April 27th, 2026-School Board Public Meetings

001Okay, we'll begin with roll call. Mr. Antonio >> here. >> Mr. Badger >> here. >> Mr. Goolson >> here. >> Miss Keranikis >> here. >> Mr. Kelly >> here. >> Dr. Morris here. Mr. Strauss >> here. >> Mr. Walker >> here. >> Mrs. Ginsburg >> here. >> Student reps. Oh, uh, Tatum Morris and Isabelle Dcasta. Yes. Here. >> Here. Thank you. >> All right. Well, everybody join me for the pledge of allegiance. United States of America to the rep for it stands one nation indivisible with liberty and justice for all. Welcome everyone to this April 27th meeting of the WISA Hickens School Board. Um first on our agenda, I'm going to list out our prior meetings. We met on April 6th for a regular public board meeting. April 13th for a finance committee meeting. April

00213th for health, wellness, and safety and April 20th for board equity oversight committee meeting. And then we have upcoming meetings on May 4th, our next which is our next regular public board meeting. May 11th is our next finance meeting. May 26th is our next work session. And June 1st will be another regular public board meeting. Um, now we will move into our presentations for the evening. And first we have our Wissa Hickin Middle School student presentation. for this year. >> Okay. Um hello everybody. Thanks for having us tonight. Uh again, my name is Jeff Linton and I teach sixth grade at the middle school. Um we're just here to show you a little bit about how our new curriculum and program have changed a little bit. And so, um, basically the the state has kind

003of wants us to move in a slightly different direction where we're not just having the kids learn what scientists already know, but have them learn what scientists do. And so, um, things are kind of a little backwards now. So, what that might look like if you were in a middle school classroom is that we no longer have a textbook. And so we wouldn't just um read a page about a scientific topic. We would ask the kids like, "What do you think the answers are?" And then they would predict and then they would investigate and they observe and they connect. They talk to each other. We diagram a lot, right? We do a lot of drawing and labeling and we try and come up with the learning ourselves instead of just reading about um what someone

004else has already discovered. Um which is a little backwards from how we did when we were kids. So um in sixth grade the things that we cover we do a intro to scientific method and then we learn about light and then we do thermal energy and we're just finishing up a unit on weather now and we do a little bit with how we respond to natural disasters. We finish it with cells. Uh I do have a couple of great sixth grade girls who are going to come up here and talk to you about some of the things we've done in our class with our thermal energy unit. Okay, that's right. >> Hello and school board. My name is Kira Cloud. My friend and I are here to show you the way we have learned science

005this year. This way of teaching can benefit the way we figure out how things in our world work. Now, usually you would learn the basics of a lesson in a textbook and then you would do the experiment. You know, the way most of us have been learning so far. But where's the excitement and curiosity in that? This year, the way of teaching has changed. We did the experiments first, then we, the kids, would figure it out and learn by referring to our experiments, not a textbook. To better understand the lesson, that is what you're about to do today. We did fun experiments in our thermal energy unit this year. I'm going to explain my favorite to figure out what the difference between the molecules in hot and cold water is doing and how they contrast.

006We put red stripe peppermints into a little dish and added hot water into one dish and cold water into the other. As we dropped the peppermints in, we watched the reactions. Before I tell you how they reacted and what we learned from that, my friend is going to tell you about another experiment we did. >> Hello, my name is Maggie Jner. After we did the peppermint experiment in class, we also did another experiment right after to prove our theories. And today you're going to learn just like us. We took two cups and filled one with hot water and one with cold water. Then we dropped the food coloring into both cups and watched the dye react with the water. And we saw what happened. Our whole class had a better idea of the differences between

007hot and cold water molecules. Tonight we thought you could try the experiment as we did. >> I'll give it a try. >> Oh yeah. Do you have any hypothesis hypothesy about what is going to happen in this experiment? >> Just like I'm in my classroom with you know byp >> Well, I can take a guess based on the pictures. I think that's cheating. >> Exactly. Yes. It looks like the hot water did it dilute quicker than in the cold water. >> Did I use the right terminology? Is that wrong? >> Yes. >> The scientist. >> You want to give it a shot? >> Yeah. >> Okay. It really is like it's my class. The struggle is real. All right. So, if you guys want, you can uncap your food coloring. You can put three drops

008in each cup and you can see what happened. >> Both of them. Both in. Yep. Couple in each. And so this is what the kids >> So instead of a textbook just telling them the difference between hot and cold water, they would do things like this to try and figure it out. >> Okay, now that you figured out >> it disperses in hot water because the molecules are moving faster, right? >> Very good. Now that you've figured out what happened in this cup experiment, you'll see that our class's results are very similar. We notice that the dye in the hot water dispersed almost immediately and spread around the entire cup. Whereas in the cold water, it dropped in a line almost directly to the bottom and gathered there, then spread from the bottom up. And

009when we did the peppermint experiment, we noticed that as the peppermint was dropped into the hot water, the color drained out of the mint and went to the water into the dish. And when all the color came out, the water is red. While that was the same for the peppermint in the cold water, the reaction was much slower. These two experiments taught us that hot water molecules move much faster than cold water molecules. And what the even better part is that we figured out this phenomenon all by ourselves. >> Thank you, girls. >> So, that was a few of our sixth grade um students. We have a couple of seventh grade students as well that are going to share um something that they did um with their second unit which was chemical engineering. Correct. Right.

010>> Yep. and also um with their third unit there which was the flow of met on the other side. Hello school board. My name is Madison Green and my name is Aduti Gasalia. We are seventh graders at the Whissa Hickin Middle School. >> Today we are excited to share two science projects we completed this year that show how hands-on learning has helped us apply science to real world problems. Our first project was designing a turtle egg incubator. And our second project was creating a healthy and nutritious school lunch school lunch using foods from our cafeteria's menu. Our first project focused on helping protect turtle eggs laid on the beaches of Cape May Point, New Jersey. We challenge we were challenged to design an artificial incubator that could safely transport eggs to the Marine Animal Stranding

011Center. In class, we had to design an incubator that was lightweight, portable, and effective. We also learned that engineering you that in engineering, you often have to balance trade-offs. We could only prioritize two of these three goals: good, fast, or cheap. Our incubator needed to safely hold six eggs without damaging them. We also needed a heat source that would keep the eggs warm without exposing them to any harmful chemicals. To solve this problem, we tested different chemicals that could create heat, including magnesium, aluminum and copper, quick lime, calcium chloride, and oxidation reactions. After researching and experimenting, we found that calcium chloride worked the best for our design. And then we began building our incubators while learning that thermal and conductors and insulators. For conductors, we used materials like foil because conductors allow heat to pass

012through easily. Their particles are tightly packed so heat moves constantly. >> For insulators, we use materials like plastic and felt. Insulators slow down the heat transfer, keeping the eggs warm and protected. As you can see in the packet being passed around, we tested many designs to create the safest and most effective incubator possible. >> We really enjoyed this project because it was hands-on, creative, and collaborative. Working in groups allowed us to learn from each other and share our other ideas. Our second project challenged us to design a healthy lunch and nutritious healthy and nutritious lunch using foods available in our cafeteria. First, we learned what it means for foods to be nutritious. Our bodies needed balanced nutritions. We studied carbohydrates, fats, proteins, and how to read nutrition labels. >> Then, we used what we learned

013to analyze the Wistah Hickens school lunch menu and create meals that met specific nutritional requirements. For example, we had to make sure that no more than 10% of calories from saturated fat. >> This challenge taught students how to use scientific methods, especially trial and error, to solve real life problems. It also helped us make smarter and healthier food choices. >> Since this project happened during March Madness, we also made it fun by putting foods into brackets and voting for our favorites. >> This was a fun and meaningful project because it connected science to our everyday lives. These projects helped us build skills in teamwork, problem solving, research, and critical thinking. Thank you for your time and supporting hands-on science learning at Wah Hicken Middle School. We will now be happy to answer any questions that

014you have. >> Okay, we have one more student, eighth grader named Connor. Um you can see the different units that eighth grade does at our school and Connor's going to talk to you about a lesson that they did um in the astronomy at this point. >> Oh, nice. >> All right. Hi, my name is Connor Spece. Uh and I'm going to share with you what we did as scientists at the eighth grade level. So for this one, we have my notebook here that we used and it's we it showed that at sunrise, a person standing at let's say the top of the earth has a longer path of light from when the sun sheds its rays to when our eyes see it at opposed to at someone standing at noon or midday. It's a shorter

015path at noon or midday than it is at at sunrise or sunset. We use this as an experiment to show how light from the a flashlight contributes to this because they both give off light. We shared that the flashlight is the same as the sun in that they both give off white light. At the start we used water as our earth's atmosphere and later we added milk powder to show that the chemicals in the earth in the earth's atmosphere. We used additional milk powder to show more chemicals as some uh some areas of our atmosphere have more dust and more pollution than others. Uh and we used a we used the length of a container as it's sunray as it's sunrise and sunset and we used a width of a container for the noon. We

016saw this and in these notebook pages we are documenting a lab experiment that controls how sunlight interacts with the earth's atmosphere. We start by noting that the sun and moon can appear in various colors ranging from yellow orange to a rare flash of green. We can we included a diagram to illustrate that the sun that at sunrise sunlight must travel a longer path through the atmosphere compared to a shorter path at midday. To simulate this environment, we used a mix a mixture of milk powder and water to represent the gases and particles that make up our air. As we added more milk powder to the water, we observed that light shifting from clear white to a distinct yellow. By the final stage of our experiment, our records show the light becoming orange red as con

017as the concentration of the particles increased. This process mimics scattering where shorter blue wavelengths are scattered away leaving only the longer red and orange wavelengths for us to see. Our data tables confirm that when light travels through more atmosphere, it looks significantly darker and more colorful. Uh, sorry. Essentially, we found the milk particles act like the dust and gas in our sky, filtering out specific colors. This explains why we see a blue sky at midday, but vibrant reds during a sunset. Ultimately, our experiment proves that the color of the sun depends entirely on how much of the atmosphere light has to pass through before reaching our eyes. Thank you. So, thank you very much for letting us talk about this. It's been quite a shift for everybody um because we don't have a textbook like

018the investigations you just heard about that that's our textbook. with the discussions the kids are having. That's our textbook and so um it's it's been quite an experience but it's it's going well and kids are learning. So thank you again for having me. Appreciate it. >> Well, thank you so much for being here. These presentations were amazing and I had just some questions for the students. Oh yeah, grab your cups first. have some questions now. >> Um, so first I noticed that you do well at least on the eighth grade one, I saw a couple different topics that you have throughout the school year and I assume all of you have a couple different topics that you're learning throughout the school year and I have a sixth and eighth grader and I think Maggie and

019Connor, you know, my sixth and eighth graders. Um, I'm just wondering like what has been your favorite topic that you've learned about this year other than the one you presented on? If I'm being completely real and honest with you, I personally think that this was the most uh I believe that this was the single greatest experiment that we have ever done. It completely showed me how the Earth's atmosphere is um dependent about light and it was just really it was just really learning for all of us to really see that and just recognize that. >> Awesome. What about the rest of you? >> Anyone else a favorite unit? >> Um, we did uh on our first unit we had a light experiment and we had like these boxes and like Mr. Linton put characters on

020both sides and there was a mirror but it was like a one-sided mirror. So, we had to figure out how like the light worked with the mirror to make one side only see themselves and the other side like see the person rather than themselves. And I thought that was really cool and interesting. >> Great. And what about our seventh graders? I would also have to agree that this is probably my favorite project all year because uh during the year mostly we are doing like uh more researchbased stuff but I thought this project was cool because we were able to like collaborate and really do more of a hands-on project. >> And I think that's great like looking at the cafeteria and our food, what we're eating and seeing, you know, how healthy it is. I

021think that's awesome. and like out of the projects like how you're learning now like actually doing projects and learning what scientists do. Do you think like that approach is better than perhaps what you were doing before? Do you like this better and this method of learning? What are your thoughts? >> Yeah, I like it better because I feel like in a textbook you get like most of the answers already and you have to like learn about the answers, but I feel like when you're doing hands-on learning, you can like get the answer yourself using like trial and error. And I also feel that uh like with more of the hands-on projects, it gets more students attention rather than uh teachers just like researching and then repeating what they find out. Cuz in this project, we

022use like our packets and we had to find out all the information on our own and then uh use the information that we learned and keep going with that. >> And do the rest of you agree you all like this type of learning? You can you get to say something short Connor go ahead. >> I mean uh yeah I definitely think it's a little more it's way more interactive it's very engaging upon us and when we are thinking through this as a unit uh that really like triggers something in the mind for us and it's like I want to learn more about this rather than just reading a textbook and thinking oh well I can the answer's already in here if I skim through. we have to go in find the answer ourselves and it

023really just it's really it's really interactive and I really I think that's amazing. >> Great. Anyone else want to share? >> Um like it's also about like how some experiments might might not always go the way it plans. So like you would have to take a deeper dive into like why that may have happened which kind of makes you just more interested in the topic. >> Oh that's great. Yeah, that's a great thought on that. Adian, >> well, I have one question for Adt and Madison, and that is, what was the most popular food in the bracket? I need to know what one. >> Uh, while doing the bracket, our teacher found out that the most popular was walking tacos. If you don't know what that is, it's a bag of Doritos with like all

024the ingredients of a taco. So basically like beef meat and like lettuce and stuff and you can like add in your own fixings and that gained the most popularity. >> Yeah. >> So popular but was it healthy? >> Yeah. I don't I I don't think that's a picture of a health food but it's all right. >> Uh if it was it was mostly healthy because like our school does have healthy food. But with that, we added like like we make sure to like add like at least a vegetable with that or like a fruit with that and like getting all your like carbs and like protein in too. >> Thank you. >> And then I had one I did have a question for Mr. Linton. Sorry. I'm just curious how you as a teacher um

025are doing with like no formal text. Are there still like handouts or other learning resources that were using? >> Yeah. So, it has its pluses and minuses. Like she said, the experiments, they don't always work out. And so, like, if you need the experiment to work to teach the concept, then you're kind of, well, here's what was supposed to happen. You know, like sometimes that happens. Um, we do have um lots of charts and tables that um we have notebooks going that I'll print those tables and then they'll cut them out so they're all in one spot. We glue them in. Um, and then each unit at the end of the unit towards the end has one or two articles that we'll read that kind of like, all right, you did all this stuff. Let's

026help tie it all together. So, >> that's helpful. Thank you. >> And I think it's not having not having it work every single time actually helps you learn also. You can kind of work backwards and figure out where it went wrong so you can get it right the next time. It's a good learning opportunity. Anyone else with questions, comments? Deianne asked my question, but um I love that we're learning critical thinking in middle school. Like you're figuring things out without anything from from zero. So that's that's a really awesome skill to start developing. So kudos. Thanks for sharing. This was a lot of fun. >> Anything else, Joe? Um yeah, I mean this way of uh learning science seems so much more fun and engaging than what I remember and uh definitely because I hated

027science. Um I really appreciated the presentations today. I feel like I actually learned something that I didn't know about. I didn't really realize the difference between hot and cold water and the impact on that, but it makes sense once you guys explained it. Um and I never really realized how the atmosphere affects the color of sunlight until Connor explained it, which is great. And uh and for the seventh graders for a second I was worried that the turtle egg project was somehow linked with the making the healthy meal project. So I'm glad that it didn't turn out that way. But uh thank you for presentation guys. It was really fun and uh entertaining and uh illuminating. Thanks. >> Anyone else? >> No. Just say thank you all and a special shout out to our science

028teachers who make it so fun. Thank you. >> All right. Okay. Well, if there's no other questions and thank you again. And we always take a picture. So, let me think. Dian, you're a middle school mom. Do you want to do it with me or is there someone else that hasn't gone yet? >> Dian, you're up. >> But wait till I go away. Must be Well, thank you again and as I mentioned, please take some cookies on your way out. Take some for your siblings, too. All right. So, and the rest of our meeting is also very exciting, guys. So you might just want to stay and learn something about school boards, how we function. It's exciting stuff. >> All right. All right. Moving on. We now have our we presentation. All right. Good evening.

029My name is Bradley Chaplan. >> I'm Riley Taylor. >> And we are student reps for the We Off board here at Wik. The Wizen Educational Opportunities Foundation has had an energetic and productive year. The we off board of directors would like to thank the Wiken community administration and staff for their collaboration and support this year as we piloted a new distinct wide districtwide fundraiser and funding programs. >> So some highlights from this year uh we tried something new this year. So as board reps me and Brad were prompted to create a grant proposal which you all have in front of you. not only so that we can get to know each other more and how we think, but also create like an intradist relationship. So, we created this coloring book um with contributions from the

030National Art Honor Society at the high school, the autistic support group at the high school, as well as town hall, and then me and Brad created some pages ourselves. Um, and our intent for this was to create a connection between the youngest generation of our district and the oldest. So, high schoolers made it and then our intent is to distribute these to the incoming kindergarteners either at back to school night or their orientation. Um, and our whole goal was to produce something that shows these kids what Wahhicken is all about and what it's like to be a Trojan. Um, so we included some of the most important aspects that we feel like um, Whisten has contributed for us and tried to embody that within this coloring book. We were able to produce, I believe, 500

031copies with our publication being sponsored by the Minament Press and Amler. Um, and we also plan to distribute these in person so that we can actually meet the kindergarters and also hopefully have uh the student board reps for the school board attend and maybe even some um other student student board rep members just so the kids can get an idea of what the leadership is like here. Additionally, we had a collaborative partnership with Amler Savings Bank and we were able to fund new Spirro coding robots in the high school. They're located in the library. These robots will serve as a way to keep the kids engaged. Uh, keep them learning, have an interactive process that allows them to be hands-on while learning through different mechanical processes and how really just how things work so that

032they can better be equipped to know maybe what they want to do in the future and kind of how that translates later down in life. >> Um, this year we also supported the reading Olympics teams within the district. We were able to fund the registration fees for the 10 teams at each school and we also had two of our executive board reps um give a we off contribution at the competition which was Smarties for each kid. >> Additionally, we off's new silent auction fundraiser was a big success this year. We raised $7,400 for future grants and assemblies for the district to fund grants like these as well as arts and cultural assemblies in all six schools. We offer lies on philan philanthropic support from individuals and community businesses. To those of you who have already

033contributed this year, thank you to anyone interested in sponsorship opportunities to support the work that we off. Please connect with us through our website www.weoff.org. >> Um we also just launched our spring staff tributes which is a gratitude program that delivers personalized thank you messages to teachers and staff. So, it's not limited to just teachers. It could be um someone from our food and nutrition group, a lunch aid, a bus driver, anybody that you feel like has made an impact on you. Um and we also do it in tandem with teacher appreciation week. And if you would like to participate, please shout out your favorite teacher, administrator, or bus driver with a personal message. We handpack these tributes and we deliver them to each school um in the teachers mailboxes. And the deadline for submitting

034a staff tribute is Friday, May 8th at midnight. And more details can be found on the We Off website as linked on the district email, we off Facebook page and other social medias. >> Thank you guys. And um if we could keep a copy of one of these. These are awesome. I love it. Yes. This is wonderful. Thank you so much. Any Yes, we're going to get a picture with you guys also, but I want to just ask, are there any questions? >> Yeah, question. Um, how did you guys come I love the coloring book idea. It's amazing, especially with the the theme and the topics that are in there as well. How did you guys even come up with the idea? Oh yeah. Okay. Uh, so it was Brad's idea, but I kind of

035just added on to who to get involved and also how we could just get more different groups of people um involved because I think at first it was just a senior and kindergartener thing, but then we're like, let's get a diverse group of people. So that's why we picked the groups that we picked because town hall like is open to anybody. Um and then the National Art Honor Society obviously these people specialize in art and then um our autistic support group. It gives these kids an opportunity to create um something as well and make a lasting impact. >> Yeah, it's amazing. Great job, guys. >> Any other questions? >> Oh, yeah. Go ahead, Steve. Not a question, more a comment. Um, first off, we obviously really appreciate everything that WEO off does. Um, so we

036feel that that's a true support of the district and, uh, this is the first time I've seen the student reps do a presentation. I haven't been on the board that long, but this is a fantastic presentation. So, thank you. >> All right. Well, we're going to get a picture with you guys. No. That sounds cute. All right, another wonderful presentation. And now we're on to our third presentation, which is going to be our WISA Hickin High School monthly highlights. So to start off, our robotics team qualified to the World Championships and we're going tomorrow. Actually, I'm not, but they're going to go tomorrow and that's really exciting. And um so there's like a lot of qualification rounds and the divisions already came out and I was told that we kind of like our division and

037that we're hopeful to hopefully make it to Einstein's which is like the final final but first we have to win obviously our division so like one match at a time and I'm also excited to tune in to those matches and then senior prom is this Friday. Really excited for that as well as the senior class. So that's what it has. It's at presidential caterers. So at the high school we held a futures day which was a huge success uh giving every student a chance to speak with alumni and get real insight into life after high school. Students also took part in hands-on budgeting simulation that made the experience even more valuable. Another thing was our mini thawn team raised over 78,000 this year supporting families with children battling cancer. An incredible achievement for our community.

038And lastly, in the library, new aquariums have been added and are quickly becoming a favorite spot, bringing new, fun, engaging elements to the space. That's great. Oh my god, I can't believe the prom is here already. Awesome. Um, any questions or comments? >> Where where do these robotics uh competitions take place? >> So, they take place in Houston, Texas. Yeah. >> Lovely place. >> It's it's very nice. I've been there. I've burned around and last year the weather was really great and I hopefully I think the weather's going to be this year great too. So, it's nice to walk around because right in front of the venue I think the place is called Discovery Green. There's like a huge park and in the middle there's like a like a pond and there's a park and

039there's music, other people so you can socialize. And then there's like a CVS nearby that technically no one's supposed to go to, but I mean there's a lot of other places to go. There's like a stadium nearby and another park nearby and there's a Phoenicia, a Chick-fil-A. Like it's it's really awesome. Love it. Any other questions? All right. Well, thank you so much. All right. So, three great presentations today and now we're at our first public comment period. Um and this first public comment period is for comments on agenda items only. I have no one registered in person, so I won't give a spiel until I know if any someone is online. Okay. So, the board of directors does value public input and provides an opportunity for community members to share comments during board meetings

040in accordance with board policy 903. Uh there are two public comment periods during our meetings. The first one is limited to agenda items only and the second public comment period is open to comments on any school related topic. Um we limit these to three minutes. Please state your name, your municipality of residence and uh the topic on which you are speaking. >> Okay, we have Eric Rudolph. >> Okay, Eric, you can go ahead and unmute yourself. >> Yeah, I didn't have an I did not have an agenda topic uh to talk about. What I had is that the board docs is not working on >> Can you hear me? >> Hello. Board Docs is not working. >> Can you hear us, Eric? I can hear you. >> Oh, I can hear you faintly. >> Okay.

041Can you hear me now? >> Can everyone hear him? I know it's very soft. Yeah, it's very very soft. >> Well, bottom line, the the board docs is not working on u the iPad devices just as an FYI. And the the site is down. So, I just want to make you aware that um for those operating remotely, it's very difficult to follow along with your meeting tonight. We'll be by a little bit later for the second comment section. >> Okay. Thank you, Eric. Yes. Just so everyone knows, Board Docs is down, I believe, nationally, actually. Um so, we're actually working ourselves from a different form of agenda that was put together pretty quickly because of the um uh board docks going down. And I can u make sure the community is aware that the agenda

042is accessible if you go to the district's website. There's a popup that addresses the board docs being um down this evening and provides a link to the agenda as a PDF. So community members, if you have not gone to our district website, that's where you'll see the popup and there's a link there for you to access the agenda for this evening. And we thank everyone for your patience as we navigate and wait patiently for board docs uh to work out their technical difficulties. >> And as a clarification, many of the document links, I'd say most of the document links are not working on the popup. Okay. >> Okay. Thank you very much. All right. Is there anyone else online? >> There are no hands raised. >> Okay. Then we'll close our first public comment period

043and we'll move on to the board president report and uh this evening I have noformational or action items. Uh we'll move on then to uh the superintendent report in one second here. We'll let Dr. Jawan get back over here. Thank you for your patience. Good evening. Uh this evening I have one item as anformational item. Uh each year around this time of year, we share with the community an update on the last day of school. Typically, there are adjustments because some of those snow days that are built in have not been used. However, this has been an eventful winter this year. And so, both of the built-in snow days have been used. We had snow days on January 26 and February 23rd for this school year. And so, the last day of school will be

044exactly what the board approved on the calendar for this school year. So the last day of school will be June 12th. Of course we have half days scheduled for June 10th, June 11th, and June 12th. So there are no changes to the calendar, but we felt it was important to communicate that with the community because you typically hear an update this time of year. We will push out information to the community via email as well so that everyone is looped in and made aware that there have been no changes to the last day of school. And that concludes my report. >> Great. Thank you. Any comments or questions? All right, seeing none, we'll go on to our assistant superintendent report. >> Good evening. I have two items tonight. The first item is anformational item and

045the second item is an action item that we will be voting on next week. So for the first item, we have an update. So, we're going to share an update tonight about the portrait of a student work. And we're going to spend some time this evening walking through this important initiative with you and our community. And you've heard the portrait of a student. You've heard about the portrait of a student referenced by Dr. Dwan as part of our district goals. Specifically, district goal number three, advance academic excellence and educational equity. And you've also heard it mentioned in several board committee meetings over the past few weeks. Tonight's update is intended to bring those conversations together in one place. Tonight, we'll briefly review what a portrait of student is, why it matters now, how professional learning

046partnerships, PLP, can support the development of the portrait of a student, share a high-level timeline with key checkpoints for the coming year, and highlight next steps drawing directly from the board of directors memo to ensure transparency and consistency. The goal is to build shared understanding that is a district-wide research-based effort that will be developed collaboratively and guide teaching, learning, and decision-making across our K through2 system. Everyone's familiar with this slide from several board presentations and updates. This is our goal number three, advance academic excellence and educational equity. and it was intentionally designed as a two-year phased goal focused on developing and then implementing a portrait of a student. So year one, which is this school year, is centered on planning and capacity building, creating a clear roadmap, developing a plan for engaging stakeholders, identifying an

047outside partner to collaborate with to develop the portrait of a student, and building internal leadership capacity to support that work. This first year is about doing the groundwork well so that the portrait is a thoughtful, inclusive and sustainable model. Year two, which is next year, 202627, shifts the focus to deeper engagement and development, where the portrait of a student will be co-created with stakeholders and formally adopted by the board. This two-year approach ensures the portrait is not rushed or superficial, but instead reflects our shared aspirations for students while advancing academic excellence and educational equity across the district. What is a portrait of a student? A portrait of a student is a district developed framework that defines the knowledge, skills, and dispositions all students are expected to develop by graduation. It does not replace curriculum or

048standards, but complements them by focusing on how students apply learning and grow as learners and citizens. By emphasizing transferable skills such as problem solving, collaboration, communication, and adaptability, the portrait promotes coherence across the K through2 system and provides a clear practical guide for instruction, decision-making, and equity focused practice. Why is it important now for us to engage in this work? Developing a portrait of a student is especially important now as the demands on students, schools, and communities continue to evolve. Research and national best practices show that academic content alone is not enough. Students also need transferable skills such as critical thinking, communication, collaboration, adaptability, and perseverance to succeed. A portrait of a student clearly defines these outcomes, helping the district align priorities, reduce inequities, and ensure consistency and coherence across our K through2 system. To

049support the development of a strong coherent portrait of a student, the district is proposing a partnership with professional learning partnerships, PLP, a nationally recognized organization with extensive experience supporting districts through portrait development and systems change. PLP provides a disciplined research-based process grounded in learning and brain science, helping districts build a shared vision while developing internal capacity to sustain the work over time. This collaborative appro approach reduces the risk of a superficial or inconsistent outcome and supports a coherent K through2 framework that aligns leadership, teaching and learning around a common direction. PL has partnered with multiple districts in McGomery and Chester County and I have a list of nearby districts which I'm happy to share if the board would like to learn more about their work in other districts in the area. Our tenative timeline for

050the 2026 20227 school year, which again is year two, is a co-creation with intentional engagement of students, staff, families, and community members to ensure the final portrait reflects local values and priorities. This work will follow a tentative timeline and be guided by stake by a stakeholder team that includes students, staff, community members, administrators, and board representation with broader community engagement and regular updates throughout the coming year. And what you see here is a tenative timeline starting in September where we'll bring together a stakeholder team engagement. And this is where we'll work with the proposed partner professional learning partnerships to grounded in a foundation of research and science to make sure that we have a consistent approach. November 2026 is a second meeting for that stakeholder team engagement and then January 2027 is our third meeting.

051All throughout that process, we're going to have community engagement and ongoing updates with the broader community as well as our teachers and administrators and students to get feedback throughout each one of those touch points. Then we start with the portrait creation in the spring where we'll have two or more engagement sessions where we'll create the portrait. Throughout this time, we'll have community engagement sessions as well and ongoing updates. So, we'll walk hand by hand with you throughout this process. So both you and the community know exactly what we're creating, how we're creating it, and what it looks like for that shared vision. So in summary, the portrait of a student represents an important opportunity to articulate a clear shared vision for student success and is explicitly aligned to board approved district goal number three, advance

052academic excellence and educational equity that included what a portrait of a student is, why it matters now for our district, how professional learning partnerships will support the development, and a proposed timeline that will create the portrait of a student as we move forward. forward. This work will include engagement ongoing engagement of stakeholders and the broader community and along with the regular updates throughout the process. Thank you again to the board for your continued support of the portrait of a student work and for the time this evening to engage in this important conversation. We appreciate your thoughtful leadership as we continue to advance academic excellence and educational equity for all students. At this point, I'm happy to pause and welcome any questions, feedback, or discussion. Stephie, thank you for this presentation. Love the update. Um, I

053don't remember and we might have talked about this in the past. PLP is not the organization that developed this framework. It's based on some other research. They're just facilitators. Correct. >> Yes. So, that's a great question, Zephy. uh Zephy's question about did PLP develop the framework for a portrait of student or is it a foundational concept that's used across the country and internationally. So they did not create it. They support the work of it. But the portrait of a student or you'll sometimes see portrait of a graduate is something that is internationally done across different school districts and school systems. >> Great. Thank you for that reminder. I think this is great. I'm very excited to see how we move forward in this um framework. Thank you. >> Thank you, Z. >> Yeah. Um, thank

054you, Dr. Gardner. Um, once there's agreement on what the portrait is, um, and how that looks, what are potential implementation impacts to achieve that portrait um, you know, in years three, four, beyond next year? >> Yeah, thank you, Mr. Walker. That is a great question. And I think that's one of the things we're most excited about is the implementation of this portrait of a student. Uh what it does is it guides us with a shared vision K through 12 to have that conversation around what do we want our students to do in kindergarten, first grade, second grade all the way through 12th grade to ensure that they're prepared as graduates in the everchanging dynamic world that we're living in. So what it provides for us as a shared language, Mr. Walker that we can then

055look at what do our classroom practices look like? What does our curriculum look like? What does our community outreach look like? What does our communication system look like? How do we support that? And how do we engage students in supporting that as well with us? And I think we saw a little bit of that tonight with the science presentation of the dynamic learners in front of us that they're no longer passive receivers of education, but they're critical thinkers who are engaging like our seniors over here and juniors over here. Uh, and that's what the portrait student gives us is that common language and shared vision. >> Dian, so I have a couple questions. Um, you said taking time to build internal capacity. What does that exactly look like in our district? >> Yes, if I

056could go back to the presentation for a second, please. Okay. >> All right. So, building internal capacity happens when we're looking at those stakeholder team engagements. What we're going to do is this is going to be a group of 20 to 30 individuals that are cross-section of our community as well as representatives from the board. Uh and at the same time we'll be working with if we agree to the partnership with professional learning partnerships uh we'll be building our capacity through our administrators training them in the research and the foundation which will then be used with the broader group during the stakeholder team engagement to get a better understanding of the research behind how we learn and how the brain works. Uh so then we can then build that internal capacity share it out. Also

057when you see on the bottom there the community engagement ongoing updates of broader community. One of the great pieces of this process is between each touch point September say to November those members who are part of the stakeholders team go out and talk to others that they know and share the information and then bring it back to say the November meeting then between November and January bring it back. And you did just briefly mention this, but do we have other um data from other districts that have used this portrait to show improved student outcomes? >> We can get that. I'll say the momentum behind the portrait of a graduate and portrait of a student would support that. I don't have exact numbers for you. Uh but I I can find that for you. Yes. I'm

058just curious about the um MTSS and how how does this connect or relate to the the systems we have in place now with PBIS and MTSS? Curious. >> No, thank you. That's a great question. So, the multi-tered system of support looks at both behavioral and academic. Uh when you think of our PBIS, our restorative practices, all of these things support a portrait of a student with these characteristics that we want our graduates to have. uh that they'll develop through these systems. So it actually fits rather nicely with wherever we land with this portrait of a student that again the nice thing is when we talk about professional learning partnerships they will design it with us. It is not a template that they bring from other districts but they'll say what systems do you have in

059place? How does that fit into what you prioritize? What are your priorities as a community? What existing supports and systems can we use to leverage what the community wants to see within the school district? So it fits nicely. So we are primed and ready for this and in a perfect position with all of these different systems that we've been working on for multiple years to have in place to now bring it all together in a coherent vision. Anyone else? All right. Thank you. Oh, you'll have to wait till public comment. Sorry. Do you have something else yet on your report? Yes. Agenda item 9.2 is the Pennsylvania Department of Education flexible instruction day program affirmation which allows the district to use learning days outside of in-person school when emergencies such as severe weather or building

060issues occur. In WSA Hickin, we have used FID days to provide remote learning during snow events when it was unsafe to open schools. The board of directors received a memo outlining this item with information related to renewing the approval for the 2026 through 2029 school years. So, the district remains eligible to use flexible instruction days when needed. Uh, this is a three-year renewal process. So we are up for our first set after completing three years to renew or to affirm and renew. Yes. >> Any questions, comments? >> Well, I would just say that this is something I think we should approve based on, you know, if we had not have flexible learning days, we'd have been going into the next week of June, which really screws up people's vacation and summer plans. So, I think

061this is a really important tool to have at our disposal. Yeah, absolutely. Anyone else? All right, thank you so much for that report and we'll move on now to our board solicitor report. We'll be requesting approval um for items 10.1 through 10.4 or on the agenda which are collectively settlement agreements by between the school district for families B, C, D, and E and the amounts stated in the agenda and based upon what has already been I believe shared with the board regarding these settlement agreements. So that is what we're going to be requesting at uh the next meeting for board approval. Right. Thank you, Jeff. Any comments or questions? >> Right. Thank you again. A board secretary report this month. There are six minutes that are for approval. Finance, facilities, and transportation, board equity, educational

062equity, oversight, and communication committees, as well as the mark, the March work session, and regular work session. >> Great. Any comments or questions? All right. See none. The treasur report for approval. We have the March treasures report. >> Any comments or questions? Right. Thank you so much. We'll move on to the HR report. Daniel, >> good evening. Uh for your review tonight are eight items under section 13 of the human resources report. The first two action items 13.1 and 13.2 2 include resignations, appointments, changes of status, extracurricular changes, and volunteers. And as a part of 13.1, I would also like to acknowledge Miss Lisa Latimore, uh, a beloved social studies teacher at the high school, um, who recently passed while in service. Um, our thoughts are with her, her family, friends, and colleagues. Section 13.3

063is a revised list for approval of winter extracurricular postseason pay. 13.4 is for the approval of the confidential employee salaries for the 2627 school year. These would be affected effective on July 1st. Sections 13.5, 13.6, 13.7, and 13.8 Eight are for the approval of employment contract amendments for the superintendent, assistant superintendent, business director, and human resources director for the 2627 school year. These also are effective on July 1st and annually approved. Uh, and thank you. That concludes my report. >> Thank you, Danielle. Any comments or questions? All right. Thank you again. All right. Uh we'll move on now to our committee reports, communications committee. Zepie, >> thank you. Amy, uh our last uh meeting, as Amy indicated earlier, uh in our meeting today was our communications committee meeting was on April 6th. We covered uh

064a number of topics. We started with uh Mrs. rulings, um, reviewing with us what the district is working on to continue to highlight and celebrate our academic successes across all of our schools. Um, and we will be leveraging uh the use of social media, district and school newsletters, senior class celebrations, and of course the annual report. Uh, then Dr. Jan had provided an overview of a communications audit that is being conducted in partnership with the Donovan Group. This audit will take place um this April through June and it's designed to assess the effectiveness of our current communication practices. Um this will also include talking to a number of um communitywide sorry uh interviews with key communicators within our district as well as companywide surveys um which already launched April 22nd. Uh the goal is to

065gather actionable feedback that will strengthen clarity, consistency, and engagement across all stakeholder groups. There was a couple of other topics we talked through. Um, one was our 2627 budget communications timeline. Um, which also included we will be doing the tax bill again this year with the insert in the tax bill where we include that information. Um, we talked about our annual report for 2526 the theme this year. Sorry. learning together, curiosity, creativity and collaboration. Um, and that will be uh distributed uh throughout this entire community. Um, we discussed the family satisfaction survey which will be open from May 18th through June 1st. um that will be going out to all family members and it remains an important tool for gathering feedback across all of our state uh across our stakeholders across all of our buildings.

066We discuss the transition to parent square which is um a three years threeyear phase plan so that we will centralize communications across all school levels. Um as you know now right now we have different communication platforms for elementary, middle school, high school. So the goal is to have one platform across everything. Um and then ongoing we we discussed ongoing staff training related to web content accessibility. Uh we want to be compliant and able to um offer communications um in support of the Americans with Disabilities Act. And we will continue to train um anyone who sends notifications out to anyone within the in within our district to uh comply with that. Um that was a lot, but that concludes my uh summary from last week, two weeks ago. Thank you. >> Great. Thank you for that

067report. Any questions or comments? >> No. All right. Well, thank you so much for the report. We'll now move on to curriculum and technology. DM. >> All right. Tonight we have several items for your review. Um the first is 15.1 a review action item that appears annually each spring seeking approval of PTE 4885 request for section 1504 act 80 exception which would allow the district two additional act 80 days uh instructional days for senior in high school which means Isabelle you don't have to make up those two snow days that you missed before you graduate. So yay. All right the second item 15.2 two um review action item for approval of the revised plan courses, instructional resources, and related expenditures for the uh 2627 school year reflecting curriculum updates aligned with district priorities and student

068needs. As part of 15.2, the proposed provisions include updates to the high school personal finance course, which will become a graduation requirement for the class of 2029. This updated course builds on a class we have offered previously and we are excited about the enhancements to the curriculum instruction resources that will strengthen students financial literacy and realworld readiness. The high school has developed a clear plan to ensure that all students will complete the required financial finance course prior to graduation. Third item 15.3 review action item requesting approval of curriculum and instruction expenditures for next school year that support um professional development systems student assessment tools and data-driven instruction planning across the district in an amount not to exceed $162,83. Number four 15.4 review action item requesting approval of extended field trip for the WISE academic quiz

069bowl team scheduled for May 1st. That's this Friday, right? to attend the championship competition at the Pennsylvania State Capital, including six students that won chaperon at no cost to the students or the district. Sounds like a good one. The fifth, bear with me. The fifth item, review action item, um, addressing the MCIU's reconciliation billing for shared services for the 2526 school year with vision uh, charge totaling 98,77346. Examples of the shared services provided through the MCIU include vision evaluations, hearing support services, bilingual evaluations delivered through collaborative model in which multiple school districts fund programs and specialized staff that would be cost prohibitive or inefficient for a single school district to maintain on its own, ensuring districts only pay for the services they use. The reconciliation billing occurs every year due to new services added to

070the share plan throughout the school year, new students, new supports uh services or increases in services. Uh the board received a memo on April 23rd outlining those reasons. 15.6 review action items seeking approval with the MCIU to administer the access billing process for 2627 school year at a cost of 12% to the reimburseable amount. At the finance committee meeting on May 11th, additional information will be shared with the board about this billing process, including how to um how we have taken a critical look at our current approach, explored additional analytical support, and partnered with the MCU to support this work. 15.7 review action item for approval for service agreement um with the PL as Dr. Dr. Gardner just shared to support the development of the whist and portrait for the student during next school year

071at a cost not to exceed $26,500. Um the school board was provided information update on the weekly board update from Dr. Dwan on April 8th and a member of the board April 12th that included details of the portion of the student and we also heard from Dr. Gardner tonight. The eighth item, I'm almost done. Review action item requesting approval of service agreement with the positive coaching alliance to provide professional development for coaches, student athletes, and families of student athletes during the 2627 and 2728 school years at a cost not to $17,200. The board received additional information about this proposed partnership with positive coaching alliance in the weekly or um board updates. In addition, the board received a memo last week from Dr. Gardner with additional information about this proposed partnership. Thank you. Any questions? >>

072I have one question. The PCA the if you're that's a requirement for all coaches, right? It's not an option, >> right? >> Yes. >> Right. And just a comment, um I think in the two terms that I have um been on this board, I don't recall anything kind of equivalent to this. And I'm very excited to see this collaboration um where we're offering uh support and training for our coaches as well, which they are an integral part of our school system. So, I'm excited to see this and hope that um our coaches, students, and families see this as a positive thing. I I think it's definitely a positive thing from my perspective. So, thank you for putting that in place for us, for the district, not for us. >> Yeah, I agree. I'm also really

073excited about the PCA um contract because I think this board has been really intentional about trying to um ensure our students have a really good um our student athletes have a good experience at Wesah Hickin and so we've put the um coaches evaluations um into place and also now this um coaches coaching I think is really important to um ensure that all adults that are interacting with our students have shared values and goals. So, thank you. >> I just I would like to also lift up uh for the board's attention, community's uh attention that our athletic director, Jim Karens, brought this to us after working with other athletic directors and seeing that other school districts were doing this to support their coaches, student athletes, and families. Uh so, he brought this to our attention and

074we were able to move hopefully move forward tonight with this. So, thank you. >> Great. Thank you. Any other comments or questions? All right, then we'll move on to facilities and transportation. General, >> thank you. We have three items for review and discussion this evening. 16.1 is approval to declare uh the listic equipment obsolete and authorize its uh discard or sale in accordance with board policy 714. 16.2 is the approval of a proposal from Robinson Steel Company to furnish and install replacement lockers at the middle school. Um, these lockers are going to be um, doubled or double tiered lockers and I think they're needed because we have increasing enrollment at the middle school. 16.3 is approval of the award of the lowered night road and walking trail improvements project to James R. Kenny Excavating and

075Paving Incorporated. Um, and this is a project to make certain uh, improvements along that path along Night Road that we've had previous discussions about. Um, and more details are provided in the attachments. And uh, if we're you guys have any questions about any of these, I think Tim could probably help provide more specific details. >> Tim, I'm curious. The books that we're getting rid of, are those textbooks or library books? >> I'd have to look to see which ones they are. Um, but they would normally go through the process where we would attempt to donate them or find someone that would be willing to take them. We wouldn't just be throwing them in the trash unless no one wanted maximize the value and or doing it further on. >> Okay, thank you. >> Maybe there's

076science for us. >> That was mean. >> Hot mic. Um, where are the middle school lockers going? The double tiered ones? Is it in place at the big ones in the new wing? >> I'm not sure where Lindsay had picked them to work with. She works with Brian Russell on there. where to put them. I'm not sure, but the principal was the one that was picking where they would actually go to. I get back to you on that. >> Okay, >> Dian, I wonder if the same thing because the lockers are small to begin with. >> They're huge in the new wing and I >> The new wing, you're right, but they're lockers generally though are small. >> Yeah, I hope that they'll find us. I'm sure Lindsay will find a spot. My other um

077question involved or just actually comment involved the grant for the the improvement of the trail. I'm so excited that this is finally moving forward because I was driving on Night Road today. No. Yeah, Night Road today and just saw a kid walk out of the woods and didn't even look in my direction. I was fully stopped, so it's fine. I saw him first, but um it's just a really dangerous place. So, I'm very excited for this to move forward. Thank you. >> Any other comments or questions, Steve? Yeah. Um, and I I should have requested this earlier, but there seems to be great progress on the stands, uh, the grant, the bleachers. Um, and so I'm assuming we are still on target for May completion. So, tomorrow night, if I'm correct, there is a senior

078night that will be allowing the visitor stands to be open for families to use. Um, you can see the press box has been put in on the home side. Uh, give Mr. Russell a lot of credit. He's over there every day making sure everything's done, following up with everything, and uh the focus is definitely on making sure we're on target for graduation. >> Thank you. >> Well, that's great to hear. All right, any other questions or comments? All right, then we'll move on. Um I believe we're at finance. Scroll too far. Finance. >> Uh so there are eight items tonight for review. uh for next week, but one item for voting tonight. Uh so if it's okay, I'm going to go through the eight items for review, and then we'll focus at the end on

079the uh item for voting tonight. So, uh the first two items, uh 17.2 and three are our normal finance reports and list of payments for review. Uh 17.5 is approval of the bids for art, furniture, general supplies, health, music, and physical education, science, and sports supplies. Um item 17.6 is uh cooperative purchasing bid for paper through the MCIU for next school year. I'm sorry, I should have said that the supply purchase uh on item 17.5 is also for the next school year. Um 17.7 is a approval of the proposed North Monco um technical career center general operating budget for next year. I can uh state that both Stephie and I uh have looked at that budget and believe it's uh correct and recommend its approval. Um item 17.8 Eight is uh the contract renewal with

080the nutrition group in our district um in order to uh provide and manage the food service program uh with a price guarantee of $109,25857 for next school year with alleart uh price list. And it's noted that school lunch prices have not changed um for all grades. Uh 17.9 and 17.10 10 are both uh uh looking to accept donations. Uh 17.9 is donation from the lower Gwended HSA in the amount of $5,000 for installation of a fence and trellis uh around the garden at Lower Gwend Elementary. And 17.10 is approval to accept a donation from Stony Creek HSA for $5,000 to fund an outdoor playground mural at Stony Creek. And on that last item, just a note that that mural was the first to go through the mural approval process. Uh, and that the district will

081be seeing how that went and and u making any adjustments needed to that process. Um, so I'm going to uh revert back now to uh the item for voting tonight, which is 17.4, four and that's voting on our proposed 2627 uh final budget. That's the proposed final budget, not the final budget that will be uh voted on uh in June. Uh and this budget is for $139,389 I'm sorry, $389,000 $21825 um with a millage rate of 26.6 six um and includes a tax increase of 5.18%. I will note that this uh proposed final budget came after uh our third finance committee report with public uh access to that uh committee and there was a lot of discussion obviously around uh the give and take in the budget process. Um, and that the uh committee recommended

082that we go with the 5.18% uh with some additional funding for our debt service uh in order to allow us to uh meet the debt obligations of our five-year proposed facilities plan um as we move forward to make sure we're keeping our buildings and facilities um in good shape. So, uh, after all that, I'm going to ask for a motion to approve, uh, item 17.4, which is the proposed final budget for next school year. >> So, moved. >> Right. Motion's been made and seconded. Are there any comments or questions? So, I just wanted to say that um the tax increase is a lot and as a resident, it is hard to as a resident and a representative, it's hard to sometimes justify that. And yet, when we're sitting in this position, we have to make

083really hard decisions. And one of I think one of our top responsibilities as members of this board is to ensure that our district is properly funded. Um we have mandates that we have to meet and then we have a lot of things that the community wants and expects that we have to fund and um a few years ago if you'll recall we proposed moving the strings program from starting to third grade to starting to fourth grade and we had a lot of people in here saying no we don't want that change we don't want any our kids to lose out on anything we'd rather pay higher taxes and so you know when you're looking at what's hicken in the community I think this is the right move we have to ensure that we have money

084to like Steve said improve our buildings provide the programs that we need, pay our teachers, and make sure we have um enough money for the rising costs that we're seeing here. So, that is I think that is the right move. Thank you. >> Thank you, Dian Jean. Yeah, I just wanted to make a brief uh uh as a 33-y year resident of of this township um retired since 2017, uh I do not take any property tax increase lightly. However, um I recognize that the proposed 5.18% increase is necessary to sustain the essential services, school quality, and community standards that have long made this township a place where we are all proud to call home. Thoughtful investment today helps preserve the stability and the value we all depend on. >> Thank you, Jean. Anyone else? Yes,

085>> I'd like to just second everything that Deian mentioned and also just highlight that we remain very low in tax rate compared to all of the comparable school districts around us and that our property values remain very high. So, it is a self-fulfilling type of situation where as we continue to offer the terrific opportunities that we do as a district, the property values will continue to raise. So, we need to think of it more as an investment in our properties and our children rather than just a straight tax increase. Thanks. >> Thank you. Anyone else? >> All right. Um, you know what, I guess we'll do a voice vote. >> Mr. Antonio, >> yes. >> Mr. Badger. >> Yes. >> Mr. Mr. Goulson, >> yes. >> Miss Keranikis, >> yes. >> Mr. Kelly, >> yes.

086>> Dr. Morris, >> yes. >> Mr. Strauss, >> yes. >> Mr. Walker, >> yes. >> Mrs. Ginsburg, >> yes. >> Miss N. >> Great. Thank you everyone. Um, then returning to the finance report, did anyone have any comments or questions regarding any of the other finance items? Um, I would just note I do want to thank our home and school associations, uh, both Lower Gwinn and Stoning Creek one for going through the whole process of getting approval. I know we did increase the dollar amount this year for, um, gifts that need to come to board approval. Um, and also now we have the mural process. So, I do appreciate them going through that whole process. And, um, thank you also for those generous donations to our district. Um, any other items within the report that

087anyone wants to comment on? >> Amy, I I did neglect to mention that we did have a community budget webinar um in April and we appreciated the community's uh input and participation in that budget webinar to explain all of the stuff we've just talked about in terms of uh what investments we want to make in the district. >> Yes. Thank you everybody that did tune in for that. Anyone else? All right, then we'll move on to policy. >> No report tonight. >> No report. Okay. Um then board education equity oversight. Paul, >> uh thank you Amy. Can you hear me? Okay. >> Oh, yeah. I can hear you fine. >> Great. Uh at the April 20th board education equity oversight committee meeting, an update on the district belonging climate survey was shared, highlighting steady gains

088in both student and staff sense of belonging across all of our schools. The data shows that district-wide efforts are making an impact while underscoring the need for continued targeted supports where some student and staff groups report lower experiences of belonging. The committee also discussed the importance of increasing survey participation so that all voices in the community are represented. I want to thank Miss Kaziah Lour, director of equity and cultural responsiveness for her thoughtful leadership and dedication uh throughout the entire year facilitating these meetings doing the research advocating for advancing meaningful datainformed change across all of our district. I also want to send extend sincere appreciation to all of the committee members for not just their time and insight but their comm continued commitment to equity and belonging in the in the school district. Uh and

089that includes a sincere thank you to the administration um and all that led the effort. Uh we believe this is a very important committee, very important effort and very pleased with the progress but also the uh the continued effort that goes into it. I can't believe that we just had our last session of the year, our last meeting. It went by so quickly as all things seem to be doing these days. Um but we just want to thank everyone and we look forward to continuing our efforts uh next year. So thank you for all involved. Thank you, Paul. Any comments or questions? All right. Thank you again. We'll move on to our health and wellness and safety. >> Yes. Thank you, Amy. Uh the health, wellness, and safety committee met on April 13th to review

090several important topics related to student well-being with a particular focus on both mental health supports and digital wellness. First, the committee received an update on the district's mental health services grant. Uh the district was awarded $196,62 through the 2026 2027 uh PCCD grant, which will allow us to continue providing essential mental health services for K to2 students in partnership with child and family focus. The committee also discussed ongoing efforts to strengthen digital wellness across the district. Digital wellness concepts are embedded within the K through 12 health and physical education curriculum, addressing topics such as online safety, screen time, peer interactions, and the influence of social media on student health and decision-making. In addition, a KTO 5 digital literacy framework is in development. This work is expected to be completed by the end of the 202526

091school year with implementation planned for the 2026 2027 school year to ensure consistent skill development across grade levels. We also reviewed updates to student access to artificial intelligence tools. Access has been refined to include only approved tools, ensuring that use is safe, purposeful, and guided by teachers. The committee was also introduced to the district's new digital wellness website, which provides transparency around student device use in school along with resources for families related to digital safety and managing screen time. As of April 14th, this section of our website is now available for the community to access. Finally, planning is underway for a digital wellness family engagement night anticipated for fall 2026 to further support families in understanding and navigating student technology use and to help them learn more about how technology is used in our schools.

092Overall, the committee's work continues to center on supporting student well-being across both physical and digital environments. That is the conclusion of my report. >> Great. Thank you so much. Any comments or questions? >> All right. Great. Well, thank you again. All right. We'll move on to reports of board representatives. Um extracurricular Dan. >> Uh nothing to report. The meeting was moved until the end of May. So, we'll have an update for the June 1st meeting. >> All right. Um, and I'll do my MCIU report next week. North MCO is here, Steve. >> Hi. We had a meeting last week. Um, we covered on top of our normal um kind of um agenda items. It is that time of year for conferences and you know competitions and um on top of many of the students participating

093I did want to give a shout out to our four WHIS students who participated at the HOSA state conference in Hershey in the beginning of March who were placed in the top 10 um across the state in their areas of expert expertise which were behavioral health, human growth and development, pharmarmacology and sports medicine which were very cool. Um, a big topic also this time of year is weight list and um, you know, we reviewed a lot of the numbers and um, it they're trying to do the best they can to accommodate all the requests. students put in their top three, they try to honor their top one, but uh some programs are more competitive than others. Um final final counts come out a little bit later on because there's a lot of switching that happens

094during this time. Um we also talked about suns setting two programs in the coming years. So, whoever's in those programs will be able to complete those programs, but they're not accepting any new students, and it's just kind of in relation to demand, market needs, and student enrollment. >> Did I miss anything, Steve? >> No. >> Thanks. Any questions? >> Do we know I think this is the first year we've allowed ninth graders to enroll. Do we know how our numbers look there or what that is yet? Yeah, that's a good question. um our numbers did not change a whole lot from previous years and when we when Steve and I probed around that they felt like you know it's first year that that we're doing this and not just for WHIS but all the incoming

095schools there is a purposeful kind of effort to start at middle school because sometimes middle school students aren't aware and you know were trying to kind of introduce these ideas and concepts a little bit earlier on. Um but you know they're hopeful that you know with time um our 9th grade enrollment will slowly inch up. Um and they they were very positive. They said you know all Dr. Blair, all of our counselors, they're all very engaged and wanting to kind of uh introduce this to to appropriate students. I think it's probably also a culture thing here at WIS you know where go to college uh but uh you know I think with with time you know we'll see an uptick and I think some of the programs they're thinking about bringing in will also help

096with that. So, um, you know, you got to give it time. Things don't happen overnight as we know. But, very good question. Anything else? All right. Thank you. And then, uh, Deian, PSBA and DRC. >> Yeah, I did attend the PSPA leaison corly meeting, which was actually super interesting. Tim, you'll be happy to know that Harrisburg is already talking about next year's budget, which they say is a good sign that it will be on time this year. Um, PSBA is working with the governor's office um on Senate Bill 194, which is providing a list of options on how you can advertise board meetings, which is better than the current law, which is over 50 years old and involves newspapers. So, that would be a good improvement. Senate Bill 1014 passed with only one descent vote.

097that is this the belltobell strict no cell phone bill. Um it goes to the house. PSBA has a little bit of a different take on this. They think um it's a little bit too strict and that districts deserve some leeway. Like what if there's a project where you're building an app and you need your cell phone. Um I don't know. It was it was that was kind of interesting. They're also pushing for House Bill uh who cares about the numbers which would allow reimbursement for loans during the budget impass. Do we have any of those, Tim, or no? We didn't take out any loans for the budget and pass. Okay. So, that wouldn't affect us. Um, the other issues were they sent a letter to the Department of Education for clearer guidance on the changes

098in cyber charting funding. Um, and they also were inquiring about what a voucher program would look like in PA. And I found it really interesting that they don't PSBA doesn't seem to like oppose a voucher program as much as I thought they would have. Um, so yeah, it was there was just some um, again, they represent 500 different districts all across the state, so they have a different take than maybe I do, but um, yeah, it was really interesting. So that's the update there. Advocacy Day is May 4th. Is any did anyone sign up to go? I can't go. All right, maybe next time. Thank you. >> Right. Thanks, Dan. And nothing for ERC, right? Okay. All right. And no other questions, comments. All right. Then we'll close our committee reports and we'll move on

099to our second public comment. Uh the board appreciates hearing from the community. A maximum of five speakers will be heard on the same topic. Please limit comments to three minutes. In the interest of fairness in order to treat all speakers fairly and equally, it's the board's practice not to engage in dialogue with speakers. When appropriate, we will follow up with responses on board docs. And uh when approaching the podium or speaking online, please state your name, your municipality of residence, and the topic on which you are speaking. Uh the first person we have is uh Jim Jquat. responsibility and duty of care uh with respect to the Waken Middle School children. So um so so good evening. I at a simple level this comes down to three basic questions with middle school chiller and the

100sound debatement efforts. Um these three basic questions that still have yet to have uh answers clear answers provided. Pretty basic. Was this system properly designed for this school? Is it operating efficiently and in a cost-effective way? and has it been fully verified as installed? Right now, those answers are not clearly at this time. The system is running and the district's own consultant had identified noticeable tonal noise, persistent hum whiner buzz, which remains a nuisance to the neighbors. Tonal noise for people who don't know is a very narrow band of noise. very induces anxiety and stress be very impactful especially in people with sensory issues okay which include many in the special needs programs so at this time the system is running um and it's unhealthy for students and staff the township has yet to provide

101a determination on whether the installation meets requirements So, we have a system operating with known impacts and key questions still unresolved after all these years. With the school ending soon and meetings becoming less frequent, timing matters. If the clear path forward isn't defined, this will need to be elevated to the county and state for independent review. There's still a straightforward solution. Have an independent engineer review the system. In the meantime, please reduce the impact by limiting operation before 6 pm instead of the extended time which it's operating now till 8:00 p.m. and shutting the system down for the summer. Having the the system down for the summer will reduce the nuisance, lower the noise, the noise and carbon pollution and save money. That's all we're asking. >> Right. Thank you, Eric. And then um >>

102no line. Okay. And Jim, >> thank you all. Thank you for your patience and hard work you do every month to keep this school district running so well. Thank you for that. So perhaps you've seen the letters uh that have gone between Eric and uh Mr. Bricker about the middle school children. uh they are both detailed and uh letters with much engineering details in those which is hard to get to sometimes. However, uh Mr. Bricker though his response is is uh is impressively grammatical, it is not legitimately truthful. And uh for example, I have brought this up before and he has never addressed it since which is how is it that he believes that he instructed his testing company that did the testing the sound waves to take the measurements hundreds of yards from this

103chip. Hundreds of yards. and on an April day with the temperature at 58°. So what relevance of that is there whatsoever to this this operation of this chiller through the heat of the summer months. That's when the neighbors are tortured. Brick knows that and this is not an ethical decision he made to have that testing done. And that's what you people have to focus on because the engineering that goes on uh the talk between Ricker and Eric is serious stuff and uh but I try to focus on what it's easy to understand and that point is easy to understand. Why did Bricker make that decision? My opinion was to cover the bases so that the the danger of this sound would not be addressed and brought this up before. You guys don't seem to latch

104on to it, but I sure wish you would pay attention to that point because it tells everything about the trouble here. Uh, let's see what else here. Another thing I brought up, which is did the district ever consider uh getting medical advice about what tonal noise does to kids? Anything on that? I don't think so. I don't understand why you don't even consider it to our knowledge. I mean, if you admit to me they've talked about it, you've talked to some consultant, some medical consultant for the district who gets told all of the facts and that person doesn't say, "Well, you don't need to do any checkup on that." But yet, there's no movement there either. So, I have to tell you, even though I thank you for your good service here, I am disappointed

105that you don't address this more seriously. >> Thank you, Jim. Anyone on the line raised? >> Okay, then we're going to go ahead and close our second comment period and we'll move on to board comments. Do any of my fellow board members have comments this evening? >> No. All right, then. And do we have a motion to adjurnn? >> Second. >> Right. All in favor? >> We're adjourned.