001good evening i now call the june 14th meeting of the wallingford sorry my computer is not muted there we go or something is creating audio in the room okay sorry about that with some echo audio in the room i now call the june 14th meeting of the wallingford swarthmore school board to order in opening as you're willing and able please rise and join me in the pledge of allegiance thank you i'd like to start by asking miss magura to take the roll call mr ballas here miss amino dr huff here mr cutis here can we turn up mr cutis's audio he said here but he said here yeah mr flint here mr sullivan here mrs walkman here miss wikowski smith here dr grandy here mr berman here and dr palmer is absent dr grandy you
002have eight voting members present all right thank you miss figura um so this evening we will jump right to board announcements uh to get started just a couple quick announcements the board met an executive session prior to this meeting to discuss litigation um and as was just mentioned dr palmer is not able to join us this evening due to travel and then the only other announcement i wanted to make is a enormous congratulations to our class of uh graduation was very exciting last week to see our seniors celebrating i guess they're not seniors anymore they've officially graduated from wellingford swarthmore school district so it was exciting to see and certainly the car parade through the district was also a lot of fun as well and also congratulations to all of our students who are getting
003close to the end of the school year including our students who are making transitions this year beyond our seniors our elementary students who are moving up to middle school and our middle school students moving up to high school so it's always a fun time of year and i know our kids are excited i will take us directly because dr palmer is not here we don't have a superintendent's report this evening i'll take us directly to our focus topics for this evening we do have three on the agenda i'm going to ask mr abbott to come up for the first one [Music] thank you dr grundy it is this time of year every year we take a moment to honor the wallingford swarthmore school district employees that are retired over this past year and what a
004year it was for the staff that made it through this year it really should equate to some power of ten with every turn a new twist came about so congratulations to this group of 17 that we honor this evening we begin tonight by honoring laura dubrell laurie who has been with us for 14 years as our one and only home and school visitor now laurie will have the distinction of being the first home and school visitor to retire from the district because she has been the only home and school visitor the district has had but certainly being the first home and school visitor wasn't her destiny starting out laurie was actually a reporter for the saint petersburg times and the philadelphia inquirer although that may make sense after getting your bachelors from harvard it wasn't
005too long though before a new career percolated and you ended up getting your masters of social science from bryn mawr from there it was social worker all the way with employment at the wordsworth academy resources for change chop and the montgomery county intermediate unit this unlikely transition from reporter to social worker actually makes sense and you recognized as you once wrote and i quote reporting gave me plenty of experience in parachuting into a situation figuring out what was going on and making strategic decisions about how to proceed in a relatively short period of time sounds like social work congratulations lori would you come one up now gloria's just joking he didn't have to say anything i hope he has something prepared congratulations lucille skaduro or seal as she is commonly known by came to the
006district as an instructional support staff member in 2007 with tons of experience in all things related to being a teaching assistant with experience at the gross point public school system in michigan the jonesboro elementary school in tennessee or locally from cades united cerebral palsy ashland middle school or our lady of fatima how could we go wrong in hiring her oh and she also taught at redeemer christian school and the land's door lands down montessori school just add a little bit more so with a resume like that how did it all turn out you may ask here are just a couple comments seal is wonderful she works so hard she is willing to do anything she gets all the work done and then some each day seal is great with the kids and will happily help
007out with a lesson or pull kids to work on things individually seal is an absolute pleasure to work with every day she works very hard for the benefit of students and teachers she is faithful and accurate in everything she does congratulations lucille and i know wallingford elementary is going to miss you eileen van sant who has also been at west as an instructional support staff member for the last 18 years came to us with a more varied experience not only did she have experience as a teaching assistant and personal care assistant at the swarthmore presbyterian nursery day school she worked for prudential and the franklin mint as well that experience translated into a very successful career with us and probably the following comments said about eileen's sum it up the most what a remarkable job
008you have done your insight dedication and consistency have truly enabled your student to succeed in a public school environment you are the model of composure and by doing by being so provide assurance to colleagues that situations might not be as critical as they appear mrs van sant has once again demonstrated throughout this year why she has given some of the more challenging cases to work with congratulations eileen richard wall joined the district in 2002 when he filled in for an art teacher on leave it didn't take long for him to show everyone his stuff because shortly thereafter he was named to be the teacher of the passport gifted class at strathaven middle school his principal noted that after richard's very first year that he had had an incredible year at the middle school and that
009the principal was thrilled with the knowledge that richard in the passport program will become a permanent place within our school community i guess permanent isn't you know you are retiring and that program existed because of richard when anyone would visit the class there was a complete unknown of what they would encounter on one day the students would be investigating the question of what is sleep and why do we need it and then the next it would be what makes an invention american it was always a true pleasure to observe your classes so all this creativity and ingenuity wasn't by accident as an accomplished sculptor in his earlier life richard has always had the gift of looking at the problem from the other end whether it was designing a sculpture or a lesson plan richard did
010so with the end product in mind and for us it was those students for all those years so you my friend are retiring and i will forever miss and remember the times you have walked into my office with another book you found in some corner of some mom-and-pop bookshop about climbing the himalaya and how we would discuss and dream about the climbing seasons on everest and k2 now for those of you who are listening don't think we are climbers ready to summit these peaks but for richard my bet is that he will find his way to the k2 base camp with maybe one foot up that mountain congratulations richard bill thorpe has been with us for 25 years so that means we are back to 1996. but before we get to his time here let's
011take a moment to honor the fact that he served in the air force with experience in flying such planes as the f-111 and c-130 certainly when we first interviewed him for a middle school math position and asked him about his ability to use and understand technology i think that interview team probably had received quite an impressive answer even after joining the district bill continued on with the service in the air force as a reservist even managing a deployment for operation enduring freedom and then again a few years later for the last 25 years though bill has been a fixture in the middle school where he's been a math and or science teacher along with sponsoring numerous supplemental activities always involved bill would sponsor activities like the stock market game and ski club even coach the
012wrestling and swimming teams for me though i will always remember my time in the cargo hold of that c-130 flying off the coast of new jersey while bill was in the cockpit leading the way i know that the military advertised as a chance to show appreciation for the employers of reservists however i suspect that from the bank turns i experienced that day it wasn't also an opportunity to do a bit of showing off congratulations bill normal long first started working for us 29 years ago in 1992 as a teacher's aide but it only took a few years before the principal knew she needed to hold the most important job in the district confidential administrative assistant to the principal where she has remained ever since it isn't often a person of this stature retires from the
013district so let us all remember this moment norma has truly been the example to live by and live up to although she may not admit to it clearly when someone writes in her application as you did norma that you want to work here so that you can make it a little easier for the teacher as well as give something to the students we knew we were hiring a stellar individual or when you wrote that my greatest contribution will be to provide some continuity at west during the transition of the principal and secretary retiring and that i feel i can help make this transition smooth and very successful norma is people like you that allow others to succeed although life goes on it'll be hard not to see you behind that desk congratulations norman with the
014grand total of 35 years in the district linda ackerman is at the top back in 1987 linda's first job in the district was a as a costuming intramural coach i assume that was for one of our theater positions because it's a job you continued on with for quite some time and you must have made a great impression because the very next year you had a home economics teaching position with the senior george king over at strathaven high school but within a year you found your time split between the middle and the high school and eventually finding your real home here at the middle school where you have been ever since and for the entire time you have been one to always advocate for the family and consumer sciences program championing the successes of so many
015students and the skills they gained while under your care linda you have always maintained a level of composure that showed all students that they were completely cared for in your classes regardless of how that sewing project or cooking experiment turned out i know so many previous students of yours will always have a fond memory of what you taught them always a life skill and maybe a a sown item or two sitting on the on a shelf somewhere congratulations linda not here tonight but also individuals we'd like to recognize are angel ramirez who was our coordinator of custodial and cleaning services with four years donna pusian who was at srs instructional support for 16 years ann burns at the middle school and as an instructional support staff member for 16 years anna marie finley a teacher
016at nether providence elementary with 17 years susan riches at srs with 17 years as instructional support paddy mcgarry in transportation with 18 years cheryl sweeney foy in hr with 19 years suvatnik at srs as a special ed teacher with 25 years diane hannah at strathaven middle school with 31 years as sitting behind the front desk and then lastly and although she isn't here tonight nor does she have the most years of experience dr palmer is retiring after 10 years so although 10 years doesn't rank up there the amount of time effort and thought she has put into this district certainly does after all how many times did you drive by the middle school on a saturday or sunday and see a gray now wait hyundai parked in the line well that was lisa's lisa first
017came to us as our business administrator and i remember doing a reference check on her back then i was told that if there's anyone that can find the money it was lisa i knew back then that even with the lingering 2009 financial crisis she would have the districts back further i remember one of lisa's budget pre budget presentations where even i understood the nuances of the situation lisa's work ethic can't be matched even now as her retirement is upon us she plowed through the updating of so many policies as evidenced by tonight's agenda and believe me policy review update and approval is an arduous task it wasn't that long ago actually it was a while ago that half an hour could be consumed discussing whether we should use the term board or district in our
018policies much less determining substantive issues congratulations to you lisa and thank you with that thank you for allowing us to take this time to honor our retirees and to our retirees congratulations and thank you for all your years of service thank you all right thank you ferg uh and thank you again to all of our retirees for all your service to the district and uh including dr palmer um ferg i'm not gonna let you get too far away from the podium i'm going to take us to our next focus topic which is updates to the wssd health and safety plan and if it's okay i would allow the retirees not to feel obligated to stay absolutely while we have the presentation queuing up tonight we would like to present uh what the health and safety
019plan how it's been modified and what it's going to look like going forward [Music] i wish i had filler but thanks aj so let's start with a little bit of background information the current health and safety plan that we have now sun sets at the end of the day on june 18th that is um the end of the school year the end of the day so the district needs to create a new health and safety plan or a new version of it and it's required by section 2001 of the american rescue plan in order to continue to receive the funding that we have so that will take place on june 19th this new plan this new plan will be effective course all summer programs and into the next school year all aspects of this new
020plan are in accordance with the local and state departments of health incorporated into this plan as well is the flexibility to adjust one way or another based upon the current pandemic conditions so while we are putting this into place to take us into the next school year obviously if the pandemic conditions change we would be able to change as well so probably one of the most commonly asked questions or thoughts will be what will happen with masking as of june 28th according to the governor that's when masking mandates end so that's when they will end with the district so from june 18th until june 28th or from june 19th until june 28th we have this new plan in effect but we're still wearing mass on campus until the 28th the district will continue to support
021individuals who prefer prefer to wear a mask and we will encourage those that are not vaccinated to wear a mask but requirement of mass will end on june 28th and for social distancing pennsylvania lifted the order order for physical distancing and occupancy limits with the lifting of the order as of june 19th all school buildings and offices will not require the social distancing that we've been using school buildings and offices will allow for full occupancy buses will operate at full capacity cleaning disinfection and ventilation all these topics should be familiar because they're similar to how we laid it out in our previous health and safety plan pretty much things will continue but they won't be as intense we'll continue to use the epa approved disinfectants we'll have daily routine cleaning if there's a positive covet
022case we are going to clean and disinfect those areas which as we have been the building climate conditions will be monitored daily and the filters in our heating ventilation and air conditioning systems will be changed regularly all normal practices in keeping a clean facility good evening i'm going to finish up with the additional health and safety considerations so besides masking and the social distancing and the cleaning and the sanitation we have additional health and safety considerations that we have to look at this next section that i'm going to be looking at with you is the strategies and mitigation procedures that we will use going forward so first we're going to look at lunch and recess in regards to lunch our previous guidance included six foot social distancing and forward facing seating during lunch time and
023even though students were outdoors for recess there were still many guidelines for students to follow this year however with the lifting of the restrictions our lunch and recess activities will return to normal as in previous years before kovit lunch is going to be served in all buildings and students will still be encouraged to wash hands and use sanitizer before and after lunch and recess piggybacking also what i just mentioned about and being somewhat redundant but it is something here to look at and mention again that our best practices are encouraging hand washing prior to meals and snacks after meals and snacks transitioning back to class from being outside and using the bathroom and after coughing and sneezing hand sanitizer will continue to be available throughout the buildings in classrooms at lunch and in our high
024traffic areas and the district will continue to implement and promote these best practices by posting our health and safety cdc signs to remind students and staff to continue to stay healthy by doing these simple everyday things so for screening this year we used qual tracks to screen students before school started beginning of next year we are not planning on using qual tracks however we are still asking students and staff and visitors to self-screen before coming to school and we are asking that staff and students who are ill stay home staff and students who become ill during school hours or during activities will also be sent home that's very similar to what we've been doing in in the past we are going to follow our immunization and communicable disease policy which states that students shall be
025excluded from school for the period indicated by regulations of the department of health for certain infectious conditions the school nurse shall report diseases or conditions to the appropriate local health authority and we will implement health guidelines and universal precautions designed to minimize the transmission of sickness the district is also looking into using our antigen and q tests if someone is symptomatic during school hours like the process we used at graduation we're also hoping to do testing with secondary students with parent permission if students become sick during the school day we're still working on this with the nurses we're going to be talking about it over the summer and kind of designing a policy and what it's going to look like but right now that's part of the screening process that we have in our plan
026which says that this may happen and we're still doing contact tracing we're going to continue to report all covet cases all cova cases to the chester county department of health and keep a list of positive cases and close contacts we're going to send out communication to stakeholders like we did this year and also just like this year anyone who is covered positive will need to tell their administrator or supervisor the nurses will provide information on quarantining based upon the guidelines of the cdc or the chester county department of health all right thank you for questions um i just want to make one comment first and then i'll see if board members have questions um you know i think that uh i just want to point out there's an attachment to the agenda this evening just
027to make sure everyone saw it which is updated guy guidance from the chester county health department and what you're seeing here is reflective of the guidance from the chester county health department which is that if coveted 19 incidents rate and percent positivity remain low they are supporting beginning the next school year with no mitigation measures including face coverings and layering and mitigation strategies if and as needed and so this plan reflects that guidance and i'll just say that you know these are the enormous benefits of the dramatic reductions that we've seen in covet 19 in our community which is in no small part due to widespread availability and use of highly effective vaccines and so we are in a much much better place as a community today and allows us to begin to move in
028this very positive direction i think for our students when they return to school this fall let me ask if other board members have questions about the plan go ahead john thank you dr grandi i just have one question about the timing i was thinking about any camps that may be running on our campus and there's one that is in my mind that i'm wondering if it runs the week of the 21st for all girls is that on our campus maybe i'm wrong i guess my question is this are there camps between the 21st and the 28th on our campus that might be affected by the 28 state i don't know the latest status but there may be one one-week camp that occurs here at the middle school i don't know its status whether they're holding
029it or not actually okay i was just that's the only one that i would i would know of and i think that i think that the majority of that activity is outside which would be masks off at this point is that right does it be play active right okay all right because that's the only um the only question that i have uh okay thanks so much for the presentation it's great news any other questions oh let me check no okay thank you all right uh that takes us to our third and final focus topic on the evening uh which i'll let ms q get to the podium uh to talk about the proposed 2021-2022 final budget [Music] i agree with ferg i need material to fill the space right good evening this is the final
030budget presentation of this year and i promise i'm going to keep this short as previously noted we were going to be tweaking this budget right up to the end we still have some unknowns affecting the budget including state revenues and federal revenues as previously discussed the budget is based on a full return to school for the 21-22 school year it also includes the cyber option that was approved at a prior board meeting let's talk about the revenues local revenues make up just over 79 percent of the revenue budget we've changed real estate taxes based on new assessment values but because because of the county-wide reassessment this this doesn't really affect the revenue stream that much however there was an effect on our special ed exception that caused a 50 000 reduction in real estate taxes
031we also did increase transfer taxes by a hundred thousand dollars and investment earnings by ten thousand dollars because of the market recovery going on state revenues are make up just 19 of our budget and the tweaking here was in the area of social security and users as we made some changes to our salary and benefits it was only about 11 000 and our federal revenues which make up one third of one percent remain the same in the expenditures salaries and benefits make up approximately 70 percent of the budget there is an increase in salaries and benefits of about sixty eight thousand dollars mostly related to the various employment agreements throughout the district purchase services represents about seventeen thousand dollars and we had a reduction in that area of about a hundred and twenty thousand dollars
032debt service and fees makes up just about nine percent of the budget and we had a small reduction of about twenty thousand dollars in the fees area supplies are just under three and a half percent and we made no changes and the budgetary reserve which is less than one half of one percent of the total budget remains the same so our total expenditure budget is eighty nine thousand one hundred and twenty five thousand two hundred twenty eight dollars in the fund balance we started the year at 6.3 million dollars we are still projecting a 901 000 reduction of the fund balance to balance the budget this is a reduction from what we previously had estimated at 1.3 if you go back to the preliminary budget once we subtract that deficit we'll be at approximately 5.4
033million dollars now as a reminder we do have that budgetary reserve in there so if we didn't use the budgetary reserve we'd end up with a fund balance of approximately 5.8 million dollars also as a reminder the state permits an unassigned general fund balance of 8 percent that would be 7.1 million dollars at the moment our entire fund balance is 5.4 so we're approximately one point loosely seven million dollars below what that eight percent limitation is of course we need to talk about taxes we had to adjust our current count our risk yeah our county's current reassessment values the district went from the 1.4 billion dollars of last year to almost 2.6 billion dollars with the reset the district needs to reset the millage rate based on that current reassessment value in doing so we
034go from 48.3654 mills down to 25.9640 this actually is a slightly different millage rate than what was presented two weeks ago we had an adjustment provided by the county that dramatically swung our asses values approximately 27 million dollars which would change our millage rate this year we're accept we're eligible for one exception special ed this as a reminder again is for the prior two years of special education costs so this exception is simply making up for money that we've already spent in addition we obviously also have included the act one index the act one index for this year is 3.0 percent but because we are in a countywide reassessment we must use last year's index rate which is 2.6 percent so using the 2.6 plus the special ed exception creates a tax increase of 4.27
035so our final millage rate is 27.0726 when we talk about the median value of a home normally i'm talking about 179 000 with last year's millage rate that was at 48 real estate taxes were about 8.6 000 this year's median assessed value is 334 with the projected tax rate of the 27 the real estate taxes on that same location will be nine thousand fifty four dollars this nine thousand fifty four dollars includes both the base millage reset as well as the tax increase any questions hilton's going to keep it short thank you miss q uh questions from board members go ahead matt martha we just heard the presentation on the health and safety plan changes and i know that we had costs uh extra expenses that were due to mitigation steps that we took and
036in particular lunch does the ability to start going back to our regular lunch program is that figured into the budget as it sits before us now the budget is is set up using the the seamless summer option program for the coming year to start the year the seamless summer option still gives us the ability to feed all children 18 years of age or younger they can get both breakfast and lunch seven days a week and so that pro that program is what we're starting the year with that actually the federal government has made the decision to increase the reimbursement rate for the seamless summer option in the coming year so that's actually good news there in addition to that we're also opening up a la carte service k-12 in the coming year now that doesn't
037mean we're going to simply put out a salad bar or something like that all of the a la carte options will be pre-packaged options so that it won't be things that can be the food can be touched as you're picking it up and and that's all reflected in the yes budget now okay um martha i wanted to ask so you covered the um the maximum allowable on the fund balance um by state by statute or regulation i'm assuming and that would have been eight percent of the um of the budget or 7.1 million is did i understand that right um the number is 7.130 et cetera okay so so where we see the projected fund balance based on the budget before us is about 1.7 million dollars below the max that we would be allowed
038to have does dipping into the fund balance to the degree that we are in your opinion have any impact on our free our future bond ratings or borrowing rate i mean it's 1.7 on a 89 million dollar budget um so i'm not anticipating that it does but i'm curious as to whether currently at the moment you're probably not going to have any effect on bond if you continue to balance the budget through your savings account and let's be honest that's what your fund balance equates to um eventually you're going to spend your savings account and then you will have an effect on your bond ratings okay thank you and i know that the um that was it seven percent or eight percent sorry um is from the state correct auditors also have an opinion about
039how much fun balance you should have which seems to be sometimes at odds yeah it's significantly at odds what auditors recommend state auditors recommend that you have as as your fund balance three months worth of funds to cover expenditures so if you take an 89 million dollar budget divided by 12 times it by three your fund balance is a lot bigger than five five million dollars and literally i had an argument with the last ten the state otters were here because they were saying our fund balance is way too low and i said no it's inside the legal limit of eight percent it can't be more than no no no you have to have much higher we went back and forth i don't know how many times over this and ultimately i had to show
040her the code that says i'm only allowed eight percent otherwise she was going to cite the district for having a fun balance too small and general accepted accounting principles basically it's good accounting policy to have three months worth of expenditures as your savings account unfortunately in a school district when you're using public tax dollars that's not possible and we um don't really have any updates on the state budget i guess at this point they're they're negotiating that's about all i can tell you okay uh any other questions for miss q all right thank you miss q okay that takes us to time for audience recognition for response to items for action on the agenda this evening and just as a reminder public comment is a time for district residents and taxpayers to speak to the
041board about an issue that is before the border may come before the board it's a time for us 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 the meetings if there is a specific question for the district for now we do continue to have two methods to comment in person and by phone and just a reminder that for now everyone that's in person must wear a mask for phone messages members of the public wishing to address the board can call 610-800 extension 1102 to leave a recorded comment subject to a three-minute time limit any calls made prior to five o'clock on the day of our meetings are transcribed and made available to the board anything after five
042o'clock but prior to the end of the meeting will still be transcribed distributed to the board and made a part of the record but will not be acknowledged during the meeting so is there anyone who would like to speak tonight about a topic on the agenda including our updated wssd health and safety plan and i think we have one called in comment that maybe we'll start with while i wait and see if someone wants to come to the podium kelly do you want to read our called in comments uh this comment is from amy crusoe colonial drive wellingford i would like to congratulate the strathaven high school class of 2021 for a great graduation week a great culmination of all your studies and a thank you to all who contributed to these activities this is
043a well-deserved and enjoyable week of celebration for all in the community moving forward my comments on the budget are that in recent finance committee meetings it was suggested to propose several budget options within which did not use a reserve fund and did not increase taxes at such a high rate of 4.4 percent for next year will we see various budget proposals with different scenarios how does the continued use of the reserve fund balance impact the district's bond rating borrowing costs and impact debt service if there's future plans for building repairs and projected construction what cuts would be pending we've heard that a dire situation is upon us what are the various scenarios we should expect to encounter regarding the admin online contract which is still pending approval what are the contractual changes that worked in
044the district's favor for accountability is there a break-even number of students needed to enroll to make this program worthwhile what data was used to determine the need to proceed even when we see that students are enrolling in other options and other online and cyber schools outside of the district how much staff time for proctoring and program administration is being added to run this program how many years will this program run to make the investment valuable or worthwhile regarding policy review i've attended every policy committee meeting this year there has been an enormous nearly 100 policies under review which are the cornerstone for the operation of the district and a significant pillar of board responsibility last week unfortunately i was not afforded time for public comment at the meeting it ended abruptly with stalled discussions it
045seems to me from this first-hand experience that this is an example of where we need more communication and more direction on best managing important district work my comments on current policies for third reading on policy 323 tobacco and vaping products in regard to transportation i was suggesting that there be a perimeter distance specified for bus drivers where they cannot smoke in close proximity to vehicles where children could inhale second hand smoke policy 819 for suicide the suicide prevention policy where are the guidelines for procedures in the current six to twelve curriculum i was unable to find that and finally policy impacts staff time and budgets and job descriptions it might be necessary to see how these changes impact job descriptions regarding high school entry construction and safety building security as well as the transportation audio
046visual program that would correlate to district job functions lastly if there's any way to have a tentative list of policy numbers on an agenda at policy meetings in the future that would be quite helpful the other standing committee meetings that are public which i've attended this year share their policies and relevant documents and materials in the public meetings that take place i think that the same standard would be best applied to any new proposed policy brought forth by the administration thank you very much thanks kelly and thanks for your patience if you could just introduce yourself name and street all right uh good evening i'm robert cristaldi of putnam boulevard in wallingford i'm right now i'm a junior at strathaven high school i'd like to talk about the new health and safety plan being discussed
047tonight i support it and i ask to be approved without trouble uh the masking part is most important to me because i have a hearing loss and i have been since the day i was born experts agree that a hearing impaired person must be able to see the mouth to communicate effectively since i have not been able to see lips this year it has been very devastating it really has been seeing this new health and safety plan is really good and it helps to know that some of you care because it has been very hard for me and i would not do this year over again i think if this district is focused on diversity equity and inclusion we need to be inclusive to all people regardless of their ability and we need to be
048equitable to all students this school year i have been really disappointed with the lack of compassion and the lack of grace from this board with regard to students like me what i have received is not equitable for what i need this whole year it's been about follow the guidelines follow the guidelines follow the guidelines and a little flexibility and compassion would have gone a long way i have heard over the last 16 years a lot of disregard from me and my situation but i never thought i'd see it from my own school district who's supposed to help me who's supposed to teach me and who's supposed to advocate for me and for what i need let me just say it's very cowardly to wait until the end of the school year to make this decision
049i want to thank miss lentz she has been really compassionate about my situation thank you it means a lot since the day i was born i felt like one cause of my heartache has been my hearing loss the school year has been a constant reminder of this heartache and it's exhausting i've taken a gut punch every single day i'd be happy to discuss this with any member in private if just let me know but having hearing loss with masks loud hvac system social distancing has made hearing almost impossible i know for everyone this will be a jump to pre-pandemic life and it will be a big one i know it will be a good boost to morale it's good to see this disease's ring of terror end if i honestly believe this plan would put
050anyone in danger i'd tell you to vote it down once again i strongly encourage you to approve this new health and safety plan uh if you're not going to do it for them you aren't going to do it for the other students for the staff do it for me even if you don't do it for me do it for all those students hearing impaired or not who feel the same way but are too afraid that the loud minority will accuse them of being anti-science or danger to others i know there's a lot of people who agree with me and who are too afraid to come up here and say it if you aren't going to do it for me do it for them i have a feeling this will make a lot of people angry
051this new plan will have the courage to do the right thing for students like me and for everyone else let's give the power of personal choice back to the students and the parents let's follow the science it is worth it the risk is worth the reward thank you and good night thank you do we have any other comments this evening all right welcome uh name and street please nanette whitsett 801 ronaldson avenue i'll come before the board because not as an anti-tax anti-taxer um and don't believe that our taxes aren't well spent on what we provide the children and communities that the schools serve but i'm very concerned as an activist for a marginal community of south media the burden that this increase in taxes would cause i know that there's an option because you
052even said it we can take the exception and when you take the exception you increase the taxes that a majority of people not just in my community but in other communities that maybe um have households that are struggling and this pandemic has we've shown that it's doesn't worry about race creed or color and with families that had two parents working they now have one parent working or they have reduced hours and their household is struggling some of them are trying to put bread and butter on their table and just exists and thank god the school accepted the money from the state um to provide the breakfast and lunches seven days a week so i thank the board for voting for that and taking it so um i'm just gon i just want to know what's
053the benefit that outweighs the additional burden of the tax increase and with that if you could take it in mind like is there going to be some type of public notice where this additional money is being spent like are we just taking it because you can um but i do think that um each board member as they go over i don't know if that was a final decision and it can still be negotiated should consider their neighbor because if one thing that pandemic taught us is that we do have neighbors so i thank you for allowing me to speak all right thank you are there any others who would like to comment good evening just introduce your name and street and then go ahead hi my name is michelle and i'm on chestnut parkway i
054stand up here today as a woman who graduated from the school district over 20 years ago as a mother of two children and also someone who worked in the medical field for over 10 years as an analyst with a bachelor in science and two additional certifications my son who is five years old is now permanently disabled since he was 14 months old as a result from pharmaceuticals i spent many days researching genetics and pharmaceuticals so what i'm about to talk about brings me great concern for the children in our community nothing is ever a one size fits all on may 22nd willingford swarthmore school district vaccinated over 700 people from students ages 12 to 17 years old you hosted another vaccine clinic this past saturday on the school district website on page four of your
055covid vaccine consent form you have parent guardians signing to the risk of cova 19 vaccine as described in the emergency use authorization with consent and release that states emergency use authorization students started to return in person full day april 12th and six weeks later you had parents sign consent forms for an experimental vaccine fda approved for emergency use only if this was an emergency why did children return to in person full days six weeks prior what were the outbreak number of cases in our school district for a need to mass vaccinate over 700 people some risk and side effects that have been reported with pfizer are difficulty breathing swelling of the face and throat fast heartbeat a bad rash all over the body dizziness weakness severe allergic reaction diarrhea vomiting and feeling unwell this is
056from the pfizer insert linked to the consent form on the school's website it then states the vaccine is still being studied in clinical trials it lists more but the interesting thing it says is these may not be all the possible side effects one of the side effects that's not listed is death but there have been almost 6 000 deaths reported after the shot the information on the insert you provide to parents is misleading this week's numbers of reported adverse events among all age groups following the covid vaccine surpassed 329 000 according to data released from the cdc the data comes directly from reports submitted to vaccine adverse event reporting system also known as veyers every friday veyers makes public all vaccine injury reports received as a specific date usually about a week prior to the
057release and today's date showed that between december 14 2020 and june 4th a total of 329 000 total adverse events were reported including 5 888 deaths which was an increase of 723 deaths over the previous week there were 28 441 serious injuries reported and up to 3082 compared with last week among 12 to 17 year olds 59 reports of heart inflammation and 19 cases of blood clotting disorders in the u.s over 299 million covet cases covid vaccine doses had been administered as of june 4th and 162 million of those doses were pfizer this week's data for 12 to 17 year olds shows that over 5 000 total adverse events including 165 rated a serious and four reported deaths among 12 to 17 year olds the youngest death reported include two 15 year olds a 16
058year old and a 17 year old 773 reports of anaphylactic amongst 12 to 17 year olds with 98 of those cases attributed to pfizer 59 reports of myocarditis which is heart inflammation and 58 attributed to physical vaccine so all but one reports of blood clotting disorders all attributed to pfizer the insert also says that there's no information on the use of physical vaccine with other vaccines but the school requires one dose of t death and one dose of meningococcal on the first day of seventh grade and one dose of the meningococcal on the first day of 12th grade new documents obtained suggest routine quality testing issues were overlooked in the rush to authorize the use of the pfizer vaccine and that the u.s and other government governments are conducting a massive vaccination program with an
059incomplete characterized experimental vaccine regulatory documents revealed pfizer didn't thoroughly examine biodistribution and pharmaco pharmacokinetics issues relating to its vaccine before submitting the vaccine to the european medicine agency for review in key studies called biodistribution studies which are designed to test where an injected compound travels into the body in which tissues or organs are accumulated and pfizer did not use the commercial vaccine but instead relied on a surrogate mrna that produced the luciferous protein the ema reviewer shared this explicit information pharmacokinetics refers to the study of what the body does with a drug and the drug's movement through the bot throughout the body the time course of its absorption bioavailability distributes distribu distribution metabolism and excretion regulatory documents also show that pfizer did not follow industry standard quality management practices during pre-clinical toxicology studies of its
060vaccine as key studies did not meet good laboratory practice reminder to all the parents watching that the pfizer vaccine is the vaccine our school district administered on june 11 an fda advisory committee held a virtual meeting on thursday to discuss what data would be needed to vaccinate children under 12 against covet under the emergency use authorization or licensure several experts spoke against the plan saying that the benefits don't outweigh the risk for young children peter dolce phd associate professor of the university of maryland school of pharmacy and senior editor of the bmj said that during the open public hearing session there is no emergency that would warrant using eua to authorize cove vaccines for children kim whitsett an fda consumer representative expressed great concerns over the premature approval of copa vaccines for children and she
061also stated that children neither are neither in danger or dangerous and question the timing of last friday's cdc announcement of the rise in children being hospitalized with covet when that's going to start to start to wrap up please i'm almost done okay can i also just just um we need to have your full name for the record i think when you introduce yourself michelle carroll thank you when parents start reporting these adverse reactions what is the school going to do about it i guess nothing since you had parents on consent forms i'm sure these reactions will just be swept under the rug like the poor girl who was assaulted a few months ago or maybe like the time back in february when the school tried bringing in a marxism group to teach my ten-year-old about
062queer affirmation and that she can choose her own gender male female or neither what is neither anyway and what gives the school the right to teach my child things that should be taught at home i'm letting you know now that the parents in our district and surrounding districts are watching every move the school district makes when it comes to education of our children and i'm going to say this one last time you have been entrusted with providing education for our children and that's all thank you any other comments [Music] okay i'm not seeing i want more okay good evening if you could just introduce yourself name and street and then you can go ahead and take it my name is barbara burgerlands i live on manchester avenue in uh the district and i had a
063parent who i mean a daughter who came here all through the district and i just want to say that this was a crappy crappy year and a half to be on the board and then i think you guys did not only the best job you could but probably way beyond uh what was was normally asked of you and i just want to thank you on behalf of my household for all the work that you've put in thank you all right any other comments all right um so that takes us to our first items for action this evening and the first is the approval of the may 24th regular business meeting minutes and iso move uh do i have a second thank you matt um any discussion okay miss figora can you please take a roll
064call vote mr ballas dr huff aye mr cutis hi mrs lentz hi mr sullivan hi mrs walkman i miss buckowski smith hi dr grandy hi the motion passes eight to zero all right thank you miss figura so that takes us to personnel uh we have a quite a few items in personnel this evening uh there are 22 items are there any on the list anyone would like to separate from the rest okay so just bear with me for a moment first up we have the approval of three resignations as listed in the agenda then we have approval of 10 appointments james fitzpatrick coordinator of custodial and cleaning services daniel massey art teacher at the middle school thomas uh louser autistic support special education teacher sarah pinkis ela teacher at the middle school erica friscoli english
065as a second language teacher helena kim 0.5 english as a second language teacher andreas sawicki a science teacher at the middle school julia sandler science teacher at the middle school jennifer zwich executive administrative assistant at west and catherine karasec instructional support at srs then we have approval of five leads of absence as listed in the agenda and we have approval of a renewal agreement with substitute teacher services from 2021 to 2023 as stipulated we have approval of five changes of assignment as listed in the agenda we have approval of additional assignments for kate evans sarah holt and miriam drew as listed in the agenda we have additions to the 2021 summer school program as listed in the agenda group approval of additions to the 2021-2022 conference request is stipulated we have approval of the appointment
066of pbis coaches at the annual stipend of three thousand dollars per staff member during the 2021-2022 school year as stipulated we have approval of the change of salary status as listed for lillian amenta and samantha hart we have approval of compensation of the hourly wage difference for painting duties conducted by custodians for the 2021-2022 school year effective july 1st with the approval of the 2021-2022 stipend for mary figure as school board secretary is stipulated with approval of all wssd certificated staff to be 2021-2022 homebound staff and tutors we have approval of christine fredericks to attend trainings as stipulated we have approval of the spring athletic supplemental postseason pay as listed in the agenda we have approval for all school psychologists for additional work days at their per diem rate not to exceed 75 total days
067during the 2021 summer we have approval of all certificated staff for development of individual educational plans at the rate of 37 dollars per hour not to exceed 90 total hours during the 2021 summer we have approval of the home and school visitor for additional work days at their per diem rate not to exceed 30 hours during the 2021 summer we have approval of the listed staff under item s to work on the pbis curriculum at the rate of seven dollars per hour for the uh 2022 school year there's hours listed in the agendas not to exceed for this item we have approval of anne-marie ward to work on the wssc gender support plan at a rate of 37 dollars per hour not to exceed 12 hours and we have approval of the staff listed under
068item u to work on the social and emotional learning curriculum and finally approval of all school counselors for additional work days at their per diem rates not to exceed 15 hours total during the 2021 summer so all of these items uh are as attached or described in the agenda uh do i have a motion submitted thank you kelly a second thank you matt uh any discussion okay miss figure can you please take a roll call vote dr house hi mr cutis hi mrs lentz hi mr sullivan aye mrs walkman aye ms winkowski smith hi mr dallas dr grandy hi the personnel items pass eight to zero okay thank you mr fabora uh so that takes us to policy um we have two sections of policy uh on the agenda uh the first section uh is
069for our policies for third and final reading which are all the same as when they are presented for their second reading and that's policy one thirteen point one one thirteen point four two eighteen point three three eleven three fourteen three seventeen point one three eighteen three twenty three three twenty eight three thirty two 334 819 904 906 907 and 913 and all of those policies are attached to the agenda and then we have a series of policies for their first reading this evening which i will read off and again just as a reminder these will appear on two subsequent agendas for three total readings before final passage uh so the first is policy number zero zero eight the district organizational chart and 103 equal opportunity and non-discrimination in schools and classroom practices 103.1 non-discrimination qualified
070students with disabilities 104 equal opportunity and non-discrimination and employment practices 113.2 behavior support 115 career and technical education 123.1 concussion management 146 student services 201 admission of students 203 immunizations in communicable communicable diseases 209 health examination screenings 216 student records 222 prohibition of tobacco use 226 searches 227.1 vaporizes vaporizers e-cigarettes and other electronic substance delivery systems 233 suspension and expulsion 235 student rights and responsibilities 235.1 surveys 247 anti-hazing 248 on harassment 249 bullying 250 student recruitment 255 educational stability for children in foster care 335 family medical leave 348 harassment 609 investment of district funds 705 facilities and workplace safety 709 building security 800 records management 810.2 transportation video audio recording and 818 contracted services personnel and just like those first items these are all attached to the agenda so we have these in two separate
071groups just reading them off i guess first question for the board is there anyone who would like to separate out these two sets of policies before voting on them okay do i have a motion so move thank you marilyn do i have a second second thank you jerry uh any discussion kelly i'm sorry did we just separate we did not separate the two groups of policies we did not separate um i would like to offer some comments on the ones that are available for first reading tonight okay um and i will follow this up in writing because i have a number of different comments but for the benefit of the public i think it's important to share them um one comment is on policy 115 career and technical education this is more of a the
072guidelines that are shared in here that relate to child abuse prevention i'm just questioning whether they really belong separate in here or maybe incorporated in child abuse prevention policies it seems kind of weird to have it laid out in a career tech program and then the entire policy is about child abuse so that was just one general comment um on policy 222 prohibition of tobacco use i am questioning under what circumstances would a report potentially be made to local police department and i know that the words um used here are may not must or will and so i'd like to understand that actually with respect to that particular policy let's see i want us to consider policy 226 searches very carefully and second and third reading and think about that one in particular from an
073equity perspective policy 227.1 um vaporizers e-cigarettes and so forth um i did not see anything um in this one in the policy or the accompanying administrative regulations as to how students and families will be educated with respect to the requirements in this particular policy and this one has very significant consequences and we have a very significant vaping issue in our school district and so jen did you see it in there i missed it if it's there i'm sorry i was thinking about the first three you discussed and then i kind of blanked on those this last one you're discussing and i i don't want to blame because i am um yeah one of two people here from the policy committee and i i will follow all this up and right for you gentoo um this
074one was the 227.1 of the vaporizers e-cigarettes and so forth and what i couldn't find in it was how students and families would be educated about those rules and the consequences of not following the rules because they're considerable um and like i said we know we have a vaping problem in the district policy 200 uh sorry 230 no 200 which is suspension and expulsion actually i'm not sure if this is 233 sorry 233 there's a small typo on that one on page three that i'll share um two and let's get them um on two 35.1 surveys um there's a section in here around when marketing or um data might be made available for marketing purposes which i'm questioning why that would ever be necessary and i'd like to know why that would be necessary um
075sorry no this is a lot the harassment policy 248 i again i didn't see in the policy or the administrative guidelines how students parents guardians would be informed about how to report an instance of potential harassment again might have missed it if it's there didn't see it um the bullying policy 249 it does reference in the administrative guidelines that it would be posted on the website i would encourage us that that administrative guidelines need to indicate that it would be more than just the website but in the student handbook as well at a minimum and then the final one is that i had a comment on is 810.2 which is transportation audio video or video audio recording um and i wondered where the guidelines would be for establishing who has access to the video or
076audio um that might be reported on a bus or student transportation so what what are the protections around who has access to it again i'll follow that up in writing and share that with you that that'll be great miss walkman and um i can say that for the members of the community that are seeing so many policies come before this district at it seems like within a month that is that is what's happening and from what i'm told that that is sort of a pause from all the um the culmination of all the work that was being done surrounding kovitz so while this looks maybe to someone who is on the outside as as overwhelming um it has been a lot of work from the policy committee but i can assure you that we have
077um combed a lot of the words of these policies extremely carefully and had 15 20 debate 15 or 20 minute debates over where commas go and what exact words um would be used i did want to ask you miss walkman about which policy was it where you said for employees with um vaping and um nicotine was that on school property and if you could share that to me um in this meeting that would be helpful so the was it 227.1 i made a comment on or 222. or we can do it this way if you want to note it for me in writing by the next one i'm concerned that maybe the one word that you're talking about is one we debated for a while changing and it is not if it's the one i'm
078thinking of should not be may and it's it's 222 and um is the one that i was referring to where i saw the use of the word may could i just have a moment to look at that dr grangy sure um and it's on um page two um at the bottom uh not at the bottom of page two i was looking at the new language above first offense law enforcement incident reporting you see it so this policy pertains to students which you can see at the top of the policy where it says 200. we evaluated another policy that had similar wording that pertain to employees and mr berman correct me if i'm wrong but i believe that when it came to the employees we changed that may to shall and we left the discretion with
079the superintendent for the students at may but that one small word was caught and discussed for a while and that's what the committee came up with certainly can be discussed further and probably one of few people that really like to discuss small words and comments so we can do that before the next reading but that was caught i shouldn't say call but that was addressed when it came to employees this is um students but um when you have the other ones in writing we can we can talk more and maybe bring some things back for the second reading thank you okay any other comments on the policies again that second group is for first reading so there'll be two more opportunities for discussion on all of those policies okay um mrs maguire can you please
080take a roll call vote mr cutis aye mrs lentz hi mr sullivan hi mrs walkman hi miss wakowski smith hi mr ballas dr huff aye dr grandy hi the policy items pass eight to zero all right thank you ms fabora so that takes us to [Music] a curriculum where we have uh nine items i think i counted right nine items yes um are there any on the list anyone would like to separate from the rest okay um the first is approval of 2021 or 20 20 20 2021 related services provider contracts as stipulated second is approval of summer 2021 related services provider contracts as stipulated then we have approval of 2021 2022 related services provider contracts as stipulated we have approval of a twit uh tuition contract a sorry 2020 2021 tuition contract is listed
081in the agenda there's too many years here summers years last year this year next year next we have approval of 2021 esy tuition contracts as listed in the agenda approval of 2021 2022 tuition contracts is listed in the agenda and we have approval of the wssd health and safety plan as stipulated approval of the revised 2021-2022 school year calendar as stipulated and finally approval for bridget welsh to conduct educational research in the district uh per the attached proposal do i have a motion thank you jerry do we have a second second thank you kelly any discussion go ahead kel um two two comments um the first with respect to the change to the calendar so i would ask um or the public to make sure that they take a look at this so the previously
082approved calendar the student start of the school year was wednesday september 8th uh we subsequently um came to our attention that that is the second day of rosh hashanah and we don't normally have it fall on the first day of school so recognizing that um these the first day of school will now be thursday september 9th so that our students and families are able to participate in that important celebration secondly i um with respect to the health and safety plan i would like to um i would like to respond to comments tonight i know that we don't do that in public session but following um comments of a similar nature in a prior meeting i received feedback from members of the public dismayed that we did not make a statement around misleading information that's being
083shared publicly about the safety of vaccines about the importance of vaccines and so i'm going to do that tonight and respond in seeing that the district provided a venue in which we were able to vaccinate an enormous number of our children to bring safety to our community and i'm very proud to have participated in that along with many parents in our district many teachers many administrators who made that possible the vaccines were provided through a local pharmacy who's been a terrific partner here in our district and in delaware county we're in the position that we're in that we can lift the masking requirement because so many people have been vaccinated number one number two the importance of continuing to get vaccinated for those who may not have the first or the second vaccine cannot be
084understated we have um variants that we have we have seen the impact of the variance on the delta variant in uh india now in china it is quickly becoming the prominent predominant variant here in the united states and it will have an impact on those who are not vaccinated it's already being seen uh and so i felt it was very important considering i received public uh feedback around the fact that we didn't take issue with some of those statements last time that's awesome thank you kelly any other comments okay miss fagor can you please take a roll call votes mrs lentz hi mr sullivan aye mrs walkman aye ms witkowski smith hi mr ballas hi dr huff aye [Music] mr cutis hi dr grandy aye the curriculum items pass eight to zero all right thank
085you miss figure so that takes us to finance um where i believe we have 13 items well we'll find out when i read them are there any on the list anyone would like to separate from the rest okay um so the first one is approval of of the banks as listed in the agenda uh as depositories of school funds during the 2021-22 year uh second is approval of the petty cask cash custodian list as stipulated authorization to make auditor recommended budget transfers to close out the 2020-2021 school year in preparation for the year-end audit approval of martha q as collector of wssd real estate taxes for the borough of swarthmore transitioning to the interim and our permanent business administrator following miss q's departure through june 30th approval of two change orders to strathaven high school
086secure entrance projects is stipulated approval of the service agreement with the cciu for one technology support specialist as stipulated for july 2021 approval of the moorefield communications cctv support agreement for the 2021-2022 school year approval of the alien vault license agreement renewal for the 2021-22 school year approval of participation in the e-rate program for the 2021-2022 school year approval of deborah crete for e-rate consulting services for the 2020 except for 20 which school year is that let me make sure i read it right yeah so that's yeah it should be 2122 correct okay miss figora can we change that in the agenda it should be the 2021 2022 yes i will okay the amount of six thousand dollars approval of the 2021-2022 light speed renewal with integro1 as stipulated approval of the 2021-22 sys cloud
087g suite backup renewal at a cost not to exceed six thousand dollars as attached an establishment of a new student activity account for the class of 2025. all items in this section are attached as attached or described in the agenda do i have a motion thanks matt do we have a second second thanks marilyn any discussion okay uh miss figure can you please take a roll call vote mr sullivan hi mrs walkman hi miss witkowski smith hi mr ballas dr huff hi mr cutis i don't think we heard you larry hi mrs lynch hi dr grandy hi dr grandy the finance items pass eight to zero thank you miss figure so that takes us to our other section of the agenda which has two items on it does anyone want to separate those two items
088okay we have approval of reappointments to the board of trustees of the delaware county community college for the term indicated as stipulated and then secondly the appointment of matthew sullivan as assistant board secretary until the board of school directors reorganization meeting in december 2021 do i have a motion so moved thanks kelly drive a second second thanks marilyn any discussion okay mr gore can you please take a roll call vote mrs walkman hi miss witkowski smith hi mr ballas hi dr huff hi mr cutis hi mrs lentz hi mr sullivan hi dr grandy hi motion's eight to zero all right thank you miss figora so that takes us to our time for audience recognition for response to topics not on the agenda um i won't repeat what i said earlier i know we don't have
089any called in comments do we have anyone in person for a comment okay um does anyone have a report from a district subcommittee or out of district role okay uh do we have any old business any new business uh quick new business dr grandi as we wrap up the year i just wanted to give a special thanks to a group that i don't hear thanked very often um for no other reason that probably um everyone's mind is a little over extended but to our department of transportation that has probably really had to make adjustments literally every day sometimes every hour based on the covid restrictions and the covet hurdles that came their way so as the year wraps up i just wanted to say a special thank you to the department of transportation who is
090behind the scenes and working every bit as hard as everyone else and probably on some days really really hard harder so thank you to the department of transportation on behalf of the whole school board for everything you did to get our kids to and from school safely this year well said and uh i did get to ride on a school bus during the car parade and it is a throwback and a lot of fun so thank you to our uh transportation department uh any other new business all right thank you this meeting is adjourned