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Public commenters urge continued equity supports, question DEI cancellation and new high-school project costs
Summary
During public comment the community raised concerns about the district’s DEI-related roles, the proposed new high-school project’s cost and siting, property-tax burdens, and a history of lawsuits and facility maintenance. Speakers asked for financial breakdowns and continued supports for diverse students.
Multiple speakers used the board’s public comment period to press the Pennsbury School Board for details about a planned high-school project, the end of DEI programming, district finances and maintenance, and ongoing lawsuits affecting the district.
Andrew Dell of Falls Township asked whether recent resignations were required to award different contracts and questioned the district’s approach to the DEI role, asking whether it would be replaced or folded into human resources and whether consultant costs would continue. Dell asked for an accounting of any savings if DEI programming ends: “do we have a total of the money that's gonna be saved by not running the DEI program?”
Tony Clark, identifying as a Pennsbury alumnus and a transgender person, thanked Doctor Gibson for past accommodations and urged the district to maintain protections for diverse students even if the formal DEI program is scaled back: “just because the program is going away doesn't mean that... very diverse groups of students are not in existence anymore.”
A community member using the name Godfrey Cambridge (self-identified as "Watermelon Man" in the transcript) and Jennifer Metzger of Falls Township raised longer-term concerns about facility maintenance, unequal tax burdens and the proposed 50-foot-high new high school on Hood Boulevard. Metzger requested a detailed cost breakdown for the high-school project, questioned projected square footage and per-student costs cited by speakers, and asked why renovation of existing schools had not been fully detailed as an alternative. She said district documents list $113 million for general construction on the project and said she was seeking finer-grain budget and siting details, including HVAC choices and condenser locations.
Tim Daley of Lower Makefield Township and other commenters criticized district policy language and broader curriculum and equity issues. Daley also spoke about clarifying public-comment rules (for example, whether speakers may play audio/video during their allotted time) and described policy proposals and political views; those remarks were delivered as public commentary rather than board action.
Nastasha Raseley of Falls Township thanked the board for equity work and said she looks forward to continued efforts. Speakers were limited to five minutes each and the board said it would not answer questions during public comment, though administrators later offered to share materials by email and pointed to a district website with project breakdowns.
Context and next steps: Board members and the superintendent stated that detailed project breakdowns and earlier renovation-vs.-new analyses are available on the district website and offered to send documents by request. The transcript indicates some clarifications were provided after public comment (for example, that a consultant's contract would continue through the school year), but no formal district decisions about DEI programming, project approvals, or budget changes were recorded during the meeting.
