001good evening everybody welcome to the October 21st 2021 regular board meeting of the school district of Haverford Township if we could please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance Martha could you call the roll please Dr. Christensen here Mr. Fleischer here Ms. Larson here Ms. Minji here Mr. Sinto here Mr. Schwartz here Ms. Snodgrass here Ms. Wiedemann here Mr. Feinberg here thank you I'll accept a motion to approve the official minutes from the October 7th 2021 regular public board meeting it's in two moves first and second moved and second any discussion all in favor aye any opposed motion carries we're going to tweak the agenda a little bit and at this point we'll bring on the high school play preview Mr. Dunahee Thank you Mr. Feinberg for letting me go first it's always a treat tonight
002we have a preview of our drama club show Urinetown don't let the name distract you from this post-depression era musical that deals with issues of a hundred years ago The musical was performed 10 years ago at Harford High School with Mr. Horan's son, Tristan, as one of the stars. Little known fact there. We hope to exceed the performance from 10 years ago. So we want you to come out and see the show. You can either see it live or it will be live streamed also. We'd like to thank Ms. DeKnight, our director, who's here with us tonight. She's in the back. and also our musical director, Mr. Jack Denman. Jack is a Hafford graduate who just graduated from Temple University School of Music Education, so we're always happy to have alumni back with us. And
003then tonight we have two of the stars of the show here, Emma Swantak and Nicholas Berghese, who are going to give you a quick preview. So I hope you enjoy. No two hearts can speak as one. I didn't mean to. That was wonderful. Thank you very much. Next item on our agenda is our student reports. First we have Bianca Salerno from the middle school. Bianca? Good evening. My name is Bianca Salerno and I am a sixth grader at Haverford Middle School. I'm involved in chamber choir, which is the select choral ensemble for sixth grade. I'm also in the peer advocacy group, which is essentially being a friend and supporter of my peers who need a little extra help. I'm eagerly awaiting for Actors Workshop and Music Club to start at HMS. Outside of school, I
004take piano lessons and four dance classes a week at Toral Dance Studio. I am an only child, I speak fluent Spanish, and I was student council president of Cooper Town last year. I also signed up to be on the morning announcements, so turn on your listening ears because these are the 7.30 p.m. announcements. We will be having a pink out on Friday to support Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Staff and students will be showing their pink pride to support our friends, family, and community in their fight against breast cancer. Get your spooktacular dance pants on for the 6th and 7th grade Halloween dance is on October 29th. Let's all wish for a full moon without the werewolves. The dances will be held outside, and the 6th grade dance is from 5.30 to 7, and the 7th
005grade dance is from 7.30 to 9. There will be food, prizes, a magician, moon bounces, and axe throwing. Not real axes. That would be a problem. Bragging time! We would like to congratulate Dr. Alexander, Mrs. Kwazak, and Mrs. Hoffman for being recognized by the Pennsylvania Art Education Association for an outstanding visual arts program. I have art scheduled for the third quarter, and I am so lucky to have Ms. Hoffman as my homeroom teacher. We would also like to recognize Mrs. Langley, who is our choral teacher. She was nominated for the Grammy 2022 Music Educator Award. She was honored as a quarterfinalist this year. I have Ms. Langley for chorus, and she is truly a rock star. Thursday, October 28th, is National First Responders Day. We will be honoring those who are first on the scene
006in stressful situations. We appreciate the time, work, and effort that our community receives from police and fire departments and emergency medical services. The school year is flying by and the first marking period ends on November 12th and parent-teacher conferences are scheduled for November 22nd, 23rd, and 24th. It has been such a blast to tell you about how great it is to be a sixth grader at Haverford Middle School. Thank you so much and enjoy the rest of your evening. Thank you, Bianca. Next, we have Mia Dyewald from the high school. Good evening everyone. My name is Mia DeWald and I'm a junior at Haverford High School. Outside of being a student, I am also a student senate officer, a member of the World Affairs Club, and part of the Haverford Tech Crew. Outside of school,
007I am presently an advisor to the Board of Directors for the Girl Scouts of Eastern Pennsylvania, and I thank you all very much for allowing me time to speak tonight. Haverford High School has added another wonderful month of schooling to the calendar as October comes to a close. Students have all been busy studying for the PSAT and the SAT, which were administered on October 13th, but the studying is sure to continue with midterms slowly approaching in November. The juniors and seniors were also visited by Jostens and were given the opportunity to look at options for a class ring and other jewelry, something I myself am very excited about. On the fields and on the courts, the student-athletes continue to uphold Haverford's esteemed sports reputation with volleyball, cross-country, field hockey, and boys and girls soccer having
008an incredibly successful season. The varsity boys cross-country are Delco champs and Central League champs, with the varsity girls cross-country as runners-up. Senior nights continue with volleyball and soccer having been earlier this week on the 18th and 19th, and with District 1 playoffs next week, which all of our athletes are looking forward to, Haverford is certainly busy. Haverford will also be hosting the Special Olympics Youth Summit next week, which consists of 8 to 10 schools from the area, so we wish all of our athletes the best of luck. As always, Haverford is continuing to showcase all its many talents, with clubs having their first meetings after a very successful activities fair, in which all students were given the opportunity to join the countless clubs offered at the high school. The Haverford Drama Club is continuing their
009work on the fall show, which we were all just given a sneak peek at. And they are also hosting a trunk retreat open to the public in the HHS parking lot on October 30th. The Student Senate is currently preparing for the annual blood drive, as well as for the homecoming dance to be held on Friday, November 19th, with Spirit Week themes such as Pajama Day, Decades Day, and a Red and Gold Day leading up to the dance. Following, the Haverford Diaper Drive is once again holding their Stuff the Bus campaign, and is currently collecting diapers at the YMCA along with the high school main office. Haverford students continue to work hard and play hard and as October comes to a close November promises to be another successful month. Thank you all for giving me the
010opportunity to speak today and go forwards. Thanks Mia. It's great to hear everything that's going on in our high school and our middle school. So we thank you both for your reports this evening. No one has signed up for the first public comment. Next item on our agenda is a committee report on finance and facilities. Dave. Thank you. Yeah, we had a meeting for finance and facilities last Thursday. There were two, I guess, main items that I'll report on. One of them is the climate control project update. We are now ready to go to bid for the climate control projects for Chatham Park and Cooper Town. So those are going out soon. Once we get those back, we'll have a chance to review them and select. our contractor. The other thing that we discussed were
011we had a presentation from the Pennsylvania Clean Energy Council. I'm sorry, the Pennsylvania Clean Energy Consortium on solar installation on Linwood School. This is the second group we've had in. The first group was Clean Energy Co-op. So we now have two options for installing solar panels on the school. Both of them would require zero initial outlay by the district. Both of them have different setups, different finances, country numbers right now. And we hope to very soon come to a decision on if and how we will get panels up on the elementary school. Other than that, I think we're pretty good. Thank you, Dave. Next agenda item is the superintendent's remarks. Dr. Rusci. Thank you, Mr. Feinberg. I will start this evening with some clarifying information. There are two items that we're bringing forward to the
012board this evening for approval. One is the revisions to the current school year calendar, 21-22 school year. Specifically, what we're asking you to take a look at there is the identification of Juneteenth as a federal holiday. That was not a federal holiday when we created the calendar, so we have made that adjustment as such. The graduation date has been identified on there, and the days for high school finals and dismissals in February have been added on there. For the 22nd, 23rd school year, we have again an identification of June 19th as a holiday. We added dates for induction and the high school final days in January and June. They are the only changes to that since the last time the board took a look at that. Two items of interest where I'm not asking the
013board to take any action this evening. I have mentioned before that we are among a number of districts throughout the county working on a test to stay program. The primary goal of that being to reduce the number of students who would have to quarantine if they've been identified as a close contact. We continue to make progress. on that and I anticipate that at the November 4th meeting, we will be adding that to our health and safety plan. So we would be asking you to vote on the November 4th meeting. potentially for the November 4th meeting is a possible resolution that I would ask the board to approve and then send on to Delaware County Council, asking Delaware County Council to be able to get local COVID data as we had previously been able to receive
014from Chester County Health Department last year, but we have not been able to receive any local data. This resolution was generated through the Delaware County Intermediate Unit. The IU board passed it. They have forwarded that resolution on to County Council and also to the districts as well. So and there is the current draft of that resolution on the website. So I would ask board members to take a look at that. If there's any feedback for me to send that and we can revise it accordingly and then bring that forward for consideration at the November 4th meeting. Hopefully people saw our recent edition of Haverford Happenings. We've actually changed the program that we are using to generate that to make it a little bit easier to follow. But within there, we have identified... An area that
015we've added to our website, for website topics of interest. So when there are areas that are questions that can be answered by either a building principal or administrator or head of a department, we'll put those questions on there and look to get them answered that way. Certainly if a question pertains to something specific at a building or a location, we'll ask an individual administrator to follow up. already mentioned by Mr. Schwartz was the most recent finance and facility meeting. If people have not had a chance to take a look at that, I think it's a great example of some community engagement, although not attended by as many people. Members of the public can ask questions that evening. You know, there was a back and forth question that was asked. Board members were able to engage
016with. the person who was asking those questions and provide some on the spot answers. And those dates for those upcoming meetings are also on our website. But I just thought that was really a great example of how the engagement can occur in that kind of a setting. And I guess we're all looking forward to that high school drama production. Those kids did a fantastic job tonight. So thank you for always giving us the time to bring students forward and share their talents with you. Great thank you. Next item on our agenda is that. Question about the calendar. Yeah. So for twenty one twenty two I just want to clarify that we are not changing or shifting any instructional time no instructional time is lost for this day that we're adding for the teacher in service
017at the end of June. We're not shifting any instructional time for the students. Thank you. Next item on the agenda is a enrollment update. Mr. David Parker. Good evening. Thank you, Mr. Feinberg, members of the board. We have for you our fresh numbers we just submitted to the state a week ago. We could go tomorrow, excuse me. We'll start with our elementary numbers, as you see here on the screen. Across the board, our projections were slightly higher than our actual enrollment numbers. As of the 10-1 count, October 1st count, we were within just over 5% of the estimates, our projections. We were fairly consistent. A couple of the buildings, as we'll see here on the next slide, when we look at the actual elementary grade levels, some of the buildings were a little bit closer
018to their projections than others, but the total range did not exceed 8%. We had one building that was as close as 97% accuracy with the projected numbers. But as you'll notice, I wish I had a laser here, but if you look at the actual kindergarten numbers, the table on the right, first column, you'll see across the board there, kindergarten numbers were under more significantly than the other grade levels. We're not quite certain as to why that is at this as of this evening this presentation. Just earlier this week we forwarded our ten one submission that we submitted the PDE to Mr. Montgomery and his colleague for an analysis and we requested specifically for the kindergarten numbers but overall analysis. And Mr. Montgomery is going to get back to us. He responded today. Actually, he's going
019to get back to us as quickly as possible and we'll provide that to the board as soon as we have it. I know there was a couple of questions that were forwarded earlier from the board when the first preview this. draft came out and there was a, I think there was a question about sections. Even though we were under our projections slightly in all the grade levels, more so again in kindergarten, the margin of error, if you will, the variability, there was no reason to reduce or excuse me, or add a number of sections. It was, it's not something that was needed at the time. Looking here, oh, you know what? I'm going to point out, excuse me. both on this slide and this slide for the actual numbers that is holistic. We are looking
020at students in our classrooms as well as students in Haverford Online. But we wanted to take an extra step here with this slide just to kind of break it down for you. If you add the 32 to the 2,981, you'll obviously get 3,013. It's the same number. What's also interesting about this, briefly, This time last year, Chatham Park, as you can see at the top, has four students in the Havre-Fertile line. This time last year, there were 80. Four students currently at Chestnut Law at Havre-Fertile line. This time last year, 147. 12 at Cooper Town currently. This time last year, 75. Two at Linwood. This time last year, 137. And Manoa currently 10, also this time last year 137. For a total of 552 students this time last year at Howardford Online. Just to show
021you some of the, or underscore I'm sorry, some of the variability and changes we've been able to process to support our students. It's not on the slide, but in case, I'm anticipating questions I guess. In case you're curious, currently at the middle school level we have 11 students. Sorry, I'm not talking into the mic clearly enough. Eleven students have a referral line and 50 at the high school level. Shifting to our charter school numbers, you can see there the total numbers at the bottom. We're recovering a little bit. We did have a spike last year. We all, well, administration, the assumption is it's COVID, directly tied to COVID. We have a 31.5% decrease from the high point last year. I think it's interesting and important to note of the 18 students that were enrolled in
022charter schools in 2021, they were enrolled in Haverford as a traditional enrollment. The year prior, they went out last year at 18. We were able to get 12 of those students back this year as of the time this report was prepared. But still, we have some work to do with our Haverford Online and charter school initiatives that are ongoing. Do you know, can I just add, for the charter school enrollment, do you know which one, like what the numbers are for brick and mortar schools versus virtual online charter schools? I just looked at it earlier this week. I will double check for you, but I want to say 100% virtual, excuse me, 100% online. I don't believe we have any brick and mortar charters this year. There might have been one last year, but I
023will double check and follow up for you. Thank you. Sure. While we're on the topic for slide four, so you had mentioned there were about 552, I think I heard, students in Highford Online last year and about 32 this year. So do we have data that shows where those, the 520 difference in students wound up? I'm sorry, did you hear the last part of that? Sure. So that's about a 520 different. student difference if i'm getting those numbers correct so do we have data on where those students are now did they come back to in-person schooling here are they in other settings do we have information on that no i understand the question thank you other than those students who transferred out and i don't have an exact number for you with in this category
024but i can find that we can look that up for you um all those students came back to us unless they were transfers out in a traditional sense they relocated they moved Any other questions about this slide or any of the others? I don't want to keep going too fast. I'm sorry. I had one question. I was wondering, the projections that we're putting on here, are those from the most recent study? Correct. Mr. Montgomery's work that he presented on in May. Okay. And his colleagues, excuse me. Okay, and our actuals are lower than all the projections. And I believe, and you may have already addressed this, we're going to look into that to figure out kind of where the discrepancy is there. I know a lot of us were a bit... A bit of hand-wringing
025when we saw the projections. They're pretty high. So if we could find out if this is sort of a trend or if it's kind of a one-off related to God knows what, COVID or whatever, I guess that would be the most useful thing to glean. Absolutely and as we go into the middle school and high school slides you'll see that the numbers the projected numbers compared to the real or actual numbers the gap narrows substantially. I can't talk. But yes Mr. Montgomery is going to be doing a K-12 analysis but we highlighted or underscored the importance or curiosity of the kindergarten. I'm going to go out on a limb and say it'd be very interesting to know what private and parochial full day kindergarten Enrollment looks like. I have a question on that point as
026well. On slide three, it looks like in the projected columns at some of the schools, the K and one projected enrollment is very similar, like at Cooper Town, for example, at 74 and 73, when the actual this year is much lower. in a typical year, let's say just looking back a couple years before COVID, is this projected analysis the scenario that is more likely to happen? Or do we see something more like this actual that has significantly lower enrollment in kindergarten and then larger enrollment starting in first grade? If I'm following your line of thinking, your question, the projected data is coming from a completely new baseline. So again, if I'm understanding your question, I'm not certain we can compare the projected numbers fairly. from the prior set that we were using for a number
027of years. Does that make sense? Well, I guess my question is just is there is there usually that disparity, you know, when you have it Manoa, for example, 98 in kindergarten and 132 in first grade? Is that is that. Between K and one in general? Yes. I'm sorry. I misunderstood your question. I would have to go back into the numbers and dig through the trends. to give you a better answer. I'll have a good one off the top of my head. Okay. And I know that- I'd be guessing. I wouldn't, I don't want to guess. That's totally fine. You know, I don't, we don't need answers tonight. It's just, you know, when we're looking into kindergarten, I think that would be something that's interesting to look into as well. Yes, absolutely. Thank you. I'm not
028certain. We are looking at the actual enrollment compared to the project. I can talk to you after the meeting. Okay? Sure. I want to make sure I address all the questions, but I think my last slide was charter schools. Did I address all the charter school questions before I move on? Okay. So now we're going to get into the middle school level. And again, you'll see some variance and fluctuation here between the actual projected numbers. But the gap narrows our projected numbers overall for the middle school this year compared to the actual. It was ninety nine point five percent accurate compared to last year with the old data set going referencing on the other questions. It was ninety seven point nine percent accurate. Every year when we provide this report or this update for the
029board we specifically look at sixth grade and ninth grade new students who have come to us and where they're coming from We have always historically seen some upticks at those specifically those two grade levels This year was 23 students and it's never brand new to Hereford in sixth grade five transferred in from local parochial or private schools and 18 were branded to the township this is the same format as the middle school slide just the high school again our projected numbers very very close 99.7 percent in the year before 99.4 so you can see this is the same theme we see every year honestly uh as we go work through the grade levels as we go into the secondary level middle school and second upper secondary level we don't lose as many kids or when
030we do lose kids students we have an equal relatively equal number coming in and it's just it's more of a gradual increase One thing that was noted and there was a question, I believe, came from the board about as a potential outlier, 12th grade. If you look at the 12th grade numbers actual this year compared to the actual 11th grade numbers last year, it had an upward uptick of 20 students. Although this is not normal in going over just for an example, the last three years, we've had an average of, I think it was six, nine and six. You know, so we had just under 10 every year. So to have 20, we're not quite certain why we got an uptick. We're looking into that. At this point, we believe it's most likely causal, you
031know, some sort of relation with the pandemic. But we're assuming right now it's a one year outlier for the 12th grade. Any questions about the middle school or high school total numbers? And this slide is similar to the sixth grade slide, just showing for our freshman class. We have 36 new students that were new to Harvard, or 36 students in ninth grade that were new to Harvard for this year. 11 coming from the private or parochial schools here in the area. 23 were brand new to Harrahford Township. And two, we were able to get back from charter schools. This is the final slide presentation this evening this is just a summary demographic information for the district you can see over the last three years we kept we want to give you some sort of longitudinal
032view with this. That that uptick in total or overall enrollment six thousand six hundred and fifty three obviously is higher than the last previous last two years. I wanted to give you a very more precise number. We graduate 500 kids a year. We process roughly 800 round numbers, 800 new registrations every year that are brought into the system. There are students we lose every year. Registration is ongoing. It's a 12-month process for us. But even with this number of students we lose annually and the students we... that come into us that are new every year. We're still that trend as Mr. Montgomery's presentation in May highlighted that trend is still going strongly in the north or upward direction. Any other questions about this slide or any of the other slides? Just a comment that although
033the actual enrollments, especially in the elementary school, are a little bit. under enrolled, and I think it's worth exploring, especially kindergarten, what the trends are there. We still have the enrollment in our system now, when you look at middle school grades that have 525 to 550 some students in them. That's the... enrollment bubble there that's been the impetus for the high school expansion project. So not to, I don't think anything in this is causing a question about our needs to expand our facilities to accommodate the enrollment we already have in our system, but it would be helpful to refine the thinking on the elementary levels and be able to think more constructively about this space. needs and constraints that we have there for what are still large classes in the pipeline, even in our younger
034grades. Yes. Any other questions for Mr. Parker? Yeah, I want to clarify on the low income row. Is that are we using the federal definition for low income there? Yes. I mean, it is alarming to note that we have almost 3% increase of students who are coming from low income households. I just want to make sure that as a district, we're continuing to provide the wraparound supports that those students might need. Any other questions for Mr. Parker? When we get some information from Montgomery & Associates, are they going to update their entire projection? Based on some of this new information is that the understanding. My I'll get a more detailed answer for the board I'll provide that as quickly as possible hopefully by tomorrow if not Monday. My preliminary discussions with Mr. Montgomery if you
035remember the from May that the larger color charts show the you know in the color coding you know progressions there are the prime I believe the primary tables he's going to work with. So the board can look K-12 or any specific grade level and compare what was shared previously to what the new with the new information from our current PINCH report, you know, the differences. And then my my other question is, do we have a sense of how our numbers compared to neighboring school districts? Just some of this is COVID related. So, you know, are other nearby districts seeing similar enrollment trends that we're seeing? That's something I really don't have information for this evening. I'm sorry. No, it's fine. Is there a way we could get something on that at a later date? Certainly.
036I'm sorry. I just want to just I'm sorry to interrupt, David. I just want to clarify there's no official source for that. We can we can ask our colleagues in other districts, you know, the most obvious question would be, did you see a decline in your kindergarten enrollment this year? We certainly can do that, but there isn't an official count that we would be able to get. Good. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Any other questions for Mr. Forker? Well, thank you very much. My pleasure. Thank you, folks. Next item on our agenda is the financial statements as of August 2021. Martha. We are respectfully presenting the financial statements for the various funds as of the end of August for 2021. Move. Information. Information items. There was a weird silence, so I said move. Any
037questions, comments from the board on these statements? This is a relatively new presentation of financials for the board in this format and for the public. This will be. that we see grow over the year and it is interesting the way school districts are funded largely from our local real estate tax bases. We get most of our revenues in here early in the year and our expenses obviously come in as incurred for staffing and operating the schools month by month. So this point which shows the financial activity in the months of... July and August show a lot of revenues and very little expenses and a large surplus. What we'll be monitoring as the year goes on is how the expenses stay within that revenue that we collect here at the beginning of the year. And then
038also it will show us the timing of some of the other sources, the state and federal sources tend to come in later and how that matches up. But this will be a useful tool for us to Both see some more detail about the expenditures and to monitor the bottom line throughout the school year. Thanks for did any other comments or questions from the board? Can I ask a question about the food service? So looking at this right now, it looks like we are not in the red for food service and in past years that has been a problem. Is that am I reading that correctly? Martha? Is that right? Sorry. Yeah, I would suspect that was because there's not much activity as of August 31. That's correct. You're looking at July and August, which obviously
039have almost no expenses during those two months. Okay. So as the school year starts, expenses will increase. Okay, great. Thank you. Any other questions from the board? Thanks, Martha. Next item on our agenda is budget transfers. I'll accept the motion to approve the budget transfers in the amount of $226,919.86. First person moved. I think it was for a second. Moved and second. Any discussion? Could I just ask a question about this and also just for public benefit? We have not seen budget transfers in a couple of meetings, and this is maybe a larger number than some that are typical. Could somebody just speak to the rules around the budget transfers? Budget transfers cannot be brought to the board until October of each year. After that, we can bring them to you monthly for the remainder
040of the year. So this would be the first chance the board would have for budget approvals from the beginning of the year. Any other questions or comments? I just have a question. In the future, could we get dates on these? Just because it's a little bit confusing since we haven't had it for a couple months and I know we're not allowed to, but just so that we can see. Because as far as I'm seeing, I don't see a date. I'm sorry, but I'm looking for clarification as far as what you want for a date. Like if you have them for the month, is that. Right. Are you looking to like a time period, not necessarily a specific day? I guess I'm just looking for a time period of when this amount was spent. So maybe
041if we see what the month one looks like and then if you want to, you know, something modified based on that, we can see. Right. Any other questions or comments from the board? This is a roll call vote. Dr. Crispin. Yes. Mr. Fleischer. Yes. Ms. Larson. Yes. Ms. Minji. Yes. Mr. Sinto. Yes. Mr. Schwartz. Yes. Ms. Snodgrass. Yes. Ms. Wiedemann. Yes. Mr. Feinberg. Yes. Nine voting yes. Thank you, Martha. Next item on our agenda, I'll accept a motion to approve disbursements from the funds as listed. Fleischer moves. Schwartz second. Moved and second. Any discussion? All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries. Thank you. I'll accept a motion to accept the recommendation of the project architect KCBA and Associates Inc. and our owners representative CB Development Services Inc. and authorize the change orders totaling $40,569.49
042as listed. Snodgrass moved. Pleasure seconds. Moved and second. Any discussion? All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries. I'll accept a motion to authorize the preparation and advertising of bid specifications for the Climate Control Project. Schwartz moved. Larson second. Moved and second. Any discussion? Just Chatham and Coopertown? That is correct. Long due. And we heard about this at the finance and facilities meeting in detail last week. Correct. Any other questions or comments? All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries. I'll accept a motion to approve the quotation from Quincy Compressor for replacing the drain line filter at the high school at a cost not to exceed $710.79 as recommended by the owner's representative, CB Development. Second. Moved and second. Any discussion? All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries. I'll accept a motion to accept
043the following retirements and resignations as listed. Moved and second. Any discussion? I would like to, if you don't mind. One of my best friends at Haverford Chancellor's School District, Greg Parker, is ready to retire and I congratulate him on a wonderful job well done. We are the old guard, I guess, Greg, but you have been a loyal, true friend to all of us that work here in Haverford and I want you to know that it is appreciated. So thank you very much. I know you're there somewhere, but there you are. Thank you very much. Also, Ed Croci, who has been a mechanic with us for a number of years. Wow. It's time, I guess it's time for it's time for you young people to take over. So congratulations. I appreciate you. Any other questions or
044comments from the board? And I just want to say it's not quite time to say goodbye to Mr. Parker. He's sticking around till the end of March. And I would also. I'd like to pass along my heartfelt thanks, Greg. It's just been a pleasure to work with you for the entire 22 years that I've been on the board. I've relied on you for your good counsel and your experience, and you'll be sorely missed. Thank you. All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries. I'll accept a motion to accept the appointments as listed. Larson moved. Mr. Feckin? Moved and second. Any discussion? So it looks like we're getting closer to filling the large number of vacancies we had. Yes, some departments are are experiencing success in both applications and following through in the interview process. We're
045looking forward to adding bus drivers to that as well. We've had six applications last week. Any other questions or comments? All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries. I'll accept a motion to approve the leave requests as listed. So, no address. Moved. Larson, second. Moved and second. Any discussion? All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries. I'll accept a motion to approve the following educational service contract or services provided to a student in the district. That's the note. Moved and second. Any discussion? All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries. Next item on our agenda is revisions to the calendar for the 2021-22 school year. I'll accept a motion to approve revisions to the calendar for the 2021-2022 school year. Larson moved. Schwartz second. Moved and second. Any discussion? All in favor? Aye. Any opposed?
046Motion carries. I'll accept a motion to approve the calendar for the 2022-2023 school year. We're going to move first and second. Moved and second. Any discussion? This is our first look at this? No, we had looked at it a little bit earlier. We were just ready to get final approval of it when Juneteenth was identified as a federal holiday. So it's been a little while, right? Yes. I don't remember seeing it, but now it. Next item on our agenda. Sorry. All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries. Thank you. Next item on our agenda is public comment for items that were not on our board agenda. We have 10 speakers this evening. When I call your name, if you could come to the mic, please state your name and address and you'll have three minutes.
047Our first speaker is Celeste Sterankovic. Celeste? Good evening. Celeste Sternkovic. I reside at 1606 Arlington Road. Thank you for allowing me to speak this evening. I'm here tonight to speak about the school board and its future. I'm not here to discuss Democrats versus Republicans. I want to discuss what I think is really best for our children. Lots of advertisements, both sides. But what is really concerning is a lack of transparency from the support, which is really upsetting because I voted all of you in. I have a son in the 11th grade. He's on the autism spectrum. He's doing great. It's been a very challenging journey. We've met a lot of people along the way, some of which really stood out. One of those people who really stood out was Tom Thornton. We were first introduced
048to him when my son asked to play basketball at the league. I forget the name of it at the top of my head. We were told they weren't sure if they would accommodate him. I was completely honest with his diagnosis. They called me back and said, he's been accepted. A guy by the name of Tom Thornton. He'll take him on his team. And Tom was just amazing. Back then, things were very difficult. My son just did not understand rules. He stood there on the course one day, screaming, she's blocking me. She won't put her arms down. He calmly took him aside. Didn't yell at him. and explain to him that that was his job. I really feel that we need more people like Tom Thornton on our board for our children. Thank you. The next
049speaker is Elena Wisely. Elena? Good evening. My name is Elena Wisely. I live at 612 Willowbrook Road. I want to thank you for removing Out of Darkness from the middle school. Although it's not the right step... To make it available for 14 year olds as opposed to 12 year olds, it is a step in the right direction and that's what matters. It also proves that balance is needed up on the board so that we can have these discussions. SEL is a community based service learning, sometimes manifested as activism. It is the participatory mechanism in which SEL process can be actualized. That's from Frederick's 2003 found on Sage Pub. Student voices engage, decision-making opportunities, and socio-political views are developed. Service learning is an education strategy that encompasses the philosophy of youth empowerment. Student voices involves learning
050activism. These techniques are being used to mold our children, not for their own sake, but for the sake of political movement and creation of political activists. SEL requires removal of color blindness, in other words, differential treatment for students based on their immutable characteristics. A collection of data of our children is being used for political purpose without parental consent. Studies have shown that social-emotional learning is amazing, right? But are these studies politically biased? The district cites Derelict et al. 2011. Other studies show it to be psychological manipulation tools soon with bias, moral, and religious roots. On the district website, the claim is that SEL is simply a new name for something that was already in place, formerly known as guidance. However, that's not true. Only the description of the program remains the same. The truth is
051that in 2020, the collaborative for SEL updated their guidance to include a social justice-oriented approach to social emotional learning. This is Kaysil, who our district has signed a nearly $20,000 contract with, voted on unanimously at the last meeting despite our concerns. The studies the district cites from 2011 are actually void because in 2011, Kaysil program was very different. It's the opposite of what those studies dissected. You can no longer use that study to cite that it is good. The program is experimental and dangerous and emotionally damaging to our children. The policies and programs for social justice implemented by the district has already created a toxic climate. My daughter doesn't even want to come back at all, as many other children from my heard from. Children are not forming healthy relationships with their peers. There's an
052increase in fear, anger, and hate. And there's a lack of friendship, camaraderie, and community amongst our children. Two weeks ago at the Haverford High School Activities Fair, students were videotaped, harassed, belittled, called racist, and other names for signing up for Young Republicans. These programs have fostered dangerous climate and creates bullying that results in little to no recourse. And yet there's actually parents in this room who are probably smiling and they're proud because those Republican kids deserved it. It's demented behavior and I don't want it coming back to our kids. I also want to address the Pledge of Allegiance. Whoever leads it should not be sitting and they should be respectful. If they cannot do that because millions of men and women have died to fight for their right to do that, then they should not
053be the ones doing it. Thank you. Our next speaker is Patrick Berland. Patrick. Berland, 313 Harrington Road in Havertown. Thanks for having me tonight. I have two daughters at Linwood and a preschool-aged son who will be there soon. I love Linwood. The new building is beautiful and the sense of community there is second to none. I grew up in Delaware County and after college lived out of state for several years. When my wife and I moved back to Pennsylvania, we chose Havertown because I knew of its sterling reputation as a great place to live and a top-tier school district. But having watched and attended the recent school board meetings, I'm dismayed. I've seen neighbors heckle neighbors, shout down public health officials, argue that being anti-racist is actually racist, disregard both long-standing and new regulations for
054decorum and participation in public meetings. And most troubling, try to censor books from our library and classrooms. And while Out of Darkness is the outrage du jour, it won't stop there. Reading is fundamental to becoming a well-rounded citizen, and it's something that we owe our students. Reading from varied viewpoints allows someone to examine the totality of the issue and sharpen their own thoughts on the subject matter. Just because a student reads printed words doesn't automatically convert them to that point of view. I read Native Son. I'm not a communist. I've read A.D. Rand. I'm not Paul Ryan. Reading dissenting points of view is a good thing. A major issue facing this country, and we see it every two weeks in this room, is that we've retreated to our ideological bubbles. It appears we can't seem
055to do much about that for adults, but you as a board and the school district can do something for our children. And I hope you do so by continuing to support BASIS and other DEI initiatives. Finally, I've seen community members argue that this school board doesn't represent the community and is out of touch and the board divides us when it should be uniting us. Those community members are disingenuous at best because when they use the word community, they don't mean the whole community. They don't mean me. They only mean the people that agree with their ever-narrowing worldview. We hear, we heard tonight, there should be more transparency and local involvement in our schools and that the input of the community is paramount. But there are candidates for school board in this district, ones who claim
056to be apolitical, mind you, who gladly took campaign dollars from a Bucks County billionaire who doesn't care one bit about the kids of Haverford. The individual cares about culture wars. and winning political influence by pushing his own personal agenda. Yet we are lectured bi-weekly how only one side of this room really represents our community. I've lived here for 15 years, and while I don't agree with every single thing this board has done, sometimes you're plain wrong, I support you. I think you care deeply about the students of this town, and you support my family very well. At the end of the day, I'm not laughing at Republican kids. I don't hate the people who disagree with me. I don't think you're bad people. But I do vehemently disagree with your vision for this district and
057this community, and I won't apologize for that. In conclusion, I want to thank the board for all its hard work, particularly through the trying last two years. This hasn't been easy, and I know this is not what you signed up for when you got into public service. I urge you to press forward and continue to foster a Haverford educational experience that is diverse, welcoming, inclusive, challenging, and prepares our children to be the best they can be. Thank you. Our next speaker is Helene Conroy-Smith. Helene. good evening my name is helene conroy smith i live at 32 east westwood park drive i came here tonight to talk about that i'm noticing more transparency and as a parent as a stakeholder i'm much more enthralled that this is happening this is a public forum for all of
058us to discuss our concerns about the district and i'd like to see more movement I am pretty happy to see that the transparency in the agenda, we're all able to see that the issues are being somewhat addressed. I can read and review what is kind of happening in our community and in our schools. And I'd like to recommend that we add in not only the contract, but also the information that will go along with the contracts. A more robust explanation so we know what our tax dollars are being spent on. I think it was a positive movement to remove the pornographic novel Out of Darkness from the high school, I'm sorry, the middle school library. I'd like to suggest that since the book was moved to HHS library, that the book have a flag when
059someone under the age of 18 take out the novel. You see, it is a crime to provide pornography to minors under the age of 18. Under Chapter 63 in Section 2101, Subsection 6301D, child pornography is defined as knowingly possessing control of a book depicting a child under the age of 18 engaging in prohibited sexual acts or in the simulation as one act commands offense. The novel by Perez gives great graphic detail of the stepfather Henry engaging in masturbation with his stepdaughter Naomi at the age of 13 and then again at the age of 17. These are sexually explicit and graphic. You can't Google it. Pull out the book and read it. Okay? That's what needs to happen because it's your responsibility as a school district to provide appropriate material to K-12. We need to be
060responsible. I'm not asking to ban books. I'm not asking to censor. But I'm asking you to review it. It's part of your policy. Anything that comes in to the hands of the children, all materials, library books, posters, internet, textbooks, that's all on you. That lies on you as a board and as a superintendent. You have a policy for that. Pornography is not something that we put in the hands of our children. And our tax dollars cannot be wasted on lawsuits that are going to occur. We should not be having this. I'm happy our children are back in school. I'm glad the plexiglass is down. I'm so happy that we are moving in the right direction. I'm going to ask that the COVID propaganda in our schools kind of be reduced. Our kids are stressed enough
061and we're coming out of a pandemic. So please be mindful of what we say to our children. Your words as leaders have power on our kids and they're afraid some of them to come to school. Thank you Our next speaker is Chuck Kuchanski, Chuck. Chuck Kuchanski 23 West Langhorne Avenue I've noticed there has been a lot of concern from the from the left at the most recent school board meetings with regards to the importance of hiring a quote diverse workforce in terms of teachers in the school district in reality however achieving such a goal is in fact irrelevant to our children's success the reason why is that regardless of what religion you are, whatever God you believe in, even if it's none at all, it does not change one simple truth. In the grand scheme
062of life and death, you will be asked in that moment of passing, what did you do with your life? It does not matter in God's eyes if you're white, black, brown, purple, or blue. The question God has for you will be the same. This is because the only thing that matters to God is that you are human. Nothing more, nothing less. Therefore, any parent who cares deeply about the interest and welfare of their children, as opposed to making it about themselves, instills this mindset in their kids, raising them to be colorblind. making the skin color of their teacher irrelevant. Children do not necessarily associate skin color with the ability to learn. Children are not naturally born racist. They're taught and trained to be racist and look at life through the lens of skin color through
063irresponsible and selfish teachers, parents, and through the teachings of CRT, also called DE&I training. These words, diversity, equity, inclusion, are heard much too often in today's society as a matter of great significance, when in fact the words that do matter when it comes to hiring and what should be stressed in our society are words like integrity, honor, character, and discipline. Unfortunately, seldom these words are ever heard. Just as in every occupation, the hiring of teachers should not only be based on the evidence of these traits, but first and foremost on the merit and qualifications of the individual. We need to have educators in this school district who have an integrity and discipline to keep their own political and personal views outside of the parent agreed upon curriculum to themselves and outside of the classroom. If
064they are unable to do this, then they are unfit to teach other parents' children and should be fired as they have broken the sacred long trust held between parents and the educator. As we've seen most recently, this trust has been broken in school districts across the country when teachers attempt to assume the roles and responsibility of the parent. Mr. Kuczynski, I could ask you to finish up. Okay. The only political statement hanging in classrooms should be the American flag. The purpose of education is to provide them the tools they need to be productive citizens upon adulthood. These include skills such as math, reading, science. and history supported by fact while stressing the positive accomplishments our country has overcome. These tools do not include such things as learning pronouns, administering personalities, or gender identity surveys or
065tests. Mr. Kuchanski, you're well past your time. Okay. Thank you. Let's go Brandon. Our next speaker is Nick Finelli. Nick. everyone nick finnelli 811 nailers run road at every single school board meeting there is a common thread the parents grandparents and residents usually have a question or two directed at the board members these questions are never answered superintendent rushi informed everyone several months ago that they were going to investigate having a q a session these meetings we have not been given any kind of information on this subject from the board I have a temporary solution each board member is permitted an untimed comment at the end of each meeting rather than report on different things how about answering our questions thank you our next speaker is Danielle Vitale Danielle Good evening, my name is Danielle
066Vitale and I live at 22 Springhouse Lane. I'm here tonight with a personal issue as well as an issue brought to me by parents of students at Haverford High School. Although the issues are different, they have in common that our district is not putting the educational needs of our students first. My personal issue stems from a recent conversation I had with my seventh grader after he missed a day of school. He was concerned about not being able to read a chapter of the novel his LA class was reading and how he would do in the subsequent comprehension check the next day. I was confused and why he couldn't just read the novel right then at our house But he said that the school didn't have enough copies of the book so they have to share
067which is why the books can't go home This situation also occurred last year when students were forced to read Xerox copies of assigned novels on their computers Because of a lack of reading materials When I heard this, I became very angry for two reasons, and I'm not an angry person. A, these children haven't had a normal school year since fourth grade, and now we're wasting instructional time having them read chapter books in class that could and should be read at home because we don't have adequate supplies. And B, I don't have to tell anyone in this room how high our taxes are, but providing our students with the materials and supplies they need should be the main use of that money. On another note, parents of students on the high school boys freshman soccer team
068came to me with a concern. these boys practice or had games typically five days a week and their practice in home game field is at Cooper Town Elementary which means that these boys need to be bused from the high school to Cooper Town for every game in every practice because of the bus driver shortage these students are being dismissed each and every day anywhere between 1 30 and 1 45 so that the buses can be utilized for school school dismissals I don't have to explain block scheduling to the board, so you should realize that having students miss a significant chunk of one of their four block classes each and every day to go to soccer is highly inappropriate. Parents I spoke to said that their children's grades were suffering because you can't simply miss that
069much material that consistently with no impact educationally. On the flip side, I was contacted by high school parents whose children had teachers who were coaches of high school teams, and these teachers were leaving early during the fourth block to be bused to games and practices with their teams because of the bus driver shortage. Those parents told me that their children's grades were suffering due to this, and some were even requiring tutors. We all know that the bus driver shortage is not the district's fault, but simply shipping students out of school very early on a consistent basis is not the solution. Did anyone explore using walkable fields like Chatham or Police? Whether one practice could be switched to a conditioning practice with running and exercise outside? Maybe the team simply can't practice every day. As someone
070whose children have greatly benefited from our district's extracurricular activities and as someone who actually started and helped run an after-school club program at Linwood Elementary, I don't say that lightly. but academics must come first. The parents of the freshman soccer players who contacted me were only given the option that they could pick their child up at the end of the school day and transport them to all games and practices, or their child had to miss significant school time to be bused to these games and practices early in order to remain on the team. I don't need to tell you that not many people can rearrange their schedule to do this. I love our town and I love our school district, but we need to do better and put the educational needs of our children first
071and foremost in our decision making. Be that making sure that our funding provides all the materials our students need or making tough decisions regarding academics and athletics. Thank you. Our next speaker is Krista Kerber. Krista. Evening. Thanks for the time tonight. I'm Krista Kerber and I live at 811 Powder Mill Lane in Wynwood. and i'm mainly here because as we approach the election i really want to thank each and every one of you and especially those of you who will be stepping off the board at the end of the year for pulling us pulling our district and our kids through two really really intense years it's been clear to me through that time and all my time as a parent in the district that even when i disagree with decisions you've been committed to the
072well-being and the education of our kids, particularly those who are more vulnerable and more likely to be marginalized. I do want to get back also to the session that was mentioned earlier that you had brought up earlier in the year about... like a public forum. And with all of the suspicion, the calls for transparency, I'm wondering if it would be feasible to not only have a public forum, but maybe a regular public forum in place of public comment, not in place of public comment, but a place where people could have a conversation, a facilitated one, maybe quarterly, maybe a couple of times a year. So that is. really all I came to say. Thanks again for all of your service. Our next speaker is William Bryan. William. William Bryan, 210 Shelbourne. Before I get started,
073I'd like to say thank you to the performers and to the two young ladies that made their presentation very well done. On most occasions, I've been candid, vocal, and critical of the direction this board has taken. Tonight's different. Tonight, I would like to recognize a group of students of Haverford High School that have taken it upon themselves to organize, launch, and participate in a newly formed Young Republican Club. This diverse group estimated upwards of 150 students that have joined together in order to share thoughts, ideas, and learn more about how our republic is intended to work. I applaud and agree with the high school administration for the ruling in their favor. I say thank you. But sadly, there were some threats, actions made against student organizers, supporters, and those asking questions on the day of
074the sign-up in this building. Significant events that demanded or called for police to be called and restore order. The club members alone should be allowed to organize, develop their own structure, their bylaws, their officers and protocols without interference, as long as they operate within and meet the criteria stated for all club regulations and their sponsor's guidance. There is also a pending request submitted by students to the administrators of our middle school. seeking approval to start a similar Young Republican Club there as well. I would and I always will support any and all that share differing points of opinion. Our community only stands to benefit when young people choose an activity to participate in in a positive forum, civil debates, construction, discussion and respect of diversity of all opinions. Time for us to start healing, stop
075dividing, and cherish our freedoms and our liberties. Thank you. Our last speaker this evening is Janice Miller. Janice. Good evening. My name is Janice Miller, and I reside at You Have It There. I'm going to take a deep breath. Let me start, first of all, by saying hello, Mrs. Benji. I miss seeing your face. Now with that being said, I am going to say some extremely inappropriate things. Please stop me at any time. There is the BASIS program, which I think is fantastic. I think you are reaching out to people who feel marginalized. I think, I'm sorry, I think the people who feel like they don't have a voice, and if they choose to be with the same gender. or a different color has a voice nail. With that being said, the amount of bullying
076that goes on at this school district is absurd. Typical four eyes, fat, but things like go kill yourself, you don't belong here, nobody wants you, close your legs, you smell down there. Things like that are being said every day in the school district. And I did not think I would come up here shaking. I thought I would be a lot calmer. But as I'm talking about it, it really upsets me. These things are being said on a daily basis to students at this school, regardless of color, regardless of race, regardless of gender status. It is overall bullying that is happening at this school district. And I don't know if SEL handles it. I don't know what you guys do to handle it, but it is on your shoulders. A kid in Springfield just killed himself.
077my own daughter almost committed suicide several times because of things that were said to her day in and day out and we had to pull her out of the school district and it needs to stop with that being said as Elena and mr. Bryant said this same stuff is going on with the Republican Party There was a table and there was bullying and harassment and laughing and mocking because these children wanted to express themselves in a way that they should. And if they find that it's not right for them, that's okay. Let them experience that. This school board and this school district fosters the environment for the bullying. You allow it to happen. Behind the scenes, this town talks, and by God, did they talk about this school board and the amount of bullying that
078you let this town do. There are parents up here that come up here every week, and they talk shit on other parents right in front of your faces. And that is bullshit that you allow that to happen. They should be addressing you, not other parents, not how they feel. stop the bullying it's time for a change it's time for a new school board and if you don't believe me take a look down Brookline Boulevard and you can see what this town wants thank you next item on our agenda is board reports Antoinette I get to go first today I just want to say thank you to our students who came and gave us a preview of the play. That was really quite beautiful and I look forward to seeing it. And just with that theme,
079I want to thank everyone who, you know, the staff, the administration, the parents. just general volunteers who put on really just such great events for our community during the fall and just really feel really grateful that we can have all these events this year in person. And so thank you to everyone in the community for doing that. Thanks Antoinette. Ari? No report. You know you have limited report time left. No report. All right. Dave? That's how you say Dave? Yes sir. I'm gonna order here. I'm kinda off guard. So I mentioned earlier during the facilities committee report that we are looking at solar at Lynnwood and we have a couple of different options for it now. It's the thing I'm very, very excited about. I'm hoping that we can really come to a... decision on
080that, not only will it be environmentally friendly, also will save us money in the long run. So looking very, very forward to hearing more about that. And I also wanted to echo the thank you for the students who came in this evening. I thought they were fantastic. Also looking forward to seeing that production. That's it. Thanks, Dave. Kristen. Yeah, I just wanted to echo what others have said about the student performance tonight. It was outstanding and I'm really looking forward to that play. Also, it's great to be in person because remember last year, I believe we watched it virtually. So we're getting there. We're making progress. Also, I really love having our student reports back live and in person. It's good to have the energy of students back in the room. Thank you. Thanks, Kristen.
081Laura? Last. Thursday was it Thursday last week yeah it was Thursday last week I was able to attend a fall advocacy day so for those in the public who aren't aware of what that is it's a day where school board members from across the state meet with their representatives and senators used to be in Harrisburg now it's on zoom and basically advocate for public education and talk about issues that are facing our district challenges facing our district it's always very eye-opening to me to hear in delaware county you know it's everything from haverford township and radnor all the way to william penn and some of the challenges that other districts are facing are very similar to ours and some of the challenges are especially like hearing from you know I've mentioned this before hearing from
082William Penn School District and the financial challenges that they are facing it is a stark contrast to some of the challenges that we are facing. So I always appreciate being able to talk to state and local representatives. One of the common themes this year was shortages, bus driver shortages, food service worker shortages, substitute teacher shortages, and just asking if there's anything that Harrisburg can do to help districts. Fill some of these shortages. Another another question that came up was about the I believe it's the American recovery plan money. There's apparently a surplus of American recovery plan money in Harrisburg that hasn't been released yet. And it's a pretty sizable amount of money, not specific for our district, but just across the state. So hopefully some of that will be decided upon soon. But yeah, I'm
083always glad to live in a district where our representatives are very supportive of public education and have an opportunity to talk with them about that. So thank you. Thanks, Laura. Sal? No report. Susan? No report. Bridget? I have a couple of things on the 13th I attended the Delaware County Legislative Council that's a meeting among the 15 districts and the DCIU The agenda included a presentation from Children's First, formerly PCCY. They were sharing information on their Justice in Education program, which is a student advocacy training program to get kids involved in the fight for fair funding for public education. Also on the agenda was a busy update on legislative actions. Everyone is probably aware that public schools and education are frequently in the news these days. There are a wide range of topics that the
084legislature is looking at. Sometimes with contrasting approaches. I'm just reading through a list of some of the bills that were discussed at our legislative committee about teacher certification reciprocity for teachers coming from out of state. Right to know vexatious requester limitations. and then you throw in something like lyme disease protocols when a tick is identified on a student in school parental choice regarding mask mandates in schools enforcement of stopping for buses when they've got the stop arm out efforts to address the school bus driver shortage there are competing bills of different interests for charter regulation and promotion There are voucher bills. There are curriculum transparency bills. There is just a lot going on and a lot to keep up with. So it's helpful to have that forum here in the county, keeping abreast of all
085of the topics. I also was able to participate in a PSBA training on keeping meetings effective. I attended some of advocacy day. or earlier this week was the monthly leadership statewide forum webinar. Again, talking about legislative issues and hearing different approaches from around the state with different challenges around hiring, charter bills, voucher bills, COVID. mitigation efforts and all of that so there's a lot of topics that the school board association is helping us address and that leads me to Saturday I and a couple other school board members will be participating in the Pennsylvania School Board Association Delegate Assembly this is where the association which represents all 500 school districts in the state of Pennsylvania is our association for advocating for public education, doing training and disseminating best practices. This legislative priorities issues will be getting
086the input of delegates from across the state on the PSBA priorities, which include enacting meaningful charter school reform, providing significant continued financial investments to school districts, addressing Pennsylvania's pension funding crisis. and providing for safety and mental health needs of students. And so we'll be looking at different strategies and ways to advocate for supporting an effective child centered education that looks at student assessment, graduation requirements, special education, career and technical education, strengthening the work of local school boards by advocating for ways to address personnel issues and school board operations and school construction, alleviating some of the education related mandates and getting more support to help the mental and emotional health of our students, support for increased equity and accountability, which includes charter reform and to secure adequate and equitable funding, which is looking at the statewide
087funding formula. local taxation transportation funding issues and getting more federal funding to support our schools so that will be an interesting and robust topic to spend my Saturday talking about and just mentioning PSBA I wanted to share a little bit about an announcement that they made last week at a previous school board meeting, there was some public comment that was talking about, you know, the way the board responds to public comment and some people in our communities and kind of attributed information that was circulated elsewhere to members of our board and individual board members here, which. PSBA has taken a stance against the National School Boards Association and has decided to leave that organization. They voted unanimously to cancel that membership. And I'll just read a little bit of their newsletter here or their announcement
088here. It says the value of an NSBA federal membership has been questioned numerous times over the past several years, both within Pennsylvania and amongst many other state school board associations. The most recent national controversy surrounding a letter to President Biden suggesting that some parents should be considered domestic terrorists was the final straw. This misguided approach has made our work and that of many school boards more difficult. It has fomented more disputes and cast partisanship on our work on behalf of school directors when we seek to find common ground and support all school directors in their work, no matter their politics. Now is not the time for more politics and posturing. It's the time to solutions to the many challenges facing education. So I just wanted to share that. I know there's some questions about the
089large influence and activity that this board engages with in PSBA and they are. a strong resource for public education and for helping train school board members and are also aware of and trying to align with the best practices for school board and school governance as a model of the democratic process. And so that I just wanted to say, I'll be at the virtual PSBA conference next week. And on Tuesday, I'm doing a six hour training on Start Strong, which is to help onboard new school board members. And with this upcoming election, we have four seats that are up for new board members. And I just want to say I'm glad for all of the interest and ideas and energy and all of the folks who are running for those seats to everyone i say study
090up on the candidates and everyone should vote on november 2nd and we'll be ready with the school board onboarding thanks bridget i just want to recognize that all of those meetings and events that Bridget said she attended are all in addition to her having a full time job and they're all volunteer positions. So I thank you for that. Thank you for putting in the time to learn the job, to learn what it is, to learn what the issues are, both regionally through the the Delaware County Legislative Council, also at the state level through several of the items that you mentioned. I also had an opportunity to participate in Advocacy Day. A dear friend of mine who was a school director in the Centennial School District passed away suddenly a couple weeks ago. He also was
091supposed to coordinate 10 Zoom meetings on Advocacy Day. So that's what I did on Advocacy Day. And we had... over 100 legislative meetings throughout the state. Over 150 school board members from all over the state participated. It's a great event. It's an eye-opener to hear the perspectives from folks in all parts of the state, urban, suburban, rural, rich, poor. Very, very enlightening. I also want to follow up Laura mentioned the William Penn School District. William Penn is one of the plaintiffs in a fair funding lawsuit that has been a long time coming and is finally scheduled to start November 12th. I believe it's in Commonwealth Court and you know we wish them luck. I've had several opportunities during my board tenure to visit William Penn and other school districts that are not as blessed as
092we are in terms of funding and to see the kinds of challenges that they have and the real lack of resources that are available for their kids. And it's a shame. When I toured our new Linwood building. It's spectacular. It's beautiful. It's wonderful. But I can't help thinking, I know the board president and William Penn, and I think the newest school that they have is like 50 years old, and they don't have money for the kinds of routine upkeep and repairs that we take for granted. I'm hopeful that this lawsuit will proceed, but like everything else at that state level, it's probably going to take at least a few years to run its court, to go through the court system. So we'll be keeping an eye on that. We did not have an executive session
093this evening, so there's no executive session report. Our next regular public board meeting is scheduled to be held on November 4th. 2021 at 7.30 p.m. And I just want to alert you that it will be in the auditorium of the Haverford Middle School. The show that we saw the preview of this evening will be set up and running in this auditorium. So that next board meeting is in the Haverford Middle School. Before I ask to adjourn the meeting, I'd also like to say that in the past, I've been happy to hang around right here at this table after the board meeting. If anybody wants to come talk, please do. With that, I'll accept a motion to adjourn.