001school board to order in opening as you're willing and able please rise and join me in the pledge of allegiance like to start by asking mr gore to take the roll call miss dimino here dr huff here mr cutis here mrs lentz here mr sullivan here mrs walkman here miss wikowski smith here dr grandy here mr berman dr marseille dr grandi there are eight voting members present all right thank you miss figura um so i want to start this evening with just one quick board announcement uh to let folks know the board met in executive session prior to this meeting to discuss personnel so that will take us to our superintendence report and i'm excited to welcome dr marseille uh as our new superintendent well not so new now we're a few weeks in but
002our first board meeting together thank you dr grande thank you for uh for coming um so i i have a series of updates that i that i want to share with you going through some topics but i am excited to be here my wife and i um so um thank you i'm a little out of practice um so i appreciate that so um i want to talk a little bit about some updates that i want to share with the board and in the public and i want to try to keep it short but if the board remembers on april 12 i did share with you that i'm not known for my brevity but i think it's important topics to to discuss i have a potential colleague who understands that future colleague very well so what
003you're looking at um is our mission and vision statement um i will start every meeting uh as the proud superintendent of this district to ground us in philosophically what this community and many stakeholders came together many many moons ago and decided to commit to around our purpose and in our why and that tends to and i want the board to reflect uh not just that but the reason why we are here in the lens that we must see the work in order to support teaching uh teaching uh in learning uh and if you recall on july 8th i sent um a letter to the community and in that communication i uh wanted to share in three phases a uh somewhat traditional uh entry plan uh as superintendent to kind of highlight at 30 000 foot
004view of what the year will look like for me uh specifically those first hundred plus days as we are thinking about getting to know as many of the community members as possible and getting a better understanding of stories i've shared this before that the shortest distance between two people is a story and if we spend more time engaging in that conversation um we find that we have more in common than uh than not so with that i articulated a number of key steps in that in that process i've had the pleasure of meeting with a large number of my central administrative staff the pleasure of meeting with some of the building administrators i've begun to schedule individual meetings with members of the board so it's had recent meetings just to better understand uh their story
005their purpose their why and how we can work collectively as a team to move the district uh to move the district forward so i'm hoping you please stay tuned and find ways to actively participate and we're going to create a myriad of opportunities whether they're not just in this building when other buildings other parts of the community to really go out and listen to some stories as i transition and i want to make sure that we're in the service of children [Music] and to all children including my very own who starts middle school in the uh in september so she's excited about that as well we got an email from her assistant principal about the reading assignments she wasn't excited about that as usual that indicates time is running out in terms of those summer
006experiences so i'm excited with that i also want to share with you that since my previous communication i wanted to share with you uh some comments that i've received as superintendent um and uh about our health and safety plan and concerns that parents have and this community will find out because actions speak louder than words that i create the space to make sure that voices are heard and there's diversity of thought um we may disagree philosophically um but i always want to create a space to welcome individuals to uh to have conversation i am much better uh in person that i am responding via uh via email and i find that the ability to do that though i understand for some may be challenging um much prefer that atmosphere uh and you know there's just
007something about a face-to-face meeting that is very different uh though there are tremendous benefits to zoom um but some require that uh that personal connection at least that what i get when i'm meeting with individuals so i sent communication with regards to the secretary of education reminding superintendents across the commonwealth with regards to the federal requirements of masking on public transportation and school buses uh and obviously that um has varying opinions uh with respects to that um and since that communication families have been emailing my office asking some additional questions about where the district is what are we doing where are we going to communicate that what does that look like and i want to share with the board that per the health and safety plan that was approved on june 19th that language around
008the mask was not in there that federal mandate does supersede the authority of the board and that will be reflected in in the new update and you can see where the old language resides and where the new language will go in with regards to masking on on public transportation specifically to us with um with school buses and i said earlier that um there were parents who had a lot of questions and were willing to create the space uh to listen and to uh and to hear those uh those concerns and navigate through them um but there's been since that additional information that has come our way and part of that our communication with respects to uh some of the changes that are happening across the state but obviously across the country um if you go
009to our website we try to include links that will take you directly to some particular sources i know community members have other sources as well but we'll provide you those links to the cdc website one of the things you'll find out that in my communication it might sometimes be overkill but i include a lot of hyperlinks i think it's important that people can go directly to a source without having to navigate through multiple links as great as some websites are it's i'd rather go straight to that versus clicking 16 times to get to that body of information and i look forward to the feedback in terms of how quickly we can do that so several things have happened where obviously uh chester county um health department has ended their relationship with delaware county and no
010longer will be providing that level of expertise and support that it has over the 19 months and that delaware county will look forward to looking for additional support from the pennsylvania department of health also um soon after that cdc provided some revisions to um uh guidelines uh around safe return to schools uh and it provided some some considerations for schools to consider with the understanding that they want schools to implement effective mitigation practices but they also champion in-person instructions as much as possible and say to districts as you're thinking through these mitigation factors we do not want any of these mitigation factors to play a significant role in denying students in-person uh instruction uh so that calls on us to think about what does that look like um as we um thinking about moving in
011that direction one of one of my parents wanted to know will we be dr marseille are you going to vote tonight and make a decision on those cdc guidelines i shared in that communication that i'm processing looking over the information as you know recommendations vary and they shift but i don't have to tell you that because we've lived through this experience for two years i really thought we'd be in a different place than where we are right um right now so my pandemic team will meet um i believe um i had my first meeting last week with delaware county superintendents under the leadership of dr edelberg and we kind of walked through what those guidelines were um dr um dr rubin was also in that call as well from chop and um dr grande who
012is was it dr dr brennan thank you from penn medicine was also in that conversation helping us to kind of answer our questions and help us better understand what does that mean so um i will be presenting to this board relatively soon are our recommendations and for you to deliberate and think about i understand that there are parents who want to know now because they're decisions that have to be made and i respect that and we're going to turn this around as quickly as we can and bring that to you we want more people not only physically here but also via zoom as well so we'll make sure that when that meeting takes place that we um use all of our communication channels uh to have individuals here uh to engage in that uh conversation
013uh so with that i also want so i'm gonna transition to a couple of other updates as well as the board knows and community members that in june the district began renovating the front foyer of the high school as part of our safety measures a lot of other safety protocols that need to be put into place after looking at that plan and having a conversation with the business figureo that we need to move forward with but i'm excited that we're able to begin that that project that project uh is slated to complete in august it is on time um very hard to say these things when you have a project that you're on time uh but it is on time we're looking forward to that uh that completion you'll see the entryway here um but
014a significant part of the work is happening inside as you can see where they are re-changing and reconfiguring so that as you buzz into the school individuals are really channeled to a much more secure area so that they're not being buzzed in and then have total access to um uh to the building and where they're framing everything out they begin to put the drywall and do that uh and the pictures you're seeing a little bit different than the last couple of days because they continue to make improvements with that with that process i also want to bring to your attention this emergency connectivity fund and opportunity for the district to seek additional funding for some of our our neediest families so last week our director of instructional technology dr wheeler and our director of information
015technology mr centrone attended a session that was facilitated by dciu uh in that conversation really talked about as part of the americans recovery act uh there is seven billion dollars set aside um for communities to um identify families who are struggling with internet access and accessing a digital um curriculum um we will be it's a short turnaround we will be sending communication to our families in the next 48 hours um seeking their input about what does that look like in your household we have families who we're aware are in need we ask you that if you know a neighbor who's in need who's struggling with hardware in terms of technology or may not have internet connection we've tried to keep a good pulse on that um but there's money out there to expand our efforts
016and um we're uh hoping that we'll get a quick turnaround our team is working on that grant we will submit that like every grant the money is not guaranteed but we will put our best foot effort and share our story and why um we believe is going to be extremely beneficial to um to our families in in this community so i wanted to share that as well i also wanted to share our virtual school we began enrollment july 12th and will continue through july 30th if you remember in my opening statement a couple of minutes ago i had parents asking me well how can i make an informed decision about whether or not this is right for me when you haven't made a decision about how you're coming back to school um very good point
017um i don't have an answer for that except for we will be flexible in that timeline and second we will be presenting to the board as quickly as possible in the community uh our recommendations for moving forward uh with opening school and that should not negatively impact obviously administration dr jones and her team want to get that information in their hands as quickly as possible so they can turn that around and create a comprehensive schedule but we understand where we are and we're gonna ask for flexibility and giving parents a little bit more latitude to make that decision after we present our recommendation or suggestions to the board about returning this this fall and the questions keep coming it's only been 16 days um so um the other question that came up was dr marseille
018what are you doing about sleep and the study why are we returning back to a normal start time we returned during covid with uh a really good start time how could you start school at 7 35 again um and i thank parents for their their comments um and i know that there's been a tremendous amount of work because uh in this time i'm trying to read as much information as possible it's not a lack of information it's the bandwidth of me trying to read everything in such a short amount of time i feel like for those who remember their graduate studies just not enough hours to read all of those uh all of those books but you find somewhere to do that so i want to acknowledge and um i know many of you know
019this because you sent communication to me but i want to share with you um uh specifically about what are we going to do well this community and this board make a commitment to spend a tremendous amount of resource engage in this conversation wherever you sit um with respect to that we had local experts national experts we had committees um the curriculum team um in light of this major initiative uh pushed a lot of curriculum work aside uh in order to make room to engage in this work uh the committee was prepared to present uh to the public a series of recommendations get that feedback and host a public meeting of the board to share uh that information um i don't have to tell you um in march what occurred and um the world pivoted significantly
020and we have not returned back to that work what um this board uh this administration um those who were here who took part in that and myself who's new will create the space to re-engage so where we stopped which was the committee was ready to present to the public a series of options based on the months and months of investigation we're going to pick that up we're going to put the schedule together to get that going very quickly we will then present that to the board and the board will either make an informed decision or ask the team to come back with more information before they do that but i want to share with one particular community member who asked specifically will there be changes in the 21-22 school year it is going to be
021extremely programmatic uh problematic i should say and programmatically impossible to some extent to try to pivot in the middle of the year and start that there's so many things i need to be prepared for that and i know they're individuals who are looking forward to that um that experience who support uh the research and support the science um or we're gonna need some time to implement that and unfortunately i do not believe and from someone who has spent time in previous districts engage in this work i respect the amount of time that went into this but also understand the amount of time that needs to go in preparing for that depending on the decision of this board so i'd be remiss not to include this in my report since i've received a number of communications
022uh about that as well and more information uh to uh uh to come uh so i always save the best for last right um and the best for last is all about the children right uh even the little ones in the audience uh right right now right who are extremely adorable and i want to share with you a couple of summer experiences uh that we're very fortunate to offer at wildland for swarthmore and we're very fortunate that our teachers and our educators though they had choices and they could have done other things i decided to give the time and space for these experiences to uh to take place so we've had a number of summer programs we've had our extended school year we've had our panther program our extended day as you see a number
023of pictures of students who um throughout the week starting the the experience and that adage that a picture's worth a thousand words and the smiles uh that uh you see with our with our with our summer experiences uh is adorable um students um i uh i bumped into a group of young ladies who were engaged in this game i had no idea what it was it looked fun so i jumped in and i said teach me how to do this what does this mean right brought me back to those years um very very long time ago um but um this is really what happens um uh i don't have to tell you that children bring the building back to life um not that i don't love working with my central office colleagues every day since
024i started but it's something different when children are in the building regardless of age uh even the ones who think they're grown and they're juniors and seniors there still are babies to a lot of individuals so a lot of activities are taking place uh trying to make sure that we're actively engaging students but also meeting their academic and developmental needs as well because the some of the programs are specifically designed to meet those particular needs and who can't um who's going to forget about our music program our 40th plus year i believe i want to tell you that someone should have told me to bring a lawn chair to this event and um so i'm dressed in this normal outfit it's 96 degrees outside so i go side i go outside at 6 30 and
025uh dr jones is there she got the memo because she got her lawn chair right and i'm standing there and um enjoying the concert and after an hour and a half i was wondering why the musicians were shifting to the left and i quickly realized this because no i'm shifting to the left right so i told dr jones i'm gonna go inside take a break um so i cooled off a little bit and came outside and finished it but an extraordinary experience to all of our directors our administrators who put that together so i had my first experience it was absolutely um wonderful i can't wait till cheyenne um picks up the violin again so maybe when she gets back with all of her new friends she'll be energized and pick that up considering i
026think it's somewhere in the 65 boxes that are still unpacking at the uh at the house but i wanted to share that um and those wonderful experiences uh and and try to highlight the wonderful things in my report that yes are extremely informational but always circle back uh to the work that we're doing and that is supporting and honoring our students and our staff so with that um that concludes my report i hope it wasn't uh too long dr uh grande but i had to take time for these 14 16 days uh to uh to share absolutely uh thank you for that that report uh i think it's very useful information for the community uh to hear um so that takes us to our time for audience recognition for response items that are uh on
027the agenda for action on the agenda this evening uh we'll have a later time toward the end of the meeting for audience comments for response to items that are not on the agenda this evening and just as a reminder public comment 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 it's a time for the board to listen and hear perspectives and experiences from our community and while we can't answer questions at the meeting there's always an opportunity to follow up after meetings if there is a specific question for the district at this time i want to ask is there anyone who would like to speak tonight about a topic on the agenda excuse me no not this
028evening yep okay all right so um but certainly you can come back to that uh during the later comment period so that takes us to our first item for action uh which is the approval of the june 28th regular business meeting minutes an iso move uh do we have a second second uh thanks matt uh any discussion okay uh miss figora can you please take a roll call dr huff aye mr cutis aye mrs lentz aye mr sullivan aye mrs walkman aye ms lukowski smith hi dr grandy aye motion passes eight to zero all right thank you miss square so that takes us to personnel we have 12 items for action uh in personnel are there any on the list that anyone on the board would like to separate from the rest okay let me
029read these then first we have approval of three resignations as listed in the agenda next we have approval of three appointments uh ian sandberg director of student services julia cooperstein special ed teacher at srs and judith kramner emotional support special education teacher at strathaven middle school we have approval of additions and a deletion to the summer school program appointment list that's stipulated we have approval of the additional staff to work on the leading math initiative summer curriculum at the rate of 37 per hour not to exceed 25 hours for the 2021 summer as stipulated we have approval of the community of explorer librarian hours at 37 dollars per hour not to exceed six hours for the 2021 summer as stipulated we have approval of the 2021 summer school transportation hours as stipulated we have approval
030of appointments to the 2021-2022 fall athletic supplementals we have approval of a 2021-2022 spring athletic supplemental we have approval of staff as listed in the agenda to work on the english language program development summer curriculum at the rate of 37 per hour not to exceed 30 hours total for the 2021 summer we have approval a payment for unused sick days as stipulated we have approval of the extension of assignment for anne marie ward as described in the agenda and we have approval of the listed staff to work on the power school development and training for item analysis and assessment writing at the rate of 37 per hour not to exceed 13 hours each for the 2021 uh summer all items in this section are as attached or described in the agenda do i have a
031motion so moved thank you kelly uh do we have a second i'll say thanks matt any discussion on these items the english language program development is that to take over the function from the dciu okay just making sure i have a question as well and i'm sorry i didn't break this one out or ask it earlier but i just see the descriptions changed in this version of the agenda so the additional new position the teacher the emotional support special education teacher is that budgeted for in 2021-22 because i don't think this is one of those other positions that we had approved that was yes um i see when you and i talked and tried to clarification i followed up um um with our director of student services to try to get a better understanding is
032is that new uh was that existing or were replacing um it is a new position as a result of increased uh need for our students so as a result of increased caseloads we needed to hire an additional staff member that did not exist um so that is new money new position that was budgeted for uh for the 21 22 uh budget yeah any other comments okay mr gore can you please take a roll call vote dr huff aye mr cutis aye mrs lentz aye mr sullivan hi mrs walkman hi miss kakowski smith aye ms semina aye dr crandy hi dr grandy the personnel items pass by a vote of eight to zero okay thank you miss february okay so we have four items uh for action and curriculum are there any on the list anyone
033would like to separate from the rest okay first we have approval of 2021 2022 related services provider contracts that's stipulated we have approval of a 2021-2022 tuition contract as listed in the agenda we have approval of an educational services agreement as listed in the agenda under item c and another educational services agreement is listed in the agenda under item d these items are as attached or described in the agenda do i have a motion so moved thank you jason we have a second second thank you jen any discussion okay uh miss figure can you please take a roll call vote mr cutis aye mrs lentz aye mr sullivan aye mrs walkman aye ms witkowski smith aye ms amino aye dr huff aye dr grandi aye curriculum items pass eight to zero all right that takes
034us to finance where we have eight items for approval are there any on the list anyone would like to separate okay uh first we have approval of payment of invoices to vendors dated june 23 to july 15 2021 we have an approval of an agreement with core power incorporated for the ups system at npe and west we have approval of removal of obsolete equipment as listed in the agenda we have approval of a contract with sos group for business office support we have approval of a contract with powerschool for an upgrade of e-finance plus at a rate not to exceed ten thousand dollars as stipulated with the approval of the appointment of charles linderman interim business administrator as the primary contact for the pa school district liquid asset fund we have approval of a change
035to the petty cash custodian at the high school from deborah sweeney to donna rucker and lastly we have the approval of an agreement with foundations incorporated to provide interim support of the office of student services all items in this section are as attached or described in the agenda do i have a motion thanks larry uh do we have a second second thank you matt any discussion okay uh miss mcguire can you please take a roll call though mrs lentz hi mr sullivan hi mrs walkman hi miss wikowski smith aye ms amino aye dr huff aye mr cutis aye dr crandy hi dr grandy the finance items pass eight to zero all right thank you miss figura uh so that takes us to uh the section on the agenda titled other uh and what's on that
036part of the agenda this evening is filling the board vacancy uh from region 3. as many of you as the board certainly knows jerry ballas resigned at the june 28th meeting due to a move out of the district and so this evening we will fill that seat um we have uh four candidates who have expressed interest in this position on the board and as we've done with some other recent vacancies what we will do is invite each candidate to introduce themselves to the board we ask each candidate to take no more than about three minutes to do that after each candidate i'll invite board members if you have any questions for that particular candidate before we move on to the next one and then after we conclude the board will vote on filling that seat
037and so we will take a roll call where each individual board member will indicate their vote we do need five votes to fill the seat and so i propose as we've done in the past that if no candidate has five votes that we would take the top two vote getters and have a runoff at that point and vote again um before we move on to begin with candidates board members have any questions about that process okay um i have the candidates in alphabetical order um so we can start with christine how do you pronounce your last name delay okay i don't want to mispronounce your name so you're welcome to go up to the podium and introduce yourself and actually i should ask um i should have written these things down in front of me
038i do need to confirm with each candidate that you meet all the criteria to serve on the board mr berman do you happen to have that list handy i believe it's obviously that you reside in region three i do the second one is that you do not serve on in any other public uh elected offices and 18 years old and you've lived in the district for more than a year in the region where you're yes yes thank you mr berman i normally have the list in front of me no problem okay great well thank you so much for the opportunity and thank you for the work that you do uh it's an exciting time to be here welcome dr marseille um so our family resides in swarthmore and we have rising sixth grade twins a
039little bit about my background so i have a master's in educational psychology and i'm a certified school psychologist uh while living in new jersey i also earn certification as a substance awareness coordinator and my undergraduate studies were in psychology and marketing i have close to 25 years of experience advocating for children and working collaboratively in school settings pre-k through 12 with opportunities to extend my reach beyond the traditional role of a school psychologist i've evaluated case managed consulted with teachers councils provided crisis intervention services and served on crisis teams working closely with administration revised policy developed programs coached and engaged in prevention work when my children were young i had the opportunity to shift for a bit and i worked as a southeast pa field consultant advocating for clean air for kids i'm proud that
040as a parent volunteer i was able to get a girls on the run program up and running at srs i'm a lifelong learner as a member of the national association of school psychologists i'm a lifelong learner focused on reflecting and growing not only to enhance my professional life but my journey as a parent as well we like many have been focused on having often difficult but necessary conversations about diversity equity and inclusion and we're learning as we go so i've come forward to be considered for school board director because i feel that i can draw upon my background and skill set to be of service and to make a positive contribution to this team i feel it would be highly valuable to include a school based and social emotional perspective and in closing i just
041wanted to stress that if selected i would take very seriously the trust extended to me in this role thank you all right thank you uh let me ask uh if any board members have any questions before you leave the podium i have one question sure um if you if you were selected for this role would you be willing to stand for election for this position in november i would yes absolutely thank you any other questions okay thank you thanks all right um our second candidate is jopier gill um i'll invite you to the podium um and again as you're walking up if you can start by just confirming uh age 18 or older um that you live in region three for uh at least one year yes uh and that you do not hold any
042other elected office correct okay i think that's the full list take it away all right superintendent dr marcy uh directors of the board i appreciate the opportunity to come up here and speak to you uh my name is japier gill i am very interested in serving the board and serving the community as a board of director in the school district uh to take you through some of my history um in this long and winding path um i came through the corporate world um i was in corporate strategy and analysis for the likes of general electric time warner and godiva chocolatier i decided upon a pivot point in my career and i got my mba from villanova and from there unlike most other mbas i ended up as the director of program evaluation and quality assurance
043for project home a homeless nonprofit in philadelphia that serves over a thousand homeless individuals every single year i'm looking to lean into that pivot point i went and got my masters in quantitative methods from penn graduate school of education and from there i was selected to uh through the harvard strategic data project to head down to new orleans and work with their public school district in in uh in research and validating the adequacy of their equity focus funding model so before you ask yes working in education research is so much more it's so much more rewarding than working in chocolates but to uh to express my interest in the role um one i see myself as a long-term stakeholder in the district um we moved here in the middle of the pandemic from new orleans
044so across the country in the middle of it all we have two young children in our family um the oldest is going into first grade at srs and the youngest is starting kindergarten so i see myself as a long-term prospect here you know i fully expect to uh do if i hold this role or whether or not i hold this role to also run for for election come in november um second of all my experience in educational research strategic finance and equity can be greatly leveraged within uh within the board in a strategic format um as i've already um you know expressed some of my experiences i also recently served as a leadership of the wss big idea where we work directly with the district's di committee on a great many of the initiatives out
045there including the first um black lives matter day in the district which we felt was a great success so i'll be brief um i thank you for the opportunity to stand up here and to uh to make my case i hope i'm selected but um i'll be feel free to answer your questions at this point all right thank you any any questions sorry i'll just clarify just want to make sure so since you said you moved here in the middle of the pandemic it's been in the beginning of the pandemic here in february of 2010 okay all right yes the very beginning of the pandemic thank you uh any other questions okay thank you so we have um two other candidates who given this time of year we know people are are often out of
046town so two that will be uh joining us remotely um so let's see if rhoda o'donnell is connected can you see and hear me yeah give us one can we turn the volume up a little bit hang on one okay one moment okay can you say hello one more time hi i am uh welcome would like to say uh welcome to dr marseille and thank you for having me virtually today to the board all right um if you could just confirm uh real quick that you're age 18 or older that you've lived in region three for at least one year and that you do not hold any other elected office so i've lived in region three for six months but for 10 years total over my 20 years in the wallingford sophomore school district that's
047okay okay that sounds good um okay so why don't you uh go ahead and introduce yourself to the board i am rhoda o'donnell i have two children one is 24 and graduated from kindergarten all the way through in our district and um went off to drexel and is now studying at the university of pennsylvania and i have a 16 year old who is in the district right now in the high school and we just moved back to swarthmore from rose valley so i've lived in wallingford rose valley in swathmore and i have a lot of connections all the way through all those places i have my bachelor's and master's i went back for more pain at villanova in the same degree political science and i have a background in business real business experience and that's
048where my background lies also construction experience i have background in putting out rfps and budgeting and keeping timelines and i think that's something that the district is really looking at right now so i think my experience would be a real asset to the district i right now i'm working at the university of pennsylvania and scheduling an event services and we have a trifecta mission education research and clinical support and that's what i am doing currently as well as i run a small business on the side that supports women all over the world that live in impoverished countries that's all about right thank you uh let me ask uh if board members have any questions so i'll ask the same question again if if you were selected for this position would you be interested in in
049running for the seat in november i would be i believe that it's important to have longevity in the positions as well as new faces all right um and mr berman just to make sure i didn't i think the way i described eligibility may have been incorrect so it's live in the district for at least one year and live in the currently live in the region is that right you have to currently live in the region to make you eligible you have to live in the district to make you for a year to make you eligible as well okay i just want to make sure we we clarify that okay um all right thank you so um we move on to our fourth candidate uh wendy vogt who i think is just on audio connection uh
050wendy are you there uh sorry try again i think we hear you just can you just say your name um my name is okay yep we hear you now so um again first i just want to confirm eligibility i'm age greater than 18 live currently live in region 3 and having lived in the district for more than a year and that you do not hold any other elected office um correct for all of those yes okay all right um take it away you can go ahead and introduce yourself to the board all right well first of all thank you so much for um giving me some time to speak um and i apologize for not being able to put the video on my connectivity right now it wasn't great um so just a little bit
051about me i know i know some of you that some of you haven't met um i have 25 years experience in public health um that's my professional background i have a master's in public health from university and i specialize in global health program design growth and management um which includes um a lot of work around budgeting and in the previous job i had as an executive director for an organization called women's way i also was involved in human resource management and also program design and i currently work for an organization called chicago corporation which is an affiliate of johns hopkins university as a program advisor um in terms of just personally i live in the region i've lived in for over 15 years now and i've had two children um one actually just graduated from
052strathaven high school started an srs and went all the way through um and the other one is currently in middle school she's a rising seventh grader and i just want to say uh both of them have had an amazing experience i feel really fortunate um sorry to interrupt are you able to speak a little louder or get closer to the microphone can you hear me better now oh yes oh that's okay i'm speaking i took off i took out my um my headphones and i'm speaking directly into the phone now much better okay so also um i served on the school board for four years um and i rolled off actually in december 2019 um just before the pandemic um so i i don't know if that's lucky or unlucky but i did serve on
053the policy and wellness committee and i'm pretty well versed in how the school board functions i would say that's probably my strongest characteristic here and um you know and also just what shapes and places parameters on policy budgeting and human resource resources within the district um and then my interests right now i know you've all had a really challenging year and a half um to say the least and i'm just mostly interested in rejoining the board to help to contribute to an um you know an atmosphere of stability um and i think i'm well suited to do that just because of my recent board experience and as a result of this experience i just don't think i'm going to have a strong learning curve i mean i may have a learning curve because i know
054things have sorry changed over the last year but i feel like i could really hit the ground running in the role and i already have a deep understanding of the school board just in terms of the responsibilities that are engaged as well and then finally i would say my major interest is also accelerating the work in diversity equity inclusion that has been undertaken as that is what i believe is central to all students really being able to thrive and to achieve academically and that's about it um i you know i'm open to questions if you have any i know dr huff is asking everybody about whether they'd run i likely would not run for a term after two years it's hard to predict the future but that is sort of where i stand now it
055would really just be to fill that two-year period so just to clarify you would go you would run this november to complete the two-year term uh through 2023. but not not sure about beyond that correct okay all right thank you um any questions from board members okay all right thank you thank you all right um so that takes us to our time to vote uh to fill this vacancy uh and so uh i will ask miss figura uh to take a roll call mr sullivan mr gill mrs walkman miss vote miss wikowski smith miss soleil miss cenino who's vote dr huff my stolen mr cutis miss blue mr blanc miss vote dr granty miss vote miss vote has received five votes all right so miss vote will uh be sworn into the board um i
056guess as soon as possible i believe she's out of town but we'll take care of that soon i want to thank all the candidates for expressing interest in serving on the school board um you know it's something that is essential uh for the success and future of the school district so we're always deeply appreciative of people stepping forward uh in their willingness to serve and i hope um everyone continues to to find ways to to engage in the district um so that takes us to our next section on the agenda which is audience recognition for response to other topics that are not on the agenda this evening is there anyone who would like to speak tonight about a topic that's not on the agenda sure so i'd invite you to the podium and if you
057could just share your name and your street name and then you can go ahead with your comment okay sorry i'm sorry when you said street name are you referring to the address or wow but what he's known by in the streets good point i was just curious i don't know how we roll here right now so i wanted to check we used to say street address but then it was pointed out that some people might not be thrilled about sharing their specific house number i see so we've moved to street name but i could see that i understand okay maybe we should say the name of the street the name of the street that you reside on okay it just just took me back okay okay uh okay i'm jonathan washington any pronoun swarthmore rutledge
058school parent um and i'm on ellen avenue in swarthmore okay sorry i was just running okay um members of the school board members of the public i'd like to share a perspective quickly um i'm as tired as the next person of the pandemic and of wearing masks as you can tell but but here's the thing the virus doesn't care that we're sick of masks and to the point my kids aren't vaccinated i need to protect them uh kids are definitely less prone to severe illness and death from coca-19 than adults but some still do get sick and some even die from the disease there's evidence that others are left with lifelong issues including neurological conditions um i don't want to find out which group my kids might be in i want to protect them from
059the virus until the pandemic is really over and that at a bare minimum means not letting them spread spend all day every day this fall in rooms full of unvaccinated unmasked people once everyone in that room is vaccinated and community spread stops sure unfortunately people have not stopped getting sick from covid but they have stopped getting vaccinated and their reports have vaccinated only events turning into spreader events now that people aren't wearing masks indoors either the self-paced online edmentum ed options academy is not really an option for us my nephew did through school through a similar program last year in ohio and it required more parental supervision than we would have have the capacity to support the virtual option last year in wallingford swarthmore school district went much better thanks in large part to the
060involvement of our wonderful local teachers and i would do it again if i had to but i also really want my kid to be in school in person interacting with other kids and teachers in a more neutral way and honestly a more natural way i'm sorry and honestly just out of my hair for a couple hours every day but for that to be safe everyone in this classroom needs to be wearing masks to prevent the spread of cover 19 in schools this fall right after the suggestion of promoting vaccine vaccination in the surrounding community both the cdc and the american association of pediatrics as of today recommend consistent and correct mask use both groups also recommend physical distancing including including cohorting screening testing improvements in ventilation hand washing and respiratory etiquette cleaning and disinfecting etc
061no none of this is mandated instead these two groups suggest that schools coordinate some combination of these strategies that work for them based on how things are going in the surrounding community they also highlight this is this is how we we can protect our children and each other whatever you may think of the cdc at this point this is a sensible set of suggestions it speaks tones that basically all pediatricians in the us are on board with exactly the same thing i would argue that masking is a bare minimum and that in combination with a few other low-cost measures our children can be safe in the fall but i'm open to anything we can do to keep our kids safe for example if we want to have masks required in masks optional classrooms and cohorts
062for kids under 12 with family choice of which cohort our kids are in then all by all means do that one last thing it would be great if there were a more systematic venue for the community to provide their input on these issues picketing and speaking at school board meetings take considerable effort aren't accessible to everyone and don't offer the school board a balanced view of the perspectives out there yes i hate to say it but i think some basic online questionnaires would go a long ways here and enabling you to do right by the district's families in conclusion i would like to highlight two pieces of wssd's mission statement each person bears responsibility for the well-being of society and the quality of the environment and society benefits when individual rights are balanced with social
063responsibilities in this case everyone in classrooms with unvaccinated children has a responsibility to those children so i would like to ask that wssd act in accordance with these points and find a way to keep our kids safe this fall by requiring masks and classrooms with unvaccinated children thank you thank you uh are there any other members here to of the public here to uh speak to the board mr going okay next i'm deirdre abrahamson i live on three hickory lane and i just wanted to say as the olympic games are starting this week just wanted to recognize publicly here the great success that some of our alumni have had um in competing in olympic trials and also one competing in the olympic games um so i just wanted to start with ali wilson she graduated
064in 2014 and she competed in the 800 meter run at uh the olympic trials in oregon she placed sixth with a time of 159.02 she was a standout here on track and soccer then a standout at monmouth university where she was a three-time all-american had multiple school um school records and just we were shared a lot about it on our social media and just the engagement of the community like supporting her and the others was just really exciting and just so exciting to see um her and the others do so well and i just saw her running uh past here the other day and she stopped in at the um girls cross country practice and just so amazed uh with her she competes for the atlantic uh track club and then next was grace forbes
065who graduated more recently in 2019 and she competed in the 10 000 meters she was a three-time all-american this past year at rice university uh for cross-country indoor and outdoor um the youngest competitor in the uh 10 000 at the olympic trials and um again just incredible to see her running here around our track and around our neighborhood um every summer and again just so proud of her this past year she also broke five school records at rice and uh she competes there with her older sister and now her younger sister um maggie is also joining them this fall which is amazing and uh and a shout out to coach corn and all the our cross country and track coaches who've as coach corrin said didn't overwork them you know and then they continue to
066uh to peak and develop and then lastly we have jay coyle who graduated in 2012 who's competing in fencing this saturday um and also with the team competition uh next week so we're going to be sharing information on our website and social media and how to uh when that's showing and again just the engagement of the community on our social media supporting these alumni and um and and all of us uh and everything that's going on is really uh remarkable and uh we wish jake the best of luck and his family and just a shout out to coach pixie who was his gym teacher who got him started in the sport here at strathaven middle school so just getting chills just talking about him and all of this and and just wanted to share that
067publicly you know and get everyone on board as we um uh cheer him on this weekend and tomorrow in our uh community of explorers and the sy they're doing a red white and blue day so kids are going to wear those colors and make some signs and i'll be going around sharing some of that but we're just very excited and very proud just wanted to share that tonight thank you thank you very much for sharing that those are uh really exciting stories to hear uh and inspiring um i think we have another member do you want to did you want to say something okay my name is emily ekman and i'm at 118 westminster drive i came here today to share my experience the morning of july 12th for the explorer program which we were
068super excited about my children attended the online academy for the entire year so this summer school program was a huge step for me and for my family but before i go into that i would just like to truly truly thank kate jones and julia cooperstein for the amazing support they gave me after finding out our children would not be required to wear masks for the summer school program it was a very upsetting and emotional time for me since i did not know about the mass requirement that was taken away but both of these teachers went above and beyond to help me for the first couple of days while the kids got on the bus for the first time and i truly cannot thank them enough um the posts that i posted on facebook that day
069i felt i wanted to share um just because i got so many people from both sides that truly truly felt um my story and my compassion for putting my kindergartners my set of twins on the bus for the first time um i said i was not sure if people truly understood how this big of a deal this was for me to put my kids on a bus and allow them to go to school i'm a taxpayer i'm a parent of a set of twins kindergarteners and i'm also a cancer fighter since 2019. allowing them to participate and let them experience school has been something my whole entire family has been waiting for my kids will continue to wear a mask for their their safety and of course for mine i invite everybody who is not
070vaccinated to do the same not just for our children but also for the members in this community like myself with a very very very low immune system i'm asking for the board to require mass wearing until our children can all be vaccinated let's support each other and stacy thank you thank you um please hello um my name is hyrun and i live on ridgewood road in media pennsylvania i'd like to share about my daughter's old homework holder for dear school board members superintendent marseille and community members thank you for allowing me to speak today i appreciate the time given to share my concerns about the updates made to the health and safety plan that were voted on june 14th that were affected the end of june this year i initially had enrolled my two elementary
071age daughters in the summer of explorers program assuming that the summer program would continue with the health and safety protocols of masting and distancing that were part of the 2021 school year i did not receive an email communication that anything had changed however through a conversation with a friend i learned about the board's approved change to the health and safety plan initially i thought there was no way that the board and the school district would make such a significant change to the plan and not send out a district-wide email however this was not the case my husband and i decided that the best decision was to unenroll our children from the program once we had heard of the change and i was sad because they were at home all year and i was really excited
072for them to have that opportunity to go in person again especially before the fall when they would be there full time eight zero the board passed this update eight zero to me would indicate that the school board thought that these updates would be unanimously unanimously approved by the parents and guardians in our district without sending out a survey dear school board since you did not ask me directly let me be clear your unanimous vote to approve this plan does not have my support i am requesting the board to update the health and safety plan to align with cdc guidelines the current cdc guidelines recommend that all students over the age of two that are not vaccinated to wear masks in schools the guidelines also recommend that schools implement multiple layers of mitigation strategies not only
073are mass now optional in our schools with this updated plan but the school board has also removed all modifications for physical distancing i am asking the school board to align with the recommendations of the cdc especially to protect our children who are not yet eligible for the vaccine since these guidelines were updated in july of 2021 the school board must now look to update the health and safety plan based on these updated guidelines according to the pa department of education in align with the regulation of the cdc let's face it delta is hitting our country hard especially the unvaccinated the unvaccinated not only include our children that are under 12 but also include our most vulnerable population the immunocompromised at wes the school motto is be responsible be respectful and be safe as a community
074not only can we protect our kids who are under 12 that are ineligible for the vaccine but we can also protect the families that need our help to keep them safe to me wearing a mask and practicing distancing is a way to live out this motto of being responsible of being respectful and being safe you're showing our kids that we are a collective community that strives to protect each other especially the members of our community whose lives might be at stake in conclusion i am requesting the board to update their health and safety plan to not only align with the cdc recommendations but also for the sake of our community please know that as a parent that i am trying my best to help my girls feel safe but i will need your help and
075the help of the administration and board to help my girls return to school safely this fall thank you for your time thank you uh is there anyone else who would like to comment this evening please um hello my name is mary the seidman and i live on willow road hello and good evening my name is meredith seidman i just finished my freshman year at chatham high school during which i talk honors courses i have white skin black hair and hazel eyes to other people those are the most important things about who i am but to me the most important thing about myself is that i am jewish however time and time again the wallingford swarthmore school district has shown me that this is not important to them the at most two days a year off
076for rosh hashanah on yom kippur if they even fall on a weekday isn't cutting it anymore may is jewish american heritage month did you know that well i can tell you that almost none of these students at strathaven high school did since it was barely mentioned at all like i said at the beginning i just finished freshman year yet through all my nine years of schooling in this district i have never heard the word holocaust said once in a classroom in a way that that is educating on the actual event i am 14 years old the genocide of 6 million people that my people went through is not a touchy subject that should be avoided because it could upset some people it's not some dark history that can be skipped over and forgotten about just
077like that especially america's own involvement in the holocaust i myself have heard first-hand holocaust and antisemitic jokes spoken by students in these schools i understand changing the school curriculum is not exactly the easiest process but having an annual assembly to talk about the holocaust turning in sixth grade isn't a lot to ask i shouldn't even be having to ask one of the top ten school districts in pennsylvania to teach about the genocide of any group but here i am standing before you doing just that the even worse thing about the complete lack of holocaust education is the fact that you were doing nothing to prevent another one just off the top of my head i'm going to guess that at least 50 of the students at the middle and high school have never even heard
078the word anti-semitism let alone know what it means anti-semitism defined by merriam-webster is the hostility to or prejudice against jewish people but it is so much more than that textbook definition let me ask you all a question did you know that from may 11th to may 31st anti-semitic hate crimes in the united states rose over 600 percent the amount of times during that period that i debated taking my star of david or high necklace a symbol of my jewish pride into my shirt for my own safety is too many times for a teenager to have to think about and was this fear that jewish people all around the world faced ever addressed by one by the wallingford sophomore school district nope not once it's like 1930s germany all over again and just like it was
07990 years ago everyone has gone silent no education no talking about it no email as performative and frankly useless as it is about it nothing absolutely nothing nothing about when it happened not even 90 years ago and nothing about when it is happening now this school district prides itself on being inclusive and diverse yet when it comes to the actual diverse students everything seems to go radio silent never again is now and this school district is doing nothing to stop it you have young impressionable minds sitting in your hands and you are molding them to care more about a grain on the test than human rights i've seen other people speak up about the mistreatment or misrepresentation of their people and i decided it was my turn to do the same thank you for your
080time thank you for sharing other comments this evening this this is a comment from a member uh who came to the meeting and had to leave as the meeting um went a little longer than expected um she did provide a written comment as it's the same thing that she was going to read um had she been here at this point in time in the meeting i'm looking at our at kyle yeah that wouldn't normally fit within the requirements of what your you invite for public comment if you want to make it part of the record of this meeting you certainly can accept it that doesn't mean that you necessarily would end up reading it aloud okay why don't we just make sure it gets circulated to the board okay okay thank you okay all right
081well i want to thank all of our district families that have come out to speak tonight about issues that i know are important to to all of you um and certainly we've heard your concerns and um and may discuss these uh these issues at future meetings um before we move on dr marseille did you have any comments you want to make may i comment sure um please um um the breaking protocol i'm not sure um so i want to thank everyone for for sharing and coming out to do that and i'm keenly aware that though there are not many of you here tonight doesn't minimize the concern that you have but i am moved to speak to meredith um i'm sorry for your experience um your identity and your experiences are integral in the way
082in which this school receives you about this the way in which you feel about your school and the way in which the school makes you feel um your jewish heritage is extremely important to who you are um and uh if we're not doing enough to live up to our core values and our mission um i want to share with you that as the proud superintendent superintendent's district um i heard your voice um and i too know what it feels like to not having your story heard um i too know what it feels like to have your classmates um make inappropriate statements i too feel it feels like that the curriculum is not reflective of your experience and adults who may not have the skill set ability and or administration who has not put things into
083place so i'm moved by that experience um not shocked by it which is unfortunate that we're still engaged in this type of discourse so i hope that you continue to be a champion because there are a number of your classmates um who didn't have the courage but felt the same way and your voice has resonated with a lot of individuals and i hope that um you give me the space to create that for you um because that's what i'm going to leverage i'm going to leverage my social capital as superintendent all right if somebody else wants to be superintendent then go through all the coursework they can take the u-pen loan take all that up and come and apply for the position um hopefully nine times soon and they can try to do this um
084what i will demonstrate to you um and to your classmates is my willingness and my passion for student voice and what you did was extremely powerful um and i wanted to share that with you and um i'm saying this not because i'm the only person at this table who is thinking it right so as i look to um my new teammates for the next five years to my left and to the right who's committed to this work and committed to that voice so i'm hoping as i transition um i know who you are now so i know where to find you when school starts i think i have your information in power school um so i'll be reaching out and i want to talk to you um and i want to talk to your classmates
085i want to hear their story i want to know what i can do in order to do that because but injustice anywhere's authority just is everywhere right i don't have to tell you that i mean you remain silent and you're doomed to repeat that we are keenly aware of the significant rise in anti-semitism in this country uh and it's alarming at best you stay silent and those who continue to perpetuate that will continue to perpetuate that and then what they do is send messages to those on the sidelines as though that that's okay and it's not okay so we're going to reclaim our spot and reclaim our voice so i want to share that you have partners in this conversation and um i'm the first but my colleagues to my right and to my left
086are committed to that as well i'll just beat them to a punch by meeting you first i'm sure they'll follow up right or you already know her all right so you already beat me to the bunch um but um i i hope to hear from you um uh no better place than to share it here with the superintendent with the board whose primary work is about thinking about policies we implement unintentionally and intentionally that create those particular conditions and know better than dr jones who's our director of k-12 curriculum right so you came to the right place and i'm happy um that you were courage enough to to share that story and i hope you accept my invitation when i reach out to um have a conversation um and bring some friends along with you
087and we'll we'll chat okay all right thank you all right thank you dr marseille um that takes us to uh school board reports um does anyone have a report from a district subcommittee or out of district role they'd like to share this evening okay uh do we have any old business okay do we have any new business yes all right marilyn so dr marseille and my fellow board members do we have to move towards no business can we skip it yeah okay sorry go ahead i i have served on this board for almost 12 years now i started when my daughters were in elementary school at fallingford elementary school and they have both now graduated from the district and during the time i've been on the board i have served with more than 20 other
088school board members i tried to make a list i tried to count them and i'm not sure i got everybody so i had to go with more than 20. five superintendents and i lost count of the administrators all of these people have been doing just phenomenal work to provide an awesome public education for the children in our district and an awesome experience for the families and the community as whole they've been doing this through good times through volatile times through difficult times and through completely awful times and i treasure the relationships i have built with all of the people i have come to know and the breadth of perspectives i have come to understand but the time has come for my family to downsize later this summer i will be moving out of the district
089and so i will have to resign my position just four months short of the official end of my term so my resignation will be effective august 2nd so thank you all and while i still have a microphone since i won't have it for much longer yeah i have one more thing to say and that is um since i will not be able to participate in the board discussion about your decisions about masking i thought i would share my perspective just from the single meeting it's difficult to be the only one at the table wearing a mask and i'm an adult i can't imagine how difficult it is for a child in an elementary school to wear a mask if their classmates are not so that's what i will leave you with all right uh dr
090huff um we're gonna miss you um and thank you for your incredible service uh to the school district including uh serving in the role as board president uh not too long ago so thank you for for your service thanks one more under new business sure i wanted to congratulate our new director of student services mr sandberg he's here with his family i wanted to just also say welcome to our district thanks for being here said all right we're looking forward to it go ahead kel uh two more items um i i wanted to acknowledge the the group of candidates that put themselves forward tonight um to fill the vacants the vacancy of mr ballas on the board we are incredibly blessed to have such remarkable candidates come forward um it was not as you could
091tell as we went through we would have been lucky to have any of you and so i wanted to really thank you um i am really hopeful that we can continue to work together in some of the other opportunities that exist within the district um jabir i've had an opportunity to work with you and your role in wss leadership and i have really valued um your guidance through that and i really do hope that we can continue that through some other opportunities that would be forthcoming um the second thing i wanted to say was actually about the uh the explorers program my daughter is participating in the explorers program and i couldn't be more grateful to the administration and to the teachers who are part of that program um my daughter went from telling me
092like come on mom um it really is just school in the summer it's not camp we all know that um and i don't want to go to um coming home after the first week saying i think i want to do math and this is a big deal coming from my daughter and so i spec especially want to thank her teacher he knows who he is and uh that's a first for us so to say i want to do math on my free time so thank you to everyone that's been part of it it's been a wonderful experience all right any other new business all right thank you this meeting is adjourned you