REUPLOAD - 03/04/2025 LMTSD Board Meeting

001Hi, good evening. I'd like to call to order the public meeting of March 4th, 2025. Mr. McKe, would you please lead us in the pledge of allegiance? Thank you. Good evening, Lower Morland Township School District community. My name is Dr. James Lee. Thank you for attending this evening's meeting of the Lower Morland Board of School Directors. I would like to remind our board as well as members of the public that this meeting is being livereamed on our district YouTube channel and that a recording of the meeting will be posted on our school board website within 48 hours. I welcome my fellow board members and members of the public. To our board members, please be reminded that for sound purposes, you must turn on your microphone and speak directly into it for the sound to be

002audible both for in-person community members in the auditorium, but also for anyone listening on a live stream. After speaking, please turn off your microphone. Mr. McGuin, would you please take a roll call of the board? Certainly. Mrs. Baker, present. Mr. Bardi, here. Miss Blandon, here. Dr. Butler, present. Miss Cannon, here. Miss Darian, present. Mr. Guyer, present. Dr. Mr. Lee present. Mr. McKe present. All nine members are present. Thank you. I will now ask Dr. Best to take a roll call of the cabinet members and administrators who will be participating this evening. Sure. Dr. Hammer present. Mr. Cole present. Mr. Gordano present. Mr. McGuin here. Thank you. We'll now move on to our presentations and discussions. We'll start with um agenda item 2A, our student representative to the board. Good evening community and board. I hope

003everyone's having an amazing day. My name is Adona and I'm a junior at the high school and today I will be presenting on the school climate update at all four schools. To begin at Pine Road, Pine Road Elementary students celebrated their 100th day of school in a fun and unique way. To mark the special milestone, students dressed up as if they were 100 years old. From gray hair and walkers to vintage style clothing, everyone had a great time showing off their 100-year-old looks. Personally, I look forward to seeing this day because 100 days means we're nearing the end of the school year. So, next at Murray Avenue, the student council organized candygrams for Valentine's Day. On the left, you can see the student council creating their candygrams. This tr sweet tradition allows students to send

004thoughtful messages and candies to their friends, teachers, and staff members, which spreads joy and kindness throughout the school for Valentine's Day. Next, for the middle school, students gathered at Bwell Cafe for the creative cafe where they showcase their musical talents. It's always great to give students an outlet to perform that is different from the auditorium that they usually present at because it makes it feel more authentic and intimate, like a real performance. The event was fantastic opportunity for students to perform and express their creativity in front of their peers which created a fun and supportive environment for everyone at the high school. Two big events took place. First, the annual multicultural club was held by the multicultural club which is where students share their cultural backgrounds through performances, presentations, and their food. Some of my

005really good friends are actually the leaders of the multicultural club. And it was great hearing from them like so many people from different cultures and clubs wanted to be there to perform and to share their food. So it was great to hear that we have such a diverse community in Lower Morland. Um the event is a beautiful celebration of diversity and it's a chance for students to learn more about where uh one another comes from. And on the right there you can see they're holding the Albanian flag. I'm Albanian. So that's good for me to see. Just put that out there. Also at the high school we held Java Jam here in the performance lab. students and staff are given the opportunity to perform and showcase their incredible music abilities. And um I saw one

006of the performances posted on Instagram. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to come, but it's always insane to me to hear like people from my school singing because as someone with absolutely zero musical talent, hearing people that like can actually like sing and be really really good at it. It's like insane. Like these people are my age and they sound like professionals. So it's always nice to see uh the performances from my peers and it's like the talent r the talents range from not at all to very very talented. So that's it. Any questions? No. Thank you. Thank you. Uh that'll take us to our next um presentation. Uh if I could invite to the podium the presenters uh to discuss a study abroad trip request. Hi, good evening. Does this advance? I can advance it on

007my own. Okay, perfect. Good evening. I'm Dr. Jamie Link. I'm joined tonight by my team. We have Alicia Moss, Rachel Dorfman, and Danielle Klein is also part of our team, but she could not be here tonight. Um, we're very excited to talk to you about a potential study abroad opportunity um that that we've been spending quite a deal of time researching, finding best practices, and we're excited to bring that to you tonight. I've been in the Lower Morland community for about 35 years. 23 of them have been in the classroom, and the rest have been as a student here in our wonderful community. My love for Spanish has started within well not these walls but across the hall across the corridor um in Lower Morland High School and it was an amazing experience to learn

008the language in the classroom from my teachers but then we got an experience to travel abroad in 1999. Um Mr. McKe might remember when Renee Vanardan took us on a trip to Spain where we got to utilize what we were learning in the classroom and put it to practice in the real world. That's the last time that our school district had a trip international for Spanish students was 1999. It was my graduating year. Um, so we're excited to try and reinvigorate this process and hopefully reestablish an international program of study again. So, we want to talk tonight about a a couple different topics. The rationale again, why study abroad? and study abroad opportunities provide our world language students the ability to utilize what we're doing in the classroom all the way from the first levels

009in in seventh grade when we allow students to take a language all the way up through the AP levels when they get to my classrooms about a little over 500 students take a world language at the high school level and that's not including our middle school teachers seventh and eighth graders which is a couple hundred more so a little over 500 accounts for about half of our student population at the high school, 90% of those students take Spanish. And those are amazing numbers that we retain students year after year. And allowing them this opportunity at a level three or above to travel internationally gives them the desire to continue learning language and to utilize it in the real world. And it's a great opportunity for for all of those students in general, students who study

010abroad. um sometimes can get college credit. There's lots of opportunities to practice your global citizenship besides just speaking and listening comprehension. There's real world skills that an abroad program provides for our students. One of the main things that we tout in our classrooms is that we do provide a sense of global citizenship. How to be culturally appropriate in different situations. talking about inclusion and acceptance and communicating with other humans in a different language. Some of these prior or all of these priorities that we extend in our classroom are through uh the trips the the travel program that we're going to share with you tonight. There's a level of student safety uh involved that we'll we'll mention again like I said students in the upper levels after level three would be eligible for this type of

011trip. Also, we're working towards uh rolling out a seal of biiteracy in the department in in the school district which we're working on in our department as well. And this would promote that seal. It would allow students to obtain hours towards or or practice at least working um excuse me practicing language use that would be appropriate for earning the eventual seal of biteracy that we're working on rolling out here. So short-term study abroad also provides students not just a trip and we're going to talk about what what this program would entail, but it's not just a trip of traveling through different cities. It's giving students the opportunity for a hands-on experience to extend the learning outside of the classroom. So there's Alicia is going to talk about this a little bit more, but there's going

012to be educational aspects to it and the availability to not just travel and see this the places that we're teaching in our classroom, but the availability to utilize the the the hands-on experience in in the city and then put that into practice in a more educational way, not just touring and and sightseeing. So I'm going to turn it over to Alicia so she can expand upon that a little bit more. Thank you. My name is Alicia Moss. I am the Spanish 2 teacher at the middle school. Um Jamie and I and Rachel and Danielle worked really closely in the effort to um find a program that really fit our needs and fit what we were looking for. One of the major things that we were looking for was a program that was both academically rigorous

013and language forward. So Jamie had mentioned that we were not looking for a program that was simply like a tour. The programs that we evaluated for this, many of them were tours and we eliminated them right off the bat because they lacked the academic rigor and the language forward aspect that we were looking for. So, in our decision-making process of deciding what we wanted, we found several programs that contained both a classroom component where the students would be in a structured classroom environment much like their regular school day and then the opportunity to take what they learned that day into the real world through different cultural opportunities that were tied into the theme for that day. So, thank you, James. Oh, okay. Perfect. So the program that we ended up settling upon after much debate

014we evaluated 48 programs I think something a very high number like that something 48 49 um we had originally narrowed it down to about six and then narrowed it down to this program specifically because it offered all of the things that we were looking for. Um this program is run through EF tours which is a accredited industry leader. Um they're one of like the big four companies that offer language immersion programs. Um, and this is a true language immersion program. The students are encouraged to be speaking Spanish 100% of the time in the program. Um, and they take a language course, language focused course in the morning where there is a daily theme and then they take the learning out into the public. So for example, one of the daily themes might be like culinary

015traditions in Spain. So they spend the morning learning about culinary traditions. They learn different language skills associated with like ordering, cooking, etc. And then in the afternoon they do a lunch with the group. They do a cooking class where they learn how to cook whatever they were learning about that day. So I believe like it's like a paella cooking class or something to that effect. Um and then they actually get to sample what they've made and have that experience. So these programs are really um immersive in that sense. We also chose Sorry. Sure. Uh the hyperlink might not be working there. No, because it's downloaded as a PDF. You should have the link um hyperlink so you can see the actual day-to-day itinerary. Right. So EF tours met a lot of the requirements that we

016were looking for. They have a very um strong safety oriented program. There is a lot of access to the support liaison. There's a 247 support liaison that we'd be working with. Um, it's also one of the most inclusive programs in terms of price. Um, and it does offer the opportunity for our students to earn three hours of transferable college credit, which is optional for the students, but we would be encouraging. Um, the this includes flights, insurance, transport within the country, all of the things that are listed there. Um, and we've had a really great experience working with the Fours to try to put this together. Right. We we also spent some time uh doing some research and best practice with other districts in in Montgomery County and we had some really nice conversations with other

017teachers, other leaders of what kind of trips have they taken and EF tours came highly recommended. I know it's well used in other neighboring districts. We are one of the few I think we actually had a one of seven, right? We're there are 17 schools in Montgomery County that have study abroad programs. we do not at the moment. So that's, you know, something that we think could really bolster our offerings here, especially in the world language department for Spanish students specifically. [Music] Um, I think we we covered Oh, where where do we go from here? If you would like us to talk about next steps, we've already started planning how we could push this out to the community and get students to, you know, think about the the possibility of going next year. we would

018need to roll this out relatively quickly to give students an opportunity to to join us and to give families time to plan for the financial implications that this would this would take. So we um welcome your questions. Gracias day nada uh I'm so excited about this. Eva has already declared that she's going. Um, so yeah, I know we had talked about this at the open house when we saw you. So I'm really happy to see this here. Uh, so parents will be able to go too as chaperoons. Right now we are I think it's one chaperone per six students staff or staff and we have to see I mean there's certain criteria. I think we would need a male chaperone as well if there are male students on the trip. We have to kind of

019see what kind of buyin we get from our students and then decide how many teachers would be able to go. The three of us are committed. Danielle Klene is committed. So, we already have a handful of staff that would be wanting to go as well. Like we said, this is an extenduation of our curriculum, what we're doing in the classroom. We want to be there to not only bask in our students success, but to really uphold the traditions that we have in our classrooms and really point out, hey, remember in chapter 5A when we studied this? Here it is. So, those are the kind of things that I mean, I'm looking forward to and I know they are as well. And Rachel was my student. So, it would be super cool to take her on

020this trip as well. So next year if students have been in Spanish in seventh seventh and eighth grade they would be elig eligible to go. So students in Spanish in eighth grade are in Spanish too would be eligible next year because they would then be in Spanish level three. We decided as a group and after talking to other teachers who have taken these kind of trips that really a level three and beyond would be the appropriate academic, you know, wheelhouse for those students to be able to employ what they really know. Also, we are only going to take students who are in good behavior standing as well. That's something we don't want to run into behavioral issues. Uh so that would be another component that we would make very transparent to our student population as

021well. Great. thanks for your work on this. Uh Barcelona's been in the news a bit in the past year or two for being a little anti- tourist. Is there any um have they been doing this this group's been doing it consistently and hadn't experienced any problems in that regard? Uh yes. So Barcelona does have a um somewhat of an anti-ourism movement that is really connected to the Airbnb industry in the city which is not something that is supported by these programs. we would be staying in like regular hotel style accommodations. Um, this is not an issue that has been presented at in any way, shape, or form. I've asked if there's been issues. Um, that has not been an issue with this program in the last few years in Barcelona. Um, when I was living

022abroad, I lived in Barcelona at sort of the beginning part of the cintismo like movement. Um, and even then it was people were like, yes, you see graffiti about it and yes, you see like posters about it, but it's not like people are not rioting in the streets. It is more of a social media sort of like posting about it sort of movement and people you know sort of trying to get people to divest from the Airbnbs more so than like attacking hotels. It's not really involved with that at all. So thanks. So I know you said the academic level but what age or what grades is this going to be open to? So really would be level three and above which at a minimum would be nth grade. So you would have to be

023well typically students start in seventh grade. So they would be a freshman then at level three. But we do have um I guess freshman would be the youngest. Right. Right. The youngest student available to go would be a freshman all the way up through seniors. And and the the hope would be to run this trip in alternate years. So give if parents were interested in their children attending but weren't necessarily comfortable with them attending in ninth grade, they'd have another chance to do it while they were in 11th grade, right? Yeah, that would be my only concern. I just feel like freshman year might be a little too young to to Well, it is in the spring. We're proposing for the end of freshman year, spring break. So they would have had almost a full

024year of high school at that point. And and this is a complete um financially it's on the student. There's there's no uh I guess buyin from the the district. Is there any cost that's going to be incurred? No. At this point, not that I don't want to, I'm just asking what the model is. No, it's all on the student at this point. Um, there are fundraising opportunities that we could pursue uh to help help the burden the financial burden for families. That's something we did look into. We could reach out to other neighboring districts and see what kind of things that they do. But that's why we want to announce this uh if approved at least a year in advance to give families the opportunity to start saving monthly. That's also something that the tour

025does. They collect the money. That's not on us. That's not on the district, which is a nice feature that they have. Yeah. Even just, you know, passport process, you know, can be lengthy. They just need to really be prepared to to travel abroad. Now, there's new visa requirements for for Europe. So, yeah, there's a lot to do. I guess, you know, a year is definitely the minimum you would need for that. So um having I'm I've been working with the representative at EF very closely and there are essentially certain checkpoints that the students have to make between now and then. The students would be meeting with us in either like a afterchool environment where they would have to do essentially like a monthly check-in with us to make sure everything is going according to plan

026that they are um contributing the the money according to the schedule, contributing the paperwork according to the schedule, and that they have all of their ducks in the row essentially um as to make sure they're not getting sort of left behind when March rolls around next year and they don't have any of their stuff together. So, it is a process that we have a lot of guidance through EF with because we have this representative who we've been working with very closely so far. And she said she also would speak with the parents. Correct. Yes. There's also a parent meeting that she's going to help us run if we can get this established um that will share all of this information with parents so that the expectations are very clear. And then just my last question

027would be what is the minimum amount of students that would make this happen and what's the maximum you're willing to take with you? 24. Does EF have a minimum? You know, EF EF's minimum is quite low. Their minimum, I believe, is actually like 15. Um, we would want 24. Okay. That's your ideal number is 24. Our ideal number is 24. And the reason is that would prevent us from sharing transportation with other groups. So, that would ensure that we would have our own bus transport when we do transfer like transfer between cities um rather than sharing with another school group. It would be another school group, not adults and not, you know, um, p the public, but it would be another school group run through EF. So 24 would ensure us to have our own

028bus transport. So assuming the demand is higher than 24, I'm assuming you would just go for like seniors and juniors first since the, you know, lowerassmen would have an opportunity to do it the right. Assuming that we could do this on an every other year type of scenario, we would probably go with the with the seniors and juniors, especially those are the ones that are going to apply for the seal of biiteracy. And that would be it's also we're looking at this as a way to retain students in the upper levels. And that would be a way to pitch to them to continue on after sophomore year into level five and six, possibly AP to pursue not only the seal of biiteracy, but the possibility of taking an international trip. Thank you. Did you want

029to we we also have more like staff that are potentially interested as well. So, um we would we can take I believe up to 30 or 36 students if that's if there the interest is there because we do have the staff members that are interested in going if we have more interest and we do recognize with the short notice that it may be a bit of a crunch to get 24. We do recognize that as well. Um but prioritizing the students who would be leaving us sooner and wouldn't have the second opportunity is really important. All right. My question is about safety. Um what kind of tracking I guess um can we do for the kids in case they decide to go for a little walk at night? Um and what kind of chaperoning um

030is going to happen overnight? Who's there? So, with the um student tracking, one of the main reasons we decided to go with EF as opposed to other tour companies is because they offer um specifically hotel style accommodations and not home stays. We didn't want the students in home stays for the risk of like two students wandering out in the middle of the night unnoticed. The plan right now, we would be staying in the housing like in the hotel with the students. Um and they will have a curfew. So, they'll have a strict curfew. Um and we have discussed the prospect of essentially having some people on duty each night. So a rotating duty schedule um to make sure that people are staying where they need to be. Now we've also talked to other schools about

031that and there uh one of the schools that we talked to she puts like scotch tape on the door um just a little piece of scotch tape on the door um to make sure that that scotch tape does not get ripped overnight because the kids have their own bathroom and there's no need for them to leave. Um so that is the way that another school is handling it. Um obviously you know that comes with its own set of uh curiosities but I do think it's a strategy um and it is one that has been proposed to us as like valid um in terms of safety. Otherwise the um because the program is extremely self-contained. There is not a lot of free time where the students are not involved in something. They don't have a lot

032of wandering around time. the very limited time that they have is, you know, maybe an hour where we're all in the same plaza and they can go get ice cream, but they're in sight like they're not wandering off down random streets, you know. So, it's very very structured. So, can I ask a question, a couple questions? Is there a report or project that's on the culmination of the experience so that they would get the three credits for a college? So we had we had thought about we started brainstorming the academic the academic portion of it the before the during and the after type of meetings or journaling and that type of um collecting of assignments from students. Um did we do you want to talk about the credits? Okay. So there is the option of

033college credit which is technically an optional part of the program. We would want students to do that. Um however it's not technically mandatory with that. they would be doing a research project as part of their time there that would be end up being submitted through EF because they're connected with the university and the college credits come through that university. So while we would be there to mentor that process and guide through that process stu the students would be responsible for submitting um that research project and it doesn't have to be done by the time they leave I think it I believe they said it was like a month after that they had to have the project submitted. So um and it should build on the experiences that they had while they were abroad. So is

034that a a three credits or that is that accepted by most colleges or is it just one college? That is my understanding. It's a transferable college credit. So it would transfer most likely as an elective credit to a lot of colleges or into a world language credit. And um do you have any plans like you said there there might be plans for fundraising because I think some while it's a great experience some people may not be able to to to um pay for that. Absolutely. Um it is expensive. Um these trips are not um they are not super cheap which we understand. Um there are a couple options that are built into the program. So each student gets essentially a fundraising page that they can push out to their social media. They can push out

035to family um to send out to you know grandma and to you know aunt Sally who might be willing to contribute to this as part of their graduation present or something to that effect. We have also looked at um some fundraising to do like in-house for like the whole group to reduce the cost overall and then redistribute that money out. Um we are evaluating options for that. Um those type of things tend to not be they would not make a huge dent in the overall cost for every student but it could reduce the the cost by maybe a a little chunk for the whole group. So and I know you you saying explained a little bit about a curfew. So, is that curfew at all like they're on their own that they would be able

036to leave for like so many hours? No. So, they I believe the curfew is 9:00 p.m. and it is a firm curfew. They are not leaving the hotel after 9:00 p.m. So, before 9:00 p.m., are they are they allowed to wander by themselves or they have an adult with them? They would have adults with them. So the only time that they have sort of to themselves is these sort of plaza hours that are sometimes between like lunch and the afternoon activity where we would all be in a central plaza that has, you know, coffee shops and ice cream stores, maybe a record shop or something where they can be browsing, but that's really the only time that they have that's like not wrapped up in an activity. They keep these kids extraordinarily busy during these

037events. Um, part of that is making sure they're not getting in trouble and part of that is making sure they're getting their money's worth for this experience because it's um, certainly an expense. So, and one last question. Um, does one person hold all the passports or do they hold a passport for themselves each day? That I don't know, but I can find out. Um, I don't think it would be um, ill advised for for a central person to be maintaining that because high schoolers, you know, are maybe not the most responsible when it comes to keeping up with their items. Um and that could be a discussion for for us to have certainly um the hotel does have safes um in in the rooms. So um and as the chaperoons will have a separate space

038um that might be a very solid idea to consider. Great. Thank you. Um who who bears the cost of the chaprons? The chap I think the chaprons are included one per six student. So, right. Correct. And um the tour has access to medical care or um uh yes, the tour does have access to medical care medical care. There's a 247 support liaison that we're connected with that will be able to get us um to either like medical clinics sort of a minute clinic type scenario depending on the severity of the issue all the way up through ER and trauma care were that to be an issue at all. Um there are the how do I want to say this? The cost that we have proposed here includes the advanced medical and like emergency coverage. Um

039we elected to include the higher level of insurance due to parental concerns and community concerns about wanting to make sure these kids are safe. We also want these kids to be safe. So yes, this does include the cost of medical insurance while those students are in the country and it does c cover the cost of those medical care. Um and if a student were to needed to be like medevaced somewhere that is also like part of this that that would be very unlikely. We will be in major cities. So um and also let's let's hope not but so do the parents essentially uh commit to funding the balance of whatever is not fundraised. Correct. Um, can I request that the group look into scholarship opportunities or subsidies for students who may not be able to

040have that opportunity to have their parents? Absolutely. And there are other uh groups within the school. I know the music department takes um expensive trips where they do offer some fundraising. That's something that we could absolutely lean on our colleagues for some more information and find out, you know, what they do as well. EF Tours, the company we are proposing to use, does have a scholarship program that students can apply for that does defer part of the cost, although it is not the full cost. Um, and I don't know the exact quantity or qual like what they pay exactly, but um I do know that that is something that can they can apply for. Does EF tours offer any financing like like installment financing because it's such a large organization? Mhm. There are essentially three

041payment models that EFT tours offers. So they offer one option that is essentially just pay upfront. Um and for some families that may be what they choose to do. There is also one where they pay monthly and I believe I it divides it out by month by month and they pay that installment. And then there's one where they sort of pay a deposit and then they pay half and then they pay the second half. So there's three payment three yeah three installment models. Um and those are dependent on the family's choice. Okay. So, and and I didn't see the agenda, but I'm assuming there's no free time, right? Everyone's scheduled for the day. Yes. So, a typical a typical day is um breakfast with the hotel or breakfast in in where you know the the

042housing will be. So, the hotel's breakfast. Um then they would go to class. The class is several hours long. Um there is a short break where they get to, you know, like go get water, take a little breather, whatever. Um and then after the class, they typically have lunch. will have one of those little plaza hours in between the activity and lunch. And then the afternoon activity takes a solid chunk of time. Some of those are three-hour things, some of their four hours things, and then they do dinner, and then there's usually a small plaza time in the afternoon or evening um before the students are curfew, and then they are 9:00 p.m. in the curfew. So, their days are extremely structured. And then travel days are even more structured. So, when we would be

043traveling from Madrid to Toledo, um that those days are even more structured because of the bus times. So their their days are very very regimented. Y Hi, I just wanted to mention um the the pricing while it may be a chunk having planned a trip in 2021. That's a pretty good price. So kudos to you on that and for your hard work on this. Um one of the things that I I looked at today was EF tours. um because the first comments said there were a lot of pluses but there were some negatives but in looking at them for school groups actually some of the negatives were positives. Um they talked positives we've brought up um and you mentioned the idea of their comprehensive planning that their uh tour guides were extremely knowledgeable. Um the

044focus was on education and one of the complaints was there was too little free time which I saw as a strength. Um but also one of the negatives which again I'm not so sure it's a negative is that they're the accommodations are not in the downtown city areas which some people didn't like but I would assume as a chaperone I would want them in a more controlled environment. So all those things um really kind of calmed my concern on that. Um I I do think as a former teacher with trips that that that span of 14 15 to 18 is one that would give me a little bit of pause. Um but again I admire the work that you've done up to this point. Thank you. Um I know you want to mention that too.

045And we we spent a bunch of time looking at the different options of of stays. As a parent myself, I said, I don't I wouldn't want my child in a home stay. That's for a study abroad for a university student. I want my child in a hotel. I personally want to be in a hotel and not at a home stay. Uh so those were things that we did consider uh very closely because there are all different types of of places out there. dorms were an option and we we definitely, you know, passed on that one for the same reason. Did you want to expand on that? Interestingly, one of the programs we eliminated was one that offered center city hotel accommodations and that was one of the reasons we eliminated them because we felt like

046it would be a bit too much of a draw for some of our students who would feel that compulsion to try to sneak out a little bit more if you're in the city center. Um, those programs are also significantly more expensive um by orders of a thousand or more um per student. So they are much more expensive to stay that way. These accommodations are still quite nice. Um but they are outside of the city center which um does provide that controlled environment you mentioned. Just one other notation of people who have used the tour packages was the out-ofpocket costs in the country. So it's one to consider. Yes. Right. There is um there is guidance from EF that will be talked about during the parent meeting about essentially like pocket money um and what the

047students can expect to spend a day. Most of their meals are included. Um the things that they would be spending money on obviously would not be the events or the excursions because that is all included in the the fee that is listed there. But it would include um you know getting the ice cream, grabbing souvenirs, um you know purchasing that morning coffee because the coffee in Spain is just so good. Um let's be honest. But um those type of expenses are something that is laid out during the parent meeting because the the documentation is provided for the parents in that respect. So would it be more than dinner each day? No, it's usually one meal a day that's not included. Um whether they're getting breakfast and dinner one day and lunch and dinner another day.

048It does vary a little bit just depending on the the daily schedule. Um but they you are provided two meals a day. That does sort of vary per day. Great. Thank you. Any other questions? I just have one out of curiosity. Um, the cities that you plan to go to, do they primarily speak Castellian and do you instruct in that? Um, or would it be kind of a first exposure for some of these because I went through the AP and everything and we never spoke in that dialect, right? No, so we all we are all teaching Castellaniano and that's what is primarily spoken in Madrid and Toledo. Barcelona, they will speak that as well, but they also have Catalan which we do talk about in our class. We don't converse in that language, but it'll

049be a great eye-opening experience for the students to see that other dialect that we have provided them information about. And a lot of our students study abroad in Barcelona. So when they get there and realize, wow, you know, I better pick up this other dialect, this is a great experience for them. And that's something that we're touting is this idea of global citizenship of really getting out there and seeing a huge majority of our students study abroad, whether it's in Spain or Italy or, you know, France, different places. Um, this is going to give them that impetus to want to take the next step in the university or backpack or travel. And this is what we're teaching them in our classrooms. These are the things, the slideshows, the YouTube videos, the Sagrada Familia in in

050Barcelona or excuse me, Barcelona to actually get there and see that in real life or to see the artwork, right? And and it's just it's on such a different level. And I can I can speak from personal experience when I first got there, like I nearly cried. Like I was that Spanish student, like I had to get there. And when I finally got there and was able to buy that cup of coffee and really get on the on the train and see the schedule in Spanish, I mean, it's not like when your parents take you to Cancun on spring break. This is this is Spain. I mean, it's it's the real deal. It's really cool. And then after that, I went to study abroad. I ended up back here teaching Spanish. Like, it it really

051was a very impactful experience in my life. And I hope to be able to impart that on my children eventually, on your children and our community. It was really just an amazing experience. And to have a team here that's equally as passionate and spent hours, I mean, she basically works for EF at this point. I mean, she is so organized. Her spreadsheets are colorcoded. But this has been fun. This has been a really fun process working through this, mulling over the ideas, um, deciding where we want to stay, where do we want to go, what's going to be the most beneficial for our students, and we're really proud to bring after due diligence really what we think is the best case scenario and and the best option for our community. So, thank you for for

052hearing us out and for your consideration. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for your uh work on bringing this opportunity for our students. Our next agenda item will be item C, comprehensive plan presentation by Dr. Heinrich. Thank you all. They have put in a tremendous amount of work. We got to meet with them and I compliment you because I would love to go to Spain but going to Spain and dragging a bunch of teenagers who are other people's children with you is a whole different experience and so kudos to you. Um Adona I Mr. Cole said I should have you do all my presentations because you're so entertaining. So I'm going to try to be halfway as entertaining and as quick as Adona. Our draft comprehensive plan has been posted on the board's

053website for feedback for the last month. Most of you know this because you've been intimately involved in the meetings. You've been with us the whole way. We appreciate that. Why do we have comprehensive planning? Well, and let me say this first. Thank you so much to the board and the district because you know I carry this around with me all the time but the strategic plan was so well done that it made it really easy for our steering committee and our administrative team to set goals for the comprehensive plan. The again the comprehensive plan is required by the state. The strategic plan is a bonus and it's a better plan but that not everybody does but because we did our transition to the comprehensive plan was really seamless and smooth. We want to have everyone

054all of our stakeholders perspectives involved and get everyone on the same page. It it is a big picture plan and then we chunk those goals down into pieces that we can manage. It happens every three years and there are pieces that have to be included every six years. They're all there. I want to thank the steering committee. It was community members, lots of students, lots of teachers, board members, administrators, everyone was so positive, so engaged. You know how you know when it's a good meeting? When it goes from 5 to 7 and at 5 minutes to 7, everyone's not getting up and pushing their chairs in. That's when you know people are really engaged and that's how it was every time. So well done to our team. So again, we used the strategic plan to

055determine the mission and vision that was written for the district through the strategic plan to determine our next steps for comprehensive plan. You know the mission and vision because you wrote it. We have our strategic plan priorities that direct everything that we do. And we reviewed a ton of data. PSSAs, Keystones, APS SAT, ACT, attendance, graduation rate, PES, EL growth, and NOCI, which is our um industry based learning through the CTE through EDCAD to figure out where are kids strong and where do we need to move. So this is our priorities and goals. Priority one is to develop a robust MTSS process, which you've heard us talk about for months. It really the goal is to give teachers the data and the ability to target individual students for remediation, for rehearsal, and for enrichment. And

056we've been talking about that data for months. That tells us we're doing a really good job here, and we need to push and grow and challenge here. Our second priority that really aligns well with the strategic plan is to continue to align our English language arts and our STEM curriculum to make sure that our students are making the appropriate growth in both reading and writing and in their science and math. So priority one, we have a goal 85% of students who've been enrolled for a full academic year will exceed one year of growth as measured by benchmarks. and the goal is required by the state. In order to do that, we need to be clear in articulating roles and responsibilities, making sure we have the right interventions and enrichment in place, and coming up with

057the protocols that will help us to really target student individual needs and embrace a culture of continuous improvement, datadriven problem solving approach. We need to really analyze what interventions and enrichments we have and then identify additional resources if needed. Our second priority is the alignment of the ELA and STEM curriculum. The goals are by the end of the comprehensive plan 80% of third graders will be reading on or above grade level and by the end of the comprehensive plan we will increase the number of high school students who engage in STEM by 10%. That goal actually comes right from the strategic plan. And the strategic plan says we need to increase opportunities for authentic STEM experiences K to8 and then look at the high school program of studies to see what courses our students will

058then be prepared for. Our actions are to identify researchbased platforms that allow us to collect the data. Um we're going to talk about that some more tonight and we talked about it last month. giving our teachers the skills to really differentiate for students based on that data, optimizing our K to8 STEM offerings, and auditing the high school course offerings in the program of study to maximize student opportunities for STEM courses and pathways. So, how do we do it? Professional development. The more we grow our teachers and our staff, the better experiences our kids have. We'll train them in a comprehensive data analysis protocol. We'll give them professional development about what and how we implement MTSS. We'll give our elementary teachers more training in structured literacy. And we'll continue to provide training in differentiation and technology

059so that we can meet all students where they are. There's also a list of like 753 PD things that the state requires. So, they're there. I'm sure by the time I come up here again, there'll be three more added, but we'll make sure we do them. How do we determine if our professional development is effective? We survey our teachers every year. We get input from district district and building administrators based on observations, walkthroughs, student achievement data, and how well our progress is aligned to our goals. And then we also have an act 48 committee that meets several times a year to say, "All right, here's what we've done. Here's what teachers are saying. Here's what we need to do next." We are required to have an induction plan for our staff and we do have

060one and it's been updated to make sure that we're providing teachers a with what the state requires minimum, but b what do they need to be successful at Lower Morland and what do Lower Morland kids need from their staff? And so between Mr. Cole and myself and our coaches, we have a a really good program there. So what are our next steps? The plan is presented to the board for approval tonight for information. If we are satisfied with this plan, then the board in two weeks would approve it. At that point, it would be submitted to the Pennsylvania Department of Education for approval and we will implement the plan. You will be happy to know that I also included 752 data slides that you've already seen that I'm not going to review, but I put

061them there because if someone at home or someone who who hasn't been through those presentations wants to look at the data for the district or what to review, it's there for us. I know many of you were very involved in this, but do you have any questions? I have a question concerning the STEM. is STEM um because it's going to be under the PSSAs, is that um taught as through the classroom teacher or is that taught through a specialist teacher? That's a great question. So, steels is the new um curriculum and it will be PSSA science grade five, grade 8, and then biology. We have steel's standards. We're working on re and actually we're ahead of of the state but we've been working on realigning our science standards so that science technology environmental engineering blah

062blah blah is all in there. We also have STEM teachers at each building who are like an encore a special. Sometimes they're doing robots and sometimes they're making a Google slideshow and sometimes they are, you know, um, building a maze. So, it's a combination. It's done in math, it's done in science, and it's done in their encore classes. At the high school, then there are particular courses and we want to increase those. So, if it were taught through a specialist teacher, I guess they would they would do the hands-on, I suppose, something like that, a project based. What happens when the child's absent on those days? How do they make up that that experience? So, I was in a um STEM class in third grade a couple weeks ago and I'm lying. It was fourth

063grade. I I'm sorry. I was in a fourth grade class. There was a student who was absent. Once the teacher gave direction, she then went and worked individually with that student. The same way if if your third grader missed a math class, you would catch them up the next day. Now, they might only go once or twice during a rotation, but that means they don't have as much to make up. The other thing is we're not teaching anything once, right? So, when I was there, they were creating a PowerPoint about not a PowerPoint, what's it called? Google Slideshow. Google Slideshow. Thank you. Um, that's my old brain. About animals. And each one was given an animal, but she had done one for them. Then they had done one from a card that she gave them.

064Then she allowed them to find their own facts about an animal that they liked. So similar to anything else, if you're absent, you get caught up over time and you see the same skill multiple times. Yeah. I I would just have concerns that like if somebody's out and they have the flu and they miss classes, you're gonna prioritize math and you're gonna prioritize your reading. um and that may not be a priority even though that's going to be tied to the PSSAs. And that's that's a concern I have with with just how in general I think it's taught in most schools. So I I feel really confident based on the work that we're doing that the steels standards that are on the test are being taught in our science in our math classes. The STEM

065elective supports that and reinforces it. But the standard the the STEM classes choose standards that align well. But our science and math teachers, all of their work is aligned to those standards. And so remember, if they take a science PSSA in fifth grade, they've had science and math K1, 2, 3, 4, five, and that STEM elective for years. It's It's not like it changes in six months. I I do think it's more specific to each grade because I know when I when I see that if if I know it's not taught in third, I'll have to put that in and interject it into fourth grade curriculum. Um, I just worry that if a child's out that they do somehow miss that experience, but and I think this is how it's probably taught throughout Pennsylvania, it's

066going to be, but I do have a concern that they may not get that full experience because it's taught on a rotational basis and if they're if they miss that, you know, I think the priority is always to get to the the major subjects first. Sure. Um, so that was just something I just to keep in mind. Is there going to be like um I guess like project based assessments that they're going to use to see if they've covered that those specific skills in that particular unit. Yeah. So part of making sure our curriculum is well aligned is looking at the standards, looking at the resources we have and looking at the assessment. So yes, that's a critical part of doing it right. And then we could see like if the child needs something, they

067correct we could either retach it or to review it. Exactly. Thank you. Thank you. Thanks. I'm glad um a lot of our committee discussions centered around professional development. As you point out, I think it's really important that we invest in our teachers. Um is there any data to suggest a relationship between professional development and teacher retention or teacher competitiveness for recruitment? It's a really good point. Um I don't have it off the top of my head, but there is data that I can get for you. Teachers don't leave or come for money. They stay when they feel valued, when they feel like they're growing, and when they feel like they matter and they're invested in. And so I I appreciate your perspective, and I've heard that consistently from this team. We are committed to growing

068our teachers because that they are the most important people in this district for our students. Not us. It's not the administration. It's not it's not the central office. It's not even the principles. It is the teachers who are in the classroom with the kids. So I can look for some data to share with you. But I will say there is data about teacher retention is really related to feeling meaning valued and that their work is meaningful. Thank you. That's a really good point. Thanks. Are there questions for Dr. Henry? Thanks. Thank you. Our next presentation will be from Mr. Cole on the data warehouse recommendation. Dr. Lee, before I start, that's actually the topic of my dissertation. So, I would be happy to share some resources with you if you want about 400. Um, they'll

069be in your inbox shortly. Um, so, uh, this is actually kind of a really great segue. So, um, one of the the tenants of the the comp plan, which is built very much on a foundation of our strategic plan is developing a K12 MTSS system in Lower Morland. Um, it's something that we feel um, we really need to do to make sure that we're meeting the needs of all of our students. And one of the the really essential components to that is identifying a partner that would provide a data warehouse for the district. So um tonight I would like to talk to you about our recommendation for a data warehouse project. Um before we begin this conversation started quite a while ago. I actually think I might have been clean shaven when we started this

070conversation. So you probably recall back in October um early on into my tenure in this position we began talking about this need. So I thought it would make sense for us to start with a little bit of re a review of where where we are and where we started. Um so again in order to support the design launch and imple implementation of an effective multi-tier system of supports or an MTSS system um the district has recognized that we need to partner with a really robust data warehouse tool that is able to really provide in the- moment data to our administrative and instructional staff in order to support decision- making about what students need in the moment. Um just as a real quick overview and I promise I won't bore you too much with this. Um,

071an MTSS system or a multi-ter systems of support is a schoolwide approach that uses information about students to make sure that each student is provided with the level of support that they need in the moment at that time in that subject area. Um, some of the core tenants of that are robust screening, which we have mostly in place in the district currently, um, and have plans next year to have a really robust screening process in place. Um, another part of that is a multi-level prevention system or a multi-level intervention system. So, essentially you have the ability to offer students that maybe need a little bit more support, whether that's remediation support or as our data has shown consistently, students that are performing very well that need some enrichment support. You need to have a system

072in place that can provide different levels of support to those students when they need that. Um, you additionally need to have progress monitoring. So when you design an intervention or an enrichment for a student, you want to make sure that you are monitoring how that student is doing um in that system to ensure that they are continuing to have their needs met. And then you also want a tool that's really enables you to do robust databased decision- making. So as you can see all woven all throughout all of those core tenants is the need for a a system that allows us to monitor and respond to data effectively. So um when we started this process, we identified six core areas that we were really looking um for a a partner that would allow us to

073um improve our our our ability to to focus on these areas. One is we wanted a a partner that was comprehensive. So we wanted something that allowed us to have all comprehensive data warehousing and analytics in one platform. We didn't want to be having to switch back and forth between platforms or using one platform for certain aspects of of of our workflow and then another platform for others. We also wanted a partner with a proven track record of supporting implementation. Um something that we we really value in Lower Morland and and we've talked about it just recently is professional development and we wanted somebody that was going to offer a real rich and ongoing professional development relationship with our administrators and our instructional staff. Uh we really wanted a high quality dashboard. That's something that

074our teachers are and our administrators were were very clear about wanting and desiring. Um doc Mr. Guyger and I were talking about this before the meeting. The the concept of being able to quickly sit at your desk, pull up a single screen, and be able to say this is how my class is doing. This is how my group of students is doing. This is how my school is doing. This is how my district is doing. is an invaluable tool um for educators as they make their daily decisions. We also wanted somebody that was that would offer data quality support. You know, we've been really fortunate in our district that we have an absolutely excellent data um manager and she does an excellent job of keeping our data high quality, but we want to make sure

075that that remains true. Um you know, when you are building a system off real student data that you're analyzing in real time, you want that data to be of the utmost quality. So we wanted a partner that really had some systems in place to help ensure that we also wanted one that would help us with intervention management. One of the things that we have done very well historically in the district we wanted to make sure we maintain that is we've done an excellent job of matching students to interventions that they need and we want to make sure that the the systems in place to to manage that which can be a complicated process were robust and easy to use and accessible for all members of the school community. We also wanted to make sure that

076we had a really streamlined integration. Uh we wanted a platform that would allow us to take many disparate data points and pull it into one platform, but we also wanted it to happen seamlessly. We didn't want to have to be adjusting or constantly reaching out to partners and saying, "Oh, well, we need you to tweak this report so that it can run into this system." We wanted something to be essentially turnkey. So, with all of those in mind, this is the process that we embarked on. So, in October, you'll recall, we issued an RFP. Um, we did identify seven vendors um that we talked to folks in in the region and across the across the profession and identified seven partners that we thought would be a really good match for the district. Um, all but

077one of those vendors did engage with the district to some extent. Um, ranging from kicking the tires to a full um presentation sent to us. Um, ultimately we ended up with four presentations. Several of those vendors after looking at the scope and asking a couple questions did determine that they didn't meet our needs um and weren't able to offer as robust a system as we wanted. So what we did was we took those four formal submissions that we received and then we ran them through our rubric which had been included um within our RFP. Um we evaluated those proposals as a team with administrators and teachers and we identified two partners that really rose clearly above um the remaining the other two. We invited those um partners in for an inerson presentation and then after

078that all of the the members of the team that were at that presentation met and debriefed and identified a a partner that we really had um significant interest in partnering with. What we then did as a district was we invited that partner in and had them meet with some of our school buildings just to be able to make sure that they were able to address all of our questions, make sure that they were able to work. And what we've also done, and we'll talk a little bit about this later, is we've ensured that all of our partners that we would want integrated into that system are able to be integrated into that system so that we know we are going to have a one-stop a true one-stop shop where all of our student information will

079live in that system. All that to say, the partner that we're recommending moving forward with this evening is Panorama Education. I just wanted to point out a couple of the highlights um that our team found when we were evaluating this proposal. One thing that we really enjoyed was a very holistic view. So it takes um it integrates with over 20 student information systems, 100 assessment, LMS and behavior systems all natively integrate with Panorama and they already have those connections built. So every program that we currently utilize um is able to be integrated into Panorama seamlessly and natively. The one exception initially that we'll talk about later this evening was our student information system did not inherently um interface but we'll talk a little bit about that um later this evening. Um another thing that we

080really liked about Panorama and I think probably the greatest differentiator of Panorama when compared to other products is it really presents a very holistic picture of the student um all in one kind of one-stop shop. So, it provides academic, behavioral attendance, and social and emotional information about our students all kind of in one all-encompassing dashboard for a classroom teacher, a building principal, or a district administrator. So, you can truly pull up one page and say, "How is this student doing?" and have a really a really good snapshot of what that student does. Now, does that replace teacher knowledge? Absolutely not. but in a quick snapshot to help make some decisions. It's a really powerful tool. Um, another thing that it really does and something that I think has impressed our administrators in particular is it

081actually really helps you uncover some hidden trends that you may have missed. And I think when you're able to look at student information in the aggregate, but also being able to really quickly and seamlessly disagregate that data, you start to find trends that, oh, a student that fits this profile seems to be struggling in this particular area. That's insight that we historically have struggled to find and it happens very seamlessly um with the panorama tool. Um, another, and again, as I alluded to earlier, user-friendly dashboards were a very significant ask, and the Panorama dashboards are great. Um, and they're very quick, they're very concise with the ability to drill down into significant depth, but also the ability to very quickly ascertain how a group of students is performing. Um, another thing that we really liked

082was targeted interventions. It has a really nice intervention workflow that's built into the system and it allows for seamless communication between teachers, administrators, administrator to administrator and all of that data lives within that system which is um uh even more important as we enter a district with four buildings with an additional transition built into that. It's nice to know that we will have a system now where all of that student information will live and seamlessly go with them across the the K12 experience. Uh it also provides while Panorama will allow us to build our own intervention library into the system, it does come with a a builtin set of interventions that they've pre-identified as evidence-based that are built into that system um that are available to to us as well as any of our kind

083of homegrown interventions that we've shown um success with previously. Um, and then lastly is just that idea of collaboration and the idea that we're able to sit down with a group of educators in a room and be on the same page instantly with the same information about that student and allow us to make really thoughtful decisions in the moment. So, um, just kind of a really quick snapshot of what the what the panorama system is. And I know I've provided some some background matter to the board and I'm sure many of you have viewed this already. Um, but really kind of the the the Panorama way is to unify student data to give you all of the information you need about a student to then allow you to take action through an intervention management system

084that is easy to use, transparent, and allows for optimum data sharing as well as tracking of student performance that then drives those outcomes. And if you look at that last slide, that gives you an idea of visually what a dashboard might look like in Panorama. And you can see if I'm a classroom teacher sitting down at my desk in the morning and pulling that up, I see 30% of my students are above grade level in academics. 1% is on grade level and there's 22% of students that I want to make sure that I focus on and 30% that I really want to make sure I focus on. And that's happens instantly. Um, so that's a really a really powerful tool. Panorama, also something that really stuck out to me as a little bit of a

085data nerd, is the only platform that I was able to uncover that has an ESSA level rating of moderate across K12, um, which is a pretty high standard of of an evidence-based um, approach. Uh, there are other systems that may have that certification for certain bands of students, but they have that certification K12. um an independent study last year actually showed a 6% increase in districts that utilized them in uh reading and an 8% increase in math. So there's some solid um research basis to the product. Um so our plan for launching as we quickly close winter um our goal will be to start product implementation. Um so the plan the team from Panorama and LMTSD will continue um to navigate that and make sure we get our system up and running. some of this

086work has been happening to the extent that it can um in the background. They're certainly prepared to go forward um pending approval, but um the then what we would like to do is use the platform in the spring um to do a culture and climate survey. Um we've we've started some work preparing that as well. So we'll be able to to survey um staff, students, and our families um to get an idea of how the culture and climate is is is in Lower Morland. Um and then late spring uh we'll through some core user training um some of the central admin the the office of teaching and learning Mr. Gyrodano's office. Some of those folks that will be interfacing with the system um early and then knowing early summer once our building level administrators don't

087have a couple hundred students in the building, we'll be able to start training them and then full district roll out um late summer, early fall um going into the next year. Um just a quick overview, I included this just to kind of give you a rough idea. I know the the actual agreement will be coming up later in the evening. Um, but the overall cost for starting this this school year from March 25 to June 28 is listed there. It works out to an average of about $43,000 a year. Um, our current product is about $26,000 a year. So, this would replace that just to kind of give you an idea of of the cost. Um it's very much in line with the other products that we looked at of a similar a similar um

088capacity. I think some of the things that really differentiated Panorama in our eyes are one the surveys. Um the Panorama surveys are kind of industry standard and in and of themselves are a product that are very sought out. um the the Silera, which is their AI integration, has some really powerful tools um to help support our administrators as we make decisions about how to best um survey children. I also was um or excuse me, support children. I was also really pleased with their training um by going with with Panorama. Their approach to training on the platform is really great and it's not it's not a simple nuts and bolts. Here's how you do ABC. It's really they provide a lot of robust training in the MTSS model and then show you the tools within panorama

089that are able to support the model um which is a great great approach. So any questions? I have a question concerning could you just touch on the AI chat application how that could be incorporated? Sure. Um so that is a um it's a tool that has a couple different um uses depending which user is using it. Um, so for a classroom teacher, it's a really nice kind of walled garden AI system. So it's not one that goes out to to the internet and pulls a lot of information, but it can really help with lesson planning that has a really robust kind of knowledge base about standards and lessons. So if I'm a classroom teacher and I can say, hey, I have a group of students in my class that are showing that they need some

090remediation in multiplication, it can suggest some lesson plans. At the administrative user level, it it has some really neat and they showed some functionality where it can be um you can set some parameters and say, "Hey, show me some students that are doing well academically, but have some social and emotional concerns that I should keep an eye on that maybe maybe are slipping slipping between the cracks." And it can kind of say, "Hey, you should probably take a look at at these students." And again, it's not the beall endall, but it's a great starting point. And one of the things I love about Panorama is just that it it does a great job of capturing kids that might might slip through the cracks and they you they utilize their AI component to really help in

091that in that regard. It sounds like it's pretty userfriendly. Extremely user friendly. Yeah. Thank you. We did they um they provided I want to say 10 districts in Pennsylvania. They work with over 2,000 districts nationwide. Um, Pennsylvania doesn't have a huge footprint, but I reached out to all of the districts that they currently partner with. And I would say probably on the low end of response was, yeah, it's a really good tool that does exactly what we need it to. On the on the the really positive end, there were districts that shared that it's completely transformed how they do MTSS and how they how they do data warehousing. If they provide like a lesson plan, do they also provide worksheets for that? If there's a library for that? Yeah, they do. Um it's and again

092it's it's you know it varies on the amount per standard but yeah they do they provide it can really be a one-stop a one-stop shop. It was something that a lot of particularly our teachers that were on the committee really were like oh that's that's exciting. Thank you. Yeah I have several questions. Um so will data from our current product transfer into this? Yes. Yes. So it will transfer in one of the things that um and again we're very fortunate to have our our data our data quality um office and our data quality person because she owns a lot of that already. So but yes this will all transfer. We own all of that data that's in our current our current platform. are the fees that we're expecting. Um, so I understand that they're set

093for the next four years, but so let's say we're starting with like a first grader and they're going to build like the storage for that person will eventually be more. Will there be any expected future storage fees for like larger? No, they don't have any kind of built-in annual. I imagine that like any product, there'll be annual increases as you negotiate new agreements, but no, no kind of rolling natural built-in increases have been negotiated. Is there like an um informal aspect for teachers like logging notes or logging um parent communication? There is um that's an area that we've explored with them and that I think they're very open to expanding. it's not as it's not as robust as some of their other features and they were very transparent about that. Um it's certainly something that

094we could do. The other thing that's worth noting is um unique to our relationship with Panorama is going to truly fully integrate with our student information system. So anything that we house in our student information system can get into Panorama, which is not always been the case um with our current partnership. Gotcha. So if you're like in an MTSS meeting and you pull it up and you say like when's the last time you talked to the parent, right? They could what do we have? Infinite campus. We we have eh school eh school now that is part of the intervention process that does natively live in Panorama. So that is something that is in that is already built into their system. But to to your point that is where the notes would be made about the

095length of the intervention, what what's been tried in the past, what parents have been communicated with. That would all all go there for the team to be able to review. And then the real benefit again in a four district environment is that just goes with the student so that if I'm if I'm receiving that student at the middle school I have that at the drop of a hat and I and that information like you can see what happened in kindergarten. Yeah. Okay. Is there a parent interface or this is solely internal? No, this is really just meant for administrative and and instructional staff. Um, there's a survey component that is administered to parents, but it's not it's not like a Canvas where there's a where there's a teacher dashboard or a teacher login. Okay, one

096more. Um, so as far as teacher expectations for logging like assessments, I understand if it's an online assessment, it'll probably sync up automatically, but if there's paper assessments, they would be expected to upload them. So, one of the things that Panorama does integrate with is grade book. So the grade book that we utilize would be the mechanism that would record that so that student grades, their course grades are integrated into that system ongoing and and updated per in perpetuity. Thank you. Absolutely. Um Mr. Cole, the culture and climate survey that goes out early on in the process, is that going to students and is that the data we want? Like the student collection of sure how they feel about the school and it is going out to students. It would go out there's one for

097students, there's one for staff and there's one for parents. Now, that is different than the data, the social and emotional data that would live in the system. That's a different survey. We're not administering that this year. Our goal would be to administer that next year. So this is just a opportunity an opportunity for us to seek feedback on how the schools are doing from those three stakeholder groups and and the parents are going to specifically the answers are going to go to that student. The the No, they're not tied to that student. No, they're tied to the building and the district. So we're able to analyze it from that, but it's not necessarily tied to the student. social emotional survey which will be administered next year that is tied to the student and the student

098survey is not tied to the student. No, him or herself. Okay. All right. No, this is which is why we're able to do it so quickly once we have the system up and running because it doesn't necessarily need to be tied. What we'll need is we'll need directory information for emails to send it to people. So, we'll have to get that into the system. But, and this is a tool completely for internal use only, correct? Like we're not going to give parents a login to Nope. This is this is an internal. All right. Thank you. So, I just was asking Camille if her district had something like this, and she said they did. But so, could a teacher pull up information about the student or is it simply for the MTSS team? No, the teacher

099can the teachers will have access to the to the full dashboard as well for all students. Okay. So, like when they get their roster in the beginning of the year, they'll check it. Okay. I think my question you just answered but um a rudimentary summary is there very comprehensive student file is correct in terms of their learning habits and correct terms of access you said only student only teachers that have those students so it's not open to anybody yeah so a teacher concerns and others a teacher would have their rostered students administrators would have access to the building and then once a student transitions to a new building and a new teacher that access would slide with them and all of that is built within our our CIS. So our student information system starts to

100dictate who has access to what and encore teachers are. Yeah, they would have a broader access as well. And I assume teachers who are on the MTSS committee also have a greater range. Yeah, absolutely. How does it um I guess for any of our students that are being placed outside of the district does it how are we keeping track of that information? Yeah, so we would depend. So again, all of those systems for like state assessments and many of those I readies and those platforms we use that student would still be tied. Anything that lives in our student information system would also be tied. So, we'd probably have to address I'm thinking of some students that may be in an alternate placement outside of district. We would have to figure out how to manual a

101lot of that stuff. And there is a there is a process for manual input. It's not optimal, but it's something that that we can do. We would have to figure that out. Yeah. I mean, tip typically when a student is in an out of district placement, uh their their data is housed at the placement and then we we get what we need for the IEP. So they wouldn't necessarily be drawn into this this portal for those purposes. Did any of the companies that you evaluated offer a parentf facing dashboard? I'm pausing. I'm trying to think. Um I believe there was one that did. Um but I don't recall it being of any quality. It's not a common offering. Yeah, it's not a common offering. That tends to be your learning management system or your student

102information system that tends to be um studentf facing. I think the theory behind it is giving as few people access to such a large amount of student data as possible. Even if it's a gated parent access, still more users equals more potential for nefarious purposes. Could this however because obviously a lot of us are parents we're curious about how our kid is doing yeartoear. No we can't the parent can't access it but could this be a tool with parent teacher conferences? Absolutely. Yeah. So I can speak to um so one of the districts in Pennsylvania that uses this this platform is my child's school district. Um so one of the p pieces of feedback was cornering my superintendent and saying hey come here. Can you talk to me about this? Um so I can tell

103you that at parent teacher conferences absolutely this is a platform that is utilized um as we kind of talk through our student progress and pulling the dashboard up. Absolutely. My question is about next question is about support. Um is there going to be master users in the in each of the buildings so that if someone has a question they can Yeah, there's definitely as we start to develop the capacity. I do think um one of the real benefits is the the ease of use is going to be so profoundly different than what our teachers are used to that it will absolutely be really helpful. But yeah, we will certainly make sure that we have some core folks at each building that are really conversant. Um we also opted for um and I I don't specifically

104call it out but incumbent in this agreement is we kind of opted for the Cadillac package. Um so we have a really high level of support including access to unlimited um online support as well as inperson training. Okay. So, there's like chats if the teachers had have immediate questions. Yeah, absolutely. And I can say now obviously I say this, they're currently trying to sell us a product, but thus far they're their their responsiveness has been absolutely phenomenal. And all of the districts I was able to to discuss with um matter of fact, one of the districts said that their favorite component to it was the support and how quick and and and responsive the support team has been. Thank you. Just one quick one. Um, have we identified, for example, for academics what we want

105in there so that it's apples to apples? Yes. So, we we we have identified definitely the non-negotiables. We're currently in the process of working with our teams to make sure that there's not anything we're we're missing, so to speak. But, yeah, we've identified some of those big core ones. Um, certainly the the I read and the PSSAs and and the like, you know, those kind of natural ones. and grade book and attendance behavior. But yes, we are currently working actually uh Dr. Henrik and I are meeting um with some members of the team later this week to make sure that we've kind of done one more pass over it. Thank you, Mr. Cole. Sorry, one more out of the blue. Just thought of it. Um you talked to them about the best possible price, I'm

106sure. Absolutely. Any uh trial period? We'll try out for four years for So I did try the price after four. Yeah, I did try that. What the reality is the integration lift is so significant with a product like this. They've given us full access. We've had full access to their their walled garden, their their dummy account um to play with this entire time. But once they start actually integrating, they have to dedicate significant staffing to to integrating everything. So yeah, but we did get a very fair price um particularly knowing um the Cadillac package that we got. I mean, we we got a discount of about, don't hold me to it, but about 6,000 per year discounted off of their kind of their sticker price. So, thank you. Yep. Thanks, Mr. Works out to about

10743,000 a year over the if you No, the discount you said. Oh, about six a year. 6,000. Yeah. Okay. Thank you. Other questions for Mr. Cole? Thanks very much. Thank you. Next presentation is budget update from Mr. McGuin. Last but not least, I will say my proposal is not as snazzy as Mr. Kohl's. It's not as exotic as our Spanish teachers presentation. Certainly not as exciting as a donutas and not as comprehensive as Dr. Henrik's. I had a lot of time to come up with that. So um just uh as we've done each year um we're going to give a budget update each month to show uh where we uh have been and where we're going. Oops. So just a quick uh reminder of the process. Uh we're in the January through May uh time

108frame. That is where we are doing some budget revisions. Uh so let's talk about some expenditure adjustments. Um working through uh a our uh custodial uh unions agreement which is actually on our school board uh for approval tonight. We had some healthcare adjustments. uh they are in their own health care plan. Uh so we were able to save some money there. Um Mr. Dominic had uh refined his uh budget for based on what uh the uh suburban league came up with with new officials fees. Uh we've made the change from the IST dean position at Pine Road to the assistant principal and we actually had a little bit of a reduction in our our second look uh healthcare renewal ended up to be about 1% discount uh yeah 1% difference between or reduction between first

109look and second look. So, overall expenditure adjustments, uh, a little over $22,000 of, uh, reductions, revenue ass, uh, adjustments. Um, I've loaded in number three and number four for the simple fact that they are so low. I can't imagine they're not going to go with Governor Shapiro's 2526 budget. Uh, a basic subsidy increase, a special education subsidy increase. And uh as part of Governor Shapiro's uh budget address this year, he uh has taken out what he put in for 2425, which was um cyber charter school reduction uh monies uh revenue flowing from the state to school districts. Uh we had assumed uh uh conservatively $20,000 um that we thought was going to be included for 2526. that line item has been zeroed out. Uh do Governor Shapiro did call out in his budget, state budget,

110that uh he he is looking for charter school reform. Uh he's looking for a statewide uh tuition rate of $8,500 for regular uh education students. Uh if that comes to fruition for a district as small as us, that would be about $130,000 worth of savings. Uh we're certainly not banking on that. We're not including that in the budget, but I have a feeling that's going to be a discussion along with vouchers. Uh that'll be part of the budget negotiations as we move forward. Um so here's where we are. We had a net change of about 145,000. Uh down below is our allowable tax increase at act one, which is 4%. Uh we had the proposed referendum exception, which we applied for. We're waiting for final approval from the state uh in the amount of 933,000

111and the amount that we're still short. We're okay. Please, as I said in our preliminary, why? Let's talk again about our budget strategies. They're all the same. We haven't made any changes. We haven't made any adjustments for earned income tax, transfer taxes, interest earnings. We're refining those numbers as we're going through tracking them versus previous years. Uh we'll probably be making some adjustments in the next month or two. Um and again, we are have a keen eye on our Filmont over 55 uh development. Our over 55 development um we had as of when I did this presentation three properties sold. It's now four and the fourth one is again over a million dollars. Uh the assessment increase on um three of the four is around that 286 number which is what the assessor had indicated

112uh was going to be the case. He he believed that a lot of those uh units will be assessed around the same thing. I don't know why number two is number two. I have no idea why that number is so low uh on the early uh numbers and that assessment number has not been addressed yet. Um and those uh updates just came in on Monday. So again, we'll receive transfer taxes one half of 1% on all sales. Uh and then the assessments will increase. So um what can we do? We will continue in yellow to monitor the sales and assessments. I will tell you 175 properties are not going to be sold by July 1. Period. So, we're going to have to make some conservative um assumptions. We will probably be assuming an increase in

113transfer taxes. Again, I assumed here for this analysis, $750,000 for a sales price. What have now three of the four sold for a heck of a lot more than that. So, a little bit more in transfer taxes uh most likely will be coming here. Interim taxes will be addressed. properties that sell in August, September, they'll owe uh 11 months or 10 months or nine months of taxes. So, we'll address that line item. Those will be one-time numbers that will be reduced and the following year will be replaced by the increased assessment that will be a true number moving forward. So, it's it's kind of a seessaw. you're going to get the number at some point between interim and transfer and then the following year that total assessment number will be coming up. Um we are

114we certainly have the ability to take a little bit more out of fund balance. Uh we're trying very hard to hold those numbers. We want to address the structural deficit that we've been working with and if we can bring those fund balance numbers down even further uh that would be tremendous. Um, I can tell you that, uh, some of the things that I've looked at, um, over the last couple days, uh, will net us, um, almost another $150,000 of savings. One of which, I need to talk to Mr. Gordono tomorrow as was an email that we received from one of our out of school place, out of district placements where our student is doing so well that um, the school was able to remove that student's one to one aid. So then we can see

115a reduction in out of school tuition. So kudos to the out of district placement and Mr. Gordano uh for placing that student in a in a place where that student can succeed. Uh and then we'll we'll we'll look to adjust those budgets as we come. Um again our next steps we'll continue to refine. Uh we'll bring the propo the proposed final uh in April and then in June we will seek the final. And as you recall, one of our strategies will be we're going to try to get a balanced budget or what we believe is a balanced budget and then offer the school board options for what we've talked about with the capital projects transfer. We've talked about that multiple times. So, um I'm going to dovetail real quickly into uh two updates which we

116uh I spoke of or I wrote in the uh the board report to the board last Friday. Um uh we met with Senator Colette and Representative Gent. A very positive meeting. We talked about our our PICO issue uh and our PICO increased issue on the paving. uh they have um uh indicated that they will work with us. Uh they suggested as opposed to uh going to the state for a reimbursement type of um grant opportunity that it would be better to um be pro utilize that number in something that's upcoming. So they asked if we had any projects upcoming. We spoke of the four projects which we have the authoriz authorization to proceed with ICS. Uh and they said that would fit perfect. Good news, more bad news than good news, but good news and

117bad news at the same time. Mr. Lynch was in that meeting for support uh and indicated that on his drive down, he was informed that as part of the final closeout for the high school project was uh a township requirement to um video the sanitary line. And when they videoed the sanitary line, there was a dip in the sanitary line. So, uh, we are still investigating, uh, and in, uh, investigating, um, the length. Mr. Lynch thinks it's about 20 feet under a sidewalk, of course. Um, and there's no real, you know, he said, she said, uh, because it's been such a long project. Um, the pipe went in, it was fine, now it's not. It needs to be addressed. It's not imminent. We can still operate. We have been operating with that sanitary line. Uh

118it's a township requirement that we get it addressed. Uh because the legislators were in that meeting, there are similar to what we've done before water and sewer um grant opportunities. They said ideally if it's under 100,000 they could find that niche uh and again because we haven't done the work yet, we can apply for the grant and then uh apply those funds for that. So, shout out to Representative Gst and Senator Colette for being extremely collaborative. They had a they had a wonderful meeting. Senator Colette talked about the difficulties of having uh students in a middle school right now. Her her own children are in middle school. And I said, "Well, that's usually where all my boss problems are are with our middle school students. Uh our our our elementary students are just so excited

119to be at school and our high school students are half asleep going to and from school." So, uh, those are I I gave a lot of updates on both our budget for next year and our ongoing uh, problems under the ground uh, for the high school project. If anyone has any questions, please let me know. How did this um, sanitary issue come to light? It came to light as they actually requirement from the township is to video uh, the actual line. So they had a video go through and as they're watching the video they could see that there was a dip in the line that needed to be addressed. So it was inspected when we when we did it. Yes. When the pipe went in it was fine. So what in theory has happened is

120contractors equipments have been on top of the area or around that area. You know there's been uh you know pendot stuff out there. There's been Pico stuff out there. at some points something failed. Uh again, it's not a complete failure. We're still able to um operate the school effectively, but it needs to be addressed and it needs to be done for long term. And if we can get reimbursement again, that would be wonderful. And I do remember a long time ago saying that a project of this nature, typically some of your unforeseen expenditures are what's under the ground. Um I was wrong. I thought we were going to hit rock. I was completely wrong. We just hit a lot of other stuff under under the ground. So So Mark, the numbers you have today showing

121the $600,000 shortfall. Yes. That already includes those 200 and $400,000 from fund balance in healthcare. So and you're also saying we could do more. I ideally if I could find 600,000 even more dollars from the and not use that fund balance, I would love not to use that fund balance. That's the goal. That is my goal. Uh I would feel more comfortable utilizing fund balance for the retirement rate because that's pretty much stabilized. Um again, when you're utilizing fund balance, you're taking money out of your savings account and and and using utilizing it to balance your budget. You don't want to keep going to that well as much as possible. Uh but we're trying to uh obviously certainly address the needs of the district while absolutely being cognizant of uh our taxpayers. Uh we know

122that it's a a difficult time. We know that um there's a lot of unknowns all around. Um and we're just trying to be as prudent as possible and setting the district up for um success in the future. Again, the over 55 development will certainly bring in a lot more tax revenue with no students. And as we've talked about in other uh in in board reports, we have the continuation of the self- storage uh facility that assessment going up over the next uh uh four years uh in that graduated um uh lura type arrangement as well as the uh assisted living uh uh crescent fields across from Wawwa. that will really bump up and that will become our number one uh tax parcel in the district when it when it comes in. And again, that's that's

123a little bit of different of uh uh of phase in for the assessments, but those are built-in numbers that'll help our overall tax base, right? But they're not projected to help in 2526. the um self- storage 300,000 though it right now it's their earn assessment is increasing $300,000 per year. Okay, that number is already built into my number. It it becomes effective May 1st. Okay. Okay. Thank you. Did you say that Crescent Fields will be the biggest tax parcel in the township bigger than the over 55? Yep. Well, sorry. If if you take the over 55s individually, No. If you take the over 55s collectively, yeah, that's that's two two different I I as a single. So, one of because they don't pay it as one. They pay everybody pays their own, right? Correct. And

124honestly, I'm not sure down the road if if and when the BET investment property goes, that'll also be a big uh taxpayer and that will be one entity. One of the things that we have to do and a little preview of next week's uh uh schoolboard report, we have an S&P rating call uh on Monday. Dr. Best is going to be sitting in my office and he'll probably be nodding off because it's just droll. I even nod off half the time. Um but one of the things they ask about is your top 10 taxpayers. So the Crescent Fields uh when their um assessment is complete after they graduate will be about $14 million. Our in assessment in assessment our next highest number is about $4 million. It used to be Filmont Country Club but obviously

125now they've they've split and and gone. So, but your your individual numbers in the over 55 will be smaller, but collectively, yes, they'll be very big. Do you foresee I mean, I think that's a low number for the the 1.1 million sale price. Um, but I got to believe they're going to be pretty consistent, right? I mean, well, I I whether they sell what they sell for is different than should be different than the Once again, in a in a preview of this week's board report, um, in my conversation with Mr. Hoffman for a township update, they have given approval to go uh instead of 32 feet wide units to 28 feet wide units. So, I think some of those prices will vary. The sign uh reads now from the upper 600s. So, I think

126you'll have you'll have a mix. Uh I I I think you know your your bare bones might be an upper 600 or whatever that number was here. 70. Yeah. But if if you want any amenities, I think it'll it'll it'll grow. A lot of that has to do with um the parcel location, right? There's premier you pay for. Yeah. Well, one of the things it's interesting that they um if you've seen them going up, they're mostly four unit um plots, but there's actually six twounit plots, and one of the two unit plots along Pine Road is being brought up now. So, it's it's an interesting mix that they have there. So, and I'll be curious to see what type and how how the sales go for the ones above the uh on top of the

127hill, closer to Pine Road, closer to the back of that property, closer to the golf course, I guess. Yes, closer to the golf course. What was the um phase in time frame for Crescent Fields? Um so it was as opposed to the self storage um they um it was it was on one of my board reports off the top of my head I don't recall but it it was I believe no increase for seven years and then a three-year don't a three-year uh phase in versus the self storage which was no increase for five years and then a fiveyear uh I could be wrong. I'd have to go back and look to confirm and I'll certainly get that information to you. Thank you. They opened last year, correct? They opened uh two years ago might

128have been even two years ago. So, they're exempt for a certain amount of years. Uh and again, that was part of the local economic uh development uh zone uh that that that uh property was built in. Uh so they had various um uh types of uh tax phasing. So the assessment remain remains the same for that property as it was and gives a little bit of relief until a certain time or then the assessment increases. It goes up to where it's going scheduled to be and that's all done by the county level. Um we have that documentation of when it's supposed to happen uh so that we'll coordinate if it doesn't happen with the township and our our county reps to make sure that that assessment goes up. So, and again for for the self

129storage, it's every May 1st uh until it it um gets up to its full assessment. Do we uh know already if the BET property it has the same LRA? It does not accommodation. It is not in the it's not in the Lerta uh zone. The lazone is pretty much from u between Red Lion and um Huntington Pike. Okay. Um thank you for all your work on this. I just have a sort of speculative question I guess but uh in like as you prepare this budget, do you also kind of forecast what the next couple years will look? Yes. Okay. Yeah, we've done that as as part of the Mr. Sultanic. he had asked for that kind of stuff. So it a lot of it is dependent on upon agreements uh which obviously we have one

130that's um still in flux right now. Um when we remember when we do our budget and I think we did the analysis this year almost 92% of our budget is fixed and as part of that fixed cost is that big number for our teachers. Um, so while I, you know, you can project as much as you want, until we have that agreement locked in, it's always a little bit of guessing on what that's the final number is going to be. Okay. Thank you. You're welcome. With regards to the 55 the Filmont property, were we given projections as to um from the developers point of view how quickly the units would be sold and do we know if they're meeting those projections? I asked that of Mr. Hoffman. He's he's pretty confident that they are meeting

131their expectations. Um, you know, the economy is is definitely playing a part. Mortgage rates are playing a part as well. Um, but honestly, when you drive in there, which I've done usually once a week, there's a lot of red sold sign. There's a lot of red sold signs on plots where there's been nothing coming up from the ground already. So, I think it's in line with what they uh were preparing. Again, the the uh start date for the uh units starting to come online matched exactly what Mr. Mhoffman was saying, which was early calendar year 2025. And it I I believe it'll be all this calendar year 2025, and then it'll probably be a little bit into early 2026, but I think it should be fully I if I'm standing at this microphone in July

132of 2026, which I'd just be a guest at that point. Ha, don't want to be here. Um Um I would I would theorize that it would almost be 100% sold unless there's something COVID 19 hits again. Why would you say that? Well, no one could have who would have ever thought CO 19, but now Yeah, it was unthinkable. And honestly, we got through it, right? Any other questions? I'm going to drop my mic. Thank you. Thank you. All right, that'll move us to our personnel uh section of the agenda. Dr. Press will be filling in for Miss G. Yes. So, on uh tonight's agenda, item A, we have a few personnel motions. We have a handful of leaves. Um I remind the board members that uh in the executive content area you're able to see

133uh the particular information uh rather than the generic information listed uh on the public facing document. Um in item B uh we have one non-athletic extracurricular content that contract. That's for the memory book uh that we did theou for for Murray Avenue. Uh the me the memory book is the yearbook for the school. And then finally, we have two softball contracts uh for varsity assistant and JV girls uh heading for approval at the next meeting. Thanks. Any comments or questions for these items A through C? Great. Thank you, Dr. Bess. We'll move to agenda item five, teaching, learning, and community engagement. Um, Mr. Cole. Yeah. Um, so we do have a a handful of professional meetings this month. Uh, Mr. Moxy is attending the college board English language and composition training. Uh, there's our speech

134team is attending the IDA and rethinking eligibility for speech and language impairment at Patan. Uh, that's a virtual conference. uh one of our science teachers at the high school will be attending the national conference on science education and two of our EL teachers will be attending a session a full day session at the IU on building EL synergy. Uh I will also be attending that with them um as part of my job alike group. So that's a nice that's a nice uh session that's designed to integrate ELA instruction for ELD learners. Thanks. Any comments and questions? Great. Could you take us to item B of the PL professional services agreement? So, um I will be sending you some research that I'm I've been doing as we're sitting here for that's the highlight or the um

135early look at my board report for this week. But this is actually um an agreement that we're proposing to do with professional learning partnerships. Julia Skolnick does some really amazing work on brain science and how it impacts teaching and learning. And so it will be three parts. One is to continue the think tank work that our high school teachers and administrators are doing potentially with some student involvement. Um the second part will be much like teachers administrators need to be developed as well. So with bringing on some new administrators this year and potentially for next year, we would like to spend time building the capacity of our administrative team because then they turn around and train our teachers with that brain science and leadership. The third part will be participation in an innovation summit series

136in the summer, which we're really excited about because that gives our teachers the opportunity to be highlighted for the great work that they're doing. Um, I think that we are primed to show other people what great work we're doing and for our teachers to have that experience and that recognition. And then the final part is, you know, a a small fee to have access to the digital library and consultation for areas of need related to brain science and teaching and learning. If anyone has questions, general question, I mean, if there are students who are interested in pursuing teaching as a career, do they have access or could they have access to some of these resources and professional development things that the staff gets exposure to? I I think that's something that we could look into.

137I mean, usually professional development is when students aren't in the building, but I will say that when we talk to the high school think tank team, we can certainly see where that might be appropriate to fit. Yeah, I think some of that the brain science work I think would be fascinating for some students maybe if they're interested in things like that. Yes. And we do want to include students in our think tank next year. And so maybe I like your idea. Maybe that helps us to determine who who do we invite based on their interest, right? Not just people who want to be teachers, but maybe people who are in an anatomy class or or want to dig deeper into that brain science as well. I like that. Thank you, Dr. Lee. Dr. Henrik, is

138professional learning partnerships uh is this the first year we're considering a a contract with That's a good question. We actually have are doing a very small piece with them just in our high school this year. We have a think tank going. Actually, that's where a lot of the work with cell phones has come from. So, we started a smaller piece with them this year. This would be an extension and and an increase in that. Right. Are they going to replace other services we're using now? like for example the um you know the professional development things like that um are they going to replace any past um contractors that we had? You know what I'm not sure who we've used prior to this year? Um I I will find out. Okay. I mean just overall bottom

139line you looking at the price tag wondering if this is going to be brand new all in or is this going to be netted with something we're already spending. So that's a good question. This will be brand new for our administrators and it will be a continuation for our high school teachers. I do think that the work that we've done so far at the high school has had really nice results. Um I don't think we'll be doing it forever and ever and ever. But I think that if we grow our teams, then we retain our teams and we positively impact kids and and that that level of expertise sometimes we have to learn from other people and then turn around and train our staff with it. But but I do I do hear what you're

140saying. No, it's definitely important. I do. Thank you. Thank you. Thanks. Um that'll take us to item C and D. Mr. Nicole for Panorama and E school plus. Yep. Yeah. So these two agreements are related. Um so the first one is the Panorama Education Partnership. Um so this is just the and I know that's that sounds dismissive but this is the agreement um that's coupled with the presentation that I gave earlier. So this is the actual um contract. So included within this cost um is a needs assessment that we've already started um doing some work with panorama around that and then they will we will work with we will work in unison to design and implicate implement the u data warehouse. um that includes they will do the data migration um any data cleaning and

141transformation that's needed. So if we have data in one format that needs to be in included into another they'll support that um and then the development of reports and dashboards. So one of the things that's nice is as they have a kind of a bakedin model but we get to play around with some calibration and set parameters for what we consider student success and what we consider something we want to keep an eye on. So um that includes all of that customization and then again uh a really comprehensive training model. So this is just the agreement that captures that that presentation from earlier. Um Mr. Cole, has our incoming director of technology been made aware of these incoming projects? Yeah, we've kept him we've kept him ab breast of of what's going on to the

142to the you know the extent that we can recognizing he's still working. Thanks. Any other questions? Are we build the total amount? No, no, we will not. It's an annual. Oh, it's okay. Yeah. I just wanted to make sure that we had the the entire entirety of the agreement um transparently. Thank you for that question, Mrs. Blandon. Yes. Um, in line with Dr. Lee's question, um, do you think that it's important that we have full like, you know, buy in from the new director of technology prior to us approving this and because I feel like the timing maybe doesn't overlap perfectly. No, the timing doesn't overlap perfectly, but this is this is a teaching and learning uh, initiative. it's it's it's less of a technology piece. Um, the person who will be supporting this most

143from the tech end will be our our PIM's coordinator. Um, so it's it's something that Mr. Patel is aware that we're doing. He's supportive of. Um, but it's it's not necessarily something that will come from TAC. Okay. Thank you. Can I bring something up? I guess maybe this is the place to bring it up, but I haven't seen. Do we still use name coach? I haven't seen a report on that. We do not. Uh we discontinued that for this year. Oh, okay. Did I miss that? Was that reported or uh Dr. Hilt had reported that earlier in the year. Okay. There was low usage for it and there were other workarounds on how to um have the name read in the email through Google that we provided people with. Okay. Thank you. Any other questions

144for item C or D? Did we do D? No. So D is next. Um, so D is um and so and Miss Blandon, I think to to speak to the tech integration piece. I think this kind of agreement speaks to that as well. No, no, no, no. You're okay. Um, so what this is is this is so I alluded to it earlier that every network or every product that we interface with natively ties to um Panorama. The one exception was ESchool. So e-hool did not natively speak to Panorama. Um that has full transparency been an issue with our current partner as well has been our integration um of e-hool into their system. what we were able to do and both ESchool owned by P school and Panorama have been wonderful about collaborating together with our

145PIMS administrator on finding a solution to that. So this one-time bill um is to build the secure file transfer protocol that will allow for that upload to occur automatically and regularly between eh Panorama. So currently our solution has been manually creating reports that are then shared um with our current data warehouse partner. A huge human resource cost um that's maybe not captured in a bill but is definitely a significant um impact on our um our PIMs administrator. So this will allow for that process to be to be automated. Um it is a one-time cost. it is um something that would have to happen with any data warehouse that we wanted to go with in order for it to be um something that happened automatically. So this this covers the uh 24 hours of of work

146that it will take um to launch. Panorama is aware of this work. Their tech team worked very closely through um our PIM's administrator with the e school team to make sure that the language spoke correctly. Um, and so we're confident that this will this will get it done. We're also very pleased with the timeline. Um, and Panorama is aware of the timeline and is confident that they'll be able to kind of do some back-end work with a few manual uploads in the interim until this gets up and running. Um, but within a few weeks, we should be we should be good to go. So, the the summary notes that any changes to the files will be addressed via additional consulting hours build at the then current rate. So, does that have to do with registration?

147Like if students No. No. So that would be if we would then say we want some adjustments made to this file at a later date. Um so if so if we create this protocol, we create the transfer, everything's good, we're happy with it, and then we say, "Oh, well, we want to change X, Y, or Z." Um there would be some additional billing for that. That would in effect like new student registration. No, no, no. This is not an ongoing annual. is a a one time with the asterisk that it will work exactly as designed um in perpetuity unless we make any changes. Any other questions for Mr. Cole? Great. Thank you. That'll take us to item six, buildings and grounds. Uh Mr. McGwin, applications for use. Yes, we have um five um requests to

148use our facilities. Uh the first is a travel baseball team actually coached by our food service director. Uh he's taken the uh initiative to coordinate with HVAA um on use of a fields. Uh he's provided us with uh proper insurance and we're assigning him the same kind of rates that we've done for other entities that use our track uh which we'll see later of $600. That's something that we'll we are recommending uh use for. We have uh classes of 1975 um on a Saturday they'd like to uh take a tour of the new high school and on a Sunday um they'd like to go back to their old high school for lunch. Uh we've assigned no fee to that. Um we had done this before uh for their 40th um yeah 45th reunion. Um, so

149we're going to continue that process and welcome uh classmates from 1975 back into the district. Uh, St. Albert the Great uh is requesting use of the track. It's been a uh reviewed by our um athletic director and uh building principal and we're okay with that and again assessing a fee of $600. And then HBAA is uh coordinating with HVA basketball to utilize um the gym facilities for uh football, which is somewhat like indoor soccer but with a much heavier ball, much less chance for any damage. Uh and it's something that we would support uh for um for your approval. I have a question. Uh Mark, the only question I had with this new baseball team was it's a lot of time and it's also during the high school varsity and junior varsity baseball season Monday,

150Thursday. Yeah, they they work around both our own teams um schedules as well as HBAA. This has been coordinated through Mr. Dominic uh who has signed off on this as well. Okay, so they don't have priority. For example, if there's a, you know, Wednesday game, rains out, but they play it Thursday, that they we have the school district always has priority even over HBA. Yes. That was my only question. Thank you. I know we had um we had voted to raise uh the fee. Was that just for HVAA or was No, it was for and this will be for 25 26 for all of our continuing use um organizations. So it's HVA which didn't take effect yet. Not not effect yet. So next year. So HVAA, Lower Morland swim and dive and the German school.

151Those three entities will the fee will go from $7,500 to $10,000. I guess I would ask a a little bit more about the maintenance fee of 600 or or I guess is there a graduated difference between maintaining a a track use versus the baseball fields? Typically not. Uh as long as um the folks who utilize our baseball fields utilize it correctly. Uh I can tell you anecdotally over the years a while ago we had some issues with HVAA who would like to get onto the fields almost uh immediately after it rained and would um sweep the puddles out which would take the infield mix out which is a big no no. Um we're pretty confident a that we've addressed a lot of those uh field issues and b that these organizations know that um school

152district comes first. So the fields have to be ready for our use. Uh and they especially travel uh baseball in this case uh they know the the the value of keeping your field up up to speed and keep it in high quality uh because obviously they would want to come back if they're having a good um experience there. Great. Thank you. Great. Um I'll take us to item seven, business and finance accounts payable checklist. Mr. M. Yes, we have the uh AP uh checklist data 225 and the amount shown if anyone has any questions. If no questions, we'll move on to uh agenda item 10, school board items. First item is the 2025 and that should be a typo to 2026. That's corrected to schoolboard meeting dates. Any comments or questions? If not, we'll move

153on to items B and C. These are overnight trips for track and swimming. Uh, one I believe is or one is retroactive and one will be uh taking place before the next legislative meeting. Any comments or questions? Item D uh is the study abroad trip to Spain which will be up for um vote at next session. Any comments or questions on the proposal? Okay, that'll take us to item E, which is the SEI uh union contract for 25 2025 through 2028. Are there comments or questions on the agreement? Dr. Lee, if you'd like, I give a little summary of that. Um, Mrs. Galdo uh and I met with representatives uh from SEIU and um our local shop stewart um went through there's about five items on the contract um uh one of which we agreed

154to which was the call-in pay moving from two hours to three hours. uh and we also upped their shoe uh work shoe allocation uh as per their request. Uh we also included a holiday which we have on our own calendar to be included in their contract. Their um proposed increase matched what we were projecting. Um we had a little bit of negotiation on what was considered base versus merit. uh and they agreed to our terms. Uh so overall uh this was a very um positive uh outcome and a positive negotiation and took place uh over the course of one half hour. So we were very pleased. Um there will be an upcoming uhou uh that's um coming um after we get this contract approved. uh where they're asking for uh in lie of paying health

155care premiums because their health fund is doing so well. Uh they would like that in uh compensation which for us it's not a big deal. We'll it's paying different dollars going different places. Uh but that'll be uh we plan to do uh propose one for next fiscal year and the uh 2627 school year. Um, but that'll be a separate agreement that's not included in this agreement. Thank you for that. Any comments or questions for Mr. Glenn? Okay, that'll take us to uh items F through L, which are second readings of revised policies as listed uh as always accompanying our cover memos nicely summarizing as well as highlighting the changes. Bless you. Any comments or questions from the board on these several second readings of policies? Okay. If not, that'll take us to any public comment

156uh tonight. Uh nobody has signed up. Okay. Thank you. Okay. There are no objections. I will move to adjourn into our next meeting on March 18th, 2025 at 7 p.m. As there are no objections, this meeting is adjourned. Thank you.