Submitted by Andrew Bowman
As Summer break trundles along, school districts across the country have been busy preparing for the next academic year. There are new partners to onboard, new curriculum to incorporate, and a prime opportunity for maintenance work in the mostly-vacated schools. The agenda for the West Shore School Board meeting on June 19th, 2025 reflected this, with nineteen business items on the agenda accompanied by four information items, all of which were preceded by a policy committee meeting a few hours before. Taken together, it is fair to say that while most of the West Shore School District’s students were out enjoying the break from school, public education was very much still in session.
The proceedings of the day began with the policy committee meeting, which started with a proposed overhaul of Policy 218: Student Discipline. Currently, this policy serves as the official code of conduct for the West Shore School District and contains information regarding overall disciplinary guidelines and how specific offenses are to be handled. While this has worked thus far, it does come with some drawbacks, chiefly that any and all modifications to the policy have to go through the board’s policy committee and be voted on at a board meeting, which makes the code of conduct rather rigid and slow to adapt to new situations. Under the policy, 218 would instead serve as a framework for the procedures of discipline, and the code of conduct would be moved to each grade’s student handbook, allowing them to more tailored towards each grade level. The policy was not discussed at length, but the general consensus towards it was favorable.
Instead, the bulk of the policy meeting centered around Policy 109 Resource Materials. Continuing from last month’s meeting, the meeting attendees discussed topics such as how sex acts should be defined, what to do if a staff member is unsure if a resource is appropriate or not, and the laws that should be cited at various points of the policy. The most notable discussion occurred when board member Adam Trone pointed out that the proposed requirement for the district superintendent to approve all resource materials would reach far beyond the scope of books and greatly hinder teachers’ ability to incorporate any external resources into their lessons, such as when Mr. Trone has related news stories to his social studies lessons. This sparked a bit of a debate which reached a climax when board member Heidi Thomas asked Superintendent Stoltz if he looks into what teachers are doing, to which Dr. Stoltz responded that while he broadly knows what the 600+ teachers in the district are doing, he trusts the teachers to not show inappropriate material in class. As a result of this discussion, it was decided that the policy should be modified to allow teachers to exercise discretion in such situations with the provision that the material be posted for parental review after the fact.
Due to the length of this discussion, public comment for the policy committee meeting was conducted during the board meeting, where Sandra Gonzalez, who unsuccessfully ran for the Republic primary in Region 3 this Spring, and Kristi Harmon advocated for the revisions to 109. Harmon brought a few books she found to be rather pornographic such as “Me, Earl, and the Dying Girl” and “It is Perfectly Normal” and read particularly explicit passages from some of them. She also did not approve of the fact that some of this content was LGTBQ in nature. What was not clear from either comment however was why these books aren’t being challenged under the current Resource Materials policy, and both Gonzalez and Harmon left the meeting immediately after making their comments.
As for the board meeting itself, the matters of business were rather banal as while there were many business items on the agenda, most of them warranted minimal discussion and items often were voted on in bundles. The most notable thing to happen during business items was that board member Brian Guistwhite abstained on a vote on “Recommendation of Administrative Wage Rates for 2025-2026”. When asked why he chose to this, Mr. Guistwhite replied that he did so as the pay package includes his wife Kelly Guistwhite, who is the assistant principal at Fairview Intermediate School. This abstinence became part of a larger discussion during the second period of public comment, where a member of the public asked board member Brenda Cox to abstain from any votes regarding Red Land’s sports facilities. As previously reported, these calls for recusal stem from the decision by the Fairview Township board of supervisors, which is chaired by Mrs. Cox’s husband and also includes her son, to allocate $175,000 dollars from an estate gift for the construction of a stadium at Red Land High School. This decision has been slightly controversial as the money was willed to the township, but Red Land serves both Fairview and New Cumberland. Mrs. Cox addressed these comments at the meeting, saying that her husband has a passion for Red Land and the West Shore School District and that she believes that she is being asked to hold herself to a higher standard than other members on the board who are related to district employees.
Brenda Cox
I had to sit the last few board meetings and listen to people comment about my relationship and my husband’s passion regarding Red Land High School. And it’s not just Red Land, it’s West Shore School District. I have no- I have stayed out of this as much as I can. I am also a taxpayer in this school district by the way and there are other people on the board here who have family members that work within the district also, so if you want to start having people be excluded from votes, it’s going to have to be across the board. Thank you.
On the topic of Red Land athletics, the bulk of the board meeting was devoted to this topic as the information items contained presentations on the status of the Red Land Natatorium Renovation Project and the Red Land Athletic Facility Improvement Project. The Natatorium presentation was given by RLPS Architects, who presented the board with the options being explored for the project alongside with their projected costs and benefits. Of particular focus were the options for updating the pool’s tank (the liner containing the water) and implementing an air capture system to ensure that chemicals called chloramines that come from treating the pool don’t reach unhealthy levels. The options presented were to a.) replace the tank and install a new air capture system for an estimated $2.5 million, b.) repair the tank and install new gutter with pool-side air capture for $700,000 - $1.4 million depending the condition of the tank, or c.) repair the tank and implement a less-effective but cheaper air capture system on the deck for $150,000 - $850,00 depending on the condition of the tank. Discussion of the matter revealed that compared to other pools in the area, the Red Land natatorium does suffer from a higher level of chloramines that is exacerbated by the relatively low water line though the exact concentration has only been estimated via smell, which some members of the board were not satisfied with. Even without that number however, the board leaned towards the latter options given that the pool’s tank is still in good condition. Further discussions centered around pool accessibility, which is currently handled by a portable fiberglass staircase that requires two people to move and a static chairlift. More permanent ways to enter and exit the pool were considered, however they either threatened the tank’s integrity or would remove a swimming lane from the pool. Thus, an updated version of the current system was favored by the board. Finally, the board discussed if the HVAC work should be extended to include the nearby weight room, but the budgetary concerns of doing so discouraged them.
After this presentation, Track, Turf & Court Athletics Consultants presented their report on the Red Land Athletic Facility Improvement Project, which is entering its second phase, which will see multiple accessibility improvements between athletic facilities and their parking and restrooms as well as the construction of a new multipurpose turf field capable of hosting field hockey, lacrosse, football, and soccer. Additionally, due to skillful budgeting, this phase will also include the movement of the tennis courts to a new location that is compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act. Upon hearing this, board president Kelly Brent was taken aback, stating that while she understood that ADA-compliance is a higher priority over other goals, this was the first time she had heard about the tennis courts being part of this phase, and she questioned why she hadn’t heard of this sooner. As it turns out, board members Amanda Davis and Brenda Cox were also unaware of this, though Abigail Tierney and Brian Guistwhite were, though this may have to do with the fact that the latter two have served the school board for longer and were involved earlier in the conception of this plan. Amanda Davis saw the lighter side of this, seeing the addition of the tennis court move as a pleasant surprise. This phase of the project is set to be completed in mid-2027.
While it is true that not much of particular interest was actioned at this meeting, it would be unfair to say that this meeting was not of note. Politics is not meant to be inherently entertaining or intense. However, that does not diminish the importance of these meetings. Every policy, meeting, and elected official exist in the context of our political system. What we observe one day will have some effect on the next, and it is important that we pay attention to make those connections. Next month, the West Shore school board will hold a single meeting on July 17th. It’s quite far off, so perhaps the impacts of the 6-19 meeting won’t be as noticeable. Unfortunately, we will have to wait until then to find out.