Brandywine School District Board of Education Meeting - August 21, 2023

001good evening everyone uh welcome to the Brandywine School District Board of Education regular meeting tonight is Monday August 21st 2023. we are live in the Brandywine High School auditorium also broadcasting via our Zoom uh Miss Ashman roll call please here president here here thank you Miss Harris um tonight in the role of Reverend Perry is Reverend Dickerson a happy belated congratulations on your nuptials thank you if you will um please lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge allegiance in the United States thank you uh Ms Harris if we could just make a note to get Reverend Dickerson a new name plate yeah some point here um with that I will entertain a motion to approve this evening's agenda so moved second motion Mr Ackerman second Mr Heller all those in favor say aye

002opposed motion carries that will start us off this evening with a special recognition or former Board member Miss Karen Gordon yes come on down seems like just last month you were here have you missed us I think we can we could get a table down here real quick so tonight we just want to do a more formal um congratulations and thank you to miss Gordon for her years of service to the Brandywine school district and also with that recognition um the state of Delaware General Assembly has made a proclamation and tribute that I would like to read here state of Delaware General Assembly tribute be it hereby known to all at the general assembly recognizes Karen Gordon more than 35 years of service to the Brandywine School District we acknowledge this outstanding individual for her

003many years of remarkable service to the Brandywine School District Miss Gordon was a librarian for the burning wine School District with 27 years of dedicated service at the time of her retirement in 2013. she has been a member of numerous district and state committees throughout the years 10 years prior to her retirement she was appointed to the Professional Standards Board active in the community Ms Gordon was involved with many local programs the Delaware school boards Association legislative committee for anyone School District's parent and citizen advisory committee and the Delaware school boards Association executive committee in 1996 she was named the Delaware state school library media specialist of the year because they fit that all on one platform and in 1998 she was a Fulbright teacher to Japan we commend Miss Gordon's exceptional contributions as they

004have truly made a difference in the lives of so many the state house sorry the Senate and House of Representatives extends its sincere appreciation and directs this tribute to be issued the first day of August 2023 and this is signed by David sokola president pro tempore Ryan Dunphy Secretary of the Senate Senator Sarah McBride sponsor Senator Kyle Evans gay sponsor Senator Laura V sturgeon sponsor Valerie Longhurst Speaker of the House Richard Puffer Chief Clerk of the house and representative Deborah Heffernan sponsor and representative Sean Matthews sponsor additional co-sponsors to this were representative Larry Lambert represent representative namdi chokocha representative Stephanie Bolden and representative Krista Griffith thank you so much Round of Applause for Karen's word and also understand that you were recognized by the Delaware school boards uh association with their uh plaque as well

005for their years of service so thank you so much and as we said we'll be looking to you for support in the coming months for your wise council with all your years of experience and we miss you already it's only been a month but best wishes to you in your next retirement and I'd just like to quickly say I am going to win this this board and I will miss being with the administration as much as I have been over the last few years but um please don't think that you're going to miss me all together because I'll be coming to some of these meetings if I can and if I can be of help especially to the person who takes my place I'd be honored to do that so thank you enemy next up

006we have Dr kuch and Mr Rivera for our secondary calendar update thank you good evening the board may remember that we made a deliberate and strategic decision to seize the opportunity and resources provided through Esser to capitalize on curriculum revision work that have been delayed for years due to the high cost of curriculum materials and the associated professional development as a result ESD accomplished an incredible amount of curricular revision and adaptation in the past two years as share shared at the board retreat we still have some additional curricular work to do at the secondary level and adopting the high quality instruction materials and the professional development for the implementation of those materials as we head into our third and final year of Esser we also know and we talked about this at the board retreat

007the effectiveness of the teacher is the single most important factor for student achievement so we want to make sure we ensure that teachers have the best materials and are appropriately trained to use them to this end we support the implementation of the new curriculum and training via five asynchronous days on the first year of Esser we phased it down to four asynchronous days last school year elementary schools were half days mine has larger font uh thank you the research has shown that ongoing embedded professional learning is the most effective use of professional development time and providing this time on asynchronous days will also reduce the stressors of requiring additional substitutes if we had to pull teachers into necessary professional development during a school day which can be very challenging well we've done that in the

008past we've heard and have experienced the difficult um the difficulty in obtaining those substitutes being able to get teachers together enables opportunities for Teacher feedback and of course corrections as they Implement these new curricula the two asynchronous days are a change in the instructional mode for students and create no change to the calendar itself the days are as follows December 13 2023 May 3rd 2024 and just to note the May 3rd date elementary students are off for parent conferences so we strategically chose this day in case parents were meeting an older sibling and such to watch younger siblings as they work or are attending a conference itself thank you education we'd also like to call out March 6th 2024 which is the district sat PSAT day seniors only would be on an asynchronous basis as

009this is a return to the pre-pandemic practices where the seniors would have had an alternative instructional day that day we've done that in the past following this meeting we will work with Dr O'Hanlon to make sure that the district calendar reflects the change to the mode of instruction does the board have any questions is the proposal for the December and May Day well you said may Elementary is off but for all grade levels basically no this would just be for secondary so it'd be grades six through twelve okay just to follow up um Mr Heller's question it's not really a proposal right we're not voting anymore correct we're just changing the mode of instruction it's just to be very clear um The Proposal is asynchronous days for two days for grades six to twelve only

010there will be no asynchronous days for Elementary uh we know that was a challenge for elementary schools for the past two years when we brought these proposals forward at the beginning of Esser we thought we could do it in three years we were able to do the Elementary in two and we just need two additional days at the secondary level um it's not a change to the calendar it's just a change in the mode of instruction sum it up yes thank you Mr President I would suggest in the future that we have something like this that goes into Old business versus special presentations since it was kind of a matter that the board had voted on in the past great thank you Mr Ackerman thank you Dr Kush thank you it's about Spanish Immersion High

011School Mr Rivera thank you ma'am thank you good evening again members of the board and superintendent hauler tonight I am thrilled to have the opportunity to highlight the high school continuation plans for all for our dual language immersion program knowing that there are members of the public listening tonight I want to start by briefly highlighting the Dual language immersion opportunity that we provide our students in this District I will review the progress of a lot of work that has been done over the past year to strengthen this program this will lead into sharing the plans to offer the program at the high school level and we will conclude by discussing what the next steps are to achieve this so a quick program overview in the Bernie my school district we offer Spanish Immersion Spanish will

012be the partner language the first cohort began at Claymont Elementary School in 2015 2015 and we are now currently offered at four schools two years later Lancashire and Maple Lane also began to offer and that first cohort arrived at tally a couple years ago and um next year all three elementary schools would be sending students to tally Middle School's immersion program last school year we had 712 immersion students this upcoming year we will have over 800 immersion students in our district the program is fully inclusive meaning it is all students are welcome to be part ever students actually invited to be part of it if you are a feeder of that school and then we also have seats for Choice students as well and students may enter in either kindergarten or first grade and just

013as a quick summary again here are the graphics from the state we follow the state model for both elementary and middle school we do the 50 50 model in Delaware I mean half of the day 50 of the day the students receive instruction 100 in Spanish and the other half of the day they've received the instruction in English for elementary school the math and science curriculum are taught in the partner Spanish language as students move to Middle School the shifts students will take two of their seven classes completely in Spanish this would be their social studies class and their Spanish language arts class which is different than Ela it's uh the Spanish language arts will be in place of the world language class and just to highlight very briefly again that there are resource shows

014there's immense benefits to for students being enrolled in a dual language immersion program has a lot of research that's been done over the past few decades showing that students in an immersion program sees higher cognitive development Social Development long-term economic benefits and then um the academic achievement uh generally speaking research shows that students achieve at the same level as their non-emergent peers or slightly higher as well sometimes in like the 90 10 models where students spend 90 of their time in a partner language it takes a couple years for that kind of scores to come up and be the same or higher we do the 50 50 here um we uh and that is the academic achievement what is seen for all students including our multi-lingual Learners as well so the question became we know

015what national research has said for decades and we spent part of this year digging into our own data how are our students doing compared to what national research is showing um and we're excited and at first I'm going to give a major thanks to Hope moffatt who uh spent um many many hours over this past year um doing a lot of data digs for us and I appreciate all the time she did for this um so we spent time comparing our immersion students to non-immersion for anyone students and we also compare them to State and Nation as well and our I'm excited to say our data mirrors what national research shows that our immersion students here should average scores showed slightly higher growth and proficiency than their peers in traditional classes in both reading and

016math on smarter and map assessments and our MLL students also showed greater growth as well so our program is shown the same type of benefits that we see Nationwide we also compared ourselves to students across the state and Nation um our immersion students were generally higher than State averages here in Delaware and both reading and math but what I'm really excited about is our immersion students take an apple assessment this every year this is an assessment that measures your Proficiency in the targeted language in partner language this would be Spanish and I'm excited to say that at the Bernie wine middle school students are higher than the national average in both listen and speaking and writing on this test and that includes remember that we had a um a couple years of covet here where

017they were learning remotely via zoom and coming back with mask on which has its challenges in an immersion class uh the reason I want to highlight this is because the number one concern we hear from parents of immersion students is worried about if you spend half of your day learning content in Spanish is that hindering or slowing them up and research is shown that's absolutely not the case so you should feel very um confident that your children are doing well learning just as much as their peers in a non-emergent section okay so last spring we decided to reach out to families and ask them what are you thinking about the immersion program so we sent a survey out to All Families enrolled in the immersion program um I'll say this idea of collecting input actually

018came after a PTA meeting that superintendent holder and I went to and received some feedback and we decided to follow up on some of the the points they were making and um I do want to thank a bunch of parents and staff members who helped develop the survey with me especially Mary Rose Korea who was the president of the lecture PTA we got a great response about 200 families from all four immersion schools responded that represents over 300 immersion students that's about half of the program so we were at least I was pretty happy with the response the first three questions from the survey were optional questions they were not mandated to respond to this um and I think just looking at the number of responses is the first indicator of how the responses were

019so why did you choose immersion I had 193 people responded well the benefits 187 and then where is areas for improvement errors to strengthened that's the way I worded it and I had 144 so note that far more families were excited to talk about why they want to want it or chose it and the benefits they're experiencing versus there is Improvement and then as I dug into the errors to strengthen about half if not more of those responses for errors to strengthen gave the response of either none n a keep doing what you are doing so that was pretty exciting too so a quick recap what families were saying why did you choose immersion the top responses dealt with a desire for their child to speak a second language or to learn about other cultures

020or sometimes talk about this uh the Spanish language is an important part of their own family culture what are some of the benefits they have seen families have talked about how amazed they were how fluent their children became so quickly in the program increased confidence and resiliency came up a number of times increased cultural awareness and great friends and teachers and then areas of suggestion when you take out all the nas or nothing it's great the top responses were asking to expand it through 12th grade we're asking for additional support such as summer resources or enrichment opportunities and so for those of you who know me you know I'm I'm open and transparent I will brag about the positives but I will also let you know the errors in which we're looking to improve so

021um like any other program there are areas of focus that we think we can even make this program better and stronger one of the areas is uh attrition so part of our data dig we took a close look at the first cohorts of the three elementary schools I noticed that there was a what we consider to be a high attrition rate um averaging about nine percent which creates different issues especially with class size Equity um so I do want to thank the elementary principals and Tammy Garage still who's been trying to put a bunch of ideas into action this summer um and it is important to note that uh the vast majority of the students who did leave the program actually moved out of the district altogether so it wasn't necessarily a programmatic issue Staffing

022is a challenge now Staffing is an issue in every Department yes I know that but it is very difficult to find immersion teachers and I do thank Delicia and her team here because over the past year we've been working closely with HR and looking for more creative recruiting efforts and I've met with the state and multiple different districts who offer the immersion program and we've researched other ways to try to attract candidates who can teach immersion we spent time digging into middle school capacity so when immersion was assigned to Talon Middle School years ago tally at that time had the lowest enrollment of the middle schools however in the past three years that is no longer the case and they are now the highest enroll um even before the immersion program came so part of

023the work we did this year is making sure that there was not going to be a capacity issue at tally as the other two elementary schools are transitioning up to Middle School which would be at tally um we did the stand dig we looked at the theater of all the elementary students who are in immersion we created a formula to predict enrollment and the projection has tally remaining under his capacity um and um we even we will take a look at the projected number for next year and it's almost exactly on spot for what we had predicted for next year right now so we feel confident that we are good we also talked about and looking at the numbers there wasn't enough students to run even a full section at Springer or Ps immersion is

024a great fit with the IB philosophy of international mindedness which tally offers and back to the struggle with Staffing we thought that dividing this program would create significant challenges with the required certifications that are needed for Middle School immersion and that gets us to our last point that we're here to talk about tonight the high school continuation program with our first cohort that's that Claymont cohort as they are entering eighth grade this year we began to ask ourselves three questions first are Bernie wine immersion students experiencing the same benefits that we see in National research to expand this program this is something that families want and do we have the capacity and ability to continue this program I'm excited to say the answer to those questions are yes yes and yes and we also believe

025that continuing the program through high school would actually help alleviate that first bullet point of attrition which we'll get to as well so what we did over this past year was we created a work group that was made up of Administrators teachers people from curriculum instruction special ed department and we met every other week for multiple months and then we went out and met with various other stakeholders to bring in their input when it was needed with that part of the conversation we're having so that included parents we had different meetings with counselors met with other schools across the state and brought back that information we reviewed different proposed High School models so um multiple other districts offer immersion throughout the state of Delaware and they're all elevating up to Upper Middle School a couple

026of them haven't even reached high school already so um we were able to have many meetings with Department of Education right clay already has the um the program at AI high school so um Mr paladinetti and I she met several times it was past year now we're very excited that he's on board with us at Concord High School applic is in the same boat with us and we met several times talk about what their ideas are and same with Indian River we also solicit input as we just talked about through parent survey and we reviewed the high school's capacity and attendance feeder zones to make uh determination on where the program should be so some of the responses just you know what the families are thinking I put um both up because I just wanted

027you to know that we did the survey in both English and Spanish families could pick how they wanted to which survey to use um you can see there was an overwhelming desire from the emerging families if we can continue the program through High School there are many other questions but I just put a couple just to highlight what the family said in their surveys part of the feedback families talked about being willing to Choice their student to continue in the program they talked about being willing to pay to be take part in some sort of travel or foreign exchange experience and they even talk about being willing to pay for dual enrollment uh the top um right grasp with the the bars you're talking about um the family stand they are Desiring to still have

028access to all high-level courses that are in English a p and IB attend any high school if that's possible earn college credit have work-based learning opportunities travel and continue to grow in the Spanish language proficiency so that may seem like it's a contradiction my families want to be able to still be able to take have their children take English classes and the AP and IB but also still grow in the Spanish proficiency and we we believe we can balance it and still be able to do both especially by achieving this using work-based learning opportunities volunteer opportunities and the traveling opportunities that we would like to pursue in terms of location here's our thinking for the first two years we would house the immersion program after anyone high school or the reason is the first two

029years is the first co-workers from Claymont um the the size of that cohort is the size of one section one class um so if we divide that up between three schools there was not enough for a section a class to exist we looked at the natural feeder pattern of all those students the majority of them feed to Brandywine high school and haven't met with Brandywine High School about the possibility to say that they were excited about it would be an understatement um Rebecca Reggio helped bring an immersion program a planning stages of it at Newark High School when she was there the counselors badly won it and want to start playing it and there's a language teacher who's already gone to the training because she wants to be part of bringing this program to the

030school but two years later that would be for the ryzen 6th graders the current sixth graders right now um that would be that's the first year where we have cohorts from all three elementary schools existing and we would be able to have um the all three high schools offer the program at that point and so students would not have to choose be part of a choice but they could choice to any high school if they wanted to for any other program they would want to partake in and by allowing all three schools to offer it actually lessens the impact it may have on staff and because all three schools would share this immersion students okay they're the high school recommendation what would the program look like at High School the recommendation follows very closely to

031what the state is recommending the first year the majority of students would be taking AP Spanish in ninth grade we do believe that the students would be able to successfully do well in the AP class as a ninth grader for several reasons one many students already take an AP class in ninth grade we offer the AP geography for some students also according to the College Board and IB a passing scorer in the AP or IB exam Spanish exam is equivalent to what the Apple test that I refer to put students at an intermediate mid-level proficiency and so I have a little chart right up there intermediate mid students who are at that level of Spanish proficiency are at the level that's required to pass the AP or IB exam just for a little context our

032current 7th graders their average score was intermittent intermediate mid last winter so our students are already at the needed level to pass the AP exam now some districts are experienced or are proposing having students take the AP exam in middle school we are not proposing that for multiple reasons and also part they're not taking the class until High School um also just give you a little context four years of taking a a world language class at high school level or someone who's not an immersion program those students typically are in the novice level after four years so or just again shows you how proficient our elementary students and now middle school students are doing in this program is pretty amazing and lastly again this is pretty new uh Nationwide as there was a proliferation of

033immersion programs about a decade or so ago but there is one research study out already that's comparing immersion students who take AP classes in ninth grade with other 12th graders who are not in the immersion program and that one study showed that the ninth graders in immersion outperformed the AP seniors in that class um more of them took the exam and they scored higher than those students so we feel confident our students can do well in this and then as you reach 10th 11th and 12th grade we would offer a dual enrollment Spanish course at the high school taught by our high school teacher that Doe is working on an mou four districts who want to participate in this and they're working with the University of Delaware and Dell State University for this we analyzed

034the high school staff in Impact we looked at class sizes and course requests over the past year and the immersion students can easily be absorbed into the current AP classes and their space in the world language teaching schedules to offer dual enrollment as well we are also looking to issue high school credit for middle school work done by our immersion students this is the recommendation by the state and we already had we already have current board policy 5.05 and 5.06 that allows for the issue and of credit for dual enrollment and Middle School courses however Dr Kutch and I did meet this week and talk about it and we would like to come back before the board later this year just to clarify some of that language uh we're looking to bring about foreign exchange

035opportunity as you know we've been doing tour Gau for many years um there's a lot of excitement to shift this to a Spanish-speaking country versus the German country so the program coordinators have already been doing a lot of research in a new opportunity and they're also excited about this too they think this is going to bring a lot more interest from other Brandywine School District students and we talked about expanding work-based learning and volunteering opportunities in the partner language for our high school students and our last slide next steps to make this happen with some short-term projects and long-term projects and I do apologize for the last bullet points kind of fell off on all the projected screen here if you're in person um we just had the survey we talked about that we gave

036all the parents last spring we would like to do one for the students as well the timing is intentional I've held off on this survey because I wanted to create a little hype for the program just before the choice window opens up this fall they will take um they will give us the feedback on the survey and then we'll make any further adjustments to the model so they would be excited to continue um then we would need to begin the communication of families continue training for the Brandywine Staff first and continue to look into other ways to hire um to support the elementary middle school programs we would not need to do any kind of special hiring or certifications for high school long term talk about funding the mou to um to offer the dual

037enrollment course does come at a small fee the state provides every school funding for the first four years that has immersion so for anyone and then Concord and then Mount would get a grant for four years each when the first cohort comes up to that school that would pay for the easily pay for the dual enrollment and then we would need to think five years and then seven years from now what do we want to do in terms of paying for that do we ask for families to split shares a part of referendum lots of ideas on what we would want to do for that we need to continue to plan for the travel experience and work based learning and then we do have a long-term um question about IB and immersion from Mount Pleasant

038High School which um we need to resolve that any questions or comments I had um I had two two questions um on the slide regarding the high schools um the when you're thinking about dual enrollment and costs for dual enrollment we don't currently charge for dual enrollment for like psychology and sociology correct you're correct is there a funding for those separate funding for those or do we just not charge for them we don't charge our families right for them but we are we do pay for as a district okay I was just wondering because you went you explained how there was funding for four years for Spanish dual enrollment I was just wondering if there was also funding that for as a reason why we weren't charging for other dual enrollment courses yeah uh no

039so part of the thinking is as we continue to expand dual enrollments and we're looking to expand even more not just immersion but other places and the popularity of this is grown with families we do need to begin to think about how we how we're going to pay for this long term what's the sustainability is where we've been trying to use with immersion um and so do we continue to pay for it of you know curriculum instruction grants that we've been paying for the other ones that we begin to say this is part of the referendum cell because it is very popular with families do we say you know maybe families can share the cost these are decisions that we will need to talk about in the years to come so my other question is

040regarding this this courses are going to need to be like a pretty high level Spanish course they're not going to be a college level Spanish one or two course correct so ideally uh what UD is working on right now is they're offering um Spanish 301 302 and 303 that you would take there can be tall here by our staff members and then we would offer only one per year regardless what grade you were in and we'll just follow the cycle which is really good in terms of scheduling for us so what I mean by that is year um in any given year we would say we were offering Spanish 301 for any immersion student in grades 10 through 12 would all take 301 next year any emergency takes 302. they don't bill on each other

041they're separate so then um you don't have to keep everyone cohort together by grade so it gives students a lot more flexibility and options where they're not saying they have to choose between staying in the immersion program because that's the only period this is offered or taken band you could say well we have two sections of it and you can pick whichever section you want so then you can still take the other program or pathway or elective that you want to take um Mr Rivera uh thank you so much for your presentation um I do think it would be very exciting uh to have dual language immersion on the high school level um thank you also for addressing um a concern of mine which would be staffing issues um I know how difficult it is

042to staff especially of a Spanish dual enrollment type of instructor for the district so I do think that we'll have to continue to think about that very real uh challenge um and then I just I just actually had a question um for our MLL students regardless of when they enter into the district would they be students who could also be eligible to receive Services through dual enrollment regardless of whether they start in kindergarten or whether they come in fourth grade or sixth grade excellent question yes so I did not cover that but that is absolutely true we are actually very intentional um about that like when I when I was the principal Italian and brought the immersion program there we sought out any native Spanish speaker MLL student and automatically put them into the program

043um because the research says it is very beneficial for them to be part of that program so the part of that question is for a typical student you can only enroll in the immersion program as you enter kindergarten in first grade there are a few exceptions to that um the MLL is one exception if you're moving from one District to another like when my students transferred here to Brandywine as immersion students they were able to jump in so there are some exceptions to that they can show that they have that language proficiency um there and can hang in there they are absolutely welcomed and actually encouraged to join the program to the district after the four years it's a um dual enrollment so that's still being worked out by the state but um we think

044it's going to be somewhere around twenty five hundred dollars for the course it's not that much for 25 students and UD would or Dallas State would provide all the materials just as they do we have other dual enrollment courses with like we have several options actually thank you of the 712 that was the students currently in the program at the end of last school year so it doesn't include the new kindergarten so do you know offhand if not email to us later but of the 712 how many are how many families versus students and how and how many of those are English language Learners or Spanish is the primary language in the home I do have that information um I don't have it up here with me but it's it's about um 400 families and

045I do have a number of MLS because we did the whole day to dig on that and when you're talking about the high school immersion program and you had talked about 301 versus 302 so if if you have the first cohort at the high school level is it just you know the core courses are bilingual do they still have options for electives or how much does that restrict a student's ability for other classes great question so what you see is to some degree unfortunately as we move from elementary to Middle to high school the number of courses that the families take in that partner language significantly drops so you go from 50 of your day in elementary to two of your seven classes in Middle School to the high school model would be a guaranteed

046one and that would be your Spanish class and then the rest of your day is normal and that's why we're looking to do some enrichments through if they want to do a work based learning class or do a volunteer for credit class that's in and with an organization where they get to speak Spanish we want to do that for an abroad travel experience where they have the opportunity to go and be immersed in the country and and practice that language so could we maybe consider those high school students and perhaps a grow your own type of program perhaps some of them would be interested in becoming teachers for us one day that's a really good point because currently with our early childhood in the K-12 Pathways we're creating we already send our high school students

047to Elementary four hours in credit and for those students who are in the immersion path that can easily go to the immersion classes in the elementary that's a fantastic idea any additional questions for Mr Rivera thank you very much appreciate it I would just like to say thank you uh Mr Rivera for not only the excellent presentation but the vision and the planning I very much appreciate the fact that you're looking three and four years down the road to grow a program next up I'd like to welcome Mr Reed John Reed for a update on facilities and summer work good evening I'm going to do the presentation from here so I can see the slides um maintenance isn't one of those more interesting topics but it became a topic this year in the state of

048Delaware around funding and some of the legislators um were a little concerned whether or not the money was being used properly or what it was being used for so the purpose of this is really to go through how our district has used this funding what the future of this funding is and maybe we can talk to a few of our folks in Dover because this really is the key to keeping things going we're District of 400 acres two and a half million square foot of building space and our buildings are at an average of 65 years old so they're not new um next slide uh Brandywine high school we redid the buttresses um that are across the building we also in upgraded the audio systems in the audion which is a lecture hall it seats

049about 85 and we're HVAC project through the asset funding we're going to be replacing all the rooftop equipment on the roof next summer but the equipment starts arriving in December um and also at all three of our high schools we did ballistic coatings on the glass in the front office funded through Safety and Security funds next slide please thank you at Concord High School the parking lot was original um and really looked like the surface of the Moon it was pretty bad we stripped the parking lot and the sidewalks had to be replaced for Ada code the sidewalks have to have a certain slope going up to the building so somebody in a wheelchair has 60 inches of level pavement by the door we did not have that and all our handicapped spots were on

050a slope so we stripped the parking lot strip the curbs and sidewalks really for Ada code and we tied this student lot to the front of the building for students that are late could walk around we also updated the audio systems and video systems in the auditorium the light boards still use the floppy disk I know people have to look up what's a floppy disk but we replace that and we installed 49 Smart Boards a lot of the low voltage projects in smart Pro board projects were managed by Bill Moore is new to the district but has done a wonderful job taking care of all our av needs a next slide um also have the price tag up top for some of these at Mount Pleasant High School we had a lot of projects uh

051the brick on the building and heavy rains the water is coming right through the brick and continues in other parts of the building but this was the worst area uh parking lot lights were replaced I know that doesn't sound too interesting but the wires were original from 1958 uh the band was in the dark when they practice at night I did get a text from a few of the parents they love the lights so apparently we have fans out there classrooms we've renovated six more classrooms the top six feet of the small gym had to be replaced the up the outside walls Ada railings were done and through assets funding we're getting new boilers chillers and cooling tower that'll come off the capitol request cooling targets delivered tomorrow the boilers leave Indiana on Friday and

052the chillers show up as well so I'll be out back with a crane unloading all that equipment and finding a place to put it we also painted the stadium and did other painting throughout the building next slide please here's Dupont um the seats were about 90 years old and I've got a photo of one there on the side yes they were historic but um uncomfortable and you could also get a splinter in your backside which is not good the seats that we put in came from the DuPont Playhouse for the grand cost of zero dollars um they heard um contractor knew I'm a little bit on the chief side and called me when they were removing the seats they were scheduled to go to the trash when the Wilmington Play House heard that we were

053interested in they paid the contractor extra money to take them out with care so we got 1200 seats 800 of them have been installed we're still trying to figure out if we can fit them in the balcony if not at Harlan but they're a nice comfortable seat now it's like a used car there's a few scratches and things on them we'll fix that um but it's a lot more comfortable at PS and it really looks sharp so um the savings on this I still have to do the math on it but the savings on this is is probably in excess of four hundred thousand dollars of getting used seats for PS next slide uh Springer Middle School we did some Safety and Security upgrades uh the one project we really wanted to do was acoustical

054treatments to their cafeteria that did not get done this summer because the contractor we used the claymont's no longer in business but we're not giving up I found another contractor gonna try and find a way to get that done during the school year but that would be uh that's something that Springer desperately needs but the Safety and Security upgrades were done at Springer next slide please tally Middle School was renovated in 2005 so it's been a minute so we repainted the auditorium repainted all the hallways stairways railings uh replaced the camera system as well and painted the exterior now everybody thinks that the paint on the outside is kind of make it pretty it's really to waterproof the building to stabilize the brick on the southern elevation of the building if you hit the brick

055with your fist you can pull parts of the brick out so this is to keep the brick from crumbling in the ultraviolet light that's causing the bricks to deteriorate next slide carcroft Elementary uh did all the hallway floors as you look down the hallway you'd get a little seasick but the concrete kind of went up and down um and underneath the flooring the floor looked like Frankenstein's head had been cut up so many times and patched up that there are cracks everywhere so we had to redo the concrete after we took up the tile we are going to have the logo in the center of the lobby the logo is a little late so there's a little carpet in the center but it's fine we also re-tiled the bathrooms um the the tiles there were

056off-white off-white and off-white so we had a little color that is not um Cowboys blue it's just a nice blue and there's uh there is Eagles Green in the ladies rooms but that is not Cowboy blue I want to be clear on that um so we did quite a bit of painting we painted all the hallways quarters and public areas and we're going to be redoing two kindergarten classrooms tomorrow I apologize we're a little late and we'll be redoing the flooring in the staff room tomorrow and we also put in all new toilet partitions there are materials left over from another project that I got off a contractor which saved us 40 000 on that project next slide foreign Elementary we did the history wall with something more permanent something more Museum quality we also

057did some um sidewalk work in the spring at a com um an issue with a parent that commented that their child had tripped on the sidewalk we got to that right away and we also had to replace the water line the water line broke underneath the school and came bubbling up inside the school so we had to redirect that and we got that completed grand total of those projects was about 120 000. next slide please Ford Elementary um we did the uh accessible playground inclusive playground which is uh everybody's heard about it's a start I'm going to present later on tonight where we'd like to go with this but it really hit home and really seeing kids play together is really important because the playground industry has done a poor job over the past of

058making inclusive play equipment but that has recently changed next slide Andy Bush thank you Deborah Heffernan for a little bit of money for the the bush playground that was in the bond Bill we added some equipment there we're also doing ford robber for the swing sets and Hamby bush has been summer school since the day it opened it's never gotten a break we got a little break this summer so we painted all the corridors at gems but all the public areas of the school got a Fresh coat of paint next slide please uh Harlan Elementary the bathrooms had an epoxy floor which we were told would last forever apparently forever is 20 years so we redid the bathroom floors because they did not hold up and I know it's not too interesting but the fire

059alarm panel the equipment that we're installing took a little over a year and a half to get and that'll be operational for the first day of school next slide please uh Lancashire Elementary we couldn't afford it the day when we built a school but we redid the surface play surfaces for the kindergarten playground and the main playground was remulched today I know it doesn't sound like a lot but a project like that is ninety five thousand dollars um the parking lot needs two additional lights there's a dark spot of the parking lot they will not be in for the first day of school but they will get installed the month of September if not early October but the materials just came in and they won't get installed next slide please Lombardi Elementary thanks to our

060legislators who are there in the front they were able to get us some funding to update sorry the playground at Lombardi Lombardi got a big a lot of work last summer we painted all the quarters and a lot of work but this year we were able to pull off the playground next slide please Maple Lane we redid All the classroom flooring on the lower level and the library we've been chipping away at Maple blink for years now but now we're at a point where with minor cap money we've replaced the roof all the classroom HVAC equipment all the flooring painted new whiteboards new cafeteria floor new gym floor um all new hallway flooring new parking lot so Maple Lane is really a case study that if you fund maintenance you never have to go back

061to your public and ask them for money to renovate the building because you can keep up with it next slide please uh Darley Road we're moving some overcrowding that we have a bush to six rooms at Darley Road some other programming over there we did some playground updates which is tough to do in the courtyard because we had to lift equipment over the building and drop it in did some flooring abatement new lighting all the lighting now is dimmable we painted and Furniture has been delivering and we're setting up those rooms next slide please um bus yard that building it was done in 2011 we stripped off the old paint repainted it we're painting the fuel tanks and thank you uh Den Rec for the parking lot Paving that was done in the late spring

062on next slide please uh district-wide initiatives kindergarten furniture and as the kindergarten teachers presented to the board earlier adding playback to the classrooms um Ester funding a lot of that's going in we finished that up today uh Lombardi lost and found our lost and found benches this is Operation Martha Stewart our lobbies were kind of looking junky with the lost and found on tables and all over the place we designed these benches at Claymont thought it was a good idea they'll be delivered to all our elementary schools on Friday water testing and filtration that we spent quite a bit of money on that and repair repair repair um between our custodians our maintenance staff just keeping things working the union events changing filters cleaning rooms patching in floors of a lot of the work that

063I presented tonight was a team effort between contractors and our own people which is huge next slide um minor cap over the past 20 years has gone up by 24 the cost per square foot to build a building has gone up by 239 percent now where I show minor caps gone up by 24 actually next year we're going to receive less funding because every time a school opens up in Delaware they get a piece of the pie so not to beat on our friends at app equitimate but the new Brick Mill Elementary built next to the Old Brick Mill they have a new Elementary there they get more money for that brand new school than we do for Harlan which is 91 years old that's product part of the problem where we have to talk

064to our legislators that the funding really needs to be focused brand new building you can phase the money in over 20 years but the funding really needs to go to older districts next slide please um just to go through some of the funding that we use this summer this summer we had 1.6 million in minor cap thanks to the bond Bill Endeavor Heffernan they gave us something called enhanced minor cap of 1.1 million dollars that goes away we did have Safety and Security money that was in the bond Bill we have been using assert funds and investing it but also there were grants from Den Rec grants to the bond Bill something called architectural barriers funding what's that that's something that's in the bond bill every year a lot of people don't apply for it

065out of the first 13 years they offered the money we got 10 of it 100 we did not get it this year it is no longer in the bond bill but that's for Ada improvements in schools and material donations we always have good relationship with contractors and when they have Surplus tile Surplus bathroom partitions they called me about car Croft and said we've got some dark gray partitions do you want them I said that's our school color and they're like really said it is now but they're dark gray and they're beautiful and I love it um funding for next year goes down we have 1.57 million dollars uh yes we will have the Safety and Security funding but minor cap is one of those things that our legislators don't think is that sexy it's great

066to open new buildings but maintaining old buildings minor cap money hasn't been touched and this is something I'd like to be talking to our legislator about is something I'd like to partner with the other Newcastle districts to kind of push because the funding seems to go to districts with growth I get it Apple's got 500 new students a year they need to build new schools but we also need to maintain what we have last summer to put it in perspective eighty percent of our minor cap money did 20 of concord's Ruth that's not sustainable because these buildings are getting older systems are getting older and also we want some bling you want new playgrounds you want paint you want some of the pretty stuff uh I think that's my last slide are there any questions

067I know I rattle off a lot there no questions but thank you again for the presentation I think it's important as we you know start to talk about referendum in the coming months showing the public what we're doing how we're spending our money and I don't think it can be stated enough I know I've stated in previous meetings but I appreciate your vision to facilities and how it plays into the students experience and that you know your recognition that students who feel good where they are will learn better they'll behave better and I really believe that and I think you know we've done a great job um you know improving our buildings despite their age um nobody Clips coupons or stretches a dollar better than you and I'm not quite convinced you're not printing them

068in the basement somewhere but um you know you found grants you've done all the things you know to spend other money people's money where we can and I appreciate that but don't give away all our secrets yeah um and you know maybe Dr Helen we work on something on our website for a legislative corner to you know share with the public what what the legislative needs are and and get our community to help influence our friends in Dover to show them how the minor cap money has not kept pace with the cost of construction how downstate schools you know yes they may have growth needs uh for for buildings but like you said that you don't need the equal amount of minor cap to maintain a brand new building and you know we are the

069most populous County here uh in Newcastle County uh and we do you know have the oldest buildings and I appreciate what you've done to make our buildings look as good as they as they are um but yeah we need to you know enlist our communities help here to to get some legislative help so thank you to that point uh the executive team has met and we are planning on hosting a legislative breakfast inviting our local legislators to come and and present information show examples of exactly what Mr Reed was talking about in terms of the minor cap the work that he's done and accomplished through the minor cap and the fact that brand new building gets as much or more in minor cap than a building that is 90 years old and I agree with

070your sentiments around John's work his enthusiasm around his work keeping students and staff at the the center of decisions but also that fiscal stewardship it is second to none and I know on behalf of the district in in the taxpayers in the district your attention to that detail is greatly appreciated John Mr holder that will lead us into your superintendent's report I'm gonna go a little off script before we get started we we had a serious injury of an employee today and it it speaks to the level of dedication and concern we had a tree fall and on the Maple Lane campus during a recent storm we had already scheduled for a contractor to come out to take care of the tree knowing the contractors were delayed because of other storm damage around Newcastle County

071one of our or two of our maintenance department members took it upon themselves to take the tree down because the last thing they wanted was students returning next Monday and having a dangerous tree right there in the playground area in the course of removing that tree when a cut was made Lynn turned or I'm not even going to call it a limb a huge piece of the tree 21 inches in diameter and 11 feet long hundreds of pounds turned one of our staff members tried to get out of the way was injured in doing so I have to thank our school nurse at Maple Lane who was immediately on scene providing medical assistance Sarah Pendergrast I also want to thank the Claymont fire and rescue and EMS responders for their quick response in force Newcastle

072County paramedics and Christiana Care's Life Net air Medical Transport and we'll keep Mr uh Alan stanza in our thoughts thoughts and prayers uh as he is in the hospital receiving medical attention as we speak again it it speaks to the attention dedication of our employees could have left that go thinking well we'll let the tree company take care of it but not knowing that that would happen before students arrived took on the challenge and we we thank him and keep him in our thoughts and prayers with that said uh Mr Ackerman you'll be happy that our report's a little shorter tonight than normal president vice president Hillard members of the board and audience members this past summer the Brandywine School District offered a plethora a summer programs for our students including extended school year summer

073cramp Camps summer Bridge programs and more I'd like to express my gratitude to the staff that provided these experiences for our students the parents and families for supporting the summer learning opportunities and the students themselves for their engagement and hard work on August 17th PSD celebrated the achievements of the class of 2023 summer graduates a total of 30 students graduated and now can be called proud alumni of the Brandywine School District we're so proud of their accomplishments and congratulate them on their hard work dedication and perseverance also like to take time to publicly recognize Miss Tia Harris seated to my right for her Outreach and support in assisting these graduates in completing their courses of study and earning their High School diplomas I know I've shared with the board in previous meetings that I'll be

074working late in the office at 9 9 30 and T is in on the phone talking to parents talking to families encouraging to keep going um given the stern conversation when needed and being supportive and nurturing when that's needed and tia your work behind the scenes in helping these students can't be underestimated thank you congratulations to Lindsay Lee an upcoming PS DuPont Middle School student who has won BSD Sora reading Summer Challenge she was required to read at least 100 minutes a week to be eligible for the grand prize Lindsay read over 27 hours during the four Week contest didn't come out of her bedroom for seven straight days on August 15th and 16th we welcomed over 60 Educators to bsds 16 great schools and one strong community at our new staff orientation our newest

075staff members learned about bsd's instructional Focus family and Community engagement commitment to equity technology school safety initiatives and much more they are now part of the best they are part of the Brandywine School District whether you're brand new to the Brandywine School District or you're returning for another year we've created a back to school Hub as a resource with information for a smooth start to the new school year visit the District home page at www.brandywineschools all oneword.org and scroll to the bottom of the page and click the back to school icon you'll find information about the first days of school elementary sneak a peek night kindergarten and first grade bus preview event school year calendars Open House calendar school supply lists school hours school dress codes and first days of school pictures we are one

076week away until students return to the school to school for the 23-24 school year reminder to parents that Monday August 28th is orientation day for kindergarten and the first day of school for students in grades one through six 9th and 12th grades only again that's first through sixth ninth and 12th grade following day on Tuesday August 29th students in all grades and the site program will report to school Thursday August 31st is orientation day for pre-kindergarten and finally Tuesday September 5th is the first day of school for our preschool pre-kindergarten students as our staff and students return from summer break and begin the 2024 school year we're asking them to celebrate and share their first day of school photos first day of school signs have been created and customized for each staff member for the

077year they're beginning with in BSD and for students with their school and grade for the 23-24 school year in other words this is my 31st Year Mr O'Hanlon created a sign that said hmm Link's been in Brandywine 31 years thanks Bill staff and students can share their photo on BSD social media with the hashtag proud to be BSD or submit the photos to us via an online submission form again that information is right on the home page the printable signs and submission form can be found on our home page in the back to school icon on August 24th students in kindergarten through first grade who will be bus riders and their parents can experience their daily bus ride and Route before the school year begins with bsds bus ride preview event students and Guardians will

078arrive at the bus stops at their normal morning pickup time students and garden Guardians will be able to meet their wonderful bus drivers and get to know prospective classmates learn about bus safety rules and what to expect during daily commutes meet School administrators and review bus expectations and take a brief tour of the bus route to ensure that students recognize key landmarks and stops to give credit to Leon Roberts kale and Vicki Ebanks in our transportation department we're coming up with this unique insightful way to ease that fear of riding the bus letting our youngest Riders get to know the face of the bus driver and the bus attendant beforehand and also become familiar with what to do when the bus arrives at school where to go see the face of the principal what a

079what a great way to start the school year thank you for that innovation Elementary families that are interested in visiting their child's school and meeting teachers for the upcoming 23-24 school year are invited to come and enjoy the take a peek night at their schools dates and contact information again can be found by clicking that link on our home page just a reminder that teachers may or may not be there that evening they're not required to be there but some are still there decorating their rooms and if they're there please introduce yourself and get to know your teachers before the first day members of the BSD facilities team have once again worked tirelessly to ensure our schools and facilities are ready for students on the first day again I just want to commend their efforts

080in Mr Reed's leadership in setting the school year up for Success Through the work that they've done during the summer and with that favorite part of the report enjoy a video from Talley Middle School and their community outreach this summer we are here at our third Community walk with the Knollwood Community this was organized by Dr Jenna deleterio and really one of our goals to tally is to increase Community involvement Community engagement and Knollwood is one of our biggest communities so we draw a ton of kids from Knollwood as does Claymont and Maple Lane so our goal this summer was to get out in their Community meet the students meet the families before they come into Talley see the headlines we know that there are communities that struggle more than others I wanted to highlight

081all of the the wonderful things that are going on here the wonderful people the students I saw true connections and collaboration between the students and the police and the staff and it was just beautiful and the kids know the officers names the officers know the kids and then just to see their teachers in their neighborhood is a really profound thing and the kids come out and they're just so excited and it also gives us an opportunity to connect with families that we may not get to see on a regular basis at the school you need to be talking about and doing the positive more than you're talking about and discouraging the negative and this is about accentuating the positive the positive of Noah the positive of tally middle the positive of Brandywine school district schools

082and the positive of who we are as delawareans it's truly inspiring to see so many people out police officers other First Responders coming out parents uh in the community and of course a lot of kids coming out Simply to say that no one is a safe place it's a place of Joy um and we're gonna do everything we can to keep it that way my plan is to release the responsibility to the middle schoolers so I would like like um you know organizing creating a flyer and then and then leading the community that's that's the next step we do have tentative dates set for the Claymont and tally staff to come out and um so yeah we've really grown a vast group of people that have come out and supported this we started with 20.

083we're now up to like 75 or 80. so it's a great initiative that was started by Dr deleterio and we're just here to support and continue to build the community [Music] Brandywine more than a collection of students schools we're a community that's why I'm proud to be BSD that concludes my report Mr President thank you Mr holler any comments or questions no hearing now we'll move on to our public comment period just a reminder um we asked that our speakers and audience members be courteous and respectful to each other this is not a q a or debate with the board this is your time to be heard regarding topics related to the Brandywine School District we have contact information and we can follow up with you as needed my understanding Miss Harris we do not

084have any Zoom comments this evening correct two speakers here in the room I'll introduce the first speaker if you come to the aisle and then I'll second speaker will be on deck our speaker is Nikki Ingram followed by Richard James good evening um I just want to say this is the first time I've ever attended a school board meeting and I am so impressed so thank you all I mean it's amazing you're doing wonderful things my question concerns um the book Banning that we've been seeing across the country and so what I wanted to know is are there policies in place so if a parent or teacher wants to have a book band are there processes that they have to go through if so what are their process what are the processes and if not

085is there a plan to get a policy in place and I'll sit and listen thank you thank you Mr and welcome to your first meeting we're glad to have you um have your contact information we can follow up with you accordingly but I will tell you that our BSD policy manual is online on our website if you wanted great thank you next up we have Mr James second final speaker hi thanks a lot um I had put on my comment um when they asked me for a topic rebuttal because I've been to a lot of school board meetings in the past couple of years but um I'm really happy that I have nothing to rebut because all I heard from the presentations was like great things gave me a lot of uh enthusiasm and hope

086for the next year of school operations I'm looking forward to what the teachers professionals staff and administrators going to accomplish I'm looking forward to the you know the introduction of a new school board member and you know continuing kind of improvement and the work that everybody does in this District to you know to take care of all the kids to make sure that everybody gets their measure of justice and the the you know the kids are taken care of so thank you I have nothing to rebut thank you Mr James that concludes public comment and we will move on to board member liaison reports starting with dsba executive board Mr Ackerman the dsba annual meeting was held on August 5th uh we honor two individuals at that time one was our retiring executive director Dr

087marinucci the other was our own Karen Gordon for her service to the Delaware School Board Association we did have a pretty good attendance our new executive director Dave tall seems to be off to a good start and we hope to continue to be a strong organization to help boards across the state thank you Mr Ackerman District finance committee was held last week I did not attend I was on vacation um I know that Ms floret will do the monthly financial report here shortly but I did have and up there I know some items are coming up later in the agenda and some of the conversation during the finance committee John Reed attended in order to present some items regarding certificates of needs and preliminary budget items so there was some discussion on those and I'll

088address the committee's response later in the meeting when they come up for discussion I think that was it regarding I know the next meeting is scheduled for I believe we're back on track uh should be September 13th at 5 00 pm at Mount Pleasant elementary also via Zoom um links will be posted on our website uh maintenance advisory committee Mr Heller yeah so we just met on August 8th at the district office and and the topic was primarily the certificate or Necessities that Mr Reed's going to talk about in just a couple of minutes but I did just want to highlight we talk a lot about the district finance committee I don't know how much awareness we bring about the maintenance advisory committee which is also a group of predominantly community members that meet monthly

089to talk about and look at all of the things that Mr Reed is going to be talking about tonight and and give their input and and help you know stay aware of what's going on in the in the buildings as far as maintenance and make sure that we're keeping them in the condition that they are and uh and talk about what the future path of the district is so just I don't know if we highlight enough about the General Community involvement and although we do so I just wanted to share about that committee thank you Mr Hall and my apologies Reverend Dickerson I know we're we continue to leave this on the agenda and we actually do have an update great thank you uh the parent and citizens advisory committee subcommittee met last week to

090discuss our upcoming school year invitations were sent to All building leaders where we requested principals to recommend at least two Representatives we also discussed the possibility of increasing that number um to at least three no more than five as we have had in the past uh the thought was to bill for sustainability and to accommodate attrition as families graduate and relocate we want it to be intentional about accommodating those families in addition to transient communities we will meet as a full parent and citizens advisory council at least four times this school year the first meeting being held on Thursday October the 12th at 5 30 p.m at Mount Pleasant elementary school our agenda will include the district an overview of the district success plan a safety update and an introduction to the referendum process our

091November meeting will Encompass a robust discussion focusing on the referendum process it's our intent to ensure that members of our BSD Community enter the process more equipped and able to make informed decisions as we move forward we're looking forward to expanding our subcommittee and therefore looking forward to meeting those families and parents that will represent their schools that concludes our update thank you Reverend Dickerson parent Council and students for students with disabilities Miss pigeon uh we haven't met over the summer and I would imagine that there'll be a meeting in October and that families will be receiving information from their building principles for to be nominated to the committee thank you Miss pigeon Wilmington learning collaborative update Robert Dickerson um I would ask if I could make one report under new business or sure um

092under new business under old business Excuse me yes certainly thank you uh 917 wmph met Monday July 24th I did not attend that meeting but I do have an update from Mr wishengrad uh summer break excuse me continuing hosted uh wmph hosted interns from the site program on June 27th uh through July 26 every Tuesday and Wednesday and each day two to three summer interns uh we're using wmph and learning Hands-On skills and you can see some of their activities on wmph.net uh on June 12th well that was our last meeting uh just recognized that we honored National journalism Award winners Brendan Smith who received an honorable mention Gemma calibria uh who got a third place in TV radio interview or podcast and Veronica we've got a first place in radio prepared report for their

093individual categories and high school communication Awards and that was the last of the updates and we do not have a date for our next meeting we'll be scheduled sometime in the fall and I will provide that date as soon as we have it and before I get to any additional board members or comments I know with the vacancy of Miss Gordon's seat as a board we need to kind of revisit our committee assignments and I know some of the changes we've made throughout the year Ms stock currently does not have an assignment and we need to um Shuffle Shuffle our responsibilities here so I'll send out um an email here by the end of this week if you could express your interest in committees we need to fill Miss Gordon's vacancy on the dsba legislative

094committee as well and again with all of our other individual obligations I think we can re redo that so I promise to get that resolved early September but look for an email from me uh early early this week an additional board member reports or comments yeah I just have a comment about that I would make a recommendation I don't know with the new policy that Mr Heller um brought forward to us um how we should do this but I think that we should re-enact or reinstate the communication work group thank you yeah and I guess to that point I meant to mention but then um think about these committees and what are you know some are required by uh statue like the finance committee what is ongoing what is a kind of continual uh Community

095Information type of committee and what committees for the policy have stated directives and kind of operate as long as that directive is being pursued and it kind of concludes upon its completion so if that's an interest of you the communications you know include that in your email kind of what the what the the direction of it would be and as far as ongoing uh we'll need to start thinking about as we start talking about referendums uh a committee for that that was that committee Communications did that yeah okay all right any additional uh board member reports comments all right thank you very much everyone um next up I will entertain a motion to approve the consent agenda second motion Miss stock second Reverend Dickerson all those in favor say aye aye any opposed motion carries

096um you have a motion to approve the monthly Personnel report as discussed in the exact session so moved second motion Mr Ackerman second is stock all those in favor say aye aye aye any opposed any abstentions abstain is Harris have a roll call please yes everything yes thank you Miss Harris do I have a motion to accept student matters as discussed in executive session so moved second motion Mr Ackerman second Miss stock all those in favor say aye aye aye any opposed any abstentions abstain was asked of roll call please yes abstain yes thank you Miss Harris that'll lead us into Old business um we went to learning collaborative revised mou and any additional updates yes um we have spent the last month or so onboarding our new executive director and she's actually here with

097us tonight Dr Laura Burgos uh if you would stand just so people can see you um we are excited to have her on board she will hopefully come before the entire body next month in a formal way and you will hear from her directly so I just want to thank acknowledge your presence and thank you for being here tonight um she we have spent the last week excuse me the last month ensuring that um Dr Burgos is uh the infrastructure of the leadership is in place and so with the help of our project managers Delaware State University and Empire schools they've been assisting with that process um and full of transparency it's been a a rocky Journey at times um just uh I think the perfect technology it was said that we are literally building

098a plane as we are on the plane and so um just challenges that come along with uh building new uh something with the new infrastructure so with that being said um I want to thank Dr Burgos for her patience and for um hitting the ground running she's already uh been fully onboarded by uh our HR project manager and um and his already her calendar's already becoming full ready um and and and technically having um I believe your few days in a weekend technically fully onboarded um and so uh she has been very open so if you do have any questions please feel free um to uh speak with her today if you would like if I'm not sure if you're going to be here by the end of the meeting but with that being said

099um as a collaborative we recognize that our existing mou was um was not sufficient for us to move forward and so uh board members what you have in front of you is the original uh mou with the the pages that are are to be changed or the specific areas that are to be updated you also have uh the revised draft mou to which we are asking you to adopt this evening um the first paragraph uh in the draft mou simply um says that we entered into weaving the three school districts entered into this agreement on November November 1st 2022. um it also states that uh recognizing that this agreement would be an ongoing living document to which we would need to update periodically now is being now being one of those times uh the third

100paragraph uh references it says section five but it should say section 8.1 um which is uh in the original agreement which is Page uh page 16 which we will We Will We Will reference and it essentially says um why we are asking for an amendment to the mou primarily being that initially the original mou states that the planning year would be 2022 to 2023. um because of a delayed um Council full Council setting and because of our um delay in getting and onboarding our executive director this does not give her a full year um to plan adequately and so we're asking uh each of the three districts to give us another year to give Dr Burgos a full year to um to plan and then commence the execution of that plan and so um and

101the one two three fourth paragraph uh again we were we did not fully see the entire board until uh February of 2023. uh page two on the revised document um it simply says that we are again um unable we were unable to meet the 2002 to 2003 planning year guidelines and so the next paragraph is our specific ass that we are asking this board to extend the planning year to 2023 to the end of um the 2024 Academic School year this will allow um the council to continue to build the infrastructure um some of the things that we needed to amend and put in place was um the vacancy Council vacancy policies our policies and procedures regarding procurement processes and our employee onboarding process and we also would like to have um a formal introduction

102to the the the larger Community as well and so the additional year allows us and permits us the time to do that uh section three two discusses the ambiguity of the voting members I did speak with our legal counsel concerning that and that is on page four of the revised uh mou the Amendments excuse me and it's the the print and bold all other all others shall be voting members and referred to as appointed wlc members and let me read it in context essentially it says that the three superintendents in three City school board members shall be voting members and be referred to as ex-officio wlc members um then it says all others shall be voting members and referred to as appointed wlc members the reason why I consulted our legal counsel is because we

103do have two student Representatives who are not voting members and so um as a council so we had not discussed that but that did arise today um in the last few days and so um for our Council it is assumed and so the verbiage does not need to be updated or changed at this time um the other changes the other change is and the vacancy and that later on in that paragraph um it's explicitly discusses the vacancy policy which for which there was none um in the in the original mou uh we as you all know uh one of our council members our work our red clay uh City Board member has vacated her seat and so we realized that we needed to uh accommodate contingencies for vacancies so um according with with that the

104other changes the other amendments are simply um grammatical and making aligning the year from 2022 um to 2023 changing that and aligning that with the extension deadlines foreign that concludes the updates are there any questions not a question but a comment I think you absolutely need the extra year for planning so I think this is a a great amendment I think I may have said that last month as well and I think it uh we need to have the runway to be able to make sure this is implemented correctly because if we don't get it right the first time there is no Second Chance on this account I'd like to move that we accept the superintendent's recommendation and approve the amendment with the adjustments that you indicated I guess is this is this the superintendent's

105recommendation or is this it says it is it's the recommendation of the superintendent the board approves the revised wlcmou that's in board docs thank you Reverend Dickens yes did um have the other school boards already voted they've had uh Christina did vote uh to approve the amendment I'm not sure about regulator they did yes very Clay did as well so I guess is this revised mou it says draft but it's this an mou or a draft of a forthcoming or like are we going to get a finalized version we would get so if the board votes tonight you would get a final version to start and my question this is um essentially the same that we reviewed last month just a different format yes yes this is the second read and could you touch on

106the piece again with the all other Shelby voting members so the verbiage in its context again the students included in the 12 were in addition Group Well the students there's one there's only one voting student so we actually have four team members but only 12. um actually vote and so we the students are staggered so that each district will have an opportunity to have a representative so it's just a point of clarification uh in one of the other sections it does reference that the student who is on the board and can vote can vote on everything except matters that would be handled in exact sessions yes right so uh they are a voting member but not in personnel student matters or legal matters things that would be discussed in executive session that's not spelled out

107in here because it references this particular section but in the preceding section I believe it was it spells out that that student member does not vote on those items we're putting this 3.2 students are not referenced we're just talking about the District or appointed members correct okay we have a motion for Mr Ackerman do we have a second any additional discussion I have a question um uh I guess so my question is an 8.1 and I know that it's in here in both drafts uh or both the draft and the original mou I guess it's just in context of um the language of it um I heard you mentioned that they're the woman learning collaborative team and hiring of additional staff is taking additional time um I guess my my thought regarding that language in

108the previous version was that the team was the um was the executive committee and the board and the Liaisons that are working for the district is that was that a misunderstanding on my part I'm sorry can you I I can you can you ask her a question again so my question is you had said that your the in section 8.1 the language um the reason for extension was that the executive director obviously has not been in place for a full year or will not be in place but then the Wilmington learning to collaborative team to be hired still that there's I guess my question is regarding additional employees that are going to be hired within the Wilmington learning collaborative yes so Dr Burgos will hire will have a staff um apart from the district Liaisons

109so the district Liaisons currently have other responsibilities uh within the district uh with the exception of one and so Dr Burgos will uh have her her own staff and will build her own team can we have do we know what how many that will be or what that will look like yet um we have a well yes uh initially but of course as time goes on we anticipate that will change and grow um anticipating that that we will meet goals and need to accommodate uh the the expansion and where will those units for Staffing come from um they will come from who are they reporting to is that your question well I guess where's the the funding how will the funding so the funding comes from the funding that the is allocated for the wlc

110okay so it's not coming from each well I guess it is coming from each district well the there will be a percentage uh the district will cover a percentage of the Liaisons but not the staff that funding comes directly from the wlc budget so we we know that Dr borgos will be hiring uh several individuals those positions capacities are still in consideration uh until those people come on board we knew it was going to be extremely uh necessary that someone with inside working knowledge of the district I.E the liaison be in support of the wlc work uh coming in not knowing the individual personalities cbas and all the complications that go along with each district an exorbitant amount of time would be spent trying to figure things out by having our Liaisons working with Dr

111borgos in this planning year and in my view probably a couple of years moving forward because there is a lot of work to be done will be extremely beneficial in moving the work forward that may make sense but the additional staff being hired would be hired through the wlc funds provided by the state okay well Mr Ackerman would you be willing to amend your motion and Miss stock ton the amendment to just clarify the correction on this draft where it says section five that should read 8.1 I believe my motion took that into account did I'm sorry you have a motion we have a second any additional discussion all those in favor say aye aye aye any opposed any abstentions motion cares thank you Reverend Dickerson uh next up Miss floray uh preliminary budget fiscal

112year 24. good evening you surprised me a little bit I presented the preliminary budget back in uh July for the first read so I'm happy to answer any questions or I can present again if you'd like any questions from the board regarding the preliminary budget no questions Miss Florida the District finance committee reviewed the proposed budget and um the other night at the meeting that is correct the district finance committee um reviewed the budget and unanimously approved moving it forward to the board do I have a motion to accept the fiscal year 24 preliminary budget so moved second motion Mr Ackerman second Reverend Dickerson any further discussion when will the final budget come back I would anticipate that would be December once we have our September 30th unit count information typically that would be December

113thank you the motion second all those in favor say aye aye aye any opposed any abstentions motion carries thank you Miss Flora uh new business just a brief update uh regarding Karen Gordon's vacant board seat um today at 4 pm ended the application window that's my understanding we have half a dozen or so applicants that have been uh submitted their information for consideration uh including the state requirements for fingerprinting and background checks I believe are in process just want to give the board in public and update on some of the next steps that we will go through um by the end of this week the board will receive the applicant's information cover letters letter of interest for our review each board member will work on some individual interview questions that they'd like to see at

114our September executive session uh we'll review the candidates for potential interviews and provide an update in our September public meeting towards the end of September we will schedule some interviews with the hopes uh early first week of October conduct those interviews allow time for second round the following week if necessary again in our October meeting an executive session have some discussion around the candidates and then make a recommendation and public vote in the October meeting um and then follow following completion of that you know announce uh make the public notifications on our social media as needed any questions from the board regarding our next steps well thank you very much uh Mr Reed I'll invite you back down again to talk about certificates of necessity good evening we got another slideshow um hope this is

115a short presentation there um what I'm presenting tonight is a certificate necessity request which is due to the Department of Education um at by the end of August and I require board approval to submit it next slide um as I said we've been working on this request for six to eight months I must have board approval to um submit it it's due to Doe by the 31st doe should respond back to us by October which doesn't always happen but hopefully October and then from then we have the ability to take this out for public approval next slide um in this phase we've already gone through the past but we're talking about Mount Pleasant elementary Mount Pleasant High School the site program inclusive playground and we do have to resubmit for Bush we have submitted Bush

116This will be time number six hopefully the sixth time is Magic um we have not been getting a yes or I know we've been getting silence so hopefully this time we will get a response on it next slide Mount Pleasant elementary 76.3 million dollars it's a full renovation portions of the roof are 91 years old um relocation of the main office will be moved to the back of the building Mount Pleasant elementary was designed when kids walk to school you'd walk up the front stairs of a school but right now Mount Pleasant elementary only has two handicapped entrances in the whole building if you go back to the back of the building a child in a wheelchair cannot get in the back of the building we are going to relocate the cafeteria to out in

117an area where the playground currently is the current gym will be turned over to just gym and we'll add windows that photo doesn't show it and another thing about Mount Pleasant elementary is the kindergarten rooms are half the size of what's recommended by Doe so if you go into a kindergarten room in Mount Pleasant elementary they're five to six hundred square foot go into any other building they're a thousand to twelve hundred square feet so it's a full renovation next slide please um the purpose of this color-coded drawing is anything that's in yellow is a new addition anything that's in Orange when we budget things we budget them based on what our scope will be in the space so at Claymont Elementary we spent 278 dollars a square foot since then construction costs have gone

118up by 25 percent so we've applied that to this budget but that's going in there new HVAC new roofs insulation new windows um basically there's a lot of old stuff in Mount Pleasant Mount Pleasant elementary and the site work as well the Terracotta pipes that take the rain water off the roof are undersized they were installed in 1932 and since then there's been 11 additions tying into those same pipes so during heavy rains the water comes back in the building because we can't get it out of the building next slide please as I said 91 year old roof and that slide in the Attic yes the building is Timber framed it's not steel and masonry it's Timber framed in the center portion of the building next slide Mount Pleasant High School original construction 1958. it's

119a full renovation lots of money being spent on utility work the high voltage runs through the athletic fields the sewer line is above the finished floor water lines there's some issues there but it's a full work up there Code Compliance um issued to the district from the Department of Education and by the state as a 147-page report of ADA violations Mount Pleasant High School was designed during the time people built split-level homes there are 10 classrooms in the school a child in a wheelchair cannot get to also we want to simplify the floor plan the lower level which is where we have ROTC we have classrooms used to be the district office for Mount Pleasant School District it has not been touched since then very groovy paneling still in place but we need to take

120the grooviness out of the lower level and actually build a straight hallway so students don't get lost because it is a little scary down there next slide please um once again a colored slide which I put on there sideways but if you could imagine if you turn that the green areas are additions the green area to the right lower side is an area that was labeled on the original Plants as the area to build the swimming pool they never built a swimming pool we want to take the kids out of the basement our music programs are thriving the the play Frozen is just a testament to how good the programs are at the school the choir room at Mount Pleasant High School is smaller than the choir room and half our elementary schools it's only

1211200 square feet if we move pre the music to where the pool was supposed to be it could double the size of the rooms and add programs rooms for programs which currently don't have a home but once again this building is based on square footage costs we went Wing by wing of the building putting down what we would do and what those budgets would be the school has 29 roof areas some of them only have an inch of insulation by new code we have to put on six inches of insulation which means all equipment needs to be moved up and through wall flashings need to be redone next slide once again the electrical equipment has a 35 year life it's 35 years old and that pump room you see there there are over a dozen

122of these throughout the building which are constantly pumping groundwater out of the building the building was built in a spring so it's really important to get the kids out of certain areas of the basement next slide please that little staircase that goes over a hump that hump is the sewer line the sewer line is higher than the floor of the building so on the lower level science level of the building there are no bathrooms that is a code violation there's 10 classrooms on the lower level with no bathrooms and a child in a wheelchair there is no elevator in that part of the building so child in a wheelchair can not get to that part of the building the issues at Mount Pleasant High School are big issues they're not simple little HD TV issues

123they are big issues next slide please inclusive playgrounds I can't tell you the amount of times or number of times I've been contacted by families that have met me at their elementary schools to say that my child can't get on a playground how dare you tell me that mulch is ADA Compliant yes playground mulch is considered 88 compliant tell that to a family with a child in a wheelchair that can't play with their friends this issue is hitting all our schools the budget here is for new playgrounds at eight of our schools because the ninth Elementary School would be included in Mount Pleasant elementary it's roughly six hundred thousand dollars per school but for each year the Project's kicked out we get five percent inflation or what is if that's any Testament to what this

124means to families this money is primarily going to pour it in place rubber pour it in place rubber surfaces was 14 a square foot four years ago it's now forty nine dollars a square foot so just doing the play surface at Lancashire is half a million dollars that's before you add equipment uh a lot of our equipment's in good shape will keep it but some of it needs to be added and also the industry is doing a lot better job for children in wheelchair we just installed some sample equipment and push like to have our teachers kick the tires um but this is just something when you go to our schools and you see kids that can't be with their friends that's why this is here um next slide please the site program skills for

125independent transition employment we are in a leased facility that we're paying a hundred thousand a year for it the facility does not meet our needs our teachers are doing a wonderful job but there are programs in other districts that are able to offer their store students more in the way of proper teaching we also have retail space there does anybody in the public know it we're buried in the Claymont Community Center we own valuable land on 202 the vision here is to rebuild on the site that is currently the Brandywine operations center if you go what used to be Pier One and you see a little parking lot next to it we own that parking lot we're in the middle of the retail Center of Wilmington what a better place what a billboard for the

126district to put our students out there where the public can come in meet our students and we can partner with local business come buy a cup of coffee we partner with brouhaha our copy center we partner of Staples so the idea is that this would look like four retail spaces but behind it would be one large classroom the other thing is is we need a commercial kitchen we cannot get that at the Claymont Community Center so our children can get their surf safe certificate to work in kitchens but this is this project is about Equity to meet what other districts have and as part of this project we would put technology and school nutrition on the second floor because they can work with the students on repairing devices and also um Colleen does work with

127these students in the kitchen and she hires these students next slide please and talk about Equity there to the left is a program in k-panel open doesn't that look like four to five retail spaces that's in Cape Penelope and right now that's what they built behind its one classroom to the right is our program at the Claymont Community Center uh vastly different uh next slide please um Sam's submission for Bush This is number six we've been cementing since 2018. the justification for bush has not changed but do we ask us to resubmit they ask us to resubmit in a year with 20 inflation on construction I sent this to an independent estimator to look at our estimate and they raised the estimate by eight million dollars so we are now requesting 61 million dollars they

128keep not responding the number keeps going up next slide please um to go through the numbers I know this is a very confusing spreadsheet I apologize but on the totals down the right hand side including Bush the total ask is 242 million dollars taking Bush out because that is a not a referendum project that is 100 state funded project the total ask would be 181 million that is a big number that is a scary number but that's in a um time when a high school a typical new construction High School is 220 million the three high schools going up right now um I don't know the exact number but last I heard application will be North 600 million and red Clays asked is somewhere around 270 million is in that neighborhood so our ask here

129is 181 million um and I'm asking tonight for approval to take this to the Department of Education and then we go from there any questions I have a question um so if my understanding is correct if we receive approval that does not mean that we actually have to get a referendum for either that full amount or at all on that project correct we can always what I'm presenting to the board tonight is the number to do it right we can always choose and we've had in the past had to make difficult decisions to Kick the Can down the road or leave it for somebody else but we went to Independent Architects engineers and estimators I have reduced the rest of it but this is the number to do it right if you want the roofs

130if you want everything this is the number and what is so scary about Mount Pleasant elementary is there was a Getty station that had a petroleum leak years ago and that petroleum is in the ground now denrick has given them a clear case but when we start digging you know if I'm like Jethro Bodine and find you know something in the ground we're going to have to deal with it and this budget was made to deal with what we could find in the ground that's my second question sorry my second question is like how do we make a renovate versus build new decision Mount Pleasant High School is a very well-built building if we were to build it new it'd be a hundred thousand square foot smaller by today's standards Mount Pleasant High School's rooms

131are generous and math room at Concord High School's 600 square foot a math room at Mount Pleasant highs over a thousand square foot it's also 23 Acres so there's no place to build it new Mount Pleasant elementary is approaching the number of new construction it is it's an old building we don't have the land in that theater pattern to build new or the ability to build nib um there is some historic significance to it we will make it great Harlan's great PS is great Mount Pleasant elementary was the same architect the same belter but in the 70s it was hit with a lot of bad design a lot of ugly design and Mount Pleasant elementary desperately needs some love to make it a great place because when you go in there it's kind of sad

132it doesn't meet our standard it's not like walking into Claymont but Claymont was an ugly building and when you walk in now it's pretty spectacular and that's the vision here it just unfortunately comes with a couple more zeros at the end of the price tag how will we deal with the students and when will the work be done at those at the Mount Pleasant e in Mount Pleasant High School Mount Pleasant High School we will build a band room first and that'll be our swing space working around high school kids shouldn't be that bad we did Brandywine high school over five Summers so the one thing about this referendum ask it's like an NFL contract we can kick the money out several years you build a new high school you need 20 100 or 220

133million dollars in one year this project is going to be five six years Mount Pleasant High School will not be that difficult Mount Pleasant elementary is going to be difficult we're going to need that swing space we're going to need that cafeteria and we're going to need a relationship with the community center next door which is not entirely full but on Mount Pleasant elementary when we build the cafeteria included in that cafeteria is about eight classrooms those are the larger kindergarten rooms that allows me to swing into other space but most of it's going to have to be done in the summer and that addition in the back is going to be tough it's going to be tough because we have to tear down the center of the building and build that addition but it

134can only be done with their relationship with the community center and some creative thinking as to how we'll get the traffic around and Mr Reed I think I mentioned during the liaison reports that you made this similar presentation to the district finance committee and did they have a recommendation to James hamby's here but their their recommendation was an approval and what can they do to help right same thing with the the maintenance committee what can they do to help no I mean I hear a lot of necessity half the size to um required of rooms required by Doe areas that are not accessible uh to physically challenged students 91 year old building need to bring things to code you know I I hope uh what's the old saying sixth time is the charm hopefully doe

135will will get it right um and make this approval who have a recommendation I have one last question um what was the consideration concerning Harlan um as we are looking to um I use Dr burgos's language make our wlc wlc schools Innovation hubs um I'm not sure that that currently meets the standard of uh as as we project it to be a an Innovation Hub um what was the thought concerning um improving or making improvements to the edifice um tonight I brought forward what we know about it doesn't mean that we can't go after other CNS um one of the things that I sat In This Very Room two years ago where the governor came in and said you know talked about how he's having to spend 140 million in Christina to bring their buildings

136up to code but because brandywine's done a good job with its buildings obviously we don't need to spend money here that was in December I was sitting back at that board um you know quite frankly a little angry Harlan's beautiful but as the governor spends money on Bancroft and buyered they're going to LeapFrog us and they're going to leave froggess in technology and they're going to leapfrogus the playground they're going to leapfrogress with equipment um I think that this is a conversation that we need to have with folks in Dover if they're serious about the city um schooling um Carlin's a beautiful School and it has Smart Boards it has safe technology it has HVAC that works if minor caps increased we can do a lot of things to keep up with it but we

137need change programs that's something that's above and beyond minor cap and as money went to Christina that they did not have to go to public vote on I'm hoping there can be some conversations around our schools in the city and red clay schools in the city but Harlan was not part of this ask because right now as we know the current programs Harlan is serving those current programs well is a clean building is a beautiful building and is a well-maintained building yes it's 91 years old but we spent 13 million on Harlan in 2003. and it was a good renovation that was 20 years ago I know do we have a motion to approve the recommendation for certificates of necessity so moved second motion Mr Ackerman second Mr Heller all those in favor say aye

138aye aye any opposed any abstentions did I miss one motion passes thank you Mr Reed monthly financial report for July 31st back again miss Florida good evening Mr President Mr Vice President members of the board members of the audience late at night um my back to school gift is that the monthly Finance report uh for July is very brief because there's only been one month of the fiscal year the only changes it does reflect in part the preliminary budget that was passed tonight and there's two places where you'll see um the transition from last year's budget to this year's budget to anomalies that are kind of reflective of the the changes in the budget on the revenue side it's very early tax bills only just went out in July so we don't have much local

139funds it's why that local funds ending balance is so important we're at 14 percent of sorry these are so hard to see 14 of local funds received on the state side uh 75 percent of State discretionary funds received 87 percent of State categorical funds received so for a total revenue received of 59.4 percent just about um just over halfway um or half for the first month of the fiscal year so revenues are on track on the expenditure side and they will certainly um they will certainly track through um ever so slightly again for August and then we'll have a pretty much um some people pay their tax bills early so September is where we see even though they're not due till September 30th September so we'll see some come in and then the full um

140the full tax payments in October so it's why we watch very closely as we get through September what that ending balance is the two yellows oh thank you for blowing it up the two yellows on there are reflected they're not really overages that we can laugh at the superintendent for once being over budget it's not really the case um that is a prior year expense and same with uh the ironic thing the other one is business office we created it in the budget uh line called right below that called district-wide services for things like copiers for things that were truly expenses across the district that was a new line and so as folks were coding things at the start of the year they were kind of coding it in old ways and so this is

141just catching up so you'll see that corrected next month where that district-wide Services expenses will be reflected only 10.3 percent obligated for July obviously people were starting up the school year and getting things ready for uh the start of school but nothing that would be concerning at this time tuition funds 8.92 expended and then of course on the Federal fun side much lower 7.35 because we don't get the new federal funds until um typically until October the last one that we talked about was Prior year and Esser funds we are now coming into I think as John said the very last year of Esser funding sr2 will end on 9 30 of this year there's only 200 000 left um and in s or three there is 7.5 million left so we're in that last

142year of spending in this um in this category and Reporting on that and that is a large part of the conversation on the referendum not only did our local funds balance decline but with the referendum those things that we've been funding out of Esser that funding source will no longer be available so those two combined together lead to the the timing of a referendum which we'll talk about once we know I think there are always a lot of questions on the CN once we know how much is the CN in the budget presentation I said our debt service tax rate is going to go down by 14 cents over the next 10 years and so what that interplay is based on that number based on where we haven't anticipated ending balance and where we need

143to be those two pieces would come together for discussion in the fall to bring to the board for total referendum uh number if um knock on would if we hear positive news from the state on our CN submission the other thing I will say is that there was a very robust discussion at the finance committee this month a lot of it was on the CM the application process um you know renovation versus new construction and then the committee also did review the preliminary budget as well as approve the monthly financial report and I know just from time to time I'd like to mention for anyone new to the district or new tuning into our meetings so in the beginning when you mentioned the revenue bills going out in July so we don't get much revenue

144last month we had our carry forward balance that that's you know not money that we were under budget but it carries us through July August September until we receive our new funding absolutely it's critical funding in order to get through because employees are on 26 pay and so each each month there's payroll continues and so you can't end the year with zero dollars until you don't get your funds until October exactly thank you do have a motion to accept the monthly financial report for July 31st subject audit Miss pigeon motion uh Miss stock second all those in favor can I ask a question absolutely my notice on the balance as of June 30th the top number is 6 million but then underneath it's 8.8 million 8.8 million is the target is what the committee has

145always looked at as what we need 6 million that's our trigger that's why we're saying we need a referendum that is our estimate estimate estimated ending balance for June 30th um and if that should happen there's certainly the reserve which would trigger going to referendum it's all kind of anticipating that early but the 8.8 was the target the 6 is the estimate okay it'd be good to kind of call that out a little better because it just it's the numbers just there I don't see where it ties back which one is which sure it's a good point thank you great so we have a motion and a second and miss pigeon do you want to amend that motion for the you know clarification on the 8.8 to be noticed the stated that but yeah so

146we have a motion to accept the monthly financial report for July 31st subject to audit and with the clarification for the 8 million uh projected versus or the 8 million Target versus The Six Million projected and Miss stock do you still second that yes I do just a second any further discussion all those in favor say aye any opposed any extensions motion carries okay thank you Miss Laurie and Miss McIntyre memorandum of agreement with local 2151 good evening president scrollbot Vice President Heller members of the board I am before you seeking approval for a one-year contract extension between the Brandywine School District Board of Education and local 3151 of the American Federation of State County Municipal Employees AFL-CIO County of Newcastle and state of Delaware um I would like to thank Ms floret for working

147with me with this Union our maintenance Workers Union specifically Mr Chris costelli president Mr Rodney day vice president and Council 81 staff representative Christopher Ware as we did reach an agreement to extend their contract for one year and the union voted to ratify to accept the four percent local salary increase and to keep all existing language in the contract for one additional year commencing July 1st 2023 through June 30th of 2024. the one-year contract extension does provide an understanding of salary benefits and working conditions that will exist between the parties and it is the superintendent's recommendation that the board approved the new provisions of the one-year contract extension between the Brandywine School District Board of Ed and local 3151 of the American Federation of state county Municipal Employees AFL-CIO County of Newcastle and state of

148Delaware just to clarify I had 2151 maybe I had an earlier draft but 31 51 is the correct local number yes okay any additional comments or questions for Miss McIntyre it is the maintenance local salary appendix is that the new schedule what the changes with the four percent it is okay thank you yes you're welcome and my question was also um on that appendix so that appendix shows only the local share is that correct and what is what is the split yeah versus state I don't have the state portion with me Joe I don't know um that is three percent what do you mean they're in the state increases yes I'm sorry yes oh I was there I'm sorry I was asking what what's the state portion of the salary for this group are you

149asking for the 1647 so it's the four percent is on the local side the state already approved a three percent is that what you're asking not on the increase so this um so I think this schedule is showing our total the the local contribution to the salary right what is the state contribution yeah we can send that to you I can work with the payroll office to get that to you varies based on positions so it's just so basically it's just it's not an even correct like 30 70 splitter okay no we have a motion to accept the superintendent's recommendation for approval second of a motion Miss Dickerson Reverend Dickerson and second Mr Heller any further discussion all those in favor say aye aye any opposed any abstentions motion carries thank you Miss McIntyre everyone

150involved on all sides general information and meeting dates uh our next regular board meeting will be Monday September 18th followed by the October meeting October 16th and the November meeting November 13th all here at Brandywine High School any final comments or questions from the board hearing none I thank everyone for your time and participation and attention this evening I will entertain a motion to adjourn so moved second motion was at my stock and second by Reverend Dickerson all those in favor say aye aye aye any opposed motion carries we are adjourned thank you everyone