Hello and welcome.

We are in the heart of Center City, Allentown, in the Rodale Community Room of this historic Miller Symphony Hall.

Over the next hour, we'll discuss something that is critical to Allentown and the entire Lehigh Valley, the future of the Allentown School District.

I'm generally health news director at Lehigh Valley News.com, together with PBS 39 and Lehigh Valley Public Media.

We are proud to bring you this program.

Allentown is a school system at a crossroads.

And tonight, we're honored to have two special guests who are in positions to help determine the path ahead.

Carol Birks is the acting superintendent of Allentown Schools.

She was approved by the school board just three weeks ago after the previous leader, John Stanford, departed under a separation agreement less than one year into a five year contract.

Dr. Birks has a challenging task ahead of her.

Also joining us is the mayor of Allentown, Matt Turk.

Mr. Turk is nearing the end of his first full year in office, a year in which Allentown youth have been a focus of his.

He also happens to be a school district parent.

Thank you both for being here.

We're going to get right to it in a moment.

But I just wanted to say that this forum is open to the public.

It is streaming live exclusively for Lehigh Valley Plus members.

And also joining us in the audience are some invited stakeholders, all with a deep interest and insight into the Allentown School District and how it moves forward.

We'll hear from them, as well as open it up to questions from others.

Now, helping to facilitate the conversation tonight from the audience is my co-moderator and colleague, Sara mueller.

She's the education reporter for Lehigh Valley News.com.

Sara, welcome.

Thank you.

Jen, as we begin tonight, some perspective on the key data in the Allentown School District.

First, on academic performance, the numbers tell a difficult story in Allentown, 15 elementary schools, 63% of the students test below proficient, proficient level for reading and 75% test below that level for math in the middle schools.

68% of students are below proficient in reading.

88% are not at the proficient level for math.

This is all government data proficiency.

At the high school level, it's only slightly better.

64% of students test below the proficient level for reading and 74% are below proficient for math.

As we can see in classroom performance alone, the school district's needs are great, but factor in school funding and the road gets even rockier.

In Pennsylvania, school funding advocates are suing the state, alleging its funding system discriminates against students based on where they live and the wealth of their communities, according to the Public Interest Law Center.

A plaintiff in that lawsuit, Allentown, ranks near the bottom of Pennsylvania in spending relative to student need.

A weighted index shows Allentown spends just over 90 $400 a year per student.

That ranks 496 out of 499 school districts in Pennsylvania.

Jen, I'll be back a little later when we hear from some of our audience members.

Thank you, Sara.

We have a lot to get to and we want to hear from our guests.

Dr. Birks, we'll begin with you.

First off, welcome again.

Tell us a little bit about yourself and what drew you to this job.

Well, thank you very much for having me on the show.

My name is Carol Birks, and I am a native of Bridgeport, Connecticut, which is a city that is quite comparable in size as Allentown.

I grew up the youngest of my parents, total six children in impoverished conditions.

My parents were not I didn't graduate from high school.

But what they did instilled in us is that the power of a good, solid public education.

My mother made me read books all the time.

Every time I said something, I'm bored.

I need to read a book.

I want to read a book.

And so she continued, I, I was the youngest, so it seemed like I was treated a little bit more.

There was a lot more discipline imposed upon me than my other siblings and accountability.

And but I also she had really pushed us and pushed me specifically to participate.

We went to church all the time, as well as science camp and all those things that I thought were horrible as a child.

Those things led to my success.

And so I what drew me to Allentown, to this particular city, was quite comparable in size, as well as demographics, as a city in which I grew up in.

And, you know, having researched the district, I've worked and spent more than 25 years in education at all levels.

And some of the similarities of the experiences I've had, I feel that I am Allentown, basically because of my upbringing as well as I've been well prepared for some of the what we call opportunities, because people kind of use it as a negative old challenge.

But we have opportunities for growth here in Allentown.

I had a group for the past few weeks.

I had a great opportunity to meet many of amazing teachers and students and families.

In my short ten days of being here, as well as the stakeholders and people who really believe in this community and have had great pride in this community.

And I'm excited.

I feel like all my experience has prepared me for today in order to help lead and first learn and lead within this particular in Allentown.

So I'm excited about this opportunity.

I've had all experience, just to be specific.

I served as a teacher.

I've worked for the Connecticut Department of Higher Education.

I also was an assistant principal, a principal.

I worked for a nonprofit, which I have an executive coaching training.

And and what you think about this a little bit, you know, someone like me who grew up like I say, I grew up in poverty.

Some of the things that students face that grew up in urban centers, I experienced it those same experiences at times we didn't have or I'm going to just do real talk, you know, at times we didn't.

Our lights were off.

We're not on.

There were times my mother was a domestic worker, so she cleaned the houses of of Jewish families.

And so and there were times in which we also, you know, relied on to the food bank or at that time was a church where they had a food pantry there for resources.

And then I saw crime and murders and things like that.

And so but to put it in perspective, you know, research would suggest someone like me who grew up with a mother with a 10th grade education, and she grew up in the rural south of some of the South Carolina.

So when we think about the late thirties and early forties, that same education now would be probably comparable to a third grade education because she very rarely went to school.

I'm sitting here today and you just introduced me as someone who the acting superintendent of schools of a district with more than 16,500 students, about 2600 employees.

Research would suggest that something like that would never happen to for someone like me.

But great the power of great teachers counseling counselors and a caring community that supported me, led me here today.

And I have.

And not to boast, but just to inspire, encourage someone else.

I have a master's and a doctorate from Columbia University to think about that.

And I went to public schools in Bridgeport, Connecticut.

Again, all the all those statistics that were read similar as Allentown.

And I just think those teachers, the community, the church and everyone else who poured into my life led me to do it.

And I've put in for the past, again, 20 plus years.

And I won't tell you how old I am, but I'm going to say just my professional years.

I've spent fighting for equity, for access resources, pushing systems.

Sometimes that got me into trouble because I was relentless about ensuring that kids who grew up like me were able to get the access to resources that they need.

And so I am grateful.

So thank you.

Thank you.

I want to go to Mr. Kirk.

The mayor doesn't really have jurisdiction over the Allentown school district.

But throughout your campaign last year, you said that the future of Allentown is dependent on the city's young people and that a healthy, productive school district is vital to the city's growth.

How do you feel about that today?

Well, so thanks for the opportunity to be here alongside you and Dr. Burke.

I walked by briefly explaining my experience.

It's no shave November, so I'm rocking the beard.

It's I'm here with our superintendent, and I love both schools, both high schools.

I've got my Allen colored tennis shoes and my dear tie.

So equal opportunity.

How do I feel today about the commitments I made as a candidate to supporting our kids in Allentown, the commitment to our school district?

I'm incredibly excited when we got to meet on Halloween and I got to say, I was I was amazed by and how unflappable Dr. Birks was.

I was dressed as a butterfly.

Yes.

I was reading to kids at Central Elementary.

And as I do, I came bounding down the stairs after reading to second grade classroom, and there was Dr. Burke.

And I've got my in my wings and she didn't skip wasn't didn't even flinch.

She was just like, oh, there's is.

Mayor dress, there's.

The mayor.

And I said hello.

And that is that got me very excited about the new leadership that we have in the Allentown School District.

I made points before about our commitment as a city to the district one that the mayor would be an avid supporter of the superintendent, that we would have a close working relationship to, that the city would be an ally to the district as a whole and making sure that kids get to school safely, making sure that traffic around our schools is is moving properly to making sure that kids are coming from good neighborhoods, that their parents have access to education, economic opportunities, and and getting the school ready to learn.

And then then finally, that the city, and particularly the mayor, would be a fierce advocate for our Allentown school district, and particularly our Allentown kids in places like Washington, D.C., and in places like Harrisburg, but almost more importantly, across the Lehigh Valley.

Dr. Birks, you had mentioned that you've been here about ten days.

Yes.

So, first of all, thank you for being willing to come on a show here into your tenure here.

I'm wondering if you could share some first impressions.

You've mentioned meeting some teachers, going out to schools.

Tell us a little bit about what you've seen and what you're noticing based on your experience in other places.

So what I have noticed is that people have great pride in this community.

I mean, I hear I want to do I want and I hear a lot of that, a sense of of community and pride and people wanting to see the district succeed in the collective community, be successful.

I'm hearing that they believe in the school district and what's happening in the district, and they want stability.

They want to make sure that we have stable leadership and that the city and the district work closely together and that we are very intentional about creating opportunities for coherence and alignment of the work that we're doing across the district as well as collectively, that we are intentional in our communication about how matters are being addressed throughout the district as well as our partners, ensuring that we are working very closely with the great partners that we have in the city and people are aware of what the work is and I know there are amazing partners here within our area and so they just want to know what are people doing and how is it tied to our overall or our overall goals?

Let's talk a little bit more about communication.

It's been an issue in the district between the administration, staff and faculty, even with the community around some incidents that have happened.

How do you begin to fix that?

Where do you start with that?

What it starts with, of course, I need to learn and listen to hear what people feel that they need and where we have not been as successful.

And of course, champion the successes that we have had communicating to the community.

And I as far as communication, creating multiple mediums for people to communicate with us, because oftentimes we talk about we're going to basically involve parents and involve the community, but we need to engage them and change our language and not do one to them, but be more inclusive about what they need and what they want.

Because, again, we are in service to the community, to our children, to their families, and that is our first priority.

We want to and when I mentioned some of the multiple mediums of communication, and we know that young people don't want to see all these long written letters that we normally write to communicate.

And so we're working closely with our director of communications, Melissa, and I want to thank her for her hard work and leadership.

And so that we're going to we're using Instagram and creating videos.

And I was surprised in the ten days when I visited schools and the students were like, wait, I saw you on Instagram.

So they knew who I was already and was like, Oh, that's great.

It's working.

Our communication is more effective also.

And I believe in building on the strengths, in the collective strengths of individuals within the community and in terms of bringing people together to hear their voices.

What I've heard is people don't feel like their voices have been heard and to really create space and opportunity so people can have one on ones with me.

And so I'm going we are going to have some community forum, a community forum on November 30th, our first community forum at the library.

We'll also have some town hall meetings for teachers so we can have some two way communication.

And I like to do this.

I didn't tell Melissa this yet, so I'm going to say this out loud.

We'll have opportunities on our website.

So there's two way communication and that people will have an opportunity to connect with me and I will have some office hours throughout the district, especially when I'm back.

I want to hear full time.

The people can come in and just have conversations with me.

So what?

I'm up here on the high where I want to be on the ground and not on the dance floor.

But I mean, I'm sorry, on the balcony, but more on the dance floor with the community so that they we hear their needs and voices because we work for the community and we are in service to the community.

We have committed to being an ally to the school district in communications.

So Genesis Ortega, who is our communications manager, and Melissa Reese dialog frequently about making sure that we're supporting each other's messages as two separate organizations, that we're collaborating with each other and understanding best approaches to getting messages out there.

It's part of the initial connection that we're making between the city of Allentown and Allentown School District two to be each other's partners in communication.

Let's dig a little deeper on that and then we'll go we'll come to you.

I just wondering, you've mentioned several times being an ally supporting the new SUPERINTEND and why do you think that's so important?

And I'll ask you this, too.

Did you have that relationship with the last superintendent?

So I'm more focused on relationship with Dr. Birks right now.

Dr. Stanford and I were friends.

We got we spent a lot of time together, but I'm focused on helping Dr. Birks and being an ally to her as she continues to lead in the Allentown School District.

Why is it so important to be an ally?

Because in a lot of respects like this, this is the toughest job in the Lehigh Valley, right?

Dr. Birks is I know we said this to each other when we had breakfast a week or so ago.

It's she's an eminently capable and qualified professional who can do this work.

We still need as much help and as many friends as we can get in work like this, because you have to make tough decisions.

You are in the spotlight more than anybody else but you.

You can't do it alone.

Right?

This this work cannot be done alone.

And so you need allies and you need friends in other organizations crossing organizational boundaries.

You need friends in the community.

And I know that Dr. Birks is going to find allies within our community.

We're really all in this together.

Do you want to respond to what the mayor said?

Well, I agree.

I mean, the mayor has my ten days.

I think we've talked probably six or seven times and a few times a day.

And we're and we've met with each other.

Right.

So he has definitely been intentional.

He said it and he's been showing me that he's doing it.

And when I call, he answers.

And so there hasn't been a time in the past ten days that I've said, Yeah, I need you or I need support with something, and he has been responsive.

I just want to follow up on communication, too.

You know, I'm very sensitive to the fact that people have had, you know, negative experiences in schools, you know, growing up, and they don't want to go inside a school like an old schoolhouse.

And so, you know what I said to my team?

I want us to be out in the community.

If we have to go do a presentation at the barbershop but the hair salon or at the church, I want to be on that level because I want the community and families to see that I'm a part of the community.

So when I'm here permanently, especially the house will plug as well.

But in all seriousness, because we know that parents and community members, some of them have not had a good experiences with the district.

Thank you so much.

So here's what we're going to do next.

I want to turn back to the audience.

Sarah is with someone now and is going to introduce us to some stakeholders who've agreed to join us.

Yes.

So I met Don Godchild.

She is the executive director of the Community Action Lehigh Valley.

Would you like to stand up?

So we wanted to speak with you because of your relationship with the school district and families with the school district.

Could you talk about your interaction with families in the school district and what you're looking for in your relationship with the superintendent?

And, you know, going forward with with her, you know, with the new superintendent.

Here you go.

Sure.

So I first of all, want to beg to differ with both of you.

It was 11 days ago that here, because we were honored to have Dr. Burke speak at our annual meeting on November 4th.

So we thank you for that.

Your graciousness in coming to do that so quickly.

Our relationship with the Allentown School District is an amazing relationship, and we care deeply for the youth and the students in the city of Allentown.

We run many programs that speak volumes to that.

We have our community action development.

Allentown has a neighborhood partnership program that focuses on programs that mentor to youth, that have many services that we serve the youth in the area.

We have a Generation X program, which is a college access program that helps high school students get into college or vocational or trade school.

So we support them in that.

We have a C program that is stands for Self Esteem, Health and Education that is teaching fifth grade girls to be empowered to have a voice and to make healthy relationships, you know, have healthy relationships and to learn that academic is really important.

One of the things that we were partnering with the Allentown School District in doing was to purchase and the Cleveland School in old school that was no longer being used.

So we did a community study, a survey and asked What did people want?

And one of the things that people in Allentown wanted was a safe place for their kids to be.

We have seen a lot of violent acts that are happening, so we wanted to make sure that they had safety and they had a place where they could go to not just play basketball and sports and do, you know, things that were teaching them activities that would better their lives, but that would keep them safe while they did it, and they have to do their homework when it's built.

So we're very proud of those efforts.

We also help the school district with food.

So we have pantries in various schools in the school district.

And for those that don't have the ability for us to do that, we take a mobile pantry there so that parents can come and their families can be fed because we know what the economic status of many of the Allentown families are.

We want to be here to support you.

I was told I could ask you a question, so I'm going to ask you a question.

We, most of us, were not privy to why the former school district superintendent was let go after only nine months.

So I guess I need to ask you, in your first nine months, what do you plan to do differently so that you can get your stride?

We you know, it takes the mayor and I have both been in our roles for just over a year.

It takes some time to be supported and to get your stride.

I hope that people give you that opportunity.

But tell me what you think you might do differently so I can respect for what I intend to do.

One I'm going to in a lot in the next maybe ten days or so, we will produce a learning and leading plan which will be very intentional actions that we will take in order for me to build relationships throughout the community.

So I've started and having visited schools, I think I'm up to school number 11 at this point of our schools, talking with teachers as well as students asking them questions, what's going well?

What do we think we need to improve on?

And the magic question, what would you do first if you were superintendent?

Because everyone has an opinion about what this job is and what are the most pertinent priorities.

I also work closely with our school board of directors and hearing their priorities, and we will have a retreat so that we are very clear and intentional about the goals that we're working on together collaboratively.

I'll meet with stakeholders, conduct forums throughout the community, town halls and such, so that people I get to listen and learn, learn with them and and they hear my vision for the district and I think looking we had an established to teach it plan in the district and I think some great work has been done but we need to now revisit those, those goals and priorities and identify some key performance indicators within that strategic plan and have our stakeholders rally around what we've done.

I think we've done some intentional works.

I don't think it's necessary to start all over again because we've done a great deal of research.

A lot of many outside providers have conducted studies and research.

I am so impressed with all the studies of research and people like we did a feasibility study on this and we don't know and it's just fantastic.

So there's no reason to go back.

But honoring the work that has been done and then moving people in to, you know, what?

And when you manage transitions and organizations and moving people into what we call the neutral zone, getting them to see themselves in that work and then reimagining the district together.

But I view really putting together a task force of individuals, looking at the key priorities that we've established to move the district forward.

I'm also going to lean on many of you in this room, as well as others that are listening to provide me with information and some guidance because I don't know everything.

And that's why I really believe in strength, space leadership so that we build on the collective strengths of everyone.

I think there's a great opportunity to build the capacity of our leaders within the organization at all levels and giving them a chance and empowering them to lean to those types of things.

One quick word to you both mentioned relationships, right?

Don mentioned the relationship that community action has with the school district.

And you talked about relationships.

That's I think one of the things that is so important about consistency of leadership is that it allows time for the development of relationships.

We can have relationships between organizations, but fundamentally they're between people, right?

The relationships that community action has to provide all these amazing services, whether it's the the XI program or the the college readiness program or the food access program, those are people who are providing those services under the umbrella of an organization to people who are receiving services under the umbrella of an organization.

It's all driven by relationships, and those relationships only happen with time.

We're focused on the future and not on what Dr. Birks will do differently from some other superintendent.

But what is Dr. Burke's going to do, period?

And Dr. Birks is, from what all indications are, it's going to be a level eight with her, and she's going to develop these relationships with key stakeholders in the community.

Let's go back to some community stakeholders with Sara in the audience.

Well, Jen, we're here with Jill PEREIRA.

Do you understand that she is with the United Way of Lehigh Valley and her organization is part of the Community Schools Initiative, which provides wraparound services for families in the school districts, not just Allentown, but some of the surrounding school districts as well.

So, Jill, when we're talking about providing services, wraparound services, which could mean mental health services, food assistance, those kinds of things, what would you say would be some of the the things that you're looking for when working with a new superintendent at Allentown?

Great.

Thank you.

Hi, Dr. Burkes and Mayor Turk, thanks so much.

And welcome to too, Allentown.

Jill, prayer with United Way.

As Sarah said, and you all have hit on many of the things that we're looking for.

You know, our United Way is really interested in continuing to invest in transformational work in our community.

And what is being presented tonight is really like we're aspirational when we think about our relationship with Allentown, right now.

In actuality, like there's a lot of work to do, right?

Because consistency is important, communication is important and coherence of a strategic direction really important.

And we want to mobilize community around all of that.

So we the community school model right now, 11 schools in the district, we've invested community donor dollars, about $18 million since 2014.

We're anticipating investing up to 24 million more by 2030, bringing in, you know, again, the corporations in the community, faith based donors, individuals.

And it requires an open mindset around partnership.

Right.

You have some amazing leaders in your district, a beautiful children and families, lots of really committed partners.

And we need stable leadership in order to bring it all together for for the long term.

So, you know, I think all of the pieces are here and what we need is some long term commitment to stable leadership that can keep doors open and and minds and actions moving forward.

Yes.

Thank you.

Fantastic.

And I love the United Way.

I used to sit on the board of the United Way.

So I know all the great work that's happened happening the United Way.

And thank you.

Yes.

And the United Way of community school work here.

And that we have is something that has attracted the attention of Washington.

We talked about being advocates for the Allentown School District in places like Harrisburg and Washington and this is a part this what they're doing and what they're assisting with, with the support of all these organizations.

I think about Rob School, I was able to tour Rob, which has its community partner of Saint Louis University Health Network, and that that's what brought the second gentleman and the Secretary of Education to the Lehigh Valley to just kind of see what's going on there.

And when I was in Washington a few weeks later, they brought that.

I saw both Secretary Cardona and Mr. Emhoff, and they both brought up their experience with talking to Principal Delgado.

Rob, those critical community partners, you're going to find like we'll have community partners pouring over us, wanting to help out.

And it's a it's a question of like, how do we activate everybody to to their highest purpose?

And that's where you come in, right, as a coach.

Yes.

Yes.

And the community schools model is a fantastic models.

I've worked in districts with community schools and I was hoping that we could have community school at every school.

So that's something that is of great interest to me because I see that I know the power of having those deep partnerships within the communities supporting schools.

So, yes.

All right.

We continue this community conversation on PBS 39, presented by Lehigh Valley News.com.

A little later in the show, we'll hear from more stakeholders.

But for now, we want to open it up to others in the audience.

So if you have a question, raise your hand and let us know and we'll try to get to you.

Please identify yourself and your reason for being here when you come up to the mic.

My name is Arno Armstrong.

I'm a 2014 graduate of graduate of William Allen.

Welcome to the city.

I appreciate it very much.

You know, both of you spoke about listening to those who are forgotten, which is excellent.

Of course, to be sure, one of the most forgotten groups is the charter school community.

Currently roughly 25% of students are in charter schools here in the city, and waiting lists sometimes stretch into the thousands.

So my question is, what can be done to increase access to charters here in the city?

Thank you.

Thank you.

So, of course, we want students to with their families to have opportunities to put a portfolio of schools of choice.

But we have great traditional public schools as well.

And we'd like to, of course, retain students and families to our traditional public schools.

But I do believe in the power of choice for families to select schools.

And so and I do I know it's very important because they are all of our students and that we work closely to ensure that students have what they need and that we're listening to families.

But again, we want to strengthen our traditional public schools.

So think of parents choice and opportunity.

We're committed to the things that the city does is it supports public works, it supports public safety.

And increasingly in a city like Allentown, we support public health and the ways that we support public health as a city or by supporting or by working to improve the social determinants of health, which include things like the neighborhood and built environment that people are living in people's access to economic opportunity, access to health care, the social context and the access to educational opportunities.

We're committed to creating an environment where everybody, all kids can be successful.

It's the case that the Allentown School District serves the largest percentage of our Allentown City kids.

Right.

The kids that are going to school are mostly going to school at the Allentown School District.

But we're we're pro Allentown kid generally speaking, and wearing Alan and deer colors.

But I'm also a fan of Central Catholic, which provides a private school opportunity for kids here in Allentown.

I'm a fan of the Raptors, who just won a championship and football over at the Executive as my own kids.

My oldest kid, Mel, graduated from Charter High School for the Arts in Southside Bethlehem.

So I'm supportive of the institutions that provide for successful and healthy outcomes for our kids.

The most important one to us, just because of the volume is the Allentown School District.

It provides a an education to the greatest number of kids and is is there for us.

And that's where we we try to step in.

We have another question from the audience.

Please introduce yourself.

Yeah, my name is Scott Armstrong live downtown.

I was on school board about eight years ago.

We've been waiting for the traditional schools to improve.

In fact, they're like they keep trending in the wrong direction.

So what's wrong with working to improve the traditional schools, but at the same time allowing parents the opportunity to rescue their kids from the failing school district?

Every year we keep these caps on.

More and more children are forced to go to schools that are failing.

The charter schools are doing a better job and getting better results.

And yet we are continuing to deny these are kids an opportunity to get out and get an education.

You only have one chance to get an education when you're a child.

I don't understand why we're denying.

That to them.

Thank you.

So really hearing some passion here about this issue of providing a good education to children and giving children those opportunities.

Thank you for your question.

And so we should point out that Scott is our nos dad and Scott is a fantastic pizza maker.

I've been able to enjoy Scott's pizza at West Park holiday parties, but passionate, dedicated champions of school choice and dedicated Allentown kids.

And that's where we all come in.

We are doing our level best to serve the needs of our Allentown kids, whether it's through providing education or from the city's perspective, just making sure they're growing up in a safe and healthy environment that their public safety is taking care of the public health is taking care of.

We're all here because we care about Allentown, kids.

We wouldn't be in this job if we if we weren't.

Yes.

And I agree.

We need one approach like this as the mayor and I talked about being one Allentown, there's one Allentown, one community that's working collaboratively to support all children and all families within this district.

So.

All right, let's take another question.

My name is Adrienne Brown.

I'm the executive director Fine Feather Foundation.

And we work with at risk children in the community.

And our focus is mental health through the arts.

And one of the things that we notice after speaking with a lot of our children and parents are the fact that arts have been removed from the schools.

And we're finding that a lot of the charter schools do have art based programs, and that's why parents are trying to pull their students out of the regular public school into the charter schools.

What can we do to bridge that gap.

So we can put.

More art based programs in the schools so we won't be losing our students?

And we also know that statistics shows.

That arts.

Is a developing tool for students and they do do better.

In school when there are when they are.

Doing things with based on art.

So I agree with you.

We have to look at the child, the hotel in terms of fostering their left brain as well, the right brain activity and looking at ways to offer students more opportunity to use their gifts.

And when talking with my team, I realize that we only offer this cycle of at the elementary level of the arts.

And I agree with you, we need to figure out how we offer more opportunities for the arts, for students, because we're not giving them as many opportunities for long term success, because some students, they're all on the right and their brain for the most part, and they do well there.

So I agree with you.

We need to do a better job of looking to expand and partnering, because I know there's various arts programs that we can have arts residencies in other ways.

If we can't secure people who are in the arts, who are artistically inclined, who want to become teachers because there is a dearth in that area, which there aren't people who are into into the field.

But we can partner with very large museums and all kinds of other partners in this area that we can tap into this out.

And I know we're doing some of that work right now.

We have artists and residents in some of our schools, but we can expand upon that work.

So I agree with you entirely.

Creative economy, strong in Allentown and the Lehigh Valley.

You're going to grow too.

You're going to see this over time.

I know that each of our arts organizations are dedicated to improving access to all Allentown residents, making sure that everybody here has a fair shot at arts education because it is so critically important to that healthy outcome right.

It's broader than simply the education that a young person receives in the Allentown School District.

We're kind of all in this.

And I'm sure you know, PA's appreciates the value of the arts.

Yes.

Why don't you go ahead and ask you if we can introduce yourself?

The mayor already started.

My name is Paz Simpson.

I'm going to speak today more as a parent.

And I do a lot in this community to work with youth as a parent in this school district, I look in this room and I don't see many other parents and they are great stakeholders, great community leaders, but a parents and our youth feel very unheard and there's a mistrust that is going on.

And from our youth, there's a rise in violence.

How will you, as a new superintendent, going to bridge that gap for trust for our youth?

Because they got used to something and it was snatched from them.

And at the last I know we got to speak and I love to answer that that day.

Right.

You saw the pain on the face on those of those youth.

You know, I listened to a young man who became the first youth to go on to the Allentown School District Board and still say it wasn't a day to celebrate.

Right.

So how do you make sure first that the youth voice feel heard?

Second, that you bring that you bridge that gap of trust.

And third, that you have more parents in a role, especially when you're here.

Thank you.

So I agree with you.

I as I did say to you, that I saw such great pain and and the students had a sense of loss.

And so yesterday I met with student leaders at Allen, as well as Building 21.

And let me tell you, they were my toughest group so far since I've been in district.

They asked me some very insightful questions about budget.

And of course, food, because food is always a major topic of discussion for young people and basically my vision for the district and was I staying and and and because people leave them often and so but I am going to continue to meet with youth groups and listen to their voices and empower them.

We have various commissions and committees in which our students are part of, but I mentioned to my team we need to be more purposeful about providing them with leadership opportunities and training them and providing them with the professional development, if you will, that they need so they know their roles on these particular commissions and committees.

And they're not just a student sitting there.

So but they that we elevate their voices.

I'm also establishing a superintended student advisory council and which I will identify students.

We will identify students from schools to serve as advisors to me.

And then I also went into it and I loved that I went to the ROTC class and it was great.

They just did it for me.

They stood up for the principal.

It was so exciting and so and I'm going to invite them to have lunch with me so I can hear their voices.

And then some of the students and I don't like to use the term at risk because I think in life we're all at risk of something.

We all had some experience.

They would tell is that, you know, your grandmother, somebody had high blood pressure.

You are at risk of that or whatever.

But I believe that there are students who have untapped potential and it's our responsibility to make sure that we tap into their gifts and their needs and we are responsible and they need to hold us accountable for that.

And so I'm you're never going to hear me use at risk.

I would say we have a group of students that have untapped potential that we as the educators have not done our due diligence to help realize what they need.

I just wanted to mention that we invited members of the Allentown School Board to come to this event tonight, and only one of them, I believe, is here tonight.

And he's standing at the mic.

So welcome and thank you for being here.

Thank you for the invite.

I appreciate that.

And you can introduce yourself.

Oh.

I'm Patrick Palmer, Allentown School Board director.

And I am so happy that we are doing this.

I'm so happy that even after 11 and 12 days, I think it is you've been making these relationships.

And I just want to say to everyone in the audience, thank you all for coming and has as someone who was at that meeting, I felt that pain.

I made sure every kid got a chance to speak and I felt all of that and I had to choke back some tears at some points.

And I want to say that I do believe that we can continue to bridge that gap.

As someone who was in the school district when all they did was just plow the front of the school, and that was all the city did.

They plowed, they left.

That was all they gave us.

And here now how we are going to work on our relationship with the youth to continue to build with the school district, instead of saying, You're over here and we're over here.

I love every minute of that.

One of the reasons why I joined the school board is because I saw something.

I saw a vision that we had, and I knew that we can continue to grow with that.

And when we did approve, Dr. Birks, I felt like we were moving ten steps forward and no steps back for first time in years.

And I feel like we could continue to grow that.

We have a mayor who was sitting here who was willing to talk with us.

And I just at this point, this is kind of me reaching out.

I wish council was here.

I wish council was getting more involved as well.

I would love to have them at our meetings.

I would love to go to their meetings to just have talks and just have these sit downs.

I feel like this should not stop here.

I feel like this needs to continue and I hope that this will continue and this will grow from council.

This will grow from the school board, and we can really merge that gap together and work with our students too, because the quality of life starts with our students.

The quality of life does not start when you're 23 and you're moving here.

It starts when you're three and you're looking for a kindergarten.

And we need to continue to work forward and make sure that we can improve our quality of life and improve.

Allentown.

Thank you, guys.

Thank you.

So you both brought up, I think, an important thing that is engagement and involvement in civic life.

And so we're working with the city of Allentown around the innovation project for our city employees in collaboration with Bloomberg Philanthropies and Harvard University.

That's focused on improving the things that I've seen in the city over the first few months that I've been mayor, which is declining participation in civic life, whether that's parent showing up at school board meetings or a lack of participation by our kids in the band at Allen and at of declining participation in things like community, like the community watch those types of things where we want to apply what we're learning to our partners in the school district.

How can we work together to get more people involved in civic life, which really includes public education?

It involves it includes taking a role in young people's lives in our city as adults.

And it's something I think we've let slip here in Allentown over time.

But it's absolutely something that we can use to go forward, right, to to build our new city.

We can collaborate on things like that.

So we're going to go back to Sara in in the audience with the stakeholder.

But I just wanted to mention to everyone, we're really we're really finding this to be a great conversation.

We may go a little long tonight.

Just wanted to let folks know that because we don't want to we don't want to stop the conversation.

So, Sara, I'll let you take it.

So I'm here with Yusef, and you had a question that you wanted to ask.

I did.

I did.

So thank you all for for being here.

And I'm the executive director of the Century Promise.

And we work to make real the future benefit of education for our students through a guaranteed job or college matriculation for those who complete the program.

And so we're thrilled to offer this innovative program and be a partner with the district thematically.

We've heard a lot about partnerships as part of this conversation this evening, and I have a question and a comment.

My question would be, you know, what is your approach to and sustaining these types of partnerships that are critical for dealing with the challenges that are so multidimensional, like the ones that we are when we talk about improving our school districts?

As far as my comment, I firmly believe if something's important, we measure it.

And so I would encourage you to think rigorously about evaluating these partnerships, both in terms of what you're getting out of those partnerships, what our students are getting out of them, but how our partners are experiencing their interactions with the district, and so that we can ensure that these partnerships have parity regardless of the schools that we're dealing with.

Because one of the problems when things are based on relationships between individuals, if one particular individual is better at one district, that means the students at the other districts are not going to get the same access to the services that the partners can provide.

So thank you.

So I want to thank you, Claire, about your question.

So how how are we going to sustain partnership?

So what's my approach to building partnerships?

Yes, that's the question.

The other one was just a comment.

Sorry.

So my approach to building partnerships, one, we want to build the partners.

And again, this community has lots of partners that are doing some great, amazing work and so that are aligned to our goals and priorities as a district.

And I believe in working partnerships so that we work together as a community and on our specific goals and as you said, identifying those key performance indicators.

And then, you know, sometimes we have to look at partners and are they aligned to the work that we have in the vision for the district at the time?

And is this the right partner of the right school?

Like you said, I've worked in communities in which one school, like I said, I had like 79 partners in another school had three.

And so how are we distributing the partnerships and leveraging the community that best supports the needs of that particular community based on data, not based on and I mean quantifiable data?

We can have some qualitative measures as well, but maybe one school needs something differently than another, and it would differentiating so that we meet the needs of partners I believe in.

So insofar as my approaches to this work that we have constant dialog.

So if you're a partner in my school, I don't my schools, you know, I don't visit like I see you one time that we need to have events quarterly check ins to see and even to the partners that are alike that you're communicating together because there's so many needs across the district that we should be working in tandem with each other.

And so that's my approach to partnership.

So say so on Sunday we were talking, we were talking about school safety and making sure that our students are arriving safely to school.

And Dr. Birks is like, let's come up with something that I can basically that I can hold you accountable to.

Like let's do something like let's let's find something that we can have a win on.

And I was like, Oh, wow.

Part of that to him.

A partnership is going to be holding your partners and partners accountable, which is really impressive.

And from the counterparty side of the relationship, it's nice to have partners that are going to say, Here's what we expect from you and we're going to demand it.

So then on Monday, which is yesterday, the next thing was Dr. Birks is talking to Chief of Police Charles Rocha about those exact things.

Right.

What how what are some definable, measurable things that we can do in partnership to improve safety for our students?

Yes.

Let's go back to the audience with Sara, who is with another stakeholder.

So the next stakeholder that we're going to talk to is Jeanie.

Jeanie Garcia is the operations director of Promise Neighborhoods of Lehigh Valley.

Her organization works to ensure that neighborhoods are safe and inclusive.

So Jeanie, can you talk to us about what you're hoping to work with the new superintendent or carry on the work that you're already doing with the school district in making neighborhoods safe and inclusive?

Yeah, I would, you know.

Thank you.

Welcome to Allentown.

Good evening, Mayor.

So, yeah, we've heard a lot about the charter schools, about the school district failing, about what can be done better and building relationships.

I'm here representing Promise Neighborhood, my community and the youth and my concern is public safety, the safety of the students at the school in all of the schools, especially with the recent bomb threats that have been happening.

We lost a student September 25th and Allentown School District student William Allen.

Students specifically trace Sean Tracy to a violent crime in a city here in Allentown promise neighborhood has been canvasing our credible messengers and outreach team has been canvasing William Allen High school and Derrick High School in the surrounding middle schools for over a year now and the partnership with the district hasn't made it to the point where we are partners and and the staff knows that we're partners and the neighbors know that we're partners.

I'm I'm curious to see how far in are you willing to continue that conversation that we had with Dr. Stanford previously on How We Can Get There.

I do want to mention we do have great partnerships also with the district.

We partner with Community Action Development and Second Harvest.

We have a wellness center at Hayes Elementary School that provides food to families within the community.

And we also have a youth coordinator who was a William Allen graduate who does a program in call facilities with different partners in the community, as well as of cohesion and promise neighborhood in Harrison Moore in in different elementary schools.

She also sits on the youth City Council.

So we do have great partnerships, but it seems as the public safety partnership has been swept under the carpet and now it's kind of coming afloat, it's tapping now because of the recent arrest, also of a 14 year old within one of the schools.

We know about the problems.

I'm here to see where how are we going to get to the solutions and not just talk about the solutions, but act on them, because we've been talking about the problems and the solution for a very long time.

I myself am a graduate of William Allen High School, and the things have just been escalating over the years and accountability has to be first.

We have a problem in the school district with acts of violence and children losing their lives to violent crimes and gangs in the schools and surrounding areas of the schools.

And once we can all come up front and say, yes, we do have this problem, let's really roundtable talk and get out there and do the work and talk to the organizations and work with the organizations that are boots to ground.

We are putting ourselves in the trenches and we want to partner with the school to get us more acclimated with the district.

So staff knows we are an ally.

Security knows we are an ally and the students know that we are there to represent them as well and we are willing to do the work.

Are you?

I am willing to do the work and you have to let me know when when your.

We have a meeting scheduled.

I want to give you some brief bombarded, but we do have a meeting scheduled.

Okay, good.

Very much.

Yes.

Going to show up on your front porch.

That's why I have to buy some new sneakers.

Get out in the community with you.

Let's talk about school safety because it certainly has been in the headlines.

As you know, we've had news this week about some several children being arrested for for terroristic threats in the schools.

We've had schools shut down.

I'm really glad that you brought that up.

So what is your plan around school safety?

You've mentioned previously to Sara you did an interview with her where you said it's a top priority, students feel safe.

How do you make that happen?

Oh one, we have to think about, you know, of course, physical safety and making sure that we have we create those conditions where we're doing some of the physical things, making sure our doors are locked and put in the appropriate protocols in place for safety.

And people know the appropriate safety protocols.

Also, we're working we've had and as the mayor mentioned, we had a really great meeting with the chief.

And just like the mayor, I told him I'm going to hold him accountable as well to be partners with us in his work.

And he's been very responsive.

We were talking we were talking 10:00, 11:00 at night.

And so also as members, members of his team and on the physical side, so making sure that we have the right staff, right partnership and strengthening our part, our partnership with the police department, but also is another aspect of safety and which students feeling safe as it relates to their social emotional wellness and being as well as the adults, adults who have been entrusted in their care.

And so we will execute some great work is underway in the district.

And I want to thank Ms.. Pollak.

She is here today all around social emotional wellness and looking at the whole child and really being intentional about our whole chow framework and which and we're going to enlist the support of our partners.

So we as a community know the approaches that we are taking as a collective community around social emotional learning, not just within the school district.

So we want every partner that works on social emotional wellness that we have a common language and a common understanding of what that means for our children.

We need to involve them and somebody asked me about parents or families.

I think they play a key role in this.

And so really tapping into parents and helping them to be partners this and creating conditions for safety, being very intentional, having students have an accountable adult advisory program so they know there's someone that they can talk to in implementing restorative practices.

You know, across the district where students, we give them opportunities to restore the harm and then really talking through these various equipping students with opportunities to bolster what we call their affective developmental skill sets, meaning positive identity, commitment to learning values, all those things through our curriculum and empowering our teachers to understand that students like it, they were experiencing trauma and that there are many things that have happened and equipping them with the tools so they can address students when they're experiencing discomfort and some of the challenges that they're facing.

And so, you know, is some working on all those.

We want to hire some additional staff.

So we have people who are interested and becoming our safety officers.

We need that.

We're looking for someone to serve as our to hire a digital director of security.

So we have roles of you know people who are interested in applying this in these positions.

Please send them our way and then again, being intentional and, and we'd like to hire you all and I have to talk to the board about this, but we want to look at some of our, our roles.

We have Metro.

I think we need more.

And from my ten day assessment, more people who are our focus on counseling and student wellness, because we can't in no disrespect to my friends who are the police, we can't overpoliced schools.

We have to change narrative and be proactive about having students get what they need to support the inner man so that we don't get to the place that we feel like we have to arrest them and analyze them and all this kind of stuff.

So we need more counseling and social emotional.

Yeah, such a great conversation.

I feel like we would be remiss if I don't ask about the ACP.

So in the wake of John Stanford's departure, the ACP called for a state takeover of the district.

They're also asking for a 30 year audit, and they've alleged that some allegations of racism around Dr. Stanford's departure.

I'm wondering if you've spoken with anyone from the ACP or if they've reached out to you.

So the NAACP has been a great partner to the school district, and they're passionate and impassioned about ensuring that students get the resources that they need from the academic standpoint, as well as a social emotional learning perspective.

And so I have talked to members and I like a lot of people who are members of the NAACP who are in this community.

So I have talked to individuals who are part of the NAACP, and they truly want to be true partners to the district.

I think we have a great opportunity here in the district to be more transparent about the work that we're doing across the district and showing people how are we spending our financial resources?

We have had many audits within the district in the past few years.

And so we will make sure that if we haven't done already, because I haven't checked, but there's a permanent place up more there on our website, but a more prominent place on our website so people can see the audits that have been conducted over the years, because I know that was a concern for the community.

And I so I'm excited about building the partnership and strengthening, I should say the partnership with the ACP.

Thank you so much.

Well, we are going to have to wrap it up.

We're about out of time, so that will do it for our community conversation tonight on the future of the Allentown School District.

We want to thank our guest, especially Dr. Birks and Mr. Turk.

We'd also like to thank the stakeholders who were so generous with their time and availability tonight, as well as members of the public who joined our audience.

Sarah Mueller, thank you for your help in moderating this forum here at Miller Symphony Hall in Allentown.

From all of us here at Lehigh Valley News.com, PBS, 39 and 91.3, WRVO are.

Thanks for watching.

I'm Jenn Rehill.

Good night.