001Mr. Antonio here. Mr. Badger here. Mr. Blefeld here. Miss Kavachi here. Mr. Goolson here. Miss Keranikis here. Dr. Morris here. Mr. Walker here. Mrs. Ginsburg here. Mia Benise here. Reed Harris here. Thank you. Would everybody please join me for the pledge of allegiance? I want to welcome everyone to this April 7th meeting of the WISHA Hickin School Board. And uh taking a look at our agenda, you'll first see a list of our prior meetings. We had a work session on February 24th, a regular public board meeting on March 3rd. March 10th was a finance committee meeting. March 17th was a Rio community conversation and March 31st we had both a communications committee as well as our work session. Um followed by April 1st our finance committee meeting and then we list out our upcoming meetings.
002April 21st we have both our health wellness and safety and RIO community meeting. April 28th will be a work session and May 5th a regular public board meeting. And I just want to remind everyone that community members are certainly welcome at those committee meetings and uh there is also the opportunity for public comment at those uh committee meetings as well. All right. So we'll move on now to our presentation. Jim, thank you. Tonight we're uh pleased to have with us uh some representatives from our education foundation. And uh to kick off that report I will introduce the president of WEO, Miss Alita. Thank you. Uh pleased to be here today representing the Wahhicken Educational Opportunities Foundation. Um so instead of hearing from me about what we've been up to, I am so pleased to present
003our two class representatives, senior Hannah Young and junior um Riley Taylor. So Ryan and Hannah. Hello. As mentioned in the fall meeting, this year is a rebuilding year for WE Off. Four new me four new board members have joined this fall. We off executive board roles are in transition with Claudine Pacio as WEO off's new treasur as of April 2025 and the team is onboarding a new co-president team for the 2025 2026 academic year. We offisc had the opportunity to present the WHIS administration at the WHIS leadership council meeting last month. Principles were very supportive of We Off and agreed to help spread the word that we are looking to add new board members from the community, including teachers and staff. We off has agreed to help fund three projects recently, which include the adaptive
004equipment for PACE students with a grant submitted by the Stony Creek Physical Educational Department, support for the Whisten High School marching bands purchase of a new cargo trailer replacing the current 24 year old trailer, and the funding for a mural project in the Wicken High School library, which is a collaboration with the art department, NHS students in the library to fund grants like these. as well as assemblies in all six schools. We off relies on philanthropic support to those of you who to those of you who have already contributed. Thank you. We off just launched Hickin Spring Staff Tributes, a gratitude program that delivers personalized thank you messages to teachers and staff during teacher appreciation week 2025. Please shout out your favorite teacher, administrator, bus driver with a personal message. The deadline for submitting a
005staff tribute is Sunday, April 25th at midnight. Details can be found on the WEO website as linked in the district email Facebook page and other social medias. Please note that we off is not holding its annual trivia night this year. Please stay tuned for new events which would be planned for fall 2025. Thank you, Marie. Thank you so much for that report. You said no trivia night this year. What was the reason they're cancelling? It was a tough decision um whether we were going to continue trivia night this year or not. Um we just had some challenges and putting the event on as well as um you know that cost benefit for how much we raise. So, we're looking at new and different opportunities. Um, so please stay tuned for the fall. Um, because we're
006hoping to try something new, more to come. Awesome. Thank you. Sure. Any other comments or questions? No. Well, thank you again for all you do. Oh, Joe, go ahead. I see you. I was just gonna probably gonna say what you were going to say. I just wanted to uh take a moment to thank Allison, you and we and our student board reps for everything that we does for support uh supporting the school district. Um especially some of the recent uh um gifts that you've given to the district have been fantastic, especially with the athletic turf fields and the bleachers and stands. Uh that's been great. I will miss the trivia night, but I'm looking forward to uh whatever new opportunities might be happening in the fall. Again, thank you for all your efforts in making
007West Hickey a better place for Great. Thank you so much. which is our pleasure. Joe Joe stole the words right out of my mouth. Thank you, Joe. No other comments. All right. Well, we do always like to get pictures with guests. That' be great. All right. So, um we'll move on now to our first public comment period and uh the board appreciates hearing from the community. A maximum of five speakers will be heard on the same topic. Please limit comments to three minutes in the interest of fairness and in order to treat all speakers equally. It's not our practice to engage in dialogue with speakers, but when appropriate, we will follow responses on board docs. Um, is anyone registered online? There are no hands raised online. Okay. We have no one in person either. So,
008we'll move on now to the board president report. And, uh, I have one item this evening, and that is approval of the 2025 2026 board meeting schedule. Um, so do I have a motion? Second. A motion's been made and seconded. Are there any comments or questions concerning this schedule? All right. Seeing none, then all those in favor? I I. Anyone opposed? Right. Motion passes. Thank you. Superintendent report. Thank you. Just one quick item tonight. We need to for the record show that we have reviewed the district's health and safety plan which as you may recall was spawned from the the days of the pandemic and the need for districts to comply with a federal grant the esser grant and u in our case we have expended the esser grant funds long ago so this isn't
009really for us except for that until such time as the esser grant is put to bed officially um all districts are are being advised to just review this. Is it fine if those districts that have escro funds to still expend? Um, a they need to pay a little more attention to this, but also b they need to expend those quick before something happens. So, in any case, we don't have that problem and um so this is just for the record. Great. Thank you, Jim. Any comments or questions? All right. Thank you again. We'll move on to our assistant superintendent report, Dr. Thank you. Good evening. I don't have anyformational items or action items for this public meeting. Great. Thank you. Uh board solicitor report check. Uh noformational items or action items for tonight. Great. Thank
010you. Uh board secretary report. We have the items 11.1 to 11.6 for approval tonight as posted last week. Thank you. Do I have a motion? Second. A motion to be made and seconded. Are there any comments or questions? Seeing none, all those in favor? I I. Anyone opposed? Motion passes for treasure report. Tim, we also have the February 28th, 2025 treasures report as presented last. Second. A motion's been made. Seconded. Are there any comments or questions? Right. Seeing none, all those in favor? I I. Anyone opposed? Motion passes. Thank you. HR report. Danielle. Good evening, everyone. Uh changes from last week's agenda are marked with an asterct and can be found in bold in the details. These include a retirement appointments, a change of status, and co-curricular postseason pay in items 13.1. All other items
011were reviewed at last week's work session and have no other changes. This evening, I'm seeking approval for action items 13.1 through 13.3. Thank you. We have a second. A motion made and seconded. Um, are there any comments or questions? One quick question, Danielle. I just noticed um a new line item for the interim assistant principal support. Um, did we talk about that last week and I forgot? So, maybe it's new. So, so this is actually someone filling in for our fill-in. Um, this person is um is from STS. Our the person that was filling in for um one of our assistant principles at the middle school was um unable to continue. So, uh this gentleman's just filling in on those days that she wasn't able to. Thank you. Yeah. Okay. Got it. Any other comments
012or questions? All right, seeing none. All those in favor? I. Anyone opposed? All right, the motion passes. Thank you. Committee is the There are no new no new updates since last week. All right. Thank you. Uh curriculum and technology committee Dian. Hello. We are seeking approval tonight for action item 15.1 and 15.2 two as reviewed last week. No changes. So moved. Second. A motion's been made and seconded. Are there any comments or questions? Right. Seeing none. All those in favor? I. Anyone opposed? Motion passes. Thank you. Right. Facilities and transportation. Joe. Uh good evening. So we have um three action items up for vote this evening. They are unchanged from last week. All three are change orders. Two of them for Blue Bell and one of them related to the Whisten Stadium leech replacement project.
013So for this evening, I'm seeking a motion for approval of agenda item 16.1 to 16.3. A motion's been made and seconded. Are there any comments or questions? So, I know we addressed this last week, but and I know Tim, it's not always easy to kind of foresee change orders coming in advance, but anything we can do to kind of help prepare us for any changes would be helpful. Luckily, like these aren't huge, but I always get nervous with, you know, the change of the landscape currently, how, you know, we might see these a little bit more frequently. So, whatever we did kind of just keep we do uh Brian's very on top of this stuff as is CHA. The one change order was when you opened up the walls and you can't unfortunately see behind
014them until then. The other one for blue bell was at our request. And then the final one for CHA was due to the fact that we did take the additional work and that required additional engineering information to the township. Any other comments or questions? All right. Seeing none, all those in favor? I I. Anyone opposed? Motion passes. Finance committee report. So there are two newformational items uh in addition to what was on the agenda last week. And the first is the finance committee meeting that occurred last Tuesday evening. As we've talked about before, the uh budget this year is more challenging than in past years. Um and so the committee had a chance to talk about uh both needed additions to the budget as well as um some removed items from the budget or removed
015items from current activities that are going to help make sure that budget is balanced. Um, again, those were uh constructive conversations and what we want to let the public know now is that there is a proposed draft budget that will be submitted to the state and that we will vote preliminary version of budget next meeting on April 28th. Great. Thank you. Are there any questions regarding that uh agenda item information? No. Okay. Your order the right the the other items were already uh discussed last week and that's items uh 17.3 uh through 14 and I am seeking a motion items changes from last week. So moved. Okay. A motion's been made and seconded. Are there any comments or questions? Right. Seeing none, all those in favor? I I. Anyone opposed? Great. Motion passes. Thank you.
016We'll move on now to our policy committee report. Marshall, thank you and good evening everyone. Um, we have one change this evening. 18.1 uh which has to do with policy number 234 has been removed from tonight's agenda. It is uh based on an outdated policy uh regarding Title 9 regulations from 2024 which have since been updated. So there will be no vote on that this evening. Um other than that, everything else stays the same. Uh and so I'm seeking approval of 18.2 through 18.11, uh which is approval of the first reading of multiple um uh policies that we have gone over uh previously. So moved. Second. The motion's been made and seconded. Are there any comments? I have a quick comment. Um, regarding policy 9003, um, I did reread that one and really think about
017it and um, I struggled with it a little bit. Um, this is the one regarding who is allowed to speak at our public board meetings because I'm not really looking to restrict comment in public board meetings. yet. Um I also don't know if it's appropriate that people that don't live in our community be allowed to speak at our public board meeting. And then we also did add the previous grad go to WISHen. Um like speaking from my own experience, I graduated from Son High School and I'm still very connected with the community. I coached there. My niece and nephews attend Sverton and you know when they had an issue um that I felt I wanted to speak again about, you know, I'm not allowed to speak at their board meeting, but I still did email
018their superintendent and assistant superintendent. Um, so I feel like there is still an avenue to contact the school district in that regard. So, you know, I think speaking at public board meetings, the more I thought about it, it made a lot of sense to me that this is um sort of reserving the time for people who do have a vested interest in the Witzken School District. And so, I actually think that that's in the favor of our community. So, that's why I will vote yes. But I did struggle for a bit. Thought about it a lot. Thank you, Deian. Any other comments or questions before you vote? All right. Uh then um all those in favor I I Anyone opposed? Motion passes. Thank you. Thank you. Racial equity oversight committee. Uh Paul or Joe, we
019have no items for this evening. Okay. Thank you. Uh health, wellness, and safety. Yes, there are no items for this evening. All right. Then we'll move on to our reported board representatives. Marshall, anything new from extracurricular? Nothing new since last week. Okay. And I have nothing new from MCIU. What about North MCO? We did get that email today. Just quickly, um um we got an email indicating that uh a number of our north, they're not with students, but North Monco students nonetheless, um have competed in a number of competitions. One was for the health occupation school association and there was two second place winners. One for medical spelling and the other one for healthc care issues exams. And yeah, I didn't know that was a thing either. And then um for the 2025 skills USA
020speak competition, we had several winners um at North Monco. Um, first place for baking and pastry arts, first place for HVAC, second place for art advertising design, several second place winners in cosmetology, several third place winners for protective services, and a third place winner for culinary arts. So um and this is uh across all the entire uh state from different vocational technical high schools that compete on specific skills. So kind of cool. Who knew? All right. Thank you. Any comments or questions? All right. Thanks for that report. Uh PSBA. I have uh nothing new this week and nothing for the ERC as well. All right. Thank you. All right. Well, then that brings us to our second public comment period and uh the board appreciates hearing from the community. A maximum of five speakers will
021be heard on the same time. I have nothing new this week and nothing for the ERC as well. All right. So, please limit comments to three minutes. In the interest of fairness and in order to treat all speakers equally, it is the board's practice to engage in dialogue with speakers. When appropriate, we will follow responses on board docs. No one's in person. Anyone online? Okay, we have one hand raised online. We have Carina Taylor. Okay, Carina, you can go ahead and unmute yourself. Can you hear me? Yes. All right. So, I was in a meeting I happen to be in Delaware, so I didn't hear whether or not Joe's answer was or Joe's question last week was answered in terms of the motivation for these changes. So, I'd like some type of answer of that
022or I'll have to watch the video. But I did hear Dion's Deian's comment about what you're striking out of policy 903. And I personally think and I hope you'll reconsider that with the Department of Education eliminating the civil rights division, parents and students don't have an avenue or will not have an avenue to have someone in an advocacy group support them. So it's, you know, advocacy looks different or the need for advocacy, the needs of parents and students are different. So to eliminate someone that legitimately represents a group that is helping a family or a student should be considered because there's limited resources. And I'll use the example of the NAACP. If you have an NAACP local branch and they're helping out a family or a group of people in a school district, they should
023be able to speak because the family probably doesn't want to speak out on an issue. So that's why that is relevant. And what was wrong is for Solderton to use that out to eliminate me. I have a countywide group and I was speaking on behalf of parents that sought my help. So if the parent or the taxpayer or the student wants someone to advocate for them, then that should happen. And I think you have to consider that this is 2020 25. It's not about gotcha. They're still representing someone that is in your school district. So as we evolve into the second reading, I'm going to be in person and speak on that as well because I don't think you're considering that. I need people to get out of their bubble and think about someone that
024is afraid to speak. And in Solderton in particular, because there's not that many black families, a black student or a black parent is afraid to speak out because the district or the district officials or anybody that's not on the board knows who they are and they feel like they can be uh targeted if they speak out. So, I really don't think you're really thinking through what you're striking out. Thank you. Thank you, Karina. Anyone else online? There are no hands raised online. All right, then we'll move on to board comments. Do any of my fellow board members have any comments this evening? No. I just would want to um take this time just to remind the community that again we do have committee meetings and a lot of the issues that get discussed and voted
025on here in the boardroom do get discussed far more in depth at those committee meetings. So again anyone in the public is welcome to attend our committee meetings and again we do offer public comment at those meetings as well. All right. Um if no one else I did just reminder Jim if you can if you can remind our comm's folks for that first draft sometime soon this week since we're trying to release it next week. Yes. I'm I'm sorry. Remind who? Kristen I didn't want to call out anything. Have you spoken to or Okay. Any other comments? Amy, just to build on what you were saying real quick. This meeting went really fast tonight. 25 minutes. It's probably a record, but um what people need to understand if they're watching this meeting that went so
026quickly is that last week we had a lot of discussion about what was going on. So, there are two board meetings um for every like voting topic. So last week it was much longer. We discussed we had more questions. So this week might have seemed like oh you're flying through it and there's no questions because all of the questions were answered previously. So I just wanted to make that clear as well for anyone watching now that maybe didn't watch last week. Yeah, thank you Deian. And yeah, we do have that two meeting structure where we have our work session and that's more of an opportunity to discuss items that are going to be voted on at the next regular public board meeting. So that regular public board meeting typically does move a little bit quicker
027unless you know additional questions have come up in the um but all right any other comments or questions? All right then seeing none do we have a motion to adjurnn. All right. All in favor? I I agree.