March 6, 2023 - Regular Public Board Meeting

001passed by your school the other day we're live and now recording thanks Katie can we start off with roll call please yes Mr Antonio here Mr badger here Mr bluefeld here Miss kiamachi he's here she's here on Zoom Mr Frank here Mrs Heyman here miss carrion I guess here Dr Morris here Mrs Ginsburg here Harley Meltzer here nine present zero absent and one student board route this evening thanks Katie all right it's Brooke Charlotte and Fiona could join me up here we're gonna do the Pledge of Allegiance they're gonna lead us this evening thank you so much for your help ladies and welcome everyone here this evening especially our Blue Bell guests who are joining us um if you take a look at our agenda you'll see first a list of our prior meetings we

002met on January 30th for a work session February 6th for regular public board meeting February 13th for a finance committee budget Workshop February 21st for communications and board racial Equity oversight committees the 22nd the mciu board of directors met February 27th was another work session and March 1st was a Communications committee meeting then we list out our upcoming meetings on March 13th we'll have a policy committee meeting the following evening we'll have both a board curriculum and Technology committee meeting followed by a finance committee budget Workshop on March 21st so you'll learn the agendas of 20th it'll actually be the 21st at 7 pm we're gonna have a Communications committee meeting uh the day prior on the 20th will be another board racial Equity oversight committee meeting the 27th is our next work session and

003April 10th will be our next regular public board meeting now we'll move on to our presentations for the evening first we have a new stuff introduction okay all right thank you very much we're excited to uh introduce Brian Russell he's going to give a quick background and let us know but we're very excited that he is here and he has already jumped in and is already very knowledgeable of our buildings and is going to get even more so in the coming weeks and months right good evening okay good now good evening Dr Chris field president Ginsburg and members of the board I'm honored to stand here today as the appointed director of buildings and grounds I'd like to take an opportunity to express my gratitude to you and to convey my excitement about working with

004this great administrative staff you have here at Wissahickon uh I'm confident together that together we can continue the great work that has already been done in the district as the Director brings in grounds uh my primary responsibility is that our students and staff have safe clean and uh well-maintained facilities for Learning and teaching I look forward to working with the administration the building and facility staff to make certain that our buildings maintain the highest level of Excellence I'm committed to making meaningful meaningful contributions to both the district and the um community at large and I just want to thank you again for the opportunity to be here and look forward to continuing work and go Trojans well thank you so much Brian and welcome to whistah again we're really excited to work with you um

005joining Michael and board members have any questions thoughts provide Joe go ahead hey Brian nice to meet you um where are you coming to us from um I've spent a majority of my career with Pennsbury School District down in Bucks County about 25 years or so as a maintenance electrician then and then moved into management there my last District was Bensalem School District I was there for almost a year and a half as a supervisor of operations and transportation great welcome aboard thank you well I know you got to tour our facilities over the past couple days um any thoughts about particular projects you might be interested in pursuing or recommending to the board well and I'm going to be grabbing the mic right now okay maybe you can't answer that so he's reviewed The

006Five-Year Plan and we can certainly sit down with him and uh you know work through whatever projects that we have going on and with any new director of facilities he'll have the ability to talk to the board about re-prioritizing whatever projects we would have thanks for jumping in wait all right any other questions or thoughts all right well again thank you so much for joining us thank you for having me all right so we'll move on now to our student presentation with Bluebell Elementary Miss Carlo good evening everyone I'm Angela Barlow the principal of Bluebell Elementary and I am joined today by Fiona Charlotte and Brooke these are members of our student council and we're going to talk to you about some of the amazing things that are happening at Blue Bell as it relates

007to our stem and maker space so first let's talk about what is sin it is a course of science technology engineering and math um and it's lots of Hands-On learning we are very very proud of the direction of our Sim program as a matter of fact it has grown by Leaps and Bounds under the guidance and direction of our Librarians them teacher Jackie echeveria so we have actually more stem now than we've ever had so it's really an opportunity for students to develop those 21st century learning skills and those SEL skills so we're talking about self-awareness self-management social awareness responsibility responsible decision making and relationship skills and these students are going to tell you much more about that so when we ask why did you like Sim so much what did you tell us it's

008a fun way to get every kid even ones who don't love math or reading into school sometimes you don't even realize that you're doing the math or the reading sometimes you can pick your own path based on your own interests you can get your creative side working and it lets you express your ideas because it is student-led and students student center so our students are learning the course you fix them those four C's are critical thinking communication collaboration and creativity so when we talk about critical thinking and this comes from our students these are their words thinking about what comes next or what might happen working hard to support the team and making our brains flat what about communication it means talking with your group so you can make a plan staying on topic and

009go focused being kind and respectful and being open-minded thank you what about collaboration collaboration means including everyone using other people's ideas into individual planning and group planning and seeing everyone's perspectives and bringing other ideas to the table and creativity creativity is trying to find different ways to solve the problem think outside the box using as much of as much of your brain as possible and trying original ideas so we practice all of those things if you just look up at the Smart Board or at the board our program runs from kindergarten to fifth grade so even our smallest students are getting some stem learning um they're learning about what is them and what is a Makerspace just learning how to manipulate all of the different resources that we have but all groups you'll see have

010engineering they have an hour of code they're working with robots and they're connecting to other curriculums in kindergarten these are these are kids playing with blue box right now they are trying to make Red Riding Hood get to her grandma's house in second grade they did the pumpkin platforms their goal was to make a stand that would hold a real pumpkin in fourth grade they made foil boats um which they try to hold as much dominance as they can without them sinking and the record was 13 dominoes and in fifth grade they are trying to do breakout boxes this helps them learn about decimals in a soccer themed Breakout what's up now that we present it we're going to see if you can try the four things and so let's see you try the four

011seats we want you to break out what's the breakout box you made ask well it's similar to an escape room a fun way to get your brain working but it also helps you to practice other skills and it's a good way to learn how to work together even if you sometimes have trouble getting along can you work out work out together to solve a four-digit lock we have a problem we are stuck in Zoom land every sometimes someone clicks the wrong button and now we can either knock it in or we can knock it out of Zoom some of our cameras are off and our microphones are muted we need to help each other get through the confusion work together sort it out and break out of the zoom if anybody needs any help there

012can there are hints that we can use so we are going to put you into groups of two to three three we're going to give you a breakout box with some instruction you want to see your brains as well ready okay thank you hi it's rose that I just want to say I'm sorry I'm not there for this this looks like fun foreign there's absolutely no pressure but it only took our fifth graders five minutes to break out of the box foreign open the box and there should be a little prize in there for you too collaboration communication critical thinking creativity two more minutes two more minutes you can do it you can do it they broke out there are critical thinkers oh we have enough okay okay teens I'm very sorry here's your oh

013you almost have it I will give you a hint It Was a Very Good Year It Was a Very Good Year that's that's the best thing I can give you a Very Good Year right Maybe It Was a Very Good Year yay no time last group getting communication and collaboration and maybe maybe there was a problem with the lock could have been a problem it's the lot that gave you a problem foreign thank you all so much um and you can come by Bluebell almost any day and see our students working on them it's part of our regular program any questions you had a very good question um this is hey but I think that Jackie wanted to answer for you didn't you ask about the box over the way you don't talk yes can

014you ask that question again so um the boxes come from a company called breakout HQ and that comes with just the Box and Minister usually have that five types and but the games themselves freak out usually publishes for free on their website print all the materials but there's also like crowdsourcing from other teachers who created their own games or students absolutely well thank you so much that was a lot of fun and um we had to actually ask for a clue it was very tough so I can't believe students are doing this wow that's awesome did anyone else have any comments or questions just thank you this was amazing and four seas all the way I did enjoy also this week coming to see your class it was awesome like I had no idea Legos

015could do what you were doing that was pretty amazing um all right well there's other questions we do always like to get pictures at the end so um David and Marshall I know David Marshall David and Paul um I don't believe you've gone yet right for pictures all right you're up foreign was it your team that got that broke out the box first I would like to report that there was a lot of collaboration over here not much communication though that's something we're going to work on yeah it's impressive yeah I'm impressed that you didn't need any clues oh okay all right thank you again and you're welcome to stay for the rest of our meeting it won't be this entertaining don't do it but you're certainly welcome to stay if not if you leave

016make sure you take some snacks on your way out thank you thank you all right next we're going to move on to our SEL quarterly update thank you we are so I'm grateful to have this evening with us miss kazaya LaTour our director of equity and cultural responsiveness to share um an update with the board and the community about what our schools are doing and what our district is doing um to support students development with social and emotional learning and Ms LaTour what an act to follow which is always tough anyone who has to follow the student breathing Jason is a little tough to follow but um we are we are really excited and looking forward to learning about the the sell update so thank you for joining us this evening thank you for having

017me good evening everyone I appreciate the opportunity to share a cell March update with you I think the best thing that happened just now was what you saw with Bluebell Elementary when we were talking about social emotional learning we're looking at the communication the collaboration critical thinking and so forth all of that is a part of the social emotional learning piece so if anything's in action that was it in action so I'm so happy that I'm following their lead so as we look at um the slide here I just wanted to highlight our district Vision because it is that which guides us like in the work that we're doing as a district we're committed to ensuring that we have a learning community where all students and Staff feel a sense of belonging and are inspired

018to engage and Excel to their fullest potential and when they're engaged and they're excelling to their fullest potential you get what we saw today in that room that energy that positivity and that meaningful learning taking place we have a self-steering committee that cell steering committee is comprised of members from k312 we have school counselors and District leaders a part of this committee as well as our teachers and they play a very active role in helping to guide the work that we're doing with social emotional learning the input and voices are very important and Powerful in the direction that we're going in terms of our cell work we had the opportunity to hear from our Blue Bell principal Mrs Farlow was excellent in highlighting for us our social emotional learning competencies and they're listed here just

019for our awareness again today we're going to talk about the district-wide themes we're we're also going to dive into what's happening in the classroom because it's social emotional learning taking place and so when we're looking at self-awareness and that social awareness self-management relationship skills and responsible decision making we're seeing how it plays out in active academic learning we want our students to thrive academically and we know how core these are in helping them to acquire the skills they need to be successful in short you know the three main things that we're looking at with social emotional learning is that we're helping to create spaces where our students and staff understand one another where they can connect with others and obviously achieve goals that they have established there's much research that supports social emotional learning and

020the benefits of it I always think it's so important to dive into what staff members are saying specifically our teachers and our principals in the building so here we see that when we're looking at our social emotional learning we have an emphasis on how it's embedded in terms of the cell strategies in our curriculum and that's where we want to see it because again we want our students to thrive academically in terms of our principal at the middle school highlighting again this is something that is not isolated to a space or curriculum it's across all content areas and so I wanted to make sure that we had the opportunity to lift that up there are other staff members who have commented on the benefits of social emotional learning again one thing that's really important is

021creating that welcoming and biting encouraging classroom environment that will cultivate Community for students so they can Thrive and that's something that we are very intentional about in terms of focusing on effort and growth using that growth mindset we're also looking at the wonderful reflection opportunities that we can provide students as they continue to grow in their learning so what are we doing again it's March I had the opportunity to speak with you in December or continue with a lot of the efforts that we noted in December so again developing an intentional K-12 self-focus is important making sure that we're focusing on our district-wide monthly theme days continuing with restorative practice training and providing social emotional learning training for support staff ensuring that of course we're offering more support to new students in the district and

022continuing with our practices in place so for our February professional development day we have the opportunity in the morning to really dive into introducing social emotional learning and trauma-informed practices to our support staff for our professional staff we had trauma-informed practices as well it's almost like a part two to the introduction they had the introduction last year and so this year we focused on looking at the signs of bases those adverse childhood experiences that take place and then also during the second half of the morning diving into curriculum work focusing on equity and representation and that's really focusing on teachers collaborating and communicating about the curriculum to ensure equity and representation of people places events voices and perspectives of our curriculum so we are continuing as I noted with our district cell themes we had

023the opportunity in September through December to really focus on our belonging with pride in October gratitude in November and giving back in December as we continue to dive into our district cell themes a lot of the themes will be highlighted based on some of the actions that different schools have done so these are the themes here that I'm noting now and again this was designed by our committee our South steering committee members so Mrs Farlow was here with her students today to speak to some of the wonderful things they're doing with social emotional learning in the classroom some other things to highlight here they had a staff and student goal setting that took place really recognizing the goals and hard work of Booth they also completed gratitude charts and recorded acts of kindness and had

024cell strategy PD training that took place in the afternoon at their building level for lower Gwynedd again working collaboratively and communicating about what's needed in the classroom to further help them in their craft be designed a staff sell resource Hub and this is through their lower gwyned OneNote notebook that they have in place the other piece is their Sunshine committee still focusing on building staff relationships we know how important it is to focus on the social emotional well-being of our staff that translates into the well-being of our students and what they do with them Abby Cooley was highlighted most recently with her diligent work with our second grade students again looking at stem and critical thinking so it's wonderful to see that she's working diligently with our students to Foster that critical thinking that's so

025essential in the work that they're doing at Shady Grove we have the opportunity to focus on several things caring and goal setting in January concept of fairness in February respect kindness and relationship and recognition of students so again looking at the efforts of Shady Grove they really prioritize the characteristic of caring and paired it with their goal setting and as a school goal they were showing that how much they cared for others and their leadership team that's their student leadership team came up with the idea of creating and donating placemats to the local senior living homes to bring joy to people during meal times so a lot of creative thinking and Community efforts that are being taken place at Stoney Creek Elementary they created a February tree of kindness and they had a guest speaker

026come in to speak to students about kindness and inclusion again looking at the themes that we have in place the district is making sure that these efforts are happening building wide as well as in the classroom at the middle school there was an opportunity to really dive into the technology educational classrooms and highlight student accomplishments there's special segments that are provided that gives opportunities for students to produce videos based on relationships empathy as a school-wide project there was also an opportunity for them to look at the world through another's perspectives in looking at some of the donations and contributions that they're making at Maddie Dixon food cupboard we have them collecting uneaten fruit and vegetables and donating those items we also have the opportunity to see our Middle School sixth graders work in their gifted

027class they focused on sending postcards with their dreams of the future and vision of life and space so that was something else to note and we were lucky to have some student finalists participate in the PA Invention Convention and there they design different apps like send a smile app and nutty tracker and so forth and these were our eighth graders who really shined we also had a third grader who participated as well and was a finalist too at the high school we're continuing with our efforts with making sure the social emotional learning is embedded in the health PE curriculum we have our we have space period which again is an opportunity for students to collaborate and connect with one another classroom learnings are taking place as you can see here we have our students really

028working diligently in their physics class collaborating and here they're focusing on focusing on the work that they're doing in terms of gravitational potential energy and kinetic energy and so forth we also have our students in the upper right corner looking at the graphic novels the opportunity with their English teacher to focus on a formal essay and then to site move textual and Visual Evidence to support their argument which also segued into a debate and then what was interesting they made connections to history using this as a platform we also had students in the upper left corner there working together to support other students so this was our whs National Honor Society and stars tutoring programs partnering together with Extended Learning Time volunteers to provide additional support for students to offer that tutoring when needed so

029again this is our high school students working together to ensure that learning is taking place not only for themselves in the classroom but also supporting others with that learning for service projects um something I highlighted throughout we're dedicated to the service projects that we're doing this is actually a picture of our Shady Grove Elementary fourth graders they have lots of fun participating in a service learning project they were able to fill bags with warm supplies and donate them to individuals who are displaced and so in looking at the service projects this is something that we're continuing to do as a social emotional learning steering committee as well so here we have our leadership team we participate in monthly Equity Leadership Learning sessions which is an opportunity for us to continue our learning and to also

030focus on social emotional learning wellness and so here's our team gathered together really focusing on some problems of practice and Reading literature um and this took place during read Across America so we're reading and leveraging the literature to advance our work that we're doing for our staff and students so this is our literature leadership team at the heart of the work what will we do well we're going to continue to work on what we've been doing and March 10th is a great day to celebrate cell day so we're going to participate in that similar to what we did last year um we plan community service opportunities we're going to continue to do that and create saw activities to share with all staff developed by the cell steering committee we've seen that at the building levels

031that there's the spell steering pieces that are being put together so that they're actionable and in place to help support teachers in the classroom and then we'll continue to develop and enhance what we've done and what we're doing and to inform next steps making sure that the social emotional learning is embedded in our curriculum and is producing what you saw here in terms of our students being leaders having voice and choice being agents of the things that they're learning about so we want it to be student learning student-centered and student empowered here we have um some of our Blue Bell students again third of course and fifth graders just showcasing their musical talents with staff and students during the winter assembly wanted to make sure I highlighted this because social emotional learning is in the

032classroom and it's all over things that we're seeing here I had the opportunity to follow a lot of our board meetings and every time we came up we saw the work of every different school and that was really showcasing what social emotional learning looked like in action I even recall the comment that our director of you know Athletics said that it's also coming outside into the Athletics right what we do and that's it that's social emotional learning in the classroom on the field everywhere we go it's social emotional at this nation any question thank you thank you so much for that presentation I I have lots of questions so I'll start us off um first the screen you had up before is about sdl day I assume the things below it are not the things

033we're doing on ACL day so what are we planning to do on stel day so um it's an excellent question thank you so what we're doing just happens to be that because we're doing social emotional learning as a part of practice that's been normalized a lot of things are going to be featured just lifted up that we're what we're doing currently so we had our self steering committee meeting and there were members who participated from various schools and it just so happens that on March 10th there are activities that are already planned so there will be a diverse listing of activities we're going to try to capture them um Mrs Rawlings is our Communications coordinator is also part of that team and so staff will also help her to capture the pictures of the day

034so there'll be various activities that we'll be doing it isn't anything like a great departure from the work that we've been doing to be sincere it is just lifting up the social emotional learning that has been taking place and highlighting it on March 10th because that's something that's going on Nationwide that's something that we do well great I'll be looking for that on social media sounds good thank you um and then I saw on the LGE slide you mentioned a sunshine committee so what does this committee do so for the sunshine committee um from my understanding with Mrs konopka what they do is they really try to focus on bringing Sunshine into the school and just lifting up Spirits for the staff and making sure that they're focusing on the social emotional learning aspects um

035building staff morale making sure it's you know reinforced doing things to help out in the community in terms of viewing what students are doing but also doing it for staff so the sunshine committee is really taking up and lifting up a lot of the social emotional learning that we tend to do for students and also making sure that we're doing that for staff intentionally is that working us through the HSA or is it just like a group of teachers that form this committee I would have to ask to see if it's just a group of teachers or if anyone else is involved so I'll ask and I'll come back with an answer I love the concept though yeah me too um and then so at the middle school you said they're donating fruits and veggies

036to Maddie Dixon is that so I'm really concerned about our food waste in the cafeterias um I see a lot of it being thrown in the trash pre-packaged items that could easily be donated or used by another student is that the food that we're donating to Maddie Dixon is leftover items for lunch or is this food the students are actually Gathering so this is the food that students are not eating so when they go to get their meal sometimes they're asking you they'll have them put apples and so forth and the students will put it on the side they'll get it so they're not eating it so they are making sure that anything that the students have not gotten and they're about to dispose of instead of throwing it in the trash instead they're putting

037it on the side here for donations so these are food that is provided to all students but if they're not eating it instead of having them thrown away which is something they observe and students observe too they decide to disrupt that practice and have them instead decide so that we can donate it to others so I love this idea I think we should look at it for our other schools also so that's great do you know if the high school does it or just the middle school I just know that we highlighted it at the middle school but I can inquire about the high school okay well that's great um and then we talked about The Invention Convention I think last week but do you know what the um actual I don't think we knew

038what the actual inventions were that made it all the way you said there were two middle school students there were there were three um so the two did the send a smile app um now as far as the details of it I'm not sure what I can inquire and the other was the medi tracker and those three were eighth graders and then there was a third grader who also submitted something as well and she was a finalist too but I can dig in deeply to find out more information to share with you and we do have um later in April April 24th um I know that the middle school students are we're working to coordinate for them to come to share with us firsthand what their inventions were and to really figure face their their

039work that's exciting there's a rumor there's gonna be a breakout box [Laughter] es were and then my final question so we have space the high school dad we've had the opportunity to meet with some students over the past couple months and it seems sort of like it's you know the teacher can decide like what the theme is in the morning what they're going to discuss do we provide any sort of like list of suggested topics or anything to really help the teachers and guiding that conversation so initially um when Dr Blair is here she provided a list of different topics and so forth and programming for staff to use in the very beginning of that day for that space as we have discussed as a self-steering committee one thing that they would like to do

040and speak to like kind of the vision of a high school going forward is to also provide more input from staff and students to design some of those questions too but yes there are um questions choices things that are prompted at the very beginning that have already been designed so it's not extra work for the teacher to have to do it they're already done and so the hope and the practices that we continue to do that going forward but very curious and interested in probably getting some staff members to also contribute as well as some students great thank you yeah well other questions Joe um because I on a previous slide I don't remember exactly which one it was but referencing professional um learning or professional development there was a rep there was an acronym

041Ace Ace can you talk a little bit more about um what that is so for Aces it's just the adverse childhood experiences that students young people usually from an early age before 18 um indoor or experience and so what we're looking at is what were some of the factors that caused Aces um who when we're looking at this in terms of children which children are pretty successful susceptible to it and then three as a staff knowing that these are the students who are susceptible to it this is what it is what can we do about it and so it was really helping them to understand what these adverse childhood experiences were how they caused trauma how that as Learners we can see what is needed to help them go further along right even though this

042has been something that was that's something they endure what can we do next as a staff and so they provided practical um steps one thing that was important was developing the healthy relationships with students making sure again that we focus on the social emotional learning aspects of students which is very important giving them an opportunity to talk to us like what happened and share um I think that was very important in terms of the social emotional learning work that we're doing for us to have that level of awareness about what our average childhood experiences and how they can impact students and how they process learning right and so we talked a lot about the prefrontal cortex and how that has been hampered when students are exposed to that trauma thanks and I I think it's

043great that um the staff is getting trained on those kind of practices and in particular just more awareness about that and how that can impact the academic success of students in our school I mean one thing that um most people don't really think about or realize is that the district as a whole has I think last I checked 21 22 of our families that are low income in addition the past several years the covid I think there's a lot of people who've lost family members or people that they know um to covid um so a lot of our students experience some degree or some maybe several traumas in their lives outside of school and they can have a negative impact on their performance in school and the more that our that our staff is like

044aware of it attuned to it and knows how to address and sort of mitigate it I mean I think the better that's how it'll be and obviously the better they'll do in school as well so I think it's great that we're investing in that so thank you welcome other questions thank you so much so much great presentation great to learn about all of these wonderful things um excellent work two kind of thoughts were things to consider an observation I noticed at the lower grades there was a lot more like school-based kind of activities and I get as you get further up in the grades and the secondary especially high school that might be harder but at the high school it was very kind of class oriented versus grade or School oriented and from a belonging

045and a kind of inclusion kind of perspective I would love to see something kind of be a little bit broader possibly and then you know you mentioned that in June there's going to be a reflection and reflection so important but what might also be great is kind of sharing of information like the sunshine committee might be something we adapt across the board or the donation of the unused food is a wonderful I mean like food insecurity is kind of my you know pinpoint um so uh what can we learn and share with each other would be like an amazing kind of output of this so looking forward to how we kind of all grow and learn from this experience thank you for the work this is really important thank you I appreciate your input thanks

046happy other comments or questions presenter idea do either of your questions actually I do have a question so I think the food um you know to bring the food to the Maddie Dixon is wonderful um and the presentation was your presentation was excellent I think that SEL is really important one of the questions I have about the food is who ensures the safety of the food that gets distributed to Maddie Dixon um once the children haven't eaten it that's a great question um one that I cannot answer at this time but I will look into that I know this is something that is provided by the middle school and they start at the presentation the project piece so I will do due diligence and ask how that is processed and so forth it's a great

047question um it's something that we do need to consider I am aware of a couple things that we discussed as a South steering committee so I'll make sure to get that information for the board thank you so much that's great you're welcome great thanks Rosetta any other questions or problems no all right well thank you so much again for that presentation thank you I appreciate the time all right so we'll move on now to our first public comment period I'll remind speakers you have three minutes um you'll have five speakers on any particular topic and it's not our practice to engage in dialogue with speakers when appropriate we will follow up with responses on our website so we have one person registered in person for the first public comment period and that's Christine English oh

048and when you approach please state your name and for your municipality sorry hi I'm Christine English uh Whitney is my biggest problem um I just wanted to talk about uh the policy committee had been looking at the approval and the second reading of the board policy for 819 the suicide awareness prevention and response and I saw it in 17-10 in the agenda and I just um thought it was just really poignant right now um it's talking about the safety of the students safety the welfare of the students and being able to look at the actions and resources necessary to prevent the suicide action and promote mental well-being um I think this came to light in in especially this past weekend I was looking at some of the behavior of our community when we're talking with

049each other and talking about our students and our students safety and just the communication that we're having back and forth I'm wondering if this policy could more clearly include not just students and staff but if there could be more informational sessions I know they've been offered about the social emotional learning aspects and keeping children safe but just I I saw that there was pieces involving the parents but not clearly and I didn't I know that's a little bit outside of what the school is responsible for but I just noticed that in the community people don't seem to be speaking to each other very kindly and considering our children are feeling badly especially um I have a special interest in the lgbtq community um because there are more than four times likely to commit suicide and

050I'm very concerned in our community because each election that we have it seems like of the school board it seems like what it has been coming up has been this book and it's not about the book but it's an lgbtq theme and then the transphobia and homophobia starts flowing in in our groups and I feel like it's going to affect our students and it's very concerning to me um especially with the moms for Liberty push that comes through every now and again so I just think that it's important to focus on our students educating the parents getting more resources for the parents um I used to work inpatient mental health psych I'm a mental health professional and so many of the children couldn't talk to their parents about their gender identity or um anything and

051it just is so much if we could bring the parents in and have them understand that if they can have one parent that's accepting it would make such a difference I think they said only one third of parents are accepting of their children's gender identity and then the increase in the suicide risk especially in our um sorry I was shocked by this number um I it was related to our minorities uh people of color so it was just I think it was 45 higher than our white students so it very much concerns me I'll get that number thank you for those comments Christine hey the is there anyone registered online there are no raised hands on Zoom okay well then we'll move on uh now we'll move on to the board president's report I have

052no informational items this evening under action items uh first I have to approve the approval of the employee Relations Committee uh which we discussed at our last meeting approval of school board public meeting dates for 23-24 approval of reappointments of Judith Hill for third term and Michelle Fleischer and Sally West Williams for a second term to the Wissahickon Valley Public Library board of directors and approval of the revised 23-24 school calendar so moved second emotions are there any comments or questions on any of these items can you just remind me where I'm sorry God can you just remind me how we adjusted the calendar again for 23 24 yeah please so we shifted the week from after Easter to the week prior to Easter and Jim do we do the day off before of the

053election is that correct no we couldn't make that work for the business days so the the uh additional day off is now added on to to Spring recess this year only I want to make it clear we don't normally have this long of a spring recess but in this year given the way the calendar Falls it will be uh the Monday after so essentially a 10-day break great ADI on your question I just wondered if you had any Community feedback after the conversation last week um regarding the calendar change or anyone I didn't receive any Community feedback following the meeting now okay I think it's early enough that people haven't at least you can't book flights quite yet so I'm hoping that everyone is good with this I think it's the right you know the

054right thing for most of our families here so any other questions or comments yeah I mean my comment is that um based on our discussion last week I mean my sense is that um by making the switch that we're that we're going to vote on tonight there's there's probably gonna be some people that are unhappy about it but I think whichever whichever days you pick there's gonna be some that like it and some that don't like it but uh in my view it's it's a year out so it's um you know ample time I think for people to adjust their plans and I think also importantly it's more in line with what some of the surrounding districts are doing in terms of their uh holiday schedule too so for those two reasons I think it's

055it makes sense and you know I'm in support of every time thank you Joe any other comments or questions all right seeing none all those in favor aye aye anyone opposed all right the Motions passed thank you all right we'll now move on to the superintendent report I have no report tonight okay assistant superintendent report I have no report this evening thank you thank you um board solicitor report Michelle hey I have no informational items but I have two action items uh two settlement agreements they're looking for a motion to approve nine um actions 91 and 9 me too second questions they made in seconded are there any comments or questions okay seeing none all those in favor aye anyone opposed all right motions passed thank you Michelle yeah we'll then move on to our

056board secretary report Wade thank you uh there is no informational item and the action items have not changed since last uh meeting so I'm requesting approval of action items 10 b 1 through 4. so much second emotionally means seconded are there any comments or questions see none others in favor aye aye anyone opposed okay questions fast thank you can we move on to the board Treasurer report yes thank you um there's no informational item and the action item has not changed we're requesting acceptance and minuting of the treasury report for January 31st uh 2023 per document 11-1 so moved promotions been made and seconded are there any comments or questions seeing none all those in favor um anyone opposed motion thank you thank you we'll now move on to our HR report Danielle hi good

057evening uh tonight there are no informational items uh changes from last week's agenda can be found in bold these include items in 12 B1 a retirement resignation an appointment a change of status leaves of absence and a few extracurricular changes uh this evening I am seeking approval for Action items 12 b 1 through 4. are there any comments are questions all right seeing none all those in favor aye anyone opposed right promotion passes thank you our Communications committee reports epi hi yeah we had a meeting on March 1st um with the communications committee and we talked about um earlier start time well later start times or changing start times excuse me um and we spent a bit of time discussing timelines as well as what are some of the things that we need to kind

058of understand prior to making some decisions so I think we laid out to our Administration some of the big topics that we need to kind of tackle first and we will be meeting again as you'd noted earlier on the 21st to kind of see what information can easily be obtained what you know kind of uh additional resources we need or time we need or other things so that we can start looking at this a little bit more in the details I also along with Ronnie attended and Kristen Rowlands and Sue uh from our Communications team we all attended the RAF and C meeting today at noon it was an excellent meeting very very very well attended there was people from Radnor Hatboro Horsham Lower Merion Spring Ford Radner I said that the fact in downington

059um Central books um there was two speakers uh Mr Dan Beck folds or doctor and then Joe danielli um and they talked about how they overcame uh Transportation hurdles at Ratner and they actually got into really a lot of detail how they use transbinder how they kind of came up with here comes the bus app how they used a lot of Technology that's available in in the world right now to kind of help solve the transportation issue at Radnor it was really really enlightening and they will be posting that PowerPoint that I'm happy to share on um and then uh is that my time up um Lower Marion is going to be voting on this on a decision on their school start time on March 20th so we'll be hearing soon what they're going to

060end up doing they actually hired a communication engagement firm to help them through this process and then lastly um their spring forward is doing a self-care Fair for the community which I thought was really really interesting Rosetta you might want to steal this one from them where they're going to have a fair to talk about nutrition Health mental health all aspects of health and they were seeking someone to help out with sleep hygiene so they'll have booths on different kind of topics so I thought that was a kind of really interesting idea um like I've mentioned before these are open to anyone and in fact it was not just school board and administration parents also joined this particular session and then uh someone from Quakertown which I didn't mention their transportation person had joined the

061call so it was a really great conversation that's all for communications thank you so much Debbie any comments or questions yeah I will use this opportunities so as far as this project for school start times and the issues you just mentioned about you know nutrition Health Wellness I did um talk to you about the stuffy about the possibly putting together a health wellness and Safety Committee and I mentioned to Jim to talk to Jeff about putting some language together I think that you know this is a big project for communications and I'm not sure how their board members feel but I think this is something Health wellness and safety of our students is so important and there's so many topics that we bring up regularly in this area so I think this would be a

062good project for us to sort of shift to that committee if we have approved such a committee um and also focus on some of these other topics you know student well-being mental health physical health of our students nutrition all these topics how do other board members feel about this type of committee Amy um can you explain how how this would differ um from what I believe exists now a wellness committee so that's very infrequently correct yeah Yes actually um I I was going to tell you that I reached out to um Kelly High McCloskey and one of the questions that I had was when would we be meeting again and she let me know that the that committee meets only twice a year and I was a little concerned with that because I thought that

063that just really isn't enough and so um I'm not sure like you know what Authority that I have to be able to change that schedule um or I think that your idea of starting another committee is probably um you know could we incorporate them I'm not really sure how to how to proceed from here but it they only meet twice a year yeah that was my understanding as well as they meet very infrequently when I said on the committee I recall meeting very infrequently um so I think and from what I recall also they talked about a lot of things that were more surrounding staff health and wellness right um so this would be the whole District students staff faculty will be focusing on health and wellness um I would think primarily of our students

064but also of our staff and our faculty as well um overall so that that's how I feel it's gonna you know differ we're gonna hopefully meet a little bit more frequently than twice a year to focus on those very important issues right so I think that you know you know I look to you for some guidance in how we can move that forward um but I'm really happy to you know to be really involved in that great thanks Rosetta any other thoughts on this yeah just regarding the wellness committee um so it sounds like that's not that's not a board committee I think we have a representative from the board who participates in that committee but it's it's not a committee that was like formed by the board or driven or controlled by the board

065so um I think that's a major differentiator with what um Amy's proposing here um because if it's a board committee then board members can set the agenda the frequency of the meeting and uh yeah what's what's under the scope of that um yeah thanks yeah thank you for that Joe other questions are common anyone else any thoughts on it yeah Amy oh who's talking sorry sorry it's really hard when you're on the camera to know if anyone's talking in the boardroom like right away sorry um I was just gonna say that zeffy and I I feel like and you Amy too have been a part of all of these recent communication committee meetings and have been really passionate on these topics so it's fine if you technically take it out of the communications but I

066feel like we should follow that committee to continue our important work because I think you know we really are um informed on the topic and are advocating for these issues so that's something I would like to have you consider yeah absolutely Dan I know how important this is to both you zafi and myself so I would certainly like us to continue with that committee and anyone else that would be interested in working on that committee um certainly there you know everyone is welcome to attend those meetings um no I think it totally makes sense and I think sleep hygiene is a part of Health and Wellness so it totally it's very logical to me for that to be the architecture of this but I do think that perhaps what Joe is alluding to we kind

067of create like another group and have this be this kind of more frequent kind of very engaged group that can kind of tackle some of these things because these are complex multi-faceted issues that need a lot of kind of process thinking Etc so I do kind of agree with Joe's kind of alluding to before that you almost kind of have to set the stage a little differently but yes it makes total sense for my perspective great thank you and I'd like to stay on any other thoughts well one last thing um so um later school start time sleep hygiene whatever is obviously something that would fall into the scope of this proposed committee but being brought into that we've talked a bunch about you know the SEL related work um one of the speakers talked

068about lgbtq um you know writes into our student population um so I I think more and more there are a number of these things um and topics related to student health and well-being that don't necessarily have a clean home in any of our current committees um it's not necessary I guess it's Park like sel's kind of like curriculum and it's embedded in the curriculum but it's not just curriculum right the the latest school start times there was a communication component but it's not just about communication um and there's other things too I'm sure that have been coming up the mental health supports and all that stuff that come up frequently so um you know it seems like a you know a pretty decent idea to have a community that can specifically focus on digging into

069those issues more more deeply and more regularly great thank you I'm glad the board supports this idea um so Jim yeah we could have that maybe for our next meeting great thank you all right if is there anything else on Communications is that exactly no that was it okay thank you thank you all right we'll move on natural curriculum and Technology committee running okay there are no informational items there are six action items that we reviewed at the work session so we're looking for approval for items 14 B1 through six so moved second emotions been made in seconded are there any comments or questions all right seeing none all those Beaver hi hi anyone opposed all right thank you move on natural facilities and transportation committee Joe thank you uh there are no informational items

070this evening and the six action items up for vote tonight were all discussed and reviewed at last week's work session and they remain unchanged with the exception of uh I guess a little typo on 15 B1 saying or specifying if the sale of surplus computers and equipment to GDI trade so um with that I'm asking for approval for Action items 15 B1 through six so moved second emergency made in seconded are there any comments or questions okay I have a comment Amy sorry that's okay I just wanted to comment that um you know I don't take this vote on the the turf fields lightly it is a expensive project and um for a while I wasn't really sure that I was in favor of it but um you know after hearing you know I I

071am a fan of sports I know how important they are in uh mental health and after hearing from especially the WRA person that came last week and knowing how many of our community kids will be able to use those fields um that made me just think okay that's that's really important for our community as a member of the aquatics program in our community I'm so grateful for our wonderful facility that we have and so it's nice to be able to have that in our community um one question I did quickly have for Wade regarding this is Wade as this would probably bring more activities to the high school parking lot for use of the turf fields would you foresee this inhibiting other facility uses such as the stadium or the natatorium thank you Dean it's

072a great question I um I don't think so just because of the location of the fields versus the location of the assets that you mentioned there's different parking lots that would be accessible to probably both assets so I think we would be okay um but I can certainly uh relay that concern to Jim Karen's the athletic director in case we do run into problems so that we can take care of it through scheduling so thank you just making sure that there's other you know that maybe this activity is directed to park at the middle school or just making sure that everyone has an opportunity to use all our facilities and if there's not too many conflicts that way thank you thank you great thank you for that Dan any other questions or comments all right

073seeing none that all those in favor hi hi anyone opposed right motions pass thank you all right we'll move on now to our finance committee before David thanks Amy uh we have no informational items tonight uh except to remind everyone that there is a finance committee meeting next Tuesday um we have five action items uh four of which were discussed uh last week and haven't changed we have one the fifth is a new item um I'm gonna ask Mr Coleman to present that please thank you uh very much so um item five was added um the it's really a signaling that this is something that we're going to be pursuing and putting on the front burner so the wording is the approval to authorize the allocation of up to 250 000 from the capital uh

074project fund to improve safety for walkers from the corner of Knight Road and Houston Road to the corner of Mount Pleasant Road and Knight Road including consideration of fencing cutting of trees to create better lines of vision sidewalk extensions uh pedestrian crocsing excuse me crossword system signage with the intent of improvement by the 2023-24 school year so in and of itself this is really just sending a signal um from the board to the community or from the board to the administration as well their support for these items to be developed and we are already working towards bringing some of these items back to the board so that we can put them on the front burner and make improvements hopefully in the short term so that's what this motion does um were there any questions or

075should I just say if they have a motion first sorry I haven't done as promotion or action items of 16 B1 through five so moved second okay seconded are there any comments or questions just uh one comment regarding um this last one uh 16v5 it's in bold because um we didn't have an opportunity to discuss it at last week's meeting I think between last meeting and now um there was like there was an incident um on one of the nearby roads um where the students um and I think this sort of tapped into would have been like ongoing concerns about um just like pedestrian safety on some of the roads nearby some of our schools um this one this one in particular and I think because of that incident that happened um between last meeting

076this one sort of spurred the need um or the interest of myself and fix some others to try to take some quick action to try to make things uh better in the near term why would look for maybe bigger or more comprehensive or longer term Solutions with um the the different townships and municipalities to partner on yeah thank you Joe other questions or comments no similar Rosetta oh God no go ahead Deanne um I I just wanted to um thank you for setting this money aside this is something I've been talking about and I did in fact uh make clear that I would not vote for a budget this year that did not include something for the safety of Walkers because it is something that's so important to me um I've walked I've walked my

077kids to school every day and I see a lot of crazy things and um you know I don't think that fencing is a solution necessarily but that's not for me to decide what I think we need to do is have a meeting with maybe some of the board Administration lower Gwynedd police Ambler police maybe some parents who are have been voicing their concerns for years to come together and say what are some solutions that we can come up with that keep our kids safe but also create really walkable solutions for them um that's my goal and I'm really grateful for this money I'm sad that it took an incident um to get there uh but I I am really grateful and I think it's it's something we really need to you know we put it

078into the Wellness and safety category we can talk about it in that committee but I really think it should be a meeting that involves the local municipalities and like I said other parents who have been concerned about this for their safety as well thank you thank you Dan is that the other comment so similar with Deanne um but do you want to Echo that I'm appreciative that we did take Swift action um it was unfortunate that an incident caused The Shining of light on this but appreciate that we took action you know between last week and this week to kind of make this a priority because we definitely want safety to be a priority so thank you yeah Amy would I be able to coordinate a said meeting like I don't know who's under whose

079authority that is but could I invite uh you know the lower Gwynedd and Ambler police Chiefs and invite some local parents that I know are LG Walkers I don't have as many connections to high school middle school but is there some way that we can have just a conversation about ideas about what we can do and can we do that quickly or who is in charge of that I don't know yeah I'm asking I'll do it what's that yeah I'll work with Jim and see if we can coordinate something okay thank you very much I do appreciate it of course and Rosetta did you have a comment no but I would like to be involved in that as well because I know that there's a lot of Neighbors in my neighborhood who are really because

080of the walking neighborhood who are really concerned with that so I'm willing to help out great thank you all right any other yeah just curious as to whether or not there have been any concerns raised at the other schools as well or everything seemed to be more specific to Lord one um so the answer is there are always concerns that are raised but um it's different issues at different schools um Blue Bell and Shady Grove we periodically have people who want to cross the skip back um and they want you know in uh different facility changes um this is the only one that's sort of uniquely um a walking issue to primarily the elementary school but also would affect middle school and high school kids and I think it's more concentrated um so I think

081it is a little bit different I could make a list of the other ones that I've had heard or have heard um and send it to the board just so you're aware of them thanks Wade I would add to that if the committee is going to be looking at this that they do it more holistically and also consider the other schools and um and have the same attention as well but if Lord when it obviously has more challenges that should be a priority but we should also look at look at it more holistically thank you yeah I would agree in meeting with the principal at Shady Grove this week he did mention about the students crossing over skip back and he informed events you know state road so there's not really much I guess you

082know we can do about that is that true yes uh I um have a personal opinion that I don't really uh want to encourage people walking past across get back um I am not certain that there'd be a safe way for that to be done and I think the only truthfully Safe Way would be outside of the schools uh purview which is if a individual parent wants to make sure that their child walks safely across together but I'm um you know that was going to be one of the ones I was going to to provide to Mr Badger but um I'm not convinced that that's something that we would put on the list and say how can we make that safer as opposed to maybe just have a discussion about it so that it's not

083just my opinion that makes sense thanks Wade all right were there any other comments or questions wait do you know about any like grants for pedestrian bridges that maybe the state would do over a state road that they know is adjacent to a school perhaps is that something that ever happens I've never seen one but that's not really our business so I'm sure that if you know we talk to people maybe there are some I don't I've never heard of one would that be like a whip pain Township issue potentially that those supervisors might look into yeah it probably would be I think also you know what I I think this would be something like Mr Badger noted that this would be holistically looked at great thank you again all right there's other comments or

084questions all those in favor aye aye anyone opposed all right motions passed thank you policy committee report Marshall you have a lot of people this week right there for your report I do thank you um and with that in mind there are no informational items uh to present tonight however I would like to note that we do have our next meeting uh next Monday March 13th at 7 pm uh by way of Zoom um tonight we do have uh action items uh to be voted upon it is B1 through uh 17 uh one through 15. uh and in a moment I'm going to ask for a vote in that regard however before I do that I would like to just make a comment um because we actually had a comment tonight regarding policy and we

085rarely if ever have that so thank you uh to one of our parents Ms English for bringing it up and I think uh it's important to note because what you saw tonight and what you're seeing as we discussed these issues is um this is our policy Committee in motion our policies in motion and you brought up a very interesting point by noting specific policies such as the suicide awareness prevention and response policy which is contained in what we're going to vote on tonight this is the 800 series that we've been going over regard starting operations and I think it talks about more of a a larger aspect here than just one particular policy we're talking about as you can see through a lot of our different reports tonight we're talking about health and safety and

086wellness of our of our students whether it's for those who are walking or whether it's Suicide Prevention It's a larger issue and it sort of rolls into each and every one of our reports and each and every one of the issues that we review debate and decide upon this particular policy that you brought up tonight is one that is to develop coordinate and Implement appropriate programs to ensure that we tackle the threat of either threat or attempt of suicide which again goes to our health and wellness of all of our children within the community but like all of our policies it's a living breathing thing what the policy that we're going to vote on Knight does is it allows us to implement the things we need to do so when you raise the issue or

087anyone raises the issue of making it better implementing new additional or Advanced policies or procedures or bringing in outside people to do so what this does is this particular policy and I'm talking about it because you brought it up specifically is it allows us to go to our superintendent or authorize designees to develop the appropriate procedures in order to implement each and every policy including this one so what I would simply say to you and everybody else who's watching or comes to a meeting if you have any questions comments or concerns about power policies and how we Implement them let us know because all this does is these policies lay the groundwork for how we operate but within that we invite all kinds of debate uh all kinds of discussion figure out how we can

088make things better and if anybody does if they have a question a comment a concern or criticism let us know because then we can tailor our policies and procedures to what is in the best interest of our kids which is I think what we all want uh their health wellness and well-being uh more than anything so with that in mind um I am going to ask for a vote tonight uh to approve 17b1 through 15 regarding uh the 800 series uh regarding uh operations so moved emotions been made and seconded are there any comments or questions so um with that Marshall I mean um Christine brought up a really good point before would there be an opportunity to revisit this policy because when you look at the procedures for Parental involvement you know is there

089something we can really look at that at a later time so that we could build further upon some of the thinking here well I I think your point is well taken it's not revisiting this and changing this policy this policy is what puts everything in place for us to do what we need to to implement programs and things that we need to do this particular policy developed in 2015 was updated to note the delegation of authority and uh it is backed up by uh the approval of the appropriate legislation by our solicitor so all this policy does it puts in place what we what we're allowed to do in terms of making sure we do the right policies and if there are things we need to do to imp momentum appropriately absolutely of course you

090if we want to implement something specifically within this policy absolutely and I don't know that you necessarily need to tweak the policy the policies in place it'll allow us to come up with a particular program or idea or concept that we'd like to implement within the policy get to sort of um extend on what Marshall's saying is that generally speaking the policies um should should outline the board's intent of what we're trying to accomplish with the policy but then the the superintendent and the administrative team then will you know actually implement it right um Faithfully to the intent of the policy the policy has written um in policies in general I think are intended to be um more high level and Broad because they're not intended to like change very frequently because our overall intent

091shouldn't change very frequently um how we actually go about doing it best in alignment with the policy May adjust and adapt over time um but generally speaking policies are meant to be more high level and more you know high level intent So within the intent of the suicide prevention piece it talks about um having like a program that's going to educate School personnel and students on access and resources necessary to prevent suicide and promote mental well-being I think By Design it's it's Broad and open and it's not specific and um that gives them flexibility if within that you know what are the things we need to if we find like a source of like um suicide ideation thoughts or actions is you know gender identity issues or acceptance or lgbtq related issues then in order

092to comply with the policy we should have support and services that try to educate folks and um you know support support those needs right but there could be other things as well right but all it's all under the general umbrella of trying to uh prevent suicide and promote mental well-being of our students so I think the policy as written is is fine and okay it's more about how uh Jim and the team go about trying to implement that policy what what are the specific programs and um I guess areas that they're looking to try to um emphasize in whatever program they want to put in place in support of this policy thank you any other comments or questions or anything none all those in favor uh anyone opposed all right thank you the Motions passed

093thank you next we'll move on to our racial Equity oversight committee Paul thanks Amy uh there's no report this evening other than to uh remind everyone that the next meeting is March 20th at 7 pm it is virtual and all are encouraged to attend great thank you Paul were there any questions this evening for the react committee all right thank you again all right we'll now move on to our report of board Representatives extracurricular Marshall uh I have nothing to report tonight as I said at the last meeting we have an upcoming meeting and I'm sure I'll have lots to talk about once we have our news great thank you and I recorded last week on the nciu board of directors and legislative committee um North montpel Ronnie or zappy we did our first review

094of budgets for North Monaco and there's going to be a subsequent meeting on March 13th because they are above Act three I'm saying it wrong but there act one act one uh their their budgets above so uh quite a few uh members had questions so we're having an additional meeting on March 13th and um I believe the vote is scheduled no it's not scheduled for March 20th I think March 20th is when we discuss what's going to come to each of the school uh to each district so that's being finalized right now which I'm sure you all Wade's not anything um so we spent the majority of the time talking about budget yay I actually have a question about that so I may be wave I mean this is better how how is there about

095budget established is it just the contributions from the districts that are members do they also receive state and federal funding because they have to stay within act one it's in their own tax right so yeah so theoretically I don't think they have a charter that says they actually have to stay within that one I think it would be the individual people who say are you able to because you know we would like you to um and yes I think they um receive considerable uh state and federal funding just like we do I can get you those numbers great thanks Wade and one one additional kind of care caveat that we do pay a percentage based on our participation so it's not like divided by five it's like divided by head count so um what's the

096heck it actually has the least amount of students to go to North Monaco so we actually are the least contributors from me like an overall number perspective that's exactly right but also um in addition to that a but a districts uh contribution could go up higher percentage-wise than others because it's based on a rolling five-year enrollment and so if even though right we have this the lowest enrollment but if ours went up percentage-wise more than a different District our contribution while much smaller than everybody else's since because our overall enrollment is smaller could go up percentage-wise more than theirs because of the the difference in the five-year average moment gotcha okay thank you Jim was there anything else to report on the meeting nothing else everything was just regular business okay all right were there

097any other questions or comments all right thing none we'll move on next to PSB alias at the end yep hello um so last meeting I just said I would give a short report on the 2023 state of education um and I think it's fascinating I don't know if anyone got to take a look at it um but just a couple of highlights um challenges that districts face uh 71 said that um they have student mental health issues as well as Staffing shortages that's their biggest issue 92 percent reported uh sub-teacher and instructional aides bus drivers and special education teachers as major major staffing issues the top budget issues for districts are mandatory Charter School payments as well as special education costs Rising pension costs and inadequate State funding um Pennsylvania has 1.7 million kids in

098public school ninety percent of PA kids attend a public high school or a public school rather our special education population continues to grow 18 of public school students receive special education programming and services this represents over 16 increase in the last 13 years while enrollment is down six percent so there is quite a jump in that um in terms of budgeting uh 73 of districts say they are raising property taxes to meet these needs uh and 33 are saying they're postponing needed building uh Renovations and additions uh because of budgeting issues uh 97 of districts also report inflation have affected their budget significantly um most schools do rely on uh local revenues because PA is 43rd in this country in share of Education funding um the we uh sorry Pa is 10th in the country

099in spending per student we spend seventeen thousand one hundred seventy dollars a student and 33 percent of that goes to um pension costs um in terms of growth and expenses I found this fascinating from 2010 to 2020 uh pension costs increase 542 percent Charter School costs 176 and then inflation is considered 20 at this point from then um the mandated expenses are outpacing revenues so um basically in 2010 and 2020 schools are receiving just about the same state and federal funding for special education while the actual costs have nearly doubled so that tells you the financial predicament that a lot of districts are in uh the top instructional challenge 81 of districts said that student mental health is and then infrastructure um 71 of respondents say that um buildings are in major need of repair

100replacement I think Wisconsin is really lucky in that regard um I feel like we do a good job of taking care of our um of our buildings and yeah that's it it's a really I think it's like 40 pages but it's a really fascinating report if anyone that wants to take a look at it I could send it over yeah please share that Dan and I also wanted to ask um with the day of action coming up have they been out yet their list of suggested discussion topics like last time I remember unfunded mandates was something I know you and I went around talking to everyone about um I haven't seen anything yet although I know there's a zoom meeting the night before on the 17th and I assume they're going to sort of brief

101us on um what they think some talking points would be although uh I think either Danielle or Jim had sent over a couple of um things from the union that they wanted um to mention us to mention as well so um yeah I'll keep an eye out for that I haven't seen anything like that Amy no and I'm not sure what other board members are participating in that day of action but maybe if you could share out any topics that you do receive like I found that very helpful from psba to get that list of suggestive topics to kind of guide conversations all right so it'd be great to get that in advance all right so I'll send the report and then I'll look if there's any suggested topics yet okay great thanks so much

102Dan thank you or comments all right then we'll move on next to health and wellness committee by I think I know what your report is Rosetta yeah yeah there's really no report I'm still waiting to hear about when this uh spring meeting is going to happen and um I'm really interested in in a board committee for health and wellness I think that we really need it agreed thanks Rosetta all right um I guess there are no comments or questions on that um we'll move on now to our second public comment period um again we allow maximum five speakers at any particular topic please limit your comments to three minutes and again notice that the board's practice to engage in dialogue with speakers when appropriate we will post a response on the website um please when

103you approach the podium or if you're online state your name and your Municipality of residence um all right we have two register in person um yeah we have Christine last thing to look for our Kate this time so my name's Kate I am a student at WMS and I am part of the lgbtq plus community and um there is a lot of well it's not like up front Prejudice or adversity but when we can't really like when we're not looking or when our backs are turned and we just overhear some sort of strain of conversation in the hallway and then it like hurts because they don't understand they're talking about how like all gay people are either pedophiles using the effler with no like operations whatsoever and it hurts because they're doing it when no

104one can see or hear them and then no one knows that they're doing it and you can't call them out on it because it's hidden and the teachers don't know because they're not doing it in front of them so it's small it's hidden but it's still there and um how it feels to be hated like that is like being hated for something about you that you cannot change that it's permanent it's a permanent trait or attribute of yours and you feel hated for it and you like are hurt and you sometimes it goes to the point where you might want to hurt yourself or even kill yourself in some ways and I've known people who've been almost pushed to that limit and it hurts knowing that this is happening well people aren't looking and they're

105being sneaky about it and it's not happening for people sorry people don't think it's happening but it is it's happening all around almost constantly and today like this day I found so um like when you put up posters of lgbtq support to make people of the lgbtq community feel fit in and at home in the WMS Community I found one of them ripped off the ball Hape was ripped off pieces like there's corners of paper gone it was sitting there on the floor and I had to hit the backup no that's not in my statement thank you so much and we don't typically engage in dialogue with speakers but I do want to really thank you for coming forward and speaking with us this evening I know how hard it is to speak in you

106know room of adults to begin with but to come and talk about topic that's so sensitive and important to you I really really appreciate you doing that and commend you for being able to do that thank you um yeah Christine did you also want to speak sure okay I'm sorry it's not related to what I was talking about earlier about suicide or anything I just wanted to actually commend I know that there are students who've experienced the things that Kate's talking about but we as a couple my wife and I um we've lived here in the community since 2000 well this specific Community since 2004. our children have gone we have another child in ninth grade also and then Kate in eighth grade and they have been treated by the teachers just so amazingly almost

107like they're their own family and we before we knew our children were in the queer Community I mean obviously Julie and I are married so we are a same-sex couple everybody treats us very well so I think that's why it's been such a shock in the past couple years to see the things that I see on parent sites here because I'm surprised um just like because it feels like a very safe community and we have so many teachers that are just so just smart and like wise about social emotional issues and just and they're not they're not advocating okay being part of the LGBT community like that's the piece that really bothers me nobody's being indoctrinated it's nothing like that that doesn't happen like it's not the case they're just loving supportive adults and that's

108what our kids need and my kids even though they have us and we support them and we give them what they need at home if they need therapy we'll get them therapy anything they need will do the teachers would do anything here and that's why we say like it's just just such a wonderful support they'll message us to say you know I noticed Kate had a hard day or this happened um when Kate I guess it was end of 11 into 12 years old came to us and told us what was happening I reached out to the teachers and they helped us with the bathrooms like a parent's biggest concern is is my child going to be hurt um they're just saying like let's walk around let's assure you they're just principal Bauer was actually

109more open to talking about what we should do than I would have ever thought there was not a Skip Beat like it just was like okay this is what we're gonna do and it's it's just very it's just a beautiful experience and we're just lucky that's all so that's why I'm passionate about it I just think you do a great job so not today I'll play what she's saying because I don't know what her friends go through but so thank you thank you for those comments Christine Katie is there anyone registered online there are no raised hands on Zoom okay and we'll move on from our comment period and I'll move on to board comments but anyway fellow board members like to say anything this evening Marshall go ahead thank you um we oftentimes hear

110from members of our community in the form of parents we hear grandparents we hear adults who have issues comments concerns criticisms but it's not very often that we hear from our students and that's not an easy thing to do so Kate I just want to say to you that what you did is courageous it's strong and it's you and that's all we want from you and everyone of your peers in this school district it's not always easy but when people like you whether you're a leader or simply someone who wants to tell us what they're feeling well that's what the school district is all about and we can all do better so when you tell us that there are things of concern to you that bother you that don't make you feel good we take

111that to heart because we want everybody no matter who they are what they are what they think what they feel to be part of this community and we will always try to do better to make sure that everybody who is associated with Wissahickon feels part of that community and I promise you that we'll continue to do thank you Marshall um I just wanted to uh let everyone know um I don't know if Guys and Dolls is still showing but my wife and I had the opportunity and I know Amy was there I know zeppy was there and Zeppe's daughter believes in the production um but we were at the performance of Guys and Dolls on Friday at the high school and it was fantastic I was like Blown Away um at the talent of our

112of our students I mean the singing Talent was was amazing um but you could tell that the kids put so much time and energy and effort in making a wonderful performance and even just the production design with the the sets and the staging the lighting of the crew um everything was amazing and fantastic and it was a great Showcase of our kids talents and the fruits of their hard work so uh if it's still showing I don't even know if it's showing this weekend but it's not okay well catch it next year but it was fantastic and we had a great time and for all those who attended um I'm sure you had a great time as well yeah I would Echo that it was amazing and yeah I'm also thankful that Joe and his

113wife were able to put up with my kids without the whole protection because they were a little out of control um but they actually loved it so much when we went back a second night um so it was just amazing so yeah great job by the drama club um other comments questions nothing okay all right thanks we have a motion to adjourn second all right oh there's a paper hi how do you want to post right great