WSSD School Board

001I now call the February 26 2024 meeting of the Wallingford swathmore School Board to order in opening as you are willing and able please rise and join me in the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America to The Republic which it stands one nation under God indivisible and jusice Miss Mosley would you please take attendant roll call Miss Dole here Dr Grande here Mr Henry here miss hbert here Mr Miller here miss wman here miss whitet here Miss Williams here miss wowski yeah here nine we have nine present I'm so sorry that's all right we have nine present it's it's okay it's your first your first one no problem uh in lie of normally we would move to our student representative report but in lie of that

002uh I was going I'm going to ask uh Dr hilon if he would come up uh and make a couple comments for us please good evening uh board of directors and wssd Community thank you for providing me the opportunity to speak with you tonight on behalf of our high school Community as you can imagine today was a difficult day for many of our students and staff as we wrestle with the emotions of losing a friend classmate teammate student and Community member on Saturday February 24th 2024 Carson pray harball passed away due to an illness Carson was a member of the class of 2025 and a very active and very active in our school Community her growth as a student student and individual is remarkable and she was loved by all who knew her yesterday her

003mom Julie and I shared a laugh about Carson's growth when Carson was in the hospital we sent her a poster and on the poster I wrote I miss seeing you in the hallway of course Julie understand the double meaning right away on behalf of the high school students and staff we extend our deepest condolences to the family and friends of Carson our thoughts and prayers are with them as they navigate through this incredibly difficult time during this challenging time it's important for us to look after each other the office of student services has mobilized the counseling dropin center in the library to provide assistance for staff and students staff at West shms and the high school have supports available available to them as each of them remember Carson and process this loss in different ways

004we will continue to have resources in place in the upcoming weeks this news may also be difficult within our community and I would like to encourage everyone to lean on one another and continue to lift up the prey harball families in your thoughts and prayers thank you thank you Dr hon and I know that was difficult I appreciate you doing that and our condolences go out to you to your staff to the students uh and all the our school district and uh on behalf the board I mean our hearts Collective Hearts ache for the family and uh well that's really all I can say about that I'm gonna lose lose my composure so we'll uh we'll move on uh Dr Marc uh we move on to the superintendent report please yeah um we all in

005our capacity um work love support some way children have children of our of our own um as as a as as a parent I can't imagine a deeper pain um uh so um our hearts do mourn with the family um during this horrific event um instead of circumstances um uh and it's weird and it's the word I can use in terms of um it's it's hard because it's not move on as usual right um and I shared that if um wish the meeting wasn't tonight um but as we when would be a night as we'll continue to um um deal with this uh for um uh for for [Music] sometime so uh in uh I will have I've condensed my superintendent's uh report it will be available um uh to the public uh but there

006are uh a couple of items on the um on the agenda that uh leis I want to speak to for a couple of minutes but the entire uh presentation will be um available we do have um a focus topic with a focus topic um in addition to an update about this strategic plan was an opportunity for the um the high school to speak to um all the wonderful and exciting things that um are happening or has been happening in the building and in light of um present events um the team decided it was best that we would reschedule um uh we would reschedule we we schedu that of course um uh so we'll um after a couple of my slides we'll uh move into um that Focus uh topic specific to the Strategic plan and

007talk a little bit about um our progress um uh so far with the plan since its October 23rd adoption to the U from the from the board um there's um couple items we uh a lot of items actually the board is going to take action on it is the nature of a regular legislative meeting purpose is to take action on on items uh second purpose is to uh allow uh Community comment so two big items and though there's a lot of things that occur those are the two that generate um a um a legislative meeting because there are voting meetings we are um uh happy to uh to have uh Mr shioda as uh as our assistant business manager as the board knows we've been making some administrative shifts um and felt it was best

008the experience that we um were looking for the experience that uh the office uh needed uh he comes uh to us um as a former business manager of District of Morrisville in Bucks County uh and with that having the opportunity to run an office in all aspects of the office so he is um very familiar with the ins and outs of the business uh Department as he had to uh manage a number of departments from transportation to Food Services um uh to CH County to facilities technology so it's great to have um him uh on board his uh first uh official board meeting uh tonight I see him in the back thank you sir um for uh for choosing us um and then you know we have a though our official recognition for our retirees

009happen in May uh there are five um retirees on the agenda that the war is going to vote on and um uh these individuals collectively I know there's a couple more um have 135 years of of service between 20 and 34 years of service to this community and to um to our students so um wanted to acknowledge that and obviously we'll spend some more time in May with all the other retirees acknowledge them officially um and then I wanted to another item that is on the agenda that I wanted to uh to highlight was um um our recommendation to the board with moving forward with um the bus Patrol uh safe arm uh uh initiative we have had um uh a number of presentations to the uh to the board um with regards to the

010benefits of uh of the safety uh protocol and um we know that it's extremely important uh to think about um the way in which the significant number and you see that number according to the National Association of uh Transportation um how many individuals unlawfully pass a a school bus um and part of this uh bus Patrol system is provides the district with the opportunity to upgrade all of its um uh interior and exterior cameras but most specifically the exterior cameras to capture and monitor um uh those uh those violations um and uh we've had a number uh Mr Dalton Lee one of the representatives came out to one of those meetings and provided um an overview of the uh of the program and then we followed up with a number of other uh sessions as

011the board continue to have uh questions about um about the program so um um with the um if the Border moves forward this motion all 43 of our buses will be um equipped with uh brand new sensors uh brand new cameras interior and exterior um per legislation one of the great things about this um in addition to uh the safety uh aspect of it is that it is free of charge or I should say there are no costs to um to the district um the cost is incurred by bus Patrol which then um is subsidized by those um those who violate the um our traffic laws and whether you have it or not you will never get charged for um uh for the uh for the service so um after numerous conversations it is on

012the agenda um for the board to uh uh to consider um we have a couple of other uh dates are coming up so U mark your calendar uh for our facilities and finance our policy committing um encourage you if you're not unable to attend in person uh uh please check us out in our YouTube um YouTube channel uh Mr Henry that concludes my superintendance report for the evening thank you thank you Dr Mar uh moving on to uh we move on to focus topics yes yes yes we're gonna move on to our Focus topic this evening and uh Dr Conelly please take it away well good evening everyone it is a solemn evening so thank you for coming uh this evening so October 23rd was the adoption of the Strategic plan and that was exactly

013124 days ago uh at that time I shared with the board we have 15 uh initiatives and that was a lot and sounded like a lot and it still does we have 126 days left so we're right really in the middle of our journey right now together um so we're going to walk through our process and and as you know we've talked a lot about the Strategic plan there are some folks here in the audience tonight that helped us with our help help us build our strategic plan uh and I think one of the things that I said uh I've said many times the hard work wasn't the actual developing of it it was actually the living in and and that's something that we're experiencing uh every day thank you to my directors and to

014Dr Marc we have weekly meetings where we talk about strategic plan uh it's on everyone's calendar everyone's excited to come to our strategic plan meetings they tell me that they say Dr K we need more meetings with strategic plan I think they're lying to me but that's okay um and we also have monthly Captain's meetings where where we really bring back the individuals that worked on strategic plan and we've also have been in the process of um bringing back um our pathway groups that's something I'm going to talk about in our presentation so so there's a lot here um to digest but there's and I think it's important because there's a lot of great work that's happened uh together in our last 124 days we have a deadline the deadline is June 30th and you'll

015see a lot of our initiatives our 15 initiatives um we've created a deadline for ourselves uh by June of 2024 and and and I said as we've been through this process we're going to give ourselves Grace we're going to do the best we can and I'm hoping I'm a former basketball player that we go 15 for 15 but we might not and that's okay but it's the progress that we're making towards these goals I think that's really important um we talk all the time uh about this image and you know thank you Dr hilden for coming up and sharing those words um we are a community and we are one Haven I think that's really important and I think as we talked about this process how do we make the vision of our strategic plan

016something that really speaks to our community and get into the bones of who we are um so we have five schools and we have five pathways but we're one Haven and I think that's uh no no truer words have been spoken um and and in this image you see our five pathways that we talked about and I'm really going to um spend some time in get into those uh five pathways um this is another kind of view of the pathways these are strategic initiatives um you'll notice that as I as I talk through some of the initiatives some are for next year or subsequent years but a majority 15 of these are the goals that we put in place for 2024 and I'll really go into these as well and this is posted on the

017website so you can also uh see uh some of these initiatives when we talk about our strategic plan you know and wford worthmore we love our band and I think we really brought everyone together for our band um to play in concert right to play together and that's kind of the idea of our strategic plan and our work but we really are in the process of playing together um as as one one voice this is our vision for impact and and if you spent some time with us or or you've heard me talk about Strat iic plan um as a former English teacher uh we spent a lot of time drafting this this document and especially this vision for impact and this was an exciting opportunity for us as a community to really come together

018and share words share language bring language to life and you know we we had this opportunity to meet collaboratively as a community on Saturday mornings we met with staff we met with in each buildings with teachers uh I met with we met with students uh we really got their voice and we drafted what we what is our vision uh what is our vision for the next 10 years and what this is this document is a consolidation of all that work uh and it's and it's really uh we're really proud of this because this is truly the engagement of everybody in the community everybody had a voice in this and and the the interesting thing for me is that when we read it I do remember different meetings when certain words came up there were certain

019words we thought as Educators well this is great this sounds so smart and there were so many types of in the shoulder and say nobody knows what you're talking about and we said thank you for sharing that feedback because now we want it to be something that's accessible to everyone that everyone understands what we're saying um because it is our vision as a community um and that was really helpful feedback that we received so I'm going to go through each of the five uh five pathways and each of the pathways and this is something we shared when we presented to the board these are images of our community and and each of the pathways has unique Focus um and if you look at the images um they truly do speak to our community so our

020first pathway is diversity equity and belonging um and and the the first initiative by 2024 an equity statement is presented to the board of school directors and that is ongoing and in the planning stages and that is something that it's not up here but for next year the idea is that we're going to have an equity policy and and someone that works very closely with the policy committee a policy takes a long time to develop but before we can do that we need to have an equity statement so our culture proficiency Equity teacher leaders and many of our directors are working right now on developing that Equity statement so that is a work in progress and you'll see that in some of our uh initiatives 1.3 professional development focus on diversity equity and belonging and

021again you could see this and there's some real key words that I'm going to pull out but essentially our culture proficiency Equity teacher leaders are developing a multi-year professional development plan and when we talk about professional development days we talk about professional development work they may be days that as a community we say what is it professional development day and really professional development day as a as a as a teacher as an educator it's a it's a time for us to collaborate and time for us to learn together and one of the things you're going to see here's some ongoing work things that we've already done and you know um this past uh last week we had our virtual professional development day we've never had that before and it was wonderful and the opportunities that

022we had to work collaboratively um was was really a successful day and we look at our April Wellness day and I'm looking at Dr McColl and we're very excited because April 23rd is our Wellness day for staff uh and again hasn't happened here in a very very long time but that's part of developing our our professional learning opportunities for our staff and you'll see some of the wonderful opportunities that we've already shared with our staff as we look ahead to plan our professional development base for next year we're really going to have those planned by April um really right after spring break and we're going to meet with my curriculum Council which is a group of teacher leaders and my directors and we're really going to say what does the next year look like for

023professional learning and what there valuable experiences what are some things that we've done this year that are great let's keep them and what are some things let's tweak a little bit what can we learn from our experiences as well you'll start to see as we go through the the slides a lot of our work is in meeting the needs of the Strategic plan right it's already been laid out for us some of the things that we do want to work on and some of the goals that we want to achieve one 1.4 learning EXP experience align with student identities and granted diversity equity and belonging and it's an opportunity to engage in opportunities that celebrate our diversity as a community as schoolwide structures uh that we have so again it's looking at building-wide activities district-wide

024activities you know many folks here attended our Martin Luther King Day of Service it was awesome again another great event this first four that's actually something we started last year and it's the first four days of school next year it'll be the first five because we have a full week next year so we get to add an extra day of of welcoming uh students but it's really that welcoming and belonging that sense of welcoming to the school year right um we could still do first four uh and then we'll have a Friday but it's that sense of the minute you walk into my classroom you belong here and we value you so much and not only that who are you and what can you share to our classroom space as well so that's what the

025first four is but it's that sense of connection right away that sense of belonging that's so important to to real learning in a classroom so then we move teaching learning Innovation pathway 2 so Learners have agency and student interest drives learning and you'll notice really the key to this initiative is creating intentional unit upgrades for one unit of study or one topic and that work is happening right now and you can see from this lengthy list of those intentional unit upgrades a purpose a purposeful unit upgrade um in all of our disciplines districtwide okay it's really uh significant and 100% of our Educators so we're working on that and that's certainly a goal that we have um 126 days left to really achieve that we look at 2.2 you know looking at what's called a

026course syllabus General course syllabus and each Elementary grade level creates at at least one overview of at least one discipline so many of us attended a class in high school or college where you had a course syllabus what are we learning what's our road map for this course and that's something that we're working very very um vigorously on right now and again we have we had the February in service day a lot of work was done there and we have an inservice day coming up in March where a lot of our work with our teachers is going to be to really create and finish and finalize a lot of these syllabi and the and 2.3 is about professional learning communities and our last uh educational Affairs meeting on Wednesday night Dr Pratt my colleague spoke

027about plc's and spoke about the idea of plc's and this evening the board is going to V tonight um on plc's but this is kind of planning for that April workshop and creating spaces in our schedule for piloting teachers next year so this is a really exciting uh opportunity as well we move to pathway three which is culture community and communication and this is looking for opportunities that already exist and engage feedback Community feedback what are some ways that we can really tap into our community aside from just HSA PTO and other events but how can we really create a list of Engagement opportunities working closely and collaboratively with our building principles um and really making our community members feel that they understand what's going on and feel connected to our work 3.2 establish a

028plan for communicating with all stakeholders you see it's very similar uh in regarding you know what we've said in 3.1 but even more so all Outlets of communication how do we communicate what's the most effective way that we're communicating how are we using social media can we expand our use of s'more newsletters are people reading what we're sending or what do you not reading so that's an opportunity for us to say how can we communicate better how can we really uh engage all of our stakeholders in communication and this is exciting because I saw a sneak preview but uh December 18th to January 24th we had a website migration so we have a new website and it's really exciting and it's going to be rolled out pretty soon um but this is this is one

029of our goals right creating a website where it's engaging where people feel they they can see themselves and their children in that website and they can get information on there it's easy to find things there's not just a list of things so this is this is a goal that we're we're really making uh lot of Headway in and again here it's correcting broken links reviewing new website template updating consolidating departmental information have things being timely on the website not a picture you know from a long ago that it's something that we're constantly updating it we're constantly keeping things uh going and this Google analytics this is really neat what are people accessing and what are they not and why are they not and are we having those conversations with individuals why are they not utilizing

030our website and and and what are other ways that we can really meet the needs of our community okay so we go to pathway four uh wellness and social emotional competencies and you'll see that you know really the really important aspect of this work in year one was let's define key terms what what is wellness and what are the key terms that we need to identify and Define right and and how do we create those common wellness and Behavioral Health terms and what's a list that parents can understand wait what is it that you guys are are are talking about I don't know what that is and how do we engage uh our community into those conversations how do we get input from the community about some of those uh some of those ideas and

031some of those terms the next one is about a positive School culture rubric and some of the data that we're looking at um is PBIS data this year is the first year that we did PBIS the high school so we are K to2 PBIS which is really exciting as a district how are we using that PBIS data in year one at the high school but if as we look at the middle school and the elementary schools that have had PBIS for a couple of years how do we learn from that data how have we seen progress uh in that regard as well um you know we're going to look at shape data we're going to look at Swiss behavioral referrs and Equity reports are we looking at data and do we understand the data that

032we're getting our principles sitting down and talking to teachers about the data are teachers talking to parents about the data are teachers talking to their students about the data and do the students understand the data and that's really significant uh as well um you know the paay survey data you know we we have a preliminary pce survey data but we still get more survey data from the state and that's certainly something that Dr mcll and Dr say and myself will really dig into even further we have some preliminary data but that's C certainly something that we will share with the community as well um again we look atcl check-ins they were October and one most recently in February you know how are we responding to the feedback we're receiving from our students you know what

033are the things that we're sharing with our community what are some of the wonderful things that um pathway 4 is going to offer these students and then the overall findings you know how does it inform our lessons in PBIS and that's again we're collecting data from students we can't just say well we got the data what are we doing with it and how are we sharing that information where it's helping to inform our decisions uh as well as a community and then we look at implementing one additional tier one universal support um and I have examples on the next page but people say what what is that and you start to see things that we're putting into practice that are tier one supports and obviously the committee spent a lot of time thinking about ways

034to do that but I laugh and I I look at the Speedy Squad you know I've seen that in action in mp my uh over there um you know the nurtur heart cohorts and we've seen that at at MP MP Affinity groups you know High School mentoring we're seeing that now at the middle school and then you know the implementation of Swiss behavioral Matrix year one of PBIS at the high school has been a real success and again how do we grow from that success and our fifth pathway infrastructure and finance and we look at this one of the things that we we heard very clearly in our in our groups was we need a 10-year Capital plan we need to look ahead in the next 10 years for fiscal responsibility and fiscal planning and

035how do we do that and it really came back to um in 2023 um the you know AR gisa proposal that was approved by the board really in October of 22 but then looking at the retr commissioning study and approving this Gesa contract poo in the amount of what was $2 million and this is a big commitment that that the board made to kind of look at this retr commissioning report and looking at what we call deferred maintenance right things that we've put off what are things that we need to do right now in the next slide you're really going to look at must dos should does plan to do and this is the the essence of this 10e plan this is the essence of capital planning what are things that we need to do

036right now right so we think about the school district you know there are things we need to do right now there's things that we would love to do right now but we can't and there's things that we really need to wait and we're going to plan to do and having that plan is really part of really the essence of of pathway five 5.2 develop a framework to evaluate and sustain budgetary practices and and I want to thank Miss Mosley because we've really put into practice you know the phasing of budgeting and that we're being very mindful about our budgeting phase one phase two really identifying what are things that we really need and being really good stewards of our resources and I think that's really significant so thank you Miss Mosley and your team um

037but we're making progress on this as well and how are we able to do that and what are what are we talking about when we look ahead at our budget um over the next really the next next year but two three five seven years out and that's why we're being so uh so good with our planning right now so we do have phase one and phase two planning um we've purchased uh forecast 5 so software to help us generate budget scenarios the multi-year budget plan um and comparison to school districts across the Commonwealth as well so it's really you know looking ahead really being mindful of our budgetary future and the last one 5.3 developing Partnerships and expanding Revenue uh sources uh we do have two policies and we're going to continue to look in

038policy committee one is about corporate sponsorships and that was really passed in uh October of 2022 and the other one was naming rights and it wasn't passed until really November of 2015 so it's been a while so policy can also help us as we move forward with uh 5.3 and look at the initiative of how do we build partnership plans and propose structures and funding tiers but that align to our board policies so these are two of the policies as well that we're going to look at in the policy committee um that are going to be part of our part of our work so I'm back again our road map right and there's a lot of things that we talked about 15 initiatives this year uh that we're looking to complete and at the end

039and this is really a quote that I want to end with and um I think it's really significant and it's it's part of our vision for impact and I think it's really speaks to the work so quite simply each of our schools is a Haven that is reflective of our community's values a Cornerstone of our neighborhoods and welcoming inclusive and accessible to all and I think that I want to end tonight on that quotation because I do think it really speaks volumes to our work it speaks volumes to our community um and then we're back to We Are One Haven and you know we can't do the work without the community um as directors you know we're so blessed to work here and be part of this community um but but really it does come

040down to that that key the really the key words we are one Haven thank you thank you Dr Connelly uh if you if you have a moment to see if there's any questions from the board members just walk with please um not so much a question but just a a thank you um for your leadership and pulling all this together and it I think it hit me more tonight than it has in throughout this entire process just how much work is represented in that um and you know we're running the dayto day on top of all of them so tremendous amount of work and um the the support from the not just the administration but teachers and I we've talked in all of our committee meetings about how many of the teachers and faculty are

041involved in all of these so you know as as a board member I want to recognize that it's a huge lift we know it's a huge lift um but we had a lot of work to do um and we're well on our way um if I guess the one question I would ask is there anything that you feel that you need from the board in terms of support I know one of the things we need to do is move policies a little bit faster and try to get uh a little more uh streamlined at that in order to meet some of the time frames Associated but our any other things that you need from the if you can add about seven hours to every day to have like 31 hours I think would' be good

042no I mean I I I really appreciate the support of the board I mean I and I say that all the time but the board has been very supportive of our work you know even going back to the the infant stages of strategic plan I appreciate the fact that the board you know it's our plan it's not a plan that our Administration has put together it's we feel partnership in that and I and that means so much to us in our work I think when we bring things forward in committee work whether educational Affairs or at a board meeting you know we feel yes that is from the Strategic plan and I and I do appreciate the board so much you know saying you know recognizing hey wait a second you guys are talking about

043plc's that's part of strategic plan so I do appreciate that the recognition of the board so other than adding eight days to eight hours to the day other than that um I appreciate your support any other questions or comments from board members please just real quickly I did want to thank you for your presentation and also just to say that it is really impressive as to how closely the ad administration's work is sewing to the Strategic plan um I mean it's a big plan so there's a lot to do and but there's a lot of different ways to go about it and um it's it is really impressive that this just hasn't been sort of sent to the back shelf or anything like that I mean it is truly a living document in the district

044every day thank you and that was that was one of the goals we talked about that when we do this plan we're not putting it in a giant binder and stuffing it on a uh a shelf it it needs to be a living breathing part of our work every day and and and that is and I do thank my colleagues and thank Dr Marse we we do sometimes need to say to ourselves hey this is part of strategic plan hey you know that we keep it in front of us at all times as our as our our guidestone in our work Dr Colin I just wanted to to add my thanks as well that was a really great update uh I've been involved in the individual pathway updates which I also appreciate uh your team

045the administration providing those that because it was not just uh board members and administration or teachers but also the community members were there too so that was really nice uh I I'm a big fan of uh action speak louder than words and you gave us the actions which is great uh and that's a lot of work that I think most people in this room realize uh was a tremendous amount of work like Kelly said on top of the your day job so thank you very much for that I really appreciate that that was great that was helpful thank okay moving can I um is it possible to um piggyback off of uh Miss walkman's ask because anytime um there is an opportunity um though it wasn't asked of me uh to say um what is

046it that you need what is that you want from the the board um so five audits in a short amount of time that we've been here um we talked a lot about deferred maintenance um that's usually a term uh reserved for um buildings and uh uh and grounds um but in the curriculum audit um that 237 page report that was provided to you and we presented that information there's deferred maintenance in a number of of categories so what we need is unfortunately what you're unable to provide at the pace in which we need it um which speaks to all of the projects in this District um uh and that is more financial resources and more human capital um uh in order to bridge the gaps that um uh that exist so we've um identified in

047five major categor ories um approximately 86 plus objectives in terms of areas that um growth is needed and need and we need to optimize that uh that process so I think um because you don't have that bag it doesn't go that deep is the extent in which um what is their real realistic tempo for change how do you pace yourself when you need so many things but you may not have all of the uh of the resources in order to do it um as you are trying to catch up to areas that um at the time individuals were making decisions with the information they had now that we're here um it took a long time to get to where we are right now and it'll um unfortunately can't pivot that um uh that quickly so

048I think the ask would be to the extent in which um uh the plan was bold it was aggressive um it was like many goals should be um just far away enough that you can sense it but you really can't touch it yet in terms of um your desire to keep moving but I do think that need is about um what is the realistic piece of uh of the change and what can we um realistically afford to move with aggressively um or how do we peace meal certain things together which wouldn't take a much longer period of time and what do we uh prioritize and focus on so that is a um a big challenge I guess the asses um because we don't have an abundant amount of of resources is um how do we

049prioritize specifically these particular areas that um yield just the greatest uh the greatest gains thank you Dr Mar okay moving on to uh board announcements uh the board did meet in an executive session prior to this evening's uh board meeting uh we move on to audience recognition uh response to items for action on the agenda I want to thank every first of all just recognize this biggest group I've had as as my short-term president thank you for coming to see me run the meeting I hopefully I live up to your expectations uh and uh Chief suffet I want to thank you over there uh he also just took time out of his very busy schedule to join us and I want to thank him for that uh I know that uh standing over there listening

050to our scoreboard Schoolboard stuff is not necessarily always on his uh top objective but I appreciate him being here so thank you uh he's a member of our community as well and I I I uh appreciate him being here uh so we are going to move on to uh actions for item on the agenda we will have time uh later in the meeting for actions uh audience recognition for for items not on the agenda so just so you're aware we do have two separate uh times for public comment uh this is now the time on the agenda where we give an opportunity for the public for public comment on items on the agenda we will have time later for topics not on the agenda as a reminder public comment is a time for district residents

051and taxpayers to speak to the board about an issue that is before the board or may come before the board it is a time for us to listen and hear perspectives and experiences from our community while we can't answer questions at the meeting there is always an opportunity to follow up after meetings if there is a specific question because we want to give as many people as possible that wish to speak a chance to be heard we will continue to follow our thre minute time limit however to help members of the public that are making a comment we will give you a heads up when you have one minute remaining so you can wrap up your thoughts uh as a reminder uh when you go up please State your full name and the street within

052our district in which you live is there anyone here who would like to speak about a topic on the agenda this evening please sir good evening everybody um my name is Joe Monroe I'm a swore resident I live on Cornell Avenue um I've lived in the district for six years with my wife Britney Monroe um I'm an active Community member father of two multiport coach um and I was just getting a chance to to listen to Dr connell's plan um and one of the things that you know kind of was and I'm not I'm not fully depth into the plan but one of the things that didn't come up a lot was was the concept of Athletics um specifically that um in terms of infrastructure and um you know kind of uh the term to

053Ed uh you know the Deferred concept um I have growing concerns specifically about the adequate state of our athletic fields you know specifically that at Henderson and Cades um a little bit about me I'm a former College athlete um and since I've spent the last 15 years coaching um Youth Sports in multiple um school districts throughout Delaware County marel New Town Ridley Township as well as here um I've witnessed firsthand the positive impacts that Sports can have on our young people Athletics instill discipline teamwork and resilience uh these are all qualities that extend far beyond the playing field and into the the contribute to the holistic development of our children however the you know the state of our Fields raises serious questions about our commitment to providing a safe and conducive environment to our student

054athletes I recently visited both Fields um and the conditions that they're in are just disheartening the poorly maintained services not only hinder the overall experience for for our student athletes but they also pose a serious uh health safety risk we can't turn a blind eye to uneven ground worn out patches inad facilities um and they they ultimately um it's just not fair to our our kids um and ultimately they they don't only offer um or have access to fields that are safe to meet standards but they also need to foster a sense of Pride and enthusiasm for the sports they love as we approach the spring Sports season my primary concerns is what plans the school board has um in place to address the quality and maintenance of our Fields you know the uh our

055student athletes just deserve better they deserve fields that are not only safe but are reflective of the importance we place on their physical well-being and the value of sports in their lives you know conclusion I'm not just here as a concerned resident or or a parent or as a coach but someone who believes in the power of sports to shape the future of our youth I trust that the school board shares this commitment and will take action to address the deficiencies in our athletic fields you know through whatever opportunities you know rise in the future thanks for your time and I look forward to witnessing some of the positive changes that we can make on behalf of our kids and our student athletes thank you thank you is there anyone else who would like to

056comment on items that are on the agenda this evening please I had a question curriculum is on the agenda but not specifically literacy which is what I would like to speak to shall I wait I would because I think the curriculum that we are talking about tonight is not is not that it's it's unrated so yeah I would thank you okay uh next item we're going to move uh on to minute our next item for action on the agenda tonight is approval of the minutes of the January 22nd 2024 uh regular board meeting do I have a motion for approval so move M Walkman thank you and do I have a second Miss witset please um any discussion seeing none um Miss Mosley will you play please take a roll call Miss Dole hi Dr

057Grande hi Miss hbert hi Mr Miller hi watman I miss woodett hi Miss Williams I miss wowski Smith I Mr Henry I the motion passes nine to zero thank you very much all right moving now uh on to board committee reports uh our educational Affairs facilities and finance and policy committees Are all uh available to watch on our YouTube channel so you can get the full report there and I encourage people to watch them uh moving on to our Wellness advisory committee Mrs Dole or and or Dr Grande do you have any report okay seeing none uh Pennsylvania School Board Association committee Miss wowski Smith please so the last month uh the Pennsylvania School boards Association uh put out their board their State of the State so how education is uh is functioning in the

058state of Pennsylvania Dr Marc uh sent us a copy in our uh weekly board update um the report was the result of the survey that was sent to All school districts and uh information from the Pennsylvania Department of Education so some of the highlights across the state are um that two-thirds of school districts reported that student mental health needs as one of their largest challenges making it the biggest challenge again this year on average nearly half of students 46.4% % were estimated to have mental health needs according to school leaders so that's across the state uh the second uh important highlight is mandatory Charter School tuition payments were the top source of budget pressure for the fifth consecutive year so that's a large chunk uh coming out of school budgets um nearly 90% of school

059districts reported experiencing a shortage of substitute teachers instructional AIDS special education staff and drivers and we are no different in that respect um special education population continues to grow throughout the state of Pennsylvania in 2023 more than 324,000 or 19.3% of public school students receive special education programs and services this represents a 19.8% increase over the last 15 years so our identified population is is growing uh exponentially and uh budgeting remains an issue especially in the areas as as we heard tonight in facilities and maintenance and that is across the state uh that facilities and maintenance has become uh an issue for schools as buildings start in fields and grounds start to uh uh degrade because they've been around for so long um in the area of student achievement reading proficiency is getting close but

060has not totally rebounded to pre pandemic levels math proficiency across the Commonwealth lags significantly behind other subjects science is the strongest tested subject in the state and graduation rates are generally up since the beginning of the decade so pandemic still has a lingering impact on student learning uh more than 80% of survey respondents stated that their student students had yet to recover from the missed learning opportunities that occurred during covid they're still working on it true for school districts very true across the entire Commonwealth probably across the country uh State funding varies greatly by district and that that's a continuing issue Wellingford sore school district has maintained 80% uh of their funds come from local funding as the state of Pennsylvania has increased educational budget uh Wallingford swathmore has not it has not reached our

061door and uh what's happening is most of our Rural and needy districts are receiving funding for facilities funding for programs and that is not been coming to uh Wellingford SW where we are staying at the same level and uh that those are the highlights from the report which is available publicly if you want to see the entire report thank you thank you moving on to uh the Delaware County Community College liaison Miss witset yes um I have a school district update for February 2024 I shared it through email with my colleagues today so I'll share some of the highlights at this meeting the office of diversity equity and inclusion has been active in its dialogue for diversity series out of the center for equity and social justice this year 2024 has seen two events hosted

062speaking into the future on January 23rd Martin Luther King's program which had a strong virtual attendance of over 145 congruent viewers and the February 88th research presentation on africanamerican soldiers of World War I upcoming presentations and lectures will be continuously added for the center for equity and social justice web page Admissions and dual enrollment this year there was on December 15th there was a Fon held where there were 33 counselors between Delaware and Chester County that expressed interest in this event 48 counselors attended in which they were able to hear about updates within the admission office the teachers educational program updates from our academic division participation in College onee college tours um from alumni and more the day concluded with the lunch and uh a thank you for why did DCC is a special um

063school to attend moving into the new year the admissions off has started the year with admitting students day on January 10th 2024 there was representation ranging from academic division to Athletics and campus engagement there were sessions targeting parents as well as fun activities for students to participate in such as giveaways and cornhole the admissions office continues to Hur virtual live with DCC sessions with topics ranging from enrollment process to tutoring back for the second year is the coffee and tea with DCC events scheduled for April and additional events include spring openhouse career exploration event adult learning day and nursing and Sur surgical tech technology information sessions the admissions office also sent communication regarding full-term spring courses and plans to continue sending 7 week Communications to new and perspective students for spring 2024 until registration closes

064there were several schools that DCC visited um with various topics from Pathways to recruitment to the nursing and Admissions and dual enrollment um specific to dual enrollment submissions the team provided virtual information sessions for the teachers education program which is a one-year program that is free free to high school juniors and seniors um and uh they presented it to um our local district schools Ridley aeng grve octar Penwood Oxford and additionally the admiss admin admissions team continues to recruit for multiple pathway programs including Workforce and economic development programs on February 22nd the team hosted a virtual live with DCC session for high school students interested in dual enrollment at the college the student Resource Center received a $75,000 award from Aqua to alleviate student insecurities and enhance Student Success at Delaware County Community College as

065a result of this reward the students Resource Center was recognized in January 23rd issue of the Daily Times the reason why student Resource Center received this generous award is due to their success with helping address Food hygiene academic transportation and other personal insecurities that students encounter on The Daily base in since opening in the spring semester of J January 2020 on January 11th 2024 45 union leaders representing more than 20 Regal trade unions toward Delaware County Community College Advanced Technology Center had launch and learned about our facilities and our capacity to train students through colleges pre-apprentice and training programs also do for the research center um they partnered with Wawa and are provid providing breakfast sandwiches and pastries to the upper Derby center Southeast Center and Jerome park building on a weekly basis in the

066month of January they provided 1,624 sandwiches and pastries for the students in the month of February wait this is the largest number of items that the team has distributed in one month since the beginning of partnership with Wawa in June 20 since June 202s in addition to the success with Wawa the student Resource Center has 150 student benefit from our texport support program this semester as a result of these activities the Stu the student Resource Center has over 450 students visit in the first month of the semester and that concludes the report for February 2020 and another note is the Board of Trustees closed the application process for the vacancy um on February 23rd and More in information will be coming as they review the candidates and they put put up who they're recommending thank

067you okay we're going to move on now to uh the Delaware County Intermediate Unit miss m hbert please there are a couple things related to the dciu that I'd like to make folks uh in our district aware of first February is Career and Technical Education Month and I'd like to extend our best wishes pride and support to our District's 55 students who are co- enrolled through the Delaware County Technical High Schools 21 programs second the dciu is hosting an education career fair on Wednesday March 20th for itself and most of its Public public school districts and finally the dciu is hosting a zoom Workshop about strategies to support social skills in our middle school and high school children on Tuesday March 12th from 6:00 to 8:00 pm there is no cost and you can sign

068up by going to um dciu.org parent tring if you're interested thank you thank you all right moving now on to Delaware County Schoolboard legislative Council Mrs wat okay um I'm going to try to make this quick there will be a little bit more information that we'll post with the minutes um that has some of the detail behind U the report um so the big thing that's happened of course in the last um month is the governor's budget proposal for 2024 2025 um education funding was a main priority in that uh proposed budget with lots of attention of course because there was a Commonwealth Court ruling that their current funding system for uh public education kada 12 in Pennsylvania is UN constitutional uh and so this the basic education funding Commission report that was presented the

069month prior to that um was information then that became apparent in the governor's proposed budget um that report the the funding commission report that came out of the UN the finding that our funding system is unconstitutional documented a 5.4 billion would it be $5.4 billion Gap and funding that would have to be closed to bring the Commonwealth into constitutional compliance um we uh in the psba uh report um there was references to this as well so the governor's budget proposal calls for $ 1.2 billion increase in basic education funding 50 million in special education funding another 50 million in annual investment in School Safety and Security improvements and 300 million in sustainable funding for environmental repair projects and school buildings so it sounds like a ton of money it is a ton of money um

070uh but as we were saying earlier the amount of that that actually comes into our district is likely to be quite small because in comparison to the overall State um we are not one of the the districts that has been poorly funded um in comparison to others it unfortunately is well funded because it's on the back of our taxpayers because we do not have virtually any uh business uh tax revenue in our district um the there's uh some some additional Point here um the special education portion and it's in these reports which are available to the public on the it's pba.org org um special education funding public schools have experienced um just about a 75% increase in special special ed costs over the last 12 years state and federal funding for special education grew 10%

071in that period so our costs have gone up 75% they've contributed 10 thank you very much for that um the um uh the other uh good thing in the governor's budget proposal uh Charter tuition school funding um he has recommended Statewide Cyber Charter tuition rate of $88,000 per student if approved um that would save school districts approximately $262 million annually across the Commonwealth uh so the the the governor's budget um proposal and lots of material that goes with it is available on the state's website and he's got a pretty decent um uh PowerPoint that goes with that uh and then in terms of legislation three bills Senate Bill 80 one literacy achievement for all pennsylvanians I see that we have folks who are very familiar with that um so designed to improve literacy capacity bolster

072education literacy instruction achievement um and adopt evidence-based um literacy curriculum uh proposed in that bill uh H House Bill 1519 student mental health days um would allow students to take three excused absences for mental health reasons without requiring a doctor's note very much in line with the comments that we shared about um uh student mental health needs and if you were to look at this report um as we said student mental health issues 78.8% um most commonly s cited instructional challenge um impacting the ability of students to learn the next closest item student attendance at 44% so we do have a student Mental Health crisis um and finally increasing uh heal Bill sorry 1665 increasing Student Success with more school counselor support which sounds really awesome and we would love it except it was clearly

073written by and introduced by nobody that's ever spoken to somebody that works in education so other than that it seems great and it would be unfunded bandid but um these are all you know moving through the the process we're not going to see action on these uh for a while the legislature was last in session on February 6th they reconvene on March 18th we're lucky to have um three elected officials uh in our area representing our district who are elected representatives who are available to us frequently so if anybody wants to speak about these they're available to us and um and they listen they really do so I encourage people to speak up that's it for tonight thank you okay moving on to Personnel we have uh 15 items for Action in Personnel uh are

074there any items on the list before I go through them that anyone on the board would like to separate from the rest seeing none we'll go through the we have uh resignations and and retirements as listed appointments as listed leave of absence as listed changes of salary status as listed changes of position payments of unused sick days 2023 2024 conference requests as listed 2023 2024 Mentor appointees as listed 2023 2024 spring athletic supplementals as listed 2023 2024 activities supplementals as listed 2023 2024 activity advisor supplementals 2023 2024 math vertical team as included 2024 Summer band and string program and 2023 24 24 schoology Scholars and uh a confidential agreement as included do I have well all all items in the section are are attached to described agenda do I have a motion to approve so

075moved uh and do I have a second thank you and any discussion of these please um I would just like to say a huge thank you to the retirees and a special shout out to Cheryl Knox who has 33 years at SRS and I am lucky enough my youngest is currently in her class and she's going to be a huge void dill at SRS um and also to Mrs Connor who runs if you have girls girls camp in the summer and I really hope that she's not retiring from now so so thank you though to all the teachers retiring thank you any other any further comments I would like to give a shout out to the math vertical team I think we have Mr benzing over there I encourage people to look or watch the

076last educational Affairs committee meeting where Mr Bening gave a spectac spacular I'm using the word spectacular because he was very he got us all very excited about what was happening in the math vertical team so I really we walked out of there feeling great so please please watch it and uh enjoy it yeah we were commenting about the tears that that some of there were laughter there were tears it was a good meeting all around so uh it's on it's on the YouTube channel uh and uh for all of you interested it's a very really good uh uh presentation by Mr Bening uh was Mr benon crying no we were um not at his we were laugh he was making us laugh here of Joy tears of joy it was it really was we love

077math now uh and he made us do some math which some of us are better than others for sure uh okay so moving on to uh yeah roll call vote thank you we're g to do that uh Miss Mosley could you please take a roll over Miss Dole hi Dr Grande hi Miss hbert I Mr Miller I miss watman I miss witset I miss Williams I miss wowski Smith I Mr Henry I motion passes nine to zero thank you moving now on to policy we have two items for action of policy are there any policies on this list that anyone on the board would like to separate from the rest seeing none we have are policies for first reading as listed and policies for second reading as listed there are administrative regulations listed there but

078they are not uh there's no vote needed for those uh do I have a motion to approve so moved thank you and I do I have a second second thank you uh M goley will you please take a roll call vote m i Dr Grande I miss hbert I Mr Miller hi Miss watman hi Miss woodett hi Mrs Smith I'm sorry Mrs Williams I Mrs wowski Smith I Mr Henry I motion passes 9 to zero thank you moving on to curriculum we have three items for Action in curriculum are there any items on this list that anyone on the board would like to separate from the rest seeing none we have barkdale school photography agreement as listed uh Newman University graduation agreement is listed and solution tree Inc contract as listed are there any uh

079do I have a motion to approve that's why I'm looking forward so moved thank you and do I have a second second thank you very much M Mosley would you please take a roll call R Miss Dole hi Dr Grande hi Mrs hbert hi Mr Miller hi Mrs wman hi Miss woodset Mrs Williams I Mrs wowski Smith I Mr Henry I motion passes nine to zero thank you moving on to Student Services we have three items for approval in student services are there any items that anyone on the board would like to separate from the rest seeing none we have uh homebound instruction as listed and uh Chester County Intermediate Unit contract agreement has listed a contract with the alagan Intermediate Unit listed uh do I have a motion to approve so moved thank you

080and do I have a second second thank you any discussion seeing none miss m m would you please take the roll call vote Mrs Dole I Dr Grande i m m hbert i Mr Miller I Mrs watman I Mrs whitet I Mrs Williams hi Mrs wowski Smith hi Mr Henry hi motion passes nine to zero thank you moving on to uh finance and Facilities we have nine items for approval in finance are there any items on this list anyone on the board would like to separate from the rest seeing none we have bills paid to V from January 1st through January 31st 2024 financial statements from January 2024 we have the treasures report from January 2024 budget transfers a contract with Arbiter Sports as listed bus Patrol America contract pen Power Group contract will grow

081Services contract VoIP networks contract so uh do I have a motion to approve so move thank you do I have a second second thank you any discussion on these items Mr please uh so regarding item e the Arbiter Sports contract so it was helpful for me to hear a little bit about how our new evolved and I was hoping you could just speak to that briefly Dr Marse is that hi so um what Arbiter Sports is it's a company that takes all of our our forms that we use when we have students um our athletes right all of the physical forms and all those other forms and it makes everything electronic it makes it so much easier if I'm a coach I'm a basketball coach instead of me having 75 applications of students with all

082of their health forms it's all electronic so it really streamlines the process for uh when our students our athletes um are applying for uh new team or or those kind of things so it really keeps all of their health information uh in one place so not only that after the tryy out then during the season if there's an injury or those kind of things the trainer can very easily access that as opposed to saying hold on a second let me let me go and check you know the paperwork of the student so it really is something that that other partner districts are also uh using this as well and they really like it a lot so yeah and as as I learned I think there's a a communication component between the family and the district

083as well that it enhances as well there is it really does so so it's just one more thing that we're trying to increase our you know communication with our community so any other comments from the board Dr Grande please uh just a a quick uh comment for the administration as assuming we approve bus Patrol in a moment um the ask would be that um as we move closer to understanding the timeline for implementation uh that we come up with a Communications plan to the community around that program to let people know that it is coming um and obviously we value safety around our school buses um and I think this program can do a lot to improve safety for our children around our school buses but uh making sure people know uh that it is

084coming uh in advance thank you yes spread the word don't be the first one to uh get a violation any other uh discussion see oh what set please on item G what exactly is the P Power Group it maintenance well you can't sit there and say you have to go toone so it is it's all Mr Mone please please thank you yeah it's work yeah a contract P power provides preventive maintenance for our diesel generators so what they do they provide a service we all come out whether it's changing the oil checking the batteries ensuring that our generators are producing the amount of power necessary to support the life safety of all of our buildings thank you thank you Mr Mone you're welcome very good M what does that help yeah great all right any

085other discussion nope see none uh M mosy will you please move to a roll call vote Mr delay I Dr Grand hi Mrs hbert hi Mr Miller hi Mrs watman hi Mrs whitet hi Mrs Williams I Mrs wowski Smith I Mr Henry I motion passes N9 to zero thank you uh One Last Action uh for the board we're going to uh is the election of a Delaware County Intermediate Unit board members uh the administration recommends that the board of school directors approve Miss Rachel hbert to be elected a member of the Delaware County Intermediate Unit board for the term beginning July 1st 2024 through June 30th 2027 as stipulated do I have a motion to approve so moved thank you and a second second thank you uh any uh discussion Miss hbert I think you're

086up for it yeah I was appointed a few months ago so getting this is all kind of official now we we thank you for continuing yes thank you Miss hbert we appreciate we we do Mr Hen Mr Henry just to clarify because of the strange nature of the uh intermediate units the reality is what you're doing tonight is you're nominating Miss hbert back onto the board they actually elect her themselves thank you okay that's an excellent clarification thank you that's good to know so we are nominating uh Miss hbert uh is there anybody who has any further discussion that all right seeing none can we move on with a roll call vote for the nomination of Miss hbert for TCI Mrs Dole hi Dr Grande I miss hbert hi Mr Miller I Mr watman hi

087Mrs wet I Mrs Williams I Mrs wowski Smith I Mr Henry I motion passes 9 to zero thank you okay moving on to audience recognition for response to other topics uh this is the time on the agenda where we give an opportunity for public comment items not on the agenda uh we will uh as a reminder this is a time for district residents and taxpayers to speak to the board about an issue that is before the board or may come before the board time for us to listen hear perspectives and experiences from our community while we can't answer questions at the meeting there is always an opportunity for followup after the meetings uh reminder we we will stick to our three minute time limit and we'll give you a heads up when there's about one

088minute remaining and when you go up please do state your name and uh the street on which you live in our district uh are there any is there anybody who would like to speak on items not on the agenda uh I saw the gentleman in the yellow his hand go up first please uh yeah I might not be the friendliest person so I give you the honest truth so we'll receive I'm going to try to do my best I'm extremely nervous but this topic is extremely important to me um I don't do this ever I'm a truck driver I sit in a truck alone by myself all day every day when you start truck driving if you work for oh I'm sorry my name my I'm sorry I'm Nick vitro I live on uh 12

089Lindon Avenue um in Rage uh so we become a truck driver if you work for a good Trucking Company you can you become part of a program called truckers against trafficking you learn a lot about human trafficking two weeks ago we had an incident at swore rler school um with potential two fourth graders and two men or so um there are 30 to 60,000 women and children a year that are kidnapped in human traffick across the world this country is the number one consumer of that product um it's disgusting it grosses me out I was a damaged human being before I had children um and when I had children they changed my entire being I was a very angry mean human being I sat alone in the truck um when they were born they decided

090to make me I I want to be a happy positive human being for this world my my son uh some some of there at least one parent in the audience who knew as my son um the there has to and I I look at this a as a I've been in warehouses I've seen weird things in Brooklyn across this country um and my school that my the elementary school that my son goes to buts up against a a train station um we live in a world where everybody sucked into their phone nobody's paying attention to nothing I I watch it on a daily basis I drive in West Philadelphia I see drug addicts I see everything any one of those people can be picked up on a daily basis by any and then on top

091of it we have 20 million illegal immigrants here that we have no that are undocumented we have no clue any one of those people could be part of any cartel anywhere in the world and they could allow any one of your children takes two seconds for them to pick up two children lift them over that fence get on a scheduled train and because we're in a society where humans are so sucked into their phones that just looks like two screaming children dealing with their parents and they're gone they get the they get the Trenton they get on a boat the boat goes anywhere on planet Earth um this isn't this is a reality of the world this isn't a mythical thing we have a a man murdered in federal prison in New York City for

092this um his co-partner is God knows where I living it up um those people were put in place for a very specific reason um two days ago Joe Rogan had Dr Phil on his podcast if anybody likes Joe Rogan um go listen to Dr Phil he's been at the border he's a Texas resident he was born and raised there are you United States government is currently buying and selling kids at the Texas border my children these children will not be a part of that statistic um the protection of these children of all the children in the school district once my kids came to this earth is now my responsibility I've seen the evils of this world uh I've been I've spent way too much alone time in this head by myself wi witnessing dark things

093I love True Crime I'm into serial killers I'm into evil things of this planet psychology is my thing I probably should have did that in life but I didn't I'm here sweating my face off in this neon yellow thing however um like I said when I look at these parents their their children's my my responsibility as well um because any one of them could be friends with my son and if they're with me alone that's my responsibility um so like a taller fence something must be done over there because that's too easy access to something that moves way too fast um I also I don't know if this is okay real fast as far as the field stuff maybe we set up a program for the high school students uh I also had a landscape

094company maybe we teach them how to you know maintain the turf thems and making an educational process um I'm not a person of anger like I said I want to be a positive thing I want to coach I want to do all this stuff I've been wandering this Earth alone until my children came here my mom was a drug my dad was an alcoholic I raised myself I'm 12 years younger than my next closest relative so this enti my entire existence is me trying to figure out where I belong in this world um protecting uh inocent children might be that thing I I never knew how to make that happen but this happened way too close to home for me um andan it scares me to death it is the number one fear in my

095life um to have and as we already obviously we're dealing with a tragedy that's already happening within the school district weekend um this is a you wrap up your yeah I'm sorry I'm I apologize I I'm a ranner GNA wrap it up I'm all done I apologize I just want to make sure everybody's children are safe it's just a big fear of mine so I apolog sorry thank you no no thank thank you thanks I just want to make sure everyone has a CH a chance to speak this evening so um so if everyone could could be uh aware our three minute time limit uh who I saw somebody else uh Miss please he thank you all for your time tonight my name is Heather TPAC my husband Matthew and I live at on Strath

096Haven Avenue in swore um a little nervous but also emotional my daughter was involved in both incidents at SRS my 9-year-old child was approached by a strange man on school grounds we are here on behalf of her on behalf of our daughters and the rest of the children at SRS and in our district you are all aware of what happened at least I hope you are I don't want to go into every detail but I also feel that my side of things needs to be heard because there's been a lot of lack of communication on Thursday February 8th I arrived at SRS at normal pickup time to pick up my daughter when she got into the car I could see immediately that something wasn't right she was pale but also flush she was not herself

097she went on to tell me that during Second recess for her is 3 to 3:15 a strange man approached the back of the school grounds along the field there's a walking path there and for those of you who don't know there's partial fencing but the fencing stops 2third of that stretch is open to public access that leads right to the train station this man stood at the edge of that fence shaking the fence and engaged my daughter in conversation saying wait come here stop repeatedly it was luckily she has good intuition and she knew something wasn't right she followed her gut and she ran the whistle was being blown to go in time to pack up for the end of the day she went right to her teacher Mrs Kennedy who then sent her to

098guidance counselor Mr Loren and our security guard and I apologize I only know him as Mr Jimmy um who took her statement I'm extremely grateful for them they took very good care of her they made sure that she felt okay and safe to speak that being said I never received a phone call that this happened to my child NE nothing she had to tell me in the car on our ride home from school we decided as a family that it was in our best interest to call the police we filed a report when the police arrived at our home at 5:30 that evening they had not received a phone call from anybody in the district reporting the incident nobody from our district reported the incident that happened at our elementary school it was on our

099shoulders as parents as I understand it for the policy uh 28.2 AR when a situation like this happens this seems to be the only policy that pertains to this I was having a hard time navigating which one but when a student reports an incident like this it is turned over to the powers at B there was not an administrator in the building that day Dr Huck was out sick and at that moment it fell on do Mr Loren as I read this policy it says that it is then turned over to the superintendent who was responsible to then call the appropriate authorities as of 5:30 that evening that hadn't happened the offender and another man returned to the school the next day also during recess my daughter saw him again along with four others she

100reported it right away the aid said that they would check it out my daughter came home and was able to detail the movement of this man for much more than she should have been able to watch him the school ground should have been cleared they viewed them along the walking path they viewed them behind equipment boxes by the baseball diamond that is on school rounds she also viewed him leaping over the fence onto college property from SRS property none of this was communicated appropriately to be honest and I'm sure many others here would also not be here tonight if proper communication and response had been received by the administration following these events as it stands my email to you super intendent requesting a meeting with the families of the students involved and administration to discuss

101the situation and how it can be prevented in the future has still yet to be answered to me this is a blatant disregard for families of SRS specifically those of us who had students involved in the breach of security this lack of reply to me is telling of a lack of concern this is created a situation where parents are feeling unheard parents feel a lack of transparency this leads to mistrust of those who are supposed to be the stewards of our district mistrust leads to second guessing the authenticity I'm sorry to interrupt you but we're we're going way over time so if you could just wrap up your thoughts for us thank you this second guessing the authenticity and capability of those who are supposed to have our best children our children's best interests at

102heart I'm hoping that this enlightens all of you and can cause for a motion to move things forward to get some more Security on our grounds thank you thank you is there anybody else who has anything they would like to say that is not on the agenda please and please uh be aware aware of our three minute time limit because there's other people here I Ed myself thank you Dr Mari members of the school board thank you for allowing me to speak I'm Mary and penella I live on I live on Charlo I'm the mother of two Wallingford swore students I'm a proud supporter of my children and their biggest Advocate I'm here today with utmost respect and highest regard for their safety and well-being for not just for my girls but also their peers

103their teachers and staff at SRS our family is new to the district my girls have acclimated themselves at SRS better than my husband and I could have ever anticipated we we attributed this to many at SRS but most specifically to their peers Mrs Jennifer Kennedy Mrs Jennifer McDonald Anthony Loren and Mrs Taran mccaffery these four individuals have been a godsend to my girls and for them we're truly grateful academically we've been blown away with what's been afforded to them socially we have been welcomed with open arms the community in the school is exactly what we were hoping to find for our family we knew we'd hit some speed bumps along the way when we moved here but unfortunately a major safety concern of this magnitude was certainly one we never anticipated I'm not going to

104reiterate the full details surrounding the events of Friday February 8th as I'm sure you've all been briefed and I'm sure you're all familiar with them but I'd really like to use this opportunity to address some major areas of concern it's been almost two and a half weeks since two major breaches of safety on SRS my daughter was one of the five girls who witnessed two men on campus causing her discomfort by acting by them acting in a appropriately and afforded according to my daughter one of these two men men allegedly having a gun again I'm not going to stand here and reiterate all of the details I'm not going to I'm not going to outline all of the ball drops I'm not going to point fingers at every detail I personally think went wrong but

105I will say that this situation could have and should have been handled much differently not and not just by administration of the school but of the school board I have been asked by several and I wonder myself why someone in administration again at this level as well as the school why someone proactively didn't reach out to me before this past Friday and I really just don't have an answer a simple phone call Mrs penelo were looking into this a pacifier in a baby's mouth would have been more suffice than no answer at all all I know is that we were given the same boilerplate response that the rest of the community was given and I truly feel that is shameful and wrong we can simply agree to disagree on that but in all honesty it

106really doesn't even matter anymore what matters is that we move forward we need to use this opportunity to address major gaps such as transparency communication protocols policies and procedures to be perfectly honest the events from Friday February 8th never should have occurred had the event from FID from Thursday February 7th been properly documented minute and appropriate protocols been set in place I feel that in this instance the school and the district failed both of my daughters you failed their friends their parents and our community I understand and know that we are in a district and a community rated as one of the safest in the state and by no means does that exclude us or preclude us from not being a proactive community and it certainly doesn't mean we should be a reactive one physical

107security is a critical intervention I point to keep guns and violence out of our schools so I stand her today and ask you matter of factly what specifically are you doing to make sure that my babies don't get shot at recess please don't Wordsmith me to death I want hard conrete examples of what we're doing to keep our kids safe on our campuses it's your duty what security measures do we have in place to protect our kids not next month not now because now is the time that we need to start acting to keep our children safe as someone with experience on former School District Safety Committee I look forward to the opportunity with speaking with several of you later this week I look forward to addressing how we can t learn from the terrible

108terrible set of circumstances um again this is the first time a lot of you are seeing me but I promise you you will hear from me again in the future and you'll see my face thank you all for your time and consideration thank you is there anyone else here who would like to speak about items not on the agenda please good evening um this has been a really heavy night out of all the school board meetings that I've attended over the last several years um so while folks were speaking I actually thought about not coming up to speak thinking maybe this isn't quite the right night um however I'm going to go forward with what I have to say because this is also an urgent matter um with what I have to share my name

109is Mandy UB I live on Cameron Drive in Wallingford um I come to you as a very concerned parent and Community member for all of the students in grades K to 5 in our district with 15 years in the education profession as a former elementary teacher literacy coach and now working for a literacy publisher that is a nonprofit and well-respected leader in literacy instruction research I'm here to bring forward grave concerns and frightening truths to our Schoolboard and community at large since I'm only allowed three minutes to speak tonight I will not be speaking toward my additional concerns with the math curriculum or special education department uh but with my area of expertise which is literacy my main concern is the patchwork quilt approach to structured literacy that is being implemented and doubled down on

110by our district have you heard of phonics patching or a patchwork quilt approach well it's when the core reading program does not embed foundational skills instruction so then another program has to be brought in to address the lack of phonic instruction thus a patch this is exactly what is happening in our district and not only that our literacy instruction is being delivered in the patchwork way but that administrators are refusing to give this up as was stated in last month's Ed Affairs meeting when asked if we were going away from the units of study and we were told no because we are seeing success I would like to ask District administrators and the school SCH board if they know how many families are having their children receive out of school reading support such as tutoring

111how is this Equitable additionally at last month's meeting it was stated that success is being seen in some areas of reading data which is because the teachers in this District are Stellar they have been supplementing the of study and Fountain FST and panel curriculum for so long just to see these gains they are Reinventing the wheel do you know how hard and time consuming it is to supplement a curriculum they are working their tails off for something that the district should be investing in so that they can actually teach decades worth of research states that an effective tier one program must be aligned in fact research states that all tiers must be aligned in order for all students to make gains currently we have a very segmented not aligned literacy Block in all of K5

112according to last month's Ed aairs meeting four different programs are being implemented in K2 let me repeat that four different programs why isn't one program being implemented that provide provides instruction in all areas of language comprehension and word recognition why are we putting an increased cognitive load on all of our K5 students to have to recall instructional routines and expectations of four different programs how can a true analysis of data be done across four very different programs this is not a structured literacy approach this is a patchwork quilt approach and it certainly is not fair to our teachers nor is it Equitable to our students thank you for your time thank you is there anybody else here who would like to comment on items not on the agenda this evening seeing none is there any

113old business any new business seeing none this meeting is adjourned