001Good evening. I'd like to call the November 5th, 2020 North Hills Board of Education committee meeting with action to order. I'll begin by taking attendance this evening. Ms. Kozera? Here. Mr. Little? Here. Dr. Nolish is not present this evening. Ms. Philpott? Here. Mrs. Poniatowski? Here. Mrs. Reid? Here. Mrs. Radovic? Here. Mrs. Spade? Here. I am also present and I just want to note that Ms. Philpott and Mrs. Reid are attending via teleconference this evening. Now I'll ask you to all please rise for a moment of silence and salute [inaudible]. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you very much everybody. Welcome again to the November 5th, 2020 North Hills Board
002of Education committee meeting with action. I would like to announce that the board met an executive session on October 27th, 2020, and then again this evening, to discuss personnel and legal matters. As you'll notice, we've made some modifications to the setup of this meeting tonight to hopefully improve the audio for our board members who are here in person, the board members who are remote, and the viewing audience, including those in person and at home. We obviously have a lot of different entities to consider, but I think we've got a good system for tonight. Because we do have some board members participating on the phone, I am going to make sure to specifically call on them throughout the meeting so that everybody is included and able to participate equally. And then just very briefly, without belaboring
003the point or getting too deep into Robert's rules, I did want to briefly address a situation that occurred at the last meeting, which we received several questions about when a member of the board called the question in order to move on from discussion. In my time on the board, we have not dealt with this particular situation before, but I did consult our solicitor, who explained that this has always been handled in an informal matter, meaning that if a member of the board calls a question, it ends discussion. Another option for the board is to handle this in a formal matter, which means that if this should happen again, we would need a second for that motion and a 2/3 vote in favor to end that discussion. So just my personal opinion on this matter is
004that, as colleagues on the board, we should be patient with each other and allow all board members an opportunity for discussion. And just treat each other with professionalism and respect. We might not always agree, but when we operate well as a team, I think that it benefits the district as a whole. So that's it for my comments. Does anybody else have any other Board member comments this evening? I'd like to address an issue that was referred to me. Yes, Mrs. Reid. First of all- Please go ahead. First of all, since I've been on the board, it's always been informal. We've never been formal. There is a lot to say about that. Number 1: We're there to listen, but we're not there for somebody to take over and have to run an agenda and talk for
00525, 30 minutes. We limit our constituents to 3 minutes. I mean, it can get totally out of control. I don't think you realize that. And I wasn't trying to be rude cutting that off because it was getting to be a lot back after I did it. I was mad at myself I didn't do it sooner. Because we're not there for their agenda, or an individual agenda, we're there for the school district. So therefore, I like informal. OK, thank you, Mrs. Reid. Does anybody else have any comments or discussion at this time? You can ask to vote too, if whoever you're going to do this, informal or formal. OK. Then if nobody else on the board has any comments on this, we're going to move on to Dr. Mannarino and the superintendent's report. I'm now going
006to call the meeting back to order. And we understand we had some technical problems on Facebook that we think we've resolved. So we're going to restart the superintendent's report. Maybe. Heather's giving me the one second, Pat. I'm sorry. That's all right. Do I need to do some sort of filler here? Yes, same. [inaudible] And then once that is good, then we are good to go. Give me one second. Good? All right. I'm going to start this presentation by discussing the COVID cases that we have in our schools. So over the last 10 weeks, we've had 17 total cases in our schools. There are eight active cases right now. The definition of an active case is that, a case is active from the date of the start of symptoms through a 10 day period. Anything after
007that 10 day period is considered a recovered case. So right now, the North Hills school district has eight cases that are attributed to us, but are not a result of us or what we're doing. It means that it's one of our students, or it's one of our staff members, but it does not necessarily mean that it's a result of us being in school, or in activities, or operating in the hybrid model that we're operating under. So we have seven high school students and one student at West View that are in the active case category. You can see the COVID tracker that we have available is in the corner of this slide. But you can follow along with those cases on our website by looking at this tracker, and you can see the up to date
008details of the cases that we have. The active cases and the total cases. The good news about this is the majority of our cases are not connected, or not contracted, at the school. Students and staff are not getting sick in our schools. In fact, we believe that there's only one connection between two active cases at the high school. All other cases are happening in scenarios where we have a hybrid student that's here on a Monday and Tuesday, and they're virtual the next three days. A family member tests positive with COVID, which then puts them into a quarantine situation. Several days later, they become sick and test positive. In those scenarios, the student was not in our school when they were sick, and they were not in our school in the window that the Allegheny County
009Health Department would be concerned about, which means that there's nobody that they need to contact trace in our schools. In fact, five of the last six cases are that exact scenario, which means the parents are doing exactly what we're asking them to do. And they're keeping their children home when they're sick. And they're paying attention to their symptoms and the symptoms of their children, so that we don't have an outbreak in our schools. Which is, again, showing that what we're asking folks to do is working. The hybrid model is working because we are keeping students separated from each other at times that there would have been a critical situation. And there's no outbreak and there's no community spread. So what we want to talk about next is why we would then have closed the high
010school. Because we did put the high school back to a virtual environment. But because the cases were not attributed to us, but were a result of students that we currently have, and we had a short week, we started to talk about maybe moving the high school back to virtual, based upon the number of students that had tested positive that would have been in the active window, coupled with one in-person instructional day this week coming off the Halloween weekend. And that's where the health department got nervous. They felt as though we would have had students at Halloween parties over the weekend, and that we would begin to see students getting sick at the end of the week here. So they felt it was best that we just sent the high school back to virtual under those
011circumstances, and it was for this week only. We will be operating on a hybrid model beginning again on Monday. And so you can see, based upon the circumstances of the cases, that we can't give you details of every case. And that's unfortunate. But we do have a responsibility to protect the privacy of individuals in this community. So we can't tell you who they are. We can't tell you the circumstances behind them. We are going to protect people's privacies to the extent that we possibly can. But I hope you know that I do have the best interests of the health, safety, and well-being of all of our kids in mind at all times. And I'm not going to put us in a situation where we are going to put anybody in danger. So with that being
012said, it's working. The social distancing that we have in our classrooms and in our cafeterias is working. The students are wearing their masks at all times. They're following what we're asking them to do. They're washing their hands. And I think from the examples I just gave you, they're staying home when they're sick. And I think that's important. And those are the things that are going to allow us to continue to move the in-person model forward. I also want to note that the North Hills school district does not conduct contact tracing. We provide a list of close contacts to the health department. We help them with the contact tracing. But it is ultimately up to them to make the decision about who has to quarantine, who is a close contact, and all of it is based
013upon the circumstances and facts of each individual case that we discuss. The district does not determine who must quarantine. Allegheny County Health Department is responsible for sending those official notices of who is to quarantine, not the district. Now, we do help them, in the fact that, if we know that there is a close contact, and that person or group of people have to quarantine, we will call them. We will help the health department, because I'm sure they're overwhelmed with all the contact tracing that they have to do, let alone what they have to do with the schools. So we'll help them to communicate that. But we leave those decisions up to the experts. We will assist them, as I said, in notifying the contacts, but we will not directly notify families about COVID cases, unless
014recommended by the health department. Again, that's for the privacy of the individuals who are sick and their families. And if you are not contacted by the district, you're not a close contact, and there's really nothing for you to worry about for you or your children. So I want to talk about blended or traditional at this point. And we know that students learn best in the classroom, and I want that for all students. I want them in school five days a week. I know it's a model that works best. We've been doing it for a century now, almost, in this district. I know that's the best model for our kids. Now's not the time. Not as we have numbers skyrocketing like we have in our community, in the county, and we're seeing cases in our school.
015The hybrid model is what's keeping us moving forward in a face-to-face environment for at least two days. We will continue to follow the federal and state guidelines. And that's where this becomes very difficult for us when we begin to talk about traditional. As long as the guidelines are in place, that we have to remain six feet apart, our classrooms are not large enough for that. And yes, I know that the governor said to the extent possible. And the hybrid model allows us to get six feet apart to that extent, and that's possible. If we back off of that guideline and go to a traditional model, or even our blended model, which is: K-8 students are here in the morning and go home at lunchtime and don't eat in the schools, and the high school students
016would then be here all day, every day, and eat in the high school and the middle school, because the middle school students wouldn't be here at lunchtime, so we could utilize these cafeterias in this building. If we do that, our students are only three to four feet apart, even for those 3 and 1/2 hours while they're here during a blended model. Now we know the World Health Organization says that three feet reduces exposure to risk by 80%, but the CDC guidance still remains at 6 feet apart. And that's where the conversation becomes difficult, because I can tell you, I cannot get them six feet apart in the classrooms. And then our cafeteria has become the next piece of impossibility. There is no way we get them six feet apart. I think we can get them
017two feet apart if we go all students in the cafeteria. And yes, we've looked at additional spaces. There's just really no viable options for us. If the students eat in their classroom, there's no ability to supervise them. The teachers can't supervise them during lunchtime. If we eat in the gymnasium, we're going to have to cut the Phys Ed. program. We feed four of nine periods in the elementary schools, and there's no way for us to make the Phys Ed. program work if we're going to take almost 50% of that program away. So that's not a possibility either. The spaces around our buildings and the way we're set up, and I don't even know what they would cost, but creating tents and outdoor eating spaces and trying to heat them in the time that we're about
018to walk into, is just not feasible. It's just not possible. I'm not even sure we could get approval to do it. So those are some of the things that I've heard as options, and we've looked at a whole bunch of options. We've been looking at traditional models since the first of June. When this summer unfolded, we were really thinking about beginning the school year traditionally. And then you get the spike of the 4th of July, and all the fun things that we got to deal with in the summer, not knowing what this virus was going to do when we came back together in large groups of students, but we've been talking about traditional the entire summer. We've been looking at all of these different ideas and all these different models for months. And that's where
019we landed on the hybrid model right now. Now our next step could possibly lead to a blended or a traditional model. But when we're looking at 150 to 180 to 200 cases a day in Allegheny County, and you're looking at 5, 6, 7, 8 in Ross and West View every day, now is not time. And I want us to get there. I was hoping the numbers would be something completely different, and we were talking about coming back to school in a more traditional fashion, but that's just not where we are right now. So in my opinion, I believe we continue the hybrid model until either the guidance changes, or the outlook is different. We have put together a hybrid schedule for families, and this goes through January. And this is not saying that we are
020going to be hybrid through January. I don't know what the next 7, 14, 3 months are going to look like for us. Maybe we're at the peak and we're on our way back down and we're going to get back the numbers that are low enough that we can start to talk about bringing students back traditionally. But this set of calendars is really just for you to be able to look at and plan through January, in the event we stay in this hybrid model through January, because, as you know, November, December, January are all carved out from vacations. We have the Thanksgiving holiday coming up. We've got the Christmas holiday. And we have Martin Luther King Day, followed by the end of the semester. So you have days that are going to carve up the calendars
021over the next couple of months. So we've put these calendars together for that reason only. This is not saying that we've already forecasted being hybrid out to that end of January. This is really just for planning purposes for families as you look at the months that have some vacations built into them. Mr. Weber is here tonight and he's going to talk about athletics. He's going to do an athletic report from the fall and talk a little bit about winter athletics. But I wanted to just talk about the fact that winter sports will begin as scheduled by the PIAA on Friday, November 20th. That's the first practice date. The guidelines, as far as spectators are concerned, have not changed since the last time the governor made that order. So parents will be allowed to attend events
022as spectators, as long as those facility capacity guidelines don't change. So the way they're structured now, we will be able to have spectators, or we will be able have parents come to their children's events. Now, swimming will be a challenge for us, but we've got some ideas to hopefully make swimming work with the parents in attendance whenever their children are participating in the event. It's tricky, because our auditorium at 20% capacity would be at a capacity of 40, and we have more than 40 swimmers. So Pat and I have talked about some different outside of the box ideas that we have that we'll be able to maybe work with so that parents can be in the auditorium when their children are in the water. And so we're going to be looking at a few of
023those things, but all of our events will continue to be streamed and broadcast on either box cast around North Hills Athletics YouTube. So winter sports is here. And Pat's going to do a full report about our fall sports review and about some of the winter sports things coming up. And lastly, I'd just like to say thank you again. Hybrid would not be nearly as successful without our dedicated teachers and staff members and families and students. There's been a tremendous amount of buy in over the last month about what we're doing, because again, as I've said before, we have never done anything like this. We've never thought to do anything like this. And people are doing an incredible job. I see every day in the classrooms where teachers continue to interact with students there in the
024classroom and students at home. And, I know I said more than once, that was not the expectation, because this was going to be difficult. And I knew it was a matter of time for teachers to figure out how to make that bridge, and they made it happen very quickly. And I see it happening every day that I'm in classrooms. Teachers are communicating with both groups of kids. At school, students are wearing their masks properly. They're following social distancing guidelines, which is the reason we were able to stay open for as long as we have been. And this is just the simple reminders: it's cold and flu season. It's here. We're approaching the holidays, and it's now more important than ever to wear your mask and social distance. Wash your hands and practice good hygiene. Get
025a flu shot if you can. And most importantly, stay home if you're sick. It works. If we're not bringing illnesses into the building, we're going to be able to continue to operate. And I know just from the conversations I've had with people who are sick, or with conversation with the health department, the virus is tricky. You don't know whether you have a cold. You don't know whether you have a sinus infection. You don't know whether this is something you've always dealt with or something that's new in your body. And there's a lot of really interesting things that are happening as I talk to people that are experiencing their symptoms with this virus, that didn't expect it to be like this, didn't expect it to be like that. I thought I had a headache. It's a
026lot of the things that I'm hearing. So if you're not feeling well, err on the side of caution, and stay home. And as you know, students can forego any in-person day and join their classes remotely any time for any reason, including if they're sick, or just not comfortable attending in person that day. And again, those are the things that help us to stay in a face-to-face model like we have. That's all I have. If anybody has any questions? I have a quick question. You have some weeks coming up where there's four days in person with the two different groups, and there's no in-between day that's virtual. Can you talk a little bit about the cleaning procedures that will be done overnight during those weeks? That was one of the big benefits to having an in-between
027day, right. So that there would be more time to clean. So we have, I think, a couple of weeks coming up in the next few months where that's not possible. I'll start with, our custodial maintenance staff is doing an incredible job cleaning our buildings every single day. The way they've structured their cleaning schedule, they're actually cleaning every classroom twice in that night. So on those days, like you would ask, they're really going to focus on the high touch areas much more. Doorknobs, stairwells, light switches. Those things that are going to be high touch surfaces. But that evening, if you're talking about, let's say, the 23rd, every classroom is going to be cleaned twice, is the way they're doing it. So they're doing an incredible job. And again, it's how cases are being attributed to us,
028because they're able to really do a fantastic job cleaning the space with the products that we have been provided that know that kills the germs. And so they're doing a really, really good job. But on those days that don't have that extra day of cleaning, it's really going to be about, not only cleaning the spaces like they do every night, but also really giving some extra attention to high touch surfaces. Restrooms, doorknobs, lights, light switches, those types of things. OK, thanks. I have a question, Dr. Mannarino. You alluded to it a little bit there, but you know, as well as I do and my fellow colleagues, we've received a lot of feedback and people pointing to districts that have gone that route, and saying, hey, look, they're doing it. Why aren't you? And I was
029hoping that you could go into maybe explaining that school districts look the same, in the fact they teach students, and then that's about it. They differ really fast after that. Can you explain how one district can and one can't? Yeah, I don't know how their classrooms are set up, first of all. I don't know if they can't get six feet apart or not. I don't know if they're going with to the extent possible, and we just possibly can't do it. I don't know. I can't answer it because I don't know how they're structured. I just know how we're set up. But I have heard things like, some districts have taken all of the built in cabinets out of their classrooms, in order to get some space. And that can't happen here. We're not going to
030reconstruct, or destruct, classrooms to get four more desks in it. So I don't know. I can't answer it. I don't know what their cafeterias look like. I can tell you that the school that my kids go to-- this might get them in trouble-- my daughter is three feet from her friends when she's eating lunch. And it is what it is. But that's also the same circle of friends that are with her in sports and activities and those types of things. I think they did a nice job of calculating who they were going to sit with, because if one of them gets sick, they're probably all going to be sick, anyway. But they're just disregarding that CDC guideline, is what they're doing. And I can't make it work here, unless we just abandon it completely in
031the cafeteria. And that's the biggest thing. I know any of you that have been in our elementary cafeterias, they're small. Our elementary cafeterias are tiny. I mean, we had to find space for kids to eat in traditional, whenever we didn't have to have them six feet apart. We had students eating in the hallways and cafe tables like we have at Ross. Those also exist at High Cliff. So that's a challenge for us. And then to put parameters like this on us, it makes it impossible. So we either choose to not feed, disregard the CDC guideline, or operate in hybrid. Thank you so much. Sure. I guess I just have a comment and a question, which is that I do think that our teachers are doing a great job in hybrid. It's going a lot better
032than I ever anticipated. But I also know that some kids are really struggling. And I've asked the administration to provide sort of like an overview of how things are going educationally now that we've gotten through the first quarter. And I guess it's not really a question, just that we're going to be looking at that at the next board meeting. Do we have any other comments or questions from board members, either on the phone or in person? Yeah, I just want to say simply thank you. These superintendent's reports, I mean, really ever since COVID started, has been incredible. I know that everybody really appreciates all the information we're being given, and all the transparency about decision making and whatnot. Every time we have a superintendent's report, I'm just really pleased with what it entails. So thank
033you. You're welcome. And I just want to say, that I can't do them without Heather. Heather is doing an incredible job. I'm being serious. You know, Heather is awesome We are so fortunate to have her. She's really smart about how we need to communicate and the things that we need to do. She's just not sitting behind me. But Heather is doing an incredible job for this district, and we are very, very, very lucky to have her. So thank you for the compliment, but that compliment for me actually goes to Heather. Heather, you're doing a fantastic job. Thank you, Heather. Any other comments from the board? OK. We'll move on to public comments on agenda items only. Is anybody here in person have any public comments on agenda items? No. OK. Heather, do we have anybody
034on Zoom that would like to make a public comment on an agenda item? If so, please raise your hand virtually. And if we do, I will then read the participation policy. No one is raising their hand right now. All right. We'll just give them a minute to find the button. Still nobody? OK. We'll have another opportunity at the end of the meeting. We will move on to education, I guess, next then. The first item I have under education this evening is an informational item about the 2021- 2022 start of the school year. Generally, the board approves the school calendar in the fall for the upcoming school year. But with the uncertain nature of the COVID-19 pandemic, we are not yet prepared to present a year long school calendar for approval. But we did want to
035let families and district staff members plan for the summer of 2021, and state that the first day of school for teachers will be no earlier than August 16th, 2021, and the first day of school for students will be no earlier than August 24th, 2021. And when we have more information, we will present a complete 2021- 2022 full calendar, and discuss it for approval here on the board. The second item I have is a request for the board to approve the acceptance of the 7-Eleven Project A-Game grant by Ross Elementary in the amount of $1,000. This is a community outreach program created to provide meaningful youth development opportunities through education and play, so children can establish a strong foundation that supports their success. Ross Elementary will be using the grant money to continue their character education
036initiative. This initiative includes lessons and activities related to diversity and inclusion, such as Unity Day, Day 143, and other occasions when they celebrate these especially important themes. Additionally, Ross plans to use some of these funds to ensure that students are able to participate in character building projects, like the tree planting our fifth graders participated in last year, in partnership with One Tree, Tree Pittsburgh, and Ross Township. I move that education item to be added to the legislative meeting agenda. Is there a second? I'll second it. [inaudible] OK. Any discussion, either in person or on the phone? OK. I'll proceed with a vote then. Ms. Kozera? Aye. Mr. Little? Aye. Ms. Philpott? Aye. Mrs. Poniatowski? Aye. Mrs. Radovic? Aye. Mrs. Reid? Yes. Mrs. Spade? Yes. I will also vote aye. Thank you very much. Motion carries.
037And I will hand it over to Mrs. Poniatowski and athletics and activities. As Dr. Mannarino said, Mr. Weber is here to give us a fall sports report. Thank you, Mrs. Poniatowski. So first, I just want to start out and say big thanks to Dr. Mannarino and the school board for their support and letting us proceed with the fall sports season, because we were able to get through it, and all the teams were able to play their games without hiccup. So first, thanks for letting us do that. The second part of that also goes to all of our families, as we've said before through this, our coaches, our athletic trainers, and the student athletes, for their implementation, support, and the trust of our COVID-19 health and safety plan throughout the entire season. Because honestly, whenever we
038were putting that together back in July, there were a lot of protocols that we were asking our student athletes and our coaches to do on a day to day basis, including the temperature screens, a COVID questionnaire, every single day that they were meeting. So it was kudos to them to follow those guidelines, along with the mask wearing, and all the protocols that we had with that. So thanks again. Some adjustments we had to make just because of COVID-19. The WPIAL and the PIAA, they got postponed the start of the season, so August 24th was when it was originally scheduled, so they pushed it back two weeks. And that was just, I think, out of extreme caution to make sure that we were doing the right thing and taking the necessary steps. With that, pushing it
039back, our schedules were reduced. So either include just the Section contests with no non-section, or very minimal, to ensure the opportunity that games were played. And we wanted to make sure we gave the kids the opportunity to play when they could, and we kept it within the Section. So we did make that adjustment. And the other thing we constantly were doing is adapting to meet the gathering limitations set forth by the county, as well as the state, whether that was to allow spectators, whether that was just to get the game going, really. And we were faced with the 25 and the 250 for a very long time, and then it was, at the last second, we were able to move to a percentage of spectators. We were allowed to give our students and our community
040a chance to see some of our sporting events. So those are some of the things we had to work through. A lot of things that we can celebrate, though, in the fall. I had mentioned our teams were able to compete in all the scheduled contests, both home and away. We always have the community fall pep rally. We did it virtually this year. We visited all the teams and gave them a chance to still do that event. We had the senior recognition event. Not knowing how the season would progress, and senior nights usually happen at the end of the season for most sports, we did that, and we combined them on Saturday morning and an afternoon to recognize all those seniors so they got their proper recognition. Because it really was to honor them and to
041get that moment. We honored the Hall of Fame class at Martorelli Stadium. Since we were faced with an indoor capacity limit, this is something that we did outside the box. It was received well by many. The event went off really, really nice. We had the outdoor gathering. It was catered. And we were able to have the backdrop of the stadium that many people enjoy. We had the homecoming event. That was a separate event. I know that was a little different because it wasn't at the football game. But we were able to still proceed with that. So that was a huge thing, to still honor those homecoming nominees, and give them their moment and a special night, actually, just for them. And then I mentioned this earlier, an opportunity for our football team, our cheerleaders, and
042the full band to experience the Friday night lights of our last home game when the gathering limitation opened up. And then we also streamed events on box casts in North Hills Athletics YouTube channel throughout the fall, and we'll continue, as Dr. Mannarino said, with that into the winter. So I just did a little team by team summary. And please know, some of these records, that the kids have the opportunity to play, and some of them don't reflect some of those out-of-section matches that we may have the chance to play against teams that will give us some chances at opportunity. Some of the sections that we compete in in our area, and the size of our school, really stacks the cards against us, as you'll see. I have mentioned that a little bit further in my
043presentation. We'll talk about boys and girls cross-county. The boys: 6 wins, 4 losses. The girls were 1-9. But their times had dropped and they have a lot of student athletes. Tyler Moore actually coming back for next season. So they show a lot of promise. Next is our football team. They ended up playing seven games that are 3-4. and the conference they were 3-2. They finished third, which left them one spot outside of the playoff picture with eight teams in 5A. All Section performers are still to be named because they're still meeting as the conferences into next week to mention that. So I don't have that information, but that will be published once we know that. Talk about our golf team. As you can see, they didn't record any wins, but they did have some promise.
044They have a young squad, Tyler Manfred. He leads the charge. He was very consistent for us. He actually missed moving on to the second round of the Sectionals with an 81. The cut-off score was an 80. And then sophomore, Connor McCarthy, joined him at the Sectionals. We had one girl participant, Hannah Scuilli, who's actually our board liaison. I don't see her on tonight. But recognize Hannah. And she represented us at the girls Sectional. And they played at Oakmont, or they were going to Oakmont, but she was short of getting that for the WPIAL. Girls soccer. They were under the direction of new head coach, Rick Calvert. They had five wins, eight losses, and one tie. They had a great high to the end of the season. They had a 4-game home winning streak. They finished
045fifth in their section. And I put this in here to note, the WPIAL Championship that's going to be played in the next couple of days, it's two teams from our Section. So we play those teams, both of those teams twice, home and away. So that's four games out of those two teams that we are faced with. And again, the all Section performers are still to be named for girls soccer. Boys soccer. They are 1-13, and they finished seventh in 4A-Section. Again, the WPIAL Championship that features a team from our Section, Seneca Valley, and actually, the other team that just lost was Fox Chapel. And they're in our Section, and they lost in double overtime with Peters Township. So I mean, we're going against the teams that are making it all the way. And I think
046the competition definitely helps us improve. It's just getting used to playing those teams at that high level caliber that we're asking them to do. And again, the all Section performers are still to be named just because they're finalizing those lists. Tennis, 4-8. I think when I talked to Coach McTighe this week, they had the most wins and they had the most match time staying on the court for the past couple years. They did get a Section win against Hampton. They had their annual pink-out match against Shaler on October 2nd. And our Section Tournament participants were Emma Kim and Emma Humphrey, and they represented us at the Section Singles. And Emma Humphrey, Rachel Byrne, and the other team with Ashley Katz and Sydney Kissner participated in the Doubles Tournament. Girls volleyball. They were 3-9. That is
047their overall and their Section record. They were fourth. They were one spot shy outside of the playoff picture. Again, the WPIAL Championship features two teams from our Section, and that's Shaler and North Allegheny. And those teams, again, those are teams that we have to play, both home and away. They did name their all Section performers, and Sydney Ryan was named second team outside hitter, and freshman, Giana Cutenese, was named third team libero. And looking ahead to our winter season, the winter sports that we do offer are middle school and high school boys and girls basketball. We have wrestling at the middle school and high school level, and swimming and diving. As we mentioned before, box casts in North Hills Athletics YouTube will be your way to tune in, if you're not there as a parent
048spectator. The first official practice is the 20th of November. We do have plans to hold the winter sports pep rally. It still is to be determined. We have talked about doing it in person and keeping all the teams together and try to stream that on our YouTube channel if we could in the annex. But we also have talked about doing it virtually again, so that's still a decision that we're going to make. A couple activities, things that I did put on here, things that we have coming up. There's a Thanksgiving food drive that is happening on November 16th. And also, the Hilltop Night of Lights featuring the giving trees. That's happening on December 3rd, as part of some district activities that are coming up out of the athletics and activities office. And that's all I
049have. Any questions for Mr. Weber? I just wanted to say thank you to you, and your team, and your staff, and your coaches, and your athletes. I think the season went very well under these conditions. I know you guys work countless hours and were very flexible with everything that was constantly changing and happening. I know the parents and the athletes truly appreciate everything that you guys put into this season to make it happen. Thank you. Yeah, thanks very much. Thank you. And just one more thing for athletics and activities. Dr. Mannarino, if you wouldn't mind answering this question. I know that there have been a lot of questions out there about the club sports that North Hills affiliated with. Can you give us just what role North Hills plays with those club sports and how
050they're intertwined? Yes, so we have a club sport policy. I think it's [audio drops] policy. It basically states that they can use our name, our logo, our colors, a representative affiliated with the district in our yearbook at the pep rallies, like Mr Weber was talking about. Put a candidate in the homecoming, and then they agree to follow all rules of the district, as far as athletics and activities are concerned, including eligibility enclosure rules. Oh, the principal has to certify their rosters, as well-- certify that all of these student athletes are part of the school district so that they can be a member of that club. So if it's either ice hockey or in-line hockey, softball or bowling, or other clubs that we have, they still have a governing body that mandates that those students are
051affiliated with our high school. So we certify that roster, and then, in return, they receive 10% of their budget operating expenses for transportation, coaches, fees. It's six categories. Maybe I have it. Transportation, supplies and equipment salaries, facility rentals, league fees, officials, and then there's a student participation rate that we pay them as well. So any club that has 25 or more participants gets an extra $10 toward their club. So we pay a little over $1,000 for in-line hockey. We give a little over $600 for bowling. We give a little bit over $9,500 for ice hockey. And the district provides a little over $800 for slow pitch softball. So that's how the partnership really works. And then just to be clear for all of those six categories mentioned, you don't necessarily have to check the box
052for every one of them. You're giving those as examples of different things that could apply. No, those are the six check the box. There's a form that they fill out to get their reimbursement. And so they take their budget, and what was your operating expense for transportation, supplies, coaching salaries, facility rental, league fees, officials. Right, I'm just saying, so if transportation would not apply, like if we're looking at, which one is this? Bowling? It could just be zero. Yes. I got you. I'm sorry. Yes, it could be zero. Yeah. I just wanted that for clarification for any parents who say, well, wait a second, I don't pay for transportation. So what's happening there? Got it. OK. I understand. Thank you. You're welcome. Thank you. We'll move on to AW Beattie. Mrs. Radovic, did you have
053anything this evening? I really don't have any kind of an update. Pat, do you have anything? I don't because Beattie did not meet in October and they're meeting tonight. So the three of us are absent from the meeting. So there is no update. The one thing I can say, I think we talked about this last time, if they are having any sort of Thanksgiving meals, if you can get your hands on it, it is fantastic. And I would then also say that as we're approaching the Christmas holiday, I know that they do cookies as well, and they're very, very good. So if you wanted Christmas cookies but didn't want to bake, that would be a place that I would look. The culinary art students do a fantastic job with the pastries and the pastry art
054students. So if, again, you want some Christmas cookies, but you don't want to cook them yourself, check out AW Beattie. They do a pretty nice job. All right. Thank you for that update. We'll move on to Mrs. Spade in personnel. Thank you. Personal items are discussed in executive session. The superintendent recommends and I so move that the board approve personal items 1 through 3. Do we have a second? I'll second that motion for the little. Thank you. We'll move on to a vote now. Ms. Kozera? Aye. Mr. Little? Aye. Ms. Philpott? Aye. Mrs. Poniatowski? Aye. Mrs. Reid? Yes. Mrs. Radovic? Aye. Mrs. Spade? Yes. I will also vote aye. Motion carries. Thank you very much, Mrs. Spade. Mr. Little, it doesn't look like we have anything under community and governmental relations. No, ma'am, it doesn't.
055OK. We'll then move on to policy and Ms. Kozera. All right. Thank you very much. So we have three sections tonight. There's a policy that's been reviewed. There's a first reading, and then there's a number of policies for second reading. For information, we have reviewed policy 238 independent educational evaluations at public expense, and determined that there are no changes needed to that policy. All of these policies are part of our ongoing revisions to our policies, which many of them have been looked at, but have not been updated in some time. So tonight, we have for first reading, changes to board policy 226 locker search. And I received some questions and had some discussions with a number of board members about the changes to this policy. So I wanted to take a couple of minutes to
056kind of review what the policy is doing. And I'm going to have to put on my constitutional law jacket here, so please forgive me if I get too deep in the weeds. I'll try to keep it pretty brief. This policy was last updated in 2008. So why are we looking at the search policy in the middle of a pandemic? The previous policy was somewhat brief, and I think that the revisions that we're proposing today give both the students and the parents in our districts and the administrators in our district a lot more protection for situations where a search is necessary. So let me kind of talk about what the policy is talking about. Students have a right to privacy while they're in school, but the school district also has a right to ensure that there
057are no threats to the health, safety, and welfare of the occupants of the school building. So this policy outlines situations where students' belongings can be searched to address these competing needs. Students' individual belongings can be searched when there's a reasonable suspicion. And that's a legal term of art which we've attempted to include a definition of in the policy. A reasonable suspicion that the student is in possession of an illegal or hazardous item. This is a targeted search. A reasonable suspicion search would occur if there was a reasonable suspicion that a particular student, or students, had inappropriate or illegal item on them. And it's a case specific decision, which makes it a little bit fuzzy, because it's based on the facts and circumstances. And that's where we would be looking to our administrators, to administer this
058policy in a way that is appropriate. The policy also talks about general searches that are permissible to ensure the health, safety, and welfare of the school population in general. And the difference with these searches is they're not targeted searches. They're not searching anyone specifically. They're searching the school buildings to generally make sure it's safe. So throughout the policy, I think it's important to clarify, and I hope that we have, whether it's a reasonable suspicion search, or it's a general search. For example, there's a reference to searching students' electronic devices. That would be a reasonable suspicion search and not a general search. A student wouldn't be-- correct me if I'm wrong Dr. Mannarino-- You're not. --students would not be subjected to having their iPads or cell phones searched, unless there was a reasonable suspicion. It's not
059a situation where students are going to come in and it's going to say like, give me your iPad. I want to look at what you're doing. So that's not going to happen. And like I mentioned before, I think it's to everyone's safety and benefit to provide these additional details and guidelines in this policy, because it gives administrators a lot of clarity about what they have to do if there is reasonable suspicion. And it gives students and parents the understanding of what happens to them. And then they can review the policy and say, that's not what happened in my situation, and know if it's something that is a problem, or if they can escalate if they need to escalate it, or if it's something that's just very routine. So something that's not addressed in detail, and
060I think that's a good thing, is when and how often we would do the general searches. Because there's language that might seem like it's a concern in the policy about when we would do these general searches of a building. And Dr. Mannarino, I was hoping you could talk a little bit about that sort of searching. You said it best at the beginning when you talked about student rights. [audio drops] this policy is about. We want to respect the rights of our students at all time and their privacy. So this is not an invasion of privacy policy. And that's why I like the way you put it with, we're not just going to randomly grab students' iPads or cell phones, or open up lockers just randomly as we decide to walk down the halls. That is
061not it at all, whatsoever. Never going to happen, unless there's a reason. So the generalized search that you're asking for is normally twice a year. We'll work with Ross Township canine units. And they'll come through our high school and our middle school and randomly search lockers for drugs, basically. That's the generalized searches that we use. And that's about it. And Beth was high school principal for quite some time, and so was I. And I can tell you that we're not walking down the hallways opening up lockers and randomly searching and looking at things and, as students walk in the door, pulling them aside and randomly searching them for anything. That's not going to happen. That's not the intent of the policy. That's not what the general search is. The general search basically covers us working
062with Ross police to bring canines in really searching for drugs. In the event there's a threat to the building. And I think it talks about as students enter-- so we have a bomb threat, but we will work with our police and Ross police and West View police to determine the credibility of that threat. But maybe it's compromised in a way that we just need a police presence that day. And so there may be dogs sitting at the door as students are walking in. But we are not going to search students, shake them down. That's not what this is. It is not a police state. And as long as I'm sitting in this chair, it never will be. The rights of our students are important to me and my administrative team. This is not an invasion
063of privacy policy. This is a protection of the health, safety, and well-being of the students and staff that exist in our buildings. And part of that is a message, also, to the students, a reminder that the lockers are the property of the district. This is not the place for you to store the things you don't want your parents to see. It's our locker, and we can search it. And so I think that's an important message. You know, Mr. Weber was an assistant principal and I don't ever remember a time he's walking down the hall opening up lockers to find out what's inside of them. We don't do that. We're not going to do that. The whole intent is health, safety, and well-being of the folks that live and learn in our schools, and that's really
064it. Thanks. Thanks very much. And I mentioned, I mean, this is governed by-- there's laws in place that make this permissible. This is not something that we've just come up with and said that this is, I mean, this is standard. Every school district across the country has this right. And whether or not, and how, and in what capacity they put it in policy, is just to everybody's benefit, I think. So with that, I'm going to make a motion and then we can discuss. I moved that item two under policy be added to the legislative meeting agenda. I will second that, Mrs. Spade. OK. Well, we will open it up for discussion. I just want to thank you, Ms. Kozera, because I know you work exceptionally hard doing a lot of research on this. I mean,
065it's important. I think it's important. And it's good to be clear, so thank you very much. I really appreciate it. And I guess just my one question is, just for clarity's sake, could you maybe, Dr. Mannarino, provide like a real life example of when you would need to search a locker? So we've had reasonable suspicion, like a phone call from a parent that my child went camping this weekend. The knife that they take camping with them is usually on their desk and it's not on their desk. Do they have it? That would lead us reasonable suspicion to open a locker, because there's reason to believe that there's a weapon that exists on our campus. You know, anonymous tips of that nature. Is that a credible tip? If it is, then maybe we should take a
066look, like those types of things. You know, unfortunately, Thomas High School principal, I've had anonymous tips of, this child has a gun. And he did. So we've had those situations happen, and it's scary, but it's what the policy's intended to protect us for. It's really about, and I hate to put it this way, but it's really about, again, it's the protection of the students and staff. This is about drugs and weapons. That's what it's about. It's not about what music you're listening to, or anything else. What TikTok did you produce last night. Yeah, I'm with it. It's about drugs and weapons. That's it. OK. Do any other board-- Mr. Little, looks like you have your hand up. Yeah, I just want to say, Ms. Kozera, thank you for doing this. You know, it is jarring
067when you see something like this up there if you don't really have too much information on it. But you emphasize that every school district has this, and if anyone hears this and you have concerns, I encourage you go to any school board, any district, and look at policy 226. It's there. I will say this, though. Theirs is very vague, ours aren't. And that's for a good thing, and I'm proud that we aren't vague. We've gone into great detail for that protection of our children, and our students, and our staff. So while this is a common policy, what's not common is how deep we get into this, and really emphasizing and defining things, because other districts don't. I looked up before we came here, and it's very, very vague on different districts. Ours isn't, and that's
068good. That's good. Thank you, Mr. Little. Does anyone on the phone have any comments or questions on this? Yes. Can you hear me? Yes. OK. Yeah, I'll agree with Mr. Little that, at first glance, this can be a very jarring, scary policy. I know looking at it myself, I definitely had a lot of concerns. But I think that knowing how we actually do the policy in practice has made me feel a lot better about it, knowing some of the things in here. Knowing that these electronic devices, like we are not going to just open someone's cell phone and just start searching their cell phone. In practice, I think that it makes it a lot easier to swallow. I just want to say that I think with this policy, it allows legally some things that I
069just hope that, if it ever came to it where we would start doing that, that we would have board discussions about them. Things like metal detectors and whatnot. It makes me feel great that we don't do them now. But if we ever did get to that point, I would hope that it would be a board discussion. Some of these bigger things that might happen. But I feel good about the policy, about how we actually do it in practice. Thank you. Mrs. Reid, did you have something to say? No. OK. Any other board members with comments or questions? No? All right, then. We have a motion in a second, so I'll go ahead with the roll call vote. Ms. Kozera? Aye. Mr. Little? Aye. Ms. Philpott? Aye. Ms. Poniatowski? Aye. Mrs. Reid? Yes. Mrs. Radovic? Aye.
070Mrs. Spade? Yes. I will also vote aye. Motion carries. Back to you, Ms. Kozera. Thanks. The remaining policies are policies that are up for second reading, and a retirement of a policy. I apologize. Retirement of policy 335 for anticipated disability. This is actually a new item. I apologize we did not talk about this last time. This policy is no longer relevant, as this item is covered under federal FMLA laws and language contained in our collective bargaining agreements, so we are going to vote to retire policy 335. The remaining ones are second readings. Policy 223, use of bicycles and motor vehicles. 229, student fundraising revisions. 407, student teacher revisions. 416 and 516, head lice revisions. 705, safety. 805, emergency preparedness. 907, school visitors. The superintendent recommends, and I assume that the board approve policy items 4
071through 12. [inaudible] I will second that. Thank you. Do we have any discussion on these items? I just have a question. I tried to raise this question at the last meeting and I wish we had been able to discuss it. With school visitors, I still just want to clarify that on page five where it says that no one can photograph a child who is not their own without the approval of the school board superintendent, That's just the reality of how often that does happen in our district. On sports teams, in classroom parties, and whatnot. If we are really saying that now, because I want our policies to mean what we say, if that is what we mean now, then I just think we need to spread the message and figure out how, if we enforce
072this, and just make sure that the community now knows. I don't think it's a change in that I think the policy has always said that, correct me I'm wrong, but I think that's what it's been, but just knowing the reality is not like that. I think it's just something that we need to acknowledge. I think there's times, like when we have parties. Hopefully we get back to having parties, like the Halloween party. Yeah. Something to think on next year. In those situations, the parents do have the permission of the principal and the superintendent to take pictures at those parties. But we've had issues in the past, where families have been in the office and have snapped pictures of kids, for whatever reason. Or there's a fight, and they want pictures of this person or that
073person. So that's the reason that the policy is in there. Again, it's to protect children. But if your child's playing on the sports field, take pictures. Do that, please. You want those memories. As a parent, I want those memories. You want those memories of your child at that Halloween party that we hopefully can have in 2021. And those things are important to me, too, as a parent. It's the things that are beyond the normal circumstances that this policy is addressing. And, unfortunately, we've had to deal with situations like that. I know Beth's going to shake her head yes. We've had to unfortunately deal with situations where parents inappropriately, or without permission, took a picture of another child, and we had to deal with it. But when we're talking about the things that you're talking about,
074I want you, as a parent, to have those memories of your child. And it's so easy with cell phones now. It makes it a completely different story. But that's how this policy is about the protection of children, also. Thank you for the clarification. Sure. If there is a parent that's working in a classroom for a party that we all hope to have eventually, and there is a child in there that does not have a media release form signed that maybe is not able to get their picture taken, the teacher is aware of that and can inform the volunteers that that child is not to have their picture taken, correct? Correct. Just to clarify, Ms. Philpott, to give you a better understanding in my professional career. This is a big thing with parents having major concerns
075about their children's photos that they'd gave no explicit permission ending up on social media. Because once you do that, then that photo can go anywhere. And there's other issues surrounding. It's one thing, I think you mentioned, it was the scenario of your son's friend and them taking a photo for the Halloween party, that's one thing, right. You know those people. But there have been, believe it or not, quite a few situations where adults have taken photos of minors that the parents did not give permission to, and it turns into a giant mess. So just to give you a little bit of outside of the North Hills in my professional experience of dealing with it. Yeah, I appreciate that. And I'm not actually even saying that I feel one way or the other about it. I
076just want us to acknowledge the reality that it does happen all the time, that people are taking pictures of their friends' kids. And so I think the clarification is good, that in that case, we're OK with it. It's more of the scenarios that we don't want to be doing. I mean, if we decided that we were going to follow that to the letter, that you could not take pictures of your friend's kid, I'm fine with that. I just wanted us to discuss it. Yeah, I think there's the letter of the law and the spirit of the law. And this is more in the spirit of it, right, in using that common sense. But yeah, absolutely. OK, any other discussion on this? OK, we'll go on to a roll call vote then. Ms. Kozera? Aye. Mr.
077Little? Aye. Ms. Philpott? Aye. Ms. Poniatowski? Aye. Mrs. Reid? Yes. Mrs. Radovic? Aye. Mrs. Spade? Yes. I will also vote aye. Motion carries. Thank you, Ms. Kozera, for all your work on those. And now I'm going to ask you to give a legislative update this evening. I don't, but Mr. Little forwarded me an email. Sorry to put you on the spot. We didn't talk about this. Yeah. It's good old charter school. Well, here goes my blood pressure. Do you want me to talk about it? Yeah, why don't you and I'll chime in whenever for sure. There came out, let me see if I can find it, there was some recent guidance for information from the state that said that a $475 million increase in charter school tuition is predicted for this year. So total charter
078school tuition payments are estimated to reach 2.76 billion this year. With a B, yes. Billion dollars for the state. And so that's just an update on the ongoing concerns that we, as a ward and district, have previously expressed about the payment of moneys to charter school. Not the existence of charter schools, or the fact that people may want to go there and have an alternate education. It's more the funding formula is our major concern here. So thank you for sharing that, Mr. Little. Other than that, I mean, there's hardly anything going on politically, so I certainly-- nothing's happening possibly right now. Who can say? So no, I don't have anything else for legislative. Thank you, Ms. Kozera. I'm going to take finance this evening, since Dr. Nolish isn't with us. And our first item tonight
079is a request for the board to authorize the solicitor to begin the process of selling two district owned properties per an agreement, which is attached to the agenda. And I'll just give you a little bit of background on this. As part of the extensive renovation of Martorelli Stadium in 2000, the district purchased several properties along Perrysville Avenue. Most properties that were purchased were demolished to allow the expansion of the stadium complex. There were, however, two homes located at 5310 Perrysville Road and 5314 Perrysville Road. These were not demolished, and part of the backyards were taken to expand the running track and build a retaining wall. These properties were originally owned by Mr. and Mrs. Larry Hiyell, and Mr. and Mrs. George Hiyell. These families entered into an agreement with the district, which allowed them to
080live in their former homes until their deaths, or until they chose to move. They have since passed, and the properties have been vacant for many years. The district doesn't have any use for these properties, and we would like to return them to the tax rolls. Proceeds from this purchase will be placed in the general fund. So I'm going to go ahead and say that the superintendent recommends, and I so move that the board approve finance item one. [inaudible] I will second that. OK, is there any discussion on this? No? OK, nobody on the phone with discussion? No. OK. We will proceed to the vote then. Ms. Kozera? Aye. Mr. Little? Aye. Ms. Philpott? Aye. Mrs. Poniatowski? Aye. Mrs. Radovic? Aye. Mrs. Reid? Yes. Mrs. Spade? Yes. I will also vote aye. Motion carries. Moving on
081to the rest of the finance items. We have the general fund bills, the capital project fund bills, the food service fund bills, budget transfers, payroll for the month of October 2020 in amount of $3,102,510.89. And then we have requests for the board to approve resolution 2020-4, authorizing participation by North Hills school district in, and appointment of, representatives to the Allegheny Intermediate Unit joint purchasing program. The AIU maintains a joint purchasing board for cooperative purchasing of various supply items, and this resolution is required in order for North Hills school district to participate. I move that finance items three through eight be added to the legislative meeting agenda. I will second that. OK, any discussion? Yeah, I just have one comment about those food service bills. Just so everybody knows, we are one of 39 districts who
082signed up this summer to purchase PDE's new Pennsylvania Harvest of the Month program. So in short, the program is that we are supposed to be forming local partnerships and purchasing local produce. It's a certain produce item monthly. So forming a relationship with a local farm, buying their local produce, incorporating it into the menu, and educating the community about the partnership, and the item, and whatnot. And so I would just love on these food service fund bills seeing some items, like [inaudible],, or [inaudible],, or some local farm, and to see us really talking about the program. OK. That's it. Thank you, Ms. Philpott. Any other discussion? All right, we'll move on to a vote. Ms. Kozera? Aye. Mr. Little? Aye. Ms. Philpott? Aye. Mrs. Poniatowski? Aye. Mrs. Reid? Yes. Mrs. Radovic? Aye. Mrs. Spade? Yes. I
083will also vote yes. Motion carries. Doesn't look like we have any items under support services, Ms. Philpott? No. OK. Then we will move on to public comments on non-agenda items. Does anybody in person have a public comment on non-agenda items this evening? No. I'll ask now then if anybody that is participating on Zoom has a public comment on a non-agenda item, if they want to go ahead and raise their hand virtually. Then if there is somebody, I will read the participation policy, and Ms. [inaudible] will bring them up to me. We have one. OK. We would like to invite any resident, taxpayer, or employee of the North Hills school district who wishes to address the board to come forward at this time. The board does reserve the right to limit the amount of time allotted
084for public discussion of any particular speaker or issue. Some of your concerns can be quickly addressed following your comments, while others may require more research and discussion. When appropriate, you are welcome to further discuss your concerns with us following this meeting. We appreciate your interest. So do we have our speaker? Mr. Chips, if you don't mind stating your name and address for the record. Can you hear me? We can. OK. My name is Jeffrey Chips. My address is 523 Cornell Avenue EXT 15229. Thank you, Mr. Chips. Go ahead. OK. I'm just going to read a statement I've prepared. And this is in regards to the use of the Indians mascot. So I just want to say thank you for your time and continued efforts to ensure the safety and health of our children and teachers.
085We work our way through this ongoing crisis. Your courage and determination and efforts don't go unnoticed. I'm speaking today with regard to the district's use of the Indians mascot. As we live through a time of intense social tension over racial equity injustice in our country, as we engage in these sometimes uncomfortable conversations, we're encouraged to examine the symbols and monuments we've enshrined in our communities, how they communicate our values, and shadows they cast, particularly among marginalized individuals, who have traditionally been excluded from the conversation. My understanding that the newly formed anti-racism and diversity task force will be examining the continued use of the Indians mascot, and this is an encouraging step. The conversation and the mere prospect of replacing this long honored mascot has stirred a lot of emotions within our community, and indeed, my
086bringing this up right now may upset several friends and family members who disagree with me. I can't speak to the experience of indigenous peoples and how they respond to our use of this mascot. I can only speak as a parent and taxpayer who sees this mascot as out of step with the values we're teaching our children. However noble the intentions may have been in choosing this mascot, we owe it to our children to take time today to fairly examine its use and its implications, however unintentional they may be, and not in good conscience can teach my sons about racial equity injustice and ignore a symbol emblazoned throughout our community that I find disrespectful. This is a teachable moment, and while undoubtedly the public conversation over this issue will be intense, as educators, it's worth embracing
087and showing our children that when we know better, we do better. And that's all I have. Thank you, Mr. Chips. Mrs. Mathis? Yes. Can we request the speaker to email us. It was really hard to hear that on the phone. I don't know if Mrs. Reid could hear it. Sure. Of course. I don't mind emailing that. What address would you like me to send that to? We have a contact form on our website. You can give my email address. What [inaudible] You can give my email address. OK. Or you can give it to our board. You can email our board secretary, and her email address is R-I-E-G-E-R-L at NHSD dot net. Were you able [inaudible]? All right. I'll go ahead and send that. Thank you. Sorry, [inaudible]. It's OK. It looks like I just have
088a few announcements this evening before we wrap up. I want to announce that the North Hills High School National Honor Society-- I'm sorry, we didn't have any other speakers, did we? The North Hills High School National Honor Society and Class of 2021 officers have teamed up to host an annual Thanksgiving food drive benefiting district families in need. The food drive will be held on Monday, November 16th from 4:30 to 6:30pm at the North Hills Christian Church, which is located at 778 Thompson Run Road. For more information, please see the district's website. And I know that we would appreciate any donations. The district is also once again hosting a holiday art contest for district students. The winners artwork will be featured on this year's district holiday card. All submissions are due by Monday, November 16th. For
089more information, again, please see the district's website. I know that we're definitely looking for some more entries for that. And I love seeing those cards. So I'm excited. I'm looking forward to that. And last but not least, the next meeting of the Board of Education is scheduled for Thursday, November 19th, 2020 7:00pm. We will be using the hybrid format again. And it will be in the North Hills Middle School LGI room and via Zoom. So since we have reached the end of our agenda, I'd like to adjourn the meeting. Have a good evening, everybody. Good night.