001welcome to the Tuesday September 26th personal Personnel committee meeting I'm updating something oh okay all right that's okay thank you welcome to the Tuesday September 26th Personnel committee meeting our first item on the agenda is public common has anyone signed up for a public comment tonight no not for this meeting okay thank you the next item on the agenda is approval of the August 21st Personnel committee meeting minutes and we need to take a vote so okay real cool all right roll cool okay uh this is Fleming here uh Mrs mumsley air Mr Beval Aqua yes uh president Tiernan no you don't I don't do it um okay the next item on the agenda is review and approval of job description and position director of secondary education Dr Ulmer will review thank you Dr Herman
002um Karen yeah Stacy yes and Gary yes and myself that's four zero yes good evening Dr Herman Anderson Ford sniper is seeking to pass the new job description for our director of secondary education the director of the director of secondary education will be a cabinet level position that will have overall operations of secondary education programming and Athletics Additionally the director will supervise the sixth secondary middle and high school level principals will work with the assistant director of secondary education to implement professional learning for the secondary level the director of secondary education will report directly to the superintendent and will work with administrators staff parents step students board members and community members as outlined the job description the new aspects of this position are that the director of director of secondary education will monitor the middle
003and high school instructional process work with the supervisor of assessment and accountability to analyze the results of standardized tests and make recommendations for improving instructional Services as appropriate coordinate with the tech teaching and learning Department to implement all secondary educational programs for the district visit secondary schools regularly to ensure effective communication and monitoring provide timely and effective Communications regarding incidents and or situations which might impact the district its divisions boards to school it's schools through appropriate district office and school personnel and we'll collaborate with the cabinet particularly the director of equity to expand access to comprehensive District programming to provide Equitable outcomes for all students in addition to the other 30 job responsibilities that are missed for the job description this is a 1993 administrator physician it is cost neutral to the district as the
004position has already been budgeted additionally this position has remained unfilled for the past few years members of our cabinet administrative team have been absorbing the requirements of this position which would become unsustainable After Time we'd like to move forward with this organization we'll update and we're looking for an approval just for the job description for director of secondary education thank you Dr Elmer are there any questions or comments from the committee and we need to vote Karen yes Stacy yes and Gary yes and I'm a yes also the next item on the agenda is review of job description director of Elementary education Dr omler thank you again Dr Herman the director of Elementary education is an active position filled by Dr Sarah Missin at this time with the approval of our director of secondary education
005job description the administration inspected the job description for our director of Elementary education and updated the most important aspects of the position as well as removing some expectations that the director of secondary education will be handled for example a secondary discipline meeting with administrators and parents in the secondary area supervising the six secondary schools and any other aspect that the director of secondary education which has been shared by members of the current administrative team this update is not appropriate approval as it already has been for improved however we wanted to make sure that we are being transparent by updating the job description of the addition of the director of secondary education job description thank you doctor thank you Dr Omer thank you all for coming this meeting is now adjourned okay Karen yes Stacy yes
006Gary yes and on the yes and finance meeting thank you for reattending the first step in the agenda as we always do is roll call director Fleming here director Herman here director wilmsley here all right everybody's here tonight all right first item on public comment any public comment tonight Mr Jennings never enough for this meeting thank you all right thank you all right the first item on the agenda is the approval of the property Finance meeting minutes from August 21st it'll be approached me with any comments so we'll go around for approval High performing yes Professor yes yes all right well good for nothing in the minutes all right next item as we normally do we'll review the budget forecast model for the month of September thank you good evening everyone I'd like to review
007the forecast model uh we did get an update today that is not included in the forecast model we did get official notification of the add one index for the 24 to 25 school budget so the maximum tax increase under guidelines of act one is 5.3 percent that is the universal for all school districts exceptions sure that we would have been asked by westchester's is 5.34 the 24 25 here and it is one of the highest ACT ones that I've seen and take batteries all the time and John just for our purposes what do we have factor in the budget forecast model 3.5 yeah so I've been using 3.5 as the Act 1 index and the Act One increase that we need to balance our budget of each obviously 4.1 percent so I used an act
008one increase for expenditures for all salary related items at 3.5 and then I've used 4.1 and it's still included in in the model for today I am I am balancing the budget on a 4.1 percent so uh Justin if you could move I think it's page five sorry so as we always do I'd like to review the changes that we're making to the 2223 projection so they are last year these should be the very final changes that we are making to the 22-23 changes these are attending audit adjustments the Auditors are doing next week hopefully they find nothing and we will have no adjustments but pending no adjustments for the Auditors we are finalizing the 2223 minor changes the the only major changes I made is in the property line item for hours that is
009the recognitions of additional Esters funding that we used for the air conditioning at 21st Elementary School so I am recognizing we recognize the expense in 2223 and the bottom you'll see that I've also recognized the revenue in 22 24 although not a direct offset the revenue is only showing at 245 000 it is an additional 519 thousands of Esser funds being recognized and then offset by a reduction in our Ida funding so we did recognize that a reduction idea if I made 4223 so the net effect is an increase in federal revenue 240 almost 246 thousand dollars so net changes for 22.23 all of which will be used to adjust to the budget gap for the 24-25 year our reduction of 152 000 so I'm reducing the Gap by 150 moving into 24.25 any questions
010122 23 changes and hopefully that's the last time we talked about the 2223 school year so then moving on to the next page which is page six on the PDF this is the month where we recognize changes for the carrier that we're in which is the 23-24 school year and the major change that we make for the month of September is is balancing out our teachers salaries um based upon our assumptions that we use and then the actual so what I mean by that is when we put our budget together we do an estimate of what we think the average based on what our average teacher salary was at that time to stay up on what we put the budget together we then reconcile our actual new hires are done being hired for the beginning
011of the school year so you'll see that I had a budgeted teacher salary of 79 364. so that was the average teacher salary last year the average teacher salary this year is reduced to 78 946 for a reduction of 418 that is all due to attrition so that is your higher level teachers that have retired being replaced by younger teachers or newer teachers that are down lower on the step on the salary scale so the reduction is 418 dollars we have a 1400 and almost 1049 teachers the bargaining unit so the increase in the teacher attrition or the reduction in salaries 438 411 dollars in addition to that we then would have a reduction in the teasers expense of the Social Security expense related to that budget salary of 182 000. so the net of
012those is a reduction in our projected expenditures for the 23-24 school year I did increase our variable rate debt by 150 I've been budgeting at three percent available rate that everyone knows variable rate that's the rates have gone up normally normally I'll give you a reduction but we're going up for 150 000 out of all of our debt we only have 10 extremely low rates we may want to if the market continues doing this we may look to refinance under the right debt um 10 million dollars of our portfolio is not that much and they are favorable rates but not really high rates but they're higher than three percent so the net expenditure change is a decrease in expenditures for projected expenditures 23 24 a 471 thousand dollars looking at the offset which is revenues
013and increase the current income tax by 250 000 and is based on actual revenues being received versus what we projected you'll see a huge increase in investment earnings you remember what happened to the budget together we were not earning anything on our investments last year I had budgeted slightly over one percent we are closer to five percent on our investment earnings most of our funds are now invested because we have most of our Revenue came in mostly came in August we'll still have some coming in through October but we know what our rate of return is going to be on those so that is an accurate estimate of where we think that our projections are going and depending upon what the rates are when the rest of our balance the taxes come in in October
014I'll then be able to give you a better number in October because I'll know that those fixed rates are as well um and then just the reduction in the state revenues as you know we get the 50 reimbursement so that is just half of 182 000 that I reduced in expenditures so all of that being said I have increased the ending fund balance at 6 30 24 for the changes in the 22-23 year and 23-24 a year by three million dollars 3 million seventy six thousand so it's putting us in a very favorable light with where we will be at the end of the year um just can you go back to page three just I'm gonna highlight again so page three is where we do our village calculation and very hard to read on
015the screen you can see that the as it stands right now we have a 4.8 tax increase for Delaware County and percent okay I just said that backwards I'm sorry we have a 4.8 for Chester County and a 15.6 increase in Delaware as I explained last month Delaware county is going to see an increase in taxes because of the market value and the recessed buyers will grow faster than the market value of the Chester County so Delaware County will see a bigger increase last year the the stead value or the equalization value was 5.92 came from Delaware County 94 of the tax burden came from Chester County based one state and this is nothing that the school board can do this is based on State numbers of evaluations property Chester county is at 93.67 and
016Delaware county is rising to 6.33 so they are reflected yeah right where the cursor is um on that screen above you but you'll see that the burden is being placed more of the burgers be placed in Delaware County than it was placed last year again we have a lot of work to do to deal with this looking at the overall with a Act One index increase and again as I stated this model is reflected a 4.1 percent increase you still need 2.8 million dollars to balance the budget to get it within the confines of actual one you're not eligible for any exceptions or do I think the board would have the appetite to take any exceptions at this time so with an equity increase we need additional 2.8 percent I'm sorry 2.8 million dollars in
017revenues or offset and expenditures without a tax only increase or any increase would be 10.3 million dollars we have not looked at benefits yet I know that we had a lot of room to move to work on our benefits we still have work ourselves our salary and we have room to work in our Revenue so I think we're in a very good place we're in a better place than to work manager at this time with the gap um but very pretty sure for me to make assumptions and change to a lot of I had been able to look I looked the claims for July and August trending higher than we trended last year for medical claims but I think it's very premature to try to try to investment but I think we're at healthy place
018all right Mr Scully thank you for the updates I think that things are looking good yes comparison before we were last year we'll continue to look at those Trends as we go forward in future months any questions from anybody on the committee on the budget forecast model all right good all right we'll continue on to the next the next item the next item I have is the budget calendar so as always I bring the board a budget calendar in September ask the board to approve a budget calendar the budget calendar actually has two versions of the budget calendar in accordance with act one so in the months of September October November it is exactly the same we'll review the same items in December the board will need to decide whether they want to apply to
019take referendum exceptions um to go above the equity index so that would just give you I just gave the answer away saying that I don't think the board has the appetite I do that so I believe that we will approve this calendar tonight as it is and then in December we'll be adjusting to the right-hand side of the the right-hand side of the calendar which would be we will continue doing a budget forecast models our preliminary budget would be presented in April and a final budget presented in yeah any questions from anybody in the committee on the budget the budget model the uh this is an approval item will carry forward since tonight's property Finance meeting was directly before the board meeting it will not be consent will carry it forward for a full board
020approval but right now and it will bring out a committee so director Fleming yes yes so that's four nothing we'll take it out of committee and bring it forward to the board the full board tonight thank you Mr Scully all right we'll have uh Rick Thornton's got to give a presentation for the safety department give us a little overview update thank you Rick good evening bored cabinet thank you for having me this evening I'll get to uh talk but I and told her to talk quickly in about 10 minutes I think so with that said um I'd like to talk give a brief history of the department and and how we've grown in the last four years so looking at that slide that incredibly good looking guy top left on the first pick is me
021and I arrived here four years ago um from education industry but private boarding school and it was very much me myself and I um for the first year I've been covered it but gradually managed to grow my team and those chaps beside the Magnificent crew of what we call campus safety offices of which we have six I have one campus safety officer and you probably know one that is currently at each of the three high schools and there's a also a CSO who's mobile and services that High School fever group so you know we're out there we're a high profile we're dominating the land um and my guys are really getting um to mix with the students and really becoming part of the culture within the school so so that that is great recently um
022we took over the security greetings as well at three high schools and those three Chaps in the bottom picture uh two of them were both just like several of them in the top picture um all had some experience in the security industry and in fact all of my csos um myself and Military guy 27 years in the military prior to coming over to the education side but everyone else has um strong background in law enforcement whether it's uniformed or detectives either trooper I have sheriffs I have that fantastic lady in the middle Christina spigarelli who just happens to be married to officer spigarelli so if you look at the uh um SRA school resource officers first picture top left handsome chap on the right hand side husband and wife team those are the three officers
023from Goshen Police Department and they rotate one officer at East High School and obviously they walk through perfusion labors at the other schools in the fee Department of knee pee chat to the right of that that's um Ryan Duncan likes to be called Norman not quite sure why but um yeah uh he's that uh or is it he's Henderson and the little chap below um that's Ken prashella Ken and I did our school resource officer training together back in 2019. and those uh the uh sros that have been with us lonely since um Christmas time so very pleased to have those and the only other picture there I've got a single 88 and if you're not aware sometimes when we have large events football games moving into basketball season to help bolster the security um
024we would use a third party in the signal 88 box has come and it's more and more men now so that's my team a couple of things that we've been up to I'm not going to talk about everything um we had our first safe School Summit and June had some great speakers um Dr Ruth Sanborn and she was there she's um just retired as an SRO she she's high up in driftnet at the moment so if so she's a great source uh the wonderful Dr Peter langman who works very closely with Dr Dewey Cornell who was the founder of the sea stag method of brisk assessments which we are adopting uh what else I in July I took my guys to Tennessee the Pennsylvania state school Institute of Mechanicsburg we had a wonderful day there
025doing de-escalation training we took some of the sros a lot of cross-training their team building I've been sending my guys to various different conferences throughout um the Commonwealth and some of my guys have just completed their SRA training as well so we're pretty busy a lot of things going on ah my pillars of School Safety and Security well education has pillars Islam does pillars business has pillars first the reason why we shouldn't have and the um we're going to talk about them all in turn uh hopefully the investment in buying I'm actually doing that now if you haven't gotten onto it um but we're going to be talking just briefly about the emergency plans preparedness security infrastructure and some of the training things that we're developing and moving obviously there we go ah so we
026need a foundation for our pillars and that's based on obviously the law action mandates which I'm constantly looking and your board policies um so that's our foundation of Bedrock if you like and obviously on top of each good pillow we need a roof a gazebo if you like um and ours is assessment and Improvement planning and we're always looking at new um security uh infrastructure that's coming out uh Mr burst from myself we're inundated with emails from AI to hard security items to cameras and we're always reviewing currently we're looking at various different manufacturers of security film for Windows that kind of thing assessments uh there we are my crew we carry out setted which is kind of prevention through a buying on design and assessments of all discourse and one of the things that
027we're going to bring into the next next school years is a few um or bringing more of the students in for involvement to see how they're feeling if they're feeling safe and secure in our establishment now so um emergency plans now I'm pretty pretty proud of this we've got a pretty comprehensive District's emergency operational plan um using best practices from FEMA Department of Education and Homeland Security that kind of thing a wonderful read if any of you want to copy of happy to sign one for you um something that you may be more familiar with is the build University operation plans which are Alex's from the EOP just revamped this over the summer um this is kind of like the old flip chart it talks about uh what to happen if there's a fire drill
028a chemical leakage or a traffic accident um last year and this is a living living document last year we got hit by a few swatting incidents so over the summer when we reviewed it that's now in it next year when we review it we may have escaped prisoners made the topic in it and I put a couple of other things there's important phone numbers contact information broadbands and that sort of thing so that's a great job and I say it's great because I'm getting emails from lots of other districts who are asking for our template so I think we're getting something right so that's that um next thing my left the pain particularly happy with this and it's a really I don't know if you've heard of the phrase before it's kind of gets his
029Origins from the military if you think of it as being a timeline you know we'd like to be to the left of that we're looking out for what we would call combat indicators or warning signs but that fits pretty nicely um it's a school security prepare this litigation uh Ops you all towards the left the bone um our response and Recovery to the right and if we're doing our job and correctly and if we can maximize everything to the left then hopefully we can stop banging from happening and if it does then obviously reduce the impact and help the response and the recovery I'm not going to go through everything there you could see it but um the the set certain inspections like I talked about under the environment you know having a great school
030climate law reform Enforcement Officers my guys and about under training we've got Alice and CPI with the escalation training stopped the bleed training first day trip all those sort of great things on my mental I work very well my department works very closely with pupil services and the job description of my csos they do a lot of the same sort of training the thermostat training the mental health first aid training the propeller training just to help to identify students that could perhaps be in crisis and intervene at that early level before we get to bang so that is truly let the Banning stuff um context versus tag is relatively new I want to make sure yeah I've actually got a slide on on c-stag or some of the elements of navigate 360 so if you're
031just better with me one or two most likely I'll just elaborate on a little bit more and then you see on on the response um EMS Emergency Management Suite um Alice and I'm going to be talking about some of these things then then the recovery option so that's my left the bang moving quickly along um security infrastructure like I've already alluded to Mr Burton myself we're constantly reviewing new items that are hitting the marketplace um but one thing that I'm very proud of is our partnership with navigate 360 uh back in 21 we we purchased various different um items from them one of them is our Emergency Management Suite um which is a platform for housing our plans via their eops um our building emergency plans it has floor plans the Emergency Services have access
032to it you can initiate an alarm from it's kind of like a bat signal if you like you can press buttons and they can do all sorts of great things we can use it for tracking drills it really is a powerful tool and we're starting to really now integrate it at all levels within the district so that's one great thing um so City stag uh comprehensive school threat assessment guideline so you know we've always been doing and I'm sure you'll correct me if I'm wrong with somebody yeah but we've always been doing VRA as well at risk assessment suicide risk assessment the sea stag is a model based on Dr Dewey Cornell's uh finally who is you know one of the the lead experts in the field and it's a better way of tracking our
033students who perhaps have been in crisis um it's owned by navigate 360 as is safe to say something so everything talks to each other and it's a great way of tracking our students who perhaps need a bit of help along the way so so that's the seaside model we've just received a grant or a part of the Grant from the IU um I know all of the pupil Services Department have been going through the sea State trainings level one level two as of my series and and you know this system is pretty live if not now it will be very shortly so that's c-stag um we have a very comprehensive business management Suite that all of our schools it's a way of vetting visitors into the school for an amount of badge and accountability and
034the Alice um which is motion-based response to a BCI being a violent critical incident in our schools and I'm going to talk a little bit more about that so we're just moving into our phase three we rolled it out in 21 22 school year we went for the Blended learning module during the first school year every employee had to do the online training Alice basics for schools then there's also add-on modules if you're a coach and you happen to be able to play in field if you're an administrator or a bus driver or whatever so it's a very comprehensive last year phase two we rolled out the scenario training at the schools with all of the faculty members and phase three we're currently in that now the first part of phase three is rolling out
035Alice to the students it's very age specific whereas different lessons who came to three the important fifth grade middle school and high school uh senior Wikipedia that and that should be done within the next 10 days or so when we roll out our first security mandated security Journal we will introduce the element of an option-based response so that's great we're also another certified organization which I'm pretty proud of I said well we've certainly um putting a lot of emphasis into Safety and Security for us to exam and our staff I think the last slide training drills and exercises um Act of 55 relatively new thing that's every member within the school um district has to receive three hours of training and Safety and Security um work within the school year and that's one hour a
036minimum of an hour in-person training that a lot of my team and not that training and two hours of online training and there's a whole library of topics that they they can choose from mandated via security to realize I've already talked about that briefly safe School Summit um when James is pretty good so um aim to do another one next year already on the lookout for some keypad speakers to come and talk stop the bleed training again that's a huge thing that we're trying to push it's a great life skill takes about an hour to get the credential now some members here uh have already done the training um we've invested pretty heavily in it at all of our schools now we have these wall mounted stop the bleed stations which are co-located with the
037aeds we have at the moment one at each of the Elementary's and two about the middle and high schools I said the training takes about an hour um I'm going to start a fellow member of my staff who's instruct and I strongly urge everybody in the district to do this this fighting training CPI training as well at the escalation training um and looking forward to working with chess game part of emergency services safe school coordinator tabletop exercise and functional exercises so that's the vision that's where we're hoping to get so that's about my 15 minutes I'm leaving a little bit of time for questions I think we're just a comment first off thank you for giving us a snapshot of security you know you look at security is probably one of the most critical utmost
038important things for the district and I kind of commend yourself and Mr burster the organization has changed substantially right when you look at it just over the last couple of years of what we've done and continue to do as we go forward not just the organization the infrastructure you have with the csos and the sros and what the structure looks like today is drastically different than a year ago and then you look at what you've done with training both training in your own your own uh infrastructure your own Department which has continued to grow but also what you're doing for the whole District so I think you guys have done a nice job our security has continued to improve and continue to develop and we'll continue to look at new advancements and enhancements as we
039go forward so thank you for presenting this and doing this over to you tonight thank you sir can you just explain a little bit on the Alice training for the students and like what the next steps of that looks like okay yeah so Ellis trade like I said it's very age specific so K through three um they're taught by their great teacher in their classroom that they're comfortable and familiar with and they get read a book it's called I'm not scared I'm prepared it's um the big ant hill disaster um there's lots of uh games and things that they can um play along with um it talks about the the shepherd and the sheep and the bad wolves and it's it's a picture book um K3 uh fourth three fifth and they get showing a
040um short video by one of my csos and there's a lot of reassurance that hey kids you know that likelihood of this happening is very very late but again I'm not scared I'm prepared it's better to have this knowledge and it just introduces them into the aspects of Alice there's no Hands-On it's just so that they know should something happen the actual steps or the option based stepson and Alice as you may or may not know was the first option based response it came out in 2020 following Columbine from that the FBI developed that as it was called the three Arts get out stay out and take it out which then morphing to run over five then now there's there's a ton of them out there but Alice was was the first one um so
041and that presentation is done by great levels in in the elementaries moving to the middle schools again they're done by grade levels um my csos give the presentation takes about 40 45 minutes and we have oh one thing that that I didn't mention um I guess it was last year I had a member of each of the schools trained as a certified analyst instructor so some of our principles our instructors some of our governance Council instructors and they very much help us when we do or conduct the training in the school and we're giving the presentation we get them out front um we were doing where was Sarah Stark weather today and principal John Minix is a certified Alice instructor he's great he's got into it which is good for me um and you know
042he was able to he wanted to be out front with my CSO because obviously the students are very familiar with him they trust him and they listen to what he has to say and he goes through the various different elements of the option at least now obviously um counter is an element of Alice certainly at those age levels we don't um teach any of the counter techniques but when we move on to the high schools that they are shown the techniques in a short video but there's no kind of Hands-On training so to speak is hours yes sorry um alert lockdown informed counter and Escape already vacuuming yeah right can we see it so thank you yes I was in the military I have a few acronyms as well [Music] did that answer your question
043yeah thank you thank you thank you all right we do have one more item on the agenda for the committee tonight for Mr burster and this item is going to review change orders and Renovations about different organizations in additions to One Acres food all right good evening everybody um so with regard to change orders for the Navy first project um this month we had we had several of them most of them are small a couple of them are are notable in size the first one is is a change order for the general contractor to install two additional white boards for the cost of about sixteen thousand dollars the second one is also to the general contractor to change the existing event sac in the room so um just a simple change in the space for
044the cost of two thousand seventy eight dollars the next one is if you want to actually go through each one of these guys you can just hit the highlights okay I think there's two or three key ones okay that's fine you said 16 000. 1600 yes um so the most the highest one out of all of them is actually a breaker feed to a panel um there was a there was an error in the design of the building that required us to increase the size of the breaker which also required us to increase the size of the wire so obviously by doing that we didn't just have to replace the breaker we had to increase the size of the wire as well uh that the cost of that to the electrical contractor was 18 667
045this is a conversation that we have already had with our design professionals and discussed how we could prevent such a large change in order to put it occur again um another one would be an additional hand sink in the kitchen which is required by the health department that was something that would not be foreseen that was for 860 600 8668 um and then the other noticeable change orders would be um for the general contractor to remove the existing code base around the hallways so Glen Acres prior to the renovations had ceramic boat base which is basically trip if you will tile trim that went around the hallway there was no clean way to replace that boobies that's what we're redoing the floor um without actually removing it so this change orders actually remove that tile
046so that we could come up with a clean surface to attach the new code base to attach the floor so that change order was in the amount of Thirteen thousand four hundred sixty seven dollars and then the last one that is a higher dollar change order um resume reference to installing the RP panels to cover up poles and bathrooms so basically um that was for 9551 so basically um once we strip the walls and all the old equipment and a few of the bathrooms we found that the walls were unsightly and ultimately just including block filler and painting that would not be an appropriate way of doing it typically we would either tile the space or or put it's it's like a lot of panel that you get installed over top of it obviously the
047paddle's a cheaper way to go and frankly a faster way to go so with the time constraints on the project that's the direction we want to put it so I'm happy to discuss any of these but no that's fine I think the way to look at the total change orders for Glenn anchor project is fairly small here you we hadn't talked about what percentage you could usually see for change orders on a project this size if you just want to kind of equate that a little bit because I think this is kind of small amounts of items here okay so uh with the total project cost of about 23 million dollars typically we we assume about two and a half percent of the project cost and changeovers um typically we've been successful at bringing projects
048in the Westchester well under two percent range and to you know use great so as an example we were under one percent completely right with a brand new build so while some of these change orders certainly add up to a high dollar amount you know when you look at the actual fraction of the two and a half percent that we typically a lot for change orders or boost a significant amount of money allocated for it you know do we how do we feel about like the work to remain I mean I mean at any given project there's always going to be our own emotions there's always going to be things that come up across the project but I'm very confident we'll be involved and need that two and a half percent of reality okay thank
049you thank you all right this item tonight is approval this is not an approval I included this as an informational anal consent agenda sometimes you want to pull it off someone's enough to make a motion to pull off the consent agenda I think it's I think it's proper to go forward and consent yeah so I think that's appropriate so you're not even though thank you okay and that uh that ends tonight's property Finance meeting the next meeting will be on Monday October 16th thank you everybody for attending tonight thank you foreign Westchester area school district school board meeting to order for September 26 the first thing we will do as you remember from last year is With a Little Help Now from our audience we are going to pledge allegiance with the help of Leonard
050John and Vivian Bowie of West Town Thornbury who are here with their parents and Dr Sean Cruz their principal but I can assure you when they talk to us they have written their own report tonight so it will be a genuine you're both in fifth grade of genuine fifth grade report from West Town Thornbury all right ladies if you will come up to the microphone now if one of you can show them how to get that thing speaking distance if you will rise and they will start us with the Pledge of Allegiance to you 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 all right ladies um I think that we would like to
051hear your speeches more than anything first tonight so when you're ready take it away good evening school board members my name is Lena and I am a fifth grade student at Westtown Silverberry Elementary School hello school board members my name is Vivian and I'm a fifth grade student at West Palm thur Elementary School we are here to tell you about how helpful you are to wcisd and West Town Thornberry we love the ways that you help us succeed and learn we appreciate you we will tell you all the fun things that we have done with your health fourth grade started their scientific method unit by researching two different STEM related activities they research towers and conducted pool experiments by building straw towers and researching force and motion and creating paper airplanes teachers just received their
052first PD boxes this month during PLC meetings with their instructional coaches the boxes are personalized like many other subscription boxes and are filled with resources that teachers can Implement that very same day as well as bite-sized PD videos that can be viewed at teachers convenience there are also a few goodies for the teachers to enjoy as well teachers will be receiving a box each trimester with new and exciting tools to help their students grow second grade is so excited to visit the Brandywine red clay Alliance in October for their first field trip of the year they will be learning about Pebbles sand soil and trees aligning with their soil unit and science Mrs isola's third grade class have been working on sign language the fifth grade worked on team building on our field trip to
053Paradise Farms thank you for the endless support you have offered to our school without your help we wouldn't have made it this far thank you for listening and we hope you have a great night bye [Applause] absolutely absolutely superb and thank you Dr Cruz for not writing that I don't think it'll quite have been as genuine girls I wanted to mention the fact that you told me you were both Wildcats are there any actual I love cats but I don't know about wildcats are there any out there in West Town Thornburg you're in the country sort of in the have you ever seen any yeah laughs I uh I read today that Wildcats are known for being shy and yet aggressive but they also adapt to a wide range of habitats so they're found almost
054all over the world I think that speaks something to the Wildcats of West down Thornbury who are probably going to adapt and go all over the world and then after you do leave the world of Westtown Thornberry you're going to which school and then okay and then one day you see you could be back here sitting where one of these three high school students are sitting being a high school rep to the school board that's a very exciting thing to do so I read also that there are six species of wildcats and I didn't know this Bobcats Pumas cougars lynx and jaguars so you can think about what kind of Wildcat you are but it's a good thing to be all right ladies I thank your principal I thank your parents for bringing you it
055has been an honor to meet you and perhaps we will see you again at West Town hornberg and we appreciate your gratitude to us so another round of applause [Applause] this will be something you want to hang on your wall forever and ever yes congratulations and thank you for coming now you could hold that up look at me big smiles wonderful job okay thank you very much for bringing them oh here your speech thank you so much we only do this once the picture of me all right I will make a special announcement at the end of this meeting we will vote the board will vote on something that is probably one of the most important things we will do in our tenure as a board member and that is to appoint Dr David Christopher
056who is sitting up front so that everybody can get a look at the back of his head and his wife Aaron we welcome them here tonight and he's taking notes on what we're doing up here and we'll hear about it later I think but we're very glad that you're here okay roll call Mr chair vice president here director Christie here director Justin Chester here director Fleming here director Herman here form shock too fella while she moving here I think I have to comment well Dr Reynolds is going to take care of introducing them but you will notice that we have a fresh bunch of senior Representatives tonight we look forward to you won't believe how long the next 10 months are going to be but we will look forward to seeing you every single month
057with the good news you bring us okay time for public comments thank you president Tiernan and good evening we have zero registrants for public comment on agenda items but we will hear from two individuals later on non-agenda thank you all right now I'm looking for approval for the August 28 2023 meeting minutes if you could oh I need a second Laura and Miss Chester will be the second I'll get the role of it yeah but I'm back now uh questions comments about those minutes seeing none if you will take the role director Dietrich yes director Chester yes director for me yes director wormsley yes vice president yes director Herman yes director Christie Christie I was in here okay director General yes president yes now would you please add to the minutes Mr chair ashore that
058the board met an executive session on September 8th for personnel and tonight 9 26 for student matters personnel we'll go with that all right I think it's time for the superintendent's report Dr Reynolds or do we have something else I'm going to vote on whether we accept the agenda for tonight's meeting I need a first that would be Mr durnell and a second Mr Christie questions or comments about tonight's agendas seeing none would you take the role please director Darnell yes director Christie yes vice president yes director Herman yes director Dietrich yes director Flemings again director yes director Chester yes president Karen yes now I think it is time for superintendent's report if he would honor our stuck around thank you president good evening and thank you for joining us this evening before we move
059to our agenda and our school board director and student representative reports I would like to share some important information and exciting moment of Celebration that have taken place in the last several weeks first we want to welcome our student reports and our Representatives super excited to have them on board we had Halal who was here for last month and now as we have the month of September we welcome them we enjoy hearing from our board members but it's also a joy to hear from our students so for our students that presented from West Town Thornberry and also Farm students here tonight for this 10-month long journey we are looking forward to Growing together to be able to hear exciting lessons about clubs important events and so much more that you are experiencing with your own
060voices as one of the best reminders for our time together on nights like these are so important we also want to say thank you so much for our student Representatives this evening and it's always important to know what's happening in our school so for tonight we welcome and thank our three high school student Representatives we have Jacob Bengal from East High School for around Shaw for from Henderson High School from Reston High School we look forward to hearing from you in just a few minutes as Jacob will get us started we also want to share what we've been able to experience from our Partnerships we've had a number of charitable donations this school year has officially commenced and our Halls are alive and all of us with eager Learners dedicated Educators and balanced possibilities the
061energy in our schools is probable filled with enthusiasm and excitement we would like to thank some of our wonderful and generous Community organizations for helping make a strong start of this school year possible first a special thanks to our Westchester Rotary Club first donation of school supplies to the district the supplies included binders pencils erasers index cards glue sticks paper crayons highlighters colored pencils rollers and so much more we and our caseworkers from the school district here on hand to divide the supplies make sure that they went to the students throughout the district and additionally for another year the district received a grant a giant Grant a donation from school supplies and other household items early this month thanks to the generosity of Giant Food Stores employees of local Giant Stores personally delivered over 1800
062items to the district and the suppliers included backpacks filled pencil boxes tissue papers paper towels notebooks and hand sanitizer and I can say we were taking lots of pictures and saying thank you for all the donations that were received we've also our queen of celebrating Henderson Hall of Fame so we have our I know our student Representatives we'll be sharing in just a few moments but I do want to take an opportunity to say a big round of appalls to the team at Henderson for their Hall of Fame Alum and they were honoring Dr Jason Wingard of Henderson High School and many of us were inspired in thinking about how our students are on board to change the world and Dr Wingard really channeled student voice for that ceremony we are honored to induct the
063remarkable Dr wingarden to the prestigious Henderson Hall of Fame the ceremony was a testament to his outstanding achievements and impact on our community in the field of Education the event feature inspiring speeches from students former classmates from 1991 local leaders and our esteem board president highlighting Dr wingard's dedication to Education and Leadership and a true special moment Dr Winger took the time to engage with Henderson students sharing valuable insights when achieving their goals and offering a glimpse into the bright future ahead his passion and wisdom will undoubtedly continue to inspire generations of Learners as they fall in their own paths to success congratulations to Dr Wingard on his well-deserved recognition we also want to recognize our students that received our AP Capstone diploma and our certificate for perseverance the district celebrates the achievements of 13
064students who earn the prestigious AP Capstone diploma with an additional four students receiving an AP seminar and research certificate during the 22-23 school year this program Fosters critical thinking research collaboration and presentation skills vital for academic success our students from all three high schools shown brightly earned these accolades through dedication and scholarly research with the program equipping them for a successful future congratulations to all of these outstanding students and their program instructors on such a remarkable achievement and it's also my extreme pleasure to announce that Henderson High School chamber choir has been accepted to perform a concert at the Pennsylvania music educator Association State Conference in Erie which will take place on April of 2024. this is an extreme honor as it places the chamber choir as one of the best high school choirs in
065the state I'm beyond thrilled of the achievements of the high school music department and our amazing students at Henderson it's a huge honor and a first for the choir in the district to be selected to perform at this annual conference and so with that this concludes my report I'm eager to hear what's happening in our three high schools and we'll begin with Jacob O'Grady's good evening and thank you for having me tonight with fall Sports and club meetings in full swing the year at East High School is off and running to start off strong East athletics department is kicking off the year in great shape the girls volleyball team has only faced one loss out of their 10 games and the teams Alexa Moore won MaxPreps player of the week two weeks ago East football
066has also seen one of its best seasons in the past four years getting a revenge on Unionville and Great Valley whom they lost to last year this past Thursday East auxiliary gym hosts our annual activity Fair the fair allowed for over 75 clubs to participate in advertising what they offer to students students from all four grades took part in the event throughout the day the fair encouraged student involvement throughout the student body and we plan to have a follow-up activity fair in the winter to give students another opportunity to find clubs that they might enjoy moving on to the business department East daika has kicked up its year with students learning more about project opportunities students picked Partners categories and brainstormed how they plan to tackle their projects e-school store has launched brand new merchandise
067for the 2023-2024 school year which is coupled with brand new payment methods Apple pay and card exciting for both students and teachers backed by popular demands Ingrid the therapy dog visited students during their first period to last Monday students with study hall has popped into the library to de-stress with a period next Viking leaders is a program at East where upperclassmen health and guide and Mentor incoming students through their first year of high school two weeks ago students in the program went to Paradise Farms to collaborate in team building activities and practice taking leadership while working with others the trip helped ensure that all East all the Viking leaders are equipped to both help aid the funder classroom at East High School behind the scenes the East theater company has been preparing for the start
068of their production of the play that goes wrong the company's director and student director worked through the selective audition process and built a strong cast of eight members rehearsals are now in full swing with a cast and crew are working on their show which would be performed the second week of November finally the members of East student council have been ironing out the details for this year's homecoming and spirit week which will be held the week leading up to October 7th the Spirit Week themes have been released we'll start the week out strong on Monday with Hollywood on Tuesday Marvin Wednesday ages and stages Thursday jukebox jams and our class starts on Friday for the pep rise the week will culminate in Friday's homecoming football game and a dance on Saturday night we plan to
069carry the strong start into October and this concludes the East report thank you [Applause] good evening everyone I'm Forum uh I hope you're all well I'm here with the latest and greatest from Henderson clubs are up and running uh full steam ahead from our literary magazine Calliope to environmental Club to Esports and everything in between our athletes are training hard the girls soccer team is going strong with eight wins so far and only one loss and Henderson's football team won their first game our chamber choir was selected for pmea as Dr Reynolds pointed out and it was a moment of Pride for us when we inducted the accomplished Henderson Alum Dr Wingard into our Hall of Fame in a beautiful ceremony with talented musical performances and touching speeches you saw my thunder a little bit
070yeah however while freshly painted Henderson is full of exciting news like this what really makes Henderson special is that each and every day is Meaningful being back at school has reminded me of how grateful I am of that and the spirit of appreciating the small moments let me take you on a walk through Henderson in the shoes of a regular Henderson student first you stroll into calculus where you scour your brain trying to remember all the formulas you forgot over the summer your teacher definitely walks you through the problem next you go into English where you discuss challenging texts with your classmates figuring it out together or erupting it's a friendly debate which in my opinion is just as fun physics is sometimes can very often confusing and as I'm sure you all remember but
071it always leaves you with a profound sense of how the world Works in Spanish class you think creatively on how to convey your ideas with the words you know you often end up saying something completely different from what you meant to say but you learn from your mistakes the hallways are always filled with Happy China creating a warm and comfortable environment you're relaxed with your friends and study halls and Warrior blocks lacking away all the stresses of school after eighth period you head to a club or sport that you're passionate about ending the day unfulfilling them while this may not seem too thrilling the last few years have imbued us all with a deeper gratitude for the normal from friends and teachers alike the resounding answer to what's your favorite part about school has been
072it's finally a return to normalcy personally my favorite part has been meeting all the bright face freshmen whose excitement can be felt bouncing off the walls of Henderson on the other hand on the other end of the spectrum a strong wave of nostalgia has washed over all of us seniors with the start of our last year here sophomores and juniors feel at home settling into their daily routines however for everyone regardless of age this new year is a new canvas of possibilities so here's to making the most of this year and painting it with vibrant lifelong memories I look forward to sharing Henderson with all of you for the coming year [Applause] well I would just like to start off with the fact that the first month of school was a great success everyone got
073successfully reactivated to school and is ready for the rest of the great school year and I'm serious when I say this too we're so excited for school and nobody skipped when our seniors get there we started off with the successful activity Fair where freshman involvement was at its peak it looked almost like every freshman there found a club that they enjoyed from all of our 55 options we fired up the activity fair with the induction of all four honor societies over 150 students were recognized from NHS National Business Honor Society National Art Honor Society and international Destiny in society now I would like to move on to some of our upcoming events we have a fall donation drawer for the Westchester food cupboard coming up that ends on November 10th cross country is hosting the
074zombie run fundraise on October 21st it's a 5k slash Fun Run that benefits rustin's cross-country and track and field and to cap it off I would like to invite everyone to attend the play that we're hosting called Illuminating Byron Russian it's coming back October 9th and it's a really good opportunity to learn about rustin's life and what he stood for all of our freshmen will be going to watch it so I'd like for you guys to come out as well [Applause] um you are all off to a roaring good start the thing that the board values and appreciates when you come here is that you take the time to come here and that you tell us not only something about your school and your clubs and your who who be doom and what sport but
075as Forum did in a very nice way tonight what it feels like to be a senior now at Henderson and East and View and sorry Preston and um how how this experience of coming up through the Westchester schools if that's the way you came and and sitting here now as a senior speaking for yourself and your school uh to the board of education and uh people from the public who are listening and here with us is a wonderful thing as Dr Reynolds said student voice is an important part of our strategic plan a district that doesn't listen to student voice is not much of a district we are all poorer if we do not hear you and see you so we're very grateful that you take the time to come be here with us we
076try and take the time to come and things at your school but I think this is a splendid opportunity for us and we are grateful to you for doing this volunteering and trying out and making this so we're looking forward to Byron Preston that I've been at the Zombie Fun Run I did not run in it but my grandchildren did they thought it was wonderful and scary because there are zombies jumping out of the woods when the kids are running it's very important and we have Forum I wrote this quote down I'm going to have to keep this for Miss Chester for the future gratitude for the normal I think we're all taking a deep breath and feeling that this year more than we have since covid so um Jacob the play that goes wrong
077are you in it see you didn't tell us anything about what you do aside from come here and talk to us and so in the coming months let us know what you're up to as well as all the classmates that go with you every day and that's a wonderful thing so again we appreciate it and if you make it to the last of the 10 months we give you a big bag of presents well a present anyway so we will be looking forward to hearing about your replying to college about what your plans are for the future not I mean nothing too personal you understand but um interesting things about being a student in the district okay are you mumbling something over there Dr Almer I believe we've made it to the Personnel report we
078have go for it thank you Mrs Tierney good evening Mrs Tierney Mr Beverly members of our board our Personnel report for the month of September 22 2023 is as follows it removals from payroll we have seven resignations this month two teachers one HVAC mechanic one paraprofessional two custodians and one long-term substitute teacher with additions to payroll we are recommending the hiring of five teachers and four long-term substitutes we are also recommending the hiring of one staff nurse six power professionals two custodians one grounds mechanic and two substitute custodians in Personnel events I am recommending status changes for four employees in the facilities and operations center a new third grade teacher and a paraprofessional I deliberately notified one involuntary transfer for a speech language pathologist it also delivered a notified voluntary transfers for a reading specialist
079and assistant tennis coach and a speech and language pathologist do Personnel leaves I'm recommending the approval of one sabbatical in the professional staff in additional information we are seeking the approval of 11 updated start dates two last day's updates one recipient of accept unaccepted job offer two last day updates two awardings of special education stipends and one updated retirement date we are also having we also have a list of drivers and aides from crafts and on-the-go kids buses as recommended by the PA state Auditors recommendations we are also seeking the approval for district gate working fees for 18 employees furthermore we have 13 additions to our tutoring list in supplemental contracts we have four editions for the upcoming fall season 29 additions for annual contracts for the upcoming school year 78 editions for the winter
080season 19 adjustments for the annual contracts four adjustments for the fall contract season and two removals from annual contracts and wonderful I'm respectfully requesting Court approval for all Personnel matters listed above thank you thank you Dr Almer you've been busy uh I knew that we were we no I don't move I mean I have a person who approve this report yes Dr Herman in a second Mr Beverly comments are questions on the Personnel report at this time hearing none will take role director Herman yes vice president yes director Chester yes director wanna sleep yes directed her now yes director Dietrich yes director Plumbing yes director Christie yes president Karen yes thank you now moving on to approval of the since no one has approached me to ask anything to taken off the kids side agenda
081so we will ask for um first in a second to approve the consent agenda all that is in the report and a second Dr Herman any comments or questions on the consent agenda seeing none will take role vice president yes director Herman yes director Fleming director Dietrich yes director Chester yes director Darnell yes director wormsley yes photographer Christie yes president Karen yes commissioner now it is time for committee reports one of the most exciting parts of the evening let us start with the education committee Mr Grinnell do you do you need a cough drop or anything I think I'm okay I think Mr Darnell lost the one of his uh windshield wiper blades tonight as he was driving here okay go ahead and it was the one in front of the driver in front of
082the passenger side so I had to turn around and swap cars after my husband it's hard he graciously gave me his glory education that's not actually part of the report District information that would be good we had an education committee meeting on September 11th uh we talked about the psba Pennsylvania School Board Association leadership there's a slate of uncontested candidates for the various positions we voted to approve that slate candidates we also had an extensive achievement report provided by Mr Renee and it highlighted some challenges and highlighted some strengths and points of Pride but it was very extensive and it really gives us the direction of where to go to make things better also we had a very thorough report from Dr Mission about the summer programming there were many things many exciting things that
083went on this summer throughout the district that supported a wide variety of students that met a lot of needs finally we had an equity update by Dr Martin again just really highlighting that the goals and the direction of equity in our district and as they tied specifically to our the comprehensive plan and we'll hear a little bit more about that later tonight finally our next Education meeting is Monday October 9th at seven o'clock and the public is certainly well welcome to participate that is my report president Terry thank you Mr Grinnell uh we'll be going to beautiful Services director Chester thank you uh president Tiernan I'd just like to acknowledge the young folks that gave their reports that and my goal as well is to do a paperless report just like you did we want
084to come in here with my final technology before I leave so people Services met on September 11th as well we approved several contracts for translation and interpreting including the Alta languages as Alta language Services Inc contract language Services Associates of Keystone deaf and hard of hearing services and Piedmont Piedmont Global language Solutions we had an update from pde a policy change with age changing from 21 to 22 for student services from the district as of next year I believe next folder as of this school year um we had a wonderful presentation of what many of the children and teachers did over the summer with the extended school year for 2023 they'll see a Stanton Christopher Lowe Elizabeth D blue yellow Mo and Chanel Dorsey presented uh it was wonderful with pictures and happy children and
085and five and six week programs throughout the summer Elementary School we had almost 200 children secondary school we had over a hundred and they had instruction that was based on their IEP polls including language arts and math and environmental teaching occupational therapy Physical Therapy they had fun with zoo on Wheels fire truck visits classroom music one of the teachers Mr largely played a guitar in the classroom and therapy dogs and a bubble party which we all wanted to here um and that was in elementary school so middle and high school they had the children had English language arts with phonics and vocab math with math computation Concepts and money Concepts in ordering and sequencing also a functional life skills with training presented from the IU and from my own organization Chester County OIC with job
086training and post-secondary gold Focus they had therapy dog visits arts and crafts indeed sounds like a busy summer correct to me our next meeting is 10 9 20 23. we look forward to seeing you there and that's my report president Karen thank you very much director Chester now Dr Herman if you could tell us about the Personnel committee thank you president Tiernan the Personnel committee met earlier this evening the committee reviewed and approved the following agenda items number one review and approval of job description and position director of secondary education number two review of job description director of the elementary education this is my report for the evening thank you thank you very much and I believe it is time for property and finance committee we need to vote to to approve the would you
087make the motion yes motion to approve um review and approval of job description and position director of secondary education in a second all right Dr Dietrich comments questions seeing none we will vote director Herman yes director Detroit yes director Chester yes director now yes director Wamsley yes director Christie yes vice president yes yes and now Mr Beval Aqua property and finance committee thank you president property Finance meeting was held this evening prior to the board meeting the first item in the agenda tonight Mr Scully or our Director of Finance reviewed the budget forecast model where he reviewed first of last year's 22-23 uh aren't you it had a decrease in the fund balance of 152 thousand dollars which that'll move to the budget gap for the 24-25 school year then we continued on and was
088Discovery reviewed the current year the 23-24 school year and is an increase in the fund balance of 3 million 76 000. we then reviewed the 2425 budget and at the present time there's a 2.8 million dollar to balance us in either revenue or expense offsets per act one at this point but it's very early on the budget calendar we'll give updates on a monthly basis as we go forward the next item on the agenda is the Scully reviewed the 2425 budget calendar and the budget calendar had two different options one was an option if we accepted exceptions and one without exceptions the property finance committee approved the budget calendar and I'm moving that to a full board motion at this point approval is a requested for the 24-25 budget calendar I so move second um
089Mrs swansley questions comments seeing none we'll take a vote vice president yes yes director Fleming yes director Christie yes director Chester yes the director Dietrich yes director Herman yes yes continuing on Mr Rick Thornton our safety director provided a presentation to Department of defiance committee and the board of the safety department he basically provided us an overview of his organization as exists today with csos campus security officers and sros school resource officers and showed us how the organization has formed over the last year or so he then basically provided us some more detail on a safety Summit that was held and coordinated by Mr Thornton that was well attended and well respected by the community and the folks that attended he went through a little bit of the training programs that the individuals in his
090safety organization attend and also uh attend during the school year he talked a little bit about the pillars of School Safety and Security which is a very informative presentation there and he also provided us emergency plans which can consist of preparedness mitigation response recovery and it was a good overall presentation to get us a little summary and a scope of what the safety department looks like and the things and the practices they have in place as security is probably one of the most critical important things to the district it was good for us to get an update on that so we appreciate that the last item in tonight's property and finance committee Mr woodburster provided us change orders for the renovations and additions at Glen Acres one of the elementary school construction projects He reviewed
091those in detail and went through specific items that have totaled up to approximately ninety thousand dollars change orders to a minor and extent and we did approve that and that's on the consent for tonight that ended tonight's report and the next property and finance meeting will be on Monday October 16th and that concludes our report this evening thank you very much all right it is time for other reports it is time for the policy committee I knew number seven I knew it leaves a director Fleming tell us about the policy committee thank you president Kiernan pardon the policy Review Committee met on Monday September 18th the committee reviewed changes to existing administrative guidelines and then review changes to policies that are time sensitive the committee finished reviewing section zero zero zero and began reviewing policies
092in section 100 which is programmed revised policies were approved as part of the consent agenda earlier tonight the next policy review committee meeting will be on Monday October 16th and that is my report for tonight thank you very much and now I believe we move on to other reports beginning with director Darnell's update on the happenings of the Chester County Intermediate Unit thank you president Tiernan the Chester County Intermediate Unit cciu board of directors held this monthly meeting on Wednesday September 20th at the Educational Service Center tchs Brandywine on Boot Road in Downingtown Dr Joe Fullerton director of Career Technical and customized education gave an overview of the comprehensive plan for the technical college high schools this plan will address our goals of student experiences and student outcomes while reinforcing our strengths and providing a
093quality Career and Technical education the next cciu board of directors meeting will be held on Wednesday October 18th at 7 30 at the Educational Service Center tchs brain one campus in Downingtown that is my report thank you thank you very much now back to you director Fleming legislative liaison thank you I do not have a report tonight because the meeting is actually the cciu legislative committee meeting is actually tomorrow night for September so we will report next month back to the board thank you all right and back to you director durnell for the equity report president Tyrion we're moving forward to address our District's Equity priorities all of which are closely aligned to our comprehensive plan in terms of addressing discipline our principles and assistant principals will begin the first of a two-part training in
094restorative practice on October 16th on November 13th our Equity Advocates will start their virtual instruction addressing discipline is pivotal to Student Success as it allows children to access District programming participate in our Innovative teaching and learning and increase student involvement the Westchester Area School District Community Partners of mentors Innovative is inviting the community to a Fall Fair the event will take place at Hillsdale Elementary School on Saturday October 21st from 12 to 3. we hope the community will join us at the fair and support us in empowering our students and families to better access all programs and activities the district has to offer and that concludes my final report for the evening oh all right if you want this thank you very much now we're moving on to other business and we have one big
095huge items in whatever business we're going to make a motion to approve our new superintendent um the motion will be read by Mr Beval Aqua it's pretty lengthy then we'll get a second then we'll take a moment to take a breath and see if anyone has a comment or a question but a comment and then we will vote Okay so take it away thank you presidents as you're saying it's a fairly lengthy motion tonight it's four motions built into one so I'll read it uh as follows motion to a point of substitute superintendent for the time period of December 4th to December 31st 2023 motion to end an existing employment agreement for the substitute Acting Superintendent with Dr Ells motion for election of the district superintendent in accordance with uh policy 24 PS motion to
096enter in a contract to establish salary and fringe benefits for the position of district superintendent dated as of September 26th this action is intended to transition the school district's current substitute Acting Superintendent back to our prior position as assistant superintendent and is further attended to appoint Dr David Christopher as the Westchester area school district superintendent on the following terms and conditions Dr Christopher is to served in the capacity of a substitute superintendent commencing on December 4th and concluding on December 31st 2023. the board hereby provides notice of the intended ending of amendment number one to the original employment contract entered between the district and Dr Reynolds to serve in the capacity of a substitute Acting Superintendent the notice and is the service as a substitute superintendent Acting Superintendent shall be effective as the close of
097business on December 3rd 2023 Dr Reynolds shall return to her prior position as assistant superintendent in her job description and list of Duties will be reviewed with Dr Christopher effective on December 4th for the balance of Dr Reynolds term as assistant superintendent in the district the interim substitute assistant superintendent Dr Cheryl Newton Woods contractual and defective at the close of business on December 3rd 2023 with any transition needs will be reviewed and assessed by the district through Dr Christopher and Dr Reynolds Dr Christopher is to served in the capacity of a district superintendent commencing on January 1st 2024 and is commissioned to end on June 30th 2028. Dr Christopher's salary adjustments fringe benefits are to be in accordance with his contract with the board of school of directors of the Westchester Area School District deed
098in September 26 2023. Dr Christopher's election is district superintendent is subject to the provisions of a public school code of 1949 and its amendments there too I suppose thank you now may I have a second thank you um I'm going to ask if anybody has something fairly concise and pleasant to say this evening Alex did you have anything you wanted to start with sure thank you president Tyrion I I read this with permission from the person who sent it to this board um we received an email from Dr Christopher's board president back in Cumberland Valley she wrote us a nice note and you know through this process of interviewing a lot of candidates and all of us doing that and putting the work um you think we gleaned a lot of her insights but I
099um you know again asked her and she said it was okay so I just wanted to read that briefly if that's okay um because I think it's important for you know us here and and our district to know um you know what what doctor Dr Christopher is bringing um you know from the opinion of someone that has worked with him for for a number of years before this date so as you get ready to appoint Dr David Christopher is your next superintendent allow me to congratulate you we hired Dr Christopher at Cumberland Valley four years ago I knew we had found the perfect person to lead our district Dr Christopher has been an exceptional leader for CV the past four years and he will bring the same expertise to Westchester moving forward during his tenure
100at Cumberland Valley he faced many challenges that he navigated with Grace and integrity as you know he's a well-respected leader at the local state Regional and National level and he's often sought out for his expertise in K-12 education his knowledge of educational operations and finances along with his ability to empower a leadership team are just a few of the skills he will bring to your District the ability doctor Dr Christopher has to embrace community and communicate effectively is extraordinary while I'm sad to see Dr Christopher leave our district I'm excited to see what he can take where he can take the Westchester School District in the future I wish you all the best as you navigate the next year with David as your new superintendent he is the best educational leader I know but he's
101an even better person I feel fortunate to have had the opportunity to work with David and I wish you all the best moving forward it was such a brilliant man sincerely Heather Dunn Cumberland Valley is a little more aggressive um so I just wanted to share that because I thought it was a very nice note she sounded on prompted as far as I know I don't think Dr Christopher um but yeah just so we have a sense from you know outside of this us nine um you know what I think Dr Christopher brings to our district so thank you thanks for reading that thanks for catching up with Heather and asking her for her permission to read it too I'm going to go backwards now we're just going to go around the table and I'll
102finish up but Daryl did you have anything you wanted to say uh sure just basically welcome uh when we met the final round of interviews just that sense of wow after you uh presented to the board um you you're going to be meeting a wonderful community of teachers parents community members administrators and I it just resonated so many times that you kept talking about taking us moving us forward and so we look forward to see where you moved the Westchester Area School District thank you glad you're here and nice to meet you as well Aaron Dr Christopher I just wanted to say thank you for your interest in our community for your desire to come and work with us and help us be the best school district you can be I'm really excited about getting
103to know you and working with you over the next few years I also wanted to say how grateful I am to George Fiore and the staff of the cciu for their expertise in the process of how you hire a leader like this and how they helped us to sort through a lot of very good applications and find a person who I think we can really build something great with so thank you to them and thank you to you big shoes to film I know that you know that this was I know this is a big change for you it was a very daunting task task for us as well I think none of us on this board had selected as superintendent before so it took every ounce of brain power and thought and and everything
104inside of us to make sure that we felt we were making the right choice so so here you are um I can't thank you enough for being here welcoming you here to this new place without thanking Dr Reynolds she has been Fierce and getting us through what was a critical time for this District if but for the fact that she was here I'm not sure where we would be I'm looking forward to the change that is coming I'm looking forward to our open potential there are so many great things that we are poised to do I sit on the edge of my chair because there's so much new you know but I'm expecting great things expecting great things so that we can educate and Inspire our children to attain their personal best thank you and
105thank you Dr Reynolds there are two comments this evening one I'd like to also thank Dr Reynolds for leadership and the role as a substitute superintendent and continue efforts to during the transition so thank you Dr Christopher I'd like to to congratulate you and welcome you and your family to the to our Westchester Area School District and look forward to where you take us in the future we look forward to your start in two months but good transition hi uh Dr Christopher you shared so many really inspiring stories with us and our time with you and I think those compelling compound part of that let us how much representation there was not just of your staff but of your students but of your community so I really look forward to that aspect of your leadership
106and how you integrated Community voice and student voice ways and you shared a little bit about your family's own enthusiasm for this change right and an unusual one to make and with a childhood I think is going to be a senior right so um your courage and enthusiasm as a family your dedication to education um to give to us and we're really excited to have you come so thank you well during your interview Dr Christopher Christopher we kept hearing the word community and to us as school board members to students to teachers to staff to the cabinet we are a very strong community so we would like to welcome give you a warm welcome to our Westchester Community to you and Mrs Christopher we thank you very much for your expertise and we're looking really
107forward to working with you and I would also like to take a moment to thank Dr Reynolds you have done it was almost an impossible task of time you led us through with Grace with your intelligence your Poise we thank you very much we appreciate it thank you and I was about to stay almost exactly with Dr Hurley second to Dr Reynolds thank you for your Poise and Leadership through uh what was it I believe a difficult year for many with the transition of the board so thank you and welcome to Dr Christopher and his wife Aaron I'm really looking forward to working with you and excited for what the future holds for our district so welcome to and as as everyone else has stated It's a Wonderful Community here of parents teachers and students
108so welcome thank you Khalia Dr Reynolds we I agree with Joyce without your stepping up and working 24 7 because you and I talked all around the clock for many many weeks almost every day and without your gracious strength I don't think we would have gotten to the point where we are now you pulled the cabinet together and got this District back where it needed to be in a functioning way and we are will always be deeply grateful to you for all that you've given us um the school district the school board will never quite be the same a group of nine people who go through a selection of a superintendent I think are tested in a way that we had never been forced to work together quite so much all at one time night
109after night with the cciu board a cciu search team advising us they gathered information we looked at the information when we all sat down the first time we were not all on the same page I know that we weren't what we got there and all I can say and I don't need to make it mystical but when Dr Christopher walked in and sat down we kind of looked at each other on the side of our eyes and we knew and that's all there was to it it he he exhibited and I have to keep using these terms at such a calm internal compass and the ability to play chess on three levels at the same time which I think good superintendents possess and um a sense of humor a really really good sense of humor
110at first person he laughs out is himself so he will tell you things about himself and keep right on laughing and it he doesn't stop and get embarrassed to go oh I made a mistake so I think you will find him delightful I think you will find him very very um astute and it was his experiences his the problems that he faced which we all recognize any school district anywhere would recognize oh we had that oh we had that and this is what I did and it was the this is what I did that made us know this is what we had to do so we are very grateful to you for saying yes to us I I have used the term that it is kind of like matchmaking to bring a school district and
111a superintendent together who are right for each other and of course the lawyer was intent upon writing a good prenup so we would all be happy forever because he said you know a marriage starts out it's very happy but then sometimes you're not happy so um I'm looking forward to having you here in Chester County and I know over the next 60 days your district is feeling just as sad as we are excited but I I've told them that and I I understand however we got you yeah so um I believe if there are no more comments or questions at this time we are going to vote kids this is important vice president yes director lonsley yes director Chester yes director Herman yes director Christie yes director yes drafted her now yes director Deidre yes
112president Cameron yes now I would like us to give a big round of applause to Dr Reynolds and then I would like Dr Christopher to come up and just walk around and shake hands with all this otherwise we all have to get up and that starts to get very messy so around the clock [Applause] okay I said we might be a little Conga around this table I know okay thank you and now as we enter a new season and a new school year let us welcome this new year full of things that never were yeah oh no let's have public comment first now you've heard the quote okay thank you so sorry thank you now is the time for public comment on non-agenda items persons wishing to make public comment were required to properly register
113prior to the designated start time of tonight's 7 PM meeting when a public commenter's names are called please approach the podium and begin by stating your first name last name and municipality as a reminder public comments are limited to three minutes per person the three-minute time clock will be projected on the screens located throughout the room the board asks that all commentary be directed to the board as a whole public comments may be interrupted or terminated if the commentary exceeds three minutes or if it is obscene and or threatening in nature all persons attending this meeting are expected to conduct themselves with decorum and civility in addition to refraining from abusive and profane remarks please also be respectful of all persons and public comments including those comments and opinions that differ from your own distracting
114or disruptive behavior or other actions which interfere with the orderly conduct of this public meeting will not be tolerated we will now call the first of two speakers Sarah Hinkle well great yes okay hi everyone my name is Sarah Hinkle I live in West Whiteland Township as a parent of an elementary student in the district I wanted to speak tonight about the topic of book Banning that has pervaded our country and local community in recent years this book Banning trend has been spearheaded by a group who taught themselves as promoting quote-unquote Liberty but who in actuality are working to deny the rights of parents to provide their children access to books in the public schools all last year I listened to community members make public comments at these meetings and advocate for the Restriction of
115certain books because of their personal opinions about them one such Community member who's also running for a school board position under the Back to Basics mantles proposed a system where there would be an 18 and over section of a letter parents of minor children would have to provide special permission for their students to access those books if they wish and schools would have to manage that system here's the thing if parents object to a book used in the curriculum they can request an alternative book for their student as far as books in the library it is unfair and inappropriate to deny all students access to books because of the opinions of a few it is unfair and appropriate to require the parents and students jump through hoops by filling out paperwork or signing permission slips
116so their kids can access all the books in the Library without barriers this summer I had the chance to review a book for the district and make a recommendation about its adoption into the middle school curriculum I appreciated this opportunity to get involved and have a voice in the process but I would also offer that I have a great trust in the expertise of our Educators the teachers and Librarians trained to make decisions about the books in our schools unfortunately there is a lack of trust and respect for our teachers and Librarians who are often lined for their judgment and support of our students particularly our most vulnerable students who especially need the support this is my plea to you all please do not capitulate to the demands of this small but vocal minority who
117want to restrict our students access to books and knowledge please do not make me as a parent have to fill out paperwork and cut through red tape to ensure my student can access all the books in the library if I have a problem with the book in The District I'll work with you to provide a plan for my child what I will not do is demand that every other student be denied access to that book because in my opinion about it finally let's protect our most valuable resources our Educators and let them do their jobs without interference it's important for our students of diverse identities to see themselves represented in the books they read as that creates more welcoming and inclusive environment that supports them in their learning and for students like my son a
118white male it's critical they'd be exposed to the diversity of The Human Experience to promote their empathetic and effective engagement in our Global Society communities that ban books are never on the right side of History thank you filing the word good evening my name is Kelly Lord I'm also from West Whiteland Township members of the school board I'm here on behalf of concerned parents including myself to address our worries regarding upcoming Renovations at Mary C house Elementary School there is a looming although unconfirmed plan to displace kindergarten students and transport them to another Elementary School while we recognize the necessity of these Renovations we are deeply troubled by the lack of transparency and communication throughout this process the lack of information and the absence of clear communication have left many parents feeling anxious and uninformed
119about how these Renovations will affect our children's education it's disconcerting that some parents have heard about these Renovations through unofficial channels compounding the confusion and frustration surrounding this matter we firmly believe that open and honest communication is pivotal when implementing substantial changes in our school system especially when it directly impacts our children after reviewing the school district's Capital plans and seeing NCH is in the design Google's phase I'm interested to understand if modular classrooms are being considered as a potential solution for this project this would provide the least disruption for students and Families this would also eliminate any agile educational losses of instruction looking at previous Capital plans this has been approved for other elementary schools finally I'm curious about what official communication will be disseminated to parents providing them with essential information and Clarity
120they deserve regarding these renovations some families may require advance notice to make suitable arrangements for their children during this period thank you [Applause] Lord thank you for your comment I will make sure that you're myself or a member of our team particularly Mr personal be able to follow along with their questions and points of consideration that you raised thank you yeah I think I've just read enough tonight but I did live far that from Rainier Maria real key real cook and so part of it was her and part of it was me thank you thank you for coming tonight thank you for welcoming our new superintendent thank you Dr Reynolds I'm going to call for an adjournment but I need sister Darnell Dr Dietrich all in favor say aye aye this meeting is adjourned