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Parent tells board policies are harming LGBTQ students; district hears calendar and childcare concerns
Summary
A Salem Township resident told the board that recent district policies are 'stripping' rights from LGBTQ students and vowed continued public opposition; another commenter urged the board to consider childcare impacts of Wednesday half‑days in the draft calendar.
During the meeting's public‑comment period, Christina Versal Culver of Salem Township sharply criticized recent board policies and called on the community to continue opposing measures she said "harm our LGBTQ kids."
"We have to sit here while liberty and justice is stripped from our most vulnerable students," Culver said, adding that she and others "will continue to show up and fight back." Her remarks urged the board to reconsider policies she described as punitive toward LGBTQ students and warned that such policies could lead to further actions targeting other vulnerable student groups.
A second speaker, Crystal Mikalowski, raised practical concerns about the proposed calendars, asking whether the drafts would preserve Wednesday half‑days. She said half‑day schedules complicate childcare and transportation, particularly for students involved in athletics, and asked the board to consider those impacts when finalizing the calendar.
District staff responded that the draft calendars retain Wednesday half‑days for elementary schools and that the district partners with local institutions (for example, Bloomsburg/Commonwealth University) to provide care as available. Staff invited commenters to share additional feedback and said the calendar will be discussed again at the December meeting.
The comments were public testimony and did not result in immediate board action.
