001call the U committee of the whole meeting to for um Taylor is not here. So if you will join me in the pledge of allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all. Uh, is anyone recording uh the meeting? Thank you. Um, and I believe we are up to roll. >> Mrs. Herz, >> Mr. Hers here. Mrs. K >> here. >> Mrs. Phillips >> here. >> M. Rodriguez. >> Mr. Shippers, >> Mrs. Taylor, Mrs. Torres >> here. >> Mrs. >> here. >> Um, just want to welcome everybody to uh the beginning of the whole meeting tonight um and go over the list of upcoming meeting dates. There will be a finance and facilities workshop um here
002in community boardroom this Wednesday, November 12th at 5:00. There is a board of school directors meeting November 17th at 6 o'clock in this room. The school board reorganization meeting will be December 2nd at 6:00 also in this room. And there's a curriculum workshop on December 3rd at 5:00 p.m. also in this room. Let's see to public comment. Okay. Um we're at up to the public comment section of the meeting. Um I will read um the information about public comment just in case there is any public comment will be welcome during this time in the meeting as indicated on the agenda pursuant to section 710.1 of the Sunshine Act. Members of the public wishing to speak during public comment will be asked to state their full name as stated in school board policy 903. All statements
003shall be directed to the presiding officer. No participant may address or question individual board members, district employees, students, or community members. The public comment agenda item is not a time for dialogue with the board. Although the board president may respond or request another board member or administrator to respond, generally the board will simply listen to comments and thereafter determine when and how to address such comments as deemed appropriate. Participants are permitted three minutes to address the board. Is there any public comment for tonight? Okay. All right. Great. Okay. We'll be moving on then and I think we are moving on to routine approvals um which would be the minutes. So, so um Okay, that's no longer um it is recommended that the board of school directors approve the following minutes. The October 6, 2025 board
004of school directors meeting minutes. >> Is there any discussion? I actually had a comment. I think that there are some incorrect dates in the minutes um under the facilities report unless this is um from a previous year. It says the workshop was on December 10th. I think they knew you. >> Yeah. And then there's also um under the finance section, it also said they met in December. I think that also probably should be October. So >> moving forward. [laughter] >> Yes. Right. Right. We were just moving a little faster. So I think that was the only >> but I don't think it was October or November 10th >> or I mean >> oh maybe the >> OC October 10th was a Friday >> we met on the 15th. >> Okay. So it's probably just an
005incorrect date >> in total. Okay. >> But ironically we're we're reporting tonight on the October 15th meeting. So it wouldn't have been in the minutes >> from the last minutes. >> Right. Right. >> So it I'm not sure when that's from. [laughter] Right. >> So I don't think it's referring to the October 5th. >> Oh, >> so it could have been as >> there was a finance and facilities meeting on September 10th at 5. >> So it must have been September. >> Yes, there it is. Yes. >> So I think we can approve the minutes as adjusted and that's all by voice vote. So, all those in favor of approving the minutes um as amended, please say I. >> I. >> All those opposed. Motion passes. Okay. Um and I think we are now up
006to committee reports and let's see. Oh, I have curriculum. So, so I will do the curriculum um update. Um, our last meeting was held on September 24th where we covered the junior senior high school restructuring. Um, as I mentioned earlier, our next meeting is December 3rd at 5. We'll be covering communications and technology. Um, and we will have another one in January with the date yet to be determined. Um, we're going to focus then on looking at our assessment data um, in preparation for some of our strategic planning sessions which will happen later in 2026. Um, tonight Dr. Hal and Dr. Woodard will be reviewing the program of studies um and there for the potential approval um at our board meeting on November 17th. That is it for curriculum um facilities. Mrs. Phillips, >> thank
007you. Um we had a facilities and finance workshop on on October 15th here in the boardroom. Uh Mr. Kevin Sully gave us an update on the Flenry Field phase 2 project. As of right now, the project is on schedule. Fingers crossed whether it does or not anything. Uh the retaining wall along the baseball field has been completed and is now being backfilled. Um and as a result they were able to move on to other aspects of the baseball field. Hopefully the buildout soon. Um the new fieldhouse is underway and it's showing significant progress. Um Mike took me up there the other week and walked me through. It looks really It looks really nice. So, they're definitely moving the uh I guess the next phase is putting the trusses on top. So, uh let's see what
008else. Um the other thing that's making great progress is something that I know Mr. Boyer loves is the ticket booth entrance, which is going to be the turn style. That looked really well. That that looked really nice as well. And um I believe that the fence is going up for the girls softball to define a real I did not know this a true home run space whereas the current fence does not justify that home room home run space. So hopefully that helps the girls out with that. Um other than that everything looks to be moving along accordingly. Uh, I know the board was given the um plans in regards to the fieldhouse in our updates on the October 24th. Did you get that? Cuz I know Rachel, you were looking for those as well. >>
009Yeah, I did. Thank you. >> So, but I will say I was I was given a um tour of the building and it looks really [clears throat] nice. Um, also at our previous workshops, some of the board had asked for a review to see the cost of adding a sanitary line as well as a ba bathroom up at the baseball field and um, Mr. Captain Sully came back with an estimate and unfortunately it was around $300,000. So, that will probably be something down the road. U, Mr. Kathy Sully also gave us an update on the vandalism at the newly renovated wreck playground and unfortunately there has been six cases um since it's been opened and at this point we have unfortunately made the difficult decision to close the playground for the public. Uh Mr. Censali
010also reviewed the HVAC replacement for the IT server and the fire alarm loop replacement at the junior senior high school. He also included projected costs based on posters pricing and the projected cost for the firearm alarm loop is $20,924 and for the HVAC replacement it is $16,172. Um and then our next workshop is actually this Wednesday, November 12th here at 5:00 p.m. >> Thank you very much. >> Thanks. >> Um moving on to next committee is finance. Mr. Shipper. >> Yeah. The only thing I'll add to Melissa's great report is we also reviewed and he said this the renderings for the new security entrance. >> Yes, thank you. >> Which is pretty cool. There's a couple of different possibilities which we're excited to show the board with whenever Mr. Cell says it's time to look
011at them, but there's some some really good options. >> Um so in relation to all those wonderful projects, we studied various capital needs and our budget for um being able to cover those costs. We looked at the implications of the ongoing budget impass in Pennsylvania. Fortunately, you know, you read in the newspaper, there's a lot of school systems that are in severe um distress over that. We're in really good shape, thanks in large part uh to our great finance team here for managing the budget. Um we're not in a situation where it's a crisis yet, but we're continuing obviously to monitor what's happening at the at the state level, but we do have enough uh reserve cash to be able to meet all of our obligations. Um we're in early innings of our next budget
012cycle and so we talked and reviewed uh the budget and potential tax implications therein and that's about it. >> Thanks. >> Thank you. Um Mrs. Ren, I'm not here for policy. I don't know if there's any updates specifically on that. >> Just that those um overviews were shared with the board during the Friday update. Um so um should there be any discussion and we could have that next Monday, but we'd hope to go through the first. >> I think that concludes all of the um committee updates. So I will turn it over to Dr. H. Oh, I'm sorry. Could I have a little bit of an update that I missed last time? Oh yes, absolutely. Yes. >> The last meeting was on October 22nd and the next meeting is December 11th for a reorganization. They
013reviewed updates to the welding facility due to ventilation problems and they discussed tuition rates for CDL which um their tuition for class A was 6,785 and the median costs were between 5,400 and 6,000 which resulted in consideration for lowering tuition costs for CDL training. Um there's congratulations in order for 11 collective students from Wyo entering the National Technical Honor Society and BCTC also received an Adam table which they're very proud of. The smart program dental program health occupation sports medicine are all sharing the table to learn how to connect what they learn in what they're learning in the classroom. That's all I have for Thank you so much. Exciting. Thank you. Um so I think that concludes all the um updates and um so we'll turn it over to Dr. Woodard and Dr. Hal for
014the junior senior high school program of studies. >> I will all right Dr. Hul and I are going to just go through some of the more significant changes to the program of studies for the 2627 school year. Uh let's see if I can There we go. Um, and we feel like we've been talking about this with the obvious changes with the middle level and seventh and eighth grade, but um, it will all be documented in the program of studies. U, that document will be shared with you in this Friday's update. Um, but these are the highlights of the changes both at the middle level, seventh and eighth grade, again, which we talked about quite a bit, but then also at the high school, there are some new courses and things to celebrate. So, we'll go
015through just a few of those. Um, Dr. >> Sure. Um so specific to the seventh and eighth grade um we've talked about extending the time for math and life um which is a a big push for these updates. So math 7 and accelerated pre-alggebra are going to meet 12 times per cycle. Um so that will be um together too that will be you would consider sort of a block style. Um math 8 and accelerated algebra which are eighth grade offerings they will meet nine times per cycle. Um so they will get um a block one day and then 40 minutes the next day and then the block the following day um which will add up to the nine times per cycle. Um ELA is the same. Seventh grade ELA um and accelerated English will meet
01612 times. Another change in that is that um the reading and the writing will be integrated in one course. Um rather than having an English class maybe at the beginning of the day and a writing course at the end of the day, it will be taught by the same teacher. um in that same chunk of time. Um the um academic and accelerated English 8, same thing. Um kind of on the opposite um schedule of math. So when math has the block, ELA has the 40 minutes and then the next day ELA will have the block and math will have the 40 minutes. Science and social studies. Um we did talk about the academic and the advanced sections of science and social studies. Uh 478 will no longer be offered. Um we will have science and
017social studies grade seven and science and social studies grade 8 that all students will receive. Um world language the change is that Spanish will be offered beginning in grade 8. Um health and physical education [clears throat] um it will be taught in seventh and eighth grade which amounts to instead of 45 days it will now be 60 days across two grade levels. So whereas before it was only in eighth grade, it will now be taught in seventh and eighth grade. So we do have to um just adjust that curriculum a little bit um over the over the two-year span. The quarter courses in seventh grade, we will be adding another course um instead of the exploring technology, it will be called nextgen literacy and um this is going to be a seventh grade work course.
018So in that course um it's going to be uh researchbased. So, helping seventh graders really understand how to conduct research, pulling in um some AI in that course, which I'm really excited for because um just um talking to them about um how to use AI appropriately and for the benefits that we um know it can and provide. So, advisory will be taught in seventh and eighth grade now. So, three times per cycle, both grades will get that. it will it will um every other day with health and and PE. Um that is a change. It was only um in seventh grade. So we will have it for both grades now. And I think that's a key because we're addressing some of the social emotional learning pieces. We're going to be utilizing a researchbased evidence-based program.
019Uh we're piloting those programs this year. So, um, that is something that I think we've heard loud and clear that we we've got to continue to figure out tier one for everybody how to address those social emotional needs. So, we're excited that advisory can be offered in both seventh and eighth grade throughout the entire year. >> Is that taught by counselors? >> No, this is actually going to be taught by the core academic teachers that will be trained in the resource as well, some of whom we're piloting right now. So >> can I real quick? >> Can you refresh my memory? I know Spanish is listed up there. What about French? Another one >> that has always started in eighth grade. >> Yeah. As well as that. So that will there will be no changes
020on >> um music ensembles will have the opportunity to meet daily. Um if you are in multiple music ensembles, seventh and eighth grade, you you if you're in band and chorus, you won't get um six of those. you you'll work out with the music teachers how many days are towards band, how many days are towards chorus and we also have orchestra in there. Um but the opportunity would be daily for music ensembles. Um and that would be happening during our flex period which is also new and that's not in the program of studies because it's not a course. Um but um junior high students, seventh and eighth grade students will have a flex every day. Um so during that time that is when the music ensembles will meet and the other students will have that
021time built in to receive um help from teachers and and do things like that that they might need to do. So that is a change to the schedule although not a change in program of studies. Um senior high updates. So there are a couple courses that we have some name changes and a couple additions to the program of studies. Um, in the math department, integrated math 1 and integrated math 2 will replace math strategies. Uh, there will be a name change. Instead of algebra 3 with trig, uh, we are going to call that academic precap. Um, just sort of back to what it actually is. Um, that precap course. English. Um, we will be adding introduction to philosophy honors course and that will replace humanities too. In technology, robotics 2 will now be titled honors
022digital design and fabrication and robotics 3 is going to be our honors stem capstone. And those were suggested by our steam team um because they felt like robotics 2 didn't really accurately describe the uh type of work that students were doing in that course. So there is a great deal of fabrication and creation not just um coding robot robots. So they wanted to be a little bit more global with that piece. Um and then interestingly robotics 3 uh and I got a chance to go down and visit at one point when the kiddos were in there from robotics 3. They really have a lot of choice and agency in the type of technology education they want to pursue for that capstone. So some may go more towards robotics while others may go more towards fabrication.
023So it's really up to students individual interests and where they may want to go down the road. So they felt that retitling that honors STEM capstone kind of allows for that freedom and flexibility and student agency. It also sort of unties some of the you have to take the robotics one to take the robotics two to take the robotics three and allows a little bit more choice in there for students along the way. And we now have a business department. So that's new um this year. So um we will have an introduction to business course next year that we will offer as an elective. Um and then financial literacy which is currently in the social studies department will move over to the business department and that does meet the PPE requirement for financial literacy. It
024will now be a half credit course and that will start with next year's sophomore. So, we will continue um with uh PRM for um everybody above that. All of the graduating courses above our next year's sophomores will continue um with the PRM, but then moving forward, everybody will have that financial literacy class. So, we're we're excited to be able to roll this out and as Dr. house said um with the financial literacy piece in a business department with the introduction to business course that'll be a semester in length ideally the following year we'll be able to grow that to maybe an entrepreneurship type of a course um I know other schools you may have seen run um coffee shops and and different um entrepreneurial ventures um through the course uh so we first need to
025learn more about business before we jump into that. So, uh, we're excited to be able to down the road offer a few more courses in a content area that we feel and we've got data supporting this, many of our students are are going into post-secary majoring in a business field and yet really haven't had any business courses here. So, the more we can, you know, hopefully help them to identify whether it's truly an interest and a passion and whether they're, you know, adapt that as well I think is is a good thing. So we're excited to be able to get this off the ground but realize we have to take it in steps. Um so just adding you know the intro business course the financial literacy again we had the PRM we've had academic econ
026which is very similar to that. So um we're just pulling in everything that the state is saying is required for that course. Um, so we're excited for all of our 10th graders from year forward, you know, to be enrolled in that in that course. Um, so the graduation requirement that had been personal resource management PR will be obviously eliminated. Um, and then the financial literacy will become the graduation requirement that the the state is mandating as well. So working through that process with the next over the next year or two as we graduate people and inherit some of our folks. All right. So I think that was where the last slide there. Um does anyone else have any other questions regarding these fairly large changes that we bring to you? >> Will that kind of
027be um I mean most I'm thinking mostly of the scene the seventh and eighth grade. Will that kind of be rolled out to parents and the public and students in some way? >> You know, the senior high I know is known as much as >> So we did send out the newsletter um in the November newsletter which went out at the beginning of the month. Um all of the changes that we went over here were um sent out to parents in that newsletter. So we will continue program of studies will reflect these changes as well. >> And then in January I believe there are course registration information nights. So, we'll be meet, you know, offering that to families as well. Um, our school counselors and teachers meet with our students and make sure to explain
028to them the program of studies and the expectations. Um, there aren't a lot of free choices for our seventh and eighth graders. Instead, they kind of get um explor exploratory courses in lots of different electives, but those electives, like I said, are being updated, being altered a little bit. um and I think are hopefully more high interest for our students too um and relevant. Um I know we're we're very excited about the integration of of research and AI um you know through that one course. So I think that that's a good thing. Um but yes, so there will be over the the January February timeline um that information out for families, those information nights and then the documents that get sent home as well. So questions >> definitely necessary. So um and we do have
029our current program employees on the website. So we will be sharing with you like I said the document in a Friday update. Um and then we once approved we'll be putting that and formatting it appropriately for the website. So if you go on the website now um you can kind of click an area and there's a plus sign and then it drops down different um content for that particular subject. Um and so it will be um I guess formatted in that way on the website even though the document just has everything there. fancy plus stuff, you know, you can't drop down on the document. So, >> just be aware >> that it's like a lot of pages, >> a lot a lot document. >> Yes. Um, >> good late night reading, >> but it looks
030very nice on the website because it's a little bit more manipulatable. Um, so, >> all right, your questions. >> Thank you. That all sounds great. I think that' be especially, you know, good to see that going for the seventh and eighth grade and see that, you know, that increased math and English. I think will be really >> hopefully really be helpful. So, great. Thank you so much. >> Um, I think that was our only presentation. >> That was great. Oh. Oh, look at that. There >> Oh, there's [snorts] the site's currently on the website. So, as you can see, there's So, the document you'll receive will just like lots and lots of pages to it once applied to the website then you'll be able and be able to >> yes >> scroll through that and
031see all >> yeah that's nice >> but I will say there was a very nice article in the chariot with your interview >> oh >> I thought that was [laughter] very nice to get a heads up for the incoming eighth grade I don't know if anybody read it but it was I I had to pull it real quick. But um she was interviewed by my neighbor Avery Hayward and it's the WMadison schedule change. >> So it was a very nice article. Very >> very good journalist. [laughter] >> She had me sweating. I was >> She was great. She did a great job. >> That's great. Great. Um so I don't unless there's anything else anyone announcements or otherwise um I can entertain a motion to um adjourn the meeting. >> I would like to ask
032if this is the short >> if it is now >> by asking that you just made it long. >> I think we earned this one. Yeah, >> I'll make the motion to the shortest meeting in the history of all those in favor. All >> those opposed. Enjoy your evening. Thank you.