June 5, 2023 - Regular Public Board Meeting

001we're live and now recording great thanks Katie can you roll call please yes Mr Antonio here Mr badger Mr bluefeld here miss kibachi Mr Frank here Mrs Heyman here miss Kerry and I guess here Dr Morris here Mrs Ginsburg here Gavin Lewis Richmond Here Blake Zimmerman here eight present one absent and two student board reps this evening thanks Katie well everyone now please join me in reciting our Pledge of Allegiance well good evening everyone and Welcome to our June 5th meeting of the Worcester hicken School Board if you take a look at our agenda we first list out our prior meetings on April 24th we had a work session public board meeting May 1st was a neck our regular public board meeting May 8th was the finance committee budget workshop May 15th was the board

002racial Equity oversight committee May 22nd Communications committee and health bonus and safety and May 30th was our last work session public board meeting we then listed our upcoming meetings on June 12th will be our board retreat at six o'clock here in the boardroom July 17th will be a special public board meeting August 21st will be then our following next regular public board meeting now we'll move on to our presentations for the evening belonging survey results or Dr Juwan yes thank you this evening we're so grateful to have MS kaziela tour with us she's our director of equity and cultural responsiveness to share with us the presentation to review the results of the belonging survey following that presentation she'll also share a social and emotional learning quarterly update with us so thank you visitor for being

003here this evening foreign so good evening everyone it's great to be here I'm looking forward to presenting on the belonging climate survey results for 2023 our agenda is as follows we'll have an overview and purpose statement and then we'll look at the staff average pssm scores along with the qualitative feedback we'll do the same for our student feedback prior to administering the belonging climate survey we ensured that both staff and students were cognizant of what we meant by belonging so we provided them with a working definition to help them understand what it was that we were looking for so when we're talking about belonging we're looking at that belonging through a culture of dignity we look at this definition here by John Crown apple and Floyd Cobb and basically it's that extent to which people

004feel appreciated validated accepted and treated fairly within an environment be it the classroom the school building they're seen and heard the purpose of the belonging survey was to ask a question and to really dig into that question very carefully and it basically was to help us assess the degree to which staff and students in our district perceived a sense of belonging specifically the survey helped to answer the question to what extent do students staff feel a sense of belonging in our school community so the question that we need to think about is why belongingness why do we select that as a priority era focus and so there is an abundance of research that shows that students who have a sense of belonging actually farewell academically they are better in terms of being happy and confident

005and so where that correlation exists between student motivation and academic success is why we're focusing on that belonging peace our Equity dashboard is currently live and on that dashboard you'll see that there are several indicators that we're looking at for focusing on Equity indicators and achievement indicators because we know the research the evidence-based research that exists regarding belonging that is one of those Equity indicators that we wanted to focus on if we can continue to build the capacity of our students sense of belonging as well as our staff sense of belonging we know that it'll have a correlation and a direct impact on that achievement indicator so we looked at our belonging School climate survey using a psychological sense of school membership which consisted of 18 questions it was on a five-point scale our staff

006were administered this particular survey the week of February 13th and then our students took the survey during the week of February 21st for our staff in terms of the respondents or participation we had 69 response rate which consisted of 493 respondents and then for our students specifically in grade Sports through 12 we had an 81 response rate which is very high there are other neighboring districts that are trying to get at that 70 percent response rate so our 81 percent response rate is something that we should really be how I'm very proud of and we had 2716 student respondents participate in this particular survey these are sample stems that you would see on the belonging School climate survey I feel like a part of my school most teachers at this school are interested in me

007and so forth when we're looking at the staff survey it would say something such as most supervisors at the school are interested in me so these stem questions that you're seeing or stems all together were the types of things that were asked of students and staff alike so going to our staff I want to look at that with you first we had administrators certificate of staff and support staff participate in the belonging climate survey as I mentioned 69 response rate with 493 respondents during their survey you can see here the subcategories that we looked at with 3.958 and our Asian subgroup we had eight staff members here and then in terms of looking across 4.158 we can see our Hispanic staff there were seven individuals here now if we're looking at the pssm score we're

008trying to get to of course that 4 4.5 and 5 right it's a likert skill there free would be average kind of that Medium area that we're looking at so we want our students and staff to be above that piece when we're looking at um terms of racial breakdown right that's the way this is divided in terms of Staff race and ethnicity you can see that if we're looking at our black or African-American staff population we have 31 that took this particular survey and they were at a 3.752 so ideally you want to see them continue to move up in that regard if we look at our White staff population we can see that we have 403 who participated took the survey and we ended up at a 4.027 so we want to make sure

009that as we continue that we get our numbers that we're seeing here in terms of those average pssm scores a little higher above the four in terms of looking at other and prefer not to answer these two categories are our lowest and so it puts us into the mind of thinking okay why why are staff members selecting other we had 17 who so who selected to do so out of 3.251 and then we had some that elected to select prefer not to answer so it gives us stuff to look at very closely in terms of next steps you know we can question why are some individuals of our staff choosing other and prefer not to answer how can we build their capacity to have that Comfort to respond more specifically so those are things that

010we're talking about as we move forward with looking at the belonging climate results from the district analysis we were able to look at some glows like our highlights there are many things that we should be really proud of so in terms of our staff respondents looking at over 90 percent here 90 over 90 percent felt that there is at least one person they're building that they could talk to if they had a problem and that Outreach or connection with someone else is very important nearly 90 percent of Staff respondents again thought that there was someone there that was friendly to them okay again feeling that sense of belonging that I'm a part of something greater that either someone else I can count on again looking at 80 of our staff they felt strongly that the

011supervisors are at their building respect them and then 81 percent of the staff respondents felt strongly that people out there building know that they do good work so that validation that what I'm bringing to the table is being noted and respected and appreciated is something that we're singing coming out of the glows for our staff looking at our district analysis for areas to continue to grow we're always seeking ways to make improvements so if we're looking at the feedback and the data that we received here about 45 percent of the staff respondents stated that they felt strongly that most colleagues in their building are not interested right again we're looking at that pssm the perception of that sense of belonging 35 percent remark that sometimes I don't feel as if I belong in my build

01245 I'm not including lots of activities I'm 45 about dated that people in my building did not notice when I am good at something so these areas of growth provide us again with things that we can look at in terms of conversation what can we do to create that belonging and inclusivity that's needed for all staff are there any blind spots so it allows us to have deeper conversation to reflect on where we are what we have implemented and what we need to do going forward so Catalyst key findings we've worked with University of Pennsylvania and their research group is catalyst and through that group we were able to gather the data we have an internal belonging climate data team that worked really through that data sifting through it so that we could have the

013presentation in order for us to read it and have meaningful action steps to come forth with it from the findings itself as a district district-wide these were some notations from the Catalyst findings back who identify as female or male score higher than staff who prefer not to answer or who's select other so in the previous slide if you recall it was based off of race and ethnicity so this is additional information here for us to kind of pull out and to work with staff who identify as not a member of the lgbtq plus Community score higher then staff who prefer not to answer or whose left I don't know and then staff who identify as white non-hispanic score higher than staff identify as other or prefer not to answer so using that as a point

014of reference again it provides us with a lens and action steps to go forward it allows us to be curious to learn more and for us to look at our next steps and to engage in conversations with staff so the qualitative staff feedback there was a question posed what could the school do to help you feel more connected and so staff responded there were several things that they highlighted um which were very interesting they talked about activities belonging creating Community being connected relationships and staff boys in the later slides you'll see that our students also articulated the same thing it was very fascinating to see that correlation when we're speaking of activities for staff they really want time for Community Building team building getting to know you types of activities so they want more investment

015in that type of time just to connect with one another belonging spaces for all staff so when we're looking at staff who travel from building to building or if we have a coach who's coming into that building again just looking for a place to call home creating Community social personal and professional time again they're seeking that time to collaborate that time to engage in meaningful conversation and that time to exchange work like to kind of share this is what's happening with me in the classroom what's happening with you in that classroom so they're searching and seeking for that time connected checking in and including all staff how are you doing have you stopped by my room just to check in on me those were things that came out of the conversation in terms of that

016open-ended piece relationships valuing and supporting all staff again there was that desire to ensure that they are being valued for the work that they're putting in they're working diligently they want to be valued and noticed they want to receive support for all staff so these are different voices that are coming up you can see again from the grows we have a lot of highlights but again in that open-ended response these are some themes that were lifted up and it provided us with a deeper understanding of what we were seeing in terms of those numbers that boys again leveraging the voice and focusing on Mental Health and Wellness that was something that was important to them and that they sought to have centered and prioritized so I'm going to shift to students for students as I

017said we had an 81 response rate with 2716 respondents we have a population about 3 358 so our response rate is high and obviously we're going to continue to aim to increase that response rate with our students we can see here again the average pssm scores by race and ethnicity and so if we look at this and we start with the highest that we're seeing in terms of a total number of students 1408 and our white student population we can see that that ranges up to a 3.85 which is good that's where we want to be and we want to continue to go higher it's very clean so one being the low lowest not feeling a sense of belonging with Phi being that highest so it's actually going in the direction that we want to

018see our students go into in terms of looking at that total number of students again in population by race we have black or African-American students identify 232 to be specific with 3.542 here so again three 3.5 is kind of moderate that mid-range um but it's not anything that we want to just rest with and say that looks good we want to make sure that it's going Beyond in terms of some of the averages that we see if we look in connection with some of the other scores we see a 3.779 3.749 and so forth so we would like that population subgroup to go up higher right so we're going to make sure we target those needs when we're looking at some interesting data here in terms of that prefer not to answer we saw that

019earlier with the staff data we had some individuals who selected for not to answer they also ventured to select other we see that happening again here with the students as a trend um if we look at our numbers that 3.467 is our lowest of 34 students prefer not to answer so again it allows us to question be curious why are they selecting prefer not to answer what can we do to create that safety um and that sense of belonging what are things that we need to look to in that open qualitative response that open-ended response that can give us more insight similarly to our staff we have blows so this is stuff that we need to celebrate and it is important that we celebrate because there are so many things that are happening in a

020district that are going well to have the numbers to have the response rate that we have with the participation of students at 81 that's good stuff happening so we want to take a moment and pause to celebrate those Globes so here we have 70 of the student respondents feeling strongly there's at least one teacher or other adult in the school I can talk to and at this time that's that's awesome that we have those students feeling that there's someone that they can go to nearly 70 of students who respondents feel strongly that people at the school are friendly to me nearly 80 percent of students respondents feel strongly that the teachers here respect me and again when we're talking about that perception of a sense of belonging am I seen and I heard you know

021am I respected valued um if we have that 80 of student respondents feeling that strongly that teachers can respect me that's something that we can celebrate as a glow nearly 80 percent of student respondents feel strongly that teachers here are interested in people like me and nearly 73 percent responded that people here know I can do good work again valuing who I am valuing what I bring to the table seeing me and that's important continuing along the lines of improvements areas that we are being very explicit about things that we're lifting up to look at very carefully so we can take direct action steps so here we saw that 35 percent of our students respondents felt that it's hard for people like me to be accepted here 40 remarks sometimes I don't feel as if

022I belong here we saw that similarly to our staff forty percent of students stated that I wish I were in a different School a little less than 50 of student respondents said other students in the school take my opinion seriously so there's work for us to do here in terms of growing these areas so that all our students feel that sense of belonging um that acceptance that they want to be in our school and that their opinions their values their input are taken very seriously so this is giving us information and insight that we can use going forward so similarly we have our Catalyst key findings this is District wide so again if you look at this I won't read all of this to you this and the very top three bullets they capture what

023we saw in the earlier slides regarding race and ethnicity the difference here that you didn't see on that slide was gender identification so here gender identification does not have an impact on students pssm scores and that's something for us to look at very closely and carefully the next is students to identify is not a member of the lgbtq plus community or higher than students who identified as a member of the LGBT plus Community or who's selected but for not to answer or don't know right so that gives us again more insight to what we need to do next and then lastly students who identify as not receiving special education or higher the students who don't know or who prefer not to answer so again allowing us to ask questions to lean in to be curious

024to see how we can leverage this information to inform next steps and practices our qualitative student feedback responding to the same questions you saw these topics here these themes highlighted with our staff they're highlighted here again with our students social events they want to socialize similarly to what we saw with our staff they want a bond right those bonding activities school-wide activities after school activities again the yearning for engagement and collaboration and connection is something we saw across staff and students belonging the Affinity groups that we have in place they want to make sure that we keep them in place right they want to be seen and accepted and they want to ensure that we're developing that level of empathy for all students that come into our district creating Community they're yearning for the connection

025with peers um they want us to continue with our expectations and accountability and acceptance in fact they want acceptance to be the thing that we continue to drive clearly to all students in our community um looking at assisting students and making healthy connections they felt that there were times where they're trying to connect with others or resolve some of the conflicts that are arising but they couldn't do so on their own so they're looking for guidance from adults to help them navigate those conversations and navigate those conflicts relationships accessing teachers for guidance they do see value of our teachers and our staff they want to continue to access them for guidance and to help them with managing those peer relationships and then student voice similarly to staff they want us to leverage their voice and

026prioritize Mental Health and Wellness so from both the quantitative and open-ended that qualitative piece that we received from staff and students we had our belonging climate survey team work collaboratively to think about well what does this mean for us what do we do next um and so we leaned in and we started looking at what we have currently in place that could be responsive to those concerns and what else we needed to put into place to ensure that this was going to be something that was effective and sustainable and so as you see here we have our professional learning we'll continue with several things that we have in place including our mental health and wellness that was a priority for both staff and students um in terms of begin we're going to just begin with

027our district ypbis implementation positive behavior intervention supports will be in place that framework will help us to really look at accessing and supporting student behavior and academics their social and emotional well-being and then of course with belonging we're going to continue in all aspects to promote expect and protect acceptance and inclusion we also will continue to support the gay straight Alliance the GSA at the middle and high school culturally responsive we're going to continue to include our books and our teachers and assignments that represent diverse cultures and peoples and ideologies and so forth ensure visibility of things so that students know where they are it's a safe place and they can see themselves in mirrors and windows and then in creating that Community normalizing acceptance District y there's so many things that you can see

028here that we'll be focusing on in terms of next steps this is not a comprehensive list because we're going to continue to have conversations with our staff and students there may be next steps and insights that they will provide us that will be able to take with us and to use to inform our practices so in terms of next steps something else that we looked at this month are the month of May can't believe it's already June um was facilitating many focus groups and these focus groups were focused on our students and our staff and it was an opportunity to really delve deeper into the belonging climate survey like we had this survey we have the open-ended response but then what right so we engage in conversations with staff and students to learn more and

029to lean in and what was interesting about those focus groups was that they really in really reintegrated the points that are raised in the survey and also in the open-ended there was still that repeat that repetition and repeating of mental health and support and connection so a lot of things that we saw in terms of those those themes we were actually on point with lifting those those themes up because those are the things that were most pressing to them um going forward we're currently looking at our belonging climate survey results presentation so we're sharing them with staff so that they're aware of the results as well and then we're going to for next year administer our 2024 belonging climate survey so after we Implement what we're implementing and continue doing what we're doing we're also

030going to check in to see how well we're doing this along those lines we're not just waiting for that survey but we'll be engaging in conversations with staff and students through that Journey and then ultimately we'll convene with our belonging climate data team once again and maintain our partnership with the Catalyst group at University of Pennsylvania at this point I like to give a special acknowledgment to the belonging climate data team members which can was comprised of students staff and administrators their time commitment and insights help to prepare this presentation I was really interesting to hear from the students what they were seeing with the data and also our staff thank you so much any questions thank you so much for that presentation so I I do have a couple questions I do want to

031thank you for putting this all together this is I don't took a lot of time and there's a lot of information in there so thank you um and I am concerned about some of the student results which I'll make it into in a minute but I first want to ask a couple questions about our teachers and staff um so it seemed like they don't feel like they some don't feel like they belong um and I'm just wondering like one of the things was adding extra activities like Beyond like HSA activities or activities maybe we off puts on or in service days like what do we do to like really like generate like activities for them to get together and be outside of the classroom like at our um but if the employment Relations Committee we

032talked about a picnic we used to have years ago and I heard the picnics no longer happening like what could we do to really just start doing more activities for the teachers to get them to socialize for so it's an excellent question thank you for it um so when we focused on this survey it consisted of our looking at our administrators and our teachers and our support staff so when we're looking at some of the feedback too with our support staff it's also inclusion like sometimes our our professional staff may be aware of certain things because they have certain meetings and the support staff may not be there right so that question or yearning to be a part of that is like how can I know what's happening there too right so those are the

033conversations that we're having currently with our building principles and with staff and how do we do that how do we ensure that our support staff is also included in some of those wonderful things that you mentioned that are professional staff members are a part of um and so I think too the best thing to continue to to do as I've done is the focus groups like leaning in and asking them what works best it's very funny and interesting that you said the picnic because the picnic came up again is something that they really loved and cherished in the focus groups um and so that was something that something like that would be great but they just want time to connect even in looking at the way things are structured like such as a building layout

034which you know a principal or a staff member doesn't have anything to do with it's just the way it's laid out is being more conscious of that that person is all the way down that Hall let's go down there and check in on that person too so things of that nature so that they can feel included there are a lot of creative activities that staff and students generated in terms of our conversation so I think if we begin to pull those in we'll begin to address more of what they need and I think the best um solution here or the best way for us to find out what they need is to continue to ask them like how can we do better what do you need what do you want us to see but right

035now I think that as a district and just journeying through the different buildings and hearing staff has to say there are many good things in place but there are some things that we like oversight like oh they weren't a part of that meeting how do we make sure they get that information and last week um when we had our teachers here for recognition of the retirees um this has been Etsy when she was introducing Miss karshner indicated that she's the sunshine person at Stoney Creek and I thought this was so awesome that we have somebody there that recognizes individuals within the building and I was just wondering do we have that at all of our schools like somebody that does that we do have a sunshine committee at all of our buildings for elementary and

036secondary and as far as mental health and wellness like I know we're doing a lot for our students what do we have in place for our staff that's a great question so you know as we look at what is in place currently um we have mentors for certain individuals but and we do have um from our HR Director or HR office some Mental Health Resources that our staff can access if they need that in terms of other resources those are things that we can explore but we do have through our HR um department and office information on mental health and wellness and things that they can access if they need it in terms of mentoring and individuals as Point courses on in our buildings we have that but we can do better we can make

037more Improvement and so forth um I think in terms of the mental health it's just when we're diving into social and emotional learning which will be our next presentation that also lifts up our our staff too right so something that in my conversation with staff that came across was that oftentimes we're always doing right there's something else that we have to focus on but we don't pause to celebrate our wins they want more of that and that makes it different in their overall element half so I want us to take time and that's why when I was doing this presentation I intentionally said let's pause and celebrate that because I wanted to honor what they said and so there are many good things that are happening wonderful things on campus that we do all the

038time but we need to pause and celebrate that and that's going to make a difference in morale definitely I like that idea um okay moving on to students so 30 don't think they have a teacher that they can talk to that's like 900 students do we know like what ages like was it younger kids that primarily do not feel comfortable was it middle school high school I would have to go back to look at that to see where are we seeing that call a little bit more is it more elementary middle or high school I know at the elementary level their focus was on accessing um the recess eight like just having conversations with them right so that was the thing and negotiating friendships and conflict that came out very pronounced for elementary for middle

039and high school um there was the need to continue to focus on Mental Health and Wellness right and so there was that and so I think it's probably I don't know the exact numbers but I know that it's all within the range of middle school and high school and it was that there were so many different factors coming up that they wanted to reach out to different individuals and so oftentimes Even in our focus groups with students the conversation comes up with my counselor has a large case I just learned that we also have this therapist and this person and so forth so they're searching and seeking more of that internally because externally as students have remarked it's very difficult for them to find it because they're such a long waiting list right when they're

040trying to find help outside or their parents or Guardians are looking for resources for them outside externally there's such a long waiting list so I think that in terms of where we are secondary middle school high school primarily I would say probably more with the high school I'll get those numbers for you and send it so you'll have that information yeah I would appreciate it because I feel like at the elementary level like the kids have a teacher in their classroom and I would hope that they would feel comfortable to approach that teacher if they had an issue but I'm just wondering if like the older ones like why they're not connecting with a particular teacher like I always I still remember like my favorite teachers and teachers I would have gone to if I

041would have had an issue and like every student should have that so I'm just wondering why we have such a large number that aren't connecting with I think there are multiple factors for that and you know I don't want to make assumptions as to why a student doesn't feel that he or she or they are connecting with others but I do think that what it allows us to do is to say like what are our blind spots are we accounting for every single student who's connecting with this one that one and so far so it's going to have us do due diligence and looking at where students are um and also create that room and space for safety that's safety and belonging right so if we're seeing that some students are not feeling that connection

042what can we do to build those relationships so when we dive into social emotional learning and we're saying we're going to take time to build meaningful relationships and Community that's really important in addressing that concern of like I don't feel there's an adult I can go to I don't have that relationship or connection so we're really looking at developing those connections so that we have less students saying I don't feel there's an adult here for me and another number that stuck at me was the 35 that don't feel like I think I've ever done accepted sorry my handwriting is bad but that large number is like a thousand students that like that's like I think the heart of belonging is feeling accepted and they don't feel accepted here at with the hicken so I found

043that kind of concerning and in the focus group what are you finding like why don't people feel like they are accepted here I think for most students it's identity you know um and it's not all it's for for some students it's just that looking at my identity like sometimes I don't think or feel that someone gets me right and it could be any given day or any given week that something has happened in that moment I don't feel that someone saw me or sees me and so forth I think in looking at the majority of our students we have those clubs those Affinity groups that we mentioned along with extracurricular activities along with connections and other things that we're focusing on to really build their capacity and so with those students we do see their

044their thriving for those students who are not it really is a call to action for us to continue to do what we're doing that's working which is why those conversations happen in the focus group because students highlight it what does work what are we doing that works well they love when we do community building they love when we have time that's set aside they love when we connect with them um they love when the the classroom and what we're teaching them resonates with their lives right it makes sense and so those things actually helped him to fill that connection so more of that good stuff is what we're going to focus on um the other piece to it too that I don't want to brush off or put to the side is that you know

045we have a generation a group that's coming back from the you know covet pandemic right and that some people think well it's gone and it's in the past but you still have individuals who are dealing with that who are still trying to transition and focus on different things and those connections from staff to students connections who are big um and so I think those are things that we need to continue to consider and as we continue with the work we're doing with social emotional learning and DJs and holding ourselves accountable with the belonging climate survey I think that we're headed in that right direction um and so the students do know like I know we've for our social and emotional learning steering committee we pushed out some information regarding mental health and resources for our

046students as well so we're going to continue to make sure they know what is available what is accessible for them too and we're also going to extend that to our family so they know what's available and what they can do to support their children great and I just have one more question and I'll pass it on to other board members um the other thing I found you know kind of startling is that you know 40 wish they were at a different school or wish they they were you're like in the focus groups did you get into that with any of the students I can find out a little bit more about why they did not want to be part of wissahicken so in the focus groups that didn't come up like most of the students

047were there was something that connected them to the school right there was something that they said oh I love this thing that we did here whether it was a college tour whether it was art class for the elementary students uh they loved art class they were recess they loved recess there were different things that they loved right art class was huge because they were able to be creative um and so they were very articulate about things that really connected them and where they felt safe um the Affinity groups and things of that nature so I think that as we continue to pronounce and to share what it is that we have available for our students and again we look at students who are at different levels in terms of their mental health and well-being that

048were able to ensure that we're connecting with them in such a level that they do feel that connection um but most of the students during the focus groups and I had the pleasure actually I saw you one day when I was at the elementary school with the student they just stated the things that they love that they did in terms of like connecting together games and things of that nature um the most important thing to them and also the high school is just their voice that student voice is making sure I'm part of the process so that you hear my voice and I think that as we continue to pause and connect with students and build those relationships that we're addressing that need like the need to be heard the need to be seen and

049I think that makes a big difference in the life of a child life of an adult absolutely and thank you so much you're welcome I'll pass it now to my fellow board members Duffy go ahead thanks great presentation thank you so much thank you uh one question and a couple of comments um you mentioned that you were sharing this these results with staff will we be sharing these results with students um yeah so the staff will be now in terms of the end of the school year and then over the summer in July we're planning with our leadership team and then we'll have another presentation with our staff where they dig deeply into the data a little bit more and then we'll turn it around to our students yeah I think it's super important that

050you know you play this back to the students too because you know it's clear they want to be heard playing this Doc is one very easy way to say we heard you and now we're going to start working on things so I think it would be very very critical that we do that sooner than later in my personal opinion um I I think we're doing a lot of great things and we're moving uh in a really great Direction One Thing I want us to be super conscious of is less of a reactive stance and more of a proactive stance not everyone's going to raise their hand not everyone's going to say I'm scared not everyone's gonna say I'm I'm not sure we need to create Bridges to help people who can't maybe get it there

051all the way to have those discussions both for staff and for most critically are students so I think that would be something we it's a hard one I get it but it's it's probably a pretty important one and then um my last Point left me I should have wrote it down all right I'll come back to it maybe but thank you so much I'm very excited to see where we get and I'm happy with the evolution of what we are doing so far but definitely we have some work to do thank you for that and I wanted to share with you um during the focus groups we were able to invite staff and students to participate in an interview which was recorded and so we have students being recorded it's of staff and students voices

052a conversation of belonging and so you can actually see students talking about their sense of belongings or secondary students at the high school and then you also see staff talking about their sense of belonging so that's going to be something that we use during our July summer opportunity it's a learning opportunity so we'll start then but we're also going to use it with our staff meetings and so students will see that staff will see that too and that will further the conversation like you said so awesome and I remembered my third Point um so focus groups are wonderful but for you to be part of a focus group you actually have to raise your hand participate want to do it so you may not get kind of the lens of the folks who may not

053feel comfortable about talking about those things um that are challenging to them so rotating or finding other ways to kind of bring fresh sample for a lack of a better word it's a market research term but uh to get fresh voices into the mix would be another good idea to consider which I'm sure you are but keep rushing a refreshing that that group of voices that you're hearing from I agree and and sometimes meeting them on their own ground like going to their club meetings or their groups or to their spaces absolutely thank you for that other questions Ian yeah I just had a quick one um Amy brought this up to 40 I wish her in a different school that also really struck me and I guess my question was do we know like

054what race or other identifying factors that these students identified with so that we can better know how to serve them or make them feel like they do truly belong in our schools so with the exception of the psfm data race and ethnicity piece that was broken down um in terms of that piece I don't have that information currently but I can look into that to get that information for you as well it's something that we want to dig deeply into in terms of what we're doing with our our leadership team and also with our staff when we come back so thank you for that that's great also one more thing the other thing that struck me was people wanting or kids saying they wanted help with managing relationships and I think that's just so important

055to figure out how to manage relationships and not everyone has um an adult in their home life that can help them with that so it's like really important I feel like we can help students at school do we have extra counselors or resources available to those those children who might need that help those students so we have a staff our staff is actually being trained um in Pro response in um restorative practices and being responsive to the needs of our students that way we're going to continue with that going forward along with PBIS so we'll be implementing that too and both of them collectively will help our students to understand and recognize their behaviors how to respond like really teaching Behavior again we know we teach math we teach reading so we're going to dive

056into teaching behavior and behavioral responses thank you dear other questions I guess I just have one more um as far as where you're um seeking out the students that you're getting um opinions from or discussing this with are you looking at students that also are not involved in anything so that was the request um I wanted students who were students that we may see in the corner right that student who's quiet but just reaching out so the task and the call that I asked for from our building principles was to choose those students to make sure they're invited in and the same with staff um so we obviously want individuals to volunteer to be a part of it but we also want to reach out and extend that invitation to those who more than likely

057wouldn't do it on their own so that's what we're hoping to do and continue to do as well great and actually just mentioning staff you know again at our employee Relations Committee we've talked about this briefly but you know we see some of our teachers all the time like I just was at you know a um recorder concert I was at you know a musical I was at the viola um show so all these I've seen the music teachers constantly I'm seeing the results that they're achieving in their classrooms by you know seeing my my kids play a recorder um but you don't see like necessarily the results of like our Math teachers but you may see because your kids doing great math but you know are there other ways we can highlight like what

058some of our teachers are doing it's a great question and you know I think there's always wonderful ways to highlight um teachers like incredible things that they do in the classroom um the projects that they create the different things that they have in terms of the exhibitions and things of the display so um I'll continue to engage in conversations with staff and and see like what is it that they would use or like to see in terms of recognizing what they're doing but I think when we see them doing something good and they're volunteering or they're sharing their time or they're tutoring that student and working with them those are the things that we have to lift up to say thank you for that you know you're a sponsor of You Know This Club thank

059you for doing that thank you for all these things I I think just making sure to acknowledge the wonderful things that they're doing because they're doing incredible things in our buildings every day um and oftentimes it just you know it becomes normalized yeah maybe we can work on doing that more with our Communications committee on our website so I don't have any other questions anyone else all right well thank you so much again for that presentation thank you all right so we'll now move on to our social emotional learning quarterly update and we're right back to you okay so this is our social emotional learning quarterly board update and again um following our belonging climate survey this is perfect because our district Vision focuses on the long and fire engage and Excel this is what

060we're aspiring to right we're not saying we already do this we are already here but this is what we aspire to do and so we're looking to make sure that we create this Learning Community where students and Staff feel that sense of belonging um and are aspire to engage and Excel to their fullest potential so that's what ultimately we're looking for we have a wonderful South steering committee comprised of our staff and also our district leaders you can see them here they have been a vital and played a vital role in moving our cell efforts along this year our social emotional learning competencies are highlighted here again we're focusing on all of these because of those things that we saw in terms of the belonging climate survey we want to make sure we continue to

061build our students self-awareness social awareness their self-management those relationship skills that we talked about that they yearn for and those responsible decision-making pieces for the 23 um school year 20 to 23 we had cell themes that were in place and these are the cell themes that we're looking at currently from January to June um during this presentation I'll highlight some of the things that our district did in terms of honoring these cell themes so if we look at Blue Bell we can see that with Bluebell there's the embedment of our cell competencies where it should be of course when we're talking about social emotional learning they should be embedded in the curriculum um again jar of cell trait start traits aligned to District cell themes and morning meeting are all part of the things that

062they did at Blue Bell to really build up fashion level understanding awareness of these skills that we're talking about in terms of social emotional learning in terms of our countdown with kindness and Truth thankfulness these are some photos of the things that they also did at Blue valve and circle up for community and student of the month so when we're looking at the community building this helps us to establish those connections that we're talking about really recognizing students and those students who exemplify different aspects of the social emotional learning competencies they're highlighted here in terms of lower Blended Elementary um they focused on filling folders these folders really help them to learn to reset throughout the week help them to reflect and share their feelings so again really building their competency and awareness in terms

063of building level they had a beautiful school-wide project and letters on the display case that really focused on working hard and staying positive and making it happen which was also part of their morning announcements they have a Gaga pit in place um and a playground that really helps them to build the capacity of expectations and working together and having fun so these are the things that the students crave like how can we connect how can we have fun what are the expectations how can we work together how can we play together these types of elements or the things that are in place at the elementary level for Shady Grove they have the opportunity to really dive into a stress relief cardio and stretch session where they were gearing up for the pssas it was just

064really designed to help students learn to self-regulate especially in terms of Stress and Anxiety how can I help them with that piece and then in terms of Boosterthon and the Huddle again they're just there to help students participate in collaborative team games again helping them to understand how to play collaboratively and how to care for one another in their community Stoney Creek Elementary at the classroom level they focused on the film inside out and teamwork with this narrative visual narrative they really dived into some of the social emotional learning competencies lifted them up so that students could understand them in text and then help them to apply them to teamwork especially in terms of their field day that was coming up and then the building level you can see the photographs of students who are

065the spotlight students and these are students who were recognized each month for exhibiting the social emotional learning and so here they are collectively at Stoney Creek at the middle school we have social emotional learning style activities and mental health and growth mindset activities that are in place these activities again are designed to help students to really develop a growth mindset they use Artisan means of calming their minds also it was an opportunity to teach students how to settle themselves when they were feeling anxious and stressed the student reflection in Microsoft teams reflect also provided students with an opportunity to develop a growth mindset to evaluate how they are feeling about their day or their week and again to provide them with an opportunity to really use it to connect with others staff beat that challenges

066so this was designed for the staff um and again staff members work cooperatively to compete various times on beat that challenges it was a lot of things that went on but it was an opportunity for them to really collaborate communicate and laugh together so when we're talking about how we can connect with staff what can we do for them to you know make those Communications and connections the staff beat that challenge was something that was very fun for them to do at the high school we continue with reflection and establishing those personal goals and again emphasizing collaboration and Community we can see that at the high school we have our students who are focusing on their post-secondary opportunities and goals as a result Pride mom so with our belonging climate survey we were looking at

067again how our students feel here in terms of belonging and inclusion and so for June you know as a kickoff and we're looking at belonging inclusion with nation recognizes the achievements and contributions of members of the lgbtq qia plus Community during lgbtq month and so we wanted to make sure that we took time to highlight and celebrate you know it's important for us when we're focusing on social emotional learning and we're talking about belonging inclusion that again we focus on the achievements of all very proud that we have an affinity group here for our students at the high school and middle school the great Street alliances at the high school and middle school provide safe spaces for our students to engage in conversations to engage in learning opportunities to feel who they are in terms

068of their sense of identity so there are many Rich things here that we can look at we also have available on l2eq plus web page resource which is good for our community it provides education awareness but also resources for our students as well if they need to reach out regarding Mental Health Resources and things of that nature we have that for all our students but in particular we also have dedicated page here for students who may need additional support at the middle school for Prime month they were recorded am announcements that were shared with the school Community to again educate and to inform our library books are on display there's a beautiful Library display of many Rich resources that students can look at and learn more about so that's proudly displayed in our library and

069then in terms of displays we have wonderful displays at the middle school along with professional development opportunities so there was an opportunity to focus in on gender diversity acne inclusion Workshop that was provided to both professional and support staff members thank you at the high school we also celebrate pride month activities we had a total of student free student Representatives that actually participated in the pride flag racing at the Lower Gwinnett Township building last week and these students had the opportunity to actually speak at the event we also have a wonderful Library display of Rich resources for our students for students to read and learn a great deal for our allies to dive into the literature to learn more so these are things that we're highlighting currently in terms of social emotional learning next steps

070for 2324 we know the importance of social emotional learning we understand the importance of belonging and inclusion and so we're going to continue with our cell themes district-wide and you can see September through June we have them listed in accounted for and we're looking forward to doing what we can as a district to ensure that we're developing those social emotional learning competencies and then we're also focusing on creating a community of belonging and inclusion questions thank you so much for that presentation you're welcome I don't have any questions on this one do any other board members have questions the end go ahead oh you don't have one oh okay all right well thank you so much thank you all right well that concludes our presentations we'll now move on to our first public comment period

071which is uh for agenda items only we allow maximum of five speakers be here on the same topic uh please limit your comments to three minutes and please note that it's not our practice to engage in dialogue with speakers want to appropriate we will follow up with responses on the board on the district website all right so in person all right in one of the number of speakers we have registered I'll allow 30 minutes on a particular topic because it looks like a lot of individuals are here for the same topic um so I'm gonna go in order so we'll allow 30 minutes on that particular topic um so we'll begin first with Beth brillinger please when you approach the podium stage your name and your Municipality of residence and the topic you're going to

072be speaking on all right thanks hello everyone Beth brillinger I live in Bluebell I have two kids one in middle school and one in the high school both boys and uh I had this long comment prepared but I feel like the previous speaker kind of covered most of what I was going to talk about so you all got a break I'm gonna give you a short comment um I'm here to encourage the board to vote yeah it's on a motion for the superintendent to make the decision to raise the pride flag at the high school um as many of us know that that over the last 20 years the importance of flying The Pride I cannot be stressed enough lgbtq plus students at Wissahickon and all across America currently face ostracism bullying and intensive systemic

073oppression of their individuality in recent years because of certain political factions that hate has only grown raising the pride flag matters so much to make these students feel welcome belonging right uh comforted and cared for in my opinion which is shared by so many others raising the pride flag should be done I encourage all the board members here to do the right thing and vote Yes on a motion to support the superintendent's decision to fly the pride flag at the high school for instance when Upper Dublin School District decided to fly the pride flag at their school it was a decision made by the superintendent with the support of the board members so far they haven't had any issues related to any litigation as such we have legal precedent to fly the flag right next

074door and seriously are we really going to let Upper Dublin School District be better than Wissahickon I I say that in Jess because I will tell you that I know that there are members of the Upper Dublin School District here supporting us all today so thank you for that thank you Beth all right Katie is there anyone register online yes we have one hand raised on Zoom okay Kathy Pagano Kathy you can go ahead and unmute yourself can you hear me yes okay great thank you so much um Kathy Viano uh Lower Gwinnett Township um I don't have students in the school but I was a student um and um you met and the previous speaker uh that did the presentation the belonging uh mentioned the Lower Gwinnett Township pride flag raise and I was

075very integral in making that happen and working with the GSA um which was an amazing opportunity to hear from students on why the pride flag raises so important I live my life as an out and proud gay woman I can without a doubt a test that a great symbolism attached to watching The Pride flag being hoisted and unfurled at Myriad venues in the beginning of June we the lgbtq plus Community have had to fight tooth and now for every incremental baby step we have gained as a matter of course in society the struggle has truly been real and as a result the month of June and our inclusive rainbow flag is symbolic to lgbtq plus folks and our allies I feel there's such a slippery slope setting a dangerous precedent when we allow straight leaders

076the opportunity to decide what is good quote unquote good for the lgbtq students in their school districts and their schools thank you very much for the opportunity to let me uh speak thank you Kathy all right our next speaker is Carrie Ferraro hi Carrie Ferreira lower Gwynedd I have a seventh grader at Middle School um so I'm seeing a lot of anti-lgbtq plus posts and comments and the two largest Facebook groups uh for the community uh raising the pride flag at high school would make a statement that these comments aren't acceptable in our school the flag is not divisive it was designed to include all genders and sexualities but the learning survey shows that gender identity and sexuality impacted the stash feeling of belonging the students who identified as lgbtq felt less likely to belong

077in the school and unsurprisingly students want to be seen and accepted and the plan from that was to continue to promote expect and protect acceptance and inclusion what better way than raising the flight at the high school it would let them know they belong there that they're accepted that they're in a safe and protective environment and even better if the students are permitted to organize the raising and raise the flag themselves as a school Community thank you thank you very much hey does anyone registered online there are no raised hands on Zoom okay then we'll move on next to Stephanie height hi I'm Dr Stephanie height I live in lower Gwynedd my daughter graduated from Wissahickon in 2013. during her time as a student the district led her down in multiple ways both academically and

078by dismissing her way she attempted to advocate for herself and others in the lgbtqia plus Community it has taken her 10 long years finding her way to becoming successful and she she really should have graduated feeling confident but she was forced to find that on her own so I'm here now to speak on behalf of current and future students in the district the research is clear students who feel safe and welcomed you better in schools school districts that fly the pride flag such as your neighbors in Upper Dublin send a strong message that all of their students are valued and welcome when you choose not to fly the pride flag because that is a choice you send an equally strong message but you do not honor and value all students and that students who are

079part of a marginalized Community are not safe and welcome choosing not to fly the pride flag means that wissahickon's mission statement and website messages and signs in your conference rooms um are empty and that they are nothing more than tokenism so I urge you to recognize how critical your decision is to the lives and the students and the families in the Wissahickon community that we all right we'll move on to our next in-person speaker Gary okay hello my name is Gary height I live in Florida Gwen and just wrote a bit I have lived or I should say we have lived in wissahick in 27 years and I also happen to be please do not vote a teacher in Upper Dublin for 30 years so I I do offer a different perspective uh about the

080importance of displaying the pride flag for the past four years Upper Dublin has flown the pride flag over all of their schools there's a flag racing ceremony we just had it last week of May 31st where the flag gets raised at Upper Dublin High School and then the morning at every school pride flag is flying every other crowd gets larger and seeing the flag in the sky becomes more meaningful especially in today's current environment the raising of the pride flag demonstrates a commitment by our neighbors in Upper Dublin by the superintendent the Upper Dublin school board and the Upper Dublin Schools that they are a safe and welcoming place for all students I can tell you from personal experience how crucial this flag is for many of my students my former students parents families a

081number who are here tonight so we know the importance for staff school boards Administration and families to work together to make school a safe and welcoming place for all of our students is crucial that as a community here in Wissahickon we show a commitment to our students by displaying the pride flag and letting them know that they are appreciated safe and welcomed in our schools again our next in-person speaker is Christine English hi I'm Christine English from whitbeam um I think that most of you knew that I was here before with my child and my wife and my other child was here but it has too much homework tonight so he could not come um I just wanted to reach out I had the opportunity to talk to Dr Chris field today about just the

082concern about um what kind of backlash we could see with a concern about maybe some increase in bullying violence things of that nature that was uh what I was concerned when I reached out about um he I've talked with him a few times by email over the multiple years I have a 15 year old and a 13 year old so um and I've often felt very supported and I've said that in front of you before I just was a not feeling that great today in the sense that um with the pride flag raising it seems like the political climate has become more of the focus and less of our student what our students need so the idea of being reactive throwing up a plot pride flag behind a large tree in a cold well I

083don't know if this is cul-de-sac but it's kind of a dead end area where no students fly plant path was the plan the plan is to get it up as fast as possible placate everybody and calm the tenor down of the community I don't think that's ever a reason to do that that's definitely like a performative allyship it's not a real thing and it feels very very disingenuous to me and I felt very let down I know I like it was kind of like seemed like a joking kind of discussion in certain parts but I didn't find it funny like I am an out woman I have a wife I have two queer children my child was bullied recently hit on the head with water bottle on the bus called very bad names was taken

084care of mainly by the principal and the high school principal so I feel like that was a great reaction my issue is what are we doing beforehand and I feel like simply raising a pride flag in a prepared way not just to perform and say we got it done let's move on it's not Republican and Democrat in my view as somebody in the community I come drive down Houston see that one neighborhood where there's this gorgeous pride flag posted up immediately feel warm so I think that maybe some people who are white fists don't understand like it's not just political to me and it's definitely not political to my child who just spoke at the lower gwynedded Township flag raising like you're helping me grow my child teaching my child to speak and debate and

085talk she says it's important I believe her let's ask the kids they know what's what all right Next Love keeping fish so I was here last time I spoke at the board meeting and I do see a couple of familiar faces after the revote I think it was I don't really know but um I don't have a lot of to say schools but a lot recently and beer all that so I don't really have a lot of like points pointed out but I am glad that other people have already come up it's at all the points that I'm going to forget um I just like to say that everything that they did say and like they're going to say it towards the end of this is true and it does relate and it does feel

086exactly how they say it it's true it matters and it means stuff like us to the kids the emotional well-being and the emotional well-being of the kids also reflects on the teachers parents staff anyone so when the kids at the school are happy that means that this teacher's jobs get easier and then the teachers jobs when they get easier they get to do them better which means the kids get happier overall cycle of good and if we raise this pride flag it'll make a large like some of the kids happier make the teachers happier and this will like slowly spread along with making everything much easier also makes your jobs easier because it means that you have to address less problems and focus on the problems that you do have a lot more can like

087build the infrastructure education all of that less bullying and overall it's just a good thing and raising applied for it uh raising the pride flag would be a very good start because if it shows and it's out there then it'll like be a symbol for everyone like the American flag it'll be like that's my school and everyone well a large majority of people will feel represented and that will spread until everyone in the community and in school feels represented equate all right next we have Gerard Olsen hello uh my name is Jared Olson I live in Ambler I have a kiddo in the middle school and one over here lower grounded um here today to express my support for the proposal raise the pride flag as a member of the community I believe that inclusivity

088acceptance and respect are essential values that should be upheld and celebrated with our schools raising the pride flag is more than a symbolic gesture it's a powerful statement of support for our lgbtq plus students teachers staff and community members it sends a clear message that they are seen valued and accepted for who they are fostering a safe and inclusive environment where they can Thrive academically emotionally and socially it seems so fitting that we're talking about the pride flag after that presentation is about inclusivity and belonging and social emotional learning by hosting the pride flag we not only recognize the diverse identities within our school Community but we also acknowledge the importance of representation lgbtq plus individuals have historically and presently faced marginalization and discrimination and displaying the pride flag sends a message of Hope solidarity

089and pride for those who may feel invisible or marginalized it's also about the celebration of these people more of moreover raising the pride flag cultivates a sense of belonging for all students regardless of their sexual orientation or gender identity this is important for the straight folk too it promotes understanding and empathy teaching our young minds about diversity and the importance of embracing differences it is an opportunity to educate and Empower our students fostering a culture of acceptance that will resonate beyond the classroom walls I understand that some people have concerns about the pride flag raising but I urge you to consider the significance of this gesture it's not about promoting any specific ideal ideology but rather about creating an environment where everyone feels safe supported and free to express their authentic selves in closing I

090implore you to take this opportunity to make a meaningful impact on the lives of our lgbtq plus students and Community by raising the flag we raise the message that love acceptance and diversity are not just empty words but values that we actively promote and uphold within our schools and that we proudly celebrate the beauty and awesomeness of our lgbtq plus Community thank you all right our next in-person speaker will be Amy Sarah my name is Amy Clara I'm from Ambler Borough and firstly I just want to thank everyone on the board in the administration for getting this on the agenda so quickly and taking it seriously and all of you for coming out and supporting it because this is just so amazing um there are strong feelings on both sides of this as we have

091evidenced with some discussions amongst parents um which is incredibly disheartening to see obviously um we live here I grew up here I raise my kids here I made my husband move from New Jersey to live here which she's still irritated about because he hates the water here um I'm around but I'm not a I'm not a a person who is going to be out and causing trouble um but when trouble is being paused for my family that's when you're going to hear from me um and there has been a lot of ugly things being said I made a list of the most often cited reasons for opposition to this flag and I plan to come in here and point them out and say this is why they are not valid but frankly it sounded a

092little combative and I don't want to come across that way because this is an inclusive topic we want everyone to feel good about this I don't want to argue with anyone I want us all to feel good about it um so I'm just going to talk and ask you to imagine being the parent of a 12 or 13 year old middle schooler who has to walk into a building every day and get bullied and harassed um knowing that they dread going to classes that they'll avoid certain hallways and staircases to avoid people who are hurling insults imagine going into your place of business and somebody hurling insults at you and nobody doing anything about it it's not acceptable no one would accept that as an adult and it shouldn't be happening to our kids a

093pride flag seems like a no-brainer to me such a positive and vibrant way to show these kids that even if the World At Large doesn't fully support them that their community and their District does and we can trade studies and statistics all day and you can debunk my studies and say they're not credible but at the end of the day we know that these kids are at higher risk for depression and anxiety and suicide and all of the things and we need to all as a community wrap our arms around them and give them a big old hug we need to just stop this conversation we need to shut down the people that are spewing hate somebody actually suggested that trans people are not real that's just a reason to Hoist the flag that's that's

094enough of a reason in my opinion um there were some incidents at the middle school last week that were very unpleasant I'm not going to go into the details about that but clearly unacceptable and this is a great way to begin making up for some of the wrongs that are being made against the LGBT community in our district thank you gaming all right next we have Georgia McNichol hi I'm Georgia mcderco I'm an eighth grader at the West Second Middle School I live in Amber Borough 14 years old um I am a queer student um I know we really it's uncomfortable to address these types of things but I have heard from so many people of I mean last week uh my previous speech uh speaker mentioned it but um people were tearing down posters

095of um Pride flags and things like that and I given that it isn't even enough to put up a piece of paper on a wall that that's still combated by the I'm gonna be honest here like um bigoted students in our school and that it wasn't handled correctly it's not enough and what we're doing isn't enough and to put this flag up is not going to end everything but it is going to say hey I'm here for you and I am willing to help you it's not a it's not a um some like false thing you're throwing out there but it's a promise to move forward and that's what we need okay there I've heard um I'm not a member of the GSA but I have heard from my friends who are in the GSA

096sometimes there's blind spots in the cameras and that is where they're being harassed and there is being almost no measures being done to take care of it no and I went and I said if you need me I'm here but they said they're not doing anything for us our administrators are not doing anything for us and this flag is one of many movements that needs to be put in place in order to protect our queer students at every single School in this District okay this just like other speakers said this isn't about if you're a Democrat or if a Republican or you're an independent that's not part of it okay it's accepting the fact that we have these students and they need to be accepted thank you okay and to be honest last speaker Susan

097Rogers did you want to speak on this topic okay hi my name is Susan Rogers and I live in Blue Bell and I just I haven't had children my children are grown right 31 35 years old when I heard about the pla the pride flag being raised I was so it I was joyful um and I'm going to tell you why and I think I'm it's just wonderful to hear the bravery and the confidence that's coming from all of these folks so um about 15 years ago my daughter was in college and she gave me this book okay and it's about Transit understanding transsexualism now at that time I was so frightened okay I had watched Brokeback Mountain okay and I thought my God my child's going to be murdered my child's gonna be killed

098okay that fear was unbelievable but what I saw over the course of I would say about five years more and more acceptance okay and interesting enough it was children it was young people young people well I have we have tons of cousins all of Franny's cousins accepted her right immediately in college I mean she's a geek right she's a cyber geek immediately accepted but what's happened in the last five years is quite frightening and what's making me come here quite frankly are the hundreds of trans anti-transgender laws that are passing throughout are trying to be passed through the state so I'm sorry but it's unacceptable for hate for manipulation we have it's called a 14th Amendment okay equal rights so I I'm sorry but I I had to I want to thank all of you

099and it shows love that's what the pride flag shows and support so please you know stand up against heat that's what we're here to do thank you um so I don't want any of this other speakers tonight to take this wrong way um because there were lots of good ones but I've been um listening intently and I'm persuaded by the two student speakers tonight foreign knows the motion um for something here at central office but I don't think we need to vote on that actually the board can if you'd like but um tomorrow I will uh instruct the people here in high school and middle school to raise the flag in some products well thank you both thank you to all our speakers and thank you Jim for doing that all right so we will

100move on now from our first public comment period thank you again to all of our speakers um next is the board president report I have no informational items this evening I do have several action items um most these were all reviewed last week I would like to note with regard to um the tax increase um I do want to note for the public that we we meet several times over the whole spring what we have like five or six workshops David four okay A little over there seemed like five or six so four works just where we really get in depth into the budget we talk about every single section of the budget public is invited to these as I do want people to know that we do take a lot of time before we

101present this budget here to the board to vote on so I just wanted to make that clear hey Amy yeah sorry to interrupt you can we can we let the people go oh my goodness yes I want to say thank you so much for being here it's been you're here for the rest we have to stay yeah where are you going cookies I don't know if we have any other goodies other cookies brownies drinks um yeah sorry I just thought you're all hanging out because you want to hear the rest of the meeting you're still welcome to stay there are we allowed to leave I wasn't talking to you Marshall board members must stay and administration thank you all right so again getting to our action items this evening we do have one through 14.

10215 was um withdrawn and based on Dr Chris Fields announcement number new number 15 sorry I was looking at the one that's um italicized 15 is gone so 1 through 14 can I have a motion second so moved I heard the first is there a second though second okay it's a mostly the main seconded are there any comments or questions no you were going to say something about how we review the budget and you were saying something I'm sorry I interrupted you but oh yeah no words I was just making it clear that we do take a lot of time to review the budget we just don't get presented with this resolution at this point in time and we just approve it we do meet over the course of several months and take a significant

103amount of time to go over every single section of the budget um David has these amazing meetings everyone is welcome um so I do want to make that clear though to the public well and we also aren't raising the taxes to the max amount right and we've done our due diligence in trying to do that and also to maintain the services we have automatically we must raise the taxes if we're keeping them the same we'd have to cut things and I think that's something that I wanted to just make clear to people yes exactly any other comments yeah okay Amy just to clarify um was the emotion that was a uh moved and seconded was that for Action items b6b 1 through 14. okay correct um yeah just one comment about about the budget it's

104I mean there's a whole series of action items listed here and it's very complicated and confusing looking but I mean I think at the one thing as Amy was pointing out earlier we start the budget development process um I think usually by January of each each year Sunrise as early as December um and we go through a bunch of iterations to whittle it down to the final budget that we're going to vote on tonight um back in January my recollection was that the initial budget that was put forward for consideration uh included a tax increase that I believe was like 3.88 um just uh or just a little bit under four percent um but over the subsequent months we um went back and forth made some uh you know hard decisions and uh you know

105sort of whittled some things down to arrive at the 3.3 taxing 3.3 tax increase which is uh upper vote tonight so um there is there is work that goes on and we we don't just I think um take tax increases lightly um and we do the best that we can to be good stewards of uh the school district and trying to balance the needs of not just um students and families but also staff as well as taxpayers to uh keep the school district um strong and um solid and stable for uh not just uh you know the present but also for many years to come and I think that's reflected in the budget that we're voting on tonight thank you John other comments all right seeing none all those in favor aye anyone to post

106right motion passes thank you we'll now move on to our superintendent report Jim thank you no informational items I have the one action item that we reviewed on Tuesday regarding that District health and safety plans so I need uh asking please for a motion to approve item 7b1 so moved second all right motion's been made and seconded are there any comments or questions my comment is this is not a health and safety plan this is words on a piece of paper that are the opposite of health and safety plan and I know it's legally required but I will vote no because it does nothing for help or safety thank you thank you Dan any other comments all right seeing none all those in favor aye anyone opposed me okay so two opposed six and bigger

107all right thank you motion passes assistant superintendent report Dr Juan thank you no informational items and no action items this evening thank you board solicitor report Michelle good evening no informational items as there's one action item that was reviewed at last week's work session and it is a approval of a settlement agreement for a motion to approve section 91. so moved second very much the domain seconded are there any comments or questions seeing none all those in favor aye anyone opposed right motion passes thank you board secretary report Jim can you take it yes so there are no informational items for uh the board sector report and the action items we went over and reviewed um last meeting at the work session so uh approval uh motion please for Action items 10 B1 through 7.

108same move second emotions in May and seconded are there any comments or questions seeing none all those in favor uh anyone opposed I have motion possible thank you we'll move on board Treasurer report Jim good thank you same here no informational items and the one action item was reviewed last meeting so uh uh approval motion please for agenda item 11 B1 I moved to mean seconded are there any comments or questions seeing none all those in favor all right all right anyone opposed motion passes thank you human resources report good evening tonight there are no informational items but there are some changes from last week uh last week's agenda these can be found in bold and on the blue sheet these include resignations appointments changes of status and extracurricular changes in item 12 B1 there

109are also additions to the volunteer list in 12 B2 even this late in the in the school year and changes to the esy extended school year appointments in 12 before all other all other items were reviewed at last week's work session and there are no other changes so this evening I'm seeking approval for Action items 12b 1 through 10. I moved commission to mean seconded are there any comments or questions all right seeing none all those in favor aye anyone opposed motions pass thank you Danielle all right we'll move on now to our Communications committee report Steffi nothing to report this week thank you curriculum and Technology committee report Ronnie there are no informational items and Dr Guam will handle the action items yes thank you our action items um 14 B1 through 14 B12

110were reviewed last week you'll notice item number one is in bold we identified a clerical error on the supporting document 14-1 so you'll see on 14-1 the actual errors are now bold I think like 2023 instead of 2022 so they were minor clerical errors um everything else has been including that item were reviewed last week and so this evening we're seeking a motion to approve action items 14 B1 through 14 B12 are there any comments or questions seeing none all those in favor aye anyone opposed motion passes thank you finance committee report David we're going to skip facilities tonight oh I think we're doing it's always report oh my goodness I'm so sorry Joe Transportation um there are no informational items this evening and we have seven action items which are unchanged from when we

111discussed them last week so at this point I'm seeking a motion for approval of action items 15b 1 through 7. so move second emotions I mean seconded are there any comments or questions I I'm just not like a hundred percent sold on the Zero eye stuff I just I don't know it I feel like I don't when I ask what the like rate of detection was there was no data on that so like you have to just wonder we keep spending money to improve safety but I just like don't know exactly what extra safety is bringing us like for my money for sixty thousand dollars a year I feel like I know that wouldn't cover like one guidance counselor but it would go toward that I don't know just something else that would help be

112more helpful to our students maybe I don't know do you want to convince me otherwise I don't know I just don't feel comfortable with it like it just I don't know well Jim I think you did confirm we're only locked in for a year right we can get out after a year if it's something we don't want to pursue okay any other comments yeah I mean I I think I feel the same as Dan um you know I'm off I'm all for making our schools safe um but when I see I mean sixty thousand dollars a year for um some some software essentially that would help us I guess identify not even hidden weapons but expose weapons that someone's walking around the hallway um holding in their hand um spending sixty thousand dollars a year

113for that um seems Seems uh kind of expensive and and similar to Deanne I think in my head like what what else could we do for sixty thousand dollars a year um in terms of other ways to support our students and increase their health and safety not just like physical safety but also mental mental health um and emotional well-being you know things like that like it doesn't it doesn't uh equate to a full-time counselor but maybe a half-time itinerary counselor um additional social services that we could bring from external uh providers um you know again so I think I have I have some similar reservations about um the zero eyes contract especially given the cost of uh sixty thousand dollars per year yes stay tuned so I think these are your everyone's raising valid points

114the first one is to be sure the zero eyes uh um technology does not guarantee anything um it what the concept here and it definitely doesn't detect the hidden weapons which is an issue in a in an active shooter situation seconds mattered uh seconds of how long it takes to understand there's somebody who tends to do harm in the building and seconds to either get to a safe place and or um notify law enforcement so that's why the the capability is being recommended by both for me but also the business administrator and also the the director of security because yes it's a 60 000 tag is is high it's actually would be about soon to be less than accounts half a counselor but um we do have the ability to get whatever we want and

115frankly I hope we actually never ever are able to say yeah this was good this is a good expense but what I don't want to say is boy I wish we had zero eyes I feel like we could say that about any measure right and so what we need to think about is what risk there is versus what or what theoretical risk there is versus what actually is happening in our schools and what we could do there the thing that pains me the most is that we know the answer to these problems as a country we know what the answer is because this is the only this is a problem unique to America there's no school district in Europe that's talking about this software we know the answer it's so frustrating to me that we're

116taking our precious education dollars and having to spend them on upgraded security because we're scared to send our kids to school because we live in America crazy to me right Joyce you know um Amy given given the comments um can we amend the motion to to take a vote first on 15b2 through 7. yes Michelle I mean is what's do we need to talk about the first motion in seconds or just okay so if we have a motion in second on just 15 B1 so moved second okay any further comments or questions about that all right then um we want to do a Voice vote Kitty can you go through roll call roll console call I'm sorry can I can I make one can I just say one more thing the very important issue of

117the pride flag I think overshadowed this issue this week and I didn't hear from one Community member about this and I kind of wish I would have um did anyone else hear from anyone about about this issue the zero eyes issue the zero eyes software as we talked about it last week correct yeah yeah I just wondered yeah that's Marshall I I think what we need to look at is the fact that we know that there are problems and issues and concerns out there our job is to figure out a way to try and make our campus as safe as possible we have a recommendation from our superintendent as well as our director of security for this particular program I did not get the impression that they simply founded in a magazine decided this would

118be a good idea I think it was vetted I think it was researched um it is not nothing but it is a recommendation from our director of security as something that could be implemented as a possible detractor from something that could be a problem we are committing to a year of it I believe and as we and other districts see whether it works or not the technology through other districts that are using it through our own use I think we can make a decision in a year if we choose if it doesn't work we don't like it if something better comes along something less expensive something in a different way but the purpose of having these people in doing their jobs is to make these recommendations to us of what they feel will make our

119campuses safer if we're not going to listen to them and say boy we just hope that communities change and everybody changes sure that's the hope but we still have a job and I think based on that recommendation I think it would be a mistake not to follow the recommendation and then decide going forward if it was one that we should continue with or try something else so in that regard I I would say follow the experts that we hire me and our our employee to make these decisions by point of clarification this is for a three three year contract sixty thousand dollars uh per year for three years and we do have the out afterwards correct it's three years but we have the option of getting out of the first year okay so we do

120have the option of getting after that first year okay any other comments so I apologize because I wasn't here last week but do we really need 250 cameras like have they really fully vetted this out because I'm with you sixty thousand dollars for this just seems way excessive like I feel like and you know I do believe this type of Technology could potentially be helpful but are we buying the Ferrari when we could probably get away with the Fiat is what I want to know because we we just want to be mindful of how we're spending our dollars good good point the last um the there's probably a little confusion that this doesn't we already have all those cameras those cameras are in our buildings now in place and actually we're going to add a

121few more just independent of this so we'll get to about 250 or roughly on District wide and this software in this technology will utilize our cameras those remain our cameras and we'll use them for all the things we do now plus they'll be used for this capability any other comments all right payroll call vote Mr Antonio no Mr bluefeld Miss kivachi yes Mr Frank yes Mrs Heyman yes miss Karen I guess no Dr Morris no Mrs Ginsburg yes so we have six yes two uh sorry five yes three no and one Ascension one absent thank you all right doc we have a motion passes um can we have a motion now for 15 B two through seven so moved all right motion's been made in second uh do we have any comments or questions on

122these emotions no sorry all those in favor aye anyone opposed motion fast thank you now finance committee reports want to go out of order um uh we have no informational items but I was remiss not to thank uh Mr Coleman and the business office for all the hard work and diligence they did putting together the budget that was passed uh as well as the entire Administration um Everybody um worked hard to to make sure that no Penny was spent um recklessly or irresponsible so we've done what's best for the school district that said we have nine action items of B one through nine uh that have not changed since we would last discussed um last week if I could have an uh motion to approve those please still moved second motion is mean seconded are

123there any comments or questions the only thing I would note with number five Rosetta thank you I know you went through a lot of materials regarding food options with nutrition group and other options so thank you so much for taking the time to do that all right if you know their comments or questions all those in favor aye um anyone opposed all right questions pass thank you all right how was C committee report Marshall thank you Amy um unfortunately for everybody in attendance I have no informational items and no action items so there's nothing what think somebody who did and I don't appreciate it well everyone's on the Fly I have several I'm just kidding there are no information or action names tonight thank you but darn everybody waited around for that Marshall I'm sorry

124everybody waited around for that report no most people left because they knew they knew there wasn't a report tonight they were hoping they were hoping all right racial Equity oversight committee reports Joe can you take this one sure um there are no informational items this evening and no action items this evening thank you health wellness and Safety Committee Rosetta there are no informational items and the only action item is that hopefully at the street we can decide on um the next the next meeting great thank you Rosetta all right we'll now move on to our reported board Representatives uh Marshall extracurricular thank you Amy um we were supposed to have an extracurricular meeting last week that did not take place that had to be rescheduled to this week so I will have an update at

125our next meeting thank you um into the late hour I'll just do an abbreviated nciu report I wanted to share we received a grant for an outdoor environmentally friendly science mobile labs that will be making its way to schools throughout Montgomery County so hopefully at some point we can have it come and visit us here at Worcester hicken so our students can experience the mobile science lab kind of pretty cool uh North Manco technical Career Center it was a couple of weeks ago but they at the last meeting they did honor or recognize uh honorable students and award recipients it was very nice we actually had two Wissahickon it's recognized and um other than you know regular matters they did talk us through some of the changes that they're doing um to the physical space

126to kind of help with you know they're having issues with fitting everybody in the building so they're restructuring some of the rooms and well two of the rooms but the most significant one is the um the business the biotech science they're kind of combining the labs and doing two separate and like learning rooms so now they can actually fit more students the way they've structured it so hopefully that'll help with the enrollment nothing else to report great thank you for that report any comments or questions on any of these reports uh psda liaison I have nothing and employee Relations Committee sorry I didn't realize I was twice okay nothing in there all right well that ends our board uh reported board Representatives all right we'll now move on to our second public comment period which

127can be on any topic again I'll remind everyone we will have maximum of five speakers on any particular topic please leave me comments to three minutes and note that it's not a practice to engage in dialogue with speakers but appropriate we will follow up with responses on our website when you approach please state your name your Municipality of residence and the topic on which you're speaking so we'll begin with in person we have Joyce pickles good evening my name is Joyce pickles I am a district resident and I'm mom of two kids at Bluebell Elementary School I'm also a volunteer with Mom's demand action for gun sense in America as you may know guns are the number one killer of children in America today not car accidents not cancer guns I know that this board

128has heard from residents following tragic mass shootings that have happened in recent months asking the district to do things like armed teachers install metal detectors put more armed resource officers in schools perhaps even have active shooter bills the fact is there is data showing that these things are ineffective or even harmful they cost the district money and the fact is gun incidents in school are but a small fraction of everyday gun violence today however in Montgomery County our kids are under threat of death and injury both from gun suicide and gun accidents I'm sure every one of you is aware of this threat to our children and I'm guessing every one of you feels like I do a sense of hopelessness in addressing the problem but there is something that the district can do and

129that is to be smart be smart is an educational program from Mom demand action and every town for gun safety encouraging the parents of kids to ensure secure gum storage to prevent access by kids to guns it also provides helpful tools to parents in talking to other parents about Secure Storage in the other parent's home this District can provide this information to the community at no cost and potentially with an amazing benefit it could save students lives I have a one-page information sheet here for you and I would love to talk with the district more about integrating this information for the 23-24 school year I believe all of the board members know how to contact me for more information and I hope to hear things thank you Joyce all right Amy Hughes hi good evening

130Amy Hughes Ambler Barrel proud um I waited until the second part of this because there was enough people in support of the flag which made me just kind of sad in general that we even had a conversation we even had to have a conversation and help raising a flag that's been happening next door for what three four years now I think um we raised it right here in Ambler Borough it's raised in lower Gwen it's literally raised everywhere around us um so I'm thrilled and thank you I'm sorry that it took two students to get here but I'm glad that it's happening tomorrow um but I'm here to ask you for more because it's beyond just raising a flag what's going on in not our community but right here in our schools right up the

131street um I'm not going to be the run of the Bush I'm not going to elude to it I'm going to say flat out what was confirmed to me by the administrators at Wichita middle school today last week there were two incidents that I believe border on hate crimes urinating on a pride flag in our school were you guys aware of this do you know that this happened this is what our students are being subjected to in the Middle School just last week students parading down the hallways with laminated American flag cards chanting make America straight again in your schools if you're not aware of it get aware of it this was confirmed by the Wissahickon Middle School administrators to me today my child came home and told me about all the posters that were

132on the floor that were thrown in the trash cans this is happening in your school raising the flag is not enough tolerance acceptance belongingness we just talked about it for the first hour urinating on the pride flag I'm Gonna Leave You with that do something thank you I mean that concludes our public comment period um they hear all of our speakers um now I'll open it up to board comments putting my fellow board members like to share anything this evening and so I just wanted to follow up on what Georgia had said earlier and now what Amy had said um I guess I'm wondering if there's a plan in place uh I don't know if we principals administrators or four members maybe could attend these GSA meetings or figure out ways to support our lgbtq

133plus students what can we do for them we have answers now if we don't that I understand that but if are we coming up with plans to make this better for them I guess one of my I mean I guess Amy and everyone here you've seen the vitriol like that the community has toward it on Facebook you know what I mean like I don't I know this is I know it's in the schools but like is it coming from the parent like how can we I don't know what can we do you'll get Panthers for us thank you any other comments Rosetta please yeah I mean I I have been looking for the health and self and wellness committee I've been looking at different websites and so I've been sending some um some recommendations to

134out to look at whether we could have these informational sessions or educational programs for parents and students so I think that that's part of what we could evaluate to start doing for these anti-bullying um strategies I agree and yeah this isn't something Rosetta and I have been discussing and why we were looking at scheduling a meeting before the beginning of next school year so this is certainly something that's on our radar and important for us to address absolutely thanks any other comments okay yes okay so I just want to start out by saying thank you to Dr Chris field um I think you said a precedent by saying that someone's identity and supporting that identity is not something you have to vote on it's not a political issue it's not an issue for people to

135decide whether they want support or not is someone's identity and you can't say that it's something that you could decide to vote on but I also do agree that there's a lot more we have to do um as someone who's been in this District since second grade who's gone to the elementary school the middle school and currently in the high school as a junior I have definitely seen covered up instances of homophobia it's not even they're not even minuscule they're just covered up um there are people yelling at the essler in the hallway I have heard it multiple times and there is little to no punishment given to those people and I do understand that teachers and administration cannot hear every single thing that is happening but I do know people have complained about it

136and the people who commit those acts which I would definitely describe as hate crimes because there are discriminatory um are not being faced a lot of punishment I don't think even like a Saturday detention has been given from what I know of so I think that the pride flag raising it is definitely a step I'm glad we're taking but there's so much more we have to do especially when we preach belonging all the time and there are people who are in the community who are hearing the essler which is very derogatory and just nothing is being done for those people who are saying it um there's a lot more needs to be done to facilitate actual acceptance for these students and I really hope we continue to make those strikes Thank You Gavin thanks I

137I completely agree with Gavin and I also thank Dr Chris build for making this happen and just obviously the overall point of us being here is education and for education to be at its highest level pursued and the potential to be for every student to be able to Excel and pursue their education at the fullest amount and with these horrible incidents education and feel uncomfortable in the classroom is severely limited so even with the pride being raised tomorrow or in the coming days we should also be aware of more um possibly I hope not but more hate crimes as a response um because obviously this was previous um happening toward uh before the pride flag even is raised so Administration definitely needs to be attentive on this issue and this is obviously unacceptable and just

138as a student hearing about this even in younger years is completely disappointing and I don't want to see this obviously in our district anymore thank you boys any other board members this evening I would like to make sure that our administrators take a stronger stance and not just push things aside and pretend it's not happening we know what's happening and not to deal with it and like really where are we the administrators need to pick it up and do what's right any other comments yeah I'm just gonna Echo like we really need the bullying to get under control I mean regardless of what you're bullying about it should not be happening like what happens we're all fundamentally humans and we need to respect each other like what happened to that like we need we need

139everybody to be respectful I we need to have zero tolerance I agree uh the bullying's got to stop and maybe then 40 of our students won't want to leave our school thank you sappy anyone else all right oh yeah that is fun okay Jim thank you I appreciate your gesture tonight it means a lot to me and I know the communities thank you so much all right on that note can I have a motion to adjourn so moved second I was being seconded all those in favor no