001here it goes it's going back okay so we're broadcasting successfully now not yet it's still well it's still moving across the screen here okay let's say we are now dr. Randy okay thank you and good evening I apologize for our delayed start we had some technical hiccups with getting our YouTube broadcast to start but I do now call the June 22nd meeting of the Wallingford swathmore school board to order and 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 this evening by asking our assistant secretary michelle downey to take a roll call of attendees mr. ballasts
002here missiny know your slash present dr. Haas here mr. cutis Roger this is Lance I think mrs. Linse maybe on as an attendee rather than as panelist okay why don't you keep going Michelle and then we'll circle back here she comes home Jen can you hear us here okay Thank You mr. Resetti present mrs. Walkman present dr. grandi present mr. Behrman present superintendent Palmer present all right is that everyone should I do I add the guests no no we have nine voting members this evening Thank You Michelle so we start with a suspension of policies which is a resolution to suspend policy to meet remotely this evening due to the current health crisis and the governor's closure order all members of the Wallingford swathmore School District Board of school directors will be participating remotely however
003the board's policies and posts and require means for remote participation that are inconsistent with the governor's order therefore I move to adopt the attached resolution to suspend do I have a second for this motion second Thank You Jerry Michelle could you please take a roll call vote mr. mr. ballasts present you have to iron a resolution yeah net yay miss Mino aye dr. Huff aye mr. cutest hi mrs. Lintz hi mr. Rosetti aye mrs. Lachman aye dr. grandi aye all right the vote passes nine to zero the suspensions are in place please bear with our hiccups this evening we're getting there so again it is worth repeating that under the procedures we're using for this meeting in which the suspensions now permit members of the public wishing to address the board have been and continue
004to be encouraged to call six one zero eight nine two three four seven zero extension one one zero two to leave the recorded comments for the board subject to a three minutes any comments left prior to five o'clock today been transcribed and made available to the board we will acknowledge them at the appropriate times during the meeting those comments left after five o'clock but prior to the end of this meeting this evening will still be transcribed distribute it to the board and made a part in the record but will not be acknowledged during the meeting so you know I will also mention during this time that we will soon be revisiting our plans for future board meetings but more to come on that so that takes us to the superintendent's report so I'm going to
005turn things over to dr. Palmer for that thank you dr. grandi I have two items that I'd like to focus on this evening and the first one pertains to our agenda included on the agenda tonight is a recommendation for two contracts with the teaching tolerance project we have arranged for five particular trainings for our staff and I'd like to highlight what they are in a perfect world we would not be doing virtual training but we don't know when entities will be able to do on-site training for our staff so three of the trainings that were recommending or virtual and two are hopeful that we'll be able to do them on-site so the teaching tolerance program emphasizes social justice and anti-bias it's a project of the Southern Poverty Law Center and we're proposing to bring the
006systemic training to our school district the Ann Tobias training approach encourages children and young people to challenge prejudice and learn how to be agents of change in their own lives the teaching tolerance social justice standards show how anti-bias education works through four domains and those domains are identity diversity justice and action the first training that we are proposing that the board approved this evening is for 30 elementary school teachers to work as part of the social studies vertical team these teachers will serve as ambassadors to the other elementary team members as we work through our k5 curriculum particularly the training is called unpacking the teaching tolerance sotius social justice standards and this is the first wave of that training and this is going to take place even before the school year starts on August 21st
007it will be online training it will be synchronous training and the objective is for the participants of the training to deepen their understanding of the social justice standards as a way to create and sustain classroom and school environments that honor diversity equity and justice the participants will leave with an understanding of how to authentically incorporate the social justice standards into their daily practice this is a particular training that our staff has been asking for so we're happy to be able to bring this in even before we come back to school this summer the second training is called Let's Talk it's also going to be a virtual training and it's going to be for 30 administrators counselors and/or teachers this is really focusing on that administrative level so that we can use this to underpin the
008other trainings that we'll be doing in our buildings and throughout the district this is the objective of this particular training is to develop skills and confidence in engaging in and facilitating critical conversations about race and other topics it's called let's talk and it's an interactive virtual PJ and the participants will learn strategies for creating supportive learning environments that encourage risk-taking through engaging in conversations about critical topics about race participants will reflect on their own assumptions and biases that can affect their ability to engage in productive conversations this one really is meant to have the administrative counselor training so that it can impact all of the other trainings that we do in our buildings the third training set to take place on November 12th is also a virtual training and it's called addressing in equities at
009school we're still working through our diversity committees and this one really is to target the committee's in the district and the goal of the training is to examine the inequities at a macro level for suits stumbling over my own words for systemic change across the district the two on-site trainings that we are looking at one the requested date of February 12th and we are hopeful that we will be able to do this training on site is for 80 teachers to be trained that day primarily high school and middle school social studies teachers and then we will round that out by other k12 teachers in this particular training participants will explore practical strategies for accomplishing academic and social/emotional goals side-by-side they'll discuss learning conditions that honor all identities and reflect diversity equity and justice and then
010our final training on the requested date of May 11th is called facilitating critical conversations and this interactive workshop on site hopefully will involve 80 members of our staff from administration counselors teachers and perhaps members of the diversity teams so we're looking at a full approach of what we'd like to do with the teaching tolerance folks as one part of the training that we're offering we are still talking to the n-double-a-cp and we are talking to the anti-defamation league but we're not able to bring those proposals through for board approval at this particular meeting but anticipate that more will follow what is making it a little bit difficult is no one knows when they can actually have full staff training on purpose or on in person and it's a little hard to do a full staff
011training via zoom so that's just been a little bit of a wrinkle but we know we can anchor these trainings right now the other piece I wanted to talk about this evening was what we're doing as we look ahead for our return to school for the 2021 school year I know I mentioned in one of my prior reports and dr. Sudhir Ali Jones mentioned that we have an awful lot of work that is taking place this summer very particularly dr. Sudhir Ali Jones talked about the work that the Education Committee is doing but we have two other significant committees that are working right now as well Ferg Abbott is heading up our planning committee and Gina Ross is heading up our infection prevention committee all three committees are looking at what can the fall look
012like for us can we come back with all of our children in session must we come back with an altered schedule where some of our children can come on-site at a given time and some would learn virtually and then perhaps the others that we're learning virtually would come on-site perhaps the next day we are looking at all of those options to see what is feasible but while we are doing that we're looking at all of the guidance that we're getting and I'd like to highlight some of that because there's an awful lot coming in it's almost too much to read but we are getting guidance from the CDC from the Pennsylvania Department of Education Chester County Department of Health Bucks County Department of Health and while we are looking at all of those documents they're
013not in agreement with each other so just today I joined a number of superintendents the department of health's of Bucks County and Chester County one of the doctors from the University of Pennsylvania who specializes in this area and we were talking about what do we do when the reports do not align there are some reports that say we should have six-foot social distancing and at 6-foot social distancing we know we cannot bring everybody back into our buildings some of the reports say three-foot social distancing would be okay we may be able to get all of our children in school but we don't know if that would be the recommended practice to bring everybody in so one of the things we are trying to do is get agreement from all of the entities we'll be jumping
014back on a call with individuals on Monday and I know that's what we're going to focus on again we are really looking for that recommendation is 3-foot social distancing sufficient or do we really need to look at a cohort model where we bring some of our children back at one time and some back at a different time focusing on all children coming back on-site we just have to get that part right and to that end I wanted to tell everybody that we are planning to schedule a special board meeting on July 6th at 7 p.m. in the evening at which time we are anticipating sharing where we are with our return to school for 2021 knowing that everything seems to be subject to change when the next report comes in or the latest update comes
015in but we'd like to give you our latest thinking on July 6th and we'd also like to bring forward for board approval our Master Health and Safety plan for the district as well as our athletics health and safety plan so definitely you will be getting more information from me in the meantime we're also anticipating sending a survey out to parents to get initial perceptions on what are your thoughts about sending your children to school in the fall whether you'll be taking advantage of bus service what are your thoughts and we'd like to have that information prior to the July 6th meeting so we anticipate more correspondence from me and the board meeting on the 6th and dr. grandi that concludes my report thank you dr. Palmer so that takes us to board announcements the Board
016met on June 15th an executive session to discuss negotiations and prior to this meeting to discuss school safety and security I'll also mentioned as dr. Palmer just alluded to the plans for a special board meeting on July 6 at 7 p.m. we also intend to have a brief special board meeting on June 25th this week at 7:00 a.m. to approve the Wallingford swathmore Education Association contract for the upcoming school year and so we would like to proceed with contract approval I also want to take this time during board announcements to share the results of the surveys that were sent out to district parents and staff related to making kovat related changes to the school calendar we will vote on a change later in this meeting but I wanted to share the results now with the
017full board as you may recall this discussion was prompted by our chopped experts that were guests to board meetings ago that presented recommendations about school reopening and as part of those recommendations they encouraged us to look at options to start school earlier the primary reasoning being that kovat rates are projected to be lower in the summer and potentially higher in the fall and winter and of course we will also see other seasonal viruses including influenza in the winter which will potentially create disruptions given the overlap in symptoms with kovat so the goal has been to look at options for moving up the start date for the next academic year and to also consider a longer break during peak flu and cold season to maximize the bricks-and-mortar educational time so I am going to pull up
018some slides and then hopefully not trip over myself trying to share my screen but let me do that in a moment okay I will ask ice-t Damon on my screen Damon can you nod and tell me if you see my slides okay thank you all right we've had enough technical difficulties tonight I didn't need another one so again you know I want to really think our parents and all the district staff that took the time to complete our survey that we sent out and changes to the school calendar you know this this went out to all families in the district as well as staff we had over 1,500 responses from families in the district and over 300 responses from staff and in general you know many of you of course we've seen the survey but
019for families we asked about whether or not in general people were favored or opposed to various start options looking at everything from one week early to four weeks early compared to what the current calendar says and then also extended winter break options as well in addition to potential considerations that family may have families may have around why they favor oppose certain options and then we were interested in hearing from our our teachers of course about what their views of these various options were and what types of hardship could be brought about by moving up the start date of the school year of when we bring kids in the building's so I will jump right to the results so what you see here is all the data for four weeks three weeks two weeks one week
020in terms of moving up the start date and then the last bar over there all the way on the right is an extended winter break then in the colors you see dark green is strongly favorite light greenest favorite gray as neutral yellow as opposed and red as strongly opposed so when we look at starting four weeks early it was about 40% of families were in support of that option and looked at it favorably a little more than 10% were neutral but almost half the people were opposed to that option when we looked at moving things up three weeks we get to about half of our district families saying there favor of that option about 15% were neutral but still a fair amount of opposition to moving up that far so you know just over you
021know 23 24 percent we're strongly opposed and then when you get to two weeks you start to see support increase so now 60% of people find this option to be favorable again somewhere between 15 and 20 percent or neutral and about 15 percent were strongly opposed to that option and it looks somewhat similar in terms of the favorability for one week as well but what you see is the percentage of people who strongly oppose it just over 10 percent starting to diminish there when you move all the way to the right and look at the idea of extending winter break so taking advantage of starting early and using those days to expand winter break overall people are pretty supportive of that so about two-thirds of respondents you know viewed that option favorably you know there's
022another 20-some percent who were neutral and just about 10 percent of people are either opposed or strongly opposed so that gives you a sense of where the parents are in terms of this discussion looking at our responses from staff again this was framed around the extent that this might cause hardship and so certainly we see in red there major hardship you know 75 percent of staff reported starting four weeks earlier would be a major hardship at 3 weeks that drops down to about 55 percent you get down to about a third at 2 weeks and then close to 10% at 1 week and then again the data for extended winter recess looks somewhat similar but even more favorable I would say in terms of staff views so again it's a little over 10 percent felt
023like it would be a major hardship but more than 60 percent of people felt like it was an insignificant level of hardship to make that change so in summary you know I would say support for starting four weeks early was tepid you know again you know I think everyone on this board knows I've been a an advocate of trying to move up our start date but I recognize that you know support for moving up that much both on from the perspective of families as well as teachers is not not terribly high but support does really rise substantially particularly for moving things up two weeks to August 24th and also one week to August 31st there was strong support for an extended winter break and one third of the staff report that starting two weeks early
024though would be a major hardship but when we look at moving up things by one week that really drops off substantially so what you see on the agenda tonight is a proposed calendar that reflects the following the first would be to have students reenter our buildings one week early on August 31st we would try to we would move some professional development days around that we're currently scheduled for August before school starts two other times so that the staff start date is not substantially impacted by making this change so we get the kids in the building a week earlier than planned and our teachers would more or less be in the buildings at the time that they had originally planned for and then by starting one week early it would allow us to do a couple
025of things one is we could take what is currently an interrupted week of Thanksgiving and turn that into a full week of recess and then our winter recess could go from one and a half weeks to two full weeks and you know I think what this allows us to do is have two different periods in the fall where you know we have more prolonged periods with students out of the buildings during periods of higher viral illness and I think from a public health standpoint there could be a lot of compelling reasons to do that to try to break some chains of transmission and again I would just say you know that a lot of as we think about health protocols in the fall we will have to be really vigilant about respiratory symptoms that develop
026in household members and students and you know beyond kovat there will be a lot more kids during that time of year who will have various respiratory illnesses with a lot of overlapping features with kovat and so I you know I think that having these slightly lengthened periods with kids out of the building during those times could potentially be beneficial for us so anyway that's the survey data we will certainly come back to this item further on in the agenda to vote on but I would you know take this time now to invite any board members if you had any specific comments or questions about the survey I will try to try to answer them hang on one second I'm trying to stop my screen share so I can see everyone and [Music] Jen thank you
027Dave is it possible to know how this moving up would impact the sports that typically take place in August or is it too soon dr. Palmer do you have thoughts you could share on that Jen it's a little bit too soon because we're still doing our athletic plan to acclimate our athletes to be able to come back and we're not sure when we'll be able to actually have contact sports starting but I know our students will still go through whatever heat acclimation process these days and training that they're going to have this should not substantially alter that but we don't have definitive plans yet okay and we think that that will still occur those sports for them but we're not sure we're not sure we are really hopeful but we are not sure thank you
028Marylyn so the longer breaks for both Thanksgiving and the winter holidays from the school districts perspective do create an opportunity for infections to dissipate as long as families aren't traveling to locations that have more infections present and then bringing them back to us and so that's something that that family should be aware of and not and not use this change in the calendar as a reason to make travel plans without knowing what the what the infection situation is going to be at those times yeah thank you for that comment I certainly would expect that during this year Travel will be far more limited for families for sure around the holidays obviously we don't know that for sure but you know based on recent travel habits it seems like maybe things will be far more scaled
029back than what we would typically see during a more normal year any other questions or comments before we move on again we'll come back to this okay well thank you so now we move on to our focus topics this evening and so I will ask dr. Palmer to introduce our topics and speakers thank you dr. brandy I had a moment of panic as we were getting ready to introduce this one our it is that time of year when we would highlight our retirees and mr. Abbot texted me that he lost his internet but I'm happy to report that he has it again so it is possible that his you know he may have an issue in between so if it goes out just know that he did have an issue but what we'd like to
030do now is honor our retirees so mr. Abbott will join us virtually to do that thank you dr. Palmer assume everybody can see it we can thank you so each year we take time to honor air mm our retirees and this year we have 20 retirees to honor that is five hundred and twelve years of service one average that is 26 years for each of the 20 retirees we are honoring this evening each of these individuals has brought a wealth of knowledge stability and leadership to our community there are daily interactions with our students whether it be on the playground in your office in the classroom or in passing that greatly influenced our students year after year their reliability and dependability have helped shape our students and community for that combined total of five hundred
031and twelve years normally we'd be able to honor many of our retirees in person however like so many other routines we aren't able to go on in the same manner but it still doesn't mean we can't take just a moment to honor their service to the district so this year we jump right to the class of the fifteen to twenty year old group that's 15 to 20 years of service that is antiphon who came to us in 2002 she started with us in their flus program flus standing for foreign language in the elementary schools she then proceeded to become a world languages teacher at the high school Ralph Harris who's been with us for 18 years since 2003 he joined us in the maintenance staff Candice or Candide Peary has been with us for twenty
032years and came to us in 2001 she has been a health and physical education teacher and a Family and consumer sciences teacher at the high school at the middle school at SRS and the kids place Mary Costello came to us in 2000 she has been a reading specialist both at the middle school and at SRS Armagh Kubiak came to us in 2000 she started off as a kindergarten teacher at the kids place that's tkp and they before going to Wallingford Elementary as a grade level teacher Leslie Taylor who's been with us for 20 years has been an art teacher the entire time at the high school and then Kathleen gemberling she started off as a family and consumer sciences teacher at the middle school she was a split family and consumer sciences teacher and then
033back then as a guidance counselor at the high school she went on to become a strictly a guidance counselor at the high school and then ended up as a counselor at SRS it's quite a group we still have quite a group at the 21 to 25 year section Teresa McGann who's been instructional support for all 20 years at Wallingford elementary John when it's retiring after 21 years came tous in 1999 he's a social studies teacher at the high school for the entire time and I got out a side note that John is retiring is the president of the Wallingford swathmore Education Association and although we look forward to the new leadership John has been a great leader and we'll miss it Jim Hardy who actually retired a while ago but still within the year was
034with us for 22 years first in the maintenance staff and then as our operations supervisors Mary Charlotte otherwise known as MC it's been especially a teacher at SRS for all over 23 years Martha lambertsen came to us in 1997 she's been a media specialist at West that entire time and then Donna and Ear came to us in 1995 started as instructional support at another Providence elementary before becoming a grade-level teacher and spending her entire career another Providence Elementary moving on to our 26 to 30 years of service group it's getting small now Marcie Adams instructional support since 1993 at SRS 27 years in instructional support staff number and then Michelle Ruffo came to us in 1990 as a kindergartener teacher and then became a grade-level teacher at Wallingford elementary and just when you thought the
035group was getting smaller it stays the same with the 31 to 35 year group Steve O'Keefe it's been our communication specialist at the high school for all 33 years Anita D Domenico came to us in 1986 was a special ed teacher at MPD to start she's a reading teacher at SRS and she was a great before becoming a grade level teacher at another Providence Elementary and there we go the 36 to 40 year group we have Teddy Positas who ended her career as a math teacher at the high school she came to us in 1983 and started as a tutor she at one point taught language arts math reading and science at the middle school before becoming strictly man/half at the middle school and then the high school and as a side note was very
036involved in our theater program Kathy Lehr with 38 years she also started out as a tutor at Wallingford Elementary before becoming a grade-level teacher where she spent her entire career at wess and then finally Mark Taylor with 40 years of experience came to us in 1980 and this could be the last of our individuals that wok worked at swathmore high school she started there as a social studies teacher before becoming a social studies teacher at the high school he then went back to then SRS the K to 8 building where he was a Dean and a guidance counselor so a Dean a student and the guidance counselor I think that's an oxymoron before becoming a guidance counselor rotating between the middle school and the high school with numerous positions as a coach and there does
037it that's 20/20 retirees this year it's quite a large group we wish them well we honor them if it is been done in person they would be receiving their plaque but if you're listening tonight that plaques in the mail as I said they'll be coming soon thank you dr. Palmer thank you Mr Abbott and on behalf of all of us thank you to all of our retirees for their exceptional commitment to our children and our families we are truly honored to have them as a special part of our W SSD family thank you and I would just add again deep appreciation for all those individuals that Ferb just recognized I think it's always a very special time of year when we sit in person at our board meetings to see Ferg make some of our
038longest standing faculty and staff blush in person as he gives them their plaques but we will miss all of you and again we're deeply thankful for all that you've done for the difference dr. Palmer you want to introduce there our next topic I do and as I am ready to introduce this one I thought I'm going to just define what a budget is so a budget is an estimate of an expected income and expense for a given period in the future and what that given period is is really subject to interpretation one minute after the next Martha q our business administrator is going to be presenting our final budget this evening what we are recommending that the board will approve and when I say given period in the future I have never talked so much
039about the budget because every time our than I speak there are new conditions that are emerging a different Road we can go down a different thought that we might have for next year and all while she has to calculate every assumption that we're making so this truly has been a budget that has just been unprecedented often when she is presenting we are struck with how uncertain our revenues are this year it's quite the opposite what we're most uncertain about is what our expenditures will be so it really is quite the challenge to do the budget this year and on behalf of the board on behalf of the administration Martha thank you to your and your team for being able to do every iteration that we needed to get us to this point to be able
040to present the final budget to the board so you can take it away when you're ready thank you dr. Palmer hopefully you can see my screen as I said back in May this is a financial time unlike any other there are still so many unknowns at this point my crystal bow and I aren't on speaking terms anymore no one has experienced anything like the current situation and I doubt we will fully understand the ramifications of kovat 19 effects until we're far into the 2021 school year and possibly beyond literally the school education landscape is changing daily as dr. Palmer and in her earlier remarks there are so many unknowns and the answers are still elusive it is in this environment that the final budget for 2021 is being presented the school administration has tried to
041anticipate as many issues as possible but there are only so many paths that can be followed before each one becomes fraught with uncertainty which causes an inability to provide any semblance of reliability we have examined research trended contrast and compared the district revenues in an effort to provide the best forecast for the 2021 revenue picture that is possible given the current circumstances local revenues make up just short of 77% of the revenue budget included in local revenues our property taxes per capita taxes transfer taxes interest earnings facility rentals and miscellaneous revenues state revenues make up just over 19% of the revenue stream and include the basic aid subsidy special education subsidy transportation subsidy what is called the rental sinking fund which is better known as plan con or the debt service reimbursement Social Security and
042Peters reimbursement and the property tax reduction allocation the state approved a five month budget in May for 2021 however they fully funded education at the 1920 rates for all 12 months federal reserve's are less than one-half of 1% on are made up of the title 1 title 2 and title 4 programs please remember that back in January I asked the taxpayers to reach out to our legislators to help reduce the reliance on taxpayers to fund school districts at that time I noticed I noted that the Pennsylvania is 44th out of 50 states in funding public education and seventh on relying on local dollars to fund public education as you can see this pattern continues as I noted a moment ago the state has approved public education funding the coming year but at the 1920 funding
043rate the 2021 budget will rely heavily on the fund balance to balance this budget by depending upon over 30 million dollars to come from that source to close the structural deficit I hope I said three million dollars it is remarkable that in January I presented a budget with a structural deficit of only nine hundred and sixteen thousand dollars when these few short months later this budget is now depending upon almost three point five percent of its revenue stream to come from the general fund fund balance as far as expenditures expenditures have undergone scrutiny both in looking at potential cost savings or what would call cost avoidance and trying to anticipate for additional cost items never anticipated for a school district budget approximately 42% of the total expenditure budget is for salaries and benefits make up
044another twenty-eight percent for approximately seven percent seventy percent of the total budget purchase services which includes professional services things like therapists consultants legal counsel contractors tuition to specialized schools the Intermediate Unit program costs payments to community college repairs leases such as copiers and insurance represents just over 17 percent of the budget principal interest and fees make up just under ten percent of the budget fees includes items like membership fees licenses certifications supplies are textbooks small equipment utilities instructional and non-instructional supplies and software this is just over three percent of our budget the budgetary reserve which is money set aside for unanticipated expenditures that occur during the school year represents less than one-half of one percent of the total budget as to the unanticipated nature of items just look at how 1920 school year ended districts
045had to pivot to an online educational model from a fully in-house model in two short weeks technology bought both in the form of Chromebooks and hotspots needed to be supplied to the students and educational platforms including seesaw zoom Google classroom had to be acquired PPE or personal protective equipment has become a district requirement when before March most people could not have told you what PPE meant the act 1 index for 2021 is 2.6 percent 2.6 percent represents basically 1.6 million dollars at a 97 percent tax collection rate the district is a little eligible for one exception and it is for expenditures previously incurred and borne by the district based on a comparison of special education expenditures from 2017 2018 to the 2018 19 year this exception will provide approximately five hundred and twenty nine thousand
046dollars again at a 97% collection rate please remember even with this tax increase we are still depending upon the district's general fund fund balance for over three million dollars to balance this budget as I said in the beginning of this presentation this budget is made during unprecedented times there are no guidelines that outline how to develop a budget under the current environment there are so many unknowns as to how to plan for this budget in so many areas where we cannot begin to understand the effect this environment will have on district revenues or expenditure needs as we proceed into 2021 I do want to bring up two other things that we are doing each year the state authorizes property tax reduction allocations that are passed on to eligible homeowners through what is called the homestead
047farmstead eligibility the eligible homeowner will see a reduction in assessed value on our tax bill this year the state authorized an amount similar to the 19 20 year balance this amount is then divided over the eligible homeowners in the district so when you look at ours we have five thousand fifteen eligible homeowners this will result in as an assessed value reduction of seven thousand five hundred and seventy nine dollars or approximately three hundred and sixty six dollars in tax reduction another thing that we're considering and is on the board for approval of board agenda for approval for the 2021 school year the board is taking into consideration the unprecedented action of adjusting both the tax payment periods and the installment periods currently the real estate taxes are due by August 31 to obtain the discount
048of 2% and the standard or face amounts are due by October 31 to avoid the 10% penalty for 2021 this would be changed to a September 15th due date to take advantage of the discount and a November 30th due date to avoid the penalty for taxpayers that pay by installments the first payment is currently due by August 31st the second by october 15th and the final by november 30th for 2021 these would be changed to september 10th for the first period November 20th for the second and January 29th for that final payment 1920 was a year of great upheaval and school districts had to move their educational response to a totally different learning model in two weeks time 20 or 21 at this point is a year of unknowns we are entering into a summer
049and we are working on student and staff safety reopening models creative classroom structures transportation cereno scenarios food service functions and so much more we are presenting a budget with a three million dollar structural deficit and we were presenting it in a time of great unknowns however we however we do have something that is known and will be utilized to the district's benefit the state and federal government has allocated grant money in an effort to offset some costs for the coming year we'll be using this money to pay for help or help pay for some of the one-to-one computers as well as some of the PPE needs so thank you to the state and federal government for that support however we cannot forget what we started with our preliminary budget when I presented the preliminary budget
050I asked the tax payers reach out to the legislators to ask them to do their part in funding school districts I make this request again as you saw with the earlier slide our tax payers are doing their part to support this district as our local revenues make up 77% of the district revenue stream it's time for the state and federal government to do their part the the state is only responsible for less than 20% of the district revenue and the federal government is responsible for basically 1/3 of 1% of the district revenue the representatives and Senators listen to their constituents and the more contacts they they receive on an issue the more they recognize that this issue is important and must be addressed we are all doing our part now it's time for them to
051do their part any questions thank you miss Q I see some hands going up I will just make a quick comment which is you know I think the point that you raised during these times like help is needed and you know I know that there have been discussions in Washington about whether or not more our federal help could be sent down to states and school districts and directly to school districts and you know the state of Pennsylvania is also facing a gigantic you know budget hole right now and really the federal government that that can be and should be in a position to step up to help school districts because with issues that we're facing are being faced by school districts all around Pennsylvania and and all around the country the first hand I saw
052up with Kelly I missed you thank you for the the presentation I I know that the impact to our taxpayers of a budget like this is difficult at best many many folks are feeling the impact directly through loss of employment or other challenges that they're facing as well and I wondered I know that I have heard I should say comments on that you see in different different places where folks who think that are expenses or school district expenses must have gone down substantially during a period in which we were not in face-to-face instruction I know we've had conversations about what kind of things actually have to continue despite being closed we've talked about things like gas and the fact that gas purchases are locked in well before this period for example or also things like
053investment income and the impact that the downturn the economy's had an investment income could you comment a little bit on the that what I would climb is perception that exists in some parts of the community about how much expenses for school districts went down during a period of not in face-to-face instruction or even if they went down at all we're able to even tell that yeah sure I have no problem with making comments first off when this happened in the legislation went through districts were required to fully pay all of our staff through the end of June or the end of the school year depending upon what their function was and so salaries and benefits wise there is no change and again that's seventy percent of my budget you mentioned gasoline we literally lock in
054our gasoline purchases basically a year before the year happens so even though our buses aren't on the road we had to buy that gas because we were committed to buy those gallons and what we did do to try to offset some of this as we literally went out on the market and sold the difference in the gas that we you know we do we don't have tanks to store that many gallons on our property nor what do we want to the problem is gas prices were extremely down at that point so we really didn't save anything in gas by having to sell the gas off we've certainly saved some money in substitute teachers you know when you're in school in the bricks and mortar time if a teacher is out you would have a substitute
055teacher yes we continued with the substitute teachers that were in for long term periods but we really didn't have those daily subs that you would have normally when you are in a face-to-face circumstance my projections at this point for the end of the nineteen twenty year remember that budget started with an over an eight hundred thousand dollar structural deficits that start with right now my projections are basically a $700,000 structural deficit so there really isn't a significant difference between the two budgets let me know if you have any other questions on that the other hand I see up is Jim lens yeah Jen one you go ahead hi miss cue when you give the approximate three million dollar deficit in your presentation does that already include an account for the state money or would that
056offset that figure are you talking about the grant money yes um neither the expense nor the grant is in that budget because it's a direct one-to-one dollar match so if we were given $100 I have to spend $100 so that three million dollars deficit isn't affected by the grant at all because quite honestly it is a direct one-to-one match okay thank you any other board questions miss Q are you hearing any optimism about any federal relief or is there no further news on that front I have not heard any optimism from the federal government at all okay thank you well I don't see any other questions so thank you very much miss Q for the presentation so that takes us to audience recognition for response to items for action on the agenda this evening as
057I stated earlier members of the public wishing to address the board happen and continue to be encouraged to call six one zero eight nine two three four seven zero extension one one zero two you're to leave the recorded comments for the board subject to a three minute time limit any comments left prior to five o'clock today have been transcribed and made available to the board and we will acknowledge comments left that are related to items on the agenda at this time any comments left after five o'clock but prior to end of the meeting will still be transcribed distribute to the board and made a part of the record but will not be acknowledged during the meeting this evening I'm going to ask Kelly I think we do have one public comment for an item on
058the agenda this evening that is correct and this is pertaining to the school schedule the calendar for the year and this is a comment from Ben Hall on Church Road in Wallingford and mr. Hall stated the following my name is Ben Hall I live on Church Road and Wallingford this message is to share public comment for the June 22nd board meeting on the topic of scheduling and calendaring and the possibility of starting classes early for the 2020 one calendar year and potentially expen extending winter break as well so here's the viewpoint on this from a to worker household of a soon-to-be 1st and 5th graders my view is that we should absolutely start at least one week early at a minimum two weeks early is good also we're on that in the moment three weeks
059early I supposed to be ok I think if you start creeping 4 weeks early in starting school before August 15th I feel pretty strongly that's probably a bridge too far now with that said while this is being discussed I'd also like to pile on an opportunity to say our district simply stated starts the school year too late period even under normal circumstances or said differently even if there was no such thing as coronavirus we should still be starting school at least a week earlier maybe even two weeks earlier I know this has been a topic of some discussion and I know it's been met with some resistance both because of historical inertia and let's face it we live in a reasonably affluent area of dough our county relatively speaking and so we have I'm sure
060plenty of folks with Shore homes where they want to retreat right up to Labor Day where they might have stay-at-home parents to watch kids but for those of us who don't have Shore houses and have two workers outside the home we end up in a real pickle every year for those last two weeks in August for childcare because clamp camps closed off mid August when the counselors who are their high schoolers who are going back to sports music college kids who start on earlier academic schedule calendars either way the camp's closed were inevitably left with two weeks where we have a real problem for childcare and figuring out arrangements this starting a week or two early is something we should be doing even irrespective of coronavirus and this year perhaps isn't good excuse to take
061it for a test drive similar theme on the ideas of problems with child care and extending winter break to be longer this creates a real childcare problem for a to work or household like ours so I would strongly oppose that as well and then finally my last comment is that whatever the game plan is going to be obviously there's merit making the decision not in a new haste but certainly not dragging it out either because there's going to be folks who need to make adjustments to any there would be summer plans that they may have already had on the books thank you for your consideration and that ends the comments for items on the common calendar or sorry on the agenda this evening Thank You Kelly and so I I do anticipate and do hope
062that we come to some final decision this evening related to the calendar so that takes us to the minutes are our first item for action is the modification of the minutes of the meeting of May 26 2020 that were approved on June 8th 2020 and specifically item 10 point I to reflect the election of mr. Lawrence cutis as board treasurer rather than his appointment to that position and also minutes from the June 6 regular business meeting and I so move do we have a second second mrs. Welman Kelly Watson Thank You Kelly any discussion all right Michelle could you take a roll call vote please sure miss Cimino eye doctor huh hi mister cutest this is Glenn hi mr. Norris Eddie I mrs. Walkman mr. balik all right dr. grandi hi and then Michelle I'm
063realizing you have to call yourself so I have to call him myself okay yes you should vote I mean I did though I just didn't vote round okay daddy you simply need to indicate what your vote is okay I mean you vote aye okay so the vote carries nine to zero thank you so that takes us to personnel we have 19 items for action and personnel are there any on the listen anyone would like to separate from the rest okay bear with me it's a long list we have the approval of three resignations Brian pick Nally at the middle school Darlene Clingerman the administrative assistant to the superintendent and Elizabeth McCampbell instructional support the high school with the approval of two appointments with dates as described in the agenda Christopher Conlon emotional support special education
064teacher at West Megan Leske a life skills special ed teacher at the high school we have the approval of the resignation of the board secretary effective June 21st we have the approval of two changes of assignment as described in the agenda we have the election of Mary Figueroa effective June 22nd to complete the current term of boards secretary ending June 30th 2021 with a stipend attached to that position this election is pursuant to section four zero four of the Pennsylvania school code we have the approval of the employment contract for the director of Human Resources effective July 1 2020 through June 30th 2022 we've the approval of amendment 1 to the 2017 through 2021 at 93 compensation plan we have the approval of amendment 1 to the 2017 through 2021 exempt supervisory employment compensation plan
065with the approval of all neither Providence elementary school swathmore relics cool and Wallingford elementary school certificated teaching professionals non teaching professionals and instructional support staff to work on the positive behavior interventions and support strategies and curriculum at the rate of 37 dollars per hour for teaching and non-teaching professionals and their hourly rate for instructional support staff not to exceed 225 hours total for all schools for the 2020 2021 school year we have the approval of all school psychologists for additional workdays at their per diem rate not to exceed a hundred days total during the 2020 summer with the approval of all school counselors for additional workdays at their per diem rate not to exceed 5 days each with ten days for the K through 12 counselor department chairperson during the 2020s summer we have the
066approval of all special education teaching professionals for development of individual education plans at the rate of 37 dollars per hour not to exceed 90 hours total during the 2020 summer we have the approval of all special education and teaching professionals to work on curriculum development at the rate of 37 dollars per hour not to exceed 80 our 80 hours total during the 2020 Center we have the approval of Rebecca chuan to work on curriculum development at the rate of 37 dollars per hour not to exceed 80 hours total during the 2020 summer we have the approval of the social worker and home and school visitor for additional work days at their per diem rate not to exceed 12 days each during the 2020 Summer with the approval of all speech and language therapists for additional
067workdays at their per diem rate not to exceed 25 days total during the 2020 Summer the approval of all school nurses for additional workdays at their per diem or per hour rate not to exceed 50 days total during the 2020 Summer we have the approval of payment to additional staff for flex time earned during the 2019 2020 school year at the rate of thirty seven dollars per hour as stipulated with the approval of the 2020 2021 appointment and stipend for Christopher Matt Sanka as district testing coordinator as stipulated all of these items in the section er has attached or described in the agenda do I have a motion so lose your balance thank you again ii Marilyn huff Thank You Marilyn any discussion I had one question okay I have Kelly the the curriculum development
068work dr. Palmer I'm I'm not remembering whether that is directly related to some of the work that we've been talking about with respect to our diversity equity inclusion work can you come in on that um miss walkman are you protect are referring to a particular agenda item this evening or just in general are there any I'm specifically looking at item M as in Murray for the curriculum development summer work and whether that's related or unrelated to looking at the the curriculum from the diversity equity and inclusion perspective I believe this was work that was already underway I believe what we will do is bring additional hours forward for the other work that we want done I'm not 100% sure but I don't believe this pertains to it okay all right thank you any other discussion
069okay Michelle can you please take a roll call vote I vote aye dr. Huff aye mr. cutest hi this is Len aye mr. or steady ah this is walkman aye mr. Bhalla uh miss Mimi no I dr. brandy I'm the items past nine to zero all right dr. Palmer did you have another comment you wanted to me I do thank you dr. brandy mrs. Walkman I now can answer you definitively motion M was for our special educators and they are working on very particular curriculum development so no we will be bringing additional items forward to you not regarding this or initiative for the diversity inclusion and equity okay thank you okay that takes us to policy we have two sets of items would anyone like any separated from the rest okay first we have the
070approval of the third reading of the four policies approved in there previously in their first and second readings zero zero three zero zero six zero zero six point one and zero zero eight the policy changes are all indicated in the attachments and they will become final after today which again represents the third and final reading and vote we also have the approval of the adoption of the intermediate units policies and procedures under the federal requirements of 34 CFR 300 point one five one through three hundred point six zero eight for the 2020 2021 school year and these items again are is attached do I have a motion so moved Marilyn huff Thank You Marilyn do we have a second jeez Thank You Larry any discussion okay Michelle can we get another roll call vote please
071dr. Huff aye this is the cutest this is when I miss drawers Eddie I this is walkman hi mr. ballast Oh miss Serena aye aye for me and dr. Grandon hi okay the items past nine to zero we move on to curriculum we have five items for action than curriculum were there any items on the list anyone would like to separate from the rest okay firstly the approval of the 2020 2021 school year related services provider contracts as provided we have the approval of the 2020 esy and 2020 2021 school year tuition contracts as stipulated with the approval of the Southern Poverty Law Center MOU not to exceed $1,500 for a professional development program during August in November through their teaching tolerance project we have the approval of the Southern Poverty Law Center MOU not
072to exceed $5,000 for further professional development during February in May and finally we have the approval of the revised 2020 2021 school year calendar as described in the attachment and again to summarize those changes the teachers started on this revised calendar is August 24th the first day for students in the buildings is Monday August 31st this includes an extended November break for students for a full week around the Thanksgiving holiday and includes around the December break for students and staff the two full weeks of winter recess again all of these things are as a tester describing the agenda do I have a motion so moved is that Marilyn oh sorry Chapin or Chapin thank you James do we have a second second jury bells Thank You Jerry any discussion I would I damar said yep
073moving it forward a week is good I would have preferred two weeks earlier and I'm a little disappointed we couldn't get that done but I think one week forward is definitely improvement yeah my question is it looked to me from the stats that parents were evenly divided I mean not evenly divided we're dead even on one week or two so there was no more preference from parents or less about one or two weeks which sort of leans in favor of two but that the teachers and staff were much more I should say much less in favor there was a definite difference there more hardship and I'm wondering if anybody could would care to summarize some of the comments that we read in the qualitative sections where we asked for comments on the teachers and staff
074about why to give the public a sense of why so many more of them would have preferred one week than two which I assume is part of what the decision-making process was since parents were even but the teachers were more hesitant to come back with - yeah it's hard I read through all of them and as dr. Palmer and I know some board members as well you know it's it's hard to fully capture everything in several hundred comments but I guess I would say you know there was some themes in there related to you know wanting to maximize prep time you know for the upcoming year I guess both as an individual level but all so wanting to make sure that the district had had adequate time to to get ready for the school year
075so I would say that that that was one category there was definitely you know some concerns raised by teachers who you know had made other arrangements for the summer already based on the existing calendar you know and didn't want to see a major change made and I think in many cases you know I think the fact that you know the you know there was much less hardship reported at one week probably reflects some of that that planning those were those are a couple of the big areas you know there was certainly lots of very particular you know concerns raised that weren't necessarily widely represented but you know I think those were two that caught my attention dr. Palmer did you have any additional comments dr. grandi I think they are the largest two that we
076had many of the other ones were a few people thought this or that but they are the largest Chapin does that help yeah I mean that squares with mine I read through them all - I just thought it would be helpful to let the public in you know since those weren't captured all this qualitative responses and reasons and understanding why you know if it was even for the parents why did we go with one instead of two yeah no and I you know as Damon said earlier I think all of you know where my my heart is on this issue which I would like you know try to move things up as much as possible but I think just trying to balance you know the views and concerns of as many people as possible you
077know I would have hoped maybe to go to two weeks but I think again just trying to balance all the all the views and interests of everyone involved and implicated in this decision you know I'm okay with with changing things for one week I recognized that in any other year it would be highly unusual to revisit the school calendar in June but these are highly unusual times as well any other discussion okay Michelle can you take a roll call vote please Michelle yep mr. cutest hi this is Len hi minotaurs Betty I this is walkman I mr. Bala oh this to me no I i from me dr. Haas hi dr. grandi hi items past nine to zero we move on to finance where we have 16 items for approval are there any items in
078the list anyone would like to separate from the rest okay so first we have the approval of payment of invoices to vendors dated May 16th through June 12 2020 is attached we have the approval of a consulting agreement with Ken Doris technologies LLC for 24 25 hours of network support for 2020 2021 school year we have the approval of a consulting agreement with Ken Doris technologies LLC for 16 hours of on-site network support for the 2020 2021 school year with the approval of the 2020 2021 light speed renewal with Integra one at a cost not to exceed eighteen thousand seven hundred fifty nine dollars we have the approval of the 2020 2021 papercut renewal with Rika what it cost not to exceed two thousand five hundred dollars with the approval of an order with zoom
079video communications for zoom hosting services at a rate of fifty dollars per host we have the approval of the insurance proposals as listed in the agenda from Arthur J Gallagher Risk Management Services Incorporated for the twenty twenty twenty one school year with the approval of the lease agreement between Wallingford swathmore school district and Trinity a cooperative Day Nursery to occupy a portion of the spot more relative school is stipulated with the approval of the facility usage and rental agreement between Wallingford swathmore school district and Trinity cooperative Day Nursery to occupy a portion of another Providence elementary school is stipulated the approval of the resetting of fund balance commitment levels as described in the agenda we have the adoption of the 2020 2021 final general fund operating budget in the amount of 87 million two hundred
080and twenty six thousand nine hundred ninety dollars funded by the following taxes forty eight point three six five four mills and other Providence Rose Valley forty eight point eight one two one milliwatt more rutledge the zero point five percent real estate transfer tax $10 per capita context for another providence township $15 per capita tax but Rose Valley Rutledge and swathmore burns we have the approval of the 2020 2021 homestead for instead exclusion resolution as authorized under provisions of the homestead property exclusion program act part of act 50 of 1998 and the Taxpayer Relief Act act 1 of 2006 we have the approval of the resolution for the schedule of payment of real estate taxes for the 2020 2021 school year we have the approval of the service agreement with the Chester County Intermediate Unit for
081one technology support generalists at the rate of two thousand eight hundred dollars per week based on forty hours per week we have the approval of an independent contractor agreement with Georgia Abramson to serve as the communications specialist for the 2020 2021 school year is stipulated and we have the approval of the district to continue to use the existing signature stamp for the board secretary until a new one is received the new signature stamp will reflect the name of the new board secretary all of these items are as attached or described in the agenda do I have a motion so moved Kelly Wagner thank you Kelly do we have a second second Lawrence Hughes Thank You Larry any discussion all right Michelle can we take a roll call vote mrs. Glenn hi mr. Horace Eddie I
082mrs. Bachmann I missed a ballast or missing me either I I from me dr. Haas I miss the cutest hi dr. grandi hi all right the items pass nine to zero so that takes us to audience recognition for response to topics not on the agenda as I mentioned earlier members of the public wishing to address the board have been in continuing courage to call 1608 nine two three four seven zero extension one one zero two to leave their recorded comments with the board subject to a three minute time limit the comments left card if I look like today have been transcribed and made available to the board you will acknowledge at this time comments that are made for items not on the agenda again any comments left after five o'clock will so be transcribed I
083found a plaque but before the end of the meeting would still be transcribed distributed to the board and made a part of the record it will not be acknowledged during the meeting Kelly I believe we'd have at least one other comment right correct we have one other comment and this comes from William Foster Strathewen Avenue and swathmore and his comment pertains to the plan for reopening schools and he has two comments any states though it's deeply fatiguing we need to keep aware of the seriousness of the pandemic we take risks every day in our lives but the risks from the virus are greater than those we are typically willing to take so the current best science is about 0.5 to 0.7 percent of people infected die additionally and other serious potentially lasting effects occur with
084strokes and damage to lungs and heart but focusing just on death and affection fatality rate of 0.5% or 500 deaths per hundred thousand that is significant by comparison something many of us think is dangerous jumping out of an airplane with a parachute historically has about one death per hundred thousand normally none of us would ask our population to jump out of a plane once much less about five hundred times a comparison closer to home is what we have done to save lives and respect to car crashes prior to the seatbelt laws airbags child cares child to car seats age restriction and driver education driving under the influence laws crash test standards we lost about 26 people per hundred thousand of our population yearly with all those interventions and others in road design and speed limits
085we reduced the 26 deaths per hundred thousand to about 11 deaths per hundred thousand of population each year per year that's a lot of effort over decades to say 15 lives per hundred thousand per year but I think most of us think that wearing seatbelts and using airbags was worthwhile so 500 to 700 lives lost 400,000 with the virus the fatality of risk is so much higher than that mitigated by seatbelts and airbags for etc what this means is thinking through math and school openings and whether wind instruments and music rooms and lunch rooms and bus routes have capacity it's all really important secondly I think the focus of school reopening should be on building relationships between students and their new teachers whether one-on-one by computer or five at a time in person for some
086time for a few days outside somehow students and teachers need to know each other so that they can build a basis for subsequent online learning during the next school year and that concludes his comment all right Thank You Kelly I appreciate that comment you know I think I'll just take this moment to say that you know I think that as we move to a different phase to some extent around the restrictions that are in place in in our area in our county and we all feel the effects of being pent up for so long and I know people want to get out of their homes and start to live a more normal life but I think that comment you know reminds us of some of the risks and I guess my public health service announcement
087would be to continue to encourage people to socially distance and wear masks because it can make a big difference and we want to keep the county in a good place so that the risk of bringing kids back to school is low and so if the county ends up in a in a worse place over the next couple of months by people substantially modifying their behaviors that may put us in a in a weaker position to be able to get kids back in the building so that takes us to old businesses do we have any old business today okay do we have any new business okay thank you this meeting is adjourned you