1/10/2023 Appoquinimink School Board Meeting

001actually hello and welcome to the January 2023 ago New Mexico board meeting my name is Michelle wall welcome we have a packed house tonight um the board went into executive session at 5 30 at the motion of Mr Abrams in the second of Mr forston to discuss legal and Personnel matters we're going to start this meeting the way we start all meetings with the Pledge of Allegiance so I'm going to ask you to stand with me and then we'll be followed by the singing of the national anthem the States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice [Music] was still there [Music] thank you [Music] [Applause] oh yeah let's do this I'm sorry for high schools who have been recognized as all-stay choir members

002Dr Burroughs are there any adjustments to our agenda this evening there are not tonight great moving on to the next section of our agenda we'll do special recognitions and we're going to start with the Middle School Cross Country Awards um Terry Taylor thank you all right good evening welcome um I'm here for the cross country so this past fall was the second season for our Middle School cross country program we offer boys and girls team for each of the four middle schools and this year we had over 100 students participating students ran in four meets the first two were held on our Fairview campus and then all schools participated in the central Delaware middle school cross-country Invitational at Browns Branch County Park where our agw boys placed eight out of the 22 teams and then

003finally our district Championship was held at Blackbird State Forest so we're here tonight to honor those student athletes who plays in the top 10 at our district meet so we are going to start with the girls and we asked them to come forward as their name is called and accept their certificate and then stand up here to get a picture and we ask that everybody please hold your all your applause until all the girls names are red so starting um who placed 10th from Meredith Alyssa dance placing ninth from agw Katarina smigala placing eighth from Meredith Taylor Cole placing seventh from agw Hazel Santos placing six from agw Delaney ebaugh placing fifth from Meredith Gianna pascarello placing fourth from cantwells Molly Smith placing third from cantwell's Mariah Villas placing second from Meredith Madison very and

004placing first from agw Giselle ardilla congratulations ladies foreign Yes except for Mrs um no you're right here sorry I'm gonna let all the parents do their shots and then I'm going to ask you girls to give me one thank you okay do we get all our parents okay what do you mean no no no okay everybody good okay don't leave yet okay thank you guys for patience thank you congratulations [Applause] okay now for the boys who finished in the top 10 um placing 10th from agw Dave manapatu placing nine from agw Patrick Sullivan placing eighth from agw Eli sokolowski placed in seventh from Reading Tice Harbin placing six from cantwells Shane canto placing fifth from Reading Kai Johnson placing fourth from agw Logan Elmore placing what was that I did fourth right third from agw

005Michael smogala Michael also placed 13th at the meet down in central Delaware uh placing second place for agw Gavin Calvi and first place finisher for the boys from cantwell's Oliver Hempel congratulations hard in the background you're having trouble step forward how are we doing in the back are you getting what you want um while she's taking that last picture I just wanna say thank you to all our cross country coaches and our musical instructors who it's really a team effort to pull off some cross-country meets as you parents know who've been there so I thank them for their effort to make this successful and always for the support of the district for Middle School athletics so thank you and we'll see you next fall or maybe in the spring for track foreign thank you for

006Sebastiano my name is Laura Sebastiano we're gonna move on to the next agenda item and recognize those students who are recognized for all-stay choir Miss Sebastiano thank you my name is Laura Sebastiano I am the Arts specialist for the district the Delaware music educators Association provides an opportunity each year for students in grades 7 through 12 to audition for the Delaware All-State band choir and Orchestra the results of the All-State choir auditions were recently announced and tonight we'll be recognizing the 28 very talented singers who were accepted into this prestigious Ensemble we also look forward to congratulating the band and Orchestra members in upcoming board meetings after their results are announced as well the All-State choir will spend two days rehearsing together prior to their concert on February 25th if you're interested in attending their

007concert you can reach out to any of their teachers myself or visit delawaremea.org so we're going to kick off tonight's uh Celebrations by introducing Nick ronahan choir director at Alfred G Waters Middle School all right so our students from agw are Layla kogel Theodore you can go right past me Selena Huang San V condobolo thank you lassia pabathi I am chocolate I almost said shetzler and Jacob Shockley I'm sorry Jacob thank you sir doing school teachers there we go now can I ask you guys to just do a little tighter kind of overlap shoulders yeah exactly yeah tiger together guys we need to get everybody in flight time I'm sorry okay we're doing pretty good I want to thank you congratulations [Applause] yep and up next we will introduce Thomas Maloney choir director at poconomic

008High School foreign thanks so much you hear me right on good evening uh first we'll have Nasir Bryant and Mal kreveling Marina eaker Lucas karpinski Caitlin Maloney Cassidy Ober parlater and Dominic Volpe [Applause] thank you let's do two rounds and maybe Marina too yeah there you go this year Lucas go in between the Middle window good dumb Caitlyn a little bit this way Cassidy a little bit more there we go thank you [Applause] and next we're introducing Shane Hurley from cantwells bridge Middle School thank you all right good evening thank you we have one student from Kent Wells the first ever student from Camp Wells Bridge Middle School to make Allstate chorus Abigail Smith [Applause] foreign [Music] and next Sarah Wiggins choir teacher at Middletown High School [Applause] good evening we have Miss Autumn Brooks

009Tara Brown Ava damiani Dylan Fink Delaney friedl Emma Gardner who is ill tonight so I'll take hers Marina Prego Kelis sandiford Emily Sorensen Cambria Sturdivant and Lucy Williams [Applause] put yourself on your risers oh do we need a third Rolo well do we need a third row do you think um just angle yourselves do your tilt right yeah okay this is the last one guys I just need every other head so I can see you all and I gotta this is you got it thank you thank you congratulations [Applause] and lastly Rocky tahata choir director at Odessa High School will be joining us on Zoom yes good evening I would like to recognize Peyton Gray Jack Zim Aubry free and Juliana Schechter who could not be here with us tonight [Applause] just a little bit

010more there we go thank you okay we got it you guys thank you congratulations [Applause] and those are all of our All-State singers in the district how about one last celebration for them all [Applause] thank you good evening I would like to recognize the members of the alpha alpha tau Omega chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority would you ladies please come up and join me so I'd like to acknowledge and thank the ladies of Alpha Kappa Alpha for generous donation to our appaquinimic District Libraries this is the second year in a row where they have donated um diverse books for our libraries this year they made a donation specifically for our bookmobile so that as the bookmobile goes out in the community they can share some engaging and diverse texts with the students in our

011community I'd like to just give Lisa Snead an opportunity to thank you again my name is Lisa Snead from Alfalfa tall Omega chapter and I'm here with my chapter members and we are always honored to be partnering with approquinimic school district like Lisa said this is our second donation these are specifically for the bookmobile we have done book donations to the library last year and myself I'm the chair of the empower the families initiative and uh survey Ms Phaedra Johnson she is the one that is doing the economic literacy and she's the one that actually spearheaded us getting these books so we just want to always have a relationship with epoquinimic and we enjoy working with you guys and we want to continue for years to come so thank you so much thank you [Applause]

012I would also like to announce one of the books where that you're getting the author is here today each time each town in the tree by Virginia Rector so she is donating her personal book that she's written to Africa to Mexico [Applause] a couple of times a year yeah we will be 115 years can I take one more minute of your time members that are part of your board that we would like to get that are part of Apple in our picture please it didn't happen today thank you very much thank you thank you [Applause] you know thank you [Music] everybody my name is all right next we have a challenge coin award uh we have all of our constables here I believe Jeff Hale is going to lead the presentation just a quick recognition

013yesterday was national law enforcement Day so a special thank you to our constables who are in our schools every day protecting us foreign all right come on down a little bit guys all right so just real quickly um a couple years ago when I was hired in this position I sat down with my supervisor who's Tom Pullman in the back there in a pink shirt um we decided that there were certain things that we wanted out of this program first of all was to hire some of the best guys that we can find and I think we've done that this is part our most of our group right here is a couple guys missing but every one of these guys are in their schools and I've heard nothing but positive feedback on the jobs that

014they've been doing not only with the students getting along with the staff and and the public in general when they come onto the campus the second thing uh Tom and I decided was that we not only want to make sure that their constables are taking the safety security of our students seriously we want to make sure the school staff is as well so we decided to honor anybody who shows that they are serious about the safety security of their buildings with the challenge coin that Tom and I designed on one side there is the appaquinimic school district logo on the other side there is a gold badge that represents the constables there is a sheepdog with a campaign hat that is worn by the Delaware State Police who are our sros in our building um

015so one of these uh one of the uh teachers at Alibi loss Miss Amy I'm sorry at Lord Groove um it's Amy Chaz um showed uh good um what did she do vigilance thank you good vigilance one day um and she's going to be rewarded tonight and we're going to let uh Constable Kevin Rogers who was stationary explain exactly what she did uh good evening my name is Kevin Rogers I'm the concept of Laura growth um in October mid-october or so around noon I was in my office all right you got to hear me oh oh this is on Zoom okay I gotta scratch half of my stuff then my ACT uh we were I was walking around walking around the school and uh routine just Patrol given high fives and fist bumps and things

016like that and I received a radio call that there was a an individual trying to gain access to the back of the school if anybody is familiar with lower growth it's a stage in the back in the parking lot to the left is a door and uh I immediately uh responded to the location and Miss Amy Chaz who's a fifth grade teacher one of our finest of course at uh at Laurelwood gave a absolute perfect as a cop descriptions if you give a nice description it's like it's very nice she gave a perfect description I responded to the back of the location I identified myself identified this individual who said he was trying to pick his daughter up very peculiar that he was in the back of the school at a non-inviting door I radioed

017to miss Johann who's one of our amazing front office staff members and she confirmed yes this gentleman was there to pick somebody up and I escorted him around to the side of the front of the school where he was able to take his daughter home without incident I responded about back out um to the playground area When Miss Chas was supervising her children who were in the um doing recess and I kind of took a look at where she was standing and where this gentleman was and I didn't have a tape measure but 150 yards easily and for her to be able to see that get a good description radio me and for me to get to him within seconds speaks volumes um what this program is designed for is obviously to be a safety

018number one is safety and having great interactions with these kids but it can't stop with just the constables and Miss Chaz exemplified that we would rather be called 40 times for false alarm during the day than have one teacher say oh that that person probably belongs here and Miss Chaz exemplifies that to it and I walked out to her and I would just I wanted to give her a hug say thank you thank you and the first words out of her mouth was I don't know if Miss Chaz remembers was I'm sorry and I was like because we don't want that we don't want teachers to feel sorry or feel like they're putting us out believe me you're not putting me out uh it's it's something that starts with all of us it starts with

019all the staff it starts with from from everybody just to be vigilant and just to be maybe this person doesn't belong here let me call the Constable put something over the radio and we're coming and um if Miss Amy Chaz wouldn't mind stepping up here and uh please be recognized [Applause] all right of course absolutely absolutely [Laughter] and you want to get my good side is that right exactly right now all right there you go thank you thank you foreign that was the last of our recognitions for tonight so we're gonna move on on our agenda I always like that part the best it's always nice to see all the great things that go on in our district and get to Showcase and highlight those yeah moving on our agenda we have um this portion

020of our agenda is delegation so the opportunity for public comment we have one person registered for delegation Mr Bobby Wilson he is no longer here for tonight soon to make sure he's not in the hallway oh Mr Wilson hi welcome so the way this um portion of our meeting works is that you have three minutes to address the board we ask that you just use professional decorum in doing so and behind my head there will be a timer with three minutes so you'll know when your time has run out okay um equity and inclusion of your contracts I see that we have the sororities here of my diversity and an economic person there with them but um I want to know about the stick in your school district with African-Americans not minorities but African-Americans we

021have a large population of African-American students and how is that translation into inclusion and diversity because you're building a school Lewis ready in school and Lewis reading was about civil rights how is that going to translate over to how you're building this school with African-American participation so there's African-Americans that have been trying to get their products their business into their school district with rejections and I'm one of them I'll try to get an air purifier system in here I try to get numerous things in here now how are you reaching out to African-American businesses to make a sure that it's equitable playing field the this is where you can get response from it's just your opportunity to speak and then usually following if someone would like to make a remark they have from the board

022they have the floor to do so and if not then we'll follow up with you you have a organization by the name of whitening Turner that's building the school you know it's all the contracts out or it's going out for bidding the architect or the architect talking to other companies to bring in different resources to present to you different uh products that's coming from African-American businesses how are the African-Americans are involved in the reading School District because white and Turner are building schools in Maryland they're building schools in Delaware is totally different so there's need to be some table some type of diversity and inclusion on this project and waiting to Turner know what I'm talking about Wagner Turner if there's no diversity and inclusion required by the state or the district very sometimes apply

023a five percent uh inclusion and adversity in their contracts but it's not happening in Delaware so how are you going to adjust this word that when the school is being built the kids can see someone that looks like them that's working on the school district a business that looked like them that's working on a school district it's not happening through your tracking or your past contracts and see what the participation of African Americans has been in your contracts and also your vending process so what I'm saying is if you want to find out for sure numbers don't lie do a A diversity study do a a um that A diversity study a inclusion study and then you'll find out okay you know the security steady I'm sorry a disparity study it's time to do a

024disparity study that way you can track your dollars thank you for your time to unbalanced right now thank you you're welcome moving on in the agenda we're moving on to our reports portion of the evening and the first report is the superintendent's report Dr Burroughs just a few quick things um as Ari mentioned January which yesterday January 9th was a national law enforcement Appreciation Day uh in February it's National Career and Technical education month so our CTE teachers month and also the 6th through 10th is National School counseling week we currently have filled 690 positions uh since last year that includes internal and external hires we are currently at 12. 836 students we'll keep my remarks brief tonight any questions um we're 32 students from where we were live or at September 30th but like

025last year I don't have that number but I can get it from September 30th which this year we have an opportunity to be partially funded for yes secondary unit count first time ever are there any questions for Dr Burroughs moving on the next report is going to be a review of house bill 198. Mr Tiber oh Mr hoofer I can't pass up the mic I uh I I just wanted to introduce our our house bill 198 um I'll say leadership team we have a larger team but we have three people who are going to present um tonight and we have Amy leitsky who is our elementary social studies specialist we have Mario tiberi who was our secondary Social Studies coordinator and uh one of our finest School leaders Dr D'Angelo Ely who is an assistant

026principal at Apple high so I will not steal any Thunder I promise I'm going to pass it off to them hello uh we're here to to report on House Bill 198. also known as the black history education bill Steve and uh this bill was passed into law on June 17 2021 to be implemented by all departments and all districts uh this school year which is why we are here today so um in talking about the bill itself we're not going to break it down in line by line but we wanted to show you how um the the sections what the sections mean so that if you have a chance to take a look at the bill later it is on public record you can find it you can Google it thank you Steve you're blowing

027up a little bit um what you see here uh is a reformatted version of the bill by the department of Ed so that the districts can work with it a little bit easier and so uh the first section that you see highlighted this is the the curricular piece um and so this is really the the what what the bill is um and so it was explained to us the best way I can explain it to you because it made the most sense to me is that U.S history is if you think of it as a puzzle and there are missing pieces to a puzzle a through H in this piece of the bill the curricular piece is really what we don't want to miss any longer and so these are the the components that every

028district is being asked to make sure that we that we incorporate not only into our social studies which is mainly why we're here right but all of the Departments into all of the classrooms okay and the bottom part here is our instructional piece and the instructional piece is really the how how are how are the teachers going to prepare themselves how are we going to prepare the teachers for all of this okay the rest of this you can see uh the center column there and it's very very small if you're in the room right now the center column here this is the Department of Education the Delaware Department of vet responsibilities and the part all the way to the right is our district responsibilities which we tackle as a team but our our liaison is

029really responsible for okay good evening um so part of the legislation required us to submit reports so the first report was due on September 15th and that report just identified as liaison or a lead that would report to the Delaware Department of Education and for us that's on Nick Hoover the next report was due on November 15th and this report was considered a year one report where as a district we had to tell what we are doing what we did before November 15th to implement HB 198 and everything we're doing for the remainder remainder of the school year um underneath that you'll see that it says aboquinoma curriculum inventory what we did as a district is we did a curriculum inventory from K through 12 all content areas and this included people from the teaching

030and learning team content leads and teachers and we took a look at the curriculum and um we saw which areas of the bill were being hit in all content areas so we would see where it's being hit when it's being hit um down to the lesson that information then was used to compile that report that was turned in on November 15th right now the state has that information from all the districts and charter schools and they are themselves compiling a report that is due out next week January 15th it will be posted on the Department of Education website and will be shared with districts when it is finished um beyond the legislative requirements um as an app equinimic what we decided to do is create a an HB 198 team and you can see a

031list of some of the members here and the members include students teachers administrators parents community members board members um and we're hoping this team will be the thought Partners in the process moving the requirements of HB 198 forward thank you now we've talked about um the what the what is basically the legislation that was passed from the state of Delaware um and when I talked we did talk about the how we're going to put together a strong team to implement how regarding the black history education I think it's very important that we start to talk about the why you know why is this important so communicating the why is essential to implementing black history education with Fidelity into every aspect the appeconomic school district because we want to make sure we Foster buy-in from the

032community students parents and all of our stakeholders so that's very important I want to direct your attention to uh Dr Bishop now Dr Bishop is with the Ohio State University and she authored a very popular essay called mirrors windows and sliding glass doors so Dr Bishop's work centered around diverse Multicultural education and I believe that the mirror window sliding glass door principle and concept aligns very well with black history education because it gives our kids an opportunity to make those connections with the learning and what I call um semcro social emotional mental Velcro so they'll be able to make those connections with the black history education um so I'll kind of break down her essay she talked about mirrors so mirrors are uh give our students an opportunity to reflect and connect with the learning

033so they're able to see themselves you know in the learning so they're able to make those connections and make those affirmations with the content um connection be able to connect their own beliefs with the beliefs that are not necessarily their world view so it gives us our students an opportunity to see a multi um dimensional and a wider culture uh now connection I'm sorry so I we strongly believe that we are better people when we know where we came from who we are and we're a strong Community for it um Windows gives our students an opportunity to see into other world World Views that are not of their own and then finally the sliding glass door so not only do our kids get an opportunity to look through that window but they get an opportunity

034to actually step through it and experience other World Views other than their own and I believe like that empathy is the most important piece in in learning because that empathy is going to give our kids an opportunity um to actually think critically you know it's making those experiences those life experiences as far as creating that empathy next slide okay so so more information regarding the why so historically Apple Clinic school district has done a good job serving our community um by improving student outcomes but this is a good opportunity um for us as a learning organization to seize this opportunity to actually continuously improve what product that we're putting out so we are in the customer service business our customers are students their families and our community stakeholders so as an organization we have to

035continuously improve so this is a great opportunity to us for us to actually take this black history education and lead on this so it's a phenomenal opportunity and based on our investments in black history education we're going to see the return on those Investments so some of those return on investments could are going to be what I call quantitative and qualitative returns so some examples of quantitative Returns on our investment could be an increase in student learning outcomes standardized testing um reduction and challenging behaviors improvements in attendance and some of those qualitative Returns on investments can be student engagement student motivation um cultural competence student self-efficacy and lifelong learning so there's numerous studies that show culturally relevant pedagogy can strengthen student connectedness and enhanced learning outcomes um in black history education is an example of

036culturally relevant pedagogy um black history education aligns very well with our applicant School District's five-year strategic plan specifically goal Number One Insurance learning environment is rigorous relevant and engaging and lastly it also aligns very well with our Apple cornick School District principles of instruction next slide so um what's next so we're going to continue our work around HP 198 with the district um work group we're going to implement some professional development for all ASD staff members um Saturday March 18 23. um we're we're going to be a part of the BSU Summit that's being hosted by the Delaware racial Justice collaborative and I'm going to be a part of that planning committee committee and we're we we plan on actually hosting um like a like a feedback or breakout session around black history education so

037we're going to invite some kids so we can get student voices we're going to have some District administrators so we can get their feedback on how they would like to see black history education implemented um district-wide and then kind of trickle down into the classroom so we're going to get an opportunity to to gather their voice in implementing it here within Apple cornmeal School District next okay are any questions from the board that's correct two um you mentioned that there will be a second annual BSU for the audience can you tell us what BSU stands for it's um that's a good point it's a good question um black student union so the first annual black student union Summit was last year at the field house in Wilmington the second annual BSU Summit is March 1823

038at St George's Technical High School so all the BSU Affinity groups from the entire state of Delaware are going to be at the BSU Summit at St George's and I'm happy to report that Albert high school we had the highest turnout um last year and we won I think 500 for the BSU affinity group at Apple quinnipeg high school so we're gonna try to increase that and lastly um out of all this school or out of all the schools within within our district um can you talk more about the uh the dni work that's being done at Apple and if this um work is going to be done in other schools to help them connect some of these dots to um HP 198. it's a good question I can speak for Apple cornick high school

039I know um since I came to Apple High we actually developed and created a a pretty strong diversity Equity inclusion action team last year and we're continuing that work this year um hopefully we want to have a strong Presence at the BSU Summit but we we really rely on each other the Dei team and kind of push this work push equity and inclusion within our building and we have a lot of um strong content area experts you know on our group and on our team thank you hearing nothing yes what no you have to be recognized by the boy yes it's okay but I will recognize you what's your question [Music] well that's a good question because we're all about building capacity with our kids in the building um I can speak for our kids

040because I definitely want to reach out to the other bsus throughout the district but student leadership is important uh definitely would talk to your advisor in the building and make contact with our advisors because we we are actually actively planning some student leadership opportunities um hopefully this summer um or possibly before the end of the year but we we were going to try to communicate and collaborate with with you guys throughout the district so working on it thank you autumn I appreciate you being here are there any other questions diversity equity and inclusion okay you're welcome all right moving on thank you very much we're going to move on in the agenda our next report will be a strategic plan gold number five update Dr McCullough and team I like a good team the community

041tonight we are going to review our strategic Plan update for goal number five if you recall we had a board workshop on October 25th that highlight the metrics in our and our end goal for where we want to be at the end of the five years of our strategic plan tonight we want to review the strategies that's going to get us there and so I have some of the strategy leads you can go ahead Steve I have some of the strategy leads here tonight we have 10 people on our team what I consider our Dream Team we have Tracy Calhoun Dominique Banks Dr Ed gerdo and Dr Christy Peters are here tonight that are going to assist with the presentation tonight the first strategy we're going to review is the provide rigorous tier one instruction

042for all students with a Continuum of services focused on inclusive practices and then we'll go into improving student or excuse me current recruiting hiring and retention practices to more closely resemble the diverse student population of Apple cornwick School District provide equity and anti-bias training to staff members ensure accountability and Fidelity of implementation related to equity and then recruit higher and retain a diverse Workforce to reflect the student population and again we're going to go through those five strategies with the strategy leads here today so you have a better understanding of the work as we move forward so the first uh slide really speaks to inclusive practices I am one of the strategies under this uh strategy as well as the gold lead for overall um goal five and again this really centers around inclusive practices

043we're providing rigorous tier one instruction for all students with a Continuum of services again focused on inclusive practices so this is the road map of where we have been and where we're going really making sure we're targeting inclusive practices making sure we're meeting the needs of our students to receive special education services our multi-language Learners and so forth and so on in addition we want to make sure that we also are providing highly qualified instructional materials we are scheduling with student needs first we are working in collaboration with our parents our parent councils our parent uh groups that are outside and within our community as well as our principles of instruction and I believe Mr Hoover spoke a little bit about earlier today so again all those things encompassing should really help us align our

044system so we're able to ensure that we're providing rigorous tier one instruction for students with disabilities and really all students that we serve with a focus on inclusive practices the next strategy we're going to highlight is from Dominic banks in reference to recruitment and retention good evening so if you take a look here these are some of the things that we're currently doing to um you know increase our diversity and our staff um we have a strong strong relationship with Delaware State University and other hbcus that's a strong investment in our grow your own initiative and where we're looking to push students or encourage students of color especially to walk into the field of Education um professional uh paraprofessional pipeline strong relationships with outside organizations Teach for America truth to teachers we have a commitment

045to an early hire program and um there's also our anti-bias training for our hiring managers to help them remove some of their biases as they go into the interview process a couple of things for us to consider is the training to improve retention this is going to help our building Administration and lastly things are considered the hiring of building principles from diverse backgrounds as they are the charge in the hiring of our teachers and staff all right good evening I'm going to be reviewing two of the strategies one of which is providing equity and anti-bias training to staff and being transparent in those efforts and the other is ensuring accountability and Fidelity of implementation um related to equity so this isn't an exhaustive list by any means but in the past couple of years um

046these are just some examples of some things that we've done um to move the work forward in 2021 every school within the district received a comprehensive Readiness report that data came from surveys talking with staff talking with students as well as observations and then from all of that data each school had goals developed along with an equity action plan to go along with that based on you know all the data that we collected and reported out to each School we also we've provided District staff training uh the past couple of years um some of that is site visits we do some of our own internal work in this area but we also contract with some individuals and provide site visits job embedded coaching which is essentially going out to the sites and modeling and directly

047providing professional learning versus a more traditional learning environment where you know you might sit in seats and listen to something and then sort of struggle to apply it the job embedded coaching is true in action training um pre-board workshops which happened prior to board meetings we've involved our district office administrators School administrators as well as Equity Champions within each building on some professional learning opportunities there and um some work happens there with the school goal goals and Equity plans as well um we've also provided four sessions to date after school for all applicant staff that were advertised earlier this fall we do plan on offering some more sessions this spring coming up and then you know next steps are just continued training for all stakeholders and putting things into action so those plans that have

048been developed the goals that are being monitored just continuing to implement and end monitoring and and um uh continue our implementation of those plans thank you so I created this tree to really depict the larger body of work and how the component parts come together to create the overarching goal of the applicant culture of care and ensuring that all stakeholders feel connected protected and respected As you move down the tree you can see along sides of the trunk are words that really reflect our strong commitment to a whole child approach which means that we're considering academic as well as all that non-academic needs of our kids and providing multi-tiered systems of support that are truly individualized rather than a one-size-fits-all approach down around the roots you'll see again not an exhaustive list but some examples

049of the different pieces that come together to really anchor the work and nurture that overall culture of care so with Goal five ultimately we want to live our commitment to equity and accelerate achievement for all stakeholders you should have received a mailing that looks similar to this that speaks to our 2016 call for call to action in our strategic plan if you look through the booklet all the equity strategies are highlighted in green throughout we thought it was very important to embed our strategies across the plan so Equity didn't stand alone you know diversity and Equity inclusion is so important to the district but we want to make sure it lives throughout this document and everything we do not in isolation our team is open for questions if there are questions from the board I

050just have one so um Mr Banks spoke to the strategy of hiring building principles from diverse backgrounds because why just principles why not why is that highlighted and not just staff across the board why is the goal only inclusive of principles instead of Staff across the board because the principles are a hiring manager for their building okay all right and currently there's only two principles of color in the district so as I was told once by a principal I want to be responsible for the hiring and firing of my staff so the principal um was mentioned there in that slide okay thank you are there other questions from the board thank you very much moving on to the agenda the next update will be the transportation update Mr Pullman nice to see you and happy

051New Year my return after a one-month absence it did not sound nice oh Lord on to your presentation all right so we're going to run through the numbers here uh see where we stand now that we're in 2023 and as a reminder this time of the year you start planning for the next school year especially when it comes uh to Transportation so I think it's important to take a look at a snapshot of where we currently are uh much better than when I stood up here last January so currently our district buses there are 27 that are on the road right now uh we have eight additional buses that we use for emergencies a broken down bus uh Etc uh trips sports activities and any extra runs we have Stacy calls them units 35 total

052buses total units with the loners that we have uh four of those will be returned last year when we first started talking about getting buses at all I think we started at a number like eight and then we increased it to like 11 or 12 and then because some board member or members got upset with the way contracts were being returned from bus companies we upped the number we authorized I think to like 21 or 25 how is it that we've got 35. well I think we actually wound up at 33 from what I recall um eight I think it was yeah it was eight and then we got approved to go up to 25 additional buses Oh I thought it was 25 total okay so Aidan 20 25 is 33 yeah okay do you

053want to speak about what board member got upset well there were certain bus companies that I thought were behaving poorly and so should I tell you my kids call them the forestons fleet you're the one who wanted kids to get to school that's right that's the most important thing getting them there right anyway okay to digress sorry so we're at 35 buses right now four loners will be returned at some point we have 29 drivers currently with six in training and interviewing never stops uh because of anticipated turnover and we have three boss aides currently uh which are mandated I believe through IEPs so that's the current snapshot with the district buses but as a reminder and I kept this slide in on purpose two-thirds of our buses are still uh through contractors so we

054still um want to maintain those positive relationships with our contractors uh six routes though since the beginning of the year we have taken back because of um um you know a a not stable situation with the boss and the driver and the contractor was not able to handle it so we took back those routes 15 drivers have been lost since the beginning of the school year um that's sort of the normal range of turnover uh nine routes are being covered internally by contractors what that means is the same bus drivers not driving the bus every day so they're covering buses internally and many of those buses I didn't put this in the slide but especially at the secondary level are buses that still arrive late in the morning and afternoon um so it's a lot

055better with the contractors but still uh there's still some struggles there next slide nope God back Stacy is that 15 total or is that just with the contractors uh 15 total that incl that includes us as the district yes Stacy do you have a breakdown of the difference between our drivers and the contractor drivers who have left uh we have lost three at home and it was actually two drivers in one trainee thank you so I just want to make sure I heard you correctly so this says 81 buses are provided and then it says six routes taken back from the district but I think you said those six routes are ones we took from them so I shouldn't say taken back by the district from the contractors right it should it taken back yeah

056so did they start with they did they start at 87 and now they're down to 81. yes correct at the beginning yes yes that is correct so yeah yeah when when we were able to secure a bus and a driver for a route that was uncovered um and no driver in sight for the contractor we took that contract back so we could get those students to school on time as opposed to being covered by a spare driver and arriving late and and not being consistent no no I get that oh sorry so someone you know if you're going to get to this I mean I mean I apologize for kind of skipping ahead but having had this experience this year and having had this experience to date and you talked about you know the transportation

057committee and getting together and planning for next year I'm going to say where are the uh the the bus companies at this point because we're going to obviously have a need for more Roots because we're a growing District do they know that and are they planning to provide more buses do we know have we had those conversations yet I can I can take that so that's one of the conversations we're going to have at the uh our transportation committee we're currently in the process of art we'll answer your first question the contractors have traditionally over the last few years turned in 60 contracts so one of the things that we have to look at is to prepare for that and to prepare for growth as we continue to look at this the contractors have well

058most of the contractors have done a wonderful job in fulfilling the routes we have one contractor that is struggling a little bit that we continue to work with but that's one of the things we'll discuss the transportation committee what what do we need to prepare for next year and be prepared for as we move forward because we have to notify doe if we intend to purchase additional buses and so we want to make sure we have that and one of the things we'll provide at with the transportation committee and to the school board is where we're at on cost right now with our with our own buses uh what we did at preliminary is Eric and the team did a nice job of given a budget and what we thought it may cost but through

059doing research and things like that but then we'll have some actualities of where we are right now Mr forston see our country contractors succeed and you know you want small businesses and they're relatively small businesses to grow and succeed and so I just I hope that you know even though we've taken they've historically been giving us Roots back I mean keep giving us reads back and pretty soon you're out of roots to give back because you don't have any so you'd like to see that Trend reverse so I guess we'll find out at the transportation committee next month where that's headed well and that's so the last slide just does indicate we have a meeting coming up uh the meeting is to give the committee a snapshot of where we are and and to characterize

060this the right way it was a volatile couple years right now we are maintaining a normal kind of relationship with our contractors all is going fairly well right now but we know they're running businesses and we know what the past has shown us and we don't want to be caught like we were the last couple years so we want to get together we want to plan and we want to be ready as we enter next school year what what is talked about we'll have an agenda we'll have some costs um and we'll take a look at what we think we need to do to be prepared for next school year what is the time for if we were to purchase more buses telling them we need the buses for us to have the buses yeah

061so that's sort of been done already yeah we've gotten ahead and we've put it out there that we anticipate the need because I it's not one of those things where I can wait till March so there we put out the request but I will say other school districts that were not in the bus business have also look to obtain some of their own buses so there's some competition out there Stacy if I'm not categorizing this the right way jump in but there's some competition to acquire school buses right now so I'd rather be on the list that one's coming here than try and catch up so we did put out some requests for bosses even you know and I'm getting into the weeds here a little bit but we have some of the initial buses

062we got are older buses that will have to be replaced so there is some wiggle room in there in my request for bosses so you'll be back next month to present I will be excellent come back in can you um for like a cost analysis where we stand with the money allocated where we are at today under budget over budget you need more money well I mean all that throw up and down yeah we have a meeting on the schedule Stacy and I with Eric so we'll have it for you so I will say this it's been very refreshing not to have an inbox filled weekly daily monthly with late buses tell me about it that's why I get that but I mean it's just it's much better this year so I just want to

063make sure everybody gets the credit for what they've done because it is it's a lot better so far thank you are there any questions other questions from the board thank you Tom thank you Stacy nice to see you too moving on construction update Mr Hopkins hello Happy New Year all right start out with Crystal Run Steve all right this is an interviewer Crystal Run shows pretty much the whole site that's being worked right now you can see the main entrance is being paved here we've got a base pave going on here we've had good weather so we're hoping to get the base Paving going on back here and then in through the front of the school here and hopefully here this is the maintenance building on the far side we've come across Crystal Run now

064the maintenance building and the pump shell to start up we're going to start putting the foundations and the pad in for the maintenance building and running the main power into this building here from the back side so we can start bumping our chillers and things like that as you can see we've got all the rooftop units up at this point which is good you know for this time of the project we're we're ahead on that all the equipment screens are ready to go they've got the material but we're just waiting to get everything in good Steve here you can see the roof is done and the equipment is up they've got the multiple materials on the front of the building dark brick tan the aircraft this side here they're starting to come around this side

065right now come across the front they're going to wrap all of C all of B and then come back into a the roofing now has started up today on this side here to get this water tight but we're too tight throughout the building here it's all the trades and finishes can happen good Steve you can see the different types of material with two bricks we have a tan brick an Irish craft here to kind of lay out and that that carries throughout the whole front of the building this is The Far Side on B the curtain wall is started the windows are actually going in as well oh the punch holders are starting to go inside the painting it started in area B they're moving along all the insulations up the ceilings start tomorrow well

066the ceramic style is starting in B they're coming down to Carters and then they're moving into the bathrooms from there like and the ceilings are going to start up coming down there as well ceramic tile going up in the bathrooms and the floors are down they're making good progress this is a coming in looking back towards D in the back Middletown softball that's moving pretty well too The Field's all in grass is in it's established you're going to see the Batting Cage in the back the dugouts have been ordered they're not in yet we're hoping to have those in time that'll be in flux a little bit but they'll be ready to play good Steve batting cages in everything is wrapping up on that front got Steve this is the netting that's going down alongside

067of the road catch any foul balls coming out unless we're trying to protect Silver Lake Road right now that's it you're gonna see more in Reading in a minute if you have any questions everything's on budget and on time at this point very much Mr Hopkins moving on to the agenda we'll get to the board comments and I'll start all the way down that way with Miss Wright foreign good evening uh I will be brief um now we're past the holidays and we're heading into musical season um so be on the lookout I think the announcements are starting to come out about the big high school musicals um I know that our maybe some of our middle schools I'm not sure but I know for sure the elementary schools many of them are starting to

068put together their own musicals um so they should the kids are back at school they are the ones that are rehearsing or rehearsing hard and long hours in the evenings um and shows should start happening mid to end of March so definitely try to take advantage of seeing some of these uh Productions it's an interesting experience for the younger kids too um watching them go through how you put together a show like this and blocking and rehearsing and learning lines and all so um definitely be on the lookout for the announcements about these Productions getting ready to go on in a couple months and definitely go partake that's it for me thank you I will add before I move on to Mr Witt I do have a list the weekend of March 3rd and the

069weekend of March 10th you can see The Adams Family at Odessa High School the weekend of March 17th you can see Mary Poppins at Middletown High School the weekend of March 24th you can see um The Wizard of Oz at aberconomic high school the weekend of March 31st is Alfred G Waters production and I'm sorry I don't have the title of that those are the ones that I've been given dates for so far but like Kelly said the district does a really good job sharing those things so be sure to stay tuned okay Mary Poppins is the weekend of March 17th and I am unsure if some of them have Thursday night performances but I know the majority of them have Friday and Saturday nights and there are some Sunday matinees I believe and I

070heard a rumor that the um Bunker Hill children might be participating in the AHS production of The Wizard of Oz in a special way so stay tuned uh Mr Wick hello hello so I am going to uh provide comments in a very different way than my peers I've been on the board for about five months and um I'm gonna just highlight different things that we don't typically talk about um just to kind of give a really full transparency of applicant School District um one I love the way or the work in which um application I love the work that we're doing as a district I love the tonight's meeting is um a testament of what I expect to see for 2023 and the years to come so with that being said um I would like

071to give a shout out to the fifth grade the fifth graders at all state Elementary they had a um they had a fashion show fashion show and a breakfast that the parents came in and we cooked for the fifth graders and the teachers came in and after that the kids wrapped themselves around in wrapping paper using their measurements that they learn throughout their math class it was a great time teachers students pairs all got together it was phenomenal um there was one one scene I'm not going to forget and I have a picture I'm gonna send to Leo where we had this one pair she she grabbed this little boy he had no shoes on and she was just trying to handle him the whole time but the way she handled him with care um

072I just it brought tears to my eyes that that wasn't his mother but the way that she she took care of him made me feel like our kids are in good hands so um more to come on that picture secondly I attended the calendar view meeting uh great job guys like so much goes into the calendar that is provided to the district I had no clue about the minutes the seconds that they had to drill down the decisions they have to make around holidays and things like that um it's a lot of work and I'm still learning and just great job secondly to our community I just want to say I hear you and I'm sharing all of the information that um I hear at the grocery store through Anonymous phone calls that I get

073on my phone through text through friends of friends who call me hey I know you know Michelle tell her this um tonight's meeting resonates with one of the messages that I feel will push us more in the direction in which we need to go and I'm gonna read that so just give me a second is from a student and it states I've had several experiences that I believe to be racially motivated one of which I reported and there was no consequence due to the incident being a microaggression to prevent this from happening in the future I'm formally requesting for the code of conduct for 2023-24 school year to include racism and discrimination as as its own infraction where micro and macro aggressions are clearly defined the inappropriate language and abuse language categories protect minorities to

074some extent but they fail to address and punish the passive forms of racism that are just as hurtful a general a genuinely hope that there is some sort of Reform following my graduation in June this June to prevent another student from suffering the same fate as me I've had my fair share of racist experiences during my time in app economic school district and to say I am exhausted from having these type of these types of conversations is an understatement so while we are doing great work and I love the fact that Dr Peters I think she's a doctor um stated that we're going to move with the direction of the culture of care what I would like to just say um I'm hoping that these phone calls and emails and conversations stop because we're going

075to hopefully move everyone in the direction of a culture of care I want every student when they walk on our campus that they know that our teachers care students are caring for each other the board care we all care about economic School District being number one we can't be number one in buildings we can't be number one in instruction if we're not number one in culture and climate I get calls when I say from Community that's teachers students business owners from I might just say from the bug to the sky because I don't want to call anyone out but it's there I'm not saying we're a bad District at all Matt is aware I'm at on board so are so is the board I just want to make a known that while we talk about

076the Arts that's great when we talk about sports that's great we have other issues that need to be addressed and I just wanted to make that known thank you Mr Abrams I'm just a second with Miss Wright and Mr wood said I just want to thank everybody who's in the district serving on communities behind the scenes to make this District better thank you Mr forson in the interest of time I will pass um and then I will just follow up that I was texted that the oops the name for the musical at A.G Waters is I am trapped in a musical um the weekend of March 31st good luck to all of our kids who are participating in winter sports I know those seasons are well underway I look forward to recognizing those kids um

077as those Seasons come to an end I think we have the basketball playoffs for Middle School sports on Friday um and I think going is Camp Rose Bridge middle school and Meredith for both boys and girls every time we talk about Middle School sports I just want to say hey Char we love you thank you so much for making that happen in our district I want a matter of public record that would not be for Miss edelman's constant discussion about Middle School sports that that would not have happened so um coming up exciting news Board elections you have the opportunity to sit up here with us there will be one at large seat a four-year term coming up um it is Kelly Wright seat candidates that are interested in being a board member need to

078apply with the Delaware Department of Elections by 4 30 on Friday March 3rd 2023 voting will take place on May 9th 2023 from 7 A.M in the morning till 8 pm at night the Delaware Department of Elections website has the forms and information the website is www.elections.delaware.gov and then you click on the school board information section all of us in the past are open to anybody who's running if you have questions about what it's like it's not a one once a month commitment to come here the second Tuesday of the month happy to talk with anybody who's interested in what the role takes not only on the second Tuesday of the month but every day in between feel free to reach out to myself or any of my fellow board members I know they were

079more than willing to talk to you um monthly since before I was elected to the school board I've held an event called bagels with a board member um this month it is on the 17th of the Tuesday so I'll be at Manhattan Bagel at 8 30 to discuss school related issues for about an hour or so I always tell people that it's a starting place I might not have your answer to your question at that point in time but it's always nice to connect with the person and feel like you have some place to start um and then I'm supposed to remind you that school board is a volunteer role so your bagel is on your own dime but you get the pleasure of my company um that is all I have for board remarks

080and we'll move on in the agenda there is no old business so we'll move right into new business and the first agenda item will be the December 13 2022 Board of Education minutes for approval Madam president I'll make a motion that we approve the minutes as presented a second I have a motion by Mr Forest in a second by Mr Abrams to approve the December 13 2022 board meetings as presented are there any questions concerns or comments on this motion hearing none all those in favor vote by saying aye aye any opposed motion carries the next item will be the monthly financial report for approval so the financial advisory committee uh met on January 3rd to review the revenue and expenditure report for November and recommended approval at that time and a president I'll make

081a motion that we approve the minor monthly financial report as presented and as recommended by the financial advisory committee foreign I have a motion by Mr Forest in a second by Miss Wright to approve the monthly financial report as a recommended by the financial advisory committee are there any questions comments or concerns on this motion hearing none those in favor of it by saying aye aye any opposed motion carries the next item the internal account supports for approval the financial advisory committee also reviewed the November internal account report and recommended approval of the meeting Madam president I'll make a motion that we approve the internal accounts report as presented and as recommended by the financial advisory committee have a motion to improve the internal accounts report that was recommended by the financial advisory committee the

082Motions by Mr forson the second by Miss Wright are there any questions concerns or comments on this motion hearing none all those in favor vote by saying aye aye aye any opposed motion carries the next item to review financial position report for approval so the financial position report before you some this is a report that we go through each January and this is a required report from The Office of Management and budget just to assure them that the district is in good financial position at the end of this fiscal year um it's not really a Prelude to the final budget because there's a lot of buckets of money that are included in this report that we don't really use and consider for carryover such as um energy money and summer school money and building rental

083money and things like that um where if you took out some of those buckets were trending around where we said the preliminary budget um would have us around 8 million but that's really a discussion that we're going to have in February um we're in good financial position and basically we're looking the financial um advisory committee did review this report we've discussed it and they recommend approval of the report um so we're asking for your approval for it tonight and president make a motion to approve the financial physician report as presented with the approval of financial advisory committee a second I have a motion by Mr Abrams the second by Mr Witt to approve the financial position report as presented and as recommended by the financial advisory committee are there any questions comments or concerns on

084this motion I just want to make sure people fully understand this as I understand it Eric this is our report to the state demonstrating that we've got more than one month's payroll on hand correct that is absolutely correct and so as I read this report the monthly local payroll that we have to meet is 3.5 million dollars and we've got well over that amount that is correct and and we're we should have well over that amount for the rest of the school year correct okay it's just I mean I just want people to understand that we've got the money and we offer a deeper understanding of where we really stand fiscally when we release the final budget and review that next month that's the document that we really base everything around right um this is

085merely a report that the state wants to see and it includes things in it that we miss we wouldn't necessarily use for carryover well and the history of this is that there are and they're in the past and now somewhat in the far past but there were school districts That Couldn't meet their payrolls and the state had to step in and it became an issue so now the state requires us to give them this report but is it three times a year that is the correct yes so that's the history of this and why we go through it but I'm done my questions Madam president well thank you for bringing that up it's helpful for people to know that are there any other questions comments or concerns all those in favor of vote by saying

086aye all right any opposed motion carries foreign the next agenda item will be the school year 2023 2024 calendar committee report this is the first reading Mr Hoover good evening everybody I'm here to present the first reading of the 2324 calendar uh proposal um I definitely reiterate what Mr Abrams and Mr wood said about uh folks who are are participating in any uh any sort of committee or any sort of team after school and and in the evenings um a wide array of people are on this committee heard a lot of different things from a lot of people so I appreciate every single one of them uh for giving up their time um I went through the our guiding values last time I'm not going to read through them but I do think it's important

087to remind us that when we do meet and when we're having to make difficult decisions that we do have to come back to our guiding values and and um you know that's that that is our Rock and that's what should be guiding what we do so uh we presented in December uh we opened it up for Community feedback here are the um the numbers and the topics of what we received in that feedback um a few of these as we discussed were some things that were out of our control uh some of these were smaller things that we were able to discuss and there was a couple a couple of those that um those of you who were on that committee would probably attest to we spoke about for maybe 50 of the 60 Minutes

088that we met so uh we'll get into those here shortly so what I'm going to do is a since I've we presented in in December what I'm going to do is just kind of go through relatively quickly and then highlight the items that we um that we did discuss and make some changes to so uh what we presented in August there is no change um the only change in September uh and uh Miss wall you wanted us to make sure that we did discuss the the Jewish holidays we did and as I mentioned before that there were really two main topics that we discussed for about 50 minutes of the the 60-minute meeting um we've decided not to change anything on the calendar itself or the the change of dates but we did add in

089red at the top some um some more specifics and disclaimers about what can and cannot happen uh on those Jewish holidays um in terms of weekend events after school events those types of things so we made that change if you move to October the state did put out what their state professional development day is so that's October 13th so we added that to the calendar and that means that school is closed for kids that day school is closed for kids yep and that's a PD day across the whole state no change in November I'm going to combine January I'm sorry December and January together because there are a couple of changes there there was a lot of discussion about the we originally proposed having December 22nd off that's when winter break would start that's actually

090what this school year looks like the Friday before winter break um however we had a long discussion about the having the 22nd off versus having January 2nd off the group decided to have students in school on December 22nd so that's why that is crossed off in red but to keep us closed on January 2nd and we would return on January 3rd which is a Wednesday I thought you were protesting um February no change March no change April no change May no change um June we do not have a change right now but I do want to put out there that in 2024 there will be a presidential uh election uh but in the first half of that year we do have to worry about a presidential primary as of right now the state of Delaware

091has not selected what that date is um it's tough to determine what that date will be right now on on our uh our end because if you look at the last several presidential elections we've had um dates in April we've had dates in June so um obviously if it if the presidential primary falls on a regular school day that will change the end of our calendar um if it falls during spring break or if it falls uh you know when students are are out in June then that won't impact us so we haven't made any change to June but I just wanted to put out there that there is a potential for that primary to fall on a student day and we would have to make adjustments to that I think it's the third it's

092the week of the 22nd in April I mean it is set by Statute right now it is it is in the Delaware code when the presidential primary is supposed to be now parties can opt out of it if they want but I think it's there in the code I'll double check okay all right that's great because we have not been able to find it the only thing we've been able to find is that Delaware in December has said that they were they were trying to move their primary so that we were the first state uh first primary to to go but we we haven't seen a set date yet but yeah we've tried that before it doesn't go over well with the rest of the country yes yeah those those folks were already first they

093don't like not being first so I understand that right yeah still the same they don't know what it is okay got it um all right so that's June and then we typically also uh cover the summer months and into the beginning of the school year there was no changes in July August or September thanks a lot any questions people can still submit questions and comments yep that was going to be the the next slide um just to follow up what we do is then open and open it back up so the QR code or there's a way to submit comments um and our committee will meet again in early February we'll look at those comments again have this you know similar discussions and then we'll come back in February to present the second reading and

094at the second reading that's when we'll take our final vote I believe so that's our final read again so we would encourage people who have feedback to continue to reach out um especially for any of these changes that were just made or announced I know that I mean I asked about the Jewish holidays last time I didn't know they fell on the weekend when I asked but now I do um there's been a lot of discussion if that's in the purview of the district to regulate weekends when we normally regulate during the week so if you have feedback on that please reach out I've heard feedback on if the district does impose something like this where no school after school or weekend activities are allowed that it really be enforced building by building oh I

095didn't turn on um because there were practices being held by kids and there were kid initiated practices without coaches on school facilities and some people felt like that was inequitable so I'm just letting yeah that I mean that that's something that some of us have discussed to be very specific I mean we could even get more specific than that and to just say absolutely no you know activities on this gate or anything like that because there are some um you know some uh specifics there where you know it might be from sun down to sundown and then maybe in the past you had a captain's practice or something like that but we can be more specific there it's questions I'm getting from the community so doing my due diligence be a representative to say what

096I'm being asked sure thing and then that was asked of me also does that mean then over other holiday breaks like Christmas do we not have do we need of other denominations do you need to have the same kind of language even though what you're typically on a winter break because the calendar said that way for a break does that need to be acknowledged as well good questions we will discuss well and I imagine the other thing though is I mean during Sports season it's one thing if we say we don't want to do it on this day but if you you know if you've got 18 other school districts in the state that aren't following that same schedule plus other schools it could become very difficult to try to uh say well we can't

097play you that day because right not to open up a whole can here but Rosh Hashanah being on a Saturday we really are not supposed to have something from Friday evening through Sunday actually I think it is and so um Friday evening is typically uh football so we we've been discussing some of that as well I mean what I know that I asked Dr Burroughs and I didn't ask here but I asked what other districts are doing in the state of Delaware and it seemed as if the response is divided districts to the north of us are looking to probably honor the holiday in that same way that we're talking about and districts to the south of us seem not to be doing that is that what you're finding yeah we had and I forget

098who it was on our committee but somebody was doing some research actually I think it was Mr postalway from Apple high and commented this is what Caesar Rodney is doing this is what Christine is doing this is what smyrna's doing everybody's doing something different um can we see that say that can we have that information sure Dr Bros do you have a comment oh okay I do have a question so I am also getting questions um as to why we highlight the Jewish holiday and not other um holidays that other uh backgrounds celebrate so even if we don't add it to the calendar maybe happen like an answer for for the reason why we don't be provided in our next um the next reading sure do we have any specifics on that I mean like

099specific holidays where people were it wasn't stated okay um because I mean we did discuss that I I think I remember on the call as many as I know of that that are on that calendar I'm sure there's some that uh you know we haven't discussed because we don't know of but um I don't think anybody would be opposed to say if there was a holiday that we didn't know that we could put on there um but I'm pretty sure I'm pretty sure yeah I was gonna say pretty sure we've got the ones that most of us you know are typically here of yeah an observance of religious holidays that we don't have offer an excused absence observance of religious holidays that the district is not closed or in are known as an excused absence

100correct I just want to make sure that anyone who's in the room or anyone who's tuning in that at least we've said that are there any other questions comments or concerns on this this is only the first reading so there's no vote but I'll remind the public that we are open to your comments so please make sure that you go and submit um we like to make decisions based on your input or with your input in mind so you have a whole other month to reach out well actually the board meeting is a week early next month so you have until February 7th through thank you moving on and thank you Mr Huber Mr Hopkins construction documents we have construction documents for bid phase one for approval we have abha booksteppers and Associates here representing

101this is the presentation for construction documents for phase one or Lewis l reading middle school uh so we've got the next slide we show these at the last few presentations but this is kind of where we are in Project schedule we've ticked over into 2023 and we're wrapping up design for the project and starting into looking at things of bidding bidding and that would move into construction that we can start in April working with a Whiting Turner so next slide kind of gives the overview we do have three bid phases due to the timing of the projects we want to get the bid phase one site work concrete and steel which is what this package is um in into bidding so it can move into construction to start in the spring bid phase two as

102the rest of the building and if you go to the next slide we're going to look at that for the final CDs in March this meeting here is for the bid phase one dot CD approval and just to give an overview of the site um a kind of a recap of the phasing of the project uh the existing building is going to remain during construction so if we go to the next slide phase one will be this part to construct the bus parking lot in the loop road around the back as well as any necessary connectors to allow the school to function through the two-year construction period with that kind of yellow highlighted area in the front is the construction area which would be taken over for construction of a new building um on the

103next slide that kind of shows how it will be from Fall of 23 through spring of 25 for the construction of the building um and the next slide shows the completed building with um you know the interim phase of phase three of the summer of 2025 would be the kind of cleanup around the site to allow the demolition of the old building to take place finally phase four is that Demolition and construction those lots would be in place and then after in the fall of 26 a whole school opens with a completed site um and we've been working with a landmark for the site design the next slide here is showing what's in this package is kind of detailed documents of the site construction so utilities store mortar management parking all that construction would be

104part of this package that we're going for approval for tonight and just to give you an overview of the building floor plan I know we've reviewed this previously but just to give you a context the overall first floor plan that you're looking at the center areas the academic core with the sixth grade pod and the related arts pod in the center and then to the right and orange is the gymnasium and supporting spaces and then to the left in the brown and purple areas are the the theater supporting music spaces cafeteria and kitchen as well on the next slide is the second floor and again in that Center area is the academic core with the sixth grade pod seventh grade pod and then supporting spaces with the library um in the brown and then the

105art kind of across from that and then you see the upper levels of the the gymnasium to the right and the auditorium to the left so the next slide is showing the foundation plan so again in your package these are just a couple Snippets drawings that make up the entire phase one scope of work but this is the foundation plan for the first floor so again you see those building components and this is the concrete footings and Foundations to support the building moving forward the next slide is the framing plan so again this is a structural steel components that are part of the phase one construction documents to support the building in each level the next slide again this is just a second floor framing plan as well so we just want to share a

106few of these components as it's the main components with the site work concrete and steel that comprises The Phase One Construction package the next slide just you know nothing really has changed from the exterior from what you've seen before but we just wanted to reiterate again a lot of what you're seeing on the envelope is directly related with the with the steel and this portion of the package so this is looking from New Street to the main entrance again the main entrance there in the center gymnasium to the right and then the cafeteria to the left this is a view a tighter view in of the main entry I'm looking from directly from New Street and the next slide is looking at the corner from new and Lake Street so again that's the main entry

107there and the gymnasium on the right is a little just out of view um and then towards the the back of the building again there really is no back of this building um you'll see a more prominent prominently here on the left is the main gym entry and all the supporting parking for events as well on the next slide is the other side which is the auditorium entry cafeteria and event parking again to support to support events in the auditorium and after hours um and then this is just a view of um the reconstructed entry of the existing Lewis writing entry to the school that will be a portion of that exterior um meant to be kind of a learning Courtyard um and uh Gathering space on site and that's it we open up for

108any questions you may have are there any questions from the board hearing none is there a motion to approve bid phase one for Lewis all reading as presented I have a motion by Mr foreston and second by Mr Abrams to approve the construction documents for Biz excuse me forbid phase one as presented are there any questions comments or concerns on this motion hearing none all those in favor vote by saying aye aye any opposed motion carries I do have a follow-up question are these the documents then that we're going to take out to bids the first bid or is there still more work to be done be done there'll be more to it than that there'll be details and you know things like that other structural steel it's basically getting getting the structural steel out

109so and get that in design that's one of the biggest pieces to get that through design so when we go into bid fees we can bring everything else and match it up to this you know the steel and and the concrete package it just advances that some so there will be more documents though yes all right so so there's still more to be done before we go out to any bit I I think the structural is is all ready to go that concrete is ready now okay so is that going to go out yes yes it's it's in front of dfm right now so once we get through their process then it goes out a bit okay will that be before our next meeting or that would that be sometime in February we're gonna put

110it in March right in March of the contracts I'm just curious I mean I'm very nervous about the numbers that are going to come in that's why I'm kind of pressing to see when we're going to kind of get the first real Market response as to what the cost is going to be because yeah inflation isn't getting any better no it's not so the sooner we get this out to bid hopefully this the lower the cost and there are a couple of big pieces you know the structural component's a big piece and there's the site and they said that'll give us good indicator Where We Are so we'll get those bids in March is that okay well and so bids will get open before the April board meeting correct yeah so that'll be what when

111we really see because you may be coming to us in April and saying we got to make changes hopefully not but right okay so far things are looking good you know we're holding true to our numbers you know we're putting them out there for contractors to look at so it's not we're not completely in the dark here okay thank you thank you there are no construction contracts for approval so we're moving on to change orders on the change orders don't have that many we have a couple for Silver Lake we had to rewire some uh card access and there was one back charge for a temporary sound system because they didn't have our sound system man there's one larger one for Crystal Run for uh 50 000 that was work we had to do with

112the front entrance for Del Dot we had to pull out some existing material that wasn't allowable by Del dot to make that right so that was for fifty thousand dollars well these have been reviewed and are recommended and president make a motion to approve the change orders as presented I'll second but I do have a follow-up question so on the Silver Lake change order for this sound system is that money coming back to us that's what I thought okay yeah that's that's a back charge okay we had to put in a temporary system until they could get their components in right and so basically it's a back charge because we're charging the contractor who didn't have correct on time yep okay so I have a motion by Mr Abrams in a second by Mr forson

113to approve the change orders as presented are there any additional questions comments or concerns on this motion hearing none all those in favor of vote by saying aye aye any opposed motion carries thank you Mr Hopkins um the next agenda item is the Personnel report Dr small good evening [Music] and president make a motion to approve the Personnel report as presented with the additional name from our executive session second I have a motion by Mr Abrams II by Mr forson to approve the Personnel report as presented with the inclusion of the names from executive session are there any questions comments or concerns on this motion hearing none all in favor of vote by saying aye aye any opposed motion carries you're welcome thank you so much um the next item on the agenda is the

114establishment of the meeting dates um our next regular Board of Education meeting is Tuesday February 7th it'll be seven o'clock in this boardroom please note it's being held the first Tuesday of the month instead of our regular second Tuesday of the month and I should let you know that in the process of the meeting I got a text saying that the reading Middle School Musical is January 27th and 28th and that will be before our next meeting so I wanted to make sure to include that that's it is Peter Pan so lots of opportunities to take your kids to see other kids doing great things on stage um that's all we have for tonight thank you so much for joining us and happy New Year