Brandywine School District Board of Education Meeting - May 8, 2023

001good evening everyone welcome to Brandywine School District's Board of Education regular meeting tonight is Monday May 8 2023. we are live the great one High School auditorium certified by Zoom broadcast Miss Paris map please have a roll call here thank you for the stars I love the song I'd like to ask for everyone Perry to lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance this time I'll entertain a motion to approve the Stevens agenda second in a second all those in favor say aye aye opposed parents start off with our high school reports beginning with Concord High School Muhammad Newton and Mira Brad McGeary good evening board members and Brandywine School District community members my name is Mira ratnagiri the treasurer of Concord High School's student council and I'm accompanied by our secretary rashiel Patel since the

002last board meeting Concord has been very involved in raising funds and building communities so that we can finish this year strong last meeting our president Muhammad and vice president to seeing gave a president presentation on our achievements throughout the year today we will be pleased to inform you of our Contin continuing efforts of our students staff and community so our interact Club held another successful blood drive last week in partnership with the blood bank of Delaware and we had over 40 staff members and student volunteers donating blood our interact Club also sold be positive shirts to support the our community fundraiser towards the organization and spread awareness for this cause they donated a profit of 205 dollars to the B positive organization in addition to the interact Club our boys and girls lacrosse team chose

003to donate their ticket sales from the game against Brandywine to the B positive organization combining the profits from ticket sales and the 80 plus t-shirt sales our lacrosse teams have raised 1 313 dollars towards fighting Childhood Cancer speaking of fundraising our fundraising efforts have truly been a community Endeavor having our students and staff reach out to their families and friends to help us reach our goal and bring as much awareness as we can towards this organization we give our special thanks to Charcoal Pit for donating 10 of their revenue from our event on April 13th to Concord High School's team in a fundraiser organized by our president Muhammad we are also pleased to announce that charcoal pits owner Louis capano was so moved by our school's effort that he offered to personally donate two thousand

004five hundred dollars to our team as well the donation from charcoal pit fundraiser and Mr campano's donation are both currently being processed and will be shown on our bsdfest website soon including those donations Concord has raised almost seven thousand dollars for the B positive organization on behalf of our joint student council consisting of all three high schools our district goal of bringing Community together has culminated an event called BSD Fest held on Saturday May 13th from 10 to 2 at Brandywine High School this event will be free of cost to attend there will be food trucks field and carnival games ranging from cornhole to bounce houses there will be a QR code and a link to sign up on the last slide we invite you all and your families to come out enjoy a day

005full of games and food and activities in addition to the fun we will be having a speaker from the B positive organization join us on that day as well as be positive Heroes who are able to beat cancer through the help of this organization before Rochelle continues our updates within Concord and plans for next year since this will be my last time speaking I would like to take a moment to thank the District board and Community for giving me this opportunity and experience with public speaking as for my plans for next year I'm happy to announce I'll be attending the University of Pennsylvania to attend to study mechanical or bioengineering congratulations to Mira on that amazing achievement I know you will do great things in life before I do uh before I get too emotional

006about these guys graduating let's get back to school updates for teacher appreciation week this week our students have come together to write kind messages for each of their teachers which are displayed for them to see each day the teachers will be receiving a treat today it was pretzels provided by the administration team tomorrow will be pastries and donuts provided by our interact club and food trucks for teachers later in the week May 1st was a good English next time May 1st was the last day for National Honor Society members to turn in their hours and we can proudly say that NHS alone has summed up a total of 3503 hours for this Academic Year I want to thank our NHS officers for this year who made it all possible in the slide from left to

007right they are tessina Khan Mira radnagiri here Jack Hanlon ashiana Patel Mario tool and Nicholas Henry the NHS also had a busy week last week as they held elections for next year's officers and held their induction ceremony in which 69 new members joined the organization I am also proud to announce that this year our students have expressed their school spirit at the student run school store our store sold a total of 16 826 dollars of conquered gear this year which goes to show how effective Concord has been at building a sense of community and belonging many more seniors have committed to their colleges which include prestigious schools such as the University of Virginia Stanford University and the University of Michigan our seniors are going into a wide variety of Majors ranging from Fashion merchandise to

008intelligence analysis to elementary teacher education as this is the last board meeting of the year at least for us we want to thank the people who support and guidance were essential to our successes this year we thank our student council advisors municipality and Dr Royster Ms Brody stayed up many nights editing editing documents at 2 A.M and juggling so many different roles as a staff member that we've lost count Dr Royster with his uras and incentive field trips never let our energy dampen we also thank our miss our principal Mr Mayor who helps support us with school resources whenever we needed them and inspired us to handle our business as he says we could not have done any of this without Miss Davis our joint student council coordinator who kept us on track and handled

009the district side of the business for a three uh school student councils last but not the least we tank our district board members for giving us the opportunity to respect represent our school student body and gain valuable leadership experience moving forward into next school year Concord hopes to not only live up to the legacy of this year's student council but also do even better while Mira tasin and Muhammad are all graduating this year I'm running for the presidential student council and if I do get elected and if I stand at this Podium again I want to talk about even more Club involvement even more community building and community service about many more academic and athletic achievements and even district-wide projects like BSD Fest as we close our last speech of the Year Concord student council

010hopes to amaze you again next year with even more news to update all of you on thank you also uh you can scan that QR code if you want to sign up to go to BSG Fest it's uh Brandywine High School 10 a.m to 2 PM May 13th this Saturday any questions I would just like to say to the because we're doing I do feel like you were somewhat running your election speech campaign campaigning while you're up there which is phenomenal use of your time um but I also want you guys to know that you really have elevated the board meeting and the professionalism of our students coming to our board meeting and thank you for taking it seriously and um for all that you've done and it sounds like you guys are doing great

011things at Concord and I really like the depth and detail of your presentations so um thank you for doing that and I hope you get to continue doing them too thank you for the opportunity to do that I think the numbers that you shared were way impressive um in any economic environment but certainly the one that we're in now the fundraising dollars that you as the group have pulled together is you should be commended um I appreciate that you gave a list of people that you were thanking um I want to add to that list thank you the students and student leadership for pushing your peers to be so engaged in the community and to do good things and partner with great organizations like being positive and everything else that you all have done throughout

012the year so um hats off to you great job thank you all right thank you very much next up we have Mount Pleasant High School Dylan Kim and may Wong uh good evening Mr President Mr vice president Mr superintendent Brandywine School District board members and members of the brand new and School District Community my name is Dylan Kim and I'm the student council president of Mount Pleasant High School uh there the JROTC events robotics team recently returned from their trip to Dallas Texas having competed in the Vex worlds championship at the JROTC national championship both gay and G teams did an amazing job with the k-team winning the sportsmanship award at the JROTC competition their sense of professionalism and sportsmanship and competition represents Mount Pleasant High School as competitors of character and we are very

013proud to have them bear the title of Green Knight the black student union and girls in power clubs hosted their Greek step showcase a couple step a couple weeks ago it's a cultural event meant to be both educational and engaging there were various black sororities and food trucks represented at the event uh some of them included Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority Incorporated Delta Sigma Theta Sigma gamma rho and Omega sci-fi students and staff performed as well along with a DJ and 50 person Drumline as the grand finale there was a photo booth as well which looks stunning there were alumni that attended connecting the tradition throughout the years and they even had an amazing turnout we'd like to thank the BSU and girls in power for their continued dedication to Bringing awareness to the wonders of

014African-American culture to our community as you wrap up our year AP and rb107 held our students I had mine today among these tests during the month of May there are a lot of end of Year celebrations Avid had a senior celebration last Wednesday the general TC program will have its award banquet and Senior recognition event tomorrow night and the music program will have its Awards dessert this Wednesday I wish the bet you wish the best of luck to our AP and IB students on the exams as always for the last time this year for Mount Pleasant High School Community would like to thank our principal Miss Lacy our student council advisor Ms herskowitz Ms Davis our joint student council advisor and the for the entire Community for giving me my myself and my team to

015lead these wonderful bright men and women uh it's truly been a pleasure to work with the community this year and I'm part of the progress we've all made uh thank you we're open to questions at this time fantastic report Dylan thank you um I know this will be the same for Brandywine as it was for Concord you I appreciate the thanks that you did to your student advisors and building leadership I know that you know they're great hands and Minds that are guiding you along but I also want to thank you all as the students for pushing those administrators and teachers with the ideas and work that you're doing and the things that you're bringing forward is is really pushing them as well so thank you thank you thank you Don thank you and last

016but certainly not least brandywine's High School Evan Gantt hello uh good evening board members and BSD Community my name is Evan Gann and I am Brandon High School student council president and I am here to provide Brandon High School student report for May uh with spring Sports season ending soon I felt that it'd be uh appropriate to start off with a summary of how spring sports are doing so with baseball is ending on the 20th with their next game on the 11th against Newark High School and a current record of five and eight uh golf is ending on the 16th but they're gonna be making it to championships that extend onto the 23rd the next game is on the 9th against William Penn for the current record of six and seven boys lacrosse is ending

017on the 19th with their next game on the ninth which is their senior night uh against AI Dupont with a current record of two and seven girls LaCross is ending on the 10th with a final game against Christiana a current record of six and seven girls lacrosse is ending on the 15th their next game on the 10th against Tattnall and a current record of 10-2 which is very impressive softball is ending on the 17th with their next game on the 10th against Del castle for the current record of six and seven Boys Tennis is ending on the 16th with their next game on the 10th against archmere and their current record Being six and three girls tennis is ending on the 16th with their next game on the 11th against Saint Marks of the current

018record of six and four track and field ended on April 25th with a record of six and two and they're gonna be continuing through the Championships until May 20th and then lastly boys volleyball ended on the fifth with a record of five and ten and we want to thank and show appreciation for all the students participating in the sports at Brandywine uh next we have which will be uh acknowledged later on brandywine's engineering teams were recognized as a national finalist by Samsung Saul for tomorrow competition um which is a very big thing I think I just wanted to acknowledge the kind of thing that they did it's really impressive um Brandon's promise coming up uh Brandywine is receiving donations and asking for volunteers for the production of 2023's after prom which is occurring that and

019the prom on May 27th uh brand new one just finished up their most recent targeted freshman honorary ceremony which is meant to reward freshmen's for good grades good Athletics good behavior and it allowed for over 100 freshmen to be acknowledged with rewards and certificates at these events um Brandywine Spring Fling and spirit week has recently concluded with another successful pep rally which is the third for the year and a successful dance on Saturday night and we want to get profits to brandywine's class of 2025 for bringing it all together and organizing to turn out um the leaders of The Pact of Brandywine is wrapping up their Year's work with concluding the um final touches for the Committees of school spirit school slogan and community service and they're retiring up recommendations going into the next year

020to allow to be a smooth transition and then final promotion since the district work uh the BSD Fest is occurring on May 13th 10 to 2 uh fundraiser for B positive organization and we hope all of you can attend and come and then lastly since it's fitting we wanted to thank Miss Reggio as well as everyone involved in student council the class offices and the Committees that allow for all the individuals who desire to make Brandywine a better place become a thing and we found a at the last board meeting to be the time to show recognition that's all so I'm hoping for questions um Evan two questions my first is what are brandywine's plans to increase that donation from to compete with conference like do you know any plans in the works to get

021that note out oh with the time frame unfortunately there isn't much that we can do in terms of making a massive jump but we hope to increase the amount of promotion that we have for the um event to allow more people to still be involved to some extent with the BSD Fest and to be just spraying awareness for the organization as well so even if our donation amount isn't as much as concord's extremely impressive height we still want to be able to allow for some kind of impact being made by a Brandywine so what will uh that's undecided from my understanding there is oh okay there is and then I'm sorry if you mentioned this but did you tell us that if you have plans after high school oh yeah I will be attending University

022of Delaware to study exercise science thank you one last comment um I'm looking forward to Brandywine Fest as well and um not to show any bias because it's all going to the same cause but I think the Brandywine High School class of 92 has a couple dollars left in their account that would be uh looking to donate to the cause I'll catch up with you sometime this week if not at the Fest we love to take what you have yeah you have you have two members of the class of 92 on the board so yeah and I'm not sure anyone's noticed throughout you know the really special group of student leaders and watching the exchanges between the schools of handshakes and pats on the back and just the level of collaboration and cooperation and support

023they've given each other it's pretty pretty impressive so congratulations thank you and that will lead us to High School reporter special recognition presented by Dr cutch and Mr Rivera members of the board superintendent hauler how impressive for our high school reporters this year our board reporters took the time each month to solicit student voice and share the students impact on our community they organized information from clubs organizations Athletics and then presented it publicly in a very professional manner and with personality sometimes it was evident that they took their responsibility responsibility very seriously to our student reporters I know this for sure each of you strengthened our community by presenting the impact of student voice and the power of student leadership you also assist there are district leadership team and making more informed decisions to improve

024the education and the experience of all students in BSA and finally you represented you represent the best of what it means to be a Bernie mine Bulldog conquer radar greater and a Mount Pleasant night since this is the last board meeting of the school year for student presentations I asked for all the student reporters to come back onto stage at this time I'm going to read the names of any of the reporters who had presented throughout the year they may or may not be here tonight from Brandywine high school we want to recognize Evan Gantt Bobby Bare and Grace Tower from Concord High School we have Mira rotten Gary Rochelle Patel Mohammed Newton and tasina Khan and from Mount Pleasant High School Dylan kin and Mei Wang collectively you have set the bar high for

025next year's reporters we hope that this experience helped build your own confidence and Leadership skills we wish the seniors continued success in college next year job very well done it says certificate of special recognition and that has a student's name is awarded for this certificate a special recognition for being in this case for anyone High School's School Board reporter for the 2023 school year then it's signed by our superintendent and board President congratulations foreign business Professionals of America known as BPA is a Career and Technical student organization that develops and empowers student leaders to discover their passion and Change the World by creating unmatched opportunities and learning professional growth and service we would like to congratulate tonight P.S DuPont Middle School's business Professionals of America chapter on their winning achievements at the 2023 BPA National

026leadership conference and Anaheim California wow this occurred from April 26th to April 30th and historic 6500 students competed at this event which consisted of 25 States and Puerto Rico as well as an international presence from China Haiti and Peru all seven members of the PS DuPont chapter ranked in the top 10 of one or more of the competitive events nationally yeah how about that as a result they walked across the national stage in front of a live audience while being live streamed nationally and internationally to proudly receive their medals and I know I saw a bunch tonight and they brought them with them so I love all that bling could Heidi Corbin and Megan Davis please come to the stage and help us present some certificates these two fine ladies traveled across the country with

027their team thank you so much for doing that oh and I saw Dr Tartaglione in the audience tonight what'd you come up to that would be fantastic okay now I'll be announcing the students one by one what we would like for you to do is just come across the stage we'll hand you a certificate and we'll be able to get a nice picture our 8th grade students rajat baskaran who was president this year come on up I know be careful don't hit anybody in the head with those medals my goodness Minaj Suresh who is vice president this year Megan Lee secretary Nikita Iyer treasurer Aisha Adelaide parliamentarian Abigail Wang and our seventh grader Psy durasala let's give these students a nice round of applause for representing us on the national stage thank you Dr coach

028thank you Dr taglio thank you parents thank you any staff members that are watching this because we couldn't have done it with all of you and we really thank you thank you thank you no thank you hey at this time could Dr Wagner please come to the stage again next I can each year the Delaware advisory Council on Career and Technical education recognizes individuals who have made outstanding contributions to Career and Technical education otherwise known as CTE last week Dr Judd Wagner was recognized as one of those individuals for the entire state of Delaware here are some of the words they used to describe Dr Wagner Dr Judd Wagner is an exceptional educator who has dedicated himself to empowering his students and fellow teachers in the fields of science technology engineering and Mathematics as a

029Career and Technical education and science CTE presidential award-winning teacher he has worked tirelessly to inspire his students to pursue to pursue careers in stem and equip them with the knowledge and skills needed to succeed in the workforce his passion for teaching and his subject matter is evident in the outstanding results achieved by his students you'll hear a little bit more later tonight many of whom have gone on to pursue successful careers in STEM related fields he actively contributes not only to his building but throughout his district and the state leading initiatives such as K-12 stem programming physics curriculum writing and CTE planning making him a beloved and respected member of the education community on behalf of the board Judd congratulations well done don't go anywhere wow this is a big deal Brandywine High School named

030National finalists in the Samsung solve for tomorrow stem competition so you've heard the word we've shared and spread this word many of you have been voting online thank you so much as you most know that they the Brandywine High School engineering team has been named as one of Penn National finalists in the Samsung cell for tomorrow stem competition as part of their application process they had to submit a video they designed it they wrote it all their ideas we would like to share with you their video they created that captures all that they were able to do so at this time we'd like to play the video Isis like the function appearance to allow those with physical disabilities to control appliances but however he's being cost prohibited for those quantity is huge and in fact

031I pray everything is so expensive with just everything the markup on every product is last year the critical challenge decrease ability in the U.S with that in mind and throughout some ideas focused on a small and easy accessible questions however schools aren't the only place there's some kind of disability and some level um we know that we don't have to give out that healthy evacuation engaged lifestyle and student searches um really helped to make that happen before your design as they're moving that projects by creating a device that can be easily assembled benefit people at 10 000. for example transition and employment programs that is employable skills if anyone would remember the right model social media technology this is an incredible honor and accomplishment and no matter which team is chosen is number one this

032team will always be number one to us please join us on the stage Thomas bear no effect a non-john a run Christian Marty and Gabriel post okay now next week these gentlemen will be traveling to Washington DC for the last part of the competition in which they will find themselves on stage making a pitch around their products we thought it would be a great idea to provide them an opportunity to make a pitch now to you all to the board for your feedback before they're off and running in Washington so at this time I give it over to our Brandywine team thank you good evening everyone my name is Noah fake my name is Anna John my name is Thomas bear I'm Arun krishnamurti and I'm Gabriel post and we are the Brandywine High School

033Samsung saw for tomorrow team firstly we'd like to give a big thanks to Dr Michelle Kutch for arranging for the opportunity for us to present tonight and we'd also like to give a big shout out to The Talented Mick Austin for all of her wonderful work behind the scenes so we've all been in school together for 12 years and we came up throughout the same Brandywine School District programs we all started together in kindergarten at Mount Pleasant elementary school in the gifted program and we continued with that program at Claymont Elementary School and PS DuPont Middle School and finally this culminated in US completing our four years here at Brandywine High School three of which included the design and Engineering pathway so we've all been participants in this tightly woven Learning Community for two-thirds of

034Our Lives so this is where we came from and this is where we're going Noah is committed to the University of Maryland to study Physics Anand John is attending MIT for electrical engineering and computer science Thomas is attending the University of Delaware to study mechanical engineering Arun is attending the University of Pittsburgh to study civil engineering and I'm attending the Stevens Institute of Technology to study environmental engineering so we would like to start by taking a trip to the John G leech School in the colonial School District which inspired us to change some lives let's take a look this is Frank Hughes Frank specializes in adaptive physical education and he's constantly finding ways to engage his students through allowing them to play sports let's take a look at what may Ling is doing mailing is

035playing baseball as you can see she's reaching for an assistive button low-cost buttons like these can be as complicated as a puff and sip switch or really as simple as connecting two pieces of aluminum foil her assistive button is connected to an interface box which can also be connected to an appliance the appliance that she is currently manipulating is a corded leaf blower when she manipulates the leaf blower it propels a baseball to simulate Mei Ling hitting a ball in the sport it is also worth noting that there is a duplicate system and quite a few of them around the room to boot that provides the same function as mailing system and allows Mr Hughes to include all his students in concurrent participation without having to take down setups like mailings right here so let's

036take a look at how this core device works here it can plug into a wall which is how it gets power from any ordinary Outlet and it has switches that allow the user to control the function and the duration that it's on for there's also Outlets which allow you to plug in any common household device and an AUX Jack which allows you to connect a button like the one may Ling was using which and these buttons are adapted for people with all levels of Mobility this is a great product however it costs three hundred dollars Mr hughes's program is well funded so he's able to provide these for all the students in his classroom but when they go home it's a different story this cost barrier makes it very difficult to do these same tasks

037they do in school when they're at home last Academic Year we were inspired by the work of Mr Hughes and other Educators who pushed the limits of assistive technology to create affordable alternatives to this product and we tested them in real world environments the problem that we failed to recognize at the time was it wasn't the high cost of multiple devices rather it was the practicality of actually manufacturing our devices on such a large scale that it would actually meet the demand realistically to illustrate this point further let's do some quick back of the napkin figures so using using uh the Brandywine School District as a guide to meet the demands of every student with a disability within the school district we would need to produce about a thousand units our designs from last year

038would have taken maybe a week to make one to make one of these so it's taken about a week um this year this is our short-term goal so the Brandywine School District makes up about 114 of the population of all K-12 students in the state so in order to meet the needs of every single student with a disability in the state we would have had to make 10 000 units which is our long-term goal however we're not limiting ourselves to just these two goals when we were presenting our project at the University of Delaware last fall we were able to meet a variety of new people one of those people was Diane Massey who is the director of Outreach and engagement at Kendall corporation which is a corporation that runs senior living facilities she helped

039us realize that our project should have an impact well beyond what we originally thought as she told us we may age and we all may age in some kind of disability so products like ours are needed so that we can still maintain our healthy active and engaging lifestyles with this in mind we realize that our Target population was the 6.4 percent of delawareans uh adults with independent living disabilities which brings us to our stretch goal of 360 000 units so with this in mind we had to go right back to the drawing board where we had to solve this issue of scale so to begin with we chose to change our design so we only use very commonly used electronics to further decrease the cost of our products and we also designed a printed circuit

040board so not only did this decrease the footprint of our product it also increased its manufacturability this is as we could now tap into the highly efficient world of PCB Manufacturing and so we could now uh create a high volumes of pcbs for a very low cost like so and and with that in mind we now needed to create a robust enclosure for our device but we needed the material we used to be sustainable and plentiful so for that we turn to um leftover PVC so over 7 billion pounds of PVC are discarded every year and so by upcycling this waste we're hoping to decrease its impact on the environment to help us achieve our goal of 10 000 units and eventually 360 000 units we created a partnership with the site program an established

041manufacturing program within our school district that helps 18 to 20 22 year olds with student with special needs gain skills and confidence our partnership with site will assist us with assembly packaging and distribution our aacu is a seamless substitute for the interface box so individuals and classrooms that already have one will not have to make any accommodations to replace it with our aacu our transition to mass manufacturable products allows us to produce them with for less than twenty dollars on 93 reduction in the current market product secondly our transition away from soldering 3D printing and coding allows an easier assembly thank you for letting us share our story and help kids like Jojo make more home loans any questions or comments from the board I'll just comment and say that shark tank is one of

042my absolute favorite shows and I think you guys would rock it if you were to appear online thank you congratulations on a phenomenal product and um I look forward to seeing the results next week thank you fantastic presentation very poised polished you guys have it down pat you know what fantastic work that you're doing and you know touching on all the boxes and the costs environmental you know helping you know in order to change the world you gotta you know change your community bringing in the local resources and groups to help fantastic thank you thank you yeah may I also just say um thank you so much to the board and or to the School District administration and not so long ago um these Pathways were created and I know that there was a lot

043that went into the planning of the pathways and to make sure that they were meaningful Pathways for our students and so um thank you to The District administration and to Michelle and to everybody else that's been involved to see the vision of these Pathways so that the students could have these opportunities because as you can clearly see the development of the pathway led to them being able to use the building blocks to get to this point so they probably wouldn't have been able to get to this point obviously without the three years of instruction probably plus even a fourth year in Dr Wagner's classroom of AIDS yeah I just wanted to say excellent presentation um thank you also just for um acknowledging um the history of what you've learned in the district starting in kindergarten

044at Mount Pleasant um PS DuPont and of course um at Brandywine High um thank you so much for just representing both the district as well as really the state of Delaware you guys have done such a such a wonderful job and I know that your families and your teachers and your friends are are very proud we certainly are very proud of you too and of course this doesn't happen um without somebody like Dr Wagner and Dr Wagner you illustrate and you do what good teachers do you teach you set the standard and then you get out of the way so thank you so much as evidence that you are letting them do the presentation you're letting them take over so thank you so much Mr scroll about if I could add uh earlier this evening

045we had the opportunity to thank about retirees that have given a life of service and and during that event I use the following quote from Dr Martin Luther King Jr somewhere along the way we must learn that there is nothing greater than to do something for others how that saying resignates with the mindset the self the serving of others versus self mentality of these young men men's competition we learned somewhere along the way we learn the five of you have taught everyone in this audience a valuable lesson thank you for thinking of others and using your talents and services just want to say thank you again Dr Wagner thank you again team good luck to all of you in Washington D.C next week we are rooting for you what's up Miss McIntyre Mr worker good

046evening Mr scrobot President of our board Jason Heller vice president all of our awesome board members superintendent holar and all of our guests remaining in the audience and online it is my distinct privilege to celebrate one more group this evening and they are a group of Staff members uh in the Brandywine School District that just do outstanding things in a myriad of ways I'm going to invite some principals up to share briefly some of the highlights of what they have done in their respective roles and contributions I'd like to start with Mr Matt Auerbach principal of Mount Pleasant elementary school and would you please help me also to welcome Suzanne Banker she is the elementary teacher of the year from Mount Pleasant elementary school well let me first start off by saying happy Teacher Appreciation

047Week to all of our phenomenal teachers in the Brandywine School District super super excited to celebrate Teacher Appreciation Week at Mount Pleasant elementary and I know throughout the district greetings Board of Education superintendent holder parents students and other esteemed guests my name is Matthew Auerbach and I am the principal of Mount Pleasant elementary school I have the honor tonight of publicly naming Mount Pleasant Elementary's 2023 recipients of our teaching Award winners first Miss Jessica Smith was the recipient of our educator support professional award Jessica Works in Mount Pleasant's emotional support program and she has done so for nearly five years she works diligently daily to change the trajectory of the lives of the students she works with unfortunately Jess could not be here tonight but I wanted to at least recognize her for the hard

048work that she puts into her job each and every day thank you Miss Smith next we have Miss Denise buffin who is the recipient of mpe's behavioral health professional of the Year award Miss buffman is also unable to attend this evening's event but again I felt the need to let everybody know how impactful nurse buffin is simply put she is our Rock she is the calm in the middle of the storm and she keeps us all safe us meaning teachers too not just the kids we love you nurse buffman and happy birthday and Happy Nurses Appreciation day too finally we have the great honor I have the great honor of introducing to you Mount Pleasant Elementary's teacher of the year Miss Susie Banker thank you I've had the privilege of working with Miss Banker for

049nearly 10 years now at Mount Pleasant elementary and I can honestly say that Miss Banker is one of the hardest working most caring humble organized and respected teachers that I've ever worked with Miss Banker left the profession of teaching many years ago after having her own children but came back to fulfill her calling and I'm so glad that she did she is a mentor to novice teachers and a calm presence in our kindergarten Wing which can get a little rowdy at times excuse me her passion for doing what's best for kids is palpable she passionately yes respectfully voices her concerns around children during plc's and other professional meetings and has been a major force in bringing back structured play for kindergarten students which has now become a district-wide initiative Mrs Banker has filled the voids

050that were created by a few other iconic MPE teachers and has taken on these additional tasks with great care and professionalism one of my favorite people to talk to during kindergarten recess to hear about what's cooking in the banker household this weekend I am so proud to introduce to you once again Mount Pleasant Elementary's 2023 teacher of the year Miss Susie Banker oops and next I would like to invite to join me on the stage principal Heather Austin from our site program and this evening Miss Austin is going to be celebrating Darlene fuckman their emotional support I'm sorry educational support professional of the year and they are about to join us now please congratulate good evening again I'm Heather Austin the proud principal of our site program here in the Brandywine School District um I

051wanted to take one minute hakima you promised you um to introduce Darlene bruckman who is our educator support Personnel of the year she is one of our para Educators at the site program I'm honored to be given the opportunity to honor Miss Darlene fruckman as our site support professional of the Year this recognition is not only a testament to her hard work and dedication but also to the impact that she has had on the interns faculty and the community Darlene is an exemplary role model and Mentor who has gone above and beyond to ensure that interns are given the best experience possible not only has she dedicated countless hours to our site interns she also serves as a certified RBT which she took that initiative to become certified on her own assistant softball coach at

052Mount Pleasant High School our site Equity champion and also the coach of our unified basketball team we are incredibly fortunate to have such an amazing para in our program let us celebrate her accomplishments and recognize her for the impact she has had on our program it is only with people like Darlene that we can make sure that our interns have access to the highest quality of Education congratulations to miss Darlene our para educator of the year and we have one additional presentation this evening and that's from the forward elementary school and I would like to invite principal Diana golden and I believe I saw Yes assistant principal Angela Williams to join me on the stage and they have two people that they are acknowledging this evening the first is their elementary teacher of the year

053Miss Jennifer and then chop this up a little bit I apologize microwitz I think good evening I am proud to present Ford Elementary's teacher of the year and my mentor 18 years ago Dr Jennifer micowitz Jen has served many positions in BSD over the past 23 years she might have more certifications than I have fingers to count on which shows Jen is the true image of a lifelong learner Dr mikeowitz is well respected for her curricula knowledge teaching instruction and use of classroom management strategies Jen is innovative reflective and task oriented she supports the growth of our school as first grade team leader and lead of our Equity team not only does she have high expectations for herself but she holds high expectations for each student in her diverse classroom she creates a positive inclusive

054Learning Community where she supports and challenges each student every single day as a first grade teacher and one who teaches children to learn to read Jen takes the success of each of her students personally I'll never forget Jen's words my students will grow and Achieve because of who they are and what they want to be Matters Most I will not be the reason that one of them cannot read leaving first grade which could impact their future to become a doctor a teacher or anything they dream to be this statement exemplifies Jen's passion and dedication to see each of her students succeed forward is extremely thankful to have to have Dr Jen micowitz as a teacher and a teacher leader who truly puts students learning Above All Else Jen we thank you for your passion and

055dedication I am pleased to honor Miss Kenya Brown as forward Elementary's educator support professional of the Year Miss Brown deserves this recognition as she truly cares about Ford's staff students and family she has been a custodian in BSD for over 17 years and almost nine of those have been at forward as a colleague shared Kenya enhances the learning environment through her attention to detail caring enough to do the small things well that may even be overlooked Kenya does whatever needs to be done as she treats our school as if it were her own home and goes above and beyond without even being asked Kenya is well respected and valued by her colleagues in addition to her responsibilities Miss Brown creates meaningful relationships with students and staff members she greets everyone with a smile and warm

056welcome her relationships with staff and her knowledge of our students are a benefit to our forward community Kenya's infectious laugh can lift spirits and Inspire smiles we are so fortunate to have such a caring dedicated colleague as Miss Kenya Brown she's an asset to our custodial team as well as our school staff Kenya you go above and beyond to ensure our building is a welcoming clean and safe environment for our students staff and families and we thank you all right that'll lead us into superintendent's report Mr holder thank you our last board meeting took place only a few weeks ago but there's plenty of amazing student and staff accomplishments and information to share this evening on April 24th secretary Holodeck Governor Carney Senator Carper 192 of the state's most distinguished seniors at the annual Secretary

057of Education Scholars dinner the scholars were joined by their families and their principals Secretary of Education Scholars selections are based on both academic record and community service congratulations to winners from Brandywine High School you saw both Aman John earlier and Jonathan Dean hey I'm sorry from Concord High School miles Bligh and Meera ratnagari and from Mount Pleasant High School Eleanor Frank and zakaya Zara congratulations to these amazing students and we wish each of you continued success next year in college I know we just recognized our Samsung National finalist team but I couldn't imagine giving my report without out again drawing attention to a top 10 finish in the nation in a very prestigious competition please know that regardless of outcomes in the finals this team you Discord an impressive Victory not only for Brandywine High

058School and the Brandywine School District for all of Delaware with your Ingenuity it creativity in the service of others again congratulations so where does such a passion for design and Engineering begin now it begins with outstanding educators that seek opportunities to focus on stem education science technology engineering and Mathematics in the earliest years of education let me correct that in honor of a late board member Mr Joe grumskill Mr brumskill was emphatic that stem be replaced with steam science technology engineering Arts and Mathematics BSE programming focuses on incorporating scheme related Concepts and experimentation into cross-curricular content the engagement and wonderment as seen in these photos are the foundational elements that lead to the accomplishments that we just celebrated with our Brandywine High School Samsung Saul for tomorrow team speaking of the Arts we did it

059the Brandywine school district has been honored with the best communities for music education award for the fifth consecutive year thousands of schools and school districts go through the evaluation process each year in the hopes of being selected as best community for music education congratulations to our amazing vocal instrumental and stream students and staff on this impressive achievement a special shout out to Dr Dominic Pizano who oversees the arts for the district and I'd be remiss if I didn't acknowledge our parents and the community for their continued support for the Arts in the Brandywine School District a quick fact from the recent young Brandywine artist exhibit at the blue ball bar over 2 500 in-person visitors toward the gallery of student artwork during the event who knows how many took advantage of the virtual Gallery tour

060that was online in addition round the Arts Concord High School student azim backham received gold nationally for his photograph and will be honored in New York City in June at Carnegie Hall Talley Middle School art students will have their artwork in a special exhibit at the Biggs Museum of Art on Sunday May 7th from 5 to 7 pm without question the Arts are alive and well in our schools award-winning programming is the perfect segue into our next slide a partnership between Delaware Technical Community College and several schools including all three BSD high schools was awarded the Delaware State Chamber of Commerce Superstars and education award BSD students currently in the patient care technician CTE pathway were recently filmed at Dell tech in Wilmington for a video commemorating the award superstars in education ceremony in which

061this award will be officially announced is actually taking place at this very moment we were able to get a copy of the video being shown at that event let's take a look foreign [Music] Tech's a great fit for the patient care program for many reasons first a lot of cases our students do want to go to college so they come out of high school and want to go into our nursing program or one of our Ally health programs this gives them an opportunity to work in a field while they're earning their college degree during the pandemic we were in crucial need of Staffing people were burned out we were short staffed the students from this program stepped up we were able to onboard several of them very quickly get them on the floor on the

062unit trained and working we were extremely moved by what the CNAs were able to do to alleviate the nurses and doctors from the daily duties that they weren't able to do I would say about halfway into the program we kind of integrate the skills portion to where they go in the lab and they do a lot of Hands-On they they do a lot with the mannequins and then they also play the the patient and seeing them go from very timid and shy and Afraid to just soaring is is the best feeling in the world I think I'm a senior in high school so I am getting a lot of skills and Hands-On that I would not get just in my normal school and it will provide me a very good like background for my future

063in nursing these students coming up they care they really do and they they go above and beyond to help and that's what we need we need a lot more of that there is a very large need for CNAs at Christiana Care and in healthcare overall we have probably about a hundred openings at this time I think the patient care program is having a great impact on the local Workforce as students graduate and our first cohort we had Statewide 45 students will wear over 140 students now so just think share numbers how many students are going into the workforce upon graduation even it's part-time the impact that can have on long-term care facilities and and the hospitals settings up and down the state [Applause] speaking of superstars last meeting we congratulated Mount Pleasant High School's JROTC

064robotics program for having two teams qualify for the Vex robotics national championships in Dallas Texas you heard earlier that the student Cadets from both Mount Pleasant High's teams team 890g and 890k made it all the way to the quarterfinals of the national competition in addition to excelling in the actual competition team 8903k won the 2023 National sportsmanship Championship award at the national competitions congratulations to our Cadets and to Colonel Montanez for their outstanding accomplishments I would also like to take time to congratulate the BSD students that participate in the Brandywine box robotics program board member Jason Heller is one of the co-founders of the group that is primarily comprised of BSD students this year five Brandywine box teams and the two mphs JROTC teams all qualified for the Vex robotics World Championships how amazing is

065that statistic only five percent of the best teams in the world ever make it to the World Championship this is the third time that the Brandywine Bots has had teams competing and the second year for mphs JROTC teams in the world championships this year all of the Delmarva region teams competing at the worlds came from the same unit Brandy one congratulations to Brandywine Bots Middle School team 9039j for receiving the sportsmanship for their division no intro needed on this story let's just roll tape foreign love the fact that the next Story Goes that slide previously the next story to be read to that puppy is a Pete the Cat book you gotta love it Brandy Wayne School District continues to find additional ways to support our students family and Community currently students families and staff

066are being introduced to help me which is an app our access to help me comes through a collaboration between the state of Delaware and the Delaware Emergency Management agency help me includes web-based and mobile access to local state and national resources for finding food housing crisis counselors and more it also includes the resources for coping with anxiety and depression additionally with help me individuals can contact the 24 7 crisis text line at the start of the 23-24 school year a third feature will be available that allows students parents and community members to seek help directly from their school help me will allow for anonymous inquiries and Reporting School Personnel will be able to communicate with those who submit an inquiry directly through the application we look forward to presenting this feature as an additional tool

067to stay connected and provide support to our students throughout the remainder of the school year and in the summer months we hope that help me will be a valuable tool to seek resources and assent access the crisis line through text help me application can be downloaded in the app store or in Google Play alternatively individuals can connect at web.helpme resources.com backslash login and search for the Brandywine School District those directions will be included in the board recap that gets mailed out to parents within the next week if the spring Harvest is a sign of what's to come farmers and consumers around the tri-state area are in for retreat with this year's crops make Lane science students are reaping the bounties of the seeds planted months ago students study the termination cycle and put their learned

068knowledge about growing things into practice students in Mr glazier's 7th grade social studies classes at Springer Middle School is off also proven to be quite proficient in growing things too stock portfolios and stock options once again Springer students excelled in the University of Delaware Center for economic education in entrepreneurial stock market competition an online simulation of the global Capital markets that engages students and creates four to twelve in the world of Economics investing in personal finance and prepares them for financial independent futures Springer had three teams placed in the state competition coming in fourth place with the team Peyton Connie Bobby Erickson Elena michaelwitz and Lauren Feldman coming in second place was the team of aptente Ramsey and Muhammad amas coming in first place out of a total of 133 teams was the team of

069Kiera Lazar messenger Abigail unbrecht and Alyssa unbrecht this team was able to outperform the S P 500 by 17.2 percent this team will be recognized at the award ceremony at the University of Delaware congratulations to all the participants and we'll end this evening's superintendent's Report with our May Sizzle video enjoy good morning Mount Pleasant dragons Mr Auerbach here with your morning announcements coming at you live our adaptive playground ensures that kids Whip and without disabilities have access to play on playground equipment [Music] foreign [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] the engineering students have done an amazing job of visualizing how to make things that really help people with disabilities create art and express themselves [Music] do you like again everybody [Applause] [Music] like putting on a coat oh it's easy to see wow I'm proud to be

070BSD it's my report for this evening thank you superintendent holder any comments or questions from the board my only question is how do we get invited to the puppy greeting I could say that even even an old curmudgeon like me that uh video touched on the old heart strings you know we covered a lot of time tonight on you know a lot of the recognition for students and teachers and events and and there's something about tonight just strikes different with me and I sit here and all of us on the board you know care a lot about public education the brand line School District otherwise we wouldn't sit up here um but tonight I'm really super proud to be a product of this District to send my kids to this district and like any organization

071we're not without our faults or challenges and I know that you know we're all continuing to strive to do better and be better but just I don't know how you can't look at the students that were recognized their Poise and the achievements and the things that they're accomplishing I can't you know you've got to recognize the value of public education specifically Brandywine school district and I'm just super proud of this district and the people that run it and the teachers and the all all levels that you know do our daily operations and you know make the wheels turn so I just want to say thank you for everyone in this District that does what they do thank you to the students for their engagement and their thoughtfulness in their giving back to the community and

072the parents and families and friends that support them so well done and we do not have any public comment this evening we'll take us into our board business and liaison reports starting with Mr Ackerman dspa executive board the Delaware School Board Association met uh last week I did today email a copy of the minutes uh to all board members with a copy to the superintendent so you have it um I think I'll let Ms Gordon kind of cover what was one of the major topics because it was a very a great well it was happening right then it was kind of a current event uh but I will say that the executive uh the officers of dspa have all agreed to continue so I'm going to continue in my role as president and we expect

073our other officers are also committed to continue in their roles uh we have one person who's facing a opponent in an election but we feel confident that no women he doesn't then we'll open up that slot again for nominations thank you Mr Ackerman and congratulations uh Miss Gordon the SBA legislative committee yes the dsba legislative committee met April 26th after I received minutes of the meeting from Dr marinucci the report was sent to the members of the board and to Dr Lawson the legislative committee initially reviewed well house bills and had supportive positions of all the three of those the bill that receives strong opposition was the house bill 96. this act reduces School Board elections from 18 year olds to 16 year olds all other Public School elections which includes referendums the minimum voting

074age remains 18 years old we did receive notice from Dr marinuccio on April 29th that this house bill was tabled by the committee and that a Committee hearing would take place within 12 legislative days there was also opposition to house bills 3 and 127. only three Senate bills were reviewed only one was opposed that was Senate bill 61. our next legislative meeting is scheduled for May 31st thank you Miss Gordon and Dr marinucci did make an effort to contact board members throughout the state in regards to that voting the inch bill and my comments back to the representative who posed it as well as the education committee was it's not going to help us pass the referendum to lower the age of of School Board elections voting eligibility to 16. in fact it may it

075may cause other citizens in our community feel like their votes are being deluded because certainly you have a captive audience in the school building so could you keep the elections in the school buildings or would you have to move them someplace else there's just a whole plethora of issues that you open with that with that door um and the other thing is is the idea that you know citizens might not be inclined to vote for referendums in that case and I also expressed to the legislators that I wrote to that it really feels like the legislature does not appreciate School Board service it just comes off that way you know with the lowering of the terms uh other things that have come along down the pike mandating their curriculum loss of local control it just

076doesn't feel I don't know how you all feel I've been up here for a long time but it just doesn't feel like the legislature appreciates what we do in the time that we volunteer and the service that we provide and I would just hope that they would you know kind of take a look at the people who are running and it's been very consistent even though the terms have changed to four years um there it's still about the same number of people running for seats it hasn't really changed the number of people running it certainly hasn't enticed more people to run with us with a lower term so I would just you know like the city of a legislature hey you have a little consideration for us and and maybe value our service a little

077more than you do understood um why do you you said that um it might discourage individuals from so we go through a lot of trouble to convince the public that they should vote for referendums and I think that if the public felt that students were putting board members on the board they would be less inclined to vote for a referendum plus it's real simple the age of majority is 18. except we now set the precedent with the Wilmington learning collaborative where we have at least one we have three students we sit on the board but there's one voting student who were up to us we would have three voting students and so um if you watch any of our meetings those students are absolutely engaged and um surprising was very impressive and aware of the

078content of what we discussed and so I think having students at the table especially who are making decisions about decisions about them um has proven to the wlc board to be more fruitful and beneficial to us Reverend Jerry the the bill was tabled this week so I was questioning or asking um to explain why a student presence would deter someone from voting in favor of the referendum again it's not the idea is not to put students on boards the ideas to let 16 and 17 year olds vote in School Board elections that's the proposal I understand that um and I just think that it's um the earlier we can engage any voter the better um and of course we want informed informed voters but um I think we wait too late to engage young people

079in the voting process which is which which plays out in uh not just Uber elections but elections as a whole at times consciousness great thank you both of you um District finance committee met on May 3rd a little earlier in advance of this early meeting discuss the monthly financial report financial position report and tax abatement request that Ms Flory will present later on our next meeting will also be early June 8th in order to uh meet the early June and I know we've got a couple more uh board liaison reports but I know we have a last minute public comment which I'll allow after we finish our uh our board reports health and wellness Mr Helen and the health and wellness leadership team how they play me on May 4th and the full committee will

080meet on May 18th thank you maintenance advisory committee so uh the maintenance advisory committee met May 2nd at site the bulk of the meeting was discussing District Capital needs as we begin determining what the fiscal side of a next referendum might look like the majority of the capital needs that we discussed were around Mount Pleasant High School as well as the Mount Pleasant elementary school which both have not seen Renovations for quite a while there's also a long discussion on how to accommodate we've talked about the site several times tonight how to accommodate the ever growing needs of the site program and able to grow and move forward to give those students even better career opportunities to prepare them for their future Miss pigeon parents Council students with disabilities the last meeting was held on

081May 4th that's the last meeting for this year there were presentations from the division of vocational rehab on transition and the University of Dallas Spectrum Scholars Program and the classic program at the University of Delaware um if anyone I believe Dr uh Warner sent out the presentations to all of the email addresses that she has um for review for anyone that couldn't attend um if anyone is interested in serving on their school as their school's representative for next year they can reach out to the school principal for nominations um that are going to start the beginning of next year and there is not another meeting this week thank you Miss pigeon uh Wilmington learning collaborative update Reverend pair um the Wilmington learning collaborative met last Thursday May the 4th our priorities continue to be creating

082communication networks and an infrastructure to ensure that we're able to disseminate information to our respective districts and constituencies we are also in the process of securing the CPA we have received the first installment of funding to um to um to cover our initial expenses we've also um are in the process of creating a mentoring framework for our student reps we understand the importance of again engaging them as I previously stated but also ensuring that they are prepared for our meetings and they understand the concept content and what is discussed Christina school district is responsible for identifying a new student rep as you all may or may not be aware their student rep is our voting rep pool is a senior and will be graduating we receive the first draft of our Council bylaws on our

083Council the wlc board did have an initial read on May 4th and um the committee will be entertaining um the the adjustments to our Council bylaws um our main priority at this time has been hiring our executive director as previously stated we had more than 100 candidates expressed interest in the position 17 persons automatically progressed to this second phase of our hiring process in another 17 received additional screening of the 34 11 candidates were recommended to the wlc board to move forward those 11 candidates received written exercise today Monday the May the 8th and have until the end of business on Wednesday May the 10th to submit the exercise to our empowerment team our project manager the empowerment team will then screen the exercise sizes and recommending those candidates who move on to the face-to-face

084interview phase we are currently discussing a recommended date to host the community Forum to introduce the finalists to the community details and a mutually beneficial format for the Forum are currently also being discussed details will be shared broadly once finalized since this last since this board is met last I've had several meetings with uh I've had several meetings to include uh one with secretary Holliday regarding additional supports uh Governor Carney and made one presentation to the Extended Learning opportunities subcommittee of the Department of Education our next meeting will be held next Thursday May the 18th at 6 00 pm at Delaware State University that concludes my report thank you Reverend Perry 917 wmph advisory committee does not has not had a meeting but I did just get an email a few days ago regarding some

085wmph students um we had the DPA Awards I think were mentioned last month we had three students one first place that automatically enters them into the national competition and that looks like that was Brendan Smith Gemma Calabria and Veronica so um we should have the results in a week or two for the national competition and hopefully we can bring them in in June for their recognition uh no meeting set for the summer meeting at this point any additional board member reports uh yes Mr scrub I would like to just give a report on the district committee for um educated Recruitment and Retention FMA please do um before I do that I just want to say that um Gemma actually interviewed me for the um radio special where I shared six songs and then she shared

086six songs and um she's certainly um I know that everyone does a great job over at the radio station so congratulations to everybody um the um District educator Recruitment and Retention meeting uh committee met on April 27th it was led by our HR Director Delicia McIntyre we began the meeting with a thought-provoking question that was kind of a way to get to know each other the question was in what ways have you been supported this year um which I thought was a really wonderful way to start off really positively and to think about um ways that that our Educators could continue to be supported um then after giving a debrief just to get some of our new members uh who are current 2023 building teachers of the year um and then we will invite future

0872024 building teachers of the year to join us next year uh so we really are excited about having representation from each of the buildings um in the future um Miss McIntyre has encouraged the the teachers to bring other Representatives with them to Future meetings uh just to really make sure that we're diversifying um and and really being thorough and seeking feedback um so at this past meeting we uh got us everybody up to speed and then we did a little bit of some focused uh teacher feedback and um and we've got some really interesting um ideas and a lot of um really great ideas um and we're still in the ideas seeking phase as we will continue meeting next year I believe monthly yes monthly and into staying a solution focused but yet still honoring

088concerns thank you Mr um can I have a question for Reverend Perry um I read I think it was maybe Delaware live today um I was reading an article about the wlc and the timeline and uh just a question that came up from that article in your opinion I guess do you think the size of the wlc board is slowing down the progress one of the concepts of the wlc that we talked about was kind of streamlining things and eliminating red tape and the wlc board has grown to be larger than any school board in the state so I was wondering if you think that the number the sheer number of people having an opinion is slowing down progress and if you think that'll change drastically once there's an executive director um I would say

089absolutely not there's a lot of behind the scenes work that has taken place and I can't imagine that falling on five or six people and so the fact that we do have a relatively larger board absolutely worth star benefit um the board members meet um as a collective body we meet twice a month so every other week and then in between those meetings we actually have several subcommittee meetings as well so um I can't imagine all of the word falling in aboard this side so um and do your second question was do I anticipate that um I actually think that we considering the magnitude of the work that we've had to do um I think that we are making a lot of progress and once we hire an executive director we absolutely intend and expect

090to move a little quicker but um just the administrative tasks that we've had to to do and to um and then as we're working dealing with the challenges that come up naturally and organically um I think the size of our board absolutely worked our benefits more than it does been about something I have to say I hope you get the the support that is needed I was surprised to read that the the support from the state wasn't as much as needed so hopefully you get that this sounds like it's definitely warranted so those um out of the meeting with um secretary holadick and Governor Kearney they absolutely um and I should have I apologized to both of them I should have reported as such um they absolutely did uh offer to a lend additional support

091specifically from the Biden Institute um and so we are that is not um I I also failed to mention that um I had a family emergency last week so I wasn't able to attend the last meeting um and so I wasn't able to share that broadly but that is um Dr hola dick specifically in addition to Governor Carney offered additional support fantastic so as I mentioned earlier if it pleases the board I'd like to reopen uh public comment we have some speakers that uh would like to make comments um this is the time we ask our speakers and audience members be courteous and respectful to each other this is your time to be heard regarding topics related to the Brandywine School District um since I don't have comment cards for you if you could please

092make sure you fill one on the white out and just make sure you clearly introduce your name uh once you begin speaking you'll have two minutes to speak Concord high school English teacher and are here to ask you to please stop the practice of segregating students by gender at graduation graduation gowns should be one color and students should line up alphabetically currently students are forced to either wear white or maroon gown or graduation in effect students are forced to publicly identify their gender Justin's website which is the website that provides the gowns lists the gowns that are white as female and the Maroons as male so what choice should those who are transgender or gender non-conforming what gowns should they wear the conflict is real and the harms are real suppose a student is out

093to their parents but not to their grandparents that student must choose a gown that will either conceal their gender identity or out them to Grandma suppose a student chooses a color and their parents say no every year students fear the conversation that they must have at home and Conquer staff end up in the middle of family fights and when students are courageous enough to wear the color of their true choosing and they receive full support from their parents they are often bullied by their classmates last year graduation a Concord student needed an escort to his car this is not a personal or School level problem this is a societal problem The Bullying a marginalizing of transgender people is a national shame and it's not just a gay thing it's a matter of public Justice consider

094this what if we segregate students not by gender but by height or eye color or race imagine if Jostens asked you to identify your religion and then chose your graduation robe the solution is simple and obvious one order one color gown and have students line up alphabetically for graduation this costs nothing this requires no sacrifice it's so easy schools around the nation have already made the move without incident we know you know this we first approached you about it five years ago we've co-responded with each of you individually we have met many with of you personally about this and yet despite assurances that we have been heard we have not been given an answer it's as if you hope the problem will solve itself or perhaps that these students if ignored long enough will just

095go away I'm afraid we're at time thank you for coming out thank you for your comments this time we'll entertain a motion to approve the consent agenda so moved second of a motion and a second all those in favor say aye aye any opposed motion carries uh do I have a motion to accept we're going to do item 8A and then item 8B motion two accept the monthly Personnel report as discussed in executive session second have a motion and a second all those in favor say aye aye any opposed motion carrots do I have a motion to accept employee matter the attendance recommendation for employee matter 23-104 as discussed in executive session second I'll give the Mr Ackerman on the motion Mr Heller on the second all those in favor say aye aye any opposed

096motion carries items nine a b and c do I have a motion to accept student matters uh a b and c as discussed in executive session motion the stock second Reverend Perry all those in favor say aye aye aye any opposed motions gearing uh old business we have a draft of board meeting dates and times for 2023 2024 Mr holler just very quick only two changes to that document that was presented last meeting I think it was Miss pigeon who asked that we'd go back and look make sure we weren't having a board meeting following and an extended week off for students we did find that to be the case in November corrected that date and then we also have corrected the date of the July meeting last time it was listed as July 10th

097this time listed as July 17th that is more aligned with our our current scheduling of board meetings we will need to call a special meeting where we'll ask our CFO Miss Flores to um share the preliminary budget for the school year next year as well as her recommendation or recommendation to the board for tax warrant and that'll need to be done prior to the 13th of June on which it's due to the county do I have motion to accept the board meeting dates and times as presented motion second Mr hello motion the stock on the second all those in favor say aye aye aye any opposed motion cards leads us on to new business McIntyre um yeah contractor extension pretty much School District Board of Education and the brand white school district nutrition Association dsda

098slash Nea this evening we are before you regarding the approval of a contract extension the contract extension is between the Brandywine School District Board of Education and the Brandywine School nutrition Association the current contract will expire on June 30th of this year 2023 I would like to give special thanks to the Brandywine School District nutrition Representatives Lillian Poole lead general worker and Loretta truano general worker along with Mr David Davis dsca rep and rep for the union along with the Brandywine School District school Nutrition department supervisor Colleen Carter Sheila quickle the senior operations specialist Corey knoff acting associate operations specialist Kelly marvain field manager CFO Jill floret and myself participated in these dialogues the parties came to a tentative agreement on the one-year extension to the current contract track with agreed upon language and salary

099provisions on May the 2nd of 2023. the current contract ends on June 30th of this year and the language and salary items that are part of the negotiated agreement with the revisions are the basis for this one-year contract extension from July the 1st 2023 through June 30th of 2024. the tentative agreements if approved will affect the working conditions and local salary provisions of the extended contract agreement between the parties for the next year it is the superintendent's recommendation that the board approved the one-year extension of the contract with the new provisions of the agreement between the brandingwine School District Board of Education and the Brandywine nutrition Association do I have a motion to accept contract extension as presented so moved second second Miss Gordon any discussion all those in favor say aye aye any opposed

100motion cards thank you thank you Miss McIntyre next up Miss fluoride with the monthly financial report physician report and tax abatement requests good evening members of the board superintendent those in person and online I'm starting to embrace being the last presenter every month and and I I'm thinking of that little puppy that's just crawling in the bed after just a long day ready to um snooze with one last story um but it's a good story and um because oftentimes finances put people to sleep I know but these are good um on the revenue side we're 99.3 percent of local revenues received we're inching our way to the June 30th balance um or I'm sorry the June 30th fiscal closing um and so 99.3 um we just are expecting the last taxes as well as the

101um the state senior property tax rebate on the state side state discretionary we're 98.8 percent received and for categorical state 84.7 with the largest being state division one salaries that they will fund fully by June 30th on the expense side um you'd expect to be at this point of the year at 83.3 percent that's just 10 of 12 months um and we're below that at 78.71 um there's one area of the budget I spoke to this last month um that is over budget um and that is energy there's nothing that will change that going into June that's an encumbrance and so I don't anticipate that that number is going to grow significantly and the finance committee is going to look that look at that in detail in the next month but it is based on

102our expenses in both get both Gas and Electric the other item in yellow on the report is the um that is showing over budget this one there is a reflection of of revenues that's not uh in there as well and so nutrition is showing is over budget but there are also additional revenues both from the um the Titan portal as well as the federal reimbursement so where you would see a budget negative look concerning obviously when you don't have the additional Revenue to account for it it would be but on the nutrition one um we will um we're working on that to kind of present a more realistic revenue and expense picture for preparing the next year's budget the um the report includes where we are on Esser expenditures obviously winding down sr2 and moving

103um into sr3 and the last uh part of the report it almost mirrors exactly what we do on the financial position report and that is what is our projected ending balance for June 30th and this is where the puppy is starting to close its eyes because exactly where we said it was going to be as we get closer and closer to June 30th 8.58 is what the cash flow said and that was an April 30th projection whereas the financial position report virtually the same thing it's projecting what our cash position will be coming into June 30th but that one was done as of March 31st so they're not identical slightly different only because of the um when the projection was done but still 8.588 million in which is sufficient to start the next year and

104then as we said part of those conversations that we'll have in July are what is the next um uh next month's finance committee will go over the the three-year forecast um and then what are the projections for the next year so I did kind of I know it's two separate votes but I did kind of roll the two in together because they were the same presentation or the same information so quick question on the financial position report in the past it's only been a one pager it appears to have grown to a two-page state changed the formatting or you just enhance it I did not the the but she the one page is a summary and the other page is the detail that feeds the summary so it it kind of breaks down all the

105lines that go into that one page summary yeah I think in the past all we've seen is a summary page okay well I mean so I'm happy to see the detail yeah it's really it's how how it feeds that um but it's all in it's data that's um entered in Excel any other questions we have a motion to accept the financial report for April 30th subject audit so I moved second Miss pigeon stock all those in favor say aye aye aye opposed motion cares financial position report oh I'm sorry I guess since I called the other one do I have a motion for the financial position report as subject to audit so moved second then stock I'll do in favor say aye aye aye any pose motion carries and tax abatement request um we have

106another tax abatement request um this month this one is from red clay it's for the Hockessin Historical Society they acquired part of ownership of property that was transferred um in the process of transferring it the tax-exempt status was dropped and so the county passed resolution to correct that red Clay's board has voted to Abate those taxes which they weren't paid so it's not a refund it's just it will never be collected and are part of the tax pool would be 1190.74 but it is tax exempt property and shouldn't have been charged move to accept the taxable requests second motion Mr Ackerman second Mr Heller all those in favor say aye aye aye any opposed motion carries general information and meeting dates um next we have a board Workshop scheduled for May 22nd Mount Pleasant elementary

107multi-purpose room followed by our regular board meetings on June 12th and July 17th um any last comments or questions from the board I know I know Mr scarbot doesn't want to hear this from me but I do want to make a comment regarding our public comment and I would just like to ask because this has been an issue for many years as um Mr consiglio had stated he also had emailed us as a board back in January um so I'd like to ask that we could either add this topic of graduation colors to a board agenda a board Workshop I I don't want us to have a discussion necessarily tonight due to the hour and um but I do think it's worthy of a board discussion because I think we all have different opinions about

108um about this issue and I think it's something that we should have a discussion about is this not a school issue I mean why is the board getting involved with this shouldn't Conger decide what Concord wants to do so I completely agree with you Mr Ackerman but I think that that's why we should have the discussion sure are we looking to pressure Comfort into making some kind of a decision or a move I mean I haven't heard anything from Brandywine or Mount not us I mean you know my own daughter is gender non-conforming she wore the white gown she didn't have any problem with it you know I I get the concern it just seems like something that should be handled at the school level not the board level I don't want to be telling

109the schools how to pick the colors for their graduation it just it just doesn't feel right it should come from the school well I know each each high school has had some creative Liberty in the past and how they designed their ceremony um this year what I'm hearing is that we you know we'll see some more consistency between the three high schools with alphabetical lineups so hopefully that will you know alleviate some of the concerns of the students presented here tonight um but if Miss pigeon wants to put this on a board or Workshop agenda in the future we can certainly do that yeah I would definitely second that um what this kitchen is is requesting um in um last I think was last spring um is this robot Robin period myself we did meet

110with Mr consiglio and a couple of the students this was post graduation so I think it was actually early summer um and I think that I I just continued to go back to and I I would like some time to seek um what what are best practices um in this in this area and I think that we do need to spend some time because um it has been an issue for five years um and I would definitely like to give it the attention it deserves that the students deserve okay on a future agenda any less than anything else anyone with that thank everyone for their time and attention and participation this evening I will entertain a motion to adjourn so much motion a second all is in favor say aye aye aye any opposed motion

111carries this concludes our main meeting