001e good evening I would like to call the March 25th 2024 meeting of the Westchester Area School Board to order first tonight we welcome two students from Fernhill element ele Ella corso and Sheamus voice along with their principal Dr Jenny sou you'd like to come on up and lead us in plge of [Applause] Allegiance to flag of the United States of America and to the republ for stands Nation indivisible andice now Sheamus and Ella have a little bit to tell us about F Hill and The Bobs good evening my name is Sheamus Boyce and and we're both fifth graders from fill Elementary School we're so excited to share with you what makes fill such a special place for us to go to school if you haven't been to fill leave what you to picture a
002day in our life throughout a school day you might find us working in our brand new outdoor Garden our second graders are learning all about plants and our growing vegetables that they will harvest and taste later this spring during our own Farm to Table experience with additional crops donated to the local food bank you might also see Bobcats learning in our new outdoor class shaded TBL outside our art room where our class can go to write poetry or read when we're not outside learning you'll find our fourth and fifth grade classrooms have all new flexible seaing where we get to choose between high top tables floor tables wobble chairs and standing BS the best part is our classrooms have vertical whiteboards everywhere and our tables could be written on so we can show our work
003no matter where we are in the classroom when we're not in our CL our B cats love to be active one of our favorite events from this fall was our B cat Bow which challenged classes to run the most number of BLS around our or our black top coming up this spring we will do our unite for herall which supports local people in our community we also will be supporting the American Heart Association with our jump R for heart event on April 3rd during Mr ult's time as the Fernhill PE teacher we've raised over $300,000 for this Foundation we also have an after school sports program and I participate in Our Girls on the Run program where we're training for 5K well Ella has been outside running I've been diving into our arts program just
004last week I represented Veron Hill at the districtwide honors orchestra concert at East High School soon we'll hold our Spring Concert Series that include a band Orchestra and chor groups who will showcase all the skills and music they've been working on this year in art my fifth grade classmates and I just finished our yearbook cover submissions and we will be be voting on The Winning cover soon one of the best parts about Fern Hill is that we celebrate all the things that make us a unique make us unique and make us a stronger School Community last month we held the Black History Month Museum where all students shared presentations on influential people we research on Friday we just hosted Senator K and other influential at our women's career fair in honors of women's history month
005coming up next month FR Hill will rally together in R to celebrate autism acceptance month as we are school who is proud of our autistic support program as the weather is getting warmer our eyes are set on the exciting things coming up this spring this week we have the spring book fair and parent teacher conferences later in April we we will have the Spring Carnival which is games prizes including being princip for the day this is special for us as it's our fifth grade year so we're extra excited about the fifth grade special events like the districtwide fifth grade field trip to Camp Arrowhead a field trip to the Constitution Center hosting Field Day for younger students running the District track meet and ending our fifth grade year with the favorite traditional Capture the Flag
006against the fourth graders and the staff versus fifth grade student kickb game thank you for opportunity to share why we love love for thank you very much Ella and Sheamus you sound very very busy over at burnhill elementary and did you coordinate your shirts tonight no I thought maybe it was the school color that you were wearing if you can come back up for a minute Dr Christopher and I are going to come and present you with certificates and get a photo to say we're going to practice like you're graduating shake my hand and I'll you this and then we'll phot and stay here do a group one too sh this and then here will get a photo with your principal and [Applause] Dr uh we have no special announcements this evening next on the
007agenda Miss Cher sure do vce here director Chester here director Christie here Director D here director jell here president here director director Herman here director here J here here not be here with us tonight we have okay now is time for public comment do we have any public comment on agenda items thank you president Fleming no we do not we will have no public commentary this evening okay thank you uh now we'll move on to approval of the minutes from the February 26th board meeting May I have a motion to approve the minutes for the February 26th 2024 school board meeting uh director Christie can I have a second director dri there any questions or comment seeing none uh we'll vote all those in favor say I I any Nay it's unanimous I do have
008an executive announ executive session announcement we did meet tonight uh before this board meeting on a legal matter in executive session we'll move on to approving the March 25th agenda I don't believe we have any amendments to the agenda we have a motion to approve the March 25th 2024 agenda vice president Baka do I have a second director Daryl director dnell do we have any questions or comments no okay uh seeing none all those in favor of approving the agenda for tonight say I I I opposed okay motion carries and we'll move on to Dr Christopher's monthly report good evening everyone I was offered a canoli if I made this short not sure I can do this I quite a few good things that are happening I really enjoyed being in our buildings here a
009lot the last several weeks it was actually at Henderson today hence the garnet suit like you know don't call it weich you the it's actually I was actually in your in your Orchestra class today I think while you were playing you didn't see me I was in the back yeah that sounds creepy sorry a little yeah was in your Orchestra class so I'm sure all of you know uh March's women's history month and music and art schools month I know director Chester is going to be sharing a bit about one of our excellent women women's history month events at Fern Hill so I'll let her do that a little bit later in the meeting uh it's uh it's really been an enjoyable month to see lots of things going on in our classes and in
010our schools and the way that you know our students and teachers are honoring you know influential women uh in our buildings has been has been fun for me to see uh this month is also music in our school's month and we've certainly had uh a musical and celebratory month we had incredible Productions of The Adams Family rent Hello Dolly and most recently mared Poppins at both Stenson and fuga middle schools we had lots of really positive things about both those Middle School performances as well as some tremendous pmea achievements including that five All State chorus selections from Henderson High School so five students in allate corus from Henderson which is pretty amazing for one one high school it's very clear why uh our school district continues to be recognized as an outstanding Arts and Music
011Community it's also been my pleasure and it's my pleasure this evening to congratulate East High School's academic competition students and their teachers for placing first in Chester County academic Regional competition this is the second year in a row that e students have beaten the competition which was an impress of 23 teams this year to earn that honor and represent Chester County at the pennslvania State academic competition very proud of this team for not only their victory in the competition but also teamwork and sportsmanship they displayed throughout uh e students have also been doing exceptionally well in recent coding and programming competitions uh talented girls of East High School secured first place at girls hackathon which was also an impressive win uh in a competition that was organized by Laur Marian High School the team presented
012a meticulously designed and build project earning five programmable drones from the sus International Group on the mainline so they actually won those drones and they'll have them in East I look forward to seeing them play through the hallways no Jacob no decision East also hosted an exhilarating competition Drew 161 programming students from 16 schools across the region to compet to compete at Westchester University together teams tackled 19 challenging tasks impressing both the computer science department of Westchester University and comp the competition sponsor which was venerable in the comp competitive Arena students from D McCormack's class sword securing fourth and fif fifth place in the introductory competition out of 161 kids we had kids in fourth and fifth place which is pretty awesome this past week I was also at East and had the opportunity to
013talk to the BSU there uh about our plans for diversity equity and inclusion moving forward in Westchester I had I think about 45 students who came to meet with me during the lunch and learn and I was able to answer their questions and talk through lots of different ideas that we have and get some feedback from them which was positive uh we also met with our district G League leadership team this week and are continuing our work uh on the items identified as part of the root cause analysis we're planning to present this work now at the May board meeting I we initially said April but after discussing that with them they would really like the extra month to actually put some things in place and do some of the work so we'll be presenting
014at the May board meeting they also have another meeting prior to that which would be helpful I do want to take a moment and thank many of our cabinet members John Skully was selling lots of things uh lots of the other folks here and a lot of our family staff and volunteers who were at the Westchester Education Foundation uh Harlem Wizards event uh which benefits students in our district through the Westchester area Education Foundation it was a very fun evening excitement was very palpable we raised $30,000 for our students and staff for that event uh Dr Reynolds and I were the officials we were the refs I I think together we might have blown our whistle once uh I do believe that we clapped 77,000 times like there was a lot of I was sore
015from clapping when I got home uh but it was a great event we had a lot of fun uh we had a lot lot of volunteers lots of our folks and our staff members were there supporting that and the board members were there as well so that was that was a good evening and like I said $30,000 in one night as a as a fundraiser is pretty amazing and the kids had a great time the elementary kids especially really enjoyed it finally I'd like to recognize the hard work and dedication of John Skelly and his business and finance department uh the Moody's investor service has once again bestowed a prestigious AAA General obligation limit Tax rating on the West Chester area school district we are one of only a handful of school districts in Pennsylvania
016to have AAA Bond rating so congratulations on that John uh the rating reflects our dedicated efforts to managing resources sensibly and planning responsibly uh the other thing that it does is it ensures that we get the lowest rate when we go out and get money and unfortunately as you guys know we're going to be doing a lot of construction fortunately unfortunately in the next several years so maintaining that rate has a huge impact on future expenditures for the school district so thank you John although there's so much more to celebrate and I certainly could keep going I will not get my canoli if I keep talking so I will close this report with a reminder that you can find our upcoming events and important dates on our district website under either the calendar or celebrate
017the Arts located on our community information I'll turn it back over to our student Representatives thank you oh yeah it's uh it's actually 14 pages and I'm going to keep talking until someone gets me a canoli so wow that quickly you don't want to hear me talk the faster I get aoli the faster this ends thank you for wearing garnet and not maroon we don't know what maroon is maroon is not a color M does not exist it's only gar good evening everyone uh we've gotten to the point in the year where my teachers have to remind me that senioritis is not a real thing and it is especially not a valid excuse um last time Fon mentioned that we haven't waxed poetic in a while so I'm going to switch things up no hi
018cus but I have a couplet with the arrival of spring Henderson has been full of light but brighter still are my peers who work with such might in a short time we're going to restart outdoor lunch in the courtyard in gazebo as the weather gets warmer which I am personally very excited for this week at Henderson we're celebrating kindness week we're going to have food trucks outside the school for the next couple of days and today was pajama day actually didn't know that until I walked into school um everyone was in PJs and I had to pinch myself to make sure I wasn't still in bed um and since it's kindness week I have a rhyme about kindness we can learn and become an infinite number of things but oh the incomparable joy that being
019kind brings Henderson basketball has come to a close and they had the best boys record of all time at Henderson they were the third seed at the state tournament and their record was 25 to6 Henderson unified bot placed third third and seventh in the state which is amazing uh lacrosse has also started up and there's a game against Phoenix W today I think it's over now but unfortunately I don't have a live update um you think with our technology on the musical front our musical H dolly was a huge hit the parents and teachers sang Praises about The Talented actors and musicians March is also music in our schools month so on that note I want to congratulate Henderson band for getting the highest possible Award of superior with honors at the cavalcada bands Festival
020we also have Molly Juliet Heidi Brooke and Daniel five people representing Henderson at All State Choir which is absolutely amazing um the Henderson mock trial team had an incredible season the team is near and dear to my heart and today I get a chance to brag about them we went to States on Friday and Saturday where the 14 Regional Champions were invited we had to win both trials on Friday evening to advance the semi-finals which Henderson I'm proud to say did only the top four teams out of over 265 teams in the entire State make it to semi-final we give our heartfelt gratitude to Miss Mary Lawrence and Mr Dan Coley our hardworking and dedicated coaches Miss Lawrence an attorney at M Harvey and former Henderson mock trial member has poured a tremendous amount of
021dedication into the team and none of this would be possible without her and lastly a huge shout out to my teammates who have been working diligently on this case since November it's no small feat uh here's a slant rhyme in the spirit of Emily Dickinson if you ever need a lawyer who might not be 100% legitimate call Henderson mock TR to get you out of the predicament okay I have two more things I promise I'm not stalling for the canoli but um Henderson academic team also competed in the county championships and yes we did lose to East but it was a close match and next year we're going to get them we finished second place beating Unionville and it was a tough match and we're very proud of the team for an awesome season and
022congrats to East grudgingly kiding good job um and S fad is competing at State soon so we wish them luck that concludes my report for today I'd like to hope that I made Shakespeare P proud but I don't think I did considering I gave up on I am big pentamer after writing exactly when I am so that's [Music] it have the red shirt you might have red shirt academic to us next year no Alex CH I hope everyone's having a wonderful March and hopefully all your brackets are still intact because all of mine are busted speaking of basketball our girls basketball team pushed through playoffs with the first round win with against Fri Charter the girls made history as it was the first State basketball win in East girls VI history this year for all
023of our playoff games we had a hype bus for all of our home fans to show support our track team is preing for their first JB meet tomorrow at shanan and the Russon invitation on Wednesday East goes lacrosse is Audrey aanish scor goal big congratulations to her and she will be continuing career at winrop University student counsil out a big month with the Viking Slam in the in the blood Dr Viking slam is our annual volleyball tournament where students compete against each other in a March manness style bracket every year we also come best costume the hot dogs took home that prize and I think we can all guess what their costume was last Friday was also our blood drive every year we team up with the American Red Cross to get our student body
024involved in the donor process this year we were able to acquire almost 40 points of blood the House of Hope Charity concert is coming up the event features performers from all three high schools including fala and all proceeds benefit hel the sparrow a nonprofit aimed at fighting homelessness in Chester County join East at 700 p.m. on April 5th for a unique one-of aind experience March's foreign language month to celebrate our foreign language Department invited salsa in the suburbs a local salsa company to come and teach us how to Sol stuff I know Dr Christopher last month mentioned where Alex Chen was elected to the United States SES program and so last month and like a couple weeks ago Alex was able to attend the program Summit during this Summit he met with us YP alumni
025and famous politicians like Pete wed they were also able to meet with Justice Atlanta Kagan at the US Supreme Court building the highlight of the trip was a visit from President Joe Biden right after his State of the Union Address Alex also LED our academic team to back toback Chester County championships their team won after a strong performance in the finals against heners needed though moving to the fourth marketing period I think our seniors are probably checked out while the rest of the school stretches over AP tests and are looking forward to break I hope you have a wonderful break thank you good evening everyone everyone you are probably wondering who is this and where is f my name is Dia lexman and I will be covering for fulla tonight as he proves that shivalry
026still exists in Modern Times by helping his mom I'm currently a junior at R and let's dive straight into all the excitement that occurred this March March started off with both a glimpse into the past and a light towards the future Rustin Ceder put on a spectacular performance of the musical Rent during the first days of March students passion and commitment to the show was undeniable as they transported the audience from 2024 Westchester Pennsylvania to the Lower East Side of New York City in the 1990s students got to learn about a variety of colleges and summer jobs at rustin's career day on March 5th we had multiple guests speak about opportunities at their respective colleges and the benefits their workplaces entail students had a fun time as they learned about ways to enrich their futures
027rent wasn't rustin's only display of musical Talent this month three rtin students at the recent pmea Regional Orchestra Festival had successful auditions to make it into the PA all states Orchestra these students were vdu shiram on violin J salera on cello and Addie Kelly on Bas not only did Addie qualify but she also won first place for base at the regional level rustin's chamber orchestra Enchanted the PA state capital on March 7th with their wonderful music they receiv received de private tour of the building just before they played Senator Kam awarded Miss shaan with certificates for each student who was a part of the performance Speaking of awesome performances the performance of Ron's athletes has been outstanding the past month at our first track meet of the spring season 27 students qualified for the chesmont
028meet that's almost enough qualifiers to fill out the entire meet itself our softball and baseball teams have also had a strong start to their Seasons both teams have had two wins and only one loss today is actually a game day for our softball team and tomorrow night there's a baseball game happening Rustin combined Athletics with Charity at our second annual Frontline dodgeball tournament assisted by Mr Morano our project management class dedicated months to planning this event we raised approximately $2,000 and the proceeds are being donated to the local chapter of the Veterans for Foreign Wars and although it hasn't happened yet this Wednesday on March 27th rustin's track and field is hosting a pink event our unite for her Club will be there to sell pink merchandise to raise money to support the fight against
029breast cancer Ron also tapped into its brainy side this March our academic team competed at the cciu in the beginning of March against other schools in the area unfortunately we did not advance but we appreciate their effort and hard work just this past weekend our model un went to Washington DC students enjoyed the Bliss of the cherry blossoms while coming up with innovative solutions to International challenges two members of our delegation fok and col flurry received awards for verbal Commendation our Science Olympiad had 15 students win medals at regionals all of them will be advancing to compete at States in April amongst the regional medalists Jacob Leever and Jenna Lee placed first place for detector building and Anna Lee Georgia green and arushi S boy placed first for experimental design our speech and debate team
030went to Bloomsburg University for debate States in mid-march Although our students did not qualify for the next level the competition gave them the opportunity to expand upon their current skill sets author Jordan Castle captivated rustin's readers and writers with her visit on March 8th students got to learn and inquire about the process of writing a book and hear about a published author's personal connection to books and reading and tomorrow is our third annual Library mini golf the theme this year is Disney and our library Advisory board has worked hard to build intricate min golf holes that bring students favorite Disney movies to life I'm sure after hearing that everyone is going to go home and watch a Disney movie after they get a canoli of course March was filled with fun at R and April
031appears to be the same before I finish for tonight I'd like to give you a quick preview of the upcoming events at rtin April 3rd is the faculty senior basketball game a Ron tradition that is being revived after being interrupted by the pandemic April 11th is local government day at Thornbury Township and approximately 75 Bron seniors will attend April 13th is our Junior Prom from 7:00 to 10: in our cafeteria and lastly April 17th is our nights with character award breakfast thank you all for listening to me tonight I hope I wasn't too boring and F will be back next [Applause] time thank you very much for those reports wow there is so much going on at all three high schools and so much success and achievement it's really really uh wonderful to hear from
032all of you thank you and good luck with the well you're a junior right but senior so good luck with the the spring and uh the last couple months of school which exciting and now uh Dr Almer will give the monthly Personnel report thank you very much good evening president fling Mr Baka and members of our board our personal report for the month of March 2024 is as follows with removals from payroll we have three resignations one school counselor one grounds mechanic and one par professional we also have six retirement notifications Miss Ruth Alexander secretary to the principal at fuget middle school with 23 years of service Mr Gary Buck math teacher at Henderson High School with 19 years of service Mrs Cynthia Sid deckman and video production teacher at East High School with 21
033years of service Elizabeth Liz meum accounts payable technician at Spelman education center with 17 years of service Julie rker librarian at East Bradford Elementary School with 28 years of service Christopher Sweeney chemistry teacher at East High School with 19 years of service we wish our retirees nothing but happiness and enjoyment in their retirement and we thank each of them for their dedication to our district we also have two terminations of employment for approval with additions to payroll we are recommending the hiring of one special education par professional and one custodian and two substitute custodians we are also seeking the approval to hire 11 staff members for our temporary Summer Staff as site administrators for Jumpstart Summer Academy and and extended school year programs in Personnel events I delivered and notified two involuntary transfers and three
034voluntary transfers in additional information we are seeking the approval of eight updated start dates five last date updates two salary adjustments one updated retirement date one year of service update an update on a return to work nine teachers that have earned tenure according to the school code of 1949 in all of its requirements and the list of bus drivers and AIDS from craft buses and on thego kids buses we're also looking for approval for six tutors on the tutoring list in supplemental contracts we're looking for approval of three annual contract additions for the 2324 school year nine additions for the 2324 spring season and two removals from the 2324 school year lastly we're recommending two approvals for gain help I'm respectfully requesting board approval for all Personnel matters listed above thank you thank you Dr
035Almer may have a motion to approve the March 25th 2004 personel recommendations as presented Dr diet I have a second Dr Herman all those in favor say I I oppos say nay uh motion carries moving on to the approval of the March 25th 2024 consent agenda uh no one has requested anything be to be removed from the consent agenda tonight are there any requests now no okay so uh seeing none may have a motion to approve the March 25th 20124 consent agenda vice president Bev Aqua may I have a second Miss Miss Chester uh any questions or comments no all those in favor say I I I oppose May motion carries and I we'll go on to our school board committee reports first up is education committee with director jell thank you president Fleming um
036at the most recent education committee meeting we heard an update on the current status of AI in the West School District we're heard we heard about the use of a program called perplexity by students in six classes students uh students are using the program to find verify and research sources we also learned how teachers in the pilot program are using AI Pro an AI program called defit used specifically to help teachers differentiate reading levels we are looking forward to hearing yearend Reflections during the May education committee meeting as we hear from teachers and students on the exploration of AI in our district the teaching and learning team provided a middle ofe uh data update data from District math and Ela assessments was shared along with action steps based on the data analysis and finally we
037had the opportunity to meet and hear from our three High School instructional coaches they shared information about the successful launch of instructional coaching at the High schol School level the work they're involved in and their goals for the 2024 25 school year uh our next meeting is our next committee meeting is April 8th we hope you'll show up uh one final note I just wanted to mention I saw all three musicals this year all three high schools did a phenomenal job there's so much talent uh both the staff and the students who worked so hard so I please relay the mess that you all did a fantastic job that ends my report thank you D director dnell next up is director Chester with pupil Services good evening everyone uh we had our pupil Services meeting
038on Tuesday March the 12th 2024 we approved uh one interpreter translator service contract and we approved the special education plan for 24 through 27 2024 through 2027 uh the plan was um managed by the steering committee of which we had teachers and General Ed teachers special ed teachers administrators and parents under areas of improvement uh partition participation rate for children with IEPs uh grades 48 and 11 for ELA and math we did not meet those State identified targets for proficiency rate for children with IEPs against the um grade level academic achievement standards for the the same grades in the same subject areas as above we did meet the targeted uh the state targeted identified targets um for good news we had under least restrictive environments where we were flagged before for disproportionality by race and
039ethnicity we did meet the target as well as for representation for race ethnicity and disability we um under the plan it will include the following support and and also the these plan numbers were for program year or school year 2021-22 so it's reflective of two years ago it's reported now uh under supports we have learning supports emotional supports autistic multiple disabilities life skills speech and positive behavior supports under positive behavior supports we have board certified Behavior analysts in each building we have intervention Specialists mental health supports registered Behavior technicians for autistic support programs safety care training for all staff social emotional learning and student assistant program assistance program um under program profile and support staff we have a total of 492 staff supporting um special education which includes special education teachers speech therapists School psychologists
040OT and PT home and school visitors board certified Behavior roal analysts school counselors nurses par professionals and um uh a total of 492 and one thing I wanted to point out the number of students total in our district receiving special education is 1,969 out of a total population of 12,241 which is 16.1% so a robust uh Staffing per performance against that number which we're glad to see we're glad to see the counselors and the profile that's built to serve those students so thank you so much much thanks to um Melissa kimman who is the director of uh special education thank you that's my report thank you Miss Jester my understanding is there is no Personnel committee report correct Dr her that is correct president so uh next up will be Mr bevaka to give the
041property and finance report thank thank you president uh property Finance uh committee met last Monday March 18th um several items on the agenda one was U we talked about the 20-year Capital project projects and Mr burer our director of facilities and Mr Scully our director of business Affairs reviewed the 20-year plan for sustaining District facilities Mr Scully reviewed a list of new housing developments within the district and the number of total housing units anticipated over the next five years Mr Scully then reviewed a 5year schedule for future student enrollment which in anticipated growth from the new housing units just mentioned Mr burer reviewed a schedule that outlines student capacity to the buildings before and after construction he also reviewed the updated Capital plan list with today's project costs and costs within inflation Factor built in
042Mr Scully then reviewed an estimated Debt Service schedule based on the updated Capital plan and noted that the annual debt service requirements over the next 20 years of the capital plan adhere to the district's Debt Service Bo policy the committee discussed the plan had much much the conversation and recommended approval of the updated 20-year Capital plan the next item Mr burer uh presented the committee um fence contracts uh which were previously approved in the 2425 capital reserve projects these consisted of fence projects located at uh multiple schools at East High School fug get middle school and uh the facility facility building the committee recommended approval of these 2425 capital reserve project bid Awards Mr Scully then reviewed the budget forecast model as we do on a monthly basis he advised us of changes to last
043year's to this current Year's 2324 um expense projections and increase in revenues the total for the 20 2324 adjustments resulted in a 525 million savings and will be utilized to reduce the 2425 Gap next year's budget Gap changes to the 2425 expense projections included new Debt Service of 147,000 resulting from the updated Capital plan and a transfer the capital reserve fund the amount 5 million to help offset the riseing construction costs of the elementary projects Mr Skully noted that the Chester County has at this current time has a tax increase of 1.3% and Delaware County has a tax increase of 11.1% the administration will continue to review these projections potential savings and will'll update on a monthly basis the last two items of the meeting U Mr burer presented change orders for the Mary seah
044house renovations um and basically was a decrease of minus 445,000 due to some changes in the roofing on specifications the last item um Mr burer presented a list of change orders that were needed to complete the ongoing Renovations and addition Glen Acres Elementary School these change orders were approved by the district Personnel due to their time sensitivity and the next property and finance meeting will be held on Monday April 15th and that concludes my report this evening thank you Mr Baka and next that policy Review Committee would Dr thank you policy Review Committee met on Monday March 18th the administration reviewed changes to a time sensitive policy updated the board on administrative guideline revisions and then began the review of policies and administrative guidelines in section 200 students all changes were approved as part of
045the consent agenda vote earlier tonight the next meeting will be on Monday April 15th and that is my report thank you thank you Dr dri and we'll head over to other reports starting with Mr dnell and the cciu thank you president F the Chester County Intermediate Unit board of directors held its monthly meeting on Wednesday March 20th 2024 at the child and Career Development Center in cville PA Mr Joseph litzky director of administrative Services presented the draft of the 20242 Marketplace budget to the board members for initial review the cciu board is scheduled to vote on these budgets on April 17th 20124 the upcoming school year is projected to offer 110 programs under our Marketplace budgets additionally Mr litzky and Dr George Fury are willing to present the cciu budget to individual districts uh District
046boards upon request uh interested districts can can reach out to Mr libitzki Dr Bruce Tiner principal of the child Career Development Center CCDC and Mr Brock hurger supervisor of Special Projects provided an insightful update on literacy programming and the emotional learning support program at CCDC Mr hurger emphasized that the key to the success and uh effectiveness of these reading interventions lies in the backing from all districts along with support from parents and Guardians Dr Tiner presented an update on the enhancement of the schoolwide positive behavior intervention supports and the behavior team procedures upon assuming his role as principal in July of 2023 he prioritized collaboration and solicited input from staff the board acted on the following uh business approved the approved the 20 2425 core and occupational education budgets uh also approved uh the updated
047health and safety plan as required of the ARP Sr Grant this will be the last time the specific plan will have to be reviewed improved due to the grant ending the next cciu board of directors meeting will be held on Wednesday April 17th 7:30 at the Technical College High School penx Bridge campus uh in West Gro that ends my report thank you director Darnell and Mr chrisy will give us a report on the uh Chester County legislative Lea on councel or committee thank you director Fleming uh the last meeting of the Chester County School Board legis Council was held virtually on February 28th of 2024 at that meeting we were given updates on pieces of legislation that would impact Public Schools along with a brief discussion about the funding proposals in Governor shapira's budget proposal
048which includes uh increases to basic education funding and special education along with the establishment of a Statewide Cyber Charter tuition rate of $8,000 U we discussed the then upcoming legislative breakfast which is since has happened um which was held on Friday Mar March 1st at tchs Brandy Wine which I know Dr Christopher and Dr D attended if anyone else did um from the district but um and along with a vast majority of state representatives and state senators that represent Chester County and Harrisburg um the breakfast included a presentation from Dr Sher Smith the executive director of the Pennsylvania Association of school administrators along with tabletop discussions which cover the following priorities equity and education funding Charter School accountability Mental Health important in schools School safy measures special education services and dual County taxation um this
049was followed by panel discussions with the legislators I was unable to attend the breakfast but from accounts I heard it was well attended and the discussions were positive and forward looking our next meeting will be held virtually on April 24th that concludes my report thank you director chrisy and finally the equity Report with M Chester and this will be a very long Report with no and it will rhyme uh the first thing I'd like to do is to extend a huge thanks to Dr Yuna Martin for all she's accomplished this year and this past year uh her this month as most of you know concludes her time as our interim Equity director and I have to say I will never forget that phrase root cause analysis and in facted today in a meeting uh Dr
050Martin as an advocate for equity and a longtime teacher has dedicated her life to helping the children of this community reach their full and bright potential her passion for ensuring Equitable access to care support and education has enriched countless lives while her time with us is ended we know she'll continue to advocate for families and for students and we wish her great joy in this new chapter as she spends more time with her grand children thank you Dr Martin for all you've done for Westchester area school district for your service and your impact earlier this month members of our community celebrated the start of the holy month of Ramadan we'd like to wish all of our community members honoring this special time a peaceful and blessed Ramadan mbar this past Friday as uh Dr Christopher
051alluded earlier uh Fernhill Elementary School celebrated women's History Month with a women's career fair students were able to chat with local female leaders like Senator Carolyn kamida my good friend and my other good friend Westchester mayor Lilian D Baptist so much to learn from both of them um to learn about their careers what inspires them and hear some advice ston Middle School continue their tradition of an enthusiastic and meaningful National foreign language week students and staff decorated the school Central hallway with flags from all nations staff talked with students about the languages they spoke and studied when they were in school and many homes decorated their doors to create visual representations of different countries worldwide sson also held an international potluck dinner where families were invited to enjoy a night of delicious International Cuisine and
052conversation and lastly during recent Equity meetings Equity Advocates met to chart the course for future Equity initiatives within the district together they delt into strategies and Visions for fostering inclusivity and Equity Additionally the district Equity leadership team met with Dr Christopher to review ongoing Equity initiatives and discuss the implementation of new Equity rules aimed at supporting Equity across the district so we look uh very much forward to that to hearing more and that ends my report presid thank you director Chester um so we'll or next up would be comments on non-agenda items from residents Mr Jennings do we have any comments we do not thank you we do not everyone is getting a canoli tonight so thank you move on from that uh thank you everyone for attending and Dr D will read a closing
053quote today thank you U my closing quote is a quote from my son's favorite Carl sigan what an astonishing thing a book is it's a flat object made from a tree with flexible Parts on which are printed lots of funny Dark squiggles but one glance at it and you're inside the mind of another person maybe somebody dead for thousands of years across the Millennia an author is speaking clearly and silently inside your head head directly to you writing is perhaps the greatest of human inventions Binding Together people who never knew each other citizens of different epochs books break the shackles of time a book is proof that humans are capable of working magic very nice thank you Dr dri and I too would like to personally thank Dr Martin for her service over the past
054few months uh and I will always remember root calls an as well and I'm looking forward to the report in May uh on everything that she was able to accomplish in the months that she was with us our next monthly board meeting is on Wednesday April 24th 2024 I hope you'll join us do I have a motion to adjourn so moved didn't even wait for me to look that way so I need a second director Dell all in favor say I oppose May no I would not saying n i just so we're unanimous and adjourning the meeting