001good evening everyone welcome to the Brandywine School District Board of Education regular meeting today is Monday February 6 2023 we are live in the B Brandywine High School auditorium and also live via Zoom broadcasts uh Miss harassment roll call please here present here stuff here thank you Miss Harris uh this time I'd like to ask Mr Ralph Ackerman to lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge allegiance to the Divine of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God the indivisible with liberty and child support at this time I'll entertain a motion to approve this evening's agenda that moved second motion Miss pigeon second Reverend Perry uh all those in favor say aye aye aye any opposed motion carries uh let's start off with our
002high school reports uh tonight we are starting with Concord High School Mohammed and Mira come on down foreign good evening School District board members my name is muhammadine the student council president at Concord High School and tonight I'm accompanied by the student council treasurer Mira nagiri to first I just wanted to start off this January recap with a big a big update on teacher relationships with students just recently we just uh students at Concord High School attended the up for learning retreat at Mount Pleasant elementary school and where we indulge in a lot of team building activities and community building activities this was a very fun and overall very great experience for our students but there's something that very stuck with us deep down and it was when we realized that the results from our
003Panorama survey that we just recently had were not in our favor so to this it really stuck to our students and we have jumped into action of course these these results weren't the best but of course it actually pushed our students to action some things that we're taking in action to help resolve these um results from our Panorama survey is that we're actually conducting and creating a survey a survey for teachers for Teacher feedback and where it'll be completely Anonymous and it'll be constructive criticism for those teachers these teachers are we will allow students to we will allow students to give feedback on teacher learning styles how they teach and anything like that this we hope we hope this will we hope this will create a open-minded community and a more inclusive community one of
004the things we just recently had was our winter ball and we were proud to say that we had over 400 students attend of course just like any other school event it had a little hiccups in the beginning but our Administration team actually did a wonderful job um dealing with this dealing with these hiccups and for the rest of the night it was very inclusive and a very fun fulfilled night from the funds from this winter ball actually helped helped alleviate the prom ticket uh price and alleviated the price for five dollars for the entire senior class and we were very proud about that we were expected by the end of February and at the end of March from fundraisers t-shirt sales and anything like that to hopefully alleviate the prom ticket price by ten dollars
005for the entire senior class but as of right now we have alleviated by five dollars continuing on from the prom um prom ticket sales we have just launched a our prompt payment plan and where the last week of January students were able to put a five dollar down payment on those tickets to reserve their spot at uh for their prom ticket and from now to the uh end of April starting of May there's gonna be a reoccurring 25 down or twenty five dollar payment so that we can actually fulfill that price we think as before mentioned that this prompt payment plan is a very uh inclusive thing especially during covid we're still feeling the aftermath it's very financially um it's very helpful in the financial field for families more on some community service projects that
006Concord hasn't has been involved in mayor ratnagiri okay so I want to highlight some of the amazing work that our clubs have been doing to give back to the community and to encourage our students around the school so last week our National Honors Society recognized mail carriers we made cards to thank them for their service in delivering supplies and packages need for school this week it's in honor of the guidance counselor appreciation week we are celebrating these individuals by decorating their offices with kind notes just to help them or thank them for helping us with our College admissions and everything like that in the spirit of love for Valentine's Day our interact Club is making Valentine's cards to distribute to local Senior Living centers such as Shipley living and forward Manor additionally our interact club
007is looking to boost student morale so we had the idea of filling our hallways with personalized comments to each and every student each grade will be assigned a color to bring awareness to a cause for example freshman will be yellow for suicide prevention sophomores green for mental health awareness Etc in an effort to be more conscious of our plastic waste our science National Honor Society is taking part in an ecobricks initiative in which we take soft Plastics such as chip bags or candy wrappers from all around the school and pack them into plastic water bottles to create the bricks so these packed water bottles will be used in a landscaping design for an organization in downtown Wilmington this initiative is part of a wider national movement to reduce the amount of plastic waste ending in
008our landfills and we are proud to say that Concord is a part of it I would also like to share some exciting news in regards to our business and marketing Club Deca last Thursday was the state competition and Concord High School had the most number of student competitors and 22 of our students are in first second or third in their events finally I would like to highlight the work of our black student union during the month of February along with student council the minority club and our gay straight Alliance club we will be creating presentations on prominent African-American individuals to educate our students and they will present be presented throughout the month of February to promote the inclusion in everything that Muhammad was talking about all right as you can see the reoccurring theme that
009Concord High School is prevailing in is that aspect of community and kind of something I actually want to build up build off of that is that from last board meeting I did introduce the idea of Ramadan and being very inclusive towards our Muslim student uh population we I can I'm very proud to say that we have secured that room that I was speaking about that we have several rooms where students can go during their lunch period where they can sit down be away from all the food being away from all the Snows during that time of fasting but I also wanted to introduce another idea that where the administration is working on and that is um in conducting in a in the ritual prayer the Friday prayer during the month of Ramadan so as of
010as we all know the month of Ramadan is a very holy month in the religion of Islam and there's an always a weekly prayer that occurs on this Friday but due to during school hours those students uh fasting and indulging in Ramadan will not be able to uh participate in that prayer so we have actually separated a room for students to actually indulge in that prayer and we have we have we have separated the room for the students to indulge in that prayer and we have lots of support from our Administration and and teams like and staff like that and we are currently in the works of getting permission slip out to these students families so that we they have that permission to leave at most 15 minutes from class from their class time to
011indulge in that prayer but thank you are there any questions yes I actually I I do have a question for you um I just want to first of all I just want to applaud uh Concord High School uh for the really Community minded uh Focus that you have here and so many great ideas I I really applaud all of you um I do I am curious I would love to learn a little bit more about this Anonymous survey you say that students are able to share feedback um about teachers is that something um where students are going to be able to identify particular teachers um I'm wondering if I'm wondering if it could turn into something where it might feel threatening perhaps to some teachers if they're singled out for certain reasons so yeah that
012is definitely something we're going to take into consideration but more more the thing that we're trying to focus on is kind of giving students a voice and where students might feel kind of left out or threatened to not speak up about their teachers and give them an actual voice keeping it Anonymous will separate them from any consequences or anything like that that is a problem that we are taking into consideration and I will definitely get back to you on that but more we're really just trying to focus on giving students a voice and letting the giving them a platform to kind of speak out on their maybe learning preferences what they don't like about a teacher kind of constructive criticism something like that I really appreciate that um I would just I would I would
013urge perhaps a student body to consider having teachers be a part of that conversation uh that it be something um that can be perhaps written together um as well as perhaps some education when I seek feedback from my own students I always say um please be honest please be critical um however maybe this is not the moment for you to say certain things in such a way that is going to make me go home and cry um and you know and again I think I think that that um can feel a little threatening perhaps if certain teachers are singled out and perhaps um instead of encouraging to grow it might actually do some harm or some damage um but I definitely um so I would definitely encourage perhaps a a tool to be written um
014that would definitely encourage that student voice and that's certain feedback which is so needed and every good teacher seeks that um but um just you know perhaps just be careful uh in the way that that be done and I would say include teachers a part of that conversation and have that be a two-way uh dialogue as well thank you any other questions because I know you mentioned the prom installment payment option uh last month which I think is a great idea I just want to encourage you to get together with your peers at the other schools to see if maybe that's something they'd be interested in you know applying to their prom ticket sales as well and you know whatever insights you can give them to you know how you've implemented it um I think
015could be helpful across all our senior class students so thank you for that you're welcome any additional questions comments great thank you very much thank you and based on last month's suggestion uh we are switching the order up so now we'll have Mount Pleasant High School Dylan in May all right good evening Mr President Mr vice president Mr superintendent members of the Brandywine School District board and members of the Brandywine School District Community my name is Dylan Kim this is May Wong and we are the student council president and vice president of Mount Pleasant High School this past weekend the Mount Pleasant High School grotc program hosted the school's first official best robotics program it was a it was an event to qualify for the Delmarva Vex Championship a qualifier for vex worlds our two
016teams placed second and third in qualifying matches and won the first place in the tournament overall as an alliance to qualify to compete at the Delmarva Vex championship Mount Pleasant's robotics teams have excelled Beyond expectations with their second team now on track to qualify for vex Falls in their first year as a team just as the first team did last year and this morning we actually found out that they qualified for JROTC worlds so if they qualify for VRC ones as well they'll be competing in two categories at Dallas Texas at the end of April we're impressed with we're impressed by the tradition of Excellence established by the mphs GRTC robotics program and look forward to their progress in fact the mph's robotics program overall is on the rise on the rise as it plans
017to host two more Vex competitions next year with one being qualifier to compete at Vex worlds just like the Delmarva championships the explosive growth and step activities amount is truly impressive next to mph's drama department is in full swing in preparing their production of Broadway's Frozen with official dates set at March 30th 31st and April 1st there will be dining and celebrating their production of Frozen at the Arden Guild Hall on Saturday February 11th with doors opening at 5 15 pm and dinner served at 6. takeout will be available upon request they will be serving Swedish or meatless Swedish meatballs potatoes carrots salad and chocolate cupcakes prices are seven dollars for kids twelve dollars for art and club members and fifteen dollars for non-members reservations can be made until Thursday February 9th at 6 PM
018Dan Beach's drama Department purchases and operates all of its equipment to run all of its Productions and rehearsals only through the money they make from its place and fundraisers such as this we would like to just recognize and commend the nph's drama department for its self-sufficiency and hard work to achieve excellence in everything they do the black student union and girls empowered clubs have been incredibly useful resources for students at mphs the Su hosted Chris Harris a licensed mental health therapist and founder of the black Brown Delaware therapist directory to talk about black mental health girls empowered hosted a meeting where members discovered their unique Styles and fashion personality and created a style of vision board the mphs gender sexuality Alliance provides a safe space for lgbtq plus students at Mount today they hosted Sarah
019McBride the first openly transgender senator in the country as a guest speaker she is an American activist politician and Democratic member of the Delaware Senate we appreciate the GSA for providing students with an amazing role model for our upcoming school spirit events there will be a student teacher basketball game at the beginning of March there will be a spirit week the class the class of 2024 and 2025 are collaborating to plan to host a Spring Fling in the later months finally we would like to recognize Maggie Clark for her Eagle Scout project to build a Gaga pit in her neighborhood she has a link to her Instagram page at maggie.c.f to donate to her project we thank you for your service to the community and we wish the best of luck in attaining your Eagle
020Scout award as always our Mount Pleasant High School Community would like to thank the school board for their continued efforts to provide a high quality education for us all thank you and we are open to questions at this time what was the date of the Arden Guild fundraiser or Harding Guild so Saturday February 11th thank you just like to say congratulations once again to the JROTC Vex robotics team having gone to the World Championships last year and now qualifying again this year the tradition continues thank you now I appreciate the update on Vex my children did it in its early stages when it was fairly new and to see that program grow and see students move through to the high school years and the success that they're having is I think it's a great representation
021for our district so thank you thank you any additional comments or questions that's great thank you very much all right thank you and last but not least for Brandywine High School this evening is Grace taller good evening board members my name is Grace Taylor and I'm here to provide our schools report for February here's the report for our winter sports season our boys basketball team is currently 4-10 with a match against Christiana High School on the 7th girls basketball is currently 3-14 with a match against Saint Marks on the 11th our swim team is going strong at 11 to 2 with a with a meet against Mount Pleasant on the 9th finally our wrestling team is currently two to six with a meet against Howard High School on the 8th here are the updates on
022brandywine's ongoing clubs and organizations brandywine's youth environment Summit is having their trip on March 2nd to the University of Delaware and they're encouraging anyone who's interested in defending the environment or wanting to make a difference in the community to come and join soon brandywine's senior prom around is around the corner and we've begun to issue our assistance forms for anyone who may need it in order to attend prom from clothing to transportation the window for availability at the form for the form will close for on the 10th our prom fashion show is coming around the corner premiering on February 11th at 6 PM with 45 seniors representing and modeling their fitted tuxes or dresses tickets for attending are on sale online for fifteen dollars well and get them while they last brandywine's drama crew is
023presenting Little Shop of Horrors on March 2nd 3rd and 4th with tickets on sale for 12 our girls lacrosse lacrosse team is having a fundraiser at Anthony's Coal Fired Pizza today from 11 A.M to 9pm that's all I have for you tonight thank you is it coming from the board yeah looking forward to see Little Shop of Horrors I know that's a incredible production when done by high schools and very funny so hopefully a lot of people will come out to attend it thank you and next on our agenda we have special recognition this evening who's coming up first Mr Howard laws can we ask Mr Howard laws to please come to the front of the stage here foreign ladies and gentlemen it's my privilege to recognize Mr Howard laws if you haven't seen his
024face out and about in our buildings um he is a constant in our buildings when I think about Howard um I think about the use of god-given talents and abilities that we're all born with and we have a decision on how to use those talents and abilities some people tend to keep them to themselves other people gladly share them with others and Howard is that person who exemplifies sharing his talents and abilities in the service of others in the education of others and I don't mean just the education of children I mean the education of adults because he causes all of us who work with him to look at ourselves and ask am I working in the service of others we often hear about the power of one what one individual can do when he
025or she decides to step up and Champion a Cause you're looking at the power of one the only thing bigger than Howard is is his heart and his love for kids and we've seen that in whatever we've asked of him he holds a job as our male Courier delivers mail to all the schools across the district on any given day but we have used him in so many other capacities because of his affable demeanor character his ability to connect with any individual regardless of age circumstance or zip code Magnetic Personality positive attitude that has reaped benefits for our students for our staff for our program and Howard tonight on behalf of the Brandywine School District I just want to say thank you for being you congratulations Howard knew that he was being recognized this evening
026and asked if he could say a few words um but we've got to be out of here by 11 so we're going to take a rain check on that Howard thank you for everything foreign ER I just want to say to Mr laws and just follow up on what you've said um I was fortunate enough to attend um the Martin Luther King breakfast that Howard and his family and Foundation put on every year last year and um it was amazing and it really showed the heart that he gives to the community as well so just want to say thank you for that invitation I know I've told you that before but it you really are an incredible asset to the school district and thank you for for giving of yourself and for your family for
027as well it's appreciated I think in education a lot of times teachers talk about you know if I could just make a difference in one child's life it's worth it I know that we've heard from several families Mr laws that you have made a difference in their life for sure so we appreciate everything that you do thank you all right thank you next up we have uh Ms McIntyre Mr wicker to recognize uh Maple Lane Elementary and Hamby Elementary good evening president scrobot in the absence of Vice President Heller uh awesome members of the board superintendent holder esteemed guests in the audience and all that are listening online uh Mr wicker and I are both in human resources and we have the distinct privilege of recognizing some very special people who do very special things
028in our buildings for all of the students that we serve tonight I would like to invite up our principal of Maple Lane Elementary School Dr Tia wood and as she is coming she is going to be acknowledging the many contributions of two of her three recipients this evening her behavioral health professional of the Year could not be here this evening but we did want to acknowledge Sarah Pendergrass she is the nurse and the behavioral health professional of the year and then tonight we also would like to invite up Mr Warren Mays the teacher of the year for Maple Lane and Miss Heather Reinhardt the educate cater support professional of the Year congratulations and please join us on stage good evening good evening everyone as Mr Lethy already said we congratulate our recipients Mr mace has
029worked in the Brandywine school district for 17 years and 11 of those years he has been at Maple Lane as a teacher during his time here at Maple Lane he has made such an impact on many of the lives of our students in our school although Mr Mays wears many hats at our school that go above and beyond his everyday responsibilities of teaching Maple Lane has a running joke that whenever we ask Mr Mays to help he often replies sure deeper while we all laugh and joke everything Mr Mays does for our district students and schools comes from his heart Mr Mays is our Equity Champion for both the school district and our school he is our third grade team leader he is our robotics coach he is all things technology at our school at
030any given moment someone that needs help will you hear them scream Mr Mays we need you some of Mr May's current students and former students said Mr Mays is funny Mr Mays is a nice teacher in person Mr Mays strives to make make us successful Mr Mays thank you for being an all-around educator thank you for being the only African-American male role model in education that many of our students May ever see thank you for going above and beyond for jumping in the roads of leadership whenever needed for sharing your time Talent love and for your education at Maple Lane Elementary School we honor and salute you for all the work you do every day at our school thank you so much congratulations hmm all right Miss Reinhardt there are so many words that come
031to mind when thinking about Mrs Reinhardt Mrs Reinhardt started at Maple Lane as a parent she saw the need and helped and jumped in as a parent volunteer for a few years she was not only a parent volunteer in her son's classroom her son Hunter but she would jump in any and everywhere in our school eventually the students and the staffs thought that Ms Reinhardt actually worked at our school because she spent so much time in dedicating her in her volunteer services at our school Miss Reinhardt but always say she loves our school and wanted to learn and grow in the field of education and she did just that Mrs Reinhardt furthered herself and became a classroom for paraprofessional and then a special education classroom paraprofessional every teacher wanted Mrs Reinhardt to help and support
032their students in their classroom and here we are today Mrs Reinhardt has now Advanced herself and become a direct adult support paraprofessional at our school her love and passion for our students is so evident in the way that she cares and supports for our students Mrs Reinhardt is a sponge for learning and growing she looks for opportunities to learn the curriculum and the technology platforms needed to support her students not only does Miss Reinhardt show love and support to our students she spreads her love and creativity by being our mtss staff celebration committee chair from the little treats left in our mailboxes to the pies for holidays to our encouraging notes her support doesn't go unnoticed this year Miss Reinhardt has earned the title as being the goats at Maple Lane the greatest of all
033times she has been able to navigate and adapt to change and in challenging situations Miss Reinhardt we appreciate you so very much and congratulations on being our educational support professional of the year thank you so much can we get one more round of applause for these awesome individuals next we have Hamby Elementary School and tonight uh one of their three recipients is here with us I would like to do honorable mentions for those that are not with us or weren't able to be here and that's their educator support professional of the Year Ms Sharon Sousa and their behavior health professional of the Year Donna I'm sorry Dana Rodriguez at this time I'd like to invite principal Juliet agresti and I believe I saw Mr fadina and the office Mr Jim fedina the assistant principal up
034to give some comments and we would like to invite their teacher of the Year Ms Sarah Russ please come up to the podium hello how are you this evening yes love it I am so happy to be here this evening to see of course the board and all of you here in attendance in person and online and I'm here for a very special reason so as you know Miss Rusk is here as our teacher of the year and I'm sure we can all agree that a good education can change anyone but a good teacher can change everything Miss Rusk makes an impact on her students by providing a safe peaceful and inclusive environment for all in her classroom she has a beautiful way of respectfully challenging her students every single day it is clear by
035the way her students and families love her that she sees relationships as the key to both social emotional and academic success and we are very lucky to have her at Handy beyond the classroom Miss Rusk has worked diligently in partnership with healthy foods for healthy kids she's piloted hamby's first vegetable garden at Hanby and the entire school from kindergarten through fifth grade teachers everyone participates in planting and harvesting the crops many of our handy bees have enjoyed their first very yummy bowl of salad as a result Miss rust's contributions to our school are endless and have not gone unnoticed Miss Rusk you're a great teacher and if you have been a change agent for so many of the Hamby students and Families and on behalf of the Hamby Community I am honored to publicly thank
036you for your dedication and Service as hamby's teacher of the year thank you want me to take that for dinner congratulations to everyone being recognized tonight especially miss Mr Mays Miss Reinhardt Miss Russ thank you for being here and giving us a moment to to acknowledge you so I know in years past we've done our Black History Month proclamation in January uh in order for us to celebrate the whole month but since our meeting was so early we have our Proclamation this evening uh which I will read for you now um Proclamation on the resilience of African Americans despite historic oppression rising to discovering Pathways to success whereas the African-American Community has a rich and proud history marked by centuries of resilience perseverance and determination in the face of past depression and discrimination whereas the
037ongoing struggle for justice is a critical component of the larger struggle for human rights and dignity and demands the attention and action of all people of Goodwill whereas despite these challenges African Americans have demonstrated remarkable resilience perseverance and determination fighting for their rights and dignity through activism advocacy and the political process whereas the African-American Community has made substantial contributions to American society and culture from the struggle for freedom and equality to the Arts sciences and Humanities to the nation's political economic and social fabric whereas many African Americans have embraced a strong sense of personal responsibility working hard to build strong families communities and businesses and contributing to the betterment of society as a whole whereas it is time for African Americans to reclaim their power to discover new Pathways to success by embracing a positive
038and empowering narrative one that celebrates their strengths recognizes their achievements and supports their continued growth and development we call upon the members of the Brandywine School District community and the African-American Community to recognize our strengths talents and Humanity let us stand together in solidarity and let us continue to fight for a just and Equitable Society for all where all people can live with dignity respect and opportunity one that celebrates the many contributions of African Americans to our society and to our world thank you Mr superintendent district news and updates thank you Mr scrobat members of the board those joining us tonight I want to start this meeting by congratulating one of our board members I am honored to announce that Governor John Carney has appointed Reverend Janika Perry to serve as the initial chair of
039the Wilmington learning collaborative Council the wlc council has kicked off public meetings and has another meeting taking place this Thursday at six o'clock P.M for those interested in attending that meeting we'll have all the information posted on our district calendar and on our social media channels please join me in congratulating Reverend Perry on this appointment I also want to share an update on the Statewide water testing that's taking place in all Delaware schools this water retesting initiative is now underway the Delaware Department of Education has contracted with the vendor bada to conduct the testing all Delaware school districts are being scheduled for testing on a rolling basis according to the current schedule Brandywine school district is scheduled for testing in April once we get closer to our testing window we will communicate with our families
040to alert them testing efforts should not impact the school day in any way once the results are ready they'll be posted on both our district website and on the Delaware Department of education's website next I want to acknowledge and celebrate our site program and the amazing interns who are part of that program for those of you who may not be familiar with sight site stands for skills for Independence transition and employment the site program provides vocational training and opportunities for students between the ages of 18 and 22 with special needs who have completed the requirements for a high school diploma through in-house businesses and Community intern placements our interns develop skills and confidence to help them achieve independence those who have joined us in person for this meeting tonight may have met some of our
041site interns in the lobby just before the meeting started the interns we're here tonight to Showcase their in-house business Creations including flowers and chocolates I'd like to introduce and ask to stand when I call their names the following interns Matthew beers Bella Walla Jayden Warren and Carlos Vasquez these outstanding interns were selected to be here tonight to showcase the work they're doing at site but also so that we could congratulate them on a recent amazing accomplishment just a few weeks ago they took part in the First graduating class of the new training program offered by the Delaware Food Bank the program is called the kitchen School this new program offers free specialized training designed to provide employment opportunities for adults with disabilities in food service and hospitality industries the four interns spent 12 weeks learning
042the ins and outs of the food service industry they participated in six weeks of group instruction and individualized training in the food banks industrial kitchen they also spend an additional six weeks transitioning to permanent employment through their on-site job coaching please again join me in congratulating these interns for all that they've accomplished we recently created a video showcasing our site programs and I'm honored to share with you this evening [Music] site stands for skills for Independence transition and employment so this is a program that is an extension of our high schools so it's 18 to now 22 year old for students with disabilities we're super excited because our plan is to start our high school transition program I'm starting the second semester of this year and what that will entail is we're going to be
043partnering with our three local high schools and we're going to go ahead and start to get to know our interns who are currently seniors who are planning to come to site one of the big things that I like about site is the in-house businesses and the availability of those to the interns I think that they hit a variety of different skills and give interns kind of a glimpse into what different occupations are out there what different vocations they might maybe had never thought of or did have an interest in and it gives them a chance to kind of try it out the graphics program we handle a lot of the pruning needs of the district so we do a lot of curriculum books and the interns help us put together different packages for teachers we
044deliver them and most of our guys work all morning some kids take a break in the middle if they need it but we try to get them working for two and a half three hours straight to simulate what a working environment is like sunflower I'm the business lead for smashing blooms by sight and we take flower orders here Trader Joe's is our partners so we receive orders and then the interns will process those orders so they're learning how to read an order form what kind of orders we need to fulfill once we get the donated flowers we'll put them together the students learn skills like organizing what different types of flowers there are measurement how much to cut off then the fun part is delivering them out to the community because they love to see
045you know the smiles on people's faces as they deliver one two three you got it so celebrations is an Insight um business and we basically make sweets we run a suite of the month club that allows us to create a different Suite each month so the students are involved in the advertising the researching the organization part of it like the business side of it and then they make the Confections we package them and then ultimately deliver them tally and Lancashire will do those next at the end there's a lot of skills they can take with them whether or not it's in a you know a job similar to what we do here in celebrations but it touches on a little bit of everything they can take with them our son Brendan has so many talents
046and so many abilities but he also has challenges and this program works to his abilities they work to his successes like what he's good at and they use that to build those skills that he can then translate into a job setting into the community in different varieties whether it's socially or whether it's in a work environment and so that's what site does I think what sets us apart from other models is our staff I think our staff is very passionate for what we do and we all want to see the students succeed if they're not succeeding my job hasn't been met so I think the passion that goes behind it is what drives the program go ahead and put that in very good all right okay don't hit the green button yet Network but she
047grew a lap when she came here I mean here put her in a different category I mean it's like she's independent now I'm very independent when she came out um the psych program very independent I saw that difference you know I did and I see it every day I'm so happy because it's from not knowing what were already happening in the future too know that she has a future to know that she can live an independent life she can live anything she can do anything she want to do [Music] again I would ask our interns to please stand as well as I see that we have some sight teachers and administrators present tonight if you two would stand and formally be recognized thank you for Brandywine School District recently hosted a first of its kind
048event an elementary chess tournament like to congratulate Hamby Elementary School and Lincolnshire for participating in this inaugural event the event kicked off with drum Court performance before the young competitors took their seats and played two rounds of Chess against their opponents while everyone was a winner I want to congratulate the students from Hanby for taking home the winners trophy I would also like to thank the organization we partnered with right noodle left noodle for coordinating the event and teaching the students how to prepare for a rigid stringent Chef's competition here's just a glimpse of our Chess Masters in action [Music] seven years ago when I was at Lancashire we discussed having a chess competition and here we are this evening making it happen and the the theme for this is the Battle of the minds
049[Music] before we have 48 participants it's three schools represented we have Lincolnshire we have handy and we have Harlan they wanted to play they wanted to compete their focus mean is not chess we focus on math so what we wanted to do is bring problem solvers from different schools so they can come together and compete with their thinking mathematically [Music] our children are outstanding and what's great about this is that it's a diversity of thinkers it doesn't matter about your background it just matters how you problem solve how you think and what's wonderful is that chess is also in other Schools elementary schools throughout our district and we plan to also do something special in each one of those schools as well foreign [Music] Elementary School was honored to host a digital literacy event in
050participation with Delaware State University and Capital One as part of the event Dr Tony Allen president of Del State University Mr Joe Westcott Market president of Capital One along with dozens of volunteers read to Harlan Elementary students the books that were read were written and created by three local writers as part of a digital reading program and Grant spearheaded by Capital One and Del State University after the book reading sessions a small reception was held in Harlan's um as Harlan's young student leaders were read to to celebrate the importance of literacy and education and to shine a light on the bright future that lies ahead as per President scrobot Brandywine in February is Black History Month and our schools throughout BSD are celebrating and supporting this important recognition we'll be sharing content on our social
051media channels throughout the month showcasing the projects and events taking place at all of our schools Claymont elementary school has already started recognition events the school once again held their annual black history mural design contest in total for students and grades two to five had their designs selected which now hang at the front doors of the building we'll have much more to share at our next board meeting of the various recognitions throughout our district some of the fourth and fifth grade students at Hamby have a special surprise just a few weeks ago Philadelphia Phillies third baseman Alec bone and Phillips Philly's assistant strength coach and conditioning coach Fury Liva visited the school as part of the winter tour to coach students through a workout students had no idea who was coming but were encouraged to
052wear their Phillies gear for the day special thank you to Hamby physical education teacher Mr Matt Farina for helping to coordinate the special opportunity Concord High School Raider Bo Smith recently had his Make-a-Wish dream come true Beau was invited by the 76ers to attend the game Beau had the opportunity to watch the game Courtside and to meet the team and owners including some of his favorite players those energy was felt by the team and everyone in the arena it's easy to see how much Beau can light up a room with his energy and his smile as we shared at our last meeting the elementary basketball league is back young athletes are doing a great job and even had a special surprise a few weeks back the Mount Pleasant High School boys basketball players came to
053participate in some special activities needless to say the kids had an amazing time interacting with the high school athletes meanwhile the players at 4 Wood had very special visitors helping them get ready for upcoming games the Delaware Blue coats along with their mascot Cody visited the school to run drills with the young basketball athletes once again I want to acknowledge and thank all of our school leaders teachers volunteers and coaches who are assisting not only organizing but running the practices and the games this year without them this couldn't be possible so thank you for your time energy and Devotion to kids as always I must Once Again Begin our Showcase of the district highlights with the caveat that this is just a mere glimpse of all that is happening throughout our schools we begin at
054Maple Lane where students were recently took part in a winter bald dance as you can see the students look dashing in their former wear and had a blast at the event meanwhile the BSD Lifesavers has started meeting again students participating in the program which now includes both middle and high school students have had two learning sessions the first covered how to properly put on personal protective equipment known as PPE the second learning session involved taking Vital Signs such as blood pressure and heart rate the goal of the BSD Life Savers group is to create early exposure to the Health Care field for our students congratulations to the art students from tally and Springer middle schools who were selected to have their Works featured in the 2023 haysom in Terrace Visionary peace youth art exhibition at
055the Wilmington Library this year's exhibition featured remarkable works from hundreds of young artists describing their vision of peace forward Elementary School recently partnered with the Beau Biden Foundation to host an Internet safety workshop for all parents and families throughout our district experts shared how children and teens are currently navigating the digital landscape and how adults can help protect their children from online dangers we were once again fortunate to capture three of our school nutrition employees being honored as employees of the month these employees are nominated by their colleagues and School staff members Patricia Holdsworth from Springer Middle School Jennifer McMillan from Lancashire Elementary and Bonnie Hayes from forward Elementary we're all recently honored for their hard work and dedication Italian Middle School student Equity team recently facilitated a fish bowl with staffed during the faculty
056meeting to discuss Equitable practices in school and how to improve student achievement and sense of belonging at Concord High School assistant principal defer Royster coordinated a military information breakfast for interested students the students who signed up to participate were able to speak with members of the Marine Corps Navy Army and Delaware National Guard students learned about the benefits and options the military offers upon High School graduation Mount Pleasant High School black student union recently held a mental health matters discussion to showcase the importance of recognizing challenges and finding support the event featured a licensed mental health expert who spoke with students about tools and resources meanwhile the latest up for learning student conference took place at the end of January these ongoing student conferences bring together students from all three high schools the events allow
057students alongside school and District leaders to collaborate and engage in the activities and discussions to further develop the youth adult partnership in BSD car Croft Elementary recently held a dinner and a show the evening event was a math night focusing on making math fun and accessible students and families were invited for a spaghetti dinner followed by math activities and even a magician and finally at Springer Middle School the Anthony D varanio music scholarship concert featuring Allen vasude and the Bob baronio big band was recently held the Springer jazz band opened the concert with a special performance concert is a fundraiser for the Anthony baronio music scholarship in the Brandywine School District there are simply so many amazing things happening in our schools each and every day to end my presentation this evening I hope you
058enjoy the video highlight [Music] good morning [Music] Brady always means less than so then tachycardia what does that mean [Music] high five there you go my students have been working on um trying to develop assistive Technologies for kids with disabilities specifically what you see here right they're developing exercise equipment for kids with disabilities trying to meet their needs you got to build something and see it you know in the first steps of creation and now it's people are using it having fun with it so it's good I'd love to see it [Music] hey foreign [Music] students in grades two through five create a design of why they think Black History Month is important and then those winners get to paint their murals on huge paper and hang them out front of the school for the
059entire month of February this was like my first ever mural that I ever painted and it's like super exciting and fun and I really love the fact that millions of people are gonna see my masterpiece and everyone else's [Music] [Applause] [Music] the girl tucked Lincoln in her pocket and rolled out the door all right let's give a round of applause for our office [Music] I'd like to thank all of our dedicated staff members throughout our district for all the amazing work that you're doing and as always I'll end my presentation with it's easy to see why I'm proud to be BSD thank you chairman that's my report thank you superintendent holder any comments or questions from the board no thank you very much for your report moving on next up we have our public comments
060segment uh we ask that our speakers and audience members as always be courteous and respectful to each other this is your time to be heard regarding topics related to the Brandywine School District we do have a fair amount of comments this evening so I'll ask everyone to please be mindful of your two minute time limit um once you begin speaking the clock will start and and at the end of the two minutes I want to make sure everybody gets their time and we will start with our first I'll call a name and then I'll call a name on Deck speakers in the room can go to either aisle microphone but we will start with Amanda Burris via Zoom followed by Karen Bruton in the room a good evening I apologize for not being there in
061person I'm a current parent at forward and Springer first I would like to acknowledge the amazing and supportive staff and administration at these schools but due to the amount of fighting at Springer are there new consequences being put in place for these children that repeat these actions since suspension has not been effective when I send my children to school I am trusting Brandywine School District to ensure a safe School Springer families would like to know how you can ensure them that their children are safe when they leave them at the front door thank you Miss Bruton in the room followed by Dylan Thompson good evening I am the parent of a current Springer student and I'm here tonight to voice my concerns about school safety this year has been terrible there with fights as I'm
062sure we're all aware culminating with Dr Woodson ending up on the floor requiring an ambulance and being out of school for a week something needs to change because whatever the school and District are doing is not effective in deterring these kids from fighting there is actually just another fight today my son told me that at an assembly last month Dr Woodson shared that it is same kids causing the problems he said that it's a small group or so who have over 100 Behavior referrals how does that even happen it should never get to that point these kids should be removed from school if they have that many referrals expulsion is possible it just seems like nobody wants to step up to the plate to actually do it so in the meantime administrators teachers and students
063continue to be victimized when is enough enough state laws require schools to provide a safe and supportive learning environment if a student makes a school unsafe by starting fights we as parents have the right to ask for the suspension or expulsion of the student when will the rights of the majority matter then more than those of the minority I shouldn't have to ask my child on a daily basis if there were any fights in school it's completely out of control it speaks volumes when Dr Woodson tells parents at the PTA meeting that he would not send his own child to Springer due to all the behavioral problems what are we teaching these kids that there are no consequences for their actions I have walked in here tonight and started a physical altercation no doubt I
064would be removed no questions asked real life actions care of real life consequences and they need to learn that lesson and not be referred to Suite 360 online SEL program there are alternative schools that these problems students can be moved to positive change Academy BCS Parkway Kingswood why won't the school or District refer them to play placement at one of these buildings what is your plan moving forward what is being done because what you're doing is not working thank you Miss Bruton next up we have Dylan Thompson followed by Kevin McLaughlin good evening my name is Dylan Thompson um back again this week uh Miss Lawson holder it's been over a month neither of you still return my phone call because you feel you don't need to you know regarding safety I find it funny
065when the lady was speaking on Zoom the smug look you had Mr holder about safety half the board not even concerned not even looking you know no care here what what are we going to do to make these kids safe I mean Miss pigeon your husband was taking a week out after what's the bus he was taken out you know what I mean how many more administrators and Springer Middle School have to be injured in front of students and you say oh it's safe it's safe but it's not because the mental health in there and you guys just sit here and there's no care and you know Mr holder you said something about when you look at Mr laws it says I ask myself how I'm in service to others how are you in service
066to these students that you have done nothing for them it has been a month nothing has changed what what is it going to take to change this is going to take someone seriously getting hurt and a serious crime to happen in the school and if it does happen you guys should all be accomplices because we come here Monday after month tell me about the safety and nothing happens there are so many programs out there I work with two fellows that are ex-marines and they take off four days a month and they go work in different schools and different programs that to straighten them out and you guys do nothing you don't care about the students you don't care about your staff and all you care about is walk around shaking hands and kissing babies you
067know and your look it's gonna someone's gonna seriously get it injured here and and it's sad because we keep coming I mean you guys still have the same smug look half you guys don't pay attention when we speak it's embarrassing it's embarrassing you know I will not have a kid in Springer next year but I still keep coming because I have respect for that man right there the only one I've seen him and him and Royster that care about people Mr Woodson and Royster not one of you thank you Mr Thompson Mr President good evening I just want to take a minute I'll take a minute of your time I apologize I can't use my two minutes first go ahead you go ahead you go ahead you know I don't know who that fellow was
068that's Dylan Thompson Sir Mr Thompson you are wrong excuse me excuse me we certainly do care we certainly do care look hold on hold on hold on hold on I'm okay to listen to your barbs and arrows and listen to you talk but I am telling you this afternoon this is Mr Ackerman it's public comment time we're not going to derail yeah you'll you'll have a time to comment if you want to make a comment sir one second you'll get your two minutes I'll give you your two minutes you're good you're good Mr Ackerman no I'm not attacking the parents I'm saying that Mr are concerned Mr Ackerman you'll have a moment I'll be happy to give you a call so make a comment at the end of public comment who who in here who's
069here who's here okay thank you very much now listen to me for a minute I came to this meeting November by myself these people all finally came on their own tonight and thank God for that Dr Woodson I appreciate the open dialogue we've had he's doing everything he can those four brick walls on Shipley Road that's fine I understand I'm good you know so what I'm saying is he needs help from the district and the state and everybody's here to prove that tonight you know that me and you've had our comments together I've talked to you every month for the last four months I was one of one in November and now I'm one of like 50 I hope um let me see here before I get sidetracked um so I have not got any
070comment back from anybody at all as well from the board other than Dr Woodson so I'm hoping that you respond to some of these people in the room tonight in the next 24 to 48 hours like you're supposed to we come to these meetings you're shaking everybody's hand and patting each other in the back with a lot of good stuff and I appreciate that but why when we come back next month can't we talk about what we're talking about now you want to talk to us about it sir the next hour from seven to eight o'clock next month talk about what we're talking about now and what we're going to do to solve it my son will also not be in Springer in September next year so you can use that 17 240 some odd
071dollars whatever the state gives you to maybe help another child or help these other kids out here but you're going to lose an honor roll student in June Dr Woodson do your best to protect him until June for me please sir and these other children and that's all I got to say for tonight thank you Mr McLaughlin Greg Munson followed by John dasilva hi good evening how's everybody doing today good thank you uh I'm here uh with the Mount Pleasant music boosters and we just want to talk about some of the water issues that the school is talking about I thank you for uh talking about some of the lead issues in the school earlier um the basement area is standing water and they're creating lots of mildew and mold so I just wanted to
072see if you guys can add that to your agenda so we can um take care of this issue and right now the teachers are filling it with dehumidifiers um and wet dry vacs and trying to solve the problem but anytime you go down there there is just standing water so it is creating a lot of health problems for the students many of them are allergic to mold allergens those type of things so just something that you guys can look at and investigate and then another thing that as a kind of a byproduct of that uh the school has a giant mouse problem not Mickey uh but they are running around constantly in many of the classrooms to where the kids just see them all the time so uh hopefully for a future meeting this can
073be addressed and I think John's going to talk about it also we have a few students that are with us also just to kind of address that this is an issue that we have and hopefully it can be addressed in the coming months thank you thank you Mr Munson John de Silva followed by Warren stradley um basically uh we're talking about the same thing here so the music basement we can't store the marching band uniforms there except for during the season we have to keep them off site we have guitars and other instruments that we've had to replace Dr Pizano and and the admin at the school I mean they've been great about helping us you know do what we can to salvage and maintain the equipment um we do have mold analogy concerns we
074do have two dehumidifiers that we have to empty routinely throughout the day uh if we don't it goes from 35 to about 87 percent in about an hour there are days where the kids come in on days where it rains and you will see Mrs Hansen with the wet dry vac trying to take care of the large puddle of water that forms at the base of the stairs which is kind of a slippery uh situation right there we do have Frozen coming up when we did have the president's own March ban from the Marine Corps they had concerns as well about our situation down there but we managed to keep everything so that they're uh traveling cases and their equipment wouldn't have to suffer during that the boosters have had to replace things and update
075and upkeep things we're just hoping that we can address some of that um and as for the Springer parents I will say PS has also had some of those problems as well uh my son has been attacked during the school after school um so hopefully yeah somebody addresses something thank you Mr Da Silva Warren stroudly followed by Rebecca Campbell I think the biggest thing that we all never bring up is a code of conduct it never gets talked about but it's a huge problem there's so many loopholes in it that mean nothing you know a kid can do whatever he wants and get a slap on the wrist and walk away from it you know it doesn't work you know we that's one huge thing that we need to look at the way things are
076going my child came home I'm gonna say back in October and told me she wants to be homeschooled um numerous kids have told me this that I've talked to that have come to my house this doesn't work you know I went through burning my school district it was great for me what's the you know what are you guys going to do figure it out please thank you Mr stradling Rebecca Campbell followed by Catherine dunworth hi my name is Rebecca Campbell my second child is currently a seventh grader at Springer Middle School I'm sad to stand here today to discuss new Behavior concerns that I've noticed since my last child attended I want to thank Dr Woodson and the staff who have already implemented interventions to protect our children but we need more the schools need
077more help and numerous parents are here willing to help you my daughter has expressed multiple times about being fearful of attending school she has been tearful coming home and before bed because she fears the violent atmosphere at Springer I want to share with you some comments that I've heard my child's head was pushed into the wall my child is afraid of the hallways my child was pushed to the ground I'm concerned about possible sexual harassment for another student my child is being bullied my child runs to the next class to avoid being in the hallways this school year students have been sent to the hospital staff have been hurt and even sent to the hospital children are losing instructional time due to the need to clean up areas from fights the most recent was a
078two-hour delay due to a horrible horrible act involving Dr Woodson the much of this is blamed on covid however we still need to keep our children safe and guarantee they get an education despite the pandemic please do not use the word rumor when referring to these events and comments from parents these are not rumors these are actual events don't be fooled removing videos from the internet does not work our children are tech savvy and these videos are still out there many of us parents are disgusted about the videos that we've seen if you are generally concerned about education and safety and empathize with staff students and parents then I challenge you to create a short-term and long-term solution I challenge you to address the code of conduct I'm looking forward to hearing from you directly
079and as over all these parents thank you thank you Miss Campbell uh Catherine dunworth followed by Lilith mazikia Mazika thank you I'm also here tonight to express my concern about safety at Springer Middle School three of my grandchildren go to the school one in each of the grades and I recently found out about the fight when Mr Woodson was injured and understand the students were suspended for three days and they came back to school before Mr Woodson did and I think that is totally um totally wrong there needs to be more severe consequences especially if someone is a repeat offender the code of conduct needs to be changed especially if a principal or any School employee has been injured they should be able to press charges I've had to do that as a teacher because
080in one incident I was in the middle of a of an altercation and I got struck and my glasses were broken and the the person who did it refused to even pay for my glasses so I had to take them to court um there should be immediate suspension or expulsion and all right the old my oldest grandson is in eighth grade he's had to play the role of bodyguard for my sixth grade grandson if there was one incident where a fight broke out and my and the older grandchild pushed his cousin into a classroom for him to be safe because he said when there's a fight that breaks out it can go out of control this is not a good learning environment for the students I like the school district to publish online the number
081of fights in each of the schools as diligently as the number of coveted cases were reported last year I like the administration to this month reassess their security at all the schools and come up with a plan at the next board meeting to let us know what the results were there can be some um some of the things that can happen is the Halls could be monitored limit hall passes passport students I'm afraid we're time Miss dunworth thank you Lilith Mazika followed by Rachel McLaughlin I'm wolf I'm Carl Carlson at Mount Pleasant High School it's literally falling apart in disrepair I'm just saying disabled and sometimes due to my knees I have to use the elevators they the elevator certificate of operation that's been expired since June . I nearly got stuck in there trying
082to use it what are the elevators buttons are pushed into the point where wires are exposed there is a ramp leading to another one of these elevators that is absolutely not indeed to compliant because to me with merely a limp I nearly fell down it for somebody in a wheelchair their wheelchair will tilt back and their head will smash on the concrete floor on top of that there are walls that are literally falling apart from water damage there is what is dubbed the forever puddle in the music room as well they're on top of that are teachers who are teaching there who are showing signs of dementia who are allowed to teach there still there are teachers who have admitted that they like they enjoy their female students in their class by saying I like
083the women in my class when they teach a majority freshmen there are teachers in that school who feel it is okay to grab and touch students to try and redirect them or move them out of an area when I know full well that is not allowed there are teachers who fully and openly language violate 504 violations and nothing is done Miss Lacy is openly pushing everything that should be her job onto the dean of students and I know that is completely against board policy if something is not done I will go to the media with all this because I am tired and sick and tired of trying to get these things fixed what are the teachers I've mentioned today I have already reported to the district and he is still working there like nothing has
084happened if this continues on students will not be safe will it take a student getting a life-changing injury for something to be done thank you Lilith and I'm her mother and any details you would like because they have pictures Etc and certainly arrange contacted and they can share the information that they have in photos Etc that'll be helpful thank you Rachel McLaughlin followed by Gary Flanagan we're back in since that we had last month and still no discussion tonight why why are you not taking initiative to do your jobs you're sitting in powers of position and choosing to do absolutely nothing it's a disgrace as far as I'm concerned and all the parents behind me you have no back or regard for Dr Woodson if you did you would have started doing something a long
085time ago and honestly you all sit up here with a disgustful look that's how we feel about you not doing your jobs not taking initiative to take the extra step for our children and the safety that they deserve to have the learning environment that they all deserve that you all decided to go and work for correct I believe so so I challenge you tonight to start taking initiative and to start moving and doing stuff to change the code of conduct take the initiative to be the power to do something to actually make a change don't sit here and look at us and disgust do something about it I challenge you tonight to actually do something thank you thank you Miss McLaughlin Gary Flanagan followed by Melissa Porter good evening I'm here as well as a
086springer parent but I also have concerns in general regarding the student code of conduct not just set Springer but from what my understanding is is that there are issues at many of the schools that are a systemic problem due to a lack of consequences that are being enforced from the student code of conduct I think in an effort to embrace restorative practices for behavior issues victims have been left feeling abandoned kids with serious behavior issues aren't getting the help that they need and all the kids are stuck in an environment which isn't conducive to learning the I want to thank the teachers and Dr Woodson and the administrators for their flexibility and their dedication even trying to teach in such a chaotic environment my own son has been bullied he had his face shoved into
087a water fountain and he did respond inappropriately nonetheless and he suffered consequences which I fully support I think though that he when I asked him why he retaliated rather than talking to a teacher talking to a guidance counselor he said that he had that the teachers knew what was going on that the teachers know but that their hands are tied in terms of managing poor behavior from the students I've spoken with teachers who have told me that a student can Vape in their class and blow the smoke in their face and the next day those those children that child will be back in their classroom and I don't see how when that's what the rest of the students are seeing how you can expect a teacher to have any sort of control over their classroom
088when they can be blatantly disrespected and have there be no consequences and when good kids see this they will they'll make poor decisions if only to defend and protect themselves so I hope that you all will look at the student code of conduct and we'll take Burns to Art and revisit this because it's my understanding that you guys afraid we're at Thomas Flanagan thank you Melissa Porter followed by Teresa Whitfield my son is also in sixth grade at Springer um a few days before Christmas I received a phone call from the dean of students saying that he had been intentionally burned on the arm with a hot glue gun by another student and then our common denominator here he was punished as per the student code of conduct clearly that's the problem have any of
089you spent any time in that school at all walked in seen what's going on my guess is probably not this stuff is happening every single day I was late to class today because there was a fight in the hallway we can't use our phones at lunch because there was another fight there it's there's always something it's to the point that these kids almost see it as normal they don't realize that this is It's just become normal like I think we really really need to address the code of conduct because clearly it's not enough it's not strong enough there are no consequences there's no accountability obviously a lot of it starts at home but you have parents that don't care either and then those kids come into school you have 97 doing the right thing all
090the time and three percent cause all these problems all day every day it's it's just enough is enough like when are we going to look and see what the problem is and try to fix it instead of just coming up with more excuses as to why I saw that on online oh well they these people come from bad places well that's not it's an excuse it's not it doesn't help what are we gonna do something I hope thank you Miss Porter Risa Whitfield followed by Eric Chapman I also have a sixth grader and eighth grader at Springer so I'm here under um the concern of safety um they come home often and tell me about there was another fight today or you know one recently was I was coming out of gym class and I
091you know got pushed aside because there was a you know a fight but there was also a police officer chasing a girl and she was you know shaking and I'm thinking are you serious like this is what you're seeing at school like this is not this is not good this is not good um I get okay there's how can you stop these kids I mean the the teachers and administrators are getting in the middle and they're getting knocked down and punched and I mean we're seeing the videos so the email that came out was just like a little nonchalant you know wasn't a big thing Dr Woodson fell like I saw the video and it's just upsetting that our kids have to witness these things and what's being done about it the same kids are
092coming back to school something needs to be done like in school suspension something that's uncomfortable to them not sending them home to just have a little vacation that's what is that doing nothing that if it was in school suspension maybe have a police officer in there with them if there's not staff there to to cover that class have maybe like someone said ex-marine somebody could come in and really talk to these kids you know it's if they're having a bad home life I mean sending them home is not going to help obviously because look what's happening so they need um someone to guide them or show them like this is not going to work okay the way you're acting is sending you you're going down the wrong route and it's a shame for the other
093kids they're suffering because of these few kids that keep coming back so I'm just hope that something can be done with with that thank you Miss Whitfield Eric Chapman hi good afternoon my name is Eric Chapman I'm the parent of a Mount Pleasant student I did want to take a moment to discuss the molten water issues that we're having in the music department mold and water issues can lead to minor inconveniences such as shortness of breath or coughing and sneezing but more serious issues such as shortness breath tightness the chest allergic reactions to mold can cause pneumonia the water issues have gone far beyond just the uh the two dehumidifiers in teachers downstairs with shop vacs trying to clean the water up it's gotten to the point where professional remediation needs to be done we
094need additional funds in order to figure out what the problems are and get these fixed so our students who are downstairs in these rooms singing breathing all these spores aren't going to have continual medical problems later on and for the parents of Springer my hearts go out to you I I'm so sorry that you're all having to deal with this and I hope the best of luck to you thank you hi I'd just like to I'm actually a student at Mount Pleasant I'd like to take their remainder of my father's time um I am a Music student and I am down in that basement every single day and I don't think there has not been a single day I'm also in the building early in the morning to late at night sometimes I'm there 12
095hours a day this puddle in the basement is like um we had an earlier speaker call it the um forever puddle that is what it is known as because it is never not gone away there are tiles in the basement that are flooding and that have water seeping out along the sides and we're breathing that and singing and playing instruments around it every day and it's it's gross it's disgusting and the mice are everywhere I have videos of my teachers running up and down the halls trying to get them out of our classroom because they're disrupting learning and the fact is that that's not abnormal that is abnormal and it needs to eat something needs to happen about it thank you so a couple say the Mount Pleasant issues we'll start start there and again
096this isn't a you know normal this is our school board meeting this is you know we've heard your public comment this isn't the we're not going to debate the issue back and forth but I do want to comment on some of the topics tonight so Mount Pleasant High School for one some of this is is news as far as mice and so forth we can get with the facilities director and we can remedy that problem Mount Pleasant High School was built on a natural spring so there is water underneath there it's tried to we've tried to mitigate it over the many years you know we'll get in touch again with the facilities director of C what is new to that situation and what can be done about it and you know where Mount Pleasant is
097in the um in in the line of refurbishments Renovations and so forth so we can address that um as far as Springer goes you know we sat here last time you know we're certainly paying attention I mean up there I'm taking pages and pages of notes so nobody's sitting here smog ignoring I do do take a little bit of offense to that notion that nobody up here cares most of our board members here have students in our schools in Springer so I'll always wait a second I understand so okay we've we've had our time no one knows laughing up here so what I want to say is that we do have a code of conduct a lot of what I'm hearing is get these kids out and it's that's not possible because we have state
098laws we're public education system we have to educate children so the code of conduct would you like to hear me talk you guys have had your chance to talk I'll talk we have a code of conduct and it works when it's implemented we had issues coming out of last year here at the high schools we made changes in fact we're done now because you guys aren't listening to me because you're not listening to me foreign business Mr President can I just make a couple of comments if you must I must first I really want to apologize for the experience that your children are having at Springer it is not acceptable to me as a board member I don't take this job because I'm afraid to hear your feedback I want to hear your feedback and
099I want to help solve the problem so here's my suggestion here what my turn my turn here's my suggestion find go to the code of conduct cut out the part the parts that you find unacceptable the parts where you feel we're falling down and send it to me my emails on the website and I will go back to Dr Lawson and we will re-look at those items of the code of conduct I agree with you it's totally unacceptable what's going on at Springer and no I haven't been in Springer but I have had the ability to watch the video surveillance cameras that we have in the school that are nice HD cameras that show me what's going on I see what the problem is there I think the superintendent sees it I think every board
100member sees it so it is going to be addressed I apologize that it has not been addressed as yet I really do because no student should have to go to school and be afraid to be in the building because that's not what we do as Educators and as a district and we pride ourselves on trying to be a good District I'm trying to do lots of good things for kids and what your kids are experiencing right now in my opinion is not good and I think you share that opinion actually and I apologize to all of you that we haven't been faster to get this resolved but I know there's additional resources that are going to be put at that school to help with things and I think we will start to see things changing
101between now and the next board meeting and I invite you to come back and report and tell us again are we living up to what I just said to you or are we not and I and I look forward to seeing what specific items in the code of conduct are not meeting your expectations because I've heard it mentioned several times and and I don't necessarily disagree with you there were a couple changes we made last year and I'm like uh you know do I really want to do this we gave Dr Lawson and and the recommendations they provided the benefit of the doubt but all I'm saying is show me what you feel is wrong show me what you feel is not solid enough and we'll work on that because you're experiencing every day and
102and I I will definitely give you a call sir no Mr scrobot um I have a I'm sorry I have a question from um for from Mrs crowbar for Mr uh a hauler um I do have a question do we have in the district because I know several districts do have this that exists do we have the Brandywine School District a code of conduct committee we do have that who is on that committee who is on the committee the code of conduct is more stringent today than it was in 2019 with regards to fighting okay so we I'm sorry so we do we do have a code of conduct committee that does involve some parents are is this something because I I do want you to understand we we hear you okay listen I'm a
103mother I'm an educator we we hear you so I'm asking a question so is the the code of conduct committee is that open to what is the is this something that we can address in the code of conduct committee I'm not sure who you're directing the question to Mr stock I'm addressing the question to whoever can answer that okay so we do have a code of conduct committee uh that committee reached regularly we do want and have parent participation on that committee um in regards to the comments that that have been made tonight um we too are concerned and the accusation that nothing has been done in the last 30 days is false things have been put into place directives have been given a excuse me sir if you can't abide by the requests of
104a proper decorum in the meeting you will be asked to leave I don't want to see that happen do you want to hear what the man has to say you've asked questions he's trying to explain it to you and you you had our attention last month and after last month's meeting um do you want to do you want to hear what I have to say well you might be there is a civility Clause that says that if you're going to come and be in attendance you are going to have to act civilly and we will pursue that we will pursue that you're not listening I'm trying to talk to you so things have been directed additional supports have been put into place um excuse me sir we're not we're not going to call out here
105we're not going to call out if no and here's why it's not a um you won't even let me you won't even give me time to explain the answer will you okay so here's here's the deal with the state right with sros they are state police officers they do not have any additional sros available to us in fact one of our sros at one of our buildings has to go out on paternity leave they didn't even have a backup we had to transfer one from another building and are providing part-time assistance through officers uh volunteering for overtime to support that building until paternity leave is over there are no additional officers they are they have the latest recruiting classes that they've had in decades you read the news journal as I do and you've seen
106that I'm sure Newcastle County Police Department is experiencing the same thing same as WPD so I'm giving you an honest answer when I say is there additional law enforcement available the answer is no we've looked into it it's not it's not an indictment on anybody you ask the question I'm giving you the the answer other issues are being addressed some of them it's not about the code it's about the application of the code and we're digging into those pieces you can shrug your shoulders um but things are happening behind the scenes we're not at Liberty to share all those pieces with you this board of education met with the leadership team immediately following the last board meeting and discussed what was going to happen what we were doing what we were putting in place and
107that was followed up with an email from Dr Woodson that following weekend that outlined some specific actions that would be taken to curb some of these behaviors well it's going to take time it's going to take time it's not it's not a quick fix it's not a budget issue we can barely get we can barely get them to cover sporting events oh they don't want it Dr Woodson has been given directives on things that have to change things to be put in place and it's our expectation that those things will happen and they should have a desired effect he's been there we've we've we've sent other District administrators to the building all right all right we're we're we're yeah I I do I I would like to speak excuse me excuse me I would like
108to speak um and I just want to Echo what some of what has already been said and that um it is um in our interest but also it is we are uncomfortable with the current state of what's happening at Springer so much so that last week um a few of us met uh the exec board for the parent and citizens advisory committee um and this topic this very topic came up and it's something that we plan to address um we've not had the opportunity to meet with the necessary Personnel to give you more information for obvious reasons we cannot divulge all of our security plans however we do understand your concern we we absolutely hear you um and we would just ask for your patients I know that is difficult however um understanding that it
109is um in our purview to to try to get this right and so I um again want to Echo with Ralph uh what Ralph has said in the in the sense that you know we are um sorry that this is happening to your students but at the same time we are working behind the scenes to make sure that that this isn't a continuing issue and I will say we heard a lot of anecdotal stories this evening you know uh events kids being pushed bullied beaten up if if these things are happening and I'll take care of your word that they are but they have to be documented in order to implement the code of conduct so if if it's you know I'm not talking about the videos I'm talking about the ones that we know
110that are documented but the ones that don't seem like they're getting documented that's part of the process in order of building the documentation to follow the protest follow the process give students the due process and move students to Alternative placement that need to be moved to Alternative placement we can't do it because maybe the process isn't being followed and maybe it needs to be followed more happened that's what we're working on that's what we expressed last month right we expressed last month you have our attention we've met immediately following that meeting we put actions into place we're monitoring to see what what measures are being implemented and what's not being implemented find out why and get it corrected it doesn't happen overnight appreciate everybody coming out tonight thank you for your comments we're moving on
111to board liaison reports dsba executive board Mr Ackman do you have an update uh yes the executive board did meet one second on January 11th I'll call you Mr Ackerman do you have an update yes uh we did have a quorum at the January 11th meeting we had a presentation from the Department of Education on House Bill 198. um they presided an extremely informative presentation and answered many questions we uh in addition to that we did go over other committee reports as well as the lead in drinking water um we got an update from Dr marinucci and indicated that the original testing that was done uh by the Department of Education was not done following proper protocols for testing chain of custody protocols um sampling protocols multiple places and um so it essentially it is
112going to be redone as I think you've seen in some of our notes um if there's anything else of note in here uh we do have up to a one million dollar Branch available from energize Delaware uh to equip one of our schools or multiple schools with solar panels or other um energy saving type things I don't know if you'd look into that Mr superintendent uh John Reed our director of facilities has been informed of the solar Grant has been part of a few webinars around it and is in its investigating foreign who was the board member from Capital School District gave us the energized Delaware update our next meeting will be March first at uh in Dover thank you Mr Ackerman Miss Gordon is not with us tonight I did not get any legislative
113notes District finance committee met early this month in advance of this meeting we met on February 1st uh this fluoride will go over the monthly December and January's monthly Financial reports as well as the financial position report um no other discussions other than we did get a little sidetracked with uh principal hour backs uh NFL fan of the year um but our next meeting is March 8th describe I didn't know my name is um absent as part of the members as a school board alternate I'm sorry what I'm just seeing that my name is absent from the member list for the finance committee um where are you saying I'm not sure where you're saying that but um when you click on the district finance committee underneath members all right we'll get that added on there
114yeah make sure to get Miss stock added as the alternate on the listing uh Mr Heller is not here for health and wellness advisory uh not here for maintenance advisory but I do know that the last meeting was held on January 10th of PS DuPont I did not get an update from him but looks like they reviewed projects completed over the winter break and the closeout of current capital projects which maybe he can recap for us next month um and the next maintenance committee advisory committee is scheduled for February 7th at Hanby Bush uh Mr Reed maybe we can move that to Mount Pleasant High School given this evening's comments and come back with a report to address some of those items excuse me Reverend Perry parents and citizens advisory committee as I previously mentioned
115uh the pcac met last week uh our exec committee um and we did discuss uh various topics and one of which that um was uh one of the topics that we thought were that we deemed important was school safety and school culture and climate and so what we had decided to do was reach out to um our admin team to see who would be available to assist with that particular presentation um and so we will reconvene this Thursday to finalize our agenda the larger body will meet on March Monday March the 13th the location is tentatively Mount Pleasant elementary school thank you Reverend Perry uh parent Council for students with disabilities Miss pigeon um the parent Council was given a survey um through Miss Warner um to fill out areas of that they would like
116to be considered for uh kind of a committee behavior management After School summer camps parent coping mechanisms and self-care Center resources and activities IEP parent advocacy and Community Resources those are areas that those parents can um parents are having issues in any of those areas can connect with the parent council member that's within that topic assignment parent surveys will be going out um soon to uh discuss about meeting topics and gather additional information the next meeting is March 9th and um so the survey will be going out to all parents who have students with IEPs between July 1st and December 31st um will they will receive the survey and um parents will be encouraged to complete the survey at their IEP meeting to gain feedback about their student with special needs and their educational experience
117so the committee is working um and again March 9th is the next committee meeting thank you Miss pigeon Reverend Perry Wilmington learning collaborative update um the Wilmington learning collaborative met on Thursday January the 26th um at that time we began the meeting with the confirmation I do want to thank publicly the governor for the appointment and state that I look forward to continuing to work with what I what I call our Dream Team um there were three items Three core items of discussion for our meeting the establishment of our bylaws project management management support and the finalization of the executive director job description however due to our capacity issue and Desiring to do our due diligence to gain a better understanding of funding practices and pro the procurement process from the Department of Education we
118thought that it would be in our best interest to defer making decisions on those on two particular items the project management support and the executive director um our liaison our district three District Liaisons were tasked with um creating a selection process for our student representatives and researching um the executive directors uh salary throughout or what would be an amenable uh salary for executive directors our next meeting will be held this Thursday on February the 9th at 6 pm thank you Reverend Perry and congratulations once again for being nominated chair great honor great way to represent Brandywine School District thank you um 917 wmph has not had a meeting we usually meet quarterly our next meeting is scheduled for March 14th any additional board member reports or comments hearing none I will move on to entertain
119a motion to accept the consent agenda second motion by Miss pigeon second by Reverend Perry all those in favor say aye aye aye any opposed motion carries um takes us on to monthly Personnel report to have a motion to approve monthly Personnel report is discussed in exact session so moved motion drive a second second Mr Ackerman second Miss pigeon all those in favor say aye aye aye any pose motion carries do I have a motion to approve student matters as discussed in executive session so move second uh Reverend Perry motion who was the second I think two of us I think both of us do all right I'm gonna give it to miss stock uh all those in favor say aye aye any opposed motion carries there is no old business this evening takes us
120on to new business with a first reading of the 22-23 Elementary calendar adjustment Mr holder yeah not quite a first read of that calendar but something that I need to bring to the attention of the board uh informational only this evening uh looking for official action at the March board meeting members of the board tonight I want to share an update to our school calendar that will impact this current school year as you were aware back in September we've made adjustments for the September 2022 which was Primary Election Day originally we had that day scheduled as a day of school by new state regulations schools were not allowed to be in uh in session uh we were not aware of this our calendar committee didn't catch it so we ended up losing a instructional day
121that counts towards the requirement for students in the state of Delaware since this additional day off for students we have been constantly looking for different ways that we can add additional instructional time back into our school calendar primarily for our elementary level students in addition a few of our elementary schools in an effort to streamline their post-covet arrival and dismissal procedure we're falling short of their state mandated annual hourly requirement to remedy this issue and to be fully compliant with State regulation one action has already been implemented and the other two being recommended to you this evening the identified schools have already made necessary adjustments to their arrival and dismissal procedures so that piece is taken care of second action is a recommendation that involves two Elementary Pre-K five only calendar adjustments the first I'm
122recommending that we convert Friday May 5th 2023 which is a scheduled currently as a parent teacher conference day um and as such traditionally no school is scheduled for pre-k to five students we convert that into a regular in-person school day historically this conference day has been used to meet with parents whose students are facing possible retention for the following school year in reviewing last year's data 12 students across all nine elementary schools were retained we'll be working with building principles to find time for such conferences to be held other than that traditional day office school so again one of the recommendations is converting the current parent-teacher conference day scheduled for Friday May 5th which would be no students into a regular in-person school day that's Pre-K to five only second calendar adjustment recommendation is to
123change the elementary half day currently scheduled for Wednesday May 10th to a full instructional day for elementary schools want to note that this will remain an online learning day or asynchronous day for our secondary students The Proposal is only changing the half day on May 10th to a full day on May 10th for in-person elementary given the tremendous work of our elementary teams and what they've accomplished with their professional development efforts this year met with Dr Kutz in the curriculum instruction team and they feel confident that making this transition to a full day won't be an issue I also want to note that we've been listening to the feedback from our parents and families this year regarding the half days on the schedule for elementary students we are absolutely taking this feedback into account before
124making any recommendations for next year's calendar so again just to sum things up we needed to take three actions to ensure that we're meeting the state requirements I set forth in title 14. 1060 hours at the elementary level by doing that we have to adjust three of our schools start in end times because they had shrunken them down a bit post-covered based on car lines dismissal and arrival procedures they're back on track take the full day on May 5th that was scheduled to be parent-teacher conference make it a full in-person day for all elementary schools take the May 10th half day and make it a full day at elementary keeping secondary as an async day for professional development again I'll put that in writing share it with you in board docs just wanted to give
125you that um rationale of why we need to do what we're doing steps we've already taken and because it's an official change of a day that was scheduled to be off to now having school for elementary we want to give that 30-day feedback period where parents can give us feedback one way or another as required with a calendar change by Delaware code and that'll give us perfect timing to bring it up as an action item at the March 20th Board of Education meeting I know you said you'll upload that into bordock system we can make sure that we get it attached to the agenda for next month so the public can view The Narrative of those dates right and we'll actually put this in our board recap that Mr Hudson puts out every about a
126week after the board meetings so that all parents are aware of what is being proposed can I just ask you a question since you you kind of touched on this topic about um next year half days for elementary are you also possibly considering getting rid of the sink asynchronous day for high school we have to see where we are we're further along with the professional development at the elementary level that's why we were comfortable making that change but we had significant curricular changes it's secondary remember we took advantage of the Esser funds to make some big curricular changes a lot of our secondary curriculums had not been worked on revised updated in 10 15 years so uh at the end of this year we'll make an evaluation to whether or not we need to include
127a few async secondary only um but right now we're we're fairly confident that we're in a good spot with the elementary PD they had some of that done even pre-covered um so we're we're hopeful that there won't be any need for half days or async days at the elementary level for PD next year foreign ER no all right we'll look forward to the posting on board docs and uh anybody has any questions or concerns Reach Out superintendent and uh we can discuss it as an action item next month uh next up we have uh financial position report Miss Florine foreign well I did something here thank you can you hear me now good evening um I have three reports tonight that I'm actually going to kind of roll up all into one um but the
128fun because the financial position report is a mirror image of the January 1st report in that it is the estimated balance on June 30th um this is the detail this is the one you can't see it's the very detailed report that feeds into the summary and the summary is the estimated ending balance which mirrors the Pres the lengthy presentation I gave you last month in terms of all of the revenue changes and where we will um likely end with the local funds balance on June 30th the state requires this report three times a year so this is the early one going into June 30th and then you'll hear me talk about this one again in May but as you wouldn't as you would expect it's not very different than what I presented last month in
129that the ending balance is projected at 9.2 million dollars and that's with all of the um State revenues local revenues um and what and the expenses and what ends the financial position report um and the monthly report do the same thing and estimate what we're going to have June 30th in terms of the operating budget but it takes that that category that I said is you know sometimes people say discretionary but it's really the um the funds that can be used for local salaries and this projects salaries non-salaries and by quarter so the the the first group of columns is what's now the second group is the third quarter and then the third group is the fourth quarter um and so you can kind of see the cash flow the monthly report also does the
130cash flow and because we're doing this all at the same time it comes up with essentially the same ending balance and this is what was presented to the finance committee and discussed and again doesn't change from what I presented last month you want me to go right into the monthly report or want to vote on that one now because I think the next one is next which one I think the monthly report comes after but if you want to do the vote on the financial position go for it thank you move to accept the financial position I'm misunderstood I'm sorry we have a motion in a second all those in uh favors say aye to accept the monthly financial position report so I think the next step is the January first report well it goes
131December and then January January is an update of December and so at the finance committee we kind of just moved right to just uh to January um January includes all of the changes that you all voted as part of the budget uh last month and so um it's it's right on track January's revenues were 97 received locally 98.4 percent received from the state um the largest category which will true up over the course of the remainder of the fiscal year is the state division one salaries but those are always 100 by the end but that one's slightly lower at 88 percent our expenditures are also right on track for this point in the fiscal year at 60.45 on the operating side um and so again right on track of where you would expect to be
132for we're at 16 out of 27 pays at January 31st or 7 of 12 months in the fiscal year at 58 percent so again right on track unfortunately our computer is frozen but those reports are available um on board docs if you go to the district calendar and to tonight's meeting you should be able to access those documents my apologies the board has them at their disposal currently and I'm happy to say the finance committee is meeting back in person now same hybrid format um but we've been uh able to meet in person to review the reports so you were finished with December the motion to accept December's monthly financial report Summit second motion a second all those in favor say aye aye aye aye oppose motion carries onto January I did January I thought
133you did December I did January move to accept the January financial report I have a motion do we have a second second all those in favor say aye aye there was the button figure it out for next month thank you we should just put them all together that's the time actually thank you so I'm sitting here distracted I'm not sure who is still left with us we've got a few in the room um you know I don't like a disorderly meeting I don't like how that public comment session went you know I apologize for losing my cools at the degree that I did I don't appreciate being spoken over you know we had a public comment session there were some points that I wanted to address and I don't feel that I eloquently communicated that
134um but if anyone's still listening I mean we're sitting here as a board we're volunteers I do take offense to the fact that we don't care or we're not listening um you know it may not happen on the timeline that people would like or expect um you know we heard loud and clear at the January meeting we took immediate action myself and Vice President Heller met with superintendent some other District administrators you know to formulate a plan work on Communications and you know roll that out so you know we're less than a month into it um you know we're continuing to work through it like Mr holder said um you know he's addressing it with his staff his him and his staff are addressing it with the school and we're going to keep working at
135it we're not sitting up here smug we don't not care like I said we have children in these schools you know some of us are a product of the Brandywine School District we live here we have pride in it we want it to do well we don't want children In Harm's Way um you know it is a tough time right now for whatever reason and we're not ignoring it we're addressing it and there is evidence that we can come through this our high schools struggled last year and like I tried to say earlier we made some changes and you know we have seen remarkable improvements exceeding our expectations and I know that we can get there with the Springer community and like I said it's it's I understand they're frustrated I understand they're concerned but
136it's not being ignored we are working on it and we'll continue to work on it until it is fixed so with that general information and meeting dates we have board Workshop scheduled for February 13th at the Mount Pleasant elementary multi-purpose room followed by board meetings on March 20th and April 17th here at Brandywine high school and with that I will entertain a motion to adjourn so moved motion missed stock second Miss pigeon all those in favor say aye aye aye we are any opposed no we are adjourned thank you very much for your time and attention this evening everyone