So, good evening everyone and again welcome to our special school board meeting and uh before we start uh first we want to send our condolences to the families that lost their uh loved ones. our students uh just these past couple weeks and for both ends, not just this
the uh students who actually lost their lives, but also the parent who has to deal with her child um being incarcerated and not knowing the burden. So, uh we definitely will be at our next uh board meeting tomorrow. We will uh hold a moment of silence, but I thought
it was important to share our sentiments as board members as the Harrisburg School District that um our heartfelt and prayers are sent to both families. And also just for our housekeeping rules, uh we all here show and honor and
respect each other. So whether we agree to disagree, uh we ask you to just be respectful as if you're speaking. whether it's the board, our administration or yourself as our public if there's any public comments and also
to our students who may be uh watching here live. So, with further ado, it is now 6:11 p.m. So, I call to order the June 8th, 2026 special work session meeting of the Harrisburg City School District Board of School Directors for
the purpose of discussing the proposed closing of Roland Academy and moving forward with the final phase of the district reconfiguration at Cam Curtain Academy. And with that, uh, we will now rise for
the pledge of allegiance to my left. Uh we will now begin our roll call for this evening. So madam secretary if you can please call the role for this evening. Miss Copen >> present. >> Miss Anderson present. Mr. Carter.
Miss Hughes present. Miss Johnson. Miss Radcliffe. Miss Robinson. Mr. Roy Mr. Thompson >> present. >> Dr. Suski >> present.
>> I think her hand is raised. >> Oh, okay. Breaking the chains. That's Miss >> Terrace here. >> Okay, perfect. >> Her hand is raised. If you can take her, retake the roll call for the corner. >> Miss Radcliffe.
>> I'm here. I just couldn't I didn't have access. I couldn't unmute myself. >> Thank you so much. And we have a quorum. >> Thank you, Madam Secretary. >> So, we will now move to our uh old business for this evening uh regarding
the final phase of the district's reconfiguration. And um prior to the public comment, our superintendent, Dr. Benjamin Henry uh will provide an executive summary of the district's reconfiguration to the final
phase which includes the closure of academy and the movement of the additional middle school students to the camp curtain academy. So Dr. Henry >> yes the purpose of the meeting tonight is for our administration team to hear from our community and the board of
director regarding the closure of Roland Academy. I want to share some fact with everyone. I provided to the board an executive summary on this issue. Here's the facts for tonight. Based on early decision, we are now at the point where we will be taking a final vote on our
reconfiguration on the last meeting of the month on June 30th. According to previous decision, no resources have been allocated for Ronin for the 27 26 27 school year. We have not included funding in the budget for Roland to operate as a comprehensive middle school
for next school year. So any discussion tonight will be focused for the 2728 school year. My team will present to the community on June 23rd meeting uh to address any concern that is arose tonight from any discussion. So on the
June 23rd any discussion that come out of tonight um the team will present a presentation to the community on how we will address their concern for next school year. We'll move forward with public comments.
>> So thank you uh Dr. Henry for sharing um that update and um madam secretary comments this evening. >> Okay. All right. So with no public comments, uh we'll go ahead and move to our
questions on behalf of the board of directors. So again, at this time, the school board will have an opportunity to discuss the closure of Rowland Academy and movement of additional middle school students to the Cam Curtain Academy. Uh the student the superintendent and
cabinet respond to the questions from the school board. So now that we are in our question periods, if there's any has any questions, please this is the time and I have questions.
I'll save them towards the end. Okay, Miss Anderson. Thank you, President Copeland. Um, so I have a question about the class sizes at Camp Curtain. Um, we've gotten some conflicting data. We've had folks come and speak at public
comment and they've provided some um quantitative data as well as well as uh qualitative data and then we've heard some numbers from the administration as well. So I was just wondering if we could hear a little bit more about the actual class sizes, how many classes we have at Camp Curtain and then what is
the source of that data? >> So I could share with you and you know one on the team also could uh jump in as well that with the assigning of the new principal Mr. Jones to the school. He has been reviewing the master schedule and looking at class size to determine
make sure we have a balanced class size. One of the thing he realized when he started looking at the previous master schedule that some of the classes was not synced. Some of them have larger classes, some have smaller class. So he's trying to balance it. And so what the goal is when we come back on the
23rd, he will provide more information on balancing out the class sizes uh based on those numbers. Mr. Rita, didn't he provided some indication that he felt like we had enough classroom uh based off his initial um observation of
the numbers, the data? >> Yes, he did. Uh in discussions with Mr. Jones, he felt the class sizes would be between 21 and 25 um and he was confident with uh the schedule that he had looked at at that point.
>> Thank you. And then what how many classrooms like do we have the ability to have those small of classes at the school to have that and like that many classes like I'm just trying to think about the logistics cuz again and we're supposed to interact but
sort of like you know hearing some um additional comments over here. I'm just I just want to like confirm how do we know that we can actually like do that and have class sizes that large? Do we have enough teachers? Do we have enough aids? Like what does that look like? That's one of the thing that Mr. Jones is reviewing right now is the master
schedule and align it with how many students that we have currently coming into camp curtain for next year to all lot that to determine how many classes we need to order to support the students. And based off his initial um review of the data, he felt like we had
enough class space for the amount of students. >> Thank you uh Miss Mr. Uh Tom Wood. >> Um my question at this point is more um facts. Can you tell me how many vice principles there will be,
how many um safety monitors there will be and well let's let's start with that. >> As far as assistant principal, we will have uh one principal and three assistant principal. Far as safety monitor. Um, Miss Lane, if you could
pull that information for us and be able to provide that to us in a few. >> How many of the assistant principles are currently filled of those positions? >> The position I filled he interviewed the last position on last week going to be making a recommendation um hopefully to come to the board as late as early as
tomorrow, no later than the next board meeting. So, all three AP position will be filled. >> Okay. Are all of the PAR positions um filled at that school? >> I'm not sure. They will be filled largely through our
agencies. >> Can you name the vice principles? Like I don't know who is going to be there. >> Okay, Miss Lane, you could go ahead and name them except for the new one. >> Currently, we have Miss Lauren Harris and we recently transferred Mr. Kevin
Dean from the high school and we do have a pending recommendation. >> Thank you. >> Hello. Sorry to interrupt. This is uh Jeff Sultanic. Um I think uh there are a
couple of suggestions that I have uh to perhaps steer the conversation and this was also raised during our board agenda meeting. Um, Dr. Henry, can you uh please address what it is going to mean
for the district? Um, if the board was going to approve the closure of Roland as planned or what will occur if the
board does not approve on the 30th? uh Roland, what implications does that have for the district in future planning? And I do think uh I'm advised that there are some people in the audience and I could
see it early on. It might be helpful if you review some of the elements of your executive summary publicly. So, I have those two suggestions uh to make, but I think it's important
for the board to know the impact of what a closure would mean or what would happen if the board doesn't vote for the closure. Okay, I think I kind of shared that at the beginning, but for right now, but
due to us not allocating any resources in the budget or for planning purposes for rolling, anything decision made tonight or on the 30th would be for the 2728 school year. Um, we have not have anything set aside for us to have
rolling open in a traditional sense for next school year. Some of the concern that's that's listed in the executive sermon is the amount of operational need that school uh need. Um I believe if I'm not mistaken, Mr. Reed is roughly around
what $28 million worth of repairs needed to that particular building. >> Yeah, there's really two studies that were done. and one is the feasibility study that was completed about four years ago and that looked about 12 to$14 million of needed renovations.
We recently had our partner train go into the building and do a full assessment of the building which included HVAC um really everything that would be needed from windows to paint to to
really generators and that came back um around 25 million that that would be needed uh to do that. Uh so it is extensive the amount of capital dollars that would be needed to really go into Roland and convert it back to where we
would like to see it as as a school. >> And Miss Lamb, you could speak on a staffing where we at with staffing for Roland and at this point of the school year. for Roland in its current situation we
have um eight district employees in the positions and that is out of 20 positions >> and so far you haven't allocated any staffing for rolling for next school year >> we have not in fact we're using those eight positions to fill vacancies at
camp curtain >> and to move forward with doing anything towards rolling for next school year we would have to staff that school completely >> absolutely we would have to post info. >> And Miss Folks, from a programming point of view, we have not designed any
programming for rolling for next school year. Correct. >> That is correct. >> And so, in order for us to have rolling open as a comprehensive school, they would take a lot of compre a lot of planning order to bring that school back um to reopen it as a traditional
comprehensive middle school. >> That is correct. Yes. >> And and Dr. Henry, just as a followup to that, as it currently stands in the FY2025206 budget, uh there are no uh monies
allocated for Roland other than what I would consider to be uh just simply maintenance cost of a district facility. Is that correct? >> Uh the Sto, can you answer that one for us? >> That is correct.
So, if the board were to decide that it wants to keep Roland open and they wanted to do something, if it was even feasible during the 2627 school year, that would require a
modification to our current budget that is not contemplated and the anticipated tax increase for the community. Is that correct? >> Yes, that is correct. >> Thank you.
>> Thank you, Miss um Hughes. >> Uh thank you. Uh two questions for you. Uh the current maximum class size at Camp Curtain is >> what's the current class size? >> Well, it's it's two different things. If
you're talking class size versus the schedule, I think that you you want to keep it around, you know, anywhere between that 21 and 25 students. If you're talking about total building capacity, uh you can fit more than 25 students in a class. Um but that's not really what
the intent to doing when you when you're looking at capacity. But if you're talking capacity, uh if we're talking strictly the total amount of students you could put in the building, it would be 1,400. However, we always look at a utilization rate of
80%. To bring that back down to more of a consistent number of how many students we would want in a middle school. That drops it down to 1120 in terms of building capacity. Um, we're looking at enrollment and I think it's kind of going little bit back
and forth between how many Cougar can take, but let's say enrollment is 900 to 951. you're you're looking at a building capacity of 80 to 85%. Which is really right where you want a building capacity to be.
>> I appreciate that. I I'm interested in understanding how the how big the biggest class is at Camp Curtain now. So, how many students in a classroom? The reason that I'm asking is because obviously our community is really concerned about behavior and if the if classroom sizes increase, they're rightly concerned that behavioral
problems will increase and it will be manageable. So I'm I'm interested to understand what the current state is now understanding that the community has also already raised issues with the current state of the school. >> Miss Hughes, we could provide that when we stand on the 23rd. We could provide what the biggest class size is and how
we address reducing those class size. >> Okay. I'll just say one more thing on on that um in in that meeting. would expect to hear what the plan is, what would need to be true for this to be successful to to assume that there will be higher um incidences of behavior
problems and what the district plans to do to uh you know plan around that to problem solve preemptively problem solve for that. Thanks. >> Thank you, Miss Hughes. So, I just want to add to that. So currently what is the
ratio with the staff and students currently like how many students are in the class and how many staff like what is the ratio? Can somebody >> we could pull that data? Can someone pull that and be able to provide that to
it >> to make sure we're just not already Yeah, >> I guess someone just want to get clarification to make sure they're not already over size. Okay, we'll run those that data for you and see if we can get it for you by the end of the meeting.
>> Okay, my other question to follow up. So, I think uh thank you for the community who did come out to our last uh board meeting. Um because I did uh review the paperwork and I have lots concerns with the behaviors.
Um the only problem because it was like a slight increase. It was like uh triple and then we're talking about a phase and my concerns is like do we have
currently do we have our school currently under um I would say like under just trying to find the right words like in a in a support to know that it is actually working. So I understand that this is uh
this reconfiguration was originally um set by our prior superintendent. So as a new uh superintendent um my question is just when uh driven to as new leadership uh do you believe or
have you assessed the concerns of your team and support like is it working? Like how how often are you up at the school? like can you talk just give us a little bit of background cuz we want to hear we don't we're not at the school dayto day so we don't some of the things
that are happening besides like I said when I read the paperwork I was like wait a minute uh do we want to put a lab space in there when it seems like we're we're handling more behaviors than teaching or educating if that makes sense.
So one of the thing that we want to present to the board next week when we present is what behavior going to look like. How we going to support behavior next year and moving forward. One of the thing I will say that have Mr. Jones on board having conversation with him. He has a lot of great idea how he feel like we could support behavior at camp
curtain to make it different. Um so we can be educating student and not necessarily dealing with some of the discipline concern. And so one of the things he want to present his plans on what he want um and with the support of us as well with the team. >> Right.
>> Thank you for that. And and I understand uh Mr. Jones um was the principal over at Marshall. Marshall and Marshall is a was like a really total different >> uh culture of students because you know just as uh transparency my son attended
Marshall and you had to um you can only get in so many behaviors to even you know at that school level. You actually got removed after so many deics you cannot be in that setting. So, it's just like how, you know, what does that
plan look like? Is he going to be really equipped to be able to address the behaviors when we're already seeing, you know, some of the administrators? So, I just kind of want to make sure that that we have the right supports and if we don't have that in place, how do we move
forward, you know, to continue on with a plan and then we don't even have another plan if it wouldn't work? Well, and one of the thing that I think that the board should be asking of the team is that we provide a lot of updates to the board as the school year goes on next year.
Again, because as we continue to do this, if we need to make a move for the 2728 school year, then we'll have to have those discussion. But one of the thing that I would say to the board is let us present on next week on the 23rd based off some of your concerns and then
we'll be held accountable with providing those updates to the community and to the board. Okay. So, I'm going just hold you accountable to provide that because it was a little mixed to hear it from your administrative when we work directly
with you. So, to hear, you know, just the numbers. I I just like to be fair, right? To get be transparent and make sure that we're getting the right information so we're making the right decision for our children. And I'm all about safety. Yes. >> And I believe uh if your children are
not safe, they're not getting educated. >> Correct. So, uh, we've already see what's happening all across the nation, not just here in our, you know, Pennsylvania. It's a high increase. So, I know we're working towards, uh, you know, trying to work towards this reconfiguration. What I really really,
you know, deep down in my heart, don't want to get emotional, is we need a safety plan before next year because >> and and I'm going pause because I just want to say my daughter has gone
to this district from the beginning. We chose to stay here. It's why I'm here on the board. um she did perform enough to get into Marshall and there's not really a demerit system. All of us who have kids that go to Marshall and go to Scitec
know that while those schools do have performance standards, not 100% of the students are always hitting those standards and they're filling out those seats anyway. So, just to be realistic about this, there are weapons that have been brought into
those schools. There are behavior problems in those schools. The significant difference is building administration that has supported its students. That is huge. And I've seen Lion Jones do it. To me, he's our allstar
principal. I know why he chose to go to Camp Curtain. He's done it at Marshall. But Marshall's success is not just him. It's not just him and Amy Grab. It's him and Amy Grab. And the fact that the teachers there together, they support
each other. they have responses. I don't know Cam Curtain as well because my daughter doesn't go there, but I know several teachers up there and some of them have come in other places and been with my daughter. So, I expect that that's what's going to happen is you're going to have an administrator who is
there to support the teachers. Unfortunately, when we started this 3 years ago, we had a lot of hope, a lot of promises, but what we didn't end up having is follow through, adequate leadership in
the administrators that were put up there, adequate supports that were put up there. Without a doubt. Without a doubt. So, what I'm hoping to see, and I kind of hoped to see it tonight, to be honest, is what are the plans? That's why I ask the questions that I ask. I
want to know what supports are going to be there because teachers need to teach. You don't need to be dealing with the other stuff. If a kid acts up, they get out of class. There needs to be those supports to get the kid out of the classroom cuz I don't want the rest of the kids to suffer from what you're trying to do and teach in the class. If
we don't have that, that's a problem. If you don't have an administrator that's going to back you up, that's going to be a problem. Those are the kind of things that I need to see as a board member. But they're also the kind of things that I know we have not done for you. I know we haven't and it's been frustrating.
We have those issues at several schools, but we don't have it at Marshall because that culture has been created. I'm hopeful that we'll create that culture again with Ryan Jones moving up there. >> Thank you. Uh, Miss Robinson,
I think I I Okay, let me I don't doubt that Mr. Jones would do a good job. But what I don't want us to do is go into this where Mr. Jones is coming in there wearing a cape
because we've had I'm trying not to lose my temper. Um, we've had administrators up there who did their job. We've had teachers and and to say that any other school, yeah, they they're they're they have problems and things like that, but but you also
said that you don't know what's going on at Camp Curtain. The teachers here are telling you what's going on at Camp Curtain. They're printing out data that is in our system about what's going on at Camp Curtain. Now, let's be very clear. I was never in favor of this
reorganization. From the very beginning, my answer was no. And just to be completely transparent, I will not vote to bring the eighth grade over into Camp Curtain. If you have the data right here that says it's not working, it wasn't
working the first year. The second year it wasn't working. If it's not working, then stop. And I'm sorry, did the middle of my sentence interrupt the beginning of yours? My questions,
I think everybody's asking the questions about the class size and what are we going to do and put things in place. My question is, who does this benefit? I want I really want to know who does this benefit. When this started, we were under receiverhip. So, this board had no
say in what happened up at Camp Curtain or moving or closing out Roland. So, now if you're moving all of the students out of Roland, because according to some, it was never meant to be a middle school even though it was one for 20 plus years. But River Rock, an alternative
school, is going to stay there. How is it good enough to be an alternative school, but you're moving? But it wasn't good enough to keep our kids there. Now, my other question is if and I have to go back to uh when you
were talking about the the money for renovations. One question, how much are we paying for renovations at Camp Curtain right now? And this is a this is a part of another question. >> Are you talking in total? You talking over the past three years?
>> No. No. No, right now today, >> right now, what we're doing to to make room for the eighth graders that are coming in now, >> um, we did a project for four classrooms, which was the enrollment center. Uh, we're also doing another
project which adds another classroom on the second floor, as well as a project for the expansion of the cafeteria. So, we're going to add a side cafeteria for additional cafeteria space. >> What's the cost on that? Um,
I can get back to you on that. It's it's roughly it's roughly >> it's roughly 1.7 million. >> Okay. Now, the another question was raised before about the renovations to keep Roland open was
it started out at 12 to 14 million to renovate and now it's up to 25 million. And Dr. Stokes mentioned that we don't have the funds to do that, but I do remember back in January when we we
reallocated almost $14 million to it was $10 million to the capital reserve and another $4 million to another general fund. So that $14 million was what would have been needed to keep rolling open. So to say that we didn't have that, we
had it. It was reallocated. and it was only reallocated because we couldn't keep more than eight uh 8% of our general fund of our general fund unallocated. The money was there. It was it was moved to other places. Now, let me get I'm
sorry. Let me get back to my questions. one, why if I know on my end, I worked so hard just on my end, I'm not talking about any other board members, to make sure that Steel School got
reopened almost 8 years fighting to get Steel School reopened because the the community said that they wanted neighborhood schools. What is the point of reopening a neighborhood school when now you're going to take all of the kids out of one
neighborhood on one end of the city and put them into a school in the other end of the city? That doesn't make any sense. And you guys know how I feel about things not making sense now. So, we really don't want neighborhood schools.
>> And again, nobody answered the question, how does this benefit our students and our teachers? How did how was it a benefit? Especially if you know that you have different factions in this city, the kids are at
at war with each other right now. What sense does it make to put all of them in one school and you don't have the things in place and the teachers are telling you it's not working? And if it's not working, stop.
If there's a fire going on, why are you going to put more gasoline onto it and not have things in place to actually contain it and put it out? They're telling you, the data, everybody wants data. The data is telling you it's not
working. And I don't understand why we're so amped on pushing this. Now, granted, this was started because Mr. determine came in and I don't know what the thinking was with it but I didn't agree with it then and just because it's
continuing you know it's not working why keep doing it and it's not a benefit to the teachers it's not a benefit for the students because the teachers can't teach the students you don't have the security in place right now you don't
have the the the teachers don't have the supports that they need right now and everybody's talking about future class sizes and future this and future that but we're not dealing with right now and I don't understand
and wouldn't again somebody to to do this somebody has to benefit from this so if this the students are coming out of Roland which is a building that we still need and according to our
recovery plan we're supposed to grow the district, but how are we going to grow the district when we're not even using the buildings that we have? We're renovating buildings that we're using and condensing all of our students into one. So, what is what is going to happen
to Roland? We have all of this space. How does it benefit our kids? And I keep asking the question over and over and over again, but nobody is giving me the answer. And it's getting frustrating.
So please, who does this benefit? How does this benefit our kids and crickets? Okay, this I will wait for you to finish. Okay. So far as I think a lot of your question, I think we need to
continue to work on building this out with this presentation in two weeks. But when I think about benefit the kids, I I've said this before and I will say it again. At some point, we have to bring our kids together. Uh they're in middle school or high school, but we have to bring them together. And for me, I I would say this again. I rather try to
work with them as young as possible to try to bring them together and to show them how to work together um than to wait to bring together in high school. >> And you have to have an understanding of the kids in the neighborhood in Harrisburg right now. And the ones who are in the classroom with them are
telling you it's not working. and to just to say we're going to go ahead and put them in and the teachers you make them all get along. How how does that work when they're they can't teach because they're constantly breaking up fights, getting in involved
in another they can't do their jobs. So now they're frustrated and I've said before this is a dangerous time to keep poking the bear and this is just being very real. You have teachers that are frustrated. And then and again, if we're going to talk
about money and and I'm going to leave it at that because I'm getting frustrated right now. We pay $30 million a year in charter school expenses. When our when those classes become overcrowded and those parents start to
pull their students from that school and put them into charter schools, that's going to do nothing but up our cost. So when we hit 40 million, $50 million in charter school costs because even when you pull those kids out, they're
not mandated to go to our virtual school. So you can go anywhere and the district has to pay for that. So where is that money coming from? because now we're even asked to raise the taxes or already
just the city can't take anymore. Our our our our neighborhoods, our community, they can't take any more in taxes. So where is this extra money going to come from? So if you know this cycle is going to go on with we're spending more money in charter schools
because people are they don't feel that their children are safe in school. They're going to pull them out. We're going to up our spending and then the teachers are going to leave. We're already in the teacher shortage as it is. They're going to leave. And then
what happens? Again, this I'm not saying that this rolling config reconfiguration right there is going to be the to the downfall of the school district, but if you see an avalanche coming,
move or stop it. It's as simple as that. And you can't say that you didn't know because right now you're telling us that we we have to wait until the 23rd to get more information. This was not new. This was not a surprise. This was going on for
the last 2 to 3 years and it hasn't been working. So right now, why are we why do we have the shock Pikachu face that oh my gosh, I didn't know that this was coming. Do you see? That's where my frustration lies. I want something that makes sense,
something that these teachers can actually where they can do their job, where the students are actually going to get educated instead of us always always coming up behind trying to fix things. Let's get ahead of this.
Thank you, Mr. Adamson. Um, Miss Anderson, I'm sorry. Um, thank you, President Copeland. Um, so to Miss Robinson's point that this isn't working. Um, we've seen the data. I think my next question would be then like looking at solutions, what is going
to work and how do we do that, right? How do we get that done? Because we can't keep the kids in the district waiting for us to just sort of like figure it out. Um, so we do need a plan, which you mentioned you're going to talk about on the 23rd. It sounds like we
have a couple common themes and being future focused like class size is important because it impacts behavioral the behavioral issues that we're seeing in the classrooms. The community came out and spoke about that um multiple times that seems to be a concern. I would also be interested in
understanding what the um role of the pair of professionals is or what that dynamic looks like in a classroom. Like how are we seeing support for teachers in the classroom? I'd also be interested just in like even smaller things in terms of like onboarding like what type
of culture exists at Camp Curtain and how is Mr. Jones looking to improve or change or like move that culture to make sure that teachers and administrators in the school um feel supported and are supported um with what they're dealing with. And then I think just to sort of
like parse this out, I think we're dealing with two uh different but related two separate but related issues, right? So there's what's happening at Camp Curtain now and how we're going to fix that, what we're going to do about that. And then there's
the question of whether or not we're closing Roland. Now they're related, right? They're inter they're interdependent. If we if we close Roland, we don't have the option of bringing the students back. Um, but I think that goes back to like what is the solution and what are we are we keeping the kids at Camp Curtain and then like
how are we fixing the current issues that exist there. Um, and I think we need to be like very specific with what those solutions are. I know we've also had folks come out and speak um about how there's a dynamic potentially being created with our other middle school.
Um, we have to have higher standards as you talked about u Mr. Thompson leader to to get into that school and are we creating a culture where there's this standard of a school and then the other school and so what yeah what
expectations are we including in this plan to make sure that this is a place where students learn and they feel excited about being at school um and they're getting more than just you know learning to read. There's extracurriculars that are there um or
purpose of of being there. So that would be my thoughts. Thank you. >> Thank you, Miss Anderson and uh Miss Hughes. >> Uh thank you. Um I I also appreciate um kind of some solution focused discussion too and um and uh want to kind of you
know confirm what what Miss Anderson and Miss Robinson said as well. Um I wanted to uh actually I I know you're waiting to give a presentation next week, but I I think it would be helpful to get some highlights tonight. Um and um in
particular I guess um uh Dr. you said guess I don't give you a chance to to explain the rationale because I I don't understand it either. You said bring students together. What is the benefit of bringing students together younger? Um, >> so I would say one of the thing that I have already picked up since I arrived
here is that most of our kids when they come to middle school um again the influx of gangs in the city is real and one of the thing that I was just thinking about uh one of my school foods that I was talking about because he was telling me that we have so many of our
young kids that's getting introduced to games as early as fourth and fifth grade. Again, if we can provide mentoring, we provide more solution to these kids as young as sixth grade. Again, we got a chance to try to save some of the kids from picking the option of games. Many of the time by the time
the kids get the ninth grade, they already have picked a game that they're going to be on or the community or streets already. I'm hoping that we can provide some additional mentor and some additional purpose in the school to change the trajectory of some of our students so they don't choose gain they
can choose other option for us. >> Okay. I think um understanding what that intervention looks like uh I mean is that in place now at camp >> and that's one of the thing that we just approved a couple weeks ago with all you can academy the ship academy that one of the reason why we brought that in because we want again think about our
tier three kids some of our most uh struggling students. How can we put them in this program and offer something a little different for those students? >> Okay. I mean, the theory sounds okay. I think the execution is is what we need like, you know, an evidence-based program that's, you know, that we have a
strong theory for, you know, that it's going to work. I think we need the details of that for this to be credible for the board to approve. Um, the other thing is if we're if we can't do anything about this coming school year, uh, the board also has to think about the costs of voting um, movement back
and forth. um you know the cost of that uh monetarily for for staff and for students. I mean just kind of weigh that. I'm not saying that's good or bad. I'm just saying that that's something to consider as we as we think about how we're going to vote. Thank you. >> Provide that in the presentation.
>> And one more one thing right here. The gangs don't start in the fourth or sixth grade in school. that that is that has started way before that in the homes in the neighborhoods and their their relations to people and it it goes into
the schools. >> Yes, I I agree with you, Mr. Robson. But one of the thing I would just bring point up is that one of the things he was showing me that a lot of our younger kids are getting jumped in games as early as fourth as early as fifth grade. Again, to your point, a lot of this start before they even get to our
school. But again, how can we create a school that inspire the kids to think outside of the box to inspire them to think of what this could be the school district could be to support them? >> And I and you know what? I am all for
getting these kids early and and stopping the the gang violence and things like that. But what I don't approve of is you already know by eighth grade, you said they're they're they're being jumped in at fourth grade, fifth grade, sixth grade. If you're bringing
in the eighth grade, these kids have have already been jumped into the gangs. >> You're bringing them from two different sections of the city into one school and saying teachers make them get along. >> Yeah, that's why we have to blend. How can we not imagine what this could look
like in their school? How can we provide better support? Again, that's what we provide to camp cur school. How can we work with students? Can we provide asis training to our teachers? There's a lot of stuff that we could provide and it'll go about too late. >> But here here's my thing again. You just
mentioned something that putting it on the teachers to do. That's and that's the teachers are there to teach. I understand that you want the teachers involved and you want to you want to make the change for these students, but it can't be at the expense
of the teachers, their their health, their their safety or just their ability to teach. And I am not preaching to the teachers. This is my frustration. My children have gone born, raised, and educated in the Harrisburg school district. I I know what I'm talking
about. This right here is not going to work. And one other thing that nobody thought to to bring up, demolition is going to start on William Penn. So now you're going to have the the the
trucks, the the other people working there. You're going to be blocking off a way for buses to get. What are you going to do about busing? What are you going to do about stu uh parent pickups? There's going to be so much going on at Camp Curtain. And god forbid what
happens if something happens up there and the police can't even get through there. They're going to be riding across the grass. I mean, we have to think of everything as a whole. I understand people are you're we're talking about
things that are that may happen and you're talking about this as as though this is already set in stone. And I'll tell you for me it's not set in stone and I don't want to
overrule override or anything like that. I want a solution that makes sense to everyone because again my question was never answered. Who does this benefit and still crickets?
I want to thank you u Miss Rob Miss Robinson for that. And um just to add we also can't just uh put it on the school district. I'm a mother. So um if you're watching, if you're listening or if you're here, uh these are your children.
And again, like I said, I'm here not sitting with the sentence like I'm exempt. Uh they knock at my door, too. My children are and and we got to change our language talking about gangs. These children are crying for help and help sometimes look at somebody else who's
going to give them the money versus us. And we just see something, say something, but who's really doing it? We got the end of the school years coming up. We got so many partners that want to come in, but it's just easier to show up to the school the end of the school year. Are we watching when school ends?
Like we know we're coming to the end of the school year. We don't have to wait to for the district. You can show up and say we're here with our community just to get make sure children are getting home for half a day. It's is it's as simple as that. And again, like I said,
you got a lot of work to do. And like I said, I'm not exempt. You know, I'm always, you know, keeping them lifted up because it's not easy when you can't sleep, when you're getting calls, you know, and you're fighting and you're fighting. you like when when does it end? So I think what we heard tonight is
again there's nothing set in stone because weed to advocate on behalf of our community. So it's going to take us and we're reading the documentation. We're getting our agendas. We got to make the vote
position. Now we have to drive and we have to support you know our superintendent. But my challenge will be to you and our team is come back with a recommendation that makes it all make sense. If it's
not working, then how do we get there? And and and so it's your staff because they're the ones who got to work with you and making sure even as their new uh principal is coming. What does that relationship look like? Because again to get back and not to go back and forth,
but my child was removed from a dear. you can get 10 American math and science and he was used to charter schools, right? I know a lot of people talk about charters, but I'm about safety and another thing I'm not going to be fighting to be a solution and got to fight with my kids. That's a that's a
you know deadly, you know, weapon there to come out. But to say it is he got pushed into uh back into a public school and I told him, "Well, son, you made some choices. You'll be fine." But guess what? The first month I knew something was wrong. I knew my child was
struggling. He was assaulted here. Did I could I got a lawyer? Could I have sued? But what was I going to do? Nothing. I said, if he's going through it, how many other students are experiencing? How many other parents are don't have an advocate? How many how
many students are teaching their parents? Some of them can't read and write. It's not just in schoolers at a daycare. We have students that come and have to read to their parents. not just ESL. There's children that there's parents that just doesn't have the
support. So, you know, we appreciate programming, but we need to have some real, you know, thought about coming back with a recommendation with the program. This the summer is about to come and we know we did that was for 30 students. We got over 6,000 students
here across the school district. So, we really have to come back with some recommendations. And that's, you know, I was hoping to hear more from the public. So with respect, I'm, you know, maybe if some of you feel, you know, threatened, but I feel like your voices, you're
everything. So you help us to help each other to say, "Hey, we can hold them accountable, but if we don't know, we're just like you guys." But again, we also have to do our part. We can't come here on the board cuz I didn't come on the board just to be on the board. I came on
to do what I'm supposed to do. And the hope is to see the success and the impact. So again, nothing said, but we did initiate this because we did want to hear from our community. So this wasn't about us. We call a special meeting cuz we wanted to
hear from the community. We wanted to hear what is going on. We don't we're not we're not the you know in the educating classes but we hear from the docu you know from the paperwork we got some behavior issues and we have to make sure are we reassessing these issues are are we getting them the right
supports are the right people in place or what do we have to do to keep after school you know for me mandated right but everybody's different countries they keep school all year long again we're different but we have to come up with some plan all working together and not
against each other. So, we're not, you know, throwing a dart at the superintendent. He's one person. We're the other nine. We have the team and we we need the suggestions. We need you guys to speak up, help us, and we're here to, you know, together. So, again,
I thank you all for coming out. And if there's any final questions as we move forward, I didn't take it lightly and I up all night trying to, you know, put it together. But again, it's not going to just take me. I'm one person and we are all But look how we come here together.
We look better together. And imagine when our children hear us change our language. Then they can say, I don't want to be in a part of that. I want to change. And that's why I appreciate the superintendent. One thing is to start letting the children come and speak.
Start letting the board members come into the school. We couldn't even come into schools. That's it. >> So that is something I've been about four of them five and I'm trying. I have to take off the work working three jobs, but it's it's it's it's the part of the work. So I'm not going to complain. You know, I always say is there are you
going to be the problem or the solution? And the solution might not be one year, might not be two, might be a second term, but I'm willing to keep fighting until we leave out because I am an alumni here of Harrisburg School District. I graduated from here, the old middle school. We had stuff to do though. So, we had work at the swimming
pool. You had things to do. And look at it. These we're shutting so many things down where the children don't have an outlet. They're coming. I get, you know, how many children just sit on my porch all day? And you know, you can't be the old granny. But I'm like, what's going on out here? But again, I want to know.
And they're like, Miss Roslin, do you know where a job is? We want to work. So to hear, you know, the SBI get these programs up and rolling and let these children know they got support, incentivize the parents, what can we do? So I just believe we got to come back
with a better recommendation than that is why we're here. And I'll go ahead and turn it to M. Robinson. That's my final. >> Okay. I just I wanted to you mentioned about we're here to support the superintendent and and yes to a certain
extent we are but that's not my job. My my job is to provide oversight. My job is not to blindly go along with the superintendent suggestions if it's not in the best interest of the kids. Now my only question is and and Dr. hearing
nose. I told him the day he got sworn in, if you are all about the kids, I will stand 10 toes down with you. And if not, you're going to hear my mouth. Never lied. Now, my question is, since everybody's already talking about talking like this
is already going to happen, is there an issue with putting a pause on this? Well, Miss Robinson, one of the thing um that I shared with everyone is we do not have anything allocated far as resources, budget, anything for rolling
for the next school year. >> What is what is the cost of keeping roll those? How many students right now are enrolling? >> We have a roughly about 150 kids. >> Okay. So, right now, what is the cost of for those 150 kids just for this school year because they were the only ones there?
>> I'm sorry. I'm sorry. So, so, >> so but those Okay. So, now who's now >> we don't have seven green >> nobody in there. Okay. So, now moving with with it closing Roland
and not having any place for these kids to go. What is what is the harm in pausing closing Roland? So if >> you're going if if you if the kids are
there and they're going to be moving on, why can't you just use what you've been using now? Keep the teachers that were there. Keep that right. >> You don't have to. So we have to one, we don't have any kids assigned to rolling for next year. So we have to redo all zoning because remember when we started reconfiguration, we already already did
all the zoning. So we don't have any kids zone for rolling for next year. >> Why why can we not reszone? Is there something that we can >> that's not something we can do like overnight? That's something >> I'm talking overnight, but I'm thinking there there has to be a way to fix
the issues that the teachers and students are having at RO. >> So I mean I'm sorry over at Camp Kirk. >> So one of the thing you have to realize again based off of what you all been able to approve far as the budget, we haven't allocated any resources for rolling for next year. So for us to do
what you were asking that will take Miss Dr. uh Sto to go back to our budget and rework a whole budget. >> But now there was money in the in the um the capital reserve the 10 million that was moved over to the capital reserve and that other 4 million that was moved
over to that um the other general fund. What where is that going has now as far as um operations and Mr. Reed have you alloc have you allocated that 10 million to other things already? >> Yes. >> Yes. Okay. Yes. So, we approved a
capital budget of just about $13 million, I believe, uh, in April. So, all that money that was moved is actually being spent as approved by the board. So, I just want to say it's not Marsha redoing the budget. Marca is happier to redo the budget, but Marsha
is not a programming expert. So, we're going to need Miss Folks, for example, in academics to basically lay out a brand new master schedule for a building. We're going to have to decide what uh offerings and electives we're going to have there. Then we're going to
need job descriptions. Then we're also going to need all of the ed special education, all of the administrative. So the question is Marsha can put together a financial budget. That's not the hard part. The part is getting the colleagues
to be able to design a program based on what the board desires within a week or so because we need to know what grades do you want sixth through 8th grade? It's just sixth grade, just seventh grade. Who who what are we going to serve there?
>> Well, be and before we we get that answer, I need to ask the teachers. Did you do you have a question? ask >> and I and I was going to ask I was going to ask you what do you guys want? >> So that's why I don't think people were
doing public commenting but I know a lot of us have questions. Good question. >> And why why were we not doing public comments in that? >> Yeah. Yeah. Prior to public comments but on the agenda it was not just for the public. It was for the
teachers as well. That's why I said but that multiple times to make sure do you guys have any questions? Well, this well this was for this was never supposed to be just a board discussion part because the reason was we got the packet of the
information and this was supposed to be a time for the teachers to be a and and any other community members to be able to say what they needed to say and for us to hear. Yeah, that's what I mean. We already >> Yeah, we went through that. >> Right now, we're doing this is since
we've been talking, they have questions. So, why can't we open that up to hear uh response rebuttal of what they >> No, we only with that is we didn't already are at the second portion of the agenda, but I don't want to disregard.
Go ahead. Yes. >> If I may, the solicitor had to jump off, but there would be nothing wrong if the board wants to entertain questions. This is your meeting. Okay, great. So, yes, we can definitely entertain any questions. We just would like uh Miss Drayton, we still will want you to keep
it for the record. So, if you can have them fill something, fill it out. You can still come and speak, but I would still recommend to you fill it out and to provide it to our board secretary just to have it so it's not just you're speaking. We want to follow up and, you
know, continue to be consistent. So, thank you for that, Dr. Cesley. cuz I want to be clear and go ahead. >> They don't need to fill anything out if they come to the microphone. They just need to state their name and that they're an employee at Camp Curtain and we'll make sure that's reflected in the record. Got it.
>> Oh, great. Thank you for that. So, this is the We still want to do three minutes. Well, we'll do the three minutes. >> Yeah. Yes. >> And I just wanted to say one more thing. The going up to speak right now should
not um have any retaliation, should have nothing said against them when they get back to school because I know that a lot of times that is a concern and whether you think it's true or not, I know it's a concern and it has happened before.
So, I just want that on the record. No one up here that speaks will face retaliation. >> Hello, I'm Leslie Franklin, um secretary at Cam Curtain School. I am also alumni from Harrisburg High,
class of 97. I've been at the school district, this is my going on my 18th year. All I can say is why I believe it can happen, but I believe Cam Curtain. We need help. We need a plan.
We need more safety. I'm speaking on the behalf of my This is very emotional for me and I'm ready to cry because people are making decisions that don't live in our area. Um and and and y'all really don't know. We are our
our kids are different and it make him work again. I went to the middle school. Miss Siobhan Holland was my principal. They didn't play. Um I think we need a team. I'm not saying Mr. Dean I mean Mr. Jones can't do it. But what our problem is our kids are getting they changing
principles too much. You have to build a relationship with the kids and that's something the change is just different. So I'm not saying it can't but why? And we need to come up with a plan before we do it. And I don't think I'm telling y'all it's not going to work next year.
>> Thank you. >> Um good evening um school board administrators. um my colleagues um Dr. Henry uh my name is Nicole Collins and um I too uh am a product of um the
Harrisburg Middle School. Um I I know who I am. Um I know my purpose. My purpose is to teach. My purpose is to educate students. Um, unfortunately there are so
many things that are going on within and I have amazing classroom management skills and I still, you know, come into the classrooms and I have issues with, you know, the behaviors, the number of referrals and things. But it's not just about the behaviors. There's a lot of
other things that um we are in need of. We are in need of support, major support. We are in need of visibility. There are a lot of people who walk around our schools and that's just what they do. They walk around their schools. I am probably I've been here for four years and I'm probably one of the oldest
teachers there. I am into uh attrition uh and retention. Uh I've seen uh substitutes where they come they go they leave in the middle of the day um due to you know a lot of the things that are um going on in our schools. Um my concern
also is let's just say we um we can't even get substitutes. We can't even get teachers you know. Um I'm not going anywhere. I plan on retiring, but I'm probably like one of a few. I love what I do, and I
just want I just want somebody to just support us. I want um there's times where people just come into the schools, they don't even know who we are. You know, we got new principles. When are you going to introduce yourself to us? When are you going to tell us that
we have assistant principles instead of sending us a email there's a new uh assistant principal? That's not fair to us. It's not fair to our children. And that's my only goal. And I, like I said,
I know my purpose. Do you >> Hello. Um, I am Jamie Pro Camp Carton. I just have three questions. One, um, the way this is all playing out this evening, Dr. Henry, um, it feels like the decision has been made. You're saying June 23rd, but you're also
telling us there's no money to do anything. So, did you make the decision already? And if you did, may I ask why that decision never included anyone in the staff of Camp
Curtain School? Why didn't you have a parah, a teacher, a security officer, a cafeteria worker, an administrator, a secretarial administrative assistant, why did you not pull anyone from that school to make a decision about that
school? Two, if that building, which I heard last year was no longer fit for people to be in, suddenly it is. If that is the case and Riverock can be there, how
how can River be there but our children can't? Is River Rock paying us money and that's why they can be there but our children's safety is less important? I don't know. I'm asking. Um and three, you know, we're talking
about class sizes, class numbers. We can sit here and as teachers argue and and shake our heads and say that's not true. And a lot of it isn't true. We've had sixth grade or excuse me, eighth grade classrooms this year with 36 children in it. My home room for 3/4 of this year
had 31 in sixth grade. I love Harrisburg. I'm not a product of the district. I'm a product of its teachers. And I love it here. I'm in year 31. I have no intention of going anywhere anytime soon. One, because I have three
kids in college. One of them sitting back there preparing to do an internship with this district because I said you are going to learn so much cuz I love it here. But what I don't love is hearing, well, the numbers are the numbers are.
There are a lot of people making a lot more money in this school district than we are wearing a lot fancier, more expensive clothes than we are. And we're okay with that. But what we're not okay with is not being treated with the respect to be included in the decisions
that are going on in our building with our children. And I have 28 seconds left. So let me just say this, you know, with what has just happened recently in the city, the younger brother of one of those uh young men is
in my home room. I also had another one in ICU this year at CHOP. Just recently we have our kids are amazing and they are rallying for each other and they are fantastic children. They are all levels
but who's there for them besides us and we don't have the power. So I'm asking you to include us in your decisions. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Good evening. I'm Emily Stein. I spoke at the last meeting and I was also the
one who um shared the data with you and um provided you with input from our teachers as well as input and perspectives from myself as a school psychologist in the district and I did put my name to that. Um thank you everybody from camp this is all camp curtain here. They all came out tonight.
Um we we have great staff at Camp Curtain and and we do work as a team at Camp Curtain. Um, and I'm really in love with everybody here. And I mean, we're all in support of each other and we all love these kids. We're here because we're concerned. We're advocating. We
love these children. We want to see what is best for them. This is not working. This building is breaking. And we have seen the quality of the climate in the building, the teachers ability to teach. We've you've
changed administrators on us. You can say, "Okay, we're going to bring Mr. Jones in who has more experience, albeit, as somebody did point out, at a school that's an applicationonly school." There's going to be a difference. So, we're here tonight. If you guys have any
questions for me, we wanted to hear what everybody else had to say. We're anxious to hear the plan on the 23rd, as you all are, too. And unfortunately, I'll be out of the country, but I will watch it and I will be back on the 30th and I will put my name in for public public comment and let you guys know my thoughts on the
plan. Okay. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Oh, good evening everyone. I am Shantel Maddox. I am the vice president of the teachers union and I'm also a teacher at Camp Curtain. So, it's nice to meet you
all. Um, so I wanted to share that I just recently had the amazing opportunity to go to all of the elementary schools and present to all of the fifth grades in our district about Camp Curtain and what it's like to come to a middle school. So, imagine for a moment that you're a fifth grader and
you're graduating fifth grade and you're getting ready to go to middle school and you're nervous and you're scared and you're excited and I got to present all of the information in this big beautiful presentation and I answered all of their questions and the first thing I asked is what have you heard about Camp Curtain? And every single school, it makes me
want to cry said the exact same thing. Every single child said the same thing. It's scary over there. They fight over there. It's dangerous over there. and I had to smile and I had to say, "It's okay. We're going to ensure that you're safe and it's not every kid and you
know, we'll have safety monitors and and they all looked at me like I was a liar." And it was really hard. Um, the rest of the presentation went wonderfully, but I just knew that I had to answer that question at every single elementary school six different times. And I I could hear the kids look at each
other and I could hear them say, "She's lying. She's not telling the truth." Right? Which is really sad. and they said that they hear how it is from their siblings, from their their cousins and their play cousins. They know how it is over there. There's really no way to hide it. Um, and to say like we're not
sure what's going on. Thank you, Stein, for sharing the the information. Um, but you don't really have to look at the data to know like the the community knows what it's like over there. Um, tonight before you you see 20 plus educators from Camp Curt and I'm so
proud of you guys for showing up. Um, and what you see, you see teachers who care, educators who care. We're not just teachers. We're also safety monitors in the hallway. We are working in the office. Like, we are in the classroom and outside of the classroom. We're in
the resource room, ISS room. So, we are we are your proof. We are your evidence. I'm glad that you have the data, too. But we are the boots on the ground. And we are telling you like if this is already happening and if this is the plan and if it's too late okay but what
are we going to do from here? We have to stop the trae tra trajectory of the the current plan. We have to do something and that's what we're asking. We love our students so much and we care so much and that's what you see in front of you is a lot of love and care. Thank you.
>> Thank you. >> Hi there. Uh Richard Bender. Uh I also teach at Camp Curtain. Surprise, surprise. Um for the last about 2 and a half months, I've been the restore and reset teacher. Um which is another word for ISS. And what what I really do is as
children are sent to me, um we we reflect on behavior. We uh look at repairing harm. We really do a lot of the restorative practice stuff. Um, but what I want to do is just end this whole thing with giving you just a little bit more data because I am very
thorough and I record everything. Since March 27th, the first day my room was open, albeit 6 months too late, I have seen 526 visitors. The top five behaviors, class
disruption, skipping, physical aggression, fighting, and uh defiance and disrespect kind of tie. It's too much. 525 children in 2 and 1/2 months. There's only a small percentage
that are repeat uh visitors to my room, but it's a lot. Can you imagine if I my room had been open the entire school year? the number of students, the traffic that I would have had. It's frustrating. Um, it's upsetting the
fact that we have so many students who aren't getting the supports that they need, who don't have the supports in our building to make them successful. And that's all we really want. We want successful students. We want a successful building. We want successful
teachers, successful security, successful secretaries, all the staff. So, whatever your plan is, I I really really hope that it sets us up for success and not just more failure.
525. I'll leave you with that number. 525 since March 27th. Thank you. Good evening. My name is Angela West and I am security
personnel at Harrisburg at Camp Curtain. Um, most of you know me cuz I already um I'm pretty well known as far as my skills. my skill set is beyond security, but I was forced to
um kind of be put into Harrisburg school district because of some things in the community. However, what my goal is now because I have to be here um is to save as many of our children as
possible. I know the pipeline to prison. I understand it. And if we don't do something productive with our children,
that's where they're going to prison. We don't have enough substitutes. Our system is dried up. We don't have enough teachers. So, if we're talking about expanding this school, we can't run a school with
a bunch of substitute teachers. We have to have qualified educators. And if we're doing anything less, we're doing a disservice to our kids. So, please consider what we're looking
at as a whole and taking time out to understand what the needs of our kids in this community is. I'm not from here. I'm from Philadelphia and I seen some not so nice things in
the educational system in which kids are not productive. But I want to see our kids outperform. Thank you. Thank you. And again, uh, thank you to our, um, community and thank you for the
the comments because I think it's necessary. So again, Miss Robinson, thank you for, um, bringing it up and Dr. Suski for reiterating that you were able cuz believe me, that's why I really came. I wanted to hear from you guys versus all of us always speaking. It's not about us. is for us to make sure
that we all use our um you know use um our time and wisely and and understand that we all are not here just to sit on the other side. We're here to how do we come together? So supports is very important because if you don't have
supports, you got to see something outside of what's happening just in the home. And even when they come to school, like I said with the Buddhist thing is relationships. And I think people don't understand that cuz everybody come from different backgrounds. So and that's where my son, we struggled cuz he was used to the charter and then he came
into a public school and he was misplaced. And I don't know if y'all remember a while back, they had just suspend the children every day. I was like, "What is this?" and there was a principle and I think that's a lot you know prior to co the whole shutdown so
it's a lot that plays the layers into it but now we hear you guys and I'm doing a challenge all of us to step up to not so then this is nothing directed to anyone is don't wait until it's too late so if
you see it early on bring it to us and again this was not a board decision but now that we are here. We can't go. We're not looking to go back. We're saying, how do we stay here? And that means we have to be monitored. We have to expand. And and I watched so many schools shut
down that I knew I was like, I got to come back on the other side. So, I'm not just here working. I work dayto day. I open the daycare at 5:00 in the morning. So, I'm up from 5 to about 11. But it's not about me. is to is to see the
children come out be successful and know when we all leave we did our part and like I said it don't start here it starts in the womb are you reading to your children so it's a lot and it's just that leave them with something so I I challenge you guys as administrators
or you know your position leave them students with something to leave when they go home and know we're here for you and and that's why we're here cuz we need to work collaboratively as a team I know we don't say we're the team but the superintendent as we all know in governments. He's in the helicopter with
us and he was on both ends. So, we don't know what his dayto-day looks like. And I know it wasn't easy. And I I I told him we're a little different and you're going to get some ups and downs, but we need tough skin cuz we see people here, they like to get up and say, "I'm about
our students." And then when it's time to go to work, I'm going to go down the street. I'm going to go across the river. And I'll be like, "How do you leave?" and I'm right here from here. So, I'm going to give back. I'm a grandmother now. So, we got to just continue to show up, speak your truth,
and in that voice, that one word will change somebody's life and not the pre, you know, hope is the children are listening and know we're here for you guys and we know you don't have to choose the streets. So, I told my son, the streets is you got two two ways. Either you're going to prison or we
going to have to put you in a casket. And mommy don't want to do that cuz you know people are crying. I was like, I can't get on the news crying. Oh, my son. Because I knew it was happening. That's another thing. You know what your children are doing. I know my son's out there cuz they're kids and they want to
hang out and they want to be with their friends and they're like, "Mom, it's my friends." But I'm like, "You've got to you got to make better choices." Everybody's not going to be your friend cuz at the end, who they going to call? Mommy. We have to come together. Then you got people. And I'm not a social media. I don't do social media. So, you would have to come here if you're
looking for me on social media. I am a live person. I am not a bot. I am human. I want to be social. I want to talk. I want to know. And we know the systems have changed to let us know. We can hide behind a computer and think it's working. It's not working as we see it
in a year of just being separated. Look what happened. The video game, they got more. They were making more money than half of probably what we get in budget. But I'll pause there to say thank you for all showing up. Um this is the start to start tearing you know at the wall
tearing a little down and we got more work to do. So I think um vice president want to leave with something and we will join this meeting cuz I'm sure we'll be back here tomorrow. So come again if you have anything else. Thank you President Copelan. Um thanks for that statement
too. So, I just I think the details matter here um to make sure that we're actually like addressing the concerns that were raised today. So, um took some notes and I just want to kind of like run through some of the concerns. This might not be fully comprehensive, but
just want to run through some of the concerns that I heard tonight that I think need to be addressed in whatever plan the administration uh puts forward. So, security and safety, um, teacher support. I would love to hear a little bit more detail
from the community, even if that's like after the meeting on like how we can provide teacher support in the building. Um, I'm hearing extracurriculars or maybe even considering summer programming. We as a board, we have a say in the budget. So if there's a recommendation from the administration
on different types of programming that we could do for the students, I would love to hear that and we can think about what that looks like for the budget. I also heard structure more structure and onboarding from the administrative perspective, right? So principal comes in, it's not just like here I am. There
has to be a little bit more structure and engaging with the folks in the building um and maybe talking a little bit more about ways of working. Um, also class schedule that will help. Uh, that was a concern that you had raised Dr. Henry. And then I heard about increasing
teachers and dealing with the substitute issues. And then the big thing that I heard the big thing that I heard this evening is engaging the building staff, not making decisions on behalf of the folks that work there, but including folks in
that process. So, I don't know, just like quick thought if it's possible to have like an advisory group at the school that includes folks from some of the different professionals to include them in the decision-m process just to make sure that we are addressing the
concerns that that folks have. Um, and I think this is regardless of whether or not whatever happens with Roland and and the the class there, it sounds like some of this stuff needs to be addressed anyways. So, I think that that having a plan to do that would be a good start.
Thank you. >> Thank you for that, Miss Anderson. And Mr. Carter, >> just moving forward before we do uh close out. Um, has there ever been any meeting within that three-year process of that reconfiguration? Has there ever been a meeting with the whole staff as a
whole, with security, with the teachers, with the principal, lunch aids, the staff as a whole to see how the school was functioning within that three-year process? What was the dialogue like? and I had a meeting with them once early in the year but I don't know prior the two years if it was in the meeting like that
but we but I'm taking everything down jotting down not know so we can address it um another system what what other system is in put uh what other system was put in place aside from the all you can uh in as the individual came up and spoke he said it was 500 and something odd
students that um organization is going to service 30. >> So what other system >> that's why I'm saying all of this to you all as I'm jotting it down so I can present to you all on next week. >> Also I know uh Ryan Jones is coming over
as the principal of Kim Curtain but when I last recalled when Montgomery was there they were supposed to be collaborating together to bring resources to what worked and what didn't work. What does that dialogue look like or what did that dialogue look like? >> They had meetings regular meeting with uh Mr. McGomery Mr.
um Jones over the years. Is that what you asking? >> Yeah. >> Yes, they have >> out of that three-year process. Remember when >> I can only speak for the time I've been here? >> Well, they presented when you was here. They said he was working together to bring in resources. So, what worked and what didn't work when they did collaborate? >> I don't have with principal at least
once a month and both principal was there. So, conversation like that was been had >> right. So, when you come back, can you give us what that dialogue look like? So, what did Mr. Montgomery say did not work that was working at Marsh science that he incorporated over at camp curtain. Let's see what that look like
include with their dialogue. Um >> oh is she done she was >> is that Mr. Carter? I think Miss Robinson, but >> Miss Robinson,
this has been going on for a lot of years. This was not a surprise. Now, everyone's acting like we didn't know. And I think that is the slap in the face that these teachers are feeling
to say now we have to wait for another meeting and then it's another meeting and then we're going to meet here and then we're going to have the data here or we're going to have this. This was not a surprise.
This was presented to I know to the administration I want to say it was last November, October, November or so. This wasn't a shock. So why are we here at the beginning of June
discussing something in the last month that we have a meeting for something that affects our teachers and students in the fall? We keep having meetings and keep having meetings and nothing is getting done.
That is where my anger, my frustration lies. What are we going to do? We have a the the amount of education in this room
right now is amazing. But we keep having meetings and we can't figure it out. Do you see how that doesn't make any sense? So for us to still be here, we're hearing that something's not working,
but then what they get back is, "Well, we're going to make this work and make this change. What good is what good are any more meetings? They're telling you it's not working. The administration wants to do something to move forward with this. How does that
where do we come to a solution with that? And again, for the third time, who does this benefit? that. >> Well, I'll answer that once and I will again tell you, Miss Robinson, that this
would be included in the presentation. >> So, thank you for that. And I think we're going to uh move forward. And just to finalize it, it's going to take your vote. Your vote is the answer. That's the answer. Do we move forward? Right. So, that's your vote. And now we have a
board and um Sure. But we we got to move forward. But again, like I said, it answers the question cuz we're not in the receiverhip. So we're we're now in position. And when you're in position, you have to make a vote. The majority of the vote makes the decision. So now you
see who's here. You Oh, yeah. They're going to answer that question to you. >> Miss a challenging question right about now. Miss Rob. It's okay cuz we're going to move.
>> So, in regards to the school closure, so if the decision is not to move forward with the school closure, can you guys give us some type of other options on the 23rd of what does that look? What does that process look like? >> Okay. >> All right. So, we heard was that yes, Dr. Henry. >> Yes.
>> All right. All right. So, with further ado, so do I have a motion to so move. Robinson. >> Is there a second? Second, Anderson. All in favor signify
by saying I I >> stay for a little bit longer. >> Don't make it your appointment for appointment. Yes. But