001Okay, we're live. Thank you, Ms. Kelly. I'd like to call to order the November 24th, 2020 regular board meeting of the Mithakton School District Board of Directors. Please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance. Dr. Zerbe, we don't have audio for the students. So is it the case that you didn't hear the pledge? I did not. I don't know if maybe, I don't think it's a problem on my end. There was no audio. Okay. Can we try the pledge one more time? Good, you get the start. Thank you. Just bear with me. Please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance. We hear the pledge now. One of my favorite websites is Gimmickin. It's like taking a quiz, except with boosters that make it more interesting. After we're done with our websites, we go back to Zoom, to
002a breakout room and study with a friend, or we can share with the class a presentation. Even though teachers are going through the same thing we are, they still find a way to help us understand. These are some of the things I like about Skyview. All right, thank you. The public is hereby advised of the audio and video recording of this meeting for the purposes of rebroadcasting. Given the need to conduct this school board meeting in a virtual environment, the board of directors required members of the public wanting to make comments this evening to pre-register by 5 p.m. today. For our roll call, for board members, Ms. Cancro? Here. Ms. Drummond? Here. Ms. Hull? Here. Mr. McGinnis? Here. Mr. Navarette? Here. Ms. Perdue? Here. Ms. Reese? Here. And Mr. Winters? Here. Okay, recognition of guests
003and scheduled speakers. Dr. Zerbe? Thank you, Madam President. This evening, we have a number of presentations to share with the board. The first one is the Award of Excellence, and we'll have Skyview Elementary Principal, Ms. Gorla. With us this evening, Ms. Gorla. Hi there, everyone. Thank you all for having me, and thank you to Samaritha and Isaac for representing our school at the start of this meeting. I'm excited. First and foremost, I would certainly describe our Skyview staff as collaborative, and you'll see that theme running through these awards. And never has this been more apparent in how they've rallied, worked together to plan instruction, support students, and connect with families. And it's this spirit of collaboration that makes the VUE a great place to be. Our first recipient is Jen Bodek. She serves as an
004instructional assistant on the sixth grade astronomers team at Skyview. She helps our students in both classes in small groups and individually. She's always willing to go the extra mile for students and has diligently worked with individual students as they've learned to participate in virtual instruction. She's really known for her willingness to help throughout our learning community and is a great team player. Next. Next is Andrea Tosa, who serves Skyview as an instructional assistant on the sixth grade Celestials team. In this role, she helps our students in classes, both in small groups and individually. Andy thrives on communication and in building relationships with students and colleagues. She encourages students to be themselves, learn from each other, and to demonstrate kindness every day. Next is Quinton Swift, who's one of our wonderful custodians. He has been a
005fixture in our building for many years, and he's a fixture not only in our building, but in the cafeteria and around, always there to help our students, staff, and teachers every single day. No matter what's going on during the day, he can always be counted on to be responsive, and we always appreciate how quick he is to come and help and how he just really generally takes care of everything around Skyview. Next is Mr. Engle. Scott Engle is a science teacher on Team USA. He is known for his high energy, engaging lessons, his stellar communication with families and students, and the very positive relationships he forms. As a colleague, he's a collaborator. He works with his teammates and his department colleagues to provide an outstanding learning experience for our Skyview students. Next is Linda Yuneng.
006She is a fifth grade teacher on the Mountaineers. team instructing both ELA and socially and the amazing classroom environment that she creates for her students. She is also a collaborative colleague working with the social studies to develop engaging projects for students to participate. And our final person that we're recognizing is Mrs. Pegg Bonder. Pegg has served the district in a variety of roles from fifth grade teacher to staff development to her current role as an instructional support teacher. In this role, Pegg works with individual students and their families to help students improve and succeed academically. She is an instrumental member of Skyview's core data team, and she collaborates with colleagues on a daily basis, reaches out, and makes very vital connections with families across our building. So I'm very proud of these six honorees as
007well as the rest of our Skyview staff for the hard work that they do and the job that they do in engaging our students in learning every day. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Gorlin. And thank you, Skyview Upper Elementary staff, for all that you do for our students, our colleagues, and our community. Next on the agenda, we have with us a guest this evening, a gentleman by the name of Dr. Bruce Campbell. Dr. Campbell was introduced to us or introduced to me just a few months ago where members of the board ad hoc diversity, equity, and inclusion committee met with Dr. Campbell and myself. And we discussed an opportunity that I have before the board for their consideration this evening to take his experience and his leadership. in helping us as a district move forward
008with matters of diversity, equity, inclusion, and to develop a plan, a pathway forward for all the things that have been brought to our attention today, up to today and going forward, as well as making sure that we are providing the best environment, a safe environment. and an educationally appropriate environment for all students. So with that said, I just want to introduce Dr. Campbell to you, allow him to share a little bit about his experience and background, as well as talk about the opportunity that is before us with his scope of proposal. Dr. Campbell, welcome. Thank you. And good evening, everyone. Yes. So I'm Dr. Campbell. I am an associate professor at Arcadia University. I am also the director of the Educational Leadership Program, the master's program, and all the supervisory certifications, superintendent, principal, director of
009special ed, pupil personnel, and the list goes on. I primarily teach in that program as well as the doctoral program for educational leadership. Prior to being at Arcadia, I've been there for, I think this is my ninth year. Prior to that, I worked for the Pennsylvania Department of Education. I was in a program called Distinguished Educators. So there's about 50 of us across the state that were working in various school districts across the Commonwealth. In terms of my experience doing work with diversity and inclusion, and I'm just going to add a couple others just because of some of the work I've been doing at Arcadia. We like to call ourselves JEDI, some of us. So it stands for Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion. I'm sort of expanding it a little bit. But what that work
010is, it's work that I do in the courses that I teach as well as my scholarship. my work, my service work in the community, primarily Montgomery County. So what I've done is, as it pertains to the Methactin School District, is worked with different school districts on their diversity and equity. and inclusion work. So that just varies depending on the district. Every district and every school is at different points. So what we do, and I'm going to get specific into Methactin's work, is really look at what work has already been done, because we don't want to step on people's toes. And, you know, there's obviously a history there. So looking at what work has been done and what... what we can highlight from that work, but then also how do we move forward with that work.
011So what I propose to the district is looking at just that, what evidence and data has already been established throughout the district over a period of time. Where does the district want to go? Where does the community want to go? And then from that, developing a diversity and equity committee. That would be from the district's point of view. I know there's a task force, but a district committee and having key personnel on that committee to actually help move this work forward. The next step that I have would be doing, and this is probably one of the biggest parts, is doing an equity audit. And that would be for the whole community, not just staff members, administrators, teachers. It would also be for students and families to participate in as well to get a real sense
012of what the community feels is happening and doing, you know, methactam is doing really well in and what maybe needs some improvement or TLC. And then the professor, being the data nerd that he is, would look at that information and then really tease it out and find best practices of how we can move forward. I think what has worked well in districts that I've worked with in the past as splitting up that that information into subgroups. So there might be I'm just going off the top of my head. There might be a group that is just looking at H.R. There might be a group that is just looking at classroom instruction or curriculum. There might be one another group that's looking at policies. We really won't know until we see what are some of the
013themes that come out of the data. And then finally, well, not finally, there's two more steps. The next one would be then setting goals for each one of those groups. And then finally, everybody rolling up their sleeves and doing the work. The last piece that I would add to this is, which I've shared in the meetings that I've had with the districts thus far, and I can't stress this enough, this work is... a marathon. It is not a sprint. It is not something that, okay, we bring in Dr. Campbell and he's done one, two sessions with staff and we're good to go. We've solved methactin's diversity and inclusion problems. I see this work as something that is ongoing, not something that we've done something and we put it into the file cabinet and yeah, we
014did that check, right? It's something that we're always going to, it's going to be evolving and it's fluid. We always have to be adjusting along the way. As people, different people come in and out of the district and that's staff, family, students, and this, our society, as it changes, we also need to be flexible and change with that. I'm open to any questions if people have any. I didn't want to take up too much time. Thank you, Dr. Campbell. Other questions from members of the board or any comments from members of the ad hoc committee or the board? Mr. McGinnis? Dr. Campbell, thank you for joining us tonight. And I liked your line about it's a marathon, not a sprint. What do you think some of the metrics we'll use to see what mile marker
015we're at on this marathon? Do you have it mapped out or is it kind of, you know, you got to kind of jump in here and figure that out as we go along? Well, some of my first steps would be to meet with different administrators in the district to get a sense of what their thoughts are, what they want to see happen in the immediate and as well as the future around these topics. But then I do have, obviously, in my back pocket, some different samples of equity audits. I don't want to say, yes, this is the one we're going to use, you know, choice 7.3. Everyone is not fit for different districts. So I wouldn't use one that I just use somewhere else. I really have to see what methactin needs are. And then
016I also think that sometimes we don't want to just. We want to be able to be flexible and maybe ask some other questions that might not be part of that equity audit. I think it's a good time to be able to ask all the questions that not just board members and administrators want to know, but I think families want to know. This is a time for us to grab a whole bunch of data. And then that equity audit will really give us a nice baseline to sort of put our path forward. Great. Thank you. Mr. Winters? Yeah, thank you, Dr. Campbell. Just a quick question. One of the things that seemed to come out most recently, I would say, is some of the feedback that came back from alumni. Is alumni and past administrators something
017that we reach out to to get sort of a look backwards view of not just those experiencing what they're experiencing at the fact of today? Yes. Yes, absolutely. And what we would do in the equity audit is when we, one of the first several items on the audit would be demographics. So we'd be able to tease out quite a bit, actually, because so many, you know, I sort of see it as there's going to be a student survey, and then there's going to be an adult survey, right? Not to say that, you know, I see that there's a student representative, not to say that high school students are not adults, I'm just, you know, but I would say that we'd be able to tease it out by saying like, this is, and not, but also
018not identifying people too much. So we'd be able to say, this is a teacher. but not say what class they teach and stuff like that. Or this is an administrator in the district. This is an alumni. This is a staff member. This is a high school student, a middle school student, an elementary student. Because then once we start looking at data, we can start seeing some trends that say like, oh, right, it seems like a lot of alumni are saying one thing, but high school students are also saying the same thing. this thing that we're doing is going really well or oh this problem is still a problem you know years later thank you other questions uh from members of the board not seeing it oh i'm sorry miss drummond i just want to say
019dr campbell thank you for being here and um i just want to say i appreciate the long-term approach to these issues um you know i know in our district we've had discussions and professional development and training and um a lot of work around these areas, but I like that this is gonna be a long-term framework to continue this work. So I appreciate your proposal and I appreciate you coming here tonight to speak with us and for speaking with us in the ad hoc committee as well. Absolutely. Thank you. Any last questions from members of the board? Seeing no other questions. Thank you so much, Dr. Campbell. And certainly you're welcome to stay on with us for the rest of the evening. Or if time doesn't permit you to do that, you're certainly also welcome to
020leave. And you can do that gracefully now if you'd like to or whenever you feel comfortable. Yeah, I think I'm going to take that gracefully now and do story time before bed for this first grader I have here. Thank you. Thank you all. Have a wonderful Thanksgiving. You too, everybody, as well. Next on the agenda, we have Arrowhead New Building Construction, KCBA Architects. We don't have a specific presentation for you this evening. However, Jamie Ober and Mike Kelly are on the call. And they are here this evening to answer any questions that you may have. And we'll open the floor up, Mr. Kelly and Ms. Ober. Do you have any comments for the board at this moment in time? before we open the floor to questions? No, we do not. I'm excited to hear any
021questions and excited to move forward with the new school. Questions from members of the board. Ms. Perdue? I think one of the questions that have come up and I don't know, we haven't discussed it in the past is really... comes around timing of putting up a new arrowhead. So I just wanted to know, we haven't really looked at it. I know last week you provided your proposal as far as the bids that we have and that provided timelines, but have we looked at the timelines for say, if we were to push back? And I'm just asking a question just to say, have you looked at that? Have you provided any information on that? Yeah, the challenge with that is the bids are locked in for 60 days. So if the board doesn't act on them,
022they essentially expire. We know we were very under budget, which is great. We would risk losing that by pushing that back. Also, we're on a pretty tight timeline. Believe it or not, the summer of 2022 will be here, hopefully, before we all know it. So we want to make sure that we have the construction timeline and the amount of time to build the building so that we can have students in there by August of 2022. Thank you. And I guess in reference to that same along those timelines, if there were, with the bids expiring in 50 days, what else do we lose out of if there was a discussion to push back? Again, we'd have to re-bid, so we'd be delayed several months, which I think would then push the building not to be complete
023by that summer of 22, which then spirals into a whole bunch of other things. We wouldn't be able to take the existing Arrowhead down in time, so we'd have to have the building up while the other building's finishing, and then when do we switch over? So it's a construction phasing schedule, which we're right on time for, but we certainly don't want to have any delays. And like I said before, it's also the bid package that we would be at risk of losing and essentially having to rebid again, where, you know, again, I'd be concerned that, you know, we're well under budget this time. We certainly don't want to gamble with that success. Thank you, Mr. Culley. Ms. Perdue, do you have any other further questions? Yes, sir. Thank you. Mr. Winters? Yeah, Mr. Kelly, one
024of the things we talked about, there were two items that were on the a la carte menu, which was the cell phone and then also the lightning sticks. I'm not sure exactly what the official term is, but I'm sure that's not it. Can the $100,000 for cell phone service? I know that Mary, Ms. Paul mentioned about the poor quality, but it seems like to me that is a ridiculous number to set us up for. Isn't there other alternatives, you know, just another cell tower perhaps in the area, you know, other things, other mechanisms that we could go to, at least on that item, say no thanks. I have learned way more about this subject in the last week than I care to ever know. It is a complicated system to make sure that one system
025talks to all the different providers. It is a costly system. We're seeing this pretty standard now in a lot of our schools. It is a big ticket item. That's one of the reasons our engineers have suggested. pulling that out. So we could have this conversation because we, you know, it is a six digit number. As, and Jamie, you had the conversation with the engineers as well this morning, if you want to chime in as well. The package that will be put together is $100,000. It covers cell phone coverage in that building. But once the building is up and everything is enclosed, tests will be done to see what level of that package needs to be included. It certainly won't be more than 100,000, but it could be less. So all of that testing would happen
026once the building's enclosed so that they know the exact environment in which the amplifiers and things would be included in the building. With the way our building envelopes are now, we have a lot more insulation. We have a lot more thickness to things. It interrupts cell phone coverage. So as a building safety issue, when systems could go down or who knows what's going on in an emergency, everybody wants to have access to their cell phones. You know, we want the ability to make sure that 40 teachers can make an emergency cell phone call if they feel they need to. We've sent Tim Bricker some information. We can certainly send you some more. It is something that you'd be approving tonight, but wouldn't be installed for well over a year and a half from now. So
027we can track this one and have some additional conversations as we go before you're actually paying for it. And we can provide you all that very nerdy information that our engineers provided us today. Yeah, I think that would be way over my head, but it's providing the infrastructure, and then at the time of the building being closed, you make a decision on how to implement it. Is the infrastructure set up X percentage of that $100,000? I don't want to say it would be half. I mean, again, I think you're spending most of that, but the... the specifics of the system get tested once the roof and the windows and all that are in place. What you want to make sure you're doing though is running all of the cabling for all of that stuff inside
028a building. Our engineers recently had a school that decided not to do it. They opened the building, they had terrible cell phone cutters. They decided to put it in. It was twice as expensive. And then they had wires running across, you know, brand new ceilings and things. So again, it's something that we want to get in the package tonight so that it's approved and it's off and running and our contractors are all taking their bonds on that. It's something that, again, if we went and asked them later to put it back in, then it's up to them on what it would cost. So we might risk making that even more expensive. But it is something that once the building's enclosed, we can kind of track again and see. You know, maybe we don't need the
029mega 10,000. We need the mega 9,000. And maybe that price can come down a little bit. Okay. Can you also, I think you mentioned last week or Mr. Jones mentioned that the lightning infrastructure, lightning rod infrastructure is something we have in all the other six buildings. Is that correct? Yes, we have it at the elementary schools. It is not at the high school, but all the elementaries. Okay. And then there was a question last week, Mr. Kelly, related to the size of the gym, as there has been almost at every meeting. When we've discussed this, we've talked about the size of the gym in comparison to the existing gym at Arrowhead. The existing gym at Arrowhead is not comparable to the other gyms at the other three elementary schools. Can you provide some type of
030comparison of the new gym? at Arrowhead to the existing gyms that we have at the other three elementaries. Yes, that is a slide from several presentations ago and we'll have to dig that out. If so, if you give me some time, I can certainly do that for later. It is significantly bigger than the existing Arrowhead. It is relatively similar to, say, Eagleville. But again, Eagleville has dual use. Eagleville, at least, you can open up that wall and get almost a full-size core. At Arrowhead... You can't. The floor surfaces are different. You have that big soffit that runs across. So it's not like you can open that wall and have a full size gym. So if you're comparing it to Eagleville, it's slightly larger. But again, it's a single use. It's only being used as the
031gym. And as you mentioned, we talked at length about the advantages to that. And as I mentioned as well, you know, a lot of the other elementary schools, certainly the ones that we toured. and several of the ones that we've been involved in are all moving in this direction for, again, all the reasons we talked about from presentations to indoor and outdoor recess and certainly youth organizations' abilities to use that facility as well. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Winters. Any other questions from members of the board? Seeing, oh, I'm sorry, Mr. McGuess? I guess this question is for... Kyle, if you don't mind weighing in, if we were to not get the, I'll call it the cell phone service, and there was a medical emergency at the school and the lack of cell phone coverage
032resulted in, God forbid, someone getting injured, what exposure would we have in that scenario? In terms of potential liability, I mean, any claim that an individual would seek to bring against the district that is portrayed as avoidable is certainly problematic. And so if there were an incident where there were not such coverage, you know, the ability of a plaintiff's attorney to point to the availability of technology or equipment. that could have prevented whatever situation would occur, it is certainly a possibility. There have been a number of cases. involving school districts that had outdated protective equipment in a gymnasium, let's say, or another facility. And plaintiffs more recently have been successful in demonstrating that the schools had a duty to update that protective equipment. I haven't seen it applied to a technology, you know, such as
033this, but it certainly has been. applied to physical equipment in a building needing to be updated kind of as technology and standards develop. So certainly from a liability standpoint, a protective measure that can be added to the school or something that adds safety brings value in terms of liability avoidance. So if we played that out, the nine of us are getting deposed and it's going to be multiples in costs of what we're looking at right now. Is that a fair assessment? Yeah, that's fair. Thank you. Other questions from members of the board? Seeing no other questions, we will move on to the next item on the agenda. The next item on the agenda is update on hybrid virtual instructional delivery. Just bear with me until I pull up a presentation. So this evening I want
034to provide an update on the status of our on-premise hybrid instruction. First, by county order, all public schools will go virtual for instruction and will suspend athletic and activities from November 23rd through December 6th. the county will continue to provide data on the county and our individual township metrics. And by no later than December 3rd of 2020, I will issue a notice to the families and staff regarding a return to on-premise hybrid instruction. This determination will be made based on the board-approved health and safety plan and will use the county positivity and incident rates against the PD recommended instructional model chart as shown on the screen. Furthermore, Given the recent orders by the governor, the need for additional information and impact on student athletic teams and conference play, and in an abundance of caution, I
035will be suspending athletics and activities on December 7th in order to allow for the matter of athletics to be discussed on the evening of December 7th, which is the next scheduled board meeting of the school directors. And that meeting will also have a matter on the agenda for that discussion. As the board is well aware, we have a health and safety plan in place that allows for athletics and activities to resume once the county order has expired. in order to make sure that the board has the proper information and can be fully apprised and that we have information on the direction of the district and the metrics associated with the positivity and incident rate. This is my recommendation. So we just put an additional hold on for a day so that we can make a
036decision in the best interest of student and staff safety, as well as opportunity and access. Part of the governor's new order includes an attestation process whereby the board president and the superintendent will attest to current status of the district's instructional model. This will be completed and will reflect the current status so determined under the county order, which will mean that we will remain all virtual through December 6th. A new attestation form must be submitted when a district would return to on-premises while the county transmission remains in the substantial category as per the PDE chart. However, given our health and safety plan, methactin would not need to submit any further attestation forms. but it is required that we submit the first initial form by the date and time located on this particular slide. In terms of
037other considerations for hybrid return, we must discuss potential functional challenge that could lie ahead of us. Generally, functional challenges will come in two forms, in forms of transportation challenges and staffing challenges. Mr. Bricker has a good handle on the transportation, but with the potential for a continuous in and out and on and off again process, it is reasonable to consider that first student would start to lose some of their drivers. While we've seen some drivers leave, we haven't seen a substantial amount leave that would render us functionally incapable of running school at this point. In addition to transportation, in terms of our own staffing, Mr. Regina will elaborate on some important measures that we've been taking to counteract some of those challenges. But first, it is important to understand that if our metrics allow for
038a hybrid return, and as, for example, we are facing a functional challenge at, say, a specific building or level, we may need to allow for a partial return of students. As an example, As per the slide, it says we reached a moderate threshold, as an example, by December 10th, but have staffing issues, for example, at the high school. we might be able to bring back in the moderate level threshold students in the hybrid format in grades K through eight the week of December 14th and remain all online for the high school until the functionally possible to provide on-premise instruction. Second matter to understand has to do with the governor's order, the new governor's orders as well. And again, these are new. They came out yesterday and there is a number of considerations and conversations that
039have been happening with superintendents across the county, with the CHOP policy doctors. and with the county department of health and and so a lot of conversation is is still occurring to weed through some of these orders but for the most part as an example there is now a new chart or actually three new charts that were made available for districts and they were based on the size of the enrollment in a particular class And as this chart so indicates, this is an example that we would need to follow in managing or keeping schools operational with the identification of positive cases. So let's say, for example, we do go back in moderate. So if we look in the orange column, we see moderate level. And let's say, for example, we have two to four students or
040a combination of students and staff in the same school building that are identified as positive. And we are talking about a school building that has less than 500 students as its typical enrollment. It would suggest here that in the, I'll call it the middle column under two to four students staff. that schools for three to seven days would be closed. Cleaning would take place and public health staff would be allowed to direct the close contacts and quarantine. Now, there is a caveat to this. It doesn't require that you go three to seven days. In fact, if you get all the close contacts in order and you do the proper cleaning. the timeframe could be less, but I want to make sure that the board understands that going forward, there are now other parameters for which
041a decision on a closing of building, not the district, but closing a building might have to be considered and taken into account. So again, I think one of the things to kind of really recognize here that, as an example, during the week of November 9th through the 13th, there would have been, if this rule was in place at that time, there would have been three buildings in our district that would have been closed for several days during that short period. So what I'm really saying is, while we are continuing to find ways to not only make sure that we bring students and staff back appropriately and within our health and safety plan. There are now some additional guidelines to help us make sure that students and staff remain safe. But as you can see, put
042some additional strain on what exactly we will or wouldn't be able to do. In terms of staffing efforts, Mr. Regina is here with us this evening to speak about those efforts that we're making to prepare for some of these potential staffing challenges. Mr. Regina? Thank you, Dr. Zerbe. As many of you know, we've taken a number of efforts that we still continue to this day to prepare for our in-person instruction here in the future. One of those, of course, is our substitute pool. We're continuing to build up our building-based substitutes. So those are subs that are obviously... set up to be at a particular school every day. We're looking to have four of those in a particular building. We're still building that pool as we speak. We do have day-to-day substitutes, and we do also
043have guest teacher substitutes. Our numbers, I think last week I shared that there are, I think it was last week, we shared that there was 19. We have right now 14 of those individuals in the queue ready to go. And then there's another, I want to say almost 20 that's in a pool of processing that's taking place right now. So as you can guess, many districts are going for the same group of people. So what that'll look like the day we return, we got to be seen. But I think right now we do have a number that we could count on, especially at the elementary level. Proctors are individuals that do not have a degree and are not guest teachers. They're essentially used to supervise an area in which the teacher still engages in virtual
044instruction. And we are continuing to use that as a strategy, and it's a secondary strategy after the substitutes are not available. And then, of course, coverages, whether it's utilizing our existing teachers, we have utilized instructional assistants and even administrators in our district to help cover classrooms. These are typically done in emergency situations, but they are being done when we need them. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Regina. And given all the challenges that we're sharing with you and all the ins and outs that might, you know, continue to occur throughout the rest of the school years, meaning, you know, we're in hybrid, out of hybrid, based on some of the metrics and the community transmission within our district, our county, this school year, you know, we need to keep the social emotional health of our students
045and staff in check. And here this evening, Dr. Angstad has a brief update on some of those efforts. Dr. Angstad? Thank you, Dr. Zerbe. I just want to mention that the Mifflakton School District is extremely fortunate to have dedicated professional staff, along with many community service organizations available to connect with our students and their families regarding any concerns related to social and emotional needs. These include our school counselors, our school nurses. We have five mental health specialists. Our REACH clinicians who are at Skyview, Arcola, and Methactin High School. We also have K-12 SAP teams, which for those that are not familiar, are student assistant program teams. They deal with drug, alcohol, tobacco, and mental health needs. We can also connect families to behavioral supports, and we have partnerships with both Carson Valley Children's Aid, who
046is our SAP liaison, as well as many mental health services and wraparound resources in the community. In addition to these professionals and community services, though, we also have teachers and support staffs who are instrumental in providing supports and activities to our students to address the social and emotional needs of our students. And some examples of these, and by all means, this is not inclusive, it's just a small sampling. We do breakout groups, they have daily AM and PM meetings, lunch bunches, team building, one-on-one check-ins. There's been a lot of Zoom activities, such as book reads, read-a-thons, clubs. I know the safeties have been meeting, student government, just to name a few. In grades five through 12, the administrators and counselors are meeting to discuss student progress and students at risk. There's also child study teams
047at the elementary level. There's also meetings to talk about attendance, parent outreach, whether teachers are reaching out or counselors to parents via phone calls, Zoom meetings, email. And then Skyview is also still continuing with character counts. And again, please keep in mind, this is not meant to be an inclusive list. It's important to acknowledge that our teachers and our support staff are constantly looking for innovative ways to engage with the kids, to connect and build relationships, not only from teacher to student, but students to student. And I would also just like to mention that our school counselors are very well-versed and knowledgeable about all of these supports and services available in both the district and in the county. And they are an excellent resource for families to connect with. Thank you, Dr. Anson. Sure. And
048in conclusion, to summarize this, the board president and I will complete the attestation form and submit that by five o'clock on November 30th, giving the Department of Education and Department of Health the indication that we will be in all virtual as of that particular date of submission. then I will communicate a determination for the return of hybrid instruction no later than December 3rd to staff and students based on our health and safety plan. And I will also suspend athletics and activities for, and I think I have an error there. It's actually for December 7th. I'm going to suspend the activities. I apologize. Mark Warren, Just bear with me one second i'm not gonna be able to change that, but I just want the board to know that that actually should be suspending it for the
049seventh not the eighth okay. Mark Warren, And that. the board will have on the agenda a discussion item with additional information in advance for that meeting so that we can determine a path forward for athletics and activities. And then, of course, we are continuing to review some of the other orders that have been provided, and we will update the health and safety plan to include those orders in the plan. So with that said, are there any questions from members of the board on this particular update? Ms. Rees? We've been talking a lot about staffing and I know we've been provided with how many staff is on this kind of leave or that kind of leave, et cetera. And I'm not expecting it now, but if we could be sent building by building, I don't need
050names. I would just like to have building by building. How many? And like what type of teacher, like classroom teacher, I don't need grade or, you know, or assistant or what have you. What type of leave, when they're expected to come back, if they are, that kind of thing. It's really hard for me. People keep asking me and I keep discussing what a complicated issue this is, you know, and being in a building. I teach for those who are unaware in a public school with over 600 students, and we don't have one staff member out. So it's hard for me to wrap my head around some of our numbers. So if we could share that, and I shouldn't say not one staff member, I shouldn't say that I misspoke. We had a quarantine situation for
051one staff member. I think one staff member's on FMLA for a birth of their child. I just would like to know for our buildings so that if we are having issues and there might be an issue where the high school has to go or that, that I have a little bit more information to wrap my head around it to explain it. Because I do understand it. But I would like to know that. And then my other question is, it makes sense, you know, to suspend things till our meeting the evening of the 7th. So are we having the reorganization meeting and then just basically a special meeting to discuss the return of school and or the return of athletics? Is that what the plan is? We typically in December have a reorganization meeting. Then we
052have an official meeting. Okay. So there's no, there's no work session. It is a regular, we consider it a regular voting meeting. Okay. And then we always said we would, we kind of follow PIAA. So I would assume PIAA has said hold off through the 6th and we're just extending that one more day till we have had a chance to talk about it publicly. I'm not certain that, and I know Dr. Spivak is on the call, so he can certainly chime in, but we are not making this decision in association with anything PIAA has said. The reason we're doing it is because the school board has approved an athletics and activities health and safety plan with the understanding that we will go into full contact. on the seventh or when the season starts. And so
053the issue for us is the county came in and said that schools and athletics and activities will close from the 23rd of November through December 6th. And so once that order ends at the evening on December 6th and it becomes December 7th, those activities could resume with full contact. And I don't know if we're, meaning myself or the rest of the board, is in full understanding of all the information around that. And I think we need to have a serious conversation and that could, you know, it could actually be rather lengthy to some degree. So giving Dr. Spiewak an opportunity to gather more information about what other teams in the PAC are doing and what PIAA is looking to do and potentially given, you know, the coming holiday season and how we as a county
054emerge from that timeframe. could have a lot to do with us maybe doing nothing or having to make a decision. But in my opinion, suspending it one day in addition to what is already suspended, allowing us an opportunity to just gather more information will allow us to make a better decision. I'm sorry, Mr. Winters. I just wanted to respond to part of what Ms. Reese was asking about. So the other thing that we are doing in addition to, you know, Dr. Zerbe is speaking to the other superintendents and Dr. Spiewak is involved with the PAC. Just today, I reached out to all of the board presidents for all of the other districts that are within the PAC so that we can hopefully come up with a sort of unified handling of this situation. Because the
055one thing that's unique with athletics is that it does us no good to plan on having a season, for example, if no other schools in the pack are doing so, or to look at possibly postponing the season to the spring if no other schools are doing so. So we're kind of taking a three-prong approach here of the superintendents and the athletics director and the board leadership in hoping to come to some sort of a... a unified decision on this thank you Ms. Avilesanis for that that clarification appreciate that are there other questions on this presentation Ms. Cancro so I had a question we went over the staffing you might not have the answer now Mr. Regina but like the estimated cost when we're dealing with the subs the proctors the coveraging that we need if
056we can get an idea of what that would be estimated what additional cost that is like per week, per month, just something to provide to the finance committee, that would be great. Because I know the need is there and it's increasing, it's going up as we see in the numbers that we've seen each week. I just want to have an idea of what that cost will be to the district. And my only other thing was I definitely believe in the social emotional learning I've been doing in services on executive function and emotional regulation on a lot of districts. And I think it's important. My one biggest thing that I would say and ask Dr. Angstead is, are the teachers having kind of a rubric for them to do kind of check ins because they've got
057a lot going on in the virtual learning. So a child who might get a zero in a class work. That child might actually just be struggling with some emotional regulation, shutting down, freezing. It's not the lazy student. But providing a rubric or guidance for them to how many zeros are in a class where, you know, what are we looking at as far as the child doesn't respond two to three times in a prompt. They don't keep their cameras on. Just providing something that, and then as a team lead, have the school counselor come and approach them. Take it off the teachers, especially if they're working in a team, and give it to the counselor so that these are these things what I've looked at as a rubric. I'm not sure what guidance you guys are
058following, but I just want to make sure because it's hard. It's hard for these teachers to know if the child's not the camera on. There's got to be certain things to let them have an idea of interaction. Okay. Thank you for that feedback. Thank you, Ms. Cancroo. Mr. Winters, I know that you had your hand up. No problem. This is more of a semantic question, though. You said the postponement or the until. December 7th for sports and activities. I think that can be confusing when we talk about activities that obviously can continue on Zoom and so forth. And the other part associated with that is that means suspension of, you know, maybe virtual workouts for sports teams or, you know. strategy sessions on sport team. The point here is to make sure that we've tried
059to encourage as much as possible that we've gone down these routes with sports, knowing that it could go in and out throughout the season, that we do believe this is definitely all sports and activities support the emotional aspects of the student. So we're trying to support that. So the complete suspension, I don't know if that's exactly the spirit of what you're trying to do here. So I just wanted to get clarification on that. That's a fair question. I think what really I'm trying to say is in-person activities. And we'll make that clear with Dr. Spiewak, and he'll make that clear with coaches and the sponsors associated with that. Yeah, there's certainly no need to stop other activities that are occurring virtually or wherever we can do things virtually. But certainly, we need to just kind
060of put a pause on what would likely happen if we didn't put that suspension in place for a day, is we would have the basketball team, the wrestling teams, everyone coming back. full contact because that's what we have in place. Yeah, I completely understand. Thank you. Thank you for making me clarify that. Appreciate that. Other questions from members of the board on the presentation? Any other update information? Ms. Aubrey-Larsenis? Yeah, so I guess not really so much a question as it is just a statement for everyone. This latest message out of Harrisburg from Governor Wolf, I think, is the perfect example of how challenging this whole situation is for us as a board of 10, really, with Dr. Zerbe. Just when we think we have a handle on what our path forward is, we get
061some new guidance, some new requirements, some new information that we need to very quickly absorb and react to. And so I just want to express to the public how difficult and frustrating all of this is, particularly for the governor to put something like this on a school district the week of a holiday. And, you know, knowing the requirements that we have for publicly advertising meetings and things like that, that we have very limited options in how we conduct our business. So it's very frustrating. We're doing the best that we can. I am very optimistic that our board will continue to make good decisions to fully benefit all of our students and staff, but I just need to express some of that frustration here. And thank you, Dr. Zerbe, for your message that you sent out
062about the guest teaching program and what people can do if they are interested in helping out, particularly with our proctoring needs for when we return to in-person schooling, because it's not if, it's when. It will happen. It's just a matter of how we're going to make that happen. So thank you. If there are no other questions, that ends the guests and scheduled speakers scheduled on the agenda for this evening. I'll turn the agenda back over to Madam President. Okay, thank you, Dr. Zerbe. Next, we have our reports. All of our committee reports are added to the agenda and are available online for review. For the intermediate unit, Ms. Reese, do you have a report this month? Not really a report, and my Post-it flew off my computer, but we met. last Wednesday. And I'm not
063going to fill you in on all the legislation. Just know that we are on top of it, or I shouldn't say we, the IU and Dr. Angstad, I'm sure gets multiple emails a day. It's literally when we talk about, you say, well, you know, putting this on the districts, the legislation is changing minute by minute. First, they say Keystones, then they don't say Keystones, lots of different things. So we are following that and as you said, Ms. Larceny. And just to be aware, and I spoke about this last time, that there will be a visit to the new school if anyone's interested, and I'll share that information with them. The new emotional support building that was the old IU that I will share when I receive it. Thank you, Ms. Reese. North Monaco Technical Career
064Center, Ms. Drummond and Ms. Reese. I will cover that one. We met on the 16th, the Joint Operating Committee, and it was a brief meeting. The big news from there is that the North Monaco Education Foundation received a $100,000 donation from alumni, and they're going to use that to build a website, expand their network, and grow their education foundation. Other than that, they were just working on, you know, working on through technical issues so that they can pivot to, they could pivot to all virtual instruction as required and pivot back easily to hybrid instruction when that becomes available. Thank you, Ms. Drummond. Now on to our student board representatives, Claire and Chris. Hi, yes. With the obvious going on, I thought that it would be prudent to focus on some of the more positive occurrences
065in the district, specifically at the high school. I'm happy to report that Methagdine's population is as vibrant and alive as ever, even online. To expand on some of those things mentioned with the emotional health of the student, I know that Best Buddies has been adapting rapidly to the virtual environment, setting up weekly meetings of small buddy groups of four to eight people. as well as a whole slew of virtual events, including bingo nights, dances, etc., and even virtual buddy pairing. And of course, this is exceptionally important to that community because of the social, you know, ineptitudes there. So that's excellent to see. NHS is establishing safe and healthy ways to give back to the community, and assuming that we as a county stay out of lockdown, volunteer work will start shortly, which I'm happy to
066report. So, Methactin's student body continues to adapt, improvise, and overcome, even with the new challenges. And with that, I'd just like to wish everybody here a happy Thanksgiving. Thank you. Okay, for my report, I want to start with good evening. So, in November, the first marking period ended on November 11th, and the first marking period report cards were issued on the 19th. And on Saturday, November 14th, the Methactin Multicultural Club hosted a virtual international festival through YouTube that received a lot of positive feedback and $195 through online donations. It's still posted on the YouTube channel and it was really good. I recommend you check it out. To conclude, have a happy Thanksgiving. Thank you so much, Claire and Chris, and happy Thanksgiving to you and your families as well. Let's see, we do not have
067a report from the Education Foundation this evening. Communications, Ms. Kelly. Good evening, everyone. As we enter the giving season, one thing certain about our Methactin School community is that it always embodies the spirit of a good neighbor, winter, summer, spring, and fall. Thank you to all those who have donated food, funds, and their time to support the Methactin Backpack Program. Last week, the program provided more than 100 winter coats and weekend food to Methactin families in need. The Lower Providence Township Fire Company, in partnership with the Auto Dealers Caring for Kids Foundation, donated the brand new winter coats to the backpack program. A special thank you also goes to Board Vice President Liz Drummond and Home and School Volunteer Gabby Winters for leading the charge. The food and coat distribution took place on one of
068the coldest mornings we have had so far this season, and they both did it with a smile. So please keep up with all the happenings related to the backpack program. And if you want to find out how you can get involved, go to facebook.com slash methactinbackpack. Thank you. And I hope everyone has a very happy Thanksgiving. Thank you so much, Ms. Kelly. And thank you, Ms. Drummond and Mrs. Winters for the work that you have done on the backpack program. It's really remarkable to see how it's all taken off over the last several months and it's definitely due to a lot of hard, dedicated work from the two of them. So thank you. Superintendent's report, Dr. Zerbe. Thank you, Madam President. This evening, there is one item under my report. It's listed there. The last
069thing I want to share is I want to wish everyone on the board and the public, our student body, as well as our entire community, the very best for this Thanksgiving season. Thank you, Dr. Zerbe, to you as well. Before we begin public comment, I just wanted to share some sad news. So it's with deep sadness that I share the news of the passing of former school district solicitor Frank Bartle. Frank's firm, Digital Bartle & Dooley, was appointed to serve as solicitor for Mid-Facton School District in May of 2013. His office oversaw legal matters for the district, including the Stadium Field Lights Project, as well as the current litigation matter with Shenandoah. Frank will be missed by those of us who had the pleasure to know him. We extend our heartfelt condolences to his family,
070friends, loved ones, and colleagues. Okay, with that, I will now move on to public comment on board action items. This is a time for residents to comment on matters that are to be voted upon as outlined on the agenda this evening. The board asks you to keep your comments to four minutes or less. Board of directors may choose to respond to matters following the conclusion of comments on board action items. And I want to add one other thing. We do have quite a lengthy list of people who have... signed up to comment this evening. So I want to offer people an option that if someone before you has spoken on the matter that you are planning on speaking on, it is perfectly acceptable to say that, you know, a previous speaker has shared your sentiments
071and don't feel obligated to take the full four minutes. We do love to hear from the community, but it does certainly add time to our meetings. And that's just another option that's available. So with that, if you have pre-registered to speak during public comment, if you could raise your hand in the Zoom so that I can find you on the list, and I will let you in to speak. Okay. First, we have Jim Malek. Dr. Malek, whenever you're ready. Can you hear me okay? Yes, I can. Thank you. I don't call this the Methactin School District anymore. It's actually the Methactin Money Trough. Yeah, I saw Mr. Kelly chomping at the bit. Couldn't wait to get his $1.5 million. What do you think he's going to do if you guys vote against accepting the bids?
072Somebody better get the code cart ready. This board only understands one thing, and that's politics. Politics based on one thing and one thing only, politics and not facts. It's apparent to me the board doesn't work for the residents and taxpayers of this district. They work for the Democrat Party. Mike Kelly of KCBA Architects is a Wolf, Governor Wolf political appointee. A member of KCBA Architects has a child in the district, and I'm talking about the Arrowhead project right now. Mr. Navarrete bragged in a public meeting that he went door to door for his campaign, telling people he could not support closing Arrowhead because it would vacate the west side of Lower Providence. He had his mind made up before he was even elected to the board. This would explain why he continues to ignore the
073facts. He said the enrollment was going to go up. It's been dropping like a stone for 10 years. Mr. Navarette's proud of the job he's done on the board while our state ranking has gone from 11 to 65 under his reign. He's presided over multimillion dollar surpluses and over taxation only to take those surpluses and spend them on these kinds of pet projects. I think it's time for members of this board to follow someone else. Ms. Larsonese, you also made the same statement regarding Arrowhead, that you would not close it because it would result in three elementary schools. Your mind was made up. The facts don't matter. I've developed a great deal of respect for a Chong Ling Ma and her efforts. Unfortunately, it appears the board does not. What happened to your concern over
074diversity in this district? This board totally disregarded the Act 34 hearing testimony and comments that were made by numerous Chinese American taxpayers in the district, including Ms. Ma. This board has disregarded the petition with close to 500 signatures. I believe that if Ms. Ma's group consisted of Black Lives Matters protesters, the outcome might have been different. This board only understands political activism and partisanship. If you review the results of the 2017 school board election, it showed that board members Hall, Drummond, Cancro, and Navarette won by roughly 600 votes. They seem to be willing to throw away 500 votes by disregarding the concerns of those 500 petitioners. Ignoring the input of 500 residents will be just what the doctor ordered in your upcoming election in May. Dr. Zerbe was more than willing to let everyone know
075at the 115-19 board meeting that the survey which supported the Arrowhead project showed that the overwhelming response indicated we should continue using Arrowhead. What he didn't tell us was that 90% in favor of that had children at Arrowhead. We deserve honesty and transparency about this project, which we have not gotten. Milo and McBroom's $3,000 updated enrollment study that was used to justify the project was seriously flawed. and used inflated birth and housing data. It was so flawed that they refused to come to the district to defend their study after a right-to-know request was filed asking for the backup material. Arrowhead has also been designed by this board for community use of their indoor facilities. Why should any Worcester taxpayer pay for a community facility that will be impractical for us to use? Of course, there's
076no reason for this board to care about how much it costs. Building a new Arrowhead means that their children will not be affected by a possible closure and realignment. The board is not paying their fair share for this. Thank you, Dr. Malik. Thank you. That's your four minutes. Okay, moving on. I have, let's see, John Andrews. Mr. Andrews, whenever you're ready. Thank you. John Andrews, Law of Providence. I'm concerned about Director neglect of duty, such as in this Arrowhead boat instance. You represent the entire district, not just the Collegeville portion. Are you so entangled in other concerns that Arrowhead isn't even on your plate? Around 1999, we had 300 new homes built that year and rising student counts. The old and small Eagleville and more such schools were replaced properly. Then in 2018, you wanted
077to do similar with Arrowhead, but the details are the opposite. Enrollment didn't decline for 12 years so far across the district, including Arrowhead area. New homes were 20 and 19 in the last two years, and Arcola is 40% empty. Mr. Navarette and maybe others indicated there were campaign promises to maintain an Arrowhead because nothing had changed since the discussions of 2016. There is change. Now Arrowhead is not needed. Much needs repair and the big picture must include the high school rank plummet and its solution. We need a solution for today and the near future, not 2018. The special meeting of November 18 rambled around, had low attendance as no district mailer was used, and it was followed by a three-part query and comment opportunity. The outcome, in January of 19, Dr. Zerbe praised overwhelming response
078to keep an Arrowhead school and then short-circuited board discussion with a recommendation to keep an Arrowhead. But the 496 pages of comments were corrupted with many duplications of pro-school comments, and 70% of those comments were from self-described Arrowhead parents. That was the narrow process you were silent upon when the recommendation passed 8 to 1 a week later. That's blatant corruption of the thorough and usual early PlanCon sequence. So we had the Act 34 hearing, its many public comments, and a scheduled vote. But no, it was stated no vote was needed. Further, there was no discussion. You made the hearing a non-event. Wrong. You made it a sham. Why? Likely since an advertised event drew many district-wide comments and petitions that were five-to-one anti-Arrowhead. Many dozens of good arguments were stated. Only 15% of comments came
079from self-described Arrowhead parents. Skyview is just a mile up the road, almost new and available now as a future K-5. The multiple facts and community are anti-Arrowhead and pro-Methactin. The petitions that had 250 signatures are closing well above 450. If you represent the entire district's consensus and the Collegeville area has turned, vote no at bid vote time seriously. Seriously. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Andrews. Brian Earnshaw. Whenever you're ready, Mr. Earnshaw. Brian Earnshaw, Laurel Providence. First, regarding the financial statements for the 2020 audit, I think it's important to highlight once again that the past fiscal year had a budget surplus of $3.1 million. In the last four years, surpluses have totaled $10 million. The amount of money returned to taxpayers or used to offset tax increases is zero. Textbook example of a tax and spend
080policy, which I hope changes in the near future. Scattered across the agenda is the approval of various administrative personnel positions that'll total spending of about $700,000 in salary and benefit costs in the next fiscal year. There's been no discussion of how that will be funded. I think it's important for taxpayers to understand whether that will be funded with tax increases or program cuts. Regarding Arrowhead, I think we know where this is going. The board's actions and inactions over the past two years have indicated that it's going to get approved tonight. The board has already borrowed $18 million towards the project. Nearly $1.5 million has been spent on the project. And there's really been no discussion about the issues that have been raised over the past six months to a year. Those include the use of
081stale data to make this decision, the errors in the enrollment projections. K-4 enrollment is currently 8% below what was projected at this time. There's been no discussion after the Act 34 hearing regarding the testimony, including 60% against this project. There's really been no discussion of the Act 34 hearing at all. This building being proposed is a capacity of 625 students. Current hourhead enrollment is 384, meaning when this building is open, 40% of the building will be unutilized. based on the current enrollment of Arrowhead students. At the time Arrowhead opens, the district will then have two buildings where capacity utilization is at 60% are COLA and Arrowhead. This is highly inefficient and a waste of taxpayer money. No one seems concerned that $50 million will be added to the district's debt service, a 70% increase of
082where we stand today. Debt maturities will be extended to 2046 and additional 11 years. Nobody seems concerned about that either. And there's been no discussion about how additional borrowings will be built into the budget to fund additional master's plan spending that's required to fix roofs, HVAC systems, and other aspects of the other buildings that still need to be addressed. KCB had an error of 26% in their general contractor cost estimate. Nobody seems concerned with that. I think this is right for change orders and potential litigation should those change orders be denied. And finally, I was wondering if anyone on the board of the administration has done a simple Google search on the contractors that have been selected for this project. I think that should be done before this is approved because I think you'll find
083some very interesting information there. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Earnshaw. Next, I have Joe Bickelman. Are you ready, Mr. Bickelman? Hello, can you hear me? Yes, I can. Yeah, I hope you all did Google searches, too. That's a good point made by Mr. Earnshaw. I just want to agree totally with Mr. Andrews, Dr. Malik, and Mr. Earnshaw. I don't know how you cannot listen to these facts. And not approve these bids. You need to listen to these people talking as board members, as elected officials. Check out the facts. These people make good points. I'm about to make one. Don't approve the bids and build a new Arrowhead because you have an Arcola school that isn't 60% used. There are 771 kids in Arcola. The reason sixth grade is in Skyview because. of more finagling with
084enrollment projections for Skyview. You're supposed to have 6,500 kids now. You have 4,650. Put sixth grade back in Arcola. Make Skyview K-5. Improve your educational ranking. That has gone down from 11th in August of 2013 to 65th currently. You need to do that. Close the current arrowhead. Save a million dollars a year. A million a year. Don't borrow for a new arrowhead. Use the money you borrowed so far for the capital improvement plan. That was all so important before the campaign promises to build a new arrowhead. You have a backpack program. People are hungry. You have kids that are cold. There's a coat program to keep the kids warm. And you hypocritically are spending money on something that you don't need. The money that you save could be put towards the kids' welfare, education. You
085can improve program. Just do it. Get it done. Suck it up. Mr. Winters, make sure you get the total square footage for the new gym at the New Arrowhead and the cafeteria. And compare it to the dual function square footage of the other schools. Because what you're building at Arrowhead is not equitable. And it's from Ralph Navarette's promise to the community programs. The district doesn't have any community programs. They operate a K-4 school. Curriculum hasn't changed. Where we need a gym two and a half times the size of what we have now. That is also a cafeteria. There are people hurting in this school district. You're overtaxing, just like Mr. Earnshaw said. You're setting aside piles of money for no reason, like the retirement system. Start operating your district efficiently. Use the space you have
086now. It's ridiculous. It's totally ridiculous. Enrollment is going down. You don't have 6,500 kids. You have 4,650. You have 380 kids at Arrowhead now. You're building a school for 625 and you don't have enrollment projections that justify that. They're going down. Enrollment is going down. Do you understand that? Did you notice how Mr. Kelly's voice dropped off when he was trying to explain the big gym? And Mr. Kelly from KCBA also justifies everything that we're doing based on everybody else is doing it. That's how he justifies things. Everybody else is going that way. But when Mrs. Perdue wants to know something about delaying, no way. You can't do that. Mr. Kelly said you can't do that. Thank you, Mr. Bickelman. Next, I have Kelly Arnone. Ms. Howard. Hi, good evening. Kelly Arnone, Lower Providence. As
087a taxpayer whose home value is directly tied to the success of Arrowhead and the appeal of it to new homeowners, moving into our area, I would just like to yet again express my support of the construction of a new Arrowhead school. I really appreciate how proactive the district has been in communicating what's been going on with the Arrowhead board project between board meeting, presentations, community meetings, and tours of the building when this process all began quite a few years ago. The tours were truly eye-opening. I've spent many hours at Arrowhead as a volunteer and yet touring the building brought inadequacies to light that I had failed to notice before. Our students and staff deserve better than the dilapidated and poorly designed building that exists now. With my own background as an educator and having my
088master's in education, as well as having four children of my own, I'm well-versed in the needs of our students. The current Arrowhead building is not equipped to meet even the most basic spatial needs of all our learners. There's no room for small group instruction, no storage for supplies and manipulatives. Areas for OT and various therapies are frequently provided in closet spaces. This is not the type of school experience that will provide the best results for our students, not at Arrowhead and not district-wide. Retrofitting another building within the district and squeezing students into every available space will also not meet their needs nor provide a developmentally appropriate experience for all students. We need a new building with plenty of flexibility. At this time, there's no way to ascertain for certain exactly how many students will need
089one-on-one instruction, small group instruction, speech, occupational, and other therapies. We also cannot be sure of exactly how many new students will be attending, try as some might to guess these days. We do know that the current Arrowhead building is not large enough, and we do know that there is insufficient space to move the Arrowhead population to another building and reconfigure the schools yet again. If nothing else, the attempts to return to school during COVID has taught us that the more flexibility we have in our schools, the better. Additionally, while I'm not personally a fan of full-day kindergarten, it is the direction education is taking. A new Arrowhead now will help further these preparations for the future for all of Methactin. Just one other note aside from the Arrowhead project with regards to guest teachers. I
090understand the district is in a pretty desperate need of substitute teachers, especially when we get back to in-person. But it is simply not enough to provide a day or two of instruction and expect these people who have backgrounds not related to education to be able to execute a classroom teacher's lesson plans. This week, several of my children, I think it was three of them, had subs. And even in the virtual environment, it was very, very obvious that these teachers were not prepared. These guest teachers, or they may have been subs, I'm not exactly sure if they were. district normal subs, but it was extremely obvious they were not prepared for the job they were expected to complete. I've worked as both a contracted teacher and prior to that a long-term sub, and as I'm sure
091you're all aware, it's not enough just to put a warm body in a room and expect them to be able to complete the job of a classroom teacher. What I'm asking is that the district takes a really good look at how the guest teachers are being prepared and see how we can better support them so they can be successful themselves and mainly for our students. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Arnon. And next I have Tony Haley. Mr. Haley, whenever you're ready. Can you hear me? Yes, I can. Okay, thank you. Tony Haley, seventh grade science, MEA co-president. As the co-president of Methactin Education Association, I would like to make a statement on behalf of the members. On November 17th, Dr. Zerbe presented the board with a proposal to add several administrative positions. These additional positions,
092as proposed, carry a cost for the current year of $308,000 and an ongoing annual cost in excess of $682,000. This does not include any additional funds for raises, bonuses, or early bird renewals of contracts that, based on past practice of the Board for Administrative Positions, will likely be put forth in the future. Board approval of these positions would indicate a commitment to supporting and funding the district at an administrative level. It is hard not to note the contrast in the board's approach to supporting and compensating their professional staff who are currently working with an expired contract. This contract, between the urgency to address these administrative concerns and the lack of urgency in settling MEA's contract, appears stark. MEA's membership has remained steadfast in their commitment to the students and the families of this district. They've
093worked countless hours outside of their contracted times, have spent their own money to implement a strong educational program in rapidly changing environments, all without a contract. Speaking candidly, your educators are reaching their breaking point. In a prior public meeting, the board informed the public that negotiations were going well and we had met 16 times. It was interesting to note that the members of the board chose to litigate the number of times we've met in negotiations. For the sake of clarity, here's what the MEA's records indicate with respect to negotiation meetings. Since the beginning of bargaining last January, we've met 10 times with full negotiating teams from both sides. On multiple occasions, scheduled negotiation sessions have been canceled or postponed at the board's request. In July, the board hired Jeff Saltanek. the same lawyer that was
094part of the board's team during the last round of negotiations, resulting in a strike by the MEA and a substantial cost to the Methacken School District for his services. Since Mr. Saltanek's arrival, the tone of the meetings has shifted, and at the August 12th meeting, after eight minutes, the board left the table and refused to come back. Following the August 12th meeting, the parties did not meet again for formal negotiations until November 10th. Despite MEA's willingness and repeated requests to meet, Ultimately, MEA does not agree with the board's assertion that we have made great progress towards a settlement in that timeframe. With tonight's vote to approve and fund additional administrative positions, it seems clear that the Mithakton Board of Directors is committed to supporting and funding their administrative staff. We've seen a comparable level of
095commitment and financial support for district facilities, as well as the allocation of substantial resources for technology improvements. This leaves the over 400 members of the Methactin Education Association, Methactin's professional staff, still standing without a contract. While the words of support and praise from Methactin School District have been consistent and effusive, those words ring hollow when compared with the district's work towards setting MEA's contract. MEA remains steadfast in their pursuit of a fair and equitable contract and are willing and eager to work with the Board of Directors to secure one. However, MEA is unwilling to accept contract terms that do not reflect the value of our members' contributions to this district. Our district's values are evidenced by how they allocate their resources and focus, and we, the members of MEA, would like to be among those
096assets most highly valued by the Methalctin School District. Thank you for your time. Thank you, Mr. Haley. Next, I have Diane Greeley. Ms. Greeley, whenever you're ready. And I'm sorry, what I forgot to say at the beginning, and most of these speakers have already done so, and I appreciate it if you could just state your name and municipality before you start. Hi, thank you. This is Diane Greeley from Lower Providence. I would also like to just comment and say that I do agree as well with the new construction of Arrowhead. I think it's an investment in our children's future, and I believe that there is not enough space. As Kelly Arnone had pointed out, I totally agree with her comments earlier. And I think that you're investing in the future of our children of misacted
097high school when you're investing at the elementary level. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Greeley. Next, I have Jessica Bradbury. Whenever you're ready. Good evening. Jessica Bradbury, Lower Providence Township. The $30,000 proposal from Dr. Bruce Campbell, it's entirely too vague. You cannot approve it as written today. If I was given that at work, I'd send it back due to the lack of specific deliverables. There's no way to ensure that we're getting what we pay for the way it's written. I watched his TED Talk where he refers to the teaching experiences of Prez in season four of The Wire. So I'm wondering if we're thinking Methactin's needs related to diversity, equality, and inclusion are comparable to the inner city Baltimore urban setting? So I would like the board to elaborate on what problems we're hoping to solve
098there. I also saw Dr. Campbell contributed to an audio book titled How We Fight White Supremacy, A Field Guide to Black Resistance. And I had to pause for reflection on that. I'm fortunate enough to be able to have the economic means to place my child in a learning pod at a church and able to consider transferring her mid-year to Catholic school. But having attended Catholic school my whole life, that's my last resort because I want my daughter to have a public school experience, getting diversity of race and culture and of thought. Isn't the economic disparity and inequality in education a major impact to the people of color and those who are English as a second language? So isn't forcing all of our families to adapt to the inadequacies of virtual school or choosing to transfer
099to private schools contributing to these inequalities? Do you even realize your own hypocrisy? I've been through hours of corporate DE&I training this year, so maybe I can save your spending some of our taxpayer money, or at least maybe defer it. Is our teaching and admin staff racial demographics comparable to that of the community? DE&I is more about just race. How many people of color and how many women hold leadership roles? Have we examined our own hiring and promotion practices to reduce or eliminate biases that exist there? Why did Dr. Zerbe nominate a man for the assistant superintendent role? Has anyone stopped to question why men, mostly white men, comprise of more than half of the administration when teaching staff is primarily female? Is there a reason why we wouldn't post this internally and externally and
100maybe find a better candidate that would create more diversity within the leadership team? I'm not going to sit here and argue DE&I isn't important, but I'm questioning the prioritization as it being the most important thing during the school year that is so heavily reliant on technology when we have someone who's unqualified running that department. I can't see your faces because we still can't seem to figure out Zoom, but this is normally when some people start eye rolling, raising eyebrows, and maybe even some muted cursing. So let me explain what I mean when I say unqualified. She spent a decade teaching English, most recently serving as a vice principal. She wrote her doctoral thesis concluding that one-to-one technology was of no material benefit to our high school students. Please explain to me why filling the director
101of technology role is not the number one priority. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Bradbury. Next, I have Monica Zong. Whenever you're ready. Hi, can you guys hear me okay? Yes. Okay, so I just wanted to... Sorry, I just need you to state your name and municipality. I was about to do that. Okay, sorry. So my name is Monica Zong. I'm a constituent from the Lower Providence Township. I'm also a 2015 graduate from the Mithakton School District, so I am an alumni. In addition to that, I'm a grad student with experience in the healthcare field. So with all of that being said... First and foremost, I would like to thank teachers and faculty that are on this call. It is a really difficult time. Online teaching is really difficult, especially considering the generational difference and different
102levels of experience with technology. So my heart goes out to teachers because it is really difficult to reconcile. you know, being able to teach like the proper material while trying to gauge the students understanding and how they're doing when again they're, you know, taking classes with their webcam off, etc. So thank you for that. Just like a shout out for my teachers. In addition to that, I guess, I guess my main thing is People are making a decision from a corrupt point of view. And I'm not pointing, I'm not saying it to point fingers, I'm not trying to name call, but genuinely, you know, it's kind of like when a child gets a gift for Christmas, right? And they had their mind. set on this idea and like, oh, I'm going to get this new
103bauble. I'm so excited. I've been promised this. And then it turns out that it's not convenient or it's not in the budget or it's going to come at this great cost. I genuinely feel like that that's kind of where the decision making is coming from right now. It's it's everyone is really excited about this idea of a new school, new facilities. And, you know, it is really important to make sure that. Our schools have up-to-date internet. I absolutely agree with that. Considering the incidents and gun violence increases over the span of the country, I agree completely. And we need to be prepared. However, I feel like you guys are overlooking, I'm sure you've heard this multiple times, the potential of just moving your students to Skyview, which, as people have said, is a mile down
104the road. There's so much money that's going to go into this. We're about to enter a recession. I think we are in the middle of a recession. And it's not really the time to be spending taxpayer dollars on rebuilding a new school. We really need to focus on our education and our mental health support for our children and for the students. Because honestly, the root of the problem is a lot of students are leaving because they don't feel supported by their community or by their faculty. Just I'm speaking from the experience of someone who graduated eight or nine years ago in 2015. At that time, I knew friends who had to leave Methacton School District because of certain instances that I'm not. I cannot bring up because it's not my story to tell. And in
105addition to that, I have a younger sibling who will be speaking in a bit. His name is Joshua Zong and he's a 2019 graduate. And just from what we've heard from our underclassmen, you guys are not focusing on the right things. You need to focus on the larger structural issue of making sure your students feel supported mentally. academically, making sure your faculty is getting paid properly, making sure that there are sufficient counseling services available, not just to say, oh, we have five professionals that families can reach out to. counselors and therapists actually follow up with your students to make sure they're doing okay, especially in the time of a pandemic. And even going forward in general, we need more mental health awareness. And I can say from the perspective of a woman of color who
106graduated from your school, The ignorance is blatant. And I'm not saying that to point fingers again. I'm just saying it's okay to be ignorant. It's okay to be racist, even as long as you're willing to unlearn those things as well, as long as you're willing to properly follow through on actionable, measurable steps to improving the community. I'm sorry. I'm going to have to cut you off there. Thank you so much. Thank you. Okay. Next I have Amy Breyer. Go ahead. My name is Amy Breyer. I'm a methacted teacher and I wanted to express my support for the contract for Dr. Bruce Campbell's work on the diversity, equity, and inclusion climate assessment for our school district. As a methacted teacher, it's important to me that all my students feel a sense of belonging in my classroom
107and in our school district. Understanding each other better can only benefit our community. Many of our neighboring school districts have begun the important work of examining their practices and curriculum to best serve their diverse communities. The planned use of Dr. Bruce Campbell's demonstrated expertise in the area of DEI shows the commitment of our school board to begin this work with the data and the information to do this well. I support the planned contract of Methactin School District with Dr. Bruce Campbell. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Breyer. Next, I have Suzanne, which I'm assuming is Suzanne Andrews. You could just state your name and municipality. Yes, I'm Suzanne Andrews, Lower Providence. I'd like to comment again on the Arrowhead project. All along, you have ignored several years worth of documentation that establishes the fact that Arrowhead
108Elementary School does not need to be replaced. You have ignored information proving that continued declining enrollment and declining test scores could be managed by returning methactin's grade structure to K-5, 6, 8, and 9, 12, similar to the majority of surrounding school districts without Arrowhead and with existing buildings we already have in place. The purpose of public education how and where and what children should be taught has been evolving and has changed even more dramatically this year because of the virtual teaching that has to take place. Schools of the future have got to plan for a new normal. The tax base in this community is decreasing, yet this summer you approved the first of three bond issues to finance a new Arrowhead. In all fairness, the money can and should be used for already identified maintenance
109that is needed on existing buildings and facilities. On tonight's agenda, tucked away in item 10, fiscal items, line item F is one disingenuous line, Arrowhead Elementary new construction. A further search is needed to reveal four contracts for construction, plumbing, heating, and mechanical contractors for a total of $24,153,451. That's $24,153,451 all in one line. This challenging time is not the time to approve construction contractors, but there is still time to separate out line item 10F and vote on it. Vote no, reject this item, or move to table the item for at least a year and then begin a discussion in public. on the wisdom of forging ahead with the new Arrowhead Elementary School project. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Andrews. Next, I have Amy Smith. Hi, Amy Smith, Worcester Township. I want to start by thanking
110the board for taking Bruce Campbell's, Dr. Bruce Campbell's... contract under consideration this evening and I'm hoping that the board will vote yes for that. I think that we as a community should support Dr. Campbell's climate assessment, I think it's necessary to understand where the methactin community is in regards to DEI and figuring out how we can move forward. I think that Dr. Campbell has, through his work, shown that he understands that DEI is made up of diversity, equity, and inclusion. And that is something that all districts in our area are beginning to evaluate and to make sure that we're embedding best practices for all students. for everyone in the district. So I thank you for considering that this evening. And I think that this audit and the work that Mithakton will commit to doing after
111this vote, if you do vote in the affirmative, will also ensure fair and equitable treatment for students of all abilities and encourage self-expression and really just better our community altogether. So I'm hoping that the board will. vote in favor of that this evening. And I'd like to speak to the Arrowhead vote this evening as well. And I'm hoping that the board will vote affirmatively for that contract. I reside in Worcester. I have for 10 years, I have four students in the district. And while none of my children will be educated in that building specifically, I do recognize that having that Arrowhead building upgraded will most definitely impact. the rest of the district. I think that there's many good things that the entire community will benefit from from the building, which are just an added bonus,
112because at the end of the day, what needs to happen is that building needs to be acceptable for the students in the district. I don't have to have a child in that building to recognize that I want my neighbors and the rest of my community to be in an environment that they deserve. We're methactin. We're better than this. Like, we should be supporting all of the students with... with the right types of facilities. I'm also resistant to closing the Arrowhead building and reshuffling Skyview and Arcola because I'm in those buildings. I have children in those buildings and I recognize that that space isn't expendable space. That space is used for students with special needs. It's used for specific educational goals that we're meeting now that we weren't able to before. And we keep talking about
113rankings. But what's going to bring our rankings up is what we're providing to our students at the elementary and upper elementary and middle school level. So when they get to the high school, they can be involved in more challenging curriculum. So I would hate to see the district do anything to change what Mrs. Gorla and Dr. Mangano are able to accomplish in those buildings right now. I think it's just too important to tamper with. I'd also like to say that after this pandemic, with everything we're going through this year, we don't know. what our enrollment numbers are going to be. And I understand that. But I also know that many students are struggling and will need additional services when everything is said and done. And if we start cramming kids into buildings, and if we're
114redistricting again, and we're shuffling things around, we're causing more trauma for these students than what they're already going through. And so much of that is out of our hands. So as a community, this is a time to band together to take advantage of the fact that we have... bids that are coming in under budget because of the pandemic let's try to take a negative situation and do something positive with it and get this building built thank you thank you miss smith next i have katie theil hi hi good evening um my name is katie theil i'm from lower providence um I just wanted to speak to the Arrowhead project first as a taxpayer and a homeowner who is directly impacted by the Arrowhead Forward. I think it, and I really do just want to voice
115my support. I have emailed you before. I have been following this project for years and I just want to reiterate it again, how much I support the project and I appreciate the work and the research that has gone into it. Arrowhead has substantial needs and it was already sussed out before, but I want to say it again and put it on record here that the process of renovation really does not, to me, look like a great opportunity because it was almost equal and now that the... The bids are under budget. It really doesn't make sense, but renovations tend to find things that are hiding. So that would have been a costly venture for a building that still wouldn't address the needs of the community. So I support the new build and I support going with
116the bids that are under budget, which is fantastic. There are new buildings going up around Arrowhead. an all over the Arrowhead sending area. So while we don't know who's going to move into those new buildings, we can't, you know, it's not that hard to assume there are going to be families who want to send their children to Arrowhead or into the Mithakton School District. And we already, we need to make sure we have a building to educate those children. The needs of students cannot be met in moving students around to other buildings. I am an educator. I've been an educator for over 15 years and I also have my master's degree in education and we just can't meet the needs of the children by moving them around to Skyview and Arcola and the high school
117and all the other elementaries without replacing Arrowhead and keeping it where it is. It's important that we... provide a good environment for education. Students need to be able to learn in a safe and secure environment and staff need to be able to work in a safe and secure environment. The school building right now is not safe and secure. It just still stands out to me that the building doesn't have water. the for when fire, the sprinkler system for there, that really still shocks me. And I have children currently in that building. So I really just want to voice my support there. And I want to echo what Kelly Arnone said before about how different student needs kind of dictate different needs in the buildings that cannot be met with moving students around to the existing
118buildings. I also want to echo my support kind of shifting gears for the contract with Dr. Campbell for the diversity inclusion. I think that's extremely important for our school district. And I also want to also. Just thank you and thank Dr. Zerbe for the careful consideration for whether we are in virtual or hybrid. I have students who are in right now in virtual. They were in hybrid. And while none of this is perfect, and I see that, I see the hard work and the consideration that is going through leading education in a pandemic, which there's no handbook for. And I want to thank you for that careful consideration because I... Right. I trust that you're trying to keep everybody as safe as humanly possible when we don't really know what's going on. And with that,
119I know that you hear a lot of complaints about virtual and how it's not working. So I do want to share that my students, teachers and the band, my son is learning trumpet virtual in a pandemic. That seems impossible to me, but he's learning it because he plays it. And I just want to say that that's amazing. And I want to just share that with you because I think it's important for you to hear the positives because it's easy to hear the negatives as well. So thanks so much. Thank you, Ms. Thiel. Next, I have Dr. Janine Darby. Dr. Darby, whenever you're ready. Hello. Can you hear me? I can hear you. Okay, great. Hi, I'm Dr. Janine Darby. I live in Lower Providence Township. I just want to say first, thank you to the
120board for acknowledging the vacancy of the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Office. As the president of the newly formed Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Task Force, and as a parent of two methactin grads and two current methactin students, I support the recommendation of hiring Dr. Campbell. for his consultant services and his proposal as given to the board. Through Dr. Campbell's proposed climate assessment, I feel it will be necessary to understand where methactin community is regarding DEI and to make sure we have a comprehensive plan for how we can move forward as a community. Currently in our district, there's 24% of people of color. Besides that, the office will also assist in ensuring fair and equal treatment for students of all abilities and encourage self-expression. So we must make sure this portion of our community feels included, like
121they belong and are heard. The task force would also like the diversity, equity, and inclusion to be an important part of hiring for the other vacant positions in the Thackton School District administration. A goal of this district should be for its administration to reflect DEI principles, not only in its practices, but also in the composition of its administrators. We hope the candidates selected have a good grasp on what DEI means and how important it is for the Medactin community. Thank you. Thank you, Dr. Darby. Next, I have Gary Knights. And I just wanted to add, I see a few people that have their hands raised currently that I either don't have on my list of pre-registered speakers or I don't, there is no full name given. So if you are not registered with your name,
122I can't admit you into the meeting. So if you could correct that, I can hopefully then let you in. So next, I have Gary Knights. Okay, Mr. Knights, you're in whenever you're ready. Okay, can you hear me okay? Yes, I can. Okay, thank you. Yes, my name is Gary Knights and I live in Lower Providence. I am an elected township official. Arrowhead has been a school board discussion topic since early 2018. Now, tonight I heard a number of people speak out about problems with Skyview. And 10 years ago when Skyview was being proposed, I was against it like they very likely were. But just because we built Skyview is no reason to mix elementary school kids with middle school kids, as would happen in some of the Arcola Skyview scenarios that people have discussed. Further
123to say that because the prior board built Skyview, we shouldn't rectify elementary schools with design, health, and safety issues is illogical. I mean, right now we are down two elementary schools from when we first moved into the township. We're missing Audubon and Arrowhead has major issues with it. Now, improving Arrowhead will improve the capabilities and capacity of the entire district. It will help with the rollout of full-day kindergarten. which residents want. And great schools and full-day kindergarten will continue to draw in the families we need to maintain our tax base and keep the community vibrant. Now, from my vantage point as a township supervisor, I actually see forecast more and more families moving into Worcester and lower Providence over time. You have to look at some of the developments that are being built out right
124now and that are in planning stages. People are coming in from other parts of the state and from the city. We have a lot of people moving in to the suburbs from the city. So in the near future, you know, near two, three, maybe five years. I believe we actually might be facing elementary school capacity limits. Now, financially, buildings have a limited lifespan and they need to be replaced over time. A school district, the seismic fact, and should be doing major renovations on buildings on some level of frequency. I don't know if it's 10, 15 years, 15, 20 years. But, you know, when you think about the fact that we are down to elementary schools. Timing wise, interest rates are low, and this is a good time to fund a capital improvement. Like why wait
125three, four years when we start to actually have this capacity crisis facing us, and we're also facing higher construction costs and higher interest rates. So for these reasons, I'm for addressing the arrowhead problem right now. And just briefly, I want to say on the DEI. I totally support bringing in an outsider to do a climate assessment. You need to have someone come in from the outside that's empowered at the board level to really go ahead and assess what's going on. And I agree with what an earlier speaker said related to, you know, perhaps having more diversity in the executive management of the district. And so that's all I have to say. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Knights. Next, I have Lisa Brady. Okay, whenever you're ready. Hi, good evening. I'd like to speak to first.
126First, I need you to state your name. I'm sorry. Lisa Berry from Lower Providence. Thank you. I'd like to speak to the mental health piece of the returning back to school. I know Dr. Angstad posted some of the things that the district is currently doing and hosting lunch bunches and trying to do some outreach to those students. I'm very concerned about the upper grades, 7th through 12th in particular, and what the district is doing to find out what is going on with these students. I mean, these kids are spending their life in their bedrooms. They wake up and they open their laptops. And the programs that are in place, like the SAP program, where the kids can say, hey, my friend's not doing what they used to do, and they can report it. That's not
127happening because they're not seeing each other. And I would encourage the board to look to see the administration to reach out to these kids. And it could be down K to 12 to what. What does the mental health look like for our students in the district right now? And when decisions are being made in terms of academics and sports and going back in the building or not, that the data that's collected becomes part of that decision making. Because really, we don't know how our students are doing. Anecdotally, we all know the stories of the kids who are struggling right now, kids who normally haven't. And the teachers don't know the kids as well as they would have in person. to be able to identify those kids who have needs. Second of all, I'd like to
128talk to the activity fee that's on the voting agenda tonight that you're looking to waive it for this year. And I think that's a great idea. I would encourage the board to even look at waiving it for good. I really wondered that the administrative hassle that this becomes for the staff, for the activities coordinators, for the coaches, who's paid, who hasn't paid, who paid in the fall, but now needs to pay in the spring, but doesn't need to pay in the spring. The thousands of dollars that this brings in, in relation to the millions of dollars in this budget, I really question whether is it worth it to the district to bring in this money and all the costs and time and labor involved in this. And really, you know, the 50 and the $75
129to some families, not just this year, but a lot of years, you know, is really an expense that they don't need just for their kids to participate in a club or a sport. So I would encourage the board to look at that. And finally, I just want to give my two thumbs up to Scott Engel at Skyview. And just to say that in fact, I was really lucky to have him. So thank you. Thank you, Ms. Brady. Next, I have Shad Darby. Mr. Darby, whenever you're ready. Hello, can you hear me okay? Yes, I can. Hi, I'm Shad Darby. I'm a resident of Lower Providence. I support... With the plan, I hired Dr. Campbell to perform a climate assessment. By having an assessment by an objective third party, we'll help the fact to move forward
130and also be aware of diversity, equity, and inclusion. So I am in support of the plan. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Darby. Next, I have Jianfang Hu. And you are in the meeting whenever you're ready. Hi, my name is Jianfang Hu. I'm a resident of Lower Providence. I want to express my gratitude for the teachers and the school administrations for still providing quality education for the students in the district. So thank you so much. It's a difficult time, but we're doing the best as we can. Second, I want to express my... comment on the Arrowhead project. I don't know how much these comments have been taking. I know we're talking about DEI. but the comments being collected from the Act 38 clearly has more oppositions and that is not being addressed and the project is
131moving forward. So I know my comments I'm making today will not make a difference, but I just wanna ask how can... the border and people who are making decisions could ignore all these facts and not address the comments the public has. And I mean, having a good new school building is appealing to everybody, including myself, but within the increment. being enrollment is going down for the last maybe 12, 13 years, how can we make such a big investment in this building on the construction and the school ranking, why families and students are leaving the Thakton school district? because our nearby school districts are their rankings going, you know, high, their rankings getting better. And while my section is not, you know, improving and even actually getting worse. So. Maybe think about that. Why, you know,
132there are more families leaving Methactin. When you look at the enrollment for the last 10, 15 years, there's no trend of going back, you know, have more students in. I mean, of course, nearby area where we have seen the new constructions all the time, but not in Methactin. Why we don't have, you know, more students? So think about this when you make the decisions. And I agree with Kelly Arnor's comment. The quality of education is not satisfying. As she mentioned that the substitute, when they come in, they're clearly not prepared. My kids tell me the same thing. So instead of investing so much time in a construction, can we focus on the right direction to improve the quality of education for our school district? Once you can attract more students, more family to Methectin, then
133you will have the money and resources to build new one. When now at the time you don't need one and you probably would not have the resources to invest in education later on. then this is not a good time to make this kind of decision. All right. Thank you. That's all I want to say. Thank you. Next, I have Erin McCool. Hi, how are you? Hopefully you can hear me. My name is Erin McCool. I'm from Lower Providence. I won't belabor some of the points that were made before. I just wanted to offer support for two items. One is the moving forward with the construction of the new Arrowhead. Clearly this project has been vetted and discussed for several years and the experts are telling us that the spaces are not adequate to move students
134to sky view especially in light of needs that exist with students with special needs and and i also recognize that there could be greater needs that are not aware of um coming out of this post pandemic also you know neighborhood schools are a hallmark of this district and across the district students are able to attend schools in their neighborhood We know that research shows that students do better when they are able to attend high quality neighborhood schools. This helps to maintain and even increase our property values, attract new residents to the township. And clearly the amount of development that's happening in the township and moving forward demonstrates that there is rising, there is a need for a new school and for greater space. Additionally, I wanted to just offer support for Dr. Campbell's contract. I
135applaud the district's efforts to move forward and be proactive around diversity, equity, and inclusion. This should be the number one conversation in education right now. And it appears clear to me that a lot of research and work has been done in identifying Dr. Campbell and considering him. in order to move forward with the climate audit of the district. So I support that as well. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. McCool. Next, I have Anthony Arnone. Okay, Mr. Arnone, whenever you're ready. Anthony Arnone, Lower Providence Township. First, I mean, I just want to mention something, something I'm not particularly an expert on, but with regards to Dr. Campbell and some of the comments made regarding... his his contract as part of the DEI initiative and to lead that effort in evaluation of the district I think it
136may be a little short-sighted to just kind of look at some snippets or excerpts that he contributed to a book without maybe reading the book or some comments about maybe you know a Baltimore Baltimore district you know from the wire and not being applicable I think part of the conversation at least my feeling is that we need to we need to actually open up our minds and maybe look a little bit into a more diverse background, a diverse community than maybe we're living in. And I think that will be helpful in bringing him on board to evaluate that situation. I would like to start also by stating that I am strongly in favor and support the construction of the new Arrowhead School. After personally having experienced the limitations of the current school building and the
137enormous effort that teachers and administrators and staff and students and parent volunteers are required to make that facility function. It's clear that a new school is necessary, and this is not something that will only benefit our current students and educators. We have students and children in there currently, but really our students, our children are not going to be the most to benefit from this. I see this as an investment made by the community in future students and educators for years to come. I did want to mention that I spoke last week in regard to some of the optional alternatives being considered for the Arrowhead project. And I would like to add some additional clarification to help the board and district with decisions related to the project. I am an electrical engineer and principal at my
138architectural engineering firm with nearly 20 years experience in design of electrical and telecommunication systems within. various types of facilities, including K to 12 schools. Typically, that design process always begins with ensuring that we are adhering to all applicable federal, state, local codes. That's the baseline for all buildings and the minimum requirements to which a building and its owner and operator are mandated to meet. And with regards to the distributed antenna system, that I would first and foremost recommend that the engineer of record for that design provide direct feedback to the board and district questions. on specific questions I have associated with this $100,000 line item in the project budget. And while I appreciate. the information provided by KCBA during tonight's meeting. I do feel that an item at this magnitude should be presented for review
139by the engineer of record so that a fully informed decision can be made. My understanding of the current building design as described by KCBA is that it will not exceed the 75 feet above or 20 feet below lowest fire department vehicle access, which would typically not require. by any applicable codes. a distributed antenna system for first responders so that this system that would be in place would be purely one for private cellular coverage in the facility. And I would request that that engineer record present on the system and potential infrastructure options that could be considered for less than $100,000 number. In my experience, we've utilized methods such as installing some limited power infrastructure in centralized locations to support future amplifiers. as well as some empty conduit to accessible locations in the ceiling for future antenna
140placement if the need arises. And that this infrastructure installation approach can provide flexibility for future system installation, but at a lower first cost potentially. And since we have seen that cell coverage in the area being someone who lives in this particular area, we've seen that fluctuate over the years. It's possible that there will be sufficient coverage once the new construction is complete, and there may not be a need for this system at all. but at least we'd have some level of infrastructure in place and maybe not have the $100,000 line item. I just like to cut you off. Thank you. Okay, next I have Bingquan Li. Whenever you're ready. Yes. Can you hear me? Yes, I can hear you. Thank you. This is Bingquan Li from Wusesser Township. Thanks to the board. to give me
141the chance to talk about my opinion on the Arrowhead School. So first of all, I'm against the project at this time to move forward. And I know I heard that a lot of people talking about that, just go and look at the Arrowhead School and look at how poor the condition is. Yeah, no question. I have no doubt on the poor condition of the Arrowhead building it is. So no question on that one. So just think about it. So if you look at a building that is poor, what options do you have? One, you can refurbish it, right? You can maintain it. The second one, you can make a new one, just to make a new building. Another option is just to tear it down and close it. So by default... But default does not
142mean that you have to remake a new one, right? So which options we should go? So we should do the thorough study based on the data, based on the truth, the facts. So far, I didn't see any persuasive study on which options we should go. And on this condition, the board just moved forward due to this pandemic situation. without listening to the so many comments concerned from the residents. Another comment I heard people talk about why they support the building the arrowhead because they said they care about education. That is a very good comment. Everybody here cares about the education and we here no matter you against you support. Everybody cares about education. That's a good sign. We don't care about building, we care about education. And look at the high school, the ranking. They
143keep dropping in these days. And why? Why does that happen? And I heard that the board talked about the... The board was asked why the high school ranking keep dropping. And the answer they gave to us... They don't know. They don't know what happened. And they don't know how to deal with it. And that's the answer we cannot accept. Have you ever studied, have you ever studied the US News, the ranking system? It's available online. You can look at it, right? It's simple. There's nothing to do with the facilities, nothing to do with the building. You talk about how, what's the math and the reading performance. How many percentage of 12th graders took apart AP and passed AP? How many APs have been tested? What's the percentage of the underserved students? What's the performance? What's
144the graduate rate? All of these programs, all those aspects, you want to improve, you need a lot of money. And right now, we already have more than $80 million that's in low, right? And we want to spend the extra $50 million to build a new building. And a new building doesn't naturally equal improving education. We need to spend the money. The money is not from the federal. The money is not from a state fund. It's from all of us, from the parks of all of us. And we have to spend the money wisely how to improve it. We have to retain the good teachers. We have to attract good teachers. We have to create the programs to improve the students' test on the math and on the readings. We have to help those underserved students
145to improve their performance. In all of this, we need a lot of money instead of just to build a new building. Okay, sorry, I'm going to have to leave. I have to cut you off there. That's four minutes. Thank you so much. Okay, next I have Hong Tian. Hello. Hello. Hey, my name is Hong Tian. I'm a Laura Providence resident. I just, first of all, thank you for all the boards and everybody's hard working and especially during this difficult time for everyone. I just wanted to comment the Arrowhead project again because I think it's pursuing a massive construction project during a pandemic. a time is like extreme personally, financially and physical challenges without considering the I think it's kind of disappointed. I just wanted to ask what are the legitimate purpose of building a new
146facility? The students' capacity will exceed projected enrollment for years, and given the unknown of COVID-19, this investment seems foolish. Who's to say this pandemic won't result in new building codes, making this potential facility defunct? And furthermore, there are more... pursuing and tangible issues and pressing and tangible issues facing our community. Our school district's ranking has been falling. Why are we not investing in that? Why are we not focusing on resources to giving our children the best education we can? With the pandemic, our children taking class online. Why are we not dedicate more money toward to PPEs and other precautions so our children and faculties can reach safely return to school? Those issues I think are more impactful than a new building. So I just. I just wanted the board to reconsider its investment and look
147forward to more tangible problems like quality of education and COVID-19. And above all, I want the board to listen to the needs of residents. Our previous comments of falling, like our previous comments online for the Act 34 seems like falling on deaf ears. And I think it's simply unacceptable. That's all I need to say. Thank you. Thank you for your time. Thank you. Next, I have Cara Colas. Whenever you're ready. Hi, Kim. I'm assuming you can hear me. I can. There's a lot to unpack with this. I need you to say your name and municipality first. Caracolas, Lower Providence. I've been listening. I've been kind of following. I actually had an email forwarded to me over the weekend from someone who was like, you know, well, what's going on? Why is the board not being
148transparent? And it kind of struck me. And some of the things I've thought about and I want to talk about is, you know, I've witnessed firsthand how a small but vocal minority can stop a project because people who are in favor of the project think that not opposing means people will know that they are for it or not standing up and saying, hey, I'm not opposed to it. And or they're afraid of being targeted because the people who are against something are so passionate about the project. One of the reasons we do not have a YMCA in Lower Providence is because of that, because of a small vocal minority. And we could have we could have had that. So I've seen it happen with various projects. So I want to encourage people who are for
149this. And I'm glad to see that people are speaking up. I honestly respect anyone's desire to actively work for or against an issue. I think that's how the democratic process works. But the argument that the board is not being transparent is simply not true. This project's been talked about since my 16-year-old was an Arrowhead student. The building was in horrible shape then. There have been multiple public meetings where people were invited to tour the building and ask questions. The district even sent... postcards to residents to notify them so that they could participate in that discussion. How long is long enough for a project to be discussed? These things take years. So we're talking now, construction, if this gets approved tonight, I don't know if people realize, right? Everybody's like, well, hold off with the pandemic.
150It takes three, four, five years sometimes from... inking something to happen to get the plans to all of the permits that have to go through the township, the inspections, the different regulatory agencies. There's a lot that goes into it. So that then pushes that out more. But I'm not sure how this board could have been any more transparent. In 2018, there's a website, Arrowhead Forward, that goes through all of the presentations that tell you the argument for why Arrowhead. This isn't some fly-by-night, all of the sudden. And the board's like, hey, I think in the middle of a pandemic, we should invest in an elementary school. That's not how these things work. It's a very long process. And there's many reasons why we are in this situation that we're in now that people don't talk
151to talk about enough. Poor management at these schools 10 to 20 years ago. No investment at all in the maintenance of many of our schools. We have a state majority. that has been in power for the past 25 years, actively slashing education funding. Anybody wonder why we are the 50th costliest for universities? There's a reason for that. We are 46th in funding for K through 12. Everybody wants to blame the board for our high taxes. We need to start looking at our state legislature and the majority in the state legislature and holding them accountable. The other thing is changing demographics. You can look at communities that have aged, that have been built out, like Honchahokan, like Plymouth meeting next to us. Enrollment is cyclical. People, children age out. The wave of children that are my
152kids age are beginning to graduate. And there's a batch of new families coming into those homes. There's 400 homes being built now that are going to add children to the school district. So you're constantly going to be moving and having people coming in and going out. That's how demographics work. The other one I wanted to talk about is school ranking. We talk about it's an independent thing. I have seen this board making an investment in STEM education at the elementary levels. You can focus on two things. You can work on improving. Kara, I'm sorry. I'm going to have to cut you off. That's the four minutes. Okay, thank you. But thank you very much. Okay, next I have Sarah Chow. I hope I'm pronouncing your last name right. I apologize. Yes, you're right. Can you
153hear me okay? Yes, I can. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. I'm Sarah Xiao. I live in a low-profit township for 22 years. I just happen to know this Act 34 since several months ago. So I just think this transparency, I mean, this project transparency is quite low. But first of all, I want to thank you, all the teachers, school board, worked so hard at those pandemic, you know, situation. Yeah, my heart goes to all those teachers and the people working on the, you know, for the education. So second of all, I want just, you know, strongly oppose this construction of the new Arrowhead Elementary School. Because the reason is, I think during this financial situation for all the families around in our township, we probably need to pay more tax in next, I guess, maybe 34 years.
154So for each. add up more burden to, additional burden to our entire school district family members. I know our school district is doing pretty well, financial wise. That's what I hear. We got a surplus each years and then we got some money on side. I want to echo some speakers previously, they talk about, you know, we should at least a proposal postpone this project instead, you know, moving forward because, you know, this... You know, this project, you know, first of all, is not transparent enough to let all the residents know. Since, you know, we know just a few months ago, you know, that that just, you know, shocked me, you know, you know. Another thing is I noticed that, you know. I just feel very sad to look at our school, Massacres School District ranking
155is dropping so quickly. You know, only a few years, you know, we dropped to the, from a ranking of 1113 to ranking 65. It's really broken my heart, you know. My boss, both child graduate from the school. But I don't know why just recently years we're dropping so much. I think we need to do some research to improve our high school education. rankings, how to improve overall all the students, high school students overall, you know, education, you know, programs, additional programs, like, you know, invest more, you know, quality. qualified teachers, you know, pay more money. I'm sorry. Thank you. Okay, next I have Lauren Naldine. Good evening, Lauren Naldine Worcester. I wanted to, I've been on these calls, I guess, since we started in March. And prior to that, truthfully, I was uninvolved. Zoom has
156allowed me this access, and I really do appreciate it. And I wanted to acknowledge that. With that said, I also totally was, I guess, unaware of the teacher contract situation. And all of the things we've been talking about since COVID started, you know, circle back to the administration and they circle back to the teachers, even the parents and everyone. There's been a lot of extra responsibility on everyone. And, you know, all of that is to be acknowledged. However, I have received emails from teachers at 10 o'clock at night, 6 o'clock in the morning. I have not had a situation with my children where a teacher has ignored me. In fact, today... I'm sorry, I have to stop you right there. I just need to ask if this is regarding what agenda item? So I guess
157it was regarding the... positions that will be voted on tonight. Okay. Thank you. Sure. So all to say, I run a business as well. And I know that, you know, my employees are willing to bend over backwards for me and put in all of the effort, but I also need to acknowledge their efforts and reward them for that. And I feel like adding the additional positions that are mentioned, that were mentioned, I guess, last week during the meeting, absolutely not disputing the fact that, you know, those positions are needed. However, I think the reflection is that those are more important than potentially. you know, compensating our teachers and acknowledging that. I had a specific situation today I wanted to bring up just really to share regarding the mental health of our students in that in
158conferences, you know, I spoke with my son's teacher and I expressed to her some concerns I was seeing regarding mental health. And the teacher absolutely acknowledged it. She saw it, et cetera. We were on with guidance. And instead of you know, having additional steps provided with methactin for guidance. I was potentially offered a list of private therapists to consult my insurance. I truthfully think that the teachers, there's so much weight on their shoulders right now, and they are trying to navigate it all. But I guess I just wanted to throw out there as a thought, as we focus on making sure that our teachers are, you know, their value is absolutely known and they are compensated for that, is that also adding additional resources. We're talking about more mental health. It has been brought up
159by multiple people on the open floor here. the mental health of our children. You know, my son is a perfect example of someone who is not struggling pre-pandemic, really. Right now, struggling a lot. And I feel like methactin can do better. And we need to provide more resources to families for children like my son, because, you know, I can explore the private insurance aspect. But frankly, this is a byproduct of the pandemic and we need to help our families. So I wanted to, like I said, certainly acknowledge that those additional positions are out there. But we really, without the teachers, all of this is irrelevant. We need to support them and we need to come together so that all of the positions are filled and everyone feels valued. Thank you. Thank you. Next, I have
160Joshua Zong. Hello, can you hear me? Yes, I can. Hi, my name is Joshua Zong. I live in Lower Providence. First of all, I'd like to... Really thank all the teachers. It really is sort of a thankless job. And I recognize that it's difficult in these times, especially when you can't even interact with your students anymore. And also, I had a Mr. Angle for science in middle school. If he is listening to this, how are you doing? Anyways, I'm calling in because I'm in complete disagreeance with the Arrowhead Forward Project. I don't think that the board has been quite transparent about it. In fact, Dr. Zerbe, could you quickly come on camera and answer a question? This is direct. Is that possible? We actually, we don't do that. That's fine. I'm just saying that I'm
161pretty sure that you guys, I'm pretty sure you guys are ready. Okay. The project, there is no vote tonight. I'm not sure if that's incorrect or, or you guys are ready to basically just greenlit it regardless. Even if you did have a vote tonight. It would still be quite a sham because you guys push this through without any consideration of the public. And I honestly think this is extremely wasteful. Like Skyview is a mile down the road. I graduated in 2019. And in that time period, I went to school in the new Skyview. I heard about Audubon being closed, and now we're rebuilding Arrowhead. If it's so difficult to relocate students, how are you able to relocate all the Audubon elementary school students just a couple years back to Eagleville and to surrounding elementary schools?
162If it's really that difficult to just drive the school bus one mile down the road, like you guys are putting a at least 24 million, not including interest, at least 24 million estimated costs on these taxpayers. Not to mention how KCBA went completely over budget by like 15 million in a surrounding school district on a project, and they were actually fired from that project. How are you that? dense that you would allow people who are flagrantly spending over budget and charging way too much for things that clearly aren't valued that much. And you're just eating it up. This is complete corruption to the core. There is no public vote. And it's, it's frankly disappointing because honestly, I graduated and I'm going to college in Texas. I'm peacing out of here. Like, I'm not buying property
163here. My children are not going to be raised in this, frankly, degrading quality of the school district. I have seen the quality of the school district decrease with my very eyes. And I'm very familiar with... how our current high school is performing. It is way under how it looked when I was a freshman. Okay, thank you Joshua. Thank you. Yes, okay. Next I have Chunling Ma. Hi, Chunling Ma, Worcester Township. I'm going to talk about Arrowhead New School Project. I led a petition effort opposing this Arrowhead New School building. So far, there are over 400 people signed online and a couple of 36 people signed by hand. And I already forwarded all this petition signature to the board. And they also requested the board to discuss the comments collected for the Act 34 common collection.
164And they got no response. I pointed out last board meeting, no response. And so far only Director Andrea Reese replied the email and we had some dialogue. So I just want to point out, I appreciate that. At least she was willing to have, to listen to a different opinion. I just want to stress, I started the petition not because I'm against Arrowhead students receiving good education in a good condition building. I started the petition, I think it's not unnecessary. First, I want to give you some background of how I got to know this project. I started getting involved this summer. After I hear this, because I was completely in the dark, and I'm a full-time working mom. I have four children, and two are going to the methactin schools, and two are about to go
165in there. So I didn't know that. And I asked once I got to know that, listen to the September 8th hearing. I start asking the people in my neighbor. We have a neighborhood of 178 houses. Very few people knew it. And we are in the Worcester Township. So I don't think when people say there's transparency in the board. And when I started asking, there's been only two to three postcards sent out in the past two years. And there's no even newsletter describing the reasons or data behind it or the money, talk about the money, how much money it's going to cost. So I just don't think the board has done, do justified communication on this matter. So once I started knowing this project, I started going back to view the meetings on YouTube. So I
166saw on August 28th, I believe, 2018, there was a board meeting. In that meeting, there was a... Director Mr. Navarrete, he even talked about, he just said, we have done enough research. There's nothing else to talk about. And because when I campaigned, I told people I would rebuild, I will keep Arrowhead open, things like that. I was like... Is this about politics? Were you there elected to be representing the majority, the overall benefit of the community, or just the people who would like to vote for you? I just don't think it's right. And also, Dr. Zerbe presented option A through F. And in the end, he just came to the conclusion in January 15, 2019, in the end, he just came to a conclusion that only option A and F was left. And over the
167past time, option C wasn't really explored in depth. I think people supporting it all talk about it with feelings and hunches, not really talking about it with data and facts. So on the time has passed, I think a reevaluate is necessary before you guys cast a vote. And also I think this, a matter of this magnitude, it should require a public vote, just like upper Dublin school district. They did like a public vote on when they tried to build a high school there. So. Okay, I have to cut you off there. Sorry, that's been four minutes. Thank you. Okay, thanks. So next I have, I apologize if I don't pronounce this correctly, Zhezhe Wang. Okay, you're in the room whenever you're ready. Can you hear me now? Yes, I can. Yeah, so this is Zhezhe
168Wang from Lower Providence Township. First, I want to thank all teachers for their dedication and hard work in this difficult time. Tonight I wanted to speak about the new Arrowhead Elementary School project. I would like to express my opposition to this project. First of all, our total student enrollment has been dropping for the last 13 years. And we have school buildings that are underutilized with Arrowhead in the media school only has 60% occupancy rate. And with this decreasing enrollment trend and underutilized school buildings, it's totally unnecessary to build a new school. Second is our school district ranking has been dropping significantly in recent 10 years. Our high school ranking has been dropping from 11th in 2013 to 65th now, and our whole school district's ranking is now only at 53. You know, my family has
169been living in Lower Providence for 10 years. And 10 years ago, when we were looking for houses along the 422 corridor, we look at all the surrounding school district. We look at Springfield, we look at Percum Valley, we look at the Methacton, and we found quite some beautiful houses and communities. And we ended up choosing lower Providence because at that time, Massackton School had the highest school ranking among all the three school districts. Now, 10 years later, the Massackton School District ranking is the lowest among the three. Instead of spending this $57 million for building a new Arrowhead Elementary School, and it's not necessary. We need to spend money on improving our school education quality and raise school ranking. This is a much needed area. Have we taken time to investigate what happened or why
170our school ranking has been dropping so dramatically? We need to spend time and money. We need to make the investment. For example, we need to provide attractive salary to hire and keep highly qualified teachers and hire teachers to lead these competitive academic programs or purchasing necessary equipment, things like that. The school district ranking affects every single homeowner in my sector, whether they have school-age children or not. This should be the number one priority the district spends money on. And lastly, recently the school board has asked the Massacre resident to submit comment on building this new Arrowhead Elementary School for Act 34. And in the comment connected, there are more people opposing the project than people who support the project. And also there is this petition signed by more than 400 people to oppose the project.
171the school board need to seriously consider all this public feedbacks, not ignoring them. For such a project of such a big magnitude, 57 million, we should really have our resident to vote whether to go on with the project or not, because our resident are the taxpayers. So based on all these reasons, the school district should avoid building a... unnecessary new school. Rather, we should utilize the access capacity we already have. Thank you. I have to cut you off there. Okay, next I have Wenjun Song. Whenever you're ready. Hi, this is Wenjun Song. Can you hear me? Yes, I can. Yes, I'm from Westchester Township. And I have a child who attends Westchester Elementary School. I'm here to say that I hope the board can reconsider the decision of building a new school, at least delaying
172this decision because there's no urgent need for a new school at this moment. I think many have stated the reasons. First, my section schools are underutilized. By redistributing the students, we can easily fit Arrowhead student. And is there evidence to show that just redistributing students would cause trauma to kids? And second, student enrollment has dropped continuously in the past 13 years. With this pandemic, all our schools are online. We can certainly take time to reconsider this decision. We need to use our money wisely, such as improving education quality. Many people have said this. There's a much more urgent need than building a new school. Would you want to send your child to a brand new school, but education quality is low, where no good teachers would like to stay, and students are not properly taken
173care? The school board originally asked us residents to send in comments about this project, but later announced that a vote was not needed. But the majority comments are against this proposal. What was the rationale that the board decided to move forward without addressing residents' concerns? Please make it transparent. We would like to hear. Some people say that the board was transparent. But many people find this news surprising, at least to many of us in our community. For such a big project, please disseminate this information more proactively so that more people knew it and expressed their opinions, whether supported or against it. Again, I think this new school project is not an urgent need. It's good to be proactive, but the decision should be mostly evidence-based, not driven by faith. emotion, or other things. We should
174evaluate the need. And we can always make this decision when the data or evidence support this decision. Thank you. Thank you. Next, I have Oliver Zong. Whenever you're ready. Just barely. Okay, you're better now. Okay. This is Oliver Zong. I'm living in Lower Providence Township. and for 22 years and I would like to express my opposition to the new school, new elementary school project because I think it's not wise to spend the money just on the new building. I think the teacher and the program are more important for the education, for the school ranking. And also I don't think it is fair to request the whole district residents to pay for the bill to build a new elementary school. I agree with the other people's proposal. I think it will be good to ask to
175have all the residents in the school district to vote. That's all I want to say. Thank you so much. Sorry, did you have something else? Yeah, I'm just very disappointed with the way the current school board's approach to handle this project. Thank you. Thank you. Next, I have Bing Hua Hu. Whenever you're ready. Yes, can you hear me? Yes, I can. Yeah. Hi. Yeah, my name is Binghua Hu. So I come from a low-providence township. So I have been here for more than 22 years. So today, you know, so I just wanted to, you know. you know, open my opinion about this, you know, the building the new Allard Head School. So I feel kind for, you know. the same feeling about really strongly opposed to building Al-Ahala school. So feel kind of disappointed and
176so mad why the board just wanted to quickly push through without considering public opinion to build this new school. So I think like... Every other, a lot of people in the previous, in a lot of parents, you know, teacher, you know, all said that we don't need this school. So the reason being is, you know, I think everybody has opinion. I totally agree. So, you know, with my second school, the enrollment is dropping and also, you know, the school is underutilized. So we can just simply, you know, using Skyview or the LHAT. and redistributing for students. So we as parents, we are really considering the school ranking, right? As every parent expressed their opinion, the fact actually. So my second school, the ranking is really dropping dramatically from 11, 2013 to... I think like 60,
17750, right, 2020. So we are so worried about why we just use this money, right, to have, you know, increase, you know, for the better education. For example, right, we can open some AP classes in ninth grade. So I think our, you know, high school, you know, started having, you know. AP class, I think, is, you know, 10th grade, right? Why you have more, you know... AP class in the open early for students. And also we can, you know, you know, increase teacher salary, you know, attract more, you know, high quality teacher come to our school district. So I think we have a lot of things we can do to wisely use this money instead of building this in a new school. So, because we don't really need that. So that's why I'm kind of
178disappointed. And also, I feel like the board members didn't really listen to people's opinion and a lot of parents' opinion. Just go ahead and want to build this building. So yeah, I just feel disappointed. I just want to say that. I hope the board can consider the public opinion. Okay, thank you. Next, I have Michael Ryan. Hello, Michael Ryan, Lower Providence. First, I want to say that I'll take the board president's advice here and just say that I agree with some people's statements here. I fully agree with Dr. Darby's statements regarding the DEI. I support the contract with Dr. Bruce Campbell. I think the work that he plans to do is right on point. I think that this is the perfect next step in the process. In regards to Arrowhead, I agree with Amy Smith,
179Katie Thiel, Kelly Arnone, and a few others. This board has been 100% transparent. This is not something new. This has been discussed since 2015 when we had five elementary schools. The board decided to close one, and the decision was, what do we do with Arrowhead? Do we rebuild or do we renovate? This discussion has been ongoing for years. And I would just say that it's kind of amazing that it seems like there's a lot of specific buzzwords that are just being passed around here as opposed to talking about the real issues here. And I would say that the board can do more than one thing at once. We can focus on education. We can also focus on the buildings that have been neglected for years and years by prior boards. So the board has a
180policy committee, a finance committee, property committee, an education committee. It focuses on special education. It focuses on diversity. It focuses on technology. So this board, the administration, they can do a lot more than just one thing at a time. I do want to say, and I'm a little disappointed that no one else has brought this up, but I'm kind of happy that maybe I am. I fully support Mr. Regine in becoming the new assistant superintendent. I think this is a great personnel choice, and my only hope is that he has the decision-making capabilities given to him that are going to be needed to be fully successful in this position. I think that he has the intelligence, determination, and fresh perspective to help take Methactin to the next level, and I hope that this is a
181unanimous vote, a great decision. Quick fiscal item, still not sure why the audit report can't be attached to the agenda. I've been saying this for years. If it is the old, it's a draft until it's approved by the board, so we can't put it on there. That's still a nonsensical answer. And if you're going to vote on something tonight, I would hope that it would be attached to the agenda for everyone to see. Next up, supervisor of secondary curriculum. I'm still not in support of this. It's not needed. It's never been fully justified. The role is not properly determined on what the person would be doing. It was approved years ago and has sat vacant. And I think basically with the new assistant superintendent and Dr. Walsh having just been hired recently, let's give Dr.
182Walsh a chance to do his job properly, spend some time in the position and identify where those education and curriculum needs are before we just hire for another position. And finally, I'll just mention, I'm assuming that the... Comments by Mr. Haley in regards to MEA was allowed during public comment because it addressed the hiring of the administration at first. So I will go in the same light of that. I'm happy that MEA leadership actually made a public statement at a board meeting and not just a divisive post on Facebook. All I can say is still, it's completely inappropriate to have one side speak about a fair and equitable contract without telling the public what they are asking for. I support our teachers. Many of our teachers in this district know that I do. I also
183support the board and the administration. You can do both. And I urge the public to do both. I think it's wrong to take a side in something where no one knows the details. So I just end with either negotiate in public or negotiate in private. But having one side doing. negotiating and making public comments quite frequently when the other side is not is just quite wrong to me. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Ryan. Next, I have Sade Darby. Ms. Darby, whenever you're ready. Hello, my name is Sade Darby, and I'm a resident of Lower Providence Township. As a co-founder of the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Task Force, I support the recommendation of hiring Dr. Campbell for his consulting services. Dr. Campbell's proposed climate assessment will be necessary to understand what the Mithakton community is in
184regarding to diversity, equity, and inclusion, and to construct a plan for how we will move forward as a community. I will say that diversity, equity, and inclusion will enhance the lives of all, regardless of race, gender, and ability. As a Black methacron alum, I wish DEI was more of a focus while I was a student and also with my two younger siblings who are still students to make sure that we belong at our herd in our community. I also think that Dr. Campbell's hiring is well overdue. And then I would lastly like to echo what the other members of the task force have said, that our district should have its administration reflect DI principles, not only its practices, but also in the competition of its administrators. Thank you and I yield the rest of my
185time. Thank you, Ms. Darby. Okay, next I have Binghua Hu. Actually, oh, I'm sorry, you already did speak. So then last I have Ching Shi. Okay, you are in whenever you're ready. Yes, can you hear me? Yes. Yes, this is Ching Hsieh, and I'm also from Low Providence. So I have been in Low Providence for almost 20 years. So I'm here to have a comment on the new construction of New Arrowhead School. So I'm here actually to support most of the people who are against the new construction. I'm not, you know, my comments are not based on emotion or based on anything. I heard some people said that you heard a lot of buzzword. I think the buzzword from tonight is the fact in a data driving decision. So the data is changing over the
186years. So the original decision made is based on 2018 projection, which say the number of the enrollment of Arrowhead or Massacre is going to be going up. But in the last two years, we have been seeing the number of enrollment have been dropping, which means the projection was wrong. So what I wanted to say here to give a comment is probably encourage the board to revisit the proposal to make sure the decision is made is right, because we're against the new construction, you know. building is not because we are against the students and the teachers, you know, in the area ahead for them to have a better education. I think we are here to help each other to make the Massacton school district getting better. So to do that, I think the left side, you
187have all the items you need to do to spend money. The right side is all the budget you have for the Massacton. Let's all probably revisit all the possibilities and then to... put the money in the right places we need to spend and that's all the concern we have all the comments we we have so end of the day actually i have two boys also alumni from massacretown and end of the day i send both my kids to private school so The reason is because I think, you know, the quality of the education, the mastectomy used to be great. I see the downtrend. I have a big concern. So where my boy attend those robotics team, I saw mastectomy. They do not have very high quality of the coach coaching them. All those boys, they
188work very hard. So sometimes it matters, you know, the quality of the education is not just a new construction. We do care all the students. We do care all these students have a... good condition the classroom or everything. But I think there's many ways we can help. I just want to board have a serious consideration of all the people. What are the reasons against it? What are the other options we can choose? That's all I want to say tonight. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. So that's it for all of the pre-registered speakers for this evening. So at this point, we'll return to our agenda. And I would just like to ask if we could take a brief 10 minute recess for the board members to stretch our legs and get a glass of water. So
189we will be back. I have 10.08. We'll be back online at 10.18. And our student board representatives, thank you so much for hanging in there. You can go ahead and get some studying done or, you know, whatever. Good school oriented stuff you're going to go do now. It's Thanksgiving break. Give him a break. Don't go study, Chris. Take a break. Happy Thanksgiving. Thank you all. So we'll be back in 10 minutes. Happy Thanksgiving. Okay, I've got 1018. It looks like we have all of our board members back. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine. Always have to count to be sure. All right. Thank you, everyone, for bearing with us. I'm going to do my best to speed read through this so that we can wrap up at a reasonable hour. May I
190have a motion to approve the suspension of Board Policy 006.2 with specific regard to the limitation on the number of school directors participating electronically? Reese. Thank you, Ms. Reese. Is there a second? Thank you, Mr. Winters. Any comments? All those in favor? Aye. motion carries okay moving on to fiscal items i'm sorry meeting minutes got ahead of myself may have a motion to approve the minutes from the work session held october 20th and the regular board meeting held october 27th reese thank you miss reese is there a second mcginnis thank you mr mcginnis any comments i just have a quick one there's been mentioned that um The public comment section is not detailed enough. I don't think we need to have that discussion now, but at some point, if we want to discuss policy or
191discuss what our minutes look like, there has been over the years questions about our minutes. So maybe we can have that discussion at some point. It doesn't need to be tonight. No, I agree on both counts, and especially with us having a new secretary, that if we wanted to make changes, this would probably be the perfect time to implement it rather than, you know, put changes on someone who's been doing this already for quite some time. So, yes, we will have that conversation. Thank you, Ms. Reese. Any other comments? All those in favor? Aye. Aye. Motion carries 9-0. Now on to fiscal items. Mr. Bricker. Thank you, Madam President. Tonight, for your approval, we have the list of bills, treasurer's report, budgetary transfers, the financial statements and single audit to accept the June 30th, 2020
192financial statements and single audit report as presented by Malley CPAs and reviewed by the finance committee of the board. To approve an easement, a temporary easement requested by lower providence for a road construction project. There are four new Arrowhead construction items approved ER Studenberg of Reading, PA for $15,701,000. Approved Trez Mechanical of Lansdale, PA in amount of $3,467,884. Approved Cedar Electric of Littitz, PA in amount of $3,461,000. And approved Tretz. Mechanical of Lansdale, PA in the amount of $1,524,067. Additionally, we have, if approved, the Arrowhead Elementary Asbestos Abatement, which would be to approve first capital installation of York, PA in the amount of $70,150. And then the Arrowhead Elementary Fiber Line Relocation, approved Tri-M Group LLC of Kennett Square, PA in the amount of $18,900. And then the Arrowhead Playground Relocation to approve Buzz Bugger
193Inc. of Phoenixville, PA, and a quota of $15,910. Okay, so I'm going to do my best guess here and say that I think we can take items 10A through E. So if everyone's okay with that, can I have a motion to approve items 10A through E as listed? McGinnis. Thank you, Mr. McGinnis. Is there a second? Navarette. Thank you, Mr. Navarette. Any comments from the board on these items? Seeing none, all those in favor? Aye. Motion carries, 9-0. Moving on, does anyone want to take the Arrowhead items individually, or are we comfortable taking them as a whole? As a whole. Okay. I was going to say as a whole. Okay. As long as no one is opposed, then I'm going to ask for a motion to approve items 10F through I as listed on the
194agenda. Thank you, Mr. McGinnis. Is there a second? Reese. Thank you, Ms. Reese. Comments from the board. So I'm actually going to jump in first on this one, if everybody doesn't mind, because I know we've gotten a lot of feedback about these items this evening, and I wanted to try to speak to it quickly and succinctly. We have a very long history with this project, as many have alluded to tonight. We've included in that surveys of the community. We've sent mailings out to the community. We have opted to do things like send postcards rather than send detailed mailers so that we could continually update the community through a website because that was the more fiscally conservative and appropriate way to continue to update information rather than send mail over and over again. I've heard comments
195about the drop in rankings over the years. There are so many variables of things that have changed in our district over the last few years that I think it would be foolish to pin our ranking change to something as random, frankly, as grade configuration. And then finally, the idea that we could somehow fit fifth grade back into our existing elementary schools. We have seen presentations about the current building capacity. If we put fifth grade back in those buildings, we would be exceeding capacity at some of them. It would require redistricting at best, but given the number of new housing developments that will be coming online in the coming years. We're kicking the can down the road. This new building is going to be a necessity. There is just no way that we can accommodate it
196any other way. I realize that there are people that were not aware of these projects previously. Again, I don't know that there's anything that we could have done differently. When I look back over the last five years that I've been on the board and the number of times that this conversation has been had, I don't know that there's a whole lot that I would change. Does anyone else have anything? I'll try to be as succinct as you were. I got a text that said, I'm sorry, you guys were hammered tonight. And it's not a problem. I can understand that people did not quite understand the Act 34 and that the communication about that was a little confusing. But let me go back just a tiny bit, because although it was nice to hear from people
197and whether it's a criticism or not. there was some misinformation. So I would like to go back. I'm about to start my sixth year on this board. And although not official, this discussion has been going on for six years, more officially the last two and a half. So when we closed Audubon, there was a possibility of also closing Arrowhead. We had two buildings. in very bad disrepair. So we made the decision to close one and we needed to figure out what to do with Arrowhead. Many of us went on tours of buildings. In fact, myself as a teacher. took personal days, my three golden personal days, to go on tours of Skyview and Arcola and new buildings. And I even said, this building of a new building concerns me. It's a lot of money. Are
198we sure we can't renovate? We took another. All right, well, I took another personal day. And Dr. Zerbe and others made a tour of a renovated building. There has been public input, positive and negative, for months. in public, in writing, et cetera. So I apologize to those people that feel they did not know. And I can understand that because prior to about seven years ago, I didn't know much about the school board either. So I apologize that you were unaware. I apologize that Act 34. We did think there was a vote after that. We have voted on different things throughout. It was a miscommunication. It was a misunderstanding. There didn't need to be a vote. This is the vote. I read through, and I can't speak for every board member. I know how much they
199do their homework. I read through all the comments over the months, including all the Act 34, tallied them up, all those things. I'm not going to go on more. I do need, some people mentioned the words corrupt. And I signed up to be a volunteer. So, you know, I can take it. I have a thick skin, but I need to be very clear. Not one of us on this board has a child that will attend that school. I don't want to speak totally. I don't want to misgive misinformation. I don't, I believe most of us don't even live within that area. I don't even think any of us have elementary age children except for maybe one. When we closed Arrowhead, though, I will say that when I voted for that because it was what was
200best for the district as a whole, two of my children were redistricted and moved after attending the same elementary school for many years. So this is not something we do because we want to or for politics. Speaking of politics, that has been some more misinformation that has been going around. Four of the board members live in Worcester. Five live in Lower Providence. As far as politics, it should not be on a school board. That's why you go on both sides of the ticket. But just to squelch those rumors as well, two happen to be Republican. I could go on and on, but I think you get the point. As far as grade configuration and us ignoring grade configuration, grade configuration is often kind of the nature of your buildings. I work for a neighboring, highly
201ranked Montgomery County Public School that has schools that are K-4. five, six, just seventh, just eighth, just ninth, and a 10 to 12. Not exactly a normal grade configuration. As far as whether we can just bus kids on over to Skyview, not the issue. There's not enough room at Skyview. Maybe there's a little bit of room, not enough room. I think I will end at that. Also, just to make people aware, we have property committees every month that discusses a lot of these things. We have education committee meetings that discuss the rankings and those kinds of things. And we do thorough research. We just hired a new curriculum director. We also have policy committee meetings and finance committee meetings every month as well. I appreciate your new activism and please feel free to join us
202at those meetings. Okay, anyone else? Madam President. Yes, Mr. Summers. If I may, just there were a couple of comments during public comment about at one point a public vote having already been held in the past and then another comment that no public vote would be held at all. So just to provide clarification on that, as Ms. Reese said, the vote is now. This is the vote on whether to award a contract for the construction of this building. Certainly the board. in the past voted to authorize the Act 34 hearing to be held as it was required to. So as far as a legal compliance with any sort of mandated public hearings, public input, the board has been in full compliance with the legal requirements. And as has been noted, while some districts may start
203their construction projects with an Act 34 hearing, this district has had conversation and been receiving input for years. before that hearing was even held. There was a comment about a public vote and a reference to Upper Dublin School District. So just to provide clarity on that, the Upper Dublin High School project, that was a referendum issue, a vote that took place at the ballot box on whether that school district could exceed its tax limitations. under state law to raise taxes to build a new school. Methactin is not required to do that as there's no proposal in the district to raise taxes beyond the amount that would otherwise be permitted to build a new school. So there's no requirement of having the voters cast their ballots regarding construction of a new school. The vote is for
204the school board this evening to cast that vote. And obviously all of the members of the board. were elected by the public to make that decision. Thanks. Thank you, Mr. Summers. That is very helpful. And I think that that clarifies a lot of some of the misinformation that was discussed earlier this evening. I also wanted to bring up one other item that I had forgotten to mention earlier. As a district, we conducted a survey that was, I think, pretty robust and reached out to as many people as we could to get their input on how to proceed forward with Arrowhead. And I think that there may have been a misconception among people, honestly, when he got to the Act 34 hearing that they've already provided their feedback in support of the school. So that could
205account for a lack of input in the positive during the Act 34 hearing. I also wanted to reference some of the petitions that were sent to us. While I do appreciate the right of people to petition and as a way of having their voice heard, I will note that the petitions that were sent to us, one was comprised almost entirely of residents of a single street. And the other was included many members, many people who were not residents of the district, people from California, people from Michigan, people from India. While, you know. I applaud their interest in what's going on in Methactin. We can't make decisions based on what people in other municipalities and other states and other countries want for our district. So I just wanted to speak to that quickly. Does anyone else
206have comment on these items? Mr. Winters. Yeah, I've debated this for a year and a half. And I even today had some more questions in my head. And I think it fundamentally comes down to what is the direction we need to take? in a larger sense around supporting education. And I understand the principle, the idea that the building does not make the education. But the reality is, as a Mctacton School District school director, we need to provide the facilities to provide the proper education, provide the resources, provide the proper staffing, the proper administration staffing, all the support staff. So to me, I have a lot of concerns with the COVID and the timing around the state funding, the amount of revenue loss locally, and also from a state perspective moving forward. It gives me agita,
207honestly. I have debated with Mr. Andrews many a time off Zoom and... had a very polite conversation with him on my differences of opinion related to the educational model and why I don't believe necessarily that K-5 is better or worse than any other model. The principle of a K-5 model at Skyview would mean that Skyview would have 800 or so students in it. because we would have K-5 in the other three remaining schools, and then we would have a super elementary school, which would be a different delivery system. We would have a sixth through eighth grade Arcola, although the numbers have been argued that that has been already handled in previous years, the facts don't actually represent that. The size of the school that Arcola has gone through, when they were 1,300 students, was when
208at the time when there was an eighth grade wing which became part of Skyview. I'm not saying that there isn't some room, but the aspect of how we would deliver Arcola as an intermediate school is also a major consideration for mine. On the size of the building, I have concerns about the size of the building as well. express some concerns about bringing in the cafeteria at the same time. And I understand that there's concerns about why we wouldn't do that. So I have concerns. I understand. It's not like people that the input has been going in one ear and out the next. You might not like my conclusion, but my conclusion when I weigh all this is that I will be supporting this, the building of Arrowhead at this particular point in time and not
209delay. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Winters. Anyone else? Ms. Hall? At first, I feel like I should disclose that I do reside within the Arrowhead sending area. My three children attended Arrowhead and had a fantastic education there. So kudos to all the staff. But I just want to say we've been discussing this since I came on the board in December of 2017. We have talked about it in property committee, in work session, in regular meetings. And this, when all the chips are laid down, then I just have to say I find this is just. The best educational decision for our students and for our community is to build this school at this time. I have disagreed with the grade reconfiguration proposals that we have heard about many times. I don't feel it would be a
210benefit to the educational experience of our students. And I just think we need to provide the best environment for learning for all of our students. So that's why I will support this. Thank you, Ms. Hall. Mr. Navarette. I don't do quick and succinct. I guess a couple of things. And I guess we started off public comment tonight with a discussion about facts. And I know Andrea made some very good comments to clear up some misinformation. I think it's just worth revisiting that this we're doing this because of the condition of the building. We're not building a new school. This isn't the same decision that boards made a long time ago about Skyview. Previous boards and administrations in this district failed to make the necessary investments in our buildings and in our infrastructure. And we're paying
211that price now. Renovations and upgrades at Arrowhead have been conspicuously absent from the plans when we look at what happened to Eagleville back in, what, 2003 and Woodland shortly thereafter. Multiple systems in that building are past the end of life, well past the end of life. And we've seen it in recent years, right? We've had to make some emergency repairs to cooling towers and chillers and other pieces of infrastructure. The building needs new roofs, new HVAC systems, masonry, electrical service upgrades, window replacements. The list goes on. We did open the school for people to tour the building. And I wish that more of the people that were... that have taken such an interest now and could have come through the building at that time. They could have seen the deficiencies with their own eyes. I've
212been through that building from the top of the roof to the darkest, deepest parts of that basement. And I can tell you that the original schedule of repairs that were identified in the facilities assessment are just that, they're repairs. That was $12, $14 million worth of repairs that were not going to rectify all the educational shortcomings of that current building. There was a lot of talk about enrollment projections tonight. But let's be clear that we are now in the third year of those enrollment projections. And for the first two years, those projections were spot on. In fact, our enrollment was actually higher than enrollment was projected to be in those first two years. The third year was COVID. And I don't remember asking Malone and McBroom to plan for a global pandemic and what that
213might mean for our schools. Certainly, there is an enormous discrepancy in enrollment projected this year. But we also know that when we look at the withdrawals and where parents have withdrawn their kids because they didn't like the start of our school being virtual, that those numbers line up. And in fact, they make up the entire gap. between actual and non-enrollment projection. We also have to acknowledge, and Paul touched on it, that we've talked a lot about the underutilization issue that we do have in Arcola. We've discussed it on many occasions in different committees and in these public meetings. Dr. Zerbe's presented on it quite a number of times. But I think it's been made clear in each of those discussions that this administration and this board does not believe that cramming five grades, much less
214eight, into that Skyview-Arkola campus is the appropriate answer to that solution. We can't have more students in the Skyview Arcola campus than we have in our entire high school campus. It just doesn't make logistical sense. That proverbial option C has been evaluated and it was rejected. Drew had probably the best comment in this whole discussion recently about the price and that there's no better time than now for us to do this from a pricing perspective. As awful as COVID has been for our schools. The slower than expected cost for this building is absolutely a silver lining in that effort. We had estimates done by KCBA. They were verified by a third party. And the market dynamics dictated that we're getting a phenomenal price for this building. Today, we're talking about a project that's going to
215come in at less than $30 million, roughly $5 million less than what we anticipated. And that price and that funding fits well within our annual budget allocations for debt service. It still allows us to continue our progress that we push for every year with regard to our master plan. There is no tax increase associated with this debt that we're taking on. And it's worth noting that the reason we can afford this is because for the past several years, we've chosen our projects wisely, we've limited our spending, and we've retired more debt than we've taken on. We've paid off more than we've borrowed. That's reduced the overall debt load of the district and has put us in the position to afford this project today. I do want to correct one piece of misinformation that's been perpetuated
216as part of this discussion. This is not a $50 million project. It's not a $54 million project. It's a $30 million project. Characterizing this project in that manner with that inflated value. is the equivalent of me buying a $300,000 house and telling all my friends I bought a $600,000 house because that's the cost of my mortgage after all my principal and interest payments over 30 years. It's just not accurate. And it's disappointing. It's incorrect. It's misleading. But that language is coming from finance professionals that understand the concept of time value of money and know better. So that's a lot. But my point in all this is I came on this board three years ago. supporting this project. And although I share some of Paul's concerns, certainly about timing, about revenue, about building size, about there's
217a lot here to process. But the sum of all of that is that I'm going to wholeheartedly support this project. I haven't seen anything that says we should go the opposite way. So I'll be a yes. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Navarrete. Ms. Perdue? I'm going to keep it very brief. My comments are really based on some of the comments that have been brought up tonight and also maybe last week about the Act 34 hearing and the comments. And I want to say that this is my first time serving on the board, but this group of board members that I serve on the board with are very dedicated. dedicated to this job that they've taken on as volunteers and they go above and beyond in making sure they do their homework, whether checking up information,
218following up with people that are experts and getting information that is needed to help them make the right decisions that impact our school district and our community. When we received the Act 34 comments, it was extensive, but I know just as Ms. Reese said, we all reviewed those comments. I looked at every single comment that was provided. I even looked at the petition that went on about stopping Arrowhead, looked through all those names, looked through all those comments that were put on that also. So the board has done extensive amount of work as far as making sure. we are looking at the comments, we are paying attention to what the community have to say and what members have said to us. But we've also gone outside of not just talking to KCBA architects, but also
219talking to people within our community that are experts when it comes to subjects like this, just asking for input. One of the biggest thing that I struggle with, and I ask the question all the time, is how are we going to pay for this, right? And I ask that question all the time, how are we going to pay for it? And I know it's a heavy price tag, but I've also toured Arrowhead, and I know that building has significant, significant amount of work that needs to be done. And when you tabulate that price tag and what it's going to cost to get that building up to shape. It's to the point where it's not even, and I would put it frankly, it's not even worth it, right? And so you've put in all this work
220and really to come to this point, and it's not something that the board is making the decision overnight. I moved to Methacton School District in 2015, and these discussions were already ongoing from the time I came. And even before joining the board, these discussions were going. I had the opportunity to tour Arrowhead. I've seen the information that had been provided. I attended board meetings before I became a board member on discussions of Arrowhead. So this is not. anything new. This is something that there have been discussions going. My only concern when I think about Arrowhead and the project forward and building a new Arrowhead is the time. And the time is really based on the pandemic. When I read through the Act 34 hearing and the comments, most of the comments really were based around
221the fact that we are in a pandemic. Is this the right time? And that's one of the main comments that come up. One of my discussions that I've had with people outside also, knowing that we are in the middle of the pandemic and when we think about timing and when we say, is this the right time? They're also saying that this is the right time. There's no more time now than ever because now we see what we're seeing within our schools where we have issues when we think about our resources. We cannot cram kids into school buildings, nor can we cram them into an... a campus that's already oversaturated. So it's a struggle for me also when I think about this, but I don't think the timing is not right. And unfortunately the pandemic is
222out of our hands and that's just it. But this is not a rush decision. We've talked about it several times and it's been an ongoing effort. Thank you, Ms. Perdue. Anyone else have any comments on this? Ms. Drummond. I don't have anything new to really add that hasn't already been stated here, but I just want to thank everybody involved with the process for their time and dedication to this, to get us all the information, to really, you know, make sure that we have all the facts, that we have everything we need to make this decision here tonight. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Drummond. Anyone else? Mr. McGinnis. Yeah, I'll try and be brief. Dr. Suri, if you can share that document. Again, just a couple of things. Some of the comments that were made, and
223Ms. Perdue, I appreciate you saying some of the people on the board do our homework. I think everyone does. This is the homework I did and actually drove around to most of these sites. These are what you're looking at right now is either currently being constructed or working their way through approvals of new homes in the district. The Ryan home center square you can see is the largest was Worcester. They're about 20% build out right now. They're selling at about five a month, pretty high price tag, which isn't out of the range of what you would expect per month. So just on the top two, you have, let me do my math here real quick. You have 288 building units, living units that are going to be on Worcester elementary school. Going down to the
224ones at Arrowhead, you have 200 building units. So I'm not saying that's going to be 200 kids, but I don't think you can say those buildings will not be occupied by some students, future students. So we talk about... rear-looking projections that were done in 2015 and they're wrong and they're wrong, but we got to look forward, right? So this is coming down the pike. And if you really want to have your minds blown, there's rumors of a multi-unit apartment complex going in next to Giant in the not too distant future. So we need the capacity. My only second point is I would say both Samir and Ralph are too kind. Arrowhead doesn't need significant work. It's a dump. Arrowhead is an absolute dump. And the fact that we ask our kids to go learn there,
225our teachers to go teach there, our administrators to go work there is embarrassing. I heard some people comment they've been here in Lower Providence 20 years, 25 years. I started my association with this school district in 1980. That's when my parents moved here and moved into the near Woodland. I went to Arcola. I have never been more embarrassed. to be associated with Methactin than when I walked into Arrowhead on the tour. Unfortunately for all of us, we drove to Worcester, then to Arrowhead. And to see some of our kids going to Worcester Elementary School, which is what they should have, right? And then going to see what the kids are doing in Arrowhead, my jaw dropped. It's a dump. It needs to be fixed. It needs to be replaced. The kids in that school deserve
226better. We as a school district, as taxpayers, and oh, by the way, everyone who makes comments about taxpayers, all nine of us are taxpayers. I've said that many times. All nine of us pay taxes. So for anybody to sit here and say we don't care about taxpayers, that blows my mind. I am 100% behind this project. It's overdue. And that's my speech. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. McGinnis. Are there any comments, other comments from the board before we vote? Ms. Hull? I just wanted to add, someone made a comment during board action items about the companies that we are awarding these bids to and a Google search. And I just wanted to point out that KCBA and Fidavia both vetted these companies and that information is also included in Mr. Navarrete's minutes from the property
227committee meeting. Thank you, Ms. Hull. All right. Anything else? All right. So at this point, we have our motion. We have our comments. All those in favor of these items related to Arrowhead Elementary new construction? Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries 9-0. Moving on to personnel items. Mr. Regina. Thank you, Madam President. We have a number of items for the board's approval this evening. We have two job description additions for administrative. We have one election of an assistant superintendent. We have one professional resignation, one classified change of status, two professional uncompensated leaves, two classified uncompensated leaves, 12 supplemental contracts. It's an addition of six from what we saw last week. The addition is the extended fall season pay. I believe one supplemental or actually four supplemental contracts related to some of our programs and theater positions
228and then some IEP writing contracts. Two classified substitutes, one volunteer list, and one lifeguard swim instructor under community education. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Regina. Does anyone on the board want to take any of the personnel items separately? Okay, then I will take a motion to approve all of the items listed under personnel this evening. Thank you, Mr. Winters. Is there a second? Sorry, Liz, Drew beat you by a second there. All right. Any comments from the board on these personnel items? Yes. Can you scroll back up, Dr. Zerbe, to the top? I just want to make sure I'm not the, yeah, the top of the personnel stuff. Okay, thank you. I just wanted to make sure I was, I didn't have it open on my screen. The only thing that I will reiterate from
229last week, since I have received a couple emails from people and MEA's statement tonight. about administrative positions. We have heard, and Dr. Zerbe was very candid last week, from our staff that they want more communication and they want more, you know, more, basically biggest one was communication. I won't get into too many details. And we have been lean. in the administration department. And as Dr. Zerbe said last week, partly he takes blame for that. When you're trying to cut the budget, you cut the people that make the most money. So we didn't refill positions and we haven't had an assistant superintendent in a very long time. So in our minds, this has been needed and the pandemic. kind of put it in our face that, yeah, it's really needed. So we don't take hiring these
230positions lightly. We're excited to have a new curriculum director. And after tonight, hopefully a new assistant superintendent and then some other administrative positions. This is not to say that. paying our professional staff is not important. And I'm not going to get into contract negotiations, but I will say that this is the second time I've been through a contract negotiation as a board member. And as a public school teacher, it's difficult. A few years ago, some of my colleagues, not methactin people, my colleagues where I work, were upset with me. How dare you not support the teachers? And it's not about that. I think all the teachers know as a... as an individual and a parent, I've never been anything but respectful to the teachers. I have also heard, and I'm bringing it up now because
231I do support this, but there was mention of Jeff Saltanek, and I think it's only fair to say it upsets me that this causes a lot of... angst or negativity with our association. But it's important to know that that gentleman, I've worked with him on numerous boards. I'm on the MCIU board. I'm on the JOC board. He's been in our education law field for 43 years. And I believe he handles almost every single contract negotiation in Montgomery County. So I'm sorry that the MEA is unhappy about that. And we all hope that a contract can come and that it's one that the association is, you know. I don't want to say happy with because negotiations are never, you know, perfect, but one that can, can get you a contract. And that I think, you know,
232that you are respected and that nobody would like. these negotiations to go on as long as they do. And I wanted to also thank the board members that handle the negotiations because it can't be the nine of us. So four of them plus administration have taken a lot of time as has MEA leadership. So having said that, I support these personnel decisions and I'll say it again that although Ms. Mandia will be hard to replace. you did a good job finding a replacement. So anyway, thank you. Thank you, Ms. Reese. I think you summed up pretty much everything that I've been thinking here. So thank you. Any other comments on personnel items before we move forward? Seeing none. All those in favor of approving the personnel items as listed? Aye. Any opposed? Okay, the motion
233carries 9-0. If I could just interrupt one second. Congratulations Mr. Regina. Yes congratulations Mr. Regina. Too late now you can't back out. Thank you. All right moving on to curriculum and programs. Dr. Walsh. Thank you, Madam President, for your consideration and approval tonight, as was discussed last week. Removal of the four courses listed there for the high school offerings for 21-22 school year and the addition of the five or the six courses listed there as discussed last week for the 21-22 school year for the high school program guide. Thank you, Mr. Walsh. May I have a motion to approve the items listed under curriculum and programs this evening? I heard cancro I'm gonna go with cancro is there a second Drummond all right thank you miss Drummond any comments from the board seeing none all
234those in favor any opposed seeing none the motion carries 9-0 moving on to policy we have seven policies up for first read And seven for second read. Obviously, the second read policies are the ones that are up for approval. So may I have a motion to approve the seven policies for second reading as presented here this evening? I'll make the motion. Thank you, Ms. Hull. Is there a second? Second. Thank you, Ms. Perdue. Any comments from the board? Seeing none, all those in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries 9-0. Under other, Dr. Zerbe? Yes, under other we have gifts and donations, except a gift of Blackguard Giving Fund, as stated, a value of $300, and except a gift from the foundation to use for district grants of a value of $10,080.88. There are a number
235of, well, there's one professional consulting DEI contract for Dr. Bruce Campbell, as stated earlier in our presentation. There is an advertisement for the positions of Director of Human Resources and the position of Supervisor of Secondary Curriculum. And lastly, there is the authorization for the administration to cease collection of the student activity fee for the 2021 school year and to refund $50 per already paid Arcola students and $75 per already paid high school student during the same period. and the activity fund will resume as per policy 122 for the start of next school year. Thank you, Dr. Zerbe. Does anyone want to take any of these items separately? All right. Can I have a motion then to approve everything listed under other this evening? Reese. Thank you, Ms. Reese. Is there a second? Winners. Thank you,
236Mr. Winners. Any comments from the board? Um, I just wanted to, I know I brought up about the activity fee. I have no problem, um, refunding that or not going forward with it. But I know I had mentioned last week that I felt like my children, um, you know, got their money's worth. So someone suggested if anyone else feels that way, that they could donate their refund to the Methactin Education Foundation. So I just would like to reiterate that. And, um. say that thank you in advance for the refund and that I will be forwarding mine on to that. Thank you, Ms. Reese. And actually, while we're on that topic, I had raised the question last week about whether or not there was any conflict because obviously as board members, we're also many of us,
237actually all of us, parents of methactin students. So I know we had Mr. Summers weigh in. So Mr. Summers, if you could just provide a quick summary about that. Sure. So Dr. Zerbe forwarded me the request that was made during the last meeting with regard to the activities fee. The question is whether the receipt of that refund or the nonpayment of that fee constitutes any issues under the Pennsylvania Ethics Act, which applies to elected officials. I did research the Ethics Act and under the Ethics Act, an action by a board member, for example, is not a conflict of interest if the amount at issue is de minimis, meaning of relatively little economic value. It's my determination that the amount that's involved here to each individual board member. does constitute a de minimis amount of funds.
238Even if that exception did not apply, there is another exception under the ethics act that in the event that an action applies to an elected official who is a member of a class and the action impacts that class overall to the same extent, it's not a conflict of interest. So in this instance, any board member who may have a child who participates in athletics or activities where there's a fee, the nonpayment of this fee for this school year or the refund of this fee, that action applies equally to all other parents in the district who have students who participate in athletics or activities. So there's no special benefit being received as compared to the other parents who also have children who participate in these fees. As a result of that, I did provide the board
239members with a written non-confidential opinion under the Ethics Act when the school or agency solicitor provides a written opinion to the members of the board and you rely upon that written opinion in engaging in the activity that is advised does not constitute a conflict. that provides certain protections under the ethics act. So I did provide that memorandum to all members of the board in advance of this meeting. Thank you very much for that summary, Mr. Summers. I appreciate it. Any other comments from the board? Seeing none, all those in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Okay, that motion carries 9-0. Pages are sticking. Okay, so that concludes our voting items for this evening. We have dates for board members' calendars. We have our reorganization meeting coming up December 7th. And property, it looks like, is the only
240committee that has a meeting scheduled in December on the 9th. Is there any old business this evening? Any new business? Okay, so at this point, we will open it up to courtesy of the floor. This is an opportunity for residents to provide comments on matters that could come before the board. We ask you to keep comments to four minutes or less, and we may choose to respond to matters following conclusion of courtesy of the floor. So if you have pre-registered to speak this evening, if you could raise your hand in the Zoom, and I will start working through our list. Okay, first I have Jim Mollick. Can you hear me? Yes, I can. Thanks, Emile. You can put this slogan on the plaque for your new building. Arrowhead, the best you can buy with our
241money. Because certainly you guys aren't really contributing to buying the building. You know, Mr. McGinnis was indignant about, you know, how all of you guys, all you nine pay taxes. Well, I'll use the theme of the evening. I think that's misinformation. Because you guys are actually being subsidized by the taxpayers of the district. And let me explain why. Board members have 20 children at Methactin. The total tax paid by the board is $71,000. Mr. McGinnis, I think you pay $6,400 a year. And you have two kids at $23,000 apiece. So that's 46 minus six, I think. Yeah, we're subsidizing you 40 grand. So the total cost per student is $23,000. The total cost to educate all of your children at Methactin is $460,000. And if you do the difference, 460 minus 71, the taxpayers are
242subsidizing you guys to the tune of $380,000. I think you're misleading the public in representing that you're actually paying taxes. You're actually a drain on the people in the district. Ms. Reese talked about corruption. I guess somebody had mentioned corruption. And, you know, when it comes to that. I can't disagree to a point where you look at Eminem and their study and what went on. I have some questions about what happened there. I don't think that's a stretch. But you don't remember when Mr. Navarrete was in the audience with the old board accusing them of cooking the books. I was there. He said the board's cooking the books. Now, to me, that sounds like corruption. You're saying cook in the books. Maybe I'm wrong, but, you know, I don't get that. As far as this
243project, this Arrowhead project, I mean, you guys have like, I don't know, I feel like I'm in like kind of a delusional world because this was the best kept secret next to the Manhattan Project. They said the general public has been left out, left in the dark. Unlike the Arrowhead parents, we in the general public don't have access to the home and school email list, the home and school network. We don't have access to the closed private Facebook pages, the school email blasts. And we weren't included on any of the committees formed to build this ridiculous school. But, you know, the thing that makes me happy is, you know, you got somebody who presents a petition to you. with close to 500 names. You don't say, you know what, I appreciate that. I understand that.
244That's significant. No, you attack the petition. You attack her and the petition saying, well, there's a bunch of people on the same street. There's a few people out of state. I mean, you know, keep doing it. That's all I got to say. Because if there's 400 people on that petition. I hope election time comes around. You're going to be in for a rude awakening. I'm not you, Ms. Chairman, but the other people that are up for reelection. And I can't wait for that. As far as the Diversity and Inclusion Committee, what's the purpose of this committee? I don't understand it. It seems to me like the suggestion is that methactin is a race. Thank you. That's your four minutes. Okay, next I have Chunling Ma. Hi, I just want to go back to the Arrowhead
245petition you talked about. You said there are some out-state signatures. I'm sorry, I did not notice that. I just went through all the signatures. I found there were out of 400 signatures, there were about 70 signatures out of our school district, like some even an envelope, I think definitely not from us. But when I asked people to sign, I did ask them, only when you're living in Methactin school district, you're a resident there. aside from that, we should still have close to 400 people signing the petition. If you want to know if the people like living in the Mothatian, if they're really like the real resident, please feel free, but it probably doesn't make a difference. Another thing I want to talk about just the size of the gym for Arrowhead. Why would we need
246to build like a 3.5 size, basically 2.5 size gym of regular and plus a cafeteria, which is a separate, usually a school will use it, you know, share the same, the cafeteria and the gym will share the same space. When the president addressed this issue, I think in one board meeting, she mentioned, we asked this, they're saying, having a little bit bigger gym wouldn't cost us too much. I just feel lacking of data and a number kind of bothers me. Like how much is too much? Like, do you have a date number saying building a regular gym in the cafeteria costs this much and then adding the current, becoming the current config, like the 3.5 times the size will have to add on to how much money. And then also like, why not build a
2475.5 times gym? I mean, it won't be too much money. I think how much gym we need is, it depends on how many children, how many students we have there. Do we need that big gym for elementary school? Only, sorry about that, only K to four. And then, what else? Sorry about that. And also about option C. I went through a lot of the past YouTube meetings. I did not see a thorough study, although many board members claimed it's been done a thorough study. I've seen Brian Earnshaw, one of the board directors, he is not in the board anymore. He was struggling with data and facts showing there was necessity of building the new school, not closing Arrowhead. And he always talked as a matter of fact, with no like emotion or feelings. He just
248made his judgment based on data. But he always insists there was not enough data to reach a conclusion to build this new era ahead. But since to me, he was a loner there. It's just like he was the only person I could tell he was using data to make a decision. And a lot of the board members just said, oh, I don't think people will be happy if we close the school. You know, things like that. Even somebody just now, the director expressed there's not enough space in Skyview. Did you have the data? Did you do the in-depth study to show your conclusion? Or you just feel that way? Or you said there's new house development in there. Do you have this projection of the enrollment increase just because the housing's there? Yeah, we do
249have a feeling we're doing that, but we have to use real data to justify our decision. Yeah, that's all I want to say. Thank you. Thank you. Next, I have Sade Darby. Ms. Darby, whenever you're ready. Yep, Sade Darby, Lower Providence Township. I just want to say thank you to the board for approving the contract of Dr. Bruce Campbell for an equity audit of the school district and for his multiple point plan of helping with Acton, not only to improve with DEI matters, but also embedding DEI practices throughout the district. I also want to make a comment to some of the community members who don't understand what the purpose of DEI is. There's this free online service called Google. And I think you guys should do your research before you make ignorant public commentary. That's
250all. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Darby. Next, I have Jessica Bradbury. Whenever you're ready. Hello again. Jessica Bradbury, Lower Providence Township. I want to start out by saying I recognize 2020 has been really difficult for everyone. And I'm trying to give as much grace as I can muster. But the past nine months have highlighted and maybe even magnified some serious leadership issues. How much of this year's strife has been caused by the proverbial captain of our ship? I've been biting my tongue, but I'm at my breaking point. Our superintendent failed to deliver tech devices to all of our students to start the school year. He failed to get our children back to the classroom for more than one day since March 11th. This is an objective that has been achieved by numerous neighboring districts. He's
251recommended and prioritized new administrative roles that seem a bit backwards. He's appointed someone unqualified to run technology. We continue to ignore technology, which is ironic since this year seems to be dependent on technology. I have a very strong suspicion that the teaching staff does not feel respected or trusted by our leadership, which must certainly be contributing to their stress levels. Congratulations, Mr. Regina. I hear that you have quite a better relationship with them, so I hope that starts to improve things for us. Dr. Redfield, director of CDC, said the safest place for our kids to be in the classroom. So mandating all of our students, especially those with a legally binding document like an IEP, to be virtual entirely seems to put our district at a legal risk. There are already class action lawsuits filed
252against 10 local districts with the potential to expand. because the schools are not meeting their educational hours. I see it firsthand with my second grader. There's absolutely no way virtual learning is equivalent to classroom learning, especially every time her Chromebook crashes, her camera or microphone stops working, the online platform is down. You got a taste of that during the Pledge of Allegiance. My daughter was sitting next to me and she said, mom, this happens to me every day. Should our district lose a lawsuit? Isn't it the taxpayers that ultimately pay? Governor's Wulff's restrictions were ruled unconstitutional and this inequality of virtual education will likely follow. I think I heard mention of discussions off Zoom. Maybe Mr. Summers can weigh in because I'm pretty sure all deliberations have to be public for the Sunshine Act. So
253that's where some of the integrity questions start to creep up. Your responsibility as elected members of the school board to represent the interests of the voting taxpayers and ultimately our children who keep suffering. Where's the benchmarking data? I've asked at least three times and I don't know why it's not being published. Probably because our students are falling terribly behind. We've never had a crisis like COVID, but take a look at the post-Hurricane Katrina educational gap that occurred. And please stop using my seven-year-old as your guinea pig for virtual education. It's your responsibility to hold our administration accountable for equal education, yet you use the platform to lecture us and grasp at all straws justifying fully virtual education without a choice. If Methactin School District was the Titanic ship, Some board members' contributions as of late
254are as useful of the musicians playing a cheerful tune on the deck of the ship as it sinks. You all ran for this position under the platform of being community advocates for responsible education. Maybe it's not the volunteer role you signed up for, but you swore an oath to uphold the Constitution of the United States. Please get our children back in the classroom, finalize the contract for the teachers so that we can restore as much semblance of stability as possible during a pandemic to make room for important discussions like DE&I. Thank you. And next I have Joe Bickelman. I am unmuted, right? Yes, you are. Let me just get to my notepad here. Oh, congratulations to Mr. Regina. But I know in the back of your mind, you're thinking about what the board member said.
255You'll be the first one cut because you make a lot of money when times get hard. So probably a little nervous about that. I was sad to hear about Frank Bartle. He was a good guy. It's sad that he won't be around to see the Shenandoah settlement, but I probably won't be around either. Paul Winters asked a comment about size of the gym and Mr. Kelly was going to run out there and get his number for him. How did he make out with that? Did he get the square footage comparisons between the old gym, new gym, dual purpose gym? Did he get back to you? I don't think he did. Just like when you and Mrs. Perdue asked about the same question and you got stiffed on that way back when. You had a projection
256done by Eminem in 2016 saying that enrollment's going down. Close Audubon. Close Arrowhead. Two years later, the same company said the projection's going up. Better keep Arrowhead. Matter of fact, you might as well rebuild it. How is that possible? How is that possible? Is there a defect? Was there a defect or a recall in contraceptive industry? I don't know. I don't know how that's possible. Mrs. Reese says, during your comment, you misspoke, and we have to catch ourselves when we misspeak. Ms. Reese, you said, when they closed Arrowhead. That can be confusing to people. You meant to say when they closed Audubon, but it could be confusing. I'm sure Spring-Ford used all the available space for all their different configurations. space that they had, like we should use. 1,500 people were in Arcola. 1,500 students
257were in Arcola. It has a functional capacity of 1,290. Going back to the diversity and equity and inclusion, the $30,000 consultant, was the problem identified at Methactin internally? Internally, did we know we had a problem? Did this grow internally up through the system? You know, when I see these issues, diversity, equity, and inclusion, if they exist in our schools where we have teachers, loving, caring teachers, principals, assistant principals, counselors, child psychologists, district office administrators, students, special ed directors, outside consultants, how could these things exist? in a public school with these types of people involved in this educational community. Did this notice of a problem come internally? Did we see it internally? Or was the impetus, our notice of this problem, was it provided by an outside source, an outside organization telling us we had a
258problem or that we weren't doing what everybody else was doing? I'm just perplexed by that. Or was it from the African-American mother that was on social media with her two children, a son and a daughter, crying about the racial slurs that was slung at them at Methacton High School? And why wasn't anything done about it? I watched that video. It still hurts me to this day that I had to watch something like that, knowing that nothing was done about it. Or was it the bus driver that got a racial slur thrown at him? Rather than a teachable moment for the student, the middle school student, that driver was put on another bus. I don't understand what's going on. You got to get to the administrators that buried that stuff. We shouldn't have any technology issues
259since Dr. Zerbe's... I have to cut you off there. Thank you, Mr. Bickelman. Next, I have Dr. Janine Darby. Dr. Darby, whenever you're ready. Hello. Can you hear me? Yes, I can. Okay, perfect. I'm Dr. Ganeen Darby, Lower Providence Township. Just wanted to thank the board for approving the proposal for Dr. Bruce Campbell. This is a great first step for assessing our community's climate in regards to DEI and needs so that all, all people. in this community feel included and have a sense of belonging. For those community members, I'm just going to echo what my daughter said, Sade Darby, that do not understand what DEI stands for or what it means, Google it. Google it. And, you know, also I'm here for conversation. I started the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Task Force. We have wonderful
260conversations. So if you have any questions in regards to DEI, please join the group and ask your questions. So thank you again to the board for approving the proposal for Dr. Bruce Campbell. And everyone have a happy Thanksgiving. Thank you, Dr. Darby. You as well. Next, I have John Andrews. Oops. Hey, Mr. Andrews, whenever you're ready. I'm ready. Thank you. John Andrews, Lower Providence. I want to note that in my talk with you earlier this evening, I did not get into the science-driven details. Those were provided in numerous documents earlier that went directly to directors. I did want to say that a few of the times I sent out those documents, I asked for acknowledgement of receipt. And I only got that from two or three directors. Jen Cancro, for instance, Liz Drummond. It's kind
261of like the times I tried to telephone Mr. Navarette. The message machine took it, took my story. He never called back. And with regard to the petition residents, this is not the time to question the location addresses that showed up on some of those. I believe that all of those people are residents, but the addresses that showed up may be associated with the cell phone numbers. when they got cell phones perhaps before they came here and there were addresses like Norristown. You know, I get a lot of mail in Lower Providence with my address as Norristown. Norristown is the local city. And we all know that Eagleville, for instance, includes parts of four different townships, not just the post office. The Eagleville name is associated. purely with the post office. Overall, I feel that the
262process that was used by this board was hardly the process long established in Pennsylvania called PlanCon, where things start out with a recent enrollment projection of acceptable quality and a facility study, not a study of repair assessment. I like the idea of having an assistant superintendent and I get lots of comments to the effect that Mr. Regina is a quite wonderful candidate for that position. And I think his nomination by the superintendent is well justified. I think that the board... fails to see that changes have occurred over the duration of the Arrowhead discussions. I am confident that the Option C plan would not have capacity issues, and that is inclusive of the tabulation of building projects that are underway or planned. that Mr. McGinnis presented. And things that are planned and not approved, they don't
263count. But the things that are approved, that have gone through all this cycle, inclusive of the developer having the money to get a start on the project, they do count. Thank you, Mr. Andrews. Next, I have Brian Earnshaw. Whenever you're ready. Brian Earnshaw, Lower Providence. First, congrats to Mr. Regina. I enjoyed working with him and you and Mr. Regina. I'm not sure if you're still on while I was on the board and good luck in your new role. And good luck to the board with your new building project. It's all yours now. I'm not going to relegate any of those points, but I would like to comment on some of the board's comments during that discussion. First, Ms. Hall, regarding Googling the contractors and doing some due diligence on them. There was one item I
264noted that I would have asked about the financial stability of one of the contractors. So you might want to see if KCBA and or Fidavia picked up on that and asked those kinds of questions. I feel bad for the students and employees that have to go back into Arrowhead, the current building, given Mr. McGinnis' characterization of the building as a dump. I certainly hope whatever needs to get done in the short term until the new building opens. does get completed so that, you know, students and staff have a safe and safe working environment. They're not truly working in a dump. Regarding Mr. Navarette's comments about his mortgage versus how much he paid for his house versus his total he paid on the mortgage, I think the total debt service number is an important number. And
265if you look at your mortgage disclosure, it will include the total amount of cash you're going to pay over the life of that mortgage. It's also a disclosure in your annual financial statements. If you look at those, Mr. Navarette, about the total debt service requirements to retire the debt, both principal and interest. You know, the total cost of project is an important number, not just what you're going to pay up front. You got to look at the full and complete cost of the project, just like you wouldn't exclude, I hope, the million and a half already paid to KCBA, nor would you exclude the interest for borrowing early. So I just want to respond to some of those comments, but good luck with the project. It's all yours. Thanks. Thank you, Mr. Earnshaw. Next, I
266have Amy Smith. Whenever you're ready. Thank you. Amy Smith from Worcester Township. I'm going to keep it brief. I know that it's already late. I just wanted to say thank you for approving the contract with Dr. Bruce Campbell. I am also on the DEI Task Force Board, and I've been hoping that the district would come through with this. I appreciate. the time and effort that the ad hoc committee has put into it. And I also appreciate all the community members who have been reaching out to the board, to, you know, coming together as a group to start having these conversations. I think it's really important. And I also want to say thank you to the administrators, building principals, the teachers, the staff. the members of the administration that have been so receptive about having these
267conversations and moving this forward. So I think it's a tremendous moment for our district and I appreciate that. And I also want to thank the board for their yes vote for the Arrowhead construction. I think we're moving in the right direction and I appreciate everyone's efforts. That's it. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Smith. Next, I have Anthony Arnone. Go ahead whenever you're ready. Anthony Arnone, Lower Providence Township. I just wanted to say thank you to the board for the yes vote on the Arrowhead project. I think, you know, having seen it myself again, it is in dire need of replacement. Buildings go past their useful life, as was put by the board, and I've experienced it in my profession, so long overdue. And I urge the board to also keep an eye on. on other
268projects that may need to occur so it's not again deferring maintenance and leading to big decisions that have to be made down the road again. I think this was a step in the right direction there. And also thank you for the yes vote on Dr. Bruce Campbell. I think that's an important role to kind of bring to light some of the things that maybe have been kind of glossed over or brushed aside. And it's not just necessarily in our district, but I think you hear it in the community comments that There's maybe lack of information that there's a need for this role in the school district. And hopefully that that bleeds out into the community and we all start to understand what what DEI actually means. And I would just like to say, I also
269understand that, you know. The situation for the virtual learning may not be ideal for everybody, but I will applaud all the teachers and their great efforts to make strong bonds with the students. We feel like that's been happening on our end. They've put a tremendous amount of effort going beyond their normal workday to reach out with, I think, you know, emails, you know, all hours of the evening. to reach out to the families and students. So I just applaud them for that effort and bonding with the kids and really pushing, trying to do the best with the virtual environment and hope that, you know, the negotiations and their contract work gets executed and they are, you know, they're appreciated for the amount of efforts that they're putting in because they are the backbone of our
270entire district and really there for our kids every day. So thank you and hope everybody has a good Thanksgiving. Thank you, Mr. Arnone, you as well. Next, I have Cara Colas, and that looks like, Cara, you will be the last one this evening. So whenever you are ready. Wow, I get to be the closer. All right. So one of the speakers seemed a little confused about how taxes work, that other people paid while his children went to school, just like he's paying for other people's. It's the kind of part of the fabric of the American system. the roads you drive on. I don't ride on every road, but I subsidize them. I don't take Medicare, but I subsidize people's Medicare and Medicaid. I subsidize their social security. So that argument I found confusing. The other
271thing is, I mentioned earlier about the YMCA. and the fact that a vocal minority really pushed that project out. At that point in time, I was not paying attention to local government. I didn't go to meetings, and I have learned since then how important local government is. So it is encouraging to see that people are paying attention because I think that's very important. But as much as I disagreed with that board's decision, it was my choice to not make the time and go. They are available. So again, the argument that this was not transparent, that things were not communicated, you can say whatever you want to and be against a project, but I still firmly disagree with that statement that this was not communicated. And, you know, that person had every opportunity and people had
272every opportunity to go to the meetings. And it's an unfortunate part. of local government people don't pay attention until something like this happens and then they feel like they're not being listened to when this had been going on for years. So I mean it's just something that I think just everybody listening how important to pay attention to what's going on around you and I know it's hard and I think Zoom makes it so much more accessible. Lastly in my last minute or two about diversity the DEI office so one of the gentlemen was talking about you know, what were we seeing and was it noticed internally? And unfortunately, it was not noticed internally. I've listened to teachers, I've listened to students and parents as part of these conversations, and it's a large group. And it
273became very clear that many people don't feel enabled to speak internally with the current climate, with the current administration. And I don't mean across the board, but there is a discomfort. And that starts at the top. So we need to figure out how to make people comfortable being able to speak out and support all of our students to learn of all abilities, all persuasions, our gay students, our people of color, all of them, our disabled students, our gifted students, they all need to be encouraged to be their unique selves. and that's why we need an independent person that can a lot that people can speak freely to um you know i would be hesitant to spend the money myself at this point in time but i do believe it's sorely needed uh in the district
274at this time thank you thank you miss colas and of course since i said that it was the last one someone else raised their hand so mr ryan you're in whenever you're ready Thank you, Michael Ryan, Lower Proudhens. I was beginning to wonder if I hadn't clicked the second button to speak during courtesy of the floor. I'll keep this quick. First, I want to say thank you to the board for approving the contract with Dr. Bruce Campbell. As I said before, I think this is the right next step in this process. A big congratulations to Mr. Regina. I'm sure you're going to do a fantastic job. I also want to give a shout out to and a thank you to the Methactin Black Student Union for their food drive benefiting the Patrician Society. All their
275donations are greatly appreciated during these difficult times. They did a fantastic job for a new club. I wasn't planning on saying anything about this, but in regards to the first resident who spoke during Courtesy of the Floor, I believe Ms. Colas used the word confused. I think I would use the word creepy. I imagine that this person went and looked to see how many kids each of you have, looked up your addresses. Went to a public record site and looked up how much you pay in taxes to figure out, in his words, how much the taxpayers are subsidizing. That's just extremely creepy is the only way I can describe that. I would also say that I think there's a difference, right? We're in the world of public education. I'm pretty sure that this isn't private
276education, that if we have four students, we don't pay tuition for the exact cost of what it's going to cost to educate those students. So maybe, hopefully, the person can use that thing that someone mentioned before called Google, and they can look up the difference between private and public education. And I will finish with... One thing which doesn't get said enough, but thank you to the board for all of your time, your dedication, your hard work, the countless hours that you spend. It goes unnoticed a lot. People show up at these meetings only when there's times to complain. And I just I feel it's a shame. And, you know, the rudeness and the anger that some people speak to you. I hope that they just even if they disagree, realize that there's a civilized way
277to disagree. You don't need to raise your voices. You don't need to insult someone else. And you certainly don't need to go and look up people's family and their addresses and how much they pay in property taxes. So thank you all for all your hard work. Have a great Thanksgiving and have a great night. Thank you, Mr. Ryan. I think that was the perfect note to end on. Any comments from the board before we adjourn? Happy Thanksgiving. Happy Thanksgiving. I do want to say one thing. I know that there was comment about conversations happening off of Zoom. And I think that Mr. Winters, I know what you were referring to is individual one-on-one conversations that we have with the taxpayers, with our constituents, because that's what we were elected to do. And I know that
278many of us give up plenty of hours of our time to have those conversations with people because that's exactly what we were elected to do. So I just wanted to clarify that. And with that, I will say, does anyone have anything else before we adjourn? Everyone have a wonderful Thanksgiving break. I know we'll all appreciate it this year even more than ever. So thank you. Have a good night. Good night. Good night. Happy Thanksgiving.