001good evening I now call the January 11th meeting of the Wallingford swathmore School Board to order uh in opening as you're willing and able please join me in the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank you I would like to start by asking Miss Fagor to take the roll call Ballas here miss samino here Dr dowy here Dr Huff here Mr cutus here Mrs Lent here Mr Sullivan here Mrs wman here Dr Grandy here Mr Burman Mr Mr Burman I don't think we have Mr Burman right now I thought he was on but maybe we can check on that but you can keep going miss fagura okay
002thank you um Dr Palmer I know is absent and Miss Patel here thank you Dr Grandy there are nine voting present okay uh thank you um and and as Miss Fagor just alluded to Dr Palmer is not able to participate this evening uh due to illness uh and so she'll be uh will be communicating with her uh following this meeting um I would like to start by once again wishing everyone uh a happy New Year uh as we kick off our first meeting of 2021 I hope all of our district families and community members had a nice holiday break um and and so uh we will start the meeting this evening uh with our student Representatives report uh so let me turn to miss Patel uh for that report this evening thanks Dr Grandy at
003SRS Dr tuck and the hman school are excited to share some of the options that are open to all to participate in honoring Martin Luther King Jr the pandemic has certainly made it more difficult to volunteer but there are still ways to help for MLK day and potentially year around in honor of the legacy of the late Dr King Trinity Swarthmore will hold its seventh annual morning of service in support of caring for friends a nonprofit organization that provides meals to homebound individuals who have little to no means of support due to covid restrictions on in-person Gatherings this year we ask participants to assemble breakfast bags with enclosed handmade note cards at home and then drop off the breakfast bags on the morning of January 18th at Trinity Trinity volunteers will then bring these breakfast
004bags to caring for friends to distribute to those they serve the second opportunity comes from Penn State the university is presenting two weeks of programming designed to offer service education and activism activities and honor of The Life and Legacy of MLK many of their events are open to the public as part of the 26th annual Greater Philadelphia MLK Day of Service whose theme for 2021 is Justice in the covid-19 Health crisis in addition to supporting the SRS Community home and school also strives to offer support to our larger community and to Foster opportunities for students to be able to do the same dimensions in service and Civics is working to build a list of local organizations Charities and service projects that can use help from the SRS Community including Hands-On help from students the list
005will be placed on the home and school website so that home and school as well as families looking to volunteer on their own can draw from the list at the middle school the annual MLK Day of Service will take place Friday January 15th although the activities will look a little different this year students and staffs are looking forward to the opportunity to help make a difference also the Middle School family would like to wish a happy and healthy retirement to Miss Linda Akerman Mrs Akerman has taught family and consumer science at the middle school for 34 years she was a tremendous advocate for her students and for FCS thanks for everything you've done for our school you will be missed lastly picture day is picture makeup day is Wednesday January 20th students at the middle
006school re will receive a sign up link directly from Barksdale Studio at stra Haven High School the National Honor Society has put together two ways for students to help with our covid-19 response the first being writing a gatw card or making artwork for Pennsylvania hospital patients and the second is donating medical supplies to chop all donations can be made by January 21st and can be dropped off outside the 1 and third floor offices these are some impactful and easy ways to get involved and hopefully every student can participate also at St Haven students are busy preparing for finals next Wednesday and Thursday although they are in a completely different format like everything else this year these exams will still Mark the end of the first half of the school year and the beginning of a
007new semester and all new classes that's it thank you all right uh thank you for that report and the and the excellent update um so normally of course what would follow uh at this point in the meeting is our superintendent report which we're obviously not going to have this evening given Dr Palmer's absence um I do want to note that I believe Mr Burman uh joined us since the roll call um Mr Burman can you confirm okay all right thank you we got the thumbs up um so uh that takes us to board announcements um and I do have one board announcement this evening which is to provide an update on our superintendent search and so um you know again I um provided an update to you at the meeting uh that we last had
008in mid December um but I want to mention a few updates uh as of today um first we're really looking forward to hearing from students parents and community members and staff um about the expertise and experience that you all think is most needed for our next superintendent and there are two ways we are collecting input this month first is a on a brief online survey uh which for our district families uh should have arrived in your email inbox previously um those have all been um sent out I think about a week or so ago and will be sent out again uh to our district families um for non-district for people who don't have children in the district um the link to the survey is also available on the district website um and so if you
009go to the district website under the news section um there are links there to get to the survey for community members um there's also a link that's been published uh in the swor Moine as well and that survey is open through January 25th and so uh we're certainly eager uh to get as much input as possible uh from everyone in our community and then in addition to that uh we have two Community forums uh that are planned for uh January 20th and January 22nd the 20th at 7 pm the 22nd at 10: a.m. um and again those are uh open Community forums um that anyone can register to attend and again those uh links to sign up uh I believe actually went out to our district families today uh but also posted to our district
010website as well but you do have to register to uh attend those and those will be virtu School Forums um and then there's a similar staff Forum scheduled for January 27th at 4 P.M um and then lastly I'll just mention that our search facilitator Judith Wilson has also been uh beginning to conduct individual interviews with board members and administrators while also um already beginning the process of recruiting applicants for this critical leadership position um so the process is well underway uh and our goal remains to identify a leader that can step in into the role and a seamless manner on July 1st so we will uh keep you updated throughout the process so um that takes us to our Focus topics this evening and we do have two Focus topics on the agenda uh the
011first uh is the proposed changes to the high school schedule which we had an extensive discussion about at our uh it was our December 14th meeting um and then the other item uh relates to the proposed calendar um for next school year and so the high school schedule is an item on the agenda for Action this evening the proposed calendar is not on the agenda this evening uh is simply for presentation and discussion so we will start with the high school schedule and so I'm going to ask Dr hilden uh to um uh present that to us great thanks Dr Grandy I'd also like to extend a Happy New Year to our community as well it is good to be back after the break and as Mera mentioned we're about to start a new year
012just in a few weeks as far as our Academic Year at the high school so on a block schedule we restart and uh it's like a whole another school year beginning January 25th so as Dr gry mentioned um we had presented at the December school board meeting about a review of schedules I'm going to share my screen and and present here and so we talked a little bit about the the current schedule and uh what was working well what was some challenges and we also took a look at three additional schedules a full day schedule without lunch a full day schedule with lunch and a half day schedule four times a week without lunch and um since that meeting I have solicited feedback from the community in regards to what they thought worked well in
013each of the schedules or concerns they had about each schedule and then a preference for that schedule and I'd like to really preface this by you know reminding everyone that as I've said before there is really no perfect schedule pandemic pre-pandemic every schedule has its strengths and its weaknesses and those tend to change based on your goal and based upon uh what the needs are of your local community and right now as you heard with the discussion of the calendar you know we're looking forward to a gradual movement toward having all of our students back in the building at some point in time so with with that in mind I'd like to share with you the results um from the parent survey and really we had great participation so I can't thank everyone enough um
014I I know I sent emails over the holiday days when a lot of people don't check through email and I'm really really appreciative of all the people who took the time to share their their thoughts and their um their personal situations about what worked for them and what didn't work for them and as you can see based upon the results you know it it's varied and so different people have different needs and those different needs I think are indicative of why you see a pie chart that is essentially spit split into four quadrants so one of the things that I did to try to ascertain whether or not we needed to make a change where what change needed to occur was to look at the the next layer of information so that information where people
015responded what worked well for them what didn't work well for them and there were a few themes that came out in that and one of the themes was consistency so if you look back at our current schedule if I can go back here if you our current schedule students come to the building at various times on various days so cohort a comes in Monday in the morning they go home but then they don't come in till afternoon on Tuesday and cohort B has the same experience on Thursday and Friday we were hearing a lot of um difficulty from people who were trying to manage that schedule in addition it doesn't provide an opportunity for students to be here more and one of the things that we heard was you know for the social emotional well-being
016of our students they need to be in school more so when we looked at the proposed schedules some of the remaining obstacles were obstacles that weren't able to be solved in a way that would it would they would impact more people than we would like to impact in group so if we come back here we also surveyed the students and so students there was only 234 participants and so for a point of Relativity we have about 1230 students in the high school so the response rate here was quite a bit lower all right and you see the results are a little bit different but really still split right you still have a desire for students to be in the building more I think that's apparent in both of these surveys so when we considered all
017those factors when we considered what what we believe to be in the best interest of our children we're really looking for um an alternate schedule of a half day four days a week without launch and the benefits of this schedule are consistent timing of classes for students so it's the same amount of time at the same time all week long so you come the cohort a would come Monday Tuesday in the morning and Thursday Friday in the afternoon and that that doesn't change it's not Monday morning in Tuesday afternoon in and then off the rest of the week what it also doesn't do is increase the amount of Zoom time for Online Academy students So currently our Online Academy students who those are the students who stay home 100% of the time have 1,120 minutes
018of Zoom time per week this keeps that number the same if we were to go to a full day model with lunch it would actually increase the amount of Zoom time for our students by about 230 minutes a week this also provides an extra fifth block for each cohort so if I'm in cohort um b i Comm in Monday and Tuesday I can stay for fifth block for two consecutive days and likewise for cohort a at the end of the week and you also see that all cohort students attend four days a week so one of the the things that we know not in the data Trend I mentioned this already is that people are students are looking for some consistency in their day so to get up every day to have to be in
019school every day to have that routine that feels most normal like school and I would like to say it's it's not a half day of an education it's a half day of in-person learning but still a half day at home educating so it's a full day of education but it creates more normaly of having to get up and get moving every day and be responsible for be responsible for being in school four out of the five days of the week so really where do we we go from here the next step would be um to ask you tonight to vote to approve the revision to the education plan to that half day four days a week cohort model without lunch and after that we would reassess our family's commitment to the Online Academy so we
020really want to establish an expectation we've had a great deal of flexibility which I which a lot of people have have appreciate it but we want to be able to um determine what kind of potential issues that might be in the education plan so we're asking for a commitment for the third marking period if you decide that you want to be in the cohort that you come to school and you participate in school in person this will help us out tremendously with student engagement and for planning purposes so there'll be a survey that's sent out just to ask you to say I'm going to stay in the cohort or I'm going to stay in online or I'd like to switch from the online to the cohort and vice versa we're also looking to improve student
021engagement one of our expectations for the second semester will be that students keep their cameras on joing in Virtual instruction certainly if there's an extending circumstance we'd ask the students and or parents to reach out to the teachers directly but we're looking to increase that student engagement one of the things that I've mentioned at a few board meetings is the typical vibrant High School experience doesn't exist right now and that's really the pandemic obviously but the more we can engage students both virtually and the more we can have students in the building the more likely we are to replicate the traditional High School experience and then we're going to re-evaluate the education plan for any implementation issues after we receive that data back from the parents so at this time I'm going to ask if
022there's any questions or uh dis discussion that that um really any questions you have for me so I'll ask board members to use their Zoom hand uh if you have a question for Dr hen maybe I'll start um so Dr H I just want to just maybe hear you talk through like you you emphasize consist y I know that some could look at the schedule and say well now it's like you know I'm in there in the morning sometime I'm there in the afternoons at other times um you know how did you kind of the team think about that that issue of consistency that I think our students are looking for um and and how do we you know given that we we still do have a morning afternoon type of model with this approach
023so very very early on the scheduling proc process in August even before this current schedule we had talked about rotating the periods to try to avoid that morning and afternoon schedule the issue there is we have students who attend programs outside of straat Haven such as our Career and Technical students so if you rotate those periods then the Career and Technical students would miss half of their education here at the school so the only way to get people in fulltime would be to have them rotate to that morning and afternoon unless you put everything into two days but we really found that if you put everything just into two days then you're two days in school and five days out where we feel as though again for the social emotional learning of our students if
024you're in school four out of the five days that's more that replicates more what a typical high school schedule would look like great uh thank you and I see a couple hands up and again before I call the next person I just want to you know I know there's a tremendous amount of work that goes into looking at the schedule because because there's a million moving parts to to think about so I appreciate all the work that you and your team have done uh to really try to uh come up with our next uh you know our next plan um I think I saw Jen's hand go up first or maybe not I don't know I I I'm not sure who's hand enough for but I'll call on Jen first thank you Dr Grandy um
025Dr hilden did you say that can you restate how many extra minutes that the kids on the Online Academy would receive if we had lunch did you say 200 and something 230 minutes right because the periods would be slightly longer and if you add that up over time it adds up to about 230 minutes but it's not per week that's per week oh per week correct okay and so the partici participation rate in that survey about how many kids if you know off hand do we have at the high school approximately 1,30 all right so I'm talking about when when I'm asking these questions I'm going to talk about this the family survey not the student survey that you showed us second the the family survey which was basically 25 25 25 and 25 right
026um but I do look at that and what I do take from that is 75% of the families want their kids to come to school in some form or fashion um if I'm looking at that right do do you think that's right so I guess I think everyone wants their their children to be in school I think that the difficulty resides in how frequent and for how long and when I look at that schedule I break it down into half day full day so the the pie chart skewed slightly 52% which really is is inconsequential it's 5050 for people who want a half day and a full day but by providing a half day schedule more four days a week you're essentially providing a full day in school just in a different format so to
027your point by providing a 4- day halfday schedule you're you're meeting the needs of 75% of the pie okay and so I don't know how many athletes we have that aren't permitted to go to school right now um but do we know when that is ending it'll end at the end of each of their individual Seasons so their would theoretically end possibly at different times okay there's not one date for all of the sport correct okay so I guess I'm just trying to I'm trying to make sure that I understand correctly that that means that we should expect to be about to see about 900 students in and out of the buildings per week is that right if if these cohorts stay at the numbers they are after the next survey hopefully okay so I
028I'm wondering I know that a huge a huge reason for that well there's been a lot of reasons to revamp the current high school schedule but certainly part of it has been the engagement which is why you're talking about the cameras I think and the motivation of the students and I know that in December when you first posed these three different models I said that the one that you're proposing tonight looked better to me but having not been in high school for 30 years I was concerned about whether that would be what we need to engage and motivate the students um do you have thoughts about that or I mean I know there's been input about that there's been input to me there's been input to you and to other people on the board but
029can you can you weigh in a little bit about that because I mean I think that by if we choose to make this change tonight you know that's something we really need to see a shift in um we we just we have to sure thank you I I think it's a really good question and it's one that I've discussed with parents on the phone as you mentioned is one that I received feedback from our staff from students from from the community really I'm looking at it from two lenses one from a pedagogical standpoint and one from a social emotional standpoint and so what you have in any of these schedules is a situation where the teacher is forced to teach the students on on zoom and in the classroom which is a very large feat
030that they have unbelievably performed at so that pedagogical change won't go away with any of these schedules so I look at the next half of it which is as I would argue as important as a social emotional piece and so when people were asking for full day when I peel back the yion to try to figure out what is it that you're asking for some people felt as that it wasn't value it wasn't worth their time to get up for a half day but most people were saying I want regular want some regularity to education I want it to feel normal I want it to be what it is in a traditional way so when you look at this model and you have to get up every day theoretically get ready every day you have
031to be in school every day that's most normal even though it's not for a full day so as far as that you know the ability for students to do well that social emotional piece impacts their ability to perform academically so if the pedagogical approach is not going to be different then I think we need to give great consideration to that social emotional component okay and um you know if we get to a point I I think that in the perfect world we would sort of pick these models and we would stay with them but as we know how much Co itself has evolved what we know what we can do um since we were here discussing different models of learning with July I'm hoping that if we implement this new approach to engaging our students
032and we're not seeing you know again minus the athletes for now up to 900 kids in an out that we will be able to revisit this um in a timely manner I really hope that so so we're asking for a commitment through the third marking period I think it's important to provide some level of consistency for our students and families and teachers for for planning purposes um but certainly that gives us the flexibility to make another change if for example the vaccines were were more widely distributed or the the safety Pro procedures and protocols would change for some reason and how soon can we make this shift if we choose to make it tonight it would be effective the beginning of the second semester which is January 25th so as as me mentioned exams finals
033are next week so it would take place the following Monday is is that makes most sense to you to I mean is that I know it's clean but is there a way to do it early or just it doesn't really work yes I mean this this week if you think about it instruction goes through Friday of this week we're off Monday I think for for a holiday and then Tuesday is the last day of instruction for the semester so to give people time to prepare and make the adequate adjustments necessary to ship I think the 25th is is a fair and reasonable time okay thanks all right uh Marilyn great thank you Dr hen this is really um helpful and I know this is a very difficult um problem with uh lots of opinions I'm
034wondering if um you can remind us what is available to the students during the fifth block so as you know our our music program is a very big part of our fifth block and I know I know we did a presentation uh I'm not sure last board meeting or two board meetings ago where Mr pearlberg really explained at length the value of our music program so that happens at fifth block so that's a large piece of the time the other piece of it is an opportunity for students to engage with their teachers on an individual or small group level so if you're having academic concerns especially in the environment where some students are finding difficulty you know learning from home or learning virtual this is an opportunity for them to meet with their teachers on
035a regular basis and either receive remediation or help with what they're doing it's also a time where some clubs choose to meet now that has shifted a little bit in this um in this pandemic uh world where a lot of clubs are meeting on Wednesdays um but that fifth block time it you know for music and for extra help and for meeting the teachers is a big part of the time is there I think think in that meeting when we talked about fifth block a while before you mentioned that um students weren't using that time to get help very much is that still what you're seeing I'm still seeing low attendance rates of f block correct I'm wondering if there's a way that we can I don't know publicize the opportunity encourage it um uh
036a little bit more because that is an excellent opportunity for students to get um inperson help um which should be comforting in a lot of in a lot of ways not only I academically but just for interpersonal interactions I agree all right and and my other question is if you can also remind us um about what happens on the asynchronous Wednesdays sure and I would refer back I'm I'm actually referring back to Dr Celli Jones's slide from education update on November 9th so um what occurs on Wednesday for the teachers lesson planning that we have technology professional development every Wednesday I think it's at 11 o'clock uh there's alignment curricular alignment discussions that occur across building levels there are grade level and department meetings there are clubs and activities office hours IEP meetings consume a
037good bit of time on Wednesday mornings that prevents teachers from having to their instruction on other days of the week um there's assessment development you know as me mentioned all of our finals this year are online so stud the teachers have had to redevelop their assessments for that platform and then there's the typical grading and feedback and and um last but not least making instructional videos the teachers have been using for asynchronous time thank you all right Matt thank you and thank you Dr hen to you and your team for collecting all this information putting it together and and coming back to us with you know an additional refinement here uh the question I had was just there was you obviously support in the survey from both students um and parents for the two full
038day models um that was pretty equivalent to the support for the half day model can you just remind us what the major stumbling box to each of the full day models were sure so the The Stumbling box for the full day straight through without launch model were twofold one was it put our our Career and Technical students in a situation where they would miss part of the instruction for their Strath havav classes when they came back so the timing of the schedules didn't align and the second piece piece was there was no in-person fifth block so your music program that I just mentioned would take a huge hit if it if we didn't have students have the capacity to be in school full-time the full day with lunch you know that lunch has been a
039topic of conversation for a long time in the logistics and you know while we figured out um some potential outcomes to that it's still a very tight scenario even with four lunches down in the lunchroom and then I went back again to it's two days it's two days so you can get four days you can get two days over four days and instead of having just those two days so it's not that that schedule was uh insurmountable it's just that when looking at that pie chart and looking at the secondary reasons that people have for picking what they picked it made sense to go with the four day schedule thank you sure chapen hi uh thanks again Dr hilon um I have two requests for two things I'd like love for you to comment on
040um the first one is the survey results showed a majority you know slight majority in the parents but of people preferring the current schedule so that's obviously not consistent with the comments that we on the board have gotten you know we hear much more from people who are unhappy than people who who are in support so I want to give you an opportunity to say why are we changing it at all if the survey results which might be a more representative sample than the people that just choose to email the board is a slight at least on the parents in favor of keeping the current schedule and the students that responded although it was a very low number they all wanted to keep the same schedule so that's one thing I'd like you to comment
041on um well let's just let's do that one first if if you don't mind sure so I'll go back to the to the point made about trying to get our students into the building by the end of the year so in order to go from this current schedule to having everyone come back to school without some Progressive change or intermediate step I think would be a logistical issue and it would provide too many complexities that would really interfere with education this seems to be an intermediate step whereby it prevents um people from having to be here full day for the reasons why they don't want to be here full day but still extends our ability to offer students more time in school and makes a natural stepping stone to hopefully getting everyone back fulltime so
042maybe we decided that was a priority after we designed the survey that asked people if they wanted to keep the current model because those two things were sort of inconsistent I hadn't actually heard that before it sounds it makes sense to me but it's a little inconsistent with giving them a choice of do you want to stay with the current model right well I'll be be honest you know it's difficult to you know we when you get feedback sometimes you get feedback from people who you know have difficulties or request to change and like you mentioned you don't hear from the people who are happy right you know leaving I think there was a a great deal of consideration given to keeping the current schedule okay good I just want to hear about that yeah
043so so I can tell you that the staff um you know certainly wanted to keep the current schedule you know but when looking at the the well-being of the kids and the number of people who had significant concern about the amount of time for their students in the building and then you marry that to knowing what the learn long-term goal is you know it made sense to me you know and I want you know describe that in answer to your question you know it makes sense to me that it's a stepping stone to to the end yeah well that makes sense I appreciate that and that was going to that was my second actually request for you to comment on was um if we surveyed the uh parents and the students I don't know if
044we surveyed the faculty and the staff obviously everybody's opinion matters so I'm just wondering if you can because and I guess I asked this from having taught my first two class today in the law school and you know seeing the students all pop up on the screen it just makes you feel like oh people have come to my party thank you for coming to my party it's so good to see you um so I know we really want to get kids back involved and I'm wondering um what the the staff thought about that sure so so I met with our department chairs on one occasion um shared the schedules with them who then facilitated the conversation in departments and the the state um would like to see the the current schedule remain in place however
045they recognize the fact that at some point we need to be back full day so you know there was different differences of opinion about which of those models would be best I think there was a large agreement that we liked the full day straight through no lunch but in the end not being able to conquer the technical school issue and the no fifth block that kind of um right put put a damper on that schedule but I think if the faculty had to pick that would have been their their selection okay thanks a lot Dr hen I appreciate it right uh Kelly okay um thanks Dr hen I I had a question we the board continues to receive a few um emails from heren who are still asking about four or wait five days right
046five five days a week um full-time in person everybody um and I I wondered if you could come in a little bit about why we're not um looking at that option right now and what those impediments are sure according to the health and safety plane we're we're governed by the Chester County Health Department who has safety procedures in place whereby we have to limit the or um guarantee the spacing between student desks so they have to be at six feet distance that prohibits us from having more than a certain number of students in a classroom at a given time so your average classroom size given those safety precautions is about 15 students so there's no way to have unless that rule or governance changes there's no way for us to have everyone in the same
047in the room at the same time okay Kelly was that it yeah couldn't get off mute thank you okay uh Miss Patel thanks Dr hen I just had a quick question um you may have answered this already but I've been an online student so far and I was just wondering if you could clarify how many more minutes on Zoom there would be a week for students doing online school um with the proposed schedule it would be exactly the same it would be the same number of minutes and that's one of the reasons why I think it's a preference over the full day with lunch because it's it's not it that schedule would increase your time on Zoom okay got it thank you Marilyn did you have your hand up or was your question answered yeah
048Miss Patel asked my question okay um I don't think I see any other questions at this point I do um I do appreciate the concept of trying to reduce or at least not increase the amount of Zoom um and also I think that you know one you know again while there's lots and lots of considerations to any schedule and people will have many different opinions about what works best for them um you know there are some advantages to not for the students who are in hybrid to having the time on Zoom split up during the day and so in this model you know students will not be on Zoom all the long on their when they're home um you know they'll be on Zoom for two classes instead of four classes on those days and
049um that you know that could have some benefits in terms of people's ability to engage as well um any other questions from from board members okay well again Dr Hilton your whole team thank you I know again people have wildly different you know needs and and preferences when it comes to schedules I know schedules impact families and in lots of different ways um you know but it's clear to me that that you've done with your team an enormous amount of work to try to come up with you know a strong recommendation again we know no schedule is perfect um and I'm sure there'll be some tweaks we need to make along the way but um but I appreciate all the work that you've done in bringing this forward all right um so that takes us
050to our second Focus topic which is the proposed calendar again just as a reminder this is a presentation for proposed calendar just for discussion this evening this is not for uh action I also um know that there was a a version of the calendar that had an error on it that was posted and um that's been since corrected and so hopefully we've had a we'll have a chance this evening just to make sure that's all clarified U Mr Abbott is uh going to present the proposed calendar thank you Dr gry I'd like to First indicate that the proposed calendar for next school year is based on a non-cohort nonhybrid non-co non asynchronous model that means everybody's back in full time the dates are more similar to calendars we've had in the past uh prior to
051the modifications we made for the 2020 21 school year to deal with the timing of what we of when we thought the virus would be most severe before I get to what that calendar looks like though it should be noted that the district's intent for this year is to transition away from the cohort hybrid asynchronous model at some point this year while this transition will not affect any upcoming holidays breaks inservice days or when the end of the school year it comes it would Mark the transition of more students back into air schools as was the case with the transition from virtual to hybrid a likely scenario would be to start with the younger grades obviously much more has to come on this topic but it is worth mentioning as we proceed through the second
052half of the year with that vaccine on the horizon oh whole lot of planning will need to take place as this is not as simple as it appears as you just heard from Dr Hon's presentation but the process has begun for us to plan for that event and now for next year 2021-22 proposed calendar as we do in the development of any yearly calendar we take a look at our objectives our requisites and changes the requisites are the required days and hours of instruction as mandated by pde we have the require IR ired professional days as mandate mandated by our teachers contract we want to provide for continuous professional development for our staff while also respecting the needs of parents and Guardians and this year or for next year we we took a look at
053including selected aspects of the actual 2021 covid version of the calendar so what does this take look like from one segment of the year to the next and we'll break it down into months so to start with our first student day would be Monday August 30th and yes that is before Labor Day similar to what we did this year and a departure from what we have done in the past there are several reasons proposing us one is it prevents the year from ending so late in June if we didn't do it this one if we didn't start before Labor Day we'd be ending June 17 for the students and June 22nd for the staff we're also dealing with a holiday the day after Labor Day Tuesday September 7th is is a holiday this year that
054means the first day if we start in after Labor Day the first day for students would be Wednesday September 8th the latest it's ever been that I know of we also know that learning occurs a lot a learning the learning process is more effective earlier than in the year than those later days in June and the earlier we end in June the um the the the better the education tends to be we also although it's a necessary evil I guess we have to deal with the testing dates and by starting earlier in the year we're also to get a better jump on the learning process before the testing dates arrive so there are the reasons um the major reasons for propos proposing that we start students one week before Labor Day we have Labor Day
055on September 6th and we have two holidays rashash Shana and yam kapor on the SE 7th and the 16th of September Aaron service days during this time period are the week before the students arrive August 23rd through the 27th so that is no bearing on the school year and we also have a k to8 early dismissal on October 29th that we have now used for the last several years going into November December and January our holiday break for Thanksgiving would be Wednesday through the Friday and that has been a tradition for for a number of years now our winter break would be dece December 23rd a Thursday through December 31st and Monday January 7th for Martin Luther King Day the inservice day typically is November 2nd we would have that but here is the other
056change that we are recommending based upon uh things we've learned about education this year I guess and they were also prop we're proposing that this be an asynchronous day for students that would be a student a a student day that's planned in advance by The Faculty for activities for November 2nd it would not um be a situation where it prevented them from um participating in uh an election day if they were traveling to the polls with their parents or guard guardians or if they were old enough to vote themselves but it'd be a day in day to plan in advance there are reasons for doing this it's not just because we had asynchronous days this year if if we don't have Tuesday November 2nd as an inservice day the likely option would be that the
057last student day becomes a Monday in June and one thing we do with all our calendars is we prevent the last student day from being a Monday um it's it hasn't been successful not that I can even remember when we ever did it but trying to get the students back on the last day in June being a Monday is um is very challenging it would also if it weren't that last day in June it also prevents us from from pulling from a a holiday or break but really that's the alternative if we take a look at not um doing the asynchronous day on November 2nd it would mean um that day in June or pulling from one of our holidays or breaks not doing pull from a holiday it's really pulling from a break and
058then an inservice day K to8 on January 18th and this has been a um a traditional um in service day for the last several years our conferences for K to8 would be the same schedule as previous years with no changes heading into February for our holidays and breaks we had have President's Day on the 14th of February we would have spring break from April 11th through the 15th that's the week before the Easter holiday for in service days we would have the Friday before President Day that's February 11th that has been traditional and a March 4th k to8 early dismissal and that's been traditional for the last several years our spring conferences at the elementary level would be the same schedule as previous years so no difference and then finishing out the year in May
059and June we have Memorial Day on May 30th we have an in service Day on May 17th for K to8 only and that's been a traditional inservice day for the last several years with our last student day being Friday June 10th our teachers come back the next week and finish out on Wednesday June 15th once again as Dr Grande uh acknowledged this is a draft version and it would be scheduled for board approval on January 25th our next board meeting questions all right thank you Mr Abbott uh let's see what questions we have from board members uh go ahead Jen thanks Mr abbit um so I I know there's a couple of dates for example the 18th of January we said that's K to8 in service we've had that um I I don't have a
060recollection of that but that I wouldn't bu my memory um but you say that we've had that is these kinds of days you know do we have to have them and um uh why do we have them on these particular days for just a few just part of the schools like it's not for high school um there are a number of factors um first off a little bit of the history a couple years ago we had uh a number of a number um of in service days more in the count buil into the calar um and those in service days are very important to to um the district learning process in that the initiatives that we are trying to achieve um the that need to be delivered to teachers in form of Education and Training
061have to be done throughout the year we can't put all those before the start of the school year or after the start of the school year we really have tried to do that as you can see we have five days now before the start of the school year or in the past we had four and we have three after the school year we have tried to limit these days to half days um as much as possible but and and taking away the full days um the reason for the younger grades is is um there are a couple reasons one is um one is just by the the numbers the requisite number of hours of Education we need to deliver are um are harder to achieve so to speak at the upper grades particularly the high
062school um and the more of the I don't want to I don't want to offend anybody but more of the initiatives that we need that constant training for occur occur at the um at the younger grades uh I don't want to offend any of the upper the high school teachers or middle school high school teachers um but a number of the initiatives that that we're trying to implement right now are being pushed at the at the lower levels so for those two reasons you're seeing those more of those early dismissals at the K to8 level um or in service time at the K to8 as opposed to the high school uh I think that um ideally we would um like to be able to do that at the high school but um it would force
063the it would force us to have potentially two different students student years one one where the high school students end later or start earlier than the um K to8 okay and um you know I have to say that I like certainly a lot of other parents when I first looked at this just saw the word asynchronous and uh you know got a little bit a little bit just naturally panicked it's some kind of a trigger um I also understand uh what you said about it and I understand not wanting to come back for a Monday merely a Monday which seems Seems silly in in June um I have concerns when I see asynchronous on this calendar even though you've very clearly stated our commitment and I I don't doubt you or what you said um
064I have concerns seeing an asynchronous day um interestingly enough you know Miss simino referred to us hearing from a lot of parents but I actually think that we there's a lot of parents parents that have having a really hard time with our Wednesdays that we don't hear from because they really want to support our teachers and they they really empathize with everything they've been through this year but when I see asynchronous I don't think I'm alone in thinking that that that's a day where where parents are really teaching their kids and um I'm sure not everyone would agree with me saying that but I think that there's a fair amount that that could and so it worries me to see it as a precedent for other things or other reasons or future years u i
065despite the rationale which I don't think is a bad one I really don't like seeing it on the calendar it would be my position that we should put that somewhere else and go with tradition as we are with a lot of other things and and and have that as a full day off um I'm sure there'll be different opinions on that but that is mine so I wanted to offer it thanks Mr abbit um so sorry I'm just gonna jump the line for one second but uh so it seems like Mr Abbott the the tradeoff there is taking either ending school on a Monday in June or taking away a day from one of the proposed um breaks and to be even more specific it would be the um Monday June or my recommendation as
066any other date to consider would be December 23rd Thursday December 23rd okay so a shorter winter recess or a Monday in June okay thank you and if you were to choose you know for what it's worth if you were to choose the lesser the of of the the better of the two options I I would say December 23rd okay uh Marilyn I have two questions for you fer thank you um very much for this um I do support the earlier uh start in the school year I also um think that a lot of the controversy around election day has to do with folks not really knowing what that would look like because asynchronous has a meaning now and next year during a regular school year it may look completely different I'm wondering if we could
067get um if we could communicate examples of what an asynchronous day might look like at each level um to families so they could see what that means and the board before our next meeting so that we can see what that means and so we're not judging this um based on what what folks are experiencing now rather what it is more likely to be in the future so that's more of a comment um and uh my other uh question about the earlier start um in August and you may not know the answer um to this one either we may need to bounce this um to the music department or to uh uh Mr Clancy how would starting a week earlier impact band camp um or uh the the onset of sports practices I would like to
068um confir confirm that but I think it just moves everything up a week band camp and sports practices I know that um the the there are many school districts now that are starting before Labor but I can I can um respond with the exact answer regarding both band camp and sports practices okay thank you Matt thank you just one quick question for I didn't hear any discussion of are there snow days sort of cooked into this calendar and if so how many Matt um if you mean that if if you if you mean that there are if there are no snow days then then days will be deducted off the calendar the calendar is not built that way um if we have um act 80s built Act 80 Days built into the calendar um during
069times when um there is um there are uh professional development activities going on where that that time can be used for um for for in the event we have numerous snow uh uh days of closure for snow but this calendar is built as we've always built it where we don't build in extra days that would come off the calendar if we had no snow okay yeah so in essence there is time built into the calendar to deal with snow closures or in climate weather closures yeah and I wasn't thinking of it so much as the ability to take days off the end of the year if we didn't have snow I was wondering if you know we've now learned how to provide instruction remotely and if we were including extra days in the calendar thinking
070that we're going to need to account for three snow days and we could instead do one or two of those days as remote learning days in the event of snow that might give us some flexibility I wouldn't want to see snow days disappear at all the recent one was obviously a huge hit in my household but I'm wondering if if there's any flexibility there's not um there's not flexibility in in taking days off if that's what you're referring to if in other words that um that that November 2nd day um we can accommodate for that day in other areas of the calendar um like the December 23rd but we can't um take that day off with the assumption that we could do um remote learning during a inclement weather day okay thanks any other questions
071okay um I just want to repeat loud and clear for what you said which is this calendar is totally built around the idea that we're coming back to school full-time in the next academic year um and so I think a lot of families have questions about what the district's intentions are and I think that pretty clearly answers that question um and then I'll also I'm very encouraged to hear that district is actively working on plans um for this Academic Year as well that if the circumstances allow that we would try to move toward particularly with our youngest students beginning some phased uh process to uh resume full-time school again if circumstances allow um so thank you Ferg um appreciate it and um you know it sounds like there's a couple follow-up questions uh that you
072can follow up with the board about with respect to uh music and Athletics in particular and what the implications of starting early uh would be okay all right um so that takes us to our first audience recognition time for response to items for action on the agenda um this just as a reminder this is public comment is a time for members of the district Community to speak to the board about an issue that is before the board or may come before the board it's a time for us to listen and hear perspectives and experiences from our community while we can't answer questions at meetings there's always an opportunity for us to follow up after meetings if there's a specific question for the district for our virtual meetings uh members of the public wishing to address
073the board can call 610 892 3470 extension 11102 to leave a recorded comment for the board subject to a three-minute time limit uh as usual any comments left prior to 5:00 on the day of our meeting are transcribed and made available to the board and those comments left after 5:00 but prior to the end of the meeting are still transcribed distributed to the board and made a part of the record uh but not acknowledged during the meeting um I believe we have uh comments called in this evening and I'm going to ask uh Kelly to uh read those for us okay um we do have several comments tonight and I'm going to focus just in on the um the items that are about the high school calendar at this time since that's the only one
074of the two major common items that is on the agenda for Action uh so the First on um with respect to school calendar is a pardon comment from Jean Bothwell of n Road n Road in Wallingford I'm just calling as it is a school board meeting tonight to express my opinion that I believe children need to be back in school full-time I think it's critical for them to learn in school and for their mental health I believe this is really not a good situation to not have them in the buildings I believe that there are precaution measures that can be taken to help with not spreading covid but I think it's absolutely critical for them to be back in school so I would like to see them back in the buildings thank you okay the
075next is from Amy Caruso on Colonial Road in Wallingford I'm not sure if this topic is on the agenda or not but I wanted to send this comment regarding the high school and the discussion about modified block schedule we've heard from Dr hilden that there is such a possible schedule and we want to hear more discussion and elaboration on the modified block system based on changes in the schedule since March and gaps that were experiencing we feel that it's important to look at some new options as it has been stated that all options are on the table specifically not having math or a foreign language for an entire year due to the block scheduling system we we feel it is detrimental to our daughter's learning experience there's also the impact of the learning on the
076AP classes and the AP testing not aligning with this schedule we would like to know how these gaps will be addressed with or without a change into a modified block system or even how they would be addressed overall we would like to know who would be the responsible person for addressing this discussion and taking this on among the board for future years forthcoming thank you very much and I recognize now having read that that that is not necessarily directly tied to our conversation about the the high school schedule but um it may be related uh next question see it's not this is in a way um Katie DeSantis on northchester Road in swathmore I'm calling in reference to the January 7th Announcement by Dr LaVine and Mr Ortega the acting Secretary of Education which referenced
077recent work that is showing that there's lower Su sus I can't read susceptibility and transmission among Elementary AG children for covid-19 so I wanted to hear when the board and or the educational planners in the district will consider this new building information and consider how it impacts the maintenance of the cohort model or the possibility of returning to a normal school week thank you very much uh this is from Carrie peard uh Cornell Avenue swap sore my message is for the safety of our teachers staff students and the community at large I feel it is best to limit inperson school time and activities especially for middle and high school students thank you this is from Liz quator on Sherwood Lane in Wallingford good evening members of the board Dr Palmer and Dr hilden thank you
078very much for all of your hard work and coming up with several possible proposals for moving the high school students toward more inperson school time including two options that have the students in school for nearly two full days a week I'm calling to express my disappointment that the administration is proposing the four half day option and half days should be in quotes because they're not actually half days they are significantly less than half days this is the district's current proposal as the alternative to the half days that the high school students receive now two days a week I'm unsure of how the administration came to this decision because I need to phone in my comments before I hear tonight's presentation so an explanation may be provided tonight I know you are aware that many parents
079of students who elected in-person learning are disappointed in the current halfday schedule this proposal simply doubles the number of unappealing half days and even shortens them by 25 minutes under the current schedule students are in the building for 2 hours and 45 minutes whereas under this proposal students are in the building for 2 hours and 20 minutes I understand that this proposal increases the students time in front of their teachers from once per per week to twice per week and that is certainly an improvement the substantial downfall of this proposal is the very brief period of time where the students will actually be in person in school with no opportunity for any kind of normaly like seeing friends that they haven't seen in nearly a year at this point it seems to me that the
080high school saw a drop in attendance because it was not worth their time to be in school for such a short period and these half days would be even shorter my son described the current half days as showing up for two back-to-back business business meetings and leaving both of the full day options improved on this on the significant issue with the current schedule putting aside the current proposed high school schedule I'm asking that the board Andor the administration confirm that wssd plans to return to five days per week in person for the 2021-22 school year families need time to make alternative education Arrangements whether that is private school or some other alternative as soon as the parents know the administration's intent the better given the update School reopening guidance from the Harvard Global Health Institute
081I'm hoping you move to 5 days per week long before the end of the current school year we at least need to know as soon as possible if the administration is committed to a full reopening by the end of August thank you very much for your time consideration and hard work uh this is from Jamie fiser West Brook Haven Road in Rose Valley I'm calling because I have concerns with the proposed 4-day model of instruction for tonight first and foremost I feel that all these models with increased inperson time seem to fly in the face of the fact that the number of cases of covid are twice as high if not more than when we started as all virtual in the fall I don't understand why are we are discussing implementing new models for the
082start of the semester when local cases are higher than they've ever been it feels foolish to H be having this conversation simply because we are in an opportune time of transition I say this is a parent of two high schoolers currently in the two-day week hybrid model who want nothing more than to go back to person school for as much time as possible they see this for emotional reasons not for rational Ones based on data and science as parents we fully recognize and support the value of socialization for all of our children but this must be a decision made not for convenience or emotional longing but for what provides a fair and safe balance between socialization education and safety to propose the 4day a week model adds twice as much transportation to and from school
083than the current and other proposed models and also opens up everyone involved to many more opportunities for exposure to covid we must find a balance in educating our children but that balance must be based on the covid reality that surrounds us thus I urge you not to approve the 4 day a week inperson school model proposed here tonight thank you very much for your time uh this is from uh Patricia slaski Hawthorne Road in Wallingford just for your consideration in my opinion is that we live in a multi-generation ational home with seniors and a high schooler I know that he wants to come back in the January semester but I do not want him to come back full-time yet or eat in school at this point in time due to the fact that we are
084multigenerational and he is not able to get a vaccine at his age we have not gotten it yet and my son who is a pharmacist also has not gotten it yet so at some point in time after we get those vaccines then we will talk about inperson full-time learning and eating in school it is not fair to make him stay at home because other people want their kids in there and don't consider this pandemic thank you and that concludes just double check that that concludes the items for action on tonight's agenda all right um and then you have some others for later in the agenda correct that's correct okay all right um I would like Jen I see you're cringing what is there one that we're missing or I was just skimming over um Raphael
085and it looks like it's on the agenda but I might have I'm trying I was trying to scroll through and make sure that I caught all of the ones that were um Jen do you want to go ahead do you have it right in front of you would you like to could you read that one miss karp also look I mean I have three more I think they are all referring to the calendar in some way you go go right ahead because I ended up doing cutting and pasting and my and I'm trying to read and recategorize if you can go right ahead sure sure thank you but but the calendar is not on the agenda yes voting Focus top it's all right that that's that's correct that's correct so if that doesn't put them
086as part of that then so it should be in the second SE of okay yep Michelle's audio was was cutting out there but I think we all we all got the the general gist is because it was a focused topic not on we're not voting on it this evening that we'll we can address it at that point in the meeting um thank you Michelle uh and thanks Jen um so I would like to thank all of our district families that contacted us this evening and those that we'll acknowledge later um you know I certainly know every family has their own unique needs and concern and is certainly helpful uh for the board to hear from our families um that does take us to our uh first item for action on the agenda this evening which
087is the approval of the December 14th regular business meeting minutes and I so move uh do we have a second second thanks chapen uh any discussion okay um Miss Figora can you please take a roll call Mr Ballas hi Miss samino hi Dr Downey I Dr Huff hi Mr cus hi Mrs lent hi Mr Sullivan hi Mrs wman I Dr Grandy I the motion passes 9 to zero thank you Miss Figora so that takes us to Personnel uh we have six items for action and Personnel this evening are there any on the list anyone would like to separate from the rest okay uh first we have the approval of two resignations uh James Haley uh Technology support specialist at the high school and Scholar Wartman instructional support at NP uh next we have the approval
088of four appointments Ellen Yates a building substitute teacher at NP Judith Weiss a building substitute teacher and special ed teacher for the online academy uh Sarah pinkis a building substitute at the middle school and Brooke kerski a building substitute at the middle school we have the approval of nine leaves of absence as listed in the agenda with the approval of compensation to staff for the student and staff Wellness committee at a rate of $37 per hour as stipulated we have the approval of an addition to the 2020 2021 winter athletic supplementals as stipulated and lastly we have the approval of of an addition to the 2020 2021 activities supplementals as stipulated uh all items in this section are as attached or described in the agenda uh do I have a motion so move Jerry ballis
089thank you Jerry uh do I have a second second thank you Larry uh any discussion all right Miss Fagor can you please take a roll call vote Miss samino I Dr dony I Dr Huff I Mr cutus hi Mrs lent hi Mr Sullivan hi Mrs wman hi Mr Bas hi Dr Grandy I Dr Grandy personal motion passes 9 to zero all right thank you Miss Figora so that takes us to curriculum we have six items for for Action are there anyone anyone like to separate from the rest okay uh let me just scroll through my agenda for a moment give me a second okay with the approval of 2020 2021 related services provider contracts as stipulated with the approval of a contract with the dciu for extended school year tuition is stipulated we have the
090approval of the arter school Solutions agreement for contracted special education teachers we have the approval of the therapy Travelers agreement for contracted special education teachers and with the approval of the agreement with the center for responsive schools to provide professional development as stipulated and lastly the approval of revisions to the wssd education plan for the 2020 20220 2021 school year as presented this evening by Dr hilden uh related to modification to the high school schedule um these items are as attached or described in the agenda do I have a motion so moved thank you Matt H do I have a second second thank you Jerry uh any discussion all right Miss Fagor can we please take a roll call vote Dr D hi Dr Huff hi Mr cutas hi Mrs lent hi Mr Sullivan hi
091Mrs wman hi Mr Ballas hi Miss simino hi Dr Grandy I the motion passes 9 to zero all right thank you Miss Figora uh so that takes us to uh audience recognition for response to topics not on the agenda uh and so the reading of the comments that were called in um that were not otherwise covered thus far so I'll turn things over back to Kelly right um and just to check me before I get started I see four more to read um I will read through them and and um Jen if you wouldn't mind watching with me and make sure that um if I miss any if you can jump in at the end that would be helpful uh so our uh first one I have is Kristen Ry on northchester Road in sore
092hello I know that you are voting on the school calendar for next year and I just wanted to plead that you consider going back to the way it was which was starting after Labor Day I think it's just so much nicer for families for kids for everything and I really hope that you will consider that if we start prior to which I guess would be the 30th of August the following week would be two days off so I'm just asking that you do what we used to do which was great which was start the school year after Labor Day I think it's been a crazy year for everyone and having a little bit of extra time for summer break would go a long way for a lot of us and our families thank you for
093considering the next is Joanna karp uh Cornell Avenue in swathmore I'm calling with concern and strong feelings regarding a pre-labor day calendar start I feel as though a proposed August 30th start means Summer band camp begins on August 23rd and anyone in band leadership would need to report on August 16th a similar scenario and calendar would occur for preseason Sports this proposed schedule takes half of August away from students and families and seems to have little to no necessity for the overall calendar if the goal was to build in longer breaks like what was done in the 202 2020 2021 calendar then I could understand though not agree with this proposal but without longer breaks and only an ear earlier ending time in June I see no benefit I would like the board to reconsider
094this proposed calendar and to take into account that as a district we've always had an after Labor Day start which has allowed families to really enjoy what little of summer we have to spend together and to take that into serious consideration thank you very much the next is from Kathleen rapael Drew Avenue in swathmore I'd like to address the upcoming January 11 meeting regarding the proposed 2122 School gear calendar first I do not support support starting before Labor Day I believe we should definitely survey parents before making that decision it's too hot to start school first of all and then this year especially August will be the first time that many families can travel to see their family or take much needed vacations and we did not need to start that early for school second
095I noticed election day is an asynchronous day and I do not think we should create this now as a normal part of our school calendars children should either be on or off asyncronous pardon was a temporary solution to a significant Global crisis I think that at the meaning I'd appreciate if you could address the thinking behind designing that into a regular school year thank you so much and one final uh Katie mckinstry Rucker Avenue and swathmore I'm calling for a few reasons one one I want to emphasize and endorse the school district need for an equity officer in order to facilitate cohesive responses to hate speech or areas of intolerance in our schools and to Foster an inclusive and welcoming Community to all who participate in our district I believe that an equ equity officer
096is integral to enabling this Vision in addition I wanted to support having Ane Equity lens be integrated to all aspects of the school district's decisionmaking particularly around curriculum development and in budget decisions finally I wanted to support the request that when we do a superintendent search to find a superintendent that has demonstrated experience in equity and anti-racism education I want to thank the school district for being responsive and listening to our public comments about hiring a firm to do an equity audit that would be well qualified to particularly look at areas of racial Justice and Equity I want to thank the district for accepting these comments and really prioritizing equity and anti-racism in all aspects of school district life thank you I believe that concludes our comments yes thank you all right and once again
097I want to thank all of our district families that have Conta contacted us this evening um and again it's very helpful to hear from our families and I know one of the questions that was raised this evening had to do uh that was just in one of those comments was a follow-up item from earlier which is you know we'll look into uh what the impact of an earlier start would be on um what it means for Bandon Athletics um I see on the agenda this evening we did leave off Schoolboard reports which I'm just realizing now and I do want to ask if any Schoolboard members have any Schoolboard reports either from subcommittees or out of District roles uh Jen thank you Dr Grandy I would add that I am the uh psba liaison for
098the board and um if you did not receive the email although I sense that some of you did there is a new onehour um information session starting up I believe next Tuesday that you have to pre-register for that goes for about eight consecutive Tuesdays if um anyone's able to attend those during their lunch hours or whatnot um I will uh and relay the information to the board but anyone is welcome to attend thank you that's all I have great thanks Jen uh any other uh Schoolboard reports okay um do we have any old business this evening do we have any new business all right thank you uh have a good evening and this meeting is adjourned