you know, permission
slip done versus on one with a bunch of other fliers.
But it sounds like we're not at that point where there's an overload of the fliers.
Yeah, because some of the guidelines we have put in place, for example,
we don't allow any of the non school materials got the first week of school
and that was done specifically for the very reason you mentioned.
We had important school related things that needed to be done and we didn't
want them to get lost in, you know, sign up for of this, that or the other.
So that makes sense because, I mean, you're going to the book bag,
you're trying to figure out what you know, what's
what do I really have to get to right now?
So it strikes me that, you know,
my having heard that this is almost like that ain't broke, don't fix it.
Seem like it was working out pretty well the way it was.
I like the idea of, you know, clarifying the technological and
I think some of these other prohibitions probably make sense.
But I do think we kind of need more background about where
these where these birdie changes come from.
I like your recommendation, John, because that seems to be where the confusion is.
Is that second line there and that second paragraph?
I mean, I think I think it's overall I think I think I mean,
I do like the I like the first sentence there, the authority, because I do think
the the district does want to work with non school organizations and groups.
You know, given our definition of the administrative regulation,
we want to be able
to facilitate the flow of information from community groups to our students.
So I think that's good.
I don't I don't think we don't think and,
you know, we want to go to in a direction of like cut it all off altogether.
You know, I think we really should be trying to facilitate that conversation.
The only problem is when we still continue to allow it,
then we cannot discriminate on the basis of content.
And that's what opens us up to, you know, groups that we might not want to come in.
Yeah.
So if we allow joy of sports and we also have to allow right,
a group, you know, like a group
that is associated with a, you know, a hate group or something like that.
And so that's and that's why that, that's why I language right.
But that's why if we were to keep the language in there
that the board prohibits distributing anything that's political in nature,
promotes or denigrates a particular religion is derogatory
towards any ethnic, religious or racial group
because those guidelines are already there.
That right
goes above and beyond
to cover the and the potentially unwanted.
Right.
So right now, for example, under this policy,
because we're not allowed to promote or denigrate a particular religion
or religious practice,
the good News Bible Club is not allowed to have a table at back to school night
because that would be promoting the Christian religion or a political group.
Can't do something for a political group can do something.
But if we eliminate that language and put in
or allow for some and say we can't discriminate,
then that means
that they would be allowed to and we would also have to open it up to
any other religion or political group or,
you know, something like that.
So that's why
I think that's where some of these restrictions are coming into place.
And in my brief discussion with Mr.
Snyder in the fall when he provided this to me, my recollection is that that was
the intent with the SBA is to find a way to limit that speech more than it was to
control what we consider to
be the beneficial programs that we have in the community.
Then to that end, for me, because of the administrative guidelines,
were outlines that we will that permission to distribute materials from non school
organizations will be limited to locally based nonprofit organizations
and goes on to further define nonprofit organizations
based on their designation with the Commonwealth
or their IRS designation as a 523.
Then we would not want to remove that language in the policy
because some of these groups could be
could have that IRS nonprofit designation.
We've had instances not where necessarily involve political or ideological
organizations, but we have had some where
I had to do some soul searching when it comes to athletic requests.
You know, for example, we have things like
save local Little League Association or youth baseball association.
Well, it's pretty clearly fits within our guidelines.
However, we have had requests than come from travel organizations
that will accept kids from from Hershey, but they cover a much
broader area and quite frankly, they charge a lot of money.
And they're not. From.
Right.
So from an equity perspective, I think that it would go against what
we're trying to accomplish by, say, distributing things like that.
But because of the way the policy Garland is currently
constructed, we've allowed those
pretty much there.
We've had some that are based here in the local area,
but serve a much larger region of the Commonwealth.
And again, you know, my concern was always, sheesh,
they're asking for 1800 dollars plus travel fees
plus and we may end up with two or three of our kids
selected for these programs because they're competitive trial type program.
But we're going to send home 1500 fliers
for maybe two or three kids.
So, you know, I have nothing.
Probably some. Sports.
I've collected some of that.
Pay your favor 1c3 organizing missions.
Right.
So we've we've allowed them we haven't had a ton of them,
but we have had them in the past, particularly
when are locally based and volleyball comes to mind.
Cheerleading is another one that comes to mind, have been based here
in the township but may serve,
you know Cumberland Juniata Mifflin York Adams
you know, a more regional approach but they are based here and they are
also then open to our students so that's sort of one of those gray areas.
We haven't had a ton of them, but we have had examples in the past
and of the that they are 501c3 they provide
that documentation upon request,
but in least in my humble opinion, it's a little outside
the scope of what we intended when we talked about community.
Right.
And I guess that that's where I also look at it too, from the the content
and the context of it, as if we would be including these
sports,
you know, travel organization or that type of thing.
But then if there was a music camp or,
you know, something like that, then you could probably easily
justify saying no to those based on how the guidelines are.
But then we're allowing athletics
and but we're not looking at other activities or camps or that type of thing.
And I will say predominantly the requests that we have currently, again,
that can change at any given moment, but probably
two thirds, three quarters of the requests we get
are from sports programs. Oh.
I mean, I'm comfortable with this language.
I'm comfortable with a clear cut of no, sorry.
And then those organizations are just going to have to find another way
to advertise.
But it can't be directly through our kids.
I'm I'm comfortable with that language because I think it is easier
for the administration to have a just a clear and direct role.
And I think that overall, it protects our kids
more than the the loss of the benefit that it gives to them.
It's just but but it is a decision that we have to make.
Diane, do you have any tracking as to materials
you have approved and that have gone home?
Like, do we have record of that.
Of of how many.
Or do we do we keep a record of things?
Yeah.
They required to submit the final form of what it is they want to be do.
So I've over the years we've maintained
in the superintendent's office all those that have been approved.
But I don't have is those that I've declined
I think.
And we're also referring to the line that says that the materials issued
by nine school organizations under the non school materials
that one that says groups or individuals should not be distributed
during instructional time or school sponsor activities.
Again, that supports the line that we were saying maybe take a look at.
I think the problem is we don't know what's
going to come down the pike in the future.
And that's what kind of makes me nervous by saying nothing right?
Because you don't know what kind of situation might arise in the future.
That would be good to have.
So I'll give you a real life
example of one that again, I've wrestled with and we've declined.
It's actually a for profit business
that runs a youth program which collects a fee.
However, the program, the for profit businesses,
then at the end of the program, it donates all the proceeds to charity.
Well, it's we haven't approved that one because it's not a five
fund.
I'm in communications.
Can you tell it's not an approved nonprofit.
And although we have the businesses word that that's what they're doing with it,
it's still not a charitable organization.
And so, you know, I'll disclose my own kid
has attended this program and I think it's a pretty good, decent program.
But in terms of how I see it fitting with
what we've developed over the years, we declined to distribute it.
And I do struggle with that one, limiting in the future
and also limit limiting the opportunity.
Right.
Like we understand that we provide an audience to
in a vehicle for for this information that folks
you know that students might not otherwise have access to.
And so I don't want to inadvertently
exclude, you know, students
from awareness of opportunities because we are taking a hard, fast
stance on on whether or not we would be giving communications.
I mean, we don't even know what programs might come with the community center
and they wouldn't be allowed to come to back to school night in have a table.
It just don't know where Big brother, Big Sister
I mean, there's a whole list of ones you could go through that right?
I'm not saying they do now, but if you take that and we lead
that materials issued whole line and that they can't be at any of our
school sponsored activities, you're really
closing the door for any any organizations
to do it.
So the challenge then is either to develop the language
and policy or defensible guidelines that really put.
But those side boards are going to be.
And so that's where I would kind of ask
for for some assistance in that regard
and also to make sure I think we'll need to, if we're going to go
that route, involve ourselves or to make sure that it's defensible.
Yeah, I've never had one challenged, but
it's only a matter of time.
I mean, usually when we say no to folks and explain the rationale behind
what our thought process is, that's usually accepted.
But if someone were to press the matter, I'm not sure.
So I think what the best thing to do
from this perspective, because we're only looking at this
to make a recommendation or provide comment to the policy committee.
Is I the version I have of this up?
I've placed a comment and highlighted that that part of it
so that we can specifically make sure to call to that piece
of it to the attention of the policy committee for further discussion.
And that, you know, we have hesitation on whether or not to make.
Mr.. Personally.
I'm just wondering whether there's a way to look at this
through the
lens of whether it helps fulfill the school district's mission.
Right?
And in Dan's example of the sports
program that comes in, it's a lead,
you know, a sports
program that takes that takes a handful of athletes
into a travel program, does not benefit the school district.
On the other hand, the local Little League
program does because it encourages lots of participation.
I mean, I'm trying to figure out how to,
you know, tread the line here.
And where is our responsibility, our obligation, and in sharing that.
Right.
Like, could these groups go to the little leagues,
you know, because it could be the same population.
But I get really conflicted on this.
Yeah, I, I was just wondering if we could do sort of a straw poll of see
where people were at or leaning toward or is everybody's conflicted?
Sure.
We just kind of go around the room and say
on a stable basis, if
you would be in favor of leaving the
that line of materials issued by the school shall not be distributed in
or if you'd feel comfortable having it recommended for removal
is read
in Turin.
Okay.
There are a number of things
that I'm not entirely comfortable with, and this
one is the very first line of that which says
the board recognizes
school community may benefit from receiving information boards.
The criteria for determining whether I mean,
is there any way that you can tighten that up a little bit?
And I'm not
I'm not I'm not troubled
by the idea of prohibiting advertisement or promotion because advertisements
is selling something and promotion is wanting somebody to believe something.
Right.
I mean, in a lot of cases that that's that's the case.
And if you're trying to if you want to advertise something
or promote something, then you're fulfilling your own mission.
You're not fulfilling you're not fulfilling the school district's mission.
Okay.
So on that first line under authority, I've highlighted
that and added the comment What would the criteria be for being of benefit?
I actually
my concern was more the third paragraph
that goes on to say the board drafts the review and consideration
of any activities or non-school materials requested under this
policy shall not discriminate on the basis of content or viewpoint
and then which, you know, on its face seemed fine.
But then what I found further and it sort of struck out any
ability for the school board to say whether or not
there were things you mentioned, hate groups, that sort of thing.
It sort of took that out of your hands.
So that was as a parent and as a committee member,
that line really stuck out to me.
I felt uncomfortable with that.
So that's been that was my primary thing.
Look out at me. And I kind of agree.
I think the overall student was a lot of the language seemed to me sort of removes
some of your individual authority as school board members, just sort of
and on a selective basis, I know you need to have a policy in place,
obviously, to work from, but I felt like it was taking
a lot of the power out of your hands and sort of.
So do you think that if it were to more specifically reference
being applicable to our nondiscrimination
policy and nondiscrimination language, that for me
that would mean, yes, we're comfortable
adding that highlight and comment?
Mrs. Harrison.
I am not in favor of the materials issued by non school organizations
being in there only because I think that does alienate then joy sports.
The Boy Scouts, even afterschool programs
at the library would like to advertise and let kids know about.
I know they have programs, but then they would not be allowed to have
a, you know, a back to school night to let parents know, hey,
you know, your kid can come to this after school program at the library
if you need, especially with the change in school scouts start times.
I think there's going to be
possibly programs there that the kids can go to because that's
going to be a big change for parents as far as who's going to watch the kids.
And so we might have new opportunities for kids for that.
And you're eliminating that by having that in there.
So just to summarize for the comment that I'm going to put in here, I'm
saying you're not in favor and feel like it could be too limiting
toward the organizations that are of community benefit and similar
mission and goal, right.
Such as to partnerships in Boy Scouts and the libraries programs
and else might come
down the road.
Okay.
Thank you.
Did you have any other comments on the other parts?
Ms.. Austin
Yeah, I mean, like I stated previously,
I am torn, but I am I mean, I
am comfortable with, with, with just eliminating everything,
but I don't like that we can't
discriminate on the basis of content.
That also makes me uncomfortable, especially when you remove
all the other information about political
or ideology.
But and just, you know,
wanting more clarification to streamline the language
so that, you know, because if you if do eliminate it,
then you're just eliminated and you don't even have to deal
with discrimination, really, because then your cuts are coming through the school,
which is meeting the mission of the school and the clubs of the school,
which are all school board approved.
So it would just, you know, be a moot point.
But I have a question, though.
If we do do this and keep this rhetoric essentially nothing.
So how will they find out about like girls on the run
or Girl Scouts or any of those like how
they have to be through a school sponsored club?
So those organizations would simply need
to find another mechanism for for outreach, whether that's paid
advertising, direct mailing, their own websites, social media feeds.
So I'm not taking a position one way or the other.
I'm saying it can be done.
Frankly, a lot of the groups that use this,
it's the low hanging fruit for them.
It's easy to do because it's they get approval from us to provide some copies.
We handed out
a lot of these groups don't have large budgets.
But to these are groups that pre-pay
taxpayer money to the district as well.
If they have like a property, you mean right.
If it's. Yeah, right. Like if they have like a brick and mortar.
Sure. That's, you know, there's some local people that.
Oh. Meaning the people involved in it are taxpayer.
Okay. Gotcha.
I thought you were talking about
like the organization and I meant like, you know, they're paying taxes and Sure
are stakeholders in the district, right Exactly.
Okay.
And then for my for my own, I,
I also am conflicted on whether or not
there's a benefit to just saying
no versus, you know, leaving it to have
a bit more room for
for discretion or authority.
One thing that that stands out to me is the
the under delegation of responsibility, the superintendent designate
does all the administrative regulations to implement this policy.
I think that absent the language, that administrative regulations
to accompany this policy should be board approved and leave it
very open to
to misinterpretation.
You know, based on the way that this is written right now,
and that could create potential conflict, you know, if
if something was to be, you know, approved and the board saying, well, no,
you know, none of this, but then things sneak through. So
if we were going to take it down to that level
and remove the specific detail that the policy currently has on
what is not allowed, then I would want to see the administrative
regulations approved by the board in connection
with the policy.
I personally like that
it outlines everything right now.
Yeah, and so I would also recommend not removing
the part under
dissemination of literature and materials
because that would still allow for all of the groups
that we want to have opportunities
that are, you know, shared vision.
What's the free materials then?
What does that apply to. I'm sorry.
The free material distributions and school
commercial organizations offer many materials
for use by teachers in the classroom.
So that would be, let's say a book
publisher might offer series of handouts
that can be used in a classroom, but that charges for it.
So by
removing this, we're saying they can't do that.
I'm currently where where is that
under it's on page five of the PDF. Mm.
Like supplemental material to any of the software
educational programs
or if it's promotional in nature.
I'm sorry,
I'm looking for a language that's been struck. Yes.
Underneath
the heading of it is free materials distribution in schools that's right
above the travel services, foreign trips in the last section of the policy.
So from there,
yeah, right above that red line section,
the last that last section,
commercial organizations offer many materials for use
by teachers in the classroom.
Some of these materials
are of high educational value with little or no advertising emphasis.
Other materials are primarily advertising
and have only limited educational value in general supplemental.
Like, I'm just I'm not really sure what that is, either allowing or prohibiting,
and maybe it's just outdated and doesn't happen anymore.
And that's why they're. Really you know.
There have been times when authors have come
into the elementary school and have provided their books.
It's what that apply to that.
And I think maybe
we'll tag that for clarification.
So what I would like to do, since we're at
the 6:00, is make the recommendation
that we will send to the policy committee
our comments on this and have them, you know, kind of flush it out.
And then at our next
and our next policy or our next committee meeting,
we review the administrative guidelines.
And look at what to make.
Decisions, because by then we would have potentially a policy
either in 30 day review or move through or.
At least knowing that. Right.
And they would be able obviously policy should have guidelines.
So then we would be able to provide better guidance
on the administrative guidelines because it's
what the policy will look like once it's created.
Does that make sense ever?
And that makes perfect sense.
I will notice when you get to me from an administrative standpoint,
obviously allowing nothing is the easiest path, okay?
Because then we don't have to sit there and deliberate the finer points.
Having said that, I know that there are some some fine programs that we have
historically had good relationships with the policy public library.
First, on
that list in my mind, and I know that they do rely on us
to help distribute materials for some of their upcoming events.
So maybe the maybe I hate you is the policy,
you know, outlining that other, you know, public
government, you know, local municipality organizations
that are related because the library is part of the township.
You know, maybe there maybe there's a way to include that.
But maybe that's the
way around it, either in policy or in the guidelines we outline.
There is type of of of entities like the intermediate unit.
Right.
But I don't want to also cut off opportunities.
Right. Yeah.
So it's running Girl.
Scouts as much as part of me
relishes the notion of I don't have to think about this anymore.
I also don't necessarily want to toss it around.
Like it was a benefit is for the state, right?
Did Mr. Abel give us his opinion? Oh, I'm sorry.
It didn't we?
We didn't. We didn't quite get this.
I started typing when I started typing when?
When you were talking before and then didn't circle back.
No, I think.
I think I mean I observed on the second paragraph under authority
and know again I'd like to find out where they came from.
I the prohibit the use of students and staff members.
Yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah, yeah.
What would you want clarification.
There under the authority paragraph this one about more be talked about.
You can't hear your second paragraph below authority.
That's the one I want to kind of find out where that came from.
What was the impetus of that.
I don't have a problem.
You know
that we don't want people advertising and promoting during instructional time.
I think that's plain, right? Right.
And I don't know I don't know
if instructional times means from beginning of school
to the end of school, but obviously I don't
I don't want a teacher in a classroom, you know, talking about talking about this.
So I to have us, you know, kind of find out where they came from
and I'd be inclined to strike it all together.
But I want some more information on where that paragraph came from.
And I think I think you folks are right.
I mean, I think we need to somehow we have to try to get some guidance.
We on the one hand, we're saying
we're not going to discriminate on the basis of content or viewpoint,
but then we also have these other very important rules in play
that have to give us the leeway to, you know, to make sure whatever
district distribution is going out is complying with the the board policies.
So we
kind of have to somehow reconcile those two, it seems to me.
But on the favor of having policy, take a look at this.
Okay.
So then what we'll do is
send that through, add that on
for review of administrative guidelines based on
whatever the policy is in the process.
At the next meeting, I'm also going to move 2020
and 2021 goals to the next meeting for discussion.
And I think that just to kind of plant the seed, one of the things
that I think that kind of goes through is we want to be really mindful of the fact
that we don't meet just to meet and and that we really have a clear purpose.
And I think this committee has evolved greatly
over the years from its initial purpose
that was kind of started on an ad hoc basis and turned into a standing committee
around a communications audit that was done.
And so we've taken it and implemented Citizen Advisor have taken ownership
of that program and looking at the public outreach and board engagement.
So I'd really love feedback from both board members,
administration and and our citizen advisors
on what we see going forward because we've had the same carry over
because it was a longer project and we're kind of reaching the completion
of those once we finish
these things out.
And so we need to kind of look and
what this looks like going forward
so that as we're
preparing both the goals and then also the
the schedule for the meetings next year, which is hard to believe
that will actually be looking at the calendar for next year.
You know, before too long.
But we don't meet again until May.
And so if we could really, you know, kind of be thinking through that so
we can have some good conversation around what the focus wants to be going forward,
I would appreciate that.
Is there any public comment?
I know we have someone here in the audience with us.
No, please, no, Come on up.
And if you could just turn on the microphone, please, and see.
Turned it on. Sounds like it's on.
And name and address for the record, please.
My name is Dan Surface.
I live at 279 Jacob's Creek Drive.
I have two children in the school district presently
and I appreciate all the listening to all the conversation tonight.
I work in a school district down the road and and these are
all the same issues that we grapple with routinely.
I also appreciate the community
engagement piece that this committee offers.
I would have liked to also have spoken to the Athletics
and Activities Committee, but it doesn't meet until March.
So I'm hoping that this may not be too much of a stretch
for me to address this issue with you, and I won't be long.
But I was curious if this committee had
any community engagement with the potential
community
center project that's going on in the community now.
My reason for bringing that up is that I attended
the Board of Supervisors reorganization meeting last week and indications are
there's a potential impact on that, on that community center,
potential delay and moving forward of that community center.
And I didn't know if the this committee,
the Athletics and Activities Committee or the school board knew of the impact
that that may have on the children of in your schools.
So if I could just if you could give me just 30 seconds of your time,
I just wanted to highlight some of those impacts.
So as you know,
there is no water right now in the community for our children.
Both the developmental swim program, the Learn to Swim program,
Hershey High School Swim program, Hershey Aquatic Club program, and that affects
140 Hershey Aquatic Club swimmers, which the largest majority
are school district students,
as well as, as I said, the younger
the younger children, preschool children
and their learn to swim programs.
So without it, this year, with the delay in the program,
you're looking at three plus years before you have a pool in this township again.
So again, the negative impact on the development, on learn to Swim
programs as well, the potential Title nine impact on the school district
and the imbalance of girls
sports to boys sports is very potential
and that we have in the Hershey High School program.
You have twice as many girls in the program as boys
and without a program, should it come to that?
Without water, you have an imbalance in your Title nine
process.
Also to the taxpayers as relevant that all of us are taxpayers.
Obviously 5 to $7 million loss to the taxpayers.
Should this be delayed, Why are we concerned?
I'm also a parent of swimmers,
but also on the an officer and the Hershey Aquatic Club board.
So why would we be concerned
about or why do we think that this could be
coming to fruition?
A delay in this
at the Board of Supervisors last week approved $3,000
to refill the pool that's there now to to see in my
although it wasn't stated, what was stated was to see if it would hold water
and prevent further damage to to pressurized
the you know the underground system to the water system.
So in my opinion,
the assumption is that that's potentially usable in the future.
The 50 year old pool that you had that you had there.
So anyway, I just didn't know if I was going to address
the board tonight as well to see if there's a board position on this.
And I just wanted to share it with this committee.
I'm not asking for anything, just understanding
the impact that it could cost to your to your school system.
Thank you very much. Thank you very much.
And will you be attending the public meeting?
Okay.
Thank you.
Okay.
So on that note, our next meeting
is just closed out.
That school
May 11 at 5 p.m.
here in the district office boardroom.
So if there are no other or comments, then I will.
Or during the meeting at 6:10 p.m..
Thank you for your time.
And then I'll also communicate outside of
this meeting District email
if there's any updates on the community engagement, public engagement part.
So thank you.