May 5, 2025 - Regular Public Board Meeting

001Okay. All right. Mr. Antonio here. Mr. Badger. Mr. Blefeld. I'm here. Miss Kavachi here. Mr. Goolson here. Miss Gary here. Dr. Morris here. Mr. Walker here. Mrs. Ginsburg here. Nia Banise here. Harrison Erns here. Great. Thank you. Okay. Will everybody please join me for the pledge of allegiance? I want to welcome everyone to this May 5th meeting of the Hicken School Board. If you take a look at our agenda, we first list out our prior meetings. On April 7th, the board met for a regular public board meeting. And on April 21st for health, wellness, and safety and the REOP committee meeting. And then we list out our upcoming meetings on May 5th, which is today. We listen up. Today's meeting is upcoming regular public board meeting. May 12th, finance, May 27th is our next work

002session. And then June 2nd will be our next regular public board meeting. All right. And then this evening we have a couple presentations. So first, National Merit Scholars. Thank you. Uh tonight is one of my favorite board meetings of the year. We've uh had tonight a tradition that started about 10 years ago when I first got here actually. that this is something that enables students who have have benefited so much from so many people in the district an opportunity to give back a little bit. And to that end, it's a pleasure to introduce Miss Brook Stout, who is our college and career school counselor at the high school. Hello, Miss Stout. And the uh podium is yours. Okay. Good evening everyone. Tonight I am joined by 11 Whissa Hickkins High School seniors who were some

003of the standouts of our class of 2025. These 11 students have been named finalists in the 2025 National Merit Scholarship Program, which is a nationally recognized scholarship competition focused on academic achievement and dedication to extracurricular activities. To be selected, students must score in the top 1% of testers in their state on the PSAT in the fall of their junior year. From there, students submit a comprehensive application as well as an essay. Tonight, we take the time to highlight each of our National Merit finalists, but this is also an opportunity for these accomplished students to recognize a teacher who has impacted their whisten journey. Each student will present a book of their choosing to their selected teacher with a brief note of thanks. Congratulations to all the students and educators being recognized tonight. Students and teachers,

004please come to the podium as I call your name. First, we have Jackson Angel who will be attending Meris University and is recognizing Jeff Slenina. I'm gonna give you Ready Player One. Um, I was given this book as a present from someone who knew I'd appreciate it. For me, it's a story about fighting to keep the our fun loving spirit. And in a world where there's pressure from all sides to grow up as quickly as possible, I know your daughters will be im immeasurably fortunate to have a father who seems never to have felt that pressure himself. Thank you for three years of jokes, boundless energy, and pure dedication. I can only hope to sometime in the next four years to meet an educator with half your passion and funloving spirit. But I seriously doubt

005it. All right. Next, we have Katherine Chen, who'll be attending Villanova University and is recognizing Elizabeth Colona. I first had you um in nth grade, which was three years ago by now, and I've had a lot of teachings since then. But you've always stood out to me in my mind just because of your genuine passion for teaching and your care for your students and always going above what was expected of you as an educator. So because of that, I'm giving the giving tree, which I've heard recently has had is a little controversial in his message. I didn't hear that. Um I think really giving your all to your students and not expecting Next is Kevin Gal who'll be attending Georgia Tech and is recognizing Caroline Papovic. It's been a wonderful three years of German with

006you and it's a it was a certainly unexpected bright addition to my high school career. I really loved it. If I had to take my high school year 100 more times, I'd take AP German. For all the fun moments and for all the humor, I present to you the comprehensive anthology of German humor. is entirely blank so you can record. Our next student is Connor Ganain who'll be attending Stanford University and is recognizing Kirk McMin. Thank you, Mr. Mackman, for being an amazing teacher and mentor. Your guidance led me to a full tuition scholarship at the University of Alabama that I turned down to go to state. You encouraged me to apply and attend the Apai Flight Academy program where I hel had the best time ever flying planes uh for free on the government's

007dollar. You also helped me become a national merit finalist. So clearly your interesting teaching style is working. In fact, you're the only teacher I know to scroll through the test page while they're taking the test on the smartphone. You're also the only teacher I know to teach your kids five times how to convert Celsius. Um, you are also the only teacher I know to teach the AP Physics 2 content one day before these students learn it or learn it one day. Okay, that's true, right? In honor of the genius plan to have you teach AP Physics 2 this year without any prep, I'm gifting you this book, Five Steps to A Five AP Physics 2. Hopefully, you can use it to catch up on your studies and get ready for your class next year. Overall,

008you've made a huge impact on my life. From giving me the Mr. Bama name to spamming AP classroom to get me a five on the AP Physics 1 exam, thank you for it. Our next student is Vivian Han who will be attending the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill and is recognizing Nicole Stone. Hi, Mrs. Stone. It's been so long since we've been able to talk to each other, but I just want to give you a warm thank you. It truly meant the world to have such an engaging and thoughtful teacher in my younger years, like sixth grade, who I could look up to, crack jokes to, and just ask questions about life in general. At every step of the way, you were always there to encourage my curiosity and open my eyes. Um, which

009is why I give you this book, which is the Phantom Tool booth, which talks about a little kid, Milo, and his Phantom to toll booth that lets him explore the world. So, likewise, I think you opened up my eyes to the world. Thank you so much. Our next student is Kate Husta who'll be attending Washington University in St. Louis and is recognizing Meredith Valet. I wanted to thank Miss Valet for being such a great teacher these past two years. I haven't taken the easiest classes with her, but she's made the content fun enough and interesting enough that I've wanted to continue it in in college. I chose to give her um a short history of nearly everything by Bill Bryson because he takes some very complicated topics and just makes them a lot more fun

010and more interesting to his readers. Thank you so much, Our next student is Khloe Michaels who's attending Rochester Institute of Technology and is recognizing Leanne Marchesy. Miss Marches, as I'm pursuing film production and I'm an artist, I decided that in combination with your passion for the Flyers, a book of history for the Flyers, uh, supplemented by imagery would be a effective representation of my appreciation for you. in fifth grade at Shady Grove when I had you. Um not only were you dedicated, strong willed and receptive, but you also completely transformed the rest of my educational endeavors um by spotting a spark in me and recommending me for um getting placed into these different programs. I thank you. I'm a changed and improved adolescent due to your extensive efforts. So I graciously thank you for the

011impact you've made on my life and livelihood. Our next student, Rachel Park, is attending the University of Maryland and is recognizing Michael Mariella. Even seven years ago or seven years now, I my greatest memory of you is when you do a cartwheel and you almost knock the projector off the smartboard. But as I get ready to graduate and begin my journey studying neuroscience at the University of Maryland, I still thought of you and I wanted to give you this book, When Breath Becomes Air. It's a powerful reflection on purpose, identity, and the intersection between science and the human experience. Reading Dr. Kathini's story reminded me why I fell in love with learning in the medical field in the first place to understand not just how things work but what gives life meaning. Your class was

012one of the first places where I felt that spark and I'll always be grateful for the foundation you helped build. Our next student is Parth Patel. He'll be attending Penn State University and is recognizing Daniel Meyer. So, Mr. Meyer, I wanted to recognize you for all the amazing time we spent together just seven years ago. Fifth grade was one of my most memorable and fun years and just the way you conducted your class added to it. From the friendly competitions at the end of the week to the mini basketball hoop set that you set up in the side of your room, uh you ensured that every day was exciting. And so I chose this book, Atomic Habits, because of your uh training in Spartan Racing and your motivational Mondays. Thank you. Our next student, Shia

013Singha, is attending the University of Michigan and is recognizing Christopher McDaniels. Mr. McDaniels, fantastic. Um, I want to recognize Christopher McDaniels, Mr. McDaniels for for giving me a fantastic two years at in ninth and tth grade for a gifted history where I thought the environment was amazing and kids could speak their mind and no matter how stupid like what they wanted to say was you could always raise your hand and say something stupid and Mr. McDaniel will make fun of you. But it was a it was a growing and learning experience and I really enjoyed it and value it. So, I want to give him The Life of a Useless Man by Maxim Gorki. And no matter how useless I felt sometimes, um, I could always redeem myself by saying something smart after saying something

014stupid. So, thank you, Mr. And our final student this evening is Jake Tan who is attending Case Western Reserve University and is recognizing Lisa Woodland Smith. Dr. Woodland Smith's AP car class was the first math class I taken in a long time. Like entirely novel concepts thanks to I'll say a fair bit of math counts in middle school. So, I just want to thank you so much for pushing me to be a better student and change the very way of you learning before that given her math girls. Thank you. And congratulations again to our students and our teachers. Thank you so much. Um, this again I agree with Jim. This is like one of my favorite uh presentations every year. We love having the students come in and recognize one of their teachers that made

015a new impact on their life. So that's so wonderful. And to see like new teachers every single year. It's great to see so many of our teachers make an impact on our students. So thank you to all of our wit teachers and thank you to our students for coming this evening to, you know, share those thoughts with us. And I always love the book choices, too. I usually pick some of them up after this presentation. So, uh, any of the board members comments this evening? I was going to say I usually tear up during one of the speeches, but this year it was a little more roasting, which I enjoyed. So, thanks for that. Yeah, I love the humor. Yeah, my favorite was the blank book that the German teacher. That's amazing. Great job. Great

016achievement guys. We're also very proud of you. Yeah. But uh I know I speak from all of us to say that we wish you all the best onward and upward. Thank you guys. Congratulations. All right. So it's usually our tradition to do a picture. So, this would be a pretty big shot. Amanda, what do what do you think is best? Here or this is the board. Try it over there. All right, we'll try it over there. So, will our teachers and students come up? So, everyone is certainly welcome to stay for the rest of the meeting. Um, or if you want to, you are free to leave at this point if you were just here for this presentation. Uh we do have cookies and other treats in the reception area, so please feel free to

017take some as you go. And thank you to everyone again for coming out this evening. We'll just give everyone a few more minutes. taking the time to walk in. All right. So, we'll move on, I guess, to our next presentation. Um and that is going to be our retiring school board representatives and recognizing uh both of them. Uh so first who should do first? Harrison. Mia. Okay. I want to be on the board longer so you have to do Mia first. Okay. I think it's just a lot of noise in the room right now. Yeah. All right. So we will start with Mia. Awesome. Mia, it's been wonderful having you on the board. I've known you way before you were on the board and um as soon as I saw you were one of the

018applicants, I knew you'd make a wonderful addition to this board and you know, we all I think agreed. Obviously, you're sitting here today and you have hearing your opinions on matters pertaining to what's going on at the high school um or just general student issues. It's been great having your perspective on this board and um I'm really excited. I heard you're going to be doing water polo, right? Continuing that. You've done so great here at WIS with your water polo. So, congratulations on continuing that in college. And um you know, I think I feel like I'm rambling. I love Mia. We've known each other for years. Who else would like to comment about Mia? Marco. I just I would like to say before you I would like to say you get to go. Uh me

019it's been an absolute pleasure to to serve on the board with you. Um and I figured I would say to both of you to you and to Harrison, thank you for everything that you've done over the last couple years. Um certainly hope you've learned a lot in what you've seen and done. But the fact of the matter is, I think everybody can agree that when there are oftentimes difficult issues or areas that we are not sure how we're going to fall, it is the opinion and the statements of our student board reps, the ones who are the ones in the trenches in the field who tell us what they see, what they experience. And oftentime oftentimes that helps us and everybody else who sees what you do understand what uh our students are going through,

020what they would like to see done. And those votes oftentimes come down to what you say and we really appreciate that maybe more than any of us up here. I think everybody appreciates all of you more than anybody else. And with that, I think it's the next springboard for both of you. be leaders not only at your next step in school but everything that you do going forward. It shapes you and I think you have you have a world to conquer and I wish you both. Congratulations. So I feel a little awkward because you know me is my daughter and when when she was nominated to be position I I was like Mia you're not going to get it right. You know that right? I'm on the board. They're not going to vote for you.

021I I'm like you you you can't get this position and I've rescended from the process obviously and of course she shined. um and watching her in a public light has been like very eyeopening. But um overall I do think your positions the school like student representatives on our board are one of the biggest privileges that we get because exactly how Marshall said it, getting your perspective is so important and uh I loved having both of your perspectives. Um, and Mia, it's been great having you here for two years. And Harrison, it's been great getting to know you and loving your personality. So, thank you both. That's it. Thank you. I'm surprised you together to say that because I felt myself cheering up as a mom. They put it together. Thank you. But yo, thank you

022from all of us. It's been wonderful having you here. Um, and best of luck as you go on. And Harrison, if I planned this better, we would all be sitting here with shirts with your picture on them. They're not gonna get that joke. There's too much going on at the end of the year. So, I kind of fell through the cracks. So, sorry about that. Just real quick, I do want to let the record show that I was on the Wizen School Board longer than Mia was. She got signed out first. So, I'm still here. But aside from your humor, which we all appreciate, um definitely just as everyone else said before, like the opinions that both of you bring to this table, um are just so valuable to us as board members because you're

023there every day in the classroom and at our buildings and being able to hear what's going on firsthand from both of you has been just so important to us. Um, so I really appreciate Harrison that you know you can be comical but you also can be really serious and tell us you know your real opinion on issues. I know especially during the uh school start time the change time change you were really valuable during that time bringing those opinions to us of what you felt as well as your fellow students. Um so again like Marshall said I think you guys are going to do great in the future and best of luck. Thank you. Anyone else? say just a quick word about Harrison um and me we appreciate you know all the words have already

024been said we appreciate having both of you here and all your input has been invaluable but I just want to share one highlight uh because I think it's important to uh to perform both on the field and off the field so you know in front of the spotlight obviously you guys have shined um but also on a personal note um my daughter had an accomplishment this year and it was noted and Harrison took the time to write her personalized note of congratulatory congratulatory note. So I just want to let everyone know that uh it's important again to to see what people do in front of the spotlight, but it's behind the scenes thing that often go unnoticed and it shows the character and the uh the goodwill that that you both have. So thank you.

025Thank you for your time. Appreciate that. Thank you so much for sharing that. That was sweet to be Harrison. Anyone else comments this evening? Just the last comment that studies have shown that when you're older, spending time with younger people increases your happiness. And so I have the best seat. He definitely does. All right. Well, we do have plaques for both of you. Um, so I do want to present those and get pictures if we could do that. Okay. All right. Well, unlike other presentations, you guys can't leave yet. All right. So, we'll move on now to our first public comment period. And uh I'll note 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. We do have our

026buzzer, so don't be alarmed if you hear that. In the interest of fairness and in order to treat all speakers equally, it is not the board's practice to engage in dialogue with speakers. When appropriate, we will follow up with responses on board docs. Uh when approaching the podium or speaking online, please state your name, your municipality of residents, and what you'll be speaking on this evening. Starting with in person, uh, Jim Jet. Oh, you just go up to the podium so everybody can hear you better. Jim Jacet. I live at 413 Cedar Lane in Laurwinn and I am here to discuss the proposed contract to install a new chiller system for the middle school. And this is changing the system or to put a wall put a sound wall because of complaints by neighbors of

027sound pollution in our neighborhood. And uh the board has or the staff has made some efforts towards finding a solution which the neighbors are not satisfied is appropriate. And that is a wall to put around the new old air chiller system that is in there that's causing this horribly sounds like a siren in the neighborhood. And what concerns me is not only the health of our children in the neighborhood, but also the students, faculty, staff of the buildings, particularly the middle school, which are even closer to this chiller than we are. And so I uh urge the board to not approve the contract for these blankets or the wall around this because they're not going to be effective enough and you spend $300,000 plus to get a solution which is not going to do the

028job. And so I urge you to not not accept that contract proposal and instead do a bidding for a water chilled system which was the prior system in the middle school for 40 years with no problems, no complaints. And uh so the the cost per year is $100,000 more in energy cost to run this air chilled system versus what would be appropriate for a water chilled system. You have spending money on energy more pollution both air environmentally and noise pollution. So that's my request that you table this contract until more information is obtained. Thank you. Thank you for those comments. Anyone online? Yes, we have uh one hand raised Carmina Taylor. Carina, you can go ahead and unmute yourself. Vina, we weren't able to hear you. Can you hear her? Me, Amy. Um, you're breaking

029up. Yeah, now we can hear you. You know what? On my dead nerves. Can you hear me? Yeah. All right. So, I'm gonna cut to the chase because I've been waiting forever. I'm obviously speaking about policy 9003. I would like answers to this question. How many how many people were in the policy committee meeting on Feb in February? How many board members were there? how many community members were there. I looked over the March 31st video and there was a mention about the context of why these decisions were being made and I'd like a copy of that. Right? The community hasn't received that and I hope when you go for discussion over this vote, you share with the community why you're making these decisions decisions on policy 93 and the others. From all the records

030that I can find, I have not found a rationale that has come from all of you as to why you're doing that. So, I just want to go on record that you're not being transparent with the community. I think you need to be honest with the community that you pay taxpayer dollars for a membership with the p uh with the Pennsylvania School Board Association. So, if you're using taxpayer dollars for your membership, then you need to be able to tell the community what their dollars are going to and for. And I think it's awful that between the first and second reading that you did not have um another committee meeting to discuss your rationale for the policy changes. So, I'm on my way to the schoolboard meeting. I'm definitely going to speak at the second

031public comments, but I want to be on record of this because this is just a pattern of your trans lack of transparency um with all the things that you've doing. Lack of transparency about Dr. Dwan, lack of transparency about the Sony Creek principal, constant lack of transparency. And I think at some point you guys have really forgotten that you work for the community. the superintendent works for you and it just seems like the decisions that keep going round and round and round. You don't talk about it to shed some light as to why you're making these decisions. I have talked to you time and time again about how black children are being harmed in these school systems. Parents are coming to me for the help and you Dr. Cresfield has told all of the principles

032that none of the parents are allowed to have me in the room. So if you get rid of the community groups not being able to represent a family member, who do the black parents have to go to? So I'm going to be very curious as to what is the converse that happens when you guys discuss these policy changes because you're wrong. You're wrong and you're wrong. And all the incumbent candidates running for school board should learn that people should learn about what you're going to do. I'm coming in the building. Thank you, Carina. All right. Our next person in in person is Rob Walker. And Rob, I just want to make sure you're talking about the wall, correct? Because you wrote Schiller. So if it's the Schiller, we're going to put you at the second

033comment. Then this is just for W for the first one. for a second. All right. Um, Irene Lewis, Irene, are you on the chiller or the wall? Okay, you Good evening. My name is Irene Lewis and I live at 513 Montgomery Road in Lower Gwynet. I'd like to play a short video. Um, it shows the HVAC noise with its new sound blankets in place. Rating AC the noise is radiating across the track and fields where students were practicing at 4:30 this past Friday afternoon. I guess it's not. Can you hear that? Can you hear that noise in the background of the kids playing? Yes. Okay. Um, remember that our children are subjected to this relentless blaring sound every day that the system is running. The noise doesn't stop with the equipment. It stretches into the

034woods and into our backyards and down onto our streets, including Montgomery Road as well as Houston. This isn't just about the property lines. It's about how we all experience our school grounds and public spaces. We support our schools with our taxes and we're proud of the district and its facilities. We want every part of the school to reflect the same high standards. That includes how problems are solved. This board has a responsibility to ensure that the solution to this noise problem is not just quick or convenient, but that the best decision is made for the long run. One that protects the health and well-being of the students and the neighbors and truly reduces the blaring sound for years to come. We need to be confident that the plan is thoroughly researched, independently reviewed, and grounded

035in real world success. Not just recommendations from the same consultant whose previous advice to use these sound blankets has failed. Let's make sure that whatever we build reflects the quality we expect from our schools and let's get it right for our students and for our neighborhoods and also for our future. Thank you. There are no hands raised online. We'll move on to our next inerson speaker. Um, Ellen Deco and Ellen, sorry because you wrote chiller down. Are you talking to the chiller or the wall? Okay. I am one of the neighbors who lives on Montgomery Road and is impacted by the noise generated by the Waken Middle School chillers. While I'm pleased to see that the school board is anxious to resolve this problem, I am concerned that the proposed solution may fall short of

036the desired result. Now that the price tag at this fix has exponentially increased, should we consider other options that could produce a better result? I believe there's two options to consider. One, hire a firm that specializes in assessing, designing, and installing vibration and noise control solutions. The proposed fix has current fix has Harrison acoustics an acoustics consultant design a proposed solution and have a general contractor CMG build and install it. If the fix is in inadequate it seems there will be a question as to who's responsible for the fix and who pays for it. Second option would be to revert to a similar water cooled system inside the building as it was prior. It is my understanding that the water cooled systems in addition to being quieter provide significant energy efficiency. This savings combined with

037the savings of not having to build the wall over time may prove to save the school district money. Obviously, I'm not with I'm without all the facts as to why the chiller was moved out of the building and changed to an air cool system, but I think it's worth exploring and asking these questions. Thank you. There are no hands raised online and we'll move still here. Oh, Eric. Yeah, there you are. Sorry. You're so 16.2 and 16.1. Oops. Right. So, we're just talking about right now. Right. Yeah. You talk about Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Um, so my name is Eric Rudolph Laurwin Township. Lived in this area for 30 years now and I'm excited to have my daughter moving back here with two grandchildren and so very happy. Um, but I I wanted to, you

038know, follow up with some relative to the conversation on April 28th in the previous board meeting and provide a little more detail to, you know, kind of looking for the f what we need in the future. And I think oftentimes you have to kind of revisit the past. If you revisit the past and you look at what Waken School District was, it was put in the middle of a residential area. Okay, the zoning is 100% residential, not with a school that has a 450 ton chiller sitting in the back. And the engineers at the time knew this. That's why they put water cooled chillers inside a mechanical, okay, to keep the noise from getting out. The move of the chillers outside just put them and expose them to our community. And as we talked about

039before, that noise is amplified the space. So, we're in a predicament. It's hard for us to give you direction. We feel conflicted being caught in this noise, okay, and wanting a solution. But we need the right solution. And I think that when we look at the economics of this and you go to the Department of Energy website, everything points to using a water cooled chiller. They're twice as efficient. And if you look at a chiller this size, the savings is on the order of $100,000 a year. That's pretty remarkable. It's not just money. It's less carbon emission. It's less noise emission. It is absolutely no risk because we know it works. These are comparably cost systems when you take a chiller system because you can't have a chiller without a wall. The water cooled chillers

040are inherently quieter, four to eight times quieter than an air cooled chiller. You can put them in the building and they will operate and they'll operate more efficient, twice as efficient. So I think we have proven operation. We have greater efficiency and we have experience with longer service. That chiller lasted for over 40 years. In the DOE, Department of Energy, when they give you the guidelines for the two types of chillers, the chiller life that they assign to an aircooled chiller is 15 to 20 years. For a water cooled chiller, it's 20 to 25 years. We experience 40 years. So, I really ask you to step back, think, and figure out a way to allow us to go back and understand what our options are and really find the right one to last us for

041the next generation. Thank you. here. No one online before our first public comment period then we'll move on next to board report. Um and the first thing that we have the only item under service agreement with educational leadership consulting and that's for our professional development coming out later this year have our board retreat. Uh so do I have a motion? Second. Motion's been made and second. Are there any comments or questions concerning this agreement? No. All right. All those in favor? I I Anyone opposed? All right, the motion passes. Thank you. All right, superintendent report. Jim, thank you. Just the one item where we discussed last meeting, the the adjustment to this year's school calendar to to move the last day of school back one, which will now be Wednesday, June 11th. And presuming this

042is approved tonight, we will publicize that change widely uh tomorrow morning. So to that end, I'd like please a motion to approve agenda item 8.1. So moved. Motion's been made and seconded. Any comments or questions? Jim, I know a lot of people were asking about school specific events and how this would um affect like middle school graduation for example. I got a lot of questions. Um will Mrs. Bower be sending out something tomorrow once it's approved? Do you know? Or like do they reach out to the building principles about that? Uh each building if anything has changed will send something out. I'm not sure about tomorrow but very very soon. Hopefully this week. Yeah. Okay. Thank you. Are you aware of anything at this point that this will affect? I think just that the one

043moving up. Thank you. Um so any other questions or comments? Right. Then all those in favor? I. Anyone opposed? Motion passes. Thank you. Uh board. Oh, excuse me. the assistant superintendent for board. Good evening. There are no information items or action items for this meeting. Thank you. Thank you for reporting one action item tonight which is approvement agreement between the district and the family which was the work session last week and there are no changes since that time. So looking for a motion to approve item 10.1. Do I have a motion? So moved. Motion's been made and seconded. Are there any comments or questions? All right, seeing none, all those in favor? I I. Anyone opposed? Motion passes. Thank you. A board secretary report. Approval are items 11.14 with no changes. Do I have a

044motion to approve? Second. A motion's been made and seconded. Are there any comments or questions? All right, then. All those in favor? I I Anyone opposed? Amy, can I just make a a a comment? It's very difficult to hear all of you. I can barely hear what you're saying. Um if you guys can talk into those um microphones, that would be great. Hold them up. All right, we'll try holding them up. Rosetta, is that better? Thank you. Yeah. All right. for treasure report. Tim, tonight for your approval is item 12.1, the March treasures report. So moved. A motion's been made and seconded. Are there any comments or questions? Seeing none, all those in favor? I. Anyone opposed? Right. Motion passes. Thank you, Tim. Human resources, Danielle. Good evening, everyone. Um, changes from last week's agenda

045are marked with an asterct and can be found in bold in the details. These include a retirement resignations and appointments in items 13.1. 13.9 was added as aou between the WA and the district in regards to an early retirement incentive for um transportation drivers and assistance. All other items were reviewed at last week's work work session and have no other changes. So this evening I'm seeking approval for action items 13.1 through 13.9. Thank you. All right, we have a motion and it's been seconded. Are there any comments or questions? Yeah. And additionally um we have a blue sheet item. So, we are um excited to um ask for the approval of our newest middle school principal um Dr. Nicole. Yeah, Dr. Lindy Nullo. Um we're very excited and um that is also added to the

046agenda this evening. Danielle, one question. Um I just noticed that 13.8 the contract with um school operations services group had an asterisk. Was there a change to that contract? the effective date yes same for 13.9 Danielle so that's 13.8 uh the effective date of the SOS group agreement uh the the date the effective date was changed 13.9 also has Yep and I yeah I announced that um that is theou between WA and the district okay I was going to make sure that was the chief think well This is a brand new item 13.9. Do we have an estimated um value as to what this is? Uh what's the financial impact of this? Uh we Tim does I I'll let him speak to that. Um it will depend on how many people take advantage of this.

047So uh we are still waiting to see how many will accept. Uh so that number's uh unknown at this point until we see that. um and probably has a little bit more information about that. So the plan is first three to five drivers that retire and sign will get a $5,000 buyout each. Six to 10 will get a $7500 and from 11 up they'll get a $10,000 buyout. The goal of this is to offset the long-term cost of the first student contract that we're looking to extend. That will make the outy years go down by 2%. So instead of 8% each out year, it'll be 6% which free up some more room to run the budget. And really this comes down to the fact that for students be running the routes versus us running them

048internally, giving them more to their class. And these bus drivers were doing regular routes or were they doing more of the kind of van routes for a lack of a better word? So it's a good question. The drivers are currently running daily routes. Some routes as needed predominantly they are van drivers. They if they decide to because the way it's structured can actually transition right over to first student and pick up those positions if they so choose. So there is no job loss for them on that end. They would actually be able to transfer right over if they chose to provided they met first students hiring criteria which they met ours. So realistically that should not be an issue but it's just more to the long-term goal. And and one other item I just want

049to say it's completely optional 100%. Can I make a comment? Um Dr. Dr. Nicolov is here with us tonight and we had the opportunity as a board to meet with her briefly last week and I was thrilled to meet her and thrilled to hear about her vision for the middle school. I know she's going to be fantastic. Um just a great addition to um WIS Nation. So thank you Dr. Nicolola. We're really excited to have you and I don't know what else. Thank you for being here too. Please hold your applause for approval. Would you mind just standing up and just waving so that everybody can see you? And thank you. Right. Any other comments evening? I'll just note also um I'm sad to see Miss Washam leaving Stony Creek as a parent of Stony

050Creek. I certainly understand her reasons wanting to be closer to home and family, but she has been just such a wonderful principal at Stony Creek and I know she's going to be missing her feel the same way, but we certainly wish her luck in her new role. All right. Um if there's no other comments or questions, um all those in favor, I I Anyone else? Is there a question? I'm sorry. I'm sorry about the preceded all the comments. I just proceeded the comments. All right. So, we'll move on now to communication. Still can't hear right now. We can do our applause. Thank you. Congratulations. She can leave if she wants to. I don't think she wants to leave, but you're welcome to. All right, Stephie, back to you for communications. No agenda items for this

051evening. Thank you. Thank you. Um, in curriculum and technology, Dian, there are no changes from last week. what we discussed. Um, we are seeking approval for items 15.1 to now my computer's not scrolling. How many we have? 15.7. So moved. Great. A motion's been made and seconded. Are there any comments or questions? One thing J asked if you community. It's something I had a question about my first year on the board and I've seen me still can't hear you. Sorry, Rosetta. I I'm forgetting to hold it up. Um, it was a question I first had when I joined the board. Um, and I know we've received some questions from community members. Can you just explain um the location of the dentist and why we have a New Jersey dentist coming to West Hicken? Sure. Be

052glad to. Yes. The uh the dentist actually does practice in in Pennsylvania. We've corrected that. He's he's out of pale. Uh the school every district has a dentist. It's required by the department of vet and and it's not a terribly big role. every uh each year there are some students who need a an examination and those are done no charge to the student and we pay extremely nominal fee to the dentist. It's actually $10 per student. So it's something that um is is and and this dentist has been serving us for years. It's been a very positive relationship. His original address was Jersey. That was years ago. It's now All right. Thank you, Jim. Were there any other questions on these agenda items? All right, seeing none, all those in favor? I. Anyone opposed? All

053right, motion passes. Thank you. Facilities and transportation. Thank you, Amy. Um, so we have total of five action items on the facilities and transportation committee report which are all reviewed and discussed last week. Um given some of the current discussion around item 16.3 uh regarding the sound wall or the municipal chiller, I'm going to ask first for a motion to approve items 16.1, 16.2, 16.4, and 16.5 and then do a separate motion for uh the vote on 16.3. No, there's six. I'm sorry. Oh, sorry. Sorry. My scrolling wasn't working either. Um, so let me let me amend that. A motion to approve items 16.1 through 16.7 with the exception of 16.3. All right, a motion's been made and seconded. Are there any comments or questions? All right, then. All those in favor? I I. Anyone

054opposed? All right, the motion passes then with regard to 16.1 through 16.7 excluding 16.3. Great. Um so now um back to 16.3 again the sound wall to um add to the middle school chiller. Um so I'm asking for a motion to approve action item 16.3. Do we have a motion? A second. A motion's been made and seconded. And a Amy, um, we can obviously take some questions and comments, but when we do the vote, um, I would like for there to be a roll call. Of course, we can do that. All right. So, um, comments or questions from board members regard to the wall. So, I know that uh last week's meeting we did talk about different options um around uh replacing the chiller and I can't recall I'm afraid if those replacement options were

055water cooled or air cooled. We don't the option to replace it was not a air water cooled. It was changing out the one that we currently use to put on a water cold one. We would not be able to put it back into the building based on the way the boiler room has been reconfigured. If we put it on top of the building, it cost well over $1.2 million. And we know what type of other systems we have in our other buildings. Are they air? I'm sorry. I don't know why my mic's not working. I don't know. But it's very difficult to make a decision when I can't hear what you're saying. I know. I'm sorry, Rosetta. I'm not sure why my mic's not working. Um, do we know what our other buildings have? Air

056cooled versus water cooled. Uh, it'd be different. I'd have to get a list from Mr. Russell on which ones at each building. I'm not sure exactly which type. Other comments. Marshall? Yeah. Rosetta, can you hear me? Yes. Good. Um my concern based upon our conversation was that the cost of what we are intending to do now has significantly increased. Um and we don't have I don't know if it's a guarantee or a reasonable guarantee that it's going to do what we want it to do and that is I think a significant concern. If we knew that what we had intended to do was going to take care of the noise situation. I'm not sure that at the end of the day switching out, swapping out is necessarily the answer. It's removing the noise level that's

057causing people around it to have a problem. It's my understanding there are other potential ways of doing this, but having heard that what we're going to be doing may not have the desired result, I'm not sure that spending the amount that we have now to do so is the prudent thing to do because we don't know that it's going to change the outcome. If we knew it was going to change the outcome, fine. We want to get rid of whatever inconvenience there is whatever extent we but if it's not going to do it if it doesn't change the effect of what we want it to do and we have to then go back and do something else well now we're into additional surveys additional experts additional engineers additional costs and I'm not sure we're at

058that point we've been going at this a long time but based upon the cost that we see now and the fact that we don't have I think a reasonable guarantee that it's going to change it uh to within the acceptable levels and again it comes down to acceptable levels per the township uh requirements. We haven't heard that the change is going to absolutely take care of it which we're going to have to make sure of anyway. So in that regard I do have concerns. Um so ju just to kind of add to Marsh's point first and foremost I mean for me as a board member I mean I acknowledge and I agree that um the chiller is in violation of lower winded uh sound ordinances and as a result I feel that we are obligated

059as a board to do something about it and to remedy the situation. However uh the proposed sound wall especially at the cost of $370,000 uh I'm I'm not convinced at this point that it's um that it's the right solution. I mean, again, I agree that we need to do something to remediate the issue, but I don't, again, I'm not convinced that what's proposed tonight um is that right solution. So, as a result, I'm going to be voting no on 16.3. So, my concern for the neighbors is that uh if we vote no tonight, it will definitely delay things beyond summer cooling season, meaning you're going to experience another summer with the noise. I I mean so so yeah I'm sorry. So the uh and and to it sounds like to do the water cooled adoption

060that's being suggested according to Mr. Bricker that that would then involve much more money and putting this and and putting the system on the roof. So, so my my assumption is that that amount of construction and bidding that out, etc. would not happen just from a timeline logical perspective during the summer. So, in my mind, we we may not think soundwall is going to solve the issue, but at the same time, if we vote it down and then wait for other options, you're definitely going to have another summer with the noise is the is my concern. We can't have comments directly from the audience at this point. Can I can I ask a question to Tim? Uh, can you can you just you said that you couldn't put it in the basement anymore because it's

061been reconfigured. Can you just explain that to me briefly? and if there's a way to configure it back where it could possibly be in the basement again and is there a risk to students because I know it's like low carbon emissions but there's still some emissions right so one of the main reasons it was out as it was explained to me was the sound inside the building was annoying the students and that was move one of the reasons why it was moved outside after it was moved outside seven years ago the changes that have occurred in the boiler make it putting it back in that boiler not realistic So my concern is, you know, I think we all thought this wall would cost way less money. And you had alluded to the fact that like

062if you were to place the system, I think I don't want to misquote you. I think you said like 800,000 700 or eight for like just a new system that would only bring it down a few dec. And so that wasn't going to be probably a realistic situation. But let's say we did this wall and then it for some reason wasn't meeting township ordinance. Then we'd have to look at replacing it anyway. So now we're already up at 1 million. I'm not saying I want to spend a million dollars of the school district's money and taxpayer money on a new system. I mean, this is just sort of an impossible situation because no matter what, we're spending a ton of money and we're in a situation where I mean, are we sure that a water

063cooler chilled system would actually reduce noise? You said it was noisy in the building. If we put it on the roof, is that going to be noisy, too? I'm not an expert, but I assume on the roof that it would be quieter. The wall right now we are five to seven dB above the nighttime ordinance. Uh, with regards to that, the wall is projected to reduce the sound by 12 to 15 dB, which would get us under putting the tower on top of the building. Again, as I said, right now, and this is just before tariffs, before supply chain issues, before everything else that comes in, was roughly $1.2 million. Where it is and where it will be bid out, I cannot answer. our current system. How much longer do you think we have with

064that system before we need to replace it anyway? The current system is supposed to last 15 years roughly. It could last longer, could last shorter, and we are seven years in. So, I'd like to echo Marshall and uh and Joe's comments. Um I made a few comments last week and asked a few questions. Um, I know that the district has spent considerable amount of time and effort on this issue. I know that the neighbors and the community have been amazingly patient through this process, which we appreciate. Um, it's a very tough problem to solve. Um, but even given the time and effort that has been put into it, what has changed significantly recently is the cost. And so we were working under a certain riskreward proposition to consider the opportunity or the option that's been

065presented. Um but that's changed recently because costs have gone up. And so given that and given the possibility that current solution may not work, it may not be sufficient to u meet code and meet the standards of the neighbors and the community. Um it is my belief that we push this decision in order to further examine what options might be there uh and get some real costs as to what to what those options may may cost us to make a more informed decision. So uh so I appreciate those comments and I agree. I have a question. Um so when the water chills were in the school, do we know that it was loud in the school? Someone said it had been annoying. No, I moved here freshman year for year. Yes, it was reported as

066no school. I think I would have been there and I don't recall any I also was like that was during like COVID time. Yeah. So, I was like out for seventh grade and like hybrid for eighth grade, but I don't recall any noise within the building. Well, just for the sake of thought here, like I don't know what you I mean I don't know what you want to hear. I don't know what you want to hear, but my job's not to tell you guys what you want to hear. I'm gonna tell you what the students think. So, if I were in the school and there was a water chiller, and I don't know the solution. I haven't picked a side. If I were in the school and there's a water chiller, like, we got to

067remember the schools aren't for you guys or you guys. The schools are for me and her. Like, I want to be in a place where I can learn undistracted. So, I don't know what solutions quiet is for the students, but that seems like what we should really be focusing on. And listen, I'm sure it's not pleasant to have a loud noise in your name at all the time. I grew up in the city of Miami. I'm no stranger to it, but you know, it sounds unselfish because I'm a student, but it's true that we are what the schools are for. We want to learn and I'd rather be in a place where I can learn uninterrupted than maybe I'm hearing a buzz while I play basketball, you know? So, again, I don't know if they

068were that loud in school. I don't know how loud they are in the neighborhood. I live in Lauren, but I guess it's not close enough to me. So, I think that's a perspective that most students would align with. Any other comments? Amy, I have a question. I'm so sorry, Rosetta. I was No, no, I have a question now. Yeah, go ahead. So, if we if we wait it and and again that's going to like like Steve said that's going to delay and there's going to be still be the summer with the with the chillers causing noise. But the question I have is how efficient are the water cooler the water coolers versus the air chillers and would there be significant like ongoing savings from like maintenance stuff with with water coolers versus air chillers? Like

069what's the difference? Do we know? I'll have to get you an answer on I have no idea. And all all due respect, I I think we're getting into an area that is beyond what we're talking about. The difference between an air chiller and a water chiller is not the issue before the board. The issue before the board is what do we do about a noise issue that needs to be in compliance with the township code. That's the issue. If it was a $3 issue, I don't think anybody would care if it was a water or an airship. I don't think that was the issue. that's never come up before tonight as far as I know. The issue is how do we take care of the noise issue and what I am concerned with tonight is

070the cost of what it's going to be if we are unable to say unequivocally that this is going to do the trick. Then maybe we need to see if there are other options to ensure that we can reduce that level to acceptable township standards. To me, that's the only issue. And if it if there is a cost benefit to deciding if moving it or changing it is an option, but what we want to do is also maximize the savings for the taxpayers while reducing it to the acceptable level. Maybe we need to look into that a little bit. I mean, we've been dealing with it for a while as it is, and if it takes a little bit longer to do that, so be it to get the result we need. So again, I I

071don't I don't want to get bogged down in the details of what the benefits of certain types of units are. What we're really focusing in is how do we get rid of the issue with regard to the noise to and reducing it to acceptable allowable measures within the township. That's what we have to decide. How do we get there? I just don't I'm not convinced that this proposal is the way to do it. Yeah. And and to simplify it even further, the question before us tonight and the vote tonight is about whether or not you want to approve um $370,000 to build this wall. It's yes or no. The longer term issue and the unresolved piece if this is voted down is how we get the sound down to within the township ordinance. Um, but

072again, the specific question for tonight, the simple one for tonight is, do you if you believe that the wall of $370,000 is a good investment, number one, and number two, was is going to resolve the sound issue, then you should vote for it. I'm not there. Um, but doesn't mean I have the answer, but what I feel is that what's presented tonight for us to vote on is um I'm not convinced it's the right answer. That's that's why I'm I think the issues are related though, Marshall, in that if we're voting no on the wall, then there is going to have to be more time and effort and research put into another possible solution presented to the board. Now, that's absolutely right. Obviously, right, obviously, if we're asking these questions, maybe we don't feel like

073we have all the information, but I but I do want to just acknowledge that a lot of time and money has already been put into trying to come up with a solution and obviously I'm hearing Yeah, maybe it's just not there yet. I hear it. My only other comment is I've heard audio, heard the sound going past it during the summer months. I want to take care of the sound issue for the neighbors. So, and I'm being told that the sound will reduce it by 10 to 12 dB. Um, and to me that sounds like a reasonable expectation. I haven't heard from any middle school student about noise in the building. Has anyone he didn't notice? Okay. I think but the concern about the noise in the building was in the old system, not the

074current system. Current systems out. So true. But the residents did bring up the comment about um for the students as well, students and communities. So just checking in on that and Harrison as well know students experiencing the noise outside or inside. Were you talking about inside or outside Harrison? I was talking about I was talking about inside the school. If I were a student I think the students learning space should be prioritized over the volume in the neighborhood. Refer to my son isn't here in the building. Any other comments or questions before you vote? All right. Okay. Mr. Antonio, no. Mr. Badger, no. Mr. Gleel, no. Miss Kavachi, no. Mr. Goulson, no. Miss Ker Nikis, no. Dr. Morris. Mr. Walker, yes. Mrs. Ginsburg, no. Great. Thank you. And um that motion does now passed. Tim,

075if we could look into other alternatives then continue that for us. Thank you. All right. So then All right. I'll just hold it up. All right. So the vote did not pass and I asked Tim if he could look into the system, what we can do to address the issue moving forward. All right. Finance committee report. Steve, sorry. Um, we have, uh, nine items. Um, this evening, they are all the same as last week with the exception that the, uh, vote on the draft budget that was sent to the Pennsylvania Department of Education was removed since we voted on that last week. So, I'm asking for a motion to approve uh, those nine items. Second. A motion's been made and seconded. Are there any comments or questions? All right, seeing none. All those in favor?

076I I. Anyone opposed? Motion passes. Thanks, Steve. All right, moving on to policy committee. Marshall, thank you. Um, tonight we have um action items for the approval of 18.1 through 18.10. uh and this is the approval of the second reading uh of these uh policy uh either revisions, changes or keeping things the same. Just to recap for everybody um this is the second this is the approval of the second reading uh of these um these items uh and we're talking about uh 18.1 through 18.10 10 which were originally 11 actually but one was removed a couple of meetings ago because of a change in the law and and had to be removed for legal purposes. Um these uh policy provisions were originally brought up um at the uh public policy meeting back on February 18th

077um where they were discussed and as those of you who go to the meetings know we uh for a variety of reasons bring up multiple policies. We review them over time. Um, and we can add policies, delete policies, revise policies, amend policies. We've been doing that for the five and a half years certainly that I've been the chair of the committee and I know for years before that. So for our policies duly uh we had a uh a duly advertised uh uh policy committee meeting on February 18th where we discussed the the multiple policies that were up uh for discussion. uh on on March 31st, we had the first reading of those policies at which time I presented a synopsis of those um and uh they were all published for review uh by public. Um

078that was the first review and the uh that was on March 31st. At the following meeting on April 7th, we had the approval of the first reading of those policies. That was in fact the third presentation of those policies after the meeting, the first reading and then the second uh reading which then becomes the approval of the first reading. And it may seem a little odd but that's the way we do it. So the approval of the first reading came on the third meeting when these policy provisions were discussed. Um but unlike most votes within the school district, we don't stop there with regard to policy. After the approval of the first reading, we then had the second reading last week, April 28th, where they were once again presented um for review uh discussion or

079comment. And tonight becomes the approval of the second reading of those same policies. And essentially that is now the fifth time that those policy provisions uh have gone through the system before passage by the board. Um, so just to review, that is our our policy. Um, and I know tonight there was a a concern about one of them was 9:03. Um, it has to do with those who are allowed to speak at uh public meetings at at schoolboard meetings. There was a couple of revisions to that. Um, and I invite all of you to go on uh the policies for all of the school districts within uh Montgomery County and beyond. Um, because what you will notice is our policy uh is broader uh than almost every other district. Um, not only do we allow

080for current residents to speak publicly at meetings, we allow for taxpayers to speak at public meetings, we allow alumni, graduates to speak at meetings. We allow any firms uh or corporations who are eligible to provide bids and do business with the the um with the school district. We have we have a provision to allow current district employees. We have a provision to allow parents and guardians of enrolled students and currently enrolled students. Most districts are not as broad as we are. And again, I invite you to look at the 23 districts in Montgomery and beyond. Where we made a change was we actually broadened it to allow alumni going forward. That was not a provision that was in here previously. And I again invite you, no other district, I believe in the county allows for

081alumni to speak. Now, why might they do that? Well, let's assume that you move out of district, you move out of the state, and 30 years later you decide to come back and say something. A lot of districts don't allow that. In fact, I think we may be the only one in that regard. So in that regard um we simply along with the other policy provisions that have been brought forth since February are part of the batch of policies tonight for second and final review the approval of the second reading of those policy provisions. So with that I yield back to Amy for approval of uh policy So, all right, Marshall, thank you for that. Um, do we have a motion to approve? Actually, do you want to break 903 out and do the others?

082I don't know that there's a Unless there's a specific reason to do so. We've never done that in the past. But if you want to, we can do that. It's up to comments, I guess. And then we can Is there a motion to approve all the policies 18.1 through um Sorry, my scrolling isn't 10. Thank you. I would like to separate. You would like to separate? Okay. So then what we will do is we will have uh first the vote on 18.1 through 18.9 which covers the other uh revisions or reviews second review uh of these policy provisions uh for the second approval tonight. All right. Can I have that motion? Thank you. All right, a motion's been made and seconded. Um, are there any comments or questions as it relates to 18.1 through 18.9?

083All right, seeing none, all those in favor? I I. Anyone opposed? Right. Motion passes. And now with regard to 18.10, do we correct? We are now moving for approval of the second and final reading of uh 18.10 which correlates to policy number uh 903. So moved. A motion's been made and seconded. Are there any comments or questions? Steve? Yeah. Um I would like to retain the lined out red lined out language u regarding anyone representing Right. Any other comments or questions? So, I I commented on this a couple weeks ago and during one of the other readings, but um I I think what we are trying to accomplish is carving out this time for taxpayers and district residents. That's who we're here for. That's and the students obviously. That's who we're here for. That's who

084we serve. Um that's who should get this time. I don't think we are interested in outside groups that are aren't representing our community to be speaking at our board meetings and certainly coming to a board meeting is not the only way to advocate for someone. That's you know that wouldn't be a first um avenue. Um like I have pointed out before I am not allowed to comment at my alma mater but I still when I had a concern I reached out to district leadership. I'm able to email them and have my voice heard. So, I don't know. I don't I don't see this as very restrictive in any way personally, but tell me otherwise. Any other comments or questions concerning this policy? Um, I agree with what Deianne said. I mean, in the spirit of

085what you're saying, I don't think that our policy as revised is overly restrictive. I mean, I think primarily what we want to do is make sure that um we prioritize stakeholders for the district. So anyone who has a stake directly in the um you know the workings of the district obviously taxpayers, residents, students, even alums um business partners who may be working with the district etc. What it does not allow for is like outside groups from instate or out of state or beyond um that again are not direct stakeholders of the district to come and um grab time at the podium. And again to Dian Deian's point, those folks have other avenues that they can make their voice and opinion heard. We just don't need to reserve um public meeting time in my view for

086those speakers. Thank you, Joe. Anyone else want to be heard on this? All right, so we'll do a roll call vote. Mr. Antonio, yes. Mr. Badger, yes. Mr. Bleel, yes. Miss Kavachi, yes. Mr. Goolson, no. Miss Kerikis, no. Dr. Morris, yes. Mr. Walker, no. Mrs. Ginsburg, yes. And what was the vote total, Amanda? Writing it down. That is six yes and three no. Okay. Thank you. The motion passes. All right. So, moving on then, uh, we'll go on to racial equity oversight committee, but first, thank you, Marshall. Sorry, Rosetta. I'm all out. Thank you. Paul Ri, thanks Amy. No, no items for this evening. All right. Thank you. Uh, Jean, health, wellness, and safety. No items for this evening. Thank you. Um, extracurricular Marshall, there is nothing new to report this evening. All right, thank

087you. And, uh, I provided my MCU IU report last week. Anything new at North Monaco? Okay, right there. I'm sorry. There is one uh, good news. So, uh, Charlie Cole, who is the culinary arts instructor at North Monco, was named uh, the American uh, culinary foundation educator of the year. Yay. That's awesome. Great. Anything else on North Monica? That's it. Okay. Well, thank you. Um, PSBA, Dian, and maybe you could explain also, Dian, a little bit about what PSBA does. Oh, uh, PSBA is the Pennsylvania Schoolboard Association. It's, um, it is a membership group. It's an advis advocacy group really for, um, I think they advocate for the best interests of school and students. Um, their big issues are fair school funding, um, fair charter school um, reimbursement. Um, they've always, you know, fought for

088what I think a lot of school board members and school districts are trying to fight for in just a more organized way. And, uh, they're a pretty good resource for that and they, um, a lot of times will coordinate, um, opportunities to meet with legislators and different things like that. So, um, I found them to be overall pretty positive. Do I love every aspect? No. I'll be honest, no. But um you know I also they're serving a lot they're serving 500 districts in Pennsylvania some of which have very different needs. So you know I think they're doing a good job in that um in that regard. Is that that okay of an explanation I guess? Sure. Yeah. I just wanted to hear what kind of services they provide to the district. Oh they so they

089do provide um like policy recommendations um based on best practices and legal requirements of the state and federal law. Um they provide us with um oh my gosh, what else do they provide us with? You probably know me. You know, they do continuing education with us. Like after you're elected to the board, you have to do continuing education and they provide continuing education. Right. Right. When you are elect, if you're a new board member, you do have to do a training and they do provide that. Um they also provide other like continuing education resources for schoolboard members and they put on different like legal forums. So districts are informed about that. They have a scholarship for students. they have um they highlight grants and other things that school districts can apply to. So, it's actually

090pretty useful in terms of like staying in touch with um regulations and grants and all everything at the federal and state level. Um what I did want to share about um this sort of advocacy work that I'm trying to do on Thursday night I attended a town hall meeting um on fair school funding over in Fort Washington and there were a couple of state reps there and um the outlook for federal school funding is is kind of grim. And one of the things that Representative Hamage said again and since there are so many people in this room I'm going to say it again what she said to me and that is call call your federal representatives. So ours are Maline Dean, John Federman, and Dave McCormack and ask for funding of public education. Emails do

091not carry as much weight. If you call, you leave your name. What you're asking for it can be two minutes of your time, but the more people that call, the more impact it has because their aids keep a tally of what people call. And she just said that was so important because we're looking, you know, when you look at, oh, we're not, we don't have that much federal funding. You're right, but 50% of our state funding comes directly from the federal government. So, if that all were to go away or be greatly reduced, we would be hurting um just like all districts would be. So, um I I'm disturbed about the outlook for funding federally and so I just am asking for voices to help in trying to lift that up. That's it. Great. Thank

092you, Deian. Do any of the board members have questions or comments for Dian? And Jim, did you have anything additional to add regarding? Uh, just to say that PSBA is is also serves as a they have lots of connections in Harrisburg and their voice of public education and they get indoors. They in add, you're right, email is not so good and phone calls are better and in person is even better. So they do that role and I do appreciate that opportunity that they present to board members where they will connect us with legislators so that we can have those conversations. I do appreciate that role. All right. Um, ERC, is there anything to report on that, Dian? No, thank you. All right. All right. Well, then we're at our second public comment period and the

093board appreciates hearing from the community, a maximum of five speakers be heard on the same topic. Please limit comments to three minutes. Again, I'll remind everyone we do have the new buzzer. Uh, in the interest of fairness and in order to treat all speakers equally. It is our not our practice 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 make sure you state your name, your municipality of residence, and the topic on which you're speaking. Right. So, the first person uh to speak in person is KDO. Good evening. My name is Katie O and I live in Bluebell. I'm a proud parent of three Wisahin students, two in high school and one in middle school. As we

094observe Asian-American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, I'm here tonight as part of a strong and engaged group of Asian and Asian-American families in the Wizen community. In the spirit of promoting cultural awareness and inclusion, we asked the board to recognize Lunar New Year as an official school holiday. Lunar New Year is not just a cultural tradition. It's one of the most meaningful holidays across many Asian communities, including Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese, Thai, Filipino, and others across the diaspora. Celebrated by nearly two billion people worldwide, it is a time centered on family, reflection, and renewal. About 16% of Waken students identify as Asian. Yet, our district calendar does not reflect that diversity. Despite that, our students have shown incredible leadership through clubs like Asian Student Association and Asian Culture Committee. They've led critical conversations on inclusion and

095stood up against anti-Asian hate. Their Lunar New Year celebrations and May API Heritage Month events have drawn hundreds. These initiatives have created spaces where students can be themselves, participate in something meaningful, and share and celebrate their identities. None of this would have been possible without the dedicated support of faculty adviserss Mrs. Lee and Dr. Lyster who have modeled civic engagement and empowered students to use their voices for positive change. But as parents, we know that what happens outside the classroom matters just as much. We need to see that same support reflected in the district's leadership and calendar. We have momentum and we are not alone. Neighboring districts like Upper Dublin, lower Morland, and Central Bucks have already made Lunar New Year a school holiday. Wiskin can and should lead alongside them. We've collected 211 signatures

096and support, 160 from Wist Hicken residents and 15 from teachers, staff, and administrators at WIS. Our ask is simple but meaningful. Make Lunar New Year a recognized school holiday. This aligns directly with district equity goal number five to create a safe, inclusive environment where every student feels like they belong. We've seen the words in strategic plans and mission statements. Now, we ask for action that brings them to life. This is not about a day off. It is about dignity, representation. It's about telling our children, "We see you. Your culture matters. You belong here." As a parent, this matters deeply to me. So, tonight, I urge the board, Dr. Chrisfield and Dr. Dan to take this step to lead with courage, act with intention, and affirm the values we all say we stand for. Let's make

097Lunar New Year a school holiday and show our students that this is truly a district where everyone belongs. Thank you for your time and your commitment to our children. Thank you, Katie. Is anyone online? There are no hands raised online. And we'll move to our next person um that's in person, Case. Good evening. My name is Case Young, a junior at Wagen High School representing the Asian Student Association and Asian Culture Committee. Tonight, I'm addressing an important opportunity for our school to demonstrate its commitment to inclusion and cultural respect. For 16% of our student body and the Miami families throughout our community, Nuna New year represents one of the most significant cultural celebrations of the year. This celebration celebrated across Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese, and numerous other Asian cultures serves as a time of joy, family

098gatherings, and cultural traditions much like Christmas is for many. It's a day filled with celebration where families come together to share meals, exchange gifts, and participate in vibrant festivities often in places like Chinatown. Currently, students celebrating Lunar New Year face a difficult choice. Either miss its important family traditions or return to school facing academic consequences, often facing a daunting amount of makeup work, 3 to five hours, plus assignments from the next day, which can turn a day of joy into a source of stress. Other school districts such as Upper Dublin and North Penn have recognized the significance of Nunar and their communities with Asian populations of 8% and 20% respectively and have taken steps to include that in their school calendars. Here at West, our Asian student population of 16% double that of Upper Dublin

099represents a significant portion of our community whose important cultural traditions deserve equal recognition. Our student body has clearly demonstrated enthusiasm for cultural experiences evidenced by an impressive 884 student signatures collected in just three days alongside with the uh nun year festival and API cultural fair organized by ASA and ACC that have consistently drawn over a 100 attendees annually for the last three years. These events celebrate our heritage while creating inclusive spaces for others to learn and participate fostering understanding and appreciation throughout our school community. Yet, we can extend this opportunity further. As one non-Asian sophomore expressed, I'm not Asian, but I attended the festival hosted by ASA every year. I would definitely love to visit Chinatown celebrations if we had a day off. Now, this is not just one day. It's about creating a lasting

100impact on our school community where every students feel seen, heard, and appreciated for who they are. When students are asked what is Christmas, everyone knows the answer because there's already recognition and awareness. Yet when we asked students about what's new year, many freshmen responded with what's that? Currently, we rely solely on ASA to spread awareness. And there's a limit to that. By officially recognizing new year as a holiday, we will create an inclusive environment where all students can feel celebrated, empowered to honor and share their cultural heritage. Again, this holiday represents not just one culture, but diverse traditions throughout Asia. Such recognition aligns perfectly with our core value of ensuring that every student feels valued and respected. As we often say, we are true blue with a heart of gold. This is an opportunity to

101demonstrate that gold standard of inclusion. Thank you for your time. [Music] Thank you, K. There are no hands raised on. Next person, Ginger Plet. I'm so sorry. Let me stop the clock for one second. I just want to note with regard to the blue bell issue, um I do not know that you have it listed here. I did just have um a statement uh that I did want to make just before we Sorry. Sorry, I'm holding the paper scrolling doing it all at once. Sorry about that. Um, so I did want to note that the board certainly welcomes comments on all matters related to the district schools and members who public who wish to provide a public comment are just respectfully reminded that comments need to refrain from making any public allegations that are unfounded

102that share innuendo or rumor or violate any staff member or students privacy rights. And um it's also something the district cannot talk about any sort of student disciplinary issues under f federal law. So, just to talk about the blue bell matter, I just wonder Yeah, I understand. I know there's another parent that um wants to talk. So, if she needs my support, I'll back her up. But my primary reason for being here is really to talk about the Luna New Year. Okay. So, I'll go after her. Okay. Okay. So, hi, I'm Ginger Polot. I'm a Bluebell parent. I'm the parent of two half Asian students in the WSA Hickin School District, a fifth and an eighth grader. I'm supporting KDO and the wider Asian community in the school district and asking the board to include

103the Luna New Year as a designated holiday in the school calendar. The Luna New Year is one of the most important celebrations of the year for the Asian cultures including Chinese, Vietnamese, Philippines, and South Korean communities. It is more than a day off. For us, it is a day for family reunions, remembering ancestors, and following traditions to usher in good luck for the new year. We attended this year's Luna New Year festival, which was organized by the Whisten High School Club. The event was well attended by o well over 100 people. Let's talk about the cultural diversity of the student population. The current diversity within the school district includes 16.4% Asian students. The number is slightly higher due to multi-racial kids such as mine. Since Asian students are the second largest ethnic group, the school

104district needs to show commitment to our culture and the sense of belonging they promote through recognizing holidays of significance to us. We need to have a stronger show of action than a Facebook post by the school district saying happy Luna New Year. Currently, surrounding school districts like North Penn, Central Bucks, and Upper Dublin have included it as a holiday on their school calendars and we should do the same. I'm closing with a question to consider. When my two kids ask me why the school district does not recognize Luna New Year as a designated holiday, I don't have an answer. Can the school board and administration tell my kids and the other Asian students why the school district doesn't recognize Luna New Year as a designated holiday? Thanks. Thank you, Ginger. Next is Jim K. I

105think I might be okay. I don't know how loud be with this thing. I've been known to have a loud voice. Um, I'm going to try to keep keep this moving, but I'm here. Jim Kim, uh, children in Blue Bell Elementary School. Um, had a meeting last Friday partnership meeting. Our message to our staff was communication, transparency, 24hour contact. Get back to people when they call you. get back to people when they have an issue. I was notified yesterday morning driving home about the incident last week at the school. I'm directly affected by it because that person is in my daughter's class. We in that classroom parents were never told about what happened. So my daughter's in the class with the issue and somebody decided they should be the parent and not tell the parents

106in the classroom. I don't care about the school bus. I don't care about the other stuff. I care about my daughter being in her class with someone that everybody knew something was going on with. Pretty sure everybody in here knows what was going. This is the second time this year we had the carbon monoxide issue at the school. You guys did not tell us. I emailed everyone. We went to the cops. We reached out to everybody again. Zero communication back to us. Zero transparency. It's becoming a common theme with us parents. We're not finding out from you guys. And the issue last week really set me off because I got a child in a classroom that took three hours to find out even though you knew it and remove the issue. So I just wanted

107to say you guys got to start communicating with us because now it's affecting us personally. When I have a child in a classroom with somebody who brings a knife to school, that's an issue. That's all I want to say. Thank you, J. Thank you, Jenny. All right, Amy Hughes. Amy Hughes, Kelly. Okay. Um, so good evening. Um, is budget season is behind is upon us, I'd like to speak on the proposed cut as it relates to the school resource officer. I apologize as my schedule conflicts with the workshops, so I have to bring this to you here. Um, this is not the first time or the second time the district has proposed cuts to the SRO that serves the Wistah Hicken High School, middle school, and lower Gwenned elementary school campuses. Now, I recall that

108grant money was secured to help offset the cost when we implemented the SRO over a decade ago. I know that additional monies have been received over the years to maintain the SRO since. I know the district shares the cost with lower Gwenned, which makes sense. they have jurisdiction and they have the benefit of using that officer when school is not in session. Um, for the record and for Q&A followup, my questions are as follows. Um, one, has the district continued to source and or receive additional state or federal funding for the SRO? And two, has the district explored any alternative funding options or sources to help offset the cost? While this may seem like an easy thing to cut on paper since we're here again, or it may seem like an easy thing to threaten

109to cut in the hopes that others will step in and absorb these costs. I would ask you to please reconsider if that is really the right call. We are talking about a very small amount in the district's overall budget, and it may also seem like a good idea to explore outsourcing the function to try and save a few dollars. But I would ask you to weigh that against the benefits of continuing to use a lower Gwennet officer. No one is more vested in the community than those that serve this community and the relationships that that officer is able to forge with our students in the building and then in the community should not be overlooked. I think the SRO does an amazing job and I think that anyone who who has been at the high

110school for a while um can attest that they have been worth every single penny. If you're not seeing enough value in them to prioritize funds, maybe it's time to look at what they bring to the table from another angle. I don't know what data you're using to suggest this proposed cut makes sense and where the shortfalls should come from, but I'd ask you to reconsider given the burden that this has the potential to place on others. I've stood at this podium before asking you to find another way. And I'm standing here once again asking you to find another way. We've had an SRO in place for over a decade. If the district has not prioritized ensuring that you are able to retain them, then I think that's a problem worth solving. Funding is never a

111guarantee. But you've had more than 10 years to figure out how to budget for this expense. So, I respectfully ask that you take this budget season as the opportunity to start planning now. We're already behind and our kids safety is not an area that we can afford to keep entertaining. Most certainly not for $70,000. Thank you, Amy. Merrill. Hi, my name is Tanya Merrell. from the Wicken School District from Whip Township. I have four kids here and two of which are at Blue Bell. Last week, a very serious safety concern came to light. There was a altercation on the school bus that turned into a student bringing a knife to school. Um the knife was put away in the student's backpack. Three hours later, um we were told about the knife. Only families uh that

112was students in the morning bus were notified of any incident. No communication was shared with the rest of Bluebell Elementary School. The communication was shared was incomplete and misleading. No mention of a fight. No mention of the time that the weapon was in the school. No mention that it even made its way to a classroom. It was noted that the incident was quickly reported to by staff, which was false. The kids didn't report this till three hours later. The email that went home to parents deceitfully illustrated a young child made a showand tell mistake. This was no mistake. It was a purposeful act. Could have been a very, very bad. I reached out to district leadership to request a full and honest update with an action plan sent home to all families. After 24 hours,

113I received no response. Parents deserve to be informed when the student safety is at risk. There's an ongoing trend of sweeping these details under the rug and that needs to stop. After being ignored, I felt obligated to tell the community the truth about what happened on social media. Since then, many parents have reached out to me with their stories of security issues gone ignored. I I struggle to understand why when we know that students are struggling, bus privileges are kept, bags go unchecked, when there was no action plan. There was an action plan. It just wasn't followed. Blue Barrel parents receive no emails about any reports of threats to multiple reports of threats that occur and we don't even know it. Why is Blue Bell security not a priority? Why is school security a proposed

114budget cut for the next year when we already are short on security resources? Is this a situation that is this why the situation was downplayed? Because we want to just skirt this under the rug. It gives the illusion that our children are safe and additional security is unnecessary. Is this a plan for Dr. Chrisfield to cut security budget on his way out? Absolving Dr. Dwan of any wrongdoing. Their offices are safe and secure, tucked away here at central office while our kids are on the front line. I would like to hear a commitment to accountability from each board member, that security will be taken seriously, that communication with parents will not be spun to minimize, and that action plans will be created and followed for students that are with threatening harm, and that security budget

115cuts are off the table. Thank you. Anyone online? We have no hands raised. Uh, Sky Wald, I'm sorry. Wald, I'm sorry. Guy Wenhold. I'm a Blue Bell mom and I have the honor of being with Tanya and volunteering and spending a lot of time at the school. I'm also a neighbor to the school. So, I'm privy to a lot of the construction going on and things that happen as I'm there frequently. So, to start, there is a lack of communication. None of the parents know what the chain of command is when it comes to communication. Who is writing emails? Who is signing off on them? Who is okaying them when we receive them? Because information has constantly been cut out. very serious things. Our kids have been exposed to tarring of the roof and nobody

116was told. Kids were coming home sick with migraines. My son developed asthma from it and then carbon monoxide leaves were occurring and we were not told. It took three emails from our principal to finally find out that it was carbon monoxide. Myself and other women went to the community to find out before these emails came out because our kids were coming home with stomach aches and teachers were reporting that they were getting sick. Children were throwing up more so than a simple neuro virus. And we were all very concerned and nobody told us. When I asked what the smell was at the school that people were smelling, we were told it was gas. We later found out, yes, it was gas. Carbon monoxide is odorless, but the gas was leaking carbon into the school because

117contractors who were hired were using tools that they weren't supposed to be using. The principal told me that it was not the first time that this has happened, that these contractors were told they were not allowed to use these tools around children, especially in an occupied space. This goes against OSHA. It's one of the first things you learn if you're a contractor. You're not to use tools in an occupied space that are powered by gas, especially around children. But yet, it took three emails for us to be told that our kids were exposed to carbon monoxide. So, my friends were asking me if their kids if my kid was sick along with their kids and if they were coming home with stomach aches and then feeling better and then going back to school and getting

118stomach aches and headaches again. I had to report to them that's because they were exposed to poisonous gas and nobody told us and nobody took any responsibility for it. And then this week we find out that our children were around a student with a knife. We are a school with emotional support students and I think that's wonderful. There's a lot of mental health issues going on with our kids right now, but they're not being addressed properly. And now our kids are at risk. So I ask, when does the school step in and actually help these kids and stop our kids from potentially becoming victims of to them? And it's not just the emotional support kids. I don't want to put blame on them or their parents. It's tons of kids who are coming in with

119issues that we're not being told about. The problems that Tanya is addressing and I'm addressing are just the things we found out about because we were privy to them being at the school at the time. So I wonder how many more incidents are happening that we are not made aware of. So I ask who is overseeing these things and when we are writing to you guys who's actually reading them. I had called Chris Gil's office. I had sent emails to the schoolboard about the tar the carbon monoxide but nobody responded. So when when do we get a response after a child is seriously and gravely injured? Will you say you did everything you could when we've all told you that we are not being Thank you, Sky. Rob Walker. Rob Walker Whitney Township. Um, two

120children, one in ninth grade and one in sixth grade. Um, I'll tell you a little story. It's a good story. Um, and then I'll relate it back to the chiller if you just have a little patience with me. Um, we live our backyard backs up right at Blue Bell Elementary through the construction and oftentimes the the um dumpsters not being shut. A lot of trash would come into the woods which my wife would complain about. Robbie the ninth grader decided one day to go out trash bag and start filling it. Filled it up with bottles and construction debris, papers, everything that was kind of happening because of construction. That was one week. The next weekend, he did the exact same thing. Then he came into the kitchen and he told my wife and I, he

121remembers when he was a blue belt student and the sitting area out there used to be maintained. And it was great because oftent times they would take the children out there to have either a nature walk, class, or something, even just reading on the benches. And he said, "It's obvious that they don't do that anymore." He said, "Dad, would it be okay if you and I went out there and cleaned it up and we got some mulch and made it so that it's acceptable for the teachers to bring the students back out there." Thought it was a great idea. So, the following weekend, bought 12 bags of mulch, went out there, took the branches that had fallen, made a natural border, and cleaned it up nice enough for people to go out there and obviously

122either walk or have class. Just recently, we received a full packet of cards and letters from the second and third graders at Blue Bell Elementary and even some of the teachers thanking us for what we did. One in particular stood out. It was a young man who um included a picture of himself sitting on a bench and he let us know that he struggles with school and and sometimes he even struggles with his environment and that the woods provided a place for him to clear his mind and to think peaceful thoughts. That's the one. And I don't say that to self-promote my son. He wants no recognition for this whatsoever. The cards were enough. I say it because what Robbie did was the right thing. He did unto others what had had been done for

123him and that he once done to him. It's the golden rule. And that's what we should be doing when we're talking about chillers or communication or tar or whatever might be affecting the families. What we ask you as the board, you are the moral compass that starts the school district and we ask for you to do the right thing, not what's proper for an ordinance. I know that's the and I know you have to follow it and you have a big ask in front of you with regards to the children, with regards to the middle school and the taxpayers who are affected by the noise and the students who are affected by it when they're on the fields of play right next to them. It does affect them. sixth grader. My sixth grader tells me

124could please just do the right thing. Thank you, [Music] Rama. So, last Friday we honored um Mrs. Helen Moore. She was the first teacher and the last principal of the segregated school in Penllin from 1925 to 1955 in all three miss municipalities. Laura Gwyn had a segregated school where all black children only went to that school for 30 years. And over that 30 years, each black pen child left proficient in English and math. Fast forward 70 years later since the school has closed. The little black children in Penllin that go to Bluebell have a 25% proficiency rate in math and have a 31 proficiency rate in reading. Blacks make up 9% of the school district population, but they're over represented in discipline. They're under represented in the gifted program. their parents don't have an advocate

125to navigate the system with for them. I sit here tonight just heartbroken because we don't have progress in this school district. And it's not things um of transparency, communication, the board not listening to the community is not just with this iteration of the board. I've been here since fifth grade. My mom was an advocate. The board was resistant then and you're resistant now. Something has to shift. Black children are being harmed. Earlier today, I received a phone call from a parent at Blue Bell. her child had been restrained four times, her kindergartenner, and she just received the incident reports today only because I encouraged her to indicate to the administrator that she should contact the Pennsylvania Department of Education because there is no civil rights division in the Department of Education. So when you make

126a vote to get rid of policy 903 for this school district, you eliminate the most marginalized group of students in this district to have a community group that has a stakeholder investment in the black children that come in this district. So all the word salad that happened tonight is just word salad. The PSBA is on a mission to limit public comment from people. Period. I'm going to ask how much it costs to become a member of that organization. I'm going to ask all the questions I asked at my first comment. But understand this and you as a board, you oversee that man. You oversee that superintendent. He's the supervisor of the principles. There's problems in each school and he's the supervisor and you're his [Music] Thank you, Carina. Anyone still unlocked? No hands. Okay. All

127right. Alan Deco. Oh, actually, Alan, you know what? I had you marked down for a second, but you're actually writing one of the first. Never mind. I think um Jim, did you have a comment till Ginger? Do you have a second public comment period? Okay, you Thank you. I'm sorry you had both sh I just let you double check. All right. Thank you. And if we have nobody online, then we will Oh. Oh, I'm sorry. I see one over there. Amy Ross. Hi. Um I'm Amy Ross. I'm here from Blue Bell. I'm also here to talk about the recent violence um or threat of violence in our school district and the lack of transparency. So, what you've heard already tonight is about the knife that was brought to school, but that's not the beginning of

128the story. My I have two children in the school, six and nine. They're on the bus. They're in the same classroom. There was a gun threat two months ago with the same child. It was an incident on the bus in the afternoon bus where there was a scuffle. I don't know. It's, you know, he said, she said with the children, but at the end, the child threatened to bring in a gun the next day and shoot them all. This there was police involved. There was no communication to the broader school district. So, I don't even know if everyone is aware of this. So, this is this is the first that this room is hearing of it. Um, we were told, I was told specifically that the way this was being handled is the child no

129longer be allowed on the bus. And then now two months later, this same child who has been back allowed on the bus brought a knife to school and I was not told immediately. My children honestly didn't even know. But now I'm getting all my information from six and nine year olds instead of the school and the administrators. So my concern is this was a known threat. Now it is a second instant of potential violence. What are we doing about it? and and the emails from the school district only to the people on the bus are we have policies, we're handling it and that's it. I don't know what's being done and my child is now having nightmares that his father is being shot on the bus and killed. My children shouldn't be afraid to to

130ride the bus. They shouldn't be afraid to go to school. I understand that there are children with special needs and special behavioral needs, but all I'm asking for is some sort of confidence builder. Maybe this child isn't allowed on the bus. Maybe we look in the backpacks. Maybe there's an aid, you know, with the child. There are different things that we can do to support the child, but also provide more safety for the children. And that should be the minimum standard. Secondarily, the transparency because again, this is a second incident. What will the third be? Why do we have to have a second incident when the first was so severe? So, that that's all I'm here to say. Transparency and and safety, honestly. [Music] Thank you, Amy. There are no hands raised online. We'll close

131our second comment period and we'll move on now to board comments and um Jim, I did have a couple questions for you. One, I did want to talk about the incident at Blue. I know certain things cannot be disclosed, but can you go over a little bit about the not notification process so the board understands more about how the district notifies parents when there is an incident? Yes. So, in in this case, the incident happened on the bus, and I I I'll need to to research the the uh timing of when the the um communication came out. I know I heard comments and I I did hear people uh on the need for a a wider range, more people in the school. I think that's a fair point. um the uh the the that communication

132went to the student or the families of the student on the bus because it was a bus incident. Fair point taken that it extended past into the school day and and I I think that all I can say is I think that I've heard you and I think it's a fair point and and I think it's something that we can learn from. Um typically one of the problems we have and this and this is not just in uh to this school but others as well is that um families very much want to know what what happened in terms of consequences and because that that's a nice that's a nice way to to get a sense that it's not going to happen again. um we can until we're blew in the face tell you all of

133our plan for it not met again but that doesn't that doesn't provide enough level of comfort uh because um I from what I understand you would like to know what happens when any student not not this instance let's take it away from this instance let's just talk about broadly the it would be nice to know what happens because then that's another layer of we can only talk to you in that example in hypotheticals because we are constrained by federal law to talk about what happened to a specific student. So again, moving it away from this incident because I don't really want to if we speak too much about this incident, we are going to narrow it down to a student and then that student's rights are going to be violated. Let's talk broadly that the

134issues that you brought up tonight which are are fair. Um we can say well if X happens then what the consequences could be these this um we can say that in in instances of a fight these things happen but we can't say what happened to Jimmy when Jimmy got into a fight or when Jimmy did something that violated the student code of conduct that I and I know that's frustrating. It's frustrating for us to not be able to say it because I know that's what you want to hear, but but school administrators don't have that leeway to tell you. It's frustrating for us, too. What we can do is be, I say, broader and faster. I like the comments about, you know, speed. There's a million things going on during a school day and maybe

135what needs to be done is displace some of those other things so that this be prioritized. We have to and and what we need to do though is we need to be sure. Correct. Correct. Correct. I understand that and I don't blame you. you. So Jim, can you continue please? Sure. So um broadly speaking, the the uh so uh to answer your question, the uh communications are sent out as fast as we can. Can't be faster to the people who have a need to know could be broader. I don't disagree with any of those. And we try to keep the board as updated as possible as well. What happens in 2025 is things move way faster than they used to due to social media. So we need to we need to maybe we need to

136maybe um change how we prioritize our communication speed uh initiating it because it's clearly not meeting these. So I think what we need to do is I think you should have a discussion with principles about the timing of information because as a parent myself, I know that I would want to know right away if something like that occurred. I wouldn't want to wait a couple days to find out. Um, even if it's with limited information, at least bringing parents up to speed as to where we are at that point and that further information will follow once it's available. But I think we should be sharing information as soon as we have it to the parents. I again, as a parent, I would want to know right away. No, disagree. Okay. So, let's have that conversation

137then. Okay. All right. And then um I also wanted to ask about actually JB also have comments or questions on that particular issue. Keep going. Okay. I just have one thing. Yeah. Go ahead. The board doesn't always know what happens in the schools either. I found out I'm not on when you were email when you emailed me is when I found out. And so I'm just saying please stop. This is not a dialogue. I'm just saying that I don't always know either. So, you know, that's it's not my job to know every single incident that goes on. I agree with Amy of directing Jim to meet with the principles to come up with a uniform way to respond to this. I think that's an excellent idea. Okay. And then um I also wanted to ask

138so I did want to share a comment regarding the SRO about the SRO. Um, in terms of our plans for the SRO, I did want to let the community know that we are exploring options. Um, I've spoken with um, local townships about looking at options for contributing towards the funding to continue with the SRO. Jim's had some conversations as well. Uh, so we are exploring those other options. At this point, you know, we are still exploring that issue with the SRO and the funding. And I think I had one other thing I wanted to ask. Oh, I wanted to ask Jim with regard to the holidays. I know we get a lot of requests for different holidays to be added to our calendar. And um I was wondering if we couldn't look, they've mentioned, different

139community members mentioned Upper Dublin, North Penn. if we could look at districts that have a similar makeup and diversity as we have here in our district and take a look at what holidays they have on their calendar so that maybe going into I know next year's calendar is already prepared but going into the following year if we can make sure we're as inclusive as possible in our holidays to make sure every member of our community is is represented in some way with regard to holidays and then also somehow we could use the minute versus days like new law change to maybe have an extra day that it wouldn't affect us going later in June. And I did want to say the student um is it case? Yeah. Um you made an excellent point. You know,

140these c these school calendars years and years and years ago were built around Christian holidays. You're right. And that has not really it's been really slow to change and it's changed and that's not really representative of our community anymore. And so, you know, I think we have to really take a look at um including some of the other holidays. Thank you for that. All right, thank you. Were there any other comments or questions this even? All right, then very brief, but I just want to acknowledge everybody who's come out. You've been heard. Um, we do get a lot of emails. Um, it's very hard to respond to all the emails and in fact uh many times we're instructed not to respond to emails. So it's because it's taken out of context and only parts of

141our emails are then distributed which has happened multiple times. So for our own protection, we've been asked not to respond for that. I'm sorry, but I am always honest and I'm always honest in these meetings and I hope um I continue to do that and and your students are always the first person in my mind as one of mine are is here every every other session. Um thank you for coming out. Right. Any other comments this evening? I think we have a motion to adjurnn. Second. All in favor? I I forjourn.