Brandywine School District Board Meeting - January 10, 2022

001uh tonight we are live in the bhs auditorium also by zoom broadcast uh ms karbinsky may i please have a roll call mr skrobot here miss pigeon here mr ackerman miss gordon here mr heller reverend perry here miss stock five present two absent thank you vince garpinski we do have a quorum at this time i would like to lead us in the pledge of to the allegiance which stands one nation under god indivisible with liberty and justice for all at this time i will entertain a motion to approve this evening's agenda second motion miss pigeon second mr ackerman all those in favor say aye aye any oppose no motion carries all right takes us to our student reports tonight we will start off with brandywine high school ethan hondashane come down to the front podium

002please i apologize if you could introduce your co-host i don't have that name on the agenda hi i'm brandywine high school's vice president of war thank you welcome good evening members of the brandywine school district board of education my name is ethan hondashein and it's my pleasure to be speaking to you this evening brandywine has been very busy since our last report when our sports are in full swing and we've been having a great winter season so far the boys and girls swim teams are both undefeated our boys basketball program just hosted three exciting games against concord last saturday the winds were split with the hard varsity game going to our district partner school ensembles from our music program before winter break were able to play for students visiting us from all three district middle

003schools our college and career center now that college visits are mostly over have been hosting opportunity talks or op talks where they bring in guest speakers to talk about their profession and life experiences last week we had the honor of hosting state senator laura sturgeon who is a brandywine alumni and former brandywine school district teacher i attended myself and her talk was very inspiring and informative we are looking forward to welcoming the rest of our special guest speakers throughout the spring and learning about the connections between school and future professions the class of 2024 is organizing a fundraiser at chick-fil-a on tuesday january 11. please come out and help support our class our brain one drum line is having meetings after school on fridays to practice and get ready for their next season our drama

004club is preparing to host a spring cabaret to showcase our students talents our business class students are selling brandywine high school car magnets which can be purchased at upcoming sporting games and can be viewed on the instagram page vhs retails finally on saturday february 5th at 6 pm in the brandywine high school auditorium the class of 2023 parents will be having a prom entire fashion show a number of our students will model current trends and promote to excite and inform our seniors ticket information will be made public shortly that is my report from brandon high school may i answer a new question from the board thank you both i definitely like the idea of these opportunity talks i think that's a great chance for for students to hear from members of our community and uh

005different uh different lines of work to get that exposure and spark an interest for something that students may pursue so continue to carry on with those and encourage your peers to to join you in attendance so thank you thank you next up we have concord high school maya reeves and alicia garcia hello everyone my name is maya reeves and i'm the student body president for concord high school i'm luisa garcia i'm vice president good evening everyone and on behalf of our concord student council we would like to wish everyone a happy new year on december 17th the student and faculty of concord high school completed the midway point of our second marking period our students have continued to exemplify the concord way as we approach the midway mark of this school year before our birth

006began our student council hosted our first official successful fundraiser where our students brought christmas candy grams for friends peers and teachers we hope to implement this money into our school environment and create more fun opportunities for our peers we also hosted a mini christmas spirit week for the students where we all came to school dressed in our most festive christmas pajamas this was all to celebrate the christmas and holiday season our winter sports continue to positively represent concord as they continue to have amazing season as for our drama kids they have now continued their production of mamma mia students have had a smooth transition back into school after a much needed break along with this staff and faculty members continue to ensure we are safe and healthy in our school community making sure mass or

007all and all are on at all times and students follow health guidelines around our school miss davis has mentored all of our bsd high school student councils and together we have talked and eventually helped put great things together for our high schools as for concord we hope to create more fun and exciting activities to uplift us our school spirit prove it safe things such as pepe's more fundraise and events in the weeks to come thank you any questions from the board no questions but good to hear your fundraising activities it's a great way to bring awareness to issues and fund initiatives and activities so keep it up and last but certainly not least catherine farbah and lily holmes from mount pleasant high school good evening brandywine school district community my name is lily holmes and

008unfortunately catherine cannot be with us tonight so this is rhythm harrison who is the um treasurer of the student council despite being on break for two weeks during the past month mount still had the opportunity to stay busy helping the community participating in sports and celebrating its students before the holiday season mount pleasant's culinary class baked a chocolate chip bread to donate to the ministry of karen's emanuel dining room this delaware non-profit organization helps provide food shelter and care to impoverish members of our community so these big goods were able to help those in need just in time for the holidays month pleasant is also excited to share the victories we have gained in the winter sports season in the past month the boys basketball team won against don dickinson the girls basketball team beat

009both britney wine and concord and our swim team defeated new york and ai dupont the music program has also been hard at work in december the choir and the flute quartet performed holiday music at rockwood park and museum currently music students are preparing for their variety show where members of the band orchestra and choir will join together in smaller ensembles to perform pieces for their peers next weekend the drama department is decided to present their annual one as performance showcasing an assortment of student written and directed plays mount clausen also took time to celebrate its its students past and present an ib alumni panel was held where former ib students were recognized for all their hard work during their time at mount current iv students were able to ask the alumni questions and received advice

010on how to best prepare themselves in high school for their futures in addition students who made honor roll first marking period were recognized with an ice cream social each student received a certificate to mark their accomplishment and were able to enjoy a cold treat outside of class we look forward to bringing you our continued monthly updates about the map community and appreciate the district's ongoing support thank you any questions from the board so i have a question i actually have a statement but it's for all three schools representatives um i'm wondering if before the next board meeting or at the next board meeting if each of you could bring two things in your presentation to add this the top thing that you like the most about being a student at your school like what's the

011best thing about conquer brain wine or mouth and then um the other thing i'd like to see if you could share with us would be one of the most challenging things about being a student at your school but if you bring a challenge could you also give us a solution and what you'd like to see as how we could address that challenge so personal um or not maybe something that is a kind of a school-wide issue or something that's a personal issue doesn't matter but something that you'd be comfortable with sharing thank you great great idea um thank you miss pigeon i'll just add that you know certainly great to see the culinary program uh giving back to the community while also sharpening those culinary skills and i always love to hear stories of former

012students coming back to share their experiences with high school students now so hopefully we'll see more of that in our high schools and encourage that for alumni to come back and talk about a variety of topics so thank you mr skrobot not a comment about mount pleasant high school but about all three high schools and how nice it is to hear reports of students back engaged in athletics engaged in the arts hearing of the music concerts and uh i think it's it's appropriate to express my appreciation to those staff members and coaches to make that possible miss beyond belief last year the arts athletics and to see them return to see the students excitement engagement extremely important when we talk about the social and emotional wellness of kids so thank you to those individuals thank

013you mr holland uh leading into special presentation and recognition um as mentioned in years past we'd like to do our black history proclamation in january as to not wait until our february meeting that is mid-month or well into the month when the acknowledgement is half over so we will read it tonight and miss pigeon read that for us whereas during black history month we celebrate the many achievements and contributions made by black americans to our economic cultural spiritual and political development and whereas black history month evolved out of the work of historian dr carter g woodson and the association for the study of african american life and history to bring special awareness of african-american accomplishments and contributions to american history and whereas black americans have contributed to the rich fabric and diversity of america and

014have made significant strides in civil rights law medicine technology business food music literature education sports entertainment journalism and the arts and whereas the black history month 2022 theme black health and wellness celebrates iconic black doctors physicians health care specialists and medical device inventors it also raises awareness for the need of high quality health care in black communities especially with the disproportionate effects of coven 19. and whereas the observance of black history month aligns with the brandywine school district's work toward becoming an inclusive community in which all citizens past present and future are respected and recognized for their contributions and future contributions to our community state country and the world and whereas the brandywine school district will join with the nation in celebrating national black history month by honoring the essential contributions sacrifices and accomplishments african-american

015and black people have made to the us as part of american history now therefore i kristen pidgeon as vice president of the randywine school district board of education and acting on behalf of the entire board district administration and staff do hereby call upon the residents of the brandywine school district to observe february 2020 as black history month dated the state in wilmington delaware the 10th day of january 2022. great thank you mr pigeon did our students leave yes as always students if you have other obligations you're certainly welcome to stay and participate but we recognize that you have studies and activities that also need your attention so thank you again and we'll see you next month mr scrobat to the proclamation excited to be able to come back to the board at the end of

016the month well i guess not at the end of the month in march and share with you some of the activities that happened across our schools in celebration of black history month great to look forward to that and ms mcintyre you are up with our employee recognition the best of brandywine good evening president scrobot members of the board awesome audience participants for this evening as well as those viewing online it is again my great pleasure to celebrate some of our outstanding employees in the brandywine school district we have been doing this since the beginning of the year and i am so pleased that we get to continue and said that we only have four more after this but tonight i would like to ask mr hakima wicker to come and join me we are going

017to present awards to uh claymont elementary school first and i would so i would like to invite principal tamara grimes stewart and assistant principal to please come on up chris romano so that we can present awards to your staff first we will start with our educator support professional of the year and at claymont that would be mr jeffrey blackwell mr blackwell would you please come up and join us at the podium on behalf of the board and your school congratulations thank you for all of your and your principal has a few comments for you good evening my name is tammy stewart and i have the honor and privilege of being the principal at claymouth elementary on behalf of my administration team mr edwards miss dana jackson mr christopher vermano and dr melinda tartaglion i bring

018you greetings i'm here to present clemont elementary's educational support professional of the year mr jeff blackwell currently mr blackwell is a para educator in our building working primarily with students with disabilities and our spanish immersion program he also supports students in our bsat program and throughout the building mr blackwell works with all grade levels he is always ready to support whenever and wherever he is needed he is always focused on student needs whether it is academically behaviorally or socially when i told him we needed him a spanish immersion program he increased his spanish knowledge just so he could support our students when we need support at the last minute he is always saying wherever you need me we always know that we can count on mr blackwell to support our students when needed thank you

019mr blackwell for always ensuring our students and staff are supported your dedication does not go unrecognized and i found this quote that talks about paraprofessionals the heartfelt hero using their talents to help students discover their own dedicating their time and energy each day to the students in their care and doing it all while meeting the individual needs of many that is you mr blackwell thank you again congratulations mr blackwell and next we would like to have come up and join us at the podium the teacher of the year for claymont elementary school and that is mr brian horn mr horn congratulations come on up please you can go on that side we want to make sure we get you on camera there are so many things that i can say about mr brian horn clement

020elementary's 2021-22 teacher of the year mr horn is a member of our fifth grade team where he teaches social studies in ela along with writing rti and d.i the amount of time allotted will never do him justice this evening so i will make it quick mr horn has over 20 years of experience as an educator claymont elementary is intertwined in mr horn's life he met his wife at clemont mrs horn shout out to you and i might add they are a dynamic team he uh is devoted much of his time to improving the lives of students upon arriving at claymont seven years ago mr horn was one of the first staff members to welcome me to this day he lets me know when i'm doing a great job he also lets me know that there

021are other ideas i may need to revisit i appreciate that relationship all of his ideas recommendations and thoughts come from a place of what is best for students last year he and members of our team begin our equity journey together he has provided so much thought and insight into ensuring our school welcomes and meets the needs of all students while i can go on about mr horn i would rather read what some of his students have said one student said you are the kindest teacher i've ever had in all the years i've been in school all of them mr horn also the first teacher i had that doesn't give me a panic attack good job this is my last year another student said this is my last year in elementary school and i'm kind of

022nervous for middle school but you make me feel motivated and exciting you are a very calm teacher and understand everything we are feeling i do not regret coming to this classroom best teacher ever i love that she had she doesn't have any regrets uh you are the best teacher ever and i can understand what he teaches i would be sad if i had a different teacher another student you are my favorite fifth grade teacher out of all of the fifth grade teachers i would rather have you because you are funny you have in an interesting room and you are really intelligent i really like how you have these hats that you randomly have in your house how do you get these hats you are my third favorite teacher p.s you are making it to second

023keep going for first keep going for first another student said you are the funniest person i know you make me laugh daily and then finally the student said and lastly he has one rule and one rule only cause no problems for yourself or anyone else so thank you mr horn for being example to our colleagues to our students we appreciate you thank you so much thank you mr horn well i'm motivated i guess you know i could go back to fifth grade that was kind of exciting i loved the quote i was looking for one for my district office wall and i think i found it cause no problems for no one and make sure nobody else has any either i love that okay next we are going to invite up ms kimberly gibbs from

024ps dupont middle school tonight miss gibbs is here to honor and share some accolades and celebrations and highlights of contributions by two of her building winners her esp is not here this evening with stephanie cabrera however i believe she's watching online so we will ask ms gibbs to make a few comments on behalf of miss cabrera and then please present her with her apple and her certificate it won't be as exciting as miss stewart miss cabrera is the definition of a team player she is always willing to jump in with any and every task miss cabrera is the epitome of professional always on time takes on every challenge as a learning opportunity ms cabrera has built dynamic relationships with the students and staff at ps and watching her interactions with her students you will notice

025the genuine love she has for her job her positivity is contagious and everything is done with a smile everything i like to define miss cabrera as a natural and a nurturer she is just one of the reasons the staff at ps are kind of a big deal so congratulations miss cabrera works in our b step classroom and they are very understaffed and she has taken on the challenge every single day and never once complains so thank you miss cabrera thank you miss ferreira next we would like to invite up mrs sharon wisdom mrs wisdom is the teacher of the year for ps dupont middle school miss wisdom so this is actually dr sharon wisdom and she dr wisdom used to be one of our rti teachers and she has moved on um so when i

026think about dr wisdom she is what i call an educator of substance she has many talents from coaching to being very coachable i started a women's group for teachers who wanted to be leaders and dr wisdom was the first person to sign up and she keeps bugging me when is the next meeting when is the next meeting although dr wisdom recently moved to a coaching position at district office she is still a constant visible presence at ps when we are in need of support we always call and ask for dr wisdom first her grace and knowledge are invaluable dr wisland adds value to each person she interacts with this award is proof of how much value she brings to ps and bsd congratulations dr wisdom even though you don't work at ps you are still

027kind of a big deal [Applause] thank you can we just celebrate one more time all of our recipients this evening ms mcintyre really have enjoyed these opportunities to highlight you know the best of bsd um you know certainly i hope this is a tradition that we continue year over year um just to note you know the the things we heard throughout our our four honorees here you know from mr blackwell wherever you're needed whatever you can do um sharing those sentiments mr horn providing uh ideas sharing concerns collaborating miss cabrera team player jump into any task everything's a learning opportunity dr dr wisdom adding value to each interaction you all truly as well as everyone we've you know looked at over the past couple months you know exemplify the best of bsd and you know

028in this environment now more than ever you know we appreciate you you know we need you to continue to be those leaders and mentors to your peers so thank you thank you very much that will take us to dr lawson with mts s recognition schools thank you president scrobot we have more of the best of bsd uh awaiting so good evening vice president pidgeon members of the board and superintendent holler i have the distinct pleasure of introducing ms linda smith an education associate for the exceptional children resources group at the department of education but also co-director for the delaware positive behavior supports pbs project which began in 1999 and has evolved right along with state regulations as we've moved from pbs and rti as separate initiatives to one combined system of academic and behavior supports

029called mtss multi-tiered systems of support which is a critical foundation to any school community as you will hear in a few moments linda is a long time delaware educator teacher specialist who spent most of her years in the red clay consolidated school district linda is also a mentor who has affected countless lives and careers i must tell you that i was hired as a paraprofessional in red clay's summer school program and in linda's classroom it was that experience that solidified my desire to be a special educator teacher classroom manager and educator just like her she's a master she is not only an exceptional educator she is someone who might consider a friend so without further ado please welcome linda smith to present recognition awards to very to three very deserving bsd schools thank you lisa

030i wanted to say this is one of the most heartwarming board meetings i've ever attended so i i would like to first mention um as lisa did the long relationship that the brandywine school district has had with the department of education and the delaware positive behavior support project so we do appreciate the support of the board of education superintendent holder and especially dr lawson who continues to support and provide resources for the district and the schools to be able to implement mtss and mtss with equity one of the most important resources is coaching and so we have been able to work in the past with marquia davis and yolanda mckinney one mtss efforts and focus on equity and currently with adrian stansbury and sarah smithinger kashner who continue the mtss and equity work uh and

031one last thing before i turn this over i believe the first delaware recognition that the pbs project offered was about 20 years ago to harlan elementary school and it was the only school at the time that did receive that recognition so you truly are pioneers but um i'm really not doing the most important work the most important work happens with the project and the relationship with the district and the schools so i'd like to turn this over to sarah hearn sarah manages many of the activities of the delaware pbs project and she has been the direct coach to the brandywine school district for many years sarah's here to present the recognition thank you very much good evening bsd board it's a pleasure to be here and we'll get this rolling um so the delaware pbs

032project offers annual recognition to schools that utilize multi-tiered systems of support or mtss to organize around reaching identified social emotional behavioral and academic outcomes schools do this through utilizing and understanding their data providing a continuum of practices and supporting staff through systems while prioritizing equity while all schools are engaged in establishing mtss schools voluntarily reflect on the school year's implementation efforts and submit a phase recognition application focused on plans for the coming year for the 2020 2021 school year three bsd schools engaged in this process and will also note that they are repeat recipients of the project's recognition so first i'd like to acknowledge the team from handy elementary this is where the spotlight is right so building on their foundational tier one efforts hanby has been awarded phase two for their advanced school-wide pbs

033implementation supporting the social emotional and mental well-being of all students additionally they received phase 3 recognition for their targeted tier 2 efforts focused on problem solving around student needs and supporting them through group based intervention [Applause] we will note through our recognition system we award our our schools with this banner and then as they continue to apply and receive um recognition over the years they can then additionally add in they get additional pieces to add onto their banner so it is a great joy to go into buildings and see these type of banners proudly displayed next we would like to recognize tally middle school wonderful to see this tally powerhouse team here at tally the tier 2 problem solving team applied for phase three which again is focused on their routine use of data to

034identify students in need of additional supports beyond tier one the supports were strongly anchored in their universal expectations as intervention focused on increasing attendance and engagement during remote learning time so kudos to tally and all the efforts you have been doing over the years um multiple years you have received recognition so kudos to you all just add while sarah is getting the banner that tally's team was asked to present along with dr mckinney at a larger level so they are not only exemplary to bsd but they are exemplary to other schools statewide and beyond certificate as well as this is one of the additional pieces that will be added to to their banner noting their phase three recognition for 20 20 21. last and certainly not least we would like to acknowledge carcroft elementary [Applause]

035as a phase 4 recipient we acknowledge the school's efforts to maintain the student-focused problem-solving efforts while also evaluating overall effectiveness of the tier 2 system their review included completing a team fidelity assessment as well as also reflecting on in on if specific interventions were implemented with fidelity as they were intended so kudos to that part okay congratulations again to hanby tally and carcroft and thank you to all nbsd for the the work you're doing to create safe and caring learning environments that promote the social emotional and academic development of all of the students thank you [Applause] we asked our school teams to step into the lobby for um some pictures please if um mckaylan would like to take some thank you dr lawson and thank you to each and every one of the schools for

036you know utilizing the program and you know making it work for your school and like dr lawson said you know being an example to the other schools in our district um and i know the return to school has presented some new challenges uh for our students in the buildings on the board has you know received emails from time to time and we speak with teachers and administrators and i just want to address our parents and teachers and administration that you know we are committed to this mtss plan and it's its use and continuous improvement to like they said make sure that our schools are safe welcoming learning environments for all so thank you dr wilson and that will take us into superintendence report dr holler general news and updates good evening members of board audience

037members joining us in person as well as virtually to say that 2022 has been an eventful already would be an understatement we knew we would have operational challenges but we but did we know we would have two snow events and the potential of an ice event all in the first week upon return we sure didn't want to thank our teachers our staff and our parents guardians and students for your understanding and flexibility as we navigated this first week back from winter break coupled with mother nature's uh uncertainty it was certainly a challenge each year continues to bring its challenges and i'm always amazed and grateful that the way our community comes together to make sure we're doing what's best for our children in addition to the challenges the weather presented the brandywine school district like

038every other district in our state faced operational challenges related to staffing we all knew that there would be a spike in covet cases after the we all knew that there would be a spike in coveted cases after the holidays due to all the social gatherings while we were aware of this possibility and planned ahead as much as we could we could never have anticipated the emergence and spread of omnicron covet variant as if contending with the omnicron surge wasn't bad enough a strain of the flu with covid-like symptoms has hit the state for a double whammy as a result we've been experiencing much higher than normal staff outages due in part to exposure positive cases or reporting of symptoms the challenge of finding cova tests has compounded the problem and formed the perfect storm for

039staff outages parents it's important for you to know the extent to which our teachers and staff went in service to you and your children building teachers specialists support staff and administrators assumed additional roles to provide supervision and coverage bus drivers and aides shifted employment schedules to assist with making double and triple runs transportation office staff and our mechanics at the bus yard got behind the wheels of the buses to get to students to and from school facilities department members and business office staff assisted with the supervision of student lunches and recesses members of the curriculum instruction team special programs department human resources department and the executive team were deployed to our schools to assist students staff and buildings i can't say enough about our building staff and district office team members and their dedication to

040children we are enormously grateful for their teamwork and for rolling up their sleeves to help support students members of the board while i'm extremely appreciative of the above and beyond efforts given by our staff members that additional support came at a cost and cannot be sustained for long periods of time the two snow days last week were welcomed relief as will be the professional development day this week dr martin luther king jr holiday in two weeks and the professional responsibilities day in the last week of january parents and guardians please be advised that at any time the need may exist for your child's classroom building or the whole district to pivot to remote learning such a pivot if such a pivot occurs it is our intent to return students to in-person learning as soon as

041operational needs allow each building staffing is different and will play a role in determining when a return to in-person learning is possible in the event of a pivot to remote we will communicate the return plan to families with estimated dates of return some of the increased cases is being contributed to the increase in testing many people were being diligent ahead of family visits over the holidays and got tested following some of the social gatherings many more people were seeking tests due to exposure or symptoms as you can see the number of people getting tested has jumped dramatically up 83 since december 24th of last year so much so that demand for test is outpacing the number of tests available as mentioned the challenges in finding tests have certainly impacted our staff and students who were

042exposed or symptomatic and looking for a test to confirm if they were experiencing covid or another one of the many illnesses circulating this winter found this to be rather interesting there is a little glimmer of good news in some of the coveted data while most of it is uh increasing this is actually the number of cases by age for the state of delaware as of january 1st right this year so just a few days ago the red bars are the data from uh january the 8th so uh in this climate i think we're going to continue to see spikes and then regression spikes and then regression as some of these social interactions play out and people develop that immunity once they test positive it it's gonna ebb and flow so our goal again is to

043try our best to manage those ebbs and flows and try to keep students in person however again just be advised that at any given time there may be that need to shift over the holiday break we did receive updated guidance from the cdc and the delaware division of public health regarding covet quarantine and isolation periods our school nurses have done an amazing job implementing this new guidance and working with our families as you can imagine the number of phone calls and emails over break and once we returned was high in volume and our nurses made sure to keep in contact with our families while also caring for their students in their school buildings not an easy task we do continue to work directly with our state health leaders at dph and they have indicated some

044of the guidance may continue to evolve if and when that happens we will be sure to communicate this information to our bsd families as a reminder our website is an excellent resource for our families right on the page you'll find direct links to our covid daily dashboard as well of all of our coven resources instead of sending letters home each day to alert families to positive cases in that building we now use our daily dashboard to alert families of building cases that did not impact their students directly the case that your student is directly impacted parents and guardians will continue to be contacted by either the school nor nurse or a building administrator in addition to our coveted protocols and resources page that has everything that parents and guardians need including the latest updates on

045any state guidance that we receive including all the information about our test to stay program speaking of that program we do have an update to share about that as many parents know this program has been incredibly well received the test to save program allows unvaccinated students and staff who have been exposed to covet 19 and have no symptoms to test daily in order to remain in school so long as the nightly test is negative students and staff can return to school the following day over the weekend all school districts were notified by the state of delaware that the testing vendor quadell is facing serious clinical staffing shortages that will impact the test to stay program due to the staffing shortage the state of delaware will be temporarily reducing tests to stay at locations by 50

046percent for us that means starting yesterday january 9th randy wein high school will be the only test to stay site open in our district the ps dupont middle school site will close temporarily until quiddell is able to provide additional staff those using the test to stay program can use any location in the state doesn't have to be just brandywine high school we have a link in the announcement box on our website to all the open test to stay locations we continue to work with our community partners including chesapeake regional pharmacy to host vaccination clinics at our schools so far these clinics have been a great success and i have to thank our coordinator of school health services beth maddie for her leadership in finding a partner pharmacy and organizing these clinics for our students i

047also have to thank many of the nurses in bsd who volunteered to assist with those clinics beth is currently working on and securing more dates for later this month and beyond to host clinics these clinics can support first or second doses for students five years and older as well as booster doses for those that are eligible we'll continue to communicate the clinic dates to our community as soon as they are confirmed bst staff members will also be able to utilize these clinics particularly for those needing booster shots this past month has been truly inspirational throughout the district over the holidays and even beyond our students and staff have come together to support and benefit our community it's shown in their heart their service their commitment and their generosity among the many initiatives that took place

048this past month both forward elementary and tally middle school held stuff the bus events to donate food items to local agencies mount pleasant elementary held their annual pajama day where students were able to wear pajamas to school while donating pjs to local organizations as well as some of their fellow classmates mount pleasant high school partnered with the local animal rescue to have the culinary students bake dog treats so that our four-legged friends didn't miss out on the holidays either a student at carcroft elementary was featured on 6 abc action news for her donation drive to gather toys for children undergoing treatment at nemours hospital the school also helped a separate drive to sponsor families to ensure students in need had holiday gifts the bush early learning program participated in a fundraiser to benefit the ronald

049mcdonald house to ensure that families with children getting care at local hospitals have somewhere to stay during their treatment the best part we weren't able to capture everything there were even more events and donation events across our schools than we have pictured to say that i'm overwhelmed by this spirit of giving is an understatement our students and their passion to serve our community sets a model for all of us to follow finally i missed that slide i apologize uh maybe that's why pio in the front row was waving feverishly at me so here are the pictures of those community events i just read and finally um i have to say it's incredible to see what our students are doing in the classroom and outside of it we have a remarkable student body with amazing talents

050as you've likely seen on our district website and on our social media pages we've been very focused on capturing these amazing moments that are unfolding throughout our district don't forget to follow our social media channels to stay up to date and see all the great photos and videos we're creating now please enjoy this highlight video featuring all the great moments we've captured over this past month should be coming shortly being triggered remotely miss harris i'm gonna i'm gonna try to possibly play it for my computer to see if we can't get that sound to work so um i am gonna screen share oh she's gonna do it okay as well not just where we are now but where we hope to be able to go he teaches like a passion yeah like he is fire

051plan the video [Applause] [Music] to be able to have this opportunity to give back to the community to really show off these awesome renovations and capture them for others that haven't seen what's being done at clemont elementary it was a win for hopefully for claymont the district the taxpayers that will be able to see what claymont is now is a beautiful school but it was a win for these guys as well not just where we are now but where we hope to be able to go he teaches like a passion yeah like he is fire behind the video today we were making dog treats for dogs and shelters i didn't even choose it but i was given this class and i thought i was first i wanted to drop it but then i kept like

052we stayed here we kept cooking the food and this farmer like she's a cool teacher she's real funny and then when they said that i could come back next year for culinary 2 i was like definitely it's really encouraging to see your students start actively engaging themselves in more of an employable life skill and actually practicing it right now in their lives too it's really i love it this is why i love being a teacher i love being able to teach a hands-on life skill [Music] you coming to mount was one of the best decisions of my life and i'm really grateful for all the teachers and all my peers that helped me get to the place i am because i wouldn't be here if it wasn't for them [Music] no better way to end

053my report mr president wow we have amazing things going on in our schools in the brandywine school district i agree thank you very much that will lead us to public comment um for our public comments segment we ask that our speakers as always uh be courteous and respectful to each other uh this is your time to be heard regarding topics related to the brainy wine school district and education each speaker will have three minutes at which time the microphone will cut or we will thank you for your time please don't take it personally we just want to make every effort to be fair to everyone if you were on zoom your zoom id should meet should match your question submission ms harris do we have any zoom i know we did not earlier no we

054do not thank you so we will go here in the room uh i will call the first speaker come to the microphone in the aisle and i will call the second person to be on deck with each one first up we have ted janus followed by richard james on deck uh good good evening my name is ted janice i came in a few months ago asking that the brandywine school district conduct an after action report as to the effect of the uh the shutdowns and the masking on the children and uh i wanted to see if there's any any more consideration to that and i wanted to give a quick description in the first four weeks of the shutdown from my perspective in the first four weeks of the shutdown i had three young men

055um all die one didn't get his medicine had a stroke another one should have been in school rolled his car and died the third one went down to wilmington started partying and uh was shot he was killed and shot and another friend of mine who was a nurse um uh you know when she couldn't you know when she didn't have her kids going to school she killed herself leaving three other uh orphans behind all of them um were african-american young men and um i want to let you know that during this pandemic i've traveled freely to a lot of the states that have never done anything i've been to texas i've been to kansas i've been to uh i've been to northern michigan and i've seen other kids you know having fun you know out

056there going to prom playing football wrestling and every time i come back here um it's like a malaise is falling over our kids they're getting so obese and so depressed looking i i i just know the effects of this is have been have been just just horrible and so i'd like to see how many deaths there's been in our district versus a corresponding district that's never done any mitigation efforts and i think we deserve that as a community secondly because it only have three minutes um with regards to um this critical race theory i represent because i have two kids with severe disabilities christians you know that my kids have down syndrome and autism and there's something that's in the back of my head that i don't think it's ever gonna get out of my

057head because last year you actually um were doing classes and i could listen to what you were teaching my children and i walked in one day and my son you can see what he looks and his four friends who are african-american young men were in their social studies class and the teacher said i want to remind you that the white people took the black people and made them slaves and the white people are bad people white people now you boys start chaining with me you say white people wait people white people and then that little boy says i want to see my friends and they said shut up you know take get them out of here you know and that little african-american boy well i'll tell you what i mean i would have adopted that

058young man if i could have and they hauled him to the side and i heard him say i want to see my friends i don't care about these stupid white people and the teacher pulled them back in and started going again white people white people and thank you mr jonas sorry word time next we have richard james on deck james and grazia hi my name is richard james i'm a resident of brand new one school district uh i want to say some words tonight about the importance of freedom to read about diverse collections in school libraries i worked for a number of years with the delaware state library i managed collections for the county library systems and i was occasionally involved in the resolution of community disputes about so-called controversial books in children's collections and

059while not every decision was the right one in my opinion i was always happy that it was careful and deliberative process that to resolve complaints and that no one got a heckler's veto while one noisy opinionated person or a small group of zealots could always get a hearing they never got more power than was there do nor should they school libraries have been dragged into this current national frothing that has hijacked the business of conduct of this district and so many others i know with concern for instance legislative initiatives such as indiana senate bill 167 which threatens to remove teachers and librarians from their jobs and their licenses if they teach so-called controversial topics in a way that upsets fragile sensitivities recently a proponent of the bill in indiana argued publicly that it required historical

060topics such as nazism and slavery should be taught in an even-handed manner in texas a memo went out to schools appearing to suggest that both sides should be taught on any controversial topic including the holocaust the indiana bill contains language that would allow criminal charges against any school librarian who checks out a book to a parent to a student whose parents does not agree with the content and florida of course attempts to outdo any of its competitors in unhinged radicalism all of these attacks against teachers and families have their roots in the hateful rhetoric that gets plenty of airing in rooms like this one over the past six months and in other states that have ready and willing collaborators in districts and in legislation i am proud to live in a district in a state

061that does not tolerate divisive rhetoric and hatred and i applaud this district in continuing efforts to maintain high quality and diverse school library collections and to ensure that students have freedom to read thank you thank you mr james james angrazia followed by tom and grazia let me say i appreciate you continuing in-person learning i urge you to continue to do so and to not shut down in person learning again we all remember what happened when we shut down for two weeks two years ago schools have received millions of dollars through esther funds to keep schools open during the coveted base uh based in brandywine school district initial plan to spend the 36 million received in esser funds we have as follows 2.9 million dollars for air quality then we have 1.4 million for safe and

062healthy schools fifteen thousand dollars for disinfecting training and five hundred and sixty four thousand dollars for disinfecting and cleaning supplies which is pretty expensive there's no logical reason to shut down schools you have already done way more harm to children than the covert ever has masking young children affects them learning to speak and for what to make adults feel comfortable children born during the pandemic have significantly reduced verbal motor and overall cognitive performance compared to children born pre-pandemic school closures contribute to increased anxiety loneliness and unnecessary stress negative feelings through the coven only increased with the duration of school closures according to a december 20th study dated from the u.s centers for disease control and prevention showed that mental health related visits in 2020 when pandemic restrictions were first imposed increased by twenty four percent

063of five to eleven year olds and thirty one percent in twelve to seventeen year olds compared to twenty nineteen data there's also been concerns in regards to in-school covert testing many parents are unaware that brandywine school district is testing students throughout the day for the cove mainly because they've never received the consent form parents want to be assured that their children will not be tested without explicit consent no child should be tested without parental consent and according to the cdc the covet shots will not prevent infection nor transmission of cover 19 yet you have people running out to get the children vaccinated as if they rafiki holding up simba in the lion king it's just selfish and irresponsible please do not fail these children any more than they already haven't failed thank you mr angrazia

064next up we have tom and grazia followed by steve rouland hello everyone um one of the things i want to know about is what the one gentleman said uh how do you answer questions because i've seen it answered a lot of people asking questions here i have not heard an answer maybe you do it online or something like that i don't know but i would like to know that uh so i also have some questions and i'm and i'm here because just like them i'm concerned with our young are young are our future i'm going to tell anybody that they're the people who are going to make this country what it is i'd love it to be great and stay great um i want people to be fair to everybody have justice i don't believe

065in equity if it is what i think it is which means the outcome is the same outcomes are not the same some people are smarter than others some people are more they work harder they do their homework more they do things and they're going to end up better off in life and they should end off better off on tests too because it doesn't make anybody stronger or better it just makes people weaker we should encourage everybody kids this country is great because of all the different people we have and our kids should be loving each other and be fair to each other and know that it don't matter what history had we had to learn it of course but what's important is where we go in the future so i have a couple of questions

066and i'd like um you'll answer it however i'll be leaving after this but if you can answer it next time i will be here next time one of the things i wanted to know about was from what i understand blm is a common and antifa are like common things in in the schools um i don't know if you'll notice but there are marxist organizations if you're a marxist i guess that's good you should you should want them all right i am not okay and they are mostly white if you if you want to look it up you can okay and i have a question uh for mr holder holder i'm sorry for penciling right um you said you had read the what the book white agility i asked the question once before which i shouldn't

067have yelled out but i want to know if you liked it and that's one of the things i want to know another question i'd love answered i think should be answered i want to know if you like the book if you believe what it says in the book okay um a lot of stuff in here in the book and i'm not going to go through it i decided not to read some of the stuff but plainly i'd like to know your answer i understand today being a white man you really got to watch what you say because you can be uh labeled a racist or whatever i don't care about that i'm not a racist i don't need to defend myself but i will ask this those couple of questions i asked i'd like for

068you all to look it up and however you can give me an answer i would love that and i think you'll deserve to give us that thank you mr imrazia i will just say uh public comment is time for you to be heard it's not really a q a with the board um but you have provided a telephone number and the superintendent and i can follow up with you uh as well as you uh mr janice uh we can do that uh last speaker we have this steve roulan good evening i'm speaking on behalf of the brandywine education association and our membership we would like to thank the board for the opportunity to meet with you during a board workshop in order to present on and have discussions around the challenges our students teachers specialists

069and other educators we represent currently face we deeply appreciate the time afforded and the board's engagement in the conversations looking forward we hope to continue the discussion started last week as we collaborate with the board and administration to tackle the issues that we face as a district the legal school systems across the nation have been struggling with the impact of the pandemic for nearly two years our members have been running a sprint since the beginning of the school year and we're being told to run faster while dragging an ever-increasing load the challenges we face are not unique to our district but that fact does not absolve us of the responsibility to do what is on our power to address them at the local level we are encouraged by the engagement we have seen on behalf

070of the board we are hopeful that we can sustain a level of communication in the coming months that will enable us to work together to identify adjustments we can make in order to operate sustainably through the pandemic and provide our students with a high quality education that they deserve we also look forward to collaborating to working collaboratively to evaluate the potential impact of the proposed wilmington learning collaborative the logistical challenges to its influence implementation and the potential benefits that it may bring our students thank you very much thank you mr rouland any comments questions from the board this time no okay that will move us on to board business uh board member liaison reports uh delaware school boards association executive board mr ackerman uh the school board association has not met since our last meeting

071but i was approached by the new executive director of the national school board association to come to d.c for a conference of state presidents nsba is looking for kind of a way back from the abyss that they put themselves into uh by sending out a letter on behalf of the state associations without the express permission or agreement of those state associations with a new executive director they've invited me as one of the presidents to come down and chat with them and help them develop a new mission statement i said i would do that so i will report back to this body as well as the association uh what the result of that turns out to be thank you mr ackerman uh delaware school board association legislative committee ms gordon the sba legislative committee has not

072met again this since our last meeting we will be meeting on february 2nd and you may have noticed board docs there was a list of house bills and senate bills that we will be discussing so if you have any questions or comments please let me know and i thank mr holler and dr lawson for having that this put on our board docs thank you ms gordon uh district finance committee district finance committee met on january 5th met a little early this month to be ahead of this meeting we discussed the fiscal year 22 final operating budget financial position report and the monthly financial report that dr hale will present under new business and our next meeting is will be after the next board meeting on february 9th and maintenance advisory committee mr heller is out

073but i did receive an update from mr john reed outlining some of the work that was done over winter break the facilities department had contractors on site performing work at 10 different buildings work included hvac and plumbing repairs paving repairs tile work and other work custodians and maintenance personnel performed work that is difficult to complete while classrooms are occupied these departments along with contractors installed 95 smart boards across our district in schools including harlan ps clemont maple lane tally mount pleasant high school and brandywine high school our next meeting is scheduled the end of this month uh january 25th and we will meet here at brandywine high school for a tour and overview of the summer reservation summer renovations let's just grow about if i could just add quickly i have a montage of pictures

074of our buildings that were taken over the last two weeks and i'm going to put that together and put it in the board packet on friday we'll even highlight some of that impressive conditions in the february board report but our our custodians are just nothing less than amazing our buildings have never looked better and talking about taking advantage of time when students aren't in the building what they've accomplished over thanksgiving break and winter break nothing short of amazing and again i look forward to being able to share so you can see it visibly you can see it here in brandywine high school any building you walk in it's noticeable well i appreciate that being on the maintenance committee i see you know i'm in these buildings all the time and i see you know what

075we've done and i encourage our public to continue to pay attention to our social media pay attention to our website you know we're we're trying to make a concerted effort to show you uh where your tax dollars are being spent where ref referendum money is going how we have made our best effort to be good stewards with that money uh stretch it out as far as we can and we'd like to you know continue to show you the fruits of those efforts uh to create you know awesome environments that our our students can you know feel welcomed in and have a good place to learn it so thank you um parents counsel for students with disabilities ms pidgeon the next parent counsel for students with disabilities meeting is on january 19th and this meeting is

076going to be on zoom with the representatives for parent council from each school families should connect with their school's representative through their principal if you have topics that you would like discussed everyone is invited to view the last month's recorded connect and learn family workshop on accessing services from ddds and dvr the link is on the brainery school district website under special education and also on the facebook page for the brandywine special needs parent council page coming up in january are other learning opportunities and they can also those opportunities can be found on the special education website for the school district the topics are guardianship helping your child with self-awareness and what to do for twice exceptional children and students and if you have any questions about anything you can reach out to me or

077nicole warner if anyone would like to attend any of the upcoming meetings thank you mr pigeon parents and citizen advisory committee reverend perry the parent and citizens advisory committee has not met since our last meeting our next meeting will be held next thursday january 20. fantastic health advisory committee mr heller i do not have an update for that meeting 917 wmph advisory committee has not had a meeting there are no updates uh for that committee educator recruitment and retention uh reverend perry i believe you have a statement from an update from ms stock yes the bsd educator recruitment and retention committee met via zoom on january the 4th to say that the meeting was productive would be an understatement in preparation of the meeting members were asked to gather some information some research and articles

078on this topic we've created a shared google document with these resources and members gave and shared a brief synopsis on their respective articles the most competitive compelling and frequent recommendation for schools districts and states to come to come from the evidence is for efforts to be made to focus on the following teacher wellness teacher engagement create supportive school climate and monitor teacher attrition and retention we then discussed a draft mission statement with goals and group norms we ended the meeting by discussing the value of a listening circle which may be the format for our next meeting which will be held on february the 8th 2022. thank you reverend perry and thank you miss stock any additional board member reports or comments with that i will entertain a motion to approve the consent agenda second motion

079mr ackerman second reverend perry all those in favor say aye aye any opposed motion carries do i have a motion to approve the monthly personnel report as discussed in exec session sure second ocean reverend perry second mr ackerman all those in favor say aye aye any opposed motion carries do i have a motion to approve student matters as discussed in executive session second motion miss pigeon second mr ackerman all those in favor say aye aye any opposed motion carries uh no old business um i will kind of step back under board reports i kind of prepared an email to send out to our to our entire bsd staff teachers administrators all all line levels and i just i think it might be appropriate to to read it now for those in attendance those on the

080zoom but i will follow this up with an email as well i just want to say to our brandywine school the bernie went school board would like to say to our bsd faculty staff and administrators just a big thank you the adversity and challenges placed on educators and the education system at large over the last two years has tested our limits yet you continue to persevere so thank you for supporting our students thank you for the extra hours thank you for carrying the load in the absence of others thank you for your dedication to our students for your dedication to your craft thank you for your dedication to our community this past week has been particularly trying a real doozy to say the least and i think that says a lot considering what we've been

081through last week we saw unprecedented staff in student absences in addition to two snow days as if returning from winter break wasn't always challenging enough and we recognize that you know students have had some trouble adjusting to in-person learning this year not a good combination but we made it fairly we know that some of you and even some of us are hanging on by a thread but we grasp that thread because it continues to give us hope for brighter days we know that hope is not a strategy but hope is the belief that something's possible hope is optimism hope is necessary for success for our success for our students success this board is committed to and will continue to support you support the brandywine school district and work to effect change where we can bsd

082could not do it without you we are certain to face new challenges and we will need to know when to persevere and when to pivot and we sincerely appreciate your effort your commitment and the sacrifices that you continue to make for our students and families day in and day out and there's no old business so we'll move to new business so i just want to make a comment about your um you're going to be emailing that to yes to the entire bsd miss lavina jones davis we have first read of the 2023-2024 school calendar yes thank you good evening president scorebox superintendent holler polar distinguished board members our bsd employees as well as our caring families thank you for allowing me time this evening to share with you the proposed district draft calendar for the

08323-24 school year in december i submitted a copy of the proposed dress draft calendar powerpoint in the board friday packet for your review this evening i've included a second version of a calendar for 2324 which includes a muslim holiday i eat which is a major holiday celebrated by millions of muslims which follows the major celebration of ramadan as you recall our december board meeting we had students from mount pleasant high school who shared the importance of having schools close on this holiday which occurs within the 10-month school calendar superintendent holler and i were scheduled to meet with the students presenters last week but for some operational needs we have to reschedule but we do applaud those students who present it and others who contributed and who demonstrated definitely skills in persuasive writing and oral presentation

084this is a first read i will present to you two calendars again this evening the calendar without the muslim holiday and one with this will give the board an opportunity to read and review and to follow up in february for any action if you could thank you so the first calendar as i said is the typical format i'd like to thank our calendar committee the list of names are up there they have definitely been diligent and committed to this work i appreciate it i'd like to give a special shout out to kim falks she has been on this committee for over 13 14 years she is definitely if not longer than that maybe 15 she is definitely has definitely contributed quite a bit to our committee and i just want to single her out because

085she's definitely a committed member and we we appreciate her if you can move on to the next slide these calendar requirements are something that we use every year where we are working on the calendar these are just elements that we definitely follow the federal holidays and also jewish holidays are listed as well proceed these are our student hours that are required by doe next and our teacher our teacher work hours as well uh teachers work up 188 work days a according to the calendar but not in real life they work a lot more than that in our so what i will do for each month i could take questions at the end i don't have to go through every single month if there is some highlighted information i will share this with you uh in

086august we start off with our new teacher orientation days which is august 15 and 16th and we are closed september 1st here is the you can see the full september calendar no change is really there in october i do want to mention something that was changed we did listen to our teachers as well as our parents and typically our conference days were held october 12th and october 13th teachers have asked can we please hold those conference days later in october to give us an opportunity to learn our children and since we have embedded social emotional learning in our work they teachers just want more time with kids and kids need more time with your teachers to get to know them so we move the conference days down to october 23rd and october 24th everything in

087november is basically the same in the week of thanksgiving we have off december it's basically the same as well with our winter i better hurry up with our winter break with our winter break okay january there's still nothing different here we have our trade-in day up there january 2nd it's nothing new here so again by keeping with those um calendar essentials uh makes things consistent every year we know exactly how many holidays we have when we're giving those grading days to teachers things like that we make sure that we count the number of days between the marking period the longest marking period is the first marking period again to establish relationships with our students next so you see the winter break there april 1st through april 5th and then schools are closed with a professional

088responsibility day that's because the market period will close on lockdown on the 11th and teachers need time to do their grades you can keep going half days for our 12th graders and for the last teacher day is june 11th and you see where the last student day for pre-k through 11th is june 6 and the half days for our 6th through 11th graders are june 3rd through june 6. now when i switch to the other calendar that will include the one muslim holiday which is celebrated during the 10-month um 10-month school year you will see a slight switch or change in the last day of school if you approve for us to include the holiday any questions about this particular calendar before yes especially you have a question um so i'm looking at i'm looking

089at the one that includes a muslim holiday should i not be looking at that no if you could in your folder yeah you have okay you have two calendars on the left hand side you have the one with the muslim holiday and on the right hand side is the calendar without the holiday so my question applies i guess only to the month okay okay we're going to get right there in a minute before we go there so if you go back to october for a second so understanding the the requests to you know better better know the students in moving the conferences to october what was the discussion or how does that affect if the interim is earlier in the month you know i guess are conferences designed to i guess help students improve before

090the end of the marking period is that two-week movement negatively impact students at all well the sixth through twelfth grade representative wanted to keep that there we were specifically focusing on the elementary teachers who have been asking for more time with the social emotional work that they do with the students especially in the morning upon arrival so they had asked for those days to be moved for pre-k through eighth but for the interim for six through twelve as you know twelfth graders get out a little bit earlier so that they wanted to keep that and have that remain all right so elementary doesn't really have interim grades but when and when and does the uh marking period end november 9th september 9th november i guess even still without not an interim but without an earlier

091parent conference we can expect that you know teachers are engaging with families and recognizing students that need additional support they are and that's one of the things that we definitely encourage and have seen our teachers always do we have we use a communication call class dojo and that is one mechanism that parents have expressed a lot of pleasure with the amount of communication that they are receiving from parents has been a lot more than in the past so they are communicating but the formal conference is something that parents have asked for a little bit later but maintaining the communication with the parents so that's something that the principals are checking in to make sure that is occurring as well are the are the notes incorrect there because the notes saying conference days um that 10

09224 is for 9 to 12 but yet the actual calendar has 12th grade on the 23rd so either one or the other we can make the adjustment for that thank you so much yeah thank you and can i see june again please no question anyone thank you if we could move on to the x calendar which is the first read also okay you can advance the slide advance you can keep going up until right right there so again uh like i said to give you time to review this we did we do have a page there that specifically goes over the changes that we made to the calendar and really was about bumping one day or so up you will see at the end if we were to add the muslim holiday that would basically

093change the calendar ending it one day it was the request from the students for one day or was it for two holidays the second holiday is over the summer okay and then i guess where i'm going with this or my question in general i was on the board when we started to do the jewish holidays way back right when i believe we had some folks come from local synagogues a couple of rabbis we had a member i think at the time at least she was of that faith and you know my concern then was is that someday somebody else is going to come knocking on our door and asking for additional time off obviously they were here last month and knocked on our door and now we're facing that i i guess my question would

094be and i know um representative medina anton uh pat had a legislation last session which i believe passed and the governor i think signed which tasked the department of education to come up with a list of religious holidays throughout the year i i don't think it was strictly aimed at muslims i think it was aimed kind of more broadly so i guess my question is if we go down this pathway of adding a holiday or adding a day off in uh for muslim students i'm not sure what percentage i'm sure it's higher today than it was you know five ten years ago um who else is going to be knocking on our door in the future and how many more potential religious holidays could come to the board with a request and i know at

095one time and i just checked it i know it it appears as though we've changed the calendar um policy is just kind of very prescriptive just talks about the process but at one time there was a board policy that talked about how you know someone could approach the board to add a religious holiday there was a was a procedure involved with it and i think that was kind of culled out during dr holodeck's time because it was probably not really thought it was necessary but i guess as a as a general rule i kind of think as a board we should decide or make some kind of a guidance as to whether or not we should be being proactive looking in the future and saying what other holidays could come to us well we have

096buddhists coming to us in the future we have shintos coming to us in the future we have hindus coming to us in the future there's a significant indian population that i know is up on naaman's road across from target um i work with many folks who come from india originally and i would guess you know some are muslims some are hindu are we going to start having you know once we open this door we keep opening this door where will it lead us and i think before before i want to add a holiday based on public comment from a couple of students and i think it was maybe one parent as well um i'd like to know what what's the potential for a tsunami at some later date of other groups asking for the same

097thing and now not are we not just going one day we're talking about five ten fifteen days i don't know yeah and and i do understand that and i'm sure there were probably residents and others who asked questions when the jewish holiday was approved so many years ago and many districts throughout this country celebrate whether you're jewish or not you you're off that day but as far as the muslim religion i was looking at a study done by the pew research center for 2018-19 and i believe the projected estimate for the number of muslims in the united states is 3.2 million and for newcastle county i'm still researching approximately 7 000 8 000 families who celebrate muslim religion it is very difficult for our district to conduct any type of survey that would not be

098fair um however in our calendar committee we did talk about the impact that staff members taking off those days do have direct impact in our schools and other areas within our district and like the students said many students or some students don't take off in fear of missing work so they are present but many of our adults end up taking off and it's definitely impact that's felt as a former principal i can tell you i definitely felt in the building by them not having that holiday off so it's something that's why i'm presenting it i think out of respect of those students they had the courage to come forth and present that and i think this isn't is a topic and an issue that has even been discussed among adults but maybe not presented in

099this forum can i i'd like to say i i really appreciate you acting on the request so quickly i think it is um [Music] i think it i agree with you it took courage for them to come and do it and personally i did not understand i didn't know the impact of uh the holiday and the traditions surrounding the holiday and how they impacted the students so i really appreciated hearing from them and i also come from a family where i have my mom is jewish so i understand the need to have lots of you know that we respect the holidays of lots of different cultures and um unlike mr ackerman i feel like if we if there are holidays that are impacting our community and our families then then we should be looking exact

100doing exactly what you did to explore how we can accommodate those cert those individuals that we serve so i very much appreciate you doing that work no problem at all and and again looking at the numbers i'm christian when we look at you know how many how many um people in the united states are christians and then jewish and then muslim well again that population is surpassing even the jew the jewish religion so looking at those numbers on a global sense we have a number a number of families who celebrate this holiday is very very sacred holiday for them and again the students are looking at they presented us with two holidays one occurs during july i eat and i apologize if i am mispronouncing i want to keep practicing on that but that's why

101that doesn't necessarily impact us but we can make adjustments during the summer if people need to take off and take off but during the summer during the school year we're impact student that's what i'm presenting to you yeah and maybe as a follower is that second holiday date is that a static date or does it the first one is move with the calendar or no the yes the so in your folder on the left hand side your information about the muslim holiday i have research up to year 2026 2027 i'm sure you will still be here so i wanted to make sure that that is available for you so it just lists for you like next year if you guys were if you if the board decided to approve this holiday for next year the

102holiday is on wednesday april 10th i'm sorry for 23 24 for next year's on a saturday so it really doesn't impact the students because there's a is there a point where that second holiday would fall within the school calendar no no but to that to that point uh having formerly overseen uh several other departments in the district i i can tell you that we have uh faced operational challenges in trying to just have enough staff available for all the different work areas that we have across the district um our muslim community has uh continues to faithfully support the district uh they are very valued employees i do understand mr ackerman's uh concern and there is that new legislation that came out around religious holidays and the fact that districts and students can request for absence

103excused absence on uh religious holidays that are near and dear to themselves but i i can tell you from again an operational standpoint that there have been times that we couldn't not pull off operations to the degree that we needed to and we had to have additional people again come in take on additional roles including myself because everybody was short-handed good news is that one of those holidays tends to fall yeah during the months that we don't have students and it really doesn't impact our buildings to that degree but the other one absolutely has impacted us operationally absolutely i have two questions and one can well concerns uh around the i think was in october the teacher conference days and by moving them later into the months it's also moving them to beginning of the

104week and i know traditionally that we offer an opportunity for families who need evening hours to come in the evening which means our teachers stay later right that hasn't changed but i see what you're saying usually it's on thursday friday so often they're on thursday friday and so towards the end of the week and i think so they usually give like if you come in in the evening on thursday night friday is not a full day necessarily right you're for the staff that's doing the conferences because they've done them all day thursday plus thursday evening so i think did the staff members that were on the committee did they have yes we talked about that as well so you will see um in the other parent conferences are held on on a friday however we

105noticed that we were there a lot of days off on monday and and i'm sorry thursday and friday so that was something else that we talked about moving it to on monday and tuesday versus the specialist or related arts teachers constantly missing their opportunity to teach students on thursday and fridays i think and my other concern happens to be with the calendar with the addition of the muslim day holiday um christian do you mind if we could move to um april are you there before april yet that's where i am okay that's where we're if you can advance it to april so as a parent i want to accommodate the muslim holiday as a board member however as a parent i do feel like this is very choppy yes and i really would love it

106if we could and i'm sure you guys have talked about it but it just seems like march 28th has a much better flow for parents and students that are transitioning coming back and teachers that are transitioning coming back instead of having and i know that's a professional responsibility day so probably we can't you can't move it contractually we have to is there any way we can like so what do you what a suggestion to the contract to move it to the 28th of march so that we can have a wednesday off instead of a day off then a school day than a day off are you suggesting uh miss pigeon that thursday the 29th the 28th of march uh be a professional responsibilities day in lieu of correct that would have to uh that would

107have to go to the education association in the form of a request for an mou and then that's also going to change the end of the marking period and that would move that back or move that forward where kids are coming back to school where the marketing period is ending so the committee was trying to in the marketing period before the spring break and i do understand that it is it is choppy coming back one tuesday tuesday and then going out wednesday it doesn't to me it kind of makes sense to end the marking period before spring break that's what we did yeah and and kind of close it out even for the teachers before spring break no so for the marketing period it ends on the 28th and you're proposing to also have a

108professional responsibility on the 28th we we'd have to end the marching period right 2017. just adjust it by a day and move the professional responsibilities day to the 28th if we did that it wouldn't require an mou it's just extending one of the marking periods by day and making another marking period one day shorter i can take that i can take it to the committee and we can discuss it when i come back in february i would appreciate that i think that we get a lot of um complaints from families that you know the consistency and i just if there's a way to avoid having that inconsistency i think it would be beneficial i think that's a good suggestion yeah thank you so much so this was the month that i was going to bring

109your attention to where it shows you the holiday on april 10th so we will i will take it back to the committee and discuss it if you can advance the slide to june in here the first week of june the half day exams that first one was on may 31st but we moved it to the first to june third so the june third fourth fifth and sixth half day exams and now the last student day is on june 7. so for our k pre-k through 11th or k-11 they don't lose any instructional time our seniors the surplus went from three days to two say that one more time please so for our june 7 our pre-k through 11th graders they did not lose an instructional day but our seniors did lose the sub like there's

110a surplus day and so they did lose one surplus day they went from three days to two days so if there was an abundance of snow days potentially seniors might need to make up a day is that what would happen so that one more time if there was if there was an abundance of snow days seniors may need to make up a day um it all depends on where we are with code to be honest with you so uh the district developed a snow day plan got feedback on that plan from from bea uh we had planned to put that plan out over uh winter break however um i put the halt on that because of the coveted surge and i'll i'll give you a quick example in that plan the first two days called

111for no school uh traditional snow days where teachers complete professional responsibilities maybe in advance and bank those hours they can do it that day or they can do it before the end of the school year as long as they document and submit that time after those two days then there will be a switch to asynchronous learning and then eventually based on the number of snow days to actually synchronous learning um the reason again we didn't put that out is because we find ourselves in a very unique position where we may or may not be able to follow that to the t and i would hate to publish something parents expecting that we go with x model only to find out based on conditions we have to go with why model instead i don't know if

112that makes sense so let's say the model called for synchronous learning but we have so many staff members that are down and out because of covid they're unable to do synchronous we might have to go asynchronous and again we're going to try to make that decision based on actual conditions rather than publish something only to turn around and say no that's not the direction we can go based on operational need so what does a surplus mean if you're losing a surplus day right so when the calendar is built there's typically surplus days built in and those days are there for a reason in case there's two snow days yes two of the three surplus days would be used up then we still have that one day who knows if we get that tornado or hurricane

113or a third snow day if we use more than those three surplus days then we have to find ways then to [Music] make up time either by extending the day or adding days on during spring break um primarily for our seniors our cade pre-k to 11 grade typically have way more available days than the seniors thank you any other questions or comments so again i will come before you in uh february this will give you time to go through the packet and if you want to give me a call or email me you are more than welcome to do so ms davis i just again like to say thank you and several board members have already said it for your responsiveness in listening um and for in short order putting together uh options for the

114board to look at and study for a month before making a final decision thank you thank you yes thank you uh next up mrs garbinski board policy 6.3 revision good evening president scrobot superintendent holder and members of the board i'm here this evening to propose to present proposed sorry changes to board policy 6.3 which covers school choice while reviewing the document we notice the need for a few revisions the updates do not deviate from the current policy we simply updated the language used to clarify and define the policy making it more user-friendly for parents for example under the description of priorities we deleted bullet points and replaced them with numbering this is to better outline the sequence of priority order we also added information regarding our spanish immersion program as it is part of our

115specialized programming requiring a school choice application we feel these revisions will aid families in understanding the many school choice options available within the brandywine school district please note this is a first read for discussion only we will bring it back to the board for a vote during our february board meeting do any members of the board have any questions these are the same the priorities even though they're numbered now this they're the same priorities they are correct yes we just changed the wording from category to priority to better clarify that information and ms garbinski if i'm correct the bullets in the old policy didn't align with the actual priority order that is correct yes so thank you for numerically putting them in priority order just for ease of understanding yes and the priorities are established

116by the state the department of education from no actually the priorities are up to the individual districts themselves any additional questions from the board okay thank you mrs carpinsky and i guess if the board has any questions or for follow-up they can contact you direct absolutely yes thank you thank you all right dr hale you are up on operating budget financial position report and monthly financial report great thank you um harris is going to allow me to share my screen here yes good evening um the first item on the agenda for me tonight is the final operating budget last month during the board meeting i presented and went through in detail the first read of the final operating budget my i am coming to you this evening to ask for your consideration of approval we've

117reviewed this again during our district finance committee during the month of january and are bringing this with their recommendation for approval so i figured i would just take a couple minutes to run through the budget one more time if there are any questions that i can answer for anyone on the board so the thing that we have that's the most important for us is as we look through the end of the year what our june 30 carry forward balance will be in the first paragraph we're listing and indicating there that we are projecting that at the end of the fiscal year that we will carry a 10.8 million dollar carry forward balance and that's a key number for us as we consider timing as to when we would potentially want to consider looking at referendum

118so that's certainly a sufficient fund balance for us so that we won't have to consider that for at least another year or two this information on this executive summary lists that our enrollment went down by four students during this current school year but our units went up and the reason for that has to do with the fact that the state has added a category in the unit count for k3 spec ed and that's something that we should continue to see over the course of the next couple years a slight increase in our units moving along in the budget we have a number of pages that explain exactly how each of our taxes are generated and what they're used for um with the first being our real estate taxes um also our minor cap tax debt

119service tuition and our technology taxes and we have not had any increases in any of those taxes over the course of the last several years and would not anticipate there being one for next year as well we also go through the utilization of the state funds exactly what they are division 1 and division 2 funds these are the funds that are generated through the unit count and that have been reconciled and presented in this final budget our federal funding we do provide a detailed description of each of our title programs um and exactly what each of those programs are are are used for in addition we did add this year something for our esser funding which indicated the timing of when we received the funds as well as the time period to which they need

120to be utilized also included which is exactly off of the website exactly what the 15 predetermined focused areas are as well lastly we include information related to the district finance committee and our district budget calendar and all this just outlines the timing of how we go through the financial process for the year moving along to the numbers portion the first several pages indicate exactly the difference between the preliminary budget for fiscal year 22 and this final budget recommendation and what changes you see certainly we've had conversations over the last several months about interest income being lower that has to do with some of the calculations that are performed at the state that's something that we talked about at every one of our district finance committee meetings and we're hoping to have someone from the treasurer's

121office come and uh have a conversation with us about that but in total you can see that we're anticipating roughly 175 million between the estate and our discretionary funding and total revenue this next page lists all of our other categories things as like such as our tuition tax and debt service technology as well as our federal funding and child nutrition so in total in an annual basis we receive roughly about 265 million dollars in revenue and then on the very bottom i wanted to indicate that we did receive this year 25 million dollars in the bond bill for the bush early childhood centers that's the first portion of that allocations wanted to make sure that that was represented in the budget as well this page shows the calculation for exactly how we determine what the

122estimated projected amount would be for our tax revenue it takes into consideration the assessed valuation of the county as well as the portion of our tax that related to the tax district which is the shared portion of newcastle county that's split amongst the four large districts or i should say the four north districts in newcastle county this page is is actually what i would call the budget it is roughly 220 and a half million dollars in total on the far right hand column you can see there the differences between the preliminary and the final um again minor differences in total with the the largest being in that salary area where we had to make a couple adjustments to take into consideration where we were based on our projections but in total you can see that

123there really has been very little change over the course of the preliminary to the final and some of that just has to do with the fact that we now know what our final allocations are based on our unit count and and state funding and federal funding and everything so in total you can see here that we're anticipating that roughly 10.7 10.8 million dollars at the end of june 30th which is really the key number for us and that's the number that we are primarily focusing on to ensure that we have sufficient funds to move forward these next several pages are really just more of a focused view of each of the pages so each of these pages really align to each of the columns within this so if you go back and look it just

124kind of gives you a more of a i would say a snapshot of each of those categories there you can see again that we're projecting that roughly 10.7 million dollar carry forward as we move on you can see in each of these areas what the changes are from that preliminary to the final budget and all of those differences to them where we get to the final which this is a summary of all of the revenues and expenditures for each of those categories so this is a summary of all of the prior pages and again that key number of the 10.7 is really where we're focused to ensure that um that we have the sufficient funds and that number is up slightly from where our preliminary budget was based on what our projections and revenue are

125going to be one of the things that's very i would say unique um in the brandywine district is that we do provide what we call a program code budget so these pages are details of each of the lines of the budgets that you saw previously so this provides you with some perspective as to each of the areas and how those areas are specifically budgeted and that information is available for each of the budget categories lastly we have several pages related to enrollment so we have one page completely dedicated to a 10-year look at the enrollment in unit history for the district we also have grade level enrollment history for the last 10 years and then we also include choice and charter information to show you um exactly the numbers in and out as well as

126the total number of charter enrollment over the last 10 years and as we've talked about this is the first year that we can say in quite a while that we have not seen a increase in the number of students from brandywine going to charter school so last year it was a tie this year we're down 20 students so that's certainly something that we like to see so at this time i would answer any questions that you may have any questions um just one quick question um you said the number of charter students has gone down yet when you were on the page that showed how much we're paying for charter payments the actual amount went up so okay so if we go all the way back to oh sorry so this is interesting in that

127that that negative number it's a what i would call a negative revenue so the way that it's recorded within the system in delaware that 5.4 negative is a lower number than last year's 5.6 if that were that projection so the total amount and i can show you when we get into the monthly report um the like total amount so the net impact of the decrease in payment the 365 000 and that and that charter is a plus for us um so that is actually helped offset some of the lower anticipated revenue for interest income so that's part of where that that offset takes place now then that choice based on expenditure per pupil that number can fluctuate so since the choice numbers in and out you know have not been you know they have been

128relatively consistent as well that number is a little bit more um on point to where we were last year that that makes more sense looking at it that way thank you any additional questions doctor i just want to say thank you for the work that you've done with the finance committee as well as just your you know overall leadership to kind of maintain our fiscal stewardship with the tax dollars i would encourage members of the public to you know view the executive summary our district and dr hale and the finance committee have spent a lot of time to really break that down into easily understandable terms we look at these numbers month by month and you know i'm sure it can have a tendency to be off-putting but the executive summary really gives a good

129easy understanding of what we do why we do it some of the state the calendar requirements of timelines when we need to act uh when and why things are presented to the board in the manner that they are um so i would encourage everyone to take a look at that um with that i will entertain a motion to approve the fiscal year 22 final operating budget second ocean reverend perry second miss gordon all those in favor say aye aye any opposed motion carries financial position report dr ham the financial position report um is a requirement of the department of education each quarter we have to submit to them the total funds available and what our projections are to be through october of next year and really the purpose of this report is to ensure that

130there's sufficient funds um in our accounts to carry us forward until that um that first load of property taxes that we would get in october so as you can see here collectively um that total of 18.5 million of discretionary funds would certainly be sufficient for us moving um into that next fiscal year so it's a requirement that we bring this to the board for approval and it's been reviewed by the district finance committee and it's been recommended to be approved any questions on the position report with that i will take a motion to accept the financial position report so moved question mr ackermann do i have a second second miss pigeon all those in favor say aye aye any opposed motion care and monthly financial report for december 31st update all right so we are

131we are six months through the year um as you can see we've received we're showing 105 percent in state revenue that will be corrected on the next month's report um and that's primarily because of the 25 million that we received in the major cap amounts um so really at this point for the remainder of the year there are a few appropriations that we'll continue to receive state funding for first being the formula salaries and oecs and that's just something that as we get closer to the end of the year they will load those funds so we're close to about 99 of our local tax revenue which is great for six month through the year so i fully anticipate that we're going to exceed 100 percent of our total revenue i did want to make a

132note that the you can see that there's a 98.4 compared to 99 in a couple of those categories and that just has to do with a um transfer that was made by the department in error that we're going through the process of fixing at so those really those numbers should all be the same because of the split and overall tax that will be a correction that will be made um in next month's report but i wanted to to um like reflect the information as it is in the state reports um and then on the very bottom you can see that we have um that we've received all of our federal fundings as as well as the entire 36 million for the esser funds moving along to our expenditures everything is in line with where it

133should be for the first six months of the year i mean certainly there are some categories that have been spent at a higher percentage than others and that's perfectly normal each building in each department has a different kind of spending plan in place so we monitor these expenditures and everything on a daily basis as we see all of the transactions coming through we have been keeping a very close eye on the salaries and and that's part of the reason why we made an adjustment you can see that in the local division three we're roughly about 56 percent of our are a budgeted amount yet um the number of pay cycles that we have through the year is about 54 so we're trending a little bit higher um and that's something that we've made that slight

134adjustment for um but everything looks good overall as it relates to the expenditures these next two pages show our prior year expenditures and these are all of the um expenditures for appropriations prior to fiscal year 2022 as well as um our or a detailed budget that we have for esther 2 and sr3 expenditures and again this is something that we're going to continue to work through with our district finance committee to provide more robust reporting of our sr2 and sr3 and that is something as we go through and begin to report to the department of education and make amendments and those sorts of things that we'll be making presentations at future meetings lastly our cash flow we have six months of actual information you can see that the projection as of the end of december

135is roughly 10.8 million dollars which is right in line with where we have um in that final budget so that on june 30 we're anticipating having roughly 10.8 million dollars and certainly as if things continue to go as they're going right now we could see the number be slightly higher than that which is certainly what we like to see at the end of the year this has been reviewed by the district finance committee and has been recommended for approval if there's any questions so i know year over year we talk about this and it's you know indicated in the executive summary but the 10.8 at the end of june 30th carries us through july august and september to meet our expenses until we begin to receive uh revenue from county and state yeah so for

136what i would say is our like kind of low water markets like eight eight and a half million so that having that balance on june 30 will provide along with the state funding that we receive carry us through until the first set of you know we'll get several million dollars in september but october is the month where we'll receive 50 55 million dollars that's the bulk of the tax revenue that comes in so we need to have that balance to carry us forward up to that point so that's the key indicator for us as it relates to when we would need to look to increase taxes and another question came up in finance committee as it does from time to time but for the benefit of the public the different schools have different budget amounts

137based on population and programming absolutely absolutely okay any additional questions from the board with that i will entertain a motion to accept the monthly financial report for december 31st 2021 subject to audit so moved second motion mr ackerman second miss pigeon all those in favor say aye aye any opposed motion carries thank you dr hale thank you general meeting dates and information our next board meeting pay attention everyone it's an early one february 7th we will meet back here at brandywine high school followed by march 21st and april 11th and once again i thank everyone for their time and attention this evening i just wanted to uh just express my gratitude for the work session that we had last week i found that to be most informative it was nice to be able to dig

138into a topic more in depth than we can to the business meeting and i think the two topics that we had were very timely and a good discussion i thought on both and i would like to suggest that we consider additional work sessions as we move forward in the school year because i'm sure there are still additional topics that we should probably talk about more in depth in a public setting with our stakeholders well i appreciate the suggestion and i agree i think that's something that's certainly a conversation that needs to continue and will continue thank you so with that i will entertain a motion to adjourn motion miss pigeon do i have a second okay second who was that i'm sorry miss gordon motion in a second all those in favor say aye aye

139aye opposed no we are adjourned thank you everyone you