001good evening i now call the september 29th meeting of the wallingford swarthmore school board to order and pursuant to policy 006.1 we are holding this meeting remotely given the current public health crisis in opening i will start with 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 our board secretary ms figueroa for a roll call i apologize mr ballas here miss amino here dr downey here dr huff here mr cutis eric mrs lentz here mrs walkman here dr grandy here mr berman here dr palmer here ms patel here dr grandy we have eight voting members present all right thank you
002miss figuera um we typically start with board announcements i actually have no board announcements this evening and so we will we'll move straight to the student representatives report miss patel thanks dr grandi srs is calling all bookworms there are new monthly book clubs for students in grades two through five participation will be via sign up genius and limited to 15 students per club and available through both cohort and online academy the first book club will be in october featuring both an online and in-person activity the srs home and school association has been thinking a latte about how to fit in some fall fun during and keep the fall festival tradition alive we are pleased to announce that the annual 4th grade pumpkin sale is happening and we hope you will carve out some time for
003it from now until october 11th you can order your pumpkins from the srs pumpkin fest shop on friday october 16th from 3 to 6 pm ordering ordered pumpkins will be available for pickup at srs the staff and faculty at npe are excited for the return of students a former mpe student and current wallingford resident ms alicia gabe has shared some of her talented artwork with the npe community ms gabe painted three separate windows at mpe with colorful images of students and the npe logo we thank her for her efforts in helping make our school an even more inviting place for our students as they return back to school tomorrow npe will host a brief walkthrough for new parents and kindergarten students we look forward to welcoming our new students to their school small groups of
004visitors will be led through the main hallway and kindergartners will have the opportunity to gain some more familiarity with their new home students in all three of the elementary schools in grade three to five are now eligible for instrumental music lessons third graders can choose string instruments and fourth and fifth graders can now choose string or band instruments for information on how to sign up visit the wssd beginning instrumental music website to watch our recruitment video and register your student to participate registration ends friday october 2nd at west movie night is headed to the theater this year join your west friends at arisafa farms for a socially distant drive-in movie this year's kids pick is big hero 6. the gates open at 6 30 pm and capacity is limited to 150 vehicles please bring your
005snacks and please bring any snacks and drinks your family may want as popcorn will not be provided by the pto this year due to coven 19 precautions at stratheven middle school until 3 pm yesterday there was a yard sale organized by the home and school association it was a successful event and there were lots of great haven items for sale including sweatshirts lanyards masks and more also the strathaven middle school home and school association has a new website complete with an online directory and the membership toolkit platform the middle school administration encourages parents to please take a moment to review the site and create an account at stratheven high school over the summer our student and staff wellness committee came together to prepare a response to a wide range of students behavioral health needs one
006of the key areas the committee focused on was embedding social and emotional learning sel across the school community to facilitate the social and emotional learning process the high school and middle school will be presenting brief workshops and activities that focus on social emotional learning for all students throughout the entire school year the first mandatory sel workshop will take place for all students tomorrow on wednesday september 30th from 10 am to 10 20 am students must attend the workshop being provided by their specific school counselor and with the support of a behavioral health staff information about these workshops will be emailed directly from our counselors to students over the last month the student council representatives have set up a freshman mentoring initiative each representative has gotten matched up with one freshman english class which we will
007regularly visit to answer questions about strathaven and to serve as a friendly face for haven's newest additions to make the transition to a new school as smooth as possible last week i had lots of fun playing kahoot with miss latari's fourth block class lastly the fall sports season is here and even's many teams are hard at work practicing and getting ready for competition that's it thank you all right thank you miss patel um again as i said last week it's exciting to hear those reports with um fun activities resuming uh and so it's great to hear about those activities and i love the humor from the srs report but you didn't even crack a smile anyway we move on to the superintendent's report dr palmer thank you dr grandi i'd love to say they're back
008but i can say that at this point they're almost back and we could not be more excited because on thursday this week october 1st we will mark the return of our students k-2 for cohort b to join us as all of our students in grade k to five in cohort a will join us on monday october 5th and then our secondary students will be joining us in cohorts in person starting on monday october 12th so as we move to the students phased-in return of school it's really vitally important that we all work together and pay attention to four very important areas and i know you've heard me talk about it our pandemic team talk about it and dr grandi talk about it but i'm going to talk about it again those four areas are masking
009social distancing hygiene and symptom monitoring so on friday i send an e-blast to our parents guardians and our staff stressing the importance of these four areas and i'd like to point out some points to just reiterate things this evening under the masking area each of our students and staff members will be required to wear masks throughout the school day and while on the school bus masks must meet the following criteria they should fit snugly but comfortably and not have gaps around the side of their mask they should cover the nose and mouth and go under the chin and they should be made of more than one layer of fabric i'm actually going to do show and tell now which i don't typically do at a board meeting either but i've got a a handmade mask
010that i think someone in our community for making it has two different fabrics in it it fits comfortably goes above my nose under my chin it fits snugly i don't have gaps this is the type of mask or anything like it that we're saying we'd like you to wear when you come to school whether a staff member or one of our students and we do know that some of our staff or our students may not have a mask with them when they come to school or may not have a mask we are happy to provide those masks to you we won't allow anyone to come without it but we will definitely provide you the mask if you need it in terms of social distancing our classrooms and all of our common areas have already been
011structured to provide the six foot social distancing the desks have already been arranged to face in the same direction and our schedules are already adjusted so that students will have less students in the hallway and they will stagger throughout the hallway our classroom activities have been redesigned to support the six foot physical distancing signs and decals are already in place throughout our buildings reminding everyone of the need to keep appropriate distances seating for the lunches have already been arranged to ensure that students will be six feet apart and will also be facing in the same direction and a word on transportation our transportation will include no more than two students per seat and students will actually be assigned to a particular seat on the bus in terms of hygiene we have an absolutely abundant supply
012of hand sanitizer it's available in our buildings and on our buses our students and staff will wash their hands and utilize the sanitizer throughout the day and our classroom practices have been redesigned to limit sharing if materials must be shared we already have procedures in place to clean them prior to the next use symptom monitoring is new for us in terms of what we're doing and we're almost at that final stage of rolling it out to our families we're still configuring a few items but i did write to you that we are going to be utilizing a web-based online symptom monitoring checklist for all of our families and staff we're going to ask you to complete it before coming to school how we anticipate it working is that the night before you will get a
013link from us one for each child that you have and we're going to ask you to complete it and the link is going to be basically the cova chess checklist in the last 14 days have you been in contact with an individual who's currently positive for covet 19. within the last 14 days have you visited any of these areas that pennsylvania recommends that you quarantine if you visited them are you experiencing any of these symptoms ranging from loss of smell or taste do you have a cough do you have a fever and then based on those responses to the checklist you're going to receive a message and the message is going to basically tell you you're clear to come to work or to school you're okay to come to school or to work but we're
014going to ask you to reach out to our nurse or to your own medical practitioner because there might be one of the items that you answered falls into the symptom monitoring that would allow you to come back to school but we want you to talk further with a medical professional and then the third category would be you're not certified to come back to school or work based on the symptoms that you have or a potential exposure all of the items may seem like we keep saying them over and over and over and it is because we are saying them over and over because if we do all work together for masking social distancing hygiene symptom monitoring and most importantly if anyone who is sick stays home then collectively we have the best opportunity for keeping
015our children in school and our community healthy so whenever you're seeing our notes and we are asking for that reinforcement with these particular areas please do take a moment to share with your neighbors share with everybody within earshot share with your children it is really important that we all work together because it is our collective effort that will allow us to keep our kids in school and dr granty that concludes my report or should i say public service announcement tonight all right thank you dr palmer and that takes us to uh audience recognition for response items for action on the agenda um i'll mention that again this is time for comments for items on the agenda members of the public wishing to address the board have been and continue to be encouraged to call 610-890
016extension 1102 to leave the recorded comments for the board subject to a three-minute time limit anything left prior to five o'clock today has been transcribed and made available to the board comments left after five o'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 um kelly i don't believe we have any comments for items on the agenda correct that is correct we have one comment for uh items not on the agenda today okay we'll return to that uh later in the agenda um so that takes us to the minutes um so our first items for action the approval of the september 14th regular business meeting minutes and the september 21st special board meeting
017minutes an iso move do we have a second second chapin samino thank you chapin uh any discussion okay miss figura can you please take a roll call vote mr dallas i miss mino hi dr hi dr huff hi mr cutis hi mrs lentz aye mrs walkman aye dr grandi hi dr grandy the motion passes eight to zero all right thank you mr fabora so that takes us to personnel we have 13 items for action and personnel are there any items on the list anyone on the board would like to separate from the rest okay we have the approval of five appointments with dates as described in the agenda we have sean vanecolo a health and pe teacher for the online academy we have don mason ovale a music teacher for the online academy we have
018brian leopold an administrative assistant in the office of student services we have donald caber a substitute bus driver and we have gail shakini an instructional support at srs next we have two leaves of absence that are as described in the agenda we have the additional assignment for uh gabriel savage to serve as the online academy principal for the 2020-2021 school year with a stipend of 25 000 as indicated in the agenda we have one change of assignment for torrey montello from full-time bus aid to full-time bus aide and substitute bus driver we have the appointment of marlena o'kane as a safe to say team member at the annual stipend of one thousand eight hundred dollars during the 2020-2021 school year we have the appointment of the building instructional support technology support liaisons at the annual
019stipend of 2500 for staff member during the 2020 2021 school year is speculated with the appointment of the diverse classroom libraries vertical team members as listed in the agenda for 2020 2021 school year at the rate of 37 per hour not to exceed 80 hours total we have the approval of the 20 additional 2020 summer hours for the education committee for distance and hybrid learning development work at the rate of 37 per hour not to exceed 53 hours we have the approval of 2020 summer hours for two teachers on special assignment at the rate of 37 per hour not to exceed 100 total hours as stipulated with the approval of the 2020 summer hours for the technology video support work at the rate of 37 per hour need to exceed 166 total hours we have
020the approval of the 2020 summer curriculum writing work at the rate of per hour not to exceed 20 total hours with the approval of payment to staff for additional flex time or during the 2019-2020 school year at the rate of 37 per hour and lastly we have the approval of the power school training and development work is stipulated all items in this section are as attached or described in the agenda do i have a motion so moved thank you jerry do we have a second second kelly walkman thank you kelly uh any discussion okay miss pergora can you please take a roll call vote ms samino hi dr downey hi dr huff hi mr cutis hi mrs lentz mrs walkman aye mr balas aye dr grandy aye dr grandi motion passes eight to zero thank
021you miss fedora next up we have three items for action and curriculum are there any on the list anyone would like to separate from the rest okay we have the approval of related services provider contracts as stipulated for the 2020 extended school year and the 2020 2021 school year with the approval of a tuition contract as listed in the agenda we have the approval of an educational services agreement as listed in the agenda again all items in this section is attached or described in the agenda do i have a motion was that chapin it was but you can give it to kelly all yours do we have a second i will second kelly walkman thank you kelly any discussion okay miss pigora can you please take a roll call vote dr downey i dr huff
022hi mr cutis hi mrs lentz mrs walkman hi mr ballas hi miss mino hi dr grandy hi dr grandy the curriculum items pass eight to zero all right thank you miss fedora that takes us to finance we have six items for approval and finance are there any on the list anyone would like separated from the rest okay we have the approval of the payment of invoices to vendors dated august 12th 2020 to september 22nd 2020 as attached we have the acknowledgement of the receipt of the financial statements of receipt of financial statements as stipulated with the approval of the treasurer's report for july 2020 with the approval of a maintenance agreement for the strathaven high school chillers cooling towers and pumps with will growth services for september 1 2020 to august 31st 2021 is attached
023with the approval of the cares act funding agreement between the dciu and wallingford sophomore school district is stipulated and the we have the approval of the agreement with t-mobile usa for the addition of 40 hotspot devices and related services as attached all the items in this section are as attached or described in the agenda do i have a motion so moved marilyn huff thank you marilyn do we have a second second larry thank you larry any discussion okay mr gore can you please take a roll call vote dr huff aye mr cutis mrs lentz hi this is walkman hi [Music] mr ballas hi miss mino hi dr downey aye dr grandy aye the finance motions pass eight to zero all right thank you miss figura so next we move on to our section on the
024agenda uh to filling the vacancy from region 2 on the school board we will start this evening with candidate introductions and we have four candidates for the position the format will be that each candidate can take approximately three minutes to introduce themselves and any relevant comments they wish to make related to their interests and qualifications for the for the position and following their comments if board members wish to ask questions we can entertain questions at that time we'll take questions if people again want to ask questions after each candidate as opposed to all at the end and then following that process we will take a vote to fill the position and before we start with the candidates i do want to just say that um you know we have four candidates that have stepped forward
025and i'm grateful to all four for volunteering their services to our district and our community particularly during this period which i guess i'll call intense activity for the district and it's really gratifying to see residents volunteer to support the district and so again i want to say to all four convey a sense of deep appreciation for myself for putting your foot forward to volunteer for the district but i will start the process we'll just go in alphabetical order and so for each candidate i'll i'll kind of hand things over to you ask you to unmute yourself at the beginning i just want to quickly confirm some of the basic eligibility with each of you so i'll just rattle that off and you can confirm uh that you meet those requirements but i'll start with dr
026gwadet and um uh dr guada i just want to confirm um these are the the quick eligibility standards for this position so i'll just say them out loud and ask you to confirm them one and i'll list them all resident of region 2 resident of the district for a year prior to appointment age 18 at the time of appointment a u.s citizen and registered to vote and that you do not hold any other local state or county elected or appointed positions that are on the list that preclude you from uh filling this role yes those are all correct statements great thank you so i will turn things over to you dr gwanda thank you dr randy um well thank you so much for having me tonight my name is alison gaudet and i'm a long
027time wallingford native i grew up here in the district right in wallingford i attended wallingford's baltimore schools from kindergarten through high school graduation after completing my medical training and my early pediatric career in pittsburgh my husband and i moved back to wallingford with our two little girls and we've resided here since 2006. as a partner in a busy independent pediatric practice my responsibilities are various they range from being a medical clinician a small business owner a human resource manager and a good listener i consider myself to be organized and detail-oriented attentive passionate and level-headed i think my kids would agree with all of those except maybe the last one i'm very very proud of our school district and its historic success it has given me and my children an excellent foundation of learning it would
028be my honor to contribute towards further success in our district particularly in this difficult and unprecedented time i believe it's more important than ever that we carefully develop and implement effective plans that both optimize the learning and the well-being of our students and our teachers i feel with my experience as a community member a mom of two now teenagers and a physician that i can serve the board the school district the students and our community very well starting right now and for the duration of the vacant term thank you for your consideration great thank you dr guada um i'll ask board members if you have any questions you want to ask i know uh some of you may have spoken with candidates directly so you may not have questions right now but i'll open that
029up uh chapin thanks um i didn't get a chance to speak to anyone directly so i have the same two questions for everybody which are related and they are what keeps you up at night if anything about the schools and what do you see as the role of a school board member on this issue i think what keeps me up at night the most regarding the schools and our children is how do you reconcile this incredibly difficult situation where we are watching our children's learning um be decreased in terms of the amount of didactic time and moments but we also want them to be safe so how do you reconcile that we want them in the school building learning five days a week full school hours but obviously that's not possible given the pandemic and
030given the safety regarding covet 19. um and so how do you make the decision that's the best for all students at once and and probably there's not one answer that's ever going to be the best for every single student in our district so how do you figure that out and i think that's the biggest thing is how do you strike that balance of achieving as much learning as possible while keeping the kids as healthy and as mentally strong as possible but also not perpetuating the spread of covet 19 in our community or risking our teachers or our older staff who work in the buildings and what do you see as the role of a school board member on that issue i think the role of a school board member is to be listening to the
031community be trying to take in the needs and the difficulties and the obstacles that all the different people are experiencing the the staff members the students the parents the the teachers and trying to figure out how you best meet the needs of all of those all of those groups and i think listening um calmly and attentively and just trying to make the decisions that are going to benefit the majority of people in the community is the role of the school board member sorry i was muted uh thank you any other questions all right thank you dr gwenda uh we'll move on to uh miss null um if i could again just go through this list and have you confirm eligibility for the position again the the five things are uh a resident of region two
032resident of the district for a year prior to appointment uh age 18 or older at the time of appointment a u.s citizen and registered to vote and not holding any any other local state or county elected or appointed positions that are otherwise precluded that's all correct okay thank you uh i'll turn things over to you great thank you dr grandy and all of the members of the school board for inviting me to tonight's meeting and thanks also to all the people live streaming the meeting today for your time i really appreciate the opportunity to speak with you um i have lived in rose valley for over 15 years with my husband chris and our son andrew andrew is in fourth grade at west and we're very much looking forward to getting back into the building
033next week i know everyone has been working really hard to make that happen and we are so grateful for that effort um why do i want to serve on the school board fundamentally i believe in public school and that every child should have equal access to great public schools and as a member of our community with a child in the district i want our schools to be at the highest quality i'm sure we all feel that way but over the past several months i've seen firsthand the passion and commitment of our parents and our staff and the resiliency of our kids to overcome challenges this is a really difficult moment in time for all of us on multiple fronts and that has inspired me to serve it's not a decision that i arrived at lately
034i understand that it's an enormous responsibility to represent all of our taxpayers i know that every family has their own specific viewpoints and concerns my own lens is as the parent of a child with emotional challenges and learning differences so i know firsthand what it's like to have a child with special needs in our district and while i hope to bring my experience in that area to board membership i'm equally eager to hear about and to learn about all of the unique needs and priorities of all of our families in the district so that leads me to why i'm qualified first i'm what i like to call an empathetic problem solver so as a career i'm a user experience designer with over 15 years of experience in design thinking design thinking is solving new problems
035in a human-centered way i think my experience in this role is applicable to board service so let me explain the problems i tackle are usually not anything i have any prior experience with i start with desk research then i need to gain an understanding of people's ex collecting feedback and interviews and surveys and then as a team we go through a process of challenging the existing assumptions and identifying strategies and solutions that wouldn't have been immediately apparent otherwise along the way we create consensus among business stakeholders while always keeping the people that we're creating the solutions for and their needs at the heart of our efforts recently i helped a large company to creatively think through the challenges of food service during covet 19 and we implemented solutions that were mutually beneficial to both the
036organization and the community they serve i'm passionate about my work because i believe that great user center design helps people live better lives and i'd like to bring the same passion and process to the school board because the concept of design thinking isn't just for product or service design it can be applied to almost anything where consensus and empathy and new solutions are needed beyond being a good problem solver i'm a great team player i have professional experience both leading and working on multi-disciplinary teams in high pressure environments where emotions can easily overtake reason i've been told by people on those teams that i have a very calm and level head uh that helps teams to think clearly and work together when things get difficult and then i'm good at helping a group of people
037with a variety of opinions and perspectives to reach a common goal and i've also been told that i have excellent communication skills and i'm hoping that that's coming through tonight and finally i'm a really hard worker so like i said earlier i didn't take this decision lately and i'm prepared to put in the work necessary to be an effective board member anything i sign up for i give 110 whether it's my kids next birthday party or implementing curbside pick up for a large local convenience store i'm all in and i promise that i would be all in on the things that matter to our community as well and i just want to thank everyone again for your time tonight it was an honor to be here and it's an honor to be considered for this
038position thank you miss noll you're welcome um questions chapin oh same thing um i'm wondering what keeps you up at night when you think about the schools you know long or short view whatever however you want to answer that is fine and then what do you think the role of a board member is so there's a lot that keeps me up at night on on any given day um lately i'm reminded of an email that came from um superintendent palmer earlier today regarding some hate speech that was happening on zooms in the classroom and we're living in a time right now where there's a very contentious political climate and um there's an increase in in hate culture in our society and the idea that it might be creeping into our schools um that that really
039breaks my heart i think that's a um that's an issue that is is a hard one to solve um and and how how would i view my my role as a board member well i go back to my experience in design thinking i think what it really takes is to engage the members of our community get their feedback under really understand what they're going through what their lives are like and then come together as a team and workshop think outside the box my child's interrupting me um and and and try to get to those um solutions and things we can implement that might not have been apparent um you know if if we hadn't followed the process of design thinking so that would be what i would think i could bring as a board member
040great thank you uh any other questions all right thank you miss noel you're welcome all right uh so that takes us to uh mr spengler um so mr spangler um just again the the routine eligibility questions if you don't mind me reading them off again um i just need to confirm that you are a resident of region 2 a resident of the district for a year prior to appointment 18 or older at the time of appointment a u.s citizen and registered to vote and that you do not vote any other local state or county elected or appointed positions uh that you are precluded from holding uh in this position uh yes told that okay thank you the floor is yours all right well good evening everybody my name is andrew spangler and i would like
041to serve our school district as a member of the school board of directors representing region 2. all of you on the current school board fellow candidates and myself have two things in common the first is our desire to provide an exceptional education and learning experience for the kids of our community and the second is our willingness to work diligently to ensure that that goal is accomplished i want to personally thank all of you because i myself was a beneficiary of education here from first grade at srs all the way to graduation at strathaven high school now obviously i'm not your typical candidate for a school board member i'm a recent graduate of our school district and a student at the university of pennsylvania but beyond that i am a dedicated member of our community with
042a track record of leadership commitment to service and a strong dedication to improving our school system we need to come together as a community not only to address the disruption from current events but to establish a path for a new normal in learning and teaching at wssd from multiple dimensions however establishing something new cannot be done without innovative thinking diverse experiences and unique perspectives this school board is fortunate to have such an enviable list of qualified board members with backgrounds in education medicine business and law and i can add to this as someone who truly understands the student experience in our schools and as someone who has worked collaboratively with administrators and faculty on education throughout all of our school district levels and at the university level as well there are three main areas where
043my perspective can help our board move our school district forward the first being that i can bring new ideas to better the student learning experience as a member of the wharton dean's undergraduate advisory board at the university of pennsylvania i work with administrators faculty and students to evaluate curriculum technology and online engagement and last year as a part of a team i wrote a white paper on best practices for online learning that was distributed university-wide as a resource for faculty to use as we transitioned in the face of copa19 with this knowledge combined with my understanding of how students in our schools learn i can share insights and work to ensure that we maintain a high level of engagement for students and teachers and the community throughout this pandemic and beyond the second is in
044fiscal responsibility which is especially important now board decisions must provide strong impact using limited resources having gone through our schools as a student i noticed some investments that did not seem to maximize student engagement such as the installation of expensive smart boards and classrooms where many teachers chose to use basic dry erase markers instead now i do understand that a lot of thought are put into these types of decisions but as a board member i would be able to bring forward what i've seen and also evaluate the issues from all perspectives before making a final decision the third is in wssd's efforts to strengthen diversity equity and inclusion across the student experience and in our community this year wssd schools have taken significant steps to promote greater awareness of learning of issues related to race
045and identity my personal experience as an asian american student combined with my work on initiatives to improve diversity equity and inclusion in wharton student leadership can further support the work currently underway by the board's committee and in our schools today there's no singular preparation of becoming a school board member but i believe that the first step is communicating with our community and considering this position i have met with current and former school board members community leaders teachers students and based on all of those conversations i understand the commitment and the dedication required and i am more than willing to give it because i care deeply about our school district and want future students to have as incredible than experience as i did adding diverse skill sets and perspectives to the board sparks new ideas and
046promotes opportunities and allows us to see what students can accomplish in our schools today as a board member i will bring that unique perspective and can help our board point our school district straight towards progress and success i want to be a steward in this process collaborating with and working as an integral part of the wssd school board so i'm honored to be here tonight and i really do thank you all for your consideration all right thank you mr spangler um i'm just going to go right to chapman all right here we go what keeps you up at night if anything mr spangler about our schools and what's the role of a school board member yeah absolutely no i i've been thinking a lot and you know over the summer over the past couple years
047when i looked at our school district especially at this point right now our community is not together our community is divided and so much research shows i've done research on this as a university student that community plays such a big role in what our student experience is at the schools so the first step for me would be looking at the problems that are evaluating them in our community but also looking at how they tie back to the student experience because in copen 19 right now people lost their jobs there's a reckoning on race and identity in our country and there's so many other things happening in families for students today that the school board can't possibly understand so as a school board member what i believe my role being i think as a collective action
048as a board in the school district itself the first step really is to start listening to community members by going out talking to people meeting with people scheduling meetings but also doing research and looking at what things are brought into the school collecting data one of the things that i've been very involved with at penn is collecting data from the entire student body to inform decisions for the administration i believe that's essential for the school board to do to make the right choices going forward any other questions all right thank you mr spangler thank you very much so that takes us to our fourth candidate uh and last candidate uh mr sullivan so mr sullivan again sorry my mundane questions just to confirm you're a resident of region 2 resident of the district for a
049year prior to appointment age 18 or older at the time of appointment a u.s citizen and registered to vote and that you do not hold any other local state or county elected or appointed positions that you are precluded from holding while serving on the school board those are all correct all right thank you mr sullivan the floor is yours thank you i first wanted to thank the board for inviting me i'm honored to be considered for this role um and it's really an honor to be on the zoom tonight to give you a chance to ask me questions and for me to introduce myself i also want to thank the other candidates the other volunteers for this role i don't know mr spangler but he's certainly impressive and passionate andrea lives about 100 yards up
050the hill from me here one of my neighbors and dr gaudette is our pediatrician so you know i literally trust my kids lives in her hands so thank you all for volunteering um my interest in the board really stems from my kids and my my life here in the district i have three kids all in the district i have a ninth grader a seventh grader as well as a fourth grader at mpe uh and i've seen the amazing education that they've all gotten and you know i want to continue the district being the incredible school district that it is it's why we moved here i grew up one district over i'm a graduate of pencrest and we moved to wellingford swap more deliberately i wanted my kids to go to strathaven i was always impressed
051with this district and my the um the amount that i'm impressed with this district has grown every year it's really it's the reason that people move here and i want to make sure that it it stays that way my qualifications um you know i know you saw my my resume and my past history of public service and that really boils down to those two things on top of wanting my community to still have a strong district and my kids to keep getting the great education they're getting i have a undergraduate degree in engineering uh masters of business as well as a law degree and i think those give me a rare combination of ways to approach an issue both from a technical perspective and getting down in the weeds on things as well as the
052understanding the business side of things and the strategic and communication side of things that come with being a lawyer so i think all of those things would give me a unique ability to serve the board here and as i mentioned i was a commissioner in in nether providence for over 12 years so i you know understand how to work on boards and um want to keep serving the community great thank you mr sullivan and i'm just gonna hand it right to chapin so mr sullivan what keeps you up at night when you think about uh your kid's future in the school and what's the role of a board member sure my answer to those are pretty similar to dr gaudette's my primary stressor right now at night relating to the schools is um covet 19
053and it's safety and it's you know making sure not not just that our kids are safe but that our the staff and the teachers in the schools are safe as well as the rest of the community you know it's all tied together we send the kids back and there's increased risk with that not just to them but to everybody that they interact with but that all then gets balanced against the need to provide them the best education we can so you know if it was simply a matter of safety we would keep the kids home but that all has to be balanced against educational needs and mental health needs as well for the kids you know they need i've seen my three kids react very differently to you know what they've been going through in
054school since mid-march so i know that there's there's a balance that needs to be struck and trying to figure out how to strike that balance is really the thing that i would say keeps me up the most at night particularly since i decided to volunteer for this role of trying to decide where i would come out on that uh in terms of the role of a board member i i think my past experience gives me the the perspective that i think my role for one is to serve region two so it's to listen to my constituency and you know take their concerns into mind when we're approaching issues on the board and convey their concerns to the rest of the board but primarily then i think our role as board members is to make sure
055that the district and the staff and the students have the resources they need so you know budgeting and making sure that um our district staff and students are equipped to have what they need is a primary role of a board member along with policies and and strategic thinking so making sure that we have the right policies in place and that we're thinking down the road not just being reactionary but being proactive our primary roles of a board member and lastly i would say it's oversight you know we we have a great administration in place and we just need to make sure that they get the oversight and direction that they need to keep the district moving in the right direction and keep keep succeeding you're definitely right we are an oversight board which is why
056i'm asking the question specifically about i meant what's the board member's role as to the issue that keeps you up at night so you know as to covid you know we all imagine that we could solve the problem if only it were ours to solve but of course we're an oversight board so i'm specifically looking for your answer to that question my answer to what's the board member's role with the issue that keeps you up at night which you identified as coded yeah so i think it's to to gather all of the information you can and and make the best decision you can and some of that is going to be looking to the experts at you know i've watched the meetings where you've interacted with the doctors from chop and other doctors i know
057you've been interfacing with the chester county board of health you're watching what other districts around us do and those are all important pieces of information that you throw into the hopper and and weigh in deciding what the what the right answer is but you also have a personal perspective so i think all of that gets balanced against you know what what you personally think is right and i think that's your role as a board member great thank you any other questions all right thank you mr sullivan so um again we'll move on to voting but again i just want to pause and and thank again all four of you um you know this is a fantastic district i mean i think the four of you coming forward um the quality of candidates coming forward who
058are willing to volunteer i just think speaks to some of the tremendous assets we have in our community and so again we have to make a decision today but you've made it a hard decision let me assure you of that so that does take us to a point where we do ask our board members to cast a vote um i will ask uh miss figora to take that vote but before we do that i just want to clarify a couple things about process so in order to be seated on the board um one person does need to receive five votes out of the eight voting board members here this evening and so if one candidate does not have five votes after the initial vote then we will move to a runoff for the top two
059vote getters uh in order to hopefully get to seeing a board member this evening um yeah i think that was the only process comment i wanted to make um so with that let me turn things over to miss fagora for a roll call and she will i'm sorry i'm not sure of the process are we going through each candidate and we're voting up or down on each candidate or we're being asked to name one name you're being asked to name a name just as if you were casting a ballot exactly so there's four candidates and you name who you're voting for okay which in no way means that you wouldn't totally support someone else it's just we're being asked to name one name rather than give up or down on everybody right you you have
060to pick one okay any other questions about process before we move to the roll call okay uh so ms fagora will move down the roll call and you will name the candidate that you're voting for mr cutis mrs lentz matthew sylvan mrs walkman matt sullivan mr ballas miss amino uh andrea noel dr downey andrew spangler dr huff matthew sullivan dr grandy matthew sullivan mr sullivan has received five votes dr gaudette one vote ms knoll one vote and mr spangler one vote all right um congratulations mr sullivan uh to your appointment and again my deep gratitude to all the other candidates we certainly hope to engage you in many other ways in the district um so thank you very much all right so that takes us to uh audience recognition for response to topics not on
061the agenda this evening as i stated earlier members of the public wishing to address the board have been and continue to be encouraged to call 610-892-3470 extension to leave the recorded comments for the board subject to a three-minute time limit comments left prior to five o'clock today have been transcribed and made available to the board we will acknowledge them at the appropriate time which is now um those comments left after five o'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 uh and ms bachmann i believe we have one comment we do uh we do and it disappeared from my screen as i was getting ready hold on for one if you wouldn't
062mind just one second i think here it is okay one moment okay this is from joe wachman of osborne lane in wallingford pennsylvania and yes this is from my son i'm addressing the board today on the topic of the mass break policy which troubles my peers and me the policy states that students would be permitted to take off their take their masks off for periods uh quote not longer than five to seven minutes and must occur when students are in their seats or outside and at least six feet six feet apart end quote this is a direct contradiction of the wssd health and safety policy which states quote all staff will be required to wear face masks and or shields while on school property in accordance with the secretary of health's order requiring universal face
063coverings issued july 1st 2020 unless they have a limited exception contained in section 3 of the order all students will be required to wear face masks or shields while on school property in accordance with the secretary of health's order requiring universal face coverings issued july 1st 2020 unless they have a medical or mental health condition or disability documented in accordance with section 504 of the rehabilitation act or idea that precludes the wearing of a face covering in school end quote this policy creates an unsafe and hazardous environment for all people on school property as i am planning on enrolling in the hybrid model of learning this policy makes me feel unsafe for the health of my family myself and that of my surrounding community and unless abolished will wholly influence my decision to enroll in
064the online academy instead of the hybrid model i believe everyone should have the right to focus slowly on their education rather than concurrently worrying about threatening the health of those around them and on behalf of my peers and myself i recommend that the school board eliminate the bat the mask break policy vetting the health and safety plan in the secretary of health order requiring universal face coverings issued july 1st this will create a safer learning environment for all staff and students in any wssd building uh thank you kelly um i do i appreciate that that comment being called in and i i actually wanted to to take this moment to actually um express that i have similar concerns um about you know how we're thinking about mass breaks or at least how that how it's
065being implemented um so what i hope is we could ask dr palmer to to look at this issue more closely i don't know if dr palmer you want to comment on it now but i think that you know the goal of masking in the schools has been to make that as universal as possible and i think that that mass breaks are not something we should be doing except in very safe circumstances and so you know safe circumstances to me as an example would be you know taking a group of elementary kids outside and spacing them out and allowing them to take a mask off briefly the idea that having a whole classroom removing their mass for a significant period of time is not something i'm eager to see you know if they're you know i
066i know there will be circumstances where a mass break might be necessary for some reason but i don't think it's something that we should be making a part of standard practice um in how we implement masking policies in the school so um i appreciate the comment and dr palmer i don't know if if you want to comment on it as well i do want to briefly comment on it and i appreciate your bringing the item for us and i'll take it back to the team so we can firm it up but one of the things that we are looking at when we think of a mask break is that it would be an individual child's mask break as opposed to an entire class mask break but because we are getting the questions i think we
067need to firm up more carefully what does it mean because i wouldn't want parents to think it one means one thing and it really does mean something else so let us take it back to the team and we can communicate to our parents and uh to our students so they can make an informed choice what they would like to do and they could understand how safely they'll be able to do it great um i would i would definitely appreciate that because i think it's very hard to have these sort of loose rules and exceptions and have them be not turned into a situation where people are ending up with matt's son for more than they need to and i would much rather start the school year maximizing everything we can around safely and then if
068we determine that we need to create some very narrow situations of mass breaks and have a safe way to do that um i'd rather have that approach than starting the school year with a unclear message i think around asking so thank you for that um okay um before we move on to the next item on the agenda i just want to um let the candidates know you you're welcome to stay on you don't have to stay on but you're welcome to drop off now if you want either one so that takes us to school board reports and this is a time for reports from board members serving on district subcommittees or out of district roles do we have any board members wishing to make a report this evening dave yes um i'm not going to
069make a report from psba tonight but i would add that when that issue that just came up and in the letter from mr walkman is being explored something that we may want to think about doing as a district is turning to some of the schools that we know have either opened hybrid already or who are open five days a week because those schools do exist and from those schools i mean there's there may not be a need to um recreate part of the wheels so to speak i mean from those schools you may learn why why the need for a mask break at all what the challenges are that arise with students of different ages at different levels and why they felt they needed to implement them may learn how they are doing them i
070know that in some sense it may seem productive to do an individual mask break in other senses it may seem more productive to do a five minute very quiet uh distracted type of a mask break rather than have an ongoing i don't have the answers to this but what i will say is that um before sort of setting up our own um sort of in a vacuum research on this there are other schools that are open that may be able to weigh in that i know we have friendly relationships with that could probably fill in some of the gaps for us and then we could make our own individual decision from there that would probably be another really helpful direction to go in sure i don't have a report for my from psba for the
071board at this time thank you okay thank you and uh sounds like there's no other reports unless somebody chimes in right now okay uh do we have any old business dr huff did i see your hand yes you did i just want to raise attention to the fact that the transitions are bringing our elementary students and then the rest of the students back in the hybrid mode over the coming weeks is getting a lot of attention right now uh and rightly so but i do want to remind everyone that's 25 to 30 percent of the students in the district have chosen the online academy and we need to make sure that their education is also getting sufficient attention you any other old business all right do we have any new business kelly um dave i
072just wanted to acknowledge if for folks who may have not been to our new district upgraded district website uh that has now been launched and many hours of work i know went into that and it seems like a miracle version of a website compared to what we had previously so for folks who haven't visited it i really encourage you to do it um much easier to find things much more user friendly i know that there's still some work going on behind the scenes to make it even better but i wanted to acknowledge it and um i think uh deirdre abramson who i know spent many many hours updating that as well i um i think i had one more item oh i guess that's it thank you all right thank you kelly any other new
073business welcome to our new board member welcome and uh that's a question for a solicitor what happens next with seating mr sullivan uh he and i actually have just um exchanged messages where he is going to get himself uh he's going to have the oath administered to him uh probably by making arrangements with uh ms q who is a notary at the district and and has access to the appropriate forms for this and then once he has done that he will be seated he's already been appointed by the board the only thing lacking is a zook okay thank you mr berman and i already have the form ready i'll reach out to you tomorrow all right uh i believe that's all we have so um with that uh thank you to everyone and this meeting
074is adjourned thank you you