001good evening welcome to the september 14 2021 combined work session and regular in-person and virtual meeting the first item on the work session agenda is the pledge of allegiance by the 2021 2022 student school board representatives randy lane and maja ben to payter 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 for that the second item on the work session agenda is the introduction of the student board student board representatives for the upper darby high school by the assistant principal mr b.j hensel good evening my name is bj hensel and i'm the assistant principal for the class of 2022. i want to thank the members of the board president brown the
002administration and dr mcgarry for giving me the opportunity to introduce the student representatives to the school board for the class of last spring multiple candidates submitted a letter explaining why they would like to hold this position i removed the identifying aspects of the letters and posted them on them on schoology so that the class of 2022 could choose the individuals that they wanted to represent them i had the pleasure of meeting with the representatives recently to discuss the post and i'm excited to introduce such mature and committed students to the board first i would like to introduce majiben to pater majabin is an upper darby royal from the beginning attending kindergarten at the k center she attended senkhau elementary school and beverly hills middle school she plays field hockey and participates in many school activities
003including royal crest royal revolution science national honor society spanish honor society writers inc mock trial junk to funk and the reading olympics outside of school majiman works with tab which is the teenage advisory board at the municipal library they work to increase young people's interest and attendance at the library she loves plants her room is filled with them she reads a lot stating that she read almost 150 books over the quarantine she works at carter's when she does watch tv her favorite shows are criminal minds and grey's anatomy her goal is to improve the district for everyone not just for students and families but for teachers and staff as well our other distinguished school board rep is randy lane she couldn't be with us tonight so she's coming in virtually here randy grew up in
004upper darby school district beginning first grade at garford elementary she later moved to hillcrest elementary for the fourth grade she subsequently attended drexel hill middle school and moved up to udhs a brief list of randy's school activities includes serving as the vice president for the class of 2022 playing soccer royal crest nehs row kappa black students union choir and encores musicals and possibly the play she currently works at the tea house and in her personal time loves music dance poems sometimes taking a break writing books and binge watching shows and playing with her three dogs two cats and fish she lives in drexel hill with her younger brother older sister mom and dad she wants to make the school district the best that it can be and get more students involved in the whole district
005and community so congratulations to majavan and randy thank you for representing the class of 2022 in the position of student representative to the upper darby school board [Applause] thank you assistant principal hensel for that introduction we really have a good feel for our two new student representatives maja bin and randy so welcome aboard we have big shoes to fill the works and we expect a lot from you no pressure before we call tonight's meeting to order dr mcgarry would you please outline the public participation procedures please yes board president brown sorry the cable's a little short um this evening we have both in-person members in the audience and virtual members of the audience this evening we will take comments and questions from in-person individuals first that will all go away down to the general public
006comment questions where comments had to be received by 7 30 and those attending in person had to sign in prior to 7 30. comments on specific board reports obviously we'll open it up to the board and to the general public before the board takes action here in person and then we will also check to see if there are any comments coming in from the public and the public can send their comments in virtually to one of two ways they can phone it in at 610-789-7200 extension 2000 where they can send an email to board meeting comments at upperdarbysd.org in either one of those situations it's important that the members provide their name address and this specific report they would like to comment on this evening again for these kind of meetings these general legislative meetings
007they're common only our other meetings are committee meetings are where we take questions and answers for president brown i'll be happy to update the public on that as well please thank you sir do that at your discretion the regular meeting of the upper darby school district board of school directors will please come to order there was a closed session this evening from 5 30 p.m until 7 22 p.m for matters to be discussed within the limitations for close deliberations as prescribed by the pennsylvania act 93 of 1998 for this evening's meetings there were personnel and litigation matters roll call board secretary mr rogers please dr haig present mr des moirs president mr wore savage present mr neil present miss williams present mr fields president miss mitchell present mrs curry present mr brown present thank you
008sir in order to allow this meeting to continue virtually and as permitted by policy 003 i move to suspend a portion of the following policy from policy 06 i move to suspend language in the section titled public participation to remove the words present at a board meeting and thereby allow members of the public to participate through the other means we have provided do i have a second second thank you also all those in favor aye all those opposed please say i oppose and state your name for the record anyone abstaining please say i abstain and state your name for the record the motion carries pursuant to the sunshine act as amended by act 65 of 2021 the district posted this evening's agenda to board docs in at least at least 24 hours prior to the
009commencement of this meeting prior to the proceedings does the board or administration have any additional items to add or change on the agenda yeah sport yes board president brown and members of the board we have a few items that we had to update and make changes to for this evening and add to the report one is the distribution of esser funds uh compensating uh staff who were coming in during the pandemic and had to be added tonight because tonight will be the last evening for the board to approve the dispensary of those esser funds another agenda item is an update to uh a student uh information where a student in the report it says six thousand dollars a day and it's six thousand dollars a year uh we need to make that typo change it
010says a day it should be for the year we have another update that we're asking the board to approve uh the pennsylvania association the valet to use our facility we were going back and forth with our lawyer and their lawyer to get some agreements with the information and make sure that we had everything up to speed so the pennsylvania ballet can use the performing arts center and then the final aspect is that we were finalizing some of our enrollment numbers as we continue to to work out uh online learning in person learning we will make sure enrollment numbers were up to date so we had to add the updated enrollment report to this evening's meeting thank you dr mcgary i need a motion to approve the additions to tonight's agenda so moved second thank you
011all those in favor proceeding with the new modified agenda please say aye the agenda is modified the emotion carries the agenda is modified and we will proceed with the meeting the administration is reminded to update the agenda in board docs no later than tomorrow the minutes of the combined work session and regular meeting of august 10th 2021 is in the hands of each board member and has been made available to the public i move for its adoption second thank you are there any comments from the board hearing none are there any comments from the public hearing none all those in favor please signify by saying aye aye aye those opposed please signify by saying i oppose and state your name for the record those abstaining please say please signify by saying i abstain and state
012your name for the record the motion carries the report of the secretary please mrs williams the report of the secretary is in the hands of each board member and has been made available to the public i move for his adoption second thank you are there any comments from the board hearing none are there any comments from the public i think it's being done right now in the audience on the district website i'll walk you through quickly navigating it if you go to the update school district website they're doing it up there okay you can you can just navigate talk through the navigation what they're doing you click try to find apartments go to school board under school board you'll see a link to school board meetings board docs if you click on board docs this
013is the basically the public repository for all the presentations all the information all the documents that we've been using and all that information is made public so you click on combine work session regular in person over on the left hand side says view agenda you can click it there and click it on the left this provides all the information all the reports yep use those arrows to navigate from section to section okay um are there any other comments from the public regarding the report of the secretary i'm sorry i just want to add one thing and i'm just asking anybody that comes forward to make a comment tonight if you can just please state your name and your address prior to making your comment so that we can obtain that for the record thank you
014mr rogers again are there any comments from the public on the reported secretary hearing none all those in favor please signify by saying aye aye those opposed please signify by saying i oppose and state your name for the record those of standing please signify by saying i abstain and state your name for the record the motion carries the report of the treasurer please mr neil thank you president brown good evening the report of the treasurer is in the hands of each board member has been made available to the public i move for its adoption thank you are there any comments from the board hearing none are there any comments from the public okay all those in favor please signify by saying aye aye those opposed please signify by saying i oppose and state your name
015for the record those abstaining please signify by saying i abstain and state your name for the record i abstain mrs mitchell thank you the motion carries that brings us to the report of the superintendent dr mcgarry please well president brown thank you i hear this crackling in the background reminds me of a kid when my dad was getting ready to put a a record on and was getting ready to play so having some flashbacks to my youth good evening board president brown members of the board administration teachers staff students parents members of the community of the upper aubry school district please join me again in welcoming our new student board representatives randy lynn and maja bin topiter thank you so much you know board president brown stole my thunder a little bit but but the
016two of you have some serious shoes to fill over the last several years we've had some really outstanding representatives of the student body and we look forward to your perspective and what you bring to us each month so we know that you won't hold back so thank you for being here this evening i'll be providing you with an update on our reopening of schools for the 21 22 school year our challenges and successes thus far facilities update and quickly celebrate our talented staff and students on august 24th we welcome back new teachers and all of our staff in total we have over around 1700 employee employees and over 12 000 students including new staff as you know one of our goals is to recruit and retain the best staff and we are happy to report
017that we're making progress in this area to date for this school year we have hired 60 professional employees and a total of 96 staff members have joined our team it is without question a collective effort to run such a large organization and i feel blessed to work with an outstanding group of people committed to the upper darby school district i want to thank our transportation staff our drivers our trainees our bus aides our maintenance and facility staff our technology staff our safety and security central registration our support staff including secretaries teaching assistants and our pcas our hourly employees including noontime assistance our administration our board of school directors and of course our teachers nurses counselors social workers psychologists and all others who work with our students day in and day out we have a great
018team of people working here in this district following board president brown's encouraging and reaffirming remarks during our virtual opening day kickoff where he reminded our staff we got this i focused my words on finding unity and listening to one another and hearing our individual life stories we should be taking the time to reestablish relationships with one another by trying to put ourselves in someone else's shoes we recognize that the last several months have been physically and certainly emotionally draining and we need to make our mental health and social emotional well-being a priority included in my opening day remarks were stories graciously shared with me by members of our community who are parents stories from our transportation department facilities department teachers and administrators and i wanted to share with you just a snippet of one such
019interview i was privileged to do with dave olson for those of you who might not know dave he has been the head of maintenance at upper derby high school since 2014. he has been working in this district for over 30 years and dave is just one of the many dedicated professionals we are blessed to have in our district listen as he shares part of his story with us about positively having a positive work ethic my name is dave olson i have been in the district in this building like 30 years what have you been doing in this building over those last 30 years please i started out in food service around um started as a truck driver and moved into more of the management field of ordering receiving reshipping to all the schools in the
020district and then i drove a school bus from until like 2013 for five years and just in the afternoon to help out down there and then in 2014 1314 they offered me the head custodian job which i kind of knew a part of because in the summer time when food service wasn't active there was no food service cafeteria i was employed by the district to work in maintenance all summer long so okay so dave i really want to go through kind of who you are uh starting from you as a kid uh to where how you got to where you are right now so just humor us with a little bit about who you are and how you got to open well i grew up my i grew up strict my dad was a marine
021corps sergeant um i grew up in westbrook park i went to western park elementary i went to clifton heights junior high school and then i graduated from upper darby in i applied myself in school i was you know in ap courses and i did well in school i liked school and i like school now i mean i enjoy what i do i like being around the children and as far as working i just like to keep the building moving i mean i get emails from teachers all day long this isn't working or my heater's not working or my air conditioner's not working or the trash is full or i need trash can whatever needs to be done on the building me and my staff i don't do all this by myself i have a staff
022and we just maintain the building i mean like the best we can whatever i mean i have to prioritize sometimes which is more important than others but um we try to get it all done by the end of the day talk to me about so you said you were raised by a military father right talk to me about how that shaped you um my i was it was he was kind of strict i mean i i wasn't afraid of my father i mean i got along with him he was my best friend i actually lost him last may and uh it really i lost half myself me and my dad were very very close um been fishing since we were little kids he had a boat all his life i have a boat of myself
023on my own now but um we were just together all the time very close-knit he was very handy and i worked with him when i was a little kid up as his extra pair of hands to hold something while he cut it or but um and that's what shaped me into into the maintenance end of it i mean i was i'm very handy myself i could do a lot in the building if it's not it goes to maintenance but um most of the stuff here in the high school we handle ourselves my name's on that and that reflects on me and i say that looks good who did that and they say dave olson and his team um it's a reflection on us what you know i'm putting my name on i actually have a
024sign in my office and it says do a job big or small do it right or not at all and i mean my father instilled that in me why do it twice and spend the twice as much time or having to redo it when take your time in the beginning do it right the first time and you move on to the next next job so you're a happy person i'm a real happy person right it's unbelievable yeah every time i'm around you or with anybody i'm upbeat it's not because i'm a boss because anybody you've interacted with regardless of who they are they have nothing but positive to say about you yeah how do you keep the positive attitude i just i have a pi i've always had a positive attitude i just i just
025got to keep i just keep ticking i just i don't know how do you deal with people that don't have a positive attitude i really i that's their choice i mean i just i i take it personally i don't take it personally um i just i get up every morning i'm up at four o'clock i'm in here by 10-6 and i'm here some nights to football games till 11 o'clock and back the next morning and it's what i signed up for and um it's a big building it's a big job and you have to accept your responsibilities and do your best at your responsibilities you got to strive to make that work so you take the time to get to know people yes how important do you think it is to know who somebody is
026and somebody else's story and building that relationship i think everybody should be on the same level i mean everybody's a person um nobody's below anybody else or anybody i mean i work with the teachers i i was just on the classroom a little while ago and the teacher said my room's hot and and and i went up and i the the the actually the air conditioner was off so it might have been off from the winter time they might have been too hot i turned it off or somebody turned it off but she i said why did you email me two days ago she said well i don't want to bother you i said well that's my job email me and i could have been here two days ago and made you comfortable then and
027she said well i know you have a lot to do i said that's what i'm here for i mean i'm here to take care of you but i take care of her i would take care of any a special ed student who needed help in the bathroom whatever they needed to do here i'm going to do for them and everybody's on the same level just let's make it work let's make the whole thing work and every at the end of the day everybody says wow look look we had a great day here today and look it's everything's positive i mean you get positive out of that i think dave olson is a superstar um and after playing this uh you know with our faculty for opening day and you can see all these videos on
028our youtube chat channel and anybody here in the audience or anybody else in the community who wants to participate to share your story i think it's important that we continue to build those relationships especially coming out of the pandemic but dave's not here but if you can give a round of applause dave olson is a heartbeat in school as excited as we all are and we're to return students and staff to our schools for in-person instruction for this school year the guidance and recommended covet 19 mitigation strategies continue to present us with challenges for masking from masking guidance quarantine guidance contact tracing and staffing and while i recognize masking requirements and guidance frustrates some in our community we will continue to require masking of our staff and students so that we are able to keep
029our schools open for in-person instruction again our intent in requiring masking of students of our staff is so that we keep in-person instruction happening that's our goal for as long as we can as much as we can the goal is to keep it open it's not a political reason those are the rules of engagement that we're up against today and we are doing our best to enforce appropriate social distancing between students but there are times when social distancing is not possible if our students are wearing a mask appropriately we reduce and this is important in the new guidance we reduce the likelihood of having to isolate students staff a classroom or even entire school and i would like to thank right now our nurses and our administrators who have been working so hard to keep
030our schools open often handling contact tracing after hours and over the weekend certainly aspects that would none of us signed on for when we got into education so our to our nurses and our administrators bj folks like you thank you so much and to our administrators here for what you're doing to helping keep our schools open i realize that we have not started off this year as smoothly as we wanted with respect to transportation prior to and during the pandemics school districts throughout the commonwealth and nation were were and are facing staffing shortages for teachers and bus drivers and hourly staff and i want to apologize for current delays and disruptions regarding transportation although we have communicated changes to transportation to families prior to the pandemic and school year we realized that we should have
031done a better job reestablishing our lines of communication and we should have over communicated our enforcement of district long stand just the district's long-standing transportation policy it's important that we reestablish that we should have done a better job communicating and re-establishing our lines of communication and we should have over communicated our enforcement of the district's long-standing transportation policy we should have done a better job letting families know of our anticipated delays we continue to face transportation staffing shortages and delays in transportation and unfortunately we anticipate that they're going to continue we continue to do outreach and recruiting to find and hire interested candidates to fill our current needs we are hosting a job fair tomorrow evening from 4 to 7 pm for any who are interested in transportation and even being a crossing guard again
032i would like to apologize for the inconvenience and disruptions with transportation thus far this year to the board and to the community as a district we are also facing challenges and successes with our facilities improvements that we will be highlighting in an upcoming finance and operations committee meeting i will begin with some of our challenges regarding our facilities improvements we are moving forward as quickly as possible with the renovation and expansion that will take place at the administrative offices will become our new administrative offices where the transportation is located at 8201 lansdowne avenue unfortunately we've discovered at least 13 underground tanks that we must remediate on that property we did not know all of those tanks or these tanks existed because the district did not have any historical documentation prior to taking ownership of the
033property so many years ago the positive is that the district is addressing the underground tanks and improving the overall environment in that area the district the district also anticipates full approval to continue to move forward with the expansion and renovation of the aeronautics project as we all know the district was delayed because there was an appeal by the erotic neighbors that increased the cost of the project also the timeline has been delayed because of that appeal we are continuing to move forward with the review of plans to build a new elementary school on the cartington property but we want to make sure we are reviewing all potential zoning needs and variances for the project on august 30th we held a joint press conference with the borough of clifton heights announcing our plan to move forward
034together on the construction of a much needed new middle school the district has also completed and continues to complete the following capital improvement projects beverly's hill hills middle school phase one new bathrooms and new windows and bywood elementary school has new bathrooms all these needed improvements are exciting but they certainly have their challenges we know the pandemic has caused an increased delay in delivery of certain materials as i stated we will be providing an update on our projects during an upcoming meeting as we continue to work through the pandemic and facilities improvements we will keep our focus on celebrating the success of our students and staff and so i would like to take a moment to thank our science and social studies instructional coaches i was informed by our director of curriculum instruction ms christine
035kelly that our coaches were highlighted for their instructional talent during a national webinar the coaches were celebrated for their amazing work and the amazing work they do every day most recently for their focus on promoting culturally responsive content in our classrooms thank you to miss aaron carafides kindergarten through first grade social studies coach carrie chait social studies coach fourth and fifth grade and ms joanna mulholland a science coach second and third grade for all that you do to support our teachers with science and social studies instruction for setting the example and promoting inclusive teaching and practices in our classrooms we're also pleased to announce that several of our youth equity stewardship students our yes program here at the high school are finalists in the in the pennsylvanians for fair funding art contest three of our
036middle school students were finalists for the middle school age category amaya alston i think that's mr alston former uh teacher here in the school district ninth grader now at upper darby high school josephine doherty ninth grader upper dobby high school mo toronto eighth grader beverly hills middle school nazik abele ninth grade upper darby high school josephine doherty went on to play second in the middle school age group and we are so proud that our youth equity stewardship students use their artism instead of activism to send a message that they are our yet other yes students and just how passionate they are about inclusive practices and funding of public education we also had uh had several drexel middle school students who placed in the philadelphia young playwrights festival for the 21 20 20 21 school year
037with one exception these students are ninth grade students at upper army high school now in the playwriting category the following students placed nasserine hindi second place for his project one step closer brianna lavin second place for her project two spoons chelsea mungo third place for her project coronavirus apocalypse and audrey scooten third place for her project breaking arrows in the monologue category the following students placed sydney meyers second place for her project i still love nestorine hindi third place for his project the way out and lauren kennedy third place for her project moving up in closing i want to continue to ask for your support and patience as we build toward opportunity unity excellence here in this district board president brown and members of the school board this concludes my report for this evening thank
038you dr mcgaren our academy english learners and extended school year programs were presented the summer's programming was paid for by the elementary and second ferry school relief fund or esser and there were no comments from the public that night and if you would like to review the agenda items they are listed in board docs thank you mr brown thank you mrs mitchell we will have an update on the august 24 2021 finance and operations committee meeting mr fields where he decided thank you board president brown the finance and operations committee meeting that tuesday august 24th uh virtually held here in the boardroom at seven o'clock there were two items on the agenda first item was informational it was the safe routes to school initiative update the district administration provided an update on the safe routes
039to school initiative these are the walking routes the best walk-in booths different schools in the district the presentation discussed the methodologies results and the communication plan of the initiative this item correlates with goal one of the upper derby school district company has the plan i want to make a note too there were always looking for feedback on these so please keep that in mind uh [Music] 005 organization policy zero zero six meetings policy zero zero 006.1 attendance at meetings by electronic communications policy 903 public participation in board meetings there were three public comments that are available on board docs to be reviewed and the rest of the agenda items were reviewed on both docs thank you mr fields the instructional report vice president thank you president the instructional report is in the hands [Music] those
040opposed please signify by saying i oppose and state your name for the record those abstaining please signify by saying i abstain and state your name for the record the motion carries the personnel report please mrs mitchell thank you president brown the personnel report is in the hands of each board member and has been made available to the public before i move for its adoption i do want to congratulate i know in this report it's not all 96 staff members that have joined our team but i would like to congratulate those who have joined the upper darby family welcome to the district [Applause] for those teachers who have now made tenure you're also listed in this report tonight and i'd like to congratulate you on that now i move for the um report to be adopted
041as stated second thank you are there any comments from the board okay hearing none are there any comments from the public dr mcgarry i think you want to make a statement yes not so much about the report but under personnel i figured you know former superintendent of schools luda flicker was involved in a horrible horrible car accident about a week ago off of township line road good news is he's been being moved to a rehab facility but he suffered some significant injuries and i wanted to pass that along i know i see some faces who have known ludo flicker for a long time as a community member and just keep them in your thoughts and prayers a great great person for this community and he's in a tough spot thank you dr mcgarry all those
042in favor please signify by saying aye aye those opposed please signify by saying i oppose and state your name for the record those abstaining please signify by saying i abstain and state your name for the record the motion carries the policy report please mr des moyers thank you president brown uh there is one policy going through a first reading this evening that is policy 204 attendance um last month the board finalized um extensive changes to this policy driven by changes to state law and this the change being considered for first reading this evening is simply cleanup that was missed some outdated languages being removed and these changes must these new changes must go through a second reading at a future board meeting before they will be implemented does anyone have a comment on the the
043policy 204 undergoing a first reading are there any comments from the board hearing none are there any comments from the public are you supposed to make a motion for it to be adopted mister this no no okay oh i'm sorry i'm sorry okay oh yes sorry okay so um there are just a moment please uh as mr fields said a minute ago there are um five policies up for a second reading this evening those five policies are policy zero zero three functions policy zero zero five organization policy zero zero six meetings policy zero 006.1 attendance at meetings via electronic communications and policy 903 public participation in board meetings so the policy report is in the hands of each board member and has been made available to the public i move for its adoption second my
044apologies mr just noise i was one screen ahead of you are there any uh comments from the board yes just i would just like to briefly state these are um the changes in these five policies um are the result of the full board discussion at the july 27th uh finance and operations committee meeting and the changes represent an updating of how the board would like to run its meetings and some significant changes are the fact that we are um the board has made permanent a change that was made in the pandemic allowing um comments to be submitted via telephone and email and those comments time allowing will be read aloud at meetings um this is in addition to now that we are back in person um allowing in-person comments as before so there are other
045changes as well they are described in the summary of policy changes document that is posted to board docs thank you president brown thank you mr snowys and thank you for pointing that out we are allowing more ways for the public to be engaged not just the things we implemented during the pandemic so we're adding to ways to engage with the public are there any other comments from the board okay hearing none are there any comments from the public yes step up please say your name and your address i don't have a copy of the policy but if you know maybe if you could direct me to it that would be great okay yeah i i just thought that was a new policy so okay thank you yeah and if i could piggyback off neil um
046that was of significant discussion um because we felt that if you're gonna spend the time here in the meeting that you should have priority to speak and since we already have the phone calls and emails written it would be easier to put that into the record than a person who hasn't spoken yet and so we wanted to make sure that we heard the public who came out to participate in the meeting to actually engage in the meeting first so the board did decide that at our last board meeting and and hopefully with tonight's vote we'll make it official thank you mr neal are there any other comments from the public okay hearing none all those in favor please signify by saying aye aye aye those opposed please signify by saying i oppose and state your
047name for the record those abstaining please signify by saying i abstain and state your name for the record the motion carries the supplies report mr war savage thank you very much president brown the supplies report is in the hands of each board member and has been made available to the public before i move forward with its adoption i just want to share a quick interesting note um board member disneyers had sent me an email the other day and if you look down at the bottom of that report he goes on to say at the bottom of the report page one supplies report there's an entry for distance learning data plan renewal last item in the entry states proposal is in accordance with massachusetts telecom contracts such and such and when we sought that clarification from
048our board secretary he was kind enough to respond with this this service is being purchased off of a massachusetts purchasing contract that has supported slash accepted by the state of by the commonwealth of pennsylvania basically we're piggybacking off of the massachusetts contract that is currently being recognized by the commonwealth just wanted to add that and i move forward with his adoption second thank you are there any other comments from the board well i'll start thank you mr wood savage for walking us through that and explaining that to the public and all of us are there any other comments from the board hearing none are there any comments from the public okay all those in favor please signify by saying aye aye those opposed please signify by saying i oppose and state your name for the
049record those abstaining please signify by saying i abstain and state your name for the record the motion carries the transportation report please mrs williams the transportation port transportation report is in the hands of each board member and has been made available to the public and i move for its adoption second thank you are there any comments from the board okay and i'll just say thank you dr mcgarry for your comments about transportation earlier that's truly appreciating the attempts of the entire district under your leadership doesn't go unnoticed thank you are there any other comments from the board i appreciate your comments as well thank you are there any other comments from the board okay hearing none are there any comments from the public okay all those in favor please signify by saying aye aye those
050opposed please signify by saying i oppose and state your name for the record those abstaining please signify by saying i abstain and state your name for the record the motion carries the facilities the use of facilities and the donation report please mr fields thank you board president brown facilities report the use of facilities report and the donation report are in the hands of each board member and have been made available to the public i move for their adoption second thank you are there any comments from the board board president fields special thanks on the donation report special thanks to action karate on berman road it's uh right there next to the hannigan's and stuff like that and station tap made a donation to garraford elementary for school supplies and backpacks uh and i i just
051think it's great when a local business does especially a business that probably really took it on a chin during the pandemic and so that is that is really really appreciated so thank you very much did you make a motion i'm sorry you made the motion all right okay and it was second to properly seconded okay are there any comments from the board any comments from the public all those in favor aye [Music] those opposed please say i oppose and state your name for the record those of standing police say i have stain and state your name for the record the motion carries the finance and budget report please dr hague the finance and budget report is in the hands of each board member and has been made available to the public i move for its
052adoption second thank you are there any comments from the board that's uh the second correct yeah okay okay it's been properly seconded are there any comments from the board i was just going to comment that that i'm really excited to see that we're going to have a performance of the nutcracker for our students which you know hosting these these performances is not um it requires a fair amount of effort and coordination by the district and so it's great i'm really excited to see that we've got a performance for our students in the contract and thank i thank dr mcgarry for for working on that if i can comment we're president sure please craig rogers and tim bruno and i spent a lot of time in kyle berman i appreciate kyle berman's helping that as well
053but craig rogers and tim breno who does a lot of work in the performing arts center he's continuing to carry that torch forward as well as with the pennsylvania ballet and we look forward to our fall play and spring musicals as well but i appreciate that thank you thank you for those comments dr any other comments on the board hearing none are there any comments from the public okay all those in favor please signify by saying aye those opposed please signify by saying i oppose in station 8 for the record those abstaining please signify by saying i abstain and state your name for the record the motion carries okay that brings us to our committee says collateral reports it's mislabeled okay our collateral assignments uh we'll start with the delaware county community college vice president
054curry thank you board president brown the delaware community college released a press release on august 26 in regards to students faculty and staff as of january 1st 2022 the college will require proof of vaccination for all students faculty staff and visitors to the college's campuses there will be an exemption option for those students who may have reasons for not taking the vaccine and we will of course continue to offer online courses and support services so that the educational progress of students will not be interrupted dr gates black said more information will be released after the start of the semester and we will work collaboratively and collectively with senior leadership faculty leadership in the faculty delegate to develop a plan for moving forward with implementing this requirement together we will overcome the challenges facing us and
055we will come out of this pandemic stronger than we were before and that was from the president of the delaware county community college i also wanted to report that they are having i'm sorry bear with me westchester university in partnership with the delaware community college is having an event tomorrow night that will be live streamed called moonshot for equity initiative and this is by the southeastern pennsylvania regional collaborative it's tomorrow night september 15 2021 from four to five and it will be live stream from pennwood high school 100 green avenue lansdowne pa and um you can find it on their website thank you president brown thank you vice president curry for that report next is the delaware county and immediate unit mrs mitchell thank you president brown the delaware county intermediate unit school board meets
056on the first wednesday of every month for their regular business meeting and the second wednesday of every month for their committee meeting for this um september's meeting we approved to support professional development opportunities for district and iu staff we approved opportunities to support education and community partners and families and we approved to enhance student learning and work experience and support future educators that's all i have to report for tonight thank you mrs mitchell legislative council report mr neil thank you president brown um being in the summer harrisburg is a little sleepy right now um not that the rest of the year they get a lot of work done but we should be looking forward to a few bills this year one is charter reform for payments it does not have a number yet it was
057introduced by representative kurt uh sony of the house education committee i just want to remind the board and the public that our own representative mike zabel serves on the house representative education committee and also senator carney uh serves as the um on the the senate education committee okay so i look forward to working with both of them and getting this passed it was endorsed by the pennsylvania school board association so i look forward to supporting them as well thank you that concludes my report thank you mr neil i know it's early in the school year but the mendenhall tyson scholarship committee i'm sure you have it all figured out right doctor nothing to report at this time president brown okay thanks home in school mr war savage i know it's early but you've been to
058every school already right absolutely yes sir thank you president brown just want to remind everyone since it has been at least what has it how long has it been since we all as a district family physically been here together it's been like a year year and a half something like that i just want to point out that it really does feel good to visit and i know this has nothing to do with what i'm about to talk about but i just want to say while it's still fresh on my mind in my heart regardless of whatever is discussed it really just feels good to capture a little bit of that person and that magic that happens when people are physically in the building because it helps to really uh digest a lot of this information
059for some people who haven't participated in a while yet is it is a lot to take in these meetings do have a lot of information but a great place to get all that broken down for you not just on a macro scale but on a scale that fits your actual school district community is to be a part of the home in school and so when i talk about these in these board reports everyone is aware when we talk about the home and school meetings that i participate in that's more along the lines of an over the top level because as a school district family we also understand that it's very important for each individual home and school association to be empowered to deliver the best possible experience it is whatever that looks like for that
060particular community and i'm really encouraged about the conversations that we are about to have thanks to the uh what do we want to call it the school board dan mcgarry tour to 20 21 22 where he's going to be able to basically bring all these stakeholders together again on a home and school level we're talking presidents and organizers letting them know what some of the initiatives are that we want to bring to use to bring together the entire community not just have certain things happening in certain areas that's something that we want to make sure is brought up in that world tour i guess is what i want to call it and for anyone who isn't currently a member of their home in school please get involved even if it's just to go to the
061first meeting just to see what it's like it's really really super important because i can tell you right now when we also are talking about that quest for equity you hear that word equity equity equity we want to be able to make sure that all of our district families again benefit from the same experiences and it's not fair to have certain amenities afforded to certain areas of home and schools that are doing really well and then others who just need a little bit of a pick-me-up or boost so i'm really looking forward to seeing how that plays out and our home and school association is totally behind having this conversation so i just want to put that out there thank you president brown thank you thank you mr war savage technology is next kicked out
062on me technology is next um dr mcgarry so you know i always ask for a report always put you on the spot and talk about laptop distribution hotspots and stuff like that so i know it's early and i knew we had to distribute some so that kids can get started so can you just talk about that a little bit thank you yes thank you we've taken to putting out a pandemic mitigation document and we update it and date it each each month when there's a change in that document parents and families that are here that are in need of a hot spot there's an explanation of how you can go and get a hot spot we ask that you contact your social worker or principal in your school if you need wi-fi access and hotspot
063we can make that available to you if you need that for your students to engage if they're learning virtually as we close out the last school year other than students who were engaged in summer learning or extracurricular activities we took our computers back cleaned them up got them back ready to go and as we open the school year we're now issuing them back out for one-to-one learning one of the conversations we're having for president brown about that is this idea of during the pandemic there was a concern about kids on their computer too much and being in school and being on the computer a lot but we are navigating more toward using that technology and getting used to taking the computer to and from school with students so we're still working on navigating the comfort
064level with that but we are a one-to-one district now as a result of the extra dollars we received during the pandemic so every student has a laptop and we're excited about moving forward that we have not ramped up our giving out of the hot spots yet but i'll be sure to give you an update as parents need more of that access thank you very much for that report uh next is psba uh mr desnoire mr des moyers or mr war savage or vice president curry anything pspa related any of you okay i i guess i'll go and just say uh in a few minutes the um the board members are gonna vote in the psp psba officer elections and i should congratulate our own president brown who is up for um uh election to a
065psba officer position so congratulations president brown thank you i suspect a landslide by the way not what i wanted you to do but okay um policy liaisons mr desnoires or mr neil anything for policy yes i have something so the the board this evening approved changes to i believe it is five policies um those are the policies that are on the policy report second reading and they govern um meetings and those as i mentioned uh when that report was being considered those changes were originated from board members and and and incorporated changes into the structure of meetings that the board itself wanted to see at the same time this board meeting there were a couple things different than our last in-person meeting uh prior to the pandemic such as voting on the um additions to
066the agenda and the fact that the agenda now has to be posted 24 hours in advance those changes are driven by as someone said changes to the sunshine act um that were um implemented with act 65 of this year in the at the pennsylvania state level and so starting next month the board will consider additional changes to the same policies for which we approved changes tonight that will bring our policies into compliance with changes in law so that um to get details on these um these additional changes to how we're gonna run meetings or how we are running meetings um members of the public don't have to look up pennsylvania state law thank you okay and president brown if i may um i would like to thank the board and the administration and their team
067for their work this past summer regarding these policy changes and really the rest of the meetings because some school districts many people may not know this actually sometimes skip a month or two in the summer but here in upper darby we are going through all summer uh twice a month so i just want to say my appreciation and thank you to the board and administration for working hard throughout the summer seems like we never get any vacation time but we're here because we care about our students and we want to make sure this is the number one school district in the state so thank you again thank you mr neil um okay i think that's it for oh i'm sorry dr hick yes i was great i was gonna call that next okay he was
068getting ready communication well first i want to say thank you for the work you and mrs mitchell dr hagen miss mrs mitchell did last year on the communications reports that was a lot of work that's extra work extra duties as assigned and you did a great job informing the public and keeping them up to date on school district related matters so now please dr hague i'll start with you sorry i was just indicating to ms mitchell that that i'd be happy to start i i just wanted to um so our to remind people that our our september update will be coming but i also wanted to reiterate because i know that um some members of the community you know they may not have children in the school district they may not be be receiving these
069updates so i just wanted to point out that on the district website if you go to the school board tab then there's a link that says school board monthly updates and that will show you show anyone in the community how they can sign up for those updates so it's just we're we're always looking to make sure that we're communicating to the whole community and not just to the the families that are in the district thank you this is mitchell that was perfect dr hagg that's exactly what i was going to say all right i think that completes our collateral assignment reports uh new business now right uh so we'll turn it over to mr rogers so as miss mr des neuers has had mentioned uh we're we will now conduct a poll vote to elect
070the psba officers for each board member has been provided the biographies of the candidates i'll call on each board member and go through each position please state the candidate that you would you are choosing or state that you're abstaining so first up we have so hold on i just want to say i'm abstaining from the east zone representative vote because i'm i'm a candidate so so the first position i'll pull the board on is the president-elect so we'll start with dr higg david schack mr des noirs sabrina backer mr war savage david chap mr neil david chap miss williams sabrina backer mr fields david chap mrs mitchell david shap mrs curry sabrina backer mr brown david chat thank you next up is the vice president position dr haig allison mathis and i'll just point out
071that she is unopposed just for the public's information mr des noirs allison mathis mr war savage allison mathis mr neil allison mathis mrs williams allison mathis mr fields allison mathis mrs mitchell allison mathis mrs curry allison mathis mr brown tough choice allison mathis thank you we now have the east zone representative the there is one candidate mr edward brown we'll start with dr haig our very own mr brown mr des our very own president edward brown mr war savage mr president mr edward brown thank you mr neil um since there are no eagle fans listed as candidates i'll go with edward brown see me after the meeting mr neal mrs williams edward brown mr fields i can't top david neal edward brown mrs mitchell edward brown mrs curry edward brown mr brown am i allowed
072to move okay okay edward brown all right next up we have the psba insurance trust trustees you're allowed to vote for up to three of the candidates um so dr hague i will support the three candidates on the docket richard uh friedrichs william lacoff nathan maines mr des neuers i will also support the three candidates on the ballot richard frerichs william lacoff and nathan maines mr war savage i support richard frederick uh william lakoff and nathan mainz mr neal uh frix lakoff and maynes mrs williams fredericks lakoff and maine's mr fields can't you say ditto no okay uh frarrix the cough and means mrs mitchell frederick slickoff and maine's mrs curry fredericks lakoff and means mr brown fair look off and mains as well and the final position tonight would be school board secretary's forum
073steering committee again you can vote for up to three of the four candidates dr hague jennifer davidson deanna lankinis and bethan ziegler mr desnoyers deanna langstones bethan ziegler and jamie lynn zimarovsky mr war savage dina lang lankanis bethan ziegler jamie lynn zimarovsky mr neil uh lankanese ziegler and zamarovsky mrs williams lancanese ziegler and zamarovsky mr fields davidson lankanese ziegler mrs mitchell davidson lankanese and ziegler mrs curry davidson lincolnese and zimrowski mr brown davidson lachinese and ziegler that concludes the voting thank you very much mr rogers for conducting that we are now at the time for public for the public hearing we will call on upper derby residents who sign in to address the board in order in the order in which they signed in followed by emailed and phoned comments we would ask that you
074come forward give your name and address and present your comments in the three-minute time limit i think mr rogers will keep time correct in accordance with policy 903 the time allotted for general comments both in person and submitted comments will not exceed one hour and that's for the total point of order president brown um you said upper darby residents i just want to make sure it's clear it's upper darby school district residents which would include billboard borough and clifton heightsboro yes i believe that's correct mr berman you concur thank you sir okay we'll start with uh mr james burrows please jim burroughs 447 hampshire road drexel hill do i start now time yes hi i'm coming here tonight because i have a fair amount of concerns about critical race theory being snuck into our school
075district and i'm going to explain how i came to this conclusion last year there was a fundamental shift in your language from equality to equity which is straight out of kimberly kenderson's critical race theory along with that is other terms such as implicit bias and it's also other things such as um systematic racism and i'm hearing these terms a lot so i'm going to bring this back and i did a lot of research into this it seems like this is a phenomenon coming down from the state and there is funding a tied to this and it's through their equity and inclusion department that is also being uh propagated through the student i mean the teachers union right public the psea and i know that because um they're having a seminar on october 4th nice white
076parents and i've asked that i could actually attend that one because i really want to know what they're going to have to say because i think personally i think i'm a nice white parent so far i've not been able to get in so maybe you guys could help me get in that because i would really like to attend that workshop anyone don't believe me um that now culminated into upper darby rising so now we're talking about our school district specifically if you read the 78-page document and i suggest everyone does you will find it littered with implicit bias systematic racism and of course equity i'm going to be very clear it is toxic critical race theory puts race at the center of a student's identity it is absolutely toxic and it is creating the system
077of racism that it's purported to prevent you are the system if you believe in critical race theory you are the racist and you're instituting racism in our schools so i appreciate everyone who took time out for a very long meeting with the administrators so so i could air my concerns i look forward to working with you in the future to make sure that we are being equal to our students and they're not looking at equal outcomes which is what equity is we're making sure that they have equal footing to compete anyway my time is up a lot to say in three minutes and again i look forward to looking forward with you thank you for your comments mr burrows next kathleen kenny hi kathleen kenny 504 wild avenue drexel hill pa i'm here tonight to
078talk about one of my passions does anyone on the school board know about our best buddies program now you don't because nothing is being done um best buddies was proposed at the june 18 2019 school board and you can look on the school board docs and it was proposed by kate flanagan and amanda rementer what was proposed at the school board meeting never came to fruition there was a powerpoint presentation and it said um once a month the entire club would meet outside of school hours for different events september i get to know you new buddies social that never happened october football game that did happen november helped with thanksgiving drive never happened december holiday get-together never happened weekly meetings of the leadership will plan the second half of the year in 2019-2020 never happened
079no best buddies were paired it was nothing now best buddies is not a club it's a program it's an international program and i had a zoo meeting on december 22nd with miss simone mr marshalleck and miss flanagan about the best putties program and how it's nothing i mean it's a disgrace it's best buddies program one of our things is unity it's bringing our special needs children together and our general ed children together there should have been a school assembly not a club this is not a club it should be a school assembly with the pennsylvania director of best buddies haverford school district has a wonderful best buddies program lower marion we want to be the number one school district in pa let's talk about unity and incorporating a great best buddies program like all the
080other great school districts in the area so when i talked to miss simone and mr marshall ms um flanagan you know they mr moon said well i'll talk you know to the staff and see if you know we can get other staff members on board i don't think that ever took place i really don't think that meeting took place because nothing has happened and today came out that there are you know you can sign up for the best buddies club no you don't sign up for a best buddies club there's vetting involved you have to talk to the kids that are volunteering make sure that they're in it this is a friendship it's a getting together you know mrs mitchell three minutes is up well unfortunately it it's a disgrace that's all i can say
081somebody on this board needs to take this program into their hand and get the right people on it thank you for your comments elona shaboni or okay i specifically inquired about masks are requested to see data that proves that did not cause psychological health issues the answer was no records exist within the district been 18 months and it's quite concerning to see that the district is following these mandates without any data to show its community you basically follow the mandates which by the way are not laws blindly they took this to me as a parent shows that you do not care about our children if you did hear you've been questioning this on lawful mandates and do some research there are many studies that have been done all over the world that prove masking the
082kids does cause health and psychological issues where is the transparency they keep talking about we the parents are very worried about our children and the wrong on the side of the desk of masks why isn't the district showing the parents the signs and data that you are following to end in mass from the kids every time i'm questioning you about asking the answer is we are following the orders there's nothing else we can do if you are required to follow these mandates please make sure you are making an informed decision and you see both sides of the picture don't just make the kids wear masks because you are told to do so our kids should not be put in the middle of whatever agenda the board has in mind they deserve to have a great
083education without masks on their faces that will make them succeed in life and not be left behind like you did already by closing the schools down for over a year why isn't the district offering massive exemptions or waivers to the parents like many other school districts are doing one mask exemption exemptions honored again to me seems it is not about the kid's health it's about you following the orders no matter what the consequences are well the consequences are our children and we live here we do not want our kids to suffer anymore we elected you you work for us you need to listen to us stop ignoring our concerns and make mexican optional as of today there is no law cast in pennsylvania that makes masking legal is the district accepting full legal responsibility by
084forcing masking and any health issues caused by it stop asking our kids please start listening to the parents mass should always remain optional it's our kids our health choices your job is to educate them again masking should be optional they deserve to breathe freely please do your research thank you [Applause] rainy i'm sorry miss rainey um without suffocation i guess anyway another of my wildest dreams would i imagine being up here talking about my children's right god given right to breathe fresh air if people like you and the teachers unions and the teachers were so serious that weren't so serious about complying with kickbacks or being good little bears and weren't scared to lose your jobs i highly doubt any of you would be going along with this absolutely ridiculousness actually i'm sure of it
085every person i talk to in real life know something isn't right yet they comply and they expect me to as well people are scared and confused but we don't have to you don't have to be you would have to be a complete to realize that this is not about coding 19 anymore i don't have people to possibly sleep in like when they are enforcing a mandate that cuts oxygen levels to a developing child's brain by 20 okay and if i were forced to no no sorry if i was forced to do this maybe i would have resigned by now samantha's never going to end because of elected officials like yourself continue to uphold discussing mandates you know direct correct to all of our rights liberties and pursuit of happiness and not many people are happy
086the us department of education bullies the state board of education at the state department then bullies the schools now the school's abroad bullying the children this is what the health and safety plan is all about and i find it ironic because you don't encourage the kids to bully each other not meeting by example i'm going to do a quick example of the real people who are pushing their children to be missed and they are these are the people who don't want it to end child is 66 000 times more likely to be sold to human traffickers that you died could have been 19. in addition the masks assist them in being transported undetected and unidentified to anyone it took under three minutes to throw a shirt over her tank put tape over her mouth turn
087her mask to the white side tuck her hat into it or her hair into a hat put shorts on over pink pants you wouldn't even recognize your own child after three minutes and you'd be searching for your face your missing child in a sea of masks i've come to the conclusion that what the public schools are doing by designs and doctoring our children the following line with their global communist agenda while keeping them dumb enough by cutting oxygen off to their brain they can't make decisions for themselves and they can't question the unconstitutional unconstitutional mandates you are placing on them we're not in a state of emergency anymore this is a violation of our constitutional rights and we will continue [Applause] chuck uh i don't want to butcher your last name can you win can
088you pronounce your last name these two things in every school of every race ancestry native plan gender non-education deserve to see adult role models teacher and more who share trait with them such with them are short reassuring an inspiration a support and refuge for students who feel different or deemed in any way and then you skip down here he said abu army must exponentially increase its recruitment of education of color i never thought i i would need to to find a teacher with the same color skin color as my children so it will make my children comfortable i never thought my my children had to feel that teachers teacher i need this school board rethink this document that you you send it out we don't need to exponentially hire more teacher of color we need
089to strive for excellent teacher i don't need my students walking to school and come home and i had to ask them did you have a teacher with you know with some color what what color i don't ask my student that i mentioned my childhood why would you even send this out it's insulting the teacher needs to be excellent teacher regardless of the column i hope you listen to that asian american like me i don't need that stop doing that up without me rising document you have to be scrapped and redo take that language out we need to hire more more excellent teacher not teacher of color thank you [Music] please state your name and address hello my name is bill kaplan i live in 241 highland avenue in upper darby thank you for um opening
090this up again mr brown dr mcgarry everyone who works for the school district i guess i just wanted to start by saying i start with the place where you are either public servants or um and you are doing what you are either hired to do or elected to do which is serve with integrity and making the best decisions so i just start from there and i really can't wait to get back to the places where you know the best buddy program like this is what should be at the center of this uh what kind of programs our kids need what kind of buildings they should go to school in that's where we come in as parents to hold your feet to the fire so to speak um i believe in this idea of protecting our
091students against this covid virus with masked with distancing with every precaution available and i appreciate that i also appreciate the kind of initiatives to bring our school district to reflect the people who you are serving the families in the communities the way we are teaching our children about equity really matters because until the systemic racism doesn't exist then we are having to educate people about its effect on people's bodies and its effect on people's careers so yes we want everyone to be seen as humans but at this point that's not happening it just doesn't exist and as someone who is of also a mixed race um i believe that this is a bold step because many people are under this impression that what this is is doing harm to our children but what it's really
092doing is bringing them the opportunity that i fought for as a veteran and that my father fought for as a veteran to all people who deserve it so i just appreciate being here i appreciate holding you to the fire i appreciate parents who bring in programs like the best buddy i've never heard about it i want that and that's the kind of dialogue we should be having here is what we need in this school and we believe um in my family that fairness and opportunities are what brought my parents to this country and my wife's parents in this country and we will fight for it and we will appreciate all the things that you're doing well and we will hold you to the fire when you're not doing it well and so i again appreciate
093what damian said also about this is the first time we're all together because i need to see faces and eyes and be with people who are from my community so again um i've been lacking i haven't been to many board meetings this last year i've been part of the upper diary rising but i because of time i had to drop out but it's only because of commitments it's not because of a lack of need or interest so again i appreciate being able to say these things this is democracy and we need all these voices to be heard but we need to start from the place that you are in a place of integrity you are standing in a place of public servants as well as me as a parent loving my children thank you thank
094you please get your name and address yes there you go uh mike benty uh 255 north london avenue um follow a guidance final follow the guidance we've been hearing that um since this pandemic began the cdc the world health organization and also the surgeon general at one point in time said that matt was not effective against the colbit 19 virus i say that to say that the guidance out there we have to be objective right you know we can't get tied and bogged down to uh political preferences not when it comes to our kids i understand everybody have a job to do and you know the culture of getting down and lay down is rampant i get it but when it comes to our kid we really got to step outside the box sometime we
095have to question things a lot of the things that are coming down the pipeline just don't make sense um so us as school board as administrators as parents you know we really we got to be the one to say hey this don't sound right maybe you know and a lot of the stuff that's coming down is recommended you know recommendations right we don't have to go 100 percent uh what they're saying all right and like i said i get it it's kind of hard to be that stand up person and stand on your own we got to do this there's no turning back you know we thought this pandemic was going to end what a couple months ago you know they said oh everybody's good we don't we don't need the mask everybody's good just
096go get the kohlhepp shop and everybody's good and we're gonna go about our way but look at us now come on guys at some point we gotta say enough is enough thank you thank you thank you thank you next we have on our list is o'shaw lamont i'm ed i'm sorry i guess uh med is not here okay uh so ronda i'll leave it to you to conduct the next part of it next time it's the email in the phone comments [Music] our first comment that was received by email is from al baldi located at 5044 moore vine avenue in drexel hill this comment was received on the 10th at 3 20 and it is a general comment comment begins mr mcgarry you are the superintendent of schools for the upper darby school district you
097need to take full responsibility for all activity and inactivity of the school district you are paid a high salary by the upper darby school district residents and you need to perform with high quality performance it seems that there has been virtually no activity at the site all summer long it's becoming an eyesore and a waste of school tax dollars by the inactive equipment just sitting there the situation devalues the neighborhood it's a disgrace please answer all the following questions construction contract signs for the around the school project what is the full original amount of this construction contract [Music] date of mobilization for this construction number three what construction work has been performed to date number four why was there no or very little construction work performed all summer long number five what is the cost
098per day to the upper darby school district taxpayer for all the inactivity and dormant equipment at the site during the last four months number six what is the projected additional cost to the upper darby school district taxpayer beyond the original contracted amount to hold on sure yes can't hear thank you please continue continuing with the comment this email is being forwarded to you several days before the meeting so you will have plenty of time to respond and provide thorough answers to all six points above thank you end of comment i understand that dr mcgarry responded by email and addressed each of the six questions our next comment is from sahida mayfield located at 249 la cara drive lansdowne avenue i'm sorry lansdowne pa the comment was received on the 14th at 403 pm via email
099and this is a general comment the comment begins i review the comprehensive equity initiative and comprehensive equity plan proposal 2018-2023 i observed that previous board meetings summer extended the ell english language learner services were discussed although these are essential services and programs i am also concerned about services offered to general and special educated students throughout the school year equity and culture are very important in our school district due to the diversity of our student population my concern is that all students be supported and feel comfortable in their learning experience slash environment i wanted to know if the school district has any plans to implement or celebrate national hispanic month which starts september 15th through october 15th this celebration would be of histories cultures and contributions of hispanic american citizens i would like to see more
100activities programs and events that embrace the cultures of all of our students my daughter at upper darby high is a part of the black student union i feel it is important for all students to experience their culture being represented in their school just as students should be aware of the different cultures teachers should be culturally aware as well will the school district offer culturally competent curriculum professional development for teachers as educators in order for our students to accept and embrace different cultures educators have to model that acceptance i just wanted to follow up with my concerns or students safety traveling to and from school my daughter attends beverly hills middle school since the school year has started there has been fighting among students several times during the school week as a community we have to
101work together to make sure all students are safe end of comment excuse me our next comment is from joe bonner located at 5016 marvine avenue in drexel hill the comment was received on the 14th at 409 pm via email this is a general comment the comment begins today at three o'clock there was a traffic nightmare due to the addition of some temporary cones placed at various locations to restrict parking a gridlock developed at st dots students who are crossing excuse me as st st dot students were crossing bermont at marvin ave and cars were backing up on marvin f i was almost run over as impatient parents turned up marvin away from berman at a dangerous speed thankfully no students were injured this will be the quote unquote norm when the expansion is completed end
102of comment and president brown that ends our comments for this evening thank you very much mr buford okay uh dr mcgarry i think you have some comments thank you yeah just just to to miss kenny's chris how are you miss kenny's comment um i do want to say that i know there was a presentation made under the leadership of mrs simone uh in i will certainly say that i know mr marshall and mrs simone put a tremendous amount of time and effort into the high school and i know that her heart's in the right spot to make all these things happen it's just a monster job here at the high school i know mr marshallak does a tremendous job as well so i'll make it a point to have a conversation with mrs simone mr
103marshall act but i do want to say that mrs simone did put together a presentation in 2019 here for the board on the best buddies program so it's not as though mrs simone is not concerned or not interested in the program but i just want to make sure that the board's been aware of that is there a motion for the adjournment of the meeting thank you all those in favor all right the meeting is adjourned thank you for coming out everyone and thank you for attending online if you did you